If Aspin was so good. Then how could he let this happen??

A lot of commentary on here recently about how good Aspin was. No doubt a decent manager, but didn't get us promoted and it's very easy to look back and reminisce forgetting the less good stuff that we suffered.

Until now, I've suffered in silence. A tainted memory from years gone by that I thought had been put into the dark recesses of my mind forever. Sometimes to move forward you have to relive the past, no matter how painful, or at what cost. Somethings just have to be done.

I know a lot of you have probably erased this from your minds but he also presided over the biggest disaster of the football club.

I'm sorry to have to bring this up, the wounds had healed, the indelible mental scars lasting a life time.

(Look away if you are susceptible to gratuitous statements of horror)


SATURDAY, 27 OCTOBER 2007
Harrogate Railway Athletic 2 Harrogate Town 1
FA Cup, Fourth Qualifying Round
Attendance: 1,286




You made me do this... Lo how thast have forgotten thy sins and suffering.

Not a big fan of Aspin the man but ultimately he's currently proving to be a better manager than Simon.

... and that's the point, dark knight - most people on here seem to be very forgiving of weaver as he comes across as a decent bloke and by all accounts works very hard. Doesn't hold much sway with me though - never has done.  Can't recall even exchanging a couple of words with Aspin, but then I didn't need too - I trusted hus ability as manager to get the best from his team. In doing so we played some very good football. Sometimes we fell short but the football was good and all the players worked hard and so there were no complaints from me.

Town ultra - you seem to be losing the plot slightly but if the defeat against railway in the cup is the best you can find then I pity you. Your initial posts seemed to indicate that all we needed to do was look forward and be positive - is that not the case anymore?! Perhaps the motivational speaker from USA whose ideas you subscribed to wasn't as good as he made out to be eh?! I was at the Railway game - a cup game where you do get the occasional upset. Railway played out their skin and we had a perfectly good goal disallowed.  A narrow defeat but disappointing all the same. In contrast, I took my then 3 year old son to see his first game a couple of seasons ago and we were destroyed 4-0 - it was depressing to watch as we were completely stripped apart.  Afterwards a senior town official told me 'that you can't win them all'. With performances like that I figured we'd be lucky to win many at all.

Well Aspin has obviously proved he can get a team out of this league and then this season has managed to keep a part time team within a shot of playoffs with a completely depleted squad. He seems to be able to find some golden nuggets and nuture them, and he did this with Harrogate. He commands respect from all players, deals swiftly with players that seem to disrupt things and doesn't sign a 1000 players per season. Most importantly he always gets the best out of his players.

Lets be honest, Weaver up to now hasn't coped with players who cause a bit of a rift, instead shipping them out asap. He doesn't seem to get the best out of players (Brayson springs to mind), and squad turnover is ridiculous. He over thinks tactics and is no way in the same league as Aspin.

However Weaver in my eyes is steadily improving, seems to react to situations alot quicker and I think has got the respect from this group of players. It really is hard to compare the two of them as one is learning his trade, improving every day and the other is a old hand with bags of experience.

The real question is how long do we give him?

TS: My thoughts remain consistent, as a team our major flaw is consistency in front of goal. For me if we could sign a strong striker we will be in a strong position to go up.

There is a lot to be positive about. I'm jumping up and down with excitement about where we are as a club. Despite DK and your thoughts to the contrary. IMO we are in a great situation on and off the field.

The game tonight will hopefully showcase that to the coming Harrogate people who support Leeds who don't realise what standard of football is being played on their doorstep.

The point about Aspin, is that he, even with all his skills, did not take Town out of this league, the highest we ever finished was 4th- a couple of 6ths and a 9th with a supposed bigger budget. So for all the Weaver comments, our most high profile manager / highest league performing did not achieve that much more. What happened when he asked for even more money and didn't get it? He left us, he quit. Simon could easily have given in after that first season, which must have been a nightmare, but i sense he is a real fighter and has the ability to show vision to the players coming to this club who previously would never have considered playing for Harrogate Town.

-Heath, Bolder, Woods, Taylor - players we had no right to get. Woods was apparently offered 3 times the amount to play at a higher level this year but Weaver convinced him to stay (it's been unfortunate he's been injured and a real shame). We whipped Mallory away from BPA, i'm not sure people realise just how good a player that lad is. I think we will see though...

THESE ARE EXCITING TIMES- IT'S THE BEST TOWN TEAM EVER IN CREATION. GET EXCITED!!

Fair enough Aspin got Fax promoted, but with a massive budget and from what i hear was very close to getting the axe if he hadn't have taken them up last season via the playoffs.

The point is that Weaver is doing an okay job, and as has been commented on, is getting better as a tactician. He has signed some great players, they do give everything for the team. We achieve the consistency which is close to coming and we have a fantastic chance of promotion.


PUMP UP THE TOWN VOLUME- DANCE!

trevdee wrote:
The real question is how long do we give him?

Firstly, I think results need to improve and we need to become a more consistent team, starting right now.

Secondly, next season we need to put in a serious challenge for the playoffs. If we miss out by a handful of points after a really good scrap with some very good teams then fair enough, that might buy Simon some more time.

However if neither of those things happen then I think that after 6 seasons of ordinary and below average fare people should accept the evidence that's in front of them.

trevdee wrote:
It really is hard to compare the two of them as one is learning his trade

Aspin has only been a manager 4 years longer than our Simon. I think we have to put this learning your trade stuff to bed once and for all.

