It’s getting too expensive!

[C.V]

People wanted a smaller squad with more quality, we have that now and are paying decent wages.

And paying the price for it!!no strength in depth

[51/84]

eggs in one basket , but the eggs got broke!

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

People wanted a smaller squad with more quality, we have that now and are paying decent wages.

I thought having quality strikers and other players on the bench rather than on the pitch was the problem, not that we had too much dross.

Lets do a head count in terms of numbers.

Last season the midfield and attack options who started the season and were there the whole way through:
1. McG
2. Mo
3. Deering
4. Penn
5. Pack
6. Carter
7. Harrad
8. Duffy

for parts of the season we had (have I missed any?):
9. Goulding
10. Bags
11. Zebroski
12. Taylor (DM)
13. Taylor (AM)
14. D'ath
15. Benson
16. Harrison

This season we have started the season with:

1. McG
2. Vincent
3. Deering
4. Kotwica
5. Penn
6. Taylor
7. Richards
8. Gornell
9. Cureton
10. Harrison
11. Dale

and we have for part of the season:
12. Gillespie

So numbers are not far off, yet last season we had an overflow of good players on the bench, and this season we are having to utilise youth players and first year pros.

That suggests that for whatever reason the balance is not right - McG our only out and out wide man, with Vincent the only other suitable option (though he wants to play up front).

Granted Cureton and Gornell being injured is a blow, but a competitive squad would have four strikers minimum, which we do now with Stevie G back in Ruby.

[trickster]

I have not posted for a couple of weeks, I am finding the whole thing rather boring now – cant find the enthusiasm to go to WR (or ABS) come rain or shine, hell or high water.
Some of the comments on here have been laughable, a fair amount of it could be classed as knee jerk, but other comments about prices of admission and team formation and selection are frankly justified, MY is still no closer to knowing what his best XI or formation is.
When I was working money was in reasonable supply, now I am retired I can assure you it is not, and spending even OAP rates to watch the kind of drivel we saw yesterday will not be an option.
People say we had not lost a home league game since last September, a good record, but sadly how many of those games had us driving home with big smiles on our faces, not many – fact is there is very little entertainment value – certainly not worth the now exorbitant prices.
I am prepared to give Yates a while longer, but there is something wrong. If we have any ambitions we don’t find 2 or 3 games in that two senior pro’s have slapped in “send me out on loan” requests, and quite a few of yesterdays starting line up did not look arsed (or up to the job).
Team selection and tactics seem devoid of any common logic, we have a natural right winger on the left, a central midfielder on the right (when he could be arsed to stay there).
Hoof and hope seems to be plan A and plan B
Up until Christmas last year MY’s record of signings was excellent, but the signings of Taylor, Troy Brown, Vincent and Braham-Barrett do not cut the mustard.
We are told the budget is on a par with previous seasons, well I am sorry we are not seeing value for money – at times last season we had 6 or 7 players good enough for a starting position in reserve, the bench this season has been threadbare to say the least.
It seems MY falls out with players and heaven forbid anyone score a goal, it means the bench next week, as Duffy and Harrad found out, and the major supplier of assists last season (Jones) has also been frozen out.
There is no doubt the we are missing Marlon, but MY had all summer to find replacements for him and Mohamad – I doubt very much whether Vincent was ever his first layer target.
The other irritation I have with Yates is his interview technique – never makes eye contact and is generally fiddling with his facial stubble.
We have 2 away games which will ease the financial burden for those who do not travel to away games, it will be interesting to see what happens in those games, and let us hope Cureton and Gornell return soon.

Excellent great post, you have expressed your feelings and I totally agree with all your comments what worries me is how many more fans are out there that feel the same, we are just not getting value for our money, I don’t expect us to win ever week or even challenge for promotion every season, I just want to walk out of Whaddon road thinking that I’ve watched a good performance from our team win lose or draw more than once or twice in a season, but I keep getting this empty feeling inside and then think to myself what a load of rubbish.

