Echo News Southend United chairman Ron Martin: It's been 'torture' and 'atrocious', we have to make changes

[Shrimpers are Magic]

load of old pony.
he said much the same about every manager he appoints.
messed up getting rid of Brown and here we are with a pony squad and going back to league two.

 

[lombard]

The proof is in the pudding,Ron.

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

He missed about 5 games while on holiday. Then lorded the attention when searching for a new manager for over a month which should of been sorted far quicker. Totally incompetent as ever!

 

[kentblues]

Surely you have to be mindful that the managers didn't actually have the funds to go out and buy any players, we have to rely on picking up freebies. So maybe the wallet isn't being opened as much as you think?

I dont think there is any great dispute the the managers have been given at least a competitive budget for the division.

 

[kentblues]

No quite true. Ron has been offered players who he wants to sign.

Well I agree- nothing is ever 100% black and white but in general managers know the budget and the list of the players they want.

 

[kentblues]

load of old pony.
he said much the same about every manager he appoints.
messed up getting rid of Brown and here we are with a pony squad and going back to league two.

Again we can say now how he messed up getting rid of Brown but I felt pretty isolated on here when I was one of the few on here who wanted him to stay. If he messed up he was certainly strongly supported by SZ in doing so.

 

[tia]

He missed about 5 games while on holiday. Then lorded the attention when searching for a new manager for over a month which should of been sorted far quicker. Totally incompetent as ever!

I agree no reason Sol Campbell couldn't have been bought in mid September and given us a better chance of staying up

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I’m not a big fan of rewriting history. Brown’s time was up and I’m glad we let him go. There were real problems in the dressing room and on the payroll, some of which persist. We had also hurtled down the league one table and were looking odds on for relegation. We can (with the benefit of hindsight) say that Chris Powell and Kevin Bond were ultimately unsuccessful but even those both staved off what appeared to be certain relegation, before going on to make things worse unfortunately.

The best thing now is to look forward in my view. If Sol keeps us up this year, which does not look remotely likely and yet is still possible, it will be an achievement that stands comparison with any other single season achievement of other managers in our history.

 

[Rob1920]

load of old pony.
he said much the same about every manager he appoints.
messed up getting rid of Brown and here we are with a pony squad and going back to league two.

To be fair most on here were screaming for PB to be sacked given we were plunging towards L2 at the time..

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

To be fair most on here were screaming for PB to be sacked given we were plunging towards L2 at the time..

You have to love football forums .. everyone improves once they’re out the team or have left the club. In truth, for some PB was a hero who should’ve never been let go and was undermined .. and for others he started this whole freefall in the first place. I always think it’s funny how different people see different things watching the same game from the same stands. The truth is, we will never know. Brown could’ve got us relegated, promoted or left us in mid table obscurity. We might now be in the National League. We can’t live by “what ifs”

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

Ok but Kavanagh has a better success ratio than Ron when it comes to signings yes ?

I don't know, is the honest answer.
I'm sure you're right, but what other factors were involved?
The manager? Where we stood? These are just two things that can make a difference.
We needed hungry players hoping to prove a point this summer.
What we got were tired old pros seeking a last payday; a forward making a three-division leap and a twice-relegated left back.
Bond is surely the culprit here.

 

[Strykr]

Dont see how it can be rons fault. Same policies that saw us getting double promo cardiff cup finals and beating that little manu team. And promo with brown as well.

String of bad management choices and probably just exceptionally bad luck that the personalities bought in have clashed in the most toxic way (which brown powell and bond are reaponsible for not sorting).

Rons done plenty of other dodgy stuff tho lol.

 

[Jai]

I don't know, is the honest answer.
I'm sure you're right, but what other factors were involved?
The manager? Where we stood? These are just two things that can make a difference.
We needed hungry players hoping to prove a point this summer.
What we got were tired old pros seeking a last payday; a forward making a three-division leap and a twice-relegated left back.
Bond is surely the culprit here.

There is no one culprit. There's been a series of mistakes and no one person is to blame. Ron is a common denominator but that doesn't mean managers didn't make mistakes. What I do understand is that Ron's standing in the game is very poor. Agents get in the ears of players and that helps them make decisions. Managers do give chairmen/CEOs a wish list, but when you're ending up three or four names down the list every time because your top choices have chosen to go elsewhere, it's not really a surprise when things start to go downhill.

