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Post by trev on Apr 13, 2018 7:13:30 GMT
I still don't know how I feel having listened to that. To me, it came across very defensive at times from certain board members whilst at others it was honest. Banksy, as always, seemed the voice of reason and I have no doubt he is doing everything within his power to move the club forwards. LK was very accurate factually but for me still still wasn't able to clear up exactly why two year contracts were sanctioned by the board for players like James/Hannah. I get why they were asking for two year contracts but what I don't understand is how the board took the decision to sanction this, knowing the potential implications. It seemed like blind faith towards JM in the hope that their 'pal' could turn things around. I would have hoped that someone like LK would have fought against sanctioning these deals, however excited people may have been at the time to be signing these players. Additionally he seemed lost between saying he informed members at the AGM of the impending financial issues and then in November telling the membership that things were above target. Clearly he knew the Wrexham game was the reason for that so why was he not making more of a point of this at that meeting? October we are in crisis, November we aren't and then January the club is on the verge of implosion. Calvin sounds like an amateur, living out some kind of Football Manager dream. It very much seemed to be all about him and what he thinks should be happening on the footballing front moving forwards. No reasoning was given as to why Marcus wasn't considered for the post next season and the description of what is required from the next 'Head Coach' sounds very woolly at best. The way the process was carried out in terms of sacking him yesterday was quite frankly embarrassing. If Calvin did have such a good relationship with MB, as he claimed, why would MB have made the comments after the Tranmere game and why would he not have been willing to meet CH for their weekly meeting. It needs to be an absolute priority to get some footballing experience leading that working group as soon as possible, preferably before the appointment of a new manager takes place. DHW spoke well at times but also came across with a bit of an axe to grind towards the supporters. Clearly he has a business background and I believe sounds a strong character, but he needs to get the chip off his shoulders about why the supporters are so angry/upset. Although he might not have been part of the board until October, supporters have every right to feel angry and disconnected from the club. Everything that went before has created this split - fans weren't listened to and there very much was a them and us situation. However, we need to move on from that - the difficulty the board have is in winning the trust of the fanbase who have been so badly let down by those trusted to run the club on their behalf in recent years. I would really like to hear from Simon Olerenshaw as to why he wasn't appearing to be following process and why he hasn't taken up the board's offer to meet and discuss his issues. He didn't come out of that podcast well as it appeared that no one was aware of any issues and his decision to suddenly step down and take Neil Young with him has created a lot of issues that the board have since been dealing with. We need people coming forwards with certain skills who can help provide capacity and expertise. Marion Needham has been there through this sorry mess and I felt she was very defensive to the point of irritating at times. Why has she not organised a skills audit as secretary? Her answer that we don't really know where are gaps are and we need supporters to point them out was quite frankly embarrassing. The club was a closed shop - it might not be one now but it definitely was run as one for a period of time. There is a whole process of auditing skills sets that needs to be carried out immediately and a recruitment drive put in place to try and get the right people involved. Hoping someone might come forward with the right skill set, even though we don't know what it is we are missing, is amateur at best. However, it does need to happen if we are to survive and thrive. If this board was to step down, who would run the football club then? It's quite obvious its running on bare bones at this moment in time and people are trying their best to rectify a situation that should never have developed in the first place. If we don't unite and work together, despite historical issues, there will be no club in 12 months time, that goes without saying. Finally, the job Mark Maguire did is quite clearly a significant part of this problem. Clearly he was sending the board members on a merry ride with his false promises, yet not delivering. The damage this has caused financially and to our business relationships is immeasurable. The man is an absolute disgrace and shouldn't ever be allowed near a football club again. Why he was appointed, with his previous record well known, remains a source of tension. However, why the board didn't keep a closer eye on him and weren't more rigorous in dealing with him smacks of a lack of leadership/process. His smooth lines seemed to win them over every time, a bit like Jon McCarthy's did. What is very sad is that it was being pointed out to them for months that this was the case, yet no one wanted to listen/investigate. An excellent summary of the position TB You demonstrate the limited options the Cub has in moving forward right now and how out of their depth several Board members appear to be. The lack of understanding for low gates culminating in the 754 for Bromley was telling, and Mr HW simply expecting the wider fan base to turn up and save the day , was naive at best.
