Come on James Brent, I am waiting.

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Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Mock Cuncher wrote:

The Offish Twat-Handle twooted that Brent had interesting words in the Proggy-ram about the Dentists, Ice rink, nandos, school, ministand development. Anyone buy that rag care to elaborate?

I bought one and here's what Mr Brent has to say (if the scan works OK).

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Which one? This one?

Check mate!

Scumbag.

He's got me sold! Brent In!   

payments to other football creditors been accelerated eh?
If only.....  

akagreengull wrote:

Rickler wrote:

You're going to believe what Brent says in that regard?

A very good point which others may reply with, my main point is that he should be challnged hard by Argo fans to say something NOW, on a personal note I do not trust his media statements or his intent re PAFC.

Kinda defeats the object of him saying something though if it's going to be shot down instantly as 'untrustworthy'.

Given the way peeps hung him by his 'competitive' quote previously and the way they hung Sheridan by his 'play-off' quote this season anyone connected to Argyle would be forgiven for never making a media statement about a season's prospects ever again.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

No.

It's about making honest, truthful, open, transparent statements not spinning any old garbage carefully couched in get outs that sounds like anything anybody wants it to be.

"Competetitve budget" is an excallent case in point. Complete devoid of any concrete meaning and interpretable any way you like.

"Stadium build will start after the Pompey game" is another.

"Club budgeted for 8500" when it didn't but Ridsdale, apparently, did and then nobody noticed for 2 years.

"Club has 250 employees" another.

It's just gobshite. All of it. And all of it deliberately, carefully calculated to misdirect.

That's why they get damned for it.

What's wrong with simple honesty?

JB still seems confident of the build going ahead then. When he says that a competitive team in the future is dependant upon the new stand being built, is he ignoring the potential revenue made if seating was reintroduced to the Mayflower steps? Or does he expect all the corporate shiz to compensate for decreased capacity?

He has to say that, doesn't he?

Doesn't make it true.

(See my post above for previous examples of duplicitous misinformation.)

To fisk James's bulletpoint list of "many improvements":

- "Relegation dog-fight". Congratulations! But it's the faintest of praise. The mentality of "we're less crap than we were for the last few years and we've a better owner than the ones before" isn't setting a very high bar and at the moment we're still clipping it on the way up. To labour the metaphor, it feels like we're still flailing around while the people we should be aspiring to are using the Fosbury flop.

- "competed for promotion". Bullshit. How long did we spend in a playoff position? The table here says we finished one game in the top 7. That's not competing for promotion. It's flattering to deceive.

- "strong leadership teams". Really? Then show it. It's about bloody time.

- I have to say I'm incredibly sceptical on the financial performance, especially the break-even forecast for 14/15. It should also be shocking that after what we've been through any other owner of the club should be able to get away with saying any of this without backing it up with evidence. Same as the accelerated payments to creditors. Show us.

- Nuff congratz on the family club thing and on the GTs work

- "we are well advanced in delivering this". No. No you're not. When your job is to build something and you're yet to even put a spade in the ground, you are not in any way "well advanced".

- "while we have materially reduced the club's external debts..." Hmmm. This sentence is very interesting. And bloody scary.

And one less thought through comment. Talking about the alignment of stars makes you look like a twat. It's guff of the guffiest variety. You're not some passive hippy waiting for the cosmos to magically arrange itself and map out your future. You are supposed to be fully in control of a major development project. FFS.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Mock Cuncher wrote:

The Offish Twat-Handle twooted that Brent had interesting words in the Proggy-ram about the Dentists, Ice rink, nandos, school, ministand development. Anyone buy that rag care to elaborate?

I bought one and here's what Mr Brent has to say (if the scan works OK).

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I wonder what Freud would make about the subtle difference in 'YOUR CLUB' as opposed to 'OUR'?

"You can please some of the people some of the time..............bla"

That famous quote should come with a caviat for ATD  

James Brent is like a politician, he gives politician's answers......non-specific and only arguably correct depending on how much bias/spin the deliverer wishes to put on it and how much bias/spin the reader then decides to put on it.

