nickbennett_blog

Tag: United

  • Follow Up

    In my last post I mentioned someone whose season card was confiscated. That person wishes to remain anonymous but here is Bob’s update.

    Chaps,

    To save me explaining it 10 times later, see below.

    I had a letter from Nigel the Finance Director of SUFC on my doorstep when I got in last night. It said that I owe them £305, that they did not know why I hadn’t paid and that if I didn’t pay within 7 days then I would be taken to court. It also said “The club depends on debts being paid on time” (which is presumably why they didn’t set up the direct debit as instructed and never pay the government when they owe them).

    Spoke to Nigel who apologised for threatening to take me to court and said that the ticket office hadn’t done the handover properly (shocker). I told him that I’m not paying because it’s their mistake and the whole way this matter has been handled has been (at best) amateur. Nigel didn’t like this. Nigel said that the club has acknowledged that it made a mistake and that I was “screwing them into the ground” over it. I explained to Nigel that if I make a big mistake at work then I get the sack. I got the impression that Nigel’s arris is on the line over this balls up. Nigel said that he couldn’t let me off because it would be unfair on the other 3449 season ticket holders. I told him that I was told that I wasn’t the only one this had happened to and that the only way the club would learn was to be hit in the pocket. Apparently there are ‘about half a dozen’ others that are also doing the same as me and Nigel is sending the bailiffs round to get the money. What utter nonsense.

    I told Nigel that he had a decision to make – he can dig his heels in and take me to court and, in all honesty, probably win the £305 and lose me and Fred as fans – or – they can put this down to experience and not ask Doris the tea lady to do the direct debits set-ups next year when I renew my season ticket and continue to take Fred for the rest of his/my lives.

    About 10 minutes later he called to say that he had referred it up to Tara Brady and that I’d be getting a call some time that evening.

    Tara called – “Ello issat Robert?”…… “I think you mean Robin?”…….. “Oh yeah, sh*t, sorry Robin it’s Tara here”. Basically, Nigel hadn’t ‘referred it to Tara’ – he had ‘Blacklisted’ me so that I was not able to go to any more games and that gets referred immediately to Tara with no explanation so I had to explain the whole thing again.

    He followed up his opening gambit with the revelation that the club had indeed “F**ked up big time” and that he “had to have something to go back to the boys with” and could I spread £120 over 12 months? I said that it is now not about the money but about the principle of the way I’ve been treated and he could do one for his £120. Apparently I’ll hear from “the boys” soon. I also told him that I thought I’d had fair value for money so far. How we laughed.

    Apologies for the essay, but hey, what else have you got to do on a Friday?

  • Letter to the Chairman

    Dear Ron Martin, Have you heard this one? A guy walks into a bar and asks the barmaid for a pint of bitter. ‘Sure’ she replies. ‘With every pint of bitter we are giving away a free bottle of champagne and a full steak meal!’ ‘Wow’ replies the startled man ‘..and how much is that?’ ‘That’ll be 50p’ replies the barmaid. ‘I need to come here more often, so are you the landlady?’  asks the man ‘No, I’m the land lords wife. The landlord is upstairs doing to the barmaid what I’m doing to his business’

    The question is Ron, who is upstairs with your wife?

    This can be the only reason why you are dealing with our finances in such a nonchalantly inept way. Our club is haemorrhaging money. The current figure is a staggering £100k a month. A £100k A MONTH LOSS? To run a league 2 football team? It sounds like a task that even Richard Prior in Brewster’s Millions would turn down. Yet you manage it on a monthly basis. Impressive!

    Here are a few starters for you to perhaps plug the holes in this sinking ship. You’ve managed to sell off the programme vendors for what I can only assume is a quick short-term financial gain. Why would any 3rd party want to take up this venture unless they’d worked out that in the long run there’s money to be made? While we are on the subject of a quick buck the brewery-run bars in the ground should also be run in-house. With a bit of imagination, I’m sure we could work out a way of monetising a bar in a football ground. Currently to ensure you receive a pint before the end of the season you have to head to the bar 15 minutes before the end of the 1st half. If you are unlucky you may get the sweet but slightly senile barmaid. Who even with the aid of the calculator and an epoch of time, will try to fleece you out of change. Here’s an idea, tills and more bar staff! Speculate to accumulate Ronald.

