Hednesford Town Team Talk 2022/23

[Ross]

It’s not too late though is it. It’s never too late to make change.

I’m not disputing the level of effort that you have put in. I also understand that it must be really frustrating to feel you have been shafted. However my personal view is as a club w e rise above it and not air so much of our dirty laundry in public. Behind the scenes handle how is seen fit but right now every effort should be going into improving the image of the club.

I worry from the way you speak that you have given up.

[Fillet]

There are always 2 or more sides to every story and its easier in this situation (as it has been with previous issues) for the one side to be open and say what they want / feel, where the other is held back, in this case the owners as there can be punishments.

My own thoughts mirror a lot of what has been said by others - if a team want to approach a player who is under contract they should go about it the right way. But i can only see and hear what others have seen / heard.
At the forum / answers to the questions, it is clear that the team / contract etc is managed by Danny who will know who he wants to keep and that was clearly evident by an honest write up on main site saying that Lewis had been been given a pay rise.
If the player has gone against his contract thats between the club, his new club and himself. What i will say is that Lewis has given a lot to the club where other players i dont think can honestly say that.

What we do have here are owners who are willing to come onto the boards and comment as much as they can. We didnt have that before and were left in the dark and i'm sure there are archived posts moaning about it

I abhore online abuse in any form, as i expect 99% of the population does. It adds nothing to social media, but detracts from all the good it can do. So taking a step be it (in some peoples eyes) too harsh, i would rather see it removed before it escalates. People will then know and if needs be learn what is and isnt acceptable. Hednesford Town can be a leading light in this.

I will pick up on one comment from Graham
'Also fyi don’t expect this to be the last of changes.'

When do you think more will come out about this? If its squad changes (please dont let it be Managergial or Keeper changes) we're heading to a crucial period and a galvanised team and team spirit are needed more than ever.

[Graham Jones]

There are always 2 or more sides to every story and its easier in this situation (as it has been with previous issues) for the one side to be open and say what they want / feel, where the other is held back, in this case the owners as there can be punishments.

My own thoughts mirror a lot of what has been said by others - if a team want to approach a player who is under contract they should go about it the right way. But i can only see and hear what others have seen / heard.
At the forum / answers to the questions, it is clear that the team / contract etc is managed by Danny who will know who he wants to keep and that was clearly evident by an honest write up on main site saying that Lewis had been been given a pay rise.
If the player has gone against his contract thats between the club, his new club and himself. What i will say is that Lewis has given a lot to the club where other players i dont think can honestly say that.

What we do have here are owners who are willing to come onto the boards and comment as much as they can. We didnt have that before and were left in the dark and i'm sure there are archived posts moaning about it

I abhore online abuse in any form, as i expect 99% of the population does. It adds nothing to social media, but detracts from all the good it can do. So taking a step be it (in some peoples eyes) too harsh, i would rather see it removed before it escalates. People will then know and if needs be learn what is and isnt acceptable. Hednesford Town can be a leading light in this.

I will pick up on one comment from Graham
'Also fyi don’t expect this to be the last of changes.'

When do you think more will come out about this? If its squad changes (please dont let it be Managergial or Keeper changes) we're heading to a crucial period and a galvanised team and team spirit are needed more than ever.

I can state we have no intention of changing management. We sat with them last night and was galvanised together.

Keepers are down to management team, so we don’t dictate those.

[Perton Pitman]

Personally I have no problem with the club stating that it is disappointed when a players breaks the terms of his contract. Failure to do so would give the impression that the club aren't bothered which sends out the wrong message.
Ison performed well on the pitch, but contracts are there to be honoured and he does owe the club something as they have given him a platform on which he can demonstrate his ability.
People say he gave his all, but from where I'm sitting that is the bare minimum. We've set the bar low if we are patting him on the back for trying his best. I accept, however, that he has shamed others in this regard

[Chris]

As said before, it seems that contracts aren't worth the paper that they're written on then.
What's the point in putting any player on a contract if when he decides he wants to leave, that contract is ripped up.
If another club want to sign a contracted player then they pay a fee for him or they don't get him.
I really can't see why we've let him go under these circumstances.

[akb junior]

All this talk about how contracts are handled has got me thinking about the time we had Alfie Carter on contract. Apologies if some of the below isn’t entirely accurate but it was a few years ago now. I am also told we had a similar situation with Tony Hemmings, but this was before my time.

