The Board, consultancy fees, Mercs and how to identify a duck

[manc_red]

Steve Crouch is now a director of stfc according to his linkedin account

Presumably has passed the fit and proper then. Good news, I think?

It'll be interesting to see what happens now. Based on what 'Fredi' said ( and to be fair he's been right on everything else) Crouch is the new owner and Jedders is on his way.

[horlock07]

I have no reason or evidence to base this on (so much like most posts on here!) but the fact that Crouch is involved reassures me a little, he does seem to have some contacts, gravitas and a decent business background.

Well his company has a flashy website anyway 

[Paolo69]

If Crouch is an accountant he does at least have a code of ethics which he has to comply with in order to ensure his membership (and the right to call himself an accountant). It doesn't mean much but it's a start!

[Boston Red]

Trust statement on delay in Jed's answer is up on our site now:

http://www.truststfc.com/2013/05/trust-stfc-reaction-to-delay-in-answers-to-written-questions/

Disappointing and with the new changes (Hall out, Crouch in) there's an obvious need for clarity. However, on the field's the most important thing for the next couple of weeks so not going to die in a ditch over this immediately.

[Sippo]

Can't blame them for waiting til after the playoff's.

Will the answers depend on which division we are in though?

[iffy]

Can't blame them for waiting til after the playoff's.

Will the answers depend on which division we are in though?

This is giving them an easy ride. The date for the play-offs can't have been a massive surprise, can it? They just had to flannel around for a week after the meeting "putting the answers together" until they could use the excuse "let's not distract the club around the play-offs".

After the play-offs, how surprised would we be to get another round of excuses?

Here's a choose-your-own-adventure bullshit excuse generator

  > win: "let's focus on building a team for next year"
  > lose: "we're all upset, let's take a moment to reflect"
  > either result: "getting promoted/not promoted has materially changed our circumstances. Everyone on the board was expecting the opposite result and thought we would be promoted/not promoted. This changes everything, so we have to rethink things" (ps this is not true)
  > either result: "there are new investors in the pipeline and we don't want to upset negotiations"
  > either result: (my favourite jed-question-ducker) "come on, we are all family guys here".

[Reg Smeeton]

This is giving them an easy ride. The date for the play-offs can't have been a massive surprise, can it? They just had to flannel around for a week after the meeting "putting the answers together" until they could use the excuse "let's not distract the club around the play-offs".

After the play-offs, how surprised would we be to get another round of excuses?

Here's a choose-your-own-adventure bullshit excuse generator

  > win: "let's focus on building a team for next year"
  > lose: "we're all upset, let's take a moment to reflect"
  > either result: "getting promoted/not promoted has materially changed our circumstances. Everyone on the board was expecting the opposite result and thought we would be promoted/not promoted. This changes everything, so we have to rethink things" (ps this is not true)
  > either result: "there are new investors in the pipeline and we don't want to upset negotiations"
  > either result: (my favourite jed-question-ducker) "come on, we are all family guys here".

This is a tricky one....it would of course be useful, to know what the questions were, before comdemning someone for not providing the answers.

It could conceivably be...at the moment they don't know the answers as it all still seems a bit of a fluid situation.

[iffy]

Fair enough, but whatever the questions were Jed and co committed to answer them promptly. And then didn't.

[Power to people]

You would think maybe that there are some questions in there that people will not like the answers to, so they can release these close season when everyone is either celebrating or crying into their beer and gone on hols and will not get upset about the answers

[manc_red]

Here's a choose-your-own-adventure bullshit excuse generator

  > win: "let's focus on building a team for next year"
  > lose: "we're all upset, let's take a moment to reflect"
  > either result: "getting promoted/not promoted has materially changed our circumstances. Everyone on the board was expecting the opposite result and thought we would be promoted/not promoted. This changes everything, so we have to rethink things" (ps this is not true)
  > either result: "there are new investors in the pipeline and we don't want to upset negotiations"
  > either result: (my favourite jed-question-ducker) "come on, we are all family guys here".

You forgot the old catch-all, top trump excuse for any scenario, favorite: "sensitive legal issues".

Fair enough, but whatever the questions were Jed and co committed to answer them promptly. And then didn't.

Precisely this. He/they are doing themselves no favours whatsoever.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Still no answers for another few weeks then. I can understand the play-off argument but like Iffy said how many more excuses are we going to get afterwards?

[Costanza]

I have not slated the Board once since they arrived (at least I don't think I have) but this silence/inability to answer questions suggests that there are bad times ahead.

Best to take that assumption and then be quietly surprised next week or after Wembley.

[RWB Robin]

The thing that seems to stand out about Crouch is that he has held a very large number of Directorships in his career, and most of the companies in which he has been involved have closed down.  As a tax consultant, it may be that that is his expertise, and he has been brought in when a company is in extremis but if that is why he is coming to STFC, rather than bringing investment (his own or others), then there are yet more questions to answer.

The delay in answering questions, which could perfectly well have been answered at the meeting - the board had had perior notice of them - adds to the continuing concern.

I will be there tomorrow with no thought other than supporting our team, but there will be much more to come regardless of the result(s) over the next few days.

[Reg Smeeton]

The thing that seems to stand out about Crouch is that he has held a very large number of Directorships in his career, and most of the companies in which he has been involved have closed down.  As a tax consultant, it may be that that is his expertise, and he has been brought in when a company is in extremis but if that is why he is coming to STFC, rather than bringing investment (his own or others), then there are yet more questions to answer.

The delay in answering questions, which could perfectly well have been answered at the meeting - the board had had perior notice of them - adds to the continuing concern.

I will be there tomorrow with no thought other than supporting our team, but there will be much more to come regardless of the result(s) over the next few days.

This is a bleak scenario that you paint....I think it more to do with Power, who appears to be based in La Suisse, and Crouch's expertise seems to be in overseas tax matters. I'd imagine if STFC can legitimately hook onto the zeitgeist of avoiding HMRC, then this is where Crouch comes in.

[Berniman]

Still no answers for another few weeks then. I can understand the play-off argument but like Iffy said how many more excuses are we going to get afterwards?

I got slated by the chimp earlier in this thread for suggesting that I believed this would be the case on the day of the Q&A session.

Apparently I was being anti-trust!