Club Accounts

Quoted from Poojah

Still question marks there, for me. Like all managers, Paul Hurst has signed the occasional stinking player, but I can’t ever remember him having a stinking summer window (with the possible exception of Ipswich, under very different circumstances).

Why now, with the biggest tail wind we’ve had in years, does he fúck it up so badly? How did we end up with such a gutless crop of players, when even the less talented Conference sides back in the day always had a good go?

Is it just an anomaly, or was a degree of responsibility for recruitment shifted away from him? Not trying to start a conspiracy theory, it’s just really odd in the context of his priory history.

this is my mindset also, the 1 year we have a bloke in charge of recruitment, and we've signed this squad...

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

My thoughts exactly, where on earth do we go from here based on the fact that we can't increase matchday revenue by much and are unlikely to have cup sales/player trading that generates an additional 900k each year.

It's entirely laudable that they are converting 3m loans to shares, but what's the medium/long term prospects for us as they look pretty bleak to me based on that.

They are trying to make the club look in a good financial position to attract investment , logically that's the only reason why + not wanting the club to ever be in a mess like many others accumalating debt year on year .Fair play to them they are doing their best .

This brings home the stark reality of where we're at doesn't it?

We can't generate enough money through normal income to be seriously competitive.  There's clearly more we can do increase income (commercial for example) but we've also all but maxed out ticket sales for example. Limited scope here.

We're hemorrhaging money all over the place on a decrepid ground. Only going to get worse I would imagine.

Moving to a new ground would alleviate the extortionate maintenance cost of BP and scope additional income streams for the club. Alas, we can't afford to move to a new ground.

Any profit based seasons are reliant on unaccounted for windfalls, or as Fenty would have said 'footballing fortune', such as cup runs or player sales/sell-ons.

Can't rely on cup runs. Player sales has potential and I've long advocated that production line of talent that we can identify, develop and sell. Conteh is a great example of this, but it only works if you get a replacement in and do the same. Or at least have a success more often than not with that approach.  I don't see a sellable asset in the current squad now Conteh has gone so it'll need another in the summer or a youth talent emerging and attracting sufficient interest.

Regardless of how we make a profit. It feels like when we do it's high pressure to convert any additional investment into success.  This season was a bust on that. We had the investment and we drunk it up the wall. Now we need to wait to see if there's any windfall and we can make benefit of it.

I wonder if the stark reality is hitting home for 1878 of how difficult it's going to be to move us forward and how 20 odd years of chronic neglect, at a point when others really progressed and developed, has left us snookered.  Thanks John!  

Quoted from Poojah

Still question marks there, for me. Like all managers, Paul Hurst has signed the occasional stinking player, but I can’t ever remember him having a stinking summer window (with the possible exception of Ipswich, under very different circumstances).

Why now, with the biggest tail wind we’ve had in years, does he fúck it up so badly? How did we end up with such a gutless crop of players, when even the less talented Conference sides back in the day always had a good go?

Is it just an anomaly, or was a degree of responsibility for recruitment shifted away from him? Not trying to start a conspiracy theory, it’s just really odd in the context of his priory history.

Without wanting to slip straight into regional stereotypes, I think he’s used to being tight/frugal and when he’s got some money he doesn’t know what to do with it. Like that bin man who won the lottery, spunked the lot and ruined his life.

A bit complacent and a bit arrogant in terms of not appreciating what we had in some positions (goalkeeper especially), and doesn’t seem to want to ever be in a position where he looks like he’s begging for someone to stay. Was the same when we went up in 15/16 - Amond, Toto, Arnold all allowed to basically walk without a fight and never adequately replaced.

I did wonder what Stockwood was getting at last week when he said Hurst had spent the summer essentially recruiting outside of the plan/model/criteria or whatever the phrase was. Presumably the criteria was “not shít” and Hurst missed the memo.

Like has been said previously, think he overestimated his ability to get an almost entirely new squad of persistently underperforming players to achieve their full potential all in one fell swoop.

Quoted from ska face

Paul Hurst wants stringing up (metaphorically speaking) for the summer recruitment.

Paul Hurst masterminded the playoff run and Cup run that gained us £6.8m in revenue, but he signed a few iffy players this summer (Eastwood, Mullarkey and Rodgers are the only three for me) and therefore he's a disgrace and subject to this kind of post.

Quoted from diehardmariner

This brings home the stark reality of where we're at doesn't it?

We can't generate enough money through normal income to be seriously competitive.  There's clearly more we can do increase income (commercial for example) but we've also all but maxed out ticket sales for example. Limited scope here.

We're hemorrhaging money all over the place on a decrepid ground. Only going to get worse I would imagine.

Moving to a new ground would alleviate the extortionate maintenance cost of BP and scope additional income streams for the club. Alas, we can't afford to move to a new ground.

Any profit based seasons are reliant on unaccounted for windfalls, or as Fenty would have said 'footballing fortune', such as cup runs or player sales/sell-ons.

