Barber and Finance Discussion (separated from match thread)

[clippedgull]

I would still give a **** even if we were running away with the league and we beat Spurs. The club has turned into everything I hate about modern football and is more a business then a football club.

So you would prefer League One football at best? Unfortunately we have to live with the corporate machine because that's how we pay our overpaid average footballers.

 

[Dave the OAP]

To be fair teams do go through this sort of thing, ie have a couple of near misses and then struggle the next few years.

If we are accepting what the board tell us, and we are struggling to keep in the confines of FFP Then I expect no decent signings and we struggle through this season and for a while until the development squad come of age.

So batton down the hatches and hope we sneak a few wins to keep us in the division.

It's going to be a rough ride this year

 

[Bry Nylon]

To be fair teams do go through this sort of thing, ie have a couple of near misses and then struggle the next few years.

If we are accepting what the board tell us, and we are struggling to keep in the confines of FFP Then I expect no decent signings and we struggle through this season and for a while until the development squad come of age.

So batton down the hatches and hope we sneak a few wins to keep us in the division.

It's going to be a rough ride this year

How did the announcement you alluded to yesterday go?

All okay for you, I hope, Gaffer?

 

[beorhthelm]

Barber's agenda to turn the Albion match day experience into a watered down family-day-out has turned the Amex into a library, with about as much passion as a morgue.

this is bollocks. people have critised the atmosphere from day one at Falmer, with the reasonable proposition that is due to the "singers" being disperesed and 20000 new regular fans, many of which are JCLs, families, occasional visiters etc, etc. ok, get rid of all the "experience" stuff if you wish, it wont change the atmospshere a jot. what it will do, maybe, is put off a few thousand of those JCLs and families, which might be the 5k-odd fans that turn haemorrhaging money into a small sustainable loss.

 

[Surf's Up]

Bloom, Bloom, Bloom, Bloom, Bloom - Barber and Burke just do what they're told and by and large, although some may not like it, do it pretty well. The buck stops with TB - he decided how much of his money to invest in the stadium, the training facility and in the team. He appoints the managers, he decides the budget each year, it's his relationship with the managers which is the key component to their longevity of tenure, he dominates the Board, he decides what the clubs approach to FFP is going to be, he navigates the club to success or failure.

 

[big nuts]

So you would prefer League One football at best? Unfortunately we have to live with the corporate machine because that's how we pay our overpaid average footballers.

See the Borrusia Dortmund model. Remaining true to your roots and values doesn't automatically sentence you to lower league football.

 

[Dave the OAP]

How did the announcement you alluded to yesterday go?

All okay for you, I hope, Gaffer?

Was supposed hear today if anyone had gone for VR, but seemly no one did, so between the 5 of us in our team, it will be one of us who goes....we will be told on Thursday! After 14 years working there it leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth...not the best age , 56, to start looking for a new job.

 

[Bry Nylon]

Was supposed hear today if anyone had gone for VR, but seemly no one did, so between the 5 of us in our team, it will be one of us who goes....we will be told on Thursday! After 14 years working there it leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth...not the best age , 56, to start looking for a new job.

Fingers crossed for you, DtG.

 

[beorhthelm]

Don't you think that if the fans, rather than short-term profit, was Barber's primary focus - that the Amex could be rocking every week? Because I am absolutely confident it could, if we addressed problems like the one you mentioned, like they do in Germany.

yeah, i recall those days of the Falmer rocking in the year before Barber joined the club. oh, wait...

even if he doesnt care about the club or the fans, the problem of atmoshpere is not down to Barbar. the manager, tactics and players are not down to Barber. we can knock him for the cost of the pies, but i think its most queer people are trying to put the pitch performance at his door. now Burke on the other hand...

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Burke with his "list" can do one. Let Sami get who he wants in.
I was so so angry today when I saw Hudds got Grant Holt on loan. What with FFS going on loan up the road WHAT ARE WE PLAYING AT. Two proven champ goalscorers.

Remember kids. The loaning team contribute to wages.

 

[drew]

people Brought barber into the reason for our failure into this thread!. That's why.

Who would have thought that even at the AMEX we are a selling club ?

Southampton are bigger than us and look at who they sold in the summer!

On a similar vein, the 'Amex match day experience' with the new band stand, Reynolds shouting on the PA system before and after the game, the video footage of a montage of goals before the game to loud music ..... all mean so very little to me, compared to the Albion's performance on the pitch and results. Their marketing theory seems to be along the lines that all the razzmatazz and buy-a-pint-and-a-hotdog-for£x makes us want to go back. To most fans, I reckon results and a feeling of team momentum, are the main drivers of wanting to keep attending games.

I agree, the drive is what happens on the pitch and that will affect the 'fairweather' fan. However, as a season ticket holder for nigh on 30 years it seems I, and probably many like me, keep coming back!!

