I sometimes despair with the people who follow this club

[BigGully]

Fair play Big gully - you are one of the few that has persistently offered a different opinion without resorting to insults which makes a change - and I accpet you have some very fair points.

However - the reason we have to agree to disagree is that in my opinion you can only budget for situations that you can control - I realise ones future as a business is dictated to by market fluctuations and that is unavoidable - but your job as a board is to minimize the risks that you percieve in the coming years that will potentially effect your business either positively or adversley.

We do not know know for FACT how the funding of the stadium needs to be controlled and executed upon - we can guess and have a relevant opinion based on what other clubs have done - but that is what it is - guess work.

Players now to get us promoted are not as important as having a controlled - yes small - but controlled and forecastable revenue stream in the coming five years which is going to give banks and investors a far more comfortable feeling about us as a long term propect as opposed to saying - yeah i know we've spunked all the csah we had - but we kep Baz Savage and signed Currie nealry made the play offs!

the board is therefore left - as most SME businesses are in todays financial climate of making difficult choices - players or revenue protection - and with the goals and objectives the club has a whole there is in my opinion only one sensible choice they can make - and they are making it.

You have to remember that that revenue stream and forecastable cash flow is actually being supported and supplemented by the board!!!!!!!

Which I personally think it is good news.

Accepted, but .......

If it was a clear choice of not spending any money coz we havent got any, or borrowing money to furnish a belief that it might give us success, then I would go down the conservative route all the time.

But as I understand it, the money that was needed to keep those key players here, is likely to be spent anyway, on a new batch of players.

That to me is the real gamble and an unecessary one.

 

[BigGully]

At the end of the day, it's the boards money, not your's or mine. If they decide that it doesn't fit the business plan then they don't spend it. If you don't like it get your money out and take over the club. Very simplistic I know, but it's their money and providing they aren't doing anything illegal or trying to put the club out of business they can do what they want.

Tough f**king s**t, the life of an Albion fan is always entertaining.

Oh right....... so thats the end of this debate

 

[The Large One]

Next your going to be telling me to take Dick's word for it

Its just not right to now say that any increase in Savages, O'Callaghan's and Hammonds contracts would start a stream of disgruntled players demanding higher wages.

The dynamics at Brighton are totally different than most club's.

Most are young pro's just happy to be there, trying to make their way in the game.

Hopefully they will succeed some wont, but they aint at the point of expecting parity with the more experienced players, no way.

Yes it would. And already has. You don't think that other players (and we're not even necessarily talking about the youngsters) are going to sit there and take the fact that Bas might well have ended up on three/four/five times their salary...?

It's not only that Bas wanted to be the highest paid player - his agent demanded he be made club captain as well.

 

[fosters headband]

It's not only that Bas wanted to be the highest paid player - his agent demanded he be made club captain as well.

Is that true? If so then that is a disgrace.
Where did you hear that TLO?

 

[Captain Haddock]

After yesterdays performance - which I did happen to attend - I am not sure where my head is with the people who (absolutely have the right to) voice their opinion at certain elements within the club.

This is not about who is the best fan, who has been to the most games, who was at gillingham blah blah blah. It is about the very term we refer to our ourselves - 'supporters'.

Currently having attended a few home games, and several away games and reading what is posted on here - it seems that simple facts are being brushed to one side and ignored.

I have been watching the Albion since 1980 - that simply is the basis as to the relevant opinion I have as to what is happening at the club. In a previous job (not the one with the brush with HR!) have been involved in a number of deals that my previous company have worked on with DK's range of companies - through that I have met and talked to a number of people that have realsonably relevant opinions as to the intention, objectives and aim behind the current funders at the club.

I remember going to Plymouth in about 92, and watching raphael meade snatching a late equaliser - there were around 150 Albion fans at that game. I remember in 91 beating Barnsley 1-0 at the Goldstone in possible the dullest game I can remember - in front of less than 5200 fans. In fact the largest gate in that Play -Off final year in the league was just over 10,000 on a Wednesday night when we got utterly stuffed 4-0 by Wednesday.

