Barnsley V Port Vale, as I saw it.

Again i think it's a good post. It took me a while to get used to RR writing style which does remind me of how the headmaster at my primary school used to speak but he takes a balanced view and has actual reasons for his opinions. Of course some people will think 'he's **** ' is a good post or that personal abuse is the way to settle an argument. That's life I guess.

You don't have to agree with everything someone says to appreciate their views.

 

im really surprised with the negativity towards Jennings after yesterday, i thought he had a really good game and caused them a few problems. i was impressed with both our wingers do sometimes feel Jennings gets more stick than he deserves. Now Hemmings i will agree was abysmal yesterday and i fear he wont get another game this season and probably go the way of Treacy or Brown.

 

I asked my missus if I'm pompous, and she agrees with you. I suppose that you had to be right about something.

However, you are wrong about everything else. For a start, the club is not debt free, or at least it wasn't at 31 May 2014, the date of the last accounts. At that date it had an overdraft of £943,187, which because the club owns no significant asset, is guaranteed by Patrick Cryne. In addition, the club owed £3,043,927 to Patrick Cryne, which represents money that he has invested in the club in addition to Share Capital amounting to £1,000,000. Last season, he also invested £840,000 as a donation, which is added to turnover and is therefore not reflected in the Balance Sheet, other than to reduce the losses that the club incurred. This is not club propaganda. These are the Audited Accounts, with a certificate signed by Gary Dickinson FCA of Gibson Booth and filed at the Registrar of Companies. A copy could be yours for the bargain price of just £1.

I have explained to you previously why joint ownership is not feasible, but you have not accepted my explanation and keep pushing this false hope on both yourself and anyone else who might care to listen. It really is time that you stopped burying your head in the sand and accepted the realities of our position. It is time to get behind them, cut out the negative sound bites and stopped trying to be divisive.

 

Red Rain

The club has no external debts, other than to Mr Cryne, and is therefore effectively debt-free. The only factor impacting upon this is the price for which Mr Cryne would sell all or part of the club. There are no external creditors - so the price of the club (or part) is governed by how much Mr Cryne would wish to recover the monies which he has put in to the club over the years.

It's my understanding that Mr Cryne owns 50% of the land around Oakwell - in partnership with Barnsley Council - although I'm prepared to be corrected on that. There is no reason on God's green earth why Mr Cryne could not enter into a joint ownership arrangement with a suitable partner. My preference however would be for a total takeover in favour of someone with a little more vision regarding the club's potential. I say this with the greatest respect for what Mr Cryne has done for the short-term survival of the club.

As a paying customer, I am growing short of patience with the 'let's be patient' mantra. It's up to others to decide their response.

 

We have an overdraft of nearly a million quid that's not exactly debt free is it? Excuse me if I'm missing sunmat.

 

hemmings is shlte and Hourihane n all

hth

 

Overdraft = £1M. Guaranteed by PC and offset against whatever his 50% share of the land and club franchise is. What's not to understand?

 

So we owe a million quid offset against an asset that we can't actually realise and the goodwill of our owner.

We still owe the money and are in debt. Our position is likely to worsen with the reduction in our income. It's very basic economics.

The books from last season would make us a very unattractive proposition for investment.

 

You cannot judge Wilson on his past record. In itself it has nothing to do with this term. His choice of players coming in does not even match Flitcrofts. I personally did not expect a 100per cent record, but he is nearer a 100percent loss. Teams in this division are now expecting to beat us and are attacking us as such.

 

Name me the great players signed by Flicker.

 

Hourihane v BFJ that's a tricky one.
Winnall v Mike Politt

There's no contest really.

 

I am sure that Mr Crne would be prepared to sell to any individual who could demonstrate that the clubs best interests were close to his heart, but just to guarantee that, the sale should not include the land and buildings. If the individual has only the best interests of the club at heart, that would represent no problem. However, if that individual wanted the club in order to gain access to its land, because say he wanted to build houses on it an relocate the club to a green field site at Birdwell, then it might be a deal breaker.

Now that we have established the ground rules for our little exercise, all we need is a multi-millionaire to come forward who is willing to donate a load of cash to the club on an on-going basis so that the club can fund the wages of better paid players within the 75% turnover rule as dictated by the FFP rules. Now I have no one in mind who fits the criteria listed above, but perhaps you could starts a list in reply to my posting, that we could forward on to Mr Cryne so that a due diligence exercise may be performed on the named individuals.

I look forward to reading the names.

 

He brought COG in, Scotland and errr, Paddy.

Danny's made some good and potentially great signings, relatively. He's also brought in some duds. But unlike Flicker, he wasn't stubborn and got shut as soon as he realised they were duds.

 

To be fair I'd say the only good signings are Winnall and Hourihane so far. The rest are either squad fillers or replaceable on performances to date.

 

COG was a good signing but wasn't the Rochdale cowboy sniffing round him before he left. To be fair Scotland was inspired.

 

I have no idea who would be prepared to take over the club - just as I'd never heard of Mr Cryne before he took it over. But just to be clear - I am not and never have been suggesting that anyone could or should sink millions in. It would be a good way to lose a fair few of those millions. What I'm suggesting is that there needs to be input from someone with more footballing knowledge/nous who can come up with ideas to increase attendances and related sales so that the income generated allows the 'steward' to take the club forward. Ultimately, that must begin with a better product on the field. That in turn requires some modest investment up front, and a much better recruitment setup than we've seen in the past three or four years. The current high turnover 'spreadshot' approach is not working.

The nonsensical suggestion contained in your first paragraph however inadvertently demonstrates why a takeover is unlikely in the short term. No-one in their right mind would sink money into the club without gaining control of it's assets. These are apparently 50% owned by Barnsley Council, who presumably take a view about the place of the club in the community, and it's value to the town. So unless the composition and mindset of the Council changes, a purchaser would not have full control of the main assets, and would not have security for the money which he or she invested. I suspect this is the real reason why a takeover deal has not been struck as yet, and is not likely to be in the near future. In the meantime, the club's league status, attendances and revenue continue to fall in what is at risk of becoming a downwards spiral.

 

yep ,that winnall is a dead loss, that hourihane... total rubbish..... that lalkovic doesnt look promising at all ..

all teams are in the same situation, they buy players who dont quite make the grade and are moved on. probably doing ok elsewhere. thats life

 

So, if I may, I will summarise your position. You want to say farewell to Mr Cryne, a man who has put roughly £8m into the club over the years and who is continuing to provide investment in the club through donations in order to fund the modest investment in players resulting from the huge reduction in turnover resulting from the relegation from the Championship. You want to find a new multi-millionaire who will invest more than Mr Cryne and who will have more idea how to run a football club successfully. Even though you do not have any names in mind, you trust this unknown multi-millionaire not to take the assets of BFC that are currently held in trust by PC and Barnsley MBC and redevelop them for his own profit. Even though you do not know the name of this multi-millionaire, you are confident that he will run the club better than someone who has been a supporter all his life. Do I have your position correct so far?

I'm afraid that you have constructed a fantasy in your own mind that bears no relation to the real world. Nevertheless, you should go on believing in your fantasy if it helps you to avoid reality, because the real world is a much nastier place than the place that you live in. Good luck to you, and do not give up on your dream.

 

Imagine somebody taking over the club and then applying to build houses on the carpark for example

 

You are a very mischievous individual at times, but nevertheless, good point. However, I would rather trust PC to do the right thing than someone I do not know.