Vance calls on club to change
TONY VANCE says his club have become 'plodders' and his beloved Green Lions have to change the way they operate and focus more on improving the on-field product.
With his team just one place off the bottom of the Isthmian South-Central division, five straight defeats behind them and diminishing squad options, he says now is the time for the club to seriously look inwardly at itself.
‘I’ve realised we have started to take a dangerous route and gone back to the norm, just plodding along,’ he said on the latest Guernsey Press football podcast.
‘We need to re-evaluate the product, the offering and the whole package to understand where we want to get to, where we are going and where we are at.
‘If we are not challenging ourselves we will keep plodding.’
Without spelling it out exactly, that means a move into semi-professionalism and finding income to tie players down to the commitment rival clubs enjoy.
‘I think it is really important to look at oneself in the mirror and understand that actually we need to do more and from the playing perspective, which is my aspect, I think we are just plodding or starting to plod. The danger signs are there.
‘We need to set the bar even higher and if we don’t challenging our football product in the right way we will continue plodding.’
Vance argues that opposition teams will have 16 to 18 players who do not have to be asked to come training and asked if they are available at the weekend. The big difference is that they are being paid.
‘If they are not being paid, they want to be paid and play at that level. So the manager knows they are going to be there [at training].
‘We are not in that situation unfortunately and while we are a very successful looking football club, very slick to the naked eye, the product is really good, but in football terms at the moment we are amateurs in a semi-professional world.’
Vance said he could easily say he has had enough but he is not a quitter and wants to oversee change.
‘It is up to me to lead on this...but ultimately there are some things that could be put in place and I think there is a complete [club] review we need to look at, more medium term than short term.
‘We have got a few ideas we have got which we will be looking at for sure.
‘I am not finished yet but I don’t want to just carry on plodding.’
‘I have the opportunity, I feel, to change things. We need change in our football playing structure so I am not going anywhere until I can try and achieve that and see if it makes a difference.’
He knows finding the additional income required will be far form easy.
With the club having to fork out close £200k a season to fund travel costs for not only their own side but every visiting team, GFC are already having to find substantial amounts just to survive.
But, said their coach, they will need to unearth more funding to achieve what he wants.
‘For me it is all about the result, all about the team and if the team is not winning the crowds will be less which financially will hurt us.’
That is why the move to a new stadium at Victoria Avenue will ultimately help provide extra revenue.
‘Footes Lane is a wonderful facility but we don’t make any money from it and rugby are in a great position that they have got the bar down there. The Siam Cup earns them tens of thousands of pounds, but we have to look at other ways.’
