Welcome to the first Newsletter for the season 2008/9. There’s been a couple of changes that most of you will have heard or read about. Lets get them up-front and transparent and then get on with what we’re here for – football.
The first two things are that despite the bottom of this letter, our Chairman Richard Soan has stood down and our first team manager, Steve Johnson, has left the club. Ok, why? There’s been a dispute within the club as to who owns our playing pitch. Now whilst the papers, nomad forum and other sources will tell you that the whole football thing is at risk, its not. The simple fact is, its either owned by the Directors’ of the club, or its owned by the trustees’ of the club. The trustees represent the members (us) and the Directors run the club on behalf of the members (us). This bun fight escalated into something more sinister when our bank wanted (and probably still want) security for the bank overdraft/loan. The directors realised that the ownership was never transferred when the limited company was formed and when they asked for it to be transferred, the trustees refused, leaving the club in a kind of limbo. Richard Soan resigned, the club announced “no budget” and of course Steve had little option other than to pursue his career elsewhere. Steve, you have to remember, is a pro-manager and has to work with the right tools and those tools weren’t offered at Ringmer.
So the Chairman stood down and Steve is now the guvnor at Crowborough. Through that, Steve Oliver and I were asked to do the front side position which we accepted.
Ok enough on all that. We are running three sides this year, as we did last year. Last season our 18s came in fourth, the reserves got promoted to the reserve premier and our front side came in eleventh. All train Tuesday and Thursdays at Ringmer Community College, 7 till 9 until further notice. Our 18s will, as last year, consist mainly of first year termers, the reserves with last years 18s going forward and the front side made up of our reserves who did so well last term with 5 or 6 more senior experienced players. This is gonna be interesting and this season is a real opportunity for players to progress and take chances at the next level.
Last Friday saw us have our first “in-house” game and it was good to see 30+ people there to watch. Tomorrow we have our first competitive friendly game and its against Hastings United – the side that Marc Whiteman plays for. We then play Southwick on Thursday night at home then Steve Johnsons Crowborough on Saturday. We will be playing with a lot of new faces and some senior players from last term.
I wont lie. Everyone has written us off. Some mug once said “You don’t win anything with kids” and Alex Ferguson went out and won the treble. We start off the season with all expecting us to fail. Much like they did when we had no reserves and a 18s side last season. Everyone wrote us off then too and we did ok. We’re gonna play fast effective penetrating football across the club and it’ll be great stuff. We're gonna enjoy ourselves and we’re gonna be fit and up for it.
And we’re gonna win. Get ready.
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