Thetownend.com

Sturrock will be offered a place on the board on Thursday

and if true i'd expect him to except

And?

What's your point?

...will he pay the cva then?

Really? Where did that snippet come from?

I think Sturrock would be fucking stupid to accept a place on the board tbh. I think he's been around long enough to spot when he's being set up - which, if the rumour is true, that's what it'll be.

fucking ridiculous.

ok, so he wants to get involved, brilliant - and at any other time I'd be all for it so he can vote on te things that count - but right now its just plain provactive - divide and rule amongst the fanbase.

I'd be very dissapointed in him - he should be able to see its just not the right time

that'd also be 7 board members - how many clubs our size have that? and that doesn't even include Seton Wills or Diamandis

Starnes
Wills
Gray
Holt
Bowden
Carson
Sturrock

If he accepted a directorship (which he wont coz he isn't fucking daft) he would leave himself wide open to abuse along with the rest of the board.

I can see why the board would want him to join - fans would be reluctant to slag them off with him sitting there. No, it's a fucking desperate move by a desperate board who know their days are numbered. Sturrock and the fans will see through it if the rumour is true.

Maybe someone could start a poll here or on the advertiser forum to see how much support there would be for Sturrock to join the board?

If Sturrocks daughter is reading this, tell your dad that we love him as he is and not to make a tit of himself by joining an idiot board.

Source ?

Bart

Come on, dont just drop things and then disappear.

At least when Mav drops controversial comments he has the bollocks to stay around and offer himself to be questioned !

1. Smart move


2. If this is true, don't you think the last poll had a tiny bit to do with it


PS comments last night with regards to his relationship with the board and his reply about him only commenting about it after Thursday speaks volumes IMHO

sturrock will back his employers to the hilt.beware the backlash after the forum.proper protests against the board should have happend weeks ago.prepare for loads of fans to reject the consortium after what sturrock will say

Dont discount what the Bartman has to say

or do

Not discounting what bart said Yeovil, just pointing out that i think Sturrock would risk looking a right cunt if he aligns himself with this board. He is obviously not going to want to piss off his employers by distancing himself from them behind the scenes or in public, but he needs to be fucking careful if he's planning to get involved in the politics. Positions of strength can easily and rapidly deteriorate into positions of weakness. Sturrock needs to play his cards carefully is all Im saying.

I think if this is true Sturrock will accept. Of course he's going to want more of a say in how the club is run.

Hes aligned himself with them already (all be it its hedge betting)what ever happens we will prevail its a locomotive with no brakes.Death throws or whatever ...goodbye Newbury 8)

I agree with certain comments YR

This thing has got so much momentum, you cannot paper over the chasms of the last 5 yrs with a new lovey dovey appointment

t just rumour at the moment though so lets wait and see.

Assuming it was true PS would go down in my estimations as a man. He/the team don't need the distraction. His involvement at board level would totally split the fanbase nullifying everything he has said about pulling together.

But as I say, rumour is all it is.

To be fair Sturrock hasn't been here for 5 minutes, let alone 5 years. Well all this shit goes back even longer than that I say, so he won't know the score. Football fans are a ficle bunch and I honestly believe that he [Sturrock] has been told this by individuals and of course he has reason to believe them.

Purely speculative, but just my theory over that.

Just like Dennis did when he met that"nice man" called Mike


Enough said

Ah yes but the opposite happened there, or so Wise has led us to believe. Wisey wanted full control of the club, was not given it and went. This would be a way to give Sturrock more direct control, even if it was just token for the public.

That's just the way I see things. I'm sure others will see it other ways.

He manages the team, who are doing fucking great

Get us out of this division

Do just that please

On another note....he might see it as a way for the fans to unify and get behind him, the team and the board.

The pysche of a Swindon Town manager, huh?

Nooooooooooooooooooo

he needs to be concentrating on coaching and motivating us out of this league. Nothing else is acceptable.

If it is confirmed (as Bart says) on Thursday, I will put a poll on every forum and we will see what the results will be

Hey I'm not saying he should be on the board! Just saying why he might accept the position should it become available to him.

Personally I feel he should stick to managing the team solely.

If it's true then that's proper sneaky by the board. those crazy cats. has an air of desperation about it though.

How are you Ben?

