Paul Barber - a thoroughly likeable guy actually

[andy1980]

L1 and L2 will get about an extra £200-250,000 each.

Wow so the Championship gets an extra £4.2m while the rest get an extra £200-£250,000. The Championship is as bad as the Premiership when it comes to sharing out its money.

Maybe I should say the Football league is as bad as the Premiership.

 

[Horses Arse]

Of course he has autonomy in his role, otherwise at HT quite rightly points out, there is no point him being there.

He may well have some sort of 'budget' to work within, but that won't be high up the priority list. His brief will be drive revenue and income, reduce operating costs and give the manager the best possible budget he can to work with. If you think for one second that Bloom is looking over Barbers shoulder every 5 seconds on HOW he goes about that, you are mad. The point of board meetings is so that Barber can bring Bloom and his overpaid sidekicks, who dress up as board members, up to speed with progress. The only thing I do continue to remain surprised about is, given Barbers offensive salary, he is not trusted to do the hiring and firing of the managers, but hey it's Blooms money so I guess he can do what he wants.

Barbers 'success' will be to record year-on-year reductions in operating losses, to get us to the point where we are self-sufficient. In a round about way, he will be judged by what goes on on the pitch, because what happens on the pitch directly impacts the income and revenues off it, in ticket sales, merchandise, catering etc etc, and reductions in all of those will apparently impact the budge the manager is given. Incidentally, expect this to be another year of 'success' in reducing losses, given the systematic dismantling of our previous squad, and the many millions it generated. And again, if you genuinely think Barber had nothing to do with that - go check yourself in and I'll bring the straight jacket.

Barber may well be simply Blooms puppet on many things, but do not imagine for one second that this guy does not have genuine power and say over club policy and direction. It's that fact that makes me dream of the day that this Corporate dinosaur finally moves on to his next project.

Very well put - totally agree with this.

 

[El Presidente]

In addition to point 4 I'd broaden the firm line taken regarding comments made on his relationship to Gus to include his general warnings to this site; for a club in good times (and we are despite this seasons latest managerial debacle) I see that as a very concerning development.

Out of interest, what are his general warnings to this site in your view?

 

[Working class pride]

Back on the point of the thread, as to PB being a nice bloke. Well great, I'm sure he is, but frankly is it remotely relevant? Results are what he, the manager and the players will be judged by. We have this season scrapped around the bottom half of the second tier whilst being lucky enough to have gate receipts for a mid table Premier League team. The reason we are struggling is because of parachute payments from the top flight and that gap is getting wider. However we also see clubs like Bournemouth and Brentford succeeding whilst we continue to fail. Results, result, results. Nothing else matters. Results are what Paul Barber, the manager and the players will all be judged by. This season they have failed and even under Poyet and Garcia the club ultimately failed as well. I would like this club from fans to CEO to stop being happy with the lower leagues. Wigan and Wimbledon have over the years been more successful on the pitch than us. Its time to accept this club needs a change of mentality. To be fair to Barber, it sounds like he does, but then he has to deliver success or its just more of the same.

 

[drew]

Back on the point of the thread, as to PB being a nice bloke. Well great, I'm sure he is, but frankly is it remotely relevant? Results are what he, the manager and the players will be judged by. We have this season scrapped around the bottom half of the second tier whilst being lucky enough to have gate receipts for a mid table Premier League team. The reason we are struggling is because of parachute payments from the top flight and that gap is getting wider. However we also see clubs like Bournemouth and Brentford succeeding whilst we continue to fail. Results, result, results. Nothing else matters. Results are what Paul Barber, the manager and the players will all be judged by. This season they have failed and even under Poyet and Garcia the club ultimately failed as well. I would like this club from fans to CEO to stop being happy with the lower leagues. Wigan and Wimbledon have over the years been more successful on the pitch than us. Its time to accept this club needs a change of mentality. To be fair to Barber, it sounds like he does, but then he has to deliver success or its just more of the same.

You're like a broken record.

 

[El Presidente]

You're like a broken record.

Or a spoof account.

 

[Horses Arse]

Out of interest, what are his general warnings to this site in your view?

I think you know what they are - you should have been aware of his email to this forum at the start of the season.

Now you may look at that e-mail and think that he is well within his rights to threaten legal action against comments that he feels are defamatory but I find it unpalatable for such a pre-emptive threat to be issued to a football forum for a club such as Brighton in their current state of health. It's the sort of behaviour I would expect from Blackpool in their current state rather than Brighton. Personal views as to what football is all about these days I guess.

