Carl and Gary did a brilliant job for us, but it’s quite refreshing to have a new manager and a fresh set of ideas.
So what are we all expecting for the season? It looks like the size and standard of clubs is much higher than the last time we were here - 300 used to top the average attendance table but we’d find ourselves in the bottom half now.
Personally, I’d like to see us push for the play-offs, but I certainly don’t think that’s a given. A half-decent run in the cup or trophy would be nice, and might ward off our annual budget cut for a few more weeks!
Anyway, hopefully we’ll see some attacking football and a few more goals than last season…
Nice to see you back on the forum LP, hope you’re keeping well.
I’m excited for the season be nice to visit a few new grounds and I would be happy with playoffs but I think it will be a tough season.
It’s early days and I don’t want to bring a downer on things, but I’ve got to be honest and say it worries me that we seem to have a developing obsession with signing Plastic 64 Fc players and ex players. I make it five at the last count. I get it that Jon has different ideas and a different approach to Carl and Gary, but how are their signings a strength? A couple of Macron Cup medals between them. Thought Jon would of made better use of his contacts in non league to be honest. That said I think we will finish top half of the table and not disgrace ourselves in the darby games.
Hi RobD. I hear what you are saying however I am surprised that we haven’t already been doing this in recent seasons with the odd player There have been players at 1874 that could have played at Witton (McGowen to Nantwich as an example). No disrespect to 1874 but it would have been easy to tempt them over with the facilities/pitch we have to offer. Also the fact that they are already playing locally indicates that travel wouldn’t be an issue. It remains to be seen how good they are but time will tell
A well coached team is often greater than the sum of its parts. I don’t know a great deal about the players from 1874 but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few of them kick on through playing with better players (and on a better surface).
OK I am going to put this out there - for the first and last time this season! We need to think beyond this season and how we sustain football at a decent level in Mid Cheshire. Our club needs significant investment if it is to make progress in this and subsequent seasons. This isn’t just about running the lottery or ground collections, as valuable as those activities are, but the overall ownership and share holding in our club and changing it so that it becomes an enabler rather than the millstone it currently is. I am not trying to denigrate the efforts of anyone in our club, but we need to do something differently to break the cycle of a hand to mouth existence and a relegation that sees us 4 leagues lower than we were in the early 90’s. I have raised these issues with the Board and at the AGM - they are not going to go away. We will enjoy this season I am sure, but we must also focus on the longer term if we want a decent Mid Cheshire football team playing at the highest possible level .
Whilst I agree with you Knutsfordian I have also resigned myself to the fact that it is very unlikely that the teams will merge. Unless a few people really get together with a good plan it’s never going to go anywhere. Also there’s the issues regarding who owns the shares and the ground etc which I don’t even fully understand but would imagine it’s quite complicated…
It would benefit the town in my opinion but who would actually get the project rolling?
If there is any confusion over share and ground ownership and its future implications, wouldn’t clarification from Graham or a Board member be helpful? Must admit I’m not sure either.
The club is a limited company with 300k share issue, the owners of those shares effectively own the club and the ground there is no single large shareholder who has control of the club. It has multiple owners who are mostly Albion fans! Any merger would be agreed by the shareholders they would only do that if it was in the best interests of the club they own?
My thoughts and expectations for the coming season are as follows. I expect us to finish at least upper mid-table. I hope that we do better, and push for the play-offs, as I suppose most supporters of most clubs do. Going by the comments of others, we seem to have had a safety first, not to say negative approach on the field for quite some time, so I hope we try to play attacking, entertaining but pragmatic football this year. Of course I cannot go on first hand experience as I have only been to one game over the past few seasons.
It would be grossly unfair for anyone to pass judgement over the first few games. At present we have a collection of players making up a side, whom the management team will attempt to mould into a team, but this will inevitably take time. As a rule I feel that the league table takes a realistic shape by the end of September, but we will probably need at least a couple more months to get a reasonable idea of how we are going to do this season.
Of course the weather for this coming Saturday has the potential to turn games into almost a farce. Fitness will inevitably play a part, but then it always does. More to the point the physiology of individual players may well also have a significant role. Some people are much better adapted to hot weather than others, no matter how fit in a classical sense they may be. Personally I would like to see a blanket postponement of all games this weekend, as I don’t believe it is possible for normal competitive football to be played in the conditions we will have. (I do realise this is not going to happen!)
So good luck to the Albion, and a plea to supporters to give the management team and playing squad time to settle down and not expect too much too soon.
I have similar ambitions to you Mike, and I look forward to a more attacking set up. I think we will improve as the season moves forward. Play Offs would be a bonus this season IMO.
UTA