They can huff and puff about new investment all they like

[The Fish Seller 0]

But exactly how much NEW investment has the Board managed to secure for the Club in the last 12 years?The share issue money.Have I missed anything?

[I am a Banana 0]

delias cook books [Y]

[hurricane 0]

In the Words of Paul Daniels "Not a lot"!!

Im sure they hired someone to actively seek new investment?? It must not be going so well i guess!!!

[missing in action? 0]

[quote user="hurricane"]

In the Words of Paul Daniels "Not a lot"!!

Im sure they hired someone to actively seek new investment?? It must not be going so well i guess!!!

[/quote]cant remember his name....keith harris? the king of smoke blowers

[hurricane 0]

Keith Harris with Orville the duck and chuckles the monkey!!

[missing in action? 0]

its ron...i think?

[lucky green trainers 0]

did the maj shareesholders loan the club £10m plus and then convert this to shares??? also - the turners put in a wedge - before their business hit the skids???but yeah - after spending so long getting to the prem - and only via a speculative investment model (share issue) - the maj shareholders probably chose to go back to what they knew worked from their other business ventures - steady growth from reinvestments based upon balanced books - the ''prudence with ambition model'' - which alas for them went west,,,as the prem took off with a much increased tv deal just as we went down - causing a goldrush whereby new benfactors/speculative investors entered the champs market - leaving us uncompetitive...recognising this - the board invited their own sugardaddies onto the board - the turners - who unluckily for all concerned seemingly had to withdraw before buying out due to the effects of the unfolding credit crunch upon their bussiness,,,and despite the city board being cleverer than the rest since relegation with land speculations/income from non-footy streams...and loading the team with (alleged) prem/champs ''inbetweenie'' loanees this summer...it seems such a huge turnaround in playing staff gave us the downsides - an underperforming team that couldn''t gell and gambles that didn''t come off...but with the club losing money after the turners took flight - and no buyers in the market - the maj shareholders have been unable to sell the club - and with only limited funds they rallied around four city legends - who it appears did their best in the jan transfer window - but maybe not enough - as we could go down to league 1....thats my take - i could be wrong///but as i''ve said before - it looks like the board have got an anti-midas touch that has dogged the club since we went down,,,surely our luck must change soon???

[lucky green trainers 0]

oh - and also didn''t the estate of g...watling write off £1m he loaned the club???shame the board directors didn''t match this at the time imo - then maybe we could''ve started the prem season with deano or crouchy up front rather than the doc,,,ouch...

[The Fish Seller 0]

I hear what you''re saying LGT and without getting bogged down in arguments over how much is involved I would just point out that the majority of those shares were existing so the money didn''t go to the club but the previous owner of the shares.The Directors have lent money, quite a bit recently but the key is in the word ''lent''. It has not been invested it''s been used to plug gaps and fills shortfalls and it shows as a liability on the books for any prospective purchaser.The hotel deal is basically a lease over 150 years with a one off up front payment instead of an annual charge, so to me that''s not new investment. The money from land sales was attributable to the Chase era, possibly if the Board had spent more then they''d have made an investment all of their own but they waited too long and we now have a white elephant.The catering was always there in some respect it''s been improved certainly but it''s hardly a new idea.We''ve always had sponsorship deals as long as I can remember it''s just the names that change.The Peterboro'' bank a/c counts and I guess the office income too as new fund raising methods during the period but apart from that there is no new business involved generating money for the club and large pledges etc from wealthy benefactors are non existant or actively refused. Ray Blower had some ideas and for his troubles was off the board in no time.I''m afraid the fundraising at this club is run more along the lines of a church summer fete than a multimillion pound PLC.

[lucky green trainers 0]

[quote user="Buckethead"]I hear what you''re saying LGT and without getting bogged down in arguments over how much is involved I would just point out that the majority of those shares were existing so the money didn''t go to the club but the previous owner of the shares.The Directors have lent money, quite a bit recently but the key is in the word ''lent''. It has not been invested it''s been used to plug gaps and fills shortfalls and it shows as a liability on the books for any prospective purchaser.The hotel deal is basically a lease over 150 years with a one off up front payment instead of an annual charge, so to me that''s not new investment. The money from land sales was attributable to the Chase era, possibly if the Board had spent more then they''d have made an investment all of their own but they waited too long and we now have a white elephant.The catering was always there in some respect it''s been improved certainly but it''s hardly a new idea.We''ve always had sponsorship deals as long as I can remember it''s just the names that change.The Peterboro'' bank a/c counts and I guess the office income too as new fund raising methods during the period but apart from that there is no new business involved generating money for the club and large pledges etc from wealthy benefactors are non existant or actively refused. Ray Blower had some ideas and for his troubles was off the board in no time.I''m afraid the fundraising at this club is run more along the lines of a church summer fete than a multimillion pound PLC.[/quote][:D]

[The Judge 0]

[quote user="lucky green trainers"]did the maj shareesholders loan the club £10m plus and then convert this to shares??? also - the turners put in a wedge - before their business hit the skids???

