Sellouts

[Cinio Dydd Sul]

I don’t blame them one bit in wanting to make as much money and offloading the club whilst on top… they deserved it in my eyes… would I have preferred to them have sold it to owners who had the clubs best interests at heart… of course… realistically was there anyone around willing to just pump millions and millions in?

This maybe a niave and fanciful comment but surely the need to pump millions in has come from the result of decisions made on their watch? I don’t think this was the initial plan? They do still talk of self sustainment.

They didn't put any money into the club when we were in the prem (even when we were in serious relegation danger) or when we had parachute payments for example.

Now they've kind of got the club and fanbase held to ransom in lower championship purgatory. Whereby they've molded a club that isn't self sustaining and in need of regular handouts from them, but they continue to make terrible decisions resulting in only a few oddballs wanting them involved.

 

[Magic_Michu]

I think things changed after 3 or 4 seasons in the Premier League… when we first went up our football was unique and was able to get results against pretty much any team… after a few years more and more teams had adopted a similar style so the need was then there to actually buy quality players at a price… sadly Jenkins made some really bad desperate decisions at a price… he knew we couldn’t sustain buying such expensive players and it would catch up with us - so offloaded while he could and while the stock was still high.

Jenkins and co defo made mistakes and should have handled the takeover much better with far more transparency (that’s what grates with me… not them selling the club - they deserved all the riches in the world for what they brought to the club)

 

[sainthelens]

I think things changed after 3 or 4 seasons in the Premier League… when we first went up our football was unique and was able to get results against pretty much any team… after a few years more and more teams had adopted a similar style so the need was then there to actually buy quality players at a price… sadly Jenkins made some really bad desperate decisions at a price… he knew we couldn’t sustain buying such expensive players and it would catch up with us - so offloaded while he could and while the stock was still high.

Jenkins and co defo made mistakes and should have handled the takeover much better with far more transparency (that’s what grates with me… not them selling the club - they deserved all the riches in the world for what they brought to the club)

Think you'll find the real reason to bail out was to pay his Mrs off.

 

[J_B]

Of course they were entitled to cash in on their shares. They earned that right and gave us the best times in the club's history.

It might have helped Jenkins etc al if he hadn't declared publicly that he would ensure that any sale would be to someone who had the club at heart and who would maintain the supporter ownership model with the Trust.

Those lies will damn him forever.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

We’re still in a far better position even now than when they took over…

… do we know they actually had any other offers to take over the club at the time?

… they knew the trajectory the club was going when they sold.

I don’t blame them for selling when their stock was high… I think we would have been in the same situation if they had held onto control - they didn’t have the finances to sustain us any longer

I couldn’t disagree more.

We earned the best part of a billion quid in our seven seasons in the premier league.

All we have to show for it is a stadium that remained in council ownership and was never developed during our seven year stint so it remained too small to be able to start to generate any sustainability of non tv income. An absolute dearth of sponsorship or commercial deals worth their salt. Training facilities that were largely not owned by us and were duplicated. Player contracts that crippled us on relegation with nowhere near enough protection when that happened. No money in the bank for a rainy day. A destroyed relationship with what had been an incredible strong supporters trust that was the flagship of a shared ownership model in U.K. football. A sale to the worst possible type of new owner (an extremely large number of faceless shareholders who were treating it as a punt to turn a quick profit in tv revenues without ever planning to invest and were happy to write it off against tax if it went pear shaped).

We are in an absolutely dreadful position. I don’t think our fans quite realise how dire this is. We re losing millions every year, need constant injections to stay afloat, have a squad that’s been stripped bare of any talent, no assets that we own, we can’t seem to find a manager and we have a team that are absolutely sodding useless. Plus our ‘ownership group’ is even more disjointed and fractured than it was when it bought the club.

Unless we get very very lucky with a new manager, we are well on our way to a very difficult future.

And given the riches that came into this club, for the selling owners to leave us like this is absolutely, utterly unforgivable.
Winning games at Arsenal, Man Utd, Valencia, the cup etc was brilliant and beyond dreams. But it doesn’t make up for leaving us like this anymore than someone coming into some money and spending it all on some fabulous holidays and great nights out would make up for ending up skint again two years later having failed to pay off the mortgage, owning no assets, having no rainy day money and needing to shop in the bargain ‘just about to go off’ fridge at Tesco.

 

[1964]

I couldn’t disagree more.

We earned the best part of a billion quid in our seven seasons in the premier league.

