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Crumbs of comfort at Chester

Paul Fletcher | 22:40 UK time, Tuesday, 12 August 2008

Chester boss Simon Davies declared that "it was totally his fault" after his team on the opening day of the season.

He also declared that he was "bamboozled" and "lost for words" and asked for a response from his players against Leeds in the Carling Cup on Tuesday.

Davies got some kind of response alright, though I imagine that trailing 5-1 after 35 minutes was not exactly the script he had in mind.

daviesgetty438.jpgBoos could be heard as the whistle sounded for half-time at the Deva Stadium and the players and manager made their way down the tunnel. Davies must have been wondering exactly what he could say to his players.

Maybe I'm wrong to say this, maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about, but chaos and Chester seem to go hand in hand.

I covered a game there once several years ago when American Terry Smith was involved at the club, initially as owner but for a brief period as manager as well. A supporter opposed to Smith showed me a photocopy of what he claimed was the American's pre-match team-talk. He handed it to me in a brown folder as though he was engaged in the highest level of industrial espionage. It was full of the sort of motivational business speak that might work well for used car salesman in the backwaters of Utah but would have elicited looks of total incomprehension in the dressing room of a lower league club at quarter to three. There were diagrams with arrows and formations and the man who showed it to me had a look on his face that spoke of both amusement and heartbreak.

By my reckoning - and please correct me if I'm wrong because there is plenty of scope for error - Davies is the 13th manager at Chester since the turn of the Millennium.

People have come and gone with distressing regularity. Some of them - the likes of , and - were once household names as players. Others - I'm thinking more Ian Atkins and Graham Barrow - know all about the lower reaches of the league. None have really lasted.

Chester were relegated from the Football League under Smith but Wright took them back up. Perhaps typically of Chester's fortunes over recent years . Chester fans are hardly strangers to a season starting miserably.

Davies has been at Chester since 2006, initially as a youth coach. He had one spell as caretaker coach in 2007 and another after towards the end of last season. By the end of the campaign he had a two-year deal. .

It case the penny hasn't dropped, the connection yet to be made, we are talking about the same Simon Davies who was part of the golden generation that came through the youth ranks at Manchester United in the early 1990s. Davies once scored in a Champions League fixture against Galatasaray. It was a match in which a certain David Beckham also found his way onto the scoresheet.

But while Beckham, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and the like went on to enjoy stellar careers, Davies never quite made it and was sold to Luton in 1997. It was part of a descent that took the midfielder out of the professional game in England and into the Welsh Premier League with the likes of Bangor City, Rhyl and the sensationally title Total Network Solutions.

is currently showing at Peterborough that a mediocre playing career after failing to make it at Man Utd need be no impediment to a successful managerial career but Davies is finding life far from easy.

His only win as manager came . His team have conceded 11 goals in the first two games of this season and, frankly, were a shambles at times against Leeds. Rumours of a heated exchange in the dressing room at half time can hardly help matters.

But Davies can at least take consolation from the fact that his team team "won" the second-half against Leeds 1-0.

"In the first-half I thought it was going to be a long, long night," said the Chester boss.
"But in the second-half we stuck to our guns. I thought we came out of the game with a bit of credibility."

In Davies's position you must take your positives wherever you can.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    "Davies never quite made it and was sold to Luton in 1997. It was part of a descent "

    Decent, what are you on about? That's a huge step upwards

  • Comment number 2.

    Unfortunately it looks like we are in for another season of under-performing.
    Simon Davies worked well with the youth team, but when pushed up to the Senior team, has never managed to cut the mustard.
    The end of last season did not look very promising and I am sure, like myself, a lot of people were surprised he got the job.
    There was player unrest as soon as he took over, with two senior players being placed on a form of 'gardening leave', younger players have left, and generally as observed above 'chaos' has ensued.
    As a life-long Blues fan I really do not know where we can go from here, and who can get Chester going, I only hope that Simon Davies (if he is still here, based on our chairman's previous hiriing and firing) can prove a lot of doubters wrong.

  • Comment number 3.

    No that's an ascent. If you're going to criticise, at least get it right.

  • Comment number 4.

    I have the utmost respect for the Chester fans still attending the games. I went to every home and away game the year we went down, but boycotted in protest of Smith. After Smith left I never got back into it. Mainly because every game I went to was dire, (barring a 3-0 cup win over forest).

    There are many Chester fans who feel the same as me, attendances continue to fall, and I don't think its long until Chester are in the position of luton etc.

    Sad to see, but I would be surprised if there weren't quite a few teams in similar positions.

