trunky
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Post by trunky on Nov 1, 2017 14:48:34 GMT
My mind was made up in the summer, it is the first time in my memory (over 50 years) that we have had an owner with real wealth and I was looking for a statement of intent regarding our transfer dealings, and to be honest there was very little difference with the current and previous regimes.
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Peter Parker
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Richard Walker
You have been sentenced to DELETION!
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Post by Peter Parker on Nov 1, 2017 14:54:13 GMT
My mind was made up in the summer, it is the first time in my memory (over 50 years) that we have had an owner with real wealth and I was looking for a statement of intent regarding our transfer dealings, and to be honest there was very little difference with the current and previous regimes. even though Wael said we would not spend our way up any divisions
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Post by fatherjackhackett on Nov 1, 2017 15:08:22 GMT
If you want an owner who is prepared to spend tens of millions on a Football League team for precious little return, then there is some bloke called Lansdown who is doing exactly that.
I used to live in Ipswich and still have friends who go to Portman Road. The feeling there is that the owner, Marcus Evans, is under a lot of pressure to put more money in. That is to fund the club out of his own pocket, the same that many people here are asking the Al Qadi family to do.
All I have ever wanted for Rovers is to be professionally run on and off the pitch. We have made more strides in the past 20 months in that respect than we had in the previous 20 years. For that I am grateful. The bottom line is that we support an unsustainable football club, certainly financially, and I would much rather see slow growth than a spend at all costs approach tagged alongside a zillion pipe dreams.
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Nov 1, 2017 15:19:57 GMT
If you want an owner who is prepared to spend tens of millions on a Football League team for precious little return, then there is some bloke called Lansdown who is doing exactly that. I used to live in Ipswich and still have friends who go to Portman Road. The feeling there is that the owner, Marcus Evans, is under a lot of pressure to put more money in. That is to fund the club out of his own pocket, the same that many people here are asking the Al Qadi family to do. All I have ever wanted for Rovers is to be professionally run on and off the pitch. We have made more strides in the past 20 months in that respect than we had in the previous 20 years. For that I am grateful. The bottom line is that we support an unsustainable football club, certainly financially, and I would much rather see slow growth than a spend at all costs approach tagged alongside a zillion pipe dreams. I think you are creating a bit of a straw man there though. I'm not sure anyone is really saying they want them to spend extravagantly (well maybe a few but I don't think that's close to the consensus opinion among those expressing doubts). I think a lot of skepticism is actually based on an assessment of what they are doing on their own terms. That's my concern - all for a bid towards sustainability and professionalism and slow growth etc....But recent developments cast some doubt on that for me - not some kind of 'board out' nonsense. Just an observation that the direction of travel in the last 3/4 months has been a bit concerning in a number of different ways and some of the somewhat lukewarm comments coming out of the club might suggest that there are reasons to be worried about their longer term commitment to the club. Doesn't seem unreasonable to express those concerns on a internet forum - could well be unfounded and a misreading of events, but if I said I was happy with how things are currently looking then I would be lying.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2017 21:54:59 GMT
If you want an owner who is prepared to spend tens of millions on a Football League team for precious little return, then there is some bloke called Lansdown who is doing exactly that. I used to live in Ipswich and still have friends who go to Portman Road. The feeling there is that the owner, Marcus Evans, is under a lot of pressure to put more money in. That is to fund the club out of his own pocket, the same that many people here are asking the Al Qadi family to do. All I have ever wanted for Rovers is to be professionally run on and off the pitch. We have made more strides in the past 20 months in that respect than we had in the previous 20 years. For that I am grateful. The bottom line is that we support an unsustainable football club, certainly financially, and I would much rather see slow growth than a spend at all costs approach tagged alongside a zillion pipe dreams. They have got to expect people to wonder what's going on though haven't they. How professionally run are we? They lined up and proudly presented what looked like a full team