    Hospitality: Cordial and generous reception of or disposition toward guests.

    Maybe you should explain this definition to the staff in ‘hospitality’. David Crown does a fantastic job comparing the day but is let down by the rude and obnoxious staff that surrounds him. On the LAST occasion in ‘hospitality’, my friend asked the woman carving the meat if he could have a bit more. He didn’t ask if he could shove his fist in her arse which the look she gave him would suggest. She proceeded to turn the meat around so she could trim the arsehole off and put it on his plate. This with the constant bickering of the bar staff took the gloss, the undercoat and the wood off an otherwise lovely day. Repeat custom unlikely.

    This is the big one Ron so listen and listen hard. Don’t let people in for FREE for months. I know, pretty drastic huh! It turns out some season card holders’ Direct Debits haven’t gone through. Surely some kind of clerical error? OK, so you’d think the best way to sort this would be to ring the cardholders immediately to get this resolved?  Apparently not. I’ll tell you what we’ll do instead, we’ll wait until midway through the season and then demand £300 by confiscating their season card! I can only assume that the meat carving lady is also in charge of customer relations.

    Ron, treat people in this way and they won’t be coming back and more importantly, they won’t be paying the £300 we so desperately need. The Direct Debit debacle happened to my mate although they actually tried to charge him £305 as there was a £5 admin fee. A fee they were willing to waver if he settled up there and then. How preposterous is this! Just when I think nothing could surprise me anymore the club manages to pull another outrageous stunt. It’s almost a test to see ‘how much they’ll put up with’. Not much more I’m afraid Ron. Until you buck up your ideas you’re going to be a very lonely man sitting in an empty new stadium staring out at fields where the main stand should be.

    Kindest regards,

    Len

    P.S. please please please stop!

  • Land of Hope and Glory?

    Have the English teams been overachieving recently? Of course, they have! You speak to anyone in Europe and they’ve spoken about the English game as if it’s the zenith of football. This year’s Champions League campaign just proves what can be achieved if you give your opposition the respect they deserve and not what you think they deserve.

    How many top stars does the premiership have? I mean top stars, stars that attract Pepsi. Precisely, last year as a neutral I enjoyed the Ballon d’Or as I had someone to cheer. Love him or hate him Christiano Ronaldo did his bit to promote the English game. Why didn’t we attract more top stars when our league was perceived to be the best? Simple, the weather. I’m sure you get to a point with your ludicrous wages that you can afford to take a 20k pay cut for a bit of sun and glamour. Man U, Man City, Liverpool, and even Arsenal will never be able to compete with the lure of playing for Barcelona, Real Madrid, or even AC Milan. I would have loved to have seen Ronaldinho in England but Milan or Manchester. If my knees were in better nick, my lungs weren’t that of a pensioner’s and I was any good at football I’d know who I’d pick. Well until Southend could afford me that is!

    What about Southend United I hear you shout. Well, relegation is looming and it looks as though our worst nightmares have come true. Depressing as it is watching League 1 on a Tuesday night over Champions League games, League 2 football is a whole new kettle of fish. If we survive financially in the coming months I’m sure we’ll be back. We have a great fan base and I’m sure we’ll keep the faith. Our latest court appointment with the tax man has been delayed by another week. To me, this makes no sense. I’m sure the ‘paid by the hour’ lawyers would be able to explain why it’s beneficial for the club to delay paying the tax man for as long as possible. I think the damage to morale, the further legal fees and the worry of the fans isn’t worth the week’s worth of bank interest. That is if we actually have the amount due of course!

    On lighter news Player are going to do one-off gig this summer so keep your diary free. I’ll keep you posted!

  • Martin’s Shaken and Stirred

    It seems that my pre-season pessimism was not completely unfounded. The Chairman has since proved to be the swindling swine I’d hoped he wouldn’t be. It turns out you do need to replace your defenders if they leave. And not paying any of your staff does wonders for morale. With relegation looming there are few positive notes to take from this season. Supporting a team at this level really is a rollercoaster ride, but I don’t remember it being much lower than this.