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Post by embalmer on Apr 13, 2018 7:15:33 GMT
Thought the podcast helped to clear up a few concerns, particularly in regards to the resignations of SO and MH which appear to have caused unnecessary damage to the club without either of them being willing to explain themselves properly.
Have to say though that its very concerning hearing some of the board members simply refusing to acknowledge their own responsibility for the mess. Now, I'd agree with the notion that Mark Maguire did a shit job, but Laurence Kirby pretty much blamed him entirely for the financial crisis. Whilst I don't doubt that his income generation was poor - it was always the remit of the Ops Board and the Financial Director in particular to deal with expenditure. LK was directly involved in negotiating all player contracts yet you wouldn't know that from the podcast.
There are two sides to this - income generation being really poor (Maguire's fault) and expenditure and budgeting being overly optimistic. As an example, the board budgeted for us to make more money on the club shop this season than last - when we don't even have a home kit to sell - quite extraordinary. The way in which a £20,000 loss on season tickets was nonchantly brushed off also irritated me immensely.
However, most concerning of all is the fact that LK is proposing a budget next season based on an assumption of gates of 1,700 including 900 season ticket sales. Learn from your mistakes for heavens sake!
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Post by blue4life on Apr 13, 2018 7:19:25 GMT
Calvin Hughes a stuttering mess and for this club to move forward he has to go and go now.
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Post by Charfield Blue on Apr 13, 2018 7:28:45 GMT
I'd like to see a direct appeal go out from the CFU board pinpointing the skill sets of people we are looking to attract and co-opt onto the board and / or invite into the working groups. This would be aimed at the public at large and would be seen as a very positive campaign if done correctly.
Then I really hope that we are also looking to identify and encourage further assistance through "The Pitch" - the business networking group that has been put in place. What better way to get new blood involved? We really need to be reaching out, in a very positive light, to the wider business community in Chester and surrounding areas to try to fill these glaring holes within our current board. We need fresh blood / new ideas & people not run down by the last 6 months. Most importantly our board needs help and fast!
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Post by Charfield Blue on Apr 13, 2018 7:33:18 GMT
Just to add, Neil Young has gone down hugely in my estimations over the recent events. To walk away and turn his back on us so quickly after coming back in with the offer of help is very poor. As for Simon....grrrr.
Time to move on.
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Post by midfieldgeneral on Apr 13, 2018 7:33:58 GMT
Give it a rest. Blue4life Like everyone else you have the opportunity to vote him off. Sick of people getting criticised who are trying to sort this mess out. Constructive criticiism yes. Mere character assassination no. Got any alternative poeple you want to see on the board?
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Post by eyeswideopen on Apr 13, 2018 7:35:35 GMT
For those advocating Neil Turner a place on the board, in case you have forgotten.
The catalyst for us removing Vaughan was the national publicity the pitch "invasion" gained, that was the turning point in us finally becoming fan owned. These actions were condemned by Turner on the day in his commentary as a senseless act.
He was also non existent in his criticism of Vaughan after being asked several times by a few people at the time ask more probing questions into Vaughans affairs and running of the club.
Thanks for the criticism of the current board Neil and its model, but where were you 9 years ago, when these questions should have been asked?
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Post by Neil Fishers Biggest Fan on Apr 13, 2018 7:51:24 GMT
The whole excercise begs the question, have any of you on here have unequivocal faith in the current board taking the club forward?
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Post by Charfield Blue on Apr 13, 2018 7:55:40 GMT
The whole excercise begs the question, have any of you on here have unequivocal faith in the current board taking the club forward? We need new blood. New blood is free to step forward and desperately needs to be encouraged to do so. What's the question here? Do you want to oust the board and have us fold? Because that's the option.
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Post by Harry Lime on Apr 13, 2018 8:06:56 GMT
Did we really learn anything new? Not much really imo.
For those taking an interest, or attending CFU meetings, we'd pieced most of that together. What it did bring home was though was the pressure on a few individuals to run a professional football club / business, without the expertise to do so.
