I’m somewhat reluctant to draw any attention to this proposed website, but it’s quite frustrating to see that we are set to endure ridicule thanks to a subset of our ’supporters’ who are intent on stirring up some kind of revolution. Whilst like most fans, I’m pretty nonplussed by the balance of our transfer activity, and am certainly not remotely happy with our recent performances – has it really come down to this?
Before pressing ahead with any such endeavour, I would compell the people behind it to cast an eye up the A60, and look how ridiculous “Team Mansfield” look with their constant campaigning to remove Keith Haslam from Mansfield Town FC. And arguably they have a much better case against their owner than we do – as he quite clearly has pursued a policy of cashing in on players without really replacing them.
I can understand people’s compulsions – and even before now, the Doughty topic has always been one to divide Forest fans. Characteristically I’m somewhere on the fence – there’s no doubt that many decisions of the Doughty/Arthur duo have been deeply questionable, there’s also no doubt that he has invested cash (albeit badly in many cases) at times when we were in dire need. But making ourselves look silly with amateur websites offering vitriol, bile and little in the way of solutions.
Let’s remember that to remove Doughty, we need an investor – until one of those, who can clearly demonstrate they have the clubs best interests at heart, taps up with the readies, then I don’t really see what the point in this foolishness is. The question as to whether he should appoint a more suitable Chief Executive, however, is one that I’m certainly open to explore a little further… to try to at least to make those involved think about their actions, I’ve just submitted registeration for the domain name doughtyout.co.uk which will, in future, point to this article.
2 February, 2007 at 2:34 pm |
Not sure he’s invested THAT much cash – I think most of his input is to underwrite the club’s debts/spending on the back of his own fortune.
2 February, 2007 at 2:39 pm |
Pete : He invested something like £15m to buy out the club. Yes most of his cash has been to underwrite the debt but had he not done so we wouldnt exist anymore!
2 February, 2007 at 2:48 pm |
Perhaps Sandy Anderson could have been a better bet.
All those “if only’s”…!
2 February, 2007 at 2:51 pm |
If memory serves the money behind the Sandy Anderson consortium was from a certain Mr N Doughty.
2 February, 2007 at 2:55 pm |
Doughty is an absolute legend. Alright some of his managerial appointments have been dire but possibly his my main critisism would be backing these managers with too much cash.
Whats the point in having a youth academy if were not going to bring the players through. Hopefully CC is clearing all the dead wood out and bringing the youngsters through. But Forest fans are never happy unless we are paying over the odds for players we don’t need. We’ve got to remember that the reason CC is having to get rid of half the squad is that Doughty has backed a succession of second rate managers.
2 February, 2007 at 3:01 pm |
Doughty has saved the club…..OUR club. Lets not forget that simple fact!
AND hes a multi millionaire so he must have just a tweeny weeny bit of nous….!!
2 February, 2007 at 3:02 pm |
How can you knock a man that has taken us from being over £20Mil in debt to being debt free? ok, we are in a lower league now, but come next season we will be in the Championship….and debt free! Compare us to Fester who are scratting around in the vain hope of being taken over again, by someone who has no fanatical interest in the place.
2 February, 2007 at 3:04 pm |
Anybody involved in this campaign is an absolute moron. Yes, ND has made some bad decisions, we all agree with this, but he has done a lot of good too. He has taken on the club’s debts and it is now on solid ground for the first time in years. Without his investment the club would NOT EVEN EXIST! The only people to blame for the recent dip in form are the players and the manager, but to panic at this stage is ridiculous. The season is a marathon and not a sprint and I have faith in Calderwood being able to steer Forest into the top two by the end of the season. Stop panicking and support the manager.
2 February, 2007 at 3:40 pm |
Well done mate!
2 February, 2007 at 3:43 pm |
For me Doughty is untouchable. He made mistakes in his initial dabbling with the club, but has since continued to pile money into Nottingham Forest.
Now getting rid of Mark “I’m Serious About Promoting Myself” Arthur is a campaign I would back.
