DO: For the benefit of our younger and newer supporters, could you give some detail about the ‘Buckley Way’?  What are your demands in terms of commitment, passion and pride?

AB: How long you got, really? Look, a game of football basically is two things. Your team have either got the ball or you haven’t. If you haven’t got the ball, it’s important that every player in that team understands the function he is supposed to perform to be a hard team to play against. To have the desire and the competitiveness to be competitive basically. When you’ve got the ball, obviously I like to see the ball kept on the floor and play a passing and moving style of football. I think probably the best examples that can be seen is probably of my years at the football club in the past, because there’s videos in the club shop, whether it’s a brief resume of a season or even individual games, I’m sure they exist and if the younger type of lads wonder what it would be about then I think that they’re a good education for them. 

DO: I think the Northampton victory at Wembley was probably a pretty good indication.

AB: Well I think we were a different team to Northampton on the day in the way that we tried to play the game. I think people get carried away with the actual result, which was all that mattered on the day anyway, but overall that particular season we played football of a far, far higher class than we produced at Wembley that day.

DO: Do you bear any grudges to the local media for the negative press towards the end of your last stint as GTFC manager?

AB: To be honest with you, and I’m not trying to be clever when I say this, but I wouldn’t know about the negative press if there was any because I never read the papers.

DO: That’s answered that one then.

(Laughter)

AB: That’s the truth.

JF: It’s a good idea.

AB: That’s the truth.

DO: It’s a very good idea, yeah. Another question, is will you be bringing Tony Rees back?

(Laughter)

AB: And the answer to that is, I wish I could.

DO: He was a great player, wasn’t he?

AB: Our sort of player. The team revolved a lot round Tony and the likes of Mendonca and Woodsy. They were all good front players. And it’s no disrespect to the players we’ve got here who will never be like that, but he was a special player Tony and I think what he did at times was far above what some of the supporters understood it to be.

DO: John, how many people subscribe to MarinersWorld as a way of receiving GTFC news and updates?

JF: 509.

DO: And would you consider releasing MarinersWorld content (interviews etc) to a non fee paying supporter audience after a period of time? (and that’s prompted by a question relating to the importance of keeping supporters updated to generate increased interest.

JF: Unfortunately, that’s not within our gift. PTV, who own the platform, prescribe basically how we go on and in effect it has to be the way it is.

DO: Could you provide the reasons why you have cut connections with the new Black And White Corner fanzine?  Is it related to recent criticism levelled at specific players?

JF: It’s got absolutely nothing to do with criticism, but the football club is precious about its income streams and it’s perceived in-house that the fanzine could have a slight impact on our programme sales. That’s one reason. But in actual fact, there’s nothing been cut whatsoever. If we go back to, Jake was very, very persistent in terms of asking me for an interview to launch his fanzine. We did that. As I say, he was very, very persistent, you know what Jake can be like, and we were kind enough to help him launch his first edition.  He wasn’t happy at that. Of course he wanted the manager to do it as well and he badgered me sufficiently for me to give in at that stage and the idea was entirely to launch his first edition. He’s always known that it was for the first edition and for the first edition only and his portrayal of cutting something is absolutely out of order and it’s a misconception and it really wants the record setting straight because of the way he wrote it. I read his last fanzine, which was pretty derogatory about myself and the circumstances around it. It’s totally incorrect and we think he ought to put the record straight.

DO: Thank you. Back to Alan. From what you have seen so far, which admittedly isn’t very much, do you believe that the current playing squad has the ability to move us up this league?

AB: It’s been very brief, my working relationship with the players, but it doesn’t take long to look and see what you’ve got. We’ve got some talented players. We’ve got some not so talented players. I think the most important part of what I want to do is to instill my ideas into the players we’ve got and as and when I think it’s necessary to bring in better talented players and the right mentality of players for the football club, then I will do so, so long as they’re available to us.

DO: Have you any immediate thoughts about strengthening the current squad?  Which areas do you believe need addressing as a matter of urgency?

