[Albion] Barbs on The Football Friendly (Jonathan Pearce and Terry Alderton's podcast)

[brightn'ove]

I've seen plenty of these interviews now where Barber talks about succession plans for every player and people at the club but I've not seen or heard anyone ask him whether there's a succession plan for his job. Is that off-limits?

I think this is one role where unless he really wanted to be involved in a club that had a higher stature, he couldn't earn more elsewhere. He is one of the highest paid football execs in the world.

 

[Goldstone1976]

He was on the headhunter list for the Liverpool CEO position a few years ago.

Oh? Do you happen to know if he was offered an interview (or turned the headhunter down flat)?

 

[Brovion]

He is a fabulous CEO and has been a brilliant advocate for the Albion for 11 years. He has Tony's public endorsement of his qualities, and he's won awards.

He's also ambitious (imo). Like any professional at the top of their game, he may well want to 'test himself at the highest level' (to coin a phrase). The Albion is not the 'highest level'. Higher levels include a top 6 club (including Spurs, his boyhood club and a previous employer of PB), maybe the FA, maybe the PL, maybe a European giant (though less likely given his relative lack of knowledge of how football operates in, say, Germany, France (well, specifically Paris), Italy, or Spain.)

In my opinion, it's only a matter of time before PB ups and leaves (I hope he doesn't, but we have to be realistic). I was merely musing on whether he had unwittingly indicated that his thinking is starting to turn to his personal future. Why the need to preface 'Brighton's result is the priority for me...' with 'While I'm at Brighton'?

As I say, I'm just musing, s'all.

Yeah, I do think at some stage the desire for a new challenge will become to strong to resist - and that will be a very bad day for the Albion. I hope if (or probably when) it happens that he becomes head of the PL or the FA or something, i.e. he doesn't leave us just to move to a similar position at a bigger club.

Anyway, as you and others have said, it's just conjecture; so like with RDZ or any player moving on let's just enjoy the ride. (I would like us to win something though before this era ends).

 

[El Presidente]

Indeed. He's turned down approaches in the past. And he's also one of the most well paid directors in the PL.

He negotiated the sale of Cucurella, Potter, Bissouma, Trossard and Maupay for £140 million, worth every penny that Tony Bloom pays him.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Yep. And that added to my thinking that maybe his time with us is limited.

We have to be materially closer to stalling, stagnating, or regressing now than 11 years ago - there's just so little left that we can realistically achieve in the grand scheme of things. In this pod, he reinforced the notion again that we're not going to break the wages model. Given that, we must be damn close to peak Albion. Yes, maybe we'll get into Europe; yes, maybe we'll win a cup - both would obviously represent progress from anything we've ever achieved before. But from there? It's pretty unrealistic to think we're going to win a cup every year (or even most). It's even more unrealistic to think we're going to progress from whatever European jaunt we may possibly achieve to being regular CL attendees. Thus, stagnation is the very best he can hope for (once we've achieved it). Regression is more probable, imo.

For me, as a fan, we're living the dream. I'll still be around when we drop back down the pecking order (as we all know we will). For PB? Well, it's a job. A job he loves, for sure; but a job he loves because of a decade of progress (he refers to this in the pod). When the progress ceases, which it absolutely inevitably will, what then?

I agree with all of that - BUT we haven't hit that peak yet - let's enjoy it whilst we can.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

If you wanna listen on Spotify you can skip the ads:

 

[Goldstone1976]

I agree with all of that - BUT we haven't hit that peak yet - let's enjoy it whilst we can.

Agreed!

As I say, “I’m living the dream…”

 

[Jim in the West]

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He negotiated the sale of Cucurella, Potter, Bissouma, Trossard and Maupay for £140 million, worth every penny that Tony Bloom pays him.

A bit OT, but interesting that Man City don't seem to pay their directors anything - presumably as they hive them off into another company to keep the costs away (for FFP purposes)??

 

[El Presidente]

A bit OT, but interesting that Man City don't seem to pay their directors anything - presumably as they hive them off into another company to keep the costs away (for FFP purposes)??

My lips are sealed.

 

[Hiheidi]

I can't quite recall how he phrased it in the interview, but the jist was: choose the owner, not the club.

This puts into perspective anyone thinking he's about to jump ship to a bigger club - not that he wouldn't, but surely only one that had an owner he respected and would happily work alongside. That in itself, surely cuts a few of the bigger clubs out of the running immediately!

 

[Goldstone1976]

I can't quite recall how he phrased it in the interview, but the jist was: choose the owner, not the club.

This puts into perspective anyone thinking he's about to jump ship to a bigger club - not that he wouldn't, but surely only one that had an owner he respected and would happily work alongside. That in itself, surely cuts a few of the bigger clubs out of the running immediately!

Yes - if he meant it, and I suspect he does. Still, according to El P’s numbers his oppo at United makes 50% more than he does.

Would he be tempted? No idea. Maybe not. If not, then maybe he really will be here for another decade.

 

[Clive Walker]

I suspect PB has lengthy conversations with TB to discuss strategies.

Agreee but TB isn’t sitting across the table cigar in hand making other chairman cry like babies.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Enjoyed listening to that. I know he is local but JP does seem to have a lot of respect for our club