How ambitious are you ?

[Rayleigh boy]

I sometimes wonder how ambitious Shrimpers are - as sometimes it seems
there are many who are not very ambitious at all.

To me it seems entirely feasible to develop SUFC into a well run Championship club - to grow the local/regional support and to compete long term at the second tier of UK football - and then .....

There are some clubs who have been successful at progressing and at acheiving long-ish term success. The Premie****e still hosts Wigan - and Watford aren't exactly the epitome of long-term tradition and there is Reading and also Portsmouth.

Perhaps this sort of ambition is delusional or perhaps if you don't try you don't succeed - how far do you think we could go ?

 

[Southend_Lady]

Right now with the current budgets and facilities it would be difficult to compete much higher than L1.
If and when we get the new ground approved and up and running, then it might be a very different story.....

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

Reading is a valid example of what we could achieve, similar sized towns i believe, and through the 80s and 90s we played them plenty of times at Elm Park, which wasn't a million miles away from what RH looked like back then.
You could bring in the Madjeski factor, but he didn't really spend a great deal to start with, but he did build the ground, and since then its blatently obvious to say they haven't looked back.
Hence why Ron sees the new ground as the whole basis of our future

 

[londonblue]

I think we could compete at the top of the Championship in the long term, but to do this we need two things:-

1. The new stadium to finally go ahead so that we have more bums on seats and other revenue streams.
2. A sound financial footing. There is no point spending what we don't have.

It seems to me that we are tantalisingly close to this.

 

[Reading Shrimper]

I'm sure that Ron has a master plan, but if I were chairman, it would rougly be:

1. Get the new stadium built. Retail park/hotel etc combined with great facilities is certain to raise attendance/pofile of the club
2. Using the new facilities at FF, develop the Centre of Excellence into an Academy. This is a great way to get local youngsters to stay in the area and produce home-grown talent that can either make it as first-teamers or be sold on profitabley
3. Overhaul the club's marketing and presentation. These day it's all about the match day experience and the marketing of the entire package to families - make it exciting for dads to take their kids to Southend United rather than into London on a Saturday
4. Build on the off-the-pitch developments by carefully investing in a solid squad of Championship-quality players that can help us get up to the Championship and establish ourselves there.

 

[fbm]

For me it's a question of running before you can walk.

Wigan and Reading both have multi-million pound backers.

Watford have had in the past and enjoy a larger catchment area and higher profile.

Portsmouth are traditionally a much bigger club than we are and have a much bigger fan base with also huge financial backing.

Up to fairly recently teams could enjoy success on the pitch and rise through the leagues. Wimbledon are the prime example, going from the Southern League to top flight football in 10 seasons and then winning the FA Cup which would have taken them into Europe had we not been banned from it at the time. They stuck around at top flight level for 14 seasons on crowds that most league 1 clubs would struggle with and their success was based on team spirit and performance.

These days it is all about money and whilst clubs may get there on ability, staying there is a different ball game as unless the infrastructure is in place the clubs cannot financially compete and end up dropping down again. Look at Oldham, Swindon, Barnsley and Bradford - the latter only being relegated from the Prem in 2001 and who now are in L2 - and you can see that the price of failing to compete at the top level without the infrastructure is too high. On a smaller scale Rushden drooped back to whence they came once the money ran out.

We have seen that we cannot compete with CCC clubs as we are at the moment. However, with a new stadium that may change as our profile will be increased and we will be a more attractive proposition.

But sadly I still feel that money will reign supreme and it is going to take the crash of a few football clubs (and probably some big ones) before the game sees sense.

So, how ambitious am I?

I'm just grateul to have a club to support. The recent success has been a bonus and last years disappointment was more annoying that despairing. As long as we stay in L1 for the time being I'm happy.

When the new stadium is built we can start making plans again for the CCC and consolidiation at that level.

 

[choggy]

Given the choice of supporting a team who is making slow but steady progress in the right direction or supporting a team who is living the Ridsdale dream I would certainly choose the former. Especially as our long, long vigil in league 2 was caused (at least partly) by overstretching ourselves financially in the first place.

 

[BoyWonder2]

Eventually I think we will become an established Championship side when the new stadium is built as this will generate the funds required to be able to compete.

At the moment though, I think we are League One.

 

[Ricky Otto]

I'd agree that we are a league one sized club, but providing we keep hold of several of our key players I can't see any reason why we can't challenge for promotion next season.

 

[CC51DAS]

Well before we get too carried away , lets consider the following which could happen inside the next 12 months .

