Tony K - an open letter

[raficooper]

I emailed this letter to the club today. I look forward to hearing back. It saddens me.

Dear Tony,

It saddens me to say this, but I don’t think I’m going to come back after Tuesday night. I’ve been a season ticket holder since 1990 and have never before given up, but I just can’t face it any more.

When I started coming to watch the club, it was a joy – it was friendly, warm atmosphere and you always believed that if they scored 4, we’d score 5. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was homely. I grew up from the age of 7 watching Barnet. I chose Barnet over Tottenham.

I always thought that I’d take my kids to Barnet too. Now I’m on the brink of fatherhood and it just wouldn’t be fair on my future offspring. The love that I have for the club has been just replaced by anger and frustration. Every single week.

So why am I going to give up now?

The Hive is miles away from me – I understand the decision made and I think you did the right thing. In fact, I think you’re a good chairman and I believe that the club would have died long ago without you. But things have to change. I’d rather go somewhere cheaper and more friendly. I’d rather go to Hendon – I bet the atmosphere there is better. It can’t be any worse.

The standard of football this season has been dire. You’ve hired three genuinely awful managers. I think the final straw for me was seeing Mauro Vilhete hauled off with Ryan Watson maintained. I don’t blame you for this – you’re just the chairman! But Mauro is the heart and soul of the club (will he be offered a testimonial??) and to see our best, more creative, most hardworking player withdrawn whilst Watson is retained just broke me. A man who can’t kick, can’t jump, can’t run was kept on whilst our longest serving and best player was subbed was a decision that was beyond baffling. Why in the transfer window did we not get a replacement for some of the deadwood that has been retained?! Why have we been left with such a thin squad when we apparently spend so much on them? We now have a sub-par Conference squad. We might even go down again next year. Who does the player recruitment?

What capped it off for me was to see Dan Sweeney get into a row with the fans. It was pathetic. I don’t buy the ‘it showed he cared’ line – it’s unprofessional and I think that a formal apology is the very least that should be offered. You don’t go to football to be verbally abused by the players!

What’s happened to all of the people with a genuine connection to the club? Where is Graz? Or Gary Phillips? Or even Paul Fairclough? These people loved the club and need to rebuild it.

The heart and soul has been ripped out and I can’t watch that happen any more. Unless I get some answers, you’ve not just lost a fan of 28 years, you’ve lost the next generation. There was a book written about Barnet in the early 90s – ‘The Club That Wouldn’t Die.’ Unless things change, quickly, I think the exact opposite will be true..

I would be happy to have an open, frank, honest and hopefully positive conversation about this. I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Best wishes,

Rafi Cooper

[DerekRocholl]

As flounces go 6 out of 10 for technical merit 12 out of 10 for style.

Bringing in as yet unborn Bees was top notch work.

Congratulations BTW

[John_c]

As flounces go 6 out of 10 for technical merit 12 out of 10 for style.

Bringing in as yet unborn Bees was top notch work.

Congratulations BTW

I concur. Top notch flouncing.

I use Tapatalk like the cool kids

[chesbee]

I too have emailed the club and look forward to receiving a response

[Milkfloat]

Whilst I understand people's frustration - I share it as well - I think we need to put things in context. In the Barry Fry days, we became a big fish in a small(ish) pond due to Fat Sam's money. Thats why were able to splash the cash and build an entertaining, high scoring team. This was unsustainable though and the club went bust. It was spending money it did not have. We then became a small fish in a big pond. Aside from the odd half decent season and short periods when we unearthed a few rough diamonds (Albert, Puncheon), the football since then has mostly been functional at best. Its the odd days when we suddenly hit form and confound expectations that keep most of us coming back.

The move from Underhill was sad but the club now appears to be sustainable financially and this gives it the chance to be a slightly bigger fish. I don't actually think we would have ever got back into the league had we not moved as we would not have had the resources to compete with the bigger teams in the Conference who, unlike the Barry Fry days, are now mainly full time. We lost badly on Tuesday but we will bounce back eventually. I and others will keep coming back. I don't expect the football will be great for a lot of the time but that is what the game is like at this level. I'd still take it over Premier League fare - its real football for real fans. It is gloriously unpredicatble but you need to accept that this is not always in a way that we want. COYB!

[barnet34]

The least that T K can do is explain that January transfer window catastrophe to us, which has almost certainly relegated us. Forest green signed 5 players in the first week, it's obvious they had already prepared the groundwork, why didn't we?

[BeesKnees]

Pointless. What is TK going to say that would make a difference?

You know what the club now is. The choice is yours whether you accept it or not.

[ninestein]

I understand people's frustrations. When that 2nd Carlisle goal went in I felt so deflated. I had no energy to sing nor shout. I was just sitting there feeling empty. It was freezing cold and I'd left my pregnant wife at home for the evening, although i would add she was happy for me to go...

Somehow we need to try and get back to basics in certain areas. It feels like we try to re-invent the wheel and make a point of doing things differently at this club. All very well trying to set trends, but what's the point if the first XI isn't up to the task?

The club has to re-engage with the fans and enjoy some relative success on the field. Make it exciting again for people to come week in week out. Carlisle aside, we have looked better of late, but we don't look like scoring enough goals. Goals excite the paying public, and shock horror, they win matches!

