THE EDMONTON ROVERS FORUM
Our next 7-a-side League match this coming Monday is a 7.30.p.m. Kick-Off against 1664.
As far as I know, Loveday is not available...he left straight on the final whistle after tonight's match before I could ask him...so I will pick a 'squad' here anyway for the time being. Trevor will also not be there on Monday so I will probably be Manager.
Terry Moore, Colin Bester & Tony King will all definitely be in the squad for this match.
We then have Kizza who 'should be' available, but we may not have a goalkeeper as both Jacko and Tim prefer to play on Thursdays and can only make one night a week.
We are then really struggling to find players for Monday night after that, so I will need people to volunteer, otherwise it will be me playing (probably in goal) in a 'bare five'.
As for Thursday night next week (an 8.00.p.m. Kick-Off against Locomotive Southgate), we have a squad of 8 as follows:
Tim Beeden or Simon Jackson (GK)
Alan Barnard
Danny Hagan (If he has recovered from his holiday by then !)
Ben Keating
John Scouller
Ricky Kyagaba
Dean Assiamah
Lexton Harrison
Lee King and Daniel Daley are both on holiday and we think Daniel Cascoe is training with his Saturday club.
Lexton, Dean, Ricky & Ben cannot play on Monday, only Thursday next week.
At training tonight, numerous players didn't turn up.
They didn't reply to my e-mails, texts or Forum messages whatsoever. I said in my Chairman's Blog on the Latest Club News page that I cannot phone players and speak to them because they are invariably sh*gging the missus or out of their heads on drugs, but I was told tonight by other Management Committee Members that I am going to have to phone players from now on if they don't reply on here or by text/e-mail...so I will, but more likely during the day when they are at work, so I will have to leave a message on voicemail...which they will then 'forget to listen to' ! 
By the way, another one I forgot in that blog was that I phoned Kizza once and he was on stage in the West End ! 
...and another 'communication problem' I forgot about was players getting p!ssed and losing their phones !
I presume you mean disgusted with people not turning up/not bothering to get in touch rather than our performance in the actual match...which was pretty good I thought ?
O.K. then...It's name & shame time. 
Here are the players who were not at training on Thursday night and the reasons why....
Firstly, those who informed me beforehand:
Terry Moore...His son's 1st birthday.
Simon Jackson...Went to Stoke v. Hadjuk Split.
Rob Brown...Legitimate Knee Injury.
Martin Worthington...Legitimate Ankle Injury.
Danny Smith...On Holiday
Yianni Kyriacou...On Holiday
Vernon 'Kizza' Nxumalo...Training with his Saturday side in South London somewhere.
Colin Bester...Working Late (Informed me in the morning).
Tony King...Working Late. (Informed me at 6.30.p.m.).
Dean Assiamah...Facebook-messaged me to say he couldn't make it, but can from this Thursday onwards (because he now has a job and can afford to pay his subs).
Martin Cruickshank...Works every Monday & Thursday evening but will play in Pre-Season Friendlies and can come training on Wednesday nights during the season.
Nev Niyazi & the 4 or 5 other ex-McKenzie Rangers players who want to join us...Nev is on holiday and the rest of them were playing 7-a-side at 9.00.p.m. (If they had an 8.00.p.m. Kick-Off, they would have been able to train with us at 7.00.p.m., although with Nev on holiday it was difficult to contact them).
Lexton Harrison...Turned up just as our 7-a-side match was finishing. I didn't get a chance to ask him where he had been, but he did say words to me afterwards to the effect that he is not on the internet at work or at home and that his two (or three ?) mobile phones keep running out of credit...so even if I text him, he can't reply ? Pretty much backs up what I was saying in my Chairman's Blog about most of our players, doesn'ty it !?
...and now for the really bad ones, and as Loveday rightly says...these players need to let us know whether they really are still interested in playing for us or not. The fact that they are not coming on here or replying to e-mails and text messages at the moment suggests that they are not !?
Danny Hagan...I know he had just got back from two weeks in Ibiza the day before, but why couldn't he just text me back to say he was too tired to come training/play 7-a-side ? (Unless he lost his phone out there ?. It's the first time ever he has failed to reply to a text).
Daniel Cascoe...Played in our last 7-a-side League game two weeks ago and was really keen. Said he would miss training last Thursday to train with his Saturday club because we didn't have a 7-a-side match (which was fine with myself & Trevor as we know that players will always treat Saturday football as more important), but that he would definitely be available for training/7-a-side this Thursday. Same as Hagan though, no reply to my text message...the first time he has failed to do so and just not turn up.
Daniel Daley...Was actually suspended for our 7-a-side match after getting sent off in the last one, but he could have come training beforehand ? After he got sent off in that match, he suddenly turned round and told Trevor he was on holiday for 4 weeks, but he had not told me or anybody else that before the match. He then had a row with Cascoe about something and stormed off after the match and nobody has heard from him since, although he has been posting messages on Facebook that suggest he is not on holiday abroad somewhere. Very strange when he seemed to be dead keen the last time I saw him. (I wasn't there for the match when he got sent off).
