Did I here her say that we had scouts working here in the uk? They must be the shittest scouts in the world, who new have they found? The scouts that are working harder are the Belgian, Hungarian, Portuguese, Romanian, Polish, etc.
Fans Forum? There's more Club representatives than there is others, even with the apologies there would be a similar amount. Needed some tissue paper handed out to clean up the sheer amount of brown noses I can see.
I'd of lasted a good 15minutes in that room before a few people would have nice warm cups of tea over their selves.
46th minute, KM bullying a fans question. Sad sad lady Katrien is. Also laughing pretty much into her face when she didn't agree. Saw it first hand at VIP but to do it within spitting distance of someone, despicable actions. Have some respect lady.
Did I here her say that we had scouts working here in the uk? They must be the shittest scouts in the world, who new have they found? The scouts that are working harder are the Belgian, Hungarian, Portuguese, Romanian, Polish, etc.
Accepting that it's partly a function of the FF members sending apologies, there is a pretty absurd ratio of staff to fans at that meeting. I make it 11 staff and 7 fans at first count (not counting the person recording the video).
What's your point here? That it should have been cancelled or the absentees made more of an effort? Really not clear what you would consider might have happened differently. We'd have moaned more if the meeting were cancelled.
I am worried we are picking holes for the sake of it.
Constructive criticism is needed . Surely what is very positive is that the meeting was videoed and released very quickly and that ( to me) the agenda was allowed to air the issues of the day and that answers (whether we like them or not) were given.
I'd agree that the filming & viewing were a positive. It's the attitude of Meire and the disingenuous replies that were out of order.
Was it disingenuous though? I say that because there was no real news as no new things came to light. All I heard / saw was the right of reply on some of the things that have been discussed on here and elsewhere.
They defended the realtively minor issue on where ticket office staff are located, Stated the Jimmy Seed stand is at this stage a preliminary investigation and that no staff reductions are planned.
I know I am in a minority but do have some sympathy on the defence of the Dublin interview having taken the time to watch it; you can hear what you want to hear I feel.
I'd rather look to the positive that they concede communication is poor and want go get better.
When the meeting concludes on the merits of a Saturday or Sunday social event with 'our' side admitting to non participation on the basis don't want to consider a change it shows how both sides can become frustrated with entrenched views regardless of the spirit of the meeting.
Critical we (as fans) and they know player recruitment and the managerial farce is the root cause and they effectively admitted that. They commented on it but this forum was never going to get into more detail than it did but a least allowed those attending to express their opinions.
I have a limited degree of sympathy with regard to Dublin. I do accept that she didn't explicitly describe fans as customers, but I have to say that she did distance herself from what she described as the fans' view they weren't customers and by introducing the cinema/restaurant comparison at best offered a straw man argument.
I actually do think it was unintentional but a mistake borne of an entrenched defensive position.
The fact that she said this in the 1st place and her surprise and description by how passionate football fans are...
Shows that she knew nothing about football prior to being CEO of a club too big for her boots in England....and even after 2 years on the job, is still learning her trade.
She has a very very uneducated thought process of the game in general so it's incredibly embarrassing when she describes the experience of football fans that everyone knows and expects anyway. It's not informative.
It's like a child has just entered an adults world.
The problem is her having the job in the 1st place. Just downright degrading to the club. It's in-defensible.
I'm sure we have all watched the Dublin Debacle. To suggest we didn't understand what she was saying is insulting. We know exactly what KM was saying. We saw and heard it. She is a fool and she should go.
It would be interesting if a poll was run specifically on fans feeling towards KM and for this to be delivered to her at the next forum. She needs to see that she, specifically, is a huge reason for the level of discontent. The way she communicates (and I appreciate English is not her native language) is simply appalling. Her body language is awful as is her tone of voice. If I behaved like that in front of my customers at work, I doubt I'd ever see them again. Fair play to @rikofold for speaking up on behalf of the lady to his right but I would like to have seen someone challenge KM on her behaviour at the event itself.
