1. I am sure Paul Barnes and Craig Stone are working tirelessly to produce the most competitive squad possible under the current circumstances.
2. No matter who is playing for Hastings, they will have huge vocal support every game.
3. Why are some of our best players signing for local rivals? Answers on a postcard please.
We expect to lose non local players with the 'closer to London' line. But if we are to believe what the owners say that the budget hasn't been cut, why is staying here so unattractive for our dedicated captain, top goalscorer, breakthrough player of the year and midfielder who has developed so much with us?
I was actually excited for a low budget season with almost exclusively local players, but even they don't want to stay. Why?
Have to say that having been a fan for over 50 years, the present situation is worrying. There seems to be an apparent lack of direction and significant levels of uncertainty both on and off the field. I hope we see some sort of clarification as to the future intent of the owners and their vision for the future. Appreciate this is difficult with the council seemingly and not necessarily being on board but I can’t help thinking that the loyal fan base deserves a little more insight into what the future holds for our club. All we see at the moment are players leaving and whilst I am sure they will be replaced, what sort of budget is available to recruit good quality at our level that will enable us to build on previous years progress. Recruitment is tough at the best of times but with a potentially trimmed budget and lack of clarity with regard to the future prospects of the club, the task is nigh on impossible.
-- Edited by Overthehill on Tuesday 30th of May 2023 08:18:24 PM
This is all rather dismally reminiscent of where the Club found itself twenty years ago.
One year after leading the U’s to promotion, the manager resigned. A huge number of senior players decided to leave as well, with at least three joining a newly promoted, rival East Sussex side. And there was a huge amount of off-field uncertainty that summer too, while the Club’s official website provided supporters with precious few updates, although the internet was still a bit of a novelty back then, to be fair.
There are a couple of key differences today though.
The off-field uncertainty back in 2003 stemmed from the then owner being forced to put the Club up for sale due to his sadly declining health. It was another nine months or so until someone took ownership and provided the Club with some renewed direction. At least we do have owners who assure us that they are 100% committed to the cause, who love the town and the Club, and are definitely not driven by ulterior motive!
Much more curious is the fact that our current turmoil has arisen on the back of the Club enjoying its highest league placing in thirteen years, whereas in 2003, it followed immediate relegation back to the Isthmian South. Some player departures are perfectly understandable, of course. Others much less so.
We can only hope that the parallels end there though. The 2003/04 season was just awful to witness, and we were perilously close to the relegation zone, and potentially dropping down to County League level, for most of that year. The quick appointment of a new managerial team last month should hopefully allow plenty of time for a decent squad to be assembled, but right now, it is difficult to be optimistic about the 2023/24 campaign.
Oh, and as the internet isn’t really much of a novelty any more, it would be wonderful to see the Club use its lovely shiny website to actually communicate with the rest of the world. On 13 March, a news item was published which acknowledged that the Club needed to re-engage with all of its supporters and sponsors. Since then, there have been only six items published, half of which have advised of resignations.
Social media may seem like a perfectly adequate medium for releasing news, but its reach will never be universal, so I really hope that a volunteer comes forward to assist with the website soon, and that the Club will honour its apparent commitment to genuinely re-engage, at a time when there appears to be a greater disconnect between the Club and its fan base than I have ever known.