2 February, 2007 at 3:44 pm |
Isn’t it great that once things go slightly downhill, out comes the Doughty diatribe? It is a debate that polarises opinion and quite frankly both camps come out with utter rubbish – the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Doughty has made mistakes – even he sometimes grudgingly admits to doing so – and his track record for appointing managers is hardly great. However, the club continues to pay big wages and continues to spend more in the transfer market that most other sides outside the Premiership. Whether we like it or not, our season tickets are still cheaper than most clubs of our size.
The lack of investment following our play off defeat (in which the club failed to keep hold of Lester, Brennan, Scimeca etc..) is one of the great mysteries. Hart still insists the rug was pulled from under him, Doughty points to the signings of Taylor & King as proof of his investment.
On this site, EgorTheRed reckons Doughty has saved our club. Let us not forget it is now HIS club (those of us who were crazy enough to invest money in OUR Club know this to our cost – my share certificate is still framed and sits proudly on the wall at home but is not worth the paper it’s written on).
Terry says the club is now debt free. Again that isn’t strictly true since the vast majority of Doughty’s investments have been in the form of loans. If he ever decided to sell the club, would any potential buyer not have to repay these loans? That sounds like a debt to me.
Wacko Jacko says without his investment the club would NOT EVEN EXIST! Forgive me if I am wrong here but wasn’t the level of our debt at the time similar to the amount Leicester had. They seemed to do okay. Let’s not forget the administration route was used by both Leicester & Ipswich and I do believe both do still exist and both are actually in a higher division than us!!
At the end of the day, Doughty has kept the club solvent but as supporters our number one concern is results on the pitch and it is on this criteria alone that he and his managers need to be judged….
It is FACT that this club is in a worse position on the pitch than when Nigel Doughty took over.
Whether Colin Calderwood is the man to lead Forest back into the championship remains to be seen. Like most supporters I am concerned by the cull of players in January and by the small number of players coming in. Where is the creative midfielder? Where are the attacking wide players?
Oh well, back to 3-4-3 on Saturday me thinks!
2 February, 2007 at 3:54 pm |
DOUGHTY OUT
2 February, 2007 at 4:03 pm |
Doughty Out? That’ll do it Chris, a nice constructive comment! Are you going to stick in or commit a large percentage of your net worth to the Forest cause?
And who would replace him?
2 February, 2007 at 4:32 pm |
OK, I agree the club would still be here without him, but it was a sad anomaly in football at the time that clubs like Leicester and Ipswich could pursue the administration route and actually do well at their creditors’ expense whilst clubs like Forest tried to do the right thing and ended up in a comparatively far worse position. The 10 points deduction for a club going into administration was introduced far too late for us. HOWEVER, I don’t think that ND should have what was essentially the right thing to do at the time held against him, even if with hindsight other routes would have been better to take. Whatever way you look at it he has put in an incredible amount of investment into the club, and yes it is in the form of loans from him, but it is far better to have him as a creditor rather than a bank.
The real villains of the piece are without doubt Irving Scholar and Nigel Wray. Please never forget the turmoil these people ruthlessly left the club in and I for one am very grateful that ND was able to come along and rescue the club. Yes, ND should have backed Paul Hart and we are still suffering from the decisons not to today, but until a foreign billionaire for some reason decides that he wants to buy Forest, we should remember that even if we need to suffer in the short to medium term and watch are rivals play in the leagues above, in the long term OUR club is in the hands of an owner who actually has the interests of the club and the community it represents at heart.
2 February, 2007 at 6:37 pm |
Doughty was never going to back Paul Hart, in fact it was Doughty who sabotaged Paul Hart’s promotion chances by selling Prutton, then our chances of challenging again nex season by selling Marlon Harewood, Jack Lester, Jim Brennen without giving him the resources to replace those key players.
At the end of the day Paul Hart succeeding with the forest youth system because he could neer say that he’d braught in Paul Hart, or He’d brught in/through those players because that would have crippled Doughty’s ego
And thats all it is with Doughty Ego, he wont make money out of us (bar loan repayments at Mr. Doughty’s extortionate interest rate) unless he gets the land City Ground sits on and i prey every night the Council never gives/sells it him.