Neil Turner started off well and asked the questions we wanted to ask. About half way through he started to ramble and the answers were woolly too. Last half was a waste of time.
Thought LK did his best to blame MM for everything, contracts, lack of money etc. He has a point but given his role as Finance Director and Operational Board member, must take some blame.
I did feel that we've decent people doing their best for the club. Given some of the s##t posted on here over the past few days, we could do a lot worse. They do need our help to get the club back on an upward curve. All those armchair supporters, or vocal critics, or those saying they don't know the board members, get down to the meeting on Wednesday and join in. I don't know the board members to talk to either. But I know who they are from going to the meetings be listening / questioning.
As AVFO has said often. We get the club the majority deserve. Passivity and apathy will kill us off quicker than Vaughan and the others did. We survived that by pulling together. We need to do that again. Some good news and progress from the board might trigger that again.
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Post by londonblue on Apr 13, 2018 8:07:26 GMT
That’s still extremely lightweight, especially if we can’t shift James or Hannah. That would be £800 a week going out until the end of next season before we’ve even started! That's not new you know. Lawrence confirmed a 250k playing budget at THAT meeting a few weeks ago I don’t get your point? It doesn’t matter if that’s new or old, it’s pathetically weak even for the league below. And apologies I couldn’t make it to THAT meeting, as the name suggests, I wasn’t able to travel 250 miles that night.
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Post by Al on Apr 13, 2018 8:14:39 GMT
That's not new you know. Lawrence confirmed a 250k playing budget at THAT meeting a few weeks ago I don’t get your point? It doesn’t matter if that’s new or old, it’s pathetically weak even for the league below. And apologies I couldn’t make it to THAT meeting, as the name suggests, I wasn’t able to travel 250 miles that night. Sorry think I quoted the wrong person.
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Post by Al on Apr 13, 2018 8:19:06 GMT
The whole excercise begs the question, have any of you on here have unequivocal faith in the current board taking the club forward? Yes I do Chris because this board now have the working groups behind them. Maybe you should come down to a working group meeting one night, you might gain an understanding and a bit of appreciation of the work going on then. All you have to do is look at the season ticket prices and initiatives for kids for next season as an example of the work going on down there. That is just the tip of the iceberg
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Post by Lobster on Apr 13, 2018 8:23:52 GMT
I don't see much point in continually bemoaning the budget. What do people want, for us to double it even though we can't afford to do so?
It is what it is, and if it keeps us financially stable, that's all I want. If we go down again I can take that. What I find hard to take is having to raise funds for the club to ensure its short-term future. We absolutely must not get in that situation again, even if it's at the expense of success on the pitch.
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Post by Malcolm Tucker on Apr 13, 2018 8:25:21 GMT
Calvin has been volunteering at this club in a football capacity for years, and holds a post on a committee (I.e. it’s not just him on it that makes decisions!) so to see some of the anger directed at him on here smacks a little bit of ingratitude considering all people are going on is unsubstantiated rumour they’ve been drip fed.
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Post by icomeinpeace on Apr 13, 2018 8:25:39 GMT
So you want the board or volunteers to put the club before their paying jobs and family? Good luck finding replacements for the board then. Not many single, retired, commercially and football aware people around, who also have excellent HR and man management skills, have worked at board level, and also have additional time to counter every single social media and forum post. But if you find one, check them out first, see if they also have a couple of million quid lying around!
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Post by sqzl on Apr 13, 2018 8:35:48 GMT
I'll start by saying i was not in attendance at that meeting, it simply wasn't possible, so some of last night was news to me, as well as rumours being confirmed.
Seems there is never an easy time to be a Chester fan. I also felt LK did his best to blame MM for everything as Harry mentions above. The issue i have with that is it's almost diffusion of responsibility. As MM's employer you should know exactly what he's doing. Using his previous experience as an example of why he was left to bring in deals of his own accord doesn't sit right with me, his previous experience was leaving a club in sh*t street. Alarm bells should have been ringing soon as he pushed back the 100 club. The gate projections are grossly over-forecasted given that we didn't hit the numbers in 12/15 games (can't remember exactly what he said we did hit)
All i know is that in accountancy your job is to be a pessimist and with respect the club were optimistic to say the least. Okay it was said they were only slightly ambitious targets on previous years, but when you get 10 targets that are all slightly ambitious you get this. Not to mention the clear feelings from the fan base that JM should have gone. It's basic accountancy!
