The recruitment process according to GG

I would regard profits as money over and above that required to run the club. The club is run very efficiently and doesn't require a massive amount of extra input from the owners. That was one of the main things that attracted them...

 

Buckle and Dennis put £10,000 of their own money in to buy Barry Thomas and Johnny Evans, can’t see the present board doing that.

 

Agree. I think they've made it clear from the outset that their intention is to keep the club self sufficient. If similar circumstances arose where they had to fund transfers from their personal wealth, then they'd have definitely failed in that respect.

When was that? Late 60's I'm guessing? Ernest Dennis was before my time, Geoff Buckle was Chairman when I started watching us, with John Dennis following him.

 

I'd rather they didn't. It would be a sign that the club wasn't self sufficient.

 

If that situation arose again you would be happy to see the club relegated from the Football League then ?

 

If that situation arose again you would be happy to see the club relegated from the Football League then ?

 

To answer the hypothetical question, no, of course not. But if we were to end up in that situation then I think it would suggest something more fundamentally wrong with the way the club had been run up to that point.

To turn the question around, do you think a club should be run by owners putting their own money in or using generated income from transfers, merchandise, catering, ticket sales, TV income etc?

 

Never going to happen.

 

Me neither they both must be ancient now!

 

Interesting to read all this back with the benefit of hindsight and the transfer dealings of our post-promotion summer.

It's clear that the strategy is set in stone and there is to be very little flexibility in it. Radlinger is maybe the only 'non-spreadsheet' signing this summer. Profit on Pinnock, Lindsay and Moore was the concern, not thought of their value to us, their destinations, their influence on the pitch and dressing room or the difficulty of replacing them. Having 11 players new to us in our opening day 18 and expecting them to gel when the other players are largely new to the league as well isn't realistic. Already we're seeing the naivety of our lads at Championship level and the lack of leadership when things aren't going our way, something deviating from the strategy could surely mitigate.

Stendel clearly dislikes the lack of experience he has in the squad and has gone as far as speaking in public about wanting players and characters we won't sign. It's a lot to ask him to keep starting again to develop these players and get results as well. Hopefully the recruitment strategy won't wind him up so much that he feels like just another cog and wants to leave.

I fear the staff in the background are so driven by stats, figures and money, rather than the emotional, social and qualitative side of football, that we may be shooting ourselves in the foot again and about to see another special team implode before we get to see what heights they could reach.