It is clear this season has been highly frustrating for all of us – one which had promised so much in the end looks as if it will deliver so little. For those supporters who know us on the board will realise just how much this has affected us – we are just as much supporters as anyone and the past few weeks have been a real disappointment.
As you know there have been many calls for John and his management team to either resign or be sacked. This has heightened in recent weeks and as a board we felt the uncertainty around the future was not healthy and we had to make a decision now on the way forward. Having considered all of the aspects and the options, we have decided that we will retain John as the manager for next season – a role which John is very much up for and has accepted the challenge.
As a board the easiest decision is to sack a manger when things are not going well. However we brought John to the cub with a track record of success and that track record remains. We also wish some degree of stability at the club and to give the manager time to build the right team – to change now would be back to square one with someone new who would be yet another gamble.
As a board we have had a number of in depth discussions over why things have gone wrong and about the way forward. John has been forthright in terms of where he has made errors in his view and indeed we have looked at our input as a board. It is well known that we have made more money available to John than any other manager so far. However with the financial backing we feel there has maybe been undue expectations on the management team – not in terms of promotion which is a number one aim of the board, but more around the need the use the finances which maybe does not suit the model John would normally adopt. In other words we all have a part to play.
We looked at other options but in the end we remain confident that John and his team will bring us as a club and support the success we desire. There is much to learn from this season and John is the first to highlight where he would do things differently. We have also spoken at length over how best to bridge the gap between youth team level and first team with a view to creating a stable atmosphere and structure to facilitate this. We will continue to work closely with John and his team and re-double our efforts to give you the supporters something to celebrate once and for all.
Having made this decision we hope that you will now support this and give the team and John your full backing in the future. We as a board thank you for this support and take this opportunity to thank in particular the many folks around the club who give of their time freely or for very little to make the club tick. The club could not survive without them.
Regards
David Reid
