Stockwood interview: debt to be cleared early

There seems to be a very polarised attitude that the old regime got everything wrong and the new one gets everything right. To a certain extent, I think in similar terms. Then I think of other businesses I’ve known or been involved with.

What tends to happen is that the owners make a bad decision, realise (generally too late) their error and then make several further erroneous decisions (generally on the cheap) trying to put things right. This then pisses off the important people (customers), the product/service is devalued and a downward spiral (fingers crossed/hoping for good luck) ensues.

The new owners haven’t needed to make any major decisions yet as the manager & players are ahead of their plan. It’s clear that there’s a long term strategy which I’m pretty sure the previous regime never had. In general business, it’s how you respond to a downturn (for whatever reason) that defines you. Running a business is easy when you’ve a. got a plan and b.things are going to that plan.

It’s an old adage but seems very relevant. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

Don't feed the trolls, guys.

Quoted from GrimPol

One accuses me of being John, the other of Alan Partridge. Make your minds up.
But then that's all you have, derogatory remarks, no substance.

No  just of being  such a sad wind up merchant, who life is so sad  that this is the only way to get your kicks.Those who followed the crowd are those Fenty sycophants and hanger ons who did not or would not see where he was leading us and red crossed every anti-Fenty post.There is loyalty and then there is  blind self interest; learn to tell the difference.

Quoted from GrimPol

Not whitewash at all. But you quote LG's tweets as the absolute truth.
In business when you columnize Pros and Cons the hardest is to give them weighting.
Is low debt (1.5 mill is low in this industry) V perceived reputation? Owning one's ground V position in the league. My weighting is not your weighting, that is for sure.
Not knowing on which rung of the ladder 1878 found GTFC because your interpretation would be GTFC was on the bottom rung, other clubs (Scunny) haven't got a ladder, they are in a hole. You don't want to see any positives, I acknowledge any positives.
I'm glad 1878 bought GTFC, but I'm sticking to my opinion which I think is more balanced, and I'm not wallowing in historical cesspits.
You lash out at anyone that doesn't have groupthink or follows the herd, well that's fine.

I've no personal exe to grind but attempting to see any positives that came from Fentys realm is bordering on delusional.
Let's start with the ground "we own", the one where, due to years of neglect needed circa £80-90k spending on it and then the pitch, another £25k+.
Training facilities, balls that were so old they'd gone oval, playing surface is ruins needed major investment, gym, canteen, staff, masseurs.
Talking of staff, looking at how a "professional" club should be run is seeing the club now, not having a few of your "pals and yes men" bowing down to you and driving a lawn mower.
Fenty was caught with his pants down "chasing his football fortune" hand in hand with a convicted fraudster who'd probably sell your grandmother's ashes to the local garden centre!.
As for Lloyd Griffith's tweets as "the truth", they were!.
Day admitted AM was going to be involved and invest £1m of dirty cash into the club, but it's okay, it wasn't you're grandmother that got robbed just before her ashes were sold!.

Quoted from GrimPol

I tried to keep the 12-year-olds happy.
You happy?

Goodness me this has taken a sinister turn.

yeah, I'm out.

Quoted from GrimPol

I tried to keep the 12-year-olds happy.
You happy?

So you’re not John or family member after all, you’re Tim Westwood…

Quoted from GrimPol

Not whitewash at all. But you quote LG's tweets as the absolute truth.
In business when you columnize Pros and Cons the hardest is to give them weighting.
Is low debt (1.5 mill is low in this industry) V perceived reputation? Owning one's ground V position in the league. My weighting is not your weighting, that is for sure.
Not knowing on which rung of the ladder 1878 found GTFC because your interpretation would be GTFC was on the bottom rung, other clubs (Scunny) haven't got a ladder, they are in a hole. You don't want to see any positives, I acknowledge any positives.
I'm glad 1878 bought GTFC, but I'm sticking to my opinion which I think is more balanced, and I'm not wallowing in historical cesspits.
You lash out at anyone that doesn't have groupthink or follows the herd, well that's fine.

There are no pros to trying to get a convicted conman involved with the club. The only reason we didn't go the way of a Scunny etc is not through Fenty's kind heart that's for sure. We're just fortunate that the story was leaked and that the opportunity to involve a fraudster hadn't been there before for Fenty.

I despair at those that urge us to forget the Fenty years. We should always remember them.

Certain people on this thread are attempting to re-write the past by talking about small debt and owning our own ground etc. The past should always be held up for inspection and review. As Orwell quite correctly stated in the novel 1984

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."

Fenty no longer controls the present and as such we can delve into the past and see the things he didn't want us to see.

