James Brent

So what's the general view to date...

Club rapist?

Or

Argyle fan?

Have you looked into his eyes?

Yea Man wrote:

Have you looked into his eyes?

yeah this thought screamed at me [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Brent has publicly admitted to making many mistakes since he took over. From the company he still keeps in the Directors' Box and the boardroom it's pretty clear he hasn't learnt from them.

If he gets us relegated this season he has failed, if we stay up then he has bought more time to prove himself, jury is still out.

Jury still out for me but if he paid the staff off a lot quicker rather than relying on other people to do it for him then he'd go up in my estimations slightly.

Clever, successful businessman.

I don't believe he's a 'fan', despite any amount of lip quivering.

He'll keep the club alive and get his hotel. Fair trade I guess.

GOB wrote:

So what's the general view to date...

Club rapist?

Or

Argyle fan?

He is a fan.

My view on him is complex so I'll let it all flow out in a stream of consciousness rather than try to make a fluid argument.

If he went we'd be done in for. He's covering our losses, which I imagine makes the debt go even further into the future crippling us with debt if it is leveraged against the club which isn't good at all. BUT at least we're solvent. We're going to be paying off a lot of debt for a long time which is crap, but how likely are we to find someone who was going to take on this club without leveraging it.

Regardless of the cynicism on here (some of it justified) I don't think he's solely in it for the property. Not SOLELY. Mainly, probably yes. Solely, no. Three reasons: One, I think there's money to be made from the football club. If he takes us into the Championship his shares will be worth a lot of money and he can do that without losing the property side of it too. Reason two is that he has covered so many losses this season without significantly dropping the budget. He could have done and saved himself cash but he chose not to. Reason three: if he was entirely focused on property and nothing else then would he attend games? Kagami, didn't Synan didn't, Brent does. It may not be much of a difference but it's a difference. Do I think he's a fan of the club-yes quite probably. I've spoken to the man a couple of times (and it is a couple of times before I get any tedious "in his pocket" style remarks) and each time he's made an observation about football, the sport itself or the game that's just been on. Again, it's little things which make me think he's more interested than the previous cowboys. Do I think he's so much of a fan that he'd decrease his own wealth drastically in order to improve us- no. That's not an attack it's a blunt statement of what I believe. The reply will be that he doesn't care at all and it's all an act but I don't buy that. No other property baron in football seems as engaged to the extent James Brent is. You don't see Kassam for example doing that at Oxford, you didn't see Gardner doing it here. I think his motives are undoubtedly capitalistic in their essence, but not as impure as some would have them be.

Now onto the negative...

There's no way of dressing it up, his time in charge of the club so far has been a failure. He hasn't addressed the lack of CEO, full-time chairman and Financial manager. People are having to do about 3 jobs at once and I don't think the football people in the club (there are some) are being listened to. I think his handling of the Fletcher situation was bad and he waited far too long to make the change. He put his faith in the wrong man regarding the handling of the budget and the utilization of the budget. Home Park has seemed for the past few months to be nothing short of a circus. All the time, debt increases and next season's playing budget, if we are in League 2 or in the BSP, will look absolutely tiny compared to what Fletcher has had to play with this season. The club is losing money fast. We owe a large amount of money to the initially agreed historic debtors, to the Green Taverners who have sped up some of this debt, and most probably to James Brent if he leverages the money he has made against future profit. Profits which at the moment seem very hard to come by. I don't think it'll come to administration again, but I think the last 12 months have been rather like leaving a teenager home alone for the weekend. Sure he cares about the house and doesn't want any harm to come to it, but that doesn't wish away the broken windows, sick stained carpet and broken table that'll be an absolute nightmare to sort out. James Brent needed to do two things- replace Carl Fletcher with a manager of higher quality and re-organise the off the pitch structure so that we have a headstrong, savvy Cheif Executive making brave decisions. We've seen one, now lets see the other. It'd cost, but I think it'd save long-term.

PAFC is a land developing opportunity and nothing else. And when his land development work is done and he's moved on he won't be attending any more matches. Fan my arse! We've been bottom of L2 ever since he 'saved' us.

