CEO QUESTIONS & ANSWERS...NIGHT

You honestly seem to be a reasonable guy, so please, read that back, and consider whether you want to come across as that conceited?

That genuinely reads as ‘I know best and others are too thick to understand’ - whether you intended that or not, that is the tone that comes across.

 

I've just spent ten minutes reading as much of this thread as I could handle.

What an absolute mess we're in.

 

Yeah, we've done a lot of similar events. But perhaps we do need to look at how we get these sorts of things in front of more fans? Maybe more written content, that can be emailed to each and every supporter on our database.

As for your own personal feelings, I can only reiterate my own sadness if indeed you feel unwanted, that you don't trust the club and are walking away. It's up to the club to try and fix any issues that would hopefully see you return I guess. I know that there are people within the club who will be working hard to try and repair any damage.

I appreciate your words, your feelings and your time. And like I say, for anyone really, the door's open. We do want to help.

 

Class act is Whitey...

Have you ever thought about widening you skills (mba type course), Beth, too.... I'd vote for youse in five years' time (is it democratic?)

 

The most obvious solution (well to me anyway) is to make fan engagement a once a month thing, same day, same venue. That way the CEO can factor it into their schedule well in advance. Questions can submitted at the end of the meeting in preparation for the next meeting, giving the CEO plenty of time to speak to the owners about anything that comes up. Guest speakers from each department each month, finance, sports science, physios, box office, marketing, catering, stewarding... And once a season someone from the ownership should suck it up and face the fans, if they want our money they need to at least engage with us on some small level.

The only way you're going win back hearts and minds is to be truly transparent, not this semi-opaque thing the club has going on. Supporting our club is incredibly painful at the minute (I'm not talking about on field performances) and the end result will be empty stands, a dead Twitter feed and mildly interested armchair fans that might check the results at 5pm providing it doesn't get in the way of their tea.

 

I know it's nothing like what you were going for, but this kind of thing makes me so cross. I fully accept that you and most of our staff care deeply about the club and want to help, but I also know with absolute certainty that our owners would quite happily see us go out of business if they could make a few quid off it.

 

Do you think when he said it, he genuinely believed it or was a sound bite?

 

It's seems the only answer the CEO can give is "I know you don't like the owners but please just keep coming anyway"

 

I took.it as genuine.

 

Thank you

 

interested to know at other clubs do the owners communicate regular with fans or is it generally done through a CEO or similar position?
Not asking to list just a generalisation?

 

page 5 reply to DWLC

 

Mmmm my take on all this.
First of all well done to the CEO for coming out (6 times) to meet the fan base.
He has a very difficult job, he had this when he was appointed and even more so now. He is probably a very qualified and intelligent guy and this close season i reckon he will probably be burning the midnight oil trying to get us on some kind of firm footing.
He came into this job on the back of probably the worst piece of mis management I have experienced at our club (i go back to 1975). We were in a very good position to build on and well we can all see what happened after that.
Now he has explained that he is the man...and he makes the decisions we now have a focal point to express our ahem concerns.
Fortunately he is a football man too so he should understand how flexible the business "plan" has to be and how to learn from previous mistakes and build on that. So firstly get two (minimum) experienced players to help bring on the young uns...that will then improve them quicker and they can sell all they like for a higher profit, it will also improve our on field performances.
Next transparancy....people talk with their actions not their words...don't lie to the fan base. The reason fans are p#ssed off is because of
West stand
Visa gate
Summer of mis management
Lack of fitness
Lack of preparation
Poor attention to detail
Very poor recruitment
Staff exodus
Now we have the CEO as responsible and not Con-his -way... we expect better.
Most fans just want success within our restraints we understand we can't compete with 90% of the teams in this league for players with their wages but we can be organized and we can compete if we have the right set up.

 

Conway has not gone away, he, along with the other owners of the club are using Khaled as a shield and for many this will work.

Fundamentally nothing has changed.

 

The conversation between you and @YTBFC has at least made ploughing through this marathon worthwhile.

I think it's possible Kahled is tainted with what has gone before. The best example being the 20 word statement followed by radio silence for months on end during Dane Murphy's time at the club after the departure of Stendel. Dane could be charming but was some what of a recluse. A hermit for long periods. As for Paul Conway, I'm thankful that we don't hear from him. Saves me from breaking whatever is close to hand.

I feel just as alienated as you have expressed so eloquently. I have, however, after a quiet start, seen a new CEO who has put himself out there and tried to engage. In a manner that, appears at least, to be very genuine. Whether what he has had to say so far is genuine is not something I'm able to judge too well. I'm aware I'm currently in a place where I'm very reticent to listen.

Hope this doesn't come across as patronising and I'm not attempting to correct what you've said at all. Just giving my perspective and from that I do see someone who is trying to engage with me, it's just that I'm not ready to engage with him as I've lost so much trust in his employers.

 

My fundamental issue is this. A person with 99.9% autonomy in running a company should be able to give an undertaking about how future funds are used/not used. Despite numerous requests he still hasn't done so, and for this Q&A was so determined to avoid the subject that he stonewalled it in advance via his press briefing last week.

An inability or unwillingness (not sure which of the two this actually is) to give a commitment that £2.75m owed relating to the purchase of the club won't be paid out of club funds, or to at least articulate why this commitment can't be given, is totally unacceptable from a person who claims to have 99.9% autonomy. As far as I can see he's hiding behind the court case as an excuse not to do so, but the argument about how much will ultimately become payable is irrelevant to the factual question of where the liability currently sits in contractual terms.

He's allowed questions relating to the financial propriety of the club to remain unanswered for well over 6 months since they were first directed to him, and in the clear knowledge that its a relevant factor in why many long-standing supporters are choosing not to renew. While this remains the case it is always going to overshadow anything else he achieves as CEO, due to the scale and significance of the amount in question in comparison to the overall financial health of the club.

 

I was wondering if anyone who attended the meeting could tell me if anything was said about our players who have been a success this season whilst out on loan returning to the squad next season , I mean for example Herbie Kane & Jack Aitcheson , in the case of Kane for example the manager of Oxford is already stating that he intends to try keep him at Oxford whist it is common knowledge that he has been one of the stand out players this season in a league that we will be playing in next year, bearing in mind he is our player bought & paid for , also Aitcheson has received rave reviews at Forest Green, again a club who we will be competing against next season & again he is our player bought and paid for , my point is that we do not want to let proven players go for peanuts & then have to look for cheap untried replacements , I just wondered if this kind of theme was discussed .