Caldwell out?

[Antony Moxey]

I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you as I think that’s a great aim for the club. I think you’ve got a bit of a straw man argument here. Perhaps you’re more ‘ambitious’ than most. I’m just pointing out our realistic expectations given our standing and size. Again, I’m not happy/satisfied with ‘just a club to support’, I think we can and should do well in this league but I don’t demand upper table finishes because I understand the financial reality of the club. Ambition is only realised with an understanding of reality. Anything else is just fantasy. And THAT is not village thinking.

I will also say though that ‘having a club to support’ is an important perspective to bear in mind given the nature of the modern football industry. Clubs across the leagues are in huge debt and wouldn’t be surprised if we see more clubs falling on very hard times, and they are also spending more than ever which is hard to compete against. Obviously our history pre and post the trust should serve as a reminder to how important it is to be sustainable. If we spend less on players etc to remain sustainable at the expense of on field success then I will always take that. It’s not village thinking, it’s just good prioritisation. And I ain’t going down the road to support argyle if City were no longer here.

I can’t agree with your thinking. This be happy to have a club to support IS what you said, but as I replied we’re way beyond that now, and that continuing to just be happy to have a club to support IS village thinking. I don’t get why people continually hark on about pre Trust days, that’s not coming back here any time soon so perhaps instead of oh look at what might have been if the Trust didn’t step in or look at all these other clubs splashing cash they can’t afford look at where we are now and what we can achieve now.

Unsustainable clubs are irrelevant to what we can achieve if we continue to build and grow at a sensible and affordable pace. I believe it’s perfectly feasible to see us an established L1 club, and then perfectly feasible to look a bit beyond that and see us as a regular top half of L1 club. Were never going back to R&L days, and were never going back to Conference football, I just wish people’s ‘realism‘ wasn‘t so pessimistic all the time with this continual fear of returning to the dark old days should someone try to show a little bit of ambition that may or may not succeed every time we try to look up.

 

[berniesworld]

Never thought I’d see this, just one vote in it……….

As much as I still think Cladwell is not the ideal long term manager I have to go along with it, what I would like to see is us push on and build on what we have now in place and play more attractive football and even flirt in the top half of League 1.

 

[GrecianGrain]

I can’t agree with your thinking. This be happy to have a club to support IS what you said, but as I replied we’re way beyond that now, and that continuing to just be happy to have a club to support IS village thinking. I don’t get why people continually hark on about pre Trust days, that’s not coming back here any time soon so perhaps instead of oh look at what might have been if the Trust didn’t step in or look at all these other clubs splashing cash they can’t afford look at where we are now and what we can achieve now.

Unsustainable clubs are irrelevant to what we can achieve if we continue to build and grow at a sensible and affordable pace. I believe it’s perfectly feasible to see us an established L1 club, and then perfectly feasible to look a bit beyond that and see us as a regular top half of L1 club. Were never going back to R&L days, and were never going back to Conference football, I just wish people’s ‘realism‘ wasn‘t so pessimistic all the time with this continual fear of returning to the dark old days should someone try to show a little bit of ambition that may or may not succeed every time we try to look up.

I still don’t understand what part you disagree on? I was actually trying to sort of agree with you. Nothing I said really contradicted you other putting more emphasis on realism and sustainability

 

[Snoop Fog]

Never thought I’d see this, just one vote in it……….

As much as I still think Cladwell is not the ideal long term manager I have to go along with it, what I would like to see is us push on and build on what we have now in place and play more attractive football and even flirt in the top half of League 1.

View attachment 15212

Are you going to change your vote then and tip the balance the other way?

 

[Grecian Max]

Thanks for clarifying. Just to be clear I’m not saying I’m happy with getting relegated and having no ambition. No one should be really. But the tone of the post suggested that what we have achieved this season was not enough and lacked ambition.


It’s possible to be towards the top end of the league and I think we shouldn’t limit ourselves at all as I think our model works really well and provides long-term stability which lends itself to long term success. But we are, compared to a lot of clubs at the top end of this league, a small club. Again, that doesn’t mean we should aim for mid/low league 1 finishes, but realistically it’s where we will finish based purely on budgets/players we can attract etc.

I don’t believe I lack ambition or have ‘village thinking’ when I say that, it’s just a strong probability given all we know about how football works. We can’t pull in 15-20,000 crowds, we can’t have a squad of 23 league 1 ready experienced players. We have more hurdles to get over and than say a former prem club like Bolton, or a Peterborough with a rich benefactor.

By hopefully finishing above a lot of those teams around us we have done exceptionally well and it should be commended given we probably still have one of the smallest budgets despite the investment in Jan, and because we do have limitations and it’s not weak to point out those limitations.

With respect, only three clubs can pull in over 15,000 in league 1

Charlton have the 4th biggest gates and only get 13,500

Those gates you quote to compete in League 1 are Championship numbers

I’m of the belief that a growing affluent city like Exeter could definitely average over 10,000 at some point in the future - that’s not beyond us at all and past is very much irrelevant

 

[Rosencrantz]

I think this season has been almost unprecedented in the amount of player churn. We had to just about start again with a new squad. We were already light on numbers with regard to squad strength at the end of last season and throughout that season. Matt talked about the difficulty he had in getting players in the close season.

We have signed an incredible 20 players this season. I'm not sure if even Blakey managed that during his tenure. What we have now is evidenced in the subs bench we can name. Even yesterday, it was much stronger than the first half of the season whilst still missing players and having decent players not involved.

A decent amount of players will leave this summer adding to the loan players. But not on the level as last summer in terms of the standard and centrality of players leaving. It's very rare any manager pulls off a transfer window that is 100% success. With the amount of signings we have made, it is always going to have a few misses.

We have got ourselves more of a basis to start from this summer. Whilst we will still be busy, if we end of signing another 20 players then something will have gone drastically wrong, or Blakey will have come back . We have obviously got areas of the squad that need to be improved but some areas that need minimal looking at and just some fettling. The success of that will determine progress.

 

[STURTZ]

Ant
I will, and how do you intend to raise the capital to build our shiny new ground and take us to infinity and beyond?

Every discussion about our future comes to this impasse, in a minute someone will suggest that Lord Rich Bloke of Dog Village will buy the club and build us a swanky ground.

Wahay!

 

[Grecian2K]

One possible plus for the coming season(s) might be that a sizeable chunk of the recent "windfalls" (transfer fees/improved attendances) have now been invested in long-term improvements to SJP/C&F that are now done and dusted.
And with all this expenditure, even without a "sugar daddy" the club have still managed to turn in a six figure PROFIT in the last year - something I suggest is nowadays almost unheard of in most pro football (or rugby) clubs.
Now that all of these current "capital" projects have been bought and paid for - out of our own reserves - maybe there might now be scope for the playing budget to be increased?

 

[denzel]

One possible plus for the coming season(s) might be that a sizeable chunk of the recent "windfalls" (transfer fees/improved attendances) have now been invested in long-term improvements to SJP/C&F that are now done and dusted.
And with all this expenditure, even without a "sugar daddy" the club have still managed to turn in a six figure PROFIT in the last year - something I suggest is nowadays almost unheard of in most pro football (or rugby) clubs.
Now that all of these current "capital" projects have been bought and paid for - out of our own reserves - maybe there might now be scope for the playing budget to be increased?

And we still have the 'tribunal' whenever Swansea can be bothered.

 

[larrywilkie]

That was me

Good work ;-)