REVIEW: Web chat with Leigh Curtis

“Lincoln city dog track!.?”

“As you asked about it Leigh regaring supporters trusts, a quick list of English clubs that are fan's owned and doing well are Exeter, Chester, FC United, AFC Wimbledon, and Wycombe Wanders. The rest of them are fans picking up the pieces of the previous regimes such as Darlington 1883, Rushden and Diamonds, the various Scarborough projects and AFC Telford. There are more of course. But I take your point on how relatively successful to other clubs they are but they are all things set up to save the clubs. Including Lincoln. The hard part is taking it to that next level which is what the board are trying to do. They are of course mindful of why they had to have the fans takeover in the first place. Darlington, Chester, and Rushden and Diamonds show what happens when a sugar Daddy gets bored, or you sell to the wrong set of investors out of desperation.

As for your point on Barca, Real Madrid, and Bilbao are fan owned and all but two German teams are fan owned (because those two clubs are owned by affiliated companies, Bayer and Volkswagen).

Swansea FC are a half decent fan owned club too.”

“We struggled for years in Div 2 and were well known to be paying the lowest or 2nd lowest wage budget in the division. Inevitably after many seasons defying the odds we went down. I thought we'd level out in the conference and at least be in a division we were comfortable in, (as supporters we just want something to cheer about)...but we are clearly struggling still. We continue to be paying low wages by comparison to other teams in this league, listening to Gary Mill's comments, we are way behind the likes of Mansfield. If this is the case, every season 'out of contract' players will turn up at Mansfield (or Grimsby) and they'll get first pick, we'll get the scraps that they dont want. Little wonder we are below them. Unless we can attract more investment, might be best for us if Grimsby and Mansfield get promoted this season and if we can stay up, our prospects at attracting conference class players in this region, for next season will improve. If we could Win,lose,draw,win lose draw,win lose draw, something like that, it would be an improvement. Not asking for much.
Come on chaps, where's your dambusters spirit. One more push this Saturday.”

“Should we sack the manager? Again?”

“Hello leigh. Once again another defeat! This time against Nuneaton! This to me was a must win game against a side in the lower section of the league.Failure to win this game could prove to be the difference(in the future)between us staying in this league or going out.This squad we have at the moment simply aren't good enough to keep us in this league.Now is the time to go down on blended knee, pick up the phone and ring Steve Bruce, Nigel Pearson,or Neil Warnock, and ask them if they have anybody who they could spare until the end of the season who would come and score the goals we so badly need to stay up. It's been done before! Don't leave it to late!This bunch of strikers aren't up to the task no matter what the starting formation is and if we mean to stay up , Goals must be found from somewhere, and quickly. Regards mikecadwel”

“High Leigh, What a mess we are in now, can't see us staying up now we are leaving it too late to be able to do anything about it.

Mikecadwel”