I do believe he brought them to the table, I'm just not sure he was able to finish that job because the grim reality is that I don't think we will be profitable while moving forward for many, many years. SD and co have made us 'profitable' this year by not spending money and generally cutting any semblance of ambition both on and off the pitch. Maybe you know more from your contact, but I suspect the projections of Donald and Methven were questioned extremely heavily and in great detail to find out how the club will actually drive forward while not turning into a Short style money-pit in the Championship and early Premier league years. Essentially if we're not in the Championship, I don't see them taking the leap, and even then, I think they'd do a good long DD again because frankly, it's well documented how big a commitment this is and how easily it becomes a financial black hole. Obviously they're clever blokes, but lots of people are. Finding the right person to get us out of this will be tough even if they started tomorrow.
I know the cost cutting was needed but we're in our worst position in our history, and I can only see it getting worse.
I hope they started looking before they even handed over the 10m as they may have been able to see straight through SD & CM knowing that they will fail.
I think they've just gone way too hard towards cutting costs and got their gamble wrong to some extent. They were so obsessed with not putting cash into the club early on and clearing debt because in their short term vision, they were going to be selling it on anyway. Why put your own cash in and absorb that as a guaranteed outlay, when you can fund it... creatively (which happens a lot tbf) and minimise your up-front costs? But they've ballsed it up and now circumstances dictate that they'll need to stay on and work with the situation they've created by going hard on the austerity front. Clearing all of the debt sounds amazing, until you think that actually, there is probably a debt level that the club can and should sustain in the next few years if we're going to get back to our 'natural' point which is bottom half of PL/top half of championship. If we're not there, we're pretty much guaranteed to lose money if we're signing the right players, hiring the right managers, and maintaining a level of off field activity befitting a 'big' club (ie: outside top 10 but not naturally smaller than most of the teams in the PL today). So instead, we hire the wrong managers on the cheap, sign the wrong players on free transfers, and cut all non-essential expenditure on things that promote the club in the community and the club facilities. Any club of this size can be 'profitable' if you cut out all of that in the short term, but it comes at the expense of what we do on the pitch. That's why although I don't have a huge problem with it, I thought a better way of handling SBC would have been to reduce the size of the loan and then possibly refinance it to lower interest (if necessary) but retain some of the parachute money to ensure rapid promotion. Eg: £25m debt had about £2.1m interest, which isn't good. But you pay off say, £15m of that and leave £10m+800k a year, and that doesn't seem quite as unsustainable. No debt is admirable, but you don't sacrifice food on the table to pay off your mortgage early. In this case, that's a good metaphor for what we've done. But that's just my opinion, I would have mo problem with clearing debts, provided that the owners are willing to put cash in to give us that essential working capital to progress on the pitch where it matters.
He didn't bring them to the table, he was introduced to them about a month before it began to leak. I know this for a fact. Unbelievable Geoff.
What an arrogant and condescending twat. Essentially telling fans to "know their place" and that they have no right to question him because of his elitist education. He needs to sell his share of our great club sharpish, even his passive involvement disgusts me.
I just do. Doesn't really matter how. Not going to elaborate. Just treat it as man in the pub rubbish if you want.
Realistically mate, how could he possibly know them. The public schools churn out endless Methvens with the same 'dress sense', hairstyle, turn of phrase, BMW, etc. In the grand scheme of things they're unimportant and move around in a very closed unimportant circle. Yes they may have the local MP for dinner, shoot on private estates and have the odd invite to the Queen's endless garden parties .... .... but they're a million miles further from Dell than we are from them.
I've never seen you post obvious, even subtle, bullshit. So I take what you say as honestly posted ... ... although it helps that our info seems to be remarkably similar.
I never thought that I'd feel so disconnected with the club as I do now. The relegations under short were bad, but this current setup stinks. Short had many faults but he never once attacked the fan base. How can someone lecture about business intelligence while in the same sentence alienate his customers. Moronic.
Anyone check that Methven's three wheel reliant is still running ok? Last I heard Peckham was painted out and replaced with Sunderland on the side. This guy is a dead ringer for Del Boy. I understand he was putting a deal together so we had some Albanian TV Recorder company on our shirts. Stewie is taking the Rodney role......what a plonker.......and Juan for Trigger....as he is bring his new brush from Uruguay with him to sweep our problems away.....luvely jubbly.
My mrs lives in Peckham and we went past it the other day, it's on Peckham High Street on a plinth Not going to pretend I didn't think of Charlie and Stew. There's also a new set of bars and pop up shops called 'Peckham Springs'. Good stuff.
