THE EDMONTON ROVERS FORUM
This coming Sunday (8th December) we have no match yet again because:
a) We were knocked out of all three Cup competitions in the First Round.
b) Both U.S. Acli and Broxbourne Athletic either don't have their Home pitches available or have asked to be released.
c) St. Mary's are using our pitch at Hazelwood for a County Cup match (which takes precedence over our Home League matches, and
d) All other teams in other divisions of our League who don't have a game this Sunday don't have their pitches available either, so we can't play anybody in a Friendly.
A lot of other clubs in our predicament having lost 6-0 today for our 13th defeat in our last 14 matches would just pack it in and fold up, but there is no way I am going to do that, despite some ex-Rovers players and some of my relatives (not Trevor though) advising me that we should finally call it a day after 37 years. We had 14 players there this morning and we have loads more wanting to join us, so we are not exactly struggling for players are we ?
I am open to suggestions about what we should do at training for the next two Wednesday nights (when Trevor is at Arsenal) and this coming Sunday (if we decide to have a training session using cones and corner posts as goals).
Obviously there will be some players who will want a Sunday off to do other things, but having some sort of practice match at 10.30 is the only way we can get new players signed up and see if they can get out of bed at that time on a Sunday morning.
The problem is, if we sign these new players up, whose place are they going to take in the squad out of those 14 who played today plus Leon and John (who were the only regulars missing) ? Everybody today had so many different ideas afterwards and at Half-Time as to who was at fault, but none of them accepted that they were at fault themselves ! Will these new players make us play any better for the rest of this season though ? No, they won't because we still won't have any teamwork. Somebody said just put in only players who come training, but all we do at training now is just have a kickabout because half of those turning up play for other teams...including AC Enfield's sub who came on this morning, which was well out of order by the way and if he turns up this Wednesday I will stop him training...and the rest of Riaz's mates if they don't want to sign up and are just coming along to have a laugh at us.
Personally I think we might as well do the following for the rest of the season, because nothing is going to change...
a) Keep naming the same 14 every week plus Leon, John (when he is back from suspension) and a keeper (if we can find one).
b) If anybody is running late and we have been told they are 'on their way', then we wait for them and the club pays the fine for the late kick-off (because invariably the player cannot afford to pay it themselves). We must start the match with our 'best players' otherwise we will find ourselves 4-0 down at Half-Time again.
c) If people cannot afford to pay their subs or cannot be bothered to pay their subs, then we still let them play and those of our players who are rich enough to afford to pay their own subs will just have to subsidise the others. We then hope to get some sort of sponsorship to pay for the shortfall. We simply do not have enough players paying their subs to be able to drop players for non-payment. If we bring in new players, they will not pay any money either...as we have found out already this season.
d) We play players in the positions that they want to play in, even if it means that in some matches we are fielding three at the back, seven central midfielders and nobody anywhere else !
Hopefully if we do the above, at the end of the season we will have finished bottom, then when the League goes down to just three divisions next season, we will then be in the bottom division. It will still be tough in that bottom division because, as I say, any other team in the four divisions of our League who are losing like we are will almost certainly fold up before next season and we will be the only team left who are used to losing.
New players can be brought in during the Summer in the 7-a-side League though, and of course tried out in Pre-Season Friendlies, and if they are better than what we have currently got, then we can be ruthless and say goodbye to people. We cannot do that now...in my opinion.
If any of our current players have any thoughts on what to do this Sunday, the next two Wednesdays and the rest of the season, please reply here or contact myself or Trevor privately if you prefer that.
I a lot of players have the same views...which I doubt...then fine. 
It is Riaz's mate Jamie who is bringing all these players along, so I had a long chat with Jamie at training on Wednesday night. He said Rob Henry didn't know it was Edmonton Rovers he was training with and he had no idea we were in the same division as AC Enfield and that we were playing them in our next match !
I have told Jamie that we only want players coming along to training from now on who do NOT play for other clubs in our League and we only want players who are prepared to sign up and play for us either now or once they get themselves fit enough to. We will also be clamping down on them not paying £3.00 each on the night. I have told Jamie to collect the money in from them and then pay us himself.
At the moment, only one of Riaz/Jamie's mates has given me a photo for his registration. We also now have a photo from Younes, so they will both be registered for our next match on the 15th, which is now at Home to Broxbourne Athletic and not The Sheaf. (I will get that corrected on the Forthcoming Fixtures page over the weekend).
We will not have anybody else signed up by then because we are not doing anything this Sunday, and this coming Wednesday night is after the registration deadline for the 15th.
This coming Wednesday night (11th Dec.) will also be our last training session before Christmas. The next one will then be on Wednesday 8th January.
I have decided that we will not be doing anything this Sunday because all we can do is a kickabout on a patch of grass somewhere. What is the point when we don't have a pitch to use. If we had a pitch at Hazelwood available, then we would have arranged a Friendly or even an 11-a-side practice match amongst ourselves using all these players who are coming training. We need to see what they are like in an 11-a-side match, not in a Sunday morning training session when we are already seeing them on Wednesday nights.
Trevor has sent me a teamsheet for the match on the 15th against Broxbourne Athletic with a squad of about 20 on it ! His main concern in picking a starting line-up (and/or a squad of 16) seems to be non-payment of subs.
My main concern is just who exactly might be up for actually playing in the game. Personally, I think a lot of players are going to have to be phoned asap and asked who they do not want to play alongside, then we pick a team who are all going to get along with each other instead of nearly coming to blows !
We do have a few players having their say at training and privately to myself and Trevor by phone, e-mail or text, but most cannot be bothered, which means we have no idea whether they will turn up on the 15th if we name them in the squad.
Trevor will not be at training on Wednesday as he is going to Arsenal again.
That's the situation for now.
a) Keep naming the same 14 every week plus Leon, John (when he is back from suspension) and a keeper (if we can find one).
b) If anybody is running late and we have been told they are 'on their way', then we wait for them and the club pays the fine for the late kick-off (because invariably the player cannot afford to pay it themselves). We must start the match with our 'best players' otherwise we will find ourselves 4-0 down at Half-Time again.
c) If people cannot afford to pay their subs or cannot be bothered to pay their subs, then we still let them play and those of our players who are rich enough to afford to pay their own subs will just have to subsidise the others. We then hope to get some sort of sponsorship to pay for the shortfall. We simply do not have enough players paying their subs to be able to drop players for non-payment. If we bring in new players, they will not pay any money either...as we have found out already this season.
d) We play players in the positions that they want to play in, even if it means that in some matches we are fielding three at the back, seven central midfielders and nobody anywhere else !
Just to let you all know that I was deliberately testing our players attitudes by putting the above on here...to see if any of them actually agreed or not.
I did have one player telling me that we should put up with players turning up late because they have family commitments...I am guessing he was making an exception for Lexton because we know he has to wait for his sister to turn up every Sunday morning to babysit for him ? However, other teams in our division don't seem to have a problem with that. Their players are ALL] there at least 45 minutes before the kick-off for a proper warm-up and to receive their instructions from the Manager, and I bet Broxbourne Athletic will be the same this Sunday.
No other players agreed with my quoted comments above, which sounds good (if they mean it !), so I really do think it is now time we start clamping down on things, especially after Christmas when we will have several new (or returning) players registered. If players want to stroll along on the kick-off, refuse to pay their subs and/or continually drop out of matches on a Saturday night/Sunday morning, then it's goodbye I'm afraid...whoever they are.
