Current Predicament...

[garethgillman]

The main problem is that we don't even know. There is no transparency there and it leads to even less trust and more questioning. A quick google search told me what it was under Di Canio as bad as that was.

People only question as they don't think before they spout rubbish and it then gets around, very few clubs will tell fans what their budgets are, most businesses won't say anything either..... I agree we need transparency but there is a limit of what can be said.

We do have very little in the way of actual seasoned pros and thats the only way its possible to pay low wages.

Delfo, Norris, Murray, Thomas, Thompson, Branco, Kasim, Obika........ all experienced pro's not on £700 p/w

Unless I am missing your version of what experienced means

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

What's your source on that? Did Power say it on the radio? The reason I ask is the only reference on relative budgets I can recall is that Terry Cooper (Mark's dad) mentioned that we'd have one of the smallest budgets in the league the year after the playofss - wait that was last season wasn't it?

Buggered if I can find that quote now mind. But this is from just after the PO final flop (1.5M):
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3098095/Swindon-manager-Mark-Cooper-having-sleepless-nights-League-One-play-defeat-expects-club-learn-lesson.html

I'd be amazed if last season was higher than that...

I'm with you in that costs had to be slashed to survive.

Thanks Batch. So at £1.5m we're looking at three times less than the Di Canio days based on that. Still doesn't add up to me. I can find quotes from Fitton when he took over saying we could have a sustainable wage budget of £2.5m on 7,000 gates. Our average was 7,409 last season and you'd base a budget off that. So why a budget of £1.5 or even £2m?

Can also find another article here stating one of the lowest in the division although doesn't state a figure....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3923860/Tim-Sherwood-unveiled-Swindon-Town-director-football.html

[JoeMezz]

I personally would not be happy at Power making 300k a year (random number given I know) for the rapid demise in our squad and performances in the last 2 seasons, whether the club is sustainable/making profit or not.

[garethgillman]

I personally would not be happy at Power making 300k a year (random number given I know) for the rapid demise in our squad and performances in the last 2 seasons, whether the club is sustainable/making profit or not.

There would have to be a lot of profit to do that so unlikely........ and if we get to that stage the team would hopefully be performing better than it is currently.

As a business owner though, he is in his right to pay himself what he wants as long as the business can afford it, 300k a year is about the same as a high earner player so isn't that much.

[JoeMezz]

There would have to be a lot of profit to do that so unlikely........ and if we get to that stage the team would hopefully be performing better than it is currently.

As a business owner though, he is in his right to pay himself what he wants as long as the business can afford it, 300k a year is about the same as a high earner player so isn't that much.

Football is not a business..

[RobertT]

If it were the 80's I'd agree with you, but that boat sailed a long time ago.

[RobertT]

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/14345620.display/

This was two years ago essentially, before he'd sold players and recouped money (which is what he has referred to when people speak of taking money back out).  By no means will he have got the full lot back yet.  He also then stated he increased the budget for Ajose last year and then again in pre-season this year.  The account sort of back up his statements given the reduction in Operating losses and previously published total wage bills (around the £5m mark a few years ago).  There is a fair chance that we'll have two years of small profits while sustaining around a £2m total player wage bill.

Anyway that's all irrelevant - people are asking that we spend more - the money has to come from somebody because we have no banking lines of credit available since the previous administrations.  Power clearly doesn't have that kind of money or desire to provide it without a way of getting it back.

To change that, somebody else needs to run the club and chuck money at it.  That seems unlikely - I don't that somebody would step forward, but they won't be able to achieve the cash without risking the club.  We need some assets, something that entices investors, we don't have it.

[chalkies_shorts]

I think everyone connected with the club is in a collective "depression". Nobody really wants to get out of bed but know they have to try - that's management, players and fans. So you get up and go through the motions whilst not enjoying it. As a player, do you make that gut busting run forward, do you make that last ditch tackle or is it just too much effort. As a fan, do you make that trip to Fleetwood or is it just too much effort.
It kind of creeps up on you and you don't know about it until you're in the full grip of it. You have very little energy or buzz.

[suttonred]

I think everyone connected with the club is in a collective "depression". Nobody really wants to get out of bed but know they have to try - that's management, players and fans. So you get up and go through the motions whilst not enjoying it. As a player, do you make that gut busting run forward, do you make that last ditch tackle or is it just too much effort. As a fan, do you make that trip to Fleetwood or is it just too much effort.
It kind of creeps up on you and you don't know about it until you're in the full grip of it. You have very little energy or buzz.

Pretty much sums me up. I could quite easily do midweek home and away. I have the time and money, but i know i'm highly unlikely to get any enjoyment once there, so I don't. I wont stamp my feet and shout about it, as It is quite refreshing to only have the piss taken because we are useless, not useless, skint, and in the courts again. It will come back, it always does, but by then I might be eating daisies, as it's looking at the moment.

[Peter Venkman]

I agree with the last two post totally.

Its good that we aren't constantly on the verge of going bust, going into receivership every 5 minutes or being under a transfer embargo but there seems to be no fun, just going through the motions at the moment.

It won't take much to ignite the flame in most Town fans and get the good feeling back again but it may not happen this season IMO.

Also the more I think about Sherwood though the more I agree with some that he may have been an exercise in smoke and mirrors to appease the fans, which is very very sad. If indeed he isn't then where the hell is he? come out in the press and say whats happening and what your exact role is.....oh wait a minute Swindon no longer operate that way with open regular communication with the fans (unless its Williams on matchdays and that alwats seems under duress) so its as you were.

[Batch]

Also the more I think about Sherwood though the more I agree with some that he may have been an exercise in smoke and mirrors to appease the fans, which is very very sad.

As I said earlier, for me the proof will be at the end of this window. Disregard their football ability, but if  we are left with Gladwin and the three Chelsea lads then his appointment will have been totally pointless. In short - we'd have got them anyway - so what does he do?

unless its Williams on matchdays and that alwats seems under duress.

Presumably that's contractual (having to give the interview)

[garethgillman]

Football is not a business..

in what planet is a football club not a business? just because you "support" that business doesn't mean it's not a business.....

You pay that "business" for a service, they record their income and they pay taxes on that income, they have staff and they are a registered as a business (limited company legally ....

Just because some owners decide to let their "business" run up millions of losses as they run them as hobbies doesn't mean they aren't a business.

[DarloSTFC84]

Football is not a business..

How do you figure?

[JoeMezz]

How do you figure?

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it is a business. Just feel like the more it's treated like a business for running profit, the less engaged the fans feel and therefore increases their apathy. This is the most disillusioned I've seen town fans.

[JoeMezz]

One of the biggest mistakes Power has made was to treat the fans like customers and charge full whack for tickets in the rearranged Rovers game, that 'business decision' has definitely lost money in the long run.