The point I am trying to make?? This county, since the relegation from the Top Flight in 1983 has NOT been a hot bed of football - it is a provincial club with potential that has rarely enticed the population of Sussex and the fringes round it to come and watch our beloved team week in week out.

There is potential - huge catchment area (although London very close), one of the wealthiest populations in the country - which provides other interests not afforded by the majority of other population.

The simple fact is that without the funding, the backing of DK and co we have no club. Argue what you like but this is a business, and with no offices, no cash-flow and no future you have no business.

I honestly believe that we have forgotten how close we came to disappearing altogether. In fact I remember the 97 season, Hereford et al, that a number of the regulars were preparing themselves for the founding of a Phoenix club - that we expected to start again in provincial, semi-professional football.

Here we are, 11 years later, having played some great football, in a level we could hardly believe we were playing, and getting promotions and some great days out.

Things have moved on but expectation is dangerous bedfellow - now I hear some poeple saying that Dick Knight is in the same category as Archer - that is just appalling to hear.

On a business note, no-one would have invested in this club to keep it afloat at a time when we had Gillingham to look forward, Withdean as a highlight and now the promise of Falmer becoming reality.

I talk of relevant opinion - if there is anyone on here with a CV that shows they have taken a broke football club, played home games 80 miles away, got back to the city of it's birth and then built a modern stadium in the most heavily portected countryside outside the national parks in Derbyshire and Yorkshire, and delivered all this in 5-7 years - I stand corrected.

Like it or loath it the facts as I seem them are this - we are lucky to have a wind-swept dump to go to every week. We are lucky to see any players wearing the blue and white stripes - and we are even luckier to have a future to hope for.

I personally will thank DK and his board for the rest of my days - that any children I have will have a club to go to, that we have a club to call our own and dream of what could be in years to come.

You want them to spend money they don't have on p[layers at 5k per week to get us up - well let's see the business sense behind that - what are you going to do when we finish 18th in the Championship? Reality is that we will still be at Withdean, no cash-flow coming in from seats that don't exist.

It's just maths - you fork out more money than you are able to bring in and you go bust. That has been the case for 11 f***ing years - and we are still here fighting. Who the hell do you think is responsible for that? Us? Sorry to be the bringer of bad news but no - it's not us - we help but we are not responsible. It is down the people who have bank-rolled a club that has had to face the toughest time in it's 100 year + history without any real chance of thanks.

And those who now want to hang those people out to dry should think long and hard.

because if by our actions we drive out the very people who have kept us alive then I would be disgusted to call myself a fan.

Democracy - the voice of the people - is all very well. But when the only voice heard is the voice of the idiot then we are all in trouble.

Please - keep the faith, keep 'supporting' and remember - there was a time when all of what we have today would have sounded like the pipe dream and ramblings of..........a lunatic.

Top post. DK may have some faults but they REMAIN incidental at least until Fal...er...North Brighton Stadium is built and possibly beyond.

Although not unique to us Seagulls, we have a large number of VERY fickle, reactionary knee-JERKS. I want Albion getting their share of the big cake but I'm prepared to wait if it means not throwing money at Savage and co. while we wait to become a properly and independently viable business.

DK was criticised for his participation in the phone-in the other weekend but although somewhat agitated, he justifiably gave short shrift to what amounted to re-gurgitated hearsay and lazy ill-informed / thought out remarks from some quarters.

Until we have a REAL, sustained and formal approach from a serious heavyweight investor, I don't want our club going anywhere else soon.

Haddock has spoken!

 

[Spiros]

What really puzzles me is that there are still plenty of idiots about who say that the club lacks ambition despite the fact that in the last 10 years we have:

(1) Won two championships (more than in the 90-odd years before Dick took over)
(2) Won a playoff final (first win in a serious final since the Charity Shield in 1910)
(3) Got permission to build a new stadium despite strong oppostiion from the nimbys and their lapdog loudmouth politician, and despite the very real incompetence of a government department
(4) Continued to produce teams which include a high proportion of local talent rather than just a bunch of journeymen.
(5) Kept afloat and out of administration despite the very poor financial climate for football clubs, with seemingly more going into adminstration every week.