If our team gets beaten by a better side or the other managers game plan is just too smart for us then there aint much you can do about that, but when our team looks unbalanced and some players quite frankly look as though they can’t be arsed then it hurts, at the end of the day “you pays your money and you takes your choice”, I personally need to start to enjoy it again or I’m off it’s just too expensive to waste time and good money on.

[Admin]

numbers are not far off

Difference of 4 = 1/3 of the attacking / midfield line up we had last year, which yes by the end of the season with loans / changes might not be far off but lets put some names across of those we have lost to those replacing them...

Mo……replaced by Vincent
Pack
Carter…replaced by Richards
Harrad…Cureton
Duffy…Gornell

"for parts of the season we had:"
Goulding
Bags
Zebroski…Gillespie
D'ath
Benson


Not wanting to put the two youth players in the above as not sure who they would have replaced really as not seen them play too much yet.

Kotwica
Dale


However, it shows we are missing

A Pack replacement.
A striker replacement of the Goulding / Benson / experienced level.
A D'ath replacement

this I believe we are lacking the quality / experience we had on the bench / starting XI last year.

I hope the gamble re the two youngsters pays off and that initial reports of them being good and ready for this level turn out to be true and they really do succeed.

Will we see any more come in before end of August / deadline day or is this now the full squad intended to "go with what we got now"??? A question for JP perhaps to ask MY - although early indications are the budget is spent and its only loans from now on if the need arises...

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Good point Admin.

[51/84]

I think you will find that Richards was the Pack replacement
So no Carter replacement
I think Callum Morris could be the Pack replacement
Also your logic is slightly off Zebroski went as did Goulding and Benson filled a gap but we brought in Harrison so that was the replacement

One midfielder light now we have 4 strikers - how much game time did Dath get
Bags is obviously replaced by Zak

[Robin]

Richards replaced Pack and in my opinion is a better all round footballer. Also how many other clubs in this league have better forward options than Curo/Gornell/Gilly/Harrison?

To me our 'problems' are on the wing at the moment, Deering is clearly not a winger and playing him there is leaving us lop sided (see Chesterfield). Jermaine is off form and I am unconvinced by Vincent so we are relying upon Zack who has at least looked promising.

I would also say Yates needs to look at himself, we constantly hear it's the players fault but he has been given a decent budget and still cannot mould a consistent and balanced team.

[Admin]

Ok. The actual point I was trying to get across to RCS which I believe he understood is that although we say number wise we have replaced them, we haven't quality wise in some areas be it first team or bench.

How you align the names across to each leaver / replacement is up to you but it leaves a gap of an experienced person that has left and not been replaced.

[Nesty]

I have not posted for a couple of weeks, I am finding the whole thing rather boring now – cant find the enthusiasm to go to WR (or ABS) come rain or shine, hell or high water.
Some of the comments on here have been laughable, a fair amount of it could be classed as knee jerk, but other comments about prices of admission and team formation and selection are frankly justified, MY is still no closer to knowing what his best XI or formation is.
When I was working money was in reasonable supply, now I am retired I can assure you it is not, and spending even OAP rates to watch the kind of drivel we saw yesterday will not be an option.
People say we had not lost a home league game since last September, a good record, but sadly how many of those games had us driving home with big smiles on our faces, not many – fact is there is very little entertainment value – certainly not worth the now exorbitant prices.
I am prepared to give Yates a while longer, but there is something wrong. If we have any ambitions we don’t find 2 or 3 games in that two senior pro’s have slapped in “send me out on loan” requests, and quite a few of yesterdays starting line up did not look arsed (or up to the job).
Team selection and tactics seem devoid of any common logic, we have a natural right winger on the left, a central midfielder on the right (when he could be arsed to stay there).
Hoof and hope seems to be plan A and plan B
Up until Christmas last year MY’s record of signings was excellent, but the signings of Taylor, Troy Brown, Vincent and Braham-Barrett do not cut the mustard.
We are told the budget is on a par with previous seasons, well I am sorry we are not seeing value for money – at times last season we had 6 or 7 players good enough for a starting position in reserve, the bench this season has been threadbare to say the least.
It seems MY falls out with players and heaven forbid anyone score a goal, it means the bench next week, as Duffy and Harrad found out, and the major supplier of assists last season (Jones) has also been frozen out.
There is no doubt the we are missing Marlon, but MY had all summer to find replacements for him and Mohamad – I doubt very much whether Vincent was ever his first layer target.
The other irritation I have with Yates is his interview technique – never makes eye contact and is generally fiddling with his facial stubble.
We have 2 away games which will ease the financial burden for those who do not travel to away games, it will be interesting to see what happens in those games, and let us hope Cureton and Gornell return soon.

