Darlo Uncovered

Not sure if its been mentioned elsewhere in the chaos of the last few days, but Harry is moving to York with Gray - from Craig Stoddarts piece in the Echo linked from a recent tweet

Will be a big miss.

Keep going Martin, you absolute fuckwit.

Wish he'd just fucking do one.

The more that is coming out of Gray's move to York, the more you dislike the man even more.He could not give a stuff about Darlo and I just question whether he ever has.This is what is becoming increasingly apparent and I wonder how many more of our players he approached.No compassion and interestingly several players did not shake his hand after training in addition to players refusing to sign for him.All this "York are a much bigger club than Darlo " comments , even Ferguson has alluded to this, just really gets to me.Are they not in the same league as us or am I missing something.Really hope all this bites Gray on the backside and York are still in this league next season, would love that.Good luck today Brackley.

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QUAKERMAN2 wrote:The more that is coming out of Gray's move to York, the more you dislike the man even more.He could not give a stuff about Darlo and I just question whether he ever has.This is what is becoming increasingly apparent and I wonder how many more of our players he approached.No compassion and interestingly several players did not shake his hand after training in addition to players refusing to sign for him.All this "York are a much bigger club than Darlo " comments , even Ferguson has alluded to this, just really gets to me.Are they not in the same league as us or am I missing something.Really hope all this bites Gray on the backside and York are still in this league next season, would love that.Good luck today Brackley.

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I am really quite surprised that a lot of people on this board have only just realised what Gray is all about. (Himself)
Some of us had an interesting chat with a former Darlington player who used to play alongside of Gray, this was just after the fans forum when Gray made an arse of himself.
He told us exactly what would happen and has now been prooved correct..I believe that this is one of the reasons that funding did not come forward as people expected it to..
Hopefully now we can now move forward together.

AndyPark wrote:Will be a big miss.

Keep going Martin, you absolute fuckwit.

Wish he'd just fucking do one.

I think he has.

AndyPark wrote:.......Wish he'd just fucking do one.

He literally has "done one" in young chap speak.


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As I've put elsewhere:

I feel this is a massive loss. I don't know the man, and don't even know what he looks like, but I'd buy him a beer for what he's helped achieve over the past few years. He was the person who advised which players to sign to produce a league winning team in the fortnight or so before the Northern League kicked off and, until this season, almost every signing had a positive impact. I believe it's hard to underestimate the impact he has had over the past few years.


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I think Gray did care about the club when he first took on the role. He was in it for all the right reasons. Quick progress and achievements on the pitch led to him being seen by others as one of the best managers in non league, his ego grew and he became completely blinded by his own ego and ruthless ambition to get himself as high up the pyramid as he can regardless of who he screws over on the way

dfcgh wrote:I think Gray did care about the club when he first took on the role. He was in it for all the right reasons. Quick progress and achievements on the pitch led to him being seen by others as one of the best managers in non league, his ego grew and he became completely blinded by his own ego and ruthless ambition to get himself as high up the pyramid as he can regardless of who he screws over on the way

Yes.

I reckon when we played away at York he was maybe taken into a side room to be chatted up and charmed. Most details could have been talked through at this time and Gray could have come away from here in a totally different frame of mind.

Is it more than a coincidence that our results and performances tailed away from this point onwards? Perhaps some of the players picked up that something was about to come off? While I'm on about Gray, here's a little joke.

How many Martin Grays does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer. Only one.

However, it has to be a very big and bright light bulb, and it has to be at least as big and bright as the light bulbs at Salford and Harrogate. Additionally, he must have an option to upgrade it (using other peoples money) at a moments notice.

Furthermore, no one should ever question him on the way he changes light bulbs and they should understand completely if he quickly decides that he wishes to change lightbulbs elsewhere - because he’s ambitious and and all that ………….

liddle_4_ever wrote:As I've put elsewhere:

I feel this is a massive loss. I don't know the man, and don't even know what he looks like, but I'd buy him a beer for what he's helped achieve over the past few years. He was the person who advised which players to sign to produce a league winning team in the fortnight or so before the Northern League kicked off and, until this season, almost every signing had a positive impact. I believe it's hard to underestimate the impact he has had over the past few years.


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Buy him a drink from me ,and piss in it.

Alfie wrote:Not sure if its been mentioned elsewhere in the chaos of the last few days, but Harry is moving to York with Gray - from Craig Stoddarts piece in the Echo linked from a recent tweet

Very disappointed to hear this too.

Anyone who wants to follow Martin Gray is welcome to do so.

