Club Statement 03/05/24

[Adam]

Dan Wishart has announced he is leaving.

https://x.com/danwish11/status/17910307 ... Am8WRXRGZA

[Jamie]

The thing that still grates me about the takeover, is that if the club needed investment, why not put it out in the public domain and encourage multiple options of who could come in to invest.
It came across as all eggs in one basket, when there may well have been other parties interested. Even people known throughout the local community or football circles.

If the club stayed sustainable, playing at a lower level through relegation if not able to compete would not be the end of the world.
It is only the last couple of decades that Hampton fans have been treated to being seen as a mainstay at step 2.

But watching your local club at step 3, or even step 4 is equally enjoyable, and if Hampton found that to be their level, then so be it.

Why do people feel the need to chase a dream at a higher level and risk 100 years of history for short term excitement on the pitch.

I remember the last play off final versus Braintree, lots of fans I spoke to weren't overly concerned about losing, as going to step 1 could have ruined the club forever.

Be thankful the club has been around for 100 years, and if it means playing lower down but keeping it a local club, with passionate volunteers, well for me, that would be far better.

[geedub]

Dan Wishart has announced he is leaving.

https://x.com/danwish11/status/17910307 ... Am8WRXRGZA

Disappointing - You would have thought Wish would be the sort of player we might be able to keep hold of. Appeared to be underrated and underutilised by Mel last season but, at his best, had plenty to offer.

[Shepperton Supporter]

Dan Wishart has announced he is leaving.
Not surprised was on the fringes last season but yet another place to fill. How many more?

[Tony]

I would point out that the new owners have invested £1.4M in the club which is a very substantial amount for this level. Jacques pointed out at the time that the board had been looking for investment for some time and had plenty of approaches which had no substance to them. The Ramayana investor group is quite diversified and to my knowledge are credible individuals with successful business backgrounds. That should be a good platform from which to build the club. Whether they have lost faith with the plan or there is a difference of opinion over strategy that needs resolving is not clear. Those are matters unlikely to be shared publicly with supporters.

[Lord Elpus]

The thing that still grates me about the takeover, is that if the club needed investment, why not put it out in the public domain and encourage multiple options of who could come in to invest.
It came across as all eggs in one basket, when there may well have been other parties interested. Even people known throughout the local community or football circles.

If the club stayed sustainable, playing at a lower level through relegation if not able to compete would not be the end of the world.
It is only the last couple of decades that Hampton fans have been treated to being seen as a mainstay at step 2.

But watching your local club at step 3, or even step 4 is equally enjoyable, and if Hampton found that to be their level, then so be it.

Why do people feel the need to chase a dream at a higher level and risk 100 years of history for short term excitement on the pitch.

I remember the last play off final versus Braintree, lots of fans I spoke to weren't overly concerned about losing, as going to step 1 could have ruined the club forever.

Be thankful the club has been around for 100 years, and if it means playing lower down but keeping it a local club, with passionate volunteers, well for me, that would be far better.

I don't always agree with everything Jamie says on here but he makes a lot of good points in this post. This is my take on it all.

In the absence of any further info or clarification, speculation about the financial position of the club is only going to grow. A lot of putting 2 and 2 together is currently going on, but that doesn't always give an accurate answer. The same for the Brothers' financial situation. It's completely impossible to know what the position really is, and I doubt we'll get to know, quite frankly. Their absence from the media is a bit concerning and does seem to lack transparency but hiding behind the excuse of commercial sensitivity can only be used as a smokescreen for so long.

I know I'm not alone in finding the owners' initial comments after they took over (along the lines of "if we hadn't come in, the club would have gone bust") to show a complete misunderstanding of how non-league football works...actually, no, we wouldn't have gone bust, we would have just had to cut our coat according to our cloth and seen all our decent higher waged players depart, probably being relegated a couple of times in succession. This happens to a few non-league clubs every year-they suffer relegation and try to regroup by spending more realistically. Meanwhile, as supporters, we stick with it and have a few new grounds to visit. Those who don't like this will probably drift off back to being armchair fans of Chelsea and Arsenal or whoever.

Players announcing their departures is always a worrying sign but it's not that unusual at this time of year. Yes, they may well know stuff we don't, but they may just have had a better offer, like Fernandez and Debois, or feel uncomfortable at a change of manager. Players really don't stick around these days and if they can earn a bit more elsewhere or be signed by a manager they know then they will be off, the days of stalwarts like Cheshire, Hollands, Dickenson and Tunesi long gone, more's the pity. I was privileged to see all those play, and the club, as did all of football, felt very different then. Not better, not worse, just different.

OK, let's assume (for the sake of argument) that the rumours about budget cuts are true and look at a potential worst-case scenario for the coming season:

Alan Julian comes in at a difficult time, and as a very decent human being has decided that someone needed to step into the breach and take charge of a challenging situation. Knowing how highly people speak of him I wouldn't put this past Jules at all, and as a local man who presumably has lots of contacts, will be able to put a good shift in and use all his long playing and more recent coaching experience to draw upon some good players, despite the rumours of budget cuts etc. Unfortunately, despite a valiant effort, and a genuine fight against relegation using more locally based and less expensive players, winning hearts but unfortunately not enough points, season 24/25 ends up with us returning to the Isthmian or maybe even the Southern League. How would supporters really feel about this? Devastated? Cross? Lose interest? Go elsewhere? Another question: should we be content with a more sustainable level? Of course, I like success too, and I hope that this isn't the case, but is a more realistic level for Hampton a division or two lower? I would suggest those who see relegation as a complete disaster as not being realistic themselves. Sport is all about achieving the best level you can, but as Jamie suggests, I'd rather there was a club in 100 years for future generations to have the same fun, enjoyment and sense of community that I've had for the last 44 years.

It really wouldn't be the end of the world. The modern-day illusionary vision of growth doesn't have to apply if you don't want it to. Non-league is different-it's why many of us felt drawn to it in the first place.

[Alphawave]

2 directors terminated as of Companies House in the last couple of weeks:

https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history

[BevereeMaster]

https://x.com/thisisriverside/status/17 ... 72725?s=46

Louis doing radio interview… would be nice if they could put out a retained list instead

[geedub]

https://x.com/thisisriverside/status/17 ... 72725?s=46

Louis doing radio interview… would be nice if they could put out a retained list instead

As expected, there was nothing in there we didn't already know.
Some carefully chosen wording in "When it was decided that Mel Gwinnett wouldn't return for the new season..."
A bit of celebrating the fact that we got some transfer money for Luis Fernandez and that attendances were up so much last season - usual stuff from the "playbook".

[tones]

At this rate with the poor performance of the club's representatives attendances won't be up for long next season.