Mr Brent. An ordinary fans view.

Personally, I have no issues regarding the man. I’m broadly in step with his pre purchase aims of club sustainability. It fits the business plan that we were embarking on prior to the need for extra investment to maintain and develop the club in the cash rich(er) environment of the championship a lifetime ago. I’m quite prepared to accept that he is interested in the football club as more than a land development issue. I’m grateful that he is prepared to fund the shortfall between the clubs incomings and outgoings. I have no axe to grind that he will probably, eventually, make a bundle of money on the development aspects of his dealings with Plymouth City Council. If the club ends up with a new, semi-decent, grandstand and an increase in the overall turnover going into the club leading to a stable club on solid foundations then I will salute the man.

However admirable these goals are, the evidence thus far doesn’t really support expectation that these dreams will ever be achieved.

To be fair, I wasn’t anti Stapleton either. His greatest failing came about when he and the rest of the board, for he was not alone, sought out external investment. At that time they really got hypnotised by the pound signs. This was the perfect example of the ‘Village’ theory that is so prevalent on this site. The successful local businessmen (aka. Bumpkins) got royally bamboozled when dealing with the big city boys (S’Roy and his ilk). As a metaphor, it was the equivalent of the corner shop seeking investment from tesco. It may all look good but you’ll end up fecked.

So, Mr. Brent is interested in football and the club. Fair enough, but let’s not pretend that PAFC wasn’t a big piece of leverage in land development deals with PCC. I don’t imagine that negotiations for hotels, ice rinks, the pavilions etc would have been remotely as smooth had he not stepped up, albeit reluctantly, to save the club. PCC were under pressure economically and politically at the time. The airport was gone or going and the potential of losing the football club would have been seen as a disaster for the city. I vaguely recall figures of between £8m and £10m per year being bandied around as the value to the Plymouth economy of the club at the time.

Regards the covering of the losses for the last season, this season and realistically the next, I’m confident that he would have realistically budgeted for this when looking at the development picture as a whole. I’d expect he’ll make enough profit from the other investments, that I’d tentatively link to the PAFC deal, to more than cover what he is having to spend to subsidise Argyle at present. Long-term gain for short-term pain is a phrase that springs to mind. The question of him covering the clubs loses is an unknown in itself anyway. Is he spending money, covering loans, acting as a guarantor, borrowing against future club income? Only he knows.

The negatives, in my opinion rightly or wrongly, have been obvious during his tenure as owner.

The make-weight and part-time structure put into the board room still needs to be addressed. The appointment of Sextone is a step in the right direction, but he seems to be here initially in an advisory capacity to help paper the cracks in the overall boardroom structure regarding football experience. I don’t recall his being either a permanent or full-time role. There needs to be a more football centric approach within the board. That’s not rocket science. The football knowledge and advice that Mr. Brent gets has until recently been from the Prez and Ian. Noteworthy their efforts on behalf of the clubs survival were, they are only ordinary fans. That theirs should be the footballing influence within the upper echelons of the club is a scary but all too plausible thought. I couldn’t abide the thought of Risdales involvement with the club. In fact I renewed my season ticket the day after his departure. Give a choice between him running the club and the ‘superfans’ I’d take Risdale every day of the week and twice on Saturdays.

The budget for the club being based on a fantasy figure of 8000 or so supporters is so ludicrous to be laughable. It’s not a completely intangible number that needs to be made up on the fly. There are plenty of historical records on which to base the expected attendances for the season. When predicting a financial loss for the club this season, most fans saw that as realistic. What we weren’t aware of was the budget being based on such a stupid figure. If you’re going to do that, budget for full houses every game. At least then you won’t be surprised by the shortfall.

