Black & Wray

[Power to people]

Looks like our owners are set to come into a rather lot of money sometime soon

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE69K1NF20101022

[Ardiles]

...which is one of the reasons, I expect, that Nick Watkins' talk recently has been of self sufficiency.  I don't think he want us to get too excited.

Stadium Talks Under Way

'We will then deliver the outline plan to the council and will then be getting into the main dialogue as to what we would like to obtain, what support we need from them to make it happen and what we believe we can achieve financially as we move towards trying to make the club self-sufficient.'

And to be honest, if Black & Wray were to throw £20 million at the playing budget I don't think I'd like it much anyway.  The resulting success would have been bought...nothing much to get excited about there.

[Arriba]

you're joking right?
i'd love any bugger to throw 20 million at our team.

[Reg Smeeton]

...which is one of the reasons, I expect, that Nick Watkins' talk recently has been of self sufficiency.  I don't think he want us to get too excited.

Stadium Talks Under Way

'We will then deliver the outline plan to the council and will then be getting into the main dialogue as to what we would like to obtain, what support we need from them to make it happen and what we believe we can achieve financially as we move towards trying to make the club self-sufficient.'

And to be honest, if Black & Wray were to throw £20 million at the playing budget I don't think I'd like it much anyway.  The resulting success would have been bought...nothing much to get excited about there.

Think you're right....throwing mega bucks at the football industry is obscene.

Our Wray is  not Ed...

It's good to have wealth behind us, as it can provide stability...but that's it.

Lansdown at Shitty has just trousered a sum which makes Betfair look like loose change, and he throws the odd wedge their way, to no great change in their status in the scheme of things.

[Ardiles]

Reg has explained my thoughts before I could.

We could take the hypothetical £20 million, buy players and comfortably outspend the opposition.  And when promotion came (as surely it would) I'd be thinking 'I've been waiting more than 10 years to get back in to this division.  But after all the struggle, we've just paid our way to the front of the queue.'  It would be meaningless.

One day, we're going to get back there.  But unless we do it under our own steam (with the Board admittedly having fixed the hull and steadied the ship), I don't think there would be much to get excited about.

The 2000s were an aberration.  A lot of people and a lot of football clubs got ideas above their station, and many of them are still paying off the debts they ran up.  The 2010s are going to be all about living within your means - and celebrating your successes within those bounds.

[thepeoplesgame]

Lansdown at Shitty has just trousered a sum which makes Betfair look like loose change, and he throws the odd wedge their way, to no great change in their status in the scheme of things.

Hoping for a minor change in their status come May though

[Reg Smeeton]

Hoping for a minor change in their status come May though

It would be good if they returned to their more natural terrain....I knew Coppell had lost the plot when he said Shitty had a history of top flight football....it's about 8 seasons in 100 odd years.

[pauld]

It would be good if they returned to their more natural terrain....I knew Coppell had lost the plot when he said Shitty had a history of top flight football....it's about 8 seasons in 100 odd years.

Well, it's a history. Just not a very impressive one

[chalkies_shorts]

It would be good if they returned to their more natural terrain....I knew Coppell had lost the plot when he said Shitty had a history of top flight football....it's about 8 seasons in 100 odd years.

They've certainly got a hell of a better pedigree in top flight slavery ( World Class, in fact ) than top flight football.

[Summerof69]

It would be good if they returned to their more natural terrain....I knew Coppell had lost the plot when he said Shitty had a history of top flight football....it's about 8 seasons in 100 odd years.

Don't forget also that when Calamity James signed he said that the West Country have never had a team in the Premiership. At least he's doing his best to make sure that Shitty never gets there.

[Oaksey Moonraker]

Don't forget also that when Calamity James signed he said that the West Country have never had a team in the Premiership. At least he's doing his best to make sure that Shitty never gets there.

He's doing a great job of getting City out of the Championship, would be great to play them next year in League One if we don't go up and the Gasheads would love it even more. The only better joy would be to return to our natural position as the Best in the West as we were in the late 80's and 90's.

[Arriba]

how many teams get success without throwing money at it?very few.football has changed and money matters.
would chelsea,man city,and even wigan fans say "put your money away we want to work our way up properly"?
would blackburn fans go back in time and tell jack walker to not bother?

if minted people want to throw money at stfc bring it on i say(not that i think they will)

[Oaksey Moonraker]

I would sooner the board invest in the infrastructure of the club. £20 million invested in buying the ground and rebuilding the stadium would put us in a much better position in the long term than a big gamble on players. Even the clubs who have gone into the Premier League and accepted they would get relegated with their parachute money have struggled. West Brom would be an exception but look at Watford, Leicester and the mess at Pompey

[pauld]

Spot on OM. If we want to avoid the boom/bust mistakes of the past (and others' present), that's the way to go about it. We'll reap the rewards as others pay the price for an old and increasingly discredited way

[The_Plagiarist]

how many teams get success without throwing money at it?very few.football has changed and money matters.
would chelsea,man city,and even wigan fans say "put your money away we want to work our way up properly"?
would blackburn fans go back in time and tell jack walker to not bother?

if minted people want to throw money at stfc bring it on i say(not that i think they will)

Portsmouth, Leeds, Southampton, Bradford, Darlington, Luton fans might disagree with you there, infact we tried throwing money at it in 93 remember? and we paid for it for the next 17 years pretty much!

Blackpool, West Brom, Dag & Redbridge, Everton, get success without throwing money at it, unless you only define success as winning the champions league...

You can't spend above your means. Amazing how many people still don't get this.

In Chelsea and Man City you've picked probably the only two clubs in the 92 (maybe QPR apart) who can throw money at it without worrying about the real world. Wigan are in a false position everyone knows that and when they finally drop out of the top flight they'll settle back on down to the third tier where they belong (a la reading)

If someone threw £20m at our club it'd be fun for a while but when the dust settles and the money runs out (quickly) we're still a club with 8,000 fans paying 23 times a season however you want to look at it

Ardiles sums it up better than I can