In his statement issued last week Raj Singh says that he has been working with senior staff and long standing supporters to identify new strategic management and shared responsibilities. His statement doesn’t identify which supporters or supporters groups he has contacted. The Supporters Association ,which has been in existence for over 40 years must qualify as a long standing group and would welcome the opportunity to be a part of this group. The Supporters Trust which tried ,unsuccessfully , to broker a take over should also be represented. This initiative by Mr. Singh has interesting possibilities I hope that he invites a cross section of supporters and not just yes men or women

The funny thing is who represents the fan on the terraces. You go every week and are a member of no group, what say do you get or input?
Why not a vox pop of the average fans…..certain groups may have an agenda, but a general consensus would give a wider feed back opportunity to everyone.

And Raj can sit back and say, I gave you the tools if it don,t work out don,t blame ME!

You are quite right Snowy probably over 90% of Pools supporters are not members of any group and that is their choice, but being a member of the Supporters Association does have benefits of which they may not be aware. A meeting place ,the Corner Flag ,is available to them if they so choose to use it. Transport to away games is organised. Liaising with opposition fans is ongoing. Fund raising for youth development is organised. Social activities for supporters outside of football are arranged. Being organised gives you strength in numbers and enables you achieve what an individual could not possibly hope for. That is why it is important that the S.A. is involved in Raj Singh’s initiative.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but attending a do upstairs a few years ago, during a lull in proceedings I ventured downstairs to socialise…it was a Royston Vasey experience I’m sad to report and retreated back upstairs. Again I may have encountered the wrong people but I found it a bit of a ‘local shop for local people’ scenario and apologise If that was not the case, but that’s the impression I got.

Have you contacted the club about this. I would have thought that would be your first step.

I envisage it as being like the Star Wars cantina in Mos Eisley.

It is a good point about most fans not being part of a group. How do you canvass their opinion though? There surely has to be some sort organisation (I don’t mean ‘group’ when I say organisation.) It’s like a general election… democracy might not be perfect but people vote for representatives and if they don’t do a good job, put someone else in. Feels like that’s the way to go, again acknowledging it’s not perfect. If the chairman just appoints a yes man that isn’t going to help the average fan or indeed club.
There’s no way the views of all fans can be taken account of but there are different groups, reflecting different viewpoints. If each group puts one or two people forward, however they do that, then that seems fair enough.

Which sounds cool to be honest!

Chairman's Statement..What's one of them ??. .......DFC..Fan powered,fan owned.

In reply to Derwent .The S.A are in fairly regular contact with the football club but not directly with Raj Singh. The first indication we received that he was working with long standing supporters was his statement published last week. It will be interesting to find out who these long standing supporters are and whether the S.A .will be invited to join the discussions.

I could have lived with the Star Wars scenario, at least I’d nave made some sort of contact with a life form.

carefully selected 'superfans'.

Who are these people….? …. you go for decades and pay your money, but you remain anonymous, you could disappear and never be noticed, but some people feel a need to display their fan status at a higher level, it appears the class system remains intact in the world of the supporter.

The only super fans are the ones who go to every game home n away and there's quite a lot of them.


Best I managed was about 38 games about 30 years ago.

Is there any proper info in this statement?

People know who these 'superfans' will be. Waddell seems to have disappeared...again!!

Think I managed that many in 92-93.

He's off thinking of another new username.

Did nobody else get a call ?

Unveiled as the club's new media manager.
Got all the creditentials required.

No.

Super fan shall speak unto Super fan, strictly by appointment. so that’s the likes of us left in the dark.
It appears the class system has moved from the landed gentry to Super fan status.

Fan status…

1 Fan…basically the pleb who turns up every week without ambition.
2 Ambitious fan….wants more and the company of like minded fans.
3 Official fan …..Loosely linked to club and wants to be connected.
4 Obsessive fan…..talks about nothing else, even during sex, well would if they ever managed it, which is unlikely to be honest.
5 Fan +……Knows what they’re talking about, knows people …nudge, nudge, wink. Thought of buying the club once till the wife woke him up.
6 Official fan…..lives within the confines of the Vic, it being their very life, no home life, no actual home.
7 Super fan ….self appointed, self opinionated, self serving anonymous cool guys who have to be consulted on any matters at the club for their valued input, they emerge only in times of change or turmoil and descend from footy heaven on a shaft of celestial sunlight to give wise guidance which can in all truth, safely be ignored.

some people are joiners and others are not. out of the joiners there are those who need to be on the committee at the first available opportunity thats offered. if a fans love for the club is just taken by games attended then its much easier for some to do this than others. money, time, job you have and where you actually live all come in to it.

