Podcast with Mr Paul Conway

[SBRed48]

But even if you are in the minority - it dosent necessarily mean you are wrong.

Wise words Nudge, wise words.

[animallittle3]

I've no issue with Bill or anyone else making a case for the ownership or even endorsing it as Nudge does .

However it has to be credible opinions and there's absolutely no way that PMG can take any credit for OGC Nice playing in the Champions League anymore than they can take credit for the stadium and training complex .

What's more disconcerting is that Bill doesn't have an opinion on the demise of the French club during and following the tenure of the PMG ownership other than paper talk and emotional fans .

This is selective comment with quite a bit of denial thrown in for good measure .

My feelings are this , PMG haven't added anything to this club that wasn't already here and they haven't taken the club to places we haven't been before .

To give a consortium of owners credit because they haven't turned us in to Derby County or S6 is quite mystifying to me .

[EastStandRed]

OGC Nice
2015-16 finished 4th Bought by …….Lee/Conway arrived at end of season
2016-17 finished 3rd Qualifying for Champions League
2017-18 finished 8th Took out the notoriously dodgy loan
2018-19 finished 7th
Sold the club at the club at the end of the season having made €32m on player sales and a €77m profit on the sale

2019-20 finished 6th
2020-21 finished 9th
2021-22 currently 4th

I stand by my point that they took credit for something already in place time and time again without mentioning the decline in the clubs standings and gambling on the clubs finishing position with a high interest loan which just happened to be for the same price they paid for the club.

Fans boycotted the club at the end and there were protests within the ground. This isn’t an opinion it’s what actually happened.

[pass_and_move]

I've no issue with Bill or anyone else making a case for the ownership or even endorsing it as Nudge does .

However it has to be credible opinions and there's absolutely no way that PMG can take any credit for OGC Nice playing in the Champions League anymore than they can take credit for the stadium and training complex .

What's more disconcerting is that Bill doesn't have an opinion on the demise of the French club during and following the tenure of the PMG ownership other than paper talk and emotional fans .

This is selective comment with quite a bit of denial thrown in for good measure .

My feelings are this , PMG haven't added anything to this club that wasn't already here and they haven't taken the club to places we haven't been before .

To give a consortium of owners credit because they haven't turned us in to Derby County or S6 is quite mystifying to me .

Personally I wouldn't give them credit for balancing the books but I believe that this club will steadily progress forward with the plan they have in place. Although James Cryne was the founder of this plan in 2015 it doesn't mean that the plan can't be enhanced by a group of foreign business people.


When they arrived they said they were going to enhance and tweak certain aspects of how the club was run and they've stuck to their word imo. There's no magic formula or complexity to it, it's hopefully a steady build and progression in terms of building a competitive championship squad within budget. Last season was a flash in the pan finishing 5th imo. Unique circumstances and an astute head coach almost brought something special to the club in terms of achievement.

I'll be happy with mid table and go again next year with no threat of administration which in this day and age there's a lot to be said for.

[animallittle3]

Personally I wouldn't give them credit for balancing the books but I believe that this club will steadily progress forward with the plan they have in place. Although James Cryne was the founder of this plan in 2015 it doesn't mean that the plan can't be enhanced by a group of foreign business people.


When they arrived they said they were going to enhance and tweak certain aspects of how the club was run and they've stuck to their word imo. There's no magic formula or complexity to it, it's hopefully a steady build and progression in terms of building a competitive championship squad within budget. Last season was a flash in the pan finishing 5th imo. Unique circumstances and an astute head coach almost brought something special to the club in terms of achievement.

I'll be happy with mid table and go again next year with no threat of administration which in this day and age there's a lot to be said for.

If we are to accept the model which as we know equates to discovering undervalued young talent and selling on for good profit then things have stalled under the consortium .

The major success was in the early days under Patrick Cryne with the sales of Mawson , Hourihane and Roberts , around £12.5m for an initial outlay of £275k combined .

Yiadom , Scowen and Watkins also proved to be excellent championship players recruited for next to nowt although unfortunately all three ran their contracts down .

Under Cryne Pinnock , Lindsay , Potts and Jacob Brown were also recruited although the sales were felt by the consortium , those four came in at £9m .

The Cryne tenure under this model created £19.5m of sales .

Kieffer Moore by only a month at that is the only good sale recruited by the consortium and sold on for good money .