Excellent great post, you have expressed your feelings and I totally agree with all your comments what worries me is how many more fans are out there that feel the same, we are just not getting value for our money, I don’t expect us to win ever week or even challenge for promotion every season, I just want to walk out of Whaddon road thinking that I’ve watched a good performance from our team win lose or draw more than once or twice in a season, but I keep getting this empty feeling inside and then think to myself what a load of rubbish.

If our team gets beaten by a better side or the other managers game plan is just too smart for us then there aint much you can do about that, but when our team looks unbalanced and some players quite frankly look as though they can’t be arsed then it hurts, at the end of the day “you pays your money and you takes your choice”, I personally need to start to enjoy it again or I’m off it’s just too expensive to waste time and good money on.

sadly this happens too often.. how many times have we seen the opposition manager make tactical changes during the game, and MY seems to have no answer.

[C.V]

Thats terrible Nesty we all know plan B is to hoof it higher than plan A

[robinsrule]

Splitting the league into north and south would be a waste of time. Now Carlisle are gone our longest trip oop North must be York - which I reckon takes about 3 hours, no longer than it takes to get to Southend or Gillingham if you hit London traffic. If we were any of those clubs then I'd agree with you, but with the possible exception of Oxford we have less aggregate travelling than any other fans in the league.

In summary, stop moaning about the cost and the distance of attending our games because every other fan in the league has it at least as bad as us! If they have cheaper home tickets they'll still have to fork out more for away games. By my reckoning, with petrol/train fares added in, we are possibly the cheapest club in the league if you go to every game.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Splitting the league into north and south would be a waste of time. Now Carlisle are gone our longest trip oop North must be York - which I reckon takes about 3 hours, no longer than it takes to get to Southend or Gillingham if you hit London traffic. If we were any of those clubs then I'd agree with you, but with the possible exception of Oxford we have less aggregate travelling than any other fans in the league.

In summary, stop moaning about the cost and the distance of attending our games because every other fan in the league has it at least as bad as us! If they have cheaper home tickets they'll still have to fork out more for away games. By my reckoning, with petrol/train fares added in, we are possibly the cheapest club in the league if you go to every game.

Hartlepool is another hour north of York so that will be the furthest, but aside from that you are probably right. Burton must be contenders as well but I had never really thought about it until your post but it seems fairly spot on.

I suppose that is why we get fairly big away crowds at Whaddon as for some teams it's a relatively short trip to Cheltenham.

[Alf]

I have not posted for a couple of weeks, I am finding the whole thing rather boring now – cant find the enthusiasm to go to WR (or ABS) come rain or shine, hell or high water.
Some of the comments on here have been laughable, a fair amount of it could be classed as knee jerk, but other comments about prices of admission and team formation and selection are frankly justified, MY is still no closer to knowing what his best XI or formation is.
When I was working money was in reasonable supply, now I am retired I can assure you it is not, and spending even OAP rates to watch the kind of drivel we saw yesterday will not be an option.
People say we had not lost a home league game since last September, a good record, but sadly how many of those games had us driving home with big smiles on our faces, not many – fact is there is very little entertainment value – certainly not worth the now exorbitant prices.
I am prepared to give Yates a while longer, but there is something wrong. If we have any ambitions we don’t find 2 or 3 games in that two senior pro’s have slapped in “send me out on loan” requests, and quite a few of yesterdays starting line up did not look arsed (or up to the job).
Team selection and tactics seem devoid of any common logic, we have a natural right winger on the left, a central midfielder on the right (when he could be arsed to stay there).
Hoof and hope seems to be plan A and plan B
Up until Christmas last year MY’s record of signings was excellent, but the signings of Taylor, Troy Brown, Vincent and Braham-Barrett do not cut the mustard.
We are told the budget is on a par with previous seasons, well I am sorry we are not seeing value for money – at times last season we had 6 or 7 players good enough for a starting position in reserve, the bench this season has been threadbare to say the least.
It seems MY falls out with players and heaven forbid anyone score a goal, it means the bench next week, as Duffy and Harrad found out, and the major supplier of assists last season (Jones) has also been frozen out.
There is no doubt the we are missing Marlon, but MY had all summer to find replacements for him and Mohamad – I doubt very much whether Vincent was ever his first layer target.
The other irritation I have with Yates is his interview technique – never makes eye contact and is generally fiddling with his facial stubble.
We have 2 away games which will ease the financial burden for those who do not travel to away games, it will be interesting to see what happens in those games, and let us hope Cureton and Gornell return soon.