Tem Adil...Again, like the others above, no message left on here or reply to my text asking him if he was coming training. Very unlike him.
Terry Brown...No reply on here, to e-mails or text messages but plenty of posting on Facebook that suggests he is around but in a bit of a lazy mode at the moment. Could be because he is suspended for our first 4 League matches...which is fully understandable, but could he not just get in touch to confirm that or at least let us know if he wants to play in Pre-Season at some stage ?
Steve Cokell...Paid £25.00 Annual Subs at the AGM, offered to sponsor a new set of shirts and then played in our second Monday night 7-a-side match back in early May in which we lost 7-3, played really sh1t as a team and everybody was arguing with each other (apparently). Has not been heard from since...or at least not by me !
Dave Bagnall (GK)...Was playing 7-a-side quite regularly earlier in the Summer, then had a 'mare' in one match and hasn't played since. Work commitments away from the London area was the reason for missing the next match, but he didn't say that was permanent. Again, like the others above, has not been coming on here or replying to e-mails and texts.
Unless they phone, text, e-mail or reply on here beforehand, I will be phoning Hagan, Cascoe, Daley, Tem, Terry, Cokell & Dave Bagnall on Sunday night and speaking to them, even though I really haven't got time to at the moment. It should be Trev's job as Manager, but I can't see him doing it. I expect that most, if not all of them will have their phones switched off and it will go onto voicemail though because they will be socialising. There's no point leaving a message on that because if they are not bothering to reply to text messages, they won't phone or text me back from a voicemail will they 
I think we might just have to accept that at the moment we have got a lot of players in 'holiday mode' who just want a break from playing football for a few weeks before the season starts. It happens every year from mid-July to the end of August and it's all because we enter the 7-a-side League.
If we didn't enter the 7-a-side League, players would all have a rest in May, June & early July and would then more likely be up for Pre-Season stuff thereafter...which is why other clubs get such good turnouts in Pre-Season.
Loveday texts to see if i'm available on a monday and i reply straight away to not mess him about. Its very hard at the moment to get away and play twice during the evenings as you ALREADY KNOW i play 5 a side on a thurs night and thats why i wont be at training.
I should be around for most pre-season friendlies-if not all.
On the sponsorship note i said i'd contribute half and told both you and Trevor to get back to me with some figures,have i heard anything? No.
As usual assumptions made based on nothing.
Thanks for the update Steve.
This is what we need. If everyone came on here and posted info like this, then I wouldn't need to make assumptions, would I ?
I asked Loveday in an e-mail a couple of weeks ago why you hadn't been playing 7-a-side on Mondays lately and he wouldn't/didn't tell me. I therefore had to 'presume' that it was because of something you didn't want me blabbing about on the Forum, so as usual I am being kept completely in the dark.
Can you play 7-a-side tomorrow night then ? (As we are well short).
I know that you play 5-a-side regularly on Thursday nights, but I texted and e-mailed everybody for the Pre-Season Training the other week (when we didn't have a 7-a-side match) just in case those like yourself who cannot normally attend were able to do so as a one-off. No harm in doing that. I still cannot understand why so many just didn't bother to reply. How long does it take to just text me back saying 'Sorry, playing 5-a-side' or whatever ?
Regarding the new kit & sponsorship, I have been waiting for all the kit companies to bring out their catalogues for 2011-2012 and most, if not all have now done so. The only manufacturer who does anything near to a jade & black kit is Puma, but the shirt is just plain jade with a thin white collar. Puma is a decent brand though.
Ebbsfleet United's new kit is being made by a company called X-Blades. They are rugby kit manufacturers who have now moved into the Football kit market. Ebbsfleet are delighted with the quality of their new kit and this week (as their club cameraman) I will be attempting to contact X-Blades with Ebbsfleet's help with a view to them custom-designing a jade & black kit for us. The fact that we video all our games could be very attractive to them. We shall see.
Obviously I will let you know Steve, as soon as I get anywhere.
I tried phoning Loveday earlier this evening but it went to voicemail. I then texted him but I haven't had a reply to that either, so I don't know if he is still picking the squad or attending the match tomorrow night as Manager now that he is injured.
I have spoken to Hagan, Olie and Kizza today and they are all available for tomorrow night, so I have had to guess that Loveday needs them and have therefore told them they are definitely in the squad (with Olie in goal so that Jacko can now play on Thursday).
I haven't actually spoken to or texted Terry Moore, Colin and Tony King to tell them they are definitely in the squad but I know they are all available if needed.
Hopefully Loveday will come on here tomorrow (Monday) morning and confirm the squad ?
I can't phone numerous other players and tell them they are playing because for all I know, Loveday might have already told different players (e.g. Stuart & Scott) that they are playing ?
not heard but cant play if needed anyway. on hols tmrw for 3 weeks