 

[Jai]

load of old pony.
he said much the same about every manager he appoints.
messed up getting rid of Brown and here we are with a pony squad and going back to league two.

Brown is partly to blame. A large chunk of this ageing squad are Brown players and some could argue they are likely to be the big earners. Jason Demetriou was given a FOUR-YEAR contract, I think possibly when he was over the age of 30. McLaughlin and Oxley three years after they both had one decent season. Theo Robinson three years. And of course Rob Kiernan three years. These are all deeply average players at L1 level. At a club like ours two-year offers should be the norm unless for the exceptional.

 

[SheldonW65]

Brown is partly to blame. A large chunk of this ageing squad are Brown players and some could argue they are likely to be the big earners. Jason Demetriou was given a FOUR-YEAR contract, I think possibly when he was over the age of 30. McLaughlin and Oxley three years after they both had one decent season. Theo Robinson three years. And of course Rob Kiernan three years. These are all deeply average players at L1 level. At a club like ours two-year offers should be the norm unless for the exceptional.

All were part of a successful team, if we hadn't signed them up on long term deals people would have been moaning that we were letting our best players leave for free out of contract, you can't have it both ways.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Brown is partly to blame. A large chunk of this ageing squad are Brown players and some could argue they are likely to be the big earners. Jason Demetriou was given a FOUR-YEAR contract, I think possibly when he was over the age of 30. McLaughlin and Oxley three years after they both had one decent season. Theo Robinson three years. And of course Rob Kiernan three years. These are all deeply average players at L1 level. At a club like ours two-year offers should be the norm unless for the exceptional.

Oxley's extension was I think under Powell but otherwise you are right and with maybe the exception of McLaughlin, none of the five are in our first choice XI and they are likely to be some of our top earners.

 

[GBJ]

Surely you have to be mindful that the managers didn't actually have the funds to go out and buy any players, we have to rely on picking up freebies. So maybe the wallet isn't being opened as much as you think?

Genuine question, does anyone in our financial bracket sign players for monetary values, these days? Am I right in thinking Bolger was the last person we signed for a fee?

Anyway, Ron claimed we had the 5th or 6th highest wage budget in the league.

If we can’t afford to recruit better players, it’s more than likely down to the fact that Ron has tied too many cart horses down to multiple-year deals, at an extraordinarily high wage.....



....which wouldn’t be the first time

You have to love football forums .. everyone improves once they’re out the team or have left the club. In truth, for some PB was a hero who should’ve never been let go and was undermined .. and for others he started this whole freefall in the first place. I always think it’s funny how different people see different things watching the same game from the same stands. The truth is, we will never know. Brown could’ve got us relegated, promoted or left us in mid table obscurity. We might now be in the National League. We can’t live by “what ifs”

Most people at the time, could see that the players weren’t playing for Brown anymore.

Something had happened, and he’d lost that dressing room.

Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing how bad this sulking, egotistical mob of charlatans would get.

In hindsight, maybe it was wrong to get rid of Brown - but what was the alternative? Axe the entire squad? A squad that was largely thought of, as a play-off chasing squad?

 

[GBJ]

Brown is partly to blame. A large chunk of this ageing squad are Brown players and some could argue they are likely to be the big earners. Jason Demetriou was given a FOUR-YEAR contract, I think possibly when he was over the age of 30. McLaughlin and Oxley three years after they both had one decent season. Theo Robinson three years. And of course Rob Kiernan three years. These are all deeply average players at L1 level. At a club like ours two-year offers should be the norm unless for the exceptional.

Don’t forget an aging, injury-plagued Michael Kightly being given a 3-year-deal

 

[AndyT]

PB was the architect of his own downfall, heavily pressurised from above and from many fans.

Having failed by one point to secure a play-off place and having improved our league position year-on-year, the 2017/18 season was expected to be our step on the next stage with Championship football in 2018/19 and a new stadium.

He was expected to deliver and felt the best way was to get players in with that pedigree and experience. Hence the signing of Kightly who many at the time (it's all in the annals of the 'zone) were saying was a massive signing and a great achievement in procuring the deal.

PB went in the end at the right time. He had lost the desire and things were going South, but it's worth recalling that the players brought in by him were to achieve short-term promotion to The Championship, not to protect us from failure two years hence.

 

[Napster]

Genuine question, does anyone in our financial bracket sign players for monetary values, these days? Am I right in thinking Bolger was the last person we signed for a fee?
?

We bought Harry "mine's a half" Lennon.