The Takeover Thread v3.0 - DONE! - Methven interview in the Telegraph (p55)

The Red Robin said:

Return of the SE7 said:

I can't believe that he's so naive not to know the role of a CEO. From the various points he makes about himself I think he's going to perform the role in all but name. 

Reads more to me like he does understand the role of a CEO but doesn’t see the value of having one that is responsible for both the football and business side of Charlton Athletic. He’s probably not wrong there is he? Sounds like the plan is for Andy Scott to oversee all things football and Rodwell and/or Methven on commercial/business. 

cafc-4-life said:

Dazzler21 said:

PragueAddick said:

jams said:

@PragueAddick thanks very much for posting the interview - obviously have to take what CM says with a pinch of salt but it is interesting to read his approach to things set out. 

One immediate thought is that the passage around the investors reasons for getting involved - not looking for a return / flip - doesn't make any sense to me. Why bother paying as much as they have for a club with no assets if the play isn't to flip it? 

I don't want to start sounding like a CM ambassador, but I think he means something like this: The ESI gangs had no money, and their only goal was to get some, by flipping it quickly; TS had some money but not as much to spare as he belatedly realised the thing would need. I don't know if we've really established how rich Friedman and Brener are; but I think CM is implying that they are rich enough that this is a small punt for them moneywise. So their professional pride demands that sooner or later they see a profit - a big one if we return to the FAPL - but they can wait and see. Unlike Southall, NImer, et al who needed easy money, quickly. 

I hope so, anyway, but as you say, keep the salt handy...

 Thanks Prague. 

From what I can find (in a 5 minute web search), Friedman is worth something crazy like $23 Billion. That's pretty well capitalised. 

Where did you find that networth for Freidman? Link?

Karim_myBagheri said:

Return of the SE7 said:

So no overall control. Bit like steering a rudderless ship by committe.

a camel is a horse designed by committee

"Nobody ever built a statue to a committee."

Roger Stone

Dazzler21 said:

The Red Robin said:

Return of the SE7 said:

I can't believe that he's so naive not to know the role of a CEO. From the various points he makes about himself I think he's going to perform the role in all but name. 

Reads more to me like he does understand the role of a CEO but doesn’t see the value of having one that is responsible for both the football and business side of Charlton Athletic. He’s probably not wrong there is he? Sounds like the plan is for Andy Scott to oversee all things football and Rodwell and/or Methven on commercial/business. 

CEO - Manages the business side. 
Director of Football - Manages the Football side. 

At least I would hope for that. 

Scratchingvalleycat said:

shine166 said:

seth plum said:

What about making a return on everything by asset stripping (players) and then walking away?

Is it possible in business to do that?

If you have assets yes, but that's different to a flip.. also a flip is short term and not over years. Considering the amount of people supposedly involved, id have thought there are far easier ways to make money than asset stripping CAFC.

Flip is term which has grown out of Private Equity and Venture Capital investment in business If you look at the likes of Cinven (venture capital) and/or TDR Capital (private equity) they typically hold a company for a number of years before selling it on to realise a profit.
They will try to improve the operation and value of the company during their period of ownership and thus flipping does not normally happen in the first 2-3 years since they will want evidence of their work to bear fruit but still not want to own the business for the long term once its value growth has plateaued.
They will then either flip the company to another investor who will  believe that they have the ability to improve further or conduct an IPO and pass the risk and value onto the stock market. Sometimes they get it wrong and cant improve the value and no-one else wants to buy......

charente addick said:

PragueAddick said:

Ok then, Methven interview ready to go.

Inevitably the interview and the motivations behind it are already being slagged off in certain quarters in the usual style, so I'm posting as a reminder the original intro article which explains that this was all CM's own initiative, The link to the main article is at the bottom of that one. When you get to it, you'll see the  banner image is a mess, bear with us, I may need techie help with that.

I think the main benefit is an insight into how the structure will work (assuming he is still able to speak for all significant consortium members). There's more than will be possible to put into a club PR statement even if they wanted to. But there were interesting things he asked to keep off the record, and other things we had no time for, such as the future of the real estate. As you will see, he really wanted to talk about him at Sunderland which I managed to avoid until we got to the end of the designated running time, and Zoom terminated that abruptly

Looking forward to see what people make of it

Thanks Prague - interesting.

