Our owners

[Dublin Shrimp]

Apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but considering the nightmare of the Lemos and Cala era, shouldn’t we be grateful to our owners steadying the ship?
I think a lot of people were naturally sceptical, some questioning their intentions, but surely at this stage it’s fair to say they have been great for the club and have got us back on track?
Backing Jim in the January transfer window was surely testimony to that?

[Freez]

Jim released, sent back on loan or sold 5 players, he brought in 50k and signed Sutton and negotiated with CollIns, loan signed Dalby, Bennett and Mingoia.
He balanced the books with his wheeling and dealing, as far as I’m aware there has been no extra backing from the board in January . Just saying, as it’s been a decent run since we changed the players, mostly down to the manager.

[Dublin Shrimp]

Interesting Freez, I’d presumed there was some additional investment.

So I’m pretty sure you were one of those, like me, that was initially sceptical?
Has you view changed at all since then?

[black morse]

Perhaps this coming transfer window may show things a bit more clearly? Or maybe not!

I doubt there will be any more money to spend and it will be down to Jim's wheeling and dealing again. My biggest worry is that we will lose some of the players who have made the improvements that Freez refers to.

[P/T Indie]

I'm still not convinced we havent heard from them in ages and they still have never said what their are that's if they have any.

Have they even been to a game recently?

[Andy D]

Was thinking the same the new owners have been quite open with fans to say they're based down south, to my understanding Jim as had to wheel and deal, and is getting up there with John Coleman in recruiting.

But! think this needs highlighting and challenging(sorry KenH), can't understand why Jim keeps having to work with the budget he gets, these figures don't add up

Total gross wages cost per accounts

Y/e 31/5/2011 £1,875,602
Y/e 31/5/2018 £1,855,390

Obviously that's ALL staff, not just players, but doesn't seem to show any substantial fall in the total wages paid by the club. I don't think we've seen lots of new staff off the pitch have we?

[Gone_Shrimping]

I'm still not convinced we havent heard from them in ages and they still have never said what their are that's if they have any.

Have they even been to a game recently?

I don't think they have to attend every game. They appointed joint Chairmen to mind the shop while they are away.

They bought £750,000 of Share Capital (around 2 years losses on present form) so they will be interested in results and attendances.

I think this season's budget has been increased compared with 2017/2018 and there does seem to be more promotion of the club and special offers etc.

It's not perfect yet but its a whole lot better than it might have been under other regimes !

[Keith]

Things are definitely better than they were and there is a degree of stability now. Whether that transforms in to investment remains to be seen. This summer will be interesting. Hopefully Monday will be a positive day on the pitch, leaving people wanting to come back next season. Baring an incredible catastrophe and two clubs below us suddenly hitting champions type form, we'll be League Two once more, which is incredible, so decent owners & support from the town and it will be. season to look forwards to.

[mrpotatohead]

They appear to be good businessmen working within their means, they are not going to do the fans any favours , apart from trying to improve the match day experience on and off the pitch to improve their investment , hopefully leaving us in a much better position when they sell up and move on with a few quid in their pockets.

I don't imagine they will plunge us into shark infested waters like the last owner did.

[BerlinWaller]

The club spent a record amount on Agent fees this year which indicates we are dealing with a higher calibre of footballer. I think everyone will agree that the likes of Mills, Collins and Bennett are better than previous years signings. The owners have increased the budget this year and I think Jim has a better squad with more depth.

The Club has advertised for and appointed a full time Commercial manager. The club has become more active on Social Media.

Training has been moved up to the Uni and all the top class equipment available.

Season tickets have been frozen. Lots of initiatives for corporate hospitality.

There was never a pot of gold or unlimited funds but like MPH says, they are 2 businessmen sorting the books out to make it more appealing. Some of the scaremongering and horror stories about selling it for development look laughable now. They have done a very good job thus far.

[Wild Bill]

I agree there has been some positives from this season but don't think Colin and Jason are necessarily investing any additional funds or pulling any strings. I hear they are rarely around and leave the day-to-day running to the three other part-time directors.

