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Ricardo's report The AGM 2015

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How quickly time rolls round, it was the AGM again tonight and another well attended and professional performance for our elucidation. Long gone are the days of two or three dozen shareholders listening to a fag packet rendition of yet another tale of woe.We started promptly at 7.30pm and the new financial director Steve Stone quickly ran through the voting resolutions which all passed as did the re-election of Foulger and Bowkett to the Board. Mr Bowkett then gave us the sad news of the passing of long time shareholder David Bately. David was always a thorn in the side of the directors at every AGM since I can remember. His questions were often long and rambling but at heart he was a true Canary supporter, may he rest in peace,Bowkett explained the difficulties encountered by relegation and the massive drop in turnover of over £42 million and how costs had to be drastically cut to deal with the situation. Fortunately our timely promotion meant no debt was incurred. McNally then went on to show us the forecast for 2015/16 where we have budgeted for a loss of over £7 million. We will incur football related costs of £109 million  but only receive £102 million in income. The projects in hand at present include vital improvements at Colney and the establishment of a Premier League recruitment team.McNally then gave us the usual pep talk about continuous improvement and the clubs work with the Community Sports Foundation. There was a short film showing work done with the disadvantaged and disabled coupled with lots of facts and figures. In short I can report that we should all take pride in the fact that our club takes its community involvement seriously.We then moved on to the question and answer session. Recruitment and blooding young players came up first and AN explained that had we stayed in the Championship we would probably have seen one or two youngsters in the squad but they were not yet ready for Premier League.Once again we had a few questions about ground capacity and McNally said they were re-visiting the UEA study. After much back and forth my impression remains as it always has been and that is the Board still don''t see a way of squaring the circle of ground development without the certainty of PL income. McNally explained that we also have large expense committed to Colney improvements that need to come first.There was a bit about FFP. Bowkett said although some would cheat it didn''t disadvantage us and that the QPR saga was by no means settled.The January window reared its ugly head and  a questioner wondered if our geographical location and lower wages affected our ability to recruit. McNally said we couldn''t compete with the big boys who averaged £100k per week in wages but reasserted the position that everything we had went into the football budget and we paid the highest wages we could afford. All contracts have a relegation clause.Somebody was unhappy that the food windows weren''t open in the Jarrold Stand at 1.30pm when he went for a sausage roll. Delia apologised and said she would get on the case.Alex Neil answered several questions on the footballing side and impressed me greatly with his calmness and erudition. This guy knows what he is talking about, let there be no doubt about that. Obviously some did not seem too happy about the more defensive style of late but he explained that at this stage the main aim is to stay in the league and we might have to take a more pragmatic approach in certain games against the top clubs. He went on to explain the thorough way in which opponents strengths and weaknesses are analised and a game plan is formulated to suit each occasion. The amount of work that goes into this side of the game was certainly an eyeopener for me.We ended with a question on how we go about engaging the next generation of supporters but that brought us back to the unanswered problem of ground capacity so until we feel able to get to grips with that I guess we are just going round in circles. AN said that we had jumped up the leagues quickly in recent years but some of the backroom stuff still hadn''t caught up with progress on the field.All in all a good night but as always we may have come far but there is still a way to go before we can think of ourselves in any way as an established PL club.

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[quote user="ricardo"]

There was a bit about FFP. Bowkett said although some would cheat it didn''t disadvantage us and that the QPR saga was by no means settled.[/quote]Thanks for the report, ricardo. That is an interesting line about QPR. I mentioned a week or so back that although The Guardian (and others) reported months ago that QPR had avoided a massive fine for supposedly breaking FFP there had been, as far as I could see, no official confirmation of that. Bowkett''s comments might suggest why that is the case.

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[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="ricardo"]

There was a bit about FFP. Bowkett said although some would cheat it didn''t disadvantage us and that the QPR saga was by no means settled.[/quote]Thanks for the report, ricardo. That is an interesting line about QPR. I mentioned a week or so back that although The Guardian (and others) reported months ago that QPR had avoided a massive fine for supposedly breaking FFP there had been, as far as I could see, no official confirmation of that. Bowkett''s comments might suggest why that is the case.[/quote]He said that the Championship clubs had been pressured to let it lie but their answer in no uncertain terms was (go forth and multiply)

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Thought it was a bit of a non entity, no questions re Lafferty or Grabban, a question asked re building team spirit regarding Howson and others being allowed to stay up north or London over weekends was asked but no mention of Grabban and Hooper making no effort to move to Norwich. More effort put into answering why a man from Caister could not get a sausage roll at 1.30PM

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A good summary Ricardo. I agree that Neil was thoughtful and impressive in his responses.

