Be honest - which would you rather have?

[WalthamOwl]

Option 2 please. 

[CircleSeven]

2 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

 

 

Well all it takes is for Chansiri to wake up one morning and think 'hang on... what have I been doing this last 5 years? I've been doing it all wrong?'  then jump out of bed, get on the phone to Trevor and tell him to assemble a super group of fans, influential fans of the club, local businesses who are potential box holders and sponsors and start the ball rolling

 

But mean it

And be relentless at being brilliant at it

 

Fans want promotion obviously but ultimately if we have a team we can be proud of, some home grown talent, great facilities, fab catering, amazing levels of customer service (apple/amazon levels that is - not just fake nonsense), and some exciting new initiatives to get behind then our fans will be happy/happier, the grumbles will subside, the complaints will stop and we can start to get back to having a club to be proud of.

On the pitch - the team could be rebuilt using upcoming ambitious players mixed with home grown lads from the Academy

New ideas could be embraced regarding advertisers and sponsors and box holders - wouldn't take much to get them back onside if the proposition is exciting enough

And then an aggressive positive forward thinking ambitious drive to promote matches to get people back, get new people into the ground and grow the fanbase

The above isn't just a mad crazy ideal world dream - but it should be the absolute basic minimum a football club should be doing right now

ESPECIALLY now

The mad thing is, it could actually happen as you describe. If the first sentence came to pass. But that’s the most unlikely bit!

 

Im just praying for a buyer who can see that that’s the way to run things. I think that’s more likely than DC changing his ways. 
 

I wonder how much of our future depends on the result of Saturday? Is DC more likely to sell or have some change of ways once our failure is cemented/ we dodge the bullet?

 

 

[@owlstalk]

Just now, CircleSeven said:

The mad thing is, it could actually happen as you describe. If the first sentence came to pass. But that’s the most unlikely bit! 

 

 

I think it's like the season ticket refunds

It could very easily happen quickly - IF the chairman wanted it to happen 

[CircleSeven]

Just now, @owlstalk said:

 

 

I think it's like the season ticket refunds

It could very easily happen quickly - IF the chairman wanted it to happen 

That’s shát on that happening then!

[Key]

So a rough consensus seems to be:

 

Option 1 has failed so should be dropped.

 

Option 2 is just a wish list where all of a sudden everything miraculously turns to gold, but in reality we know it won’t work either.

 

Anyone got a different option?

(DC and advisors please feel free to join in.)

 

 

 

[prowl]

Nearly all fans would go for option 2 but the devil is in the detail. Ask fans what they want specifically and you will get 20,000 + different answers. Just look at the few fans meetings with DC, most of the stuff is trivia, the pies are always cold, the tea is too weak, there's no bog paper etc. etc.

 

Yes sustainability as a club, bring in young players and develop acadamy players but we expect perfection from them in their first game or they get written off.  Green has been out of the game for ages, comes back has one good game and then is rubbish in the next,  loads of fans say he's useless.

 

We need to retrain the fans before we go for deveoping the up and coming players.

[Weshallovercome]

1 hour ago, Key said:

So a rough consensus seems to be:

 

Option 1 has failed so should be dropped.

 

Option 2 is just a wish list where all of a sudden everything miraculously turns to gold, but in reality we know it won’t work either.

 

Anyone got a different option?

(DC and advisors please feel free to join in.)

 

 

 

 

 

I quite like Option 3 where Red Bull takes us over.

[@owlstalk]

1 hour ago, Key said:

So a rough consensus seems to be:

 

Option 1 has failed so should be dropped.

 

Option 2 is just a wish list where all of a sudden everything miraculously turns to gold, but in reality we know it won’t work either. 

Option 2 WOULD work if it was done

[@owlstalk]

1 hour ago, prowl said:

Nearly all fans would go for option 2 but the devil is in the detail. Ask fans what they want specifically and you will get 20,000 + different answers. Just look at the few fans meetings with DC, most of the stuff is trivia, the pies are always cold, the tea is too weak, there's no bog paper etc. etc.

 

Yes sustainability as a club, bring in young players and develop acadamy players but we expect perfection from them in their first game or they get written off.  Green has been out of the game for ages, comes back has one good game and then is rubbish in the next,  loads of fans say he's useless.

 

We need to retrain the fans before we go for deveoping the up and coming players.

 

AMEN

[CircleSeven]

2 hours ago, prowl said:

We need to retrain the fans before we go for deveoping the up and coming players.

While you are of course right I’m just laughing to myself at how you would actually go about retraining the Sheffield Wednesday fan base to be patient and considerate.

 

Run seminars at half time maybe? On line training?

 

Or, maybe just accept you can’t please all of the people all of the time and just get on with doing what you think is best and not worry too much about what the fans think. Hang on....that sounds strangely familiar...

[@owlstalk]

12 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

While you are of course right I’m just laughing to myself at how you would actually go about retraining the Sheffield Wednesday fan base to be patient and considerate. 

Well you'd spend a few weeks issuing communication, videos, statements, press releases, interviews with as many publications and media as possible that this will be the plan and that you need fans to understand what's happening and to be patient

You'd also pull in all the influential fans, famous fans, local businesses, bloggers, vloggers, youtubers, websites, podcasters and go through it fully with them too

Basically communicate with fans

Our fans get angry/frustrated/annoyed because there's just no leadership and zero communication of any worth

Keep our fans up to date, get them on side and you have no issues at all - and then if any mardy old nutjobs wanna moan at that point then the fans will shut down their nonsense by telling them to get with the program and get behind what the club is trying to do

[SouthernOwl24]

5 hours ago, @owlstalk said:

I personally totally disagree with this statement

I think we're getting a 'here - pay for this' rather than 'what would you really like to see?' and then providing it so the fans are invested in that idea and buy more of it because they're excited by it

I think you have misread my post.