For me, we are still pretty rudderless and seriously lacking investment and skills in the boardroom. Take a look at our opponents today and you see they have a Chairman, a Chief Executive, Operations, Stadium, and Finance directors as well as four other directors. We basically have Rod, Graham and Mick doing what they can whilst also doing their day jobs. You have to ask the question why we have so few directors when things are supposed to be on the up?

A year ago Colin and Jason promised to financially back the club for two years. Since then we have heard very little of their plans other than to pretty much hand over the running of the club to two popular long-standing directors.

Personally, I worry that next season is going to be another struggle and we will begin to see why they made their investment in MFC. They aren't in it for the love, so will be looking for a return on their investment one way or another.

[mrpotatohead]

whatever you have in your imagination Bill...they rescued the club and there have been improvements ..the only way they can get a return on their investment is if they make it a profitable business..

[black morse]

whatever you have in your imagination Bill...they rescued the club and there have been improvements ..the only way they can get a return on their investment is if they make it a profitable business..

Agree with this. The club would probable not exist by now if they hadn't decided to invest in us. All we can do is hope that we are showing signs of becoming profitable by the end of next season.

[Andy D]

whatever you have in your imagination Bill...they rescued the club and there have been improvements ..the only way they can get a return on their investment is if they make it a profitable business..

Agree with this. The club would probable not exist by now if they hadn't decided to invest in us. All we can do is hope that we are showing signs of becoming profitable by the end of next season.

Old saying " Beggers can't be Choosers" we looked Doomed, credit where it's due.

[Wild Bill]

True, beggers can't be choosers and their money saved us from administration. I have though seen little evidence of investment to turn things into a going concern. I guess we can only wait and see. Next season will be interesting.

[Posh]

True, beggers can't be choosers and their money saved us from administration. I have though seen little evidence of investment to turn things into a going concern. I guess we can only wait and see. Next season will be interesting.

When you don’t have the money to invest the only option is change.

I was very sceptical of their motivations and I still firmly believe this is a purely financial investment with absolutely no love whatsoever for the football club. This is evident in that the company they invested through is not a Sports Club Owner or Football Club, as others, but as a Real Estate Investment Company.
I
For me their target is to make the club profitable and sell it or at worst, if it went under, realise a return through selling off the land.

Going back to change they’ve made some key changes. They got rid of PMG, installed Graham and Rod, after the comedy of Jack the EDL-loving commercial guy they’ve now brought in someone local with the right experience as Commercial Manager, and I think they’ve also realised the Academy is where big money can be made through finding outstanding players. Their biggest return so far is Leif Davis at over £100k. The biggest change they’ve tried so far and is the biggest gamble is changing the manager. They’ve had at least one go and allegedly had a second but failed on both occasions. My sense is that they’ll keep making life hard for Jim until he goes or financially they can afford to remove him. I think it’s immensely sad and is not a football decision but a financial gamble by people who don’t understand the game.

[Doonhamer]

Hi posh.
To play the devils advocate I really don’t understand your discussion point about finances. Football is a business like any other and for it to survive needs either to make a profit or have a sugar daddy with more money than sense. If the owners see the club purely in a commercial sense well what’s the problem. If you want to bring emotion into the discussion and want to have your cake and eat it the only solution is for a fan consortium to buy them out. With the fan base at the moment being so small each fan will have to have deeeeeeep pockets and the point about making a profit still stands.

[redrobo]

True, beggers can't be choosers and their money saved us from administration. I have though seen little evidence of investment to turn things into a going concern. I guess we can only wait and see. Next season will be interesting.

When you don’t have the money to invest the only option is change.

I was very sceptical of their motivations and I still firmly believe this is a purely financial investment with absolutely no love whatsoever for the football club. This is evident in that the company they invested through is not a Sports Club Owner or Football Club, as others, but as a Real Estate Investment Company.
I
For me their target is to make the club profitable and sell it or at worst, if it went under, realise a return through selling off the land.

