The view of our much maligned friend!

https://blog.betway.com/football/vanarama-national-league-this-is-the-year-forest-green-justify-their-huge-investment/

Pleased he thinks#projectpromotion went well! ;)

Pfft. It's almost as if he's trolling for responses.

Oh, wait. He is.

Everyone has a opinion which you have to respect as long as its not to ludicrous but this guy has never played the game before ?.Personally dont agree with him and nice to know the all the bookies overall on oddschecker have us as favourites to win the league

all the more reason to get promoted and avoid reading what he thinks

certainly knows his stuff (yawn)

i honestly think Alan has a good knowledge of the league, and i personally don't mind him.

but i think he has put us 5th, simply because of the twitter scenarios that have happened over recent weeks, but who cares ?

He is entilted to his opinion...

...even if it is wrong.

I like his logic that Eastleigh (who we beat 4 times last season) have strengthened so will do better this year.

We, on the other hand, have also strengthened but are likely to do worse!

Yep, good, old-fashioned trolling.  ;D

I do think the league is weaker than it has ever been (or at least since we've been here). This is our chance to win it and escape and I'm backing us to do it. I think it will be relatively straighforward too, we are the best team, we have the best players, money in the bank if we need to go out and bolster an already settled squad who will run through walls for each other. The fans are a different class, it's ours to lose IMO.

Quoted from 75

I do think the league is weaker than it has ever been (or at least since we've been here). This is our chance to win it and escape and I'm backing us to do it. I think it will be relatively straighforward too, we are the best team, we have the best players, money in the bank if we need to go out and bolster an already settled squad who will run through walls for each other. The fans are a different class, it's ours to lose IMO.

Hang on, are we sounding a bit like Massive Luton were for 5 seasons?!  Let's not let it backfire, confidence is great, but we're bordering on arrogance sometimes.

Mind you, I also think we'll win it!

How dare he not predict us to win all 46 games this season?

Alger was wrong with his predictions previously and he will be wrong again this season..

I've done my own prediction, can be read here:

https://toogoodtogodown.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/who-will-win-the-conference-in-the-201516-season/

To be fair to Alan Play Off losers average a finish of 9th. That's a fact. I believe we will buck the trend but I can see why he, as an outsider, thinks we might not.

I mean, he's not wrong in what he's said about us for the most part. Our home form against mid table sides was pretty shocking and we'd be foolish not to forget that. But to then put Eastleigh and FGR Rovers above us despite them doing what they do every year, which is sign a excrement load of attackers and hope for the best, is laughable.

But predictions have no impact on the final out come, that's down to us to dictate so this doesn't bother me one bit.

Quoted from bax

I've done my own prediction, can be read here:

https://toogoodtogodown.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/who-will-win-the-conference-in-the-201516-season/

To be fair to Alan Play Off losers average a finish of 9th. That's a fact. I believe we will buck the trend but I can see why he, as an outsider, thinks we might not.

For me, seeing Woking at 5th in this prediction sums it up.  In the game at Woking towards the end of last season, although it was only 2-1 in the end, I thought Town were a different class and we have improved the quality of the squad further since then.  If that game was replayed, we would win 99 times in 100.  

Our biggest challenge this year will either be the players feeling the weight of expectation from the fans (we have a firm trend in the past of bottling games with high expectation) or at the other end of the spectrum, complacency.  However I think PH will ensure there is no complacency and he seems to be really learning how to get the team to perform in all scenarios.  

We were the form team in the final third of last season, we are the form team going into the season.

Its ours to lose (and I am sure there are 23 other teams waiting to see egg on our face)!

Alan donated a prize to the campaign so respect for that.  I rarely agree with what he writes but life would be oh so boring if we all shared the same opinion.

For me, a great pre-season but the truth is we won jack, season starts on Saturday and we must be on it straight away.  First is the only position to finish, playoffs are a lottery.

The idea of his blog is that it attracts interest to the business site of his employer, Betway...




Yep, I think he'll be happy with the response.

Quoted from bax

I've done my own prediction, can be read here:

https://toogoodtogodown.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/who-will-win-the-conference-in-the-201516-season/

To be fair to Alan Play Off losers average a finish of 9th. That's a fact. I believe we will buck the trend but I can see why he, as an outsider, thinks we might not.

Obviously footballs all about opinions but I can't see Woking replicating last season. They've lost some bloody good players this summer.

Kiddy for relegation?! The rest I pretty much agree with.

As previously pointed out he's correct about the losing play off teams and also our appalling  home form. However, I read somewhere else that we (only) need to win 3 extra games to get enough points on top of last season so I think that can be done.
I do hope he's wrong!! Every year I start the season on a massive wave of optimism and have been badly let down in recent years. This years it seems more like a tsunami than a wave!!

Admired him for donating to Operation Promotion but quit following him on twitter as he seemed to just be trolling.

If you want proof he likes winding up town fans a little look at the size of our write up, longest by a large margin.

As others have said though he has some justification for putting us there with playoff losers not excelling, we will just prove him wrong. I just wish fans would not rise to his bait, ignore him and just back the team as loudly as ever!

Most of it is true.

Let's hope his predictions are hopelessly wrong.