I can only tell you what I would do in your position. If you don't ask for more information or more clarity now then you face the possibility of being the victim of a fait accompli if the next announcement is that certain people have already been appointed. I agree with your concerns and you are dead right to have them but only the club can answer them and I would urge you to approach them immediately before it is too late.
Of course it is up to you which approach to take. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
If you remember the club announced some time ago that a fans representative had been appointed and there was uproar and it looks to me that this might be happening again.
I don't know what the exact criteria is that classes any of us as a long standing supporter but speaking personally I first walked into the Vic in August 1952 and that is certainly a long time ago, so maybe these people go back further than that, which I very much doubt. I hasten to add that I don't want to be involved but if I did I would be banging on their door and perhaps you should consider doing the same.
In the words of the immortal Bobby Thompson " there's a rabbit off 'ere".
Keep up the good work.

always think when i see the name of fans representative i think of the union secretary at the branch who ends up sounding like part of management after a few months of mixing with them.

Mr Billy has gone a bit quiet, maybe he is in the running, I know what about the bunker group providing the answer. I propose our KEV.

I'll be surprised if the Trust do not have a seat at the table.
I also think investment will be a price to be paid to get a seat at the table. Don't think Raj is likely to effectively give up management of his money to riff raff from the terraces.

Got to admit that crossed my mind as well. Maybe that is why the Trust has gone quiet. Maybe they and their £14 million pal are getting involved.
Well we might as well have all the conspiracy theories on the table eh.
I wonder if we can coax the Trust into making a "statement".
We need answers.

Yep, Told you in my post up above!

Does tWaddle exist?

You forgot to mention SFs carry a NDA in their wallet/purses at all times and are more than willing to flash it to mere mortels like non SFs.

My sincerest apologies

No chance will the Trust have a seat at the table.

I suspect it’s all a smoke screen.

I had a smoke screen once, Aye it blew away

Suspect you’re right. They well and truly called him out which I don’t think you can come back from.

I highly doubt that it will be well picked out fans. Ive been quiet because its like groundhog day another embarassing performance, i thought saturday was pretty piss poor but we won, Nothing is going to change here anytime soon.

Very cautious optimism.
Fors: poor standard division
Less injurys for sure
Good fan base to start season.
Against : Hope for a promotion budget but just can't see it happening.
UTP.

The budget will be what it is, what's the definition of a promotion budget? Every team above us apart from Chesterfield seem to be made up predominantly of players who've never previously played consistently at a higher level than NL so I'd imagine most of them if not all have lower budgets than us.
Whatever the budget its down to getting the right players, I've said it before but York spent big and are likely to be going down again so budget isn't the be all and end all.

Budget is a massive factor. It isnt the only factor but we don't get those others right either so thats why we are shite. It's like a bloody circus but the ring master is clueless so he goes and puts the clowns in charge.

its not the amount of the budget but how its used is important. give someone a blank cheque and they,d replace what we have with worse.

Well maybe we're going to get those others right with this manager who knows?
All we can do is keep taking our ringside seats and watch and hope, or give up / follow another team.
Meanwhile York will likely be relegated but the supporters will no doubt be over the moon that they outspent probably 22 clubs in the division.

All good points about how you use a budget (shout out to Hartley) but looking at teams who get promoted from this league and further up the pyramid, it does tend to be clubs with larger budgets that go up. Getting the right manager is essential though.

The surprising thing about York is that they had a very good budget judging by their significant gs, but they also had a very competent manager in place at the start of the season too.

People have a lot to say about budgets but I have yet to see any of these people produce any hard evidence of their "expert" opinion.
People are entitled to speculate, nothing wrong with that but that is all it is, speculation. The discussions are interesting and sometimes entertaining but that is all.

Just a thought, but weren't Stockport spending big before Challinor was appointed? So whats the root of their success money or manager?

Bit of both.
But he's a class manager as we all know.
Not every Poolies cup of tea like.

he could easily have signed the wrong expensive players and used the wrong tactics in games. the right manager and coaching staff can make up someway for the lack of budget. The wrong ones will fail no matter how much they can spend.

They had Michael Morton, their assistant manager after Askey was sacked, in charge when they/their owner made most of their signings/his mates. The money seemed to dry up a bit when Ardley came in.
I doubt they’ll go down, 4 points clear of Kidderminster in 22nd with 2 games left for both, Boreham wood (21st)have only beaten Wealdstone in their last 6 and Wealdstone (20th) haven’t won in 7. Both need to make up 3 points on York.