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The Fish Seller

The open letter from NCFC Associate Directors Group

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From the EDP the letter in full.Open letter to Roger Munby, chairman of Norwich City Football Club,

from Nigel Bertram and Alan Bowkett, chairman and deputy chairman of

the NCFC Associate Directors Group

Dear Roger,

As you

know we are respectively the chairman and deputy chairman of NCFC''s

Associate Directors Group which is a team of local businessmen and

supporters who collectively own approximately 5pc of the equity in NCFC

plus substantial sums in the preference shares. Please note the views

in this letter are our own.

Over the past five years we have met

with you and Neil Doncaster on a number of occasions to see how the

skills of our group can be utilised for the greater good of the NCFC

family.

Sadly, our advice has been dismissed the majority of the time.

Perhaps

our only success has been the introduction and financing of the

Employee of the Year Awards for non-footballing colleagues at the club,

an event you have now decided to abandon.

You are aware that we

have been dissatisfied with the executive management of the club for a

number of years
, culminating in our preparation of a financial analysis

of the situation and strategic options open to us in December 2007.

To

the board''s continuing shame you categorically refused to meet your own

shareholders to discuss the proposals
; proposals that were developed

with the sole aim of improving the situation.

We now know that

you believed we were in concert with Peter Cullum as you were then in

negotiations with him in complete secrecy.

Ironically, no

member of our group knows this man and it was only through logic and

financial analysis that we concluded that some £25m needed to be

invested, a similar sum to that calculated by Mr Cullum''s advisors.

We

are acutely conscious that all the directors love the club and have

taken decisions that they felt were the correct ones at the time.

However,

good intent is not the only skill required to manage an enterprise:

skill, leadership, vision and empathy with all stakeholders are

essential
.

The board does not have these attributes.

The

mistakes during your stewardship are legion and well documented in

correspondence and internet postings throughout the county and beyond
.

Suffice to say we are now in the third tier of English football, our financial situation is dire, we

do not have a team, the loyal supporters are distressed but we do have the best ground in the third division
.

Under

your chairmanship and Neil Doncaster''s executive leadership the quality

of our product has deteriorated every year since 2004, losses have

continued to mount and debt piled up
.

The only honourable

course open to you both is to resign forthwith without compensation,

the board to search for a new chief executive, appoint a new chairman

from the local business community and work with the current majority

shareholders to get us out of this mess.

For the avoidance of doubt, neither of us seeks to join the board.

Unfortunately,

we do not expect you to listen to our arguments alone and therefore we

will be consulting with various stakeholder groups to ensure that we

create a sufficient groundswell of public opinion that will be

resolute, indefatigable and irresistible.

We must end this uncertainty now.

For this reason we have made this letter public.

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And again from the EDP the Boards response in full.The Norwich City board issued the following statement last night:In

response to the letter, we thank these two gentlemen for their passion,

which drove them to invest £25,000 each in the club in 2003. Their

views are as valid and as interesting to us as those of the many

supporters who have aired their views today at the club''s open day

supporters'' forum.We are disappointed to see a suggestion that

we failed to meet with Alan and Nigel. On the contrary, Andrew Turner,

Roger Munby and Neil Doncaster all met with them on 14 January 2008 to

discuss their ideas at the time. These ideas focused on bringing in new

equity (something that Delia and Michael have been trying to do for

some while) and taking on further institutional debt - something that

the board do not consider to be in the best interests of the football

club.Rather than react piecemeal to advice and criticism, we

now need to thrash out a clear, effective and realistic strategy for

getting back to the Championship at the earliest possible opportunity,

which demands a proper and diligent debate, including a debate about

the manager''s position, the player budget which can be made available

to the manager, the kinds of players we need to populate the squad, the

composition of the board of directors, the ongoing search for wealthy

individuals who are prepared to put substantial sums of money into the

football club, and many other issues besides.It''s always much

more difficult to come up with constructive solutions, rather than

simply identify the problems. The board must, and will, come up with

these constructive solutions, rather than respond to individual ideas

about how we move forward, however well meant they may be.As

and when the board has reached a view on all these major issues, we

will of course be consulting with supporters in the usual ways.

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The Board seemed happy to let  Roeder dish out P45s like confetti.  Now the shoe is on the other foot,  and fans want them to go they won''t because they''re fortunate enough to be in a position to refuse.

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That roughly sums it up!

P*** off we will do what we want when we want and how we want.

We are the majority shareholders and will do what WE think fit.

On the Dole Doncaster, never mind the clanger

Steady on nows your chance Hurrah........

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The response from the board is completely in corrector.

 

There must be changes at Carrow Rd starting at the top.

 

The biggest change has to come in the boards attitude to investment.

 

FOOTBALL MUST COME FIRST

 

I''ve been saying it for years and will keep saying it.

 

FOOTBALL MUST COME FIRST

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Ermmm....well, what was the advice apart (apparently) from suggesting last year that the club borrow more money?

A sort of Division Three "Cullum moment".  Awesome.

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That is really depressing. As Butler points out, the implication is clearly that the Board will decide what''s best for all of us and we can all wait patiently for the puffs of white smoke from the Vatican chimney.

 

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The board''s reply is a joke. How many times do they need to sit down around a table and thrash out the best way forward for the club?

They have proven time and again that they are not capable of moving the club forward and also not capable of appointing the right people to do that!

So it is time for them to resign and let someone else take the club forward!

So Mr Doncaster and Mr Munby if you read this, it''s time to resign...you have proven incapable of running the club effectively..you are not wanted here anymore! Go!

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[quote]

The board''s reply is a joke. How many times do they need to sit down around a table and thrash out the best way forward for the club?

They have proven time and again that they are not capable of moving the club forward and also not capable of appointing the right people to do that!

