Darragh's Diary

Posted on: Wed 06 Jun 2007

Not a lot to report this month as we only had one game which was against Rochdale at home at the start of the month. I am in Las Vegas ringside for the De La Hoya / Mayweather fight. My beautiful wife organized this trip as a birthday present as I am a massive Boxing fan but had never been to see a fight like this.

We get a decent turnout for the Rochdale game and Bob is sending me text updates as I am in the Casino playing Blackjack. 0-1 down and bang bang Boydy scores a couple of headers and we are flying.

I then get the phone call telling me young Blanchett has scored a great goal to put us 3-1 up. I turn to Natalie and say at last we look like breaking this one statistic bugging me, whereby we have yet to come from behind to win and today would be a great time to get this one out of the way.

I am trying to explain to the Blackjack dealer about the Posh and owning a football club in the UK and I get a text. Without coming across as a doom merchant I said to Natalie; don't f****** tell me 3-3… and low and behold 3-3!

I then get the call from Bob about the pitch invasion and the attack on one of the Rochdale players and I am raging. This is completely unacceptable and no player should have to deal with that. We will take massive measures to ensure this does not happen ever again and let me tell you if I was at this game I would have gone f****** mad. I hope this thug's parents are proud of him and I will make sure he never gets into one of our games ever again. We have a great fan base with some passionate supporters and it would be terribly unjust for us to get a reputation for this type of nonsense.

I am gutted the season is over for us and have to now wait a couple of months before it all kicks off again. The day before I leave Las Vegas I get a call from Barry about one of our players. Apparently his team of fifteen advisors has asked for him to get a new contract on three times more money then he is on now.

Anyway it was a short conversation and hopefully this young lad will learn the art of getting your timing right. Never ask for anything when success has not been achieved and never be afraid to ask when success has been achieved.

Back from Vegas in Spain and the gaffer is coming over for a ten day holiday. I arrange for a nice villa for him and his family. Trick worked as after he arrives he is on the phone enquiring about buying a similar property to the one he is staying in. I can never get away from the sales man in me; it's what keeps the drive alive. Anyhow I spend 4 hours locked in my office with Darren talking about the end of the season and planning for the future.

We have a brilliant relationship and we are definitely on the same page when it comes to where we want the club to be going forward. We go through the squad man by man and talk about tactics and coaching and pre-season training and our warm up games. He is delighted with our training camp which is perfect for conditioning our players after they come back off their holidays, it's also great for team bonding.

I will be taking the squad and management out on the golf course and they have all been invited to my summer party the day before they leave. It's a big annual event with over 1000 guests and a great opportunity for the players to feel part of my global family.

Transfer targets are discussed and we laugh at some of the tactics of some players and their agents. They are playing us off against their clubs and other clubs which of course is fair enough but at the end of the day we want players who are winners and with the right attitude. I know people think some players are only coming for the money but if truth be known they are coming because they know we are a club with big plans and they want to be part of it. A couple of our signings had better terms offered by other clubs and still came to us which is a testament to both Darren and Barry. We are still after a couple of players but as Darren said "if we don't get them its not the end of the world", as we believe the squad we have presently got will be as good as anyones.

We want a 22 man squad for next season that, with a blend of youth and experience, is one that is capable of promotion back to back over the next 2 years. I personally think we have brought in some excellent talent this year and this has been proved having turned down a couple of cheeky bids for players. The key next season is mixing with the best and worst and going away from home and being able to battle and come away with 3 points. Of course we want to play good football, but winning is winning.

We still need to shed some of the players we do not want but I will not be held to ransom over contract payoffs as many of these players can easily find other clubs, yet think I will pay them thousands to do it. I have already told a couple of them how I feel and it is now down to them to find themselves another club to further their careers, if of course that's what they want to do. I mean, who in their right mind would want to sit in the stands stagnating and be forgotten about for 12 months.

I went to Greece and hated every minute of that game from the kick off after seeing the team sheet and the line up. Liverpool showed far too much respect for what I considered on the night a very average Milan performance and of course paid for it by losing on the counter. I don't know how I would feel if my manager put on a right back for a right back at 2-0 down with five minutes to go, not forgetting we already had started with a back 4 and 2 holding midfielders. I just want to forget about this season and concentrate on next season for the Posh and the great times ahead.

I firmly believe we are making great progress as a club with a new ambitious young manager with a great backroom staff. The club has brought in around fourteen new players since my arrival with a couple more to come, and our 22 man squad for next season will hopefully put a smile back on all the Posh supporters out there.

My targets for the club next season are: