[creative36]

Top stuff!

[retired_sandra]

New stadium. :thup:

Has it been named yet?

[retired_sofialong]

It's nice change to have an ambitious chairmen whose main ambition isn't to sell your best players for pennies.

KUTGW.

[Emm]

Originally posted by Nobby_McDonald:
New stadium. :thup:

Has it been named yet?

Yeah.

It wasn't the <insert mmanager name here> stadium.

It wasn't the <insert name of Big Nigerian here> stadium.

It wasn't the <insert the name of club record goal-scorer here> stadium.

It is The Hitchin Stadium .

I think I preferred Top Field .

[retired_jonnybro509]

It could've been called something worse, anywho, be interesting to see if you fill it

[Emm]

Season 7. League 1. 2013/14.

Things started off pretty well, and continued in the same vein as we hovered on the edge of the playoff zone. After the fitsr 2 months we were never actually IN the playoff zone, but we were never lower than 11th in the 2nd half of the season either.

The Big Nigerian notched another 17 league goals, and it looked like we had sneaked in the back door and into the playoffs on the last day of the season. With just 15 minutes of the season remaining, 3 points from our 1-0 win against Mansfield had seen us propelled up into 5th place in the league and the lottery that is the playoffs.

Disaster struch in the final minutes of the final game as we couldn't hold our lead and Mansfield hit back to fraw level and see us again drop out of the playoff zone.

A 7th placed finish League 1 was a record high for tiny Hitchin, (and I was delighted), but also gutted to have come so close. That's twice now that we have missed out on the playoffs after being in contention during the final game .

My ambitious Chairman has obviously decided that we had to become a selling club and agreed to the following deals on my behalf.

Jul 2013. 19 year old Irish SW/DRC to Championship side Millwall for £975,000. I would have accepted a £1M bid so not too many complaints. I signed him on a free so a pretty good return :thup:.

Jan 2014. 19 year old Irish D/WB/MR to Championship side Norwich for £950,000. I would have accepted a £1M bid so not too many complaints. I bought him for £1,000 so a pretty good return :thup:.

Jan 2014. 18 year old N.Irish D/WB/ML to Liverpool for £1,000.000. I would have accepted this offer so not too many complaints. I bought him for £1,000 so a pretty good return :thup:.

We had finished a very respectable 7th in League 1 :thup:.

We had money in the bank :thup:.

Our new stadium, (The Hitchin Stadium), is due to be finished on the day that next years pre-season starts :thup:.

Although I was forced to sell 3 of my best players, we made good profit on them, and I have to accept that for the forseeable future we will be a selling club.

I obviously lost straight away in both the League Cup and the Johnstone Paints doobrey, but somehow managed to win 2 FA Cup games. I spent £11k on bringing new players in, (including a 31 year old N.Irish DC, with experience as high as the Championship). Obviously nobody wanted to come on loan to us, all the Fred's were crap expect 1 who was moderatly poor, and <STRIKE>I managed to sell </STRIKE>, my Chairman managed to sell, players worth £3.35M.

[creative36]

Bad luck with the whole Playoff thing, but KUTGW otherwise.

[Emm]

Season 7. League 1. 2014/15.

Well after coming within 15 minutes of making the playoffs last season, my aim this season was to make no mistake and secure automatic promotion.

We started off well and lost only 1 of our opening 19 league games. As usual we were drawing too many games though, however for a change this wasn't down to my negative tactics, but the plethora of injuries suffered by my front men. It seemed to be literally every single week that I received a message saying that 1 or other of my front men were unavailable again.

We battled on manfully though and again the season went down to the wire. 3 points from our last game of the season agains Swindon, would see us finish 3rd at least, and secure automatic promotion. We led 1-0, 2-1, 3-1 & 4-3, but our defending was Keeganesque and we were eventually lucky to grab even a point. Again we had lost our bottle on the final day of the season. At least this season we would still have the opportunity of the playoffs.

We were to meet MK Dons in the playoffs semi and I was quietly confidant having had a good record against them over the last 2-3 years. My confidance was to prove misplaced as my not-so-young-anymore N.Irish keeper was shown a straight red card just after half-time when we were already struggling at 2-1 down.

Now if somebody could please explain why my keeper getting sent off isn't considered a key highlight, but by centre-back kicking the ball into row F is, then I would be forever grateful .

We eventually finished 4-1 down and the 2nd leg was to be an uphill struggle. It proved too much and despite securing a win on the night, we couldn't pull back a 3 goal defecit .

We would spend another season in League 1 .

But all is not lost I here you say.........

At least I have the increased revenue from the new all seater Hitchin Stadium...........

We should have been playing our home games in a new 12090 all seater stadium, however the stadium was completed on the opening day of pre-season and apparantly the game had already made up it's mind that we were to play this season at the old Top Field Stadium .

Frendlies against my U18's and Reserves could be and were played in the new stadium, but frendlies against opposition teams, league games and cup games were all played at the old stadium. Up to the playoff semi that is. Despite christening the new stadium with a win, we were still not celebrating .

I wasn't too downhearted though. After my Chairman had sold 4 players for about £7.5Million during pre-season, he had left the squad intact for the rest of the season and I was extremely upbeat about my squad finally securing passage to the Championship next season :thup:.

