Thanet Times articles

[Chris1]

For anyone unable to get a copy of today's local, here is text of 2 items by Craig Tucker (scanned in using OCR, so excuse any errors):

 

BOSS FEELS HURT

CHRIS Kinnear felt Saturday's FA Trophy defeat as acutely as anyone and is determined to bring in the players to change Margate's season.

Gate are locked in talks over a centre-forward, while a Conference full-back is set to sign by the week-end.

Transfer activity won’t stop there, as boss Kinnear sets about rebuilding. "I understand the disappointment, but nobody is more disappointed than me,” he said.

“It’s a matter of starting again, we are going to try and rebuild what we had before.

“We have signed some decent players, there’s no doubt about it, and we have to make sure others are available.

“We’re after as many as we can get, there is no set number.

“We know they type of player we want possible and we will get the ones in that we can." Kinnear said replacing 14 top-class players from the Conference days isn't easy, while five big names - Pat Gradley, Leon Braithwaite, Warren Ryan, Greg Oates and Hasim Deen - were all missing against Dartford on Saturday.

Fans are voicing concern, particularly on the club's message board, but the boss said: "I can believe fans are frustrated - we all are.

"I could rant and rave and blame players, but we're on a hiding to nothing this season. "Someone pointed out to me at the weekend all the top-class players we had at the club just 18 months ago, including Sam Sodge, who may be on his way to the Premiership in January.

"I don’t know what the criticism is but it deflects away from how difficult it's been.

"Eighteen months, ago we had a team that would have held its own in the Conference – we were demoted after finishing joint 14th.

"No other team in the country, be it Arsenal, Manchester United or Chelsea, could lose that many top-class players and rebuild in a year."

Margate's 1-0 reverse against Dartford was their fifth defeat in a row. The run of losses highlights the problem of trying to build a side during a season.

Kinnear said: "You look to sign your players in May and June and maybe one or two in July and August.

"But we've never had so many players going through the books and we've had to do it while playing games.

"When we started signing players in July, we were well behind everyone else and players we might have had couldn’t wait long enough and signed for other clubs; which is fair enough."

But Kinnear will keep going. He said: "There's no point feeling sorry for ourselves, the players are disappointed - they've got to be.

"The club had nearly two years of problems and we've gone from heroes to zero. "I built two good sides at Dover and I've done it here.

"There are a couple, more teams to build, I want that to be at Margate, and see no reason why it shouldn’t be."

-PAT Gradley has had a second injection in his injured knee and was hoping to train last night (Monday). The club captain was missing against Dartford, along with Leon Braithwaite, Warren Ryan, Greg Oates and Hasim Deen. Boss Chris Kinnear said: "They are players you cannot afford to miss. "Having Pat and Hasim back in midfield will make a difference to us.

"We're struggling in midfield to be honest, as we are in a few positions.”

A young Margate side featured l7-year-old Osman Sesay at full-back, 21-year-old strikers Adolf Amoako and Elis Remy, plus 20-year-old sub Lawrence Yiga, the former Carshalton forward.

Gate just Couldn't score and also had Dean Standen sent off for retaliating to a Steve Hafner tackle

Standen told Kinnear that Hafner went at him, though the boss said he was looking at the ball rather than the tussle.

The dismissal hasn't helped Standen's popularity, but Kinnear said: "People have their favorites, who can do no wrong.

"Football is a game of opinion and it's down to the fans what they think."

 

Top Man Kinnear is above criticism

LET'S hope Chris Kinnear is from the Sven Goran Eriksson and Alex Ferguson school when it comes to overlooking criticism, writes Craig Tucker.

The unthinkable is happening at Hartsdown Park - flak is being aimed at the most successful manager in Gate's history - and it really is unbelievable.

Kinnear's name invites high expectations, but that shouldn't make him a victim of his own success.

