Where the F**K are we going?

[Rimshot]

Great to see the win today, even if it sounds like we were a tad lucky. Who knows, we might even make the play-offs.
Sitting here watching the Norwich v Liverpool game, however, brought into sharp relief my expectations (or lack of) about what I would see if we did go up.
Significant investment in players ? Ground redevelopment ? New investors brought in ? Better track record on fan inclusivity and communications ( we are ranked 91st out of the 92 league clubs in a recent survey ) ?

Norwich is a city of 132,000 population, about half the size of Medway. Today we hosted Doncaster and got a crowd of just over 4500. Norwich's fantastic redeveloped Carrow Road stadium was full to capacity ( 27500 ), absolutely rocking and watching a side play that includes homegrown talent like Cantwell, a 21-year old who was born and went to school in Dereham, about 5 miles from where I'm sitting.

Why can they do this and we can't ? It's certainly not because the are owned by some rich oligarch or potentate. The club has 8,000 issues shares and the majority but by no means all, are owned by TV cook Delia Smith and her husband. Now good old 'lets be 'avin yer' Delia is a wealthy lady but her estimated worth in total (£36 million ) wouldn't buy a half share of just one of the top Liverpool players.

Norwich will probably lose tonight and almost certainly get relegated come the season's end but each and every one of the kids I saw today in their Norwich shirts, their mums and dads, brothers, sisters and best mates will be talking for weeks about seeing the European and World club champions at their place.The club enjoys fanatical support, a really high and positive local profile with the media, business and full cooperation from the local authority.

I know why I believe GFC will never enjoy this level of football, success and popularity and it can be summed up in four initials. PDPS.

[gillsfan1066]

Pointer Driver Problem Solver , never knew we had one of them ??
It's simple, our owner is like the guy that goes to the casino with his mates , he has a hundred bucks in his pocket, and his mates all have a thousand bucks in their pockets.
He plays the 10 cents slots, wins a few bucks loses a few bucks and at the end of the evening has had a pretty miserable time but goes home with 60 bucks in his pocket.
His Buddies had a whale of a time, betting 30,40,50 bucks a hand at blackjack, playing roulette , shouting and laughing when they win, attracting the women, heading for the bar with a girl on their arm and some great story's to tell at work on Monday morning. Mr Scally or in this case Mr.10 cents says yeah, we all went to the casino Saturday night, those silly bastards came home broke, I came home with sixty quid in my pocket, what a clever thrifty guy I am.

[Garawa]

I do agree with you Rimshot however I cannot get past the fact that most of our fans purely cannot be bothered and have no interest in coming. Sad but true. So many are "boycotting" but can no longer justify why. Don't go by all means. Many live too far away or cannot afford tickets so there are plenty of reasons not to but many excuses simply no longer stack up.
"We can't watch the standard of football we play". If we include December's games, I believe it will probably be just us and Liverpool unbeaten in league football in the top 4 divisions!
"We can't go to home games when results are so poor". We are now unbeaten in 8 with 6 wins and 2 draws.
"We won't go whilst Steve Evans is there". Hard to disagree with, I can't stand the man, but he and Raynor have calmed down a LOT and cut out the silly talk.
"We won't line Scally's pockets when he won't invest in the side". Again, hard to disagree with but we have just bought a player for the first time since forever and the new-comers would normally be outside of our usual type of players we bring in.
"We won't go all the time Scally is there". Fair enough, but you will when West Ham comes and the ground is full!

That last bit for me is the proof. Most who stay away do so because of Scally yet are happy to sell out the ground for a West Ham. Results are superb yet they cannot be bothered but I guess they'd bite my hand off for a Wembley seat! A bit like Norwich I guess - easy to get a ton of support when a full-strength world champions Liverpool come to town. If that was us, I'd expect the same thing and suddenly Scally wouldn't be an issue. If the reasons people give were true, then they would either be flooding back with current results (which they aren't) or staying away for the big games as well as small (which they aren't). There are plenty of people in Medway but the majority are either not football fans or purely apathetic to the whole thing. I was speaking to RobPTheGills before the match and he said if people aren't coming back now, they never will. I don't see a change in ownership changing that at all.

[Garawa]

I don't think its just us either. Blackpool fans must be overjoyed at finally getting rid of the Oystons but the euphoria was short-lived judging by how empty their ground has been lately. Their fans are simply not enthused by sides like ours going up there compared to what they have been used to and perhaps too many Gills fans watch EPL games and the likes of Accrington have a similar impact. WHEN the EPL implodes (probably after the Championship does) suddenly clubs like ours would be highly desirable again.

[gillsfan1066]