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TownUltra wrote:Woods was apparently offered 3 times the amount to play at a higher level this year but Weaver convinced him to stay

Oh come on. I'm just not having that, even if it's straight from the horses mouth.

DK swear down, on Robin's life. I have it on good authority.

But you never know, they said we put men on the moon. Did we really?

TownUltra wrote:DK swear down, on Robin's life. I have it on good authority.

Well if that's really true I'd either question the player's ambition or presume he won't stick around next time he gets a better offer.

TownUltra wrote:
PUMP UP THE TOWN VOLUME- DANCE!

Are you 12 years old?

Yes. Don't be ageist DK- it's illegal.

TownUltra wrote:Yes. Don't be ageist DK- it's illegal.

I'm assuming you stand in the junior terrace then TownUltra?

Dark Knight wrote:

TownUltra wrote:DK swear down, on Robin's life. I have it on good authority.

Well if that's really true I'd either question the player's ambition or presume he won't stick around next time he gets a better offer.

The reason I believe Woods accepted to stay initially was the fact is that he could get some games under his belt, and the fact that he is also a local lad, so he has his family and friends close by, and he has had a tough time with injuries over the past few years, so has probably felt better with his family around him. He will move on at the end of this season, no doubt.

TheNeil29 wrote:

Dark Knight wrote:

TownUltra wrote:DK swear down, on Robin's life. I have it on good authority.

Well if that's really true I'd either question the player's ambition or presume he won't stick around next time he gets a better offer.

The reason I believe Woods accepted to stay initially was the fact is that he could get some games under his belt, and the fact that he is also a local lad, so he has his family and friends close by, and he has had a tough time with injuries over the past few years, so has probably felt better with his family around him. He will move on at the end of this season, no doubt.

Sssshhhhh! You're shattering Town Ultra's illusion that it was all because Simon is the next Pep Guardiola.   

That was the logic i believe. Some credit should go to Simon though IMO.

A lot of credit should go to Simon, Irving and Macca in all honesty.

When Aspin was in charge, the chances of us getting players of the calibre of Heath, Woods, Bolder, Taylor to name just a few would have been non-existant.

Its a credit to Simon, Macca and Irving that they have managed to bring players of this Calibre on board and it's also a testament to all the staff at the club how much we have improved over the past 4/5 years.

But my word of advice to Simon is that he now has to stand up, be counted and produce the goods next season, consistently.

I have wrote off this season as I believe we are just too inconsistent, but next season, I will be expecting us to retain pretty much the majority of the current squad, also adding a few strong signings. Everything is in place off the pitch and ready to go. The Youth set-up is thriving, the facilities have improved, we have the best chairman in non-league, our reputation has improved considerably and we have all the plans for the improvements to the stands and the ground to come.

Its now time for Simon and Macca to ensure that the team produce the goods on the pitch.

Dress it up how you like, Weaver isn't in the same league (literally speaking) as Aspin. Some individuals, no matter how hard they try, aren't cut out for management. Some realise sooner than others. The quality of the signings don't mean much if the manager can't get the best out of them or plays them out of position. I really can't imagine any club wishing to appoint Simon without the promise of money as part of the overall package. Doesn't seem particularly fulfilling way to live your life but then if you're used to a life of privileges I doubt you care.

Personally speaking, I do think Aspin is a better manager than Weaver, and it has been well documented that he doesnt utilise his players correctly, and there have been questions asked about his tactical acumen. There is nothing we can do about it and the pure and simple fact is that whilst his dad is in charge, he will be the manager.

I'm not happy about it, but I accept it as thats just the way the cookie crumbles.

I'm sure Simon didn't choose to be bought up in a life of privileges and from speaking to him at length, he is a man that makes his own decisions and goes by his own judgements. He could have quite easily had a comfortable life and not worked, or got a very comfortbale job working for his dad's company, but he cut his own path as a footballer and he is now a manager. I do believe that the main reason he was taken on was because Fotherby knew Irving was well off, and wouldn't see his son out of work.

The fact that his dad is now the Chairman and his son's boss is slightly distrubing as there will always be the nepotism accusations, but then I think to myself, if Irving hadnt come on board, where would we be now?

As I will re-state, Simon, Irving and Macca have had long enough now. They now need to replicate the success off the pitch, on the pitch, whatever it takes. It wont happen this season, but I ceratinly expect big, big things to happen next season, and do I believe it will happen? With the right signings, yes.

Bump......

S.

Aspin was a fantastic manager, and would of got us promoted if 'the people upstairs' at the time really wanted us to, at pretty much the same point every season when we needed 2/3 extra players to push us that final step, we never got the players he wanted mainly got young unproven kids or non at all. I had the feeling them upstairs lot were always happy for us to start off flying and then let us drif by seasons end,

His consistent results and performances in all 3 fronts, league, cup and wrcc with a paper thin squad of no more than 17 players, most managers could not match.

If he was our manager and Irving had just taken over without simon joining and had the same set up/ resources we have now I'm convinced we'd be in the conference.

We are doing well now of course, but could there be a place for Neil? Probably not! Interesting thought tho

Some names from the archives here !!

I'd forgotten quite how often Dark Knight used to post!