Working tonight ?

yep. accidentally came home with the store room key too. Anybody want a barrel of cruz campo for a reasonable price?

I am getting a taxi upto old town as we speak

You nailed any of those eastern european waitress's  yet ?

Whatever happens between now and the end of this season, if Sturrock joins the board he'll be solely responsible for bringing the previously 'shielded' players and their on-pitch performances into the whole 'Consortium in / Board out' debate.

As good a football manager as he undoubtably is, that's one fuck of a risky move for Sturrock to make imho and it begs the question as to why he would want to do that.

Just do that then please

nope. and I think there's only one from eastern europe (well Czech Rep. anyway.) The rest hailing from either Brazil or Spain. I loose track a bit.

I woke up with 5 bottles of  wine in the fridge :x

Damn that credit card :D

I think its mine............. :oops:

I wish I'd had the foresight to buy some wine before I went to work. I quite fancy a bottle or red right now. Oh well. I'll have to do with a glass of white which is left in the fridge. Good god times are hard.

If that's the normal Sunday routine then definitely count me in !

 :D

Ben...........you are a star !

If sturrock joins the board he can leave. I'm not convinced by him as our manager yet as he blames everything except himself and by going on the board it would just show he has no respect for the fans

Maybe they are just going to give him a token title such as Director of Football. Just a hunch..........unless he is planning on paying the 100k cva out of his own pocket and has been duped by the sn1 share fairy into beleiving that all will be well in the end with the current shite board.

~shudders~

Point is he should get on with his job and leave the politics to others.

Problem is he seems to have made his mind up that the best way to do his job is to maintain the current board. Presumably he believes their "vision" they must have sold him to come here in the first place. He hasn't got the history of over 5 years of crap from these jokers to assist with his thinking.

The net result, IMHO, will be to split the fan base even further. Nice one Luggy.

I've said it once and I've said it again. Managers come and go. Good ones get poached by big clubs. Bad ones get sacked. The clubs long term future is far more important than any manager or any short term success, though some don't want to see past that (understandable, in a way).

Without the right foundations this club will always be limited to what it can achieve.  This board are not capable of producing those foundations without a massive slice of good fortune. The consortium can with far, far less risk.

I think you've said it all really Batch. I can add nothing to that brilliant statement other than to again implore luggy not to split the fans and run the risk of attracting negativity towards himself. He don't need that. Nor do we, or the players. If he is stupid or gullible enough to do it, then so be it. Don't anyone say he wasn't fucking warned.

i wont be happy if Sturrock becomes a board member. will that not distract him trying to get results on the pitch for us? its a fucking stupid idea from our board and i can't see why the hell they would do it? maybe just to piss us off again! i wish they would sell up and fuck off now!  :evil:

Been a fair bit of talk on here about a split in the fanbase - to be fair, I don't think there is in any serious way as both anecdotal evidence and the massive majority behind the consortium in the Adver poll show. There certainly is a tactic to try and split the fanbase but it just hasn't worked - if anything it's shored up support for the consortium.

If Luggy does allow himself to be duped into acting as the board's shield, I don't see that working either - most fans are smart enough to work out what's going on and to differentiate between a manager who's largely well-liked and respected and a discredited board who (to say the least) aren't. It would be an interesting sign of desperation though.

I'm trying to imagine what it will be like watching or listening to luggy trying to lecture fans on behalf of the board. He has loads of credibility with the fans at the moment, no doubt about that. If he openly sides with the board though he can pick any county ground window he likes to watch his credibility fly away.

The board are desperate to cling on to power. Maybe they've offered Luggy an inducement that's too good for him to refuse?

Luggy; Don't let yourself be manipulated into joining a battle that the board wont win.

Fellas....(no birds seem to post on these matters)....this is a rumour posted by Bart.

   The only credence I would give it,  comes from something Sturrock said in one of his interviews about previous jobs etc.....essentially he stated that the only way that he could see himself getting a top flight job, would be building up a club and taking it through himself.

   Bizarre as it seems it is just about conceivable, that the Board may be prepared to effectively hand over the reins to PS, as a last way of saying   :fu: to the fans.

  I'll reserve judgement on a response though until it becomes a fact.

would he vote to sack himself in the future if everything went tits up?

Not exactly sure how you could have a fully fledged Director as your Manager.

Maybe he's going to be the clubs sponsor next season?