His tactics and decisions were good enough to see Margate top the Conference and hold their own in the division for three years - he never took them down, don't forget - while a who's who of world managers wouldn't have kept Margate up last year with all their problems.

Kinnear has already said in our sister paper the Isle of Thanet Gazette that he couldn't be doing more work if he was full-time at Hartsdown.

He's also told our readers about his feelings for Margate and his determination to build another successful side.

All right, so I only moved over to Thanet from covering Maidstone United and a bit of Gillingham six months ago.

But from what I knew before working here and from the evidence I've seen since, Chris Kinnear should be immune from criticism. .

Kinnear started signing players when the transfer embargo was lifted in July, meaning the only ones left were those other clubs didn't want.

That's not an excuse - that's a fact - and while, yes, they are Kinnear's signings, what was he supposed to do?

Throw a team of punters together, write off the season and kick his heels waiting for next term to come round, when better players will be available - and on an even playing field?

Of course not. Kinnear is giving this season everything and it is not his fault that some players aren't as good as every one would like.

They are the best available. There are positives, of course, and with the likes of Charlie Mitten, Hasim Deen, Kola Okikiolu and Warren Ryan, Margate will have a decent platform to build on for the future.

Even then, this season shouldn't be written off.

Play-offs keep everyone's season alive and I've lost count of how many fancied teams have rocketed up leagues after Christmas, when they've looked like doing very little in the first half of a campaign.

[Chris1]

The club is clearly responding to criticism on this forum. Credit to them for explaining some of the difficulties.

 

Incidentally the front page is all about yobs/morons/thugs at Rams on Saturday, which won't do much to entice people to watch local football.

[Cookie]

Just one thing. EVERYONE is open to criticism. Even CK! (not having a go but just saying that no one person no matter what his job is,no matter what his record is,no matter how passionate he is no matter were he comes from or who he is,not just a football manager but ANYONE in this world is ABOVE criticism) though I understand where Craig was going with this. No one has a RIGHT or earns the right to be excempt from it. Besides, all managers of football teams go into the job knowing that at some stage they are probarbly going to get critised, so they, of all people should be able to rise above it.

[Chris1]

There's a lot of stuff in the first article that I didn't know, and I am sure a lot of fans didn't. We have been calling for more information and here it is.

 

Thank you CK and MFC.

[Graeme H]

Fascinating stuff in the srticle - it shows clearly the pressure that CK is under and the fact that he has had his hands tied due to the off field situation. He seems as frustrated as the rest of us.

Maybe criticism - and i accept the right of anyone to criticise, I gave Bill Roffey some fearful stick in his time as boss - will now be better informed after people have read this article.

I agree with poster above who says that the information in this article, had it been available to us before now, may have made the stuttering performances more understandable.

Good luck to CK in sorting it out - I don't think there could be a better man to do it.

[Cookie]

Oh I think the large majority of it was known Chris, if not all of it, barring the injection of course.

[michael]

Thanks for taking the trouble to post the atricle.

 

Two major positives in it for me:

 

1) Warren Ryan-the next Sodge- is still very much part of the squad.

 

 

2) Ck apparently recognises that Hasim Deen's best position is midfield.

 

Agree that with Gradley and Deen in midfield, all of a sudden the midfield looks strong.

 

MFC have to accept that with 3 cup defeats in 5 weeks,against a background of other Kent clubs progressing in cup games, fans can see the season evaporating before their eyes with nothing to hang onto as we also fall down the league.

 

 

Frankly the reaction/frustration expressed is very minor compared to what would have been expressed at other clubs.

I'm sure CK will recognise that,been there before ,dust himself down and get us there.

 

We have had 8 draws on trot.

5 defeats on trot.

Whats to stop us having 6 wins on trot next.

[blueblood]

Here,here cookie. Most of that info is availible at any match, if we only ask or we use our eyes and ears.This is why some posts can irritate.

[michael]

Unfortunately some of us exiles can't make it to too many home matches and are very grateful for this post detailing the article in the local paper