by Southampton Gull » 11 Apr 2011, 19:24
Jerry wrote:No argument from me Dave, a club should always be looking to progress both on and off the field. It's a difficult juggling act though and, I'd imagine, a fine line between ambition and putting the future of the club at risk.
Yes, I imagine it's a very tricky task indeed.
I went to Bournemouth yesterday to watch Dave's (forevertufc) son play for the centre of excellence and did some thinking afterwards about the very subject of off the field progress. There's no doubt that we have made tremendous strides but one of the things that surprised me was that these kids don't even get to play in our current strip. I was shocked to find out that we rarely employ linesmen for home games. If the Club want to be taken seriously this is exactly the kind of thing that needs to change. Bournemouth had a full compliment of officials and if I was intent on producing players for a professional club I would make damned sure that our COE players were turned out in proper kit and with officials to run the game correctly. Seriously, how much strain would that put on club finances compared to the affect it would have in showing TUFC as a credible club within the area when families watch their son play for or against us? The burden can't be totally down to the parents if we as a club are choosing their gifted son to play for our COE teams. Surely a deal can be reached with Vandanel to supply our own teams with a full kit at a decent price so as to make it viable.
The point I'm trying to make is that there are areas within the structure of the club that make us look amateurish and I feel we should be doing everything we possibly can to look and act more professionally. Promoting the club in the best possible light is extremely important if we want to tempt fans into parting with their cash and making the effort to come to Plainmoor, it starts right at the bottom and should lead to the very top of the club.
Out of interest, we lost the game 5-3 in what was a very enjoyable encounter, going 5 nil down before launching a good comeback in the third and fourth periods of 20 minute sessions. Billy made a couple of errors but had no chance with the other three and did everything else very well showing a lot of potential in the process.
[quote="Jerry"]No argument from me Dave, a club should always be looking to progress both on and off the field. It's a difficult juggling act though and, I'd imagine, a fine line between ambition and putting the future of the club at risk.[/quote]
Yes, I imagine it's a very tricky task indeed.
I went to Bournemouth yesterday to watch Dave's (forevertufc) son play for the centre of excellence and did some thinking afterwards about the very subject of off the field progress. There's no doubt that we have made tremendous strides but one of the things that surprised me was that these kids don't even get to play in our current strip. I was shocked to find out that we rarely employ linesmen for home games. If the Club want to be taken seriously this is exactly the kind of thing that needs to change. Bournemouth had a full compliment of officials and if I was intent on producing players for a professional club I would make damned sure that our COE players were turned out in proper kit and with officials to run the game correctly. Seriously, how much strain would that put on club finances compared to the affect it would have in showing TUFC as a credible club within the area when families watch their son play for or against us? The burden can't be totally down to the parents if we as a club are choosing their gifted son to play for our COE teams. Surely a deal can be reached with Vandanel to supply our own teams with a full kit at a decent price so as to make it viable.
The point I'm trying to make is that there are areas within the structure of the club that make us look amateurish and I feel we should be doing everything we possibly can to look and act more professionally. Promoting the club in the best possible light is extremely important if we want to tempt fans into parting with their cash and making the effort to come to Plainmoor, it starts right at the bottom and should lead to the very top of the club.
Out of interest, we lost the game 5-3 in what was a very enjoyable encounter, going 5 nil down before launching a good comeback in the third and fourth periods of 20 minute sessions. Billy made a couple of errors but had no chance with the other three and did everything else very well showing a lot of potential in the process.