to get UWE built, that kind of suggested that the negotiating and due diligence was complete, 18 months of silence, then suddenly the dream is dead but not to worry, Hamer reckons everything will be great if we can just capture the spirit of Wimbledon 1988. At the same time Wael is suggesting that it's all UWE's fault but isn't specific about what it is that they've done, UWE don't rise to this and say 'please come back, let's work this out', we decline the invite. At the same time the training ground is looking like a Johnny Weissmuller film set, our main striker walks out to our only rivals for the price of half of shandy and 20 B&H, and we don't have a replacement lined up, if Swiss is right the owners have taken over half a million quid out in interest for loans whilst the manager looks to be trying to put a squad together on a shoe string budget. I agree that these owners seem like jolly nice chaps and mostly interview quite well, we kept the manager, that's a huge tick in a very important box, but so far they have come up short in some very important areas.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2017 22:56:32 GMT
You have to spend money in football to get anywhere worthwhile[the championship] and our owners cant/wont spend it. Most of the championship clubs spend over 100% of their turnover just on wages with brentford running at 160% and city 122 % and only a tiny few like newcastle utd last season make a profit[sorry cant do links to show the article about this]. Thing is to get a redeveloped mem,a cat 2 academy,a great training ground and a promotion demanding budget will cost big money and there is no evidence that any of those promised improvements[the 4 mentioned] will happen. So ive lost faith.
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TaiwanGas
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Post by TaiwanGas on Nov 2, 2017 2:18:18 GMT
No faith, faith to me in human beings means 'trusted' and trust is earned through deed's. It seems to me that the doors that belong to the corridors of power that were, in the beginning most welcoming are slowly being cranked shut once again. Bah!, as you get older and gain life's experience you tend not to use 'faith' and settle for the less demanding option of Hope, which I truly have.
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bloogas
Joined: July 2016
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Post by bloogas on Nov 2, 2017 10:09:34 GMT
Bottom line is that there is a lot of bitching and whining on here, Gaschat, and social media, but the number of people who have dared to publically challenge the boardroom over the past four decades can be counted on a single person’s fingers and toes. There will never be an effective demonstration, there will never be any evidence based challenge, just ‘me mates sister and law’s third cousin twice removed says’ type stuff, and there will never be an AFC Bristol Rovers after any bankruptcy or other club meltdown. For the simple reason that 99.95% of the fan base can not be bothered to get off their behinds and do something. In the meantime we just carry on being subjected to a drip feed of false information and unsubstantiated rumour as a substitute for anything remotely resembling fact. ‘‘Twas ever the same. As was proved by efforts to raise a Fans' Trust a few years ago. Met with apathy & some derision. Posts on this & other forums are highly amusing - posters working themselves into an outraged frenzy,but strangely quiet on actually doing anything. Ho hum.
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Post by DudeLebowski on Nov 2, 2017 10:24:11 GMT
Cant ever remember so many being this deeply intrigued into the goings on at boardroom level & ive used this forum (or equivalent of) for 14 years. Why wasn’t the sleep deprived one & Toni Till strung up with such suspicion, whilst strolling towards oblivion in broad daylight?!
3 years of beautiful on pitch success, think I’ll stick to enjoying this wave and let the AQ’s deal with off field matters best they can. They do afterall make the aforementioned look like a pair of 8th graders running a lemonade stand.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2017 10:41:31 GMT
Cant ever remember so many being this deeply intrigued into the goings on at boardroom level & ive used this forum (or equivalent of) for 14 years. Why wasn’t the sleep deprived one & Toni Till strung up with such suspicion, whilst strolling towards oblivion in broad daylight?! 3 years of beautiful on pitch success, think I’ll stick to enjoying this wave and let the AQ’s deal with off field matters best they can. They do afterall make the aforementioned look like a pair of 8th graders running a lemonade stand. Fair enough, how about this for a little game then. Scroll through threads trying to work out what's going on with finances and stadiums, replace the word Wael with Higgs, replace Hamer with Watolla.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2017 10:41:47 GMT
They do afterall make the aforementioned look like a pair of 8th graders running a lemonade stand. Bit harsh, lemonade usually turns a profit.
