Fans Forum part deux - Mon 4 March 2019

No.1 in South London

LargeAddick said:

What what a crock of shit. We are fucked. 

This x 100

ShootersHillGuru

I said it last week. We are in big big trouble. I think this season is the best and possibly only chance we will get at promotion for quite some time. The squad next season will be mid table league one at best. 

Redrobo

Good news on Bows and JJ contracts. SG comes across as very impressive.

Just sounds as if we are not to be sold anytime soon.

JamesSeed

"He said RD is not willing to decrease the asking price."

This is what we thought. GM's strict adherence to this NDA meant he wouldn't confirm it.
Roland must think he's got them by the short 'n curlies, in that they've spend so much on lawyers just to get to this impasse (£2m?). He's asuming they'll end up paying what he wants, but they all have other business interests, so can probably sit it out, even if other bidders come along.
It's a bloody farce. 
And the idea that Driesen is still around makes me feel sick. 
The 'pot to piss in' line is also dead. It's one person's fault, and he isn't going anywhere soon.

AFKABartram

ShootersHillGuru said:

I said it last week. We are in big big trouble. I think this season is the best and possibly only chance we will get at promotion for quite some time. The squad next season will be mid table league one at best. 

I don’t think we are in big trouble, which is actually worse. We will keep dripping along, slowly but surely shrinking, losing another generation. We’ll be funded enough to ‘compete’, but never well run or progressive enough to move forward and by the time it gets really serious the vast majority of the heart and passion for the club would have faded, if not gone completely to most.

i agree with you on this season.

MountsfieldPark

Presumably a big part of TD's ongoing role is to identify players to sell off to help balance the books, then?

Nug

AFKABartram said:

ShootersHillGuru said:

I said it last week. We are in big big trouble. I think this season is the best and possibly only chance we will get at promotion for quite some time. The squad next season will be mid table league one at best. 

I don’t think we are in big trouble, which is actually worse. We will keep dripping along, slowly but surely shrinking, losing another generation. We’ll be funded enough to ‘compete’, but never well run or progressive enough to move forward and by the time it gets really serious the vast majority of the heart and passion for the club would have faded, if not gone completely to most.

i agree with you on this season.

Christ that's depressing....but correct

The Red Robin

Henry Irving said:

Rudders22 said:

So we had a fans forum mon night.Now tues afternoon.  What are trying to cover up??

Nothing but agree there could have something said.

Spoke to the Bromley Addicks rep who said very little said about takeover and certainly nothing new. LdT loyally trotting out the RD party line about the EFL to universal disagreement and derision from FF reps.

Lots on the transfer window from our defacto director of football Steve Gallen.

Too much for me to summarize but hope it will be in the minutes and soon.

What's with the beef between Razil and Henry? 

JamesSeed

The Red Robin said:

Henry Irving said:

Rudders22 said:

So we had a fans forum mon night.Now tues afternoon.  What are trying to cover up??

Nothing but agree there could have something said.

Spoke to the Bromley Addicks rep who said very little said about takeover and certainly nothing new. LdT loyally trotting out the RD party line about the EFL to universal disagreement and derision from FF reps.

Lots on the transfer window from our defacto director of football Steve Gallen.

Too much for me to summarize but hope it will be in the minutes and soon.

What's with the beef between Razil and Henry? 

What's that got to do with the price of cabbage?

ShootersHillGuru

AFKABartram said:

ShootersHillGuru said:

I said it last week. We are in big big trouble. I think this season is the best and possibly only chance we will get at promotion for quite some time. The squad next season will be mid table league one at best. 

I don’t think we are in big trouble, which is actually worse. We will keep dripping along, slowly but surely shrinking, losing another generation. We’ll be funded enough to ‘compete’, but never well run or progressive enough to move forward and by the time it gets really serious the vast majority of the heart and passion for the club would have faded, if not gone completely to most.

i agree with you on this season.

That sounds exactly like big big trouble to me.

stonemuse

Just amazingly ridiculous that Driesen is still involved. 

Rudders22

This lunatic needs to sell. 

Lewis Coaches

Still no minutes up,why do people keep the fans sitting in the dark so long.

What has the club got to hide.

roseandcrown

Time to target Thomas as well

golfaddick

AFKABartram said:

ShootersHillGuru said:

I said it last week. We are in big big trouble. I think this season is the best and possibly only chance we will get at promotion for quite some time. The squad next season will be mid table league one at best. 

I don’t think we are in big trouble, which is actually worse. We will keep dripping along, slowly but surely shrinking, losing another generation. We’ll be funded enough to ‘compete’, but never well run or progressive enough to move forward and by the time it gets really serious the vast majority of the heart and passion for the club would have faded, if not gone completely to most.

i agree with you on this season.

Sadly I also agree. We can't keep producing "nuggets" from the academy to either fill the gaps when RD doesn't want yo spend any money or to sell for a few million to fund the losses every year.  We will be like Leyton Orient who got progressively weaker & weaker over a 10 year period & now find themselves on non-league. The 2020's are going to be very tough until RD goes.

LargeAddick

Redrobo said:

Good news on Bows and JJ contracts. SG comes across as very impressive.

Just sounds as if we are not to be sold anytime soon.

I don’t read that as good news. Until they have signed new deals everything is still up in the air.

LargeAddick

Lewis Coaches said:

Still no minutes up,why do people keep the fans sitting in the dark so long.

What has the club got to hide.

The minutes are up, on the official site.

Six-a-bag-of-nuts

stonemuse said:

Just amazingly ridiculous that Driesen is still involved. 

Indeed.

Apropos of nothing, has anyone seen that film where somebody gets their face rearranged with a cricket bat?

