Today we welcome our good friends from Boston United, may I wish their Directors, Manager, players and supporters a very pleasant stay with us and a safe journey home.
Well after our National League Cup quarter final match against Brackley Town on Tuesday, it was great to score five against a team who knocked us out of the FA Trophy on penalties. It was also great to reach the semi-finals of the National League Cup and to get back on the horse with an exciting, attacking display after two quick fire league defeats.
I was also really pleased for Nathan Ashmore, Cameron Coxe, Charles Clayden, Femi Ilesanmi and Ollie Kensdale, who all came into the side on the night and showed why we’ve invested in experienced personnel and why we now have such a versatile and talented squad. I am sure they’ve done themselves no harm and given Luke plenty to think about regarding his team selection for today.
On top of those selected on Tuesday, Luke also gets the chance to welcome back Marley Miranda-Marshall and Junior Robinson who were both cup tied for the Brackley game and finally gets the chance to select Erico Sousa who’s been out for a good while and that gives him a really strong group of players to pick from this afternoon.
Our squad with those available, including the returning loanee’s, means for the first time in a while we are more balanced and competitive in most areas although with Luke Norris now out injured, it means we have been forced to look for another striker in recent weeks to share the workload up front with Matt Rush.
In truth we were a few weeks ago within a whisker of signing Kabby Tshimanga from Crawley Town on loan. In fact, Charlie Hunter and Crawley had all but agreed everything between the two clubs, but unfortunately for us with the transfer window still open, Barnet and the EFL came calling and we couldn’t offer Kabby league football nor the financial package on a permanent deal that Barnet offered him. As such I had a nice chat with Kabs we accepted that he was one that got away and I wished him well with his new club.
Kabby is a great guy, a great player, he has always been great for us, we earned a nice few bob off him a few years back and we of course wish him and Barnet well.
Last Sunday after the Altrincham game our squad was dangerously low and in truth we were down to just 14 fit players. The injured include Erico Sousa, Tom White, Luke Norris and Callum Reynolds and as all our supporters know are four of our big hitters. Unfortunately, the latter three are all not predicted to return for around 4 to 6 weeks.
As such with Junior Dixon also out on loan until the end of the season, we decided to recall both Aaron Henry and Nathan Ashmore with immediate effect and I’d like to welcome both players back to Meadow Park. It’s also no secret that at the moment, we are going to need another hard-working striker with a decent goals record but who in our league isn’t looking for one of those?
In reality, it’s very hard to attract good strikers in mid-season especially with Matt Rush in such sparkling form, as all forwards looking to move at this stage of the season want to start games and Rushy’s form means he gets to wear the lone striker shirt in our system and at present deservedly so.
No matter, we will keep looking to strengthen ourselves in key areas if the right players do become available, but for now this squad of players should be applauded, should be spoken about warmly and backed by all of us, as they along with our manager and sporting director have produced a wonderful team spirit and they are a squad who in my opinion, are the best ball playing side that this club has ever seen, certainly in my lifetime.
They are for me the most talented group that I’ve had the privilege to watch here and when they get it right which is quite often, they are fantastic on the eye and in my opinion this club has never been this good. So, whether they achieve the impossible dream or even come up slightly short, they are an amazing team to watch and also bring a likeability and humbleness into the bargain.
In truth I don’t want anybody worrying about anything negative on social media after a loss or two or thinking that we have to win every game as that’s not going to happen. I just want us to go and try to win every game, to play with freedom, to understand all the bigger clubs and especially their managers will have all the pressure as the run-in looms and to our supporters I simply say, “strap yourselves in, see the bigger picture and enjoy the ride”.
Remember who we are, as our strength is our togetherness and our unity, remember we were written off a year ago, but understood who we were, we are an underdog club, we are Boreham Wood Football Club and I’m absolutely loving this team playing the way they have throughout this season to date.
As the man who must underwrite any debt, pay the bills, pay the wages and who signs off on the cheque runs, I totally understand if we try to play free flowing football that there will always be a few dark days, even more bumps in the road and a few defeats along the way, but I don’t want us to play how we used to as I love how Luke now gets us to play.
Luke has got us playing with confidence, with belief and he wants front foot football but that needs legs. It’s clear it needs runners but at times it is amazing to watch. Our team now plays with an energy, with a purpose, with an identity and at times our patterns of play simply make me smile and makes a mockery of the level we are at.
For me having seen every good team and player perform here from the sixties through to present day, nothing compares to the football that this current squad are producing and that’s been clear to me since the very early part of the season. For those of you who say this manager and group of players have not surprised you this season, must mean you are Pinocchio’s father, because for me, and for most of the Wood Army, we had pre-season and early season doubts where we perhaps thought we would at best be a lower/mid table team but that was replaced after the Carlisle United away game with instant optimism and renewed ambition.
