Webber attracted by our BOARD!

[a1canary 0]

This seems to have been missed in all the noise around his appointment - perhaps an inconvenient truth for some - but he said in his interview that the board was a key factor in him being here because it''s locally based (rather than in the home country or a foreign investor) and because it has vision clarity and the desire to do what''s right for the club. No competing priorities such as other clubs (see Liverpool, ManUtd), or other business interests (chicken, airlines etc!).

This is why D&M rightly don''t want to sell out to foreign investors because they want an owner who ONLY has the club''s interests at heart.

Our Board has made mistakes but the clubs best interests always come first. Mistakes are inevitable, every club and every board will make them, having our club in the hands of someone who doesn''t put it first is not inevitable.

[a1canary 0]

*rather than in the home country OF of foreign investor...

...that should say!

[Darth Canary1 91]

This won''t be a popular thread!

[KeiranShikari_2 0]

A man complementing his new employers? That''s shocking.He''d be banging on about ambition and the global game if our owners were Arabs.

[Trevor Hockey's Beard 526]

Surely Michael Foulger''s thoughts go like this: chickens, football, chickens football, chickens, pies, football.

[TCCANARY 263]

He''s probably another ''leftie'', they''re everywhere, no-one is safe, they''ll be replacing OTBC with the ''Red Flag'' next. [:D]

[a1canary 0]

[quote user="KeiranShikari"]A man complementing his new employers? That''s shocking.He''d be banging on about ambition and the global game if our owners were Arabs.[/quote]

You are missing the point. Which is if we had sold out to Indian Chicken farmers, he wouldn''t be here at all.

[a1canary 0]

[quote user="Darth Canary1"]This won''t be a popular thread![/quote]

LOL - tell me about it.

But really, when you think about it, why? I''d love some board haters to make a convincing argument that the board should have sold out to a.n. hinvestor (who!?). Take Fernandes as an example since he was around at one point, and think where we would be now if we had done. Who has made more/worse mistakes since Fernandes took over at QPR? Their lot or our lot? Close run thing. We bother find ourselves in the same position today but we have had longer in the PL and the benefits of that.

And would you rather be where they are today, with who they have, or where we are today, with who we have?

[king canary 7,558]

You''ll struggle to find anyone rich enough to own and run a football club that doesn''t have competing business interests.

[TIL 1010 4,717]

I am sure Crafty will be along soon.[:P]

[Guest]

The board are responsible for bringing in Webber. So if it does prove successful, they deserve credit. Webber should also be taken at his word if he says he saw the board as a contributing factor to him moving here.

However, joining a new club he was always going to be complimentary about the owners, and of course he''s not going to come out and say he moved here for the money. Although by admitting he was moving to a bigger club that is also implied to some extent.

[Lessingham Canary 99]

Got to say i am personally, delighted (if somewhat pleasantly surprised) that our owners / board have shown such a willingness to change direction and go for a complete overhaul of the club, they are winning me back, happy days OTBC

[nutty nigel 7,506]

The owners have done this many times in the last 20 odd years. Some have been more successful than others. Let''s hope this is one of the former.

[Baldyboy 0]

I hardly think Webber would say our board are useless when they have just employed him!

Why has it taken 20 years of ownership for the owners to see they were getting it wrong?

Makes me laugh how people think our owners are so wonderful and that if we had been sold to a foreigner things would have gone wrong!

How many of the Premier League clubs are actually owned by British owners? Only one I can think of is Stoke, so how anyone can say foreign owners are so bad really makes me laugh!

Also, our current owners are so good they took us to League One didn''t they!

[nutty nigel 7,506]

LOL

Yep to league one. That''s all they''ve done.

Happy Easter Baldy[:)]

[Baldyboy 0]

Did I say that''s all they''ve done Nutty? Quote where I said that?

What makes me laugh is when people seem to conveniently forget the season in League One when telling us how great Delia is, or was it a figment of my imagination old fella?

[nutty nigel 7,506]

That seems to be all you mentioned Baldy. Perhaps i misread your post and you mentioned something else?

Oh and these Prem clubs. I agree with you entirely. What would be interesting would be a study of all these investor owners so we could see which ones had a better record than ours. Cherry picking a few good or a few bad is not helpful to any point of view.

