where are the successors

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Of course it's entirely possible that just as soon as Falmer gets a proper and final YES decision then millions of pounds of funding will be made available for ground-building and to a lesser extent team-strengthening. Because at that point it suddenly becomes very important to be able to offer an attractive product to put bums on seats in the new stadium. Details of any such funding - which may already be in place for all we know - would of course have to remain highly confidential until after the Falmer go-ahead is given. Surely not too much to ask that the board gets given the benefit of the doubt until the decision is announced?

 

[BensGrandad]

No shit Sherlock!

Why the rush to condemn MM for not chasing whenever a known striker 's name appears as being available by his club

 

[BensGrandad]

Of course it's entirely possible that just as soon as Falmer gets a proper and final YES decision then millions of pounds of funding will be made available for ground-building and to a lesser extent team-strengthening. Because at that point it suddenly becomes very important to be able to offer an attractive product to put bums on seats in the new stadium. Details of any such funding - which may already be in place for all we know - would of course have to remain highly confidential until after the Falmer go-ahead is given. Surely not too much to ask that the board gets given the benefit of the doubt until the decision is announced?

I agree 100% but do the numbers of posters on here and the people on the phone in who critisise MM for not bringing in known goalscorers.

 

[Titanic]

Not from me or the vast, sensible majority of supporters.

Of course there are a few impatient young hot-heads around, and a few stupid old people too - but the vast majority stump up their hundreds of pounds for a season ticket, or spend hundreds on travelling to away game to support the team we can afford at present - and wait in eager anticipation for better things to come.

They support the board, DK and MP, and the Falmer campaign at every opportunity - because they know that the long term future of the club is dependent on it.

 

[BensGrandad]

They support the board, DK and MP, and the Falmer campaign at every opportunity - because they know that the long term future of the club is dependent on it.

Strange as it may seem so do I.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

We are continually told that the debts are being brought under control and reduced. The knock on effect is that perhaps in the not too distant future we may be able to afford to buy somebody. My reading of the accounts, as a layman, do not show that the debt is reducing in actual fact the exact opposite which would mean that we have no chance ever whilst at Withdean of buying a player or even paying the wages of an experienced loan signing. Hopefully I am misreading the accounts and missing a vital point.

You've obviously mis-heard or mis-read something. I think you'll find the statement from the club after the publication of the last set of accounts said the debt was under control and the loses year on year were being reduced - completely different from the debts being reduced.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

I think people on here hope we could sign someone good but at the same time know in their heart or hearts that it is not going to happen at the moment. No point getting upset about it.

 

[Brovion]

Ben's Grandad: To answer your original question there are no successors to the likes of Baine, Hart and Samrah because at this moment we don't NEED them. As you pointed out the rift between Club and Supporters didn't start with Bellotti, Archer and Stanley, It wasn't them who sued Gulls Eye, and it wasn't them who were Gulls Eye's original targets.

You are right to be concerned about the growing debt, you are also entitled to think that there are better and richer people around than Knight and Perry. That may be true - on the other hand there are DEFINITELY people around who would be much much worse. It is my opinion that the club is the most open and best run it's been in it's 101 year history; the proof of that is the things like the back-to-back Championships and the fact we're in the 2nd tier of English football (which we haven't been for most of our history). All this has been achieved despite the fact we've no money. Add to that the fight for Falmer (and survival) and you can see why nobody, apart from the wilfully ignorant, feels the need to attack the club or go through the finances with a fine tooth comb.

The only people who are saying "Why don't we sign Dublin/Earnshaw/Roberts/Figo" are the dullards who can't do the simple maths to broadly work out the finances and also have a limited view of how the football business works.

 

[London Irish]

Who is asking the painful questions.

Lammy, everyday on NSC I see people asking nothing but very painful questions

Still, I agree with the thrust of what you say, as much as I am deeply puzzled by the worst inferences being drawn concerning the board's motives, in the same way I too have no reason to doubt that BG isn't motivated by wanting the best for the Albion.