A couple of further points on the financials: McN emphasised the staggered nature of the cash flows from the broadcasting income. His focus was on managing the cash position. At the end of this accounting period the projection was of a £7m overdraft, pointing to the return, presumably temporary, of the need for external debt. What we obviously couldn''t glean from the presentation was the timing of the cash outflows and the projected budget for the January window. Also, tonight marked the end of the CEO''s strategic wheel, which appears to have morphed into a football, but still retains the hallmarks of a classic text on strategy. I remain as unclear tonight as in previous presentations as to what the Norwic ''football DNA'' is meant to represent.

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Not a word uttered by MWJ,not a word uttered by Michael Foulger,not a word uttered by Stefan Philips and Delia only spoke to apologise for the sausage roll fiasco and of course yet another no show by Stephen Fry.

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[quote user="TIL 1010"]Not a word uttered by MWJ,not a word uttered by Michael Foulger,not a word uttered by Stefan Philips and Delia only spoke to apologise for the sausage roll fiasco and of course yet another no show by Stephen Fry. [/quote]

Just like most company AGM''s I''ve been to then TIL. Unless board members have special responsibility for an aspect of the business being discussed, you wouldn''t expect them to speak or even be present. Am I missing something?

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Thanks Ricardo. For the less informed like myself are ypu able to shed any light on the following? :

I am slightly suprised that Colney is deemed to be very behind the times. I always thought it was seen as a very modern place relative to a lot of clubs. Only the other day Dean Ashton was praising it saying it was light years ahead of West Ham.

Did they say exactly what was being done at Colney and what kind of figures we are talking financially?

I am also slightly surprised that were also budgeting to lose 7 million given our relatively modest dealings in thr transfer market to date.

Did they give any kind of indication as to how much of the money will be spent? i.e. is the current wage bill very high (swallowing a lot of the budget) and is a lot of the budget going on Colney etc? I don''t doubt for a second we will spend the figure quoted I just find it hard to reconcile the figures in my own head.

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As there''s no full stop we can only assume that you meant to say "The Stowmarket 2 have to go and quickly get in the queue for Black Friday at Tesco''s, MWJ wants a new telly".

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Many thanks Ricardo. I did think I''d wandered onto the wrong site for a moment though ...

... strengths and weaknesses are analised ...

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[quote user="Jacko"]Thanks Ricardo. For the less informed like myself are ypu able to shed any light on the following? :

I am slightly suprised that Colney is deemed to be very behind the times. I always thought it was seen as a very modern place relative to a lot of clubs. Only the other day Dean Ashton was praising it saying it was light years ahead of West Ham.

Did they say exactly what was being done at Colney and what kind of figures we are talking financially?

I am also slightly surprised that were also budgeting to lose 7 million given our relatively modest dealings in thr transfer market to date.

Did they give any kind of indication as to how much of the money will be spent? i.e. is the current wage bill very high (swallowing a lot of the budget) and is a lot of the budget going on Colney etc? I don''t doubt for a second we will spend the figure quoted I just find it hard to reconcile the figures in my own head.[/quote]Yes Jacko, they did give the impression that Colney was now outdated and that much needed doing although they didn''t go into detail on the plans or the costs.Regarding the transfer dealings, AN stated that because of the uncertainty due to the play off final, we came late to the party.Regarding the wage bill, I recall seeing a figure of £82 million being spent on football related stuff. McNally mentioned that this included wages, tax, agent fees etc, etc.

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[quote user="ron obvious"]Many thanks Ricardo. I did think I''d wandered onto the wrong site for a moment though ...

... strengths and weaknesses are analised ...[/quote][:D]Oh for an edit button[Y]

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[quote user="westcoastcanary"][quote user="TIL 1010"]Not a word uttered by MWJ,not a word uttered by Michael Foulger,not a word uttered by Stefan Philips and Delia only spoke to apologise for the sausage roll fiasco and of course yet another no show by Stephen Fry. [/quote]

Just like most company AGM''s I''ve been to then TIL. Unless board members have special responsibility for an aspect of the business being discussed, you wouldn''t expect them to speak or even be present. Am I missing something?[/quote]I mentioned it in the context that in previous years some of the directors have been more involved in the question and answer session. I say again yet another no show from Stephen Fry. I like Stephen Fry as a person and celebrity but i really am beginning to wonder what he brings to the table  that the club benefits from ? The millions who follow him on Twitter are only a publicity tool if he tweets about NCFC and i understand that is becoming a rare event.