  • Comment number 5.

    Chester City's failure to consistently obtain good results over the last few years is leading to many unsavoury and negative knock on effects. The main one of course being the dwindling attendances.

    13 managers in 8 years. No club, no business, no organisation could be expected to perform under those circumstances.

    I hope Simon Davies can fire the boys up after such a rough start, because most fans would agree, he's much better then those results.



  • Comment number 6.

    Chester are a small club that have been plagued by a series of awful chairmen. The last body to own us before Mark Guterman took over was Morrisons - as in the supermarket! It could hardly get worse from there, but Terry Smith was a very special case. Stephen Vaughan has put a lot into the club over the last few years, but he won't stick behind one manager for any length of time. He seems desperate to get promoted immediately, but that won't do any good to the long term health of the football club. We need to find a good manager, stick with him for a while, rebuild the club and try and raise attendances.

  • Comment number 7.

    Morrisons the Supermarket...... haha, you're mistaken sir, it was Morrisons Shand a scottish based construction company who bought us to develop the new ground, they still own a 'golden share' and are guarenteurs on the rent.

    The article above from Paul is pretty basic let's be honest, no fault of Paul as he has stated that "he may be completely wrong" but if you read this Paul and you want to know all the in's and out's of what has been going on at the club then get in touch (I am sure my email address will be on the 606 members list). We need the plight of our club highlighting to the media out there so that they know exactly what is happening both on and off the field, at the moment people are just lookin from the outside - in and seeing we're a badly ran club. People should know exactly why!!!

  • Comment number 8.

    I used to watch Chester every week during the 1980s. They were never much good, but held their own in the old Third Division for a while and had a couple of half-decent players. I no longer live in the city so rarely see them but whenever I do my heart sinks.

    There is really very little to encourage support: rubbish players who rarely stay more than a year, ditto managers and a dismal ground built as cheaply as possible by the aforementioned Morrisons in exchange for the old, much more atmospheric Sealand Road ground that was knocked down to build out-of-town shops. Add to that the proximity of Liverpool, Everton and the Manchesters and it is hardly surprising few people go every week.

    Fans of big clubs moan that they have no say in how their clubs are run anymore but it is just the same for most smaller clubs - exacerbated by a lack of penetrating media coverage meaning that most things are done behind closed doors and even if people find out what has happened, they rarely find out why. Having said that, if it weren't for current chairman Stephen Vaughan Chester would have disappeared years ago. And he's a lot better than any other of the long list of rogue chairman that have blighted the club for the past 25 years. If only he would sign a decent manager and stick with him for more than 7 months!







  • Comment number 9.

    I can't agree with GeneralMcnally when he says Stephen Vaughan is a lot better Chairman than people think.

    For a start Owner- Vaughan is a major reason why attendances have continued to dwindle over the years.

    As a young boy in the early 70's, I can remember joining in with the crowd and calling for the then Chairman Reg Rowlands head, so its nothing new at Chester.

    But in recent years SV has taken the club to new depths with constant allegations of interference in Team Selection (having 2 Sons in the squad doesn't help). Then there's the consistent appearance in local papers of his none/late bill-paying traumas, rows and other mischievous goings on.

    I have been to watch the team many times recently, many fans I know of will not step foot in the ground until he departs.

  • Comment number 10.

    I agree with the above. Vaughan's erratic, volatile and short-sighted behaviour is very far from ideal. But at least he is not intent simply on draining the club of cash, unlike previous chairmen of recent memory. Indeed, it is his cash that has kept it afloat given that attendances are not sufficient to maintain a competitive League Two side.

    In an ideal world the fans would own the club - but are there even enough of them to make a go of it? And how long would it be before they got sick of dipping into their pockets year after to year to cover operating losses that, I believe, run into the millions?

  • Comment number 11.

    Another depressing factor at Chester these days is the number of 'fans' who think the only way to improve a dismal performance is to single out a player (or two) and dish out personal abuse. During the game.

    Their frustrations are understandable - and the club must be made aware of the fans' anger. But targeting individuals during a game makes things worse.

    Furthermore, this itself leads to bitter and aggressive arguments between fans, which has also led to more supporters turning their back on the club.

    Sometimes - and I realise this could be heresy - I wish the club would just die. That way I wouldn't have to worry about them anymore.

    Success and Chester aren't two words that go together very often (unless the words "lack" and "of" also appear), but for a few years now, pretty much since promotion from the Conference, following the team has been totally devoid of any joy. It is a miserable experience and a painful existence.

