Post by Tangerine Sherlock on Aug 14, 2014 16:04:41 GMT 1
Having pondered over the situation at the club and not wanting the grief from social media that you seem to get now for expressing a opinion thought I would ramble on here so it might be a long post before I email it to Karl's PA not that I expect a response.
Dear Mr Karl Oyston
Training Ground
Having watched the pool for over 32 years now I find myself perplexed at the situation the club finds itself in and with you forever trotting out the same line about running it as a business I would love to know your views on the following if you could spare the time for somebody who has like many others given up their hard earned cash over the years and is fed up of the standard of communication from with in the club to what are basically its customers.
Lets start with the training ground after over 14 years of promises still we find our footballers using facilities that where designed to meet the needs of footballers 60 years ago so the constant line of "it was good enough for Stanley Matthews" is somewhat outdated like the training ground. Todays modern footballer requires far more and are at the end of the day and are your investments in the club, any race horse owner would not stable there prize asset at a yard that is 60 years behind everybody else, so why do you insist on doing so with professional athlete's.
The gym at squires gate is hardy state of the art and while they now use the hotel as well especially in the winter, as its normally raining in at the training ground gym to go along with bring your own water to training and wash your own kit might have seemed practical when in division 3, but like the kit it does not wash anymore. Have some pride as we are forever being told we are cash rich start providing the basics that a footballer requires these include the ability to heat the place and also provide hot showers in a decent shower room not a porter cabin toilet block that you would find on a camp site with cold water.
If you run the training ground at the standard of a 1/2 star hotel you will now only attract 1/2 star players and for a family who's main business was and is real estate the time this has taken is beyond a joke if you have no intention at all of finding a new site or vastly improving Squires Gate please come out and say so to all the fans (your customers) no more years of broken promises.
Player Recruitment
This summer has been the worst I can ever remember with us unable to run a pre season and being the only team in every division including the conference unable to field a fit and ready team and more alarmingly unable to even have the number of substitutes available. You said you did not think we are "a club in crisis" so what do you consider to be a crisis? we are yet again lurching from one problem to another not to mention the recent registration issues. As a business man you must be able to see that this is causing nothing but harm to the name Blackpool Football Club and to the Oyston group as a whole.
The length of contracts being offered to players is also alarming as we could easily find ourselves back in the same position, why all the 1 year plus 1 year option surely we should be offering 2 years and 1 year option to any player aged 27 and below , again this is no doubt hindering the possibility of recruitment as a player just does not consider the money on the table but the effects it has on his family.
Over the last few years we have brought in young prospects like Matty Phillips and Tom Ince which the club has benefited from when sold on, has this policy now changed? if so is this not a error of judgement as your potentially cutting out future revenue streams for the club.
You stated the managers targets where un realistic and put the blame at his door, now surely a conversation must have taken place before appointing him on the budget and wage structure with some hints from the manager of targets he would like to bring in and if he ignored this why as chairman did it take 5 weeks to start getting players in? when on first presentation of a targets list no more than a couple of days would have been required to say "these are way above our wage structure" you are the chairman and his employer and as a effective business man this should not have been turned into a stale mate of 5 weeks and its okay saying players that wanted 10k now only want 3k is not a excuse in a cash rich club considering we now have no pre season and no complete team and the lost time could in the end cost you more than what you saved, at the moment we are effectively like a armless man going to a boxing fight every match.
Its possibly every managers dream to build his own team from the ground up but to do this a sustained and realist investment needs to be made and maybe some thought should have been given before everybody was released from last season and whom made that judgment call? and also to the standard of player now available to us, the season has started and there is a reason most of the players we have recruited have not got a club
communication and social media
while I welcome the decision you have taken to speak in the gazette every week the standard of communication from the club and explanation of when things don't go right is down right disgraceful you can not just ignore things and expect them to go away your customers have a right to have things explained this has a knock on effect and while you might enjoy being the villain of the piece it is a bad way to run a business.
Social media is a dangerous and also useful way to communicate with the fans but it seems to be used as a way of antagonizing the fans. At what point did a educated adult decide standing next to a poster saying Oystons Cash Cow then letting it be posted on social media a good idea? not to mention the tennis racquets just where does BFC take its PR advice from? Fine for a family or personal joke but to then let them be sent out knowing they are going to rile the fans is not only foolish but disgusting from a professional organization.
While I do not agree with the abusive and sometimes vile comments directed at you or your family doing the above just makes the situation worse and makes for a very unhealthy atmosphere between clubs and fans not to mention the recent twitter posts from Sam regarding a Race to a shop on a thousand pound bet, with power comes responsibility surely?
Community
As a family you have provided for the community through the hard times to keep the football club going initially but the club has made vast sums of money which more than repaid everything invested over the years and more on top, while not wanting to go into the financial side of the club as that has been done to death already where is the legacy? I'm not asking for millions upon millions of investment but a decent chance to compete in the championship.
Being a football owner is not just about how much money can be made or lost it has a responsibility to the community as a whole one which at the moment is sadly being ignored at the end of the day football is a game of the people for the people and to many a highlight in these hard times and it demands honesty and integrity from the owners to the fans.
The attitude towards staff players fans and anybody who questions the principles behind the running and future of the club seem to be ignore or swatted away this is no longer Victorian or Edwardian England please consider you aims and goals and share with the fans.