Thoughts on Ian Foster

[philevs]

Simon Hallett said during an interview earlier in the season that becoming a yo-yo club wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

I’m not suggesting that he doesn’t value Championship football, it just may be less important to us than to more established Championship clubs, they’ve got significantly bigger wage bills than us and they’d feel the effects of relegation more than we would.

I’m coming round more and more to the POV that relegation wouldn’t be a disaster in and of itself, we do have the smallest budget in the division after all, my concern is the toxicity that would come with that.

In his interview announcing the new 5-year plan, as I recall it, SH said “it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we got relegated” ; he did add that the club didn’t intend for this to happen.
His words surprised me at the time, and keep coming back to me now.

 

[GreenEden]

Simon Hallett said during an interview earlier in the season that becoming a yo-yo club wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

I’m not suggesting that he doesn’t value Championship football, it just may be less important to us than to more established Championship clubs, they’ve got significantly bigger wage bills than us and they’d feel the effects of relegation more than we would.

I’m coming round more and more to the POV that relegation wouldn’t be a disaster in and of itself, we do have the smallest budget in the division after all, my concern is the toxicity that would come with that.

If that's that then why should all the fans bother if our high tide is promotion and relegation to the championship why are we spending 12 million on an academy we simply wouldn't keep hold of our players and therefore why

 

[GreenEden]

The club have the lowest budget in the league.

It is what it is. Shuey did well last season, he outperformed our budget. We are trying to do the same this season, but the upheaval in January did us no favours.

Is it any surprise that we are flirting with relegation?

Ok that's great I get it but say we stay up how does the board rectify that? It certainly isn't by reducing the entertainment factor on the pitch
I think the reason Foster has not gone down well is nothing to do with the results it's much more the crap football and his personality which is as many others have said is that if how lucky is little ole Argyle to have him

 

[philevs]

If that's that then why should all the fans bother if our high tide is promotion and relegation to the championship why are we spending 12 million on an academy we simply wouldn't keep hold of our players and therefore why

Good point, but why did SH say that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we got relegated?

 

[Forest of Dean Green]

In his interview announcing the new 5-year plan, as I recall it, SH said “it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we got relegated” ; he did add that the club didn’t intend for this to happen.
His words surprised me at the time, and keep coming back to me now.

I suspect what he meant was that you need to run your club with the prospect that relegation is a possibility and if it happens, even if it is not your plan, it isn’t a disaster. That seems to me prudent rather than putting all your chips on red. Over time, by investing in the infrastructure including the academy, you boost revenues and reduce the odds of relegation next time you go up. That just seems to me to be sound scenario planning. It might not be sexy or satisfy fan panic but it’s a good way to run a club when you don’t have big investors. It’s probably a better way than having big investors in fact.

 

[Guiri Green]

Good point, but why did SH say that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we got relegated?

Because it wouldn't be ?

 

[oldage]

Azaz and Cundle are very good players but I think there’s an under-estimation at how much our coaching and style of play gave them the platform to excel, rather than them being so good they dictated how we played.

It’s a chicken and egg situation, but generally attacking players got better when they played for us.

We didn't sign any good enough attacking players in January to coach and make better!

 

[Said old Green]

I suspect what he meant was that you need to rub your club with the prospect that relegation is a possibility and if it happens, even if it is not your plan, it isn’t a disaster. That seems to me prudent rather than putting all your chips on red. Over time, by investing in the infrastructure including the academy, you boost revenues and reduce the odds of relegation next time you go up. That just seems to me to be sound scenario planning. It might not be sexy or satisfy fan panic but it’s a good way to run a club when you don’t have big investors. It’s probably a better way than having big investors in fact.

I think it sounds out the wrong message at the start of the season.

 

[philevs]

Because it wouldn't be ?

Yes indeed. Meaning the Academy plans etc would all still go ahead, so it means that the Board must have considered the possibility of relegation, I would say.

 

[santos73]

Yes indeed. Meaning the Academy plans etc would all still go ahead, so it means that the Board must have considered the possibility of relegation, I would say.

It would be remiss of the board not to have considered the possibility of relegation from this league. We can all see the relative budgets of all the clubs and can see how difficult it is to stay in it on our present income.
We need to keep building in our present manner and, hopefully, become a sustainable Championship team in the near future.

 

[Jon with no H]

I think it sounds out the wrong message at the start of the season.

I don't think it's the wrong message to say the sky is not going to fall in. Saying we'll be in the playoffs would have been more along the lines of the wrong message.

Simon Hallett is trying to bring parts of the club into the 1990s, that's how far behind we are a lot of teams in this division in infrastructure terms.

 

[Ipplepen green]

Who do you think you can replace him with btw?😅

I asked exactly the same question yesterday, but no one had an answer 🤷‍♂️

 

[Steve Evans]

I asked exactly the same question yesterday, but no one had an answer 🤷‍♂️

if i was going to get a rookie in i would have gone for the bloke from brighton who was rumoured to be on the short list because of the way brighton play throught all their teams.

 

[Guiri Green]

Yes indeed. Meaning the Academy plans etc would all still go ahead, so it means that the Board must have considered the possibility of relegation, I would say.

They'd be crap at their jobs if, after a 13 year absence from the Championship, the absoloute gulf in quality, finance, infrastructure and club experience at this level, they hadn't planned for the strong possibility of relegation.

Prepare for success, plan for failure.

 

[Biggs]

We didn't sign any good enough attacking players in January to coach and make better!

Agreed. Though Devine could be that player, Gyabi to a lesser extent.