Is it time for dick Knight to step down

[Scotty Mac]

Right.

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Carry on

hiney IN

 

[Questions]

You're putting the cart before the horse.

It's the company that wins the tender contract that will determine - largely - how much this project is going to cost. I think (though I could be wrong) that the contract tender period expires about mid-February.

Picking out figures from memory (they're not totally accurate), the club is estimating that the contract will cost around £55-60m in total - with the stadium itself costing something like £30-35m. It could be that the winning contractor can do it for less. Or more.

No public funding body is going to hand money over if they don't have ALL of the details of the contract in question in front of them. From there, the club can work out exactly what it needs to borrow. As for timings - no idea, but obviously in time for the work to start around October-ish, and we have not heard anything to the contrary so far.

The SEEDA money was for a different contract. That money has now gone to Brighton & Hove City Council, who will use that money for funding the access road across the A27. BHCC are the ones who will put that job out to tender later this year - but still in plenty of time for the rest of the project.

ok well done. Now I`m not moaning here but the fans are going to have to realise that once we get to Falmer (and god do we need to get there) we are not just going to go soaring through the leagues willy nilly. There will be the little matter of re-paying 30 to 40 million pounds back to the banks over....... ? years which will affect who we bring in - player wise.

Got any ideas how many years the loan will be for ?

 

[tedebear]

therfore, any new investor coming in could use his money solely for running costs and looking to strengthen the team

Well if I had any money to invest - my heart would say go for it (purely on the basis I am a fan), but my head would not, whilst we are in the position we are in at Withdean....I don't think you'll find many investors who would disagree...

 

[The Large One]

ok well done. Now I`m not moaning here but the fans are going to have to realise that once we get to Falmer (and god do we need to get there) we are not just going to go soaring through the leagues willy nilly. There will be the little matter of re-paying 30 to 40 million pounds back to the banks over....... ? years which will affect who we bring in - player wise.

Got any ideas how many years the loan will be for ?

The figure at the Public Inquiry was that the club needs to borrow £29m, and that was not challenged. Doubtless that figure has had to be revised upwards in those past three years. As I understand it, the repayment time is 40 years, leading the club to say that a break-even attendance figure is around 13,000.

How that is exactly calculated, I'm not sure.

 

[Simster]

Your tatoo looks SHIT.

True. I only hope it's on his arse.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I am a Dick Knight supporter but I believe he is beginning to be more a liability than an asset as regards the day-to-day running of the club.

Letting Richards, Savage and O'Callaghan go without replacing them has ended all chance this club had of cup glory, and it's a crying shame because on any other day we would have stuffed Mansfield and given Swansea one hell of a match.

If a business let 3 senior managers go and replaced them with kids not up to the job, lost orders and put off customers then the shareholders would be entitled to reevaluate whether the Managing Director was doing his job properly.

Dick Knight could not have envisaged Falmer would take this long. He is well into his 70s and clearly hasn't got the mind to be dealing with tricky agents and lippy players - the O'Callaghan incident and other past dealings bear this out.

This month, for me, is a watershed time. Ideally, Dick will become Honorary President and a replacement chairman with drive, patience, money and contacts take his place. Obviously, that person will be hard to find but then every small businessman planning to retire has to arrange suitable succession in order to benefit financially himself from the new arrangements.

It's sad that it has come to this, and I totally respect Dick Knight and will continue to do so, but it's becoming clear to me he is a man looking for the exit door. The fact that we've got 2 Chief Executives is testament to the fact he's showing his age and can't do as much as a younger man.

 

[Knotty]

I am a Dick Knight supporter but I believe he is beginning to be more a liability than an asset as regards the day-to-day running of the club.

Letting Richards, Savage and O'Callaghan go without replacing them has ended all chance this club had of cup glory, and it's a crying shame because on any other day we would have stuffed Mansfield and given Swansea one hell of a match.

If a business let 3 senior managers go and replaced them with kids not up to the job, lost orders and put off customers then the shareholders would be entitled to reevaluate whether the Managing Director was doing his job properly.

Dick Knight could not have envisaged Falmer would take this long. He is well into his 70s and clearly hasn't got the mind to be dealing with tricky agents and lippy players - the O'Callaghan incident and other past dealings bear this out.

This month, for me, is a watershed time. Ideally, Dick will become Honorary President and a replacement chairman with drive, patience, money and contacts take his place. Obviously, that person will be hard to find but then every small businessman planning to retire has to arrange suitable succession in order to benefit financially himself from the new arrangements.

It's sad that it has come to this, and I totally respect Dick Knight and will continue to do so, but it's becoming clear to me he is a man looking for the exit door. The fact that we've got 2 Chief Executives is testament to the fact he's showing his age and can't do as much as a younger man.

Who are our two Chief Executives?

 

[The Large One]

Sorry, Pav, but I disagree with your post.