As much as I'd love us to pull off a great escape, we can't hide from the fact that our fanbase right now is at NL level. The club as a whole is still a big fish in that division, but only a tiddler in the FL. Rewind to the mid 90s and maybe you wouldn't say that, but the game has moved on. Take our opponents this weekend as an example. Colchester Utd could be seen as a L1 or L2 club given their support level, facilities and playing squad, Whereas we are somewhere in between L2 and NL. Because we are well set up off the field, we could actually survive as a yo-yo club, so long as enough fans tolerate it over a period of time.

A lot of us seem resigned to the fact we will go down. If we do, I'd happily settle for a couple of seasons flirting with the playoffs and some live games on TV. A good opportunity to redress the loss of our core support by hopefully seeing a winning side every other week. Dare i say it, we could take the FA trophy seriously and enjoy a trip to Wembley. That sort of thing can do wonders for bringing young fans in. We need to grow our fanbase if we want to come back up stronger

But if we do survive this season, i would encourage Westley or whoever is at the helm to really look at a clear out and start rebuilding this squad to be less of a one-dimensional team. We rely on Akinde far too much, and with the transfer window now closing on the eve of the season, it's even more imperative that we act sooner in the close season to sort this squad out.

[beew]

Don't blame the players, blame the people who signed them and put them on the pitch in our shirt. Until this is addressed we're going nowhere.

[letchbee94]

I had an issue that I was not happy about (nothing to do with the playing side of things) and was going to email Tony, I did phone the club to speak to someone about my issue and said I was thinking of emailing TK, they later phoned me back and after this person had a meeting with TK (about something else not my issue) he did bring my thing up at the end though and TK sorted it out and sent his apologies and that he appreciates my support.
So that was much appreciated and all is good.

[DerekRocholl]

Pleased to hear TK has made your thing better Chris !

Great entry for cryptic post of the year!

[hoofer2]

I had an issue that I was not happy about (nothing to do with the playing side of things) and was going to email Tony, I did phone the club to speak to someone about my issue and said I was thinking of emailing TK, they later phoned me back and after this person had a meeting with TK (about something else not my issue) he did bring my thing up at the end though and TK sorted it out and sent his apologies and that he appreciates my support.
So that was much appreciated and all is good.

I second this. Over our time at the Hive I have had various issues with merchandise, tickets, memberships etc. And was amazed at how often TK got personally involved to resolve things that are minor compared to running of the cub. I cannot agree that he does not care about the football side, but think we would benefit from him delegating more. GW has galvanised things, but we were in freefall before he joined and it takes more than a couple of players to stop the rot.

[pgbee]

The January transfer window fiasco was excused by FFP rules by my recollection, constrained presumably by the fact no one wanted the L2 24th placed club's cast offs or youngsters, probably fair judges.
Another point to remember, there are several bigger clubs in the NL(and below) and better financed ( e.g. Fylde , if they stay there and when they come up, Salford) than we are. Many are former long standing League clubs mixed with poorly supported 'smaller' clubs that have built their success on teamwork from tea lady to chairman to first team.

[dawat]

Well I haven't written an open or indeed closed letter. Frankly I see little point. As an older (some would say elderly) fan I have found it incredible that as early as late last Summer I could see the problems emerging in the team yet the club's so called professionals who would have sniggered at my comments did not! I do not claim to be a source of football wisdom but how can it be that I was so right and they were so wrong, it defies belief!
When we started the season I complained about the lack of replacing our midfield defensive leader, but a couple of good results meant that was not a problem that needed addressing, right?
After suffering all those injuries and beginning to slide down the table, I suggested we needed urgently to bring in some seasoned free agents to bolster the midfield and elsewhere. Again not considered necessary, so the slide continued!
All would be well once we had our injured players back in the team. My own view was that we could not wait to see when these players returned or indeed even dangerous to assume that they would return either match fit or playing to their pre-injury standard. These fears have mostly proven to be all too true. As much as I admire JA, only a deluded optimist would try pretending he is currently any more than half the player we eagerly awaited to return from injury. It is not JA's fault, it just takes time for players to recover their fitness, form and confidence and its wrong to place so much reliance on him after an injury.
Why were players not considered good enough to occasionally sit on the subs bench, suddenly crucial to the first team selection and now remain on the pitch when other better players are hauled off in games?
Why when the last chance saloon of the January window arrived did we yet again appear to wait until the last minute to sign and loan players, players who largely remain unused? How many seasons have I seen when our club seem to be last in the queue to sign players?
Why is the club's pre-season normally lasting into August if not later, year in year out?
Why does it seem (maybe I'm wrong) that when we need a specific type of player we always bring in one who plays in a position that already has too many alternatives?
I will not touch on our management team or the professional pride of some of our players other than to say that they really do need to ask if they would employ themselves if they were the Chairman of another football league club?
We all make mistakes and we all have off days, but there comes a point when you have to question what is really going on at our club at times and whether or no not they deserve to be playing to an empty Hive!

[#Beebot]

I had an issue that I was not happy about (nothing to do with the playing side of things) and was going to email Tony, I did phone the club to speak to someone about my issue and said I was thinking of emailing TK, they later phoned me back and after this person had a meeting with TK (about something else not my issue) he did bring my thing up at the end though and TK sorted it out and sent his apologies and that he appreciates my support.
So that was much appreciated and all is good.

I second this. Over our time at the Hive I have had various issues with merchandise, tickets, memberships etc. And was amazed at how often TK got personally involved to resolve things that are minor compared to running of the cub. I cannot agree that he does not care about the football side, but think we would benefit from him delegating more. GW has galvanised things, but we were in freefall before he joined and it takes more than a couple of players to stop the rot.

On the footballing side of things he has massively over-delegated. Loads of staff getting in each other's way.