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Wings

The problem with the board (Long Post)

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You can moan and gripe all you like about our board; everyone knows they''ve made more than their fair share of mistakes. Hanging onto Worthington so long, the continuing sense of failing to support the football side of the business and this black hole of a money pit that has seen substantial amounts of money put into the pot from the sale of players such as Dean Ashton, Robert Green and Leon McKenzie to see frankly meagre sums spent in return.

But credit where it''s due; the board has been excellent for certain areas. The "business" side of the football club has blossomed. The popular belief that Robert Chase bought the plots of land is untrue; that was in face this board. These plots of land have brought the club massive amounts of money that have stabilised our debts and the business ventures this board has placed into effect have stopped us going into debt.

But this is where my gripe with the board is; our club is an excellent business. And excellent businesses don''t make excellent football clubs. Don''t get me wrong, I''m grateful to Delia et al for everything they''ve done in the business and the debt regard - it''s likely without their efforts, this club would be in a far worse state, but frankly I want to see more emphasis placed on the footballing side.

In my opinion, a footballing mind is needed on the board. Someone who has the club''s best interests at heart, someone who lives and breathes Norwich City. I''m not looking for someone to actually take a position on the board (although I ultimately think that would be best); just someone to offer the board a footballing mind amongst what it essentially business men and women. I really think the board are out of their depth in the footballing world and really need someone who can advise them on the footballing side of things and isn''t linked to the staff we have running the club.

In my opinion, this would prevent another Worthington fiasco and hopefully offer someone on the board who will stop and say, "Hang on; we just got £X million selling our star player; we need to buy a worthy replacement first". I genuinely believe this would be to the benefit of the club.

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it was Chase that bought the Land.. he was going to construct an indoor "domed" arena on it.... thsi board did not purchase the land.. they basically Cashed in on the assets Chase Aquired.

agree wityh everything else though.. particulary how we need a football brain on the board!

jas :)

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Afraid you''re wrong Jas. That''s the commonly believed story, but it''s wrong; Chase was removed before it could occur. The board actually said that themselves when asked at the AGM.

Regardless, their use of it has ensured the long term future of the football club.

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the board say a lot of things that turn out not to be true wings....

 Im sure im not the only one who remembers Chase buying the old factory behind Carrow Road and his plans for the "Chase dome".

 Chase Aquired that land during our time in the top flight (the relegation season i believe), during which time he also financed the building of colney (which i bet our board will tell u they did as well!) It explains where most of the Chris Sutton Transfer Money went.

 have found a Link to a story on the EDP site which just about confirms that Chase bought the land

http://new.edp24.co.uk/search/Default.aspx?idxId=20&cacheTerm=Robert+chase1993050220070613

 he bought the land in 1994 and made a further aquisition in 1996... its funny but he said back then that the clubs long term future rested on buying these assets.. how right he turned out to be.

jas :)

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They have actually BOTH spent millions on land. And they have both seen a good situation on the "footballing side" go to pot because of this weird obsession with land and other infrastructure spending.

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Excellent post, Wings, where have you been all these long months of the Smudger and Cluck (may he rest in peace) affair??A football brain is exactly what our board needs, imo.  I believe Dave Stringer helped to advise them during the managerial search, maybe they use him on an ad-hoc basis at the moment? But I believe a more permanent position would be preferable, with someone like Stringer able to use his football brain to advise on the football decisions (I''m guessing they didn''t use him during the darker days of Worthy''s reign, nor during our Prem season).This to me, would be far preferable to simply shipping the whole board out and finding that elusive big businessman...

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I agree Wings re needing a football man on the board, and have advocated it in other threads. The board did utilise Stringer when they hired Grant, I would like to see a permanent board position opened up for someone with a football pedigree.

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[quote user="Wings"]

Regardless, their use of it has ensured the long term future of the football club.

[/quote]

And name me a championship club going out of buisiness?

Yes, some are struggling along, but even Leeds who were the biggest overspenders of the lot by tens of millions, and who were at one point were over 80 million in debt are still in existence.

Prior to this season we have made a neglidgable effort on the playing side during the close season - perhaps Worthy''s spend pre Play-off season being the most noteable and satisfactory amount.  Hopefully this season will see a change in direction and Grant being able to spend a notable amount, even though it is what should have beeen done these last two seasons when we had a greater profile as a club.

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Yes Leeds United are still in existance.

But personnaly I don''t fancy administration and calls in parliament for

an investigation by the serious fraud office, parliamentary calls for

HM revenue and customs to challenge the conduct of the administrators

in court.

Oh and guarenteed League 1 Football.

Incidentally they only get that if they can pay off their football

debts by the start of the season - otherwise they will be booted out of

the league.  If the challenges to the behaviour of the

administrators is questioned in the above ways, they will still be in

administration then and unble to pay these debts.

Given the amazingly dodgy way the administration was handled (first,

derisory, offer taken immeadiately. It was backed by 3 offshore

companies of unknown ownership which rejected better offers by groups

other than Bates) an investigation into the actions of KPMG would be

very welcome as they seem to have not acted in the best intrests of

Leeds United but of Ken Bates.

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Can only agree with those proposing someone with lots of football experience, expertise and "nous" to be on the board. They ae all good business people, but how much actual ''real'' football knowledge do they have and how often do they forget that we are a football club? Dave Stringer is a popular choice for such a position, I would also include Ken Brown as a possibility there.

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Sorry Foghorn, but we''ll have to disagree. This club was heading the way of Ipswich, being forced to sell their better players for negligable amounts (take a look at what Darren Bent is doing now; remember Ipswich sold him for just £2.5mil; compare that to Ashton and Johnson and how these players are doing for their clubs compared to Bent) and it wasn''t long before administration would have have to been considered.

Our board have, through the use of the land bought by Robert Chase and themselves, secured this club''s long term future. The loan we have now is manageable and I believe had it not been for this board, would have been far more serious. Would we have still existed? Probably. But we wouldn''t be secure in the knowledge that our club would be there in 5, 10, 15 years time.

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Adding to the knowledge of the Leeds situation.

Oh and the Players were all permitted to vote as creditors on the 1p in

£1 deal - despite them being  paid the full amount because of

league rules:

Players: (owed money is claimed by them and includes future earnings)

Gary Kelly owed £773,000 voted for.

Richard Cresswell owed £700,916 voted for.

Robbie Blake owed £294,666.50 voted for.

Danny Mills owed £216,666.68 voted for.

Others:

Dennis Wise owed £400,000 voted for.

Gus Poyet owed £200,000 voted for.

Barnet, Blackburn(£231,136.31), Celtic, Boro, Reading and Swindon also all voted for.

The only exception:

David Healy owed £40,000 voted against.

The deal then passed by 0.2%. If these parties who were unaffected by

the deal were not counted the vote would not have passed by a large

margin.  Given the nature of the situation only those actually

affected should be voting - this is where the basis of legal challenges

will come from.

That it did will deprive the taxman of £7,626,239.50 which will end up coming out of the tax payers pockets - ie ours.

Other major losses: West Yorks Police ~£80,000.  Royal Mail

~£16,000. npower ~£44,000. also owed money are schools, hopitals, the

ambulance service and St Johns Ambulence.

They really should be kicked out of the league, hopefully HMCR will

take them to court and they will end up being thrown out for not

getting out of administration in time to pay the money required to

remain in the league.

I really hope we don''t even start down a road that leads to that

result.   I also hope they get kicked out as an example to

other clubs that money doesn''t grow on trees and at some point you have

to pay the bills in full.

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