He didn't 'let' Richards go - Richards had to go. He is in a certain amount of limbo with the fact that Richards has not returned YET. So does the club go for another full-back that we may not need? Nor did he 'let' Savage go. Again, how do you replace someone who hasn't gone - even though Bas' agent's demands were outrageous? f*** knows what happened with O'Callaghan, aside from to say that the Ipswich chairman phone Dick to apologise to O'Callaghan's behaviour.

He is not 70 yet. He will not deal with agents who are trying to rip him and/or the club off. Nothing wrong with his mind there. That is pure ageism on your part.

And the club only has one Chief Executive - Martin Perry.

This is not a watershed time for anyone. None of the current board has any real desire to be chairman, and there is no-one that we know of waiting to take over.

 

[Knotty]

Sorry, Pav, but I disagree with your post.

He didn't 'let' Richards go - Richards had to go. He is in a certain amount of limbo with the fact that Richards has not returned YET. So does the club go for another full-back that we may not need? Nor did he 'let' Savage go. Again, how do you replace someone who hasn't gone - even though Bas' agent's demands were outrageous? f*** knows what happened with O'Callaghan, aside from to say that the Ipswich chairman phone Dick to apologise to O'Callaghan's behaviour.

He is not 70 yet. He will not deal with agents who are trying to rip him and/or the club off. Nothing wrong with his mind there. That is pure ageism on your part.

And the club only has one Chief Executive - Martin Perry.

This is not a watershed time for anyone. None of the current board has any real desire to be chairman, and there is no-one that we know of waiting to take over.

Sensible, informed, realistic, objective. What are you doing on NSC?

 

[Pavilionaire]

TLO, isn't this semantics? OK, Ken Brown is Managing Director, not Chief Executive. The bottom line is he wasn't there this time last year.

And in my book he DID let Richards go. Yes, it was a loan, but according to Magilton the lad doesn't have much of a future at Ipswich, and we want him playing for us. I think DK could have done more to keep him at the club until the end of the season, and I'm sure TV money and gate receipts for the cup match we might have had vs Boro would have paid for this.

In terms of being ageist, if DK ISN'T 70 yet he certainly looks it and acts like it. I totally see where he is coming from re football agents but in football you have to box clever, and that means playing the game, i.e. if Andy Naylor writes a piece quoting Knight and Savage's agent then Knight should n't have a god at Naylor for putting both sides - Knight's wish to have only his side of the story reported was unrealistic and another sign that he hasn't got the patience or zest that he once had.

By watershed I mean the point, at least in my mind, where Knight has shown he can no longer be relied upon to sort contracts / players / loans. I can stomach one write-off of a season (2006/07) but to have the same happening in 2007/08 because 1/4 of the team up and leave at the same time is galling.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Is Lord B deliberately trying to mislead us?

A fair cop, BoF.

I didn't for one minute anticipate anyone voting in this poll, let alone believing that it might reflect opinions one way or the other.

At least we can be certain that no-one knows what they are trying to tell anyone about what they think. And no-one can be confused about what might be the opinions of people who don't pay much attention whatsoever to muddled ideas that definitely point to no obvious solution.

Except, of course, Mr Meade.

That is all. Almost.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

And in my book he DID let Richards go. Yes, it was a loan, but according to Magilton the lad doesn't have much of a future at Ipswich, and we want him playing for us. I think DK could have done more to keep him at the club until the end of the season, and I'm sure TV money and gate receipts for the cup match we might have had vs Boro would have paid for this.

If you listen to the interview DK quite clearly states that we have told Ipswich we want him, he even says that Jim Magilton has advised him to come back here. However, the decision will largely rest on what Richards wants to do, does he want regular football at a lower level or be part of a squad at a higher one. Where does he go to further his career. In this case it is the player who will be making the decision not the club irrespective of how much we are offering him

 

[The Large One]

TLO, isn't this semantics? OK, Ken Brown is Managing Director, not Chief Executive. The bottom line is he wasn't there this time last year.

We can argue about those players until we're blue in the face, aside from to say we had no choice by to let Richards go. His monthly loan was up, and he had to go back to Ipswich. It appears Richards and Magilton have differing views regarding the former's time at Ipswich. I think Richards wanted to fight for his place - seemingly Magilton doesn't think so now.

But my query is with your point above there. Why do you have an issue with the club having a managing director and a chief executive - especially when the latter has the full-time task of taking Falmer forwards? In fact, there are five full-time people employed by the club working on the Falmer project, and they don't work at the club offices any more.

Ken Brown is in charge of the day-to-day running of the club. I know Dick has said that the buck stops with him, but he is the one in charge now.

The reason why we have two is not because of any perceived marble-loss due to Dick's advancing years, it's more that the club has a different set of priorities to work to now that Falmer has been approved - something that wasn't the case a year ago.