Going back to change they’ve made some key changes. They got rid of PMG, installed Graham and Rod, after the comedy of Jack the EDL-loving commercial guy they’ve now brought in someone local with the right experience as Commercial Manager, and I think they’ve also realised the Academy is where big money can be made through finding outstanding players. Their biggest return so far is Leif Davis at over £100k. The biggest change they’ve tried so far and is the biggest gamble is changing the manager. They’ve had at least one go and allegedly had a second but failed on both occasions. My sense is that they’ll keep making life hard for Jim until he goes or financially they can afford to remove him. I think it’s immensely sad and is not a football decision but a financial gamble by people who don’t understand the game.

Where is the proof of such claims....or is it that fly on the wall....again

[BerlinWaller]

I love these kind of threads. Us mere mortals just speculate and go off on a tangent until one of the big guys comes along and tells us how it really is despite them claiming to know the same as us. So when did the owners try and shift Jim and who was lined up to replace him?

[John L]

I'm still not convinced we havent heard from them in ages and they still have never said what their are that's if they have any.

Have they even been to a game recently?

I've missed a few games but they were at the MK Dons game last month.

[Posh]

Hi posh.
To play the devils advocate I really don’t understand your discussion point about finances. Football is a business like any other and for it to survive needs either to make a profit or have a sugar daddy with more money than sense. If the owners see the club purely in a commercial sense well what’s the problem. If you want to bring emotion into the discussion and want to have your cake and eat it the only solution is for a fan consortium to buy them out. With the fan base at the moment being so small each fan will have to have deeeeeeep pockets and the point about making a profit still stands.

I don’t think it’s “a business like any other”, which is why most German and many Spanish clubs are fan owned and increasingly large number of English teams. Even the NFL is run on semi-socialist principles with the draft to even up competitiveness.

However, I do agree you can’t run football clubs on huge losses and you need to live within your means. I wasn’t actually criticising the owners, simply that they were running the club as a financial means to an end, and doing much better than I expected, certainly better than PMG.

[Posh]

I love these kind of threads. Us mere mortals just speculate and go off on a tangent until one of the big guys comes along and tells us how it really is despite them claiming to know the same as us. So when did the owners try and shift Jim and who was lined up to replace him?

Oh Gareth, thy doth protest too much.

I was told what we all know that the Paul Ince story was simply to undermine Jim and force him out. Again, and I said allegedly because I’ve no evidence other than the credibility of who told me, that post Halifax that a discussion was had. That’s all I know. I’ll never mention it again.

[Posh]

P.S. From another thread it seems others are hinting at the same thing.

There is a more recent interview on Radio Lancs and Jim revisits his comments from last week... I think that there are more underlayin issues than a few blokes shouting at him from the posh seats. He mentions two or three things that he can't go in to. Maybe the Ince thing and the owners bringing in a new coach to take training upset Jim more than we knew.

[BerlinWaller]

Oh Michael tell us more of what you know...

So now they aren't submitting plans for 30 spacious homes and a lovely retirement village, they are being nasty to Jim and trying to sack him every chance they get! They will be trying to ban Christmas next that nasty Colin and Jason, just you wait and see!

[Posh]

Oh Michael tell us more of what you know...

So now they aren't submitting plans for 30 spacious homes and a lovely retirement village, they are being nasty to Jim and trying to sack him every chance they get! They will be trying to ban Christmas next that nasty Colin and Jason, just you wait and see!

You want him out. I thought you would be revelling in any news of the possibility of his departure?

I’ve not said they’re nasty or anything similar. If I owned a club 200 miles from where I lived and wanted to make some money out of it and had no affinity with it, what would I change or do? I’d look at what land they owned to see if there was any excess to sell or sell the ground and move, and then you would look at the manager and staff to see if better ones could you make you more money. I get that. I just would prefer someone who bought it because they liked the best for the club and town, not that it would mean they would run it any better.