Thetownend.com

Outside of the Premier League we were the most successful FL Club of 2012, even then only the 2 Manchester teams were above us.

https://twitter.com/matthewmurray87/status/286503421287206913/photo/1


Give me all the post match rants, umbongo's and will he/won't he's every day of the week, this is a results business and PDC is getting the results.

Roll on Saturday

COYR

Long may it continue!!!

Any chance we can make sure Bertie black sees this? Any twitter folk know how?

If we keep this sort of form up we'll be in the Champions League in the 2015/2016 season.

It seems to me you can't argue with those statistics.  Obviously from a footballing perspective we can go on improving - we have been, after all, a League 2/League 1 club, hardly comparable with results from the Manchester clubs; but from an investment point of view - and that now seems to be the growing concern - we are a club with a real reputation and a real future for growth.  PdC - whatever the criticisms, and they are many - has achieved a remarkable trunaround.  That was done with a Chairman, a CEO and other staff who worked as a team, however difficult that may have been, to get the results which matter to the public.  Now one investor seems to be demanding something else, but no-one outside the board room knows what.  Of course a football club is more than its first team - we all know that - but, if there is no obvious way forward on the redevelopment either, then we are entitled to ask what exactly the investment is for.

And of course, we also have a responsibility to turn up and make sure a) that our crowds continue to grow and b) that we make our views known.  As Harry Redknapp said last night, without the supporters the club is nothing.

I agree.  The Manager delivered in 2012, and seems to have a plan for the next stage of delivery - the goal being promotion to the Championship.  But the lack of progress/news with regard to ground redevelopment is starting to stand out.  We must be one of only a handful of clubs that has done precisely nothing to its stadium (OK, we rent it) during the last 15 years.  Without improvements to the ground - which, much as we all love it, is essentially a 1970s ground with 1990s bolt ons - we will not be able to move to the next level, regardless of what happens on the pitch.

This is one of the reasons I was disappointed with the Chairman's comments on Saturday.  Maybe there are plans out there that are being kept under wraps for good reason - and I hope that's the case.  But SWP's comments at the weekend did make it sound as if, yet again, the issue of ground redevelopment had been kicked in to the long grass.

The plan regarding redevelopment has always been to attract new investment to help with the funding of it.

For whatever reason that investment has not been found yet although Patey has been bought in to help with that. Asides from that absolutely nothing has changed and as football fans are prone to do, people are getting worked up over absolutely nothing.

Not sure 'getting worked up about nothing' is quite fair, Flashheart!

The fans are an absolutely integral part of the club, at least comparable to shareholders in a normal business.  My comment is simply that - notwithstanding the fact that there are almost certainly very delicate negotiations to be gone through with all sorts of people, that do not need to be made public - we have a right to be kept informed, and the chairman's interview on Saturday was nothing but evasive.  The fact that we have been the 'third most successful club' in the country in footballing terms in 2012, and that we all know that ground development is crucial to the possibility of keeping that level of achievement going, both on the pitch and as a business, it is not unreasonable to ask questions of the main investor/board about whether the five year plan (or three year plan, or wherever we now are) is still on track.  My view (based on a little knowledge) is that that may not be the case.

Black has just realised he has pumped in way more money than the club is worth and as such needs someone else to take the financial burden of the stadium. 

New stadium wont start being built for another 2/3 years i'd say ....

        ...

Alternative view is Black wants out and Chanrai/Kassam are plotting a takeover as we type!

There's no reason for people to be getting worked up.

People are forgetting that not long ago Black released another 500k or so to spend. That only happened to get us out of the umbungo and that money was put aside fro January. Some are freaking out saying that black wants out yet pumping in another 500k is not the action of somebody that want's out now, is it? If it was not for the umbungo that money would be being released about now and things would be all warm and fuzzy in that respect.

As for the stadium redevelopment Patey, who has only recently been bought in, has been tasked with attracting the needed investment. We are talking millions/tens of millions here and finding such investment is not going to be a quick process. Finding additional investment has always been a part of the plan from day one but it seems as though Wray was lacking in that aspect of his job, hence he was replaced.

As I said people are getting worked up about nothing. Asides from additional investment possibly taking longer than anticipated, nothing has changed.

Nobody appears to be getting worked up to me. Showing slight concern at the lack of news re: stadium development; yes.

Perhaps not so much on here (although some are stressing a little unnecessarily). But elsewhere it is the end of the world.

I think since SWP has taken over there hasn't been the same transparency we got with JW. Recents comments with regard to stadium/finances etc have raised questions about ongoing plans (stadium etc..). It's only natural that fans would like clarity as to future plans.

I would argue that Black is reigning the funding in, hoping the club will reach the championship in order to get new investment/sell and exit stage right. That's not me being dramatic or getting worked up, just my opinion from what I've heard/seen. PDC had the promise of an extra 500k in Jan written into to his new contract I believe.. Which wouldn't suggest Black is still happy to pump money in, just that for now he is contractually obliged too.

This.

If you think nobody is getting wound up, read the matchday thread.

"Looks like Black and Arbib want out", and so on.

Has anyone actually checked those stats?

Nick Watkins said in his Tranmere programme notes that there won't be any announcement until the Spring so Patey saying there's no news during his interview on New Year's Day was not really surprising.

Yeah i know - who reads Watkins' proggy notes?!

TEF Law: Slight pessimism/questioning the board = going into meltdown

You do?

What's my prize?

Only occasionally honest. No prize just be content with getting a correct answer.

As I've always said on redevelopment/new ground....believe it when you see it and not before. Especially atm, when the local economy is mightily screwed. There was recent stat that the average wage in Swindon is well below the national average....
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/local/10132012.Swindon_salaries_among_lowest_in_the_UK/

That is for people in work....Swindon has a significant underclass funded by the benefit system, many of whom will receive a mighty wake up call in 2013..when Tory cuts start to really kick in.

It's against this background that capital projects have more or less dried up in Swindon since 2008...the bottom line is however desirable, in the real world there is little point in redevelopment. 

The original consortium of Black/Fitton/Wray/Arbib etc said if we weren't in the Championship within 3 years they would have failed....this was then extended to 5 years, which is where we are now. It loooks like that's the time scale, and now a turn for someone else to take it on.

It might be a good time to resurrect the Trust...

Surely the most succesfull club was Reading/Saints or whoever it was that essentially won the football league.

Such a shit stirrer. 5/10 for that one.

[url width=460 height=338]http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwopoh3vhr1qbkjyfo1_500.gif[/url]

Maybe thats why pauld came back ........ He saw a vision that involved him leading us back to glory from the financial abyss via a plan concocted in the trustmobile!?

Think you've got to be one complacent cunt, not to be a bit concerned by recent events, especially given our history. Surely it is far better to have a Trust that is ready to be proactive to events, rather than left behind by events.

For the Trust to work, you need people of talent and ability, who are prepared to put their head above the parapet, in return for no thanks and probably a lot of abuse.

I recall Paul, rallying the relatively few faithful down at the old railway museum, on some dank night, a few years ago now.

Thinking about it now, it was reminiscent  of Lenin's speech at Petrograd station in 1917....

Were you there for that as well?

Sadly not...if only fB had invented the time machine.

Yes, me, and this bloke

http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2013/01/02/woeful-2012-for-qpr-points-to-unlucky-2013-and-relegation-020101/

The stats allow for the whole of 2012 which would mean the win, lose and draws etc worked out from 1st January 2012 (when we went on something of a splendid run after Turkey away) up until 31st December 2012 when we sat 5th in the league after a 5-0 trouncing of Tranmere. Something like that anyway

Thanks.