At least whoever becomes the long-term manager has a clean slate, and it allows the board of directors, DFCSG and all other stakeholders to take stock and plan effectively for the future.

lancedarlo wrote:

liddle_4_ever wrote:As I've put elsewhere:

I feel this is a massive loss. I don't know the man, and don't even know what he looks like, but I'd buy him a beer for what he's helped achieve over the past few years. He was the person who advised which players to sign to produce a league winning team in the fortnight or so before the Northern League kicked off and, until this season, almost every signing had a positive impact. I believe it's hard to underestimate the impact he has had over the past few years.


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Buy him a drink from me ,and piss in it.

Not a fan? Why's that?


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Sorry I thought you were talking about Martin Gray.

liddle_4_ever wrote:As I've put elsewhere:

I feel this is a massive loss. I don't know the man, and don't even know what he looks like, but I'd buy him a beer for what he's helped achieve over the past few years. He was the person who advised which players to sign to produce a league winning team in the fortnight or so before the Northern League kicked off and, until this season, almost every signing had a positive impact. I believe it's hard to underestimate the impact he has had over the past few years.


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I know Harry is a very respected Scout in the North East. In reality we don't actually know(do we?) that every signing we have made in the last 5 years came from his scouting? The perceived loss may not be as bad as some think. Another point is I thought (may be wrong), that at this level a Scout would "work" on behalf of a number of clubs, otherwise would be very hard to make a living from just say Darlo. Maybe it was just a hobby, or pin money only. Either way is there actually anything preventing him working for more than one Club? Whether he or anyone would do that is another matter I guess.

That's a shock. He's officially joined York as their new chief scout. Gray says the appointment is a key part of his plans there.

That's why a key question in the interview process needs to be around what support network the manager has around him in terms of coaching and scouting. One of the benefits of MG having the academy is that resource could be shared. As it was it ended up where the two things were too intertwined but that doesn't mean that any new manager coming in shouldn't already have a network of coaches/scouts that he's worked with in the past and can be called upon. It's not just about spotting players but also having teams watched - that's far easier if you have contacts further south who could report on opposition for you.

theoriginalfatcat wrote:

dfcgh wrote:I think Gray did care about the club when he first took on the role. He was in it for all the right reasons. Quick progress and achievements on the pitch led to him being seen by others as one of the best managers in non league, his ego grew and he became completely blinded by his own ego and ruthless ambition to get himself as high up the pyramid as he can regardless of who he screws over on the way

Yes.

I reckon when we played away at York he was maybe taken into a side room to be chatted up and charmed. Most details could have been talked through at this time and Gray could have come away from here in a totally different frame of mind.

Is it more than a coincidence that our results and performances tailed away from this point onwards? Perhaps some of the players picked up that something was about to come off?

it's an interesting theory. A malaise developed over the club after York which wasn't just attributable to results.

There's lots of stuff on here which is very anti Martin Grey, and to some extent with good reason. However he has been, in terms of progress upwards in the league structure, one of our best ever managers, and only Brian Little and Hodgy really compare. He took on the task when the club was down and almost out, and everyone has been impressed by our progress.
In terms of his own personal managerial career, he is still young and obviously ambitious, and I think it's clear that with our current board and ownership model, he felt that he had gone as far as he could. He wants to manage in the football league, and we aren't going to get there in our current form.
Every season there are conference teams that have wealthy backers (Forest Green are a good example.... Nailsea... is where?) who are able to bring better quality players in to achieve their goal.
I think that we have to accept that we were not going to retain Martin Grey's services going forward and that it probably is unreasonable not to expect him to move on when the chance came.
Ultimately football is indelibly linked to finance. Generally speaking the rich clubs move up, and the poor ones, although they can buck the trend occasionally for a while, move down.
We don't really have the kind of criticism that has been shown for Martin Grey, for players that move on upwards to other sides, and although his departure is disappointing, I think it was inevitable. Get over it.
The big question is where to now??

Would have been helpful had he not got the hard-pressed fans to dig deeper into their pockets for his budget, then say he was happy again and everything was OK, only to say thanks but no thanks a few weeks later. Also, his idea of a great investor to take us forward into the brave new world to further his ambitions was the man who left us on our knees. Not to mention the manner of his leaving and what hes said and done since.

snackweasle wrote:There's lots of stuff on here which is very anti Martin Grey, and to some extent with good reason. However he has been, in terms of progress upwards in the league structure, one of our best ever managers, and only Brian Little and Hodgy really compare. He took on the task when the club was down and almost out, and everyone has been impressed by our progress.
In terms of his own personal managerial career, he is still young and obviously ambitious, and I think it's clear that with our current board and ownership model, he felt that he had gone as far as he could. He wants to manage in the football league, and we aren't going to get there in our current form.
Every season there are conference teams that have wealthy backers (Forest Green are a good example.... Nailsea... is where?) who are able to bring better quality players in to achieve their goal.
I think that we have to accept that we were not going to retain Martin Grey's services going forward and that it probably is unreasonable not to expect him to move on when the chance came.
Ultimately football is indelibly linked to finance. Generally speaking the rich clubs move up, and the poor ones, although they can buck the trend occasionally for a while, move down.
We don't really have the kind of criticism that has been shown for Martin Grey, for players that move on upwards to other sides, and although his departure is disappointing, I think it was inevitable. Get over it.
The big question is where to now??