    NB: At least we may have given fans of Luton, Rotherham and Bournemouth some hope this season.

  • Comment number 12.

    Shaker will come good. He's a top man. When he was with us at City (Bangor that is) he was always 100% committed and always had time for the fans - win, lose or draw.

    Give him your support and he'll repay you with results.

    All the best Shaker.

  • Comment number 13.

    All this talk on here about Vaughan, and how he 'saved the club' when he first bought us, yes, yes he did save the club and bankrolled us to the Conference title. However, since then we have been mis-managed on and off the field, the club is a complete mess off the pitch. God knows what kind of state the finances are in. Last season at Christmas time when Vaughan resigned as a director the players went without their wages and the PFA was forced to 'loan' the amount to the club (hence the transfer embargo pre-season). And guess what...... it's happening again, the players have again gone without their wages before the Dagenham game, and the PFA have once again been forced to loan the money in order for wages to be paid.

    The club is rotten to the core, from Owner, board of directors > Playing staff. This club needs a MASSIVE overhaul if it is to progress. With Vaughan in charge we are going nowhere, his serious interest in the club died during Mark Wrights 2nd reign at the club.

    If the club is to survive in the football league this season on the field and financially off it, Vaughan must go and allow another consortium (we missed the boat with Sport-6 and Paul Baker) to come in and give it a go.

  • Comment number 14.

    I feel sorry for Chester, I really do. They're one of those teams that supporters of other clubs sort of hope do ok.

    I blame my team for Chester's demise - they were going well last season, third in league 2, then we turned them over twice in a week and they've hardly won a game since. Williamson totally lost the plot and the damage he did is looking like it will take a long time to repair.

    Chin up though lads, you've got a year to sort it out before you'll have to fight relegation - unless that is things are even worse than I thought!

  • Comment number 15.

    I know live in bristol and my first club has alwyas been, and will always be Liverpool.
    However, having played in Chester a lot as a youth and that being my home town, I always look out for their results.
    it saddens me to see whats happening to the club and I really think that at least tow of the three penalised clubs will overtake Chester and send thm out of the league, probably for good this time as the club will go under.
    If I won the euromillions I would honestly buy Chester.
    Whats going on behind the scenes? are they tied into a College like most clubs in the lower divisions are to provide education for their scholars and apprentices? If not, this could save them money and attract more young players to the club.
    Working with youth players is massively different to senior players, and if Davies hasn't got the dressing room, then the team will continue to struggle.

  • Comment number 16.

    chesters problems with money come from low attendances due to their ground being so far from chester its almost in rhyl

  • Comment number 17.

    GodIsUruguayan: Chester Ground is not that far, do not think the low attendance can be blamed on where the Deva is (lets be honest it takes 15 minutes walk from the city centre not the worst walk!)

    One of the main issues with Chester FC is that they seem to have lost touch with the people of Chester, when is the last time they got involved in anything? Promoted a game? when is the last time Chester city football club staff went into any company to try and "sell" their product.

    From a marketing point of view Chester board is a total joke, or maybe that is what they really want. Lets be honest the ground is situation in a nice plot of land which would look quite attractive to a few people in the business........

  • Comment number 18.

    To compare Darren Ferguson to Simon Davies is both crass and shows a lack of knowledge.
    Peterborough have spent over £200,000 twice on non league players and their current squad cost well over £700,000.
    If you are going to comment, make sure that it has some factual content and understanding of the game which this stupid comparison did not have.

  • Comment number 19.

    Now that you look at the table, it's quite worrying.

    How long do Chester give Davies before they have to make changes? I know it's harsh and everyone says you have to give a manager time etc., but I can see them being caught by two teams below them, and if Chester go out of the league I can't see them coming back, especially with improved standards in the Conference.
    Chester have always struggled with attendances, and I used to live on the outskirts, let's be fair, Chester as a whole isn't really a footballing City. If you can't get the fanbase in then you are alweays gonna struggle, the club must have been in dire financial straights for a long period of time now, and they won't get out of it.
    I'll say it again tho', if I win Euromillions I'll buy the club.

  • Comment number 20.

    At least part of the problem is the price of admission. Local people would attend if the price was low enough.

    Over here (Sweden) I watch two teams - the one are top of our equivalent of the PL (Kalmar is the team), and the others (Östers) are in the 3rd division.

    Match prices?

    Kalmar around £8
    Östers around £4

    It's true we can't afford the big names but then, neither can Chester.

    And next year Kalmar will be in the Champions League...














  • Comment number 21.

    dunno what happened to the pound sign - but that's 8 quid and 4 quid

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