Another thing that grated a bit was mention of the 'euphoria' amongst fans when we made these signings over the summer. Don't get me wrong, on the whole it's accurate and most of us on here were very happy with James/Hannah/Turnbull et al. But as a business, not including relegation clauses, not looking at the worst possible scenarios (again basic accountancy) is so tin pot! Had any of us known signing these players would jeopardise the future of the club we would have rather have the likes of big Dave Hankin back!
The failings are clear - Poor accounting practice, poor forecasting, poor budget usage and poor use of commercial revenue.
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Post by icomeinpeace on Apr 13, 2018 8:41:22 GMT
I still don't know how I feel having listened to that. To me, it came across very defensive at times from certain board members whilst at others it was honest. Banksy, as always, seemed the voice of reason and I have no doubt he is doing everything within his power to move the club forwards. LK was very accurate factually but for me still still wasn't able to clear up exactly why two year contracts were sanctioned by the board for players like James/Hannah. I get why they were asking for two year contracts but what I don't understand is how the board took the decision to sanction this, knowing the potential implications. It seemed like blind faith towards JM in the hope that their 'pal' could turn things around. I would have hoped that someone like LK would have fought against sanctioning these deals, however excited people may have been at the time to be signing these players. Additionally he seemed lost between saying he informed members at the AGM of the impending financial issues and then in November telling the membership that things were above target. Clearly he knew the Wrexham game was the reason for that so why was he not making more of a point of this at that meeting? October we are in crisis, November we aren't and then January the club is on the verge of implosion. Calvin sounds like an amateur, living out some kind of Football Manager dream. It very much seemed to be all about him and what he thinks should be happening on the footballing front moving forwards. No reasoning was given as to why Marcus wasn't considered for the post next season and the description of what is required from the next 'Head Coach' sounds very woolly at best. The way the process was carried out in terms of sacking him yesterday was quite frankly embarrassing. If Calvin did have such a good relationship with MB, as he claimed, why would MB have made the comments after the Tranmere game and why would he not have been willing to meet CH for their weekly meeting. It needs to be an absolute priority to get some footballing experience leading that working group as soon as possible, preferably before the appointment of a new manager takes place. DHW spoke well at times but also came across with a bit of an axe to grind towards the supporters. Clearly he has a business background and I believe sounds a strong character, but he needs to get the chip off his shoulders about why the supporters are so angry/upset. Although he might not have been part of the board until October, supporters have every right to feel angry and disconnected from the club. Everything that went before has created this split - fans weren't listened to and there very much was a them and us situation. However, we need to move on from that - the difficulty the board have is in winning the trust of the fanbase who have been so badly let down by those trusted to run the club on their behalf in recent years. I would really like to hear from Simon Olerenshaw as to why he wasn't appearing to be following process and why he hasn't taken up the board's offer to meet and discuss his issues. He didn't come out of that podcast well as it appeared that no one was aware of any issues and his decision to suddenly step down and take Neil Young with him has created a lot of issues that the board have since been dealing with. We need people coming forwards with certain skills who can help provide capacity and expertise. Marion Needham has been there through this sorry mess and I felt she was very defensive to the point of irritating at times. Why has she not organised a skills audit as secretary? Her answer that we don't really know where are gaps are and we need supporters to point them out was quite frankly embarrassing. The club was a closed shop - it might not be one now but it definitely was run as one for a period of time. There is a whole process of auditing skills sets that needs to be carried out immediately and a recruitment drive put in place to try and get the right people involved. Hoping someone might come forward with the right skill set, even though we don't know what it is we are missing, is amateur at best. However, it does need to happen if we are to survive and thrive. If this board was to step down, who would run the football club then? It's quite obvious its running on bare bones at this moment in time and people are trying their best to rectify a situation that should never have developed in the first place. If we don't unite and work together, despite historical issues, there will be no club in 12 months time, that goes without saying. Finally, the job Mark Maguire did is quite clearly a significant part of this problem. Clearly he was sending the board members on a merry ride with his false promises, yet not delivering. The damage this has caused financially and to our business relationships is immeasurable. The man is an absolute disgrace and shouldn't ever be allowed near a football club again. Why he was appointed, with his previous record well known, remains a source of tension. However, why the board didn't keep a closer eye on him and weren't more rigorous in dealing with him smacks of a lack of leadership/process. His smooth lines seemed to win them over every time, a bit like Jon McCarthy's did. What is very sad is that it was being pointed out to them for months that this was the case, yet no one wanted to listen/investigate. An excellent summary of the position TB You demonstrate the limited options the Cub has in moving forward right now and how out of their depth several Board members appear to be. The lack of understanding for low gates culminating in the 754 for Bromley was telling, and Mr HW simply expecting the wider fan base to turn up and save the day , was naive at best. Not sure expecting the fan base to save the day was his point as I heard it. Merely pointing out that the one variable we as fans can help with is to attend matches. Not an axe to grind simple maths based on the finance info from LK?