The model in at least financial terms under the consortium has actually shown signs of wear and tear .

We haven't had the break out sales as yet that's allowed the club to spend at higher levels .

The record transfer fee paid still sits in 1997 .

I take the point that they may well be sales to come within the present squad so I'm happy to concede that point .

However at this moment in time and after four years under this consortium the club hasn't advanced one jot and continues to shop in the bargain bucket .

The two Belgium's and Devante Cole are where we are despite a 5th placed finish last season .

If the sales only cover the shortfall in revenue to remain self sustainable and there's little outside of that which would include increased sponsorship and advertising revenue with little sign of growth then I'd expect the treading of water to carry on .

The club needs outside investment to progress .

This isn't the UK housing market where you can sit on a property and watch market forces push the value up without doing anything other than a bit of maintenance .

[pass_and_move]

If we are to accept the model which as we know equates to discovering undervalued young talent and selling on for good profit then things have stalled under the consortium .

The major success was in the early days under Patrick Cryne with the sales of Mawson , Hourihane and Roberts , around £12.5m for an initial outlay of £275k combined .

Yiadom , Scowen and Watkins also proved to be excellent championship players recruited for next to nowt although unfortunately all three ran their contracts down .

Under Cryne Pinnock , Lindsay , Potts and Jacob Brown were also recruited although the sales were felt by the consortium , those four came in at £9m .

The Cryne tenure under this model created £19.5m of sales .

Kieffer Moore by only a month at that is the only good sale recruited by the consortium and sold on for good money .

The model in at least financial terms under the consortium has actually shown signs of wear and tear .

We haven't had the break out sales as yet that's allowed the club to spend at higher levels .

The record transfer fee paid still sits in 1997 .

I take the point that they may well be sales to come within the present squad so I'm happy to concede that point .

However at this moment in time and after four years under this consortium the club hasn't advanced one jot and continues to shop in the bargain bucket .

The two Belgium's and Devante Cole are where we are despite a 5th placed finish last season .

If the sales only cover the shortfall in revenue to remain self sustainable and there's little outside of that which would include increased sponsorship and advertising revenue with little sign of growth then I'd expect the treading of water to carry on .

The club needs outside investment to progress .

This isn't the UK housing market where you can sit on a property and watch market forces push the value up without doing anything other than a bit of maintenance .

The Cryne tenure may well have created an estimated 19m in sales but it ultimately put us in league 1. The likes of Wakins, Scowen and Yiadom were on league 1 contracts, so too we're Winnall and Hourihane, that's why they all didn't renew and decided to run their contracts darn. That squad of 2016/17 was capable of challenging the play offs. We sat 7th in late January. Instead, the team was decimated and unrecognisable within 6 months.

If 19m was generated in sales under Cryne, then how come we didn't reinvest that cash? I'd have thought the class of 2016 would've been the 'breakout sales' you were talking about that enabled the club to advance to the next level. That summer we ended up paying 900k for Mamadou Thiam, 900k for McGeehan, 800k for Potts, 500k for Pinnock, 500k Pearson, 400k Lindsay, 300k Malian, 200k Mccarthy as replacements for the class of 2016.

The lack of sales generated over the last 2 seasons is surely down to the pandemic. Most championship clubs have barely the money to buy bog roll let alone our players. With our fellow championship clubs generally being our niche for outgoing transfers, the fact that there's little money around in this division speaks volumes. Since 2015 when our model started I believe there are only 2 Premiership clubs have signed players from us- Everton in for Stones and Swansea in for Mawson.


For me Animal the major improvement from the consortium to Cryne is the length of contract we sign new players on. 4 year deals are now the order of the day rather than the 'suck it and see' contracts the previous owners handed out in some cases.
Barring Moore, It hasn't yet yielded us a major windfall but as I say, money isn't flying around this division as it was 3 years ago.

It could also be argued and pointed out that offers have been made for our players and refused by the owners. Mowatt being the notable one last January. Instead of offloading and cashing in on our captain and midfield linchpin Mowatt, we kept him to maintain our play off challenge.

In January 2017, we had a very similar scenario where the team were sitting 7th and looking up rather than down. Our captain and midfield linchpin Conor Hourihanes contract was due to expire in 6 months, so rather than keep him and maintain our play off challenge, we cashed in on him. The rest is history.

