What has James Brent done for us?

There you go. That's the question.

In a negative sense he has led us to the worst 2 final league positions the club has ever experienced and seen us knocked out of the FA Cup by the 2 lowest rated teams in the club's entire history. And over-seen 2 failed play-off campaigns.

In his 5 years here he has appointed 3 managers, sacked one of them and seen another go by his own volition.

He has set budgets that couldn't be met and were never even vaguely likely to be met; despite all the promises of sustainability we have failed to significantly reduce the overall club debt since coming out of administration but we have sold off the land next to the ground meaning that the club now no longer has any assets at all.

The budgets that could never balance resulted in loans being needed to cover the shortfall. The loans are interest-earning; Brent made the loans; Brent gets the interest. All secured against his ownership of our football club meaning he's on a nice little earner forever just as long as it doesn't get paid back and every time any questions about anything financial get asked he can say "oooh but we're still £Xm in debt... yadda yadda yadda".

There has been zero progress regarding the stadium.

We have hardly any players under contract for next season (we still have more directors signed up for next year than players!).

This is our longest ever spell in this, the bottom, division which I suppose could be spun as meaning we are "stable".

On the other side?

1. "He saved our club."

2.


I can't think of a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

So come on then Brentites! Here is your opportunity to fill your boots and explain exactly how great a job Jimmy is doing for us and will continue to do for us. Point out the legion of wonderful events that have happened, or will happen, solely due to JB that have slipped from my memory.

I can't think of a case worth making for James Brent (beyond [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] above) so if there is one please enlighten me: win me over simply by the strength of your case.

Go on! Do it!

The staff, players and supporters saved the club. If they'd downed tools when they weren't paid, there wouldn't have been a club for Brent to save. And if Brent really was the Saviour Of All Things Plymothian, he would have stepped in far earlier in order to save those staff and players from the immense hardship they suffered, rather than leaving them hanging til the last minute, just so he could get a sweetheart deal from the City Council. 

Your positive [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is based on little more than the old 'repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth' mantra so beloved of the likes of Goebbels and Newell.

I just thought I'd get it out of the way early.

Seriously, though: What has James Brent done for us?

There must be something.

Longest ever stint in the 4th division!

Attempting to build a boxed in mini-stand strangling any possible future growth of the club!

Cheers Jimmy!

No! No! No!

You're not playing nicely.

I want people to make the case for James Brent's stewardship since he arrived.

Y'know the sort of stuff.

I hope you do anyway because I can't think of anything.

Eeee givin uz a trip to wemberlee an thatz juz speshul innit.

Ok being serious, apart from Carl Fletcher (which was PR's idea) he's not done too bad in recruiting football managers.

Well SFD the thing is James Brent didn't acquire PAFC on our behalf. He acquired it on his.

And he didn't see it as buying a football club, he saw it as acquiring a distressed asset on the cheap with the potential for significant personal upside if he could get a commercial development opportunity off the ground (particularly if this was funded through other people's money).

He didn't buy Saltrock because he was a keen surfer. He didn't buy his hotels because he was a natural hotelier. He saw a business opportunity to get something on the cheap and try to generate some upside whilst simultaneously cutting costs to limit the downside.

He's cut costs at Argyle to the bone to limit his personal exposure and is just hanging on hoping he gets someone with sufficient funds that will acquire the club for what no doubt only he thinks it is worth rather than the true market worth.

Time for him to swallow his pride and move on.

1 ....He's given us the age of the superfan.

2.... He's about to buy back the stadium under the PAFC flag, what a gent, and then soon after give us the first private landlords the club has ever had. In my reckoning, he might just make more out of charging the club rent than he would lending them the money to buy it. Let alone the capital appreciation over the 20 years he intends to be in the park. And all for a measly 12 times the annual rent. Nice work Jimmy.
Easy peasy. Good job we've got Bob on the case squeezing monkeys.

Given us footballing austerity and a quivering lip.

should have gone bust then did what the wombles did

Our league position has improved every year?

saint james healed a fan at an away game

What has Brent done, caused me to relax more, used to live and worry about Argyle, now I dont really care any more!

1......Authorised the use of the word Superfan at Home Park   
2......That's it

pepsipete wrote:

What has Brent done,  caused me to relax more, used to live and worry about Argyle,  now I dont really care any more!

Dont really care = apathetic or detached.

apathetic = mehh  or

He gave us lilac and stripes!

He's saved me a fair old sum now I no longer go to HP.

Jimmy has almost cured me of my Argyle Addiction.

I'm pretty much with Graham Clark on the whole subject (page 3 of the sycophantic 'Thank You James Brent thread on Pasoti). He says Brent was the only one who could get his shit together to meet Lombard's demands and exit administration. I believe GC on this because he was there and unlike any of the other characters, he wasn't bought.

So....although 'thankful' is too strong, I remain glad that Brent took the club out of administration because we were bust and I strongly believe there were no viable alternatives.....not any which could meet the administrator's demands.

More than that though? No. I was strongly opposed to the mini stand plans and haven't really come back from that. Want to see some real investment now and I believe those people are out there. He's said it himself.

Pretty much where Innocent is. Graham's a good bloke, and I tend to believe him. So for getting shit done, I'm grateful. Yeah, I know - horrific, right? I'm not even mad about the lack of investment. I remember sitting in a fan's meeting before the purchase, and hearing him tell everyone that he wasn't putting any real money into the club - and he's succeeded spectacularly! It's bloody annoying, but you can't rag on a bloke for doing what he said he was going to do.

That said, I really dislike the lack of transparency, the whole superfan thing, and the fact that it's riven the fan base (this place is every bit as guilty of close-minded groupthink as pasoti on occasion. Usually funnier, and more interesting, but still...)

We've been in the basement for far too long and, as far as I can tell given the fog of war that surrounds HP, not anywhere near as clear of debt as we might like. Time for him to do one, and let someone with the clout to move us forwards take the reins.

MikeWN wrote:

Pretty much where Innocent is. Graham's a good bloke, and I tend to believe him. So for getting shit done, I'm grateful. Yeah, I know - horrific, right? I'm not even mad about the lack of investment. I remember sitting in a fan's meeting before the purchase, and hearing him tell everyone that he wasn't putting any real money into the club - and he's succeeded spectacularly! It's bloody annoying, but you can't rag on a bloke for doing what he said he was going to do.

That said, I really dislike the lack of transparency, the whole superfan thing, and the fact that it's riven the fan base (this place is every bit as guilty of close-minded groupthink as pasoti on occasion. Usually funnier, and more interesting, but still...)

We've been in the basement for far too long and, as far as I can tell given the fog of war that surrounds HP, not anywhere near as clear of debt as we might like. Time for him to do one, and let someone with the clout to move us forwards take the reins.

Can't argue with a lot of that but it's the debt thing that worries me more than anything, I reckon in real terms we are worse off than when went down for £17m with Stapes at the helm. If you look at the assets the club had (players on contracts for one) assets in land (now owned by Brent) and obviously higher turnover from more fans and more revenues via a higher league position.
It wouldn't be impossible for us to go bust again and just replace the Lombard debt with a Jimmy one but have no land or ground that we could call our own to raise money against if needed.