I’m sure it was during one of the Smith and Chambers periods and Carter had signed a contract. It became apparent that he wasn’t in Smiths plans and therefore life was made quite difficult for Alfie. I believe he had to train on his own, told to turn up to matches at the same time as players who were included in the squad but he was never selected and had to watch from the stands. All of this was done to try and force the contract to be mutually terminated from my understanding, but it never was as Alfie did exactly as he was instructed, so rightly so picked his money up.

I’m not saying that this is how the situation with Ison should have been handled, but it highlights at one point contracts actually meant something and needed to be honoured by club and player.

I think we should have stood stronger on the contract situation with Ison regardless of him having an incident online with a fan. I see it as being quite simple. He’s under contract and therefore unless someone pays up his contract or we agree a fee, then he remains as our player. If he trains and plays as asked we don’t have an issue. If this does become a problem I’m sure we have people at the club who know where we stand in terms of when fines can be applied and this can then include being left out of team selections if required. Far from ideal as Graham and Ade are essentially paying a player who isn’t being fully utilised, it may cause issues in the squad etc. But let’s be honest, would this change the outcome at the end of the season? I don’t think it would and it then sets our stall out for players in the future who think they can just disregard contracts they’ve signed with us.

I like to think that if the situation was approached differently we wouldn’t have got to the stages mentioned above as Ison is a young lad who hopefully would have seen sense, realised he needs to play games and stuck it out until the end of the season. I suppose we’ll never know.

[Chris]

I remember the Alfie Carter situation or the non league Winston Bogarde as we called him at the time . He was signed by Bernie McNally who was then sacked. He'd fell out with Rob and Larry at Telford so when they came in he had no chance of playing but did everything that was asked of him and picked up his wages. He even turned up for the Player of the Year awards and got called out by Nick Wellecomme who was the MC for the evening

[stonnall pitman]

You don't need a good memory to recall the appalling approach to contracts of a former manager and a group of players who set out to contrive in a number of ways to leave when it suited them. A post on this forum recently suggests a former player had an agent bragging how he moved on a contracted player without a fee. We only need players who actually want to be here

[Perton Pitman]

You don't need a good memory to recall the appalling approach to contracts of a former manager and a group of players who set out to contrive in a number of ways to leave when it suited them. A post on this forum recently suggests a former player had an agent bragging how he moved on a contracted player without a fee. We only need players who actually want to be here

Spot on with the last comment. Identifying those who want to be here is difficult and with the intervention of agents it is becoming more challenging.
Next season we shouldn't bother with contracts at all. Everyone knows where they stand if that is our strategy

[Glyn]

I remember the Alfie Carter situation or the non league Winston Bogarde as we called him at the time . He was signed by Bernie McNally who was then sacked. He'd fell out with Rob and Larry at Telford so when they came in he had no chance of playing but did everything that was asked of him and picked up his wages. He even turned up for the Player of the Year awards and got called out by Nick Wellecomme who was the MC for the evening

If Terry Mc still posted on this forum he would point out, as he has done several times before, that Bernie Mc wasn't sacked. But otherwise, yes...

Next season we shouldn't bother with contracts at all. Everyone knows where they stand if that is our strategy

Agreed. If my understanding is correct (it certainly isn't always) you would still hold the player's registration to play in the league you're in so if a rival club sought to "poach" him you would still have some advance notice/control over the situation..

[Del]

As said before, it seems that contracts aren't worth the paper that they're written on then.
What's the point in putting any player on a contract if when he decides he wants to leave, that contract is ripped up.
If another club want to sign a contracted player then they pay a fee for him or they don't get him.
I really can't see why we've let him go under these circumstances.

Good point, and from what Ade said at the forum - that is surely down to the DoF to deal with.

Q=The Club supposedly has a 'Director of Football' - what is his job and what does he actually do?
A= HD - To clarify the role, the DoF deals with players on financial and contractual matters only. To be clear, he is in the same position as the owners and Terry in that he has NO say in which players come in and does not have ANY involvement in picking the team. The manager is the only one to have a say in who comes in and who goes out. This was made very clear

[Graham Jones]

the manager would pick who goes onto a contract. the DoF would only facilitate the deal as such.

also a good debate, but the key fact is if we have a contract player who has no interest in still giving 100% for the club, we will seek to offload the player someway. As we have no interest in anyone who doesn't wish to be part of changing our fortunes. We would rather spend the money on people who will give their all for the club moving forward.

Yes we can sit on contracts if we wish, but it would be cutting our nose off to spite our face.

Don't get me wrong in the odd occasion, we will do exactly that, where the time is right (and have done in the past already).