So, I say, let’s embrace this moment as we’ve got nothing to lose. Let’s enjoy what we’re doing, lets fear absolutely nothing, let’s enjoy the York City’s and FGR’s when they come here, let’s embrace going to places like Rochdale on Tuesday and let’s continue our performance levels if possible from now until the play offs because we will be in the play offs come May but don’t know just yet if that will be 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th.
I don’t think it’s wrong to say we are the surprise package, as there’s always one each season. Nor is it wrong to say that on our day we are a fabulous team who are an absolute delight to watch. In fact, I think from what I’ve seen this season we are perhaps the most entertaining team in our division.
We also have our very own home-grown manager Luke Garrard at the helm and who would have ever thought that Luke would have changed his pragmatic footballing DNA in just two years? Luke for me is now one of the most exciting managers in the division and that was not something I ever thought I would hear myself saying but I now believe it to be true.
In some cases, our players are equally as exciting and there’s not a week goes by without Charlie Hunter, Luke or myself fielding enquiries about our players. In truth since our relegation, we have quietly targeted young talented players who can run and built a platform for this football club to progress both on and off the pitch.
I feel I must still grow our structures, our income streams, our capacity and our partnerships to progress further up the ladder, but to do that we must also continue to build on this talented squad and create a first team and academy management team that can come with us on our journey. We also need to grow our local fanbase and widen our appeal because if we quietly grow, and if those things can come together, we can reach the EFL.
Now here’s a subject that many of you never stop asking me or seemingly never stop talking about and that’s the speculation on the future of my little friend Mr Abdul Abdulmalik. So let me, if I may, give you all an honest opinion, update and insight on Abdul, as I have his contract safely under lock and key haha.
Abdul for me is the most exciting talent in non-league and for me he’s not even scratched the surface of where his talent and his ability might take him. It should be remembered he’s only been a regular in our side for less than a season and in truth when he first arrived here, we needed to teach him firstly how to work hard in the right areas, secondly work as part of a collective for the team and thirdly in truth teach him how to run for 95 minutes.
The above all sounds very easy, but it certainly isn’t without Abdul’s buy in. That said, Abs now understands what running is all about and what working hard and being selfless for his teammates is all about. It sounds simple but his transformation has been amazing and it’s joyous seeing what being a true team player has now given him. It’s now very clear he has earned his teammates and everyone’s respect, and he is now loved throughout the club.
In truth in Abdul’s first 9 months here, his game time did not in anyway match his ability in training, but that was because when he arrived here he could not run, he was not match fit and he was not conditioned for modern day football, as that requires legs for 95 minutes if you want to be effective and an end product.
If I’m honest his strength and conditioning were severely lacking, but as that improved and as a few home truths were explained and hit home, Abs accepted what he needed to do and as he grew stronger both mentally and physically, so did his minutes and he is now a first team regular on merit and loved by his teammates.
Already he’s surpassed everything we had hoped of him at the start of this season but there’s so much more in his locker and he’s now scaring the living daylights out of every team we face. They all try to double up or even triple up on him, which at times leaves space for Brunty and Rushy to exploit, but they still cannot on most occasions find a way to stop him.
In football’s very nonsensical circles I often have to talk to people who purport to work on behalf of Celtic, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Mansfield, Doncaster, QPR, Watford etc and many more besides. Most are looking for a free ticket, a level of importance, they talk up a cheap deal and they like a quick buck, but that way of working is not for me or how this club chooses to operate.
For me when you have a Rolls Royce or even a Bentley haha, treat it well, know its value and get it insured because in later life it can navigate you from A to B and possibly make you a few bob. As such I try to ensure that everyone from the agent, the player and any interested club know from the start that the player is firstly contracted to us.
Everyone must understand we do try (where possible) to carefully nurture young players, as they all develop at very different speeds and you must allow them to grow and make mistakes, you must also improve their academy mindsets and help them better face up to the inevitable industry setbacks.
Some need to build an inner confidence after being rejected by a pro club, some are talented on the training pitch but have poor game management and a weak pro club academy way of thinking. However sometimes it’s not that easy in our position, as we need the younger lads to grow up quickly, as football does not wait too long for anyone.
An example in our case re both last season and this, we are in the midst of a play off and promotion push. As such it’s much harder to give young players the game time they might need, want or even allow them the time to make the inevitable mistakes a young player will make, not when every point counts within a bigger promotion picture.
That type of pressure and a lack of game time can swallow up a young player, so it does at times need patience on all sides, but trust me if they cannot run or if they don’t want to run then they have a much bigger problem, as they’ll get found out in the modern game, as all good teams cover the ground and have legs -Hope that makes sense?