BRENT OUT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think he has a jaundiced view on what the potential fanbase consists of. If he's relying on auctions, fanfests, murals and bucket collections for the already addicted, it won't work.
In all but formal title, his commercial manager has no style, no vision. He is preaching to the converted and supported by wannabes. There has to be a massive rethink of how to get others to 'buy in'. Transparency not disclaimers. Inclusivity not bullying. There are one or two imaginative and creative supporters getting involved but they don't have much of a voice and are way off the inner sanctum because they won't follow blindly.
If Brent wants the club to develop into anything more than an Avivafest for the already addicted, he needs to work with some of the more astute and sophisticated supporters and above all has to clearly demonstrate his proclaimed ideal of a community led club that is transparent, inclusive and has bit more style than is at present the case.
Give people a reason to believe Mr Brent and they will come.Whoever advised you on Carl Fletcher's abilities as a football manager needs sidelining on decision making.

PlymptonPilgrim wrote:

Clever, successful businessman.

I don't believe he's a 'fan', despite any amount of lip quivering.

He'll keep the club alive and get his hotel. Fair trade I guess.

This for me.

GOB wrote:

So what's the general view to date...

Club rapist?

Or

Argyle fan?

View from outside is he is your Club rapist. A fan for life he is not and will never be...in it for the money and the hero worship nothing more. Anything to suggest otherwise is a complete fabrication

nikkk wrote:

GOB wrote:

So what's the general view to date...

Club rapist?

Or

Argyle fan?

He is a fan.

A fan or someone who wants us to do well. If I was selling pasties outside Home Park and I was an Exeter City fan it would still be in my interest for Argyle to do well.

Your description of him may be correct. What has done him no favours is the "e bleeds green" "lip trembling" guff that's been hawked around. Football is unique in his investment base as so much of the success of his "financial underwriting" (I'm not sure I can say investment) is based on 90 minutes of gladitorial sport.

As an aside whilst you're on. Bearing in mind that it's difficult to see what in fact James Brent has invested into the football club (even the financial deficit has been covered by loans) aren't you a tad regretful that you never pitched in 18 months ago and headed up a bid? or would you say that James' connections with the local council and his experience of property development meant that you could not have brought all the interested parties together in a deal? or indeed are you plainly not interested in a stake in the club?

Lots of questions I know but one thread of questioning. Unfortunately I'm a very early riser and missed all the fun last night

I don't think you can tell if he's good for the club yet. I like some of the things he's done. I dislike others. He has certainly made mistakes - and apologised for some of them.

Whether or not he was the only realistic bidder in town and whether or not other better bidders were put off is unlikely to be anything to do with him. As it is, a rich man saw the opportunity to become richer by 'saving' Argyle. That's the way of the world. For me the best to be said is that in this situation we could all be winners.

As for paying the staff off quicker - we are told that the cost of paying off ALL staff more quickly (including players - that was a stipulation of the deal that ALL staff were to be treated equally by Mr Brent) would have been prohibitive. Say what you like about Mr Newell and the GTs (and I can never understand why the GTs get lumped in the same category), they are hastening the repayment of money owed to the ordinary workers at HP.

Incidentally, I see this morning that there is now an intention to add a further development "to the east" of HP. An educational facility carries more cache than an hotel but it just goes on doesn't it?! LINKY

You'd really need some student accomodation to complement that though, wouldn't you

The argument seems to be that Brent is investing his OWN money to make up the shortfall at Argyle- even Errington was arguing with someone the other day (on twitter) saying this.

But in actual fact he's loaning Argyle the money- thus our debts are increasing.

Nikkkk (well done for joining, I hope you stay around) has invested more at £80k- no loan, just straight payments into the club.

As Grovehill has said the club is actually getting in a worse state, whilst JB will profit from his property development.

Chemical Ali wrote:

The argument seems to be that Brent is investing his OWN money to make up the shortfall at Argyle- even Errington was arguing with someone the other day (on twitter) saying this.

But in actual fact he's loaning Argyle the money- thus our debts are increasing.

Nikkkk (well done for joining, I hope you stay around) has invested more at £80k- no loan, just straight payments into the club.

