The Spirit of '69 and our Day of Action

[Audrey]

FWIW, I don’t think Clem et al are in the Lee Power mould. They are just incompetent in the extreme and seem unable or unwilling to do anything about it.

The end result will be the same, unfortunately.

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Seeing a fair few comments about binning the orange hats now that we have won a few games. Are some of our fans really that thick?

IT'S NOT PERFORMANCE RELATED!

If you're still confused, try reading 4Ds post again. Now read it again slower this time.

If you're still confused, I'll say it again.

IT........ISN'T........FUCKING......PERFORMANCE RELATED.

Fucking absorb it.

[Oaksey Moonraker]

There was a good interview with Neil Hutchings from the Trust on BBC Wilts last night.

He gave a different context on selling the club that Clem is already in for c.£8M in loans to the club and putting in £1.5M (as per accounts etc) and no obvious plan to reduce debt and losses as gates are falling and the team dropping down the league.

Soon Clem will be in for £10m and going up each year so it could get to £15-20M and to a point where no buyer will pay that sort of money. Colchester was his example where the owner has lent £30m.

So either demonstrate a plan to turn around the financial situation or find a buyer who can do that before Clem finds no-one will pay enough to clear his debts.

I felt it was a more nuanced and subtle argument than just sell up.

[STFC_Manc]

.........*sigh*

Well done on completely missing the point of what we are talking about.

You can have a different view of perspective on the ownership, the manager, the players, whatever you choose. That is not the conversation we're having.

What you cannot do, is tell someone else or a group like the spirit of 69 what they are trying to convey, because you are not them.

You can't form someone elses argument for them and then argue against it.

This is why its so hard to engage with a lot of the pro Clem element in our fan base because they lack basic reading comprehension and miss the point of what you were even talking about in the first place.

I think you are having your own conversation, with yourself.

I think I misunderstood the first quote, that it was hat wearing people changed their view.

Then you started calling people below intelligence and going on a rant.

[Boeta]

There was a good interview with Neil Hutchings from the Trust on BBC Wilts last night.

He gave a different context on selling the club that Clem is already in for c.£8M in loans to the club and putting in £1.5M (as per accounts etc) and no obvious plan to reduce debt and losses as gates are falling and the team dropping down the league.

Soon Clem will be in for £10m and going up each year so it could get to £15-20M and to a point where no buyer will pay that sort of money. Colchester was his example where the owner has lent £30m.

So either demonstrate a plan to turn around the financial situation or find a buyer who can do that before Clem finds no-one will pay enough to clear his debts.

I felt it was a more nuanced and subtle argument than just sell up.

Is Clem not getting his share of the 'admin expenses' then?

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

There was a good interview with Neil Hutchings from the Trust on BBC Wilts last night.

He gave a different context on selling the club that Clem is already in for c.£8M in loans to the club and putting in £1.5M (as per accounts etc) and no obvious plan to reduce debt and losses as gates are falling and the team dropping down the league.

Soon Clem will be in for £10m and going up each year so it could get to £15-20M and to a point where no buyer will pay that sort of money. Colchester was his example where the owner has lent £30m.

So either demonstrate a plan to turn around the financial situation or find a buyer who can do that before Clem finds no-one will pay enough to clear his debts.

I felt it was a more nuanced and subtle argument than just sell up.

Its a way of trying to plead with Clem and make him see sense, which is worth a try.

The only problem with that is you're assuming Clem is a decent bloke and he isn't lining his and his mates pockets another way and essentially means he couldn't give a toss about the rising loans.

We're on a shoe string budget so clearly the money is going somewhere (which is an argument i've been making since fairly early in the Lee Power days)

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

I think you are having your own conversation, with yourself.

I think I misunderstood the first quote, that it was hat wearing people changed their view.

Then you started calling people below intelligence and going on a rant.

No, we're all talking about the same thing. You got the wrong end of it, which is ironically what 4D was originally talking about. People not getting it despite it being spelled out.

[STFC_Manc]

No, we're all talking about the same thing. You got the wrong end of it, which is ironically what 4D was originally talking about. People not getting it despite it being spelled out.

I was talking about something different, however I did miss read it. You then went on a rant that had nothing to do with what I posted about and here we are.