Excellent great post, you have expressed your feelings and I totally agree with all your comments what worries me is how many more fans are out there that feel the same, we are just not getting value for our money, I don’t expect us to win ever week or even challenge for promotion every season, I just want to walk out of Whaddon road thinking that I’ve watched a good performance from our team win lose or draw more than once or twice in a season, but I keep getting this empty feeling inside and then think to myself what a load of rubbish.

If our team gets beaten by a better side or the other managers game plan is just too smart for us then there aint much you can do about that, but when our team looks unbalanced and some players quite frankly look as though they can’t be arsed then it hurts, at the end of the day “you pays your money and you takes your choice”, I personally need to start to enjoy it again or I’m off it’s just too expensive to waste time and good money on.

sadly this happens too often.. how many times have we seen the opposition manager make tactical changes during the game, and MY seems to have no answer.

Agree entirely with these posts and so many punters are saying the same.
I will happily eat my hat and the rest of the wardrobe if we gain promotion but the comment I really agree with is the one about entertainment at home last season.

[51/84]

so what do want entertainment or results

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

so what do want entertainment or results

either - but last season was mostly neither (0-0 and 1-1 hoof-ball against cannon fodder sides), with the exception of entertaining wins!

[Joey]

One of the most entertaining games last season was Gillingham at home, one of the least entertaining games the season before that was.....Gillingham at home. It's a double-edged sword when it comes to premium games.

[Alf]

so what do want entertainment or results

either - but last season was mostly neither (0-0 and 1-1 hoof-ball against cannon fodder sides), with the exception of entertaining wins!

Exactly.
I wasn't aware there was a choice.

[taxidave]

Sorry for starting a thread about the cost of watching football but I can’t find the others.
£18 to stand on the terraces yesterday (I didn’t purchase a season ticket this year), this premium match malarkey is a rip off, so I may need come up with my own selection of matches the ones I will actually attend.

It’s all getting too expensive I bought my West Ham ticket which was very reasonable but then I was disappointed at the coach ticket price £17, it’s ok someone now trying to justify the cost but it will be people like me they will lose in the end a fan of more decades than I care to let on.

Sorry to go back to this one but I see on the CoF that neil was quoting £15 for coach travel to Leamington, now that is expensive and puts our price into perspective.
No wonder they do not get many fans travelling if they charge those prices.

[Shade]

I do wonder if half of the people that post on here are football fans or just fairweather glory boys who like nothing more than to moan about anything they can think of when the last result was a defeat or disappointing draw.

Cue more moaning.

[CTFC03]

The travel club prices have always been pretty reasonable in my eyes, even for the longer journeys. I cannot remember a single match that I went to on the supporters coach where I had to pay more than £20 as a non member.

[Neil]

Would be better to split every league into a North and South to reduce costs for clubs and fans.

Ask Gloucester how that worked out!

yes obviously it would need to be done by someone with more than 3 brain cells

Not you then!

RCS makes a valid point which you've glossed over.

[Neil]

Sorry for starting a thread about the cost of watching football but I can’t find the others.
£18 to stand on the terraces yesterday (I didn’t purchase a season ticket this year), this premium match malarkey is a rip off, so I may need come up with my own selection of matches the ones I will actually attend.

