I am going to give huge credit to the board and Chairman and Bob Dorrian(BD) for putting something like this on. Its easy to run an event of this type when everything is going well and fans are happy but its an entirely different kettle of fish when the club that you run has been relegated out of the football league and are facing tough budget cuts. In my view they answered most of the questions head on and didn't duck any of them even when some of the questions were put in a very provocative way.
The event was due to start at 7.30pm. We arrived at about 7.10 to find the room pretty much full so we took a perch at the back of the room. We learnt quite a few things last night and the first thing we learnt was that wherever you go there is always some prat that will spend £2 on a glass of coke and then go and spill half of it all over the table of which some of it will end up on my jacket top.
The chairman started by giving the reasons for letting Peter Jackson go, citing poor pre season signings and a lack of focus on the job.
Then for me came the most interesting section of the whole evening. The Chris Sutton era.
When the board were looking for a new manager following the dismissal of Peter Jackson they said they were looking for something fresh and to quote the chairman "Not a manager who had been round the block and hadn't achieved a great deal" Chris Sutton interviewed very well and impressed the board with his range of contacts and had spent two years shadowing both Martin O'Neil at Aston Villa and Roy Hodgson at Fulham. Further more, the Chairman received a phone call from Martin O'Neil say that he believed that Chris Sutton would make an excellent manager and go on to manage at a level far higher than League Two. O'Neil also said he would be giving Chris all the help he could by sending some players down on loan who could do a very good job for Lincoln. On this O'Neil was true to his word as we received the likes of Chris Ward, Nathan Baker and Eric Lichaj. Chris Sutton kept us in the league in 2009/10 mainly due to the goals of loanee Davide Somma. The Chairman revealed that Sommma was signed on a tip off and that Sutton hadn't even seen Somma play before the was signed. Sutton had shown great coaching skills because before he came to Lincoln, Somma was a left winger but Sutton changed him into a centre forward and got him to score us the goals that kept us up.
Sutton also had some pretty strong views on how we should do things off the field. One of his ideas was that the club needed to have its own accommodation for players that it signed. So the club wanting to back Sutton to the hilt bought a House and a couple of flats. The Board now admit that this was a mistake and an expense the club is cutting. Last seasons budget was pretty much spent by the time the season started. On top of this Sutton was adamant that he wanted Ben Hutchinson on loan from Celtic for the season. Neil Lennon had also said he would be perfect for League Two, so the Chairman and vice Chairman paid his wages from their own pockets (Celtic also paid a portion). He scored 4 goals last season.
After keeping us in the league the board were fully behind CS and expected him to mount a challenge to get us out of League Two (Cue lots of sniggering from fans in the room when BD made this remark) The night after the Burton Albion home match (0-0) BD went to have his normal post match chat with CS and it was than that he dropped the bombshell that he was leaving the club. The reason CS gave for leaving was that he felt that the fans and some people inside the club were very negative towards him and his ideas. No other reasons were given.
BD then went on to say how this would have major ramifications for the football club. Both Chris Sutton and his number two Ian Pearce were on low wadges for League Two as they were cutting their teeth so to speak. Any incoming manager would command a bigger wage packet, and this added with the fact that CS had spend all the budget, meant that the club was in for a double financial whammy when the new man wanted to bring in his own players. The board backed Steve as much as they could and only turned down one of his requests for a player as the funds just weren't there.
In Steve Tilson it was said we have a manager that is very pro active in the community and it was said that it is vital that the club try to rebuild the links with the fans. The Supporters trust got a fair bit of stick from the floor through out the evening and was asked if it would sell its shares if a single large investor wanted to buy the club lock stock and barrel; the answer being it would ballot its members if such a case arose. The chairman of the trust recognised that lines of communication needed to be improved and this would be worked on.
The lack of team spirit was also brought up. BD said that one reason for this was that in some cases up to four players lived in one house (back to the Chris Sutton housing plan again). If for example two players were in the team and two weren't, then the two that weren't would get into the heads of the two that were and spread the negativity about the current manager and club in that way. It was said that for all the work ST did to try to get the team spirit right it couldn't overcome this and cliques formed. This was another reason why the club housing will only be used for loan signings from now on and not contracted players.
Onto next seasons budget. It was said that the six players who are contracted for next season but are on the transfer list would take up about 30% of the playing budget. Which seeing how we aim to have a squad of 18 contracted pros is something we could live with. Reading between the lines, loan players don't count towards contracted players so i would think that any season long loans would be on top of the squad of 18 as their wages are mainly paid by the parent club. On the squad it was also stated that is was unlikely that Joe Anyon and Muzzy will be with us next season. In my humble view i can see most of the six leaving but we will have to see on that one.
One area that has received substantial investment is the youth set up. It is one area that a lot of clubs cut back on when relegated but thanks to investment the Youth structure at Lincoln will remain at the same level that it was.
The board said that they had learnt lessons and answered an array of questions from the floor ranging from the catering side of things to the players wages. One interesting question asked of the board centred on whether the board would tell the manager to sign players from BSP and BSN clubs. The chairman's reply was that it wasn't the boards place to tell the manager where to sign players from but he had recommended that we look at signing players from local sides, he Sheffield clubs, Leeds etc As well as scouting the non league scene.
To be honest the questions were starting to get a tad boring and on many cases the same question was asked several times in different ways. There was a great speech made by Chris Ashton about how now is the time to stop the bitching and all pull together and get on with it. This drew the largest round of applause from the floor.
After a quick break the club set out various commercial plans it has in place. I must say i was impressed with the levels of sponsorship we have in place for next season already and it does seem as if we have a great team behind the scenes. Other plans and schemes were also mapped out so if you want any more information then just check out the clubs website.
Overall i felt it was a positive meeting. Again full credit to the board for answering all the questions that were put to them and for ackowledgeing the mistakes that were made last season. There will always be certain people who don't believe a word they say but that's life. And while i would love the Rooney family buy the club (The Pittsburgh Steelers owners not the fat granny shagger that plays for Manchester United) I realise that now we all have to pull together for the sake of the club. It may take a while but lets just enjoy it. In fact i may even purchase some shares myself (50p per share!) Just need to get some cash together...
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