Harty's Phone In Thread (18/02/06)

[Screaming J]

Although I agree with LIs post and think that anyone who doesn't think Falmer is the number one priority must be nuts I do think Harty has one point.

Ultimately the buck stops with DK. Given the various 'things' that have happened recently (all these loan outs, the seats argument, the players falling out with McGhee, the lack of success in getting nayone in during the transfer wndow & all this LDC shit) I would have thought it astute of DK to be a bit more vocal/visible. If the Albion's survival has been built on a partnership between fans & club, a request for him to speak on the radio at this time doesn't seem to me to be too unreasonable.

 

[dougdeep]

Although I agree with LIs post and think that anyone who doesn't think Falmer is the number one priority must be nuts I do think Harty has one point.

Ultimately the buck stops with DK. Given the various 'things' that have happened recently (all these loan outs, the seats argument, the players falling out with McGhee, the lack of success in getting nayone in during the transfer wndow & all this LDC shit) I would have thought it astute of DK to be a bit more vocal/visible. If the Albion's survival has been built on a partnership between fans & club, a request for him to speak on the radio at this time doesn't seem to me to be too unreasonable.

You want more Dick then?

 

[BensGrandad]

BG - who has ever (since bellotti and archer) misled the supporters on the state of the clubs finances? They are parlous end of story!

Relegation will see a reduction in TV income and away supporter attendances. So that is a serious issue - is it a disaster?

As for the falmer expenditure - if you read the argus, the accounts or indeed the club website you will see that costs of planning application, 3 public enquiries and now the judicial review are in excess of £2.5m and growing. Has anybody kept that from you are are you so bitter and twisted that despite reading it you choose to ignore it and make up your own world of digs and innuendo?

The TV revenue is equivalent to 25% of our playing budget so we are told, will the players take a 25%drop in wages - unlikely.

We are struggling to make ends meet now without the finance of Falmer on the gates that we get so a reduced or even equivalent gate next season will not improve the situation. We shall still have the maximum atttendance possible at Withdean even if, and I doubt, we are top of Div 1.

The club are forever asking the fans for money with a drop in Revenue of £1.25m will that improve and the need to ask not be there.

This figure is based on £1m TV lost revenue and lost away support(my estimate).

LI so eloquently in his usual waffle saying absolutly nothing, suggests that the figures for expenditure are free and available and that every body knows that the original A & K fund gave 'few' million few being in excess of 3 plus the cost of LDC latest and then quotes £2.5m which one is correct they can't both be. Which is exactly what I am asking.

The alternative if we are struggling for cash is the sale of Henderson, Hinshlewood Gatting etc and a reduction in our playing strength making a 2nd relegation a distinct possibility.

Very simple calculation we need to beat Crewe, Millwall and Sheff Wed and then mirror those three teams results.

What does a good Premiership striker earn a week considering Man City have just offered Joey Barton double to take his wage to £28k per week and he is an up and coming star, but granted not a striker. Would you agree that £12k per week should get a fairly good striker.

10 games remaining so 10x 12 = 120k plus an attacking midfielder on the same = £240k and as MM says, and we all saw
yesterday, we are 2 players off of a reasonable side. Those players would virtually guarantee our survival for £240 k as opposed to losing £1m next season .

 

[ROSM]

The TV revenue is equivalent to 25% of our playing budget so we are told, will the players take a 25%drop in wages - unlikely.

We are struggling to make ends meet now without the finance of Falmer on the gates that we get so a reduced or even equivalent gate next season will not improve the situation. We shall still have the maximum atttendance possible at Withdean even if, and I doubt, we are top of Div 1.

The club are forever asking the fans for money with a drop in Revenue of £1.25m will that improve and the need to ask not be there.

This figure is based on £1m TV lost revenue and lost away support(my estimate).

LI so eloquently in his usual waffle saying absolutly nothing, suggests that the figures for expenditure are free and available and that every body knows that the original A & K fund gave 'few' million few being in excess of 3 plus the cost of LDC latest and then quotes £2.5m which one is correct they can't both be. Which is exactly what I am asking.

The alternative if we are struggling for cash is the sale of Henderson, Hinshlewood Gatting etc and a reduction in our playing strength making a 2nd relegation a distinct possibility.