AB: Well, of course I’ve got ideas of how to strengthen and where to strengthen, but I think it would be a bit remiss of me to discuss certain areas of the team that I think need addressing in a strengthening aspect because you mustn’t forget that we’ve already got sixteen or seventeen or eighteen players who play in different positions anyway and I wouldn’t want to decry them in any way, shape or form. So I wouldn’t answer that directly.

DO: What are your aims for the remainder of the season?  Do you realistically think we can win promotion? 

AB: We’ve got to do the best we possibly can at all times at this football club and there’ll be no shortage of hard work to make sure that’s the case.

DO: John, will Alan be given the necessary funds to strengthen the squad?

JF: Very much so. There’s two sides to this. One is getting us out, if you like, of the mess we’re in and the other one is working towards what we want for the future and we’ve really got to define a way of doing that. We’ve got to sit down and discuss that at length. As I say, there’s two parts to it. What do we need right now, what is the quick fix for where we are. Of course we want to give that support, but equally we want to keep in our mind’s eye what are the long-term needs and, as I say, address that one.

DO: If there are existing players that don’t fit with the ‘Buckley Way’, will they be loaned out / transfer listed?

JF: I think again, Alan’s answered that quite eloquently. It’s not a matter for discussion right here and now. Of course, Alan will have ideas on how he wants to go about things and, for the time being, that clearly wants to remain very private, something between the Board and Alan.

DO: And one for both of you really. Do players that live outside of the Grimsby/ Cleethorpes area travel over on the day of a match?  Is yes, do you think it would be better if they travelled over the day before and stayed locally? And that’s prompted by a view that the players don’t appear to be able to concentrate for 90 minutes, and travelling on the day may be tiring them out.  Also, the idea that they could stay in the hotel at the new stadium before both home and away matches, avoiding multiple pick up points for away travel.

JF: Ok, well we’re counting our chickens before they’re hatched with regard to the new stadium and the potential hotel there and of course, if there is going to be a new hotel, it wouldn’t necessarily be owned by the football club. In fact, it wouldn’t be. So it wouldn’t necessarily be within our gift to get that cheap and cheerful, but the rest of the answers I’m sure Alan could address.

AB: Well, sometimes in football you rely on your experience and your experience says, for a fair bit of my career at Walsall as a player and at Birmingham City, I lived in the Nottingham area, albeit the proper side to get to the football clubs. And the thing was that a few of us used to travel every day and it never stopped me from scoring more than twenty-five goals a season. And if I thought that any sort of travelling was affecting the performances of our players in any way, shape or form, that’s something we would have to address. At the moment we’ve played one game. We have travelled to Northampton, we did pick people up on the way, but I can’t really complain about the efforts of the players on that particular day. But, as I say, if there was any sort of detriment on the performance, it would have to be addressed, but at the moment it’s a bit early days for me to comment. 

DO: Thanks, and both of you again. Do you believe that the club currently has the right balance of staff in terms of coaching/administration split? (this has been prompted by a question about people having to do too many things which may detract their attention from what they are best qualified to do).

JF: The simple answer for me, I would say yes.

AB: I would agree with that.

DO: John, how likely is it that Michael Reddy will sign a new contract?

JF: We’ve put a new contract to him only recently. On the basis of the outcome of that, it’s a 50-50. We’ve got to do a little more work on that one, I’m sure. But ultimately it’s down to whether Alan decides that’s the right thing to do and whether it fits within the new structure-to-be, because again, we have to plan for the future. If we were to offer a contract going forward to Michael, or keep that in place I should say and work that one through, of course it’s got to fit with Alan’s new plans.  

DO: Addressing the issue of dwindling attendances, surely it would make sense to reduce ticket prices, thus encouraging more supporters to attend matches, and increasing sales of peripherals.  What are your thoughts on this?

JF: It’s a good one. I think some might have the view that if you opened the ground for nothing, you wouldn’t fill it and it’s most important that we don’t devalue the product that we sell and on top of which, you can’t do it half way through a season anyway because you’re going to have an impact on season ticket holders. So there’s a variety of reasons why you couldn’t really entertain doing such and the initiatives we give out cause us enough problems. You know, the youth go free and so on, in terms of backlash from season ticket holders. So we have to be careful and reserved about what we do there. We take on board the point, but in practical terms it wouldn’t be right for the club to consider it that way.

