Other teams' forums

Are not as good as ours. I find, on the rare occasion I nose around the opposition’s boards..

 

Agree with 90% of that. I just think that if the ultimate goal is profit, then there will be times when a sale might not be warranted.

Say if things carry on as they are, we finish 7th (sounds wishful, I know!). We sell no-one in the summer and are second at Christmas, with Woodrow having scored 15.

Even if you're aiming on profit on the purchase of BFC, would it be better to sell for £10m, or hold on for promotion?

 

It's old fashioned buying a business at the right price, building the product and selling for a sizeable profit which is fair enough normally . The thing that I can't understand is that when they sell us and let's say they make 10m profit maximum, it's peanuts for these boys . I smell a rat somewhere but anyway, they're far smarter than me cos I'm just a supporter.

 

Maybe they will buy Man U one day and it will become clear, we will be part of a feeder chain.
I jest of course, but it could be a logical reasoning behind snapping clubs up in different countries.

 

This is interesting, especially that our owners have gone on record saying it. I am however struggling a little to follow the commercial logic. Many championship teams, ourselves included, struggle to stay afloat financially. Below championship level it’s even more precarious.

Where is the value of clubs like ours going to show? Season tickets and admissions revenue don’t make that much, and we are struggling to fill the stadium. TV money is good, but not massive. Merchandise, not so much.

in 20 years the big PL teams may have left the rest behind in favour of some European super league. That will depress the value of the remaining top tier teams and make life in the lower leagues even harder.

Clever accounting and tax based mechanisms may make investing in football attractive for some, but to your average punter it’s hard to see how a side switching between the championship and league 1 is a sound place to put your money...

 

I think the point is that TV rights are massively undervalued in the Championship. Yesterday we were live on ESPN in America (why it wasn't on ifollow), and there were Americans on Twitter choosing to watch us instead of the Burnley/West Brom Premier League game because of Daryl Dike. As the Championship gets more brand exposure and global presence the TV rights will just keep on going up. The current £595m 3yr deal is more than Sky paid when we were in the Premiership (£670m 4yrs). Even so, it's still tiny compared to the £4.5bn Sky and BT paid for the Premier League the last time round.

 

It is my belief that their wealth has been greatly exaggerated.

 

You're right, a greater profit doesn't necessarily mean selling at the first opportunity.

 

I think we're in a position now where we don't need to have a fire sale every summer. We'll inevitably lose 1 or 2 key players, and then fill the gaps. You've got to remember, part of the reason we've had such high staff turnover in the past, isn't just down to us selling everyone, we had a lot of big name players out of contract too. This summer we'll only have one, and there's still a chance he'll sign a new deal.

 

The improvement I’d like to see made is a little more calm over selling players, it feels like we panic to get enough money in ASAP to balance the books. It’s not just ‘the quick profit’ it actually harms us sometimes.

I think this is based on us having medium term ‘business objectives’ that ought to be easily achieved but which we get fixated on at all cost. It’s quite clear VI has a contracted target of 50 points, which is at once very sensible, and utterly daft.

All the talk at the beginning of the season of ‘divisional retention’ and the fact Val still mentions it after every win. Where any other club in our position would be plotting a path to the playoffs, he’s still aiming for the magical 50 points for his bonus / to avoid being sacked.

And I reckon if there’s a £2m hole in the accounts at the end of the season, we’ll sell whichever player a >£2m bid comes in for. No matter how little sense it makes longer term, balancing the books is a business objective that has to be met.

 

It was, I watched it.

 

I'm sure I heard somewhere that football is a TEAM GAME.....

 

I'm not concerned about Val rapeating that target of 50 points - it's just management. Remember when Leicester won the league? Ranieri didn't admit they were in with a chance until about April!

 

I’m not concerned about it either; I find it telling of the clubs strategy.

I am however concerned that a similar strategy to balance the books has the risk of losing players too soon and for too low a value.

 

They thought they had a relegation team. It was only when they achieved 40 points they re-evaluated.

 

I'm not sure the coach's 50 points target is a measure of the club's strategy, and more something designed to take pressure off the players.

The summer will be another big test for the club. They brought the coach in, so it is important that they don't lose him after one year by not giving sufficient backing. I expect one regular starter to be sold, as well as Mowatt leaving, anything more than that would make staying in the Championship a very big ask next season. But no point worrying about that at the moment. Just enjoying this season.

 

I'd be far more concerned if there was no strategy to balance the books like at half the clubs in the league.

 

Agree. Get the 50 points and then see if we can get 70 points. If you get to 70 points with enough games left. Have a dart at the play-offs or automatic. Targets shouldn't be set in stone.

 

Did Conway not state at their first press conference that they intended to continue with the established model but that they also would back a run at promotion if it seemed on? Well they are never going to get a better shot at it between this season and next.

 

This summer will be the best time at boardroom level as the window has shut (stating the obvious). On the pitch I've always gone with the adage. Take what you can while you can. If we do make the play-offs make sure we win them though. The hangover can be catastrophic.