To be fair though, I still seperate the Board largely from the issue, which is ownership and control - Wills and Diamandis.  You could get rid of the Board and we'd still have the same problem, you could get a new owner and remove Diamandis' influence and find the Board members that remain can actually do a half decent job.

So, they could stick my Mum on the Board but it wouldn't stop the need to buy the club in my eyes.

  I can only think of one example of where the manager is also effectively the owner of the club.....Hereford.

  Peterborough were run by Fry both on and off the pitch and he still has the off field input....been a bit of disaster for them.

IF any announcement was accompanied by an announcement that a) Diamandis was leaving and had no influence

and b) we'd pay the CVA immediately

c) fans rep on board

d) most importantly, we won;t even consider moving to Chippenham, I'd be pretty bloody happy.

I am convinced by him as a manager, and he's level-headed and has football nous, far more so than any board member. BUT, it will end in disaster. It would immediately transmit ill-feeling to a Saturday on the pitch

Paul, please, do not consider it.

I'm 100% behind you and the team right now, but like you we have a long-term vision and concern - and that cannot and will not involve this board . You'll lose my support if you join them.

 Czech birds  :P

From what I have been told, I do not believe Mr Sturrock has what it takes to be an active board member.  He should continue to focus solely on the football side of things, leave the long term business strategy to the likes of the new owners!!

He's got more capability than anybody else on there, but it just wouldn't make sense.

For a man that walked away from Wednesday saying he didn't want to be involved in the political side of things, it's be one hell of a u-turn to accept a place on the board.

you're all looking at this the wrong way: i say, get sturrock on the board, he can then slay the tyrannical beast from the inside.

(also, i think blair could do a job in accounts)

Maybe I could give one example of why I am uncomfortable with Sturrock joining the board, apart from the obvious fan-division angle:

I listened to Luggy on friday night on the phone in. While I like his style as a manager and applaud his intentions to get touchy-feely with the fans and the business community, I was taken aback by his comments about the players win-bonus scheme. IIRC, he said he wasn't happy with it and would change it if he could having agreed that it is very high compared with other clubs (Boston were used as an example by a caller) wage structure, let alone their bonus schemes.

He also hinted that he'll change it next season (presumably fucking slash it more like) I honestly believe that Sturrock shouldn't be commenting on that sort of thing in public. Players hear comments like that themselves or are told what he said by fans, which can only lead them to believe that they are all going to be paid less next season.

Not sure about anyone else, but I do not want our players or their wags and families to be thinking about that sort of shit at this critical stage of the current campaign.

Also, surely any pro football manager would want a big win bonus payment structure for his players anyway, wouldn't he? What better way to motivate players than with tasty lumps of cash if they win matches? Presumably Dennis Wise was OK with it when he set it up with Power and Devlin, so why the fuck would Sturrock not want it too if he wants success on the pitch?

From what he said on the radio, he's already singing the fucking tune of our tight-wad board, who can't live with a bonus scheme created and funded by someone who fucking could afford it! What's he going to be like when he is a director? God, I can imagine the carnage as Luggy starts trying to convince us that Franchise football is the way forwards.

Shit like this really fucks me off. It's indicative of the way we're treated by the cunts still running the club. They seem to think it's all a fucking game to be won by lying, cheating and manipulating fans with moves like this. 5 fucking years of this shit is doing my head in.

And before anyone says anything, I know this is only a rumour at the moment. Luggy has already said enough and hinted enough to convince me that they'll do it though. Cunts.

I'm off to get bladdered and calm down a bit :beers:

I have stated this before, but I'm going to repeat it. The bonus scheme in place this season, is basically the one that was in place last season. I tried to reduce the amounts we paid, but in the end the players were happy to accept one fundamental change, namely, that whilst the amounts remained the same, the players only received a bonus if they were in either an automatic promotion place, or a play off place. Last season the bonus went down to cover 12th position in the table. According to last season's bonus contract, the amounts could only be changed up or down by 10%, dependant on promotion or relegation. You can, of course attempt to revamp the whole scheme, in agreement with the players. But remember, in the close season, everyone, the Manager particularly, was focused on gaining promotion, and the scheme ended up reflecting that ambition. It was also felt that the bonuses would be self funding, because with the team up around the top of the table, the additional attendances would provide the necessary monies.