Why oh why oh why do they keep quoting the amount of money they have spent like it's a feather in their cap? Someone really needs to point it out to them. If you've spent £25m on being second bottom of the Championship, just ahead of a team who can't afford to pay their staff, then you have failed harder than a board who invested nothing
Karl Oyston must be laughing his arse off at these clowns wondering why they keep chucking millions of pounds at disasters like Sarr and Johnson when you can just have Nile Ranger on £50 a week and end up with the same result.
A big problem that the fans have, is that Rikofold is a bit of a lone voice, in terms of being able to speak to the club, in an intelligent, clear and informed manner. As fans we would almost be better off, if he had taken them on singlehanded, but of course he cannot as he is too polite.
If we had a few Grapevine's & AFKA's on the the forum to support him, we may get somewhere, but of course the club would never allow that, or would they if they are genuine in wanting to communicate better ?
Communication includes LISTENING to fans, who are articulate enough to discuss the fans concerns and regretfully Rikofold needs some support.
This is not meant to offend the other supporters who did admirably under the circumstances, but unquestionably are not necessarily the BEST people to debate with the club, in the same way that I would not be the most suitable either. I hope this is understood in the spirit it is offered.
A big problem that the fans have, is that Rikofold is a bit of a lone voice, in terms of being able to speak to the club, in an intelligent, clear and informed manner. As fans we would almost be better off, if he had taken them on singlehanded, but of course he cannot as he is too polite.
If we had a few Grapevine's & AFKA's on the the forum to support him, we may get somewhere, but of course the club would never allow that, or would they if they are genuine in wanting to communicate better ?
Communication includes LISTENING to fans, who are articulate enough to discuss the fans concerns and regretfully Rikofold needs some support.
This is not meant to offend the other supporters who did admirably under the circumstances, but unquestionably are not necessarily the BEST people to debate with the club, in the same way that I would not be the most suitable either. I hope this is understood in the spirit it is offered.
A big problem that the fans have, is that Rikofold is a bit of a lone voice, in terms of being able to speak to the club, in an intelligent, clear and informed manner. As fans we would almost be better off, if he had taken them on singlehanded, but of course he cannot as he is too polite.
If we had a few Grapevine's & AFKA's on the the forum to support him, we may get somewhere, but of course the club would never allow that, or would they if they are genuine in wanting to communicate better ?
Communication includes LISTENING to fans, who are articulate enough to discuss the fans concerns and regretfully Rikofold needs some support.
This is not meant to offend the other supporters who did admirably under the circumstances, but unquestionably are not necessarily the BEST people to debate with the club, in the same way that I would not be the most suitable either. I hope this is understood in the spirit it is offered.
A couple of "Brick Top's wouldn't go amiss on the forum as well.
I too am so frustrated at the way they keep banging on about how much they have spent, if they are worried about this why the hell did he buy us in the first place? Its not as if its a secret that owning football clubs is an expensive business, do they think we don't know? I will say again that in the grand scheme of things what he is spending, relative to his overall wealth, is probably not that much different percentage wise to what we as fans spend each year, and we have no hope whatsoever of recouping any of our hard earned cash. All we expect in return is a well run football club that can at least compete in the championship, as it stands we are getting no return on our 'investment'.
I too am so frustrated at the way they keep banging on about how much they have spent, if they are worried about this why the hell did he buy us in the first place? Its not as if its a secret that owning football clubs is an expensive business, do they think we don't know? I will say again that in the grand scheme of things what he is spending, relative to his overall wealth, is probably not that much different percentage wise to what we as fans spend each year, and we have no hope whatsoever of recouping any of our hard earned cash. All we expect in return is a well run football club that can at least compete in the championship, as it stands we are getting no return on our 'investment'.
Totally this. It's now pretty clear that Duchatelet bought the club with the target of making money, not losing it. And I think that was fundamentally wrong. Not saying we should overspend like Bolton but his 'vision' is equally scary. And he doesn't see anything wrong with it, which is even more scary. He simply should never have entered the football business in the first place.
