A Letter to NTFC

Hello Gareth,

 

I hope you are well.

 

Just wanted to have my say on our managerial situation, I know there isn’t much you can respond with and I appreciate that. I genuinely cannot believe the backing Aidy Boothroyd is getting from Sir David Cardoza. There is a lot of talk about Boothroyd currently and the job he is doing, make no excuses about it, he is doing a very poor job. The recruitment process has been nothing short of shambolic and the same goes for the decision making over the last 6 months or so, in fact since we reached Wembley it seems like Boothroyd has lost his marbles. The start of his downfall was the failure to play Bayo Akinfenwa at Wembley, this clearly had a large effect on the squad and also the supporters, we were beaten before we even took to the field – everyone knew that apart from Boothroyd.

 

I understand from your response last time that what sort of message would it send out if we sacked Boothroyd after he guided us to Wembley….the right sort of message in my opinion. Football is very much a ‘here and now’ business, yes Boothroyd did exceptionally well to save us from relegation – he did this by signing players that helped to build a spine into a side that was spineless, leaderless and woefully short on confidence. Players like Clarke Carlisle & Luke Guttridge had the fight in their belly and the character to get the team out of trouble, it was excellent troubleshooting by Boothroyd and something that was clearly a huge success and appreciated by the club and fans.

 Last season was a huge surprise and largely down to the freak home form. Was it luck? Possibly. I lost count of the games where we performed awfully but stole victory at home. Our away form was obviously horrific and that hasn’t really improved at all this season, despite numerous different systems and personnel being tried. The style last year was poor BUT the results were generally good and enough to get us into the play offs, however we should really have taken automatic promotion but again due to poor tactics away from home we missed out. Fans don’t care about style, we care about results. It is a results business. Win games and fans are happy. Lose games and fans are unhappy.

 The summer recruitment process was nothing short of a disgrace, I understand the manager has tried to change the style for which he needed to change the players available to him – some of those players that have been brought to the club though are not up to the required standard. Gary Deegan is not better than Luke Guttridge. Darren Carter is the equal of Ben Harding (who wasn’t good enough last year). JJ Hooper was a ludicrous addition, clearly his attitude isn’t right and he doesn’t even get on the bench anymore. We haven’t adequately replaced Clarke Carlisle up until recently. The only successful signing was Kevin Amawankaah. Since then we have got players in on short term loans, or short term deals (Matt Heath etc) and expected us to be a force – it is absolutely no surprise that we don’t look like a team and we look like a team of misfits because that is exactly what we are. A team full of loanees, short term deals and deadwood. I’ll be honest Gareth I’m absolutely furious that it was allowed to happen, we had a chance to really push on but we have been taken backwards due to the lack of an actual plan by the manager.

 We are going to have a nice newly developed stadium but what good is that going to be if we drop down to the conference, which is looking likely at the moment – we are joint bottom and have won 2 games all season, just 2!!! It’s our worst start for 32 years or something or other. Don’t get me started on the list of 15 strikers we had to replace Bayo….!

 The fans are still with the club and still support the club, I am sure a lot still support the manager also – that part is misguided in my opinion. I no longer support the management of Aidy Boothroyd. I’ll still come and support the team and won’t be booing or anything as that is detrimental to the on pitch activities.

The argument is usually ‘Who can we replace him with’ – That isn’t down to me, however, go through a proper recruitment process like we did with the Colin Calderwood appointment, speak to people within the game – look to find a manager on the way up as opposed to on the way down.

 I’m just ranting now, apologies. I love Northampton Town Football Club and am desperate for them to succeed, at the moment I just cannot see us getting out of this mess unless we change things.

 

Thanks for listening and I’d love you to show this to Sir David Cardoza so he realises that some fans have strong feelings on the current situation.

 

Neil

Time To Hold Our Nerve

I never made it around to writing part two of my previous post, there were a couple of reasons behind that. 1. I'm lazy. 2. I'm lazy. 3. I'm lazy.

Since writing that post my views have also changed slightly, which is probably a bit of a surprise considering things have got worse for Cobblers since that time. Do I still want Boothroyd to be sacked? No. Do I think he's the right man for the job? No. Can I think of a genuine candidate to replace him? No. Do I love Northampton Town Football Club? Yes.

That last point is one that all fans should ponder, do you love your club? Do you want what is best for your club? Of course you do or you wouldn't support them. It's for this reason that lots of people are reactionary after poor results or performances, they care so much they want it to change, they want their team to be a success and it frustrates them when things don't go well. Does this make them bad supporters? No. Everyone that follows Cobblers is entitled to their own view on things and everyone should remember that we all want the same thing, a successful football club, both on and off the pitch. You don't like the manager? Still support the team. You don't like the match day experience? Still support the team. Times have been much, much tougher for Cobblers, remember the McRitchie era? When Di Stefano almost bought the club? Terry Fenwick? Shrewsbury away? The list of rock bottoms is almost endless, pretty typical for a club our size.

Currently we sit 2nd bottom of the entire Football League, it fucking sucks but we've been here before haven't we and survived just fine. The positive to remember is that we have a genuine future to be excited about, the club is finally going to be able to compete financially thanks to the agreed redevelopment of Sixfields Stadium. People that look at the ground deal from the outside often say throwaway comments such as 'you can't even fill the stadium now' - this is such a blinkered view on things. When Sixfields was built it was modern and a huge step forward for Northampton who up until then were playing their games at Northants County Cricket Club, although the ground had character it was also quite clearly a shit hole and Sixfields was a massive improvement. The problem is that football has moved on since the 90's and creating money through corporate ventures has become imperative. Sixfields does not allow the club to maximise its income due to the limited conference facilities and lack of executive boxes but a redeveloped ground will allow all of those things to become a reality. It's a relatively simple process in terms of working out its importance...More £££ thanks to corporate facilities = more £££ for the team = a better team = more fans coming to watch = more £££ for the club, simple as that.

Will it work? Nobody can truly say either way but it's the best chance the club has had, probably ever, to become a real force in the lower leagues. As a club the ultimate aim must surely be to become an established Championship team, this is of course some way off but it's a dream that we can now genuinely look at and think it may become reality and what a reality it would be. How does this all link in to our current situation? I'll explain...

Things are not right at the moment but changing things now would achieve nothing, absolutely nothing. We need to stick with what we have got and embrace stability as it has been proven that stability actually works in football. In January if things are still poor then perhaps we can re-evaluate things, hopefully by then the injured players, of which 4 are key, will be back firing on all cylinders. Everyone is feeling the pressure, players, the board, the fans and perhaps most importantly Aidy Boothroyd himself. This is a good thing and can benefit everyone in the long run - when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I genuinely think we will come out of this spell a much stronger club overall and that will be huge in the long run. As a club we are still on the cusp of 'take off' and I can sense it is just around the corner, of course there are frustrations about the team currently and the lack of a striker to call upon coupled with question marks over some of the summer signings but when they pull the claret shirt on they need our support. The time is now for everyone to pull in one direction, one way or another.