what would you have done differently?
Here's mine:
1) accept ACL proposal for variable rent based on league status
2) secure King, Gunnarson and Westwood on longer contracts.
3) not sell Keogh or Bigi or Best or Juke or Tabb
4) kept faith with Chris Coleman with AT as chief scout / director of football - Ranson to be a non-football director
5) work closely and productively with council to buy half of Ricoh (at least)
6) not mortgaged Ryton
7) not sold future ST revenues years in advance
8) re-named various stands after club legends like Hill and George/John
9) communicated much better with fans, including having a Trust rep on the board
10) made sure that the Ricoh train station was finished by encouraging Network Rail and the council
11) put in place better bus service from city to Ricoh, as Reading have
12) do more work in schools to give tickets to kids, filling up the Arena more and planting the seed with future fans
All very well with the benefit of hindsight - but hard to argue against all these points!
oh and 13) not sign ROD on a 3-year £5k p/w deal!!!
Thanks for the replies (including some grudging "s'pose so" from Grumpy Grendel...
In terms of financing, if we had kept many of the players we released, we could well be challenging for the play-offs in the Champ, if not in the Premier by now - with a half share in the Ricoh, the commensurate drop in rent, and with crowds of 25k per home game that success brings, finance would not be much of an issue for these fairly modest proposals.
My source for ROD's wages is Mr Steve Waggott - have got an even funnier story from him about "Goals" O'Donovan...aka "the best player in the Championship" by his own admission!
Yes, SISU did mortgage Ryton to raise funds, though I understand that the mortgage has now been closed it are back under full CCFC ownership. The sales of future ST revenue is true - Igwe defended this as "standard business practice" (only if you are Glasgow Rangers of Fiorentina circa 2000!)
Above all, this was not meant to be a SISU-bashing thread as such, just looking at where things could have been different.
1, was that on the table to SISU? yes it was offered to Geoffrey and friends howwever the council would have seen a potentially rich "Mayfair Hedge Fund" and thought they could carry on taking the rent as it was.
2, I think the only realistic option of keeping one of those was King, and thats if you believe he was going to sign the verbally offered deal. Westwood was always going to run his deal down, we were interested in Murphy, who run his deal down, they both shared the same representation, I dont think its beyond belief that the club and agent engineered the whole situation.
Gunnars was apparently offered double his wages to stay (according to Ranson) said on stage in the Casino, again I dont think he was ever going to sign.
3, Keogh, we were relegated and more than likely had to seel rather than lose on a free.
Bigi was sold, the next day our Academy status was preserved, read into that what you will.
Best, Juke Tabb, all come under the top scorer, player of the year type and we have sold on. I agree such moves undermine the whole set up of the club and instinctively the remaining players can have their enthusiasm dampened which leads to further losses etc.
4, Cant see why we should have kept Coleman, he allowed the "it's Coventry" attitude to seep into the players and his mind, the writing was on the wall for him as soon as SISU failed to back Ranson in the market and by selling the Crown Jewels...
5, My opinion is the Council dont want that too happen, at the moment with SISU in charge they can hide behind the opinion that SISU cant be trusted therefore they will not sell, but if we ever do get new credible owners I wonder what they will say then. The Ricoh is obviously not costing them money (may even be making them a bit) but the regeneration potential around is still enormous, they will want a slice of that pie.
6, they mortgaged it, but paid it back, without knowing the full story cant really comment, I would however guess that SISU were not prepared to put a million or so into running the club therefore it was that or potentially sell a player.
7, see above.
8, who was in charge of naming stands, was it a way of producing revenue, I would say yes it was, Who received such money?
9, a failing yes, but in my eyes a football club cant simply give out all the answers wanted by fans.
10, I seriously dont think it matters apart to a few fans....
11, whats wrong with the bus service?
12, they already do a lot of work in schools, they initially targeted local football teams, however that system was abused by adults keeping the tickets for themselves and in some cases also selling them on....
ROD, an odd one. Be good to hear the other story though....
