Swindon Town vs Bury: Match Day Thread

[ferret]

This isn't aimed at any particular individual, but it always amuses me when 'lifelong' Swindon fans say they aren't going any more because someone with no real ties to Swindon refuses to spunk millions and instead tries a different approach that doesn't jeopordise the Club's long term financial future. Yeah, that makes perfect sense; cut off the only major revenue the club has. You can all then moan when players are sold to balance the books....

I've read some absolute bollocks over the last few months, some on here but mainly on the God awful STFC fans page on Facebook. Over reaction doesn't do it justice. Yes it's been a crap season, but the worst ever? I can think of 2 relegations to the basement division in the last few years, Maurice Malpas anyone? Paul Hart? Power's a crook who's asset stripping: yeah, a league 1 club that doesn't even own it's own ground is a potential fucking goldmine, isn't it?

We've had a bad season. In August we start again. If you follow a club like Swindon you shouldn't expect, much less demand, success. You should hope for it. We haven't got a divine right to be fighting for promotion, no more than any other club in the league. The football's been bad. A lot of the supporters have been atrocious.

Yeah I'm in with this, too. I'm in my 20s and, yes, we fail to defend as a unit, but it's nowhere near the worst Swindon team that I've seen. So to witness veterans getting off on claims that this is some kind of historic nadir is pretty feeble.

[RobertT]

I'd be interested in seeing your workings, seeing as we're talking about proving a statement :-)

I think overall it's probably closer than most think because most of the Black money went into players bank accounts.  He did however fund the purchase of Cox and while Di Canio's spending was mostly on wages, he did get quite a few in for tens of thousands which probably add up to a bit.  Power has the potential badge of honour of investing more in one player than anyone since the 90's (Ndah possibly being the last one we spent big on?).

The main fault of Power's (which he won't see as a fault, or care about quite frankly) is the PR side of all of this.  Pre the Luongo sale, he could easily have made a big song and dance about the fact we had to pay 50% to Spurs of any profit, playing down the revenue, or even quoted much lower numbers as what "we earn" instead.  his view is that it's none of our business anyway - rightly or wrongly.

I'd love for Power to have Black's money and someone like Fitton to front it.  For all the fun we had under Black's ownership, we were left with nothing, not a hint of a club in a better position than he found it and very few sellable players (Ritchie having been flogged to pay the bills).  Under Power, we've brought in, and sold, more players of worth than any time in our history (even the prem season), look set to have a long term lease on a training ground and a wage bill under control.  Sprinkle some real investment potential on that and you'd be doing well I think.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

So, what's the concensus if he just provides more of the same, recruitment wise, this summer?

If we get fobbed off with more BOOs,  Barrys, Balmys etc ?

[REDBUCK]

Well there won't be one as the argument will just shift. If those recruited are duffers again then you could question those doing the recruitment as not being as good at picking a rough diamond as they think they are and  that Power's contacts in the game are restricted to Tum Sherwood and Pals.

On the other hand the Power sceptics would just say it's all a deliberate ploy to down the club.

[Chrystovski]

So, did we win?

[Tails]

So, did we win?

Yep. 3-0

[Reg Smeeton]

I think overall it's probably closer than most think because most of the Black money went into players bank accounts.  He did however fund the purchase of Cox and while Di Canio's spending was mostly on wages, he did get quite a few in for tens of thousands which probably add up to a bit.  Power has the potential badge of honour of investing more in one player than anyone since the 90's (Ndah possibly being the last one we spent big on?).

The main fault of Power's (which he won't see as a fault, or care about quite frankly) is the PR side of all of this.  Pre the Luongo sale, he could easily have made a big song and dance about the fact we had to pay 50% to Spurs of any profit, playing down the revenue, or even quoted much lower numbers as what "we earn" instead.  his view is that it's none of our business anyway - rightly or wrongly.

I'd love for Power to have Black's money and someone like Fitton to front it.  For all the fun we had under Black's ownership, we were left with nothing, not a hint of a club in a better position than he found it and very few sellable players (Ritchie having been flogged to pay the bills).  Under Power, we've brought in, and sold, more players of worth than any time in our history (even the prem season), look set to have a long term lease on a training ground and a wage bill under control.  Sprinkle some real investment potential on that and you'd be doing well I think.