[Baldyboy 0]

You are as guilty as I am then as you only mention the good points when banging on about our owners, don''t you?

Our previous owner was more successful but look how that turned out!

We have had good times under Smiths ownership, but how many years were actually that memorable for positive reasons? 5 or 6 maybe at best?

[nutty nigel 7,506]

I don''t know Baldy. It''s not easy to quantify. I guess you would have to compare it to similar clubs over the same period. That wouldn''t even be perfect but would avoid much of the shifting sands that spoil your points. You''d be hard pressed to make one season in league one more weighty than five seasons in the PL though.

I''d be more interested to see that comprehensive list of owners rather than the current PL. After all there will only ever be 20 of them.

[Rogue Baboon 0]

Here we go again with the board

It''s great that they have the best interests of the club at heart but that will only get you so far without finance to back it up.

On the flip side, you could have all the money in the world but if you don''t care about the club it will just stumble along (see Ipswich) or worse (see Coventry/Blackpool)

Agree with other posters in that I wouldn''t really read too much in to what Webber says about the board - they are his employers so he is hardly going to be negative. He will back up whatever ''type'' of owners they are

[Bill 1,788]

or in reality why say anything ?anything that could later be thrown back at himas to L1, didn''t both S''oton and Man City venture down thereas to ''doing anything'' what is that exactly ?mid table mediocrity in the PL,  knowing that at any point the owners could pull the plug ?yippee.... I don''t think

[Rock The Boat 1,322]

I always found it interesting that Delia and hubby campaigned during the referendum for a vote that would allow tens of thousands of unskilled foreigners into the country yet won''t sell her toy to a rich foreigner.

[Iwans Big Toe 312]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]That seems to be all you mentioned Baldy. Perhaps i misread your post and you mentioned something else?

Oh and these Prem clubs. I agree with you entirely. What would be interesting would be a study of all these investor owners so we could see which ones had a better record than ours. Cherry picking a few good or a few bad is not helpful to any point of view.

[/quote]Let''s have a look:-Arsenal - Kroneke bought a majority shareholding in 2008. In that time Arsenal have finished 4th or higher every season, won FA Cup and Community Shield twice and qualified for the knock out stages of of every Champions League. A better record than CityBournemouth - Demin became co-owner in 2011and since then Bournemouth have gone from L1 (having not been relegated to it under Demin) to looking at securing their 3rd consecutive season in the top flight. Meaning at worst they are on par with City, but you could argue that the lack of a relegation to L1 makes his record slightly better than our current owners.Burnley - English owners, no need to compare as we''re looking solely at foreign investors.Chelsea - Bought by Abramovich in 2003. Since that time they have 4 League title (looking nailed on for a 5th this year), 4 FA Cups, 3 league cups, 2 Community Shield''s and the European Cup and UEFA Cup once each. A slightly better record than Delia and co.Crystal Palace - American shareholder''s Joshua Harris and David S. Blitzer have only recently bought into the club. They are battling for survival and with Big Sam appointed as manager you wouldn''t bet against them having a 3rd consecutive season in the top flight next year. Jury is out, if they survive, as with Bournemouth, they will be around par with City and probably ahead due to no L1 football under Parish. But not really been owner''s long enough for a fair comparison.Everton - As with Palace, they have only recently been bought out by foreign ownership, so no chance for a fair comparison. However they haven''t been relegated since 1953.Hull - The Allam''s have managed to turn Hull into a basket case of a club, and if Hull do survive it will be in spite of the majority shareholder''s not because of. Worse record than Delia and co.Leicester - Bought by their Thai owners in 2010, with them already in L1. Since their take over Leicester have had 2 promotions, a Premier league title and are about to play a Champions League 1/4 final this evening for the 1st time ever. Better record than Delia and co.Liverpool - John Henry has only over seen 1 major trophy win since buying the club in 2010, a 2012 League Cup. That is however 1 more major trophy more than Delia and co have ever managed and added to the fact they have finished above us every season........... better record.Man City - Since Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008, City have won 2 Premier Leagues, an FA Cup, 2 League Cups and a Community Shield. The have also been regular participants in Europe. Better record than Delia and co.Man Utd - The Glazer Family finally got a majority shareholding in Utd in 2005. In that time Utd won 5 Premier Leagues, an FA Cup, 4 League Cups, 6 Community Shields, a Champions League and World Club Cup. As with Chelsea a slightly better record than City''s current owners.Middlesborough - English owned. No comparison made.Southampton - When purchased by Markus Liebherr in 2009 they were already in L1. Since the new owners have come in they have returned to the top flight and despite loosing managers and players to "bigger" clubs they look a stable mid-table side. Better record than Delia and co.Stoke - English owned.Sunderland - 7 years of top flight football under Ellis Short looks to be coming to an end after one relegation battle too many. Still 7 years is more than double anything our current owners have presided over so better record.Swansea - After stabilising in the top flight the decision to sell to foreign investors looks like it could result in an immediate return to the Championship. I''ll say worse record, even though Swansea aren''t yet relegated and Kaplan and Levien haven''t been in charge for too long.Spurs - English owned.Watford - Despite sacking their manager every year, they have stablised as a mid-table Prem side. I''m not convinced that they will stay a top flight side if the owners continue to change manager every season, but for the time being, better record.WBA - Bought by the Chinese Guochuan Lai last year and after appointing Tony Pulis look set for their highest finish for a while (higher than we''ve managed under current owners). As with Swansea hasn''t been in charge too long but in that short time the owner''s record is better.West Ham - English owned.

