For those of you who were unable to attend last week's Q+A with Richard Murray and David White, here are some notes which I was able to take during the meeting.
Please recognise that these are a personal interpretation of what was said and that they are not meant to represent an official or complete record.
Hope they prove useful.
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Comments
"Richard’s business principles and, after a few explanatory sentences, he told me, with a clear smile on his face, that “we do not go chasing”. Personally I found this quite illuminating from a business strategy perspective, but others may have a different view."
You are likely to sell for more I guess if you are approached than if you do the approaching. Gold and Sullivan know well enough that Charlton is up for sale, if they are interested then let them make the first move, giving a buyer the impression that you are desperate is not a good stratey.
Dave,
As you've given a personal view, I will give mine as a senior member of staff and which I know is widely shared by senior colleagues. The implication of that statement is that Steve Waggott is working hard and Steve Kavanagh less so. In reality, Steve Kavanagh is running the business and Steve Waggott's involvement in it is marginal and peripheral. He may very well be doing a great job on the football side - we wouldn't know. But if there is workload for one and a half people, rest assured Kavanagh is shouldering the majority of it - and that comes from the people who are involved every day of the week.
Rick
Firstly Dave's notes did not say or IMHO imply that either Steve was doing more work than the other.
Secondly it was only a few months ago that you said on here that as a managing director Steve Kavanagh made a good finance director.
Whether any of what you say is true or not I don't know.
What I can say is that using this forum in this way is, IMHO, incredibly unprofessional for a senior member of club staff.
Excellent.......apart from the Dowie issues..
I suppose it depends on what you think matters most, Ben. I think it would be professional for the club to run a proper recruitment process for the post of chief executive. I think it would be professional for the board to set goals for the chief executive and measure his performance against them. I think it would be professional for the club to have a coherent internal management structure. I think it would be professional for the board to listen and act on constructive criticism made by senior staff in private. I think it would be professional for the club to hold staff consultation meetings outside of the redundancy process, having promised vehemently against considerable scepticism that this would be the case.
Have any of these things happened, do you know?
I defer to your view, coming as it does from someone more involved and more aware than I am of the situations within the Club. The personal comment I made in my notes is simply an observation based on the direct interactions I have with Steve Waggott. To me, he seems to work an enormous number of hours, always seems receptive and has been helpful to the Fans' Forum (and, hence, to fans) on several fronts. Interestingly, I would say the same about Steve Kavanagh, with the proviso that I deal with him less often. I respect your view about the relative distribution of workload as I have no way of commenting on that.
As far as using this board to express your views as an individual rather than as a Club employee, that's your call. If it provides a way to bring to the surface what may be a very important topic in terms of the Club hierarchy, then I salute you for making the rest of us aware. Others may question the wisdom of doing so, of course, and I choose not to add to that debate.
Rick, I'm not sure Ben is necessarily disagreeing with any of your points or qualms, but the fact that you air them on here. If you believed that airing them on here would help them be resolved (by drawing attention to the matters thus putting pressure on the board or the senior figures involved, for example) then perhaps you (and others) could justify raising them here. So to respond properly to Ben's point I think you need to convince him that airing them on here is likely to help or improve things. Are you able to?
I'm not suggesting that you can or you can't, just saying what I see. Personally, I think you're admirably brave for commenting as you do on this forum, but I'm not sure whether it is right or not. Depends what your reasons are for doing so.
Thanks Dave
Interesting that Richard Murray thinks our decline started in the Currbishley era.
Depressing that he thinks the pemiership is out of reach and there does not seem to be a viable business model for clubs below that level.
Where is it all leading to?
Interesting that Richard Murray thinks our decline started in the Currbishley era.
Depressing that he thinks the pemiership is out of reach and there does not seem to be a viable business model for clubs below that level.
Where is it all leading to?[/quote]
I got the impression that he was saying out of our reach without new funding / investment
Yes, that was my interpretation too.
I think a note of realism from Muzzer rather than despondency. We know that to get to the prem and stay there takes big money and a big squad and therefore we need fresh investment. And he's right that below prem level the business model is not viable unless you happen to have several good young kids coming through that you can train up and sell on.