Paul Barber on communication, transparency, finances, the fans and club staff

[Publius Ovidius]

I guess I am, or at least was, in that camp, I agree with your point. Now I tend to arrive, watch the match and leave, occasionally a pint pre match. I don't often do matchday 'experience' stuff (anywhere) any more, before or the after. The car parking seems to work well enough now so there is no real need to hang about, or arrive early.

The staff are worse than ever IMO, when that changes, the club will see an increase in revenue, I'm sure that will include more from me.

This is definitely a THIS.

I have never suggested people boycott buying anything from the club, I have just chosen not to as in my case there is better food and drink available elsewhere...but I am also not one who goes to footy to eat and drink. I go to watch football and carry on the tradition of the late great Tony ( Woodingdean seagull) of singing.." Middles boro subs you must be shit..." Insert the name of any visiting team here!


I miss tony terribly!

 

[Eeyore]

Jimmy Hill fought to abolish the maximum wage because club owners took the piss out of players.

He'd probably fight just as hard now, if he were able, to implement a minimum wage because players now take the piss out of club owners.

As with everything in life there's probably a happy medium - and football hasn't found it yet.

I agree, although I think there was a time. I doubt it will be back.

 

[Barham's tash]

He seems to be reinforcing the notion of ''dont listen to the twats on NSC when its comes to how the club should be run''.

Agreed.

Whilst I partially agree with you would you not be bored in a world without conjecture or speculation?

 

[clippedgull]

So yes, it looks very much as though it probably is doable if you find the right player and fit him into the right system.

I'm happy to give Baldock a chance, far too early to write the bloke off.

Of course I wasn't referring to Baldock specifically as you can see from my post. You give a lot of 'examples' but how many of them have taken their clubs to the Premiership because that is what we (currently) and those clubs are relying on. Yes, you might get lucky.

 

[Eeyore]

In my earlier days it was too. But then again in my earlier days players had Daily Mail reading wives named Debbie and Nicola, drove Fords and ate steak with lager and lime for their pre and post match meals. Now you've got League One players with WAGS, Sports Cars and expensive body art.

If the players and their agents weren't such greedy c u next Tuesdays we wouldn't need a match day experience OR responses like this from PB. They are so we do. I blame Jimmy Hill, Sky and Bosman in that order.

As another entry suggested, Jimmy would have been quite appalled by what he sees today. I would say that your suggestions were more a by-product of football club's willingness to go down this route. If no Chairman had been willing to pay wages the club couldn't afford then we wouldn't see the things you describe. I would say the blame is more attached to sound business models.

 

[Bladders]

Whilst I partially agree with you would you not be bored in a world without conjecture or speculation?

Yes I would, though less bored without the twats

Most post their obserd ramblings seconds after it enters their tiny brains.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Great that he took the time to reply.

I just hope he fully realises the nature of fooball forums/NSC, in that it gives a voice to all sorts of people. NSC has a real mish-mash of contributors, it must be as diverse on here as any forum on the web. With that in mind there is a tendancy for people to go OTT about any subject you can think of, opinions seem to get amplified somewhat!

 

[edna krabappel]

Of course I wasn't referring to Baldock specifically as you can see from my post. You give a lot of 'examples' but how many of them have taken their clubs to the Premiership because that is what we (currently) and those clubs are relying on. Yes, you might get lucky.

Alright then.

Glenn Murray left a (then) League One club and scored the goals to get a team of fairly unimpressive journeymen into the Premier League. Danny Ings is there now. Charlie Austin was with League One Swindon, signed for Burney and scored a bundle, and then moved to QPR where he got promoted to the PL. Dwight Gayle is now in the PL, alright, he didn't do a lot last season barring a couple of games, but he's still there.

This is intended as a genuine question: where do you think a club in our position- without the luxury of parachute payments- is going to find guaranteed goalscorers, if not from League One? Existing Premier League strikers are on hugely inflated contracts. I bet even the ordinary/mediocre ones like Jon Walters, Frazier Campbell, David Nugent, Sone Aluko, Nikica Jelavic, Carlton Cole, Darren Bent and so on, they're all on upwards of £30k per week. Abroad maybe? Fair enough: we struck gold with Ulloa, and others like Spanish Dave, Vicente etc were successful to varying degrees. But it's well known that, as a rule, it takes far longer for someone who comes in from abroad, doesn't speak the language to settle in and feel at home than someone who already lives here. Clubs are much better at catering for the needs of their foreign players now than they used to be, but it's still a tough one for a 24 year old guy with a young family to deal with. So if we're not going for higher level players, or gambles from abroad, and we won't be able to afford to sign (or be attractive enough to) someone like Jordan Rhodes, what else does that leave us with if not guys from the lower leagues with promise and ambition?

EVERY move is about getting lucky, if you really think about it. Even if you spend £10 million on somebody, you're still taking a risk on him succeeding.

 

[clippedgull]

Alright then.

Glenn Murray left a (then) League One club and scored the goals to get a team of fairly unimpressive journeymen into the Premier League. Danny Ings is there now. Charlie Austin was with League One Swindon, signed for Burney and scored a bundle, and then moved to QPR where he got promoted to the PL. Dwight Gayle is now in the PL, alright, he didn't do a lot last season barring a couple of games, but he's still there.

