What will Ron Martin do ......

[Pak Power]

Here's my prediction for next season ...

Fossets Farm building work WILL start before the winter this year.
Freddie will sign
I have met Ron a couple of times and he cannot be happy with the long ball gane so my last prediction is we will go back to playing the ball on the ground.

My 20 quid bet is already on for promotion.

You're going big on this then?

 

[justshrimper]

I'll sit on the fence and let the new season progress before making an ultimate judgement on Paul Sturrock's management. I do believe we missed a trick in not going up automatically after being so far ahead in the top 3 half way through the campaign but the fact of the matter is we have made progress in each of the two seasons Sturrock has been the Manager. Season 1 was to avoid relegation and to gel the players into a unit to make a real go of things the following year and he succeeded in doing both. Season 2 was to make rapid further progress with a view to promotion and he succeeded in half of this.Having said that I understand it was Tara Brady who shouted from the rooftops that we'd get the League title or automatic promotion at least. But was Sturrock as confident as that? Despite not playing prettilly I'd say the play-offs was a good season as it was a far better finish than on the previous season. If we can hold on to our better players with additions Automatic promotion really would have to be the target and then his future here could be in question if he didn't deliver that. I did wonder if he'd have the stomach for another rebuilding job if two or three of the better ones left meaning they'd have to be replaced and as a result might take next season to bypass the " gelling together" stage and going for it again in 2013/14. In my view I'd keep Sturrock for now and see how he does in the transfer market and how the first month or 6 weeks go after the season gets underway.

 

[Peterh26]

Huddersfield sacked the Geordie when they were third and they went up.... keep him...or give me the job!!!

 

[Peterh26]

The reverse side of the coin is Darlington, the FA have recommended they be relegated 4 divisions, a new stadium didn't work there. But to be fair Reynolds was a crook.

thank you!!!...Darlington is a prime example...Im no Mystic Meg but......wait n see ( I personally don't wanna see it) my lil nephew is eight and just had his first season, thank God i saw the decent games

 

[justshrimper]

Fair point but it doesn't always work that way. Alan Little was sacked by Ron Martin when the team was three quarters up the way up the table and he felt by bringing in the "hero" Dave Webb he'd go on and finish off the business that season. Of course didn't quite happen. But to back up your point again Sheff Wed axed Gary megson towards the end of the season and they still made it up. I think the consensus will be it will be a massive gamble at the time and that it could go either way. But for us at this point I'd still stay loyal to Sturrock for the time being.

 

[Tommy2holes]

thank you!!!...Darlington is a prime example...Im no Mystic Meg but......wait n see ( I personally don't wanna see it) my lil nephew is eight and just had his first season, thank God i saw the decent games

Darlington is not a prime example at all.

Darlington could never get gates of 9k plus like we have this season. Darlington had no hope of filling that stadium even if they were premier league.

Darlington are a smaller town by a country mile in a smaller catchment dwarfed by clubs like Newcastle Sunderland Middlesborough Hull city.

I think the stadium they built holds something like 28,000. If they had built something like a 10k stadium they would never have filled it.

Southend should be aiming for at least a 15k seated stadium and if we had had 22k im sure there would have been times over the last few seasons when we may have filled it, but certainly not in leagues 1 or 2.

Southend have a massive catchment area and with only the hammers within an hours journey we could really go places.

The sooner it gets underway the sooner we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[Supa Shrimpa]

It's pre season, and I wouldn't expect much from the Official site, but I take his point. Do we really know what state our club is currently in and how much damage staying in Div 2 has done ? I'm afraid it's time for some serious questions to be asked and for us to hear some straight answers. It's tough out there and many people can't afford to go to matches let alone buy a season ticket, but for those that do, they deserve to know where the club stands.