Thanks for clarifying that Mark. I wonder what the fuck Luggy was on about on the radio then? He majored on the bonus scheme being very high. Listen to him and make your own minds up, but that was my take on it.

Reading between the lines then after Mark D has made things clearer, I don't suppose that our truthful speaking board could be trying to cast more suspicion on Mark, Bill and co, could they? Using Sturrock to add weight to their nasty little smear campaign? Surely not....

I hope you're doing OK Mark and are still recovering well.  Regards to you and young Stan. Hopefully you'll be back here one day :wink:

I think its safe to say Sturrock is in with the current board and no doubt a cut of the Chippenham move profits

I'll tell you what I think......To be honest I don't care about whats in place behind the scenes. I don't care what the players get paid. I don't care what bonus scheme they are on. I don't care whether Sturrock is on the board or not (Although I agree that I don't see any successes that would suggest it was a good idea). I don't care if Diamandis is there or not. I dont care if the Trust have a seat on the board. I don't care who the financial backers of the club are (Although I wish we had someone who had unlimited resources to throw at the club). I don't care for friday statements from the board or rebuttles from the consortium (who's telling the truth ? I dont know !).

What I do care about is that the club picks up and turns from a 'losing team' to a winning team. This season for me is far far better than I can remember for a long while. Its a crying shame that all that everyone seems to be focussing on is back room stuff that we shouldn't necessarily be aware of.

Football was once such a simple game ! As a fan it was all about turning up on a Saturday afternoon (or midweek evening) to watch your heroes on the pitch pit themselves against other teams (who often had better players, rising stars or waning heroes). Then it was down to the pub for a celebration or post mortem.

Times have changed and maybe not for the better !  :(

NMH

A total fallacy.

I've been reading issues of Bring The Noise from nearly 20 years ago and there are so many similiarites that it's uncanny. It's certainly not the walk in the park you make it out to be, coincidentally it was also one of our more successful periods.

This is modern football and it's all part and parcel of being a fan of a lower league football fan.

Great post NMH .......

The future's bright .. the future's ... getting back to being a fan!  8)

Oh and that's all well and good until there's no fucking club left to support!

Take the rose tinted specs off pal. I give a fuck about the club and how it is run as much as I do what goes on on the pitch. Without one, we might not have the other to enjoy or bitch about.

Sitting with your fingers in your ears, your eyes tight shut and pretending that as long as we're winning matches everything else will follow is bollocks.

I appreciate that the politics may bore you. Fine, but why slate those who don't find it boring and can see through the constant stream of shit that emanates from SN1 and Newbury?

Oh, and by the way, remind me why you logged on to a discussion forum in the first place? Was it to swap stories about how green the fucking grass is looking at this time of year, or to observe, debate, and get involved a bit?  Or maybe you can think of another reason?

First bottle of New world cabsav safely put away. On to the chillean stuff now. Hic :wink:

Am not trying to be controversial, or trying to slate you. However, to combine this and your last post I would simply say that the club has survived for 20 years following the similar circumstances that you quoted in Bring The Noise. We are never going to be a Lpool, Man Ure, Arseole or Chelski unless a multimillionaire comes in and spends money like water, builds us a massive stadium that we can fill week upon week and buys up all the best players in the world. And to be honest, I'm quite pleased that we wont be like that !

What I'm seeing now I'd liken more to my first experience of a general election where the country was ready for a change. There was so much gloom and doom while there was the promise of a new way and better life under the Tories. The country voted them in and life was great for a while. Then it all went tits up and it was time for promise under Labour. Again, a change and life was good for a while, but now it appears time for a change again.....What I'm saying is that power struggles are cyclic.

Still, the point of my post was that I want to concentrate on on the pitch activities. I want to see a bunch of nobodies shock the football league and become successful. Just like the 80s !  :D

NMH

I'm afraid you misunderstand me. I didn't slate anyone. I expressed my opinion, which is as valid as the next person's. I wouldn't dare slate anyone for fear of the reprisals from internet warriors.

My point is that I don't know who is 'spouting the constant stream of shite' as I am in no position to judge. But I do understand that we are 2nd in the league because we have got more points than at this stage in recent seasons.

NMH

See your point to an extent - but exactly what the Consortium is trying to achieve is that...a scenario where we can concentrate on the Saturday afternoons instead of whether we're being lied to by the board or threatened with moving to another town!