I guess my more emotional reaction is one of mild disappointment although I'm not sure what else I was expecting. Maybe it's because a lot of this has leaked already and I was hoping for something extra. Maybe I was hoping for a clearer statement of ambitious intent but, again, that is probably an unrealistic expectation. The rest of this transfer window and the next will tell us more.

My head has some concerns:

- I'm worried that there will be no one Head of Charlton - we'll have Rodwell, Scott and Warwick all having seemingly equal status but potentially different visions, missions, objectives - whatever you want to call it - with great potential for core disagreements - who pulls the whole thing together? CM paints a picture of himself as some sort of Walsingham type character whispering in the investor's ears which, again, has the potential for major disruption going forward

- Would like to know a LOT more about Global Football Partners Ltd. Is this just a CAFC vehicle or does it have a wider remit and where does CAFC fit into it?

- CM himself says that GB & JF's investments are relatively small beer for them so that would make it very easy for these individuals to walk away yet I guess we are hugely/solely reliant on them to fund short/medium term losses.

So, my jury is still out, partly driven by our painful experiences in recent years. I'm not in the Airman camp of saying it will fail but I would want to understand a lot more before I adorn my bedroom with Gabriel Brener/Josh Friedman duvets and pillows. 
 

Covered_End_Lad said:

Airman Brown said:

charente addick said:

PragueAddick said:

Ok then, Methven interview ready to go.

Inevitably the interview and the motivations behind it are already being slagged off in certain quarters in the usual style, so I'm posting as a reminder the original intro article which explains that this was all CM's own initiative, The link to the main article is at the bottom of that one. When you get to it, you'll see the  banner image is a mess, bear with us, I may need techie help with that.

I think the main benefit is an insight into how the structure will work (assuming he is still able to speak for all significant consortium members). There's more than will be possible to put into a club PR statement even if they wanted to. But there were interesting things he asked to keep off the record, and other things we had no time for, such as the future of the real estate. As you will see, he really wanted to talk about him at Sunderland which I managed to avoid until we got to the end of the designated running time, and Zoom terminated that abruptly

Looking forward to see what people make of it

Thanks Prague - interesting.

I guess my more emotional reaction is one of mild disappointment although I'm not sure what else I was expecting. Maybe it's because a lot of this has leaked already and I was hoping for something extra. Maybe I was hoping for a clearer statement of ambitious intent but, again, that is probably an unrealistic expectation. The rest of this transfer window and the next will tell us more.

My head has some concerns:

- I'm worried that there will be no one Head of Charlton - we'll have Rodwell, Scott and Warwick all having seemingly equal status but potentially different visions, missions, objectives - whatever you want to call it - with great potential for core disagreements - who pulls the whole thing together? CM paints a picture of himself as some sort of Walsingham type character whispering in the investor's ears which, again, has the potential for major disruption going forward

- Would like to know a LOT more about Global Football Partners Ltd. Is this just a CAFC vehicle or does it have a wider remit and where does CAFC fit into it?

- CM himself says that GB & JF's investments are relatively small beer for them so that would make it very easy for these individuals to walk away yet I guess we are hugely/solely reliant on them to fund short/medium term losses.

So, my jury is still out, partly driven by our painful experiences in recent years. I'm not in the Airman camp of saying it will fail but I would want to understand a lot more before I adorn my bedroom with Gabriel Brener/Josh Friedman duvets and pillows. 
 

It would be helpful to understand what people think “success” looks like.

I think for the vast majority of us success would be building a squad capable of a minimum top 6 finish this year, with the aim to get promoted next year if we don't win the play offs this season. Once promoted, steady and intelligent investment to establish us as a Championship team with an outside shot at the playoffs over the few years after that.

If we can do the above whilst attaining category one status for the academy I think that is a very successful 4-5 years of ownership without needing gamble astronomical sums.

I know it sounds easy written down and no doubt there will be big challenges along the way to achieve it, but having at the right senior management team in place and astute investment in the playing side should make it a real possibility.