[Perton Pitman]

the manager would pick who goes onto a contract. the DoF would only facilitate the deal as such.

also a good debate, but the key fact is if we have a contract player who has no interest in still giving 100% for the club, we will seek to offload the player someway. As we have no interest in anyone who doesn't wish to be part of changing our fortunes. We would rather spend the money on people who will give their all for the club moving forward.

Yes we can sit on contracts if we wish, but it would be cutting our nose off to spite our face.

Don't get me wrong in the odd occasion, we will do exactly that, where the time is right (and have done in the past already).

Understand the approach, but players are evidently a selfish bunch and have agents prepared to tout them to other clubs so the logic of putting players on contract is weak to say the least.
I remember when Cohen Bramall was having trials at various EFL clubs - he decided not to play in certain games for us so as to be fresh for trial games. The fact we got a fee when he went to Arsenal was a positive and I assume he was on a contract at the time. I guess Wenger is more likely to be honourable than your average bottom-feeding non-league agent

[bix_the_dog]

I’m sure it was during one of the Smith and Chambers periods and Carter had signed a contract. It became apparent that he wasn’t in Smiths plans and therefore life was made quite difficult for Alfie. I believe he had to train on his own, told to turn up to matches at the same time as players who were included in the squad but he was never selected and had to watch from the stands. All of this was done to try and force the contract to be mutually terminated from my understanding, but it never was as Alfie did exactly as he was instructed, so rightly so picked his money up.

This sounds like an attempt at constructive dismissal? Does this not apply in the world of football, it's a bit naughty.

[PitmanKeith]

https://www.hednesfordtownfc.com/2023/0 ... art-pitmen

Duo depart Pitmen

[PitmanKeith]

Current remaining squad

http://www.hednesfordtown.com/HTFC/foru ... 06#p103606

[Perton Pitman]

The 16 currently at the club will be guaranteed places in the squad on Saturday unless we bring players in

[Glyn]

Trialist could feature?

[Glyn]

[Lee K]

Because he was a paid player by the club having a pop at a supporter.

We also spoke clearly in our forum stating things would be monitored on socials closely, as we are at our end for abusive online behaviour. We are trying to stop snowball effects.

There’s also a lot more behind the scenes to this. I shall not go through in any forum, for being respectful.

Maybe consider also what’s been told the club behind the scenes to envoke such action and agreement. Instead again I read all on the club.

Maybe consider his next club, that I’m informed has already spoken with the player despite him being on contract. As we was told where he is off. Then a few more pennies will drop.

Also fyi don’t expect this to be the last of changes.

I hope the club is going to report an illegal approach then. Letting them get away with it isn’t going to help anyone.

So now that Lewis Ison has signed for Stratford Town we know it was KMR who is guilty of the illegal approach. As I said before I hope it’s been reported. If not, the club will get what it deserves in future cases of the same actions.
And as for Lewis, two relegations in the same division in the same season is some boast for the CV….

[PitmanKeith]

Because he was a paid player by the club having a pop at a supporter.

We also spoke clearly in our forum stating things would be monitored on socials closely, as we are at our end for abusive online behaviour. We are trying to stop snowball effects.

There’s also a lot more behind the scenes to this. I shall not go through in any forum, for being respectful.

Maybe consider also what’s been told the club behind the scenes to envoke such action and agreement. Instead again I read all on the club.

Maybe consider his next club, that I’m informed has already spoken with the player despite him being on contract. As we was told where he is off. Then a few more pennies will drop.

Also fyi don’t expect this to be the last of changes.

I hope the club is going to report an illegal approach then. Letting them get away with it isn’t going to help anyone.

So now that Lewis Ison has signed for Stratford Town we know it was KMR who is guilty of the illegal approach. As I said before I hope it’s been reported. If not, the club will get what it deserves in future cases of the same actions.
And as for Lewis, two relegations in the same division in the same season is some boast for the CV….

Swapping one relegation certainty for another is absolutely beyond belief, Lewis you are far better than that young man.
Staggering.
The KMR influence is still at the club.

[Ehamo]

The obsession with KMR from people on this forum is absolutely laughable.

[Perton Pitman]

A terrible move for Ison. Gone to a smaller club that is likely to be relegated along with us.

I suspect he won't be playing for Stratford next season so this move is a stop-gap for him. Presumably Stratford are chucking money around in a desperate attempt to stay up

[Glyn]

The twitter thread about agents continues..

[Perton Pitman]

O'Sullivan has left I hear. No loss - couldn't be bothered when he came on last week. A big let down and a wasted 2 seasons of watching someone with very little in the way of positive attributes.