The Club Today As I See It

[animallittle3]

I personally do not ever want this club to be in debt to it's ownership , the price we have paid on the field is too much in my opinion due to the club changing hands .

If that means we have to settle for lower league football and becoming self sustainable then so be it .

Whilst I've always maintained that we should never settle for anything less than championship football because of our history I feel times have moved on from that on many levels .

I've noticed that foreign owners don't tend to stick around for too long and it's likely the club could be sold two or three times within the timeframe the previous owner enjoyed .

It's highly likely too that we will be simply changing foreign owners as I can't see right now how we could attract a reds fan as our sole owner or even a consortium , that could change I guess but it seems unlikely .

We've seen the effects of changing owners who are owed money and I certainly don't wish to see this repeated every three or four years , far too volatile for a club of our size .

The present owners lay claim to be here for the long haul , I'm not convinced myself , they'll get bored because they don't have a natural connection and will move on to their next project when it becomes a chore .

And it will because this club isn't capable of providing the high's these kind of people require to feed their interest , that horse bolted 20 years ago .

We live and die by the turnover we naturally produce and owe nothing and we will be ok .

Thoughts guys .

[Acido]

Mr Cryne was right of course with his mentality of wanting us to be a self sustaining club, and not owe debts to anybody. And Im sure all of us on here remember the dark days of 2002, when relegation (which was bad enough) was followed by administration. I never want to see times like that again and for that reason, Im still glad that we've got a team who aren't in dire financial trouble.

Ive stopped thinking that we belong in the Champship now because when we get back there, it doesn't feel like we're welcome and its nothing but misery and eventual relegation for us again isn't it. And as for all that money we've made in recent seasons on our star players, is it true that absolutely none of that exists now, and we're still always on the look out to sell players and make quick profits ?.

[Jules88]

Turnover they produce!
New shirts not out with a week to go
Financial incompetence

[DOOALI]

Them sweatshops abroad must be on a go slow

[Nozzer1953]

Everything was done on a shoestring under the Crynes and the club don't exactly pay the wages to attract the highest calibre of staff in positions where they could make a difference and those that are good don't stay around long enough because the club doesn't value them. The new owners have continued with the previous strategy and haven't injected any more money into the budget by all accounts. From what I hear GG doesn't have his finger on the what is going on inside the club to the same extent as any of the last 3 people in his role did. We may have billionaire owners but the club is still being run like a corner shop.

[Nozzer1953]

Interesting post by Gally on the BBS. Even he is frustrated.

'Once upon a time, the CEO/General Manager (and even owner) met with fan representatives regularly whether that be private meetings or fan engagement forums. It's next to impossible for the Trust to even get a meeting these days. There's been 1 fan engagement forum meeting that GG has organised and it seemed they were just looking at feedback on ideas they had rather than discussing fan issues (was ill so this is based on feedback from those that attended). If my memory serves there have been 2 such meetings since Mansford left. How long ago is that now?
I'm pretty frustrated that there seemed to be a decent relationship between club and fans under Mansford where there was a real appetite to improve but we seem to have been in reverse ever since he left. I don't know, maybe part of that was the euphoria of the promotion run but it really feels like we've gone backwards and there is little interest from the top. I know the staff on the ground do their best with limited resources and I'm not having a go at them.'

[SBRed48]

I pooasted this jooak two or three years back--

Bullsh1t Ben went to the doctors worried abart pain when crapping. The doctor said to him, "There were green leaves coming out of your arse but the good news is it was just the tip of an iceberg and I've pulled it out. The bad news is there are still six members of BBS up there and I can't dislodge them".
It was only a jooak but illustrated the "connections" between Ben and BBS and I can understand their frustration at losing this link. The BBS owner is reyt though with his comments that recent CEO's have lost that link, even if it was with a limited group.

[Nozzer1953]

But the meetings that were set up enable all fans to get involved if they wished. Perhaps we were spoiled, but when the club are trying to claim that we are all in it together they need to make more effort.

[SBRed48]

The main effort is made when it is the period for Season Ticket renewals/ purchases. Efforts to "connect" tend to fade after that.

It's in our blood. It's not just a game.

[Acido]

He might have been full of boloni, but how many of us missed Ben Mansford when he left and would definitely rather have him back now as opposed to Mr Goatee beard ?.
Btw it must be getting worse if Gally has spoken out about it.