We HAVE avoided a relegation dog fight, we HAVE competed for promotion (you can get promoted from 7th place and only in the last 9 days have we fallen short of that), we HAVE a stronger board than previous boards and a stronger manager than previous managers. I'd love some more detail about the finances but in the absence of published figures, one can either choose to trust or mistrust his assessment on next season's 'break evenness' and the accelerated repayment of the footballing credit share.

He's not wrong, you can't evidence that he's wrong on ANY of that. That's where the 'arguably' part of a politicians answer comes in. Some will see this season as a positive (albeit not giant) step forwards, some won't. It's the old glass half full/empty or green/turd tinted spectacle thing.

Where he (and any owner of this bleddy football club for that matter) has my sympathy, is that saying nothing gets him flak and saying something gets him flak. He can't win, they never can.

So long as the club is making steps forward, and I believe they are, I'm content. Do we wish it'd all happen for us quicker?, 'course we do. Will getting trumped up and farty about it not happening quick enough make it happen any quicker?, 'course it won't.

ejh wrote:

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Mock Cuncher wrote:

The Offish Twat-Handle twooted that Brent had interesting words in the Proggy-ram about the Dentists, Ice rink, nandos, school, ministand development. Anyone buy that rag care to elaborate?

I bought one and here's what Mr Brent has to say (if the scan works OK).

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I wonder what Freud would make about the subtle difference in 'YOUR CLUB' as opposed to 'OUR'?

That was one bit that stood out for me.
However, upon reflection, it's probably another typo fcuk up by the media department!

X Isle wrote:

"Where he (and any owner of this bleddy football club for that matter) has my sympathy, is that saying nothing gets him flak and saying something gets him flak.  

It's saying less than nothing and dressing it up as something or saying something while doing the opposite that is more annoying.

The ease with which some fans have accepted the spoon-feeding of highly edited and selected "information" to reassure themselves about the direction of the club is disappointing to say the least.

We've exchanged constant vigilence for mindless cheerleading. And it should shame us all.

ejh wrote:

.......
I wonder what Freud would make about the subtle difference in 'YOUR CLUB' as opposed to 'OUR'?

I was very struck by that construction myself.

Sorry to be a pedant but it's impossible to say less than nothing Gareth.

Don't get me wrong I'd rather we had a more transparency, more dialogue but I sometimes wonder with people (not just ATD/PASOTI it's a wider societal thing) whether they actually know that there is such a thing as 'grey'.

Far too often people's opinions simply have to be 'black' or 'white', there seems no concept of the 'middle ground'.

"The (insert football manager, chairman, government, public body, film, TV programme, restaurant whatever) is 100% shit" v "the (insert as applicable) is 100% great". The acceptance of "The (insert as applicable) is "alright", "doing OK" or "could do better" is lost on people, if it's not 100% perfect then it's shit.

I don't think in polarised colour swatches which is why although the transparency could be better, the fact Argyle are 'doing OK' is good enough for me to be content. Content itself is another 'middle ground' concept, i'm not in a constant state of orgasm about it but neither am I reaching for the pitchfork.

Basically, chill brethren, it could be a whole worse, it HAS been a whole heap worse before.

To say we have competed for promotion is stretching it as far as I am concerned.

No way is finding yourself within a faint shot of a play off position for a few days in a season, "competing" in any real sense of the phrase.

It's bullshit.

still nothing about the poor dentists and dancers.....................

I'm surprised that no one else has picked up on the fact, that at home this season we have actually stood still or very slightly gone backwards. This season our statistics show the following....

W 8, D 7, L 8, F 23, A 26.

Last season when we finished 21st. The stats were.....

W 8, D 7, L 8, F 23, A 24.

So as you can see we actually did better at home last year due to scoring 2 more goals and letting in 2 less.

Only 4 teams have scored fewer at home than Argyle. They are Exeter, Northampton, Wycombe and Torquay. Five of our 23 goals came in one game against Morecambe.

Mr Brent along with the rest of the board and the manager will do well to remember that football is an entertainment industry. While football fans can usually be relied upon to continue turning up when the entertainment is poor; unlike say theatre goers. Fans will only take so much before enough is enough. Fans forgave the club for the last couple of seasons because of the obvious fall out from administration but that excuse is now gone. As far as I'm concerned the entertainment on show this season while showing flashes of improvement as been as poor as the last few seasons. In fact with the backs against the wall mentality around the club in the last two seasons the entertainment while terrible in the footballing sense was better from an entertainment point of view ( only just ).

