New beginnings - 25% Truth, 80% Bollocks

[Peter Venkman]

Signing wise, if we get Kinsella and a big defender in before Colchester, then I'll take that.

I said exactly this to a fellow TEF'er about 20 mins ago.

[welshred]

There you go. Around 16 minutes and hopefully will put some fans at ease. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0fy634r

Nice to finally hear from him. £250 million in turnover isn't that big for a business in that industry though.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Turnover means fuck all - it’s net profit that’s important.

[welshred]

Turnover means fuck all - it’s net profit that’s important.

I know that. I was just stating that I would have expected a global construction company to have a higher turnover, that's all.

[Batch]

it's good to hear from Clem though.

[JoeMezz]

More promising interview... patience town fans.

[Mooneyraker]

Good interview. Worth a thousand advisory boards. Good questions from Andrew Hawes as ever. Fair play to Clem.

[Peter Venkman]

Good interview. Worth a thousand advisory boards. Good questions from Andrew Hawes as ever. Fair play to Clem.

Is it Hawes interviewing him? didn't sound like Hawes to me. Either that or Hawes was sat on the loo during it!

[Nemo]

It's Hawes. Some interesting quotes:

"You can throw money around, lots of clubs have thrown money around, it doesn't mean you actually get better players. Last season we threw a bit of cash around and tried to get players but if you don't understand the league, you can throw as much money as you want here, it doesn't mean you're going to get promoted"

"Hawes: Have you been able to provide them with more funds than last season?"
"I don't really want to talk about budgets, but we're going through all the numbers, we don't want to sign players who are just going to sit there and not actually play." (bit more to that, but essentially, question dodged)

Lots of talk about how he wants to take a more back seat role in terms of public persona and day to day running of the club - which to be fair he did say from Day 1.

Axis secondees understand how he (Clem) works and can help support the club and the development in particular.

Putting money in behind the scenes - to the ground (maintenance, not the new developments), to the pitch to the academy etc. Building the right foundation for generations to come.

[Frigby Daser]

Excellent interview. Agree that’s so much better than a fans forum, with diversionary questions about the price of chips. He’s so much more confident talking about business than football. Best I’ve heard him speak - but then he makes some sensible points about the football too.

He’s right that we don’t guarantee success by signing players, but alongside that they’ve got to make sure we progress. Over to you Flynn and Jamie Russell.

[RobertT]

That is the role the Trust should be playing, once per month, instead of the current format of submitting e-mail questions and getting one word responses or three line whip answers.

Even in that interview, Hawes lets him off a small detail right at the start - he asked about a Winding-Up order and Clem responds by talking about the NSW business being liquidated following a restructure.  The Winding-Up order was petitioned in the UK against the UK business (no idea on how that played out in court, or if it was delayed or dismissed).  Again, it is very likely nothing to worry about, but it is the sort of line of questioning you want to do with a person knowing you have 30-60 minutes with them.

Seems pretty certain Axis have the gig on the ground - to be expected.

Overall - this is what you want from the Chairman/CEO of a football club.  I fully appreciate he has a day job, and a night job - BUT, you buy a football club, expect the irritation of it consuming far too much time relative to turnover.  It's not a normal business.  Someone at the club would be well served by getting him and Rob to give them some bullet points from which they pull together an Exec update once per month - they could even parse it into a bunch of smaller updates over a few weeks.

[Mooneyraker]

That is the role the Trust should be playing, once per month, instead of the current format of submitting e-mail questions and getting one word responses or three line whip answers.

Even in that interview, Hawes lets him off a small detail right at the start - he asked about a Winding-Up order and Clem responds by talking about the NSW business being liquidated following a restructure.  The Winding-Up order was petitioned in the UK against the UK business (no idea on how that played out in court, or if it was delayed or dismissed).  Again, it is very likely nothing to worry about, but it is the sort of line of questioning you want to do with a person knowing you have 30-60 minutes with them.

Seems pretty certain Axis have the gig on the ground - to be expected.

Overall - this is what you want from the Chairman/CEO of a football club.  I fully appreciate he has a day job, and a night job - BUT, you buy a football club, expect the irritation of it consuming far too much time relative to turnover.  It's not a normal business.  Someone at the club would be well served by getting him and Rob to give them some bullet points from which they pull together an Exec update once per month - they could even parse it into a bunch of smaller updates over a few weeks.

As discussed, I do think that the current Trust hierarchy are either too focussed on the Stadium JV, which is to be expected, or too compromised by their relationship with Zav to act as most other Trusts would. They either need to separate out the stadium element or a new body is required. Where were they on just accepting that the Advisory Board fulfils the EFL requirement for a fan's forum for example? No right minded fan believes that.

[Batch]

Excellent interview. Agree that’s so much better than a fans forum, 

disagree there, but better than the AB.

in fact I thought it showed why a fans forum is miles better than written q&a.

[Wobbly Bob]

The AB is useful for keeping a track of the bigger picture.
It's not only about the questions.
Yeah, the club could maybe devote a bit more care & attention to some of the responses.

Duff questions are just as likely to crop up in a fans forum or a phone in as they are via email.
Direct answers can also be avoided in a fans forum or in interviews etc.

Just a case of the club striking a balance with AB, forums, phone ins & interviews re the dissemination of information.

The benchmark to aim for is in keeping the relentless Mooneyraker happy I guess.

[Mooneyraker]

The AB is useful for keeping a track of the bigger picture.
It's not only about the questions.
Yeah, the club could maybe devote a bit more care & attention to some of the responses.

Duff questions are just as likely to crop up in a fans forum or a phone in as they are via email.
Direct answers can also be avoided in a fans forum or in interviews etc.

Just a case of the club striking a balance with AB, forums, phone ins & interviews re the dissemination of information.

The benchmark to aim for is in keeping the relentless Mooneyraker happy I guess.

This is spot on. And I’d say that they’ve placed far too much emphasis on the ABs recently and neglected the others, unless you are a 15 year old on TSTBL.

And yes, keeping long term fans/customers happy is the benchmark for most successful businesses.

Not sure why I’m drawing your ire but hey, thanks.