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RiversGas
Predictions League
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Post by RiversGas on Nov 2, 2017 22:44:01 GMT
From half a world away, I see it this way.
Al Qadi family paid £X for the club which I presume was made up of £Net Assets + £UWE development prospects + £Goodwill.
Since then: the value of £UWE development prospects have reduced to £Nil. Given lack of investment in the squad and perceived lack of progression in The Colony and the Academy, £Goodwill would have reduced in value Playing in League 1 and increase in staff numbers will have increased wage costs.
This would mean that the value of the club has reduced so any sale by the family would lead to a loss. I can’t see the successful Jordanian family would sell until they were in a position to sell at a profit. And evolution (and successful investment strategy) takes time and a sound process of asset development. Therefore I believe that things like The Colony and the Academy will happen before any sale, albeit over a longer period than fans may like, to maximise the value of any sale.
I am not suggesting that is either a positive or a negative. Only that a fan’s expectation of on field success, and an investment vehicle’s expectation of investment success, are entirely different in terms of immediacy and strategy.
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Igitur
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Post by Igitur on Nov 2, 2017 23:37:51 GMT
We want it all and we want it now
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2017 23:48:53 GMT
We want it all and we want it now No, we don't 'want it all', we just want to be told what actually happened to UWE and where we really are with the training ground, or to be given a sensible reason for withholding information. Not having complete tosh spouted at us by Hamer would be a bonus. Being told that Swiss has got it all wrong and the owners talking him through the accounts so that he can report back and confirm that they haven't pocketed £600,000 would be spiffing also. Is that 'wanting it all'? Looks to me like the sort of stuff that the owners of any football club would expect supporters to be asking.
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Igitur
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Post by Igitur on Nov 3, 2017 8:20:27 GMT
We want it all and we want it now No, we don't 'want it all', we just want to be told what actually happened to UWE and where we really are with the training ground, or to be given a sensible reason for withholding information. Not having complete tosh spouted at us by Hamer would be a bonus. Being told that Swiss has got it all wrong and the owners talking him through the accounts so that he can report back and confirm that they haven't pocketed £600,000 would be spiffing also. Is that 'wanting it all'? Looks to me like the sort of stuff that the owners of any football club would expect supporters to be asking. A little tongue in cheek maybe, but I saw a great Queen tribute band recently and the lyrics did resonate: Listen all you people, come gather round I gotta get me a game plan, gotta shake you to the ground Just give me what I know is mine, People do you hear me, just give me the sign, It ain't much I'm asking, if you want the truth Here's to the future for the dreams of youth,OK stretching it a bit, and sadly the song was inspired by Anita Dobson, but there are some who do want it all - training ground, stadium, players, Santa's grotto.... Agreed, we are once again kept in the dark about the overall strategy, financing... In the short term we excused it, I did not reveal all my details to people when buying my house, but we are so far down the line now without concrete (get it?) info that doubts are creeping in particularly after the recent shenanigans of the hapless NH - still sore with us. Me? Probably foolishly and blindly, but after a close brush with administration or worse, I am still pro al Qs.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2017 10:00:56 GMT
No, we don't 'want it all', we just want to be told what actually happened to UWE and where we really are with the training ground, or to be given a sensible reason for withholding information. Not having complete tosh spouted at us by Hamer would be a bonus. Being told that Swiss has got it all wrong and the owners talking him through the accounts so that he can report back and confirm that they haven't pocketed £600,000 would be spiffing also. Is that 'wanting it all'? Looks to me like the sort of stuff that the owners of any football club would expect supporters to be asking. A little tongue in cheek maybe, but I saw a great Queen tribute band recently and the lyrics did resonate: Listen all you people, come gather round I gotta get me a game plan, gotta shake you to the ground Just give me what I know is mine, People