There has been an improvement in league position, purely on the back of improved performances or results away from home. While great for the travelling Green Army, I'm afraid it doesn't pay the bills. Entertainment value, performances and results at home are no better and it's those fans paying to turn up week after week to watch total crap more often than not, who are being served up relegation from the football league standard football.

If there's no improvement next season, many of those fans will walk away. Many may never return.

That team was never in any danger of getting promoted and IMHO anybody who thought they were is either seriously deluded or so blinkered from the realities of the real world that it's unhealthy.

X Isle wrote:

Sorry to be a pedant but it's impossible to say less than nothing Gareth.

Don't get me wrong I'd rather we had a more transparency, more dialogue but I sometimes wonder with people (not just ATD/PASOTI it's a wider societal thing) whether they actually know that there is such a thing as 'grey'.

Far too often people's opinions simply have to be 'black' or 'white', there seems no concept of the 'middle ground'.

"The (insert football manager, chairman, government, public body, film, TV programme, restaurant whatever) is 100% shit" v "the (insert as applicable) is 100% great". The acceptance of "The (insert as applicable) is "alright", "doing OK" or "could do better" is lost on people, if it's not 100% perfect then it's shit.

I don't think in polarised colour swatches which is why although the transparency could be better, the fact Argyle are 'doing OK' is good enough for me to be content. Content itself is another 'middle ground' concept, i'm not in a constant state of orgasm about it but neither am I reaching for the pitchfork.

Basically, chill brethren, it could be a whole worse, it HAS been a whole heap worse before.  

I have no problem with a.... 'middle ground'....view of what is happening at Home Park.....to believe everything is coming up roses is rather naive at the best....to believe that everything is wrong and done with an ulterior motive is at times just worth a smile....but you'll always get the....end of the world....placard carriers......although at present some of them are rather low profile on here just lately....  

..the 1st time in ten years we have competed for promotion - don't make me laugh,

there was no concerted push, the club were as quiet as a dormouse
little mention from the chairman, directors, manager, players, no war-cries of intent....
..oh just the infamous exeter team talk by our illustrious buffoon of a president...eh.. own goal!

he is probably grateful we didn't fill the ground on a full on promo push to embarrass the hell out of the impending cow-shed build capacity!

lijke brents ownership, it's all bollox.

transparency bla bla bla,

brent and the jam boys have destroyed the unity of the club.

Competing for the last spot to be involved in a 4 team lottery, and finishing more than 10 points short, is a whole lot different to 'competing for promotion'.

It's only the first step of many that need to be taken but getting McCormick on board is more of a statement about out intentions than any more empty words about next season's budget could possibly be.

Don't get me wrong, it's only one signing and it means very little if we lose all our other best players. But if we can get Reid, Nelson, Young and a few new signings tied down too then that'd really be a big indication. Far more so than any PR. Actions> words.

The two year deal part pleases me, Sam - sure, its not the longest deal, but for league two it is. Like you say, get others on similar deals would be nice - I'd like to see younger, but important players like Nelse and Hourihane on even longer deals perhaps. Signing Reid is massively important, that would be a big statement. If we can't keep him down here, and I don't see why we wont be able to compete to keep him, then we'll need a fairly high calibre signing (in relative terms of League Two) to replace. There was clear backing of Shez when we brought Banton back on an 18 month deal, this time we're paying all his wages so I doubt it was done on the cheap. I'm optimistic Sheridan will have a fair crack at building a good team this summer.

GreenSam wrote:

It's only the first step of many that need to be taken but getting McCormick on board is more of a statement about out intentions than any more empty words about next season's budget could possibly be.

Don't get me wrong, it's only one signing and it means very little if we lose all our other best players. But if we can get Reid, Nelson, Young and a few new signings tied down too then that'd really be a big indication. Far more so than any PR. Actions> words.

How is that a statement of ambition? They are players we already have, and McCormick signing is hardly Liverpool holding on to Suarez. Most clubs in England wouldn't have signed McCormick for free.