DO: If everything moves forward to plan from now on, including build, when might we be watching the first game in the Conoco Stadium?

JF: We’ve got our mind’s eye on November, sorry 2009 - August.

DO: And what plans have been made to use the rail facility running past the new stadium (e.g. a train stop for the stadium)?

JF: Without a major upgrade, there probably won’t be any further trains put on because apparently the higher speed trains, which are more likely to be used, don’t facilitate the type of landing or platform at the station. We understand it would become quite dangerous and so therefore we’re told at this moment in time without an upgrade at the station there won’t be any further trains put on, so very little in actual fact.

DO: How will the two phase build work in practical terms?  Will the side stands be built first with the ends left open?  If so, when would the end stands be built?

JF: Ok, this is a new one to me. I know nothing of two stands. It was a potential way forward in 1999, subject to finance and so on, but within our mind’s eye, we see the minimum of four stands and actually a complete bowl-shaped delivery in the first phase.

DO: Why would a move from Blundell Park to a new stadium be beneficial, and how will it help resolve some of the problems the club currently faces (e.g. low attendances)?

JF: If you take Hull as a good example, attendances have gone through the roof there. They’ve bucked the trend when it comes to the national average. I think the national average increase for new stadia is about 52%, so clearly that’s something you would look to enjoy. Your seven-day operations again would give you new income streams and I think one of the most important things is that you would be able to attract players to the area, just as a result of the stadium and what it would mean to them.

DO: Now, I’m going to quote this full question to you because it does raise some interesting points that are hard to paraphrase! With all the recent talk of a new stadium again, I was wondering how the chairman can view this as the answer to Town's problems? I appreciate that it would improve the facilities, but a number of clubs that have built new stadiums have been virtually bankrupted and relegated as a result of the development, e.g. Millwall, Oxford, Cambridge, who had a new stand. Whilst the attendances have increased temporarily with the novelty of a new ground, they have soon drifted back down to the old attendance levels, with attendances only increasing for those clubs building new grounds who were filling the old one, week in week out (e.g. Sunderland). Unless the Local Authority are brought in as partners to the project and assist in financing the build like at Northampton, I really fear for the future survival of the club with the development of a new ground."

JF: I suppose to answer the first part of the question, you would cite Hull as an example of a football club going from around two thousand attendances at the old Boothferry Park and of course they’re now at about twenty thousand as an average, I would say, eighteen to twenty thousand, so there’s a really good example of where it’s worked. I hear what’s been said about Millwall and so on, but then there’s many other stadia, such as Swansea and Derby’s Pride Park. There’s no end of success stories, so I don’t think you can tar them all with the same brush. And secondly, with regard to the council wanting to come on board and fund it, I don’t think we’re going to enjoy or be able to look forward to a sugar daddy, such as Hull’s had. This stadium’s only going to be delivered through hard work and blood and sweat. We’re working on that. We genuinely believe that at some stage in the not too distant future, we will have some good news, but at the moment we’re waiting for a committee date and we’ll look forward to telling everybody when that is achieved.

DO: How much has the new ground diverted money and attention from the playing side of the business?

JF: None. We’ve supported the manager and past managers with good budgets at this level and when in fact there’s been any outside costs such as the stadium, it’s been propped up by the Board. It’s very, very clear to see that and last year’s income streams were all swallowed up in the additional players we brought in at Christmas to try and guarantee a promotion and of course it ultimately didn’t work but all of those players we brought in were additional to the budget and at the end of the day we had the tax to pay, so when all’s said and done, the additional monies last year were all absorbed, irrespective of us being able to post a profit. The net cash outflow was much higher than the income.

DO: I think I know what the answer to this is.  Which is the harder job, running your company or being chairman of GTFC?

JF: Well, Five Star Fish earn close to four million pounds a year and I could cuddle that, understand it and do it standing on my head, asleep. As far as this football club’s concerned (laughing), there’s a great big bucket and you haven’t got enough fingers to put one of each in all of the holes and if you were to manage to fill all of them, you can be absolutely certain another one will sprout. That is the nature of football. It’s the most difficult task I’ve ever undertaken and I guess it’s never over.

THE END