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Post by seal73 on Apr 13, 2018 8:41:43 GMT
Did we really learn anything new? Not much really imo. For those taking an interest, or attending CFU meetings, we'd pieced most of that together. What it did bring home was though was the pressure on a few individuals to run a professional football club / business, without the expertise to do so. Neil Turner started off well and asked the questions we wanted to ask. About half way through he started to ramble and the answers were woolly too. Last half was a waste of time. Thought LK did his best to blame MM for everything, contracts, lack of money etc. He has a point but given his role as Finance Director and Operational Board member, must take some blame. I did feel that we've decent people doing their best for the club. Given some of the s##t posted on here over the past few days, we could do a lot worse. They do need our help to get the club back on an upward curve. All those armchair supporters, or vocal critics, or those saying they don't know the board members, get down to the meeting on Wednesday and join in. I don't know the board members to talk to either. But I know who they are from going to the meetings be listening / questioning. As AVFO has said often. We get the club the majority deserve. Passivity and apathy will kill us off quicker than Vaughan and the others did. We survived that by pulling together. We need to do that again. Some good news and progress from the board might trigger that again. Yet again another sensible and well put post Mr Lime
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alty
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Post by alty on Apr 13, 2018 8:44:01 GMT
Just to add, Neil Young has gone down hugely in my estimations over the recent events. To walk away and turn his back on us so quickly after coming back in with the offer of help is very poor. As for Simon....grrrr. Time to move on. Listened last night, so from memory and reading very much between the lines, it sounded like NY made a proposal which included going part-time with LK stating that it was the wishes of the club to remain full time and then NY's resignation arrives. Think LK said something like "this is where it may have come off the rails". Interesting that Bignot had requested clarification on his position by the end of March, forcing a decision from the Board and unfortunately for him it was one he didn't like ... which is surprising given his view of the club, I'd have thought it would have been the other way around, i.e. Bignot letting us know if he was willing to extend his contract. The "sacking" / early release from his contract was very poorly handled. It came across that it was done in blind panic as it had been agreed that he needed to be told on Wednesday and CH has some sort of unwavering policy that everything needs to be done face-to-face, so on that basis I think we should be grateful they managed to catch him before he left the car park ... we could have ended up with a car chase down on the motorway. It's really a total common sense failure, a phone call would have done the job in this case and we would have had one less thing to fire fight.