Get the consortium in and thats excatly what we'll be able to get back to, before thenm it simply won't happen.

If you just want to come and wat the team NMH I don't see the problem.

My only comment is that we have spent more money we should have this year (algedly), and have spent the bare minimum last year in an effort to break even. What are the spending plans under the current board for next year (given we have at least 100K more per year for 10 years to pay off the CVA).

The manager shoul stick to manaing. End of story.

I've been going for 40+ years and mistrust of the Board of the day and their shortcomings in running the football club have always been part of the scene.

  Right back to the early 60's when the legendary side that Bert Head built was dismantled because of lack of investment and ambition.....i used to love the TE chant aimed at the charman...."send Wilf Castle to Vietnam alleluyah....repeat

Yeah, fair enough NMH, I read your post again and you wern't slating anyone. Apologies for pitching in.

I think where I'm comming from is similar to what you want which is to be able to concentrate on the football. I won't sit around happily watching football while the board take the piss though. I may not be able to do much persoanally, but I will highlight what I think is wrong and why I think that.

The current situation is fundamentally different to the past in that the stadium development or a stadium move is key to our future. These things don't come along too often. We can not afford to fuck this up, or watch the money slip away into someones bank account leaving the club with fuck-all like happened at Oxford.

Power and Emmell have said that they will use profits to further the club if they take over. I'm assuming that the trust or council will make sure of that in some way but I do trust them from what I've read and heard. They have put 1.2m in already and have been treated disgracefully by the board since the plane crash. Despite that they still want in!

Diamandis and his cronies don't say what they will do with the profits, though we can all guess by their track record of lies and deciept. With all the shit that surrounds the board and the crap we've endured for years, I just want the cunts out and for them to take their snidey fucking business practices and political games back to wherever they crawled out from..

I don't want to hear any more of their bollocks, just for them to fuck off. Simple as really, and the quicker the better.

Last thing I'll say on the subject is that Terry Brady and his people were the saviours a few years ago now. Look what a disaster that was. I hope that Messrs Power & Emmell aren't the same.

Lets just hope that whatever happens results in an efficiently run club, managed well with a good product on the park that results in success at the club in a new stadium that is full of proud and fully satisfied fans.

NMH

The only similarity between the two is that they're external investors.

Power has already put money in - Brady never did.

Power has a blueprint - Brady never did.

Power will involve the fans.

I think the worrying thing is that some people are just focussing on the football and would probably not care if Sturrock got appointed to the board. It'll all end in tears if this happened with everyone.

I hope things change for the better. Obviously the future of the club is in the current board and consortium's hand and I hope for a satisfactory resolution. If it doesn't then I think that's when us fans will have to think of ways to put pressure on the management of the business even if we are winning.

Thats gotta be a piss take. That cunt called Mike more like.

Quite a few people sat back and took the winning period in the 80's where we were fiddling the finances.  Who knows how the club would have gone withouth the brown paper bags but what we do know is that it ultimately cost us promotion to the top league when we may just have been able to survive before the money flowed in.

This time we may not have brown paper bags, but we have more than enough of a concern about the direction of the clubs, decisions being made etc.  We could just sit back though because we are 2nd in a league right now (although this current boards management in part got us down here), because we'll let them get on with.  But this time, the very future of Swindon Town FC could be the cost - maybe not in 6 months, we may well get past the CVA date, but why would the next 5 years be any different to past 5? and to even contemplate Chippenham shows how mcuh at risk they can and will place us.  I'd rather make an effort to get involved now (and even risk a couple of years of consolidating the business) than sit here 2 years from now looking at a fixture lost for the Championship with all the STFC fixtures on the day we cease to be STFC.

Oh, and Brady never purchased the club (although SSW agreed to sell to him if he could get a ground built), he and the other two were allowed to be in charge (like Bowden, Starnes et al) by the major shareholder at the time.  He never had to have money to do that, he had no risk to himself.  Brady openly came in for property development, he mentions it when he took on the role as Chairman.  Power has already invested over £1m and is offering all profits from a development to first pay off SSW and then for the club.  Show me the comparison.

[/b]

That and the working with the supporters to get the fans involved at board level is enough for me, and his desire to keep the club in swindon. It all bodes well imo if/when it goes through.


Millom

I hate fonts