We keep Fred who breaks down in pre-season training and is out for at least 12 months - no-one wants him any more

Ruth Kelly turns down the new stadium

RM , loses interest and given other business pressures , announces he is open to offers

Gower , JCR , Clarke and Hammell ( whose partner decides she really is homesick ) all leave

We sign 3 new players from non - league sides, all with ' potential'

A 'big' Chumpionship club with Prem ambitions - come in for T + B

Structural defects are found in the West Stand stanchions forcing the Club to close that Stand for the rest of the season

The Team don't perform as well on the pitch as expected - Maher passes 10 bookings by early October , Hunt is out with a screw loose and Barratt has a recurrence of his Hernia problem . It is a toss up between Che and Bradders for the captain's armband . We find ourselves in the bottom 4 .

I , remain optimistic and insist we can reach the play-offs . My mates tell me I am being ambitious :)

 

[londonblue]

A 'big' Chumpionship club with Prem ambitions - come in for T + B

At least this one can't happen.

T&B's contracts stipulate that they can't leave for the same club within 6 months of eachother.

Now who thinks RM doesn't know what he's doing?

 

[choggy]

Well before we get too carried away , lets consider the following which could happen inside the next 12 months .

We keep Fred who breaks down in pre-season training and is out for at least 12 months - no-one wants him any more

Ruth Kelly turns down the new stadium

RM , loses interest and given other business pressures , announces he is open to offers

Gower , JCR , Clarke and Hammell ( whose partner decides she really is homesick ) all leave

We sign 3 new players from non - league sides, all with ' potential'

A 'big' Chumpionship club with Prem ambitions - come in for T + B

Structural defects are found in the West Stand stanchions forcing the Club to close that Stand for the rest of the season

The Team don't perform as well on the pitch as expected - Maher passes 10 bookings by early October , Hunt is out with a screw loose and Barratt has a recurrence of his Hernia problem . It is a toss up between Che and Bradders for the captain's armband . We find ourselves in the bottom 4 .

I , remain optimistic and insist we can reach the play-offs . My mates tell me I am being ambitious :)

Christ that was depressing reading! You missed the bit about archaeologists finding some ancient relics under the football pitch, which means we get a army of eco-warriers camped out in the centre-circle for the entire season forcing us to play all our games at Layer Road.

 

[Groyne Strain]

I would be happiest if we were a good League 2 side that had a decent cup run, including the odd Associate Members Cup win, in whatever guise it is.

The lower you go, the more fun the away days are, and the more you sense that feeling that it's a football club for the local community as opposed to just another money making enterprise that masquerades as football clubs in the top echelons nowadays.

 

[turkishm]

Given the choice of supporting a team who is making slow but steady progress in the right direction or supporting a team who is living the Ridsdale dream I would certainly choose the former. Especially as our long, long vigil in league 2 was caused (at least partly) by overstretching ourselves financially in the first place.

So what do we do if we go up again. No one wants to go down the Leeds route i agree, But we cant go through another champ season with the squad we had last season. No one in there right mind are asking Southend to spend millions,but a bit more than the came across last season would be helpfull.

 

[Smiffy]

First step, consolidate in League One for two seasons

Second step, Fossetts Farm to be built

Third Step, Promotion to Championship

Fourth step, Consolidate in Championship

Fifth step, Compete in The Championship

Sixth step and beyond is a massive bonus, that we can only realistically dream about.

Other important factors needed...

Increase average crowds to 15,000+

Increase revenue

Improve marketing strategies

Develop C Of E to Academy status

All in all I'd like to think over the next 5 seasons or so we can be in a position where we are competing in the mid/top half of the CCC, have a nice new stadium with average crowds of 15,000+ and be financially sound..

Id be happy with that.

 

[mattytheshrimper]

i think we sometimes expect to much from the club, but rather be too ambitions than none at all like a lot of clubs around at the moment

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

It's not about a lack of ambition, it's about being realistic, patient and putting things in perspective. Everyone talks about 'doing a Reading' but we want to make sure we don't 'do a Bradford or Barnsley' and have one season in the Premiership then plummet. And at the end of the day, every club is ambitious these days and wants to progress all the time.

 

[CC51DAS]

At least this one can't happen.

T&B's contracts stipulate that they can't leave for the same club within 6 months of eachother.

Now who thinks RM doesn't know what he's doing?

Well I did say that it could happen in the next 12 months .

Oh , and I forgot to add that we get Manchester United in the Cup and ...God Forbid ... lose our 100% record