The aims of engaging the supporters seems to have begun and ended with the Prez and Ian. Transparency and openness are a myth. I’d be happy to accept that if people were slinging abuse and insults constantly. Feck them would be my attitude. The questions asked by the AFT don’t immediately strike me as being abusive or insulting though. I won’t comment on the PASB as I don’t know enough about them. My take on them would involve an acronym though, BS! From the idea through to the inception. If Mr. Brent hadn’t clearly promised as part of his sweetness and light propaganda ‘openness and engagement’ he’d be perfectly within his rights to tell the fans to mind their own business. That’s not the case though.

I’m still undecided on Mr. Brents contribution to the club. History will show whether he was a benefit or a detriment. For me, the initial sentiments were good, the actuality has so far been poor. We’re still in the early stages though. He is supposedly an intelligent man, so I’d like to think he is learning quickly how to make the club a successful, sustainable one.

One absolute negative for me has been the recent propaganda pieces by the superfans. I’d rather that Mr Brent was a super-chairman than a superfan. If being cynical after the recent years of misery makes fans suspicious then you can hardly blame them. Apparently, in the superfan world, you can blame them though. The bullshit is so overwhelming in their recent musings that you can taste it. I’ll just continue to be a fan if that’s alright with them.

Anyway, I’m confident that I’ve rambled enough, so Happy New Year, ya feckers.

Steve


Ps Going for a few pints now so that y'all have time to read this diatribe. Viva Aviva!

Agree or disagree that's a cracking post Steve, there's not much to argue with.

An accurate summation.

Excellent post Steve- well thought out. I was more dubious of Stapes and co, and this has led to doubts about the current management of the club.

I don't think JB used the prez and Ijn for real football advice- possibly some of the gimmicks like FV, family area, PASB etc.

What Steve said for me too - except we all found out that Stapleton was 'greedy village' long before Suroy n Todd popped up.

He ripped the Japs off successfully first - except that meant also ripping the fans off too by decimating the best squad assembled under the best manager Argyle had had since Luggy Mk I and falsely bloating the balance sheet for personal gain.

Other than that top post Steve

Good post Steve, but you say that you would have Ridsdale as chairman any day of the week, but you also mention the 8k figure that is being attributed to him.

If that is the case then I would say that this is why Ridsdale will always be on the fiddle as it were, or doing something that is detrimental to whichever club he was at.

Other than that I think you're dead right with just about everything else.

Sorry but lost the will to read further after this.....................

To be fair, I wasn’t anti Stapleton either. His greatest failing came about when he and the rest of the board, for he was not alone, sought out external investment. At that time they really got hypnotised by the pound signs. This was the perfect example of the ‘Village’ theory that is so prevalent on this site. The successful local businessmen (aka. Bumpkins) got royally bamboozled when dealing with the big city boys (S’Roy and his ilk). As a metaphor, it was the equivalent of the corner shop seeking investment from tesco. It may all look good but you’ll end up fecked.


Stapleton and his chums should [ as a club, run by fans for fans] have promoted the club far and wide as soon as we were promoted and on gates of 16k. Pretty good for a club with no top flight exposure and many heartbreaking wasted opportunities in its history.
They were always going to be outclassed at the level. They got greedy and wanted to keep their fingers in the pie. The pie went off, as a result.

ps I'll read the rest of the missive now.

pps furrymuff

That was my entry for next years most long winded post award. Posted only because the recent superfan tubthumping really irritated me.

Jock, I only said I'd prefer Risdale if the choice was between him advising Brent or the chuckle brothers. Surely, it's a pasoti fact about Risdale coming up with the figure. The cynic in me would think that the break even attendance figure got leaked. Then various gophers, for want of a better phrase, realised that such unrealistic figures made James look like a thick cnut. Lets blame Risdale. Of course I'm not really a cynic though.

Sorry if it took you a while to read Tring. Hate to think that my musings broke into your hectic schedule of sitting in the sun.

Steve

Good post, Corny.

I'd like to clarify that no facts were harmed in the making of these opinions.
Steve

cornysteve wrote:

I'd like to clarify that no facts were harmed in the making of these opinions.
Steve

This is ATD, Steve, we take that as a given Good to see you contributing.

