Fans Forum - 2nd June at 7.30pm

[Curtis]

An opportunity for you to put your questions to the Manager & Club Board.

If you are not available you can submit questions in advance.

[GlenSTFC]

Looking forward to this and hopefully it’ll be a positive meeting. Would be great if this could be recorded for those who can’t make it, as realistically there won’t be more than 100 there so 600/700 regulars won’t have a clue what was said.

Edited May 15 by GlenSTFC
I’m an illiterate fool

[sdelane1357]

I can not make it but this should be.                                            Top Thread                                                Hope it goes well. 

             COYREBELS 

Edited June 1 by sdelane1357

[GlenSTFC]

Courtesy of Vinny Ryan.

My notes from the fans forum tonight . Hopefully they are coherent. 

=============

Fans Forum 2026

Directors: Simon, Ash and Tristan
Manager: Alan

Run time: 1 hour 30 mins 

Club Overview

Ash was happy with the season and were very please with the cup run and league position.  If we had been able to sustain our team we would have broken into the top half. 

We have had notable achievements across all age range and success has been very good.

Simon: We faced a lot of adversity with injuries but the goals we set last season to be a sustainable football club has been achieved. All things being equal it was a good season.

Ash spoke about Scott’s departure. Scott had a lot of interest in the years he was manager. We thought he might go last season when they got rid of their manager and there was dialogue with Aldershot. They always felt there could be a time when he was going to leave. 

Everything was done respectfully and professionally with Aldershot. We don’t think it could have ended any better. 

Regarding the appointment of Alan Julien the club have been monitoring different managers for a few years. We didn’t want to close any doors so did want to see what other applicants there were. 

They liked Alan as he was clear with his objectives and that he had adversity to deal with at Hampton. They also feel the human element was key and he fit that bill. 

We spoke to 30 people.  Face to face was less.  Alan was always the front runner after that, infectious personality and hungry to do this job. 

Alan Julien: Within hours he understood why so many positive things were said about the club. The strength of the football club is within the people here and he wants to build on that.  He has his ideas on how the game should be played and how we approach things. He give enthusiasm and a lot of energy. 

Questions

Can we provide some food such as hot dogs, fried chick and smash burgers?

Ash: we are always hungry engaging with local vendors and always are interested in bringing in different food and encourages fans to also advise on new vendors but would like to keep it local. 

ST prices have increased. Why?

Ash: It is costing us more to run and we have had minimal increases since they have been here and is in line with others.

What can we do to grow attendances?

There is one secret ingredient - winning games.  But the growth is not something that can just be switched on. They are working on growing the brand within the community with groups and religious group. 

There is a generational gap from the time away from the town.  Ash believes we should get 1500. 850/900 were what we were at this season. 

Most teams in the league saw a decrease in their attendances.

They are always open to any idea from
Fans and encourage suggestions too. 

We made 150k from FA Cup.  Half of that gone on pitch. 

We paid for Macclesfield to stay at Moxy and their coach.  That is not profit we made. 

Segregation

We have been proud of being a welcoming club.

We highlight fixtures we need to have segregation at start of the season. 

The club liaise with the safety office and the police are the ones who advise. We don’t choose to do it and arbour park is not built for segregation.

We not segregate because we want to and to make this better we would have to spend money. 

Still waiting for Maidenhead to apologise for the flare thrown.

Toilets

No water on the st Joseph’s side of the trip which is why we don’t have toilets there. It would be a long term project. 

Cost is exceeding 50k. 

The reality is whilst we could get water the cost is too much. They would add value to away fans but there alternatives that are less permanent. 

We have constantly explored how we manage that side of the ground but if we are going to spend money we need it to be more than 23 times of a year. 

We have to prioritise funds appropriately.

Club Shop

Work started on this soon. Should be ready for start to the season. 

70% club shop. 30% for supporters trust. 

Terracing and pitch. 

Ash; the demand isn’t there for the sides due to attendance .

Behind the goal - the money it would cost just isn’t a priority at this time. If we were getting 1500/1600 every week then maybe they would look at this.

