Now this could be a load of tosh but I believe the person who told me and on first sight my feeling was,âOh ****â, however, if true it could be good news. I was told that Quinn was out and an American was being put in to run the club, it was then clarified to Quinn was staying but in a figure head role and an American coming in to run the club. More assumptions but I would say it would mean Quinn would stay chairman but would lose many of his day to day responsibilities. So what would it mean if true? Well the first thing it would mean is that Short is committed to the club and could well put more cash in. It could mean we wont be caught out again like we have been twice with Bent then Gyan. It could mean we have a business man running the business. It could mean that Quinn is left to do what Quinn does best, promoting, driving and selling the club. It could mean that Bruce knows he now must perform week in week out. There again it may not be true, Iâm expecting an announcement this week.
If they do install an American Business man to run the club as a business then we will always be striving for mid table mediocrity. We simply CANNOT compete with the top 6 teams in terms of revenue and we never will if we have a Business man at the healm. I work with a lot of Americans and the one thing they like to do is balance the books, most Project managers i've worked with have been ex Accountants, installed simply to crunch the numbers and make it as cost effective as possible. Hope you''re wrong on this one Syd.
Surely we want to balance the books???? An entertaining team who can challenge for cups and take on the big boys is as good as we can hope for in the current climate. The top 4 are basically ring fenced by champions league money. Look how much City have spent to get in there. A good business brain has to be a good thing? Let's be honest, nobody just pumps their own money away into a football club. All owners will draw a wage from the club (a bloody healthy one at that) any debts ran up are normally put against the club, so if they leave they can get their money back passing the debts to the club. Look at the Debt Sunderland were in when Murray left, did he leave a destitute man....this is why we have so many foreign owners involved they are making plenty of money out of the PL football teams.
Balancing the books might not be a bad thing, this boom and bust in football will not last so the way forward might very well be a club that is very stable. Remember the other side of it too. If Short is in it for money he needs to make the club worth more, that in reality means European football. A business analylist might look at the numbers and decide an investment in the team for European football would be a smart investment. I am not convinced myself, I heard a lot of hot air in the concorse in rhe west stand yesterday most of it just sounded like fans speculating.
No offence to Quinn, but I really hope this is true. I dont know of any club where an ex player has become chairman and made a success of it, and I cant think of any at all where its not their cash they are playing with. As for what MW said, we are doing that already anyway, balancing the books, so this is not going to change that at all, but a new Chairman with business accumen, may get us better TV deals abroad, better sponsorship (dont think anyone is loving tombola on the shirts) and just take us to the next level. As long as the manager says which players he wants, and if its feasable, they go and get them, I cant see anything wrong with this move at all, but they do have to give Quinn another role in the organisation, not just hang him out to dry.
I too would hope this to be true. If Quinn stays in his current role I think if wetld leave the club altogether pretty soon. I don't think he wanted to be the long term business leader and would welcome a hard headed business person to take that workload. Niall is a showman and sales person. As an ambassador/chairman if wetld be free to enjoy his role. All the top clubs have business people running the finances and I think this is good news. This stability could allow a top 10 to top 6 progress with affordable planning and would mean Bruce was under pressure to deliver the football equivalent of good financial house keeping. A huge step forward imo.
Our wage structure will always hold us back - but for as long as wages take up 80% of turnover, that structure will remain necessary. We can't just start paying out what we haven't got. The only way round it is to increase our global awareness, marketing revenue, etc. If Quinn is going to be used for such purposes, then I think he'll do a good job. He is, after all, a widely known World Cup player ... and he has the gift of the Blarney Stone. But, to market successfully, you must have a product. Man. U. have had the Busby Babes, Best, Law, Charlton, Cantona, Strachan, Ronaldo &co to show the public. Arsenal and Liverpool have had similar stars. They've all won trophy after trophy. If we show videos of yesterday's performance to audiences in China, India and the U.S.A., we have a chance. But show them our performances against Newcastle or Brighton or the lie-down-and-die disgraces at home to Wolves and West Brom earlier this year and we're dead in the water. Bruce won't have so many excuses if these boys start. We must have an attractive team or there's nothing to market. If what Syd heard is correct, we're about to become much more results-based. Because only results will get money, and only extra money will break the wage structure that is holding us back right now. Bring it on, I say.
If Syd is correct then surely the axe is likely to fall on the CEO (Margaret Byrne???) than SNQ as Chairman. As I understand things - the CEO is the one responsible for the commercial business side of things and if we get a hard nosed yank to help us make more cash whilst SNQ can sell kisses of his particular blarney stone and raise the profile and get under the skin of a few targets then all the better...
I would guess that if true we will hear within 48 hours because I was told they knew yesterday but after the pre game Gyan announcement did not want to rock any boats.