As Grovehill has said the club is actually getting in a worse state, whilst JB will profit from his property development.

Yes, I'd forgotten that. They are interest free loans but I guess that's not the point.

Will we ever know if Mr Brent is actually being really philanthropic at Argyle?

my view is this, he's in it for the land development, as he has stated' im a reluctant bidder'. however, i do believe that he has been bitten by the argo bug.

so, in answer to the op, both

knecht wrote:

I don't think you can tell if he's good for the club yet. I like some of the things he's done. I dislike others. He has certainly made mistakes - and apologised for some of them.

Whether or not he was the only realistic bidder in town and whether or not other better bidders were put off is unlikely to be anything to do with him. As it is, a rich man saw the opportunity to become richer by 'saving' Argyle. That's the way of the world. For me the best to be said is that in this situation we could all be winners.

As for paying the staff off quicker - we are told that the cost of paying off ALL staff more quickly (including players - that was a stipulation of the deal that ALL staff were to be treated equally by Mr Brent) would have been prohibitive. Say what you like about Mr Newell and the GTs (and I can never understand why the GTs get lumped in the same category), they are hastening the repayment of money owed to the ordinary workers at HP.

Incidentally, I see this morning that there is now an intention to add a further development "to the east" of HP. An educational facility carries more cache than an hotel but it just goes on doesn't it?! LINKY

Brent is certainly in his comfort zone with property deals. A £2.5 million development pay off for a scrag end bit of land attached to the corner a football club. It's the obvious place in the whole of Plymouth and it's environs for it to go right.

Tringreen wrote:

, he needs to work with some of the more astute and sophisticated supporters .

So you think there might be a chance of him coming to ECFC ?

knecht wrote:

Chemical Ali wrote:

The argument seems to be that Brent is investing his OWN money to make up the shortfall at Argyle- even Errington was arguing with someone the other day (on twitter) saying this.

But in actual fact he's loaning Argyle the money- thus our debts are increasing.

Nikkkk (well done for joining, I hope you stay around) has invested more at £80k- no loan, just straight payments into the club.

As Grovehill has said the club is actually getting in a worse state, whilst JB will profit from his property development.

Yes, I'd forgotten that. They are interest free loans but I guess that's not the point.

Will we ever know if Mr Brent is actually being really philanthropic at Argyle?

Interesting comparisons. Considering that Brent is only loaning the money and that Nikk is giving the money, Nikkk is pumping in more dosh than Brent!

That said, Christ knows how the club will ever afford to pay back Brent! - Oh well, who do you think the next Administrator will be?

He is the modern day rupert lowe.... only i dont think james will sack managers willy nilly.

GOB wrote:

knecht wrote:

Chemical Ali wrote:

The argument seems to be that Brent is investing his OWN money to make up the shortfall at Argyle- even Errington was arguing with someone the other day (on twitter) saying this.

But in actual fact he's loaning Argyle the money- thus our debts are increasing.

Nikkkk (well done for joining, I hope you stay around) has invested more at £80k- no loan, just straight payments into the club.

As Grovehill has said the club is actually getting in a worse state, whilst JB will profit from his property development.

Yes, I'd forgotten that. They are interest free loans but I guess that's not the point.

Will we ever know if Mr Brent is actually being really philanthropic at Argyle?

Interesting comparisons. Considering that Brent is only loaning the money and that Nikk is giving the money, Nikkk is pumping in more dosh than Brent!

That said, Christ knows how the club will ever afford to pay back Brent! - Oh well, who do you think the next Administrator will be?

According to Posty-

Yes, it is good news that we have an owner who is prepared to offer interest free loans to the club when it has cashflow problems, otherwise the club would have to hawk itself around the banks looking for loans that attract high interest rates. Been there, done that.

Well done to the PASB for finding out the loans are interest free and for finding out this...

Quote :

Matchday (and non-matchday), conferencing and banqueting income from generated from the new Grandstand will benefit the club.

.... which will help pay back the interest free loans.

Damon countered that Posty is supportive due to receiving the Driector's box treatement and a little argument is developing-

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