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Post by Harry Lime on Apr 13, 2018 8:46:02 GMT
I'll start by saying i was not in attendance at that meeting, it's simply wasn't possible, so some of last night was news to me, as well as rumours being confirmed. Seems there is never an easy time to be a Chester fan. I also felt LK did his best to blame MM for everything as Harry mentions above. The issue i have with that is it's almost diffusion of responsibility. As MM's employer you should know exactly what he's doing. Using his previous experience as an example of why he was left to bring in deals of his own accord doesn't sit right with me, his previous experience was leaving a club in sh*t street. Alarm bells should have been ringing soon as he pushed back the 100 club. The gate projections are grossly over-forecasted given that we didn't hit the numbers in 12/15 games (can't remember exactly what he said we did hit) All i know is that in accountancy your job is to be a pessimist and with respect the club were optimistic to say the least. Okay it was said they were only slightly ambitious targets on previous years, but when you get 10 targets that are all slightly ambitious you get this. Not to mention the clear feelings from the fan base that JM should have gone. It's basic accountancy! Another thing that grated a bit was mention of the 'euphoria' amongst fans when we made these signings over the summer. Don't get me wrong, on the whole it's accurate and most of us on here were very happy with James/Hannah/Turnbull et al. But as a business, not including relegation clauses, not looking at the worst possible scenarios (again basic accountancy) is so tin pot! Had any of us known signing these players would jeopardise the future of the club we would have rather have the likes of big Dave Hankin back! The failings are clear - Poor accounting practice, poor forecasting, poor budget usage and poor use of commercial revenue. Add in poor recruitment, poor management and poor working practices and poor performance review. Who in the structure holds people to account? The membership can't, as we don't get told enough to do that effectively. That's why we get all this rumour and conjecture. Give us facts. We can then do our own due diligence.
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Post by sqzl on Apr 13, 2018 8:49:31 GMT
I'll start by saying i was not in attendance at that meeting, it's simply wasn't possible, so some of last night was news to me, as well as rumours being confirmed. Seems there is never an easy time to be a Chester fan. I also felt LK did his best to blame MM for everything as Harry mentions above. The issue i have with that is it's almost diffusion of responsibility. As MM's employer you should know exactly what he's doing. Using his previous experience as an example of why he was left to bring in deals of his own accord doesn't sit right with me, his previous experience was leaving a club in sh*t street. Alarm bells should have been ringing soon as he pushed back the 100 club. The gate projections are grossly over-forecasted given that we didn't hit the numbers in 12/15 games (can't remember exactly what he said we did hit) All i know is that in accountancy your job is to be a pessimist and with respect the club were optimistic to say the least. Okay it was said they were only slightly ambitious targets on previous years, but when you get 10 targets that are all slightly ambitious you get this. Not to mention the clear feelings from the fan base that JM should have gone. It's basic accountancy! Another thing that grated a bit was mention of the 'euphoria' amongst fans when we made these signings over the summer. Don't get me wrong, on the whole it's accurate and most of us on here were very happy with James/Hannah/Turnbull et al. But as a business, not including relegation clauses, not looking at the worst possible scenarios (again basic accountancy) is so tin pot! Had any of us known signing these players would jeopardise the future of the club we would have rather have the likes of big Dave Hankin back! The failings are clear - Poor accounting practice, poor forecasting, poor budget usage and poor use of commercial revenue. Add in poor recruitment, poor management and poor working practices and poor performance review. Who in the structure holds people to account? The membership can't, as we don't get told enough to do that effectively. That's why we get all this rumour and conjecture. Give us facts. We can then do our own due diligence. Yes, yes and yes. Being honest, for all the stick the Calvin is getting...to me it's LK that has to take a huge amount of responsibility for the failures as the Finance Director. I mean honestly some of the failures are items you learn within the first year as an accountant. I struggle to understand how so much has gone wrong, is is a huge lack of communication across the board?
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Post by Harry Lime on Apr 13, 2018 9:00:30 GMT
I think everyone was assuming / hoping that MM would come through. Or that LK had his figures right, or could adjust them.
No one seemed to have challenged anything. We had an inexperienced chairman at the time who was out of his depth. Was that his role? Is it Richard's as Governance? I'd expect LK to flag it up early and come up with worst case scenario and options on which to vote or discuss.
Question - How do you save money once you've contracts in place?
If you believe there is a problem who do you go to? It has to be the board meeting.