DT - you are bang on. At times I look at what little the club have and wonder why we are not fighting local derbies with Woking, Crawley and Aldershot in the conference.

The ambition is shown by signing the likes of Nicky Forster and fighting to build a new stadium.

 

[BigGully]

Yes it would. And already has. You don't think that other players (and we're not even necessarily talking about the youngsters) are going to sit there and take the fact that Bas might well have ended up on three/four/five times their salary...?

It's not only that Bas wanted to be the highest paid player - his agent demanded he be made club captain as well.

Not sure about the captain bit, but I do know that he was great within the group and highly respected.

I am trying to work out the players that would be demanding these rising on the back of Savage and O'Callaghan.

Who are they ?

 

[The Large One]

Not sure about the captain bit, but I do know that he was great within the group and highly respected.

I am trying to work out the players that would be demanding these rising on the back of Savage and O'Callaghan.

Who are they ?

Bas was/is greatly respected within the group of players. I understand that they were a bit cheesed off when he left/didn't sign. But we all move forward.

As to the identity of the players as to who would demand a higher wage, of I don't know who they are, but what does that matter? It happens - as was said on the phone-in, and Dick, quite rightly, would be trying to head that situation off before it becomes an issue.

 

[Captain Haddock]

Is that true? If so then that is a disgrace.
Where did you hear that TLO?

I believe it was from the lips of DK himself (either on the phone-in or via a fellow Seagull who bumped into DK the other day and with whom TLO and I are perhaps mutually acquainted?).

 

[Skint Gull]

I am trying to work out the players that would be demanding these rising on the back of Savage and O'Callaghan.

Who are they ?

Well if I was a first team regular and I found out Bas (who wasn't a regular at the start of the season and was by no means the foundation of our side) was on twice as much as me i'd be going in asking for a rise.

There is no way in the world that someone like Bas Savage should be the captian of this club, nor should he earn more than Kuipers, Butters, Hammond, Reid or especially Forster!

If Dick is telling the truth (and I have no doubt he is) and Bas wanted to be the highest paid player at the club i'm very glad he was told to sling his hook!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

It does rank as a stunning piece of work by the agent though. Baz has gone from seemingly being quite happy and with a reletively decent contract and regular first team football to nothing.

 

[The Large One]

I believe it was from the lips of DK himself (either on the phone-in or via a fellow Seagull who bumped into DK the other day and with whom TLO and I are perhaps mutually acquainted?).

I've no idea who you're on about, and no, I'm not going to reveal the source.

 

[The Large One]

It does rank as a stunning piece of work by the agent though. Baz has gone from seemingly being quite happy and with a reletively decent contract and regular first team football to nothing.

It's why I'm finding it difficult to believe that this particular saga is over.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The highest paid player bit was said by DK on the infamous phone-in. I must admit I am glad DK showed him the door.

 

[SICKASAGULL]

Sir Albion, I salute you at last the people who want success for this club are beginning to make their voices heard.After over ten years DK and Co have us in Div 1 and do not have the cash to improve the situation.We have lost three players who had improved the teams performance and put the club in a position to to reach the play off`s.We appear to have signed two free players and possibly another couple to come,if they are of the same standard we can expect to be in the bottom half of the table at the end of the season.The hard work pre christmas would have been wasted.

 

[Yorkie]

It's not only that Bas wanted to be the highest paid player - his agent demanded he be made club captain as well.

I can confirm what TLO is saying and I heard it from two totally separate sources (one of whom is the one Captain Haddock is referring to - I don't think TLO knows him CH)

 

[Guy Fawkes]

You have made you're own personal thoughts which is respected.The thing is im not grateful like you are as i want ambition and funds to move the club forward.Im also not someone who keeps looking back to the grim old days like yourself and being grateful to have a club.Point is we have been a laughing stock for far to many years now.