    Let’s start with the off-the-field shenanigans shall we? The troubles seem to have come from trying to get the finances together for a new stadium. The Chairman has my sympathies here as no one had predicted how much the economy would slump. However, there are examples of other teams that seemed to have coped perfectly well in these conditions and have actually thrived in them. It pains me to say it but we need to look at Colchester United as an example of how to run a club. With half the gate we get they’ve managed to build a new stadium, get a play-off challenging squad together and have enough surplus playing staff that they can bail out their local misfits by loaning players out.

    I love my club to bits but as an organisation it’s a complete mess. From Season Cards not functioning correctly to the failure to organise eight people around a table in the Blues lounge. All these basic things that shouldn’t be an issue always have been. It needs someone with a bit of know-how to come in and review everything the club is doing and turn it on its head. On Saturday I learned that The Groundsman’s bar is actually run by the brewery, another revenue stream turned away. Everything at the club seems to have been done to make a quick buck without any forethought into long-term revenue!

    They’ve made some good marketing campaigns. I loved the shareholder brochures and the season card renewal booklets. And the little things like the Christmas Card and the Birthday letters are all nice touches. This year’s birthday letter wasn’t on the usual nice-headed paper though, which to be honest I’d rather they saved their stamp money. I’ve recently started following the club shop on Twitter. On the first game they were meant to send a half-time offer, I didn’t receive this because of ‘technical difficulties’. It’s a Tweet for crying out loud! It takes literally 3 seconds to do from any smartphone.

    I showed my concern after the game on Saturday by joining the 100-strong protests. Ron Martin has since organised a Q & A this Monday. I fear that this PR Guru will manage to avoid any of the meaningful questions by spinning some legal/financial spiel.

    Martin out!

  • Sinking Feeling!

    The topsy-turvy season is never truer than at this level. On paper this week should have been our big push toward the playoffs, instead, we are lingering in the bottom half. Things started badly on Saturday with another laughable decision by the inept officials. I wish someone could clarify what the referee’s assistant can and cannot make decisions on. Here is the way I see it. The linesman seems to have incidents that happen near them which they don’t even act upon. Is there a look toward the referee to see if he shares the linesman’s opinion? Or is he/she acting as another set of eyes altogether? The game against Oldham left me none the wiser. A lunge by an Oldham player (removing half the Roots Hall turf) was ignored by the referee’s assistant despite it happening under his nose?!? Say or wave something man!!

    The very same assistant took it upon himself to give a penalty that was missed by the referee, all playing staff, and 6000 of the Southend faithful?!? The resultant penalty was scored so the blues dropped a point. There’s quite clearly a case of sour grapes about this blog (rant) but it’s because I don’t quite understand the duties of the linesman. They should either be assistants and give their opinions when asked or be more headstrong in their decisions. I’m assuming the first of these two options is true, in which case how can a linesman have the authority to give penalties against the judgment of the referee?

    Next up was Brentford away. My only away game so far this campaign. Griffin Park is a typical old-school ground with seats that are clearly designed for people under 5 feet tall. I settled in nicely squeezing my head between my knees. Early on in the game came the strangest goal I’ve ever seen. A free kick about 25 yards out was curled under the post by Simon Francis. The keeper caught the ball above his head and seemed to drift backward with the ball still in his hands. The linesman gave it as a goal! The crowd and the Southend players were stunned. It was only when the players started to huddle that the fans accepted it was a goal and started to celebrate. The linesman had clearly got the memo about our previous experience with assistant referees.

    Two penalties in the second half put a dampener on proceedings especially as the second was given in the 94th minute. Brentford weren’t particularly good but then neither were we. A draw would have been fair, but Southend decided to self-destruct…again! Looking at the positives though, we are on target with my pre-season target of ‘avoid relegation’!

    Crossed the line?
    Crossed the line?

  • Blues halt rampant Leeds

    Another Friday night at the Hall, and another entertaining game. Despite there being no goals the game itself was as exciting as they come. Great saves, missed penalties, last-ditch challenges, and friendly crowd banter. Captain Adam Barrett was immense at the back with countless Bobby Moore’esq tackles keeping us in the game. The main talking point happened in the 66th minute when a hopeful ball played into the Leeds area forced a reckless challenge, Penalty!