Very good Steve, but what a choice to make! Rids or supers?

cornysteve wrote:

The aims of engaging the supporters seems to have begun and ended with the Prez and Ian. Transparency and openness are a myth. I’d be happy to accept that if people were slinging abuse and insults constantly. Feck them would be my attitude. The questions asked by the AFT don’t immediately strike me as being abusive or insulting though. I won’t comment on the PASB as I don’t know enough about them. My take on them would involve an acronym though, BS! From the idea through to the inception. If Mr. Brent hadn’t clearly promised as part of his sweetness and light propaganda ‘openness and engagement’ he’d be perfectly within his rights to tell the fans to mind their own business. That’s not the case though.

This para is the most pertinent. We were promised the most open and transparent board ever. We've not got it. We've not even nearly got it.

IJN reckons that Brent meeting Hooper's family and friends in a pub is transparent, ignoring the fact that the remaining 20k globally who are perhaps interested in PAFC haven't heard a whimper from him, but have heard a load of crap from the President on the official site, and if they're bothered enough to find it perhaps the odd bitter sound-bite from Peter Jones or Newell hiding behind a multi account on PASOTI.

cornysteve wrote:

That was my entry for next years most long winded post award. Posted only because the recent superfan tubthumping really irritated me.

Jock, I only said I'd prefer Risdale if the choice was between him advising Brent or the chuckle brothers. Surely, it's a pasoti fact about Risdale coming up with the figure. The cynic in me would think that the break even attendance figure got leaked. Then various gophers, for want of a better phrase, realised that such unrealistic figures made James look like a thick cnut. Lets blame Risdale. Of course I'm not really a cynic though.

Sorry if it took you a while to read Tring. Hate to think that my musings broke into your hectic schedule of sitting in the sun.

Steve

I was just going to the pub dear boy and in a bit of a hurry.Sorry I was so brusque, it's not like me.

For what it's worth, I've met JB four times in meetings and a few other times as well. I think he genuinely wants to do his best for the club within reason. He has always said he would run the club in a sustainable manner, which is what I hope we would all want. The difference though between running any other business in a sustainable manner and a football league club is massive. I think JB is learning this the hard way on a steep learning curve.

For his children and himself to have got the Argyle bug is both commendable and surprising considering they are watching the worst Argyle team in history. Apart from the odd good performance, the last two seasons in particular have been dire for die hard fans let alone a new owner with no knowledge of football. I hope he and his children are around long enough to watch a winning team.

I've found him to be a very nice, approachable bloke but he is a successful businessman and he didn't become that without having some business acumen. IMHO I don't think he will allow groups or individual Argyle fans interfere with the corporate running of his business ( Argyle) I don't think he is used to groups of his customers openly criticising his businesses and probably considers people like the Trust to be undermining the club and a pain in the ass. He admits the PASB was not his idea ( didn't say who's it was) and probably ( IMO) wishes he hadn't mentioned it, in the first place. I think ( maybe wrong ) that what he would like is a small group who will look at the books ( after signing NDA's) and tell the rest of the fan base " we have had a meeting with the club and we think everything is ok". That is obviously not going to be good enough for the fans. So I can't see the PASB being told anything that fans hadn't either already worked out for themselves or found out about in leaks from the " in crowd". The PASB will be a toothless baby shark and IMO will definitely overlap the Trust's business. I think the reason JB hasn't answered the Trust questions is because he now considers that all formal engagement with the fans will be through the PASB. So the Trust and PASB needs to become one or I'm afraid one will die.

Have I a problem with him making money out of the developments? No I haven't. Do I think he's made mistakes? Yes, I do. Is he learning from his mistakes? I think he is. I'm I happy with JB as owner of Argyle? Yes, I am but I hope the mistakes that have got the club into this position are corrected swiftly.

I do wonder who has been advising JB and how much knowledge of running a football league club, these people have. I hope he is listening to professional and experienced football advisors. Hopefully with a new manager and possibly an experienced football CEO, JB can improve our fortunes on the field.