[doversparkred]

I think one of the biggest challenges for the Trust and SO69 is the seemingly impossible task of galvanising a fanbase which has been fucked over so consistently and for so long. Social media tends to polarise opinion into simply for/against but I bet the majority of fans sit in between.

I love SO69 but choose to wear my Swindon hat instead of an orange one. It’s a tough choice and I admire and respect those who do.  Ollie clearly believes “the political situation will take care of itself if we win matches” and inevitably a good run of form will only make the pro-Clem lot more convinced, and make the fan divide bigger and more difficult to bridge.  Anyone who witnessed the last 10 minutes last night knows how good it felt, regardless of opinions on the ownership of the club.

My point really is that I don’t think fuelling the divide in the fanbase is a good idea, and doesn’t benefit anyone. The best times I’ve experienced as a Swindon fan (and actually some of the worst, like the demotions) happened when the fans were united. How that can be achieved now?

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

I'm not sure where Ollie is up to with it, but he went from seminglly thinking orange hats were just about stuff on the pitch (apparantly there is a lot of that about) and potentially even himself based on his comments, to his last post match interview he mentions people staying away because they think the club isn't being run right.

So he definitely gets it more than he did.

[McGurk's Missus]

Seeing a fair few comments about binning the orange hats now that we have won a few games. Are some of our fans really that thick?

IT'S NOT PERFORMANCE RELATED!

Exactly as I feared and spoke about recently 

[Bennett]

There was a good interview with Neil Hutchings from the Trust on BBC Wilts last night.

He gave a different context on selling the club that Clem is already in for c.£8M in loans to the club and putting in £1.5M (as per accounts etc) and no obvious plan to reduce debt and losses as gates are falling and the team dropping down the league.

Soon Clem will be in for £10m and going up each year so it could get to £15-20M and to a point where no buyer will pay that sort of money. Colchester was his example where the owner has lent £30m.

So either demonstrate a plan to turn around the financial situation or find a buyer who can do that before Clem finds no-one will pay enough to clear his debts.

I felt it was a more nuanced and subtle argument than just sell up.

y'all can listen to it here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0kmvdzg

[RobertT]

People throw around the financial numbers but I caution, well, caution.  Clem is literally being chased through the courts by a creditor claiming he diverted funds to other businesses due to them.  That is suggesting it is not ALL his money, so much as creditors money.

Even the STFC accounts, limited as they are, shows a movement of loans from Director loans to Axis.

The debenture was paid off partially by other loans, as yet unaccounted for at STFC and with terms unknown.

The short term liabilities have grown, which is basically showing unpaid or late paying of bills on the increase.  Losses are paper records, not cash.

Equally, I am not saying he hasn't had to dig into personal reserves, just the amounts are opaque at best.  Some of the funds are of less than scrupulous origin, legality TBC.

The business is reporting some losses, but that cannot be extrapolated to pure cash impact to any one individual.  Also, the club recorded a profit in two years of his reign.  Again, one of those did hide what would otherwise be a loss.

 

[dphunt88]

Afternoon all,

'The Spirit of 69' media update:

- I recorded a Spirit of 69/STFC episode with Kieran Maguire and Kevin Day for Price of Football podcast earlier. Will be available to regular punters on Friday, but available to their paid subscribers tomorrow or Wednesday I believe.

- SO69 interview with Ross Arnott from ITV Westcountry Sport on tonight's news show (18:00-18:30).

- And if watching something LIVE is your thing, I'm on with Fyfie and the gang on 'Fools Rush In' tonight at 8.15-9.00pm.

Big week ahead in terms of building towards *Day of Action 2* vs Port Vale on Saturday 8th February. Think our Terry is doing a few other media bits tomorrow onwards as well. So, plenty to come!

Cheers all,

Dan

[swindontown2024]

I get the impression that turning yourselves into "Media Personalities" may well be the real priority/aim here and not the actual matter in hand that has been highlighted i..e sell up Clem. I see nothing planned that will even make the club hierarchy twitch and gain their attention from their nice warm board room surroundings on Saturday. So the question therefore is what will you achieve from this, as nothing changed from the initial demonstration and I cant see this one being any different.