Paul Carden

[Stanleymad]

Originally Posted by lancsdave

Tomorrow will be a good time to start TM, we are playing in Blue & White

Lost yer identity then.... may the shower of sh.. colours jinx u lol

[lancsdave]

Originally Posted by Stanleymad

as he does like to keep his rein on the club very tight, which has been always his way & wants it his own way

Understandable to a degree. It's always difficult to let go of your baby.

On the other hand I can understand the fans frustration at the lack of communication.

I'll give em my rates then

Maybe they have opportunities for part time staff who would give their right arm to work for the club on that basis ( and would do it for free if there weren't practicalities such as feeding the kids to consider )

[Bagpuss]

Originally Posted by Stanleymad

Seriously, a lot of the problem is mainly ERIC himself, as maybe Lew was trying his best to steer the clubs commercial side to a slighty bigger plateau to try to gain renvenue only for big E to put the mockers on it or take over as he does like to keep his rein on the club very tight, which has been always his way & wants it his own way, which can be intimidating for staff or for new ideas especially if it means speculating to accumulate or even spending on staff wages to get better people in...

Personally I think that Eric has banned Stanley staff from posting on the forum which is sad, when was the last time Rob, Lee ect. where heard on here. Communication with the supporters is very important more so when we have money to spend. I think maybe I should start posting about the attendance figures announced again because that usually gets a bit of interaction going.

[shakermaker]

Originally Posted by This Charming Man

We're playing at the highest level we've ever played at, with bigger crowds than ever before, a recently developed stadium, and some of the most talented players we've ever had.

...and yet I'd rather be watching Deano, Lutel, Jamo & Smithy playing Whitby away.

Originally Posted by This Charming Man

Surely this is the most exciting time to be a Stanley fan?

It should be, shouldn't it.

I also believe the club has drastically failed to capitalise on it's unprecedented success. This has contributed to sharing (with people like Tin Monkey) a sense of disconnection/boredom with the only football club I could ever have any kind of connection with. It's a sad state of affairs.

I'm not going to point the finger at one person alone, as I believe the club as a whole must take responsibility for it's lack of professionalism and what seems basic forethought and/or nouse!

[Stanleymad]

Well said shaker

Its a crying shame that the feeling of discontention with the club is fuelling & maybe should read this forum & the comments made, definately not such a criticism but a big constructive criticism that would improve the clubs infrastructure & its relations with the fans & would be fans.

The thing that makes it worse is that these comments made here, likes of TM, Wynone, bagpuss, shaker & myself is that we are there supporting the club week in week out as much as possible, its a sad state of affairs indeed which the club need to heed upon to keep their hardcore level as well as pormoting themselves to new fans.

[cmonstanley]

ahh there is a plus point stanley has teamed up with accy college to help you improve your reading writing etc skills heading for success courses are free and are run with the support of accrington stanley.i think that is a step in the right direction helping in the community.for fee courses call 01254 354181 and mention heading for success..

[Wynonie Harris]

Originally Posted by cmonstanley

ahh there is a plus point stanley has teamed up with accy college to help you improve your reading writing etc skills

Signed up yet, Bananaman?

[lancsdave]

Originally Posted by cmonstanley

ahh there is a plus point stanley has teamed up with accy college to help you improve your reading writing etc skills heading for success courses are free and are run with the support of accrington stanley.i think that is a step in the right direction helping in the community.for fee courses call 01254 354181 and mention heading for success..

Perhaps I'm thick and need some educating but I fail to see the relevance of the link between the 2 organisations for that particular set of skills. Accrington Stanley are a football club, should the link not be sport related or is there a suggestion that all Stanley fans can't read & write

[Tin Monkey]

Read & write? Maybe they thought it said red & white?

[lancsdave]

I've just been shown a copy of the leaflet they have been giving out. I'm confused, if you can't read how do you know what it says ?

[cmonstanley]

Originally Posted by Wynonie Harris

Signed up yet, Bananaman?

he he he i was in the queue just behind youim in the picture on the leaflet with a few other stanley supporters in the clayton end:Bana ne25::Bana ne25:

[Outback Ozzy]

Well it seems someone at the club does read the messageboards. It has now been confirmed on the fishy site

[maccawozzagod]

Originally Posted by Tin Monkey

Read & write? Maybe they thought it said red & white?

karma coming,

[This Charming Man]

[quote=shakermaker;497214] I'd rather be watching Deano, Lutel, Jamo & Smithy playing Whitby away.

I can't help thinking that this sort of opinion is overly nostalgic and as a result is also rather confused. Yes, it was great watching these players playing away at Whitby, or at anywhere else for that matter. We had a great side playing at that level 6/7 years ago and the players of that era should always be hailed for helping to get us where we are today. However, harking back to a golden era in the clubs past is, in the end, unfruitful. Even if we were to return to the NPL/Conf North it couldn't, for lots of reasons, ever be the same as it was back then.

Moreover, there isn't as big a big gap between Stanley in 2001 and Stanley in 2007 as the nostalgics would have us believe. The club now is reaping the rewards of what Lutel etc did for us at the turn of the century. Thus to say you'd rather we didn't have what we've got now (i.e. league football and all that goes with it) doen't make sense, as it necessarily involves saying you wish Lutel etc hadn't done so well for us and got us to where we are now.

We need to accept that the club has progressed and has grown. An upshot of this is that there will be changes in how close you as an individual fan feel to the club. These changes have been steadily occuring over the last 15 years or so though and haven't suddenly just hit us. For example, I vaguely remember an outcry similar to this in the 90s when it was deemed no longer acceptable for the fans to travel on the same coach to away games as the players.

However, I don't think the changes are all one way (i.e. fans feeling less attached to the club as the club grows) either. When I started supporting the club I lived in Burnley so didn't get the Accy Observer plus, although I went to school in Accy, no-one at school supported Stanley. My only knowledge of Stanley players and general club goings on was gleamed from turning up on a saturday and reading the match day programme. I'm glad to say its much different now. Thanks to the club growing and being able to take increasing advantage of internet technologies I now know much more about potential signings/current players/managers views than we ever did previously.

I've ended up posting a (much!) longer post than I'd intended but I just wanted to make the point that the positives of our progression far outway the negatives. I'm not a club apologist and I do think, for example, that we could have made much more in terms of Google Page Ranking out of our return to the football league. However, nostalgically longing to return to bygone times isn't helpful (for a start, what effect must such longings have on the morale of the current crop of players?). In short, if we do have grievances then there are more constructive ways of expressing them.

[shakermaker]

All I am saying is that the club is not matching it's footballing position in League 2 with equal professionalism off the pitch.
The treatment of existing fans, as highlighted in various examples in this thread, is simply not good enough.
Thus, Stanley might as well be playing Whitby away in the Unibond league if the club is going to be run as if it is.

It's not nostalgia, it's provoked apathy.