It’s all getting too expensive I bought my West Ham ticket which was very reasonable but then I was disappointed at the coach ticket price £17, it’s ok someone now trying to justify the cost but it will be people like me they will lose in the end a fan of more decades than I care to let on.

Sorry to go back to this one but I see on the CoF that neil was quoting £15 for coach travel to Leamington, now that is expensive and puts our price into perspective.
No wonder they do not get many fans travelling if they charge those prices.

Have to cover costs. Coach would've been £10 but not bothering now.

[Malabus]

Neil get your 11 global fanbase on their pushbikes like I did in 2010.

Regards from Belgrade, Serbia.

[trickster]

Having had time to think about it I’ve realised that I probably haven’t moved with inflation, having travelled to away games from 1990 until 2007 and only missing 3 away games between 1995 and 2006 I have forgotten how prices have gone up in the last few years, up until 2006 I cannot remember paying over £10 for the away coach and we had undoubtedly one of the cheapest away day coaches I actually posted that on one of our previous web sites in about 2004, I suppose nearly 7 years on from my retired away day travelling £17 for the coach isn’t too bad.

But it doesn’t change my original thoughts that a young family with one breadwinner most couldn’t afford to become a regular away day supporter, take for instance our August away day fixtures Chesterfield, Accrington, West Ham and Bury for a single adult that must cost approximately £68 minus £8 for members just to get to the match on the coach, on average £20 (West Ham only £10) to get into the ground, then of course the cost of refreshments, so being very conservative and say £10 for refreshment (I realise many would spend much more but that’s their choice) so approximately/roughly £60 travelling £70 entrance £40 refreshments total£170.

For most singles that like a pint before the game I would say that cost £170 would be more like £200 so that works out to £50 for an away match, like I said and I stress it’s only my opinion but it’s far too expensive for what it is.

[taxidave]

While I can understand your point of view regarding a single breadwinner in a family finding away travel expensive I do feel you were a tad out of order when you said that those people who did travel to most away games should find something better to do with their lives.

that's for people with not much going on in their lives

[trickster]

I can understand your reaction to my statement, it's all about the way I've worded it, if I'd said "only people that are in the fortunate position to be able to go" it wouldn't have ruffled any feathers, but I said what I said because I believed I was starting to get an undeserved attack and no real debate, I've now picked out the comments that are on topic and I realise there is a good argument against what I've said, and I believe that is what debate is all about listening to the other persons point of view sometimes it can change your own opinion.

[leohoenig]

Now here's a thought. I am an hourly paid contractor - that means I get paid according to the number of hours worked and I have booked Tuesday and Wednesday off for this game. then there is the ticket, (£10), train fares, taxi to and from the station (its 3 miles and unlit), programme and a pint of beer (or two). Estimate cost of trip £600. Well worth it, i reckon

[taxidave]

Mine works out at a lot less than yours Leo, just £11 train fare, £6 underground, £12 beer, £10 match ticket and £13 return coach fare. Which works out at about trickster's estimate for an away game.

[leohoenig]

..but when you were working Dave, one day off would have been the same as me taking two days off now

[51/84]

taxidave which coach are you on, I hope its the pensioners bus

[taxidave]

taxidave which coach are you on, I hope its the pensioners bus

Coach 4 on the way back.

[confused.com]

Do you have life insurance, Phil? Because if you do, you could always use a little more, I mean, who couldn't? But let me tell something - I got's a feeling you ain't got any. Am I right or am I right or am I right?

I got you babe

[taxidave]

Do you have life insurance, Phil? Because if you do, you could always use a little more, I mean, who couldn't? But let me tell something - I got's a feeling you ain't got any. Am I right or am I right or am I right?

I got you babe

[C.V]

Do you have life insurance, Phil? Because if you do, you could always use a little more, I mean, who couldn't? But let me tell something - I got's a feeling you ain't got any. Am I right or am I right or am I right?

I got you babe

Am l missing something here who the hell is Phil and why are we worried about his life insurance