Very simple calculation we need to beat Crewe, Millwall and Sheff Wed and then mirror those three teams results.

What does a good Premiership striker earn a week considering Man City have just offered Joey Barton double to take his wage to £28k per week and he is an up and coming star, but granted not a striker. Would you agree that £12k per week should get a fairly good striker.

10 games remaining so 10x 12 = 120k plus an attacking midfielder on the same = £240k and as MM says, and we all saw
yesterday, we are 2 players off of a reasonable side. Those players would virtually guarantee our survival for £240 k as opposed to losing £1m next season .

bit you are the man who claimed the board never wanted us to get promoted (twice) and we did both times. Your summising has been singularly incorrect in the past.

When we were relegated last time, I was told by two current squad members that the players took an average decrease of 20% in their wages (based on clauses in their contracts). Are there the same clauses now?

Also, historically, albion fans are fickle and will support a winning team no matter what league. So relegation in itself doesn't lead to a crowd reduction - but relation and subsequent further under achieveing would!

I agree that a striker is what we need (obvious since august) but the failure to find one who will provide a return on the money spent is down to a number of factors and at the moment, McGhee isn't citing lack of support from the board as one of them.

 

[Dave the OAP]

I blame B&H unitary Authority for all of this.

If they hadn't suggested Falmer as a site, which they must have known was frought with problems, and left the Albion to pick up £2.5 million tab for this, then I think we would have been in at Waterhall with a ground and plenty of money behind us.

Its all their fault




BTW What was the game actually like yesterday?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Harty ...

One piece of analysis that you regularly put forward is that we need to win seven games between now and the end of the season.

Presumably, this is because you are working on a points target of 50.

This season, you are almost certainly wrong.

Have a look at the Grimsby Calculator thread:-
http://85.234.132.19/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68828&highlight=Grimsby

The overwhelming consensus is that 43 or 44 points will be enough to keep us up. That's five defeats, two draws and just four wins from the last eleven games.

We might be wrong, of course ... and there's a great deal of Keeping The Faith to be done.

But I can't help thinking that your constantly chanted mantra of SEVEN is setting a tone for the gloom that follows every defeat.

Personally, I think we can survive, even though, for the rest of the season, we will lose more than we win.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

bit you are the man who claimed the board never wanted us to get promoted (twice) and we did both times. Your summising has been singularly incorrect in the past.

When we were relegated last time, I was told by two current squad members that the players took an average decrease of 20% in their wages (based on clauses in their contracts). Are there the same clauses now?

Also, historically, albion fans are fickle and will support a winning team no matter what league. So relegation in itself doesn't lead to a crowd reduction - but relation and subsequent further under achieveing would!

I agree that a striker is what we need (obvious since august) but the failure to find one who will provide a return on the money spent is down to a number of factors and at the moment, McGhee isn't citing lack of support from the board as one of them.

Dead right!

And McGhee's programme notes yesterday are obviously written by a man who intends being there next season, whatever happens.

As for Grandad's claim that the board never wanted us to get promoted, he is obviously confused. DK might have expressed an opinion that the costs of Championship football are much more difficult to cover from Withdean gate revenue than are the costs of League One football. But that's not the same as DK saying that he prefers the lower leagues.

 

[BensGrandad]

I think that the 7 wins was originally based obn the magic 50 points mark but has changed somewhat with the denise of other clubs.

I now think that MM has it right the key to this isuue is Sheff Wed, although Millwall have effectively gone above us by goal difference we need a win to overtake them. So my formula is beatr Crewe, Sheff Wed and Millwall and we will survive. Bring in a striker at all costs this week.

 

[BensGrandad]

As for Grandad's claim that the board never wanted us to get promoted, he is obviously confused. DK might have expressed an opinion that the costs of Championship football are much more difficult to cover from Withdean gate revenue than are the costs of League One football. But that's not the same as DK saying that he prefers the lower leagues.

This was view expressed to me by 2 ex managers. Are they both wrong!

 

[Lord Bracknell]

This was view expressed to me by 2 ex managers. Are they both wrong!

Well it's not the view that DK expressed to me immediately after both promotions.

 

[Les Biehn]

This was view expressed to me by 2 ex managers. Are they both wrong!

How come your inside info is always counter to what everyone else hears or just so out of whack its almost as if you have made it up.

