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Armstrong
at 19:16 22 Apr 2023

I thought he made a real difference when he came on today. Chased down long balls superbly and caused problems with his pace and physicality. If he can improve his finishing, I think he could be some player. Great to see his passion for the club shine through at the end as well.

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Club comms
at 20:08 9 Apr 2023

I get that it’s a results business. Ultimately performances on the pitch determine how we feel as supporters and there can be no dressing up a collapse of this magnitude. It’s a very tough job for the marketing team. However, does anyone else feel that the quality of club comms has been shoddy to say the least over the last couple of seasons and might be making a terrible situation even worse? Just a few examples:

- The ambiguity around injuries has been commented on by many. We know Ainsworth doesn’t share much on team news for tactical reasons but for some time now I’ve been unsure about who’s fit and who isn’t. The lack of clarity might well be deliberate because certain players aren’t pulling their weight and the club hasn’t wanted to reveal that, but it’s surely unsustainable as a long-term policy and not a way to foster goodwill from supporters?

- No one at the club has addressed the revelations from the latest accounts, which showed staggering losses. This strikes me as unwise and more likely to fuel concern and resentment. I accept that the club hierarchy had done a round of podcast interviews prior to their publication - and there’s obviously a limit on how many media engagements they can do - but wouldn’t it have been prudent for Hoos to deal with some of the questions around the results? If he explained the context, the reasons for the losses and the strategy in place to stabilise the situation (including contingency planning for relegation), perhaps the mood towards him might be a little less poisonous?

- The decision to hold a tribute to the 1992/93 team on Friday seemed crazy to me given the level of discontent with Les Ferdinand. His absence has obviously raised questions and looked quite embarrassing

- To be honest, I was a tad surprised the club marketing team thought releasing the Haka video was a good idea. Surely someone should have recognised the potential for that content to go viral and be used to mock a struggling club? Also, didn’t it run contrary to Ainsworth’s other statements about not giving the opposition an insight into training methods? I expect we’ll see a lot of that video again if we are relegated, as appears likely

- I noticed the club recently launched a new hospitality offering (The Corner Lounge) and decided to invite the supposedly injured Leon Balogun to be the player in attendance. Given the perception that he’s one of “Beale’s boys” who’s not bothered to show up since his departure, was this a sensible decision? They got away with it as not many seemed to notice, but this could have easily backfired

- Looking back to last season, Warburton’s departure seemed badly handled, with Les Ferdinand essentially confirming that his contract wouldn’t be renewed in the media with several matches still to play. Surely that contributed to the collapse at the end of last season? Wouldn’t it have been wise to keep that under wraps until the end of the campaign to ensure everyone gave maximum effort? I know that what LF says is ultimately up to him, but who was advising/briefing him?

As above, I accept that the main problem is on the pitch right now. However, the club comms over the last 18 months or so have been characterised by tone deafness and inconsistency: opacity where supporters want clarity (e.g. injuries and club finances) or too much transparency (Haka video). Whatever happens over the next few weeks, I think this needs to be looked at and improved.

Some might say we've got bigger things to worry about, and that's probably true, but I really don't think the above is helping matters.

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HillAndDerry

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