Morning to one and all . No doubt the state of BFC is a concern to all of us and it seems to me this is a sliding doors moment . It goes without saying that things can’t carry on as they are so Neerav has a choice , either invest to Improve every aspect of the club or sell up . And yes there would be a buyer for the club as there always is . The other option is to turn the turbo on and get things moving . James Milner ? A local lad who may want to come back closer to home , get him in as the new head coach and back him to get things moving forward . I was there when Alan Clarke took over and we all know how that went , so I’m suggesting a revolution MK11 of sorts . Can you imagine the club progressing ? Bigger gates ? More sponsorship ? More national exposure ? Better marketing ? An engaged fanbase . And to all the folk who keep saying “ awwww we’re only a small club “ that’s b*****ks It’s all doable if the will is there . No point NP keep chucking his money into the abyss . UTR n all that
I’m with you that the club would easily find a buyer if ever it was up for sale. All the people who say “who would buy the club” grinds my gears sometimes. Every club in the 92 currently has an owner. Most have had new owners over the years by various investors so all this “nobody would buy the club” is complete nonsense to me. Yes they would. It might take a few months or even a year or two but someone definitely would buy it.
I think a lot of Reds fans have been told too many times that BFC is a small club with no outside interest. Well it's been a steady 2nd Division club for nearly 140 years, it's not too shabby by my reckoning
On the owners front I get the unhappiness of the current board and without serious investment all you can see is failure and keep hemorrhaging money. The problem with owners is you don't know what your getting until you've got them. The club's similar to us wouldn't it be great if we got a Brentford or Bournemouth but what if we got a Reading or Charlton ( I know they are doing OK this season) even worse another Conman & co. The ambitious appointment Milners a interesting shout and would create a buzz and some outside interest but it would be a big risk. My one would be to get Hecky back sell him the dream bring him home. Do I think it will happen no but I would love a fully motivated local lad in charge of our club.
The issue isn't with finding a buyer, it's finding a buyer that has the necessary resources and best interests of the club at heart. They would be required to continue funding the operational shortfalls that football clubs have to operate under currently, so would need to be prepared to continue to chuck millions of pounds into the club to keep it operating. To match what the current ownership is doing, they'd need to be prepared to do that as equity injections, rather than saddling the club with loan debt. We've had two experiences of ownership in our recent history that were the exact opposite of that. Peter Doyle 'rescued' us from administration and then undertook an asset stripping exercise to try to recover the costs of doing so, which he thankfully didn't complete prior to him relinquishing ownership. Conway and Lee's ownership period not only saw them refuse to invest any funds of their own, but they actually took £750k out of the club to fund one of the payment instalments due on it. They were ousted by the current board at the start of the season where that lack of inbound funding would have become a critical issue. The current owners, to date, have done everything that could be reasonably expected of them to keep the club afloat in a way that doesn't saddle it with unsustainable debt. Where they are falling short is that their operational decision making is such that the on-field performance is deteriorating rapidly, which is progressively making the task of getting promoted from the division increasingly difficult. It's clear from recent interviews that their perspective is very different from much of the fanbase, which is a huge concern in that regard. Arguably, an alternative ownership group might be capable of doing better on the operational side of things, but unless they were also prepared to put in the funding that is necessary to keep the club afloat (the need for which arises from a wider issue with football finance than anything specifically BFC related) then the club wouldn't survive long enough to see the benefit of any change. Personally, I'm struggling to see any prospect that there are viable alternative owners out there who have the resources and operational nous to meet both requirements.
Just looking at the aspect of a change of ownership. We'd be none the wiser until it was announced, so for all we know, the current shareholders, or a majority of them, could well be looking for a sale right now. I'm not sure that's the case, but it's not like they'll suddenly put a Haybrook sign on the ponty end one day! To demonstrate that, and I've never seen anyone else mention it. In 1995/6 a plc was looking to purchase a football club as part of its investment portfolio following the launch of the Premier League a few years earlier. They'd tried to buy Premier League clubs but were put off at the asking prices. They put together a short list of 6 Division 1/Championship clubs. Barnsley FC was on that list. I'd guess they were rebuffed and I don't know if they ended up taking a stake elsewhere. The point is, there are people out there actively looking for investments all the time. It costs a lot more now than then, but there are still incredibly, people who are willing to throw away millions. We just don't know who they are or what their intentions would be. BFC will endure in some shape or form at some level.
I don't think anyone of my age thinks we are a small club. We know the history and gone through good and bad times. Imo it is not about the history. But the cost implications. They may be difficult to overcome for any imterested party. (Ground and club are separate entities, would anyone want to take on multi million pound losses. , I don't mean just us. Many others are treading water). Success is not guaranteed. no matter how much money you throw at it. I'm guessing btw we have more sponsorship now than we've ever had. The only way is getting it right on the pitch. I'm not sure our model from above is the right way. But one that a manager instils and gets the players to match his style. ( Not **** up, by, for instance, installing Clarke and then saying he didn't play the way they wanted him to.) If I was a manager with any possibility of getting jobs elsewhere. We would be one of last on the list. And that starts at the top. I don't know of any club that works to a model set by the owners. Other than us. Could be wrong?. They think the players stats are sufficient. To do that game plan. How on earth have we gone out in the january transfer window and decided to pay wages on players who the head coach, doesn't select because they are deemed not good enough, is beyond me. Money spaffed up the wall.
The problem is the only way to be profitable these days in football seems to either be at the very top (which we never will) or to be a yo yo club between the Premier League and the Championship. If you go up and bank the TV money with no intention of actually competing, get relegated and then invest a portion of it in a squad that has a good chance of going up again in the next year or two that's probably a decent business model. Even then you're reliant on being able to do it consistently and one bad season and you're right in the ****. I'm not sure the buy/develop/sell model is that viable any more given the increasing focus on data throughout the leagues - it's increasingly difficult to beat other teams to identify the best prospects. We'll never be a champions league team, so I think any owners looking to make money would be trying to eventually transform us into a yo yo team. The problem is there will be a bunch of better candidate teams out there, and so we're probably limited to potential owners who see us as an affordable plaything, or who are either not acting in the best interests of the club or deluded.