For clarity I don’t like most agents, as I feel with our investment, with our contacts, with our infrastructure and with our track record of producing young talented players an agent can sometimes get in the way and can often see their fee before seeing the bigger picture.
In Abdul’s case If he listens to us, then with his talent we’ll ensure he gets real choice further down the line and with our contacts we’ll hopefully change his life, just like we changed the lives of Pelly Ruddock, Sorba Thomas and Iliman Ndiaye to name but three.
That means he must continue to do what he’s doing, it means he must block out the noise and it means he must put in those big performances whilst getting a few more goals especially in the bigger games which he’s not quite managed to do thus far, but as we all know that will come it’s just a matter of time…. Rochdale away on Tuesday is a very good place to start.
After this season it’s all about getting the timing right and that means us promoting his talents now, then finding the right type of club, a club who will play a system that will enhance Abdul’s “god given talent” and then couple that with the right kind of manager – it’s called future proofing the club.
If this club wants money down the line, it must work smart now and ensure that when Abdul departs, he goes to a stable club and the right club where he’ll play and get game time, as such we’ll look at the Sorba Thomas route if everything goes to plan.
Remember I never need a quick buck, nor will I be swayed with clubs who offer this club fool’s gold. Our young players I hope trust us and as much as possible we do not let them down but in football speak, you must perform and you cannot live on all your yesterdays because I’ve seen lots of wonder kids disappear. It’s all about performing now and performing in today’s game and to do that you have to be able to run and you must have attitude, discipline and desire.
For most players to really progress they must firstly perform consistently and secondly, they must have sensible representation, or they’ll get swallowed up at a club that is too big for their talent or mindsets to cope with. That means everyone must understand that the next deal won’t necessarily change their lives, but it’s the next one after that, if they perform well, that possibly will – just ask Pelly Ruddock, Sorba Thomas, Jacob Mendy, Iliman Ndiaye or more recently Lee Ndlovu.
As such a contract to me is nothing more than an original rule book…. it’s there to ensure that there is fairness to all concerned who have signed it, or In more simple terms, a player works for the club, the agent works for the player and all things are about working smart not stupid and trying to keep all things amicable because sometimes as I’ve said before, a deal must not be driven solely by an agent for quick buck especially at our level.
So, as a club I feel we are good for young players and at the moment we have a fair
few and all will grow and all will improve if they have the right attitudes, discipline and desire. We also have an experienced Manager, Sporting Director and Chairman who will all make sure that any agent or buying club know from the word go that the most important components for us are the player, the parent club and the buying club in that order.
Everything else is just froth and a story, so if people and representatives become silly, demanding, disruptive, belligerent or uncooperative for no good reason, I treat it as noise, a short story and nothing more because when that happens, we control the narrative, we treat the contract as the rule book, and we shut the deal down quickly until the noise and disruption dies down and common sense prevails – again I hope that makes sense?
We are now literally building for our future and with that in mind we have spent accordingly and in certain cases people will be rewarded accordingly with improved deals. That said any deal must fit within our budget, balance sheet and be based on what this club can afford.
We have some very good young lads like Matt Rush, Charlie O’Connell and Charles Clayden to name but three, all are on long term deals with options, but as we near the season’s end if they continue to do well, no doubt they will be spoken to about improving their current deals.
In terms of me “breaking the bank”, this year has seen me spend more money than ever on transfer fees and I’m told that people think I’m “breaking the bank”……..do me a favour, I’m the most risk averse Chairman at this level. I’ve simply purchased four very talented players of a good age in Zak Brunt, Regan Booty, Marley Miranda-Marshall and Ollie Kensdale for a grand total of less than Wrexham paid us last summer in add-ons as part of the Jacob Mendy deal for getting themselves promoted to the Championship.
Those four players mentioned above are all brought here to be the cornerstone of taking us as close to the EFL as possible over the next few years. Others will of course follow and others may also leave, but as the club evolves our squad will evolve and as we grow, hopefully the crowds will grow, as will the wage bill and associated costs. That is the football circle of life and that now includes agents, intermediaries and representatives whose influence will continue to grow and no doubt all will play their part in the future of our industry.
Anyway, enough of young players, possible sales and possible new deals. Let’s just get on with the job in hand and the very tough task of dealing with a Boston United side with the returning Paul Hirst at the helm. Paul is an excellent manager who has won things higher up the pyramid, and he’s now gone back to his old stomping ground to gaffer his local club Boston United.
If memory serves, he’s only come here once with his former club Grimsby Town and they won the title and did a real number on us that day hitting three………hopefully today we can turn the tables on him, but we know that will be no easy task.
Anyway, whoever you support let’s hope for an open, attacking game and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny.
