Over the past few weeks as a management team we have been reading this forum, carefully analysing what you guys as valued supporters have been saying, along with being present at the fans forum in which we both pushed for at a recent board meeting to give you all as fans an update you deserved about where we are as a club. However, after last night and reading all of what’s been said I felt only right to post something with some information on certain points raised in this thread. But it’s only fair we start back at the beginning when we were appointed.
When James and myself were appointed last year after Danny had been relieved of his duties, we had to build a whole new squad pretty much due to previous management not getting players signed on and subsequently those 3-4 players who we wanted to keep had already agreed to join Poole. The budget we had then was also inclusive of staff wages including physio. That budget is a step 5 budget as some wessex teams are paying more than what we have. Having said that we built a team who equalled the clubs best ever fa cup run and were comfortable mid table having picked up a couple of important wins against farnborough and Weston before the season was cut short. It was however clear though that due to the covid situation clubs had cut budgets and therefore we had more clubs down around our budget mark due to cutting costs.
When returning to action after lockdowns etc and seeing/hearing through contacts in the league, majority of clubs had significantly increased their wage bill and were signing players from higher leagues and in some cases pro clubs. We did explain to the board that it was going to be a struggle to compete with the resources we had been given but we were given the same budget as last season. So again had the same budget inclusive of staff wages.
So we set about selecting targets, we had incoming signings and players departing but what was very clear was that we were going to struggle financially to compete with other clubs at this level with the amount of money being offered to players who we wanted to speak to. Regardless of facilities where new ground etc money talks at this level and we simply couldn’t compete. So where do go from here? Well again we exhausted lots of different avenues and we managed to sign a few players from Eastleigh who had exposure to conference full time training and we also signed experienced centre back Keaton Wood who had the experience we needed and we felt this was an area we needed to strengthen. Unfortunately he had a career ending injury after ten minutes of a pre season friendly against Portland. By that stage of pre season a lot of our other targets had signed elsewhere and we were in a position of having to look at the loan market due to finances again.
We started the season with the optimism that we would have enough to stay up which is what the goal was at the start of the season, just stay in the league. However, safe to say we were proved correct when we said we needed more money because those clubs who had cut costs last season had strengthened significantly and signing players on £400-£500 a week. Some clubs actually going hell for leather to get out of the league and pumping £7k-£8k a week at playing budgets to get out of the league. How do a club like Wimborne compete on the pitch with that? It’s simple we can’t.
In fairness to the BOD, they have stated as they did at the fans forum, that it has been an oversight on their part as to what we needed to compete at this level and have stated we can go and spend more money for the right players. But that’s the problem and the million dollar question? Where do you now go get players good enough and the right players to get us out of trouble? It’s 4 months into the season with players we want on contract, happy where they are or simply put wanting absolutely obscene money for this level of football. Having said that look at Saturday with the performance away in the trophy to create history and beat a big club like Weston to progress in the trophy. It shows this team do have something about them. We are also the same management duo who have guided the club to equal best ever fa cup run last season and again this season making history getting to 2nd round proper of the trophy, bringing in a significant amount of money for the club. And a lot of the players are the same also. So we are trying to get things right on and off the pitch.
Much has been said about the squad depth and fully agree with everyone we need more depth. We have had to use some of the development players more than we would have liked at this stage and we’ve just had to throw them in the deep end to southern league football due to injuries and suspensions. Honestly of all ours years playing this level and above we’ve never been involved with a squad who have suffered so much bad luck with injuries. Recent signing Dan Jones from aldershot played on Saturday for their 23s and broke his elbow so it will be a long time before we see him back in action. Again another body we would have had available last night. Fair play to the young players stepping up and it’s great to see from a club point of view but we need experience. We know that but we have been put in this position due to financial reasons, injuries and suspensions.
Regarding information on the thread or the questions you want answered:
Ben Scorey- Injured his knee v Walton a month ago and it’s still not quite right. He’s been doing the warm ups and some training to try get it ready and he’s not far away from being fully available for selection.
Canny- Has a scan next week on what could be a hernia. Has been a huge asset in terms of voice and experience on and off the pitch. Has played the level and knows the game so yes he’s almost like a player coach.
Connal- picked up a knee injury v Weston on Saturday and working against the clock to have him fit for Saturday.
So from an already thread bare squad a few injuries puts us in a very weak position to:
1. Being able to field our strongest team
2. Being able to bring fresh legs off the bench to change the game
Chuggy and Jamie suspended whilst Eastleigh have told Tom Bragg after bud recent thigh niggle that they wanted to ensure he was 100% fit before playing again. Again should be fit for selection on Saturday.
With regards to comments made on here about last nights performance, no passion or voice and lack of coaching I would totally agree that the performance was not anywhere near good enough. Certainly not after considering our performance on Saturday against Weston in the trophy which shows that this team can perform against the bigger teams in the league. In terms of setting the team up…..we set the team up with info on the other team and how we can exploit the other teams weaknesses etc and how we defend against them. Unfortunately that just didn’t get implemented on the pitch and collectively as management and players we had a few harsh words after the game last night as we know that wasn’t good enough. Again, we go and watch opposition teams ourselves and do reports on them for the players to go through. But we all take responsibility for last night as it was nowhere near the standards we expect even in terms of just effort.
We have worked tirelessly to exhaust all of our contacts both in non league and the professional game to try and get experienced players in but again it does boil down to money at the minute and the fact where we are in terms of catchment area we compete with Poole,Dorchester and in some cases Salisbury. All those clubs have bigger budgets than ours. I think someone said above about Dorchester having double our budget. From what we know yes that’s correct. The fact that a few step 5 clubs are paying more than we are in a huge indicator of where we are. Even some of the step 5 clubs and step 4 clubs in the Southampton area, they are paying considerably more than we are.
I am not pushing all responsibility elsewhere but we as a management team have been put in a very difficult situation with regards budget and like i stated above our budget is significantly lower than everyone else in the league bar one, kings Langley. So regarding changing management at the minute even if I was a neutral, I can’t see how doing that would help as they will have the same budget as we have been given. We don’t want to see this club fail and talk about the dreaded ‘R’ word. We’ve never been relegated as players so we don’t want that to happen as a management team. Staff and players are still together we are still fighting.
I am always happy to speak to people face to face at any game home or away and answer any questions about the playing side. Always approachable in that regard but please stick by us please keep supporting the players, we all value your support highly and are doing all we can to turn the corner in the league.
I hope this has answered a few of your questions, apologies if not as there’s been quite a few on here over the last 12 hours. But I felt only right to put you in the picture and also assure you all that we are still all fighting to get some fresh bodies in and try to start picking up some much needed points in the league.
