FAO The Players : YOU OWE US!
By Nathan Jackson
March 23 2008
For 18 months the players at Lincoln City Football Club have been an embarrasement. They have been tremendous underachievers and now they owe us a performance as an apology. Since going top of the table on October 28th 2006 we have had a shocking record and quite frankly these players should be ashamed of themselves for what they've done to this club since then.
Take a flashback to about 5pm on Saturday 28th October 2006 and the Imps had just gone top of the table. That was the last time a lot of the City fans were proud to say that this group of players represented Lincoln City Football Club. Since then effortless and passionless performances have seen us embarrased in the Playoffs, get mauled on a regular basis and seen the fans stoop as low as using alphabetical order in order to show that we weren't bottom of the club.
Since the aforementioned date the Imps have played 69 League games, 2 Playoff games, 3 FA Cup games, a League cup game and one in the JP Trophy. Our record in that time is 23 wins, 13 draws and 40 defeats. Infact, in those 76 games we've conceded three or more goals on a total of 18 times. If you think that is acceptable then you are sadly mistaken.
It says it all about the mentality of this team, and I use the word "team" very loosely when I refer to the players at this club, when they showed no passion under Schofield, were suddenly really up for games under Jackson but have now reverted to not even looking concerned when we go 1-0 down. In other words, this group of players gives the impression that if they don't like the manager then they're not prepared to put in effort. What a brilliant effort for so called professionals.
These players effectively have a part time job. They turn up every weekend morning for a few hours, a few hours every Saturday and the occasional bit of overtime on a Tuesday night. Effectively for a job where they only "work" about 20 hours a week, they earn more money in a week than most fans earn in a month. Yet they turn up every shift and most don't appear to put the effort in.
The attitude of some players amazes me. The 5-2 defeat at Barnet saw a lot of players representing the Imps knowing that their contract is up in a few months, not that you'd have guessed it. All week long you'll get quotes in the Echo saying "I want to play for this club next season" and yet when it comes the matches, they act like they couldn't really give a toss if they are offered a new contract.
They really don't realise how lucky they are. I could go around Sincil Bank on Monday and find any 16 fans that would be prepared to play professional football for not even half of what the actual players earn a week. Those 16 would put in more passion as a collective than the current set do. The only player who constantly shows passion is Scott Kerr, the rest might as well just shrug their shoulders and say "And just think, I'm getting paid to play rubbish."
This set of players owes us. We put our hard earned money into this club and yet we get virtually no reward for it. 14th place is not good enough and it's only now that we see the lack of effort without Jackson, that we realise that it wasn't John Schofield or John Deehan's fault that this set of players simply aren't good enough to actually earn their money.
Quite frankly, I could count on one hand those players who actually deserve to be here next season, and when, not IF, Jackson finds players more passionate that those who will leave, then we will be much better off.
I think you've got it pretty much spot on there Nathan, and ITS BECAUSE these players gave us some of the best football in 30 years that the criticism since is warranted.
If they had been a bog-standard bunch, like so many other squads we've endured over the years then perhaps not.
Fire up the Quattro! We're armed b@st@rds!
Gene Hunt 1981
mayby putting a suit on and looking the part would help!
i bet swindon and gillingham fans are @#$%& themselves that we took him on.
Quote:ferret imp
i bet swindon and gillingham fans are @#$%& themselves that we took him on.
When we got him in as assistant, I text my Swindon supporting friend that he would be taking over Jacko for some weeks and the reply I got was...
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I bet anything he tries to bring Aaron Brown in, Iffy loves him. Your players will stop showing any real interest in the game and you'll pick up virtually no points when he's in charge."
Looks like he was right. Brown came on trial, the players have stopped showing interest and we're averaging less than a point a game under Iffy.
just our luck that a decent coach slips through the net.
notts county are a poor side who if we played anything like we should have slammed 3 or 4 past them.
and if we are happy loseing at home to stockport then we really do need help!
They aren't just playing for Iffy, but Jacko aswell - and ironically they should be playing for a bit of personal pride. We will stay up, but let's face facts we have the biggest uninterested bunch of pro footballers for a while now.
The sooner summer arrives the sooner we can get rid, and re-build for the future. Once the players cross that white line, Iffy can do no more.