Collateral damage

If the precious little darlings can't handle the heat turning up on them, then perhaps they should pull their finger out and actually play like senior professionals, not senior walking footballers...

I don't get this whole concept of players not liking hearing the truth, they need to get over it and not everyone is going to stroke their egos... sometimes they need to be told...

Put the kids in, at least they can move faster than snail pace and will be energetic. Three of our best outfield players have been the youngest ones... LOB, Wood and Colville (before being injured)... Obviously JOB and O'Conner have been good...

They say you don't win anything with kids, but you don't win anything with the asshats that we are playing at the moment so why not give the kids a crack...

Bloody Senior Professionals getting the sh1ts up because they are told the truth...

 

Are they 'ifs and buts' though Rod? They look like facts to me!!

 

But what I don’t understand is, how have they let it get to this mess in the first place? What’s their M.O?
Surely they can see they are messing things up. Surely they can look at the balance sheet now and compare it to playing in league 2 next season.
If I look at my bank account, and it’s all over the place, I speak to a financial advisor. If I’m going a day without being able to have a drinking session, I admit I’ve got a problem and visit someone to help me. If the wife and I are going through problems, we talk to someone who can advise us.
Why isn’t this happening with Edin and Co? They’ve gotta understand now that all that they’ve done is not working, and seek some firefighter to come in and take over. Surely?! Otherwise they’ve failed on epic proportions. Rahic fails at knowing football, and Rupp fails to recoup his investment. Add to that, failed reputations too, which they’ll carry into whatever future projects they work on.
It’s very puzzling.

 

Yeah but as you’ve said - individual. It’s not just an individual running the club though is it? Unless Rupp is all of the above too. In which case we’re even more fooked than we realise!
Surely there’s regular board meetings too with all the other members? What goes on in these? Someone has got to stand up and have a word. I’m struggling to find any positives concerning this season, other than having a great pitch. Doesn’t matter how green the grass is, when you’re playing on the other side of league one in front of empty stands!

 

At the risk of being derided, I’ve been told by a couple of people who’re in a position to know. People I’ve known for a while and trust, not just an ITK in the pub.

 

nothing to be derided but you must understand scepticism when there is a lot of unsubstatianted rumour and make believe being posted at the moment and for a long-time.

can you divulge any information as to whether these claret and amber knights have considerable funds, are a single entity, local businessman, etc?

not asking you to give any names but some information to support it would be great.

 

IMO

It has to be 1 man,

1 person only.

The more chefs in the kitchen it spoils the Sunday dinner.

For 2 long we've had joint chairman. Richmond as a 1 man guy got us to the PL. yes, he got caught up in the madness , same as leeds chairman and a few others.

what im saying is. 1 guy, not 5. 1 man, a leader, a millionaire ready to back the club and get us out of league 1.

If we were in the championship and fighting out of the relegation positions, that would be 1000% fine for me

 

I do indeed understand the scepticism. And whilst I've been told the names of 2 parties that apparently hold interest, I don't know the level of financial strength that would be brought to bear. However, given that the current owners don't seem to be putting money in (and recent 'rumour' indicates they may be taking money out), I'd settle for owners who simply have a grounded understanding of how this club should be run, with emphasis on the first team being funded as strongly as possible - whether that be to self sufficient levels only or not. Anything extra would be a very nice bonus.

And I don't see the necessity of knowing who the proposed owners would be before protesting against the current regime. that would be a matter for 'tomorrow'.

Protesting, for me, is about 2 key points:

1) A point of principle. The way this club is being run, is unacceptable. The owners need holding to account.
2) Generating enough publicity and pressure to force the owners to consider a sale, and to tease out potential owners that may be lurking in the background, awaiting developments.

 

if we can put the concerns around the current owners to one side and look at potential new owners, and it’s probably the same for a number of clubs around the country - is that how long are new potential owners willing to wait and are they willing to let a club fall to pick it up ‘on the cheap.’ if they are lifelong fans, which i’m not saying they are, surely they’d step in now rather than let any potential slide go much further. if that makes sense?

like i have mentioned in a previous post after speaking to someome who was offered the club prior to the current owners, they stated the reason they didn’t accept the offer was that it was too close to home (being a fan) and that the risk was too high, and this was prior to 2016. they stated that will all good intentions they’d still feel themselves wanting control and wouldn’t be able to help themselves to step in and want an input. similar position to lawn was in i assume.

 

Not Gianni Paladini then, someone much closer to the club ?.

 

Its good point. From a commercial point of view, the smart thing to do would be to wait until the club drops to League. It won't take long.

The price would be lower, opportunities for R&R to take money out will be negligible because the playing assets will further reduce in value, as will ST sales and income. And from League 2, new owners would probably have a little more leeway to put plans into motion.

 

Given that the only profitable division is the Premier League, I don't really see how drifting further away is a good strategy.

It would cost them far more to take a League Two (or worse...) club to the Premier League than a League One side.

 

so then any new owner won’t have the club at heart but solely they’re bargaining to pick a club up on the cheap. or i presume they’d make a serious attempt now.

if only bradford had a steve gibson.

 

I honestly don't think that the premier league is a realistic aim for us, over any timescale. A reasonable target is for us to be a sustainable championship club.

My point is, a sale of the club would depend on the price and willingness of the current owners to sell.

A drop to league 2 may force a considerably lower sale price. A potential owner may take the view that the money saved would be enough to repair the club and propel it forward to a greater level than we currently stand at. I don't know.

I'm generalising, but for a buyer, you want the asset you're buying to be as cheap as possible and for the owner to have as few a negotiating cards to play as possible.

 

Not necessarily. It depends on the numbers involved, the level of financial injection that might be available and the longer term ambitions of the owner.

If the buying price could be forced say 2-3m lower in 6 months time, it might come into the thinking of the buyer. There'd be risk, of course. Ideally a new owner(s) would be able to buy us as a league one club and provide enough of the right leadership to take us forward from there.

A level of emotional connection to the club would help. But that isn't really my problem with Rahic. My problem with Rahic is that he's a reckless business leader. He's done all of the things you'd associate with a poor businessman

Alienated his staff, reducing their control and doing the complete opposite of appointing professionals to the right roles and empowering them.
Alienating his customer base and failing to understand the culture of his business and customers.
Underestimating the competition.
Overestimating his own understanding of the market and ability to judge whats needed to succeed.
Driving a vision that doesn't work and when it starts to veer off course, completely misjudged what's needed by way of a course correction.

Give me a die-hard Leeds fan as an owner, if he knows how to lead the football club and take it forward.

 

Maybe so.

Something's got to give though, because the 'aim' of sustaining a club in the Championship is akin to searching for a way to burn millions of pounds a year for no real reason.

Something has to change in the EFL, because it won't last forever the way it is.

 

No argument there.

The biggest irony is that the principal of us being a club that targets young players, develops, sells and then reinvests to propel revenue is a good one, in my opinion.

But it needs proper investment in scouting, and an approach to recruitment that focuses on quality over quantity.

 

one problem with a consortium, of that’s what it will be, is that there may be too many voices.. who will lead? who will be the figurehead? do decisions get made dependent on how much each person has invested? i can imagine that leading to chaos in a boardroom and a few noses being put out of joint.. imagine if we need a cash injection, who puts it in? does that then affect how much of a say they have and if it didn’t then would they hold their money back.

we all accept that the current situation isn’t great and plenty of people on social media have said it’s never been like this before behind the scenes. but we really don’t know that do we - i imagine under mr richmond it may have been very similar as we are all aware of his escapades. i guess in hindsight, it was great that there wasn’t social media then and we probably didn’t know the half of it!