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Post by Charfield Blue on Apr 13, 2018 9:02:54 GMT
Just to add, Neil Young has gone down hugely in my estimations over the recent events. To walk away and turn his back on us so quickly after coming back in with the offer of help is very poor. As for Simon....grrrr. Time to move on. Listened last night, so from memory and reading very much between the lines, it sounded like NY made a proposal which included going part-time with LK stating that it was the wishes of the club to remain full time and then NY's resignation arrives. Think LK said something like "this is where it may have come off the rails". Interesting that Bignot had requested clarification on his position by the end of March, forcing a decision from the Board and unfortunately for him it was one he didn't like ... which is surprising given his view of the club, I'd have thought it would have been the other way around, i.e. Bignot letting us know if he was willing to extend his contract. The "sacking" / early release from his contract was very poorly handled. It came across that it was done in blind panic as it had been agreed that he needed to be told on Wednesday and CH has some sort of unwavering policy that everything needs to be done face-to-face, so on that basis I think we should be grateful they managed to catch him before he left the car park ... we could have ended up with a car chase down on the motorway. It's really a total common sense failure, a phone call would have done the job in this case and we would have had one less thing to fire fight. Understandable from Marcus to want an answer so that he can start to look for alternative employment. Like you say on the sacking, a real common sense failure. I don't think CH should have been the one to deliver the news. Lessons to be learnt as was recognised in the podcast.
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Post by Little Blue Boy on Apr 13, 2018 9:10:25 GMT
Fairly interesting podcast, but didn't learn a great deal more than we already knew.
I also have some serious concerns regarding Laurence Kirby and his role in this crisis, despite his best efforts to deflect all of the blame onto our ex-CEO.
For example, his mention of KPI's for Mark Maguire was complete nonsense. I know for a fact that one board member was at the point of resignation following an attempt to place KPI's and performance reviews into Mark Maguires contract. This was met with such vociferous opposition by Laurence Kirby and Mark Maguire that the board member in question was seriously considering their position.
I also echo the concerns of others regarding the once again ambitious average attendance figure for next season. Have we not learnt any lessons?
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alty
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Post by alty on Apr 13, 2018 9:12:44 GMT
Thought the podcast helped to clear up a few concerns, particularly in regards to the resignations of SO and MH which appear to have caused unnecessary damage to the club without either of them being willing to explain themselves properly. Have to say though that its very concerning hearing some of the board members simply refusing to acknowledge their own responsibility for the mess. Now, I'd agree with the notion that Mark Maguire did a shit job, but Laurence Kirby pretty much blamed him entirely for the financial crisis. Whilst I don't doubt that his income generation was poor - it was always the remit of the Ops Board and the Financial Director in particular to deal with expenditure. LK was directly involved in negotiating all player contracts yet you wouldn't know that from the podcast. There are two sides to this - income generation being really poor (Maguire's fault) and expenditure and budgeting being overly optimistic. As an example, the board budgeted for us to make more money on the club shop this season than last - when we don't even have a home kit to sell - quite extraordinary. The way in which a £20,000 loss on season tickets was nonchantly brushed off also irritated me immensely. However, most concerning of all is the fact that LK is proposing a budget next season based on an assumption of gates of 1,700 including 900 season ticket sales. Learn from your mistakes for heavens sake! Agreed, there has to be some acceptance that the budget process was a major factor in the mess we found ourselves in by January. LK seemed fairly adamant that nothing was a "stretch" target, but it's a stretch to get from 0 to 1 with an unproven concept such as the 100 club and it should have been treated as gravy, not core income. I'm assuming that we are continually forecasting and budgeting as the season progresses, so could have delivered additional funds to the manager in January should any of the initiatives been successful, but it seems to be all front loaded. One word that I don't think I heard last night was "risk" - it's clear we took a risk to increase the budget and JM being able to spend it wisely. Sometimes you need to take risks and I agree that in the short term the signings of Hannah and James probably helped secure some wavering season ticket renewals, but it's back fired spectacularly in that none of our expensive signings have really worked out. We may need to take some more risks now, so here's hoping that openness and transparency continues and we can then indeed question the sanity of an average attendance of 1,700 for next season ....