[pass_and_move]

Correction to my post- It was Everton in for Holgate in 2015.

Stones was signed by Everton in 2013.

[animallittle3]

The Cryne tenure may well have created an estimated 19m in sales but it ultimately put us in league 1. The likes of Wakins, Scowen and Yiadom were on league 1 contracts, so too we're Winnall and Hourihane, that's why they all didn't renew and decided to run their contracts darn. That squad of 2016/17 was capable of challenging the play offs. We sat 7th in late January. Instead, the team was decimated and unrecognisable within 6 months.

If 19m was generated in sales under Cryne, then how come we didn't reinvest that cash? I'd have thought the class of 2016 would've been the 'breakout sales' you were talking about that enabled the club to advance to the next level. That summer we ended up paying 900k for Mamadou Thiam, 900k for McGeehan, 800k for Potts, 500k for Pinnock, 500k Pearson, 400k Lindsay, 300k Malian, 200k Mccarthy as replacements for the class of 2016.

The lack of sales generated over the last 2 seasons is surely down to the pandemic. Most championship clubs have barely the money to buy bog roll let alone our players. With our fellow championship clubs generally being our niche for outgoing transfers, the fact that there's little money around in this division speaks volumes. Since 2015 when our model started I believe there are only 2 Premiership clubs have signed players from us- Everton in for Stones and Swansea in for Mawson.


For me Animal the major improvement from the consortium to Cryne is the length of contract we sign new players on. 4 year deals are now the order of the day rather than the 'suck it and see' contracts the previous owners handed out in some cases.
Barring Moore, It hasn't yet yielded us a major windfall but as I say, money isn't flying around this division as it was 3 years ago.

It could also be argued and pointed out that offers have been made for our players and refused by the owners. Mowatt being the notable one last January. Instead of offloading and cashing in on our captain and midfield linchpin Mowatt, we kept him to maintain our play off challenge.

In January 2017, we had a very similar scenario where the team were sitting 7th and looking up rather than down. Our captain and midfield linchpin Conor Hourihanes contract was due to expire in 6 months, so rather than keep him and maintain our play off challenge, we cashed in on him. The rest is history.

The club did re-invest the sales it created , the team who were promoted back to the championship under Stendel was put together with that finance .

Patrick Cryne also took the opportunity to get some of the money back he loaned the club over the years of his tenure although not every penny apparently .

Don't get me wrong Cryne made some catastrophic errors as you point out and doesn't escape criticism by any means .

My point is under his tenure more finance was raised by comparison to the present consortium .

The consortium bought the club debt free which is something Cryne never enjoyed and yet in financial terms we haven't kicked on .

We won't kick on selling our talent to championship clubs either , pandemic or not unless we attract offers from the parachute payment cartel .

Sales of £2m or £3m to Stoke aren't going to progress this club forward one jot .

The club desperately requires investment in order to grow it's revenue streams , electronic advertising , sponsorship of the stadium etc etc .

None of which have been forthcoming despite purchasing a club on the cheap and debt free .

Absolutely not am I seeking a bank roll model but neither can you expect progress if the club only generates enough money or can't get too dollar player sales and is in reality just about self sustainable .

It needs to generate profits that go back in to the business and I don't mean a few thousand quid either .

The model is forever flawed unless it's ability to generate good profit isn't forthcoming .

If I go to work and my wages only cover my bills then I'll never get to give my family a holiday or a night out or the extras in life .

The club is pretty much in that position in my opinion .

[animallittle3]

I'm also at least as things have worked out so far massively frustrated that last season hasn't counted for much .

As I keep saying absolutely no way did I expect another play off push but championship proper club status seemed not too much to ask for .

I could be wrong and hopefully I am but I fear last season may as well not have happened and we are back to square one with Divisional Retention the only show in town .

I really do feel we have gone massively backwards and some decent investment to build on what was achieved last season wouldn't be too much to ask for .

The fans did their bit with a great ST takeup .

[SBRed48]

The only reason Barnsley have been debt free under both owners since administration 20 years ago is that money from transfers is put in to the general running of the club with a small proportion used for replacements.
The only difference between Cryne and Conway is the level of boasting that I am the reason through my actions that the club is sustainable and I am therefore a wonderful and unique businessman.
All the pillocking about "every penny is put back in the squad" only means it is spent on wages.