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Very useful, thanks.

 

The eye-opener for me is the projected loss of £7m for the season.  Obviously wages will have gone up after promotion.  I wonder how much we have budgeted to bring in further players in January, but there''s no way the club would (or should) make that public, I just hope there''s a decent wedge in there earmarked for it !

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Thanks for the excellent report Ricardo.

A couple of things stand out for me.

First, the budgeted turnover of £102m was higher than I expected, given that we were around £95m last time and there''s been no significant changes on the TV side yet.

Second, the projected loss also came as a surprise too, given how the club prides itself on only spending what it receives. Sure, last time we only made a profit and ended up with £6m in the bank because bonuses weren''t payable due to relegation. If this is just down to the required spend at Colney, why not come out and say so?

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As always, thanks Ricardo. Saw the story on the pink''un homepage so came on here to see if you had one of your reports up - no offence intended to the Archant writer but I find your report much more informative and engaging - a shame they don''t ask to print your works in my opinion!

Regarding Colney - it WAS one of the best facilities back when we got promoted in 03/04. A lot was done to rework the place including the building of an indoor training facility. But, this was now over TEN YEARS ago and the place at large has not been touched since. For a Premier League club that is way below the facilities of a large number of clubs including those in the Championship.

A lot of stuff used to be outsourced - fitness work sessions for example were privately done in Greens (back in the day) where very much the focus now is to have everything in-house at Colney like most other Premier League clubs. The main reason for this is at large expenses cuts which were required when we dropped down to League 1. We need to be as good as the big boys if we can impress players with our facilities as it shows where we want to be. "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have" or however the saying goes. Interest in AN''s honesty in front of the board, basically said "improve them or we won''t sign anyone good" - brutal honesty is sometimes the way forward!

As for the rest of it;

Ground Dev - unsurprising no movement on this and it is entirely sensible. Lack of seats means fuller grounds each week equalling better atmosphere and high supply and demand. Better to be full and in demand than expand and have empty seats. On top of that until we have sustained premier league status for several years we do not have the ability to break the bank and expand with money we''re not sure we''ll have. After getting out of debt so well, and managing our relegation last year so deftly it''d be stupid to spend cash like that in our current position.

Blooding Youngsters - again entirely sensible. Aim is to stay up for which you HAVE to play your best 11 each week. Sadly the Murphys and Toffolo are not ready, simple as that. They are not above Olsson, Brady, Jarvis and Redmond in any shape or form. If we confirm our safety early and they''re back at the club then I''ll image they may well get a little game time but right now the best thing is for them to be out on loan. We need to look at the clubs above us - yes Tottenham and Southampton are blooding youngsters progressively - but they all started out on loan somewhere too!

My only last point is the absence of Mr Fry for the second year running. I know he''s a busy man but if he wants to be on the board he has to make time to turn up to the AGM!

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Thanks Ricardo, like AJ saw the headlines on the main page and came here to seek your report. Much more interesting and is great to be able to ask questions.

After much debate on here about succession planning for Michael and Delia was this raised at the AGM?

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Very enjoyable evening at the AGM catching up with some pinkun posters, loved the sausage roll story lol
Great report as usual Ricardo, wish we could have said hello. 
 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Wed Dec 9th doors open at 7pm - Alex Neil/Frankie McAvoy/Gary Holt fans forum

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[quote user="Dead Canary"]Thanks Ricardo, like AJ saw the headlines on the main page and came here to seek your report. Much more interesting and is great to be able to ask questions.

After much debate on here about succession planning for Michael and Delia was this raised at the AGM?[/quote]No, nothing on that front and I have to say that Delia was looking very nice last night, hard to believe she is older than me.[:D]

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[quote user="Ivor Know"]Thanks for the excellent report Ricardo.

A couple of things stand out for me.

First, the budgeted turnover of £102m was higher than I expected, given that we were around £95m last time and there''s been no significant changes on the TV side yet.