2 February, 2007 at 7:01 pm |
Wacko Jacko is right to point the finger at Scholar & Wray who certainly did all they could to get us to the Premiership, only to leave Harry Bassett high and dry once we got there.
I’m not quite sure why this topic has reared it’s ulgy head again now. Is someone trying to make out that the reason for only two new signings and the exodus of fringe players was purely financial?
I am quite sure the decisions were Calderwood’s. However, I do lack his confidence in our current squad and have done so all season – when we were 8 points clear, we were not playing well.
2 February, 2007 at 7:31 pm |
I agree with Barrow Red. I dont know pf any occassion where Doughty has blocked any manager from buying a player. If anyone does, please comment. But the Doughty subject always crops up at the end of the transfer window by fans discontented with a lack of incoming activity.
But as Barrow states, its the managers responsibity to get in new signings and i pray that Calderwood simply couldnt get the men he wanted rather than have confidence in this squad.
I feel that we will struggle to get promoted this year unfortunantly
2 February, 2007 at 8:28 pm |
Kinnear was quite vocal about his transfer targets being blocked because Doughty was taking money out the club to pay off the loan interest the club has with Doughty
2 February, 2007 at 8:41 pm |
It’s funny how managers who fail blame it on the Chairman.
Hart has failed at every managers job he has tried and Kinnear managed to put his foot in his mouth every time he opened it whilst at Forest, was all of that Doughty’s fault as well?
2 February, 2007 at 8:52 pm |
Doughty has been a total disaster for Forest.
It’s about time some of the fools who constantly fall for the blatant propaganda of the club (especially the ridiculous financial backing claims) , from people who work directly for Doughty, actually woke up faced the reality.
If there is a campaign then support it , get Doughty OUT and let’s move forward.
2 February, 2007 at 8:59 pm |
…to the Conference
2 February, 2007 at 9:06 pm |
By the way who wrote the pathetic drivel at the top?
The first thing they need to learn is that it’s Doughty who has turned the club into a laughing stock, not the fans. The only thing Forest currently have going for them is the highly impressive fanbase.
And surely the only reason why anyone is stupid and brainless enough to compare Forest to a club like Mansfield, who have spent most of their history in the lowest tier of league football with the fanbase of just a few thousand, is because of Doughty dragging the club down to an all time low.
Perhaps the plank who wrote that wants to wait until Forest fall behind Mansfield before realising that an ownership change is a necessity.
2 February, 2007 at 9:23 pm |
Quite frankly Phooey when it comes to Paul Hart you obviously have no idea about his managerial carear so i’ll enlighten you:
Chesterfield – Took over a side tipped for relagation ever year and guided them to the pay-offs after 2 season. Sacked due to bust up with chairman over player sales
Leeds Academy – 2 FA Youth Cups + developed most the side that got Leeds to Semi-Finals of the Champions league
Forest Academy – U-19 Championship + braught hrough the likes of Marlon Harewood, Jermaine Jenas, Andy Reid, Michael Dawson, Garath Williams and David Prutton to name but a few all of which (bar David Prutton) playing PREMIERSHIP football
Forest – Took a crippled side and with no money within 2 seasons took us to the play-offs, was given no money to spend, had his side sold off under his feet
Barnsley – Fell out with new club owners – the side he set up got promoted 1 year later
The only post he’s “failed” at was the Rushden Job he took last year for all of 2months and you could argue releaseing Shawn Wright-Phillips.
2 February, 2007 at 9:35 pm |
Oooh, Paul S, you’re such a forceful character, and so persuasive. Are you going to buy the club from Mr Doughty? I’ve got £1.50 to help towards it, if that’s any good. If not, maybe Vladimir Romanov would like to invest in a club south of the border – that’s got to be good for the team, hasn’t it?
