After today's very surprising result, I find myself wondering if there is any chance that Duchatelet might just question his position on the club and perhaps a consider a change of tack. We know he wants out but it is also crystal clear now that he also wants to find a way out that saves him face by not taking an embarrassing financial loss even if that delays an eventual sale. Even he should be able to see that he has now passed the tipping point where he wants far more money than the club is worth and that the gap will only widen from here as things stand. He can hope for further windfalls from sell-on clauses or player sales but the chances of that closing the gap on the losses sufficiently to enable him to sell at a realistic price is also beyond a realistic tipping point. In the circumstances and the fact that we find ourselves a promotion away from the riches of the Premier League, I wonder if Duchatelet might give any serious thought to providing Bowyer with an investment to try and win his way out of his conundrum? It would go against everything he has done to date and he has already railed against the "financial graveyard" of the Championship but at some point he might consider just what the financial risk might be to win the big one?
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Bowyer has what sounds a positive phone call with Roland, puts the phone down and Roland posts the statement
A few hours later and they speak again, everything sorted!!
I mean WTF has gone through Roland's mind to even post that Statement when there is clearly nothing to trigger it
Unless of course Bowyer isnt being 100% truthful himself in these interviews
I think Bowyer was shopping off list A at the start of the window. Cheap players that he would want even if there was a take over. Some that would be good squad members what ever the final result.
List B is players he would want if there had been a take over a few weeks ago, most will have signed for other clubs.
List C players he would go for if there was no take over. I think we will see a few of these sign this week, maybe even some on small fees.
It's a fine balancing act, you can't get all your As and Cs then get in the BS.
We will see.
He wants to build houses at Sparrows lane and develop the Valley. He could do a deal tomorrow if he wanted too, just greedy. Typical capitalist, masquerading as a socialist!
As has been said, we are very fortunate to have Lee Bowyer and very unfortunate to be owned by shitarse
All this crap about keeping the operating costs low so that he makes the club more attractive to sell is also bull. He just doesn't want to part with a penny more than he has to.
Since the day he owned the club it was always about selling players to make a profit. The EFL partly screwed that idea up but the total incompetence of the people put in positions of power did more damage.
The irony is that now he won't invest he has a management team who could give him what he wants.
Invest a couple more million a year to give us a good chance of staying in the championship. Sell on a young player or two a season and he'd make a profit every year.
Roland fuck off.
With a lot of managers, you give them a decent budget and they spunk it away. Bowyer is in the top 5% IMO.
Its a stupid or reckless owner.
Murray did his bollocks on a £800,000 striker (about 2 million in today's money). How much would Mendonca go for now? 10, 15 million or more? BTW Sunderland paid less for Kevin Phillips!
I get where RD is coming from but at the same time you can't play 9 card brag with 7 cards and he knew the rules.
Look at Sunderland - they have a bang average manager and spent the most in League One last season. My point, is spend much less and have a decent manager and you do better. But there are not that many managers like Bowyer in the game. And I don't think Duchatelet gets that. Maybe Dreisen hasn't told him.
No.
And thrice NO.
Which is unachievable without financial backing, he’s really a bit clueless.
Then at Christmas, extend Bowyer's contract. You listen to Driesen, and you thought you had a great plan, but football success is bought either by spending lots of money or finding a special manager. We all know, including yourself that Bowyer has been a stroke of luck, but I really think you should try to understand how good a manager Bowyer is. There are very few as good and you should build a strategy around that. Charlton did that when we stumbled, again through luck, on a man named Curbishley. He was backed, but not recklessly so. He just knew what he had to do to take the team forwards. Bowyer is a different manager but ultimately the same.
All managers know football inside out, they know tactics, but very few. And I mean very few, have that little bit extra. Bowyers is one of those and these people can take you beyond your level based on what you spend. What do you need to do? Meet him and talk about what he needs to have a go - he will have those players lined up already and be trying to get them, and ask him what he needs to make them happen. It won't be that much and you will reap the rewards. Work with him and let the fans know you have done so. Then just focus on your other interests and let him do his stuff.
If only Duchatelet wasn't so stupid when it comes to football. He will never see the gift horse he has, because it wasn't what his plan was when he came into football.
I honestly think we are stuck with him until he croaks it.