This is intended as a genuine question: where do you think a club in our position- without the luxury of parachute payments- is going to find guaranteed goalscorers, if not from League One? Existing Premier League strikers are on hugely inflated contracts. I bet even the ordinary/mediocre ones like Jon Walters, Frazier Campbell, David Nugent, Sone Aluko, Nikica Jelavic, Carlton Cole, Darren Bent and so on, they're all on upwards of £30k per week. Abroad maybe? Fair enough: we struck gold with Ulloa, and others like Spanish Dave, Vicente etc were successful to varying degrees. But it's well known that, as a rule, it takes far longer for someone who comes in from abroad, doesn't speak the language to settle in and feel at home than someone who already lives here. Clubs are much better at catering for the needs of their foreign players now than they used to be, but it's still a tough one for a 24 year old guy with a young family to deal with. So if we're not going for higher level players, or gambles from abroad, and we won't be able to afford to sign (or be attractive enough to) someone like Jordan Rhodes, what else does that leave us with if not guys from the lower leagues with promise and ambition?

EVERY move is about getting lucky, if you really think about it. Even if you spend £10 million on somebody, you're still taking a risk on him succeeding.

You speak sense. Although I still feel that we could have spent our 'budget' better.

I'm speaking as a 'frustrated' fan but I guess the players were bought with the right intentions.

Let's hope the strikers start striking!

 

[GreersElbow]

I'm so glad we've got this guy in charge of the club, he alone contradicts the CEO stereotype many have of an CEO sitting in a big chair thinking of ways to screw everyone else.

 

[edna krabappel]

You speak sense. Although I still feel that we could have spent our 'budget' better.

I'm speaking as a 'frustrated' fan but I guess the players were bought with the right intentions.

Let's hope the strikers start striking!

No worries. I wasn't taking the piss, and I entirely share your frustration about the goals. It just goes to show how limited the market out there is, once you really start to pay attention to what's available. It's even more frustrating when you see strikers signing for other clubs and scoring loads of goals, but I suppose for every one who does, there are many more who aren't doing the business. I remember a few people saying we should go after Adam Le Fondre in the summer. Cardiff paid the money for him, and I don't think he's scored a goal for them yet. It's just that the ones who aren't succeeding (unless bought for Fernando Torres prices) aren't so visible, whereas an Assombalonga coming in and hitting the net from the start makes everyone look up and pay attention

 

[Monsieur Le Plonk]

Spot on Edna.

I desperately hope we continue down the continental route. The educated gamble with Spanish Rod didn't work and the jury is still out with Colunga, but you only need the odd Ulloa to rock up every so often and all those easyjet flights by the scouting team must make more economical sense than going down the League One top goalscorer route.

 

[rippleman]

The unanswered questionS.....

If we have the largest number of supporters (STs / attendances) paying the highest prices in the league, and a significant transfer surplus...

............How are we making losses of ~£1m per month?

It will be interesting to compare the results of other clubs, with fewer fans and lower prices. Because if they are making profits / smaller losses then surely something is going wrong!

 

[Giraffe]

Am I alone in being pleased that we are encouraging English players a little more? Certainly glad that the likes of JFC, Ince, Dunk are being played over and above any unknown foreign player. With March to come back we have a crop of English players developing and it would be a shame if their growth was stunted by signing new foreign players even if they are cheap.

 

[Dick Head]

He does like brackets.

 

[Tory Boy]

I think Paul comes across as a genuine and honest fella.

Mrs TB has yearly dealings with him and the other Paul, and they both have the club and its fans at the centre of all they do.

We as a club are very lucky to have the Chairman that we do, and he has employed the right caliber of individuals to run it for him.

We really do have a good future ahead of us.

TB

 

[Giraffe]

A completely factual graph. I expect this to rise in the coming weeks as word gets round of the improving match day experience.

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

As Edna suggests there are no guarantees of success even if you do splash the cash. McCormack (£10m) and Rhodes (£8m) have both suffered lean spells and not exactly delivered Prem football to the respective Championship (!) Clubs that invested such huge sums in them.

I'm still amazed that we managed to get £8m for Ulloa, when I thought we would be lucky to get half that. It was great business by the Club and I wish him all the best in the Prem plus I'm very grateful for that money in helping to balance the books. However it's two edged sword as the downside of the Ulloa deal is that it most likely ramped up the sort of fees we will now be asked to pay in future.

Baldock isn't exactly a direct replacement for Ulloa but I do hope he will start banging in the goals. Otherwise our strikers department looks very thin - especially with CMS injured. IMO we do not (yet) have the luxury of enough points in the bank to risk depending on just COG, SB and Colunga. Unless one or two one of them hit form very soon and with the transfer window closed I can see us resorting to a loan striker coming in..........as long as its not Obika Mk. II

 

[Publius Ovidius]

A completely factual graph. I expect this to rise in the coming weeks as word gets round of the improving match day experience.

It will only rise if the results get better. We have a difficult game on satdi, my boys soon and then Rotherham who are no pushover either. If we dont win those, we could be flirting with the bottom teams!

But being positive, we could win them all and all is rosy again

 

[Giraffe]

It will only rise if the results get better.

Indeed which is sort of my point really. Match Day Experience is enhanced exponentially by three points.