Thetownend.com

After reading littles interview it looks like starnes could be staying not suprising really i would imagine they would possibly have know eachother from their respective times in ireland?

I have never really had a problem with starnes allways came across as alright in my opinion

I disagree. If I was going to experiment with the darker arts of man on man action then it wouldn't be with Starnes.

If you think he's your type though macca, then I say go for it!

He has always come accross to me as very, very defensive when asked even quite straight forward questions. I just see him Diamond Mike's puppet.

Me no like :?

Can't see Holt staying, he didn't have a role at the club, assuming Diamandis will be gone with Little running the show now, then surely Sandy has to follow as she forget's about VAT.

Not sure on Bowden he may convince them of his buisness connections due to working for NPower (Did you know that ?  :shock: ) and I would expect Starnes to stay either way.

I think he was over promoted, as he's definately not Chief Exec material. He an accountant, so really, if anything he should be the FD, taking over from Sandy Gray.

interesting that i think it was bob holt sat next to him at the press conference on the bbc news footage

Did Bob show him his stick collection?

Seriously, Bob and his cronies have got to go immediately, especially Diamond Mike.

why would they have known each other from ireland? starnes came from sherborne town, not shelbourne iirc.

i found starnes really arrogant and condescending when i met him. apparently everyone else has found him to be alright, so perhaps he didn't like me.

That's how he strikes me. :nod:

what is bob holts actual role, other than walking PR disaster? I've no idea what he was actually supposed to do. hopefully fuck all rather soon

Bet that Starnes and Holt and Gray all stay ...

Well if they do, that will say a hell of a lot about what is really going on in the background and how much Mickey D is still involved, won't it?

I have a feeling Starnes will stay and the other two will be shipped out within the Diamandis business empire.  Plenty of other businesses to ruin, sorry run.

That's a bit grandiose Rob  :soapy tit wank:

All of the previous lot should fuck off, and i include Wills and his knob jockey son in that, end of.
New broom and all that...

do you think a chant of "sack the board" during the game might help jim make his decisions?

The board are staying.

i think that should really be rephrased to "it would appear that some of the current board might be staying for the foreseeable future" which is about a million miles away from "the board are staying"

As of Monday morning, the board are staying as they are with the addition of Jim Bob and the probable exclusion of Carson. I didn't give timescales.

Yep, just like Little apparently said "Mike D will remain on the board".

Well for one, he wasn't on the board in the first place and two, I'd like to see him try and pass the fit and proper persons test.

It might even be: 'the board are staying until we're up to speed on everything, then we'll fuck them of as fast as we can'.

It may well be Steve.

But as far as I am concerned they are still here.

unless there was something in it for the current lot.i dont think they would have given it up to easily.
power went public on what he would give and they turned that down.so i'm mighty baffled to why they've taken this other lots dosh-investment that we still know fuck all about :?

exactly, but by saying "the board are staying" it's tantamount to suggesting nothing will change whatsoever and none of us actually know whether this is the case or not.

far too much idle speculation, cynicism and presumption. for once it would be nice if people could suspend their negative state of mind and give them a chance to prove to us they have the best interests of the club in heart, not judge them by assumptions based on words by a man who hadn't even spent 24 hours in the job.

why would they plough money in, and have a club they have nothing to do with at heart?
people dont just chuck huge amounts of money at something just for the sake of it.
we fans should be cautious at the very least about this takeover.
i think they must be after some capital gains in the long run

cautious, yes
outright damnation of all possibilities, no

They may plough money in to make us a successful club, QPR are being taken over by that formula one bloke briatore and i've read he is pumping in £100million, he, abrahimovic, that guy latvian at blackpool etc have nothing to do with the club at heart but want to make the club successful which would be great if our new owners are looking to do the same.

Reading Jim Little's words it sounds encouraging as does the fact that sturrocks is being given funds for players he wants but let's wait and see what happens.

I read a silly post on the football forum earlier where someone reckons we have £10million to spend this season to get us into the championship plus £20million to spend when we get into the championship, obviously total bollocks but would be amazing if true.

Surely the new owners cannot be as bad as the previous ones? surely not.....

Read that post again, it was Tails jokingly saying it  :roll:

As the fit and proper persons test currently stands, our understanding is that Mike Diamandis would pass, as the regs are effective as of March 2005 and are not retrospective. As Mike Diamandis' disqualification from acting as a company director (which if he were to serve now would disbar him under FPP) ended in Nov 2004 and the regs are not retrospective prior to March 2005, he would therefore not be disbarred under FPP. Which says substantially more about what a pathetic piece of window dressing the FPP test is than about his suitability to be a director of a League football club.

And people moan about A levels getting easier  :wink:

met up with Jim Little yesterday, seems like a nice guy.  Hell of a lot of Portugese people around including a coulpe of Georges!!

Five portugese players were hanging around reception at the end to go training on the pitch after the game. Overheard that they had to wait for a changing room to become avbl.

Apparently the only 'senior official' who has a safe job is Mike Spearman who will remain as 'official greeter' to the boardroom. I understand he does a good job in this role.

Apparently, the group that Jim Little represents has sporting interests in Europe and the states. They want a stake in England. They know that a Prem or Champ'ship club will cost silly money. So they have looked at us a club with prospects.

They know that when we are succesfully the people will come to games. - Last game of last season and our times in the Champ'ship & top flight when we were full on a regular basis.

So they are prepared to enter English football at our level and build on that. If they can finance promotion this term great.

They def have a long term plan to get us up there asap

How do you know ?