So there we have it, 15 of the 20 top flight sides are foreign owned and you would be hard pushed to say more than 2 of those owners have done a worse job than The Cook, the Printer, the Dancer and their Luvvies.But don''t let the facts influence your view point Nutty.

[nutty nigel 7,506]

As i said it would be interesting to see a comprehensive list instead of just those currently in the PL. Your list would have changed many times in the last 20 years.

[PurpleCanary 5,553]

[quote user="Iwans Big Toe"][quote user="nutty nigel"]That seems to be all you mentioned Baldy. Perhaps i misread your post and you mentioned something else?

Oh and these Prem clubs. I agree with you entirely. What would be interesting would be a study of all these investor owners so we could see which ones had a better record than ours. Cherry picking a few good or a few bad is not helpful to any point of view.

[/quote]Let''s have a look:-Arsenal - Kroneke bought a majority shareholding in 2008. In that time Arsenal have finished 4th or higher every season, won FA Cup and Community Shield twice and qualified for the knock out stages of of every Champions League. A better record than CityBournemouth - Demin became co-owner in 2011and since then Bournemouth have gone from L1 (having not been relegated to it under Demin) to looking at securing their 3rd consecutive season in the top flight. Meaning at worst they are on par with City, but you could argue that the lack of a relegation to L1 makes his record slightly better than our current owners.Burnley - English owners, no need to compare as we''re looking solely at foreign investors.Chelsea - Bought by Abramovich in 2003. Since that time they have 4 League title (looking nailed on for a 5th this year), 4 FA Cups, 3 league cups, 2 Community Shield''s and the European Cup and UEFA Cup once each. A slightly better record than Delia and co.Crystal Palace - American shareholder''s Joshua Harris and David S. Blitzer have only recently bought into the club. They are battling for survival and with Big Sam appointed as manager you wouldn''t bet against them having a 3rd consecutive season in the top flight next year. Jury is out, if they survive, as with Bournemouth, they will be around par with City and probably ahead due to no L1 football under Parish. But not really been owner''s long enough for a fair comparison.Everton - As with Palace, they have only recently been bought out by foreign ownership, so no chance for a fair comparison. However they haven''t been relegated since 1953.Hull - The Allam''s have managed to turn Hull into a basket case of a club, and if Hull do survive it will be in spite of the majority shareholder''s not because of. Worse record than Delia and co.Leicester - Bought by their Thai owners in 2010, with them already in L1. Since their take over Leicester have had 2 promotions, a Premier league title and are about to play a Champions League 1/4 final this evening for the 1st time ever. Better record than Delia and co.Liverpool - John Henry has only over seen 1 major trophy win since buying the club in 2010, a 2012 League Cup. That is however 1 more major trophy more than Delia and co have ever managed and added to the fact they have finished above us every season........... better record.Man City - Since Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008, City have won 2 Premier Leagues, an FA Cup, 2 League Cups and a Community Shield. The have also been regular participants in Europe. Better record than Delia and co.Man Utd - The Glazer Family finally got a majority shareholding in Utd in 2005. In that time Utd won 5 Premier Leagues, an FA Cup, 4 League Cups, 6 Community Shields, a Champions League and World Club Cup. As with Chelsea a slightly better record than City''s current owners.Middlesborough - English owned. No comparison made.Southampton - When purchased by Markus Liebherr in 2009 they were already in L1. Since the new owners have come in they have returned to the top flight and despite loosing managers and players to "bigger" clubs they look a stable mid-table side. Better record than Delia and co.Stoke - English owned.Sunderland - 7 years of top flight football under Ellis Short looks to be coming to an end after one relegation battle too many. Still 7 years is more than double anything our current owners have presided over so better record.Swansea - After stabilising in the top flight the decision to sell to foreign investors looks like it could result in an immediate return to the Championship. I''ll say worse record, even though Swansea aren''t yet relegated and Kaplan and Levien haven''t been in charge for too long.Spurs - English owned.Watford - Despite sacking their manager every year, they have stablised as a mid-table Prem side. I''m not convinced that they will stay a top flight side if the owners continue to change manager every season, but for the time being, better record.WBA - Bought by the Chinese Guochuan Lai last year and after appointing Tony Pulis look set for their highest finish for a while (higher than we''ve managed under current owners). As with Swansea hasn''t been in charge too long but in that short time the owner''s record is better.West Ham - English owned.