Jul 2014. 21 year old Welsh GK to Championship Middlesbrough for £950,000. I would have accepted this deal so not too many complaints. I signed him on a free so a pretty good return really.

Jul 2014. 21 year old Welsh MC to Premiership Barnsley for £1,700,000. He was a good player but had a bit of an attitude about him so I would have accepted far less. In any case, he was quite an attacking midfielder and I like my central players to be grafters. I signed him on a free so a pretty good return really.

Jul 2014. 21 year old N.Ireland D/WB/ML to Championship Norwich for £2,400,000. The money was good, don't get me wrong, but I would have held out for closer to £5M. The lad is going to be class and even with the expense of the new stadium, we didn't need the money. We could have got far more and also should have included a sell on clause. Unfortunately my Chairman is not that clever.

Jul 2014. 19 year old Irish DM to Premiership Arsenal for £2,300,000. I would have accepted anything over £2M for him, but I would have tried to sneak in a re-sale clause. This lad is going to be the dogs.

I obviously lost straight away in both the League Cup and the Paint thingy, bust somehow managed to draw 1 and even win a couple of FA Cup games before we were kicked out of the competition for being crap. I spent £1,009,000 on new players. £1M went on the returning Irish defender mentioned previously above.

Jul 2013. 19 year old Irish SW/DRC to Championship side Millwall for £975,000. I would have accepted a £1M bid so not too many complaints. I signed him on a free so a pretty good return

I slso signed an old full back on a free after he had spent his whole career in the Reserves in the Red part of Scouseland, an old Dutch utility defender, (who immediately got injured), and an old N.Irish International with 101 caps who looks ready for the coffin. Obviously as nobody ever comes on loan to us I don't think I even tried to get anyone in, all the Fred's were crap, (including the 1 from last season that I thought might just be moderately poor), and my Chairman sold players to the value of £7.5M .

[Emm]

Chairman watch.

I can't work out if my boss-man is an insightful forward-thinker or a money grabbing bandit. To aid clarification I will keep track of the sales that he involves himself in and the progress of the players.

Jul 2013. 19 year old Irish SW/DRC to Championship side Millwall for £975,000. I would have accepted a £1M bid so not too many complaints. I signed him on a free so a pretty good return

Bought back to Hitchin by me for £1,000,000. after making 63 appearances in 2 seasons for Millwall and became a key player for us last season. At the time we needed the money so I can't really complain. Currently valued at £875,000 Good deal. :thup:.

Jan 2014. 19 year old Irish D/WB/MR to Championship side Norwich for £950,000. I would have accepted a £1M bid so not too many complaints. I bought him for £1,000 so a pretty good return

Still at Norwich and currently valued at only £400,000 after only making 27 appearances in 2 seasons Good deal. :thup:.

Jan 2014. 18 year old N.Irish D/WB/ML to Liverpool for £1,000.000. I would have accepted this offer so not too many complaints. I bought him for £1,000 so a pretty good return

Never played for Liverpool, but made a handful of appearances being when loaned out to Colchester, (where he recived his first International cap), Malmo, (where he made his European debut), and Bristol City before Arsenal paid £6,750,000 for him. He has since made 7 league appearances for the Gooners, (where he scored his first International goal), and is now valued at £6.25M Shocking deal. :thdn:

Jul 2014. 21 year old Welsh GK to Championship Middlesbrough for £950,000. I would have accepted this deal so not too many complaints. I signed him on a free so a pretty good return really.

He made 34 league appearances for Boro and was awarded his 1st Welsh cap in his 1st season at the Riverside. Currently valued at £1.9M Bad deal. :thdn:.

Jul 2014. 21 year old Welsh MC to Premiership Barnsley for £1,700,000. He was a good player but had a bit of an attitude about him so I would have accepted far less. In any case, he was quite an attacking midfielder and I like my central players to be grafters. I signed him on a free so a pretty good return really.

He made 36 league appearances for Barnsley, (but couldn't save them fom relegation). He added a further 6 caps to the 1 that he received with me, and was awarded the accolade of English Young Player of the year 3rd place. His pretty impressive season has just been capped off with a £7.75M move to Arsenal. I can't really blame the Chairman for this one. I would have sold him for just about anything. Ok, it may look like a bad deal on paper, but he had an attitude and I was glad to see the back pf him. Good deal but should have included a re-sale clause. :thup:

Jul 2014. 21 year old N.Ireland D/WB/ML to Championship Norwich for £2,400,000. The money was good, don't get me wrong, but I would have held out for closer to £5M. The lad is going to be class and even with the expense of the new stadium, we didn't need the money. We could have got far more and also should have included a sell on clause. Unfortunately my Chairman is not that clever.

He made 22 league appearances for Norwich, where he received his first 2 senior N.Ireland International caps. Is currently valued at £2.3M :thup:.

Jul 2014. 19 year old Irish DM to Premiership Arsenal for £2,300,000. I would have accepted anything over £2M for him, but I would have tried to sneak in a re-sale clause. This lad is going to be the dogs.

Wow! He made 35 Premiership appearances for the Gunners, (who finished runners up in the Premiership), made his European debut, was awarded his first 2 Senior Irish Caps, and is now valued at £2.5M Shocking deal. :thdn:.

[Emm]

Conclusion.

Chairman is an ass.