Win more than you lose. Play some decent football. Give the kids a game or two. If we end up mid-table, so be it.
I’m genuinely not that difficult to please.
I just want normal owners who pay the bills, run the club properly and don’t constantly gaslight the fans with unrealistic expectations and promises.
Some people have said we shouldn’t take any notice of what Rob Couhig says. ‘ take it all with a pinch of salt’ it’s just marketing - I find that baffling. If you’ve got the owner going on the radio every week talking about a promotion push, then of course supporters are going to hold him to it.
You can’t spend months telling everyone what you’re going to achieve and then act surprised when people question you when it doesn’t happen.
I’m not unreasonable. I’m not demanding promotion. I just don’t want to be constantly sold a dream that bears little resemblance to reality. Is that really too much to ask?
And the transfer window is probably the clearest example of the disconnect between what we’re being told and what we’re actually seeing.
It’s promotion, promotion, promotion every time the owners speak. We’re apparently building a squad to challenge at the top end of the division and we’re constantly being told how ambitious the club is.
But the activity in the transfer market simply doesn’t match that rhetoric.
We’ve signed four players. As things stand, that’s the fewest signings of any club in the league.
Now, numbers alone don’t tell you everything. I’d rather sign four genuinely good players than ten players for the sake of it. But if you’re repeatedly telling supporters that promotion is the objective, then it’s perfectly reasonable for people to look at the squad and question whether the recruitment matches that ambition.
The explanation seems to be that leaving our business until later in the window gives us access to a wider and potentially better pool of players. Clubs start finalising their squads, players realise they aren’t going to get the minutes they expected, loan options become available and asking prices potentially come down.
I understand the logic behind that.
There probably is better value to be found towards the end of the window.
But it’s also a massive risk.
You’re gambling on the right players actually becoming available. You’re gambling that other clubs don’t beat you to them. You’re gambling that clubs who currently don’t want to sell suddenly change their minds.
And even if it all works perfectly and you get the players you want, you’re then asking the manager to integrate several new signings into the squad after the season has already started.
Pre-season exists for a reason.
It’s where players learn the system, build relationships with teammates, develop fitness and understand what the manager wants from them. Bringing three or four important players through the door in the final days of August and expecting everything to immediately click is asking a lot.
Meanwhile, the season is already underway and points are already on the table.
Again, this wouldn’t bother me nearly as much if the message from the club had simply been: we’re rebuilding, we’re going to be patient in the market and we’ll take opportunities when they arise.
Fine. Completely understandable.
But you can’t spend the summer banging the promotion drum and then operate in the transfer market like a club taking a patient, cautious approach to squad building.
The two things don’t really fit together.
And that’s the recurring frustration for me. It isn’t necessarily what the owners are doing — it’s the enormous gap between what they’re doing and what they keep telling everyone they’re going to do.
The same goes for the stadium revamp.
I’m fed up with the hero complex around it, as though he’s doing us some enormous personal favour.
You’re improving the stadium because you want to improve the club’s assets and ultimately increase their value.
And that’s absolutely fine!
You’re a businessman. Of course you want to increase the value of the assets you own. There’s nothing wrong with that.
But don’t constantly spin it as some great act of love and generosity towards the supporters.
And the endless banging on about the pitch... :roll:
Don’t get me started.
Yes, Rob, we know. It isn’t just a normal relaying of the turf. You’ve had to dig it all up and replace everything underneath it as well.
Well, guess what?
Part of owning a football club means that, from time to time — every seven or eight years apparently — you have to spend some money maintaining the bloody pitch! :shock:
It’s happened several times under different owners. There wasn’t months of fanfare and self-congratulation. They just got on with it because maintaining the stadium and pitch is part and parcel of being the custodian of a football club.
Just be a normal owner. Seriously.
Do one or two interviews a year. Give us an update on the club, answer some questions and then disappear into the background.
Leave the football to the manager and let JJ or someone else provide the occasional update when there’s actually something worth saying.
The funny thing is, I genuinely wouldn’t care if we stayed in League One for the next five years.
The away grounds are often brilliant — proper, traditional football grounds. We’re still playing teams we’ve barely or never played before; Bromley being a good example. I’ve never been to Stadium MK, so hopefully I’ll tick that one off this season.
We’ve got a realistic chance every year in the Johnston’s/Virtu Paint/whatever-the-hell-it’s-called-now Trophy of getting to Wembley and maybe even winning a bit of silverware.
The football at this level is alright-ish. The SCL isn’t rammed, so getting a drink and having a fag at half-time is easier. Parking is easier. Traffic is better.
There’s actually quite a lot to be said for League One.
What I don’t need is some brash American bloke constantly telling me how amazing he is, how he saved the club, how wonderful everything he’s doing is and how we’re going to do this, that and the other — only for half of it never to materialise.
That’s ultimately what it comes down to.
If you want to run the club sensibly, recruit patiently, improve the infrastructure and gradually build something sustainable, then brilliant. Do that.
But set expectations accordingly.
Don’t tell us promotion is the target every five minutes if the decisions being made behind the scenes don’t reflect the urgency or ambition that comes with that target.
Lower the rhetoric.
Stop overpromising.
Run the club properly.
That would do me just fine.