As for the pitch: Ash doesn’t think this will last 10 years due the amount of usage.  Not willing to reduce the amount of usage. 

Current pitch failed only 1 of 5 tests. It passed for bounce and safety.

The pitch is the same product as Bedford Town. 

Football

Why style of football does Alan Julien prefer?

Alan: The best way to not concede so many goals is to keep the ball.  There will be a different style of play.  It’s important to be unpredictable but he wants to dominate the ball. 

As for systems: there is always a balance given whoever you are playing and you have to pay attention to who you are playing and their threats but there will be core heartbeat to how we play, 

Wants an energetic and attacking style of play. He wants to entertain. 

He likes to think he has a way of getting best out of players and has an assistant who has a great tactical brain. 

We have (as of today) brought in a sports scientist who the club think can give players optimal performance.

Question about women’s team - aim is to win the league next season. 

Playing Budget

Ash; Has been increased by 10%. Question asked to where we sit in budget for players in the national league south. 

When speaking to financial body for the league they believe a number of sides are not telling the truth so it’s hard to gauge. 

It’s not something that’s discussed open and widely. 

We are probably 16th-18th in the league of 24. 

Top 4 teams £1.2-1.4 million playing budget. 

We need to be full time in next 2 years to be competitive like that. Will we be able to do this? He doesn’t believe so. 

Eastbourne had the biggest budget in national league south last season. 

12 teams are full time /hybrid.

Ash asked us - what gives us the right to be in the top 4 if we only have 800-900 through the door?

Players

Three more players have been signed.  Will be announced this week. 

One is a goalkeeper.

There are certain deadlines where we have to make decisions on players who we are waiting for. 

We have 17 players in the squad and looking to bring in around 3 more.

Lots of discussions with players last season happened in January. Kiki was offered a contract then.  

Wiktor we felt was the best decision for the football club and we have a sell on clause.

A number of players have agents or “‘mentors”. It is a real challenge. They don’t get paid unless the player moves.

Ash says the players who left the football club would have left even if Scott had stayed. 

This is the first summer of where the have reaped the rewards of what we do, 3 of the players we have signed were offered significantly more money at other national league clubs. Because of what we have done we hold stronger cards and also putting things in place so they can’t walk away next summer. 

Ash states this wasn’t just a Scott Davies thing, it’s a Slough philosophy.

The message we are sending out is helping players choose us. 

70% of squad - Slough is their main source of income.

Majority of our new signings are on contract. 

Alan believes he has similar traits to Scott but he isn’t Scott Davies. He does things differently. He doesn’t like fan forums social media and we just have our different ways of doing stuff. 

Face to face he wants people to talk him and interact. He says this is our football club. 

Asked what the ambition is: Says he wants to win the league.  But obviously realistic and knows this would
Be hard. But he says nothing impossible and we will give our all to be successful.

Question was asked about what we made from Adam Debois, we made nothing at all. Ash was  surprised we had him as long as we did. He signed a trigger in his Gateshead contract that he would stay there if they stayed up. He didn’t expect them to but he’s now there for another year. 

As for Wiktor.  It’s undisclosed for a reason. But ash feels it was a fantastic deal with only 9 weeks on his contract. 

Future plans

Training ground -  Upton Park Court. Been in makings for 14 months. 

We are very close and ash believes the contract will be signed in 2-3 weeks.

22 acres. It’s not as new as arbour park and lots of improvements need to be made.  This deal also gives the rugby club a lifetime and we will also have other sports there to which was part of the deal with the council. 

September this year we need our junior teams playing there.  Grass pitches there to start with but need for 3G pitches in Slough. 

Ash pointed out that they have done some research online for fans who are heavily critical and want them to sign expensive players only to realise they have come once last season and it was a free ticket!   

Always open to criticism but does want people to be realistic.

[sdelane1357]

The new pitch not lasting 10 years as mentioned above so does that mean it's life span is likely to be  upto to 8 years only, as an example due to it's expected usage.

Will their be a plan put in place  to save for when it will need replacing in the future.

As said above half of the money to pay for it has come from the fa cup run.

