I would also firstly like to add my congratulations to Paul for a well chaired and directed meeting.
And in the spirit of not looking back....(except the last week anyway lol), I felt the meeting itself was more positive overall with some exceptions.
The negatives first, RM still couldn't utter the word "sorry", even saying Grimsby had done the wrong thing in issuing their apology. Really Ron, they are not having to plan for a four figure number of people turning up to protest at their ground any time soon! Although admitting mistakes had been made and the buck stops with him! A small step, but obviously one far too far for him to make. All it would take is adding it into the words he has already spoken. "I am only human and mistakes have been made, some by me." How different would it sound to people if it was "I am only human and mistakes have been made and sorry, some by me." ?
Also, he had to be severely coached into why it is not a good thing to say no one is hurting more than him at the moment, but got there in the end, again well done Paul.
The content and willingness to run over any subject and take as much time as it took was excellent, as was Ron's willingness to give answers. There were not many "don't knows" or I'll get back to you's". That is a positive.
Like most people, I am a lot more sceptical of anything he says to do with the stadium than I was since those two cold nights in the council chambers of Southend and Rochford 15 or so years ago, BUT a lot more of it did make sense. My main reservations being the ownership of the new ground and rent arrangements, if it ever gets built. Following Ron Martin's tenure of the club there seems to be the potential to end up in a Coventry City scenario of being thrown out of your home town, because of a fall out with Stadium owners. The rent arrangement and staggered arrangements depending what league we are in and a top limit cap, seemed well thought out. Also, the revenue streams were spelt out in more detail, some planning laws explained as well as council workings, so that to I looked on more positively.
On the club front and next season, I felt a whole lot more positive to be fair.
CEO, possibly another new role, a place at the club for Stan, PB and the current management team to stay in place, Ricky and Anton scouting the NL for the past 3 months, trimming the playing staff and only now getting players in to play for the shirt with heart and desire all sound great.
My only issue with the last point, why has it taken so long for that penny to drop, shouldn't that have been a foundation of any squad put together to represent this magnificent football club?
All the above is all very much proof in the pudding, but Ron did what he does best and sounded convincing in front of an audience.
However, you can sense a seed change, or the start of one. I think it is a real shame that he can't utter that word "sorry". To me he comes over, as I have found a lot of the high powered businessmen I have dealt with, oblivious to the feelings of those beneath them and the affect, not what is said, but how things are said, create a different reaction, although the words and meaning are the same.
The bridges, if they are built, will be from the efforts of others, whereas if Ron put maybe a bit more effort at empathy into his dealings with the fanbase, and the "No-one cares more about this club" from him is a classic, then he could have such a better relationship with the fanbase and really be looked upon as someone who has the welfare of the club at heart.
He may very well do, but not many feel it and that is the underlying problem.
Fix that and a club director would not have to spend time making arrangements with police for protest rallies, but could get on with running his area of the club, such as auditing accounts. Just a thought from one of the minions Ron, that quite clearly make you feel so ill at ease.
) but the main thing I took out of this zoom meeting was that there's no Plan B if PB doesn't accept the manager's job(or if we don't get promoted in our first season in the NL)Also that the 500,000 K we'll lose from Prem payments will "probably" be recovered from players' salaries.That's exactly the sort of financial mis-management that got us into this mess in the first place.
