Paul Douglas to speak to press next week.

[Ericsladkilnhurst]

Tony Stewart on a cruise.
Thing is his ship has hit quite a few icebergs when coming to some managers he has hired.
He needs that someone on the Millers board with football knowledge, otherwise he will keep chucking money away, it's perhaps OK owning a company, but not having the knowledge to run it successfully could be a downfall.
He knows about light bulbs, but football contracts, transfers, valuations is his nemesis.

[caytonmiller]

You do understand what gross profit means when presented in a set of financial accounts don't you?

I'm guessing you don't have a Scooby Doo.


These accounts for ASD were published on Companies House at the end of December. So they're up to date.

https://find-and-update.company-info...filing-history

If you can't read a set of financials just say so. I'll give you a clue. Take a look at page 10 in the financials which I have linked above. Shows a loss of ?849,172 for year ending June 2025 for ASD Lighting.

Gross profit is the margin you make on the cost of a product when you sell it. You then have a little matter of cost of sales which include wages, transport, utilities, rates, bank charges, sponsorship , you have to take away to come up with a net profit.

Don't get me wrong Tony Stewart is very smart and his company is worth a lot of money but stop spouting crap.

Why the abuse? A simple conversation beyond you?
Btw it won't allow me to open the link on my phone. I will take a look the next time I'm on my pc.
You say TS is smart and the company is worth a lot of money. If this is the case how can a company that's making millions every year get away with putting figures in at making a loss. Didn't his company top 50 million not long ago?. Btw I'm not arguing I'm asking you to educate me. Without the abuse please

[howdydoo]

Time doesn't stand still. Street lighting doesn't need replacing every year. Contracts run out. Business practices change. Competition grows. People get older. Top staff move on.

Any number of reasons.

ASD didn't make money last year either. I did note that Tony Stewart and I think his brother were paid something like ?1.6m in consultancy fees and they paid ?1million of sponsorship to RUFC. So the results could look better.

Still represents a downturn however whichever way you look at it.

[SdnMiller]

I think there are some quite interesting admissions made in the interview with Douglas that are also quite worrying.
Firstly that if things work before under Warne, now we've gone back to that we expect things to get better, which I think is quite naive. Instead of taking the learnings from what happened then and constantly trying to improve upon them we're taking steps backwards instead.
Equally in terms of the reluctance to claim the training facilities is frustrating, there feels like a sort of suggestion that we've been catching up to other league one teams in terms of facilities, now that we're there we're happy with it, and equally with the idea that filling the front areas of the stadium isn't a concern, there's no creativity or ideas on how we can push the club forwards in alternate ways.
I know we might not be at quite the same size as these clubs, but look at Brightons scouting network and how using that has propelled them up the ladder, or Luton using their academy. We literally play at the "New York" stadium, was it never even considered using that as a marketing ploy to get yanks invested in the club, I feel like pinning a story on massive underdogs trying to gain success would sell well as a TV show, you only have to look at Ted Lasso.

Then there's the statements about hamshaw. I actually agree with Douglas that we looked reasonably good when the majority of the squad was fit. But at the moment they aren't, and our manager is seemingly unwilling to change his philosophy to fit the tools he has available. If you can only judge a player on when his signings are available then why did we ever sack Taylor, and why did we sack Richardson given he never even had a summer transfer to work with, it stinks of Hypocrisy.

Which leads to my biggest gripe with the interview. In the admission about the Taylor regime and signing experienced championship players (who we couldn't really afford and know should get injured) was probably the wrong idea. I think 90% of the Madsters predicted that outcome. This was then followed by Evans signing a lot of players, a large amount of which were cleared out in the summer gone because again there was another change in footballing philosophy. How is any manager ever meant to succeed when the club has no clear vision at all, amplified by the fact that the question about what the 5 year plan for the club is was completely dodged.

In the end all the interview did was reaffirm my view that the club are happy to stand still and carry on doing everything as they have been doing rather than innovating and actually trying to progress forwards, just like the town of Rotherham itself to be honest.

Douglas has to go.