 

You mentioned  bespoke kits, young players and ground improvements. What part of that are we not doing (albeit badly). Do you think Brentford asked their fans if they should sign Ivan Toney? Unfortunately this will not happen in English football whether I want it or not. 

 

We are attempting option 2 just terribly and this will not change whilst DC is at helm. From the youth players mentioned we got minor compensation. Other clubs would have got more money and ensured contracts signed to then force larger deals. We have improved ground - tv, pitch, bar areas etc. The kits are better IMO than Nike etc. So the things you want we are actually doing its just not how you imagine it. 

 

The thing is everyone wants a Brentford model where they buy cheap and sell expensive but they are one of a handful of clubs (if not the only club) run this way as they have scouts at the highest level. It is so difficult to replicate correctly as a large percentage of young player decisions are risky and fail.

[CircleSeven]

3 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

Well you'd spend a few weeks issuing communication, videos, statements, press releases, interviews with as many publications and media as possible that this will be the plan and that you need fans to understand what's happening and to be patient

You'd also pull in all the influential fans, famous fans, local businesses, bloggers, vloggers, youtubers, websites, podcasters and go through it fully with them too

Basically communicate with fans

Our fans get angry/frustrated/annoyed because there's just no leadership and zero communication of any worth

Keep our fans up to date, get them on side and you have no issues at all - and then if any mardy old nutjobs wanna moan at that point then the fans will shut down their nonsense by telling them to get with the program and get behind what the club is trying to do

It’s so depressing how far away from this our club actually is. 
 

I do think you are painting a slightly ‘utopian’ view of how the club could change, and there would be many many ‘bumps’ in the road, but the fact this isn’t even being attempted makes me feel angry and depressed. 

[prowl]

You don't get anywhere by giving up before you've started. The club needs to start explaining the strategy, if it doesn't influence the fans views adapt the communications strategy until it does.

 

When I was running there was a saying, 'the hardest step is the first one'. Actually starting to try and change things is the hard part.

[@owlstalk]

7 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

It’s so depressing how far away from this our club actually is. 
 

I do think you are painting a slightly ‘utopian’ view of how the club could change, and there would be many many ‘bumps’ in the road, but the fact this isn’t even being attempted makes me feel angry and depressed. 

 

This is the thing - it needs at least trying (but not half heartedly it needs absolutely nailing)

 

Fans would go with it if they trusted the man at the top and his Vision (which would need very clear definition and explanation before it started)

[CircleSeven]

2 minutes ago, prowl said:

You don't get anywhere by giving up before you've started. The club needs to start explaining the strategy, if it doesn't influence the fans views adapt the communications strategy until it does.

 

When I was running there was a saying, 'the hardest step is the first one'. Actually starting to try and change things is the hard part.

Accepting you have a problem and need to change is the step DC doesn’t seem to have made at all. Maybe the outcome of Saturday will finally open his eyes to how things have turned out under the current way of working. 

[CircleSeven]

2 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

 

This is the thing - it needs at least trying (but not half heartedly it needs absolutely nailing)

 

Fans would go with it if they trusted the man at the top and his Vision (which would need very clear definition and explanation before it started)

Yes and yes. But the starting point for this is the man at the top. We will see what happens after Saturday. I’m hoping DC will just give up quite soon and sell. Then maybe we will be able to start again and the new regime will do things the right way. 

[daveyboy66]

Option 2... but I'm a bit long in the tooth for fairy stories 

[daleblue]

7 hours ago, @owlstalk said:

 

OPTION ONE
What we have now as a football club (not talking about relegation or even the current chairman specifically but how the club operates) And does it well. keeping within profit and sustainability guidelines.

 

OR

OPTION TWO
A club ran sustainably as a selling club that reinvests player sales into the Academy and young upcoming players, where the club and fans have all kind of ideas ranging from sublime to the ridiculous, work hand in hand to create the most positive experience possible for Wednesday fans, to the detriment of the Club.

Where the chairman (and a board ideally) here is a plan and how we need to pay for it, (at one of the many regular meetings) 'What is it you would like (if we can afford it) as fans of this club' and then go away and act on it, and provide it (e.g. better facilities, ideal kit designs, better choice of catering, pre and half time entertainment, (if we can afford it) ideas on fan engagement and how to attract more fans to the matches on a regular basis, and how to ensure the local young un's choose your club instead of Man United and Chelsea etc, and ideas for all other aspects of the club etc) Not forgetting utopia is just

around the corner.

Option Two would see the immediate striving for promotion as would option one, at all costs gone, and instead take the long term approach where fans come first, and that you instead focus on the actual experience of being a Wednesday fan and build from there, hoping that the long term build will eventually build a team that can challenge for promotions or pie in the

sky and did you see that pink elephant.
 

 

 

 

 

Both options are totally doable and can be put into practice TODAY if there was a desire to

Which would you prefer? 

Option 3 for me thanks.

Definitely not yours.
 

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

We have been a backward club for years, in terms of fan engagement, youth development and facilities. Nothing seems to change year on year.

Of the choices given, then Option 2 for me.

What I really want to see is a club where all the players, 1st team, U23, U18 feel proud to wear the shirt and just play some decent football. We cannot have another season like this one. If we were to be relegated, I genuinely think it might well be the best solution to enable us  start afresh. 

I know many on here will be against this, but with a dozen or so players out of contract, possible transfer embargo and the continuing insanity of the Chairman, maybe dropping down a tier allows a totally new approach to the club, the team, the fans and the playing staff.