The answer to BG's question of who is performing the role of independent critic these days now that we have no fanzines is simple, it's websites like this. NSC has a vast range of people with a vast spectrum of opinion on it, supporters and critics of the club and their opinions clash daily and virtually hourly, it's what makes NSC such a great read.

I would repeat the point that was made by Yorkie yesterday on other threads; just because people are supportive of the current board's efforts, that doesn't mean blank cheques are being written. To suggest that is to insult people's intelligence.

I'm pleased BG has downloaded the accounts and can pass them to someone to satisfy his curiosity.

But I fear he will not get what he really wants out of that process - accounts are merely a snapshot in the financial life in the club (this one would be well over a year out of date now) and can only give you a depiction of what the finances are, not WHY they are like that.

It is the WHY I think BG is looking for, and that really relates to almost day-to-day information on cash flows throughout the company. That information is impossible to come by unless you are an insider at the heart of the club. A lot of it is probably commercially sensitive information too.

I think BG needs to get a proper handle on what actually was achieved by Samrah and the fanzines in the 1990s.

While Samrah was acting as a fans' auditor, more importantly he was a detective looking to reconcile contradictory statements from the arseholes that ran the club.

Belotti, for example, would often give contradictory statements on the debt position; minimising on occasions to boost the current management, at other times exaggerating it to scare people into thinking the only course of action was the immediate sale of the Goldstone.

Here was a clear contradiction that needed investigating by the fans.

There is no parallel with that today. The current board have never minimised our peoblems with current trading while we remain at Withdean and the impact that has on our debt position. There has been a consistency of approach by the current board that does not invite any suspicion; unless of course you have a pre-determined dislike of the current board. In that case, as I said, you are not likely to be satisfied by the information contained in all the seven years of annual accounts that are available in Companies House covering Dick Knight's leadership of the club.

One of Samrah's other great discoveries was Archer's change in the articles of association of the club that would have allowed for an owner to profit personally from the asset stripping sale of the Goldstone.

That huge asset of the Goldstone is now gone. There is nothing left at the Albion these days other than the huge running costs of renting the Withdean that halve the revenue of our already-pathetic gates, there is nothing but the bonanza of legal costs we have to fork out for years in the never-ending twists of turns of the fight for Falmer; nothing but the costs of buying out Archer's remaining huge minority shareholding that the wanker received as part of the 1997 deal; there is nothing but the costs that we really can't afford of providing a squad of players to compete at this level of football.

We have huge outgoings and a pathetic revenue base from gate receipts, the useless corporate hospitality facilities at the Withdean and merchandising.

There is nothing for the directors of the current club to asset strip! There is only the constant blood, toil, tears and sweat of trying to keep this club financially above water against overwhelming odds.

That is the reality of the situation, BG. The accounts you have won't tell you any different. Anyone taking on the burden of leading the club right now must be either plain mad or just a passionate, romantic nutcase for the Albion cause.

 

[BensGrandad]

I think everyone has got away from the point that BensGrandad was trying to make.

We no longer APPEAR to have a hard hitting contraversial fanzine anymore. Who is asking the painful questions. To be fair Hart does sometimes go close on his radio show but it takes a fanzine to really be contraversial.

BensGrandad is suggesting that everyone from the 'old' movement is now somehow gagged. Hart is controlled by the Beeb and Samarah is totally focused on Falmer 4 All (quite rightly IMHO).

I thought BensGrandad made a reasonable point and didn't really come across as questioning the running of the club. His point was (I believe) that their ISN'T anyone questioning the running of the club anymore?

Roz came the closest to answering the point but got distracted by quashing remarks of where she actually does her editing

I am glad to see that at long last somebody can see the point that I have been trying to make.

It is always said that a government is only as good as the opposition to it who keep them, on their toes.

Despite what many say I do not feel that the vast majority of supporters can begin to realise the enormity of our financial problems.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I am glad to see that at long last somebody can see the point that I have been trying to make.

