47er

Because its OUR TEAM and we want them to do well?

Not Duggie?

If Mowbray wants to keep Conway then, of course Chaddy approves! Ignore the fact that he's 33 and had a poor season in Div 1, he will be reborn in August! This does not show the ambition we are all looking for.

Or if they are to be sold on it should be when they are worth something, not the peanuts the ultra rich Premier League clubs would like to give us when they're 17.

There's pages of Chaddy's stuff as well---more probably than the two you've picked on.. But I don't care because its a MESSAGE BOARD!

Net money? Or are you forgetting the sales?

Quite so.

Yep! They'll be @#/? themselves down The Bridge!

Just to put this into a different context, Abramovitch is owed 1.5 billion quid by Chelsea! That's what he lent them interest free, repayable at short notice. I don't suppose he will seek it back but who would want that hanging over their club? Football has been ruined. most clubs are at the mercy of some individual these days. Compare the German League. I know which i prefer.

No way will Venkys fund transfers to gain us promotion or even get us in the hunt. If TM was asking for that he'd have been sacked already! He's said he wants us to strengthen here and there, to sign young players from lower leagues with the potential to develop,( like Bell I assume) and for us to get better bit by bit, season by season. It makes sense on 2 fronts---its the only way forward Venkys will support, and, in the case of Burnley, it has been shown to work. Whether the fans are willing to hang on and age further while we go through this process I'm not sure! I'm guessing 1.5 million might well be it. It just sounds right.

I'm assuming that's TM's salary?!!

Surely this is where the youngsters come into the equation. Mixture of youth and experience.

Wherever did I say our relegation was simply down to one factor? Unless that factor is Venkys of course. The over-arching factor that's at the bottom of everything over the last 7/8 years. However, diluting the squad every year and selling our 2 centre-backs to Premier League clubs just before kick-off was surely significant? As for the sentence in bold, what does it even mean? Am I being asked to agree that because of all sorts of decisions taken since Venkys bought the club, a massive debt has arisen which Venkys are responsible for? Of course I acknowledge that, how could I do otherwise? I just don't see what point you are trying to make. It'll be opposite to mine, I'm aware of that!

"The Raos could have put more in..."!!! Really? Instead they sold all our best players and we got relegated! Remember? At some point in the future you are going to be shocked and mortified. The Raos specialise in it.

That's a Kean description if ever I heard one! Run a mile!

like Souness!

How on earth did he become manager of England? Same goes for the current occupant. No wonder we haven't won anything since 1966!

Near meltdown? Really?

Me too!

Yes, I'm very likely to have done because I know sod all about it! But my point still applies because if the sponsorship is big enough, then any losses would be reduced by an equivalent amount and FFP rules would not be infringed. So it's up to the owners isn't it? JH Rover seems to be agreeing with me?

Yes, of course we have and you're right they didn't. However aren't most people are assuming success this season and all the improvements to morale, reconnection between Club and fans etc etc signify that they have changed their tune? So my question remains CAN they get round SCMP by increasing sponsorship not WILL they?!! What we shouldn't put up with (again) is SCMP rules being used as a pretext to avoid funding the Club to an acceptable level.

From the above, SCMP will allow donations and injections of equity from the owners of clubs in Divs 1 and 2 but not The Championship. However SPONSORSHIP is included in a club's turnover. SO, if one or other (or several) of Venkys companies sponsor the Club to a greater degree than last year haven't we followed the SCMP rules OR will increased sponsorship by Venkys count as donations? I'd have thought we'd be OK because Venkys are already a major sponsor. Anybody know the answer?

Most of us think that we have a better squad now than the one that went down to Div 1 and that side, under TM took 22 points from the last 15 games and was cruelly relegated on GD in the last minutes of the last game of the season. Therefore, assuming the loans situation is sorted, ie buy,retain or replace, we ought to be safe. The transfer window this time around is really about the owners. Have they bought into TM's vision of what the club can be or are they content to rattle along from day to day, week to week? In short, do they share his ambition or is it business as usual? Are we going places or is this it? Next few weeks will be very illuminating for once.

This is the danger. Poor start to the season and crowds will fall away. All this season's momentum would then be lost. Pessimistic but quite possible.

When we were at our peak in the Jack Walker days, ticket prices rose enormously. The thinking was "we have all these top international players on massive wages, we're at the top of the world's most-watched league, you should be prepared to pay just about anything we ask. Don't be ungrateful". What was not understood was that people didn't pay because they couldn't pay. It was as simple as that. The area didn't and doesn't have the career jobs and salaries to create that amount of discretionary income for many. So we had the utter embarrassment of our first ever Champions League game attracting a Third Division size crowd and the Club rushing around handing out free tickets to schools the day before. The lessons were learned by John Williams and Co but are being forgotten again.