Quoted Text

It’s an important stat that points to the psychology of a team that have played 49 games to just miss out, more so when their defeat came via a penalty shoot-out.

I'd say the psychology has never been better.

I think he is right and all the bookies are wrong ;)

To be fair I think his argument has logic, with the historical poor performance of play-off final losers the following season. Also he refers to our past overly cautious approach at home against mediocre opposition, which I think has some weight.
However, I think he is wrong, we have held on to almost all our players (how many losing finalists do that), strengthened, at last seem to have strikers on form, have money in the pot for later in the season and hopefully a slightly more attacking approach that I think will be needed to claim the champions spot.

I was more worried when I read a Cheltenham fan on another forum say we're "red hot favourites" than by Mr Alger's comments. Given who he works for, he's clearly trying to provoke a few more customers.

His article is published on the Betway blog so it's safe to assume Mr Alger is, in some way, on their payroll.

Now whilst some of what he says is true, and considering he clearly has form for anti-Town vibes, he could also be slightly (& quietly) influenced to encourage some punters' money to places other than the Mariners.

Our odds have fallen with Betway - as with every bookie - which would suggest their liability on us has grown significantly and as such, they'll not be unhappy to take plenty of bets on some of our rivals. What better way than have a renowned non-league figure make noises in favour of several teams other than ourselves...

Any which way; whatever he predicts, we sleep easy. #thistownknows

[quote=75]I This is our chance to win it and escape and I'm backing us to do it.

Agree I can hear Steve McQueen revving his bike already.

Quoted from gaz57

Agree I can hear Steve McQueen revving his bike already.

I bloody hope not - he didn't get over the wire did he?  ;D

Hes a flipping wind up merchant, surely...

"The play-off winners under Darrell Clarke were arguably the best team in the division based on their displays after New Year"

Quoted from toontown

To be fair I think his argument has logic, with the historical poor performance of play-off final losers the following season. Also he refers to our past overly cautious approach at home against mediocre opposition, which I think has some weight.
However, I think he is wrong, we have held on to almost all our players (how many losing finalists do that), strengthened, at last seem to have strikers on form, have money in the pot for later in the season and hopefully a slightly more attacking approach that I think will be needed to claim the champions spot.

As Aristotle would tell you, if he were alive, there is no logic whatsoever in saying that because something has happened before , team losing in the playoffs comes 5th, it will happen again... its a logical fallacy...

He definitely has a few fair points e.g about our home form and being too defensive, but I think the whole logic about the play off loss is ridiculous. We went there as underdogs and played a team who finished 5 points above us.  Within days of the defeat the whole club were upbeat with operation promotion and #wegoagain, etc which I don't know of happening at any other club previously.  We've also strengthened and not lost our best players which a lot of play off losers do, so I really can't understand where he is coming from about the whole play off thing, if anything its galvanised us! Of course the PR from the reactions he will get on twitter might help explain it...

Quoted from UTMariners

He definitely has a few fair points e.g about our home form and being too defensive, but I think the whole logic about the play off loss is ridiculous. We went there as underdogs and played a team who finished 5 points above us.  Within days of the defeat the whole club were upbeat with operation promotion and #wegoagain, etc which I don't know of happening at any other club previously.  We've also strengthened and not lost our best players which a lot of play off losers do, so I really can't understand where he is coming from about the whole play off thing, if anything its galvanised us! Of course the PR from the reactions he will get on twitter might help explain it...

We lost our top scorer and also our overwhelming player of the year to be fair. I know that doesn't tell the whole story but as an outsider looking in you can see how it may make you think we have been weakened.

Time will tell whether we have or not.

Alger has a 100%, faultless record in predicting one thing at least - a massive dopey bite off loads of town fans.

Spot on every time!

Quoted from psgmariner

We lost our top scorer and also our overwhelming player of the year to be fair. I know that doesn't tell the whole story but as an outsider looking in you can see how it may make you think we have been weakened.

Time will tell whether we have or not.

Yeah we lost two key players, but the players we have brought in seem on the face of it to be adequate replacements, and we seem to be a lot more attacking, something which let us down last season. But like you say, time will tell.. Bring on Saturday..

Quoted from 75

I do think the league is weaker than it has ever been (or at least since we've been here). This is our chance to win it and escape and I'm backing us to do it. I think it will be relatively straighforward too, we are the best team, we have the best players, money in the bank if we need to go out and bolster an already settled squad who will run through walls for each other. The fans are a different class, it's ours to lose IMO.

I take it you have in depth and accurate knowledge of all other teams squads, budgets and capital resources then to be forming such opinions?  ;)

I am very confident this year but remember reading the same sort of stuff on here for the past 4 years. We have always thought it was the easiest league since we came down and we have always thought the squad was an improvement on last years. Let's remember that so that expectation doesn't make us look silly again.

Anyone with half an ounce of football knowledge has never said this is an easy league, one would assume those that have are probably the ones that call for managers to be sacked all the time and moan after a couple of misplaced passes???


Alger gets what he wants, a bite from fans of the bigger clubs in the league. Regardless of what he knows of other clubs etc predicting the outcome of a very unpredictable league is pretty futile. He is merely offering an opinion much like you or I.

I said easiest (as in compared to previous years) not easy. Prettying everyone agreed on that last year.