The Board Of Directors - Time To Go????

Your timeline is confused. The West Stand closure was one of Khaled's first acts after appointment in 2021. It pre-dates the removal of Conway and Lee and happened under their tenure.

Many of the other issues listed will have fallen under Khaled's watch too, and he was the one with day to day responsibility for decisions (99% autonomy, he claimed).

His departure should have been the opportunity for a fresh start in terms of the oversight of the club. Unfortunately, the first significant outcome we've seen from the new Flatman/Sormaz/Hough era is the recruitment fiasco around Thalhammer. It's impossible to know the extent to which any/all of these individuals carry the culpability for this, but it's understandably shaken any confidence I had in judging their respective capabilities/merits as an executive team.

 

Difficult to see who would take us over. I guess financially a lot of eggs are in the Jalo basket. I expect him to start every game next season to try to maximise his revenue.

 

I don't really get why anyone would want to run a football club. Very little chance of making a profit and like people have said before, an expensive hobby. Then again, 91 other people own professional football clubs in this country and they aren't all inept.

 

Grim reading but all 100% true.
Post of the season but what a mess we’re in….

 

There seems to be an assumption in some quarters that the selling on of some players is to benefit the board of directors.
In reality it’s to perpetuate the viability of the club and make sure we don’t fall down the hole of debt and ultimately bankruptcy.

 

I'd say some truth in this him and Cosgrove upfront next season. Jalo looks a good talent but still only 18 if things aren't going well playing a 18/19 year old week in week out could do him more harm than good.

 

I agree with virtually everything you stated there...the only question mark is...I do not feel we have a medium or long term project and the evidence of that was in the summer with our recruitment and the recent handling of the coach situation.
I do live in hope though.

 

Question which needs to be asked is the old favourite......"If our current owners "go", who comes in?"
I don"t want them to sell up at all. They've kept us in business. I believe they have the clubs interests and the fan's interests at heart.
Who the hell would want to take over this club anyway? With our idiot moronic keyboard warrior "fans" and the constant sniping, I don't think we'd be seen as an attractive proposition.
Right now things arent that good (bizzarely after finishing in the play offs). However if we start doing well in L1 next season most of the current depression will drift away.
Ir sounds cheesey and clichéd but supporting a football club is about sticking with them through good and bad. if you don't want to stick with the club during the bad times then don't.
As a few are saying on here......."I've got better things to do with my time".....
That's fine.....go and do those things which make you happier. Enrich your life in other ways. I'd be happy to see you be happier.
For me, theres nowt much better than a few pre-match beers in the pub with mates followed by a 3pm kick off at Oakwell on a Saturday afternoon....and long may it continue.

 

Aahh, so that's why the bridge over the railway line was built.

 

Possibly. But then why are the current owners, who have no ties to the town, involved? Naivety?

 

OK so all the owners/ board go.

Then what?

 

Some of us don’t understand exactly why they want to be involved with the club in the first place. This is a fair question given the sentiment expressed elsewhere that the best way to lose lots of money is to own a football club. If they had any ties to the town and club it would be understandable but, as far as I know they haven’t. So presumably someone has sold them the idea that being part of a group owning football clubs can actually make money, or it’s a charitable activity. Or something else.

 

If any of the directors/owners are reading this forum I'd like to say thanks for keeping the club afloat. Seriously. Yep loads of mistakes and frustrations, but unlike Conway, I'm pretty confident they are committed and not just building a C List portfolio of clubs. There are some really bad owners out there .... Nareev et al are not amongst them for all the criticism and despite the false steps.

 

I'm assuming that the wage bill comes down to £7m for the £5m loss and no transfer profits.

 

Thanks. Sorry, remind me - what was it?

 

Great post overall, Gally.

I've picked out this bit as the expectations issue is, I suspect, a cause of our unforgiveable relegation campaign a couple of years ago, which looks more and more like an act of deliberate self-harm, albeit on the part of the Conway/Lee regime.

We'd demonstrated in the previous season that, not only could we survive in the Championship, but could occasionally have one of those miracle seasons where we were competitive within it. That renewed the belief that we were capable of operating consistently and securely at our 'natural level' of the second tier. To see that thrown away so negligently, and then to have two campaigns of 'close but no cigar' in League One, with the likelihood of promotion becoming increasingly difficult to achieve with each passing season, puts some context into why there's the general sense of frustration.

The unfair element is the fact that it's directed towards the new board, who are paying the price for being too closely identified with the old one. Some comments on social media in the light of Thalhammer having worked at Oostende were to the effect that Conway and Lee were still running the club, which is depressing to see, but not a total surprise.

 

Excellent post Gally.People seem to forget that under the board of Nareev,Jean and James Cryne and JAQ we've achieved the playoffs twice, many clubs in league one would bite your arm off to do it once but some of our fan base demand promotion or get out of the club,if it was that easy.
Going forward and particularly looking to next season.We appear to be more financially stable than we have been in a long time.We've appointed 3 very experienced backroom staff which will i,m sure stablise then take us forward.
Mladan who,s experience at Leicester and Huddersfield will be invaluable in the next few weeks regarding manager and player recruitment but he certainly has the knowhow.
As for the next manager it doesn't have to be a "name" or popular because he claps the fans or wears fancy clothes or is even British.We want somebody who gains the players respect and who has a vision working hand in hand with our backroom staff to get out of this league but also needs the patience of ALL supporters if it doesn't happen over night.
The loveable mister Evett has taken Bolton 4 years to get to this stage thats and theres no guarantee they'll av
cheive it this season ,thats the nature of the beast.

 

Unless new owners know how to run a club properly. They're having to pump money in because of their mistakes.