I would say that the successes of the past few seasons have masked the fact that our club has forgotten its roots and lost its soul since he arrived. It's almost like the last 20 years have meant nothing.

We used to be a fan-centric club - we were so unique and the rest of the football community knew it. Albion fans used to be more than willing to hand over our cash to the club for nothing in return - but now it feels we are being milked for every penny we have, and being continually lied to through corporate speak.

Barber's agenda to turn the Albion match day experience into a watered down family-day-out has turned the Amex into a library, with about as much passion as a morgue.

Ordinarily I couldn't give a **** whether the Albion are bottom of the league, I could still be passionate about the club - but seeing as it's nothing more than a business now, I'm wondering what the point is.

Sorry, but what exactly do you know about the soul of the club, or for that matter, what does anyone really know. According to your profile, you have only ever supported the club during the time we have been in a financial mess. The club have over 100 years of history. If the team have to struggle, I would rather watch it from the comfort of a padded seat under cover than at a ramshackle Goldstone or a roofless Withdean!

 

[Rugrat]

Unfortunately we have to live with the corporate machine because that's how we pay our overpaid average footballers.

.. and overpaid army of backroom suits

 

[RexCathedra]

See the Borrusia Dortmund model. Remaining true to your roots and values doesn't automatically sentence you to lower league football.

Not in Germany, no, it doesn't.

It's a shame BHA plays in England, thought....

 

[Justice]

I heard Poyet said it would take Barber two seasons to undo all the progress he had made with the club looks like he was right.

 

[drew]

I heard Poyet said it would take Barber two seasons to undo all the progress he had made with the club looks like he was right.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Mod edit to return the flow to the matchday drama.

 

[rocker959]

For those who have doubts about barber!.

Excerpts from the Vancouver Whitecaps blog!.

Paul Barber: He Came, He Saw, He Failed

"As far as AFTN is concerned, he'll not be missed."
"His appointment caused a lot of excitement. We were getting a guy from Tottenham Hotspur."
"Barber and footballing success don't seem to go hand in hand."
"Barber often came across to us being so full of hot air that we often checked his shoes to see if they were tethered to the ground to stop him floating away. All mouth and no trousers, as the English expression would have it."
"He was the master of spin, no doubt instilled in him from his career in public relations, media relations and communications. He clearly missed out on what I'm sure would have been a very successful career in politics."
"He brought in an amazing amount of sponsors and money to the Club. He helped establish a 15,000+ season ticket base and helped the Club make two tricky, but smooth, transitions to two new stadiums in one season. He was also good at replying personally, and quickly, to fan emails.We sincerely applaud him for all of that."

"He helped bring false expectations amongst the fanbase that the Whitecaps were not an ordinary expansion team and his pre-season comments made many fans expect instant success."
"The buck stops with him for all of the farcical ticketing problems this season, particularly the Uniglobe fiasco, where it can be argued he put corporate sponsors before fan interests."
"In fact, he hasn't delivered much at all, from our viewpoint.""
"Ultimately, Paul Barber will be remembered by AFTN as a cocky character who talked the talk, but didn't walk the walk, overseeing the worst season in Vancouver Whitecaps FC history. A nice legacy to leave behind."
"What does the future hold in store for Paul Barber? Where in football will it take him?.We certainly wouldn't be surprised if he makes the move to MLS Front Office and takes on some kind of role there. I personally think it would be a disaster for the League if he did."

.
Saw something similar a while back but was unable to paste it , seemed this opinion was shared by many Whitecaps fans.

 

[Weststander]

I heard Poyet said it would take Barber two seasons to undo all the progress he had made with the club looks like he was right.

That's Poyet, who Bloom trusted far too much, giving us £3.25m CMS, a payroll bill largely made up of GP's player wages almost matching turnover and so inevitably generating the £12m accounts losses. The architect of Southampton 8-0 Poyet's team.

 

[big nuts]

That's Poyet, who Bloom trusted far too much, giving us £3.25m CMS, a payroll bill largely made up of GP's player wages almost matching turnover and so inevitably generating the £12m accounts losses. The architect of Southampton 8-0 Poyet's team.

He recouped far more back then he spent in his tenure with us. Far more players bought who were a success and then sold on for considerably more than purchased for.

Yes in hindsight CMS was a poor signing but for every CMS, Dobbie & Harley there see at least four decent signings. A 80% success rate in the transfer market is good by anyone's standards.

 

[drew]

He recouped far more back then he spent in his tenure with us. Far more players bought who were a success and then sold on for considerably more than purchased for.

Yes in hindsight CMS was a poor signing but for every CMS, Dobbie & Harley there see at least four decent signings. A 80% success rate in the transfer market is good by anyone's standards.

Did Poyet source them though, I doubt it. Seems the successes are down to poyet and the failures down to Burke. Absolutely no logic!