Wake up! We’re financially stable – maybe not completely debt free, as we would like, but we’re not sinking. On the pitch, we’ve been inept in December and January, but before that we were a cut above the rest of the league because the standard’s so low down in the third division. CC has to turn that around, but why shouldn’t he? In his first full season at Forest, a certain Mr Clough got us up to 7th in division 2, and then got us promoted from 3rd, before we went on to become the famed “Double European Cup Winners”. I don’t like some of CC’s tactics, and I would have liked to have seen some more new players in, but there are 42 league teams who would like to be where we are. We should still gain automatic promotion. Like most Reds, I’ll be happy when we’re mathematically certain to go up, and worried by every crap away defaet like we had on Wednesday.
3 February, 2007 at 7:42 am |
I wonder what todays drivel, errrr sorry blog, will be then?
How lucky we are to be league one crap, and still be in touch with those giants like Scunthorpe and Oldham?
Why the fans are a disgrace for paying the highest prices in this league and only 20,000 turn up each week?
Why everyone hould bow down to Doughty and thank him for making Forest the biggest joke in English?
Or, I believe everything Doughty and Arthur says and can’t think for myself because I’m totally clueless pillock?
3 February, 2007 at 8:50 am |
“I’m totally clueless pillock”
how apt
3 February, 2007 at 10:19 am |
Pop out for a drink and come back to be a plank and a useless pillock
So, Paul S, where is the money going to come from that you’d need to oust Doughty? It’s a convenient thing who the “people who listen to the Doughty-out camp because they can’t think themselves” type folks never seem to come up with an answer to.
I won’t resort to name-calling, because frankly, it makes you look a little bit childish.
3 February, 2007 at 10:24 am |
Doughty needs kicking out, not buying out. Capiche.
The clowns previously in charge at Derby were forced out without even receiving a penny for the club season and they didn’t even ‘do a Doughty’ on them and take the club down to the third and their lowest ever position.
Doughty should receive a penny, all he’s done is screw the club over. Why should he be paid for that.
3 February, 2007 at 10:26 am |
So, from a legal standpoint, how do you plan on kicking a person out of the business they own?
I have no particular fondness or hatred for Doughty, but if you want him gone – then you need cash, simple as.
3 February, 2007 at 10:57 am |
The fans of countless clubs have forced incompetent chairman and owners.
If Doughty is a Forest fan (don’t laugh please), then he should the only decent thing. Resign, cut his losses without continuing to hold the club to ransom, hand the club over, and concentrate of his non-football activities which he is clearly far better suited to.
3 February, 2007 at 10:58 am |
The fans of countless clubs have out forced incompetent chairman and owners before, without paying them a kings ransom.
If Doughty is a Forest fan (don’t laugh please), then he should the only decent thing. Resign, cut his losses without continuing to hold the club to ransom, hand the club over, and concentrate of his non-football activities which he is clearly far better suited to.
3 February, 2007 at 10:59 am |
Chairmen, yes – Owners – please provide examples of clubs and how the fans achieved this.
3 February, 2007 at 12:13 pm |
WOW
What a load of rubbish on here today!
I believe that everyone as questioned cc`s transfer moves this week, add to that the bewildering tactics las t Sunday followed by dropping our 2 main strikers on wednesday BUT, Why have a go at the OWNER?
Doughty as said consistently that we will not let Tyson go, whatever the fee, We have discarded some over paid primadonna in southall. and all hell lets loose, He may have been the `top assister` in the team but i would certainly like to see his `effort percentage` listing!!
As many fans on here have said and it is quite simple No Doughty= No Club.
However much the club appears to be `debt free` it is now a debt to Doughty or a buisness connected to him. If he is (cough cough) Bought out by `team forest` he needs paying.
Paul Smith apart i cannot name many big names in Nottingham who can come up with the cash? Thats unless of course peggy off of hi-de-hi can spare a few bob?!
3 February, 2007 at 12:50 pm |
Paul Hart was sacked because he didn’t win enough games, he went on to prove he could repeat the trick elsewhere and now spends his time justifying his ineptitude. How this can be blamed on Doughty I’ll never know.
As for the rest of Doughty’s managerial choices, at the time each appeared to be a sound move. Platt looked like a young up-and-coming manager who would move the Club forward, Hart had done a cracking job with the youth team, Kinnear had managed on a shoestring budget and Megson had the ironwill necessary to turn a bunch of prima donnas in to a cohesive unit.