I am further concerned when I compare the comments that were followed up by Oyston at Blackpool (i,e. against clear statements of 'fact' by a lawyer and supporters club head regarding money being taken out of the club) compared to threats of legal action made against this site/me when my post (under the name of horses arse for goodness sake) suggested that if scenarios 'a' or 'b' weren't the case then it meant that someone at the club was incompetent. I feel that this displayed a level of control being exerted that is unwarranted and suggested to me that someone was particularly worried about their performance. Alternatively of course perhaps he just had a shocking day leading to this reaction.

It's all about opinion I guess, mine being that Paul's intervention (although well within his rights legally) was excessive for the nature of the sector he works within and for the nature of comments made. I realise that you and others have a totally different view based on previous posts discussing this same issue. A bit like me feeling that JFC did well for us whilst others want him banished from the club.

 

[El Presidente]

I think you know what they are - you should have been aware of his email to this forum at the start of the season.

Now you may look at that e-mail and think that he is well within his rights to threaten legal action against comments that he feels are defamatory but I find it unpalatable for such a pre-emptive threat to be issued to a football forum for a club such as Brighton in their current state of health. It's the sort of behaviour I would expect from Blackpool in their current state rather than Brighton. Personal views as to what football is all about these days I guess.

I am further concerned when I compare the comments that were followed up by Oyston at Blackpool (i,e. against clear statements of 'fact' by a lawyer and supporters club head regarding money being taken out of the club) compared to threats of legal action made against this site/me when my post (under the name of horses arse for goodness sake) suggested that if scenarios 'a' or 'b' weren't the case then it meant that someone at the club was incompetent. I feel that this displayed a level of control being exerted that is unwarranted and suggested to me that someone was particularly worried about their performance. Alternatively of course perhaps he just had a shocking day leading to this reaction.

It's all about opinion I guess, mine being that Paul's intervention (although well within his rights legally) was excessive for the nature of the sector he works within and for the nature of comments made. I realise that you and others have a totally different view based on previous posts discussing this same issue. A bit like me feeling that JFC did well for us whilst others want him banished from the club.

I can only go on what I have read and heard from the horse's mouth.

The complaint made was in respect of a defamatory comment, and as such was reactive, not proactive. As a club, the Albion do have a duty of care towards their employees, and PB, having taken legal advice, in what is a far more litigious world than a few years ago, is probably covering his and the club's backside.

As for opinion, I will back you 100% to be allowed to state your views on whatever subject you choose, provided they stay within the laws as we understand them. Opinion is one thing, and falls within the remit of fair comment, when people choose to use phrases such as 'corporate liar' (and I appreciate it wasn't you who made the comment) then they are causing problems for both NSC and themselves.

..........and I didn't think JFC was too bad either, given the alternatives available at the time.

 

[Seagull73]

A few things

1: Agree entirely in that his brief is to maximise income and reduce costs to give the manager an enhanced playing budget, not sure there's anything to grumble about there.

2: Not sure what you mean by 'overpaid sidekicks'. Only Barber, Jones and Martin Perry are paid directors.

3: Paul Barber did negotiate the Ulloa deal, and I think he did an amazing job generating £8.5 million (rising to £10m) for a player who had only been with us for 18 months and cost £2 million. Ulloa (and Bridcutt, Buckley, Upson and Ward) were all keen to play in the PL, so there was no point in trying to stop them. Barnes is apparently only a Sunday league player, so no loss there. Koosh's agent was claiming he was in the demand in the PL, and wanted a contract from the Albion that reflected that, and the club said no. He's now the number two keeper at Wolves. I think it was a mistake to let Orlandi (and to a lesser extent, Spanish Dave) go, but those decisions were made by Nathan Jones rather than Barber.

4: What makes Barber a 'Corporate Dinosaur'? Surely he is the epitome of modern football, which today is all selfie sticks, half and half scarves, high prices, megastores and tourists? I don't like any of that, but it's no point taking a King Canute approach to the changes in the game, you'll just end up very bitter.