And wouldn't that be a short long term plan ?

They want to get us there and keep us there as it will look good on the company portfolio of holdings and interests.

I understand that, was just intruiged on what this long term plan entailed

           
    As mentioned by Sherlock Manatee a while back
   
     PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 4:11 pm    
 

That sounds fairly plausible but discounting my swindon town tinted specs for a moment, are we the best financial prospect (long term) for these guys to buy into?  Just a question like...

Sherlock Manatee is a fucking genius.

when we were in div1 the championship now we had one of the best players in england playing in Hoddle we were averaging 8-9k fans at home would that sort of attendance be regarded as a sucess. with regards we were a small club doing well how can we expect to grow to a club with the attendance of wolves west brom charlton etc in a short period of time considering we only get big gates for glamour games. its going to take a huge cash injection. i expect more stability but being as big as any of the top championship clubs is pie in the sky.it would take at least  10 years and a stadium like readings and average gates of 20k before we could realisticly say we are a big club

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/
Swindon-Town-FC.co.uk

I think you'll find our average attendance was more than 8-9K, as the stats above would testify.

If we are successful, we'll get the gates.

Look at Reading. When they were in the old 3rd division their gates were embarrassingly low, now they sell out most games.

We'd be just the same....

I'd be happy with stability, in my own selfish way I'm not sure I want massive glamour and success.

I think I agree.

I'd be more than happy if we could just get back in the Championship and establish ourselves there. I'm honestly not bothered about getting back in the Premiership. It's another world which I'm not that bothered about being a part of.

if we could do a reading-wigan-fulham i'd be elated.

we have the potential to be as big as reading admidetely. why when we were a div 1 club and a prem club was this potential not realised.kamara said in an interview after the legends game the ground is pretty much the same as when he last played here if you consider theyve had successful championship campaigns and a run out in the prem it apears not much money has been put back into the club. thats pretty much true the club has allready thrown away huge amounts of money and an oportunity to grow.why has it not hapened already if it wasn't taken forward then it will take some biblical event for it to happen now.

i also agree.

i'd be quite happy for the foreseeable future to be a club yo-yoing between the lower half of the championship and the top of league one. i don't think i'd want us to become another reading, wigan or fulham - i like being a small club.

premiership football is for sunday afternoons, swindon town is for saturday afternoons

I wouldn't mind some sort of super-unlikely amazing FA Cup run though, that would be fucking ace. Do you still get a UEFA cup place for winning that?

yeah but they're on about making it a champion's league place in the future.

that would be alright, wouldnt it?

could you see us playing bangor in the champions league qualifiers for chance of a plum draw against real madrid not sure if they would fancy it at the cg. :D

You have to finish 4th in the premiership for a Champions League place don't you? I guarantee that in my life time (I'm 23 now, you can judge for yourselves how old I'll make it to) we won't make the top 4 in the premiership without some major football league altering event - every other team get's kicked out for cheating or something.

We're much more likely to go out of business in that time. In fact, I reckon that in my life time we'll see at least one professional league dropped out in the English football pyramid.

Anyway Champions League games are about going to the pub, supporting the foreign teams and having a go at the most plastic of plastic supporters... the Liverpool ones. I'd hate to be in that position with Swindon.

i'd hate not to be able to show up on the day and get a ticket for a match at my local club. and to have the best seats go to whoever can afford a 2 grand season ticket or corporate sponsors.

with all due respect ive lived in liverpool ive been to champions league games and prem and fa cup games at anfield. up there liverpool man u everton its a whole different ball game we are genuinly very small fry by comparison.

Grr.... Blast Kingswood and their corporate seating.

Anybody know how long the new sponsorship deal lasts for? If it's 3 years and miracles happen, wouldn't it be amazing to be in the premier league with a council house re-fronting company as our sponsors?

That would be one of the most funny and brilliant things ever to happen.

It's a five year deal.

 :shock:

I guess what I'm driving at is this idea that these outside investors have decided that Swindon is the place to buy into as they can't afford to go for the big league but see us as potentially being able to get there - which would be brilliant.  History says we have been there and as some of you guys have pointed out, we could attract over 10k gates if we're winning.  I'm trying to think if I had 20 mill and had no affiliation to any league 1 or 2 club, who would I put my money into to get the best return over 10 years?  Discount Leeds and Forest as they would cost as much as a championship side.  Swansea got 17K home gate but would cost too much cos of the brand new stadium.  Notts County?  Founder member of the league, built-in rivalry with Forest.  Bristol Rovers?  Who has the most potential?  If you look at it that way and the answer genuinely comes out as Swindon then these guys may not be bullshitters at all but I could just be pissed 8)  :beers:

I wonder why STFCBIKER is reading the boardroom section having signed up in January and never posted. Never thought about making a contribution Mr. Biker?

How on earth do you expect him to post whilst hanging on to the handlebars of his hog at whatever speed he is doing but naturally inside the limit? :-))(

After the Trust meetings this week it appears I was right  :?

THe money we got for the Prem and what you get now in the prem is a million miles apart :(

I can just picture the scene now, STFC playing Chelsea, sell out crowd, & another 10,000 parked outside, cos it's the only place they can pick up Brunel Radio  :evil:

I think the parachute payments for relegation now, are more than the champions got when we were there.

When we hosted mighty chelsea in the top flight, the CG attendance was higher than the corresponding Stamford Bridge fixture! Massive club, true story.

  We got 1 mill parachute.....its now 30 mill.

   When we played Chelsea in the Prem, the crowd was bigger at the CG than at the Bridge.