Thanks for your efforts Telford. At least you've taken some time to lay out what the heck is going on with TF and our club.
However, this is the bit I still don't get. Why is TF still the bogeyman?
If you removed the FFP bit, which has still to be upheld. Would this still be the case?
It's a tricky one Nines. I have been a big supporter of TF and still believe that he is trying his best and genuinely cares. I don't get the personal dislike that Danish, Imaz, Rhino and Telford have.
But the fact is he has been mugged on the football side time and time again, he has trusted 'football people' who have no interest in anything but themselves, and certainly not the mid/long term future of the club. He has put his money where his mouth is, and I, as a fan, would have probably made all the same mistakes if I had the money. Off the pitch we have the grand plans and no delivery. Slightly unfair because capital projects take time, but he has created a rod for his own back by constantly communicating about things which take a glacial amount of time to deliver.
For me the two biggest mistakes have been the training ground - and more specifically not getting our Academy to the top level in 3 years, something he was committed to and something which is critical to the future of a club like ours; and not getting rid of Redknapp in May 2012, appointing a younger manager with a plan, taking the hit and admitting we may have spent 3 seasons (or more) in the championship trying to build something durable with a spirit and identity, on sound finances. I completely understand the desperation to get back to the Prem as soon as possible, but it has just embedded the financial whirlpool we are trapped in.
He doesn't deserve the dire and spineless football he has been rewarded with. If he and the other investors pull out I can only pray that they hold their hands up, write off the debt and leave us enough to pay any FFP legacy. I don't think they will go, but we really need to calm this down, and spend some time reflecting on what type of club we are and what that means to the way we are run. For example, I don't think there is a hope in hell that we can fill a 40,000 stadium, even in the Prem with cheap seats. But we do need 15 acres for a new stadium, and that shouldn't be tied to getting another 830 acres for a property development.
As we stand our footballing future (for the next 3-5 years) is tied to a bunch of bought in, young(ish) players - Fer, Mutch, Phillips, Austin, Hoilett, Caulker, McCarthy. I've seen enough of Traore and Onuoha (who is no longer young anyway) not to even hope of much more from them. They have to deliver on the pitch, either to keep us up, or to enhance their own reputations so we can sell them for profit.
And please, if we are adrift at January, let's not throw more money at it. In fact, I'm tempted to give Redknapp until then, painful as it will be, dump him before he throws any more cash away, get the next generation in (lets take a risk, Paul Clement) do not ask them to keep us up, but just gain some Prem experience as they start renewing the football side from the ground up.