I don't have any real problems with his move. In the end, it was a win-win for both parties. The relationship was unsustainable. He had a decent budget but to be fair he could have spunked it away with nothing to show at all.

All the anti Gray comments would have been avoidable if he had said the right thing when he left but he choose to slag the club off instead so agree he has been an outstanding manager for us this last 5 yrs but not this last month

snackweasle wrote:However he has been, in terms of progress upwards in the league structure, one of our best ever managers, and only Brian Little and Hodgy really compare.

I'm properly gutted I missed those promotions under Hodgy, I must have been in a coma at some point.

Undercovered wrote:

snackweasle wrote:However he has been, in terms of progress upwards in the league structure, one of our best ever managers, and only Brian Little and Hodgy really compare.

I'm properly gutted I missed those promotions under Hodgy, I must have been in a coma at some point.

Did I mis-read the Hodgson era? What did we win? Where did we finish? What did we achieve?

I remember having a massive budget one year but still failing to get up

"We don't really have the kind of criticism that has been shown for Martin Grey, for players that move on upwards to other sides"

There has only been Joe Tait, and he gets his fair share..

snackweasle wrote:There's lots of stuff on here which is very anti Martin Grey, and to some extent with good reason. However he has been, in terms of progress upwards in the league structure, one of our best ever managers, and only Brian Little and Hodgy really compare. He took on the task when the club was down and almost out, and everyone has been impressed by our progress.
In terms of his own personal managerial career, he is still young and obviously ambitious, and I think it's clear that with our current board and ownership model, he felt that he had gone as far as he could. He wants to manage in the football league, and we aren't going to get there in our current form.
Every season there are conference teams that have wealthy backers (Forest Green are a good example.... Nailsea... is where?) who are able to bring better quality players in to achieve their goal.
I think that we have to accept that we were not going to retain Martin Grey's services going forward and that it probably is unreasonable not to expect him to move on when the chance came.
Ultimately football is indelibly linked to finance. Generally speaking the rich clubs move up, and the poor ones, although they can buck the trend occasionally for a while, move down.
We don't really have the kind of criticism that has been shown for Martin Grey, for players that move on upwards to other sides, and although his departure is disappointing, I think it was inevitable. Get over it.
The big question is where to now??

Snackweasle ".... Nailsea... is where?" It is just outside Bristol I used to live there, what has it go to do with Forest Green?

bga wrote:

snackweasle wrote:There's lots of stuff on here which is very anti Martin Grey, and to some extent with good reason. However he has been, in terms of progress upwards in the league structure, one of our best ever managers, and only Brian Little and Hodgy really compare. He took on the task when the club was down and almost out, and everyone has been impressed by our progress.
In terms of his own personal managerial career, he is still young and obviously ambitious, and I think it's clear that with our current board and ownership model, he felt that he had gone as far as he could. He wants to manage in the football league, and we aren't going to get there in our current form.
Every season there are conference teams that have wealthy backers (Forest Green are a good example.... Nailsea... is where?) who are able to bring better quality players in to achieve their goal.
I think that we have to accept that we were not going to retain Martin Grey's services going forward and that it probably is unreasonable not to expect him to move on when the chance came.
Ultimately football is indelibly linked to finance. Generally speaking the rich clubs move up, and the poor ones, although they can buck the trend occasionally for a while, move down.
We don't really have the kind of criticism that has been shown for Martin Grey, for players that move on upwards to other sides, and although his departure is disappointing, I think it was inevitable. Get over it.
The big question is where to now??

Snackweasle ".... Nailsea... is where?" It is just outside Bristol I used to live there, what has it go to do with Forest Green?

Got it now you mean Nailsworth!

Undercovered wrote:

snackweasle wrote:However he has been, in terms of progress upwards in the league structure, one of our best ever managers, and only Brian Little and Hodgy really compare.

I'm properly gutted I missed those promotions under Hodgy, I must have been in a coma at some point.

That's what I thought!

Hodgson wasn't a particularly successful Darlo manager - his greatest success was keeping us up back in 2004(?).

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could have... would have....almost in 2000.....

Gray: I need more money to get promoted
*gets more money
Gray: I need even more money
*leaves
Gray: I want to buy all the players that weren't good enough to get promoted, so that we can get promoted.

Got to love the man's logic...