Thetownend.com

Hi. As a regular forum watcher not poster and a devoted town fan of 40+years, I would be interested in a yes/no answer to the following question: do you want Lee Power to stay as our owner? My view is yes I would, based on the positives of contacts within game, talent spotting, style of play and  player development outweighing the media ban -other than BBC WILTS - and lack of transparency with the accounts and finances in general. Appreciate it is far from clear cut in most fans minds but based on the current position and possible other options - trust ownership? - what are your views?

Personally I'd like someone who is absolutely loaded, is a Swindon fan at heart, and would throw money at it without wanting any return.

On the basis that is about as easy to find as rocking horse shit I'd say that Power is a better bet than the alternatives we have. (Think Oyston, the head cases at Charlton & Leeds or Jed again.)

Power isn't as bad as some make him out to be.

But he isnt perfect.

Truth is, as a Town we don't really get behind the club and don't really deserve much more than third level Football. If Power keeps us as a steady ship that can keep going then fair play to him. I'd love us to have an ambitious chairman who tries to take us forward but really, he'd be a fool.

What was wrong with Jed?

He was loaded and was a man of the people. Great times when he was here.

Don't much like the bloke from the little I've seen. I have (baseless) reservations about the guy.

But as Posh said there aren't too many mega wealthy owners wanting to bankroll us - so the sustainability model is the only way available.

This really. Plus i think everyone forgets how scary it was when some of the previous boards have almost sent us to the knackers yard. I didnt think solvency and working to a budget would be so un thrilling !

No.
 he seems like a cockney spiv and Swindon, really doesn't need another London wide boy here.
I don't like him, I don't like Luke Warm and I don't like their brand of airy fairy, girly, after you no after you Claude, kind of football.

Nothing personal though as I've never met the guy. I'm sure in his breast lay a heart of pure gold.

Clearly...

Yes. Best chairman we've had in the last 10 years.

My old man said on Saturday during a real ale beer session....'well at l least you have a stable club to follow'.

That's it....my entire fucking highlight...

Spiv?! How old you? Unfortunately this is the usual childish rhetoric that comes from a lot of the anti camp in any debate on Power, in the absence of facts lets just throw insults at him as that'll convince everyone...

As for Power he's not the best owner but far from the worst. Club appears stable on the surface and he's not making promises he can't deliver like previous boards. Add in the training ground that should hopefully help the clubs player devrlopment and youth system in the long term means I'm reasonably happy.

Ultimately mid table league 1 is our historical position and without a wealthy benefactor it is where we will spend most of our time. With the the continued large losses made by other clubs to do this whilst breaking even shouldn't be sniffed at.
Many might not like this reality but it beats the alternative of going back to financial meltdown after financial meltdown. Maybe one day we may get a wealthy benefactor the in the mean time the club needs to remain in existence and operating at a sustainable level should at the very least ensure that.

I like him.

What a lot of anti Power people want (with the obvious I know it's not all of them) is the stuff of fairy tales. I think he's doing fine.

And I really don't give a fuck about the Adver. If that's the worst thing then we're doing alright, really.

 ;D

Don't knock it. It's like your boiler - you'll only think about it when it's knackered.

Can the mods create an auto-correct that changes Luke Warm to I'm A Knob or something.

Short term, yes. He appears to be getting us where we need to be off the field. Being pragmatic and stringent in all the right places. That is something we haven't had for a very long time. It will make us a stable nothing third tier club though - think Oldham and it must be fucking boring to support Oldham

Long term, no. Power does not have the funds or ambition to takes us forward. We will need someone else for that.

Let Power build the solid foundations, then let someone take it on and build the swanky house!!

He also replied to people's tweets, don't forget that..

I'm just waiting for him to do something now.  Grateful for the stability.  It's refreshing to know that you're almost certainly still going to be in business this time next month.  But I'm not clear how he's going to take us to the next level.

For a club of our size, we're well overdue a stint in - or at least a shot at - the 2nd tier.  There are plenty of smaller clubs who have achieved that - and better - since we last did it.  If you're 20 or over, you'll only ever have known lower league football at the County Ground.  How are we going to get there?  I do sometimes wonder whether LP is content to tread water in Division Three.

On balance, I'd rather he stayed.  Clear as mud, I know.

He has some odd ways about him, he is very set in his ways despite any evidence against that shown by anyone ever.

He is strict and at times naive, cannot man manage from what I hear and has pretty poor inter personal skills, has no money spare to invest in improving the club on or off the pitch.

Struggles with fans expectations of how a club should be run (in the fans eyes) does not enjoy communication with media/fans but grits his teeth and gets on with it.

