SNAP

[quote user="Bexley"]My point is should people who claimed their rebate to make a point / send a message (i.e. didnt need the money but took it as way of a protest) really be surprised if we cannot compete in the transfer market [/quote] Ultimately those of us who did choose to pay Division 3 prices for Division 3 football (the same ones who don''t go into a garage, buy a new car and say, "....no keep the scrappage charge - I want to help the government and the bankers out of the crisis"!) may be proved wrong and the £700k + Marshall money + Clingan and Russell money may be spend on buying players. But how many people who gave back their rebates would have done so if the message had been - "Give us back that money and we will spend it on the wages of freebees, agents fees and what''s left of last years failures". Because that''s what''s looking most likely and someone will eventually be forced to admit it.

[quote user="Dr. Ink"].......doing what Roeder talked about, by getting more powerful athletes?[/quote] To be fair the trend was started by Worthington and persists in the Academy and FITC today. "Give me big powerful athletes and I''ll teach them to recognise a football......"

John Deehan has good contacts in Turkey.

Investment implies a return on that investment - if not, why invest. BIG investment implies control. Control, in turn, means Delia and Michael selling some of their shares at an agreed price ands all other debts whose repayment is triggered by a change of control being either repayed or at least renegotiated. Only then can money be made available for what most people yearn for when they call for "investment" and that is money thrown at expensive players, greedy agents and obscene wages. Just a dream I know but wouldn''t it be great to break the mould and make progress with no "investment" just a bunch of freebees and home growns who cost next to nothing?

No, no I believe him. After all what''s the point of calling yourself Colney Spy if you are not a spy at all and you don''t work at Colney. Mind you that would be "Spy who works at Colney". Then again maybe he things that''s to much of a mouthful and not zappy enough for a Twitterer. Maybe he just gets that little bit enough behind the rumours to appear plausible while being close enough to an excusive to be seen as a "Spy". Maybe he''s like the the big lass at the back of the school dancing class who is always half a beat behind everyone else but still looks like she knows what''s going on!.....now that sounds more like it. Let me try to be a Colney Spy......"Whaley and Russell to swop places. Clingen deal will go through with Coventry when he realises he''s not as good as he, and his agent, thought he was and most other clubs have clocked that. The old guy from Colchester who doesn''t score many goals will eventally pitch up when the board tell Gunn that''s all he can afford even with Russell, Clingen and Marshall going out, 1/3 of season ticket holders making a donation to the overdraft and Michael Foulger also propping up he debt." Spooky hey - SNAP the Spy.

Good luck John!  You''ve always been a strong character. You won''t give up now I''m sure.

Might have been the case before Clingan''s agent spooked the Coventry deal by suddenly popping up and asking for a fist full of money. There''s no money available unless we sell and even then only a small fraction will be going out of the club. All available cash is desperately needed to keep the banks at bay. Rebate money, Foulger money, Marshall money? Forget it.

Be honest now.....is anyone who left their rebate money in the club to add to the transfer fund that MWJ said Gunn already had, plus the money that we received for Marshall plus Michael Foulger''s money getting just a little uneasy that these funds now seem to have evaporated when we need to get a new targetman signed up? Be honest again...are you really surprised? Seems like deja vu. Once again no lessons have been learned from last year when we started the season without a proper striker and continued without one all season with disasterous results. Nothing changes except our expectations - which get lower every year. I''ll wait for the usual "Give the guy a chance", "It''s not the start of the season yet", "He''s done well so far", "I''ll support them whatever division they are in" comments but I''ll bet they are the same comments as were made this time last year. As I said, nothing changes except our expectations.....

There probably isn''t going to be any serious money spent, certainly nothing like the money that rebates, transfers and Foulger money should add up to. Eventually we will be told that it''s all gone on wages and agents fees. There is reportedly a lot more to come into the coffers from outbound transfers. What would happen if the club made the same offer today? Would anyone who left the rebate with the club now take a reality check and ask for their money back?

[quote user="First Wizard"] Look at Scum, Southampton for just two examples, now both owned by ambitious millionaires. Even Leeds can outbid anything we could  muster. What have we got? Delia Smith and Bryan bloody Gunn![img]http://carrowroad.net/carrow1/Smileys/new/suicide.gif[/iimg] [/quote] Ask any suppliers to clubs like Ipswich and Southampton if it works for them? I am not a fan of The Suffolks and I don''t think Bryan Gunn is necessarily the best choice for manager but for any company/football club to cynically go into administration only to come out he other side with it''s debts to local companies wiped out and just a 10 point penalty to show for it will lose my support.