Can't rely on cup runs. Player sales has potential and I've long advocated that production line of talent that we can identify, develop and sell. Conteh is a great example of this, but it only works if you get a replacement in and do the same. Or at least have a success more often than not with that approach.  I don't see a sellable asset in the current squad now Conteh has gone so it'll need another in the summer or a youth talent emerging and attracting sufficient interest.

Regardless of how we make a profit. It feels like when we do it's high pressure to convert any additional investment into success.  This season was a bust on that. We had the investment and we drunk it up the wall. Now we need to wait to see if there's any windfall and we can make benefit of it.

I wonder if the stark reality is hitting home for 1878 of how difficult it's going to be to move us forward and how 20 odd years of chronic neglect, at a point when others really progressed and developed, has left us snookered.  Thanks John!  

To sustain anything higher up they need investment probably sooner rather than later imo .

I don't buy in that you can't be competitive at league 2 with a modest budget irregularly or get promotion as lot's of teams prove . But to be a league up we need (as much as it pains me to say it) Lincoln levels of investment .

I think it's literally just recruitment was so so bad ,as everything else seems good ; which is weird as normally when clubs get all their ducks in a row off the field they do relatively well.

Quoted from Poojah

Still question marks there, for me. Like all managers, Paul Hurst has signed the occasional stinking player, but I can’t ever remember him having a stinking summer window (with the possible exception of Ipswich, under very different circumstances).

Why now, with the biggest tail wind we’ve had in years, does he fúck it up so badly? How did we end up with such a gutless crop of players, when even the less talented Conference sides back in the day always had a good go?

Is it just an anomaly, or was a degree of responsibility for recruitment shifted away from him? Not trying to start a conspiracy theory, it’s just really odd in the context of his priory history.

3 summers of recruitment for us in the FL and they were all poor. Weakening us in each one.

16/17 - Some out of his hands in terms of outgoings and no doubt constrained by a low budget but he brought in some dogshit.

22/23 - Best signing was getting Andy Smith back on loan. 2 lads he signed and used sparingly are going great guns in our league after he binned them off. Again, difficult due to a reduced summer for the club.

Somehow, perhaps more a reflection of his ability to get stuff out of players, we did OK. 16/17 he left us in a decent position and with a sellable asset in Bogle. 22/23 was an overall finish we would have taken to start with.

23/24 - Just a total disaster. Rose a great addition, Conteh turned a good and future profit. I think Vernam will go onto prove a good signing. Other than that, absolutely excrement. Made worse when you consider we let Orsi and Wearne go as part of the recruitment window.

Love the bloke. Thankful for what he's done.

But his recruitment for us at this level is shocking.

Quoted from ska face

Without wanting to slip straight into regional stereotypes, I think he’s used to being tight/frugal and when he’s got some money he doesn’t know what to do with it. Like that bin man who won the lottery, spunked the lot and ruined his life.

A bit complacent and a bit arrogant in terms of not appreciating what we had in some positions (goalkeeper especially), and doesn’t seem to want to ever be in a position where he looks like he’s begging for someone to stay. Was the same when we went up in 15/16 - Amond, Toto, Arnold all allowed to basically walk without a fight and never adequately replaced.

I did wonder what Stockwood was getting at last week when he said Hurst had spent the summer essentially recruiting outside of the plan/model/criteria or whatever the phrase was. Presumably the criteria was “not shít” and Hurst missed the memo.

Like has been said previously, think he overestimated his ability to get an almost entirely new squad of persistently underperforming players to achieve their full potential all in one fell swoop.

I honestly thought when Crocombe left , he had a high high end keeper lined up at league 2 level .

Quoted from Mariner_09

Paul Hurst masterminded the playoff run and Cup run that gained us £6.8m in revenue, but he signed a few iffy players this summer (Eastwood, Mullarkey and Rodgers are the only three for me) and therefore he's a disgrace and subject to this kind of post.

I have to add Wilson & Pyke because they are never on the pitch + doubt they came cheap .

Quoted from diehardmariner

3 summers of recruitment for us in the FL and they were all poor. Weakening us in each one.

16/17 - Some out of his hands in terms of outgoings and no doubt constrained by a low budget but he brought in some dogshit.

22/23 - Best signing was getting Andy Smith back on loan. 2 lads he signed and used sparingly are going great guns in our league after he binned them off. Again, difficult due to a reduced summer for the club.

Somehow, perhaps more a reflection of his ability to get stuff out of players, we did OK. 16/17 he left us in a decent position and with a sellable asset in Bogle. 22/23 was an overall finish we would have taken to start with.

23/24 - Just a total disaster. Rose a great addition, Conteh turned a good and future profit. I think Vernam will go onto prove a good signing. Other than that, absolutely excrement. Made worse when you consider we let Orsi and Wearne go as part of the recruitment window.

Love the bloke. Thankful for what he's done.

But his recruitment for us at this level is shocking.

I think that’s a bit harsh. The 16/17 window doesn’t excite when you look back on it, but he still had us in and around the play-offs when he left, with all the financial constraints you mention.

Whilst you can find fault with last season, home performances in particular, we still achieved our highest league finish in almost two decades and made the FA Cup quarter final.

Compared to both of those, this season is a complete aberration.