Each manager has been backed financially, I can’t see what else the Chairman can do?
(Although a new Main Stand would be nice
)
3 February, 2007 at 1:40 pm |
Re: NFFC
How old are?
Ever remember Maxwell at Derby, Scholar at Spurs and Sugar at Spurs. Clubs like Wolves and Birmingham forced out their previous ‘owners’ a number of times also.
3 February, 2007 at 2:51 pm |
yeah, it’s so easy to get rid of an owner! look how quickly doug ellis left villa when the fans wanted rid of him!
3 February, 2007 at 4:30 pm |
Paul, I’m old enough to remember these – remind me how these figures were removed, and did it involve them abandoning any financial interest they had in the clubs?
I could accept calls for the owner’s head if people offered up a viable alternative – so far you have avoided answering this.
5 February, 2007 at 4:47 pm |
Paul S: Please do not add any more rubbish unless you can come up with something that makes sense! How do you propose to force the owner of a business to give it to someone else?????????
I have met Mr Doughty several times due to my dealings with another club, and he is definitly a proper Forest fan. He is also a successful venture capitalist, and so therefore obviously understands how to run a business. (Whether that is right for a football club is another arguement, but football clubs are businesses that need to be financially viable).
I think Doughty will be the first to acknowledge that Harty suffered by Doughty’s gamble to put off signing some very good players until July (instead of the May when Harty wanted them). This delay was due to an unwillingness to pay wages from May to July- a decision to save money in the short term proved disasterous for the long term.
But overall he’s backed most managers…look at the backing Megson got!!
At least we have an owener who is a fan and has backed the club in a financial way to get us out of a mess, but who isn’t daft enough to overspend and risk the clubs future. (Look at Leeds……)
5 February, 2007 at 7:02 pm |
Most of the debt was caused by Doughty in the first place. His initial £15m injection was squandered by Platt. Since then it has been all downhill with Doughty at the helm. We may be told that we are debt free, but are we? How much does the club owe Doughty, even though he has presided over the selling of over £20m worth of players? We have dropped from a club that was yo-yoing between the Prem and the Championship to a side that cannot even get promted from League One. Managers have come and gone, players have come and gone. The only common denominator in our fall from grace has been Doughty.
It is time for him to resign as Chairman, and put all of his shares in the club up for sale. Let’s get some investors in who have vision and are not afraid to buy our way to success. It can be done……look at the Sheep.
6 February, 2007 at 12:35 am |
Wasnt that £15m squandered by Platt put up by the Bridgeford Consortium – which fair enough ND was involved in but he wasnt the only one or the most seniour??
ND only took over 100% ownership in 2002 when we got to 6th in Division 1. I admit, its not been plain sailing since then, but the combination of the withdrawal of parachute payments as a result of Harts failure to get us promoted combined with the obscene salaries we were paying meant we had to cut costs and thus unfortunatly sell players such as Jenas and co.
Sad, but unfortunantly THAT IS LIFE.
Get over it, move on.
Doughtys managerial appointments – Kinner, Megson and now Calderwood. With hindsight it is easy to slate him on his recruitement sure, but Kinner and Megson were both well respected before taking on the Forest job.
Now we have a manager who, albeit is still learning his trade at least has an element of common sense and ability to repair the fractions that Megson smote.
As we Forest fans are often told, the past is gone – lets now look to the future and a young, ambitious and entusiastic manager, no CRIPPLING debt allowing for a fairly sound transfer strategy developing with the purchases of Smith, Agogo, Tyson, Grolt, Prutton, Chambers and youngsters such as McGugan and Hughes coming through from the academy (which looking at the results of the U18 aint doing all that bad).
If there is any gripe that is valid, then it must be about the increased season ticket prices despite not gaining promotion…apart from that why not cheer up a bit and SUPPORT the club, you sad, depressing people?
6 February, 2007 at 3:20 pm |
Nice done Kieran..some sense at last!!!
13 February, 2007 at 3:23 am |
Some of this talk is crazy.
Nigel Doughty has made mistakes, though it’s funny how often it takes hindsight for some to realise them.