1. Correct, I wasn't grumbling.

2. Ok, my mistake, I thought there were other board members taking some sort of salary, so I stand corrected.

3. I'm actually not saying that he didn't do well to fleece Leicester and Sunderland of fees that were clearly inflated for our 'star' players, my point is that the profits from those deals have largely gone into shoring up the losses (despite us being told early in the summer we didn't 'need' to sell). The trick that I don't think has been managed very well is to reinvest in the squad, and as we are quite painfully finding out, seling players is not a sustainable way of keeping losses to a minimum. The summer and next season will be quite interesting, because there will be no large scale player sales (we hardly have anybody who is worth £8 at the moment, never mind £8M), and with almost certain reduced STH numbers, it will be with interest how we are able to maintain a player budget on income and revenues that are likely to be less than we have now. I've always said that the CEO should be judged on how they 'grow' the business - and so far there is precious little evidence of what has been done on that score (and cost-cutting is not 'growing' a business).

4. You've clearly never seen him in one of his monthly 'sermons' to the staff. Trust me, the guy comes across as an old school Corporate Dinosaur. Much like with the team in Canada, I doubt there will be many tears shed when he decides to move on to his next project.

 

[El Presidente]

4. You've clearly never seen him in one of his monthly 'sermons' to the staff. Trust me, the guy comes across as an old school Corporate Dinosaur. Much like with the team in Canada, I doubt there will be many tears shed when he decides to move on to his next project.

Surely this is RIPE for YouTube?

 

[El Presidente]

The trick that I don't think has been managed very well is to reinvest in the squad, and as we are quite painfully finding out, seling players is not a sustainable way of keeping losses to a minimum.

Agree entirely, the players signed are on comparable wages to the ones sold, (as I suspect we will see when next season's accounts are revealed), but they haven't delivered. Whether that is due to Burke, Barber, Jones, Hyppia or just bad luck is the unanswered question for me, and I genuinely have no idea of the answer.

 

[Horses Arse]

I can only go on what I have read and heard from the horse's mouth.

The complaint made was in respect of a defamatory comment, and as such was reactive, not proactive. As a club, the Albion do have a duty of care towards their employees, and PB, having taken legal advice, in what is a far more litigious world than a few years ago, is probably covering his and the club's backside.

As for opinion, I will back you 100% to be allowed to state your views on whatever subject you choose, provided they stay within the laws as we understand them. Opinion is one thing, and falls within the remit of fair comment, when people choose to use phrases such as 'corporate liar' (and I appreciate it wasn't you who made the comment) then they are causing problems for both NSC and themselves.

..........and I didn't think JFC was too bad either, given the alternatives available at the time.

Haha - loved the first line of your post. Have to agree that you're always better off talking to the head rather than the arse, even if what is between is a horse.

 

[Seagull73]

Surely this is RIPE for YouTube?

Oh If only.

The particular one I always think of is a couple of years old now, but still makes my toes curl thinking about it.

 

[Seagull73]

Agree entirely, the players signed are on comparable wages to the ones sold, (as I suspect we will see when next season's accounts are revealed), but they haven't delivered. Whether that is due to Burke, Barber, Jones, Hyppia or just bad luck is the unanswered question for me, and I genuinely have no idea of the answer.

I dont think anybody in that list can completely absolve themselves of any blame for what has been an arse of a season.
Given that Barber is the only one left from that list still in a position of authority, he might just be thanking his lucky stars for Chris Hughton right now.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

If Paul Barber is THAT good, can we please have him in charge of the 'North Stand seating reorganisation'?

Mr Beirne, for all his meeting (just the one) organisation and issuing of notes (just the one) from that meeting and responding (just the once) to emails about how we progress the matter is... well, less than an equal partner in the 'look at the respect I give to fans' stakes.

Sorry Mr. Beirne, but there's only one Paul who's making the right headlines at present.

The deadline for renewing season tickets is almost upon us and the initiative to put all the singers in one place has stalled; strangely enough since Sami left. Maybe it was all just flannel to stop more of us from abusing our bedsheets (making banners, not wetting them).

Are you still here? How about the singers move somewhere else instead of ****ing whinging at the club. No solution was found at the meeting as Beirne explained in his email, it just gave a few people a chance to massage their egos and boast about what great supporters they apparently.

Haven't heard you whinging at the guy who took down email addresses to get an independent supporters club going by the way...

 

[Dan Aitch]

Are you still here? How about the singers move somewhere else instead of ****ing whinging at the club. No solution was found at the meeting as Beirne explained in his email, it just gave a few people a chance to massage their egos and boast about what great supporters they apparently.

Haven't heard you whinging at the guy who took down email addresses to get an independent supporters club going by the way...

You'll probably feel better tomorrow - is there anything I can do to help, other than to f%*k right off?