You've forgotten that Black et al paid the CVA off, when coming into the club. If you think Black left it as he found it, when taking over from SSW, Diamandis, Holt, Grey etc, you might be advised to think again.

[Batch]

it was surely more saleable/as debt free as it had been for years.

unfortunately his desperation to get shot asap meant a chancer like  Jed could come in and just about keep it going by selling Ritchie and the catering contract.

[Don Rogers Sock]

So, what's the concensus if he just provides more of the same, recruitment wise, this summer?

If we get fobbed off with more BOOs,  Barrys, Balmys etc ?

My honest opinion is I really don’t think no matter what he does he can’t really win. He made his model clear,the first season it was working and we were close. Even then though as soon as January came he was being slated being accused of cashing in on Byrne Kasim Luongo etc which didn’t even happen.

This season has been poor but im not trying to make excuses but we were very unfortunate to go through a patch where injuries destroyed us. Kevin Stewart for example is showing he would have been a superb player for us,injuries elsewhere meant we couldn’t play Thomas.

I think the intention to replace the players sold was there but the fact is they were not good enough and that happens in football. My bit about him not winning is when it comes to the summer. If he signs cheap he will get shit and if we get decent players he will get shit about only getting them to sell in 12 months

[RobertT]

Reg, I was talking in terms of club infrastructure and he was more than willing to put us into Admin if it was needed to prevent him putting any more cash in.  While no CVA payment was due, the wage bill meant we were still only one month away from total financial collapse again when he decided he'd had enough (and I don't blame him by the way).  I just don't see much of a "legacy" having been left.

[Reg Smeeton]

Reg, I was talking in terms of club infrastructure and he was more than willing to put us into Admin if it was needed to prevent him putting any more cash in.  While no CVA payment was due, the wage bill meant we were still only one month away from total financial collapse again when he decided he'd had enough (and I don't blame him by the way).  I just don't see much of a "legacy" having been left.

The club had more or less been ripped apart by the dog days of Diamandis and co, fans getting banned, protests, etc

I'm not arguing for a legacy rather that in relative terms the Black era was less bad.....more like stepping in a dog turd, than falling in farmyard slurry.

[FreddySTFC!]

Reg, I was talking in terms of club infrastructure and he was more than willing to put us into Admin if it was needed to prevent him putting any more cash in.  While no CVA payment was due, the wage bill meant we were still only one month away from total financial collapse again when he decided he'd had enough (and I don't blame him by the way).  I just don't see much of a "legacy" having been left.

Definitely agree regarding a legacy being left. As much as I appreciate Black writing off the debt his overall exit strategy left a lot to be desired for a very respectable businessman.

[Batch]

@drs: still can't help have a nagging doubt that Sherwood helped us out in the recruitment of the Wembley squad, and that this year was us going it alone.

unfair? untrue? probably. but that's why next year is going to be interesting. good interesting, bad interesting. who knows!

[horlock07]

it was surely more saleable/as debt free as it had been for years.

unfortunately his desperation to get shot asap meant a chancer like  Jed could come in and just about keep it going by selling Ritchie and the catering contract.

But equally (I am emphasise I am no sort of Jedders apologist) there wasn't exactly a queue waiting that Jed was at the head of, without him taking a flyer Admin beckoned and thus being once again at the mercy of the FL.

At the very least Power brings stability which has been something lacking for the majority of my time supporting the club, I remember the heady and what felt like never ending, days of constantly refreshing this site to see if another takeover/bail out had fallen through!

I think football fans suffer from problems of financial perspective moaning that an owner won't put £20m into a club at a whim yet in the next breath moaning that burgers have gone up 50p.

[Don Rogers Sock]

@drs: still can't help have a nagging doubt that Sherwood helped us out in the recruitment of the Wembley squad, and that this year was us going it alone.

unfair? untrue? probably. but that's why next year is going to be interesting. good interesting, bad interesting. who knows!

While i can't disagree with that there were also other players that we got not due to him. The saints lads,Kasim was one of williams signings. Still say this year we were very unlucky with the 2 liverpool lads injury situations