But he has HIS way of getting the team playing, which when bringing in these young players from Premiership clubs suits their style they have been brought up on so they can thrive and we sell them for a nice profit, with almost all of them being freebies or very small fees involved so its pure profit when that happens.

So far he has got lucky and we have had a few players each season that have been sold/sellable assets so the model is obviously working at getting his money back that he has so far invested.

Whether or not that money will ever be reinvested in the team/ground remains to be seen but hes not done too much wrong so far in my book.

The other point is......there is no viable alternative whatsoever, hes the only one who came in and put their money where their mouth is and bought us, there is no knight in shining armour with millions just round the corner, no lifetime Town fan with money to burn, no arab billionaire who wants to create the new Leicester City from a div 3 club.....so what option do we have?

For me its a definate stay until proven differently.

Don't forget he also said rooooaaarrr a lot which is important in a football club owner  :D

Exactly -  although in terms of investment don't forget the training ground....

Has he though? Perhaps he just knows what he's doing. Considering the injuries we had last season, one could argue that he's been unlucky.

He also told a lot of lies!!

Seriously, what a total cunt that man is  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Probably the fairest summary I've seen.

Indeed, it's not luck (well, not on the whole), it's cooly calculated gambling while knowing how the system works, sort of counting the cards a bit in Blackjack.

Luongo
Byrne
Gladwin
Ajose
Kasim?
Obika?

I won't give him Thompson, but the style he implemented bore fruit there.

We have a stream of players with re-sale value.  It's the first time in a very long time that this has happened and it's because they all have something in common - recently with Prem youth systems, playing at a club that uses the Prem youth style of football to make them comfortable and shine, all young enough to get compensation if out of contract or young enough to have a promising career ahead of them.  We may have had some decent players in clusters before, but many were older, coming to the end of careers etc.  This is more than luck, it's the process.

The gamble - doing that while getting a team to perform well in League One - if they don't perform well as a group, the re-sale of individuals is likely to be less clear or as high.

I do wonder if the money invested was in fact Power's own? it might be some of his, but I'd wager (on no info) that he's holding funds from others as well.  If he keeps it up though, that investment should be paid back within another year or so, or at least the majority.  If he can keep the club on an even keel to pay interest on loans and some capital back alongside that, then he'd likely hit a point in a year or two of deciding whether to stick or gamble some more.

What me? :hmmm:

I think he struck gold with appointing Williams as a coach (judge out on manager side). Some of the improvement of the players has been phenomenal, and that has to be down to the coaching.

Well I didn't wanna say..

I don't get all the knocking of LP by some fans as to me he has done a bloody good job of getting this club stable. Our club out of most others has had the most financial issues in the history of football and people need to lay off LP.
Things are progressing off the pitch such as the new training ground etc and LP has openly admitted he hasn't got deep pockets and we are a club that has to develop players and sell on for a profit and I see no problem with that.
The season just gone was poor and everyone seems to the right to be in the top 6 every season.
People need to remember we have had some horrendous owners of this club and to me LP is one of the better ones as no one else has brought players in with their contacts in football and developed the players and soled them on for profit and people should be saluting him for what he has done.
Its his club his money and all of you would do the same if it was your money - which is take out what you want when you want it. He is the guy taking the risks and if it fails its him that loses all the money not any of us.
Having said what I have said the chance of us getting a multi millionaire as an owner is fairly remote. Their are loads of multi millionaires out there looking for clubs but our problem is we don't own our ground and we are not even on the list that would interest people to invest in our club unless the club can get some agreement with the useless Swindon council and they pass ownership to the club which lets face it will never happen not with the idiots at the council.
The problem is if LP walks who comes in ? but if people keep knocking him the way they do I feel one day he will tell us to get stuffed and at the moment I cant blame him if he said that as I think he's getting unfair criticism.
The problem with football the premier league are awash with money and the rest of the leagues they don't give a stuff about and the money should be dished out more to lower league clubs to help them develop not only young English players but improve the standards of all the leagues as a lot of clubs cant even afford an academy now due to shortage of money lower down.
The PL teams get more and more money and the lower league sides get less and less and the only way for club like us to survive is the way LP is doing it by developing young players and selling them on.
So to me LP has been good for us and lets see what this season brings which I'm sure LP and LW have learnt a big lesson and we will see a massive improvement next season on the pitch even though I think it will be more competitive than last season.  :pint: 

On the financial side he is running the club with what he's got.  Frustration for fans is that isn't alot.  He sadly isn't a very enthusiastic sounding guy.  He has a product he needs to sell to the fans but he doesn't.  He doesn't really want to be the one in front of the microphone. He could do with a chief exec who was someone who could sugar coat things and try to create some enthusiasm. 

