Questions for our CEO

I agree completely. Either he was economical with the truth or is incompetent.

For me there are numerous examples to illustrate this in just this interview:
1. He said he doesn't know how many West Stand ST holders have requested a refund - well you bloody well should Mr El-Ahmad! Any CEO worth their salt should have daily numbers of how many have moved, how many have been refunded, how many have not yet made a decision, and would have a plan in place to engage to try to get them to stay.
2. He stated that there were no offers for players. That's patently not true, we had an offer from Ipswich for Chaplin, which we accepted. Is he not aware of that? Does he also not see that his statement "the value of the players was zero" is patently nonsense. The fact that no-one bid doesn't mean they're worth nothing. Had the club made players available there would have been some offers, not for the amount we want maybe, but it makes no sense to suggest the value of every one of them is £0.
3. He says that the decision to close the West Stand was his alone. It's therefore reasonable to assume that he wrote or at least approved the statement about it. And the follow up statement. And the latest is his words. I propose that the paucity and inconsistency of messaging is at best incompetent, at worst dishonest. And if he didn't approve the statements about such an important matter it's very poor judgement call.
4. When asked whether the statistical approach was used for every signing his answer was "Put it this way, we want it to be used for every signing". When pushed again regarding recent signings , he replied "I do not know because I wasn't here". Really? Isn't it the job of a CEO to know the strategy inside out and to know the successes and failings following it? If he doesn't then imo he's failing in the delivery of his responsibilities.
5. He claimed he didn't know about the £750k payment. Again, he's the CEO and he doesn't know the financial detail of the recent past? Mr El-Ahmad, you are the CEO, responsible for the sustainability of the club and yet you don't understand the detail of a payment of £750k in the most recent set of accounts?

I've been occasionally critical of Ben Mansford, Gauthier Ganaye and Dane Murphy in the past but none of them gave a performance as poor and deeply concerning as this imo.

Lack of transparency (again) or incompetent?

 

I found it odd from the meeting transcript that he was able to easily reference the £90k figure relating to additional away ticket sales, but has claimed no knowledge of the £750k payment issue. Both have pretty much originated within the forum posts and general fan reaction.

I find it very unlikely that anyone would have found reference to one of them, and not the other.

 

I was worried about this guy from his first interview with the in-house media when he was asked what his biggest strength was and he said something like “I’m a nice guy”

 

He says he ran the first statement past the Council & Jean Cryne before it was released, so on face value there is no way he can not have known of the content.

 

And I suspect its a cop out because there's no satisfactory answer that he's able to provide.

As you pointed out on other issues, he's creating a vacuum on this one by dodging the questions.

 

Was it asked about the RR+ vouchers ?

 

I wish someone would've asked... if you had holes in your exposed floorboards, would you move out of your house? Or repair them immediately?

I simply don't buy that financial considerations aren't behind this. But probably that the tennants aren't willing to put any more money into remedial measures as they are legally expected to.

It seems Mr Ahmed has a mentality that the stand is too old for modern football. Perhaps some snobbery that it isn't a shiny Etihad style new thing. Obviously 1000 season ticket holders disagree.