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Post by tarvinblue on Apr 13, 2018 9:16:40 GMT
Fairly interesting podcast, but didn't learn a great deal more than we already knew. I also have some serious concerns regarding Laurence Kirby and his role in this crisis, despite his best efforts to deflect all of the blame onto our ex-CEO. For example, his mention of KPI's for Mark Maguire was complete nonsense. I know for a fact that one board member was at the point of resignation following an attempt to place KPI's and performance reviews into Mark Maguires contract. This was met with such vociferous opposition by Laurence Kirby and Mark Maguire that the board member in question was seriously considering their position. I also echo the concerns of others regarding the once again ambitious average attendance figure for next season. Have we not learnt any lessons? Is LK actually the long standing issue? He's been on the board throughout this period and presents well financial figures to attempt to back up his points. However, clear processes haven't been in place or followed. He tries to present the perception that he communicates the figures and that's his job done. Is this correct? Could be a controversial viewpoint and I'm not suggesting it''s definitely the case but there needs to be a clear investigation of his role in all this as the elected member entrusted by the owners to safeguard our financial position.
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Post by blue4life on Apr 13, 2018 9:23:17 GMT
Give it a rest. Blue4life Like everyone else you have the opportunity to vote him off. Sick of people getting criticised who are trying to sort this mess out. Constructive criticiism yes. Mere character assassination no. Got any alternative poeple you want to see on the board? Sacking someone in a car park while supporting the youth tells you all you need to know about the man, sooner he resigns the better. As for who replaces him, simple really, Neil Young.
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Post by Charfield Blue on Apr 13, 2018 9:23:44 GMT
Thought the podcast helped to clear up a few concerns, particularly in regards to the resignations of SO and MH which appear to have caused unnecessary damage to the club without either of them being willing to explain themselves properly. Have to say though that its very concerning hearing some of the board members simply refusing to acknowledge their own responsibility for the mess. Now, I'd agree with the notion that Mark Maguire did a shit job, but Laurence Kirby pretty much blamed him entirely for the financial crisis. Whilst I don't doubt that his income generation was poor - it was always the remit of the Ops Board and the Financial Director in particular to deal with expenditure. LK was directly involved in negotiating all player contracts yet you wouldn't know that from the podcast. There are two sides to this - income generation being really poor (Maguire's fault) and expenditure and budgeting being overly optimistic. As an example, the board budgeted for us to make more money on the club shop this season than last - when we don't even have a home kit to sell - quite extraordinary. The way in which a £20,000 loss on season tickets was nonchantly brushed off also irritated me immensely. However, most concerning of all is the fact that LK is proposing a budget next season based on an assumption of gates of 1,700 including 900 season ticket sales. Learn from your mistakes for heavens sake! Agreed, there has to be some acceptance that the budget process was a major factor in the mess we found ourselves in by January. LK seemed fairly adamant that nothing was a "stretch" target, but it's a stretch to get from 0 to 1 with an unproven concept such as the 100 club and it should have been treated as gravy, not core income. I'm assuming that we are continually forecasting and budgeting as the season progresses, so could have delivered additional funds to the manager in January should any of the initiatives been successful, but it seems to be all front loaded. One word that I don't think I heard last night was "risk" - it's clear we took a risk to increase the budget and JM being able to spend it wisely. Sometimes you need to take risks and I agree that in the short term the signings of Hannah and James probably helped secure some wavering season ticket renewals, but it's back fired spectacularly in that none of our expensive signings have really worked out. We may need to take some more risks now, so here's hoping that openness and transparency continues and we can then indeed question the sanity of an average attendance of 1,700 for next season .... I agree, with regards the 1,700 target for next season. That indeed is a risk and would require a pretty reasonable level of on field success that we know is far from guaranteed.
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Post by bing on Apr 13, 2018 9:27:57 GMT
Give it a rest. Blue4life Like everyone else you have the opportunity to vote him off. Sick of people getting criticised who are trying to sort this mess out. Constructive criticiism yes. Mere character assassination no. Got any alternative poeple you want to see on the board? Sacking someone in a car park while supporting the youth tells you all you need to know about the man, sooner he resigns the better. As for who replaces him, simple really, Neil Young. But we don't know the full story do we? I sensed an awkward tension in the air when they were discussing that as they didn't want to bad mouth MB. We know they tried to talk to him, but then he had to shoot off - draw your own conclusions, but it doesn't sound as though MB was very open to a more amicable discussion does it?
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