Despite what many say I do not feel that the vast majority of supporters can begin to realise the enormity of our financial problems.

Look, I'm sorry, everybody on this thread has been dead polite and that, but enough's enough. It's just getting bloody tedious now. Why don't you just knock it on the head, go away and do the maths and come back on here when you've got something to say that most people don't already know. Jeez!

 

[BensGrandad]

Can anybody confirm that we have received our share of the money from the play offs?

I have been told that it has been withheld by the Football League pending an enquiry into our finances. I am working on the old pricipal ' of there is no smoke without fire' so I believe something is not quite right.

 

[London Irish]

Describe you source, not name it, just describe it so we can judge the credibility. What Football League rule are we alleged to have broken then?

 

[Yorkie]

How much is the share from the playoffs?

I was led to believe that we don't make much from the playoffs themselves but the real money spinner was the sale of shirts and merchandise.

 

[Icy Gull]

Can anybody confirm that we have received our share of the money from the play offs?

I have been told that it has been withheld by the Football League pending an enquiry into our finances. I am working on the old pricipal ' of there is no smoke without fire' so I believe something is not quite right.

Shouldn't such an important subject/accusation have it's own thread?

 

[rool]

Shouldn't such an important subject/accusation have it's own thread?

OMG run for the carpet sweepers

 

[Man of Harveys]

Jesus Christ, what a tedious load of whiney old SHIT this thread is.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Jesus Christ, what a tedious load of whiney old SHIT this thread is.

And you're helping with that post? Knight in/out/shake it all about.

 

[BensGrandad]

I was looking after a pub in a village just outside Market Raisen when an elderly gentleman came in and was talking about football in general and when he realised that I wasa Brighton supporter started talking about Falmer and how we should get it etc. During the conversation he said' your latest problems will not be helping your cause. Naurally I asked which priblems and he procceded to tell me that the Football League had withheld payment of the money due to us from CARDIFF and were holding an investigation as some money due to them was unaccounted for.

When he left the pub an hour later I asked the locals who he was and they said that he was on Lincolnshire FA and had been for about 50 years. He was a very highly respected meber of the community.

Having been on Surrey FA myself I knew that things like this get mentioned at gatherings of members but sometimes they get exaggerated along the way but there must be an element of truth in this , with probably a perfectly good explanation.

This person had no connection whatsoever with Brighton or indeed the NIMBYs by his conversation so I do not think that he was a grandfather of a NIMBY trying to stir up trouble by my accepting his story and then telling it.

Can anybody confirm that we have received our full entitlement of the money due to us from Cardiff or worse still put any further credence on this conversation I had.

I am having trouble with my old lap top that I take away on jobs so consequently may take a little time to reply if anybody asks me for any other details or information.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

Can anybody confirm that we have received our share of the money from the play offs?

I have been told that it has been withheld by the Football League pending an enquiry into our finances. I am working on the old pricipal ' of there is no smoke without fire' so I believe something is not quite right.

Must have been those strange voices inside your head BG.

If you want to know the clubs financial position talk to Bob Pinnock, he's the financial director. But just like BG's so called ' investors ', he's got every right to keep confidential information exactly that, confidential- you know, ' commercial in confidence ' information about the clubs trading position is not made available in the public domain because it allows the clubs competitors ( be they football or other ' leisure ' industries ) to gain a competitive advantage.

We, the fans, don't need to know the financial minucie ( sp ? ). Most of us don't really care that much as long as the team on the pitch is competitive. Most of the ' why didn't we sign Rooney ' questions are ironic, nothing more.

What we do care about is that we can compete on level terms. We don't want to rock the boat because it might just sink if we do.

Just a fans view, I'm not trying to take over the club, or the world, I'm not on a personal ego trip. I just want to support the team I've followed for 30 odd years, and know that when I'm pushing up the daisies, that future generations will have the same opportunity to do so for their lifetimes.