So there we have it, 15 of the 20 top flight sides are foreign owned and you would be hard pushed to say more than 2 of those owners have done a worse job than The Cook, the Printer, the Dancer and their Luvvies.But don''t let the facts influence your view point Nutty.

[/quote]I have seen some dumb anti-Smith and Jones posts here in my time but this one really wins the prize. To take just one example from this absurd list, Arsenal, who have never been out of the top flight since getting promoted to it in 1919, have only outperformed Norwich City because they have a rich (and in this case foreign) owner. Yeah, right. That must be it.

[Iwans Big Toe 312]

[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="Iwans Big Toe"][quote user="nutty nigel"]That seems to be all you mentioned Baldy. Perhaps i misread your post and you mentioned something else?

Oh and these Prem clubs. I agree with you entirely. What would be interesting would be a study of all these investor owners so we could see which ones had a better record than ours. Cherry picking a few good or a few bad is not helpful to any point of view.

[/quote]Let''s have a look:-Arsenal - Kroneke bought a majority shareholding in 2008. In that time Arsenal have finished 4th or higher every season, won FA Cup and Community Shield twice and qualified for the knock out stages of of every Champions League. A better record than CityBournemouth - Demin became co-owner in 2011and since then Bournemouth have gone from L1 (having not been relegated to it under Demin) to looking at securing their 3rd consecutive season in the top flight. Meaning at worst they are on par with City, but you could argue that the lack of a relegation to L1 makes his record slightly better than our current owners.Burnley - English owners, no need to compare as we''re looking solely at foreign investors.Chelsea - Bought by Abramovich in 2003. Since that time they have 4 League title (looking nailed on for a 5th this year), 4 FA Cups, 3 league cups, 2 Community Shield''s and the European Cup and UEFA Cup once each. A slightly better record than Delia and co.Crystal Palace - American shareholder''s Joshua Harris and David S. Blitzer have only recently bought into the club. They are battling for survival and with Big Sam appointed as manager you wouldn''t bet against them having a 3rd consecutive season in the top flight next year. Jury is out, if they survive, as with Bournemouth, they will be around par with City and probably ahead due to no L1 football under Parish. But not really been owner''s long enough for a fair comparison.Everton - As with Palace, they have only recently been bought out by foreign ownership, so no chance for a fair comparison. However they haven''t been relegated since 1953.Hull - The Allam''s have managed to turn Hull into a basket case of a club, and if Hull do survive it will be in spite of the majority shareholder''s not because of. Worse record than Delia and co.Leicester - Bought by their Thai owners in 2010, with them already in L1. Since their take over Leicester have had 2 promotions, a Premier league title and are about to play a Champions League 1/4 final this evening for the 1st time ever. Better record than Delia and co.Liverpool - John Henry has only over seen 1 major trophy win since buying the club in 2010, a 2012 League Cup. That is however 1 more major trophy more than Delia and co have ever managed and added to the fact they have finished above us every season........... better record.Man City - Since Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008, City have won 2 Premier Leagues, an FA Cup, 2 League Cups and a Community Shield. The have also been regular participants in Europe. Better record than Delia and co.Man Utd - The Glazer Family finally got a majority shareholding in Utd in 2005. In that time Utd won 5 Premier Leagues, an FA Cup, 4 League Cups, 6 Community Shields, a Champions League and World Club Cup. As with Chelsea a slightly better record than City''s current owners.Middlesborough - English owned. No comparison made.Southampton - When purchased by Markus Liebherr in 2009 they were already in L1. Since the new owners have come in they have returned to the top flight and despite loosing managers and players to "bigger" clubs they look a stable mid-table side. Better record than Delia and co.Stoke - English owned.Sunderland - 7 years of top flight football under Ellis Short looks to be coming to an end after one relegation battle too many. Still 7 years is more than double anything our current owners have presided over so better record.Swansea - After stabilising in the top flight the decision to sell to foreign investors looks like it could result in an immediate return to the Championship. I''ll say worse record, even though Swansea aren''t yet relegated and Kaplan and Levien haven''t been in charge for too long.Spurs - English owned.Watford - Despite sacking their manager every year, they have stablised as a mid-table Prem side. I''m not convinced that they will stay a top flight side if the owners continue to change manager every season, but for the time being, better record.WBA - Bought by the Chinese Guochuan Lai last year and after appointing Tony Pulis look set for their highest finish for a while (higher than we''ve managed under current owners). As with Swansea hasn''t been in charge too long but in that short time the owner''s record is better.West Ham - English owned.