but yeah - after spending so long getting to the prem - and only via a speculative investment model (share issue) - the maj shareholders probably chose to go back to what they knew worked from their other business ventures - steady growth from reinvestments based upon balanced books - the ''prudence with ambition model'' - which alas for them went west,,,as the prem took off with a much increased tv deal just as we went down - causing a goldrush whereby new benfactors/speculative investors entered the champs market - leaving us uncompetitive...recognising this - the board invited their own sugardaddies onto the board - the turners - who unluckily for all concerned seemingly had to withdraw before buying out due to the effects of the unfolding credit crunch upon their bussiness,,,and despite the city board being cleverer than the rest since relegation with land speculations/income from non-footy streams...and loading the team with (alleged) prem/champs ''inbetweenie'' loanees this summer...it seems such a huge turnaround in playing staff gave us the downsides - an underperforming team that couldn''t gell and gambles that didn''t come off...but with the club losing money after the turners took flight - and no buyers in the market - the maj shareholders have been unable to sell the club - and with only limited funds they rallied around four city legends - who it appears did their best in the jan transfer window - but maybe not enough - as we could go down to league 1....

thats my take - i could be wrong///but as i''ve said before - it looks like the board have got an anti-midas touch that has dogged the club since we went down,,,

surely our luck must change soon???


[/quote]

Some fair points LGT - but where I have to disagree is around your use of the word "luck".

The board / Chief Exec consciously took the decisions around what they wanted to invest the money the club had coming into it over a sustained period - and it wasn''t the team. They also didn''t want to seek new investment in to the club unless it was on their terms, or someone who "got" Norwich, was community minded, came from within 1 mile of Carrow Road etc etc (i''m sure you can remember the crap Smith blurted out a few years back). Hence they invited the Turners to join the board (never really that wealthy - their COMPANY was worth £275m - how much of that was their own ? - not much now for sure). Yes few could have foreseen the downturn in economic conditions that forced them to back away totally - but they were never going to be the sort of owners we needed to compete regularly at the top of the Championship - but hey that didn''t matter they met Delias criteria....

So could they have attracted significant new investment in to the club ? - In my view the answer has to be YES especially during or just after our brief stay in the Premier League - but they orginally didn''t want this investment at all, they liked the kudos and attention ownership of a reasonably successful club gave them (and who wouldn''t ?), they then realised after spending the majority of  the Prem revenue and income from previous land investments on things other than the team, whilst building up significant debts in the process, that they needed abit more cash - hence The Turners. They disappear leaving an even bigger financial hole for Delia to fill - one she finally realised she couldn''t get us or importantly herself out of - hence her appointment of Mr Harris and plea for investment of any sort at a time when the markets turned against her....arrrrr shame..

Sorry - but the plight we find ourselves as a club (and Delia Smith as an owner) is not down to bad luck its down to absysmal decision making. Which is why I for one have NO sympathy for her one bit and if she loses loads more money it serves her right. First thing I would do if I were her is sack that muppet Doncaster who is supposedly the business brains behind NCFC and the one that should have been seeking new investment for the club all the time.

The only ones I feel sorry for in all of this - is us the fans, we turn up week in week out buying our season tickets year after year, buying shirts etc  because its in our blood - we have been let down badly. Some saw this coming years ago, others still can''t see why we are where we are - but one thing for sure its not down to bad luck..

[lucky green trainers 0]

sure judge - maybe luck isn''t the right word - i''m trying to be generous - because clearly an end game is in sight (or should be) but imo if they wanted to sell at the top - then clearly they could have done so after our promotion - but alas,,,it seems to me that a large slice of their future planning/decision making during their tenure has been badly ''off the pulse'' and quickly superceeded by events,,,even relatively recently - when the board recognised they needed new investment - via the turners - this too ended in tears before they had hardly got their feet under the table - i don''t know enough about the turners personal wealth to pass comment - but after 10 years at the helm with just one prem season to their names and failing to gain promotion with 2 years of chute payments - surely the maj shareholders should have been looking to exit soonest from the scene lock, stock and barrel???  especially after the decline under grant which nearly ended in our relegation???wouldn''t most people realise their limitations after such failures and do the honourable thing - as grant did???i mean - why hang on??? - especially if cullum had been sniffing around as well???with two suitors vying for your crown - and having just survived relegation - not so easily after botching the jan tranny market yet again - imo this would have been the best time to sell,,,from a position of relative strength...especially when cullum came calling publically in the summer///gift/horse/mouth and all that...even if it meant playing the turners off against cullum and flushing out their investment into the club sooner rather than later (or not at all so it now seems)...so it seems the downward spiral continues - it now looks like we''ve sold our top scorer and top goal creator - and signed a load of unfit/injury prone dross...that has a league 1 look all over it,,,and only a cash rich investor/s could afford to buy the club - what bank would loan any money to prospective buyers at the mo???new investment will come into the club - but i fear it could be at a low point...

[Barry Brockes 145]

''First thing I would do if I were her is sack that muppet Doncaster who is supposedly the business brains behind NCFC and the one that should have been seeking new investment for the club all the time.''

Sorry to say Judge but I''ve thought for a long time that man is the main problem. He is not a businessman - he is a lawyer who fell lucky when Gordon Bennett left the club and the Board went for the cheap option of appointing the Club''s lawyer into the job rather than recruiting someone who was qualified to perform the role of Chief Executive. There are people who suspect that he is the main ''anti-Cullum'' member of the Board on the basis that if Cullum were to take control of the Club and bring in his own people, guess who would be the first out of a £180,000 a year job.