What if we don't have a good cup run in the future where will the money come from then.

Or is it something not to be duly worried about.

Just asking.

Edited June 3 by sdelane1357

[codpiece]

I don’t think it’s something to be concerned about at the moment, perhaps the supporters trust could set up a fund for assisting with payment when it arises.

[Twyford Rebel]

2 hours ago, sdelane1357 said:

The new pitch not lasting 10 years as mentioned above so does that mean it's life span is likely to be  upto to 8 years only, as an example due to it's expected usage.

Will their be a plan put in place  to save for when it will need replacing in the future.

As said above half of the money to pay for it has come from the fa cup run.

What if we don't have a good cup run in the future where will the money come from then.

Or is it something not to be duly worried about.

Just asking.

I suspect the Board will be factoring that in to their annual budgetary plans. They knew when they took on the lease that there would be certain maintenance responsibilities.

[Reading Rebel]

3 hours ago, sdelane1357 said:

The new pitch not lasting 10 years as mentioned above so does that mean it's life span is likely to be  upto to 8 years only, as an example due to it's expected usage.

Will their be a plan put in place  to save for when it will need replacing in the future.

As said above half of the money to pay for it has come from the fa cup run.

What if we don't have a good cup run in the future where will the money come from then.

Or is it something not to be duly worried about.

Just asking.

Not 8 years but 5 years was mentioned.

It's been said before if we hadn't had our cup run this season how would the pitch be paid for.

Unless our owners didn't have some money saved up it would have to come from some sort of loan or sponsorship.

I'm sure being businessmen they will be planning how to pay for a new pitch when the time comes to replace it.

[sdelane1357]

9 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

Not 8 years but 5 years was mentioned.

It's been said before if we hadn't had our cup run this season how would the pitch be paid for.

Unless our owners didn't have some money saved up it would have to come from some sort of loan or sponsorship.

I'm sure being businessmen they will be planning how to pay for a new pitch when the time comes to replace it.

Yes I have mentioned it before leading up to the meeting.

[Curtis]

Presumably the reason the Club is advising the pitch might only last 8 years is because of very high usage, and very high usage should generate better revenue from its use, some of which should or could be set aside to replace the pitch in 8 years time.

So, it isn’t necessarily a negative that the pitch might need to be replaced again in 8 years time.

[Reading Rebel]

2 hours ago, Curtis said:

Presumably the reason the Club is advising the pitch might only last 8 years is because of very high usage, and very high usage should generate better revenue from its use, some of which should or could be set aside to replace the pitch in 8 years time.

So, it isn’t necessarily a negative that the pitch might need to be replaced again in 8 years time.

I'm sure Ash thought it was more than likely to last only 5 years because of the constant use.

But as you say more money will be taken in that time because of the usage.

 

Edited June 3 by Reading Rebel

[sdelane1357]

Is it the case that the chippings etc underneath will not have to be changed if safe.

As not like previously used so will have a longer life span than 5 years and it will only have to be the 4 or 5 g pitch carpet that would have to be laid

so the cost will not be so great.

Just asking.

COYREBELS 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 3 by sdelane1357

[Reading Rebel]

9 minutes ago, sdelane1357 said:

Is it the case that the chippings etc underneath will not have to be changed if safe as not like what was previously used so will have a longer life span than 5 years and it will only have to be the 4 or 5 g pitch carpet that would have to be laid

so the cost will not be so great.

Just asking.

COYREBELS 

 

 

 

 

Possibly but we can only go by what Ash said at last night's forum.

[Reading Rebel]

Interesting to hear that AJ's preferred style of play is possession football

'If they haven't got the ball they can't score'

Sounds a great idea but don't you have to have the right quality of players to play possession based football?

Hopefully it doesn't mean tippy tappy football played out from the back.

[HEAVY TRUCKER]

10 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Interesting to hear that AJ's preferred style of play is possession football

'If they haven't got the ball they can't score'

Sounds a great idea but don't you have to have the right quality of players to play possession based football?

Hopefully it doesn't mean tippy tappy football played out from the back.

and hopefully it doesn't mean kick and chase football either