So there we have it, 15 of the 20 top flight sides are foreign owned and you would be hard pushed to say more than 2 of those owners have done a worse job than The Cook, the Printer, the Dancer and their Luvvies.But don''t let the facts influence your view point Nutty.

[/quote]I have seen some dumb anti-Smith and Jones posts here in my time but this one really wins the prize. To take just one example from this absurd list, Arsenal, who have never been out of the top flight since getting promoted to it in 1919, have only outperformed Norwich City because they have a rich (and in this case foreign) owner. Yeah, right. That must be it.[/quote]You misinterpreted everything there Purple. It''s not an anti-smith and jones post at all. It was an anti-anti-foreign investor post. I was just helping to point out that a majority of the stable Premier League clubs currently have foreign owners. I was doing so in the hope that the "all foreign owners are bad" garbage that is spouted on here by the usual suspects would be seen as exactly for what it is, garbage. But sorry, you must be right, foreign investment, boooooooooo.

[Nuff Said 5,078]

Completely agree. And since we are currently in the Championship, shouldn''t the comparison be with those clubs? Or does that not generate the desired result?

[Nuff Said 5,078]

Just to be clear, the complete agreement was with Purple. Your ''argument'' is so full of holes it''s hard to know where to start.

[Iwans Big Toe 312]

[quote user="Nuff Said"]Just to be clear, the complete agreement was with Purple. Your ''argument'' is so full of holes it''s hard to know where to start.[/quote]Just to be clear. Foreign owners, boooooooo.........

[Iwans Big Toe 312]

To re-emphasise so you understand. The fact is that many Norwich fans take an all too Norfolk attitude of "we don''t like furriners". There is a misconception spread by a few Norwich fans that all foreign owners are bad and that Delia and MWJ must be good because they''re British, and it''s a nonsense. Quite frankly 2017 and a "we don''t want them furriners comin'' over ere and buyin'' our football club" attitude is antiquated and belongs in the 1950''s.And to take Purples argument and shove it back down your throats. Foreign ownership may not be the reason why Arsenal have such a better record than us, but it most certainly is the reason why teams like Man City, Chelsea and even to some extent Southampton do. Do you honestly think that Chelsea and Man City would have won all of the trophies they have over the last 15 years without major foreign investment?Now this most recent appointment of Webber seems to be seeing us heading in the right direction as a football club. Especially with the departure of Nutty''s favourite staff member, but I am along way from being convinced. After all, when the board appointed Alex Neil it looked like we had turned a corner. But here we are 2 years later in a worse position. Let''s give it a bit of time before giving Delia and co a ticker tape parade and exclaiming what a great decision they''ve made with the new sporting director.