    Lee ‘Barney’ Barnard had scored 2 penalties at the same time last week (the first having to be retaken) so the crowd was full of confidence when he stepped up. Unfortunately for us the keeper guessed the right way and managed to get an outstretched hand to the ball. On the face of it, a great point but can’t help but feel disappointed to let them off the hook. Next up Brighton away!

    Just like to congratulate the England team who did a fantastic job in qualifying. Just shows what some technical know-how and a strict approach can achieve. I like to believe the rumours that John Terry asked permission for the team to have some nuts on a flight to an away game. Capello simply shook his head….brilliant!

  • Week of turmoil ends on high

    So Chelsea fans will be appreciating the same lack of transfer action that Southend fans have suffered for the last 2 years. The last day of the transfer window should be one of intrigue and excitement, but following the blues has always meant this day has been approached with a due sense of trepidation. It seems that this fear was again warranted as within the final hour of deadline day the blues website was updated twice to inform us that our already depleted squad would be 2 players lighter. The most difficult thing to accept with this news is the almost pantomime’esq PR spin applied to the news. Geoffrey King (our chief executive) was the one to announce the release of the crowd favourite Alex Revell. His comments seemed cold and harsh, especially as the player in question gave his all and was plagued with injury.

    A second announcement informed us that Kevin Betsy would also be leaving us. This news was delivered in a more traditional matter-of-fact dates and stats kind of way. After the deadline, the final site update came with the news that we had turned down an offer for our midfield lynchpin Alan McCormack. This so-called ‘good news’ was delivered by none other than our chairman Mr Ron Martin.

    Now I can appreciate that if the club is in financial trouble, and that freeing up two squad players to free up some money to bring in fresh blood makes good business sense. But this message is never conveyed by the people that run the club. Maybe the reason behind this is to prevent mass hysteria but to be quite frank it’s fairly obvious that all is not well.

    I can never appreciate the full complexities of running a football club, so I’m sure the chairman and directors have a very tricky job. However, all the fans ever really want is clarity of the situation. Too often fans are left in the dark when they have a right to know the truth.

    Fans had promised a demonstration at last night’s Leyton Orient game. This as far as I could make out from the East bank consisted of one banner asking politely for Geoffrey King to hand in his resignation. Maybe the fan’s anger was eased by the impressive performance of the team. A 3-0 victory against the old enemy was what everyone at the club needed. I think however that later on in the season when we get some injuries/suspensions to our 16-man squad, and the results aren’t going our way this ill feeling will return.

    Just to finish off I’d like to thank Steve Tilson and Paul Brush. Both have acted dignified throughout the whole affair and are doing an incredible job. I just hope that their heads don’t ever start to rule over their hearts and that they decide to move on.

    Up the blues!

  • Banging our heads against a Millwall

    So we were given a flashback to the violent 80’s this week. Some bloggers have commented that ‘they’ve not enjoyed an atmosphere like that for years’. We hosted the infamous inter-city firm last Friday, and intimidation was the order of the day. It’s easy just to be dismissive of their behavior, however, there were elements of their support that made me envious. The camoradary spirit is second to none and their vocal support is an amazing carcophony of noise. There’s a few things have been said in the press by commentators who’ve been into the game for 5 minutes and think they’ve got all the answers. Needless to say I’ve not agreed with any. So here are my unique and slightly controversial thoughts on the matter. For starters I’ve always found football is a very tribal affair. In a multi-cultural society, it’s challenging for your average Caucasian male to find an identity that makes him stand out. Your average hooligan is unlikely to be accepted into the local yacht club!

    To feel a sense of belonging and purpose they pledge their allegiance to a football side. This gives them the opportunity to become part of a unique family. This is one of the best things about supporting a team. I’ve been going to the hall for 16 years and in that time I’ve met some great characters. For me though I’ll always have things I’ll want to do outside of football. Some individuals will live and die for their team which is excellent if they focus their energy correctly. Too many of the Millwall fans want to focus their energy on violence. Part of the problem is the reputation that Millwall has gained for itself. Every new generation of fans will feel obliged to ensure that Millwall’s bite is as bad as its bark.