Second, the projected loss also came as a surprise too, given how the club prides itself on only spending what it receives. Sure, last time we only made a profit and ended up with £6m in the bank because bonuses weren''t payable due to relegation. If this is just down to the required spend at Colney, why not come out and say so?[/quote]I am not sure the projected rise in turnover is so surprising. Fans get fixated by the TV money but last time we were in the Premier League non-TV money accounted for well over a quarter of income, at more than £25m. Factor in two years of inflation and even possibly (shock, horror) higher than inflation price rises and the extra £7m could be explicable.As to the projected loss I doubt this is due to any work at Colney, which I imagine would not start until the summer and probably not much affect this year''s accounts. The likelihood is that the directors are including substantial bonuses for staying up, and despite the common complaints about prudence trumping ambition it could be we have significantly upped our wage bill from two years ago.In other words we may have taken a calculated risk, and are prepared to take a reasonable short-term hit, in order to enjoy the next mega-TV deal. And if we go down then the bonuses don''t get paid and the players all have relegation-wage clauses.As for the complainst against Fry, I don''t care that he doesn''t turn up at the AGMs, which are essentially a piece of theatre. He, unlike the rest of the directors, has to earn a living, and is often working nights, here or around the world. I would be concerned if he wasn''t making a contribution at board meetings and in other ways.

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[quote user="Prince of Darkness "]Sounds like another little ole Norwich agm no ambition no mention of how we try and become more financially competitive

The Stowmarket 2 have to go and quickly[/quote]

100% spot on.

Yet another AGM Whitewash........cheers for the report Ricardo.

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Purple, thanks for your response.

Two things, like you, expect most of the increase in expenditure to be down to wages, although I''d also be surprised if no costs relating to Colney weren''t included within the budget, at least in part, otherwise, why mention it?

Second, I made no reference to Stephen Fry in my previous post and, in fact, hold similar views to you.

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[quote user="Ivor Know"]Purple, thanks for your response.

Two things, like you, expect most of the increase in expenditure to be down to wages, although I''d also be surprised if no costs relating to Colney weren''t included within the budget, at least in part, otherwise, why mention it?

Second, I made no reference to Stephen Fry in my previous post and, in fact, hold similar views to you.[/quote]I know you hadn''t slagged off Fry. That was aimed at other posters. As for Colney I think they mentioned that because, as they did when they unveiled the accounts in October, they wanted to explain why that took priority ahead of Carrow Road expansion. I doubt it would have a significant effect on this year''s accounts.

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For Wiz and P of D Re how

We become more financially competetive. There was quite a lot about this. Had you been in attendance you might have heard about it.

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[quote user="PurpleCanary"]I know you hadn''t slagged off Fry. That was aimed at other posters. [/quote]I think i have been the only poster to mention Stephen Fry and find your expression ''slagged off'' a tad over the top Purple.I made observations regarding his worth to our Board if he is a non attendee more often than not at AGM''s ,Board meetings or matches for that matter unless of course you tell me i am wrong .He certainly has not parted with some of his considerable wealth unless some other high profile shareholders which may just negate my concerns.

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[quote user="TIL 1010"][quote user="PurpleCanary"]I know you hadn''t slagged off Fry. That was aimed at other posters. [/quote]I think i have been the only poster to mention Stephen Fry and find your expression ''slagged off'' a tad over the top Purple.I made observations regarding his worth to our Board if he is a non attendee more often than not at AGM''s ,Board meetings or matches for that matter unless of course you tell me i am wrong .He certainly has not parted with some of his considerable wealth unless some other high profile shareholders which may just negate my concerns.[/quote]unlike not unless.

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Thanks for the write up and explanation from other posters, on the face of it, it seems that as ever the club is being run in a sensible maner with every outcome for the season being planned for. We have a long way to go and while it''s not been a bad start so far we all know how quickly it can change from good to bad and vice versa, it certainly puts my mind at ease to know that if the worst was to happen we would still be in a strong position to repeat last years feat.

I''m happy about the planned Colney development, whatever they maybe, I know there is a clamour for young players to be brought through and you need only look at players like Kane, Barkley etc to show that those gems are out there and are good enough to break into clubs higher than ourselves. I think the more assistance we can give our academy which is based at Colney with not only recruitment but also facilities, the better chance we have of unearthing one of those truely exceptional talents.. No disrespect intended to our current crop.

I''m also enthused by Neil''s alteration to our tactics... And no, not because I want to see a return to our previous top flight tactics, but more it''s yet another example of how we have a fantastic up and coming manager who is still learning and growing into this league. I''d be more concerned if had done a Blackpool of a few years ago, stuck to the reputation we had and thrown players forward regardless of opponent, to then end the season in a wonderfully entertaining relegation! I think this is something Eddie Howe is going to have to get to grips with very quickly or they could find themselves in deep trouble!

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