Indeed Jim, a bit odd, as we have had both young managers and black managers before.
In fact one of our most successful ever comes to mind.
Quite. And did we not also have a female chairperson around that time as well? One who tried to promote a friendly welcoming face for the club and a family atmosphere. Quite the trendsetters, weren’t we? Or has that all been airbrushed out of history?
I did raise an eyebrow at the thought of an NFT holder determining whether we invest in ‘offence, midfield or defence’. Apart from the fact that this isn’t a grid iron game with separate squads for each phase, what happens if KB looks at the squad and realises he only has 2 fit centre backs and one full back? He goes to the board for money to bring players in but is told that Surfer Dude from Hawaii has invested £100k in an NFT for image rights of Tony Craig’s jock strap and is demanding more offence in return. Surely the composition of the squad is for the manager to decide?
I guess none of us know how well this works in practice but the theory is that Surfer Dude who loves jockstraps only has a very minority parochial concern that will get washed away by the weight of the other investors' more sensible views, who will be aware of our injury concerns and vote accordingly.
For me, introducing some kind of greater fan input isn't something to be necessarily scared of unless you think most football fans are total idiots - i don't think this, there is often a certain wisdom in crowds. For example, I think fans did actually know better than John Yems re. Josh Wright's efectiveness. Now that doesn't happen often as glaringly as that, granted.
You suspect any early experiments in this kind of democracy will have all kinds of safeguards built into it. In practice, it will be no different to the owners of football clubs getting his way about certain things behind closed doors, which is stuff we never hear about. The new democratic era, we will hear about it and can react accordingly. And we non-NFT-buying season ticket holders over here will also be part of this greater process of fan consultation, we have been promised our votes too so it won't all be dudes in Hawaii. Tho I don't think we should be sniffy about people all over the world getting interested in Crawley Town
If reading comments from fans before, during and after matches on social media is anything to go by, I think it’s the worst thing that could happen. Opinions are one thing, but your modern day fan who has only ever known the social media era push that notion beyond the limits.
Indeed Jim, a bit odd, as we have had both young managers and black managers before.
In fact one of our most successful ever comes to mind.
Quite. And did we not also have a female chairperson around that time as well? One who tried to promote a friendly welcoming face for the club and a family atmosphere. Quite the trendsetters, weren’t we? Or has that all been airbrushed out of history?
Indeed we did. Once again, it’s as if our history pre a certain date didn’t happen.
Looks like we need some clarity as to what exactly the NFT holders will be able to vote/decide on.
I don’t think anyone likes the idea of one individual having a say on who is bought, who is in the match-day squad or what formation the manager has to play, but I suppose that is already something that many clubs already have with their owners meddling and I suspect we suffered from that a bit with our previous owners, who reckoned individuals from the Dutch lower leagues (that I suspect JY had never heard of, let alone seen) would be ideal signings for us.
I guess the point is that no one NFT individual will have the definitive say on things, but I’d like confirmation that the manager has final say on who they have in the squad, which tactics will be used etc. After-all, we’ve had many examples on this forum of individuals disliking particular players, or insisting particular players MUST play, despite never seeing them in training, or knowing their fitness.
I’m sure it was said at the forum that the manager would have total control of the team and tactics - you couldn’t have it any other way
I agree with Alain, and no manager worth his salt would want a job where the team is picked by a load of NFT buying geeks sitting in their bedrooms playing computer games all day.
For me, introducing some kind of greater fan input isn't something to be necessarily scared of unless you think most football fans are total idiots - i don't think this, there is often a certain wisdom in crowds.
Maybe, but then having heard some of the nonsense spouted by fans at games then seeing some of the comments on here and other media after we have the temerity to lose a game, I’m not sure I entirely agree. My point is that surely the manager has to have control over the playing staff. It’s his job that is on the line. Listen to any group of fans at a game and you will hear vastly different opinions about a particular player and where he ought to be playing. The manager is also the one best placed to decide on things like whether a player should play or not if he has an injury or other problems which are likely to affect his performance.
I take your point, I've read some pretty weird things on here in my time and, yes, you do hear some odd things shouted at games when people are letting off steam. But I guess my point is different to that - that these random outlier voices are a bit like your Hawaiian jockstrap guy, they aren't ever going to get near convincing the broad mass of sensible fans to ever be a majority on anything. Remember, those who post very loudly and repetitively are making up for the fact that they know their views aren't that popular.
Tony Craig was a good example of that last season. Early on, there was this odd, online-driven campaign on social media to hold him responsible for all our defeats and, with a bit of loud shouting by a few, it carried on for what seemed like ages but was probably only a few months at most. But what happened? The broad mass of Crawley fans watched his performances, maybe they didn't think he was the greatest player we had but what they saw was a fairly solid performer who Yems clearly liked. So that silly campaign against Craig died very quickly. That's actually what invariably happens when the broad majority of sensible fans have their say.
Of course the manager will always have day to day control of key decisions and tactics, it can't really work any other way practically, but the question being opened up now is would it be a healthy thing if fans had some say in broader issues that are more medium to long term.
I guess my difference with you and JB is that I do trust the broad mass of sensible fans following the club to be given a bit more input. They are not wild and reckless as a broad group, only a few are. They would only actually be taking some minor power off the owner, not the manager, as it the owners who remain free to interfere as much or as little as they like under our current system of ownership in English football, which is all power to the owner and the fans reduced to passive consumers.
Given the spotty record of owners, it's actually a healthy thing if some kind of process started that would give a little bit more power back to the broad majority of fans. Democracy is not a scary thing. Cue the old joke about democracy being the worst form of governing we have, apart from all the other ones
Crypto continues with crash with the notable Bitcoin suffering a lot. The beginning of the end?
I was listening to a podcast from America last night, which amongst other things spoke about the crypto crash.
The guy on the podcast said there was 18,000 ( eigtheen thousand ) , different crypto currencies, and most of them have fallen through the floor in value.
Some even won't let their investors cash in and recover their investment.