I was wondering the same thing myself. We should have at least £1m given the fee for Marshall and the rebate money doubled up. That, of course, assumes there was absolutely nothing available at the outset. Given the fact that there is still money to come for Clingan and Hoolihan (....of course they are given half a chance - before anyone challenges!) where will we spend it all? We are told we can''t/ won''t meet Derby''s valuation for Dickinson or Palace''s valuation for Lee so what''s going to happen to somewhere between £1-2.5m. Interest payment on the loan perhaps..... How do the people who gave the club the rebate back feel as they watch all these freebies coming through the door while your money sits in the Carrow Road Bank. Meanwhile we are linked with an old striker who doesn''t score many goals for Colchester. Still at least this time we won''t be paying £1m + an outrageous salary for him....will we Jamie!

[quote user="SNAP"]Sorry - still think Stephan has rather nievely missed the point. I don''t doubt his support. I don''t doubt his eagerness to "help the club" in any way he can. I don''t doubt that Eastern Counties Newspapers (as was) helped the club in the past. I just don''t think he has questioned the motives of those who invited him onto the board. Not being unkind, but I return to the simple question - would they have invited him if he had been the same Stephan Phillips but MD of a PR and Marketing company in the city? I think we all know the answer to that one - but maybe it has been lost on Stephan. It''s not him they want it''s what he represents and the effect he can have on others. What will be interesting is how he reacts when they call in the favour........[/quote]   another way of looking at it...If Stephan Phillips gets another job or just resigns as MD of Archant, will they still want him on the board?

Sorry - still think Stephan has rather nievely missed the point. I don''t doubt his support. I don''t doubt his eagerness to "help the club" in any way he can. I don''t doubt that Eastern Counties Newspapers (as was) helped the club in the past. I just don''t think he has questioned the motives of those who invited him onto the board. Not being unkind, but I return to the simple question - would they have invited him if he had been the same Stephan Phillips but MD of a PR and Marketing company in the city? I think we all know the answer to that one - but maybe it has been lost on Stephan. It''s not him they want it''s what he represents and the effect he can have on others. What will be interesting is how he reacts when they call in the favour........

Here''s a "killer question" and one that should make you change your mind and withdraw your acceptance - Do you honestly believe that they would have offered you a seat on the board if you were not Managing Director of Archant Norfolk? Ummmm.......tricky one - NOT!

Given that, with all due respect, you are not the only local person with an idea of how advertising and marketing works and the club has an "off the shelf" website that same as most other clubs in the country - why do you think you were invited to join the board? Did it never cross your mind that it could be a cynical attempt to avoid a repeat of the embarassment caused by Cullemgate?

Two questions on the same theme.  None of the other 91 clubs in the Premiership, Championship or Football League have the Managing Director of their local newspaper on the board of directors. Why does he think that is? No Managing Director of a local newspaper has chosen to accept a seat on the board of the local football club. Why does he think that is?

I have no wish to in anyway impugn your integrity but please try to explain whatever made you think that, as the MD of the only local media available to question the affairs of our football club, you would have a cat in hell’s chance of doing anything other than raise local suspicions about the dual roles you are about to attempt to fill? Do you really have no idea that every time Archant now backs off an issue regarding the football club your hand will be seen to be behind it? Did you once stop to consider that if Bryan Gunn turns out to be that manager that his track record suggests he will be and Archant fail to call for his head you will be identified as the reason for such a response? Have you stopped to think about how untenable your position would have been in those days when “The Suffolks” stubbornly refused to see that Nigel Worthington had just run out of ideas while Archant stood by wringing its journalistic hands? Most important of all has it not occurred to you to question why they asked you in the first place?

I have no wish to in anyway impugn your integrity but please try to explain whatever made you think that, as the MD of the only local media available to question the affairs of our football club, you would have a cat in hell’s of doing anything other than raise local suspicions about the dual roles you are about to attempt to fill? Do you really have no idea that every time Archant now backs off an issue regarding the football club your hand will be seen to be behind it? Did you once stop to consider that if Bryan Gunn turns out to be that manager that his track record suggests he will be and Archant fail to call for his head you will be identified as the reason for such a response? Have you stopped to think about how untenable your position would have been in those days when “The Suffolks” stubbornly refused to see that Nigel Worthington had just run out of ideas while Archant stood by wringing its journalistic hands? Most important of all has it not occurred to you to question why they asked you in the first place?