Covered_End_Lad said:

Airman Brown said:

charente addick said:

PragueAddick said:

Ok then, Methven interview ready to go.

Inevitably the interview and the motivations behind it are already being slagged off in certain quarters in the usual style, so I'm posting as a reminder the original intro article which explains that this was all CM's own initiative, The link to the main article is at the bottom of that one. When you get to it, you'll see the  banner image is a mess, bear with us, I may need techie help with that.

I think the main benefit is an insight into how the structure will work (assuming he is still able to speak for all significant consortium members). There's more than will be possible to put into a club PR statement even if they wanted to. But there were interesting things he asked to keep off the record, and other things we had no time for, such as the future of the real estate. As you will see, he really wanted to talk about him at Sunderland which I managed to avoid until we got to the end of the designated running time, and Zoom terminated that abruptly

Looking forward to see what people make of it

Thanks Prague - interesting.

I guess my more emotional reaction is one of mild disappointment although I'm not sure what else I was expecting. Maybe it's because a lot of this has leaked already and I was hoping for something extra. Maybe I was hoping for a clearer statement of ambitious intent but, again, that is probably an unrealistic expectation. The rest of this transfer window and the next will tell us more.

My head has some concerns:

- I'm worried that there will be no one Head of Charlton - we'll have Rodwell, Scott and Warwick all having seemingly equal status but potentially different visions, missions, objectives - whatever you want to call it - with great potential for core disagreements - who pulls the whole thing together? CM paints a picture of himself as some sort of Walsingham type character whispering in the investor's ears which, again, has the potential for major disruption going forward

- Would like to know a LOT more about Global Football Partners Ltd. Is this just a CAFC vehicle or does it have a wider remit and where does CAFC fit into it?

- CM himself says that GB & JF's investments are relatively small beer for them so that would make it very easy for these individuals to walk away yet I guess we are hugely/solely reliant on them to fund short/medium term losses.

So, my jury is still out, partly driven by our painful experiences in recent years. I'm not in the Airman camp of saying it will fail but I would want to understand a lot more before I adorn my bedroom with Gabriel Brener/Josh Friedman duvets and pillows. 
 

It would be helpful to understand what people think “success” looks like.

I think for the vast majority of us success would be building a squad capable of a minimum top 6 finish this year, with the aim to get promoted next year if we don't win the play offs this season. Once promoted, steady and intelligent investment to establish us as a Championship team with an outside shot at the playoffs over the few years after that.

If we can do the above whilst attaining category one status for the academy I think that is a very successful 4-5 years of ownership without needing gamble astronomical sums.

I know it sounds easy written down and no doubt there will be big challenges along the way to achieve it, but having at the right senior management team in place and astute investment in the playing side should make it a real possibility.

Airman Brown said:

Covered_End_Lad said:

Airman Brown said:

charente addick said:

PragueAddick said:

Ok then, Methven interview ready to go.

Inevitably the interview and the motivations behind it are already being slagged off in certain quarters in the usual style, so I'm posting as a reminder the original intro article which explains that this was all CM's own initiative, The link to the main article is at the bottom of that one. When you get to it, you'll see the  banner image is a mess, bear with us, I may need techie help with that.

I think the main benefit is an insight into how the structure will work (assuming he is still able to speak for all significant consortium members). There's more than will be possible to put into a club PR statement even if they wanted to. But there were interesting things he asked to keep off the record, and other things we had no time for, such as the future of the real estate. As you will see, he really wanted to talk about him at Sunderland which I managed to avoid until we got to the end of the designated running time, and Zoom terminated that abruptly

Looking forward to see what people make of it

Thanks Prague - interesting.

I guess my more emotional reaction is one of mild disappointment although I'm not sure what else I was expecting. Maybe it's because a lot of this has leaked already and I was hoping for something extra. Maybe I was hoping for a clearer statement of ambitious intent but, again, that is probably an unrealistic expectation. The rest of this transfer window and the next will tell us more.

