New board press conference thread

[RobertT]

There should be no issues with licensing, people have winged in the past but it never came close to stopping anything we have done in the past.

6 concerts per year is what Arsenal are trying to achieve, sounds like a plan.

The key bit was expressing that the backers can maintain the same funding agreed by Black (which is probably a little lower than we were spending in the past 3 months or so, but still sufficient to maintain the current squad).

Don't imagine the Private investors have been presuaded to go public by the shit Black seems to have taken (using Blacks own words on this, have no idea what it amounted to myself).

[Wandered]

Who would invest in/take over/rescue a club?  I have briefly met two of the new board and spoken at length to Callum Rice. I am not concerned by superficial concerns such as how they look/dress/speak. What I am interested in is stability promotion and growth. I think they were genuinely surprised by the PDC drama.

[Peter Venkman]

I remain in the cautiously optimistic camp at the moment and we should be following the phrase "dont judge a book  by it's cover". We need to give these guys time before all branding them as bullshitters and conmen, the one fact that no one can deny is that they saved us from a scenario that none of us would have wanted which would have been more than 10 points as we know how the FL love a good old STFC bashing. The financial backers not wanting to go public is a concern but they must have been revealed to the FL and passed a token fit and proper test which would have also been checks on links with other clubs etc, the one overriding question which could have been levelled at the previous guys is why invest in STFC what is in it for them ?

I agree with this.

[horlock07]

We need to give these guys time before all branding them as bullshitters and conmen, the one fact that no one can deny is that they saved us from a scenario that none of us would have wanted which would have been more than 10 points as we know how the FL love a good old STFC bashing.

Do we actually know this is fact, I only ask as it seems to have become fact during the process but I still cannot understand why if we go into admin for a third time we get banned, excluded and our bottoms smacked, but Pompey are deep into admin 3 and apart from a points deduction there has been no talk of kicking them out the league?

Not knocking the new or old boards, just genuinely interested.

[bobby barnes jink]

Who would invest in/take over/rescue a club?  I have briefly met two of the new board and spoken at length to Callum Rice. I am not concerned by superficial concerns such as how they look/dress/speak. What I am interested in is stability promotion and growth. I think they were genuinely surprised by the PDC drama.

We all are really (interested in stability) and they shouldn't have been (surprised by Paolo).

[horlock07]

6 concerts per year is what Arsenal are trying to achieve, sounds like a plan.

Looking at the guy I assume they are going to have a strong prog rock angle.. Not seen a close up photo until just now, he is not a young man with that hair is he, looks like the guy from Hanson after he let himself go.

[lambourn red]

Do we actually know this is fact, I only ask as it seems to have become fact during the process but I still cannot understand why if we go into admin for a third time we get banned, excluded and our bottoms smacked, but Pompey are deep into admin 3 and apart from a points deduction there has been no talk of kicking them out the league?

Not knocking the new or old boards, just genuinely interested.

Pompey have only been in Admin twice it is just the existing one has never been exited although the FL are losing patience and our now threatening them with expulsion if they dont sort things out before next season.
As for us we would have faced liquidation as the cashflow would have been severed completely as AB stated not a penny more so we would not have been able to trade day to day this is what Nick Watkins has already said. This would have been our third period of administration which would have been really viewed poorly by the FL and who knows what sanctions they would have placed upon us whatever they were - 10 points would have been the least of our worries.

[Power to people]

Like others I am concerned by their lack of transparency and why their new businesses / investors / bankrollers / family men want to stay hidden in the background.

The other thing is that the jobs they seem to have dished out to thremselves, are these jobs not done already by club staff ?

I do fear that Nick Watkins will walk away from this once he has completed his hand over and that will be a shame as thse guys have not got the experience of running a football club and will have to learn quick but with Nick around you would be relyed on to keep them on the straight and narrow

[horlock07]

Pompey have only been in Admin twice it is just the existing one has never been exited although the FL are losing patience and our now threatening them with expulsion if they dont sort things out before next season.
As for us we would have faced liquidation as the cashflow would have been severed completely as AB stated not a penny more so we would not have been able to trade day to day this is what Nick Watkins has already said. This would have been our third period of administration which would have been really viewed poorly by the FL and who knows what sanctions they would have placed upon us whatever they were - 10 points would have been the least of our worries.

No worries, I thought they went bang in 1998, 2010 and again in 2012, but its all irrelevant anyway.

[pauld]

As for us we would have faced liquidation as the cashflow would have been severed completely as AB stated not a penny more so we would not have been able to trade day to day this is what Nick Watkins has already said. This would have been our third period of administration which would have been really viewed poorly by the FL and who knows what sanctions they would have placed upon us whatever they were - 10 points would have been the least of our worries.

For that scenario to be credible, you have to believe that Black was willing to let the club go bust. He hasn't come well out of this whole saga, but I don't believe he'd have let the company fold on his watch

[pauld]

They award themselves highly paid salaries

Thought I'd bring this over here, so as not to derail the Matchday thread. I've seen a few people making this claim now but no actual evidence to back it up. I know Black altered the Articles of Association to allow Directors to be salaried, but that doesn't mean its automatic, just that its permitted. So is there anything more to this claim? (Apologies if I've missed it)

[Simon Pieman]

There should be no issues with licensing, people have winged in the past but it never came close to stopping anything we have done in the past.

6 concerts per year is what Arsenal are trying to achieve, sounds like a plan.

The key bit was expressing that the backers can maintain the same funding agreed by Black (which is probably a little lower than we were spending in the past 3 months or so, but still sufficient to maintain the current squad).

Don't imagine the Private investors have been presuaded to go public by the shit Black seems to have taken (using Blacks own words on this, have no idea what it amounted to myself).

Good post Rob, brings a bit of balance to some of the dismissive comments.

There are definite concerns and they've all been highlighted in some really good posts in this thread. I don't think what we have learnt so far indicates the success or failure of the club's management in the future.

What people are forgetting is that Fitton and Co did not release their plans for the club for some time, Maurice Malpas (a rather shit manager) took ages to appoint and some people are expecting things to happen overnight. From what I recall, it also took longer to reveal the entire board/investors than a few days.

[horlock07]

Who would invest in/take over/rescue a club?  I have briefly met two of the new board and spoken at length to Callum Rice. I am not concerned by superficial concerns such as how they look/dress/speak. What I am interested in is stability promotion and growth. I think they were genuinely surprised by the PDC drama.

During these discussions what was said regarding long term plans and substance?

[tans]

Patey on twitter:

@WCPatey: Some Swindon fans are saying the same nice things about the new chairman that they once said about me.  I wish him well and hope it lasts!

[lambourn red]

Like others I am concerned by their lack of transparency and why their new businesses / investors / bankrollers / family men want to stay hidden in the background.

The other thing is that the jobs they seem to have dished out to thremselves, are these jobs not done already by club staff ?

I do fear that Nick Watkins will walk away from this once he has completed his hand over and that will be a shame as thse guys have not got the experience of running a football club and will have to learn quick but with Nick around you would be relyed on to keep them on the straight and narrow

Gary Hooper has had several roles in League clubs as commercial manager which is no more than Watkins had when he arrived, as for Jed he runs a non league club as did A Fitton . The other point is that A Black and Maryn Arbib were also anonymous partners for a while when the old regime came in but  I guess if people have already made up their mind that these guys are crooks then there is very little point in stating the truth.