Barry, i have seen your post on the Angel's forum, i do aplologise to you and Welling United FC i was misinformed you has been in contact with Welling. Hopefully that will happen in the future. I am sure you would sort out what used to be a superb youth set up at Welling with your contacts and record in bringing in quality players (Who naturally would progress to the Senior team(s). I have pasted your post below as i see you were unsure if T.A.F.C would leave it on their forum.

Thanks for the post and also again, apologies for any error that may have been made. Your post does validate most of what we reported on the website.

Good Luck

 

BarryJeffrey
Youth Team

Offline

Posts: 158









To All at Tonbridge Angels
« on: Today at 00:32:27 »

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I am not sure how long this will be allowed to remain on this forum, but I feel I had to write it anyway
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First of all let me state that all of the statements regarding what I am doing, or where I am going are false, I have not had any contact with Welling United, or any other Club, but may do so in the future. I am extremely flattered by the story on the Welling Website.

Unfortunately I have accepted that I am no longer wanted, or indeed even welcome at Tonbridge Angels F.C. after many years of loyal service. Just the fact that I was not invited along on Thursday to the meeting to answer the “disciplinary charges” despite asking Nick Sullivan shows that it was already set-up to have me removed. I realise that not everyone looked upon me with favour, but then you don’t have to like everyone that you work with. I certainly didn’t like everyone at Tonbridge, but I respected the work that they done there.

What really gets to me is that I persuaded Nick to return to Tonbridge with some of his players to join with my already existing squad, and we all know how well the Under 18’s performed last season. I thought I had done a good job in getting him back here, only now it feels as though I have been stabbed repeatedly in the back.
I do think that the fact that I had left his stepson Jack Moore out of the starting 11 in our first Southern Youth League game against Bromley is a factor, but the point is that he is not up to the standard as I and the coaches agreed. He also had some parents going to him moaning about my selections that night, why did they not come to me to ask the questions. I have unfortunately since learned that the parents in question were those that were with him at Sevenoaks, and that is where there is a problem. This problem reared its head on the night of the 18’s game at home to Whyteleafe when I was sworn at and verbally abused by Mick Spenceley at the end of the game, and this was heard by everyone who was there, including our opponents, but nothing has been done about that. Did we not have a situation recently when a supporter was banned from the ground for swearing at a member of staff? Is this not a case of double standards!!!

He had mentioned to me before the Bromley game about being loyal to the players who had been here, but that should not be the way to run any team. In fact I had left out players who had been with the Club for 3 or 4 seasons and no problems, but because I had left out some of his old Sevenoaks players, who had only had the one season with us, I got grief.

It has been mentioned about my methods of bringing in players to the 'Angels', but I have never approached a player without firstly speaking to the Manager. I keep hearing the use of the word “poaching”, but that does not apply because I done the approach correctly.

I feel very happy with the job that I have done here for Tonbridge Angels, bringing in many players, and helping in the development of others. Some of the players that have played for the First Team or Reserves that I have been responsible for bringing here are Ian Parkes, Jay May, Matt Hollyoak, Shayne Goldsmith, Tom Reeves, Adam O’Neill, Daniel Stringer, Terry Brock, Kevin Carpenter, James Morgan, Craig Fermor, Scott McEwan, Ben Rainbow, Mannie Neville, and to some degree Mike Cramp and Richard Shaw (if Nick had not come here, they would not have come). Paul Ainsworth was another player that I brought here and was sad to see him leave.

I was gutted the other night when the boys went out of the F.A. Youth Cup at the first hurdle, but was not surprised when I saw the line-up. It was a terrible performance against a very ordinary team.

I still have no idea as to why this has happened as no one from the Club has given me a reason for my suspension / dismissal. There certainly won’t be a reasonable explanation, except that apparently Linda Brown was upset for some reason, so be warned, don’t get on the wrong side of her. I expect to be informed by letter, as no one will have the courage to actually face me.

It is sad that it is ending this way as I thought that I had made a friend in Nick after our excellent season last year, and the great week we had with the squad in Benidorm, but it was obviously a false friendship.

I am really sad that my time with Tonbridge Angels is at an end as it is my ‘home’ town Club, and I felt I still had a great deal to give, and I was excited about all that was going on here, but I will move on. I wish Dobla, Ruthers and the team well for the remainder of the season and hope that you gain promotion. I will still look at your results with interest. My best wishes to all the people who supported me in my time at the 'Angels', I hope that we will meet again at some time in the future.

Barry Jeffrey