What I don't want to see at Watford and how to allay fans fears.

I live in the real world and as such realise that we cannot continue on the lines we were 2 years ago. Like any operation we must live within our meansand as such thanks to an excellent board with some investors happy to operate in the background and finally settle their differences we have steered the good ship Watford onto something approaching an even keel soon to be floating properly even if we're not yet sailing in the fast lane.
Our main owner is not by his own admission a supporter but would like to see his investment attain at least some success by being able to pass on a viable business to an entity who can take it forward. The other main shareholders have not taken excessive amounts out of the company in general terms but in football trerms for the type of operation we are some behaviours were unacceptable whenthey acted in executive roles.
We have one perfect investor at the moment in Fransen as I see him his only downside being the amount of free time he can allocate possibly meaning taking a larger role is not feasible but ewho knows.
What we do not want to see is the club being bought by new investors without injecting the required liquidity into the business on the right terms for the club. This means not borrowing on the club to buy the club, not linking it to other businesses requiring cash flow, not coming up with blue sky plans which will not add to the profitability (sustainability) of the club, not cutting investment in the key areas of the academy and playing staff beyond the levels already worked up by JW and GT, not replacing JW and GT.
There are 5 people I would like to single out for special thanks at this time:-
1) Graham Taylor the greatest man to ever manage watford and using his retirement years to further that service to the club despite his other important commitments to family, thanks Graham you really are a great human being.
2) Julian Winter, a solid business mind player with a straight bat
3) David Fransen, my kind of businessman, I hope that the oil trading at this time goes the right way and he makes a couple of billion with a good bit of that coming personal and then please a bit to Watford, you're the man to make this work.
4) Malky McKay obviously a great man with integrity, good fottballing brain, a good egg all round
5) Lord Ashcroft, for providing the money when needed to keep the club afloat despite it not being his passion. LA not willing to inject money when plans were not being followed and delivered means we are where we are today head above water a good board and a cost structure coming into line as promised, good professionalism from his team.
Lets see some statements backed up by cool hard facts if and when any new owners of major shareholdings do emerge, ringfencing a full size financing package for 5 years of transparent operation would satisfy me of a commitment, nothing less.

 

Good post Aberdeen - I agree with most of it too

 

From my time in business, I have also seen venture capital at work. Not in every case to be fair, but quite often I have watched as companies realise just what the cost is to their progress. Repayments have taken priority when development money has actually been needed. You can be fairly sure that with a football club in the championship a company would want very high returns to offset the risk.

It seems that too many clubs have sought money to either keep themselves afloat after getting into difficulties or chase dreams. Where the money is supposed to be coming from just seems to be of secondary importance. Portsmouth and now Plymouth are just two examples where "investors" have been taken on board without the means to support the clubs.

The examples of larger premiership clubs also leave one with a degree of despair. They can attract large investment, but as you say the debt simply becomes loaded onto the club.

We must accept that the days of a single person with enough loose change, looking to pursue a hobby have gone. The costs are too high. It does come down in the end to having a strong team of people who want to see the right decisions being taken and really looking with depth into the possible buyers.

 

Excellent article and interesting posts.

Aberdeen, was there a suggestion (and please correct because I am by no means very knowledgeable on this) that LA might have lost all his investment if the club had gone into admin, and was picked up on the cheap by, say, salad merchants? I'm talking pre-rights issue obviously.

I agree with the rest of your post.

 

SLB - my Finance expertise was not in football clubs but hotels but the same principles apply - LA had invested in the clubs shares - if the club went into Admin those shares would probably have been worthless - no one would pay more than a token for them unless several competing parties vied with each other to gain our little club - not likely methinks. He also would have had to negotiate on any unsecured loans and depending on other debts would probably have got little or nothing for those. His only return might have come form loans he made which were secured against specific assets - such as the ground.

He appears to have taken the view that what the Russos were offering was not sufficient for him to go into a "fire-sale" - and he would be right assuming he was prepared to stay with his investment until a stable investor who would pay him more came along

 

The latest Joker though appears to be trying to buy the club with debt as it is highly unlikely that a person only discharged from bankruptcy two or three years ago could have amassed a fortune since.

