Chris Webb Speaks!

If anyone at Home Park had thought logically before coming to a figure of 8k as an average, then, the only logical explanation whereby 8,000 is realistic, would be if we were top of the league.

That is the only scenario where 8k is even semi-realistic.

Sooooo, here we are approaching a run of games against decently placed opposition, having already had a run of games where we met lowly opposition.

And we find ourselves fu*king 19th in the league.

So James, if your playing budget = your budgeted attendance, what has gone so drastically wrong?

I'll tell you James! You employed a manager who is totally out of his depth and incapable of making the correct decisions to get this club and this team back on an upward trend.

You've fu*ked up big time James, you really have.

My first reaction is that Brent has been badly advised by the likes of Jones and the chuckle brothers, maybe even the riddler but when I hear him talking so clearly concerning the 'qualities' he has seen in Fletcher, he has to shoulder some of the blame.

Even in Sturrock's glory season we only got 9,400 in a redeveloped ground in March against Leyton Orient when we were 18 points clear of third place.

AND that was on the back of our previous 17 game Home record. Read this and weep big boys...

Played 17
Won 16
Drawn 1
Lost 0

Thinking about the 8000 it's even worse. At the point the memberships renewals etc were in the club would have known they had 4500 season ticket holders of one sort or another. In that case they were relying on getting 3500 pay on the dayers through the turnstiles every game. Bonkers. Apart from anything else the box office and turnstile operators would never have coped.

Dougie wrote:

Thinking about the 8000 it's even worse. At the point the memberships renewals etc were in the club would have known they had 4500 season ticket holders of one sort or another. In that case they were relying on getting 3500 pay on the dayers through the turnstiles every game. Bonkers. Apart from anything else the box office and turnstile operators would never have coped.

Does anyone know if there was a full breakdown of membership figures published?

Chris Webb is a poor excuse of a man and a disgrace as a president.

He'll fight for dog shit lazy postmen who cry that they have to work harder at christmas (here's a thought, if you don't wanna do the extra work feck off and let someone in who does) but won't fight for the staff.

#turncoat #sellout #wanker

I propose that instead of announcing the attendance figures at games they give how many we are short of break even. It would make things so much more transparent.

Not to mention the old trick of counting season ticket holders as being there even if they aren't.

Could someone explain what the 250 supposed employees do at the club on a daily basis?

Or is this a figment of someones imagination

Grumpy wrote:

Could someone explain what the 250 supposed employees do at the club on a daily basis?

Or is this a figment of someones imagination

I would imagine that there are a large number of people working for the club - but this figure has been put out purely as an exercise in spin. The vast majority are casual, match-day only staff - turnstile operators, catering assistants, stewards, that sort of thing. The actual core number of staff that actually work full time for the club in administrative, retail and commercial operations (ie 'office staff' if you want to put it crudely) numbers, at a guess, about 30ish. It's from these staff that the redundancies would seemingly occur.

It makes management's job that much easier if a perception of 250 full-time staff can be ingrained in the psyche of anyone who reads the story. If people think that the staffing levels at Argyle are bloated and inefficient (I don't believe they are) then there will be less resistance to the lay-offs from the punters.

Grumpy wrote:

Could someone explain what the 250 supposed employees do at the club on a daily basis?

Or is this a figment of someones imagination

This is obviously a figure that the "Club" (ie Brent) is using to "spin" the news- 10 staff redundancies out of 250 sounds a lot better that 10 staff out of , say 50.

I suspect the 250 includes turnstyle attendants, food outlet and matchday catering staff, bung in the Stewards and programme sellers and you're probably there.

It actaully works out at one employee for every twenty five people paying to watch a game-on that basis, Man Utd must employe 2,500 people at Old Trafford!

Does anyone actually believe that the genuine reason for the redundancies is because the club has budgeted for a home crowd of 8<000,. because i'm buggered if I do!

what other reason is there ?

clubs heading for the rock financially this is a move to stave it off & hope fletchers 'winning' football reaps rewards..............

So if as you say the 10 are to come from this core of about 30 even with my inept grasp of maths a third of the workforce is to be sacked.

This just gets more of a farce day by day. I will say it again I wish the club had ceased to exist rather than this slow very painful death because for sure that's the way it is going.

Grovehill wrote:

Grumpy wrote:

Could someone explain what the 250 supposed employees do at the club on a daily basis?

Or is this a figment of someones imagination

This is obviously a figure that the "Club" (ie Brent) is using to "spin" the news- 10 staff redundancies out of 250 sounds a lot better that 10 staff out of , say 50.

I suspect the 250 includes turnstyle attendants, food outlet and matchday catering staff, bung in the Stewards and programme sellers and you're probably there.

It actaully works out at one employee for every twenty five people paying to watch a game-on that basis, Man Utd must employe 2,500 people at Old Trafford!

