Phil Sumbler
In amongst a week where all the talk is about the managerial replacement for Michael Duff the Trust published a Q&A session with Ken Gude yesterday afternoon that basically told us nothing we didn’t already know and suggested that actions were way behind the words that came out of the new arrivals mouth.
The need for the club to employ a “Chief of staff and head of strategy” was questioned widely when the club made the announcement on his arrival at the start of last month. For a club that needs fresh cash injections every season the requirement to add a (relatively) sizeable expense to the accounts just seemed like a luxury we cannot afford.
However, as with any business, costs added to that business will always be seen as good costs if they can bring in more income than they cost and we could be sat here in twelve months times auding the investment made in Gude if he has reduced the overall losses that the club would be seeing every season without those cash injections.
Worryingly though he is talking about the same things to bring in revenue that we have heard since the early days of Chris Pearlman when he was given the reigns to take over the ownership of the stadium. As he told the Q&A “One of the other things that I am focussed on the business side is pursuing as many new revenue opportunities as I can for the club, because it’s a priority to increase the club’s income. The club is solid financial shape, but the reality in the Championship is a business model where costs exceed revenues. Our view is that the best way to address this is to increase revenue opportunities as a primary objective.
“This includes looking at better utilisation of the assets that the club has (such as the stadium), and we feel that we could get more out of it from events such as concerts or other events. We are pursuing those opportunities and that is a key part of my role.”
This was one of the first things referenced by the ownership group when they took over the stadium and in the six years since we have not seen any evidence that the ability to monetise the stadium has been sadly lacking. Whether that is down to the inability of those tasked to monetise it or whether the demand is not there remains to be seen but the questions will always hang over the ownership as to why they needed to take over the stadium in the first place.
The whole question and answer session fails to really address why we needed someone like Gude at the club as well as the Chairman who is always at pains to tell us about moving his family over here such is his commitment to the club. Gude said “My function is first and foremost is to support the Chairman. I have known Andy for a long time. My mission and my main role is to help him to deliver on his vision, allowing him to focus on the big picture – the main issues and the things that the Chairman needs to spend his time on.
“I support Andy with the day-to-day operation of this organisation and parts of my role are focussed on elevating the performance of the staff on the business side. This is not to suggest that the staff are bad. In fact, one of the most exciting things I have experienced is just how enthusiastic the staff are, and how much they want the club to succeed.”
An answer that would not have been out of place had it been delivered by ChatGPT, lots of words but very little substance to any of them or any sign of detailed actions that stand behind them. It may have satisfied a relatively small audience of Trust members but this is stuff that we have heard before and never have we seen the delivery against it actually happen.
Football in the 21st century was summed up when he was asked a question by a supporter present about ‘plans to take the brand to the US’ citing Wrexham as an example. Forgetting the fact that our owners are not Hollywood stars in their own right (was the person asking the question expecting us to have our own Disney+ series?) but more worryingly the answer that came back was “We are looking to partner with Wrexham when appropriate to take advantage of that as well. We have been in communications with the team in Wrexham and the US on ways to partner and to capture a bit of the exposure.”
If ever you wanted to see a lack of understanding of the culture of supporting football in the UK then here it is. Almost an Alexa driven response to the question “show me an example of things that will never work” Quite what that partnership with Wrexham looks like in their head is anyone’s guess.
“My background has mostly been in politics and policy development in Washington D.C.,” added Gude. “Running non-profit and for-profit organisations.
“I believe that some elements of organisation structures are very similar no matter what sector the organisation is in. Football can be very political and requires solid communication”
It is difficult to see what synergies are seen in politics and policy development in Washington have with running a club in the lower half of the Championship and maybe in his next ‘solid communication’ Mr Gude would like to elaborate on this part of the statement. Football we all know is generically a business that does not have many equals but this reads more and more like jobs for the boys rather than an investment in an individual who can build the club’s income to a level that makes us more sustainable as a club. Cynical maybe but we’ve been here before, Mr Gude is not the first appointment of this sort!
You can take the time to read the full Q&A from the session here but as we have seen many times over the past seven years the words are often there but the actions are even more often lacking to back them up. Let’s see where this goes but Mr Gude referenced this cynicism himself when he said “We know there is an appropriate level of scepticism, and so it’s going to take some time, but we hope
that Andy’s approach of showing you what he does, rather than telling you, will help us.”
So far what has been done is making a managerial appointment that we terminated within the first six months, bringing in thirteen players in the summer (this was referenced as well) but it is very debatable how many of those have actually benefitted us greatly as a club and we should never forget the bizarre statements of the summer. The progression of the woman’s team has been some level of success so we reference it for balance but overall those actions see him in the deficit situation for me.
And nothing I read yesterday suggests that this is about to change. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
