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August 2nd 2008
Hobs Moat Road Rink, Solihull, England
Solihull Barons announce appointment of new General Manager
One month after the Solihull Barons announced their emphatic return to the English Premier league, the team held a press conference today to announce the appointment of Raymond Mullan as new General Manager ahead of the 2008/09 campaign. The perennial basement dwellers have been mired in difficulties both on and off ice for some time, with recent financial difficulties resulting in the team dropping from the EPL to the ENIHL. However, new ownership and successful re-application to the EPL. Mullan, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland comes with no prior General Management experience, which hardly instills a sense of confidence from the fans and media alike that this restructure will change the Barons fortunes for the better. Mullan inherits a team with just three players on payroll and no backroom staff as yet, quite a challenge for a rookie GM.
Mullan addressed the media in today’s broadcast outlining the challenges ahead.
“I’m not gonna lie to you guys, this is not gonna be easy. Were playing in limited facilities, we don’t have anywhere near the budget of our competitors in this league and we haven’t got many bodies on the roster. But I see a team that’s loved by the locals, that fill this building every night and I feel we need to reciprocate with a decent on ice product. We’re talking about a team with real history here. This team won the first two championships in this leagues history. Granted that’s in the past and financially we’ve found it difficult to compete, but money’s no excuse, at the end of the day its 5 on 5 for the majority of a game. We can offer players a great place to play, passionate fans and a unique place to live and experience.”
“The first step is to address the coaching situation, I want to get a solid backroom staff in place and help develop the talent that’s gonna be here, start treating these players like professionals and I’m sure they’ll in turn play like that on the ice. I will be reviewing the our options with regard the playing personnel over the next couple of weeks and making offers. Unfortunately the timing isn’t great, most of our competitors have already assembled their rosters so the talent that’s left is not exactly deep. Financially, we can’t afford to carry any dead weight so I have to make the right decisions and get the right players.”
When questioned about his expectations for the coming year, Mullan had this to say “A competitive roster and a team of players that come out to play every shift, every night. If they can’t beat the opposition on the scoreboard then I at least expect us to beat them on the ice, I want teams to come here and have a tough time against us, the days of double digit losses and sloppy performances for this club are over.”
Strong words, a season beckons, one in which we’ll see if these words can be backed up.
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OOps!!! My bad, apologies batdad, never knew there was a blog facility, pretty neat. Anyway for anyone who began reading and is interesting in following/contributing to my story - 