If we had the connections a group of us would be able to play the same game (i.e. go to the City Investors and find a backer) and probably be better for the club as we are actually supporters. However unless the club came into good times e.g £100m from Premiership promotion we would struggle to keep the club afloat as it is still loss making - I can see no reason to think Bassini will do bette

 

Yes if the club had gone into admin, share value would have been written off as the lasst priority in debt repayment and I'm pretty sure that would have been down to zero. at the time the Russos were holding the loan secured on the ground and this was transferred to Fordwat pending the rights issue or as it became detachable warrants. The fact is thast the return on itellectual investment just isnt there and in order for us to get the perfect owner there has to be some charitable support aspect, don't want that to be excessive finance which endangers te club but good quality management time. The way we are playing and want to play football the pitch condition is a priority along with the academy and we the fans have to be prepared to lose a few players which will be more acceptable once tyhe full stream of academy players start to flow through with an excess of players rather than the still current scarcity. I see the need for a high revenue sports clinic which is where I feel Panos has a fit but he is a good surgeon not a businessman, I fear for the group based upon what we have been told so far and can dig out. I really struggle to see Bazinis positive input and I will continue to use his given name on principle, I would love to be proved wrong and find that the resource is sufficient, guaranteed, transparent but until proven otherwise I will reserve my judgement based upon the few facts we can gleen. I note Julian Winter has not yet commented and neither has a Fordwat representative, yes a lot is bound by LSE rules but i'm still surprised that we haven't been given a steer as to what the guys are looking for from the new investment.

 

Spot on Aberdeen

By the way it looks like a nice warm sunny day up there -(if you are in Aberdeen )

 

Ah - just read on the Nest post your comment about the weather - mine was based on my Brother's webcam - he lives in Ballater - quite close to Aberdeen and has a website "ballaterskies.com" which I often look at for weather info

 

That is a good website Leonardo. Does he do it for fun?

 

Yes - he is a keen astronomer etc

I often like to click on the sun pictures to see the sunspots etc - yes I know I'm sad

 

I also like weather channels on TV - in France and the US they have dedicated channels on weather - givne our weather is so confusing and unpredictble I am surprised we don't have one

 

It is clear that the current set -up of owners/board/manager has gone a fair way to return the club to financial stability and footballing success, and also to return the club to its community roots .Grateful thanks to those mentioned above! It would be all to easy to change things for the worse, much harder to change things for the better. Yet change seems inevitable, since Ashcroft wants out, (or is unwilling to put more in) and there will be a crunch moment in the summer, when the bonds need to be paid/rolled over, and beyond that when more working capital is needed. And looking further ahead, the club does need significant extra investment if it is to remain competitive in this division in a proper ground. Even selling the young players we might develop will not fill this particular investment gap. So we do have a problem. I am convinced that Mr Bazini is not the answer--- not credible, not wanted and not likely---but what is the answer? Time is not on our side.

 

Fransen 80% Elton 20% does it for me, not sure its feasible though

 

Is Franzen wealthy then - I don't know much about him?

 

Yeh - we just won the cricket - good last few overs

 

The Netherlands - hmmm, one of the world powers

If their players get capped for these games, would they be known as Dutch Caps?

 

Now stop it Bolton - and if I remember they beat us in the last World Cup on the last ball or something like that. YOu forget that in World Cups England usually manage to lose to anyone (except Australia at Rugby)

 

Good thread Aberdeen I agree with your sentiments about bazini! 5 star from me !

 

Just as one person creates a bad impression, a leaked e-mail appears on the 606 site.

A few of us have looked at it and it is very odd. Quite a few bits that have been talked about over the years are mentioned, a couple of companies are traceable and in one case they go in for money lending.

Without more from the person who put it up it is difficult to tell if it is genuine or a wind-up. It is very long, you need to read part 1 & 2. The usual WUM does not go in for things this length.