Ok sorry... I bow down, all Watford's problems are because of Bas. He is the devil. Watford at best are going down and at worse will no longer exist under Bas's reign! Maybe I'll go support Chelsea and Man City, or maybe even QPR as their owners are top honest people with the club at their heart... in fact, who owns Pompey these days??
Toby---"opinions.."... well yes, of course they are my opinions. What else could they be? This is, after all, a forum of opinions. Having said that I have not seen too many people post on here the "opinion" that Mr B has been sure-footed in his dealings with the press, communicates well with the fans, pulled off a coup in appointing his grannies friend to the Board, should be congratulated for letting Winter go as CEO and dealt with the Cardiff approach in a professional way. Criticisms of Mr B posted on here have been a mixture of the reasonable and unreasonable. Of course he could do nothing to keep DG Buckley and Malky. All predictable departures. The "criticisms" that count are those about his history, motives and intentions, which do not make people "hate" him, but make (some) people anxious about what will happen during his ownership of the club. BDH --it is not at all irrelevant to point out that he was bankrupt a few short years ago, but somehow has acquired enough money to buy the club since then, and it is quite fair to ask what is the source and scale of his wealth, and if he can sustain an investment as owner. Neither is it unfair to point out that he has no history of business success , which makes some of us worry about his ability to run a complex business like a Championship football club. He has no experience of this kind/scale of business at all. Compared to Lord Ashcroft he IS a "mystery man". Ashcroft lived in the media spotlight ; the source and scale of his wealth is well known, as was his style of doing business-- there was nothing strange about his "backseat" approach to being major shareholder in Watford.The "hands -on" approach that Mr B is developing is far more worrying to me. But as I said before-- the testing times are immediately ahead. A couple of positive signings , an endorsement (or no criticism) from GT and a frank , positive WO interview will work wonders for Mr B, and gain him a delayed honeymoon period--till the inevitable criticisms start again. (And this is not being negative -ALL owners end up being criticised, later if not sooner; Mr B has been unfortunate to be criticised sooner rather than later)
Ok as one of us in the anxious about baz camp, but lets have a think of the last few weeks! He has a crap pr company! Got off to a very turbulent start, made the right noises , DG was always going to go!( imo undersold) but hey ho ,at least he didnt accept the first bid! WB fair deal, again didnt accept first bid! MM ,if his head was turned ,doesnt matter who the owner was the manager would have gone! Winter thats a harder one , but if he wants to be hands on , why employ someone ? I must admit Winter leaving caused me a lot of concern, more than any of the others! appointed SD as gaffer (saves money and keeps some continuity and has GT`s backing) The club have still managed to get Forsyth (was a three way battle) So the start of his tenure seems reasonable ,moreso if we bring in a few more! I am still concerned about the finances and Baz`s lack of successful business`s So in summary a fair start , lets delay the verdict and give the man a little more time!
BHD - what an outstanding thread and post to kick it off, just what we all needed A great series of responses aswell, I'm feeling much more positive next season My view? I think this thread represents everything that's good about the club...things aren't ideal, so what are our options? moan like most groups of fans would do, putting massive pressure on a young and inexperienced manager & team, OR accept that a) football's a bit of a bonkers industry, b) no single person is bigger than the club, and c) at least we're not in the same boat as L*t*n we'll be ok I reckon A massive COYH PS everyone needs to buy Lionel Birnie's book - outstanding
Thanks for the feedback guys, its much appreciated. Roger- the problem i had with the old regime is that they were very secretive and told us very little about what was going on at the club, i also doubt they would have responed to an open letter from the local newspaper as Bassini did. I am also pretty sure others would not even read a letter like that. I dont mean to write off the fact he was bankrupt, just want people to judge him not on his past but on how he is and does in the future. All in all as toby pointed out things are a great deal better at the club at this time than they were 12 months ago. I also believe that things will change and people will come and go at a football club, but as someone else said before me the only people that stay are the fans, and we need to help the people at the club by giving our support until things go wrong. So as a little man once said "all those in the vicarage road end, in the rous stand and in the rookery. Lets hear your voices and get behind your golden boys!!"
Good to see a set of balanced views. I don't think anybody is pretending that they are 100% confident about the new setup and nor should they be, its untested. The good thing is that we seem to be on a sound path to sustainability and putting my business brain in gear if i were in bassinis shoes i would look to build the asset value of the club to be a success which i could then sell or borrow against for further business expansion. This would not damage the club unless the additional future group borrowing was put into poor investments which is where our Bas does have history. In order to realise a profit on a club sale he will need to find a future buyer, this will be difficult given we didnt succeed in this recently so i'm guessing hes in for the long term which has to be good for us as we need to keep the academy, keep at least champ status and improve the asset (players and stadium) value. We're ahead of many in cutting our cloth and a league regulation could kill some of the so called rich clubs relying on sugar daddys. I love watford fc because we make players and are now acting responsibly. I do wish though that it was fransen at the head but heho,,,
So as a little man once said "all those in the vicarage road end, in the rous stand and in the rookery. Lets hear your voices and get behind your golden boys!!" It would be nice to hear The Main Stand included. Well it used to be the Main Stand before it became the East Stand.
100% agreement with you Aberdeen, unless he already has a buyer lined up. Why would he then want to pass it on? No idea.
BDH--if by "previous regime" you mean the Russo's then yes , they did try to keep their cards close to their chest--they loved a good conspiracy, and were keen to take the club private. But with Ashcroft as major shareholder and Winter/GT in charge, the club was much more open, via fans forums and good relations with the WO. They were not secretive- was no need for "open letters" --which actually Mr B has never responded to. The club is not in a better place than it was 12 months ago. It still has outgoings greater than revenue , is still in debt, still has a poor ground with no prospect of improving it, has a weaker squad and a less experienced manager, and has a new owner who is still an enigma. In some ways we are moving in the right direction, with costs coming down and the debt being reduced. But the strategy the owner seems to have embarked upon is fraught with risk, and depends on us staying in this division/finding players to sell for as long as it takes to pay off the bonds. Of course we fans will still support the club--emotionally and practically there is nothing else we can do. But it will be this time next year before we can judge how this regime compares with previous ones.
There werent many folk bashing down the door to take us over Roger ,we had maxed our credit limit and needed more money! Baz provided that, so at least kept us going ,I too reserve judgement till a lot later on ! ,but he has had a tough start and to be fair ,hasnt done too badly , yes its high risk path were going down , but in all honesty we had little choice! This season is pivotal stay in the division , things will start to look a lot rosier , go down and we will have to endure further cut of income! I dont think Baz had that much to do with all the departing staff and much of it was on the cards anyway! Get behind the club and the owner(for now) and see what happens! COYH SDTMA
Yes i do mean the Russos. But also Ashcroft and Simpson too. I for one have spend countless hours wuestioning where the hell the millions and millions we got from the prem went, yes a lot will have been natural expenditure, but surely in 2-3 years we could not have spent over £30,000,000?? Dont forget that in the past few year we have done very well on transfer sales, we have got 7 figure sums for a few players in the past 4-5 years, but where has the money gone? there has been little to no re-investment. The debt is now completely managable and plans are in place to reduce it within the next 5 years and with costs down it is unlikely to become out of control again. I think we shall just have to agree to disagree on this matter.
