One thing I can’t quite work out

I understand Jean, mate. And James

 

Be careful what you wish for .
Better the devil you know than the devil you dont.

 

I think they thought they could make a decent profit through developing young players & selling them on like we had in the years before the takeover.

When others did some digging I think it emerged that they weren’t anywhere near as wealthy as it was first suggested & they would have probably been happy making small profits & keeping the club in the championship. Unfortunately it’s not worked out so well.

 

On the Fair Game Index 2024 we ranked 56th out of 160 odd clubs Premier League to National Leagues N&S .

(18.5/40) Finance
(13.1/30) Governance
(5.7/10) Equality & Ethical Standards
(4.7/10) Fan & Community Engagement

Above Wednesday (74th), Doncaster (116th) below Blades(50th), Millers (48th),


https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...1724011757742/Fair+Game+Index+Report+2024.pdf

 

yes but the deal agreement was that they paid £5m for that cash, They were the annual payments that resulted in the legal case.

 

this is exactly the road i think we are on also tbh.

 

How do you become a millionaire?


Start off as a billiinaire and then buy a football club.

 

Hey how dare you, stop having a go at them with sensible facts like that lol.
Because apparently, they really are nice people and they really do have the best of intentions, etc.

 

I don’t disagree but I do think that was/is the plan. And the number of fans doesn’t really come into it in the grand scheme of things. It’s just a case of selling players for more than you buy them for. I think they were really sold on the player recruitment, with the Billy Beane connection bringing legitimacy to it too.

Unfortunately our recruitment has massively dropped off in quality for one reason or another, I believe James Cryne is no longer involved, other clubs have caught up massively etc.

But i do think with the amount of money they’ve invested in transfer fees and wages it could have paid off if the right players were recruited. Maybe DKD will go for 7 million and cover this seasons losses but there have been a lot of duds and a lot of money lost for that reason.

I have no idea how much money they’ve got left that they’re willing to put into this, but it does feel like we’re starting a new cycle right now and the 4 or 5 players that i’m sure we’ll recruit this window need to pay off i feel like.

 

Me neither

 

Yes I get that at the time what we did under the crynes and the so called "spreadsheet" signing young up and coming players was great recruitment but like I said football changes and other clubs with deeper pockets copy what we did. I think nareev came along with conman and Lee who were out to make a quick buck but the recruitment was awful, players like schmidt, odour, halme, diaby proper scattergun. Nareev looked to me like he had fallen in love with the Club always used to see him at games home and away. He got the leeches out but still seems unable to run a club and his love for the club will be tested when he's pumping millions in year after year.

 

Sold a pup by conman, so it was either lose it all or try and fix it. Probably now in the grip of the “sunk cost fallacy.”

 

This nails it for me. Had the club been up for sale by Lee/Conway when Neerav and JAQ took the reigns, I don't think there's any way they'd have been after it. I think they bought into the consortium, recognised (too late) that it was full of BS, and by that time had developed enough of an affection to think they could fix the damage that had been done. For that I'm grateful and find it very hard to be overly critical of them.

At the same time, it seems they have neither the funds nor acumen to do what they hoped. I do want them to learn, get some luck, and prove that wrong because I believe their hearts are in the right place. God knows they've lost enough money in the process, to deserve some patience in turning it around.

But, their loss of wealth is not really my concern, or that of many other BFC fans. I do believe that if there were investors ready to come and take it off them they'd be receptive. That's not to say that someone else might not be interested in 'investing' in BFC (absorbing losses) at some point, but until that's there, it doesn't really matter what their 'motivation' is - they're the ones forking out to keep us afloat.

 

The only way to make money is to be successful and by successful I mean to be in the championship and even if that floating with relegation it is we’re the money is. League one is not a league to be in with the tv rights etc. but the money in football in general is getting silly and I can only see a future of a European super league with no lower league team in existence.

 

But is the club even sustainable and viable?

I am grateful that they’ve done that, but what’s the long term plan?

 

I dont think 90% of clubs are sustainable in England tbf. No idea what they're thinking long term now, bud. Looking back at that play off final, oh how things could have been different

 

Let's hope he doesn't fall out of love with the club.
We could do a lot worse than what we have.
However we need to learn from our misstakes.
Some of the recruitment as been poor ,and we are seeing the damage.
I still beleive a massive deficit was caused with the Belgium 2, and were still feeling the effects.
Let's hope we can turn this around, we really need now to speculate to accumulate , by getting back into the championship.
Too many teams in league one, are throwing money into their clubs to achieve this.
We need to be more competitive.
However this is easy to say , when it's asking someone else to chuck their cash in.

 

The problem is where they chuck the cash. At a completely inexperienced sporting director. At a french lad "to make the numbers up". At an unemployed left winger from America. At bringing in a temporary goalkeeper for absolutely no reason only to completely **** off the actual keeper to the point he walks out. At signing a 33 year old from the league above only for him to quit just one start later.

 

I think they thought the notion of moneyball would bring them success on a shoestring, unfortunately our success with using data was becoming not unique anymore.
The decsion then further down the line by Neerav, JAQ and Jean etc to oust conman was brave and thankfully they did.
Tbh I'm suprised about the profile of the club, I'll be honest I've no idea on their standings in their respective countries but I thought they'd try to market us alot more overseas in india/USA.
That summer of 2022 after relegation when the changes happened, it felt like Neerav had his finger on the pulse and wasn't an absent owner, I think that's most of our problems, we have absent owners.

 

Dunt seem to have helped the winners