Bath City Match Thread

That was probably in an ideal world, and if he wasn't at a club with an incompetent buffoon as finance director, who it sounds as if was still scrabbling together the budget DC would have to play with weeks into the summer.

I have been thinking about our predicament through the night. I have concluded that once again we are trying to do things on the cheap.
DC, as a young, keen manager, would not want/choose to be in this state of readiness at this stage of the season. We are nowhere near where we should be. Everybody must know this. Some of the trialists out there yesterday don't know what their future holds yet however some of them might be BRFC players playing their first game for us in 20 days time.
There will no doubt be a few late arrivals(there has to be if we are going to have a squad) and we are primed for the ready made excuses. Players will be finding their feet, not match fit, not used to the level/expectations of the club/still boding with team mates etc etc etc.

Now, none of this means we will have a bad season. But it is not ideal. No offence to those I spoke to yesterday(Some on here) but tales of knocking it around nicely against Chelts plus a few slick spells yesterday against Bath, do not get us anywhere in a competitive game against Grimsby in 20 days time. We do not have long for our team to be ready in all respects, know their duties, be fully conversant with eachother and comfortable in the Qtrs. We have to hit the ground running because I sense that some of our fans are going to give it a try for a few weeks before washing their hands with it. There are jurys out all over the place.

Tomorrows QnA is just as likely to further disillusion the support as it is unite it. I wonder if the BoD have a game plan? They need one imo because one thing for sure is that if some of those pre questions get HONEST answers, there will(should) be a riot. We are in a mess and some of our opponents must be rubbing their hands looking at our preperation thus far.

Praying and hoping for a massive alteration in conduct over the next 2 weeks to give us any chance.
All my own opinion based not on facts but on what I can see and hear.

We may have had to cut about £1.3m from the wage budget based on anticipated loss in tv money, gate reciepts, the rugby club going, no longer funding an over spend etc. At least thats what my rough sums tell me. As i said on another thread based on what we are likely paying last years pros our average wage availability per new signing will be well around £600-£700 a week. Luckilly the first year pros will be pretty cheap but finding quality players that want to play non league, relocate to bristol and play for under £1000 a week is a tough ask.

In fact the only reason im cheesed off with DC is for raising my hopes and promising the earth when in reality he has naff all to work with. I just want transparency so we all know where we stand. If only we still had the share scheme funds from its peak as it would fund an extra 4 players a month at this level. If we dont go straight back up a huge relaunch of that must be worth doing at more reasonable share prices.

we have no bigger problem with recruitment than any other conference side though....
c'mon a lot of the sides down here don't even get 1000 people a game, but I bet they've bagged all the best non-league talent at a good price, while we are looking down the barrel of a gun....