do you hear me, just give me the sign, It ain't much I'm asking, if you want the truth Here's to the future for the dreams of youth,OK stretching it a bit, and sadly the song was inspired by Anita Dobson, but there are some who do want it all - training ground, stadium, players, Santa's grotto.... Agreed, we are once again kept in the dark about the overall strategy, financing... In the short term we excused it, I did not reveal all my details to people when buying my house, but we are so far down the line now without concrete (get it?) info that doubts are creeping in particularly after the recent shenanigans of the hapless NH - still sore with us. Me? Probably foolishly and blindly, but after a close brush with administration or worse, I am still pro al Qs. Just a couple of things. This isn't quite like buying your house, but if it were, we are the people who would be supplying the funds to make the payments, so aren't we entitled to at least be told first hand when the thing falls apart rather than have it leaked on social media by a 3rd party? Maybe if he had his time again Wael wouldn't line up all those experts, that did kind of suggest that the stadium was happening. Anyway, why do you think administration was even a possibility, in round terms, Wonga were owed £3m, the stadium was worth in excess of £10m, it's reasonable to assume that Higgs has more than £3m in the bank, so why would he lose control of a £10m+ asset for the sake of a £3m debt, and at the same time cripple the team with a 10 point deduction?
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Post by Henbury Gas on Nov 3, 2017 11:09:57 GMT
We want it all and we want it now No, we don't 'want it all', we just want to be told what actually happened to UWE and where we really are with the training ground, or to be given a sensible reason for withholding information. Not having complete tosh spouted at us by Hamer would be a bonus. Being told that Swiss has got it all wrong and the owners talking him through the accounts so that he can report back and confirm that they haven't pocketed £600,000 would be spiffing also. Is that 'wanting it all'? Looks to me like the sort of stuff that the owners of any football club would expect supporters to be asking. Simply Question Bamber, Why ? What good would it do and will people believe what is said ?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2017 11:31:20 GMT
No, we don't 'want it all', we just want to be told what actually happened to UWE and where we really are with the training ground, or to be given a sensible reason for withholding information. Not having complete tosh spouted at us by Hamer would be a bonus. Being told that Swiss has got it all wrong and the owners talking him through the accounts so that he can report back and confirm that they haven't pocketed £600,000 would be spiffing also. Is that 'wanting it all'? Looks to me like the sort of stuff that the owners of any football club would expect supporters to be asking. Simply Question Bamber, Why ? What good would it do and will people believe what is said ? I can't begin to guess who would believe what, there are plenty of people around who hold what appear to me to be rather odd beliefs, but the reason that the owners of football clubs should talk candidly to supporters is that we are their customers. Do you mislead your customers?
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Post by Henbury Gas on Nov 3, 2017 11:44:41 GMT
Simply Question Bamber, Why ? What good would it do and will people believe what is said ? I can't begin to guess who would believe what, there are plenty of people around who hold what appear to me to be rather odd beliefs, but the reason that the owners of football clubs should talk candidly to supporters is that we are their customers. Do you mislead your customers? My Customers do not get involved in the day to day management of my shops
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2017 12:07:51 GMT
I can't begin to guess who would believe what, there are plenty of people around who hold what appear to me to be rather odd beliefs, but the reason that the owners of football clubs should talk candidly to supporters is that we are their customers. Do you mislead your customers? My Customers do not get involved in the day to day management of my shops Do we really have to carry on with this? It'll get batted back and forth, you'll refuse to accept that this isn't a typical customer / supplier relationship, I'll remind you that FC owners beg supporters to turn up and hand over their dosh and say things like 'without you there is no club' (didn't Wael say that it was seeing the support at Wembley that convinced him to get involved) then you'll try to change the subject. Edit. BTW, we've paid over a million quid for the right to be involved in the running of this club.
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