Quote Itchy Arsenal="Itchy Arsenal"I'm with you on this Ted.
As a person SW is one of the nicest guys I have ever met and as a coach he appears to have pretty incredible motivational skills which ideally we would want to keep within the club.
I have been bored rigid for 3 seasons and there is absolutely no way I will be buying a season ticket next season unless there are some pretty radical changes. I know very little if anything about Toovey other than his name seems to pop up with regularity when new potential coaches roles are available or rumoured to be available.
I am a lifelong fan who when we lost even after 50 years of following them it still used to ruin my weekend but these days I just shrug my shoulders but deep down it really hurts that we have let standards drop on and off the field to such low and for me personally, demoralising standards.
Financially this season I'm assuming will be much better the loss recently posted however, next season will be horrendous unless IL comes up with something different because season ticket sales will fall off a cliff.
I don't expect to win every game and every trophy available but I do expect to see full time professionals with some the highest paid players in the competition to be competitive in every game and show more resourcefulness than we have seen for the past few years. We play with for me zero intensity with a permanent scowl with players who seem to think they are beyond criticism (ST last year with Bilko was beyond the pale) and the club seem oblivious to falling crowds issuing laughable statistics on attendances which I assume is for contentment internally within the club.
GF holders and Latics in Division 2 or whatever they call it should be the perfect model for potential significant growth in attendances, generating more cash and more importantly attracting new and ideally younger spectators on a weekly basis.
This has just passed us by and IL thinks that a game in Australia will fill in the cracks?? That will no doubt be a great boozing trip for spectators and maybe some advertising income but if we play as we have done for the last 3 years it will add zero to our credibility to be a leading team on the park.
I know we cant go and sign 6 or 7 players I'm not that stupid but we need change and we need the club to acknowledge that currently the levels of performance on and off the field are not acceptable. Two or three new players with a change in style will do for me next season even if that means zero finals and we don't make the playoff semi finals as long as I see positive change with good potential for year on year improvement I will be satisfied.
Do I hope Hull lose tonight? Of course I do. Would I then want us to then beat Wakefield? Of course I would. Would that change how I feel and how I think? Absolutely not.
I'm not anti IL or SW I just want to get back to enjoying my club, my sport and stop kicking the cat. I want to go to a home game in anticipation. I want to go back to shouting and screaming during the game - the past 3 seasons I just sit there in silence. I want to burn the wrestling pit. I want to talk rugby during the week while I'm waiting for the next match to come around. I want to stop knocking my club for being boring, insular and petulant.
I know some people wont believe me but I genuinely don't enjoy knocking the club but I still feel so passionate about the club that I feel I must say something even if the club are not interested or listening.
I hope IL will hold one of his forums with the fans in the next couple of months to hopefully, give us some glimpse of potential changes and acknowledge the unrest amongst the fans.'"
This is a cracking post and pretty much echoes the way I felt last year and this.
I admire what Wane has done at the club but deep down wonder how well we could actually have done by investing in a bit more quality rather than the policy of project signings and back to the future signings. I'm not sure where the blame lies for this but at the least Wane, Radlinski and Lenegan must share it for the erosion of quality performances and personnel.
I also find myself turned off by our tactics as well. The petulant, niggly, bully boy tactics aren't how I want to see my side play. We run a fine line week in week out with the third man tackles which appear to be increasing in their frequency.
The number of people I see on their phones during games is also an indicator of the standard on the field.
