I just listened to the whole interview Andy Giddings did an excellent job asking the questions the supporters have been asking. Our CEO came over very badly indeed Its important in this role to be a good communicator and give a feeling of confidence whether talking to the Media or dealing with internal football matters such as negotiating with Agents and sponsors etc. We might have joked about Bullsiht Ben but he at least sounded as if he knew what he was doing. My take from this is he took the decision to close the West Stand but still cant clearly explain why or what is plan is to fix the issues and that he surprised the owners with this - well that, as Sir Humprey Appleby said, is a courageous decision. He doesn't know how many fans wanted refunds - either he isn't being truthful or he is terribly prepared. That figure is going to be instantly available or if its not someone is doing an appalling job - Id know if I was in his position especially if I was about do do an interview with a local radio station and have an explanation as to how we planned to get them back He doesnt know about THREE QUARTERS OF A MILLION POUNDS taken out of the club accounts when all the fans do and he went to a media interview without a prepared answer. Now lets be fair here its not really his issue as it happened before he arrived but surely you have a planned response not "I dont know" that just makes you look poor. He actually on the record in an interview with the local radio station said that we needed to change our playing style from the one that got us to one of our highest ever places in our history because it didn't increase the value of our players enough. He actually said that to an organisation that can guarantee almost all fans will hear about . Now it may well be the true reason but no one goes out and say that to the fans - its up their with Gerald Ratner's (remember there was once a succesful Jewelry chain) speech saying they sold cr*p So in summary he has no idea how to speak to his customers and comes over as if he doesnt have a full grip on his role Its not going to end well Now not sure which we need to replace most urgently, the Head Coach or the CEO
I know how efficient our box office staff are yet he didn't have the figures for how many refunds had been given? They really do take us for gullible fools dont they?
They wouldn’t because I’m sure they’ll have been told not to now, but I feel like any of us could tweet and ask them and they’d be able to answer in seconds.
That's it in a nutshell.. for a club that has to be self sustainable. The only way that can happen is by selling players. So that has to be the number one priority. Paul Conway has said he doesn't mind if we are in L1. I actually agree with him on that, by the fact of where we shop for our players, the championship is often a bridge too far for most. L1 is far more suited to us with this club model.
Instead of moaning about no bids for players he should concentrate on widening our income streams elsewhere so we aren't so reliant on weakening our squad to survive.
It is just totally toxic. I didn't think I could get any more annoyed about it all but that interview is nuts. I don't for one minute think that Khaled is pulling the strings either. We did so well last year and could've spent very little money in strengthening a couple of positions to have another potential push at promotion. Instead, we decide that it is far more sensible to totally change our playing style and hopefully sell some players to balance the books. If this doesn't work on the pitch, then we will keep doing it regardless because someone with a few million will see the value of a player losing week in, week out. "Oh and I have an awesome idea about the West Stand, but give me a few months into the season to implement that one. You're going to love it!"
Mmmmmm...so we still want to sell our players to make us profitable and that at the cost of relegation. Right so... snd heres my worry....what if we accept derisary offers for Collins, Styles, Woody (have i left anyone out whos worth anything?) at christmas and replace with even more hopefuls, from god knows where. This coach clearly cant improve the stock we have..... so goodness knows what new players will be like.
One of the things that I don't think has been commented on yet was his comment about future transfers and where we could be in the market. He sort of ruled out our traditional markets of lower level continental clubs because of brexit and the new requirements from our govt, but then he pretty much ruled out other avenues because we'd be competing with bigger clubs with more resources. So just what is the plan for future recruitment? He was also extremely evasive in his answer for whether the data modelling was still being used "we'd like to use it for all transfers"... Absolute car crash of an interview in so many ways, on so many fronts.
Relegation costs us millions of pounds though so it cancels out any clever ideas they are trying to run with.
Yep. "Where did the £750k come from please Khaled?" "er, I was at Pizza Express, Woking when that happened"
Yeah not listening to the interview maybe later cant be bothered now not got time. Seen that they decided to change the playing style to possesion based to increase player value as we had the 5th best season in our history but gas no bids for players in the summer... couldn't make this **** up really couldnt
Wow we finished 5th last year with these players who find the Championship a stretch. Serious question for you if we drop to League 1 we already know we lose around 6 million also we wont make much money selling to other L1 clubs and if the players arent good enough for the Championship we arent going to sell them for millions to championship clubs are we
Having scouts turn up every week to watch your players, but then not making any actual bids to a club notorious for selling, might mean they weren't sure they were good enough? I agree with your sentiment in every post by the way. I'm just not sure this article does what you're expecting it to.
I’d say it shows that the improvement in those players attracted interest. That interest was not at a level we were happy to sell at. Conversations were had but potential offers did not meet our expectations.
But where have you been? it was the Cryne's that started this. That's how James got involved in the first place. Patrick was putting money in and it was unsustainable. So they came up with ..The Plan.. scouting young players through analytics... from his dad.. James is not a big football fan but loves maths. The reason Mark Robbins left. That's how far this goes back. When people say.. i wonder why Lee and Conway chose,, little ole Barnsley.. This was the reason, if you worked on your recruitment, you could run a football club, without putting penny in.. Can't lose, They got rid of Nice because they were too high up, doing too well, New players were going to cost a fortune. This plan only works at a lower level, cheap players fee's and wages. Now they're doing it times by 5/6 clubs