    The most upsetting thing about football violence is when innocent people that are there purely to enjoy football are caught up in the violence. I’ve never been to a ground where there wasn’t a section of the crowd that was there purely to fight someone. These groups have been meeting each other for years under the radar meeting at venues to have their punch-ups. This is an ideal solution for all concerned as long as the venues are somewhere where innocent people are unlikely to be. Any team whose fans try to bring this violence into the ground should be docked points or have their fans banned from away grounds. Too often we’re seeing the same away fans getting away with murder at grounds because the authorities are afraid to act.

    So what’s been happening on the pitch I hear you ask. Well, Millwall was 0-0 and we lost at Swindon yesterday. You’ll find more professional match reports out there than I could give. Besides at the Millwall game, I spent 90 minutes watching my back. An amusing incident did take place in the East bank though. One of the Southend youth players is a Millwall fan (and very unprofessional) and got a whack for his over-exuberant support of the opposition. Only at Roots Hall ladies and gentlemen!

  • Scummers top!!!

    Two weeks in and Col U are sitting at the top, hopefully not an ominous sign of things to come. Our start couldn’t be more frustrating! Two leads thrown away with silly mistakes. Yesterday’s 2 – 2 with Walsall did bring some financial reward in my accumulator but taught me a lesson in not betting on the team you love. From now on I’ll be only betting on games I’ve no loyalty towards. We’re also through to the next round of Carling cup and we got our dream draw against a Premiership side….Hull away!

    The Premiership started this weekend with a bit of a bang. All the top sides getting victories showing that this year could be the year where it’s at least a 3 horse race. I think Christiano Ronaldo’s departure could be the difference this year, and if I had to take a punt I would say Chelsea would be a good bet. We already have a little bit of controversy. Bryan Gunn is the first Managerial casualty and we’ve already had the first referee blunder of immense proportions. Crystal Palace’s disallowed goal is just another example of why we need goal-line technology. Ice hockey has a system in place, so why can’t football?!?

    ESPN has replaced Setanta and having watched the Everton vs Arsenal game I was quite impressed with their coverage. And thankfully ITV has handed over its coverage of the football league to the BBC. Hosted by Manish ‘The Football League’ show is not a bad round-up show. There’s a lot of stuff that probably could be cut from the show, especially Jackie’s fan’s emails section. If I wanted this I’d listen to 5 live. The fact that it’s on iPlayer is a godsend, especially if you have a faulty sky box.

  • New Season, no optimism

    So a new season is upon us and with that comes the hope of promotion? Not quite! This season’s goal will be the same as last year…survival. Plain and simple. Survival, not just in footballing terms but also in financial terms. I can appreciate why people choose to subscribe to the better leagues and stay at home. It’s cheaper and less hassle. However, you can never fully appreciate the whole drama of a match or a season from your living room.

    So who’s going to keep us afloat? Our chairman (like many others I’m sure) is saying all the right things, but he will always be viewed as a suspicious businessman. A new stadium looks like a distant dream in this difficult time. Football in the lower league as a whole is taking a massive financial hit. This is despite the astronomical figures being spent in the top leagues here and in Spain. Recent examples of Luton’s demise and Tranmere’s E-bay listing does concern me as these are teams I put on par with us. I can only pray that a bored oil sheik may one day stumble across Roots Hall and decide to take a punt. Notts County fans must be delirious!

    Do we look worse off than others in the league? It’s difficult to say, not knowing the ins and outs of all clubs. For us, though the fear set in after last year’s postponement of the team photo due to a lack of playing staff. This year’s team photo was released this week with a miss-match of short-term contracted players, loan players, and eagerly promoted youth players. It doesn’t bode well that we’ve lost our player of the season for ‘greener pastures’ for the past two seasons. It’s worrying that these ‘greener pastures’ are Charlton and Huddersfield!

    I’ll be there tomorrow taking my usual seat in front of the Columbo look-a-like, behind the weirdo, and to the left of Dagenham Kev. I’ll be berating the referee and complaining (under my breath) about the behavior of our resident hooligan. It will be as if I was never away. Why do I do it? Because this is Football, where the underdog can prevail. With our die for the cause captain and our dedicated loyal manager, anything can happen!

    Come on you Shrimpers!