To_Be_Franck

stoneroses19 said:

The mention of Driesen again is more than a kick in the teeth.

Naively thought he was long gone.

Someone with the experience and knowledge of Gallen really shouldn’t be having to liaise with Roland and Driesen.

Have to wonder how long Gallen will put up with it and look for a better run club to take him on. Wouldn’t blame him one bit, yet would be one more superb person we lose.  

Perhaps, in fact, Gallen is average and TD has just made him appear good.... 

CafcSCP

So who’s who were the players he named last night then I wonder 

rikofold

AFKABartram said:

ShootersHillGuru said:

I said it last week. We are in big big trouble. I think this season is the best and possibly only chance we will get at promotion for quite some time. The squad next season will be mid table league one at best. 

I don’t think we are in big trouble, which is actually worse. We will keep dripping along, slowly but surely shrinking, losing another generation. We’ll be funded enough to ‘compete’, but never well run or progressive enough to move forward and by the time it gets really serious the vast majority of the heart and passion for the club would have faded, if not gone completely to most.

i agree with you on this season.

Which is surely reason to support groups like CARD, ROT, WAR, so that we don't just accept a slow death because "it's the owners cloob and the fans must accept it."

I guess it just raises an eyebrow that you say this whilst at the same time saying the things you have on the CARD statement thread. They don't seem at all consistent if you want to avoid the awful scenario you describe. 

Sage

CafcSCP said:

So who’s who were the players he named last night then I wonder 

Out of the £27k p/w of the three players combined, it can only be Vetokele, Sarr, and Bauer.

Out of the ones who are out of contract and won’t be offered a new deal, Marshall, Vetokele, possibly even Reeves going wouldn’t surpriss me unfortunately.

Obvious ones they want to keep are Aribo and Forster-Caskey. Players like Bauer, Fosu, and Williams could be dependent on what league we are in.

That’s just off the top of my head. 

razil

I think the point about high wage players leaving is that it made it hard to set sensible levels for new contracts thus a forever inflating the wage bill bonkers for League 1. Therefore we must assume it’s any players in Championship wages. Sarr is aninteresting one, but agree re Vetokele, and sadly Bauer too.

msomerton

But what can CARD, ROT,WAR do to make the owner sell if as we no he is stubborn and has no business acumen when it comes to football. He is already putting £6-£7 million pounds in to the club every season and that is not making him sell quick at any price. If every home fan boycotts, then that would increase the loss by about £1 million extra, I doubt that is going to worry him. If as many say or feel he is mad then that will make it doubly so.
I fear it can only be a slow death for the club.

Henry Irving

Ajose

rikofold

DessieValley

He is stubborn to a point but has limits. The protests have affected him, particularly in Belgium. The grafitti episode is an unknown as we don't know who was responsible, but has also affected him to the point of nonsense statements and radio interviews.

We thought he would never put the club up for sale, but the protests made him realise we are too much trouble for him and up for sale we went.

He has set a price but I think any more (lawful) activity in his own backyard could see that soften. There comes a point when we are more trouble than we are worth to him.

He has been fortunate that the good work of bowyer so far has given him a relatively easy ride recently. 

rikofold

msomerton said:

But what can CARD, ROT,WAR do to make the owner sell if as we no he is stubborn and has no business acumen when it comes to football. He is already putting £6-£7 million pounds in to the club every season and that is not making him sell quick at any price. If every home fan boycotts, then that would increase the loss by about £1 million extra, I doubt that is going to worry him. If as many say or feel he is mad then that will make it doubly so.
I fear it can only be a slow death for the club.

RD himself has pointed to the protests as a reason he wants out. Timing and price has always been out of protesters' hands, but given how the graffiti prompted such an extreme response it's pretty clear that without protest a slow death is a certainty.

He's clearly trying to recoup his losses in the price but equally he can't keep putting it up and it's costing him ca. £0.5-1m a month. If the price has been £40m for over a year, then his value from a sale has reduced by the extent of the losses in that time. If it's about optimal value, then those losses have to be taken into account. And action that exacerbates that to any degree surely speeds the time before the tipping point is reached. The land value won't significantly appreciate without change of use permission. 

Redrobo

If Sarr, Vetokele, Bauer and Ajose wages are off the payroll it would make the balance sheet look a whole lot better.

I even get Rolly’s point in not signing the out of contract player.

What is wrong, is it should be Bows decisions. He is the best man to decide who stays and who goes bases on his budget.

razil

rikofold said:

msomerton said:

But what can CARD, ROT,WAR do to make the owner sell if as we no he is stubborn and has no business acumen when it comes to football. He is already putting £6-£7 million pounds in to the club every season and that is not making him sell quick at any price. If every home fan boycotts, then that would increase the loss by about £1 million extra, I doubt that is going to worry him. If as many say or feel he is mad then that will make it doubly so.
I fear it can only be a slow death for the club.

RD himself has pointed to the protests as a reason he wants out. Timing and price has always been out of protesters hands, but given how the graffiti prompted such an extreme response it's pretty clear that without protest a slow death is a certainty.

He's clearly trying to recoup his losses in the price but equally he can't keep putting it up and it's costing him £1m a month.

I personally don't think that's the real reason.

He thought he could make money through a Network approach that could exploit FFP and possibly maintain the club via the academy, the failure of both the first two has been well documented, and probably promoted the collapse of the third. The result can be seen in his outburst that the EFL should take on the club partly because in loosening FFP it moved the goal posts making losses bigger because owners could put more loans in. His mistake now is to think he can walk away without writing off his losses brought about by his own business mistakes which include buying a loss making business, that is tied to the business model is designed for.

That being said protests have their value, and he should not be given an easy ride and the idea that he could mess up and hang about forever acting as reminder.