This evening, we welcome our good friends from Carlisle United to the Mangata Developments Stadium, Meadow Park. Can I wish their Directors, Manager, Players and Supporters a pleasant stay with us and a safe journey home.
Like ourselves, Carlisle United have their own ambitions for this season, and it’s no secret that they, along with clubs like Southend United, are, if you base things purely on support, head and shoulders above the other clubs at our level.
When you also add in well-supported clubs like Hartlepool and Scunthorpe, only time will tell if the larger crowds or bigger budgets will prevail this season. We can only hope this might be a season when one of the underdog clubs, like ourselves, comes through to nick one of the available promotion places – I certainly hope so.
In recent weeks, as you’ve possibly heard haha, we’ve had to make a few tough decisions and deal with a bit of transfer drama involving our own “little maverick”, Abdul Abdulmalik. Though we tried desperately to keep him, it became very clear that was going to be almost impossible, and so the decision was made to sell him – but we wanted it done fairly and on our terms.
In truth, over the last few weeks, Luke and the dressing room have remained very focused and nothing has disrupted them too much. Most of the noise regarding a deal with Djurgårdens IF tended to come from others on social media, which I don’t tend to read.
What I can say is that I laid out the course of events regarding the transfer saga in my last programme notes, and I can now confirm that we have sold Abdul for an undisclosed non-league record fee. We refused to be rushed or railroaded by anything or anybody. We stuck to our guns on a series of fair but achievable add-ons, including a sell-on fee, appearance fees and an international clause.
In truth, negotiations were not always plain sailing, but I’m an experienced Chairman and have very good staff around me who all know their jobs. I knew the true value of this player, as most of you did, and at our level he really was a Rolls-Royce.
That said, in any fluid negotiation you need negotiators who know how to play the game without emotion, who understand what the end game is and who know what value must be put on any fair deal. Once we knew Abdul had made his mind up to leave us no matter what, it became evident that he was prepared, on the advice of others, to down tools for the foreseeable future.
As such, both my mentality and the club’s had to change or, put more simply, we then needed to get the very best deal possible, remain fluid and have the ability to compromise and recalculate our position if need be. At that point, a difficult and sometimes noisy negotiation is never easy to re-evaluate, and you must factor the risk-to-reward element into your thinking.
I feel experience helped us in this instance and, whatever happens, you must ensure you do not make false promises, show others any weakness or allow for any self-doubt.
In truth, both my position and Charlie Hunter’s became slightly easier as others went to the press and social media and showed their hand, while we waited before making our position clear – and only from within my programme notes. We focused solely on the club and Manager’s wants and needs, and we gave NO outside interviews.
I feel that by being a bit pragmatic, old-school and calm, by refusing to deal with the player’s agent throughout, and by having a very clear valuation in my head regarding which add-ons were key, we knew where we would compromise and where we could possibly steer the negotiations. That stance, ably co-ordinated by Charlie Hunter, got us to a place where everyone was happy.
Once the noise and a bit of silly behaviour didn’t get the reaction some people expected, proper negotiations could then take place in earnest between the two clubs. At this point, I’d like to thank Max Hann of Djurgårdens IF for his professionalism in getting the deal done, along with Charlie, with plenty of time to spare and without any further drama.
In terms of what the future might hold for Abdul, who in truth knows? What I can say is: “The sky really is the limit for this very talented player.”
In my opinion, I would expect him to be a Nigerian international before too long, I would expect him to become an exciting regular within the Djurgårdens IF set-up, and I would expect him to go to the very top in Sweden and be sold on for a sizeable profit within three years.
If Abs does all of those things, trust me, Boreham Wood Football Club will have deservedly benefited at all stages of the signed deal because of the time, care, nurturing and development we put into Abdul during his time with us.
So, as that joyous chapter closes, we of course wish Abdul, his family and friends well in everything they do, but our main focus must quickly turn to our own ambitions. Hopefully, that means a successful promotion push and providing whatever is needed for our Manager and dressing room to keep us moving forward.
Off the field, I must also deliver to our supporters, town and wider community a £4 million-plus South Stand project, complete with a number of associated facility upgrades to EFL standard.
This evening, though, our focus turns to Carlisle United and, in truth, we can have no bigger game at Meadow Park than the visit of our Cumbrian friends. It will give us another barometer of just how far we’ve come over the last few years.
Tonight, DAZN have again made this a 5:30pm kick-off, and I ask one simple question: how many more times are they going to punish the Carlisle United travelling supporters with these late games?
It’s a complete joke that amazingly loyal fans, especially at Carlisle, Southend and elsewhere, are made to struggle to get themselves to certain away games because of these ridiculous streaming company schedules.
Only last Friday, Carlisle United were made to play at Wealdstone with a 7:45pm kick-off, meaning Carlisle fans who would normally travel by train could not get home. Those fans are again being abused this evening, and it’s now embarrassing that it’s left to club owners like myself, with no backing whatsoever from the League, to constantly highlight this complete and utter nonsense.
In my opinion, National League football, for no real money, is being held over a barrel by a streaming company, while supporters of its larger clubs are being discriminated against almost weekly with these deliberately timed late kick-offs. They appear designed simply to drum up more stream purchases from away supporters, which in turn reduces home attendances – it’s a lose-lose situation.
If I was part of a supporter group at our level – and I’m not – I would encourage my fellow supporters up and down the country to get together and promote a blanket ban on buying anything on the DAZN streams.
I would also encourage our League’s Board, through respectful messaging, to find a way to end this deal with a streaming company who charge loyal fans an awful lot, care nothing for the real fans’ well-being and, in my opinion, give our clubs such poor production value. That includes terrible camera work, often biased commentary and poor sound quality.
Since highlighting all of this last Christmas, after the pathetic DAZN-led “12 Days of Christmas” nonsense, which again disadvantaged Carlisle United fans amongst others, I’ve tried my very best to meet with the National League Board, only to be told by the then Chairman, Jack Pearce, that there was no appetite amongst the Board to meet me.
In truth, I’ve also had very little or no support from other club owners who, in the main, seem completely disinterested in their supporters’ plight and the poor commercial value afforded by DAZN to our member clubs, who’ve had our greatest asset – live football – given away by our Board for a pittance…
I suppose that’s hardly surprising, with more and more new club owners being foreign and, on further inspection, many don’t even live in this country. In simple terms, they don’t understand that our historical football culture is that Saturday football at our level is played at 3pm…
If anyone can tell me, our Managers, Players and Supporters why the National League Board, without consultation, decided to put on a full league programme at 7:45pm last Friday, other than for DAZN, I’d like to hear it.
We are not performing seals, and none of us received one penny extra for having every one of our games televised…
This change from a 3pm Saturday kick-off was done without any thought for you, the supporter, for train times or transport availability, nor was there any discussion with our member clubs.
As such, it’s now very clear to me that DAZN are the ringmasters and care nothing for the clubs who provide the entertainment, while those clubs have become the National League Board’s performing poodles and get literally a pittance, or nothing, for the privilege of working with DAZN.
Anyway, that’s quite enough of my diatribe. Let’s get back to this evening and what is a fantastic fixture to be a part of, other than seeing the Carlisle United fans being abused by this time slot yet again.
Let’s hope for an open, attacking game and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny
