Synan Q&A on Pasoti

It was Wyc Grousbeck of the Boston Celtics and Hamish Dodds of Hard Rock.

PlymptonPilgrim wrote:

Damon.Lenszner wrote:

I was on the Board. The Consortium demands were that Rob, Phil and myself leave the Board but they were not willing to buy us out. That combined with announcements in public before any written correspondence to the Board left us with an easy decision to make.

'The consortium demands' gives the wrong impression. A substantial offer was made to invest in the playing side of the football club, to build on what had been achieved, and hopefully to provide the base for the next step. The terms of the offer gave the existing board the opportunity to match that offer - if that wasn't possible then yes, directors would have been required to stand down - for the good of the football club, to allow new directors with available funding to try and take the club forward.

As for 'buying out' anyone leaving would have been paid what their shares were worth - I believe after an independent valuation was carried out.

The 'public announcements' were discussions on the other website - hardly a large audience and just a convenient excuse.

I really believe there was no coherent argument against accepting the Consortium offer - it was plain the club needed additional funding to move forward - and in Holloway, we had a manager who could have done that.

It certainly was an easy decision for a board who had put self interest above that of the football club and its' supporters.

That's exactly how i remember reading it at the time, the lure of personal gain (some would say greed) triumphed over what would have been best for the club. A lost opportunity for us to push towards the premiership and sadly something i doubt many of us will again see in our lifetimes.

 

Damon.Lenszner wrote:

It was Wyc Grousbeck of the Boston Celtics and Hamish Dodds of Hard Rock.

He would have been a dream if he were to be involved with argyle as not only is he rich he knows buisness and he is a sports fan too.

Missed oppotunity here i feel

This is the post by Greenmill on Pispot a few of years back - just about summed it up for me at the time!!

Sam, I am sorry, but the facts are that after the original 'run by fans' board broke up in 2005, the picture was nowhere near as 'rosy' and as 'prudent' as you imply under Stapleton. According to the very helpful footballeconomy.com site, in both 2006 and 2007, the club made a significant loss, even though turnover was increasing by around 10-15% a year.

It only made a profit again in 2008 because of the extraordinary sell of key players (SEB, Gosling, Halmosi, Norris, Buszacky) which raised around £3.5m. Even then, we only made a profit of just over £1m. In other words, if we had not received that cash from the transfers, we'd have been looking at a loss of around £2.5m on a turnover of around £8m. In 2009, the chickens came home to roost and we ran an operating loss of £5m, according to the figures in the Guardian! And that was BEFORE Gardner and Todd came on board.

Wages as a % of turnover jumped from a prudent 42% in 2005 (the last year of the original 'run by fans' board) to 62% in 2006 to 74% in 2008 to the 80%+ mark in 2009. Again all BEFORE Gardner and Todd came on board.

The idea that the club has only been managed recklessly since Todd and Gardner came on board does not fit the facts. The idea - mooted elsewhere - that Stapleton was somehow finally, against his better judgement, 'forced' by fan pressure to spend wildly only in the final year under Sturrock also does not fit with facts, particularly the timeline of expenditure.

Convenient though it is for some people to see the arrival of Todd and Gardner as 'when it all started to go wrong', the fact is that we were sitting on a ticking timebomb. I am not defending Todd and Gardner by the way - their 'stewardship' of the club is almost impossible to defend. But the idea that Stapleton was Prudence Personified is hard to square with the facts.

As for what has happened since G&T took over, well as many other people have stated, the Board all agreed on the decisions and whilst G&T + K&K might together have held 51%, they were a diverse group not a united faction. The three local directors were a pretty homogenous group with 49%. It stretches belief that they meekly submitted or felt they 'couldn't' express their disagreement with a property based play that would - had it worked - made them all considerably richer than you or me. Not that I would have begrudged them that, had it worked. But it didn't.

Obviously Damon was there so maybe has something to add?

From memory the loss in the 2005-6 year was £300k, hardly unmanageable on a turnover of £6.5m and funded with a bank overdraft.

Ah, a QandA with one of the old shady lot. That'll put the new shady lot in the shade.

I want a QandA with Jones.

He used to be so feckin forthcoming fcol.

Angry wrote:

Damon.Lenszner wrote:

It was Wyc Grousbeck of the Boston Celtics and Hamish Dodds of Hard Rock.

He would have been a dream if he were to be involved with argyle as not only is he rich he knows buisness and he is a sports fan too.

Missed oppotunity here i feel

Really down to earth sports fan. Couldn't convince him on the geography though - more specifically he wanted to invest in a city with direct air access ie London or Manchester.

Damon.Lenszner wrote:

Angry wrote:

Damon.Lenszner wrote:

It was Wyc Grousbeck of the Boston Celtics and Hamish Dodds of Hard Rock.

He would have been a dream if he were to be involved with argyle as not only is he rich he knows buisness and he is a sports fan too.

Missed oppotunity here i feel

Really down to earth sports fan. Couldn't convince him on the geography though - more specifically he wanted to invest in a city with direct air access ie London or Manchester.

i can understand that i guess its easier to hop on a plane from boston to london than it is trying to get down here. Our council doesnt think we need an airport of sorts     


ps

Im sure if james brent wanted one though that would soon change.

The tactics employed this time are astonishingly similar to last time.

Back along a derisory offer, attached to many strings, with no chance of success was made and accompanied by a sustained internet campaign. It failed.

This time the derisory offer was to buy and sell (to the AFT), instead of just buy, and it was also accompanied by a sustained internet campaign and many strings. It succeeded.

Lessons were learned with the difference being that last time the control of the net wasn't strong enough and this time it has been watertight.

Well played, this time, PJ! Chapeau.

However last time at least bought some success, the only way is down with this set up

Greenskin wrote:

Tony Wrathall seems to emerge with credit once more.Didn't JB himself once make public his opinion that TW was the good guy after examining the previous few years accounts and associated paperwork? And there was Wrathallgate as well,of course.Interesting.

JB would class anyone as a good person if it meant they were decreasing his debt