 

[BensGrandad]

How come your inside info is always counter to what everyone else hears or just so out of whack its almost as if you have made it up.

It happens to be 2 managers for whom I did some scouting and I am still in contact with associates of theirs. To save you asking I have done this for every manager from Alan Mullery to Steve Coppell who brought in his own.

 

[dougdeep]

It happens to be 2 managers for whom I did some scouting and I am still in contact with associates of theirs. To save you asking I have done this for every manager from Alan Mullery to Steve Coppell who brought in his own.

Fame by association.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

It happens to be 2 managers for whom I did some scouting and I am still in contact with associates of theirs. To save you asking I have done this for every manager from Alan Mullery to Steve Coppell who brought in his own.

Geez ... no wonder the team has been RUBBISH for years.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

People are asking about what has happened to all the transfer money we got from Virgo and Harding , simple it's gone towards the cost of Falmer. The club has to pay wages, rent to the Council for using Withdean and with gate receipts and TV money I doubt whether they can anyway break even. DK is in a catch 22 situation whereby he can fork out £100k to pay a loanee's wages until the end of the season with no guarantee of that player keeping us up. Or does he keep the money in reserve to pay for the JR costs knowing that there are 3 teams who will cock it up more than us by the end of the season. Plenty of businesses go bust due to cashflow problems even though promises of what will happen in the future will make them financially secure - this is the ideal scenario for LDC because if the club dies , they can smugly say that they were right in the first place to oppose Falmer.

 

[BensGrandad]

Geez ... no wonder the team has been RUBBISH for years.

During Mullerys time, during Micky Adams time.

Not forgetting the man who started it all at Giilingham Brian Horton.

 

[Infernal Optimist]

The one fact we all seem to agree on is without a CF we will be relegated. I think that the Falmer issue is being used as a bit of a smokescreen. Any discussion of the playing side is submerged in the Falmer issue.

I for one do not buy into this we can't get a striker because they don't want to play at Withdean.

A loan signing is not going to care, about our short term situation, he is going to care about his own career. A chance to play 1st team football in the Championship is what he is going to care about.

What I would really like to know is who we have tried for and why it didn't happen. I am not anti Knight or McGhee, but I am anti settling for relegation in February!

We have been told that, we have tried for various players, we have also been told by McGhee, that February was the crucial month of our season. Here we are most of the way through it with a number of players shipped out and with no new signings coming in.

We have a 'must win' game on Saturday and we need a forward before it.

The only real information we have had is that we tried to buy Tom Brighton. The club are quick enough to ask our help over Falmer and we are quick enough to give it. I for one will accept no signing if we are skint, I will accept relegation for the greater good too. What I won't accept is being kept in the dark about the situation.

We as Albion supporters have perhaps, more than any other club in the country earned the right to honesty and communication from the board and manager.

If its bad then so be it, but for Christs sake tell us what's going on. If you've fallen out with Harty, Dick, then find another way, but tell us what's going on.

From the people, sitting around me in F block, there are going to be an awful lot of empty seats around me next season, if something isn't done, the honeymoon of returning to Brighton is well and truly over...

 

[BensGrandad]

.

I for one do not buy into this we can't get a striker because they don't want to play at Withdean.


A loan signing is not going to care, about our short term situation, he is going to care about his own career. A chance to play 1st team football in the Championship is what he is going to care about.

This is very true so we must assume that it comes down to money and what we are prepared to pay as a % of a premiership player/reserves wages.

It has also be said about the facilities at Withdean. I would suggest that they are as good if not better than most premiership reserves play on and the crowd is larger than they are used to performing in front of. Take Chelsea at Kingstonians as an example.

Harry Rednapp got Portsmouth promted by paying 50 % of premiership players wages which served both clubs. I would assume that the likes of Wenger Jol etc want % of their players wages paid and the amount that we are offering is insufficient.

This would explain my offer on another thread 'Finance a striker'

 

[1066gull]

McShane CARES and he is on loan. Never seen anyone more commited who is on loan in my life.

 

[bhaexpress]

During Mullerys time, during Micky Adams time.

Not forgetting the man who started it all at Giilingham Brian Horton.

That might explain where up until recently we've had a crap or non existent youth scheme.