He shouldn’t have given Platt so much money to spend before he’d settled into the job. It was a mistake but at the time it was the gamble to get immediately back into the premier that most fans were calling for. Platt actually improved as a manager immensely before he left, and would perhaps have spent the money far better slightly further down the line.
He shouldn’t have sacked Hart, the merry-go-round didn’t serve us any better than Hart would have done. It was a mistake but at the time it was seen by many that he’d gotton rid of a manager under whom we were sinking fast, and had replaced him with someone who took us to safety showing the form of Champions along the way.
Megson, for all his faults, at least left the club with a far stronger playing staff than the one he found.
Doughty’s made mistakes, he will again I’m sure, he’s human, but the long term future of this club is better served under the stewardship of a man who cares about Forest (and anyone who says he doesn’t is ignorant of certain facts), and has the cash to ensure our financial path is steady, than it would be under almost any other scenario.
Every manager has been backed in the transfer market. The latest manager took over a team showing it could be the best in the division, and has been backed with a goalkeeper, a defender, a midfielder, and a striker all of the manager’s choosing, and all for the sort of money no other third division club could afford to spend.
Nigel Doughty deserves nothing but 100% total support. He isn’t the danger, crackpot schemes that involve us once again spending more money than we’ve got are the danger. When we rise again, and we will, the important thing is that this time it is a sustainable rise, and I have complete faith that under Doughty it will be.
14 February, 2007 at 11:27 pm |
Thanks for the advertising
Site is on schedule, and dont worry about nicking the domain…plenty more fish in the sea and all that
15 February, 2007 at 9:01 am |
Bottom line is that if we don’t get promoted this season, Calderwood’s failed.
That mean’s Doughty’s appointment was wrong.
Like someone said before, even without looking to the past, we have the resources and staff to get promotion. If we donlt manage it, it’s down to them. You can’t look at other clubs, such as those giants of Scunny and Blackpool – they can only look at themselves.
But then again, the players will hjust leave for some other well-paid job if they fail here, as will the manager, so nothing to lose really.
15 February, 2007 at 12:14 pm |
I think only a fool would suggest anything other than promotion is a failure, however – with the team still very much in the promotion mix, you would almost think that some sections of our support would actually prefer a failure to validate their petty grudges…
15 February, 2007 at 1:21 pm |
Its hard being a football fan, isnt it? Always something to moan about.
Tell you what, all those who keep slagging off ND (especially those on the ‘official’ site) and whining about the state of the club/team/manager/position in the league why dont they just f**k right off and go shopping on a saturday. Stop coming to forest if its so shit. I’m sick of all the moaning.
ND is a forest fan and a businessman. He came in and invested. Maybe he made mistakes, we all do. But christ almighty get off his back and put as much energy into supporting the team as you do moaning about the boss.
Surely, when you hand over the hard earned for the season ticket you do so in the anticipation that you’re gonna have a bit of fun for your money? Until xmas we had done and were top. Few bad performances later and its the end of the world! Im convinced we’ll go up, and the party will be top! However, all those fans out there who no doubt will grumble from now til then that we wont last a season in the championship without new players etc etc etc dont bother coming. Either support whichever players are wearing that red shirt or why bother coming.
Look, maybe i go on a bit, but face facts…we are in div3 on merit. I hate the fact that the team i love is a bit of a standing joke right now, and come next season no doubt half the team will move on. But thats life, and for 90 minutes once a fortnight i want to forget about the wife and mortgage and cheer on the mighty reds.
15 February, 2007 at 3:27 pm |
Yeah well Matty, maybe you’ll be happy to watch 3rd Division football for the forseeable future.
We shoudn’t lower our expectations just so that we avoid being disappointed.
But if you’re happy with whatever they churn out week in week out that’s your choice, as it is mine to come and watch and cheer (and bite my nails).
I truly believe Forest fans hope and wish for success, not failure. No petty grudges here, just facts. And come the end of the season, position one or two in the league will be wonderful. Anything in the play-offs would be a gamble in my opinion because we can win, lose or draw to any team in this league on a given day, as we’ve shown.