All we have to show for it is a stadium that remained in council ownership and was never developed during our seven year stint so it remained too small to be able to start to generate any sustainability of non tv income. An absolute dearth of sponsorship or commercial deals worth their salt. Training facilities that were largely not owned by us and were duplicated. Player contracts that crippled us on relegation with nowhere near enough protection when that happened. No money in the bank for a rainy day. A destroyed relationship with what had been an incredible strong supporters trust that was the flagship of a shared ownership model in U.K. football. A sale to the worst possible type of new owner (an extremely large number of faceless shareholders who were treating it as a punt to turn a quick profit in tv revenues without ever planning to invest and were happy to write it off against tax if it went pear shaped).

We are in an absolutely dreadful position. I don’t think our fans quite realise how dire this is. We re losing millions every year, need constant injections to stay afloat, have a squad that’s been stripped bare of any talent, no assets that we own, we can’t seem to find a manager and we have a team that are absolutely sodding useless. Plus our ‘ownership group’ is even more disjointed and fractured than it was when it bought the club.

Unless we get very very lucky with a new manager, we are well on our way to a very difficult future.

And given the riches that came into this club, for the selling owners to leave us like this is absolutely, utterly unforgivable.
Winning games at Arsenal, Man Utd, Valencia, the cup etc was brilliant and beyond dreams. But it doesn’t make up for leaving us like this anymore than someone coming into some money and spending it all on some fabulous holidays and great nights out would make up for ending up skint again two years later having failed to pay off the mortgage, owning no assets, having no rainy day money and needing to shop in the bargain ‘just about to go off’ fridge at Tesco.

to copy your opening statement "I couldn't disagree more"

 

[Londonlisa2001]

to copy your opening statement "I couldn't disagree more"

Oh well you’ve convinced me then.

 

[waynekerr55]

Oh well you’ve convinced me then.

After everything that's gone on, the fact that people still come out to bat for them is something I'll never be able to get my head around.

Did they deserve to cash in: of course. Why lie about it and hang around drawing a salary? That's what gets me

 

[Dewi1jack]

I can't forgive Dimwit in any shape or form
As a previous Trust board member and in the leadership, to keep quiet is exceptionally disloyal, and shows a complete disregard to the fanbase and Trust.
The rest, by not allowing anyone to do due diligence or doing it themselves, are nearly as bad.

Yes the sell outs had the opportunity to make a large profit and I don't blame them for taking the cash.
There isn't one right thinking person who wouldn't have secured the future wealth of their family.
Everyone has their price for anything that can be sold or traded, so principles can be put aside. You'll say "I won't do so and so for cash" Someone offers a couple of £million and your family is struggling or their life's in danger. How about then?

Can I forget what we had after watching this cracking club, go from the bottom to the top (and back nearly as quickly!) then back to the top table?
No- and I'm grateful to everyone for keeping the club alive under Doug Sharpe and the disgusting Petty. The reasons we had a strong Trust, the battle for Britton, Vetch Field shares and so on.

Can I forgive them for what they did to the Trust and the debacle we see now. NO.
Did the b'stards give a flying Donald about where their money came from or the damage that these buyers could possibly do to our club?
Resounding NO, otherwise they yeehaas wouldn't have been told to keep the Trust in the dark. See the first fans forum when the deal was done.
Never want to see any of the sell outs back in positions of power at our club. Would say the same for the septics, but they're never here anyway.

 

[jack_lord]

When they sold, they knew what was coming, just like selling a car that had got through it's MOT by one of those dodgy back street guys.
They wanted the money to get out of dodge and rather than hang on until a buyer with potential showed up they sold out and made sure the sale wouldn't be ham-stringed by the trust - the engine behind the supporters which were what was needed more than just the Manselton boys. Those lads stumped up cash but without the supporters on board then I believe the momentum would never have got going. It was their choice to sell but they knew what they were doing as Lisa has alluded to.

 

[Niigata Jack]

When they sold, they knew what was coming, just like selling a car that had got through it's MOT by one of those dodgy back street guys.
They wanted the money to get out of dodge and rather than hang on until a buyer with potential showed up they sold out and made sure the sale wouldn't be ham-stringed by the trust - the engine behind the supporters which were what was needed more than just the Manselton boys. Those lads stumped up cash but without the supporters on board then I believe the momentum would never have got going. It was their choice to sell but they knew what they were doing as Lisa has alluded to.

Try telling their Stooge ResolvenSwan [not Resolven on here]