ferrarilover wrote:And you pair, and the likes, are exactly the problem.
Where's your Blitz Spirit? Where's the steel, the bottle, the guts that won us two world wars against massive odds?
Yes, it's massively melodramatic, but just tossing in the towel on the basis that things are tougher than they've ever been just isn't how it should be. It is now that we really need people rallying round and doing as best as they can for the club.
Make it personal: when things are great, you've got a good job, loadsa money, a sexy girlfriend and a kid on the way, a fast car on the driveway of your half-a-million city pad and Wednesday afternoons free to play golf, you don't really need mates. Once you've been made redundant, had all your sh*t repossessed, been blackballed from golf and the fitty has taken the Jr and shacked up with her Yoga instructor, that is when you actually need the help and support of your pals.
Guess where the club is right now...
Matt.
So the bloke with the lavish lifestyle bins off his mates with no thought or consideration whatsoever to live the high life and then when it goes tits up he begs for forgiveness on one knee, proclaims how stupid he has been and how arrogant and pleads with his pals to help him and bail him out of the brown stuff and get things back on track?
If this is the scenario you paint Matt then i completely agree with what you have said.
The problem is if Torquay United is the bloke in question then when and where did the latter parts of the analogy occur because i didn't see or hear them?
Where were the genuine apologies, the heartfelt pleas for the support of the fans in a desperate time of need and where was the desire to put things right at all costs?
I'm a little weirder than most because i can take shite football for years on end even against pub sides in ramshackle grounds and still go and pay my money and sing my balls off. The very things that most TUFC fans have now had enough of. What i can't take is a total lack of ignorance and disrespect towards me personally as a fan from the board which is what i felt i received during the summer.
Tamargull made a telling contribution recently about why he won't go anymore which i think has been deleted - i can't find it anyway but he also made another post on the attendances thread where he commented on the club's inability to market itself effectively. Again, another accurate post IMO. Some will tell you that Torquay is basically run by one man and a dog and if this is the case then non league is the right place. If not then Tamargull is spot on and the club has lost just as many fans because of this than have stopped going because of relegation.
Obviously most of you know that i used to play for and go and watch York before i became a Gull so during the summer when my anger and bitterness towards TUFC was at it's peak i enjoyed the World Cup and tried to forget about football. Then the fixtures came out and august approached and i had that yearning to go and be part of something once more. As many of you know, i live for matchdays. I live for raw football and to feel a valued part of a team.
I had wander round Bootham Crescent one day having dropped my mum off nearby as her hairdresser lives there and i chatted to a few people at the club and i was well received and folk had time for me. They had time to talk to me about their offers for the new season and the things for families etc. I felt the familiarity of the old place returning.
Anyway, back to the point about 'profile' and presence' or lack of.
I went to the summer fair at Bootham Crescent which was well advertised, well attended and real fun and i took my little one around the place inside and out.
There i joined the York City Supporters Trust who i regularly get emails and information from unlike at Torquay where you pay your cash for membership and don't hear anything for the next 30 years. They thank you for your support and keep you in the loop.
In 4 and half months of going to watch York (the only home game i've missed was the 2-2 draw with Cambridge as i was in Cornwall) i am constantly updated with club offers and offers and promotions from club partners, have enrolled my young 'un into junior reds which knock out allsorts for kids to get involved in, she has met Yorkie the lion (who to my knowledge hasn't been involved in tawdry arguments with his own fans, at half time they have colouring and a kids room and a sweet shop.
In contrast i contacted TUFC twice last year about the Gulls fanclub for young fans, once after seeing it on the O/S and not one person could tell me what it was or what i was on about.
Their matchday programme has lots of features about local fans and puts them in the limelight having many innovative competitions and activities for young ones. My little one has been featured in it too for making her city debut, the club ran a competition for the young fans to design the front cover for the Accy boxing day programme and we won out of 70 entries we got 4 free tickets to the game and a free programme and a write up (on the way home to Derbyshire though i had to abandon my car in 15cm of snow and walk in the dark and thick snowstorm for 3 hours with my little one to get home - i recovered my car today).
On another occasion i was offered the opportunity to go on the pitch to present midfielder Russell Penn with player of the month award, we sponsor Jake Hyde's boots which we are regularly shown gratitude for and not just left to wonder why the **** hell am i bothering and i've had a nice chat with Russ Wilcox in the car park before the game with Mansfield. Incentives aplenty to keep fans interested too.
Basically, in one of my rambling nutshells - i have had more opportunities, feedback and more engagement from York City in 4 and a half months than i ever did in nearly 7 years of following the Gulls. Behind the scenes they are well organised and at face value appear to put the fans at the forefront of their minds at all times.
Don't get me wrong, football fans are fickle regardless. York reached the play off semi last season yet just a month into this season they were down to the usual hardcore of sub 3000 gates. York strive hard to attract and retain fans through exceptional communication, advertising, customer service, innovation and fan interaction and engagement whereas TUFC quite frankly embarrassing in all areas in all honesty. If the club don't see fit to offer gratitude to fans for forking out to watch utter garbage (which to be fair to Torquay is quite a lot of other clubs too) nor a consistent high end product then the very least they should be doing is making the whole matchday experience and involvement the very best it can be.
Like Matt highlights, a club who takes fans for granted cannot expect those fans to hang around and be at their beck and call when it all comes crashing down.
A club who appreciates it fans and strives to make it a symbiotic relationship have EVERY reason to expect them to keep turning up when things are going wrong. It's called support.
I don't believe in withdrawing support just because the team you follow are always crap and have taken 2 years to decide that Billy Bodin will not produce the goods and i can hold my head up and say i have not done this.
Ok, so i kind of considered it with the Bodin thingy but you get my drift. :Oops:
Most fans are very proud and protective of their club so obviously i expect either no response to my post which is becoming the norm (I've suddenly become a not very nice person purely based on perceived misguided morals which perhaps tells you something about yourself ) or some telling me to piss off like Brucie very kindly did to our Brizzle frequenter. Very welcoming i'm sure. Oh, and he is mentally ill too apparently, Friendlygas that is and not Brucie. :}
Finally :sleep: :sleep: :sleep: :sleep:
I've stood with a hundred and odd York fans at Plymouth. A hundred and odd Torquay fans at some northern griefhole make more noise and are more up for the laugh than what i witnessed. I've also stood with 700 York fans at Hartlepool. Half that amount of Gulls at Cheltenham were far more impressive. York at home have a drummer but he never plays the friggin' thing! He brings it and bangs it a couple of times and then gives up! A bit like Silvio Berlusconi taking his latest to a cocktail party. I'm 100% positive that Danny lad is like the Keith Moon of Torquay whilst the York lad (no offence intended) is like Partridge sat in the car waiting for Lynne and listening to theme tune to The Saint.
Torquay fans away are a pleasure to be with and are without doubt the most impressive of the lower leagues that i've ever stood with. I still miss all that shit.
Anyway, as Brian Potter said.......you can't go back and so i bid you a happy new year and i'm willing you into the play offs. I'm obviously not going to bet on it because we all know that you would be 2-0 up on the last day with 5 minutes left and needing only a draw and then the opposition would make a triple sub of Karl Hawley, Billy Bodin and Conor Wilkinson and end up winning the game.
CH proved last season that he couldn't make players respond and that is 30% of why we went down - he had plenty of time.
It would be inappropriate of me to comment on how he is doing this season but i think overall where you are in the league - i'd have taken that if i was still a yellow.
Oh and i almost forgot...............you can also respond my tl:dr
