 An
Evening with Denis Smith, David Rhodes, and the London Reds.
It doesn’t take long for you to be in the company of Denis
Smith to respect and trust him. He comes across as most
of us know him already, keen, enthusiastic and lives up to his
nickname “The Winner”
I was a bit nervous attending
my first London reds meeting not knowing anyone but there was
a really friendly feel to the room as I walked in.
London Red's must have seen my unfamiliar face and greeted me.
I didn’t recognise as many people as I thought I would but
there were definitely a few familiar faces. Denis was in
the middle of them all chatting away happily. I got myself a
pint and within minutes was chatting away to a couple of
southern based Wrexham fans. Its suprising how many people
know you if you mention your message board postin nickname.
Think I better start talking a bit more sense, I didn’t
realise people read it.
Once everyone had arrived,
order was called and Denis and David sat down (seems
strange ever calling him David without his surname, he just is
David Rhodes isn’t he). They were both introduced and
Denis was congratulated on his career as both a footballer and
a Manager. Mr Rhodes looked slightly uncomfortable about
the whole event but Dennis made it clear that he would attempt
to answer all questions and nothing was off topic.
A couple of early questions
about Stoke and old derbies got Denis off to a start and it
was easy to see he is a keen Stoke City fan, although he still
gives you the feeling that if Wrexham drew them in the FA cup
next year he would relish the chance to beat them.
The next question threatened to take us right off the reason
most people had come for and an appeal for football related
questions was met with a superb one from some intelligent,
articulate young Wrexham fan who obviously knew his stuff.
Oh ok, I asked this because
I know it has come up a lot in forums. Do you think that
our away form is better than our home form because the 532
system works better away than at home, and would you consider
ever playing 442 perhaps just at home? Denis’ answer
was an expansion of something I had read before, he explained
how 532 isn’t particularly his own favourite system but he
believes it is the best way he can organise the team to
maximise the players potential. It makes up for certain
players lack of pace and suits other players well.
On the whole he led us to
believe it was right for the current squad. The problem
with being at home is that a lot of teams come to defend and
we seem unable to break them down, where as away the game is
more open. Once we get a goal at home the game often
opens up to our advantage and we get more comfortable.
He added that Morrell used to be able to open up defences well
and knows that Chris Armstrong will too if he stays fit.
It was a long time coming
and I’m sure anyone reading this will want to know what was
said too. Questions were raised about who owned the
lease to the ground and why the hell would any company want to
purchase a lease that only paid £1 a year in ground rent.
David Rhodes looked as if he knew there was no escaping this
subje ct and without going to deep
into this, accepted fans
questions and worries on the subject. You couldn’t
help but get the impression that he like us was just hoping
that whatever happens with Mr
Guterman that it will be
alongside the success of Wrexham FC not instead of it.
Denis joined in to say that in
his opinion Wrexham FC will still be playing at the Racecourse
in the foreseeable future. It was a very difficult point
in the evening because you could tell that it could have quite
easily decended into a meeting about Gutterman, the lease and
the ground but at the same time, here was a room full of
lifelong Wrexham supporters with an hour of the manager’s
time at their disposal. Which was it to be Football or
Politics? It seemed that they had covered as much as
they could regarding this issue and it was the majority of the
fans who wanted to move on.
How disappointing was
the Yeovil result? It had gu tted “The Winner”.
Denis Lawerence is surely the most improved player in the
Wrexham squad under Smith but how did he achieve such a
transformation? Apparently Smith had told Lawrence it was
unlikely he would be part of his team and the rest was down to
Lawrence who worked extremely hard on many aspects of his
game. Carey was described as a true professional and
when questioned about the youngsters, Denis explained how yes
they have a lot to offer but don’t be mistaken they are not
the instant answer. Rumours of Leeds interest in Carlos
were quashed but ok there were questions asked about Morgan
during “Reid’s time at leeds”.
The abuse of Pejic was
discussed and some fans even wondered how this young kid had
come thro such abuse from his own fans and Denis agreed he had
done well, accepted odd parts of his game he needs to work on
but describe him as the best one on one defending prospect we
have.
Marketing issues came up
and like the fans in Red passion or One nil constantly ask
“What are Wrexham FC doing to encourage fans?”
“Could buses be laid on to bring people into home games?”
Most of which were explained away as too costly. The
supporters bus laid on by Wrexham FC to the Brentford game has
only 27 people on it and even that costs money to the club.
It was suggested that perhaps the club should work closer with
other supporters running buses and the point was taken on
board.
I am very interested in the
Marketing of Wrexham FC myself and spent a further 30 mins
chatting with another fan and David Rhodes informally
afterwards. Here is not really the best place to go too
far into it but we covered most of the fantastic brainstorms
we think we have in the chatrooms without considering cost or
consequences. For instance have you ever considered
turning the ground around? Yes but there is no way North
Wales Police would allow it. It struck me as so
easy for us to come up with ideas most of which can be
flattened in a couple of sentences with realistic reasons why
they wont work or aren’t feasible.
Tickets are given away to
schools already and a good couple of hundred are taken
up each home game. 350 kids from the junior welsh league
came along to the Sheffield Wednesday game and were allowed to
bring their parents. (Perhaps this also answers some questions
about how the attendances always look bigger than we
say)
Back to football and to be
honest Denis didn’t really come up with a great deal more
than you can pick up from his quotes in the press or programs
but it was great to hear it first hand. Yes he thinks we
have a realistic chance at the play offs, and if we get there,
he believes that we have an advantage with the experience of
the likes of Jim Whitley, Brian Carey and Andy Dibble.
 What about Trundle and
Morrell, well Morrell was described as one of the best
professionals Wrexham have had and all the offers he received
he had gone through with Denis. Trundle? Could we have
kept him? Well rumours of not being able to get in touch
with him or his agent, phone calls not returned were all
accepted as truths. It seemed to me that Trundle
didn’t want to stay at Wrexham even if he had have been
offered the top wage.
In my post Q and A chat with
David Rhodes it just made me more aware about it from the
clubs point of view not from a fans eye view. My own
opinion on Wrexham FC is that things could be a lot worse.
Here you have a business that has had a pretty long rough time
over the last ten years, we have never been financially stable
and what if any other offers than Guttermans could have ended
up with us in administration sooner rather than later.
It is hard at the moment to know the truth behind what is
going on but for the time being we are still playing football
and in the scheme of things not doing too badly on the pitch
that is.
Lets hope Chris Armstrong
stays fit and starts doing the business for us. I don’t
think any of us there are much wiser than any of you that
didn’t attend. Perhaps David Rhodes did a good job at
convincing us that he doesn’t know the whole picture himself
and I’m sure many would have liked to have gone much deeper
into the club finances and politics but the evening wasn’t
supposed to be about that and it would have been a shame if we
had gone too far down the road.
I’m sure everyone
there enjoyed the evening and would like to thank Denis for
meeting a set of supporters in his own time. He came
across as a decent man to be in charge of the team we all
support. Finally something else that struck me tonight
was that we as supporters could do a lot more for the club.
Apparently, anyone at Grimsby would have witnessed them still
singing at 3-0 down. The club are trying ideas to get
more people in but perhaps it is time for us as fans to give
it our best shot too.
Evenings like tonight make
you realise that there a re a lot of people who want something
better for Wrexham FC it is all about pulling together,
stopping shouting abuse at the players, (some of which were
described as more sensitive than you’d imagine) and
generally getting behind the team and Denis Smith. Please note
I haven’t included too many “” because all of this has
been written from memory and it would be unfair of me to say
Denis Smith or David Rhodes definitely said it like this.
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