By the way Matty, I’m looking after your wife every other Saturday…
15 February, 2007 at 3:40 pm |
Cheers freddie, thats why she’s always smiling!
Look, i dont want to stay in this division, i want the glory days to return. Always dreamin’. But my point is why do some fans go, and constantly moan? Hardly going to encourage the players, is it. You’re right about the play-offs, but then as i’ve said before, we should be pissing this league with the players we’ve got.
Still, with any luck sammy will be back in place of holt on saturday. Ah, feeling better already!!
15 February, 2007 at 3:42 pm |
3 points Saturday.
We’ve ot to keep our noses to the finishing tape.
17 February, 2007 at 6:29 pm |
another shambles today…sure you don’t want us to set up the website?
17 February, 2007 at 7:29 pm |
JMW, why do you have any faith that we will rise under Nigel – Since he took a controlling interest in the club we have systematically fallen further and further down the leagues, losing ground on many sides we used to once be competitive with?
He has done absolutely nothing in the last 8 years to suggest he will be able to stop the drop.
I like the man and appreciate that he is the best in the world in his professional field, but that does not include football clubs as businessmen have found out before.
I believe we need fresh blood, any blood, to re-invigorate things at the club – The Board of Doughty, Pelling & Arthur is so stale and lifeless, and this reflects our club on the pitch.
17 February, 2007 at 11:42 pm |
Very little action in the transfer window. Calderwood not getting the players he wanted because in the words of Mark Arthur, “The club will not be held to ransom”. In other words, what he meant to say was, “We put the ST and admission prices to maintain and build the squad, but now we have their money, the fans can go to f**k.”
Another defeat. This time at the hands of the all conquering Brighton. 3 wins in the last 13 league games is a disaster. I cannot believe that some people on this forum are still supporting the Chuckle Brothers, Mark Arthur and Nigel Doughty. You must be very very short sighted indeed, or know very little about the club you profess to support.
Doughty Out, Arthur Out, and let’s get investors in who have the vision to take this club forward. Doughty is too much of a business man to run a football club. Running a football club is not about making a profit.
18 February, 2007 at 4:54 am |
I have faith that the club will rise if it’s allowed to punch its weight.
If it can punch its weight there isn’t a club in this division that can live with us.
If it can punch its weight in the Championship we will be there or there abouts, and the first season we get the rub of the green we’ll be up again.
If we can punch our weight in the Premier we can compete with all but four or five of the clubs in there at the moment.
This club is where it is because, for a long time, it was forced to spend well short of its means. It was forced to punch well below its weight. It was in that position, primarily, because of the systematic mismanagement of Wray/Scholer, and yes because Doughty shot for the moon a little to soon when first involved.
Doughty has learnt from that mistake, he understands that ensuring that the club is on an even financial keel is all that matters when it comes to our long-term success. He’s put us, at great personal expense, at a cost of a lot of his time, in that position. Now his only job is to ensure we get the manager in place who can take us forward. Perhaps he’s got it right this time, perhaps he hasn’t. Only time will tell.
But let’s not pretend that picking a manager who is a cast iron certainty to lead us back to the promised land is a job we could do either.
Let’s do the only thing we can as fans. Let’s get behind the team 100% while we have the chance. Let’s try and play our part in ensuring that this summer is one to celebrate.
We back the club with time and money that I’m sure we all have to hard earn. Let’s have respect for Doughty’s time and money, which he’s had to work just as hard to earn, but is on a scale most of us couldn’t contemplate. The last 8 years haven’t been the best, but compared to where we’d be if we’d have gone bust it’s a dream. We’d be where AFC Wimbledon are.
Calderwood deserves at least a couple of years. If he’s is the right man then all well and good. If he’s not then the next chap will have a pop at it. There are no short cuts, no easy solutions, that’s just the way things are. We need the right manager, the right support from us, and the right Chairman who will allow the club to punch its weight. There is no certainly in what a manager with a good track record will do at a club, all you can do is get the best candidate in place and hope for the best.
Doughty is doing his bit, let’s do our bit so we Calderwood the best chance to do his.
That is what we all want isn’t it?