Also if anyone has saved the club its the fansthe fans who pay £25 a game year after year to sit in a sess pit,time to move on pal and show some ambition as this past crap just keeps rolling on

While this club struggles dozens of clubs overtake us and build new stadia,you are not ambitious obviously but most of us are.If the board bankrolled us i would worship them,but thats not the case as its all bank loans etc.

Firstly, well said Digweeds trousers, i agree 100% with you

Secondly, Sir Albion, How can you demand that the club shows ambition, what do you think the last 10 years efforts to secure planning permission for a 22,000+ all seater stadium is then, it would have been very easy for the board to have tried to change the regs at Withdean, and make it our perminent home ground, meaning we would remain a small, lower league club indefinitly.

Falmer will enable us to compete financially with clubs in higher leagues, meaning we will be able to pay those higher wages to attract the better, more well known players to play for us, without this, the lower reaches of the championship is about as far as we could get, without mortgaging everything at the club to the hilt, destroying the chances for the club to be able to borrow, if need be, in the future to compete. Who, in their right mind could have predicted that planning permission would have taken 10 years to secure.

Part of the reason we lost the Goldstone was that there was a large debt secured against it, which meant that the maintainance for one, wasn't kept up with, resulting in large areas of ther ground being shut on safety grounds, by over borrowing now, we risk not being able to build or maintain the facilities the club and the fans have been working tirelessly towards.

In a couple of years we will have the ground built, and that will give us the platform we need to push on and compete on an even playiing field.

I feel praise should be heaped on the current board, for trying to keep this club competitive onthe field the best it can while the club goes through a massive transition period.

Keep the Faith, and (as used in an advert)....Good things come to those who wait.
We are nearly there, it seems a shame to ruin things now

 

[Guy Fawkes]

What really puzzles me is that there are still plenty of idiots about who say that the club lacks ambition despite the fact that in the last 10 years we have:

(1) Won two championships (more than in the 90-odd years before Dick took over)
(2) Won a playoff final (first win in a serious final since the Charity Shield in 1910)
(3) Got permission to build a new stadium despite strong oppostiion from the nimbys and their lapdog loudmouth politician, and despite the very real incompetence of a government department
(4) Continued to produce teams which include a high proportion of local talent rather than just a bunch of journeymen.
(5) Kept afloat and out of administration despite the very poor financial climate for football clubs, with seemingly more going into adminstration every week.

DT - you are bang on. At times I look at what little the club have and wonder why we are not fighting local derbies with Woking, Crawley and Aldershot in the conference.

The ambition is shown by signing the likes of Nicky Forster and fighting to build a new stadium.

It baffles me too, maybe some have become spoilt by our on the field fortunes in recent seasons, and expectations have risen too far as a result of our over-achieving on the resources that this club currently have.

The worst, and probably most unbelievable comment was this on the Argus website, under the story:-
Albion sign midfield man
By Andy Naylor

Posted by: Steve Palmer, uckfield on 9:38am Sat 12 Jan 08
What a joke Newcastle sack there manager for taking them backwards, we offer ours a 3 yr deal, the club continue to make no steps forward, just one sideways and two back, like DW style of play, I wish we could be as lucky as Luton and go into admin, then we could sell the squad the manager would resign and Knight could stop the self praise and go and save another club!

 

[BigGully]

Bas was/is greatly respected within the group of players. I understand that they were a bit cheesed off when he left/didn't sign. But we all move forward.

As to the identity of the players as to who would demand a higher wage, of I don't know who they are, but what does that matter? It happens - as was said on the phone-in, and Dick, quite rightly, would be trying to head that situation off before it becomes an issue.

Its not a relevant issue.

It only becomes a problem if more senior, regular first team starters feel that they arent getting paid their share.

Forster & Hammond would get more.

And as for the rest they arent currently in a position to demand parity with those players.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

It does rank as a stunning piece of work by the agent though. Baz has gone from seemingly being quite happy and with a reletively decent contract and regular first team football to nothing.

Absolutely

.