SFC Ownership Board

Perhaps you could now enlighten us to the next 4 years, no point keep going on again about past victories!

Very difficult. We are obviously at a key point in the history of SFC. In fact a knife edge. Stay up and we can steady the ship. We might just do it again this year, but last season should have shaken everyone out of their complacency and I'm not sure it did.

Anyway, as before I will be looking for any key indicators before I let everyone know of my predictions for the medium term.

Running a business that is purely based on one product, football, and you have no (or very little) knowledge of the product. Crazy. No business would succeed in such a set up. If they know nothing how do they hire people who do? On what basis do they select the appropriate candidate. Agreed not all of the Board need to have football expertise, but someone must have some knowledge. That's why Reed was on the Board. Markus and Cortese were knowledgable about football, though admittedly not deeply ingrained, Markus had been involved before buying Southampton, and Cortese was in sports management. Andy Oldknow recommended Read to Cortese. We sort of hope that Krueger has gained some knowledge in his time here, but whenever he utters his bull**** you seriously wonder.

So we should've kept Reed in order for him to hire someone to replace him. Got it. We'll find a new DoF. There's plenty out there with resume's that show the way they've improved a clubs standing, of which our board can pick.

Surely this is Marc Jackson’s time.

Surely this is Marc Jackson’s time.

Why, has the photocopier contract expired as well?

Kat Leibherr. What a legacy.

With estimated wealth of close to £1bn, I think he knows a bit about business.

The total market cap of Lander is under half a billion quid. I'd guess your estimate is out by a distance of several hundred million pounds.

So we should've kept Reed in order for him to hire someone to replace him. Got it. We'll find a new DoF. There's plenty out there with resume's that show the way they've improved a clubs standing, of which our board can pick.

I didn't say that, I'm delighted that Reed has gone and Hunter. But its extremely concerning that we don't have anyone with any great knowledge of the football industry now left to make the decision. Now we have to decide how to replace him based on resumes (ha ha, they are usually good for a laugh) without being able to understand what the **** they are talking about during an interview process. Hopefully there is someone still available to the Board who can help, don't know if Oldknow might still help, or maybe Reed had already been looking for his successor. Very naive to think there are a plenty of people out there ready to submit their resumes for consideration by our bunch of amateurs. For a start Krueger has already said that a single replacement for Reed does not exist, so in other words he is looking to set up a new, different structure, with people with different skill sets. You really couldn't make it up the bizarre mess the club has got itself into, if what we see is the whole picture (and I accept it might not be). How to structure the football (technical) side of our business with the help of a ice hockey coach/(de)motiviational speaker, two heiresses, a not very good businessman and a finance officer. Fills me with so much confidence.

I didn't say that, I'm delighted that Reed has gone and Hunter. But its extremely concerning that we don't have anyone with any great knowledge of the football industry now left to make the decision.

So are we assuming the people on the board don't have advisors and never speak to or get the opinions of anyone with any football knowledge? They may have the final say but why do we have to assume they rely only on their own knowledge and expertise?

Time to start making the GAO OUT banners.

I can’t believe fans pay for tickets when we have a majority owner that hasn’t even the courtesy to address his paying fanbase. Reprehensible arrogance.

GAOS OUT. KAT & RALPH TOO.

So are we assuming the people on the board don't have advisors and never speak to or get the opinions of anyone with any football knowledge? They may have the final say but why do we have to assume they rely only on their own knowledge and expertise?

Because they relied on Les and Hunter. Les was all things football at St Mary's. Who else is there at the Club with wide-ranging football expertise? Ross Wilson (our super successful head of recruitment)? Matt Hale (our highly successful head of academy)? Maybe Gao's advisors who have suddenly been discovered in the last couple of days. if not perhaps Super Kelvin Davis or Dave Watson. It's a bloody joke. Unless Gao has already identified someone to head up the recruitment (and will bring them in this week) then I don't have a lot of faith. To leave it all in the capable hands of a hockey coach, two heiresses and a finance officer is a recipe for disaster.

Whilst it's his usual corporate speak, I'm not as emotional about it as some others on here. From my 20+ years of working with people like him my take on what he's saying is;

 

It was tough getting rid of them but it was necessary due to a sustained slump in performance, which became clear since the summer.

 

There will be a root and branch review roles and responsibilities in the club, which will tell us if we need to bring in new people and for what roles. Internally 'day to day' stuff will get sorted but the priority is the team and getting back on track. We will pull in external expertise to help us work out the set up we need, however the role that Les did doesn't exist anymore. The football side of his old role needs more than what we have right now - we need to move with the times and remain competitive.

 

The academy is a strength but wasn't being run properly. We'll sort that out and will let you know. This is a priority as is being competitive in the PL.

 

Hughes is expected to deliver now that some things have changed and we feel good about Watford. Dust needs to settle before we figure out what happens next.

 

We've got good people running the football, they need to be left to get on with it. Ralph is taking responsibility for final sign off on recruitment and he has people working for him that he trusts. Everyone needs to step up. He will take tough decisions if needed.

 

Don't know about Jan, never plan to do much but will if need to. Need to get as much out of the squad we have first.

 

Everything about the club is healthy and good....apart from the results!

 

CODE FOR - LES GOT STUCK IN HIS WAYS, HAD TOO MUCH INFLUENCE AND BECAME OUT OF HIS DEPTH. HUNTER DID A BAD JOB WITH THE ACADEMY. HUGHES IS NEXT IF THE RESULTS DON'T PICK UP. OUR AMBITION IS STILL TO BE BEST OF THE REST BUT CLEARLY FALLEN WAY SHORT OF THAT RECENTLY. WE'RE GONNA GET SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT FOOTBALL TO HELP US.

I'd say that is pretty spot on...although given how these CEO's work, they would have lined up a shortlist of replacements. I think the main gripe with the board has been the poor signings of late, which really has wasted a large proportion of the player sales money. Nothing of any note coming out of the Academy...meaning Gao will have to spend/invest/gamble money, and it is no longer a self sufficient operation.

Les will be very hard to replace...he can bargain hard on the player sales side, and has a lot of financial acumen...I could see him being replaced by two or three cogs for the machine. Les won't be out of work for long I imagine?

I agree with Supersubpuckett's summary " LES GOT STUCK IN HIS WAYS, HAD TOO MUCH INFLUENCE AND BECAME OUT OF HIS DEPTH. HUNTER DID A BAD JOB WITH THE ACADEMY. HUGHES IS NEXT IF THE RESULTS DON'T PICK UP. OUR AMBITION IS STILL TO BE BEST OF THE REST BUT CLEARLY FALLEN WAY SHORT OF THAT RECENTLY. WE'RE GONNA GET SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT FOOTBALL TO HELP US."

FWIW to get relegated a Club usually has to have major failings in several areas. 1) Bad manager/coach, 2) Poor player purchases 3) Inadequate U23 player development. Currently we have failings in all 3 and only 1) "The Manager" can be fixed now and 2) "Player purchases" has to wait until January and needs the best part of £100m to start to fix. The fact that Reed and Hunter were not replaced in the summer does indicate that Kreuger does not have a good enough grasp of what a well run football Club looks like.