I've got through pretty much all of it now and one thing that stands out is the fact that Katrien doesn't actually give a straight answer to a single question. Some of the fans in attendance gave an absolutely superb representation of themselves and us but one thing that needs to change in future is I think people need to more aggressively press her for an actual answer to their question rather than let her semi-related answer stand on its own. It's no doubt difficult in that environment, especially with others there trying to shift the agenda on but there were a few occasions where she got away with it. Katrien completed avoided answering the question about managers, just talking solely about how Riga is in charge now, and when she was asked if she'd interviewed British managers there was a pause where even she seemed to be expecting people to go after her and ask her how, if she had interviewed British managers, the likes of Luzon and Fraeye still ended up in charge. But I accept that it's difficult to pin a snake's arms down and that environment is very tough to keep on one issue. People can be proud of the effort they put in to trying to get answers
Did I here her say that we had scouts working here in the uk? They must be the shittest scouts in the world, who new have they found? The scouts that are working harder are the Belgian, Hungarian, Portuguese, Romanian, Polish, etc.
I assumed that she meant Boy scouts, cubs and beavers because there is no evidence of decent scouting for players! (No offence to that great organisation.) This is one of my real concerns: she spouts about the money spent on players and wages but surely Roland should be asking why the players bought are nearly all so poor or not suitable for the Championship! It is a waste of money and a drain on resources, as I guess we are still topping up Polish Pete's wages and others? She is so ignorant that it is embarrassing. But, hey, Mandy thinks she is the best boss ever!
Tony the Pony - wow where did they find this guy? He can barely string a sentence together. I can't imagine him organising his own shoelaces, let alone the redevelopment of a football stadium.
I don't think I can sit through all of this. She's such a smug, patronising b##ch. Her little laugh before each answer as if it is just an absurd question is incredibly infuriating.
Her answer to the lady that asked about the scouting is just so patronising. Not sure how @rikofold et al manage to hold their tongues when listening to her.
I don't think I can sit through all of this. She's such a smug, patronising b##ch. Her little laugh before each answer as if it is just an absurd question is incredibly infuriating.
She really needs to see someone about that laugh! It may be a tactic used in a court of law when you are trying to belittle or undermine a witness but not in a meeting to 'listen' and communicate with fans! Most judges would reprimand her.
Comments
Why don't they f*** off to Switzerland!
I'd of lasted a good 15minutes in that room before a few people would have nice warm cups of tea over their selves.
Respect RD ? They've never even seen the fruitcase.
Well, that's what they said....
Shows that she knew nothing about football prior to being CEO of a club too big for her boots in England....and even after 2 years on the job, is still learning her trade.
She has a very very uneducated thought process of the game in general so it's incredibly embarrassing when she describes the experience of football fans that everyone knows and expects anyway. It's not informative.
It's like a child has just entered an adults world.
The problem is her having the job in the 1st place. Just downright degrading to the club. It's in-defensible.
Karl Oyston must be laughing his arse off at these clowns wondering why they keep chucking millions of pounds at disasters like Sarr and Johnson when you can just have Nile Ranger on £50 a week and end up with the same result.
If we had a few Grapevine's & AFKA's on the the forum to support him, we may get somewhere, but of course the club would never allow that, or would they if they are genuine in wanting to communicate better ?
Communication includes LISTENING to fans, who are articulate enough to discuss the fans concerns and regretfully Rikofold needs some support.
This is not meant to offend the other supporters who did admirably under the circumstances, but unquestionably are not necessarily the BEST people to debate with the club, in the same way that I would not be the most suitable either. I hope this is understood in the spirit it is offered.
The only scouts we have in the UK is giving Peeters a bit of temporary work, bob-a-job week.
I will say again that in the grand scheme of things what he is spending, relative to his overall wealth, is probably not that much different percentage wise to what we as fans spend each year, and we have no hope whatsoever of recouping any of our hard earned cash. All we expect in return is a well run football club that can at least compete in the championship, as it stands we are getting no return on our 'investment'.
But, hey, Mandy thinks she is the best boss ever!
Her answer to the lady that asked about the scouting is just so patronising. Not sure how @rikofold et al manage to hold their tongues when listening to her.