John
and Carolyn Radford Q&A 9th May 2016 – Summary
Thank you to John and Carolyn for an excellent evening.
These evenings and fans forums are very important to help transparency at the
club. John has never refused to attend any of them and has always answered
every question he has been asked. They were both in good form last night and it
was a very entertaining evening. Darren Shaw
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Transcribed by Darren Shaw:
Hopes for 2016-2017
We
are aiming to do better next season and hopefully will achieve promotion. The
budget will be improved substantially next season. The budget should be at
least top half if not top six. We need to add a bit more quality to the squad. (Carolyn
– we are not going on holiday next year!).
Players
Signing
players is Adam Murray’s decision.
We
did try and strengthen this squad this season at Christmas. We were constantly
looking for players. It is hard to find the right players. Loan players do not
always improve the squad and sometimes it affects the football being played by
the current squad.
We
are hoping to sign another striker. We are looking for an experienced striker. You
have to pay big money to attract strikers. You also have to attract them to the
club and show ambition. That’s why it is important to improve the stadium and
develop the training facilities. The strikers we are looking to sign are in The
Championship and League 1 at the moment. We have a couple of names we are
working on.
I
would love to keep Ryan Tafazolli next season. We get on really well with Ryan
but we are not getting on with his agent at the moment. (Carolyn – that’s
because John keeps calling him by the wrong name!.)
Emmanuel
Dieseruvwe wants to sign for the club. We could also sign Blair Adams but it is
up to Adam. Mitch Rose is probably staying.
Our
best signing has probably been Matt Green but we have signed lots of other
really good players such as Ryan Tafazolli, Sam Clucas and Jack Thomas. Matt
Green has done really well. To find a striker who scores 15-20 goals per season
is really difficult. Matt Green is here for another two seasons.
When
we want to sign a player we firstly talk to the chairman and the manager of the
other football club and then talk to the player concerned. We do not approach
the player’s agent as they normally try and stick a big fee on top.
Assistant Manager
Adam
Murray has three candidates in mind but he has not made his mind up yet. It’s
up to him.
Pre-season Trip
If
we finish top ten next season then we will have a trip to Malta. I did offer
the players an incentive this season. I fell out with the players this season after
the Accrington home game and then later offered them a silly amount of money if
they got promoted. It would have hurt me a bit if they had succeeded.
Field Mill/One Call Stadium
There
are around another three payments due to Keith Haslam. I bought the ground off
him for around £2 million. I paid a lump sum up front with the balance payable
over seven years.
Woburn Lane
It
is being levelled at the moment. We have put in a planning application for a 3G
pitch and to make the changing rooms much larger. Planning to fit six training
pitches on there. Hoping to finish off the training ground by next season. We
need our own training ground to attract good players to the club. We are also hoping to let the local primary
school use the facilities.
Scoreboard
We bought
the scoreboard from Wembley a few years ago. The technology might be falling
behind a bit now. You can put on it whatever you want including replays. (Note:
It was confirmed later by Paul Broughton that the scoreboard will not be able
to show replays)
Season Tickets
I would
like to see season tickets at lower prices but I don’t want the stadium taken
over by season ticket holders as we cannot then sell tickets on match days.
Season ticket holders are my favourite people but they cannot always come to
every game. We have looked into selling part time season tickets where you
could buy a season ticket at a cheap price and then let us know when you cannot
come to a game so we can resell them. It’s just the capacity of the stadium
that causes problems for selling too many season tickets. Our season tickets
are not the cheapest but they are in the lowest 10-20%. We have not set them at
a stupid price. We have tried to pitch it right so the stadium will be as full
as possible.
Junior Ticket Prices
I
agree it would be an excellent idea to increase free entry for juniors from U7s
to U11s so it includes all primary school children. We can consider that next
season. The problem is that some eleven year olds look much older which is a
problem for the stewards. U17s can get in for £4 with a £15 membership card. We
will also look into having a Parent and Child season ticket
Bishop Street
We
are averaging 3,500 in a 10,000 seater stadium. The club would be wasting money
developing the Bishop Street at the moment. The crowds do not justify it.
Youth Team
We
have some really dedicated fantastic staff who are all on the same page who
want success for the club. It’s great to see young players coming through like
Jack Thomas. They did great to win the Youth Alliance. We have been strict with
our youth system so it is completely separate from the first team and the
manager is not in charge of it. The plan that I have put in place is that every
season the first team manager will have to accept four youth team players into
his squad on two year contracts. This means that there will always be eight
youth team players in the squad. The manager will not have to play them and
could send them out on loan but Jack Thomas has done well so this could
encourage the manager to play them. It’s difficult for managers to play young
players when their job is on the line but hopefully this plan will help bring
some of our youth team players through.
New Kit
We
are sticking with the plan of having a new home and away kit every two seasons.
I’m not going to change this unless fans demand a new kit every season. The new
away kit should be available for the Open Day. I’m also happy for fans to
submit designs for a new kit. Perhaps we can have a competition to design a new
kit and then have a shortlist and arrange for the fans to vote on it.
Club Badge
I’m
currently happy with the club badge but I’d consider changing it if the fans
really wanted to.
Notts County
A
transfer embargo has been placed by the Football League on Notts County as they
have not paid the Stags the £20,000 they received from selling tickets for the
game at Field Mill. This means that they cannot sign any players at the moment.
The club should get paid though as the money will be deducted by the Football League
from the next monthly distribution payment to Notts County. Notts County are in
a bit of a financial mess at the moment with Ray Trew wanting to sell the club
and therefore not being prepared to finance the club any further. They have
also not paid for the damage to the toilets in the North Stand. It is
frustrating as we looked after their directors very well when they came to
Field Mill.
Doncaster Rovers
I
would be prepared to do another charity walk to Doncaster. A fellow director
has agreed to sponsor their shirts for another season but that should be the
last season. Doncaster Rovers probably only receive around a twentieth of what
Mansfield Town receive from One Call.
Staff
Thanks
to all the staff who work really hard behind the scenes. The End of Season
Dinner was a great success and a great evening.
Plans for the future.
We
do not want to sell the club. We have really enjoyed it for the last five-six
years. We have three young children and we want them to have the chance to
enjoy it as well in the future.