My head has some concerns:

- I'm worried that there will be no one Head of Charlton - we'll have Rodwell, Scott and Warwick all having seemingly equal status but potentially different visions, missions, objectives - whatever you want to call it - with great potential for core disagreements - who pulls the whole thing together? CM paints a picture of himself as some sort of Walsingham type character whispering in the investor's ears which, again, has the potential for major disruption going forward

- Would like to know a LOT more about Global Football Partners Ltd. Is this just a CAFC vehicle or does it have a wider remit and where does CAFC fit into it?

- CM himself says that GB & JF's investments are relatively small beer for them so that would make it very easy for these individuals to walk away yet I guess we are hugely/solely reliant on them to fund short/medium term losses.

So, my jury is still out, partly driven by our painful experiences in recent years. I'm not in the Airman camp of saying it will fail but I would want to understand a lot more before I adorn my bedroom with Gabriel Brener/Josh Friedman duvets and pillows. 
 

It would be helpful to understand what people think “success” looks like.

I think for the vast majority of us success would be building a squad capable of a minimum top 6 finish this year, with the aim to get promoted next year if we don't win the play offs this season. Once promoted, steady and intelligent investment to establish us as a Championship team with an outside shot at the playoffs over the few years after that.

If we can do the above whilst attaining category one status for the academy I think that is a very successful 4-5 years of ownership without needing gamble astronomical sums.

I know it sounds easy written down and no doubt there will be big challenges along the way to achieve it, but having at the right senior management team in place and astute investment in the playing side should make it a real possibility.

Sounds fine but will probably require, shall we say, £100m net investment?

Airman Brown said:

Covered_End_Lad said:

Airman Brown said:

charente addick said:

PragueAddick said:

Ok then, Methven interview ready to go.

Inevitably the interview and the motivations behind it are already being slagged off in certain quarters in the usual style, so I'm posting as a reminder the original intro article which explains that this was all CM's own initiative, The link to the main article is at the bottom of that one. When you get to it, you'll see the  banner image is a mess, bear with us, I may need techie help with that.

I think the main benefit is an insight into how the structure will work (assuming he is still able to speak for all significant consortium members). There's more than will be possible to put into a club PR statement even if they wanted to. But there were interesting things he asked to keep off the record, and other things we had no time for, such as the future of the real estate. As you will see, he really wanted to talk about him at Sunderland which I managed to avoid until we got to the end of the designated running time, and Zoom terminated that abruptly

Looking forward to see what people make of it

Thanks Prague - interesting.

I guess my more emotional reaction is one of mild disappointment although I'm not sure what else I was expecting. Maybe it's because a lot of this has leaked already and I was hoping for something extra. Maybe I was hoping for a clearer statement of ambitious intent but, again, that is probably an unrealistic expectation. The rest of this transfer window and the next will tell us more.

My head has some concerns:

- I'm worried that there will be no one Head of Charlton - we'll have Rodwell, Scott and Warwick all having seemingly equal status but potentially different visions, missions, objectives - whatever you want to call it - with great potential for core disagreements - who pulls the whole thing together? CM paints a picture of himself as some sort of Walsingham type character whispering in the investor's ears which, again, has the potential for major disruption going forward

- Would like to know a LOT more about Global Football Partners Ltd. Is this just a CAFC vehicle or does it have a wider remit and where does CAFC fit into it?

- CM himself says that GB & JF's investments are relatively small beer for them so that would make it very easy for these individuals to walk away yet I guess we are hugely/solely reliant on them to fund short/medium term losses.

So, my jury is still out, partly driven by our painful experiences in recent years. I'm not in the Airman camp of saying it will fail but I would want to understand a lot more before I adorn my bedroom with Gabriel Brener/Josh Friedman duvets and pillows. 
 

It would be helpful to understand what people think “success” looks like.

I think for the vast majority of us success would be building a squad capable of a minimum top 6 finish this year, with the aim to get promoted next year if we don't win the play offs this season. Once promoted, steady and intelligent investment to establish us as a Championship team with an outside shot at the playoffs over the few years after that.

If we can do the above whilst attaining category one status for the academy I think that is a very successful 4-5 years of ownership without needing gamble astronomical sums.

I know it sounds easy written down and no doubt there will be big challenges along the way to achieve it, but having at the right senior management team in place and astute investment in the playing side should make it a real possibility.

Sounds fine but will probably require, shall we say, £100m net investment?