After last season and with teams we will play next season he does need to return to his magic hat for new signings. Also needs to learn and admit a team full of technical lightweight players is not strong enough. He must balance it out with some strength.

Still expect loans turning up in august as we will have to wait to last second for players parent clubs to let us have them.

Keep him, no one else about to take over.

I think he's done pretty well to get us running at break even and he has decent football contacts.

Not everything is rosy in the garden but for now, keep.

End of the day I dont think we get a choice do we.  I am rather against the 'Sack the board' mentality. As may have mentioned before, there doesnt seem to be a queue of people trying to take over the club.

We dont own significant tracts of land developers can make a fortune out of.  We dont have masses of playing assets to make a fortune out of.  So if the plan is to bleed us dry and take us for everything we've got um, well, enjoy.

Offer me a viable option and Ill assess it and give an opinion.

Now Im off to get some ointment for these splinters in my arse.

The simple answer is I don't know and I would be surprised if anyone was confident one way or the other. On the footballing side we've had one nearly very good year and one nearly very bad year. We've some players come, develop and sold for good money. On the non footballing side we're getting the new training ground and we've not got everyone crawling out the woodwork about unpaid bills.
On the other side of the coin, we're clueless on finances but we always have been. Given ST sales and crowds you would expect us to be able to pump more into the playing side if we wanted to. Also given the lack of PR, Power can't really bitch too much if people put 2 and 2 together and make 4 or indeed any number. In the absence of facts, speculation will fill the void.  He is totally insular and that will always worry some.
There is one area though that really concerns me and that is the total lack of energy around the place. Even going to Wembley was flat as a pancake and last season even more so. There's no buzz and nothing to attract newbies. Nobody other than the regulars are talking about Town. There is no feel good factor - nobody to rally around whether its a player or manager.

He will be judged when he's gone like all the others.
I see the club much like Crewe now, live within means and sell any assets to keep it rolling along. The difference is the chairman runs everything which doesn't sit well with me when it comes to the football matters. I prefer people to be employed to do that with the chairman letting them get on with it.
It is what it is and there isn't a viable alternative unfortunately. Meh!

I thought the same until recently. When you look at players linking up with Cooper and the staff as well it seems cooper had a bigger input than we may have given him credit for.

Former players going to play for cooper doesn't mean that cooper had an input with the player signing for swindon. It could just mean that he had a player given to him, he then built a relationship and now he is a free agent thinks he would suit his new team.

I do actually think players are recruited like power says, management, scouts and owner discuss players on a short list and its power jobs to recruit and agree terms. For which I have no problem with. I couldn't care less if the the manager had no input on signings and this happens at lots of other clubs

I'm not sure you can say power isn't ambitious. He always says he is in this to make money and to this he needs to get the club to the championship/premiership. Id say that's ambition. Most owners with a real ambition to get promoted would invest heavily however but power is doing it on a smaller scale. The end goal is still the same and he believes he can promoted on a small budget, investing in young players and the loan market. I wish the club would market them selves better and actively seek fans like the trust are. Other than that I more than accept what power is doing and the way he is doing it.

Not necessarily. My understanding is that he didn't have much freedom and input. The matchday frontman apparently.

But the recent coaches and players like Traore and Hylton suggest he did. No doubt the last few months were as you described but i'm certain he had a bigger impact on things than he gets credit for

Dunno mate. Reckon there's elements of truth in both outlooks on it.

When I say luck I mean that as in every signing that makes it has an element of luck, whether it was Charlie Austin with us or Jamie Vardy at Leicester, there is always a portion of luck that can go with you or against you.

As you state he was unlucky with injuries but what Power does is that he scouts players that fit into our system, he doesn't sign players that can't play with the ball at their feet as I stated in the last post.

He has signed players that know similar systems to that which we play when they leave Premiership clubs so that eases their bedding into the system somewhat.

But there will be seasons when the players he has signed attract no bids from higher clubs for transfer fees, thats lower league football, it doesn't always work but so far it has for Power which IMO is down to good scouting or talented players and an element of luck as it always is with football, you can never tell who will be a hit or miss.

But isnt the training ground owned solely by LP and leased to the club making the training ground an asset to LP but not STFC?

The Planning Application has been made in the name of Swindon Town FC and on the form they have completed Certificate A confirming that the applicant is the owner of the site, so who knows?

Incidentally the planning application should be determined fairly soon, doesn't look like anyone has objected as yet?