The ground was always owned by the club, why would that be some sort of benefit derived from his time. Fenty realised that he had no chance of selling the club without the ground, so he couldn't sell it, in the same way he would be hard pushed to sell a club burdened with huge debt, but lets not kid ourselves that debt was massive for a club of our size and in our position, that debt was almost the straw that broke the camels back when it came to negotiating the sale of the club and paying Fenty off.

I'll not forget his tenure, just so I can look at what we have now and rejoice.

When it comes to JF I must hold my hands up and say that for a large portion of time I bought (got caught) into his communication that no-one was willing to buy the Club and that he was holding the Club up.

Despite never been a 'fan' of JF, I spent many a year being what I considered 'pragmatic' about the difficulties that exist in running a football club, the main one being that it is not an industry associated with profit and therefore being 'understanding' of a local man with just enough wealth to keep it going without risk to the Club and being thankful for that.

I must confess to being a bit simple really, not idiotic, not completely stupid but I don't really look under rocks and search for conspiracies, I just plod along enjoying the view on the way. Even with this being the case, as age kept creeping up and taking slightly more interest in the finer aspects of the Club and it's running certain things started to become apparent, even without being on forums to hear wider views. Some people hear something once and can see through the message, others (me!) need it to be repeated a few times over a time period, but eventually everyone but the blind will see it.

I think most of the fanbase had seen enough to understand that JF was clearly holding the Club hostage from fans for either local status or riches to be gained through developments around a new stadium - or both - a considerable amount of time before the Alex May news.

At the point 1878 bought the Club, everyone will have had a view on how good/bad they felt JF did for the Club, and it's very apparent how some people here rated him! Although my final opinion of JF at the point of sale was a very negative one and I was delighted to have new owners, it still felt very nervy as to what would be in store. As mentioned, like most I have no idea the complexities of running a football club and given the previous 20 years, what could these guys do that would categorically be better?

The answer is simple: everything! Simple though I may be, I have a personal belief that when trying to organise or run a Club, event or task, no detail should be considered too small. It's in the fine detail that you find the best quality, the touches that impress, that add additional value and can be what separates the fine line between success and failure. It was the big issues that ultimately made JFs role untenable, but it was the small details that when you look back at it all that provided the consistent period of below par performance across most area's of the Club.

The new owners have had to spend a lot of money bringing up to scratch the range of small details JF neglected but we're seeing how much they've played a part in galvanising the fanbase, aiding the playing and coaching staff in fulfilling their job to the best of their abilities and changing the entire outlook of a football club.

I don't agree with GrimPols assessment of the previous regime but I'm not going to try and convince him/her to abandon his thoughts, they're his/her views and I don't believe it's anyones place to try and force them to change.

What I would say, however, is that regardless of your view at the time of his tenure, I would measure his success by comparison of the feeling around the Club today. Record ST sales by over 2000 is not 'luck'. Selling out of home shirts on day 1 is not 'coincidence'. It's people recognising that the current incumbents of the Club are not neglecting the present, not neglecting the fans in pursuit of a personal legacy. As a fanbase we - in the past - have been over-expectant, impatient and overly-critical, but this has been in response to failures at boardroom level with no desire to learn or change. Those attributes are not prevalent right now because the owners DO have a desire to learn and WILL change  when they make their learnings. If you didn't see things as board room failures before, then 1878 are conclusively proving that they were.

I'm in agreement with everyone who has said we must remember the past. For those who aren't naturally distrusting of people, there needs to be frame of reference and evidence to judge the present. Hopefully in 10 years time we can still be sat here, comfortably playing in L1 and celebrating prolonged good times and that provides the evidence for the next 10 years and the standards we should expect from whatever owners we have at the time.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

There seems to be a very polarised attitude that the old regime got everything wrong and the new one gets everything right. To a certain extent, I think in similar terms. Then I think of other businesses I’ve known or been involved with.

What tends to happen is that the owners make a bad decision, realise (generally too late) their error and then make several further erroneous decisions (generally on the cheap) trying to put things right. This then pisses off the important people (customers), the product/service is devalued and a downward spiral (fingers crossed/hoping for good luck) ensues.

The new owners haven’t needed to make any major decisions yet as the manager & players are ahead of their plan. It’s clear that there’s a long term strategy which I’m pretty sure the previous regime never had. In general business, it’s how you respond to a downturn (for whatever reason) that defines you. Running a business is easy when you’ve a. got a plan and b.things are going to that plan.

It’s an old adage but seems very relevant. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

Gold star for you Codger, you posted a lot of common sense, especially the old adage which has come true many times.