I also suspect that the 250 figure includes everyone on the payroll. Not all of these will work every game. It's an insult that the club think they can spin this. Well at least we only pay £12 for an adult ticket......

It's got to be cash-flow, or more precisely the lack of it.

As most of the current customers have paid up-front the amount of income from POTD is relatively small.

And reading between the lines we've overspent in the first half of the season based on unattainable crowd forecasts.

I don't think for a moment that there are 10 employees sat on their arse doing nothing but like any other so-called reconstruction their jobs will get shared around those who remain.

And sacking 10 people will not really save a huge amount once their compensation packages are taken into account.

If we only had a competent manager who could get the team winning regularly, that would put bums on seats and there'd be no need for sackings.

And the most worrying aspect of this is that it was cash-flow drying up which finally brought down the M7.

Greenjock wrote:

Where did this fact come from greengenes?

Did Greengenes answer this anywhere?

Is it really "Fact" or what he's been told? Just sounds all too convenient to blame Ridsdale for coming up with the 8000 gate figure. I hate the man from the depths of my soul but I would still like to see "fact".

Brent had to submit a Business Plan to the FL before they would let him have the Golden Share.

At the time the FL said they were sceptical of the figures (they've never been made public) Brent came up with and said they took "a leap of faith" in allowing Brent to take over.

If the Plan included budgets based on 8000+ attendances, no wonder the FL were dubious.


I smell a "the fans never backed me in enough numbers" defence being drawn up in preperation for Brent quitting the club/calling in the recievers.

Greenjock wrote:

Greenjock wrote:

Where did this fact come from greengenes?

Did Greengenes answer this anywhere?

Is it really "Fact" or what he's been told? Just sounds all too convenient to blame Ridsdale for coming up with the 8000 gate figure. I hate the man from the depths of my soul but I would still like to see "fact".

GG is a nice bloke, but he's also a "oh woe is me" type, and attention-seeker extraordinaire.

You have a PM Jocko.

Greenjock wrote:

Greenjock wrote:

Where did this fact come from greengenes?

Did Greengenes answer this anywhere?

Is it really "Fact" or what he's been told? Just sounds all too convenient to blame Ridsdale for coming up with the 8000 gate figure. I hate the man from the depths of my soul but I would still like to see "fact".

I have heard the same rumour that the figure was 7,500, and that it was inherited from Ridsdale's plans. But it is just a rumour. Whatever the breakevern was agreed at, the current board would presumably have agreed to run with that figure.

Once we've had the 'bumper' Exeter and Torquay games, we won't be far off the 6,900 of last season. That's not bad given the position we're in, and puts us in the top three or four on gates for League 2 (and pretty high up in League 1).

I think it's good to *aim* to boost gates 10%, but not necessarily to financially bank on doing so.

Tim

Tim Chown wrote:

Greenjock wrote:

Greenjock wrote:

Where did this fact come from greengenes?

Did Greengenes answer this anywhere?

Is it really "Fact" or what he's been told? Just sounds all too convenient to blame Ridsdale for coming up with the 8000 gate figure. I hate the man from the depths of my soul but I would still like to see "fact".

I have heard the same rumour that the figure was 7,500, and that it was inherited from Ridsdale's plans. But it is just a rumour. Whatever the breakevern was agreed at, the current board would presumably have agreed to run with that figure.

Once we've had the 'bumper' Exeter and Torquay games, we won't be far off the 6,900 of last season. That's not bad given the position we're in, and puts us in the top three or four on gates for League 2 (and pretty high up in League 1).

I think it's good to *aim* to boost gates 10%, but not necessarily to financially bank on doing so.

Tim

After tonight I think that's highly optimistic Tim.

Unless Fletcher goes I can't see us averaging anywhere near that by the end of the season. I know it's never a foregone conclusion but Gillingham should tear us apart on Saturday, then it's too really tough away games.

Just over 5k tonight. With 3 more losses in a row that will come down again.

The whole set-up of the club is downright amateurish at the moment. And Chris Webb says on the commentary he can see green shoots? Sorry but this can't go on like this.

I feel sorry for the faithful 5000 that went tonight, but they won't keep going to watch that dross.

Tringreen wrote:

My first reaction is that Brent has been badly advised by the likes of Jones and the chuckle brothers, maybe even the riddler but when I hear him talking so clearly concerning the 'qualities' he has seen in Fletcher, he has to shoulder some of the blame.

THIS for me !

Just over 5,000 tonight and lots of them multis so that's probably less than 4,000.

knecht wrote:

Just over 5,000 tonight and lots of them multis so that's probably less than 4,000.

Usual Twitter accounts very quiet tonight. Would have normally had pictures of hoards of fans, Forza Verde flags and the view from the directors box by now. Drawbridge seems to have been pulled up even further.