I’m sure that “The Suffolks”  will have been fully aware of the potential for the sort of comments that have already appeared on this board. Stephan Phillips will not have applied for the role, he will have been invited to join the board. To what purpose? To add his business competence to the board? As far as my knowledge of Stephan goes he started at Archant in a sales role and has risen through that route over several years, so his experience isn’t what one could call “broad based”. Was there really no one more suited or experienced? Given that the answer is obviously a big YES then one has to ask what other possible motives could they have for inviting him? They have a history of making unpopular and controversial decisions and battening down the hatches to ride out the storm. If they do the same this time they have the local media’s employees in an impossible position. Any commentary that could be detrimental to “The Suffolks” would be like Turkeys voting for Christmas. Don’t believe me? – Who thinks the EDP would have run with the whole Peter Cullum Saga if their MD was on the board of the organisation under attack? Kinda puts it into perspective I think.

It''s only ANOTHER let down because so many people fail to grasp that we are a small club, owned and mismanged by amateurs for years - the Newcastle of Division 3. Aviva renewing their sponsorship for another year is as good as it''s going to get. No Investor on a White Charger. No big money transfers, any funds are earmarked for the bankers. No return of an ageing hero (unless Paul McVeigh and his aliceband counts). We are where we are, and that''s where we deserve to be.

I''m no big fan of Aviva as a company but this could be viewed as a brave move on their part. Unless the club get promoted back to the Championship 12,000 season ticket holders sent a message suggesting that they may well not renew again. The result would be a disaster in terms of guarantees of future season ticket incomes committed to the bankers and Aviva may well find themsleves associated with a club in administration as a result of years of amateur mismanagement. Hardly the sort of thing with which one would think they would risk being associated. They had no need to make this announcement at all - so maybe they have knowledge that we don''t in terms of future investment and prospects. A cynic may take the view that it is a "peanuts investment" for them, gives them a novelty place for entertaining and training and takes people''s minds off jobs going to India and Pinebanks being turned into lots of blocks of flats that the City doesn''t need.

I have to say I have never been a fan of Lee Croft and could never understand the adulation he received for simply turning up and running around a lot. His quotes since he left are indicative of the attitude of so many who pulled on shirt last season - over inflated idea of their own ability. He was playing in a poor Championship side because, like the others, he had a major flaw in his game. In his case it was his complete inability to cross the ball. Going to Derby isn''t going to make him a good crosser of the ball. I predict another Andy Marshall in the  making and look forward to the day when his limited talents find their proper level and we come across him on his way to a lower league or the reserves at Derby. I do admire his publicity team who not only managed to get him somehow voted in as our "Player of the Season" but still had time to pop over to Iran and fix an election there as well to get the Jose Morinio look-alike re-elected. Obviously used the Player of the Year vote as a trial run!

[quote user="happy clappy hughes"]Unfortunately I don''t think our board and Mr Doncaster were sensible enough to have the rebate money saved away when in case we got relegated. As a result I think you will find that the £700k odd that has to be paid back to the 60 odd % of season ticket holders you wanted there money back will in fact actually be coming out of the playing budget. As a result in stead of start with a zero balance sheet we actually with a large minus figure.[/quote]   ...hadn''t thought of that - thanks for darkening my gloom!

Call me an old sceptic (but with this Board what else should we be?). The Manager has supposedly got a budget with which to work. A War Chest it’s often called. Are we to assume that we started with a blank piece of paper with a big zero at the top of the page before supporters were encouraged to let the Board that took us into Division 3 keep our rebates -  the rebates we were promised in the event of another dismal and depressing season ending in the ultimate failure? OK then let’s start from there. Along comes a new CEO and he tells us all available money will be going into the football budget. So far so good. We’ve already sold David Marshall to Cardiff. We paid £1m for him and let’s assume that as he is nearer the top of the international pecking order so let’s say we managed to shoot ourselves in the foot again and received just £400k for him. Sounds like Carrow Road good business to me. With the £700k from supporters and Michael Foulger we should be in a healthy Division 3 position even before we sell Sammy Clingan for a knock down £500k. By my reckoning our Zero is now about to approach £1.6m without the huge savings being made on the salaries of all those overpaid Premier Crocks who were treated to a spell of convalescence at Dunston Hall at our expense. We also have the other rodents wishing to jump ship and we should get a few bob for them. Sorry for the ramble but logic dictates that we should be pretty well equipped for an immediate return to the dizzy heights of The Championship if it’s possible to buy ones way out of Div 3. Why, then, do I detect a “Smoke & Mirrors” scenario developing as we are told that the recent FREE transfers had already been budgeted for in the £700k now available? Agent’s fees? Can’t be that much on a free transfer, can they? My concern is that we will never get a better chance to get out of the Hell Hole that is Division 3 and already I’m detecting a sense that the Board will somehow find a way to sidetrack the money to fund the bank repayments while the football side will continue to be starved of funds. Am I alone in this dark place?

He will have it pretty much ring fenced with shares and guarantees anyway - so why not! After all he''s been part of the Muppet Team that has brought us here in the first place. Let''s see if he''s a bit more careful spending his own money.