Billy Whizz's Wonderboys chairman Jack Richardson presented fans with his vision for the club in a supporters forum session at Shitters Palace tonight, before the first XI secured a place in the 6th round of the English Cup, beating Silverton 3-0.
Mr Richardson started the fans forum by thanking the fans for their continued support for the team, emphasizing their important role in the day to day running of the club. Supporters then asked questions to Mr Richardson, some of which can be seen below:
Q. The club is currently in the relegation zone. How important to you is it that the club remain in Division 5, and would you consider a change of manager to ensure that would happen?
JR: I truly believe it would be the best for the club if we stayed in Division 5, but it wouldn't be ann absolute disaster if we go down, I'm sure we would sort something out if that was the case. However, we are definitely not wanting that situation to occur. Billy wouldn't be sacked, you've got to consider all he's done here at the club since it started, and he hasn't done a bad job at all this season. Recently things have been picking up, and I think over the last couple of weeks, confidence has returned to this place, I really do. Some of the fear has gone, and we're confident we can secure our place in Division 5 for next season.
Q. With the club struggling near the bottom of the table, why have no new signings been made to aid the team's cause?
JR: Many signings were made this year, and for a club of our size, it is very difficult to pay for a nigh on continuous stream of 20m+ players. Earlier this year we bought Shehata, who we are very excited about here. He has a great future ahead of him, thats for sure, but we can't keep paying that sort of money, and it's very difficult to get players of the standard we need for less than that. Billy and I are scouring the transfer market nearly every day, but we can't afford another 20m signing. The cup run has helped us a bit, and hopefully that can continue, but it's not all about signing players either. We need to develop our training ground. We have 6/7 young players at the club, and the higher the TG we have, the better they will be, and the young players who will come after them.
Q. Has anything been made of the club's international ventures that were being widely acclaimed last season? Can the fans expect international players to arrive at Shitters Palace in the near future?
JR: We wrote the the Trophy Manager Association, and they liked the idea, but said it would be too difficult to incorperate at this moment in time. It's a shame, but it's not something the club could enforce without the TMA. This season, we have been focussing on our domestic situation, and the design and implentation of the blog, but hopefully in the near future we can continue our communications with our international friends.
Q. The team's blog has been a moderate success, how do you view the future of that?
JR: The launch of the blog is something the club should be proud of. Very few teams in England have blogs, its a rather untapped market over here. In Brazil it is very popular. We are trying to secure funding for advertisements on the blog, and this could enable us to launch a unique club website. At the minute, thats a long way away, but thats what the club plans. The next couple of months will be make or break for the future of these plans I believe, we shall have to see what happens. I am very happy with the blog at the minute though, the design team have done a very good job.
Q. With the club's star players getting older, is there any chance they could be sold before they retire?
JR: The club has never had to cash in on its first team players before, and I hope it never will have to. Fans can be assured, that unless something rather radical comes to our attention, our aging star players will not be sold. We hope Luke Groves, and Maurice Meredith finish their careers at Shitters Palace.
A full house then saw the Wonderboys comfortably see off Silverton, with Luke Groves (2) and Mick Richards bagging the goals for the hosts. The Whizzers return to Shitters Palace on Boxing Day, to play Arsene-All FC in a league fixture.