Minority Report 2019-20 Talking Finance 5

From that list there’s only Bird & Mottley-Henry who aren’t training with the first team now Simoes has stepped up. I included them mainly because they both signed contracts after playing for the first team so will be on a lot more than the youngsters in the U23’s.

Even if you take them 2 out that’s still 3 first team coaches for 23 outfield players of which nearly all at an age where they need a lot of coaching & time spent working on their game.

I feel we aren’t giving our youngsters the best chance to succeed due to our strategy & are therefore risking a huge amount of money (by our standards) that we’ve paid in transfer fees.

 

Thanks for that. A couple of points on it; it’s not really the case anymore that loans can be withdrawn by the loaning party without notice - the vast proportion of loan arrangements now are for an agreed fixed term - either three months or to January or season long. Once those terms are agree it’s not possible for the lending party to simply recall the player - the term is fixed and agreed (equally you’re stuck with the player and their wages if they turn out to be ****).

It’s clear that you endorse the current plan and are passionate in its defence, which is fair enough, but here’s a question for you - do you think it’s been well implemented/executed?

 

Yes but we are miles behind the rest and even further beneath the average.

 

yeah that fits the evidence from Kuper more exactly.

 

That’s not unusual for us. When we got promoted in 97 we had the smallest wage bill in the division. John Dennis once told me that throughout his time at Oakwell until we got promoted hwe had the lowest wage bill in the division almost every season. Charlton demonstrate what you can do on a similar budget as to a lesser extent do Luton.

We maintained our position through clever recruitment and the way the club was run. It had an identity that linked supporters to club. I broadly support a version of the plan but in its current state it is not fit for purpose.

I’d suggest any business that alienates it’s customer base by slavishly following a plan that allows no flexibility is doomed to long term failure.

 

Believe it is not, I am getting really fed up of typing this. It is a long term plan that is being judged by short term outcomes.

No-one likes being relegated, but The Championship is full of clubs that are cheating FFP, in one way or another. If it was my money, I would not be throwing it away on a lost cause. I would keep it, and I would invest it when it makes more sense to do so. That would be the clever way to proceed. But if you listened to the advice from the BBS, you are going to need more hands, because you aren't going to be able to throw money away fast enough if you only have two.

 

I'm going to buy a window cleaning round. I have no window cleaning experience, and I don't know the area, but the bloke whos currently doing it is struggling financially so I'm going to take it over and make it just about tick over.

My plan is to increase productivity by working faster, but the customers won't be happy because I'm no longer bothering to get in the corners - takes too much time.

Hopefully they'll put up with my poor end product though, and keep paying, in hope that I improve in the long term.

In the meantime I'll just keep telling them they've got the best windows ever.

 

So here's the question, based on your logic nobody would buy a football team as an investment, especially not a provincial town with low affluence.

Why did the current owners buy the club? We can all argue on how it could be done better, the options not always being this or Bury, but if you are a private investor looking at a long term (or short term) return, why buy Barnsley FC?

 

Because of SCMP, the difference between our wages bill in League 1 and the wages in The Championship would be bigger than ever. We must have an alternative plan if we are to have any hope of competing. We also need the EFL to start managing FFP properly. At the minute, The Championship is a bear pit. It is almost impossible for an honestly run club to compete there.

 

Because I've got the window cleaning round. BFC was all that was left.

Having said that, if some one comes in with an offer for my bucket, I'm fecked!

 

I think that we have had this conversation before, haven't we.

I have absolutely no idea.

 

Guessing where in Sheff Weds case, didn't they flog the ground?

 

We, as fans, have to come to terms with the painful truth that these owners don't care a jot about the us, we are just customers to them and an obviously now an annoyance. It's a different sort of custom to a normal business, because, we the customers keep paying our money irrelevant if the product served up.

 

Brilliant final line.

 

I'm after a window cleaner, do you cover the Wakefield area?

 

Yes, they were one of them. Sheffield Wednesday postponed their year end by 2 months to give them time to sort it out.

 

How big of a problem would a potential drop off in say 1/3 of our season ticket holders be for the club in your opinion?

 

In 2017-18 the split of turnover was
EFL Distributions £8.2m (this will fall by £6m if we are relegated)
Match Day £3.6m
Shirt Sponsorship £1.2m
Other £1m
Total £14m

In addition, the club took £3.8m from player sales.

Think that you can probably answer your query as well as I.

 

What evidence do you have for this long term plan other than soundbites from people who now won't give us the time of day? The exact same soundbites told to the supporters of a club in France, which they subsequently sold. I'd love to hear the argument that was long term.

We've one example of their long term plan on which to reference. It wasn't, was it? What's different this time? Just that they said so? Exactly like last time.

 

'the club may sell the player if it believes that it can purchase an adequate replacement for much less, or if it believes that it has an adequate replacement in the U23 squad'

Therein lies the problem, theyve failed miserably. No dramas with cashing in on Moore/pinnock/lyndsey but ffs invest the money on better players that wev sold!