No.8

Is that the London Bridge Hotel?

                     Marshall Otsem  Omozusi   Doc   Bertand Croft      Clingan   Pattison                                        Lupoli                Russell                        Sibierski

Hi all, Where will you all be meeting for a pre match beer (if youre going to the game?). I''m going down on the 10:00 train from norwich if you fancy a pre match chat/beer on the train?

It''s not about majority say/stake - it''s about investing in the club we all love, regardless if you invest £5k or £500 -each fan would have one vote and one vote only.  This is an idea (albeit crazy) that would allow fans (of varying wealth) the chance to buy and co-run our club. By flexing the amount individuals could invest brings to the a larger investment pot - you could smooth the amount to say £2k each in the hope you could find 30k willing & able fans (that way you all have an equal say!!)

The idea would be to pump any profits into the club, no dividend payments, Exec bonuses etc. Obviously running costs would need to be covered. Talking about running costs, the Exec/Board could be made up of a mix of professionals on sensible salaries and fan elected members (on a annual rotation basis).  

You have two options... 1. Appoint a manager (who we elect) and let him run the team (fans could vote for signings form a shortlist selected by the manager and backroom staff!) and possibly captain. 2. Virtual team management - taking a radical approach to a fan run club. This would be relatively easy to manage on-line. We wouldn’t have a manager, we would have: - Head coach (responsible for day-to-day training schedule and match day fine-tuning) - Either on a Monday for midweek games or Thursday for Sat/Sun games, the backroom staff will post an ''available'' squad list, based on fitness, morale, performance in training etc. - From this list of available players all eligible fans would vote on a shortlist of formations and preferred plating style (4-4-2 wing play, 4-4-2 diamond, 4-3-1-2 central play etc) - Once the formation is set all eligible fans will vote for starting line-up and subs. Actual match team talk would be delivered by Head Coach, real time match changes, tactical / forced would be down to the discretion of the Head Coach, although pre-match preferences could be provided by on-line voting, i.e. if we a 2-0 up with 25mins to play revert from 4-3-3 to 4-5-1 an so on. I should be a story teller...  

Could 30,000 get it wrong? If we did we should get our coats and go home and let someone else do it - PC might buy the shares, could always sell for a profit...

At least fans all over the world would have an answer to one of the most considered questions on the terraces... "Could I pick a better team than our manager"

We all know Norwich has a tremendous fan base, one of the best outside of the Premiership. Norwich is also an affluent area with a number of comfortable earners and successfully retired residents. Forgetting about the credit crunch and current economic climate - as this will pass and stabilise (one day!), do you feel fans could collectively form a consortium buy-out? By my calculations based on a fan base of 30,000 (those who attend week-in-week-out, those at home and those overseas) if... 12,000 fans invest £500, 10,000 fans invest £1000 and 8,000 fans invest £5,000 we would have a take-over pot of £50.6m. Enough to buy-out DS/DWJ, clear most of our debts and still have room to in new players/manager! This wouldn’t be an investment for gain (not short term anyway) but would be an investment of affection and passion for a club we all love. The concept alone would be a money spinner, with someone like Sky securing rights to follow the journey end-to-end (from the buy-out, to new player signings via on-line 30,000 stakeholder voting etc) Even taking management to extremes of virtual ''squad/team'' selection again on-line by 30,000 stakeholders. I know this is a bit crazy, but hey at desperate times... creative thinking required!

Stuart Fleetwood of Forest Green turns down Crewe. A £200k transfer fee had been agreed. "The 21- year-old has rebuilt his career this season and is currently the scorer in senior football in England. Fleetwood''s prowess in front of goal saw him score 30 goals in all competitions before the turn of the year" £200k for a non-league player is a large fee! Could he be the next Kevin Doyle!?! Is this where we realistically need to be looking in the transfer market?