[SdnMiller]

Also controversially the suggestion that no transfer budgets are set and that all signings that are made have to go through Stewart himself reminds me a bit of the way that a Mr Chansiri was running one of our local rivals

[Derbymiller]

Also controversially the suggestion that no transfer budgets are set and that all signings that are made have to go through Stewart himself reminds me a bit of the way that a Mr Chansiri was running one of our local rivals

Especially because elsewhere in the interview they talk about budgets and do again in the advertiser today related to back room staff budgets. That seemed to be a bit of a contradiction. I have listened to it a second time and read all the supporting press articles that have followed, and in my opinion the club isn’t run by a high performing group of individuals, TS rules with an iron rod and we are in a lot of trouble. Overall I personally didn’t hear or read anything positive in the interview or articles, in fact we don’t even employ a physio. I hope Bradford game is called off to give MH a chance to get a few players fit and perhaps some new blood through the door next week.

[avondalemiller]

Especially because elsewhere in the interview they talk about budgets and do again in the advertiser today related to back room staff budgets. That seemed to be a bit of a contradiction. I have listened to it a second time and read all the supporting press articles that have followed, and in my opinion the club isn?t run by a high performing group of individuals, TS rules with an iron rod and we are in a lot of trouble. Overall I personally didn?t hear or read anything positive in the interview or articles, in fact we don?t even employ a physio. I hope Bradford game is called off to give MH a chance to get a few players fit and perhaps some new blood through the door next week.

Have a look inside the front cover of the programme, it shows you who does what. I think (or was) Adrian Littlejohn is in charge of the medical/ physio dept. There over 60 in the list doing several jobs around NYS......and all want paying, something we forget about when we think about wages.

[Derbymiller]

Have a look inside the front cover of the programme, it shows you who does what. I think (or was) Adrian Littlejohn is in charge of the medical/ physio dept. There over 60 in the list doing several jobs around NYS......and all want paying, something we forget about when we think about wages.

I am fully aware that the club has a large staff and they need paying, that has nothing to do with my personal take on what I heard in the interview or in the subsequent articles. Regarding the Physio i made my comment based on the article below

https://www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.u...omplex-5468691

In that article it states that the physio we have isn't a full time employee and only works a few days a week. With all the injuries we have had, doesn't it make you wonder what we do the other days?

Like others have stated, TS came and saved the club and has given us great times and for that i am very grateful, but that is all in the past now. That interview was all about the past and very little about the future or in fact the present. I am worried for the future of RUFC, I only see failure in our centenary year, you might disagree and see a rosy future, we all have our opinions.

[UlleyMiller]

Also controversially the suggestion that no transfer budgets are set and that all signings that are made have to go through Stewart himself reminds me a bit of the way that a Mr Chansiri was running one of our local rivals

For clarity, I'm very much on the "develop the club, time to explore new ownership" bus.

However...

If the club is running at a loss, it's not particularly surprising that transfer budgets aren't set in stone ahead of each window. It's always a dynamic picture outside of the club, with people moving and free agents appearing randomly, offers on our players etc, and none of this has pre-agreed values on any of the moves. If the club is actually losing money consistently and needs an injection of cash to cover any incoming players, then it's not a massive surprise that someone funding the club wants to play Dragons' Den when a change occurs. I don't support it, and I'd prefer a separation between owner, leadership, and first team, but it's not mildly surprising.

The Chansiri comparison is interesting to me, because I feel he's always been singled out as the sole villain over there. Clearly the man is an absolute, top tier weapon... but nobody will ever convince me that others at the club were all doing the right things. TS, likewise, isn't everyone's cup of tea, but there are others who take a wage/cash out of the club who can influence the way things work.

[Townerslovechild]

Unless you're in the Premier league, owning a football club is like akin to setting fire to 50 pound notes.
Hardly any clubs make money, most hope not loose too much each season.
But eventually most owners say that's it,I've lost enough, and sell to someone else who thinks they can make money at this lark.
Occasionally you get a Bournemouth or a Wrexham, but these are ultra rare examples.
Most clubs strive for a couple of seasons in the big time, either the Premier, or the champ,sell some players for big money, or have a lucrative cup run.
With our fan base, buying players cheap and selling them on,slowly building club around younger players, and gradual progression up the league is the way to long term sustainability......sound familiar ?
Unless there's some Yank out there who wants to own a piece of New York.