The Numbers Game

Somehow the man from the Non Leageu Paper managed to award Ebbsfleet keeper Lance Cronin nine points out of ten.

Why? What did he do?

I checked my notes on the game and found my initial impression was correct-he was hardly inundated with on-target shots from Wrexham! He did win a couple of important fifty-fifties on the edge of his box, but the only save he had to make was deep in injury time when he denied Gareth Taylor from twelve yards.

It was, indeed, a good stop, although it's hard to give him too much credit for it as his horrible error led to the chance in the first place; he ran to the corner flag to take a free kick but thumped it against one of his defenders, the ball ricocheting into the box!

There was one other save he had to make, of course. Lamine Sakho's goal was driven across him from the edge of the box, and although he got a good touch on the ball he couldn't take enough pace off it to prevent the goal. At half time a few local reporters suggested he had made an excellent save and had been unlucky; as an ex-keeper myself I saw it rather differently. If I'd got so much onto a shot and it had still got through me I would have been furious with myself, and I assure you I wasn't a professional!

I'm not the only one present at the match who thought that if a player deserved a nine, it was Chris Maxwell, who made three excellent (and better) saves to earn a clean sheet and three points. He only got a seven.

I'm not saying this to attack any particular reporter, publication or player, I hasten to add. Quite the opposite; anyone who sticks their head over the parapet and gives their opinion on a public event ought to be respected for doing so, and it's not as if I have a monopoly on being correct about football! My concern is that sometimes fans who weren't at the game can be mislead badly by the media.

I think we're pretty lucky at Wrexham. The local papers offer genuinely considered reports, certainly far better than some I see in other publications, and the Non League Paper offers an excellent overview of Conference matters. You can get a very odd impression of what went on when following a game from afar though.

The points out of ten system has been around for a while, and is taken extremely seriously in Italy, where it has developed into something approaching an art form. In Britain it's far more slapdash. I've often seen reporters ask someone from the Wrexham contingent to give marks out of ten for our team. Ive been asked myself. Incredible; how difficult is it to watch a game and only look at one side!

The problem is that our impressions of what happened at a match can be governed by someone pulling facts and figures out of mid-air. We're lucky to have an analytical press when it comes to match reporting, and should always scrutinise the source of information on a game before assuming it's correct.

Ebbsfleet Podcast

The Ebbsfleet podcast is now up at www.wrexhamfan.co.uk featuring Dean Saunders and Christian Smith.

Big Moves afoot at Ebbsfleet.

Bearing in mind what I said earlier about Michael Gash:

£80,000 offer for Michael Gash and Darius Charles
A football club, which wishes to remain anonymous, has made an offer of £80,000 for both Michael Gash and Darius Charles. Should members accept this offer, £40,000 would be paid immediately on completion and a further £40,000 on 1 January 2010.

In addition:- Ebbsfleet United would receive 20% of any transfer fee received by the football club for either player. - Ebbsfleet United would receive a further £5,000 for each player if the Football Club are promoted as long the player is contracted to the football club in the season of the said promotion.

The view of Liam Daish, the EUFC Board and club accountant
Liam Daish, the EUFC Board and club accountant recommend that the club's owners accept this £80,000 offer.

Desperate Times

Speaking of financial woes, the following arrived in Ebbsfleet fans' inboxes this week from manager Liam Daish, and it illustrates the desperate situation Conference clubs are in right now:

"I'd love to keep Darius Charles and Michael Gash"

"Liam Daish's message to Ebbsfleet United's owners is that if we want to keep players like Darius and Michael, we need to show our committment too...

"Dear....

There's been a lot of interest in two of our players who are under contract at the moment - Darius Charles and Michael Gash. I want members to know that I'd love to keep these two players and build a squad around them along with Lance Cronin, Paul McCarthy and the young lads, Michael West and Steven Springett - and hopefully kick on.

"What I will say though, and we need to bear this in mind, we need to be able to match these young players' ambition and help them realise their potential. But the way the budget is, at just over £4,000 a week and a handful of players I have already got on contract, it's leaving me very, very short with what is left to build the remainder of the squad.

"It's coming to a critical point where I'm trying to build a side for the new season, but with the budget as it is, if you try to build the rest of the squad with just over £2,000 per week, it's going to be very, very difficult. So as much as I'd love to keep Darius and Michael, looking at the bigger picture, with what could come in with transfer fees and freed up wages, it might be difficult to keep them. That is unless the weekly playing budget increases, whether that comes from the club's owners or revenue streams at the club.

"So the clear message is, if you are voting for these players not to go anywhere, we need to back this up by building a squad around them to match their ambition, rather that just filling the gaps and hoping we can get by."

"Thank you Liam, In the space of a few days, over 3,000 members voted not to sell Darius Charles and Michael Gash. To be able to keep them, we need to try to increase our weekly playing budget which currently stands at around £4,200 per week. To boost this number, so far, 400 have committed to giving an extra £47,000 over the next 12 months. Can you join them by contributing a small amount each month?"

When the manager sends a begging letter to the fans you know there's something wrong. It looks horribly like the unravelling of the internet-owned club dream-Blue Square's Alan Alger is tipping United to finish in the spot above relegation next season, yet this time last year they look dark horses for the Football League.

Perhaps it was always inevitable that fans who bought a club in this manner would be fickle and bail out when the excitement of making progress grinds to a halt, especially in these straitened times. I fear for where it could leave a club that was prgressing quietly within its means a couple of years ago though.