I watched Wigan on the TV the other day, I kind of assumed it was being played behind closed doors, some sort of punishment for an offence they had committed.There is not a day that goes by without Sky Sport or BT Sport, NOT having a Premier Game or a Championship Game on the TV, even I am starting to get a bit bored with football. I had the Chelsea /Man Utd game on the TV yesterday, I don't think I watched more than 10 minutes of it , but I saw the two goals twenty seven thousand times, and come Saturday evening I can turn Sky Sport News on and in an hour see every goal scored in every division of the football league, without having to go and sit in the cold and wet of a February Saturday.
Step away from being a fanatical Gills supporter and just ask yourself as a part time Gills supporter for the last 20 years, why on God's Green Earth would you want to go to Priestfield Road to watch Gillingham play Rochdale or Tranmere, Burton or Shrewsbury in February , Leeds United, WBA, Fulham, Charlton oh yes, count me in.
Gillingham FC have had over a 100 years to get it right, Scally has had over 25 years and the only time we got into the Championship he refused to spend the money on players and managers to keep us there. He spends more money flying backwards and forwards to Dubai playing Mr Big Shot than he does buying players.
Can you imagine the guy lives in one of the richest countries in the World and he can't find ANYONE to invest a couple of million of their spare change to own a part of GFC. I lived in Dubai, and trust me the Streets ARE paved with Gold, but I guess the good folks in the Emirates dislike him as much as the good folks in the Medway Towns.
Almost 1.6 million people live in Kent,and no one lives more than an hour away (40 miles) and were the only professional team in the County, and we get gates of 4,000. Hell my family drives to Ashford to go shopping in some Mall for a couple of hours, but would not dream of driving a couple of miles to watch the Gills play a league game.
They have gone to Wembley each time and they did go to last years Cardiff game and they paid extra above the ticket price to go to the West Ham game , and when I asked why not go on a regular Saturday I was informed " Their Pants ", whatever that means ??
Gillinghams' average home attendance is 5,200, Lincoln's,9,000, Doncaster 8,200, Oxford 7,900, Tranmere 7,000 just to name a few, obviously our marketing department seems to be dragging it's feet , if we have one ?
I can not see it getting any better in the future, do any kids play soccer in the streets any more, hahaha, do they throw a couple of jackets on the ground at the park to make a goal anymore, seems to me that if it isn't on the telephone , tablet or laptop they don't know what it is ? Good luck to the Gills , lets pray you get into the Championship Division and Scally spends enough of the 7,000 crowds money to keep us there and we don't do a Luton or Barnsley, and come straight back down.

[Mooke]

I can only speak for myself.

I am a Gills exile.

I live in the UK SouthWest.

I would cost upwards of £150 just to get to Priestfield. Before I have bought ticket / programme / pie / pint / cough sweets to sort my throat after yelling at The Gordon Roaders to sit the feck back down …….

That is significant inroads into monthly income. I am on a better than average salary, but I'm not Dave and his birds. And if a lot of your support is exiled, well, theres a problem in itself.

Medway is An area to aspire away from, sadly.

[Mooke]

Actually, after that last of mine, it's a good time to affirm why I chose the Gills.

After all, I'm a Midlander by birth. And your choice is basically "Wolves-Derby-Leicsterster-Boing Boing-City-Villa-Sadlers-Notts County-Forest".

If you really want to stick a hand grenade up your arse, you could go Crewe ….

or if, you want to be want is known in the Midlands as a "reet smarmy git!" you can go all prawn sandwich.

I chose the Gills after or near miss in 93. Year I graduated. Shit. Long time now.

When I think of what happened to Bury, then I weep because clubs like ours have died trying to get promoted. We still have a club. Yet we as fans still want us to overexert ourselves. And the club may die trying. Do we really want the same?

[Rimshot]

Great win by Watford last night. Interesting case study really - I lived in Watford some years back and my best mate was a big Hornets fan, so I went to quite a few games. The team was crap, the ground was a dump, the crowds were sparse and there was a section of the fans who just shrugged and said, 'well, that's Watford, we're a small club, in a small town and too near London ever to be successful"
Ring any bells ?

[gillsfan1066]

250,000 people live in the Medway Towns, it would cost them the price of a pint to get to a bus to a Gills game. I.5 MILLION people all live within 40 miles of Priestfield,if they drive a damn Rolls Royce it's only going to cost them 20 quid to get to a game.
NO one expects Gills supporters who live in the Outer Hebrides, or the Scilly Isles to get to Gills games. Only true fans and those that hate being home with their wives and kids go to see Gillingham play Wimbledon in February, now Gillingham v West Ham ........sell out.
What ,WHAT we have home games against Accrington, and Tranmere coming up, and were playing for a 12th place finish on the season, WWWOOWWW let me get off here and go and join the line to see if I can get a couple of tickets to those two games.
Gillingham FC is like watching your favorite movie, you know how it is going to end ,but you kind of enjoy sitting there watching it, until the wife comes in wearing the new nightie she bought that afternoon, and the kids are at Grandma's and Grandpa's for the night, sod the movie, get me a beer girl and get over here let me see you in that.
Either Scally has to sell the club ( if anyone wants to buy it) or he has to empty his private stash and buy a couple of goal scorers, the defence we have this year and the keeper seem pretty damn good, were the second best team in the division for goals against, but we rank in the bottom four or five for goals scored, there is the season in a nutshell.
I can not understands why Evans could not see that and why we did nothing about it , there must have been players we could have loaned from other clubs at Christmas, or did Scally sit there on his hands, obstinately saying NO, wait until next season ,then you can have some more money for players, guess until Evans leaves the club we will never know ??

[Mooke]

Sell the club? Ok.

To whom?

We should remember our options here.

(1) PDSP sells. We get a buyer with deep pockets and money to burn.

Woohoo, but, there are still rules about spending based on your income. So if we follow the rules, we are still limited on plans based on no-one virtually turning up.

(2) PDSP sells, and a moron takes over. They don't have the resources, and they cannot deliver. THe clubs fails because they break the above rules, or make poor decisions on players. The attempt fails and we go under because the idiot loses interest in their play thing.

(3) PDPS holds on. We stay as we are and we continue.

It seems to me that there have over the years been a number of proponents of a "do or die" attempts on gaining promotion. This works if you can make it to the Premiership and then get parachute money when you get relegated. That stabilises you for quite a while and can fund your next attempt. but if you never made it there to begin with, you are not playing on a level playing field. As soon as your get to the Championship, you are up against teams with more financial firepower than you.

Parachute money, when it happens, must happen through the pyramid, and not stop at the championship. They have utterly distorted the game for the lower league teams.