So it is time for them to resign and let someone else take the club forward!

So Mr Doncaster and Mr Munby if you read this, it''s time to resign...you have proven incapable of running the club effectively..you are not wanted here anymore! Go!

[/quote]Didn''t they say at the last AGM basically say they didn''t have a clue what to do next?

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Well done to Nigel and Alan, I suspect a lot of us minor shareholders and supporters in general share your views.

Time to put the pressure on.

I am not sure of the implications of this, but can someone let me know how and what''s needed to call an EGM to tell the board we have no confidence in their running of the club?

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[quote user="gazzathegreat"]Well done to Nigel and Alan, I suspect a lot of us minor shareholders and supporters in general share your views. Time to put the pressure on. I am not sure of the implications of this, but can someone let me know how and what''s needed to call an EGM to tell the board we have no confidence in their running of the club?[/quote]

Whilst their letter and stance appears admirable Gazza they completely miss the fundamental point. I read the article and other stuff in theEDP and they want Munby and ND out but want a new Chairman and directors ....''to work together with the current majority shareholders''! So, in other words they are quite happy for these Stowmarket Clowns to still call the shots!

ND out? - OK fair enough but why RM? Munby is a mouthpiece pure and simple for the rest of the Board and removing him would have ZERO impact or influence.   

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I believe we are treading on dangerous gorund again here. I want nothing less than Delia, MWJ, Doncaster and Mumby to leave!The press and fans seem to be giving the board a get out in that "If you sack these to people and let huckerby return all will be forgiven!" A chief Executive will be employed by Delia and MWJ and so will do as they say, nothing will change in player budgets etc... They will just have a different face doing the spin for them.A vote of no confidence in Delia and MWJ is what we need and for the press to make it clear that the price she has puton the shares is absolutely ridiculous. If Cullum or another wealthy person is willing to take over then they can not be allowed to keep quoting their ridiculous price for the shares. This just allows them to state that no offer has been made for the shares and that is what is required to buy the club.I am sick of the sight of her and MWJ and will not believe we are heading in a forwards direction until they are driven out and removed. 25 Million is a massive amount of money to invest at present and take on the debt so the figure of 16 Million for her shares plus this is ridiculous and laughable. The press are not doing a good enough job in making this clear to Delia and MWJ.We must not let them get away with more scapegoats and fan appeasing signings. Change is required at the very,  very top of our football club not the corridors of power below. At present they are hanging on for a pension fund and sum of money in a climate that is driving investors away due to the overvalue of a LEAGUE 1 Football club.

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[quote user="Yellow Rider"]

Whilst their letter and stance appears admirable Gazza they completely miss the fundamental point. I read the article and other stuff in theEDP and they want Munby and ND out but want a new Chairman and directors ....''to work together with the current majority shareholders''! So, in other words they are quite happy for these Stowmarket Clowns to still call the shots!

ND out? - OK fair enough but why RM? Munby is a mouthpiece pure and simple for the rest of the Board and removing him would have ZERO impact or influence.   

[/quote]

I agree in part, YR. While he''s hardly covered himself in glory, and has said some pretty breathtaking things himself on occasion, my suspicion is Munby deserves a whole lot less flak than any of Tweedledum, Tweedledee, Clancy or The Invisible Man. If he goes, I think Tweedledum and Tweedledee will just bring in someone even worse, who''s even more of an apologist for their idiocy.

On your second point, though, the problem is this. Tweedledum and Tweedledee own the club and have set ridiculous conditions on selling their shares. So many people are still so oblivious to the damage they''ve done that at this point, our best bet is somehow to work with them and get real professional expertise onto the board. I''m sure those behind this letter want them out every bit as much as we do - but we''re caught between a rock and a hard place. Trying to force them out now will inevitably lead to the fans being blamed for killing the club. It''s drip drip - and staggeringly, things probably have to get even worse (by which, I mean further relegation or at least seriously flirting with the drop to League 2) before enough people are willing to actively protest and boycott.

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[quote user="Camuldonum"]

Ermmm....well, what was the advice apart (apparently) from suggesting last year that the club borrow more money?

A sort of Division Three "Cullum moment".  Awesome.

[/quote]

I suspect their advice has probably been very much along the lines of what the Turners no doubt suggested after a year doing due diligence. Something to do with slashing the non-footballing wage bill, not employing five full time press officers, that sort of thing. And it was ignored - by a bunch of complacent toads who should be ashamed.

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I''m kind of with thebigfeller on this.The reason we need to work with the majority shareholders seems to be because of the debt-repayment issues which kick in as soon as they no longer own the club. Assuming that no investor has the money to repay the institutional debt AND invest in the team, that leaves D & M retaining their majority stake.It would, at least, be a positive step to introduce new Directors, from the local business community. The benefit (hopefully!) would be to inject new ideas and vastly improve the business model we work to. The position of Neil Doncaster is rapidly turning untenable, when Associate Directors, minority shareholders and an apparent majority of fans have all lost faith in his ability to make a positive contribution to solving our problems.You need to make a start somewhere - making some changes at Boardroom level is, perhaps, the best place!

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Yellow Rider, I suspect they have added that bit in as, for now, there is no alternative to the majority shareholders. Perhaps with new bods in boardroom there might be more pressure on Delia and Michael to revise their thinking over many issues, not least a complete rethink about the price they might wish for their shares.

It''s a start on a very long road to the club''s recovery. Fans, shareholders and anyone with any feeling for NCFC must be encouraged with this statement from a group with influence and power. No, it''s not perfect, but it''s a start.

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Spot on Bigfeller, absolutely spot on. What a shame it will take a year after the Turners'' departure to get anything done re the way money is filtered through the club.

Football and infrastructure monies kept separate Neil, do me a favour!

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