Confirmed PNE Supporters Meeting Minutes - 16/11/22 (Response to open letter).

In terms of the redisitrubtion of Premier League money.

Estimates are it would increase to about £22 million for a club like ours and then a team coming down from the Premier League would get about £30 million.

The fans told them we will be believe it when we see it.
 
tcinders said:
Not sure I swallow the explanation given on the budget, surely there has to be financial flexibility from billionaire owners with Premier league ambitions. Sorry doesn't wash, the statement raises more questions than answers. As you were guys.
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We didn't get the RWB. We didn't get the extra striker we needed. We didn't get Archer on loan (after being willing to match "any" other offer).

But now we seemingly can't afford to even build the permanent fanzone that fans were told would be ready in 2022. I guess the club plan to use this year's remaining budget, as next year's budget.
 
Staffordwhite said:
Hats off to those who attended this meeting, but pinning Peter Ridsdale down is like nailing jelly to a wall.

There's very little (if any) acknowledgement that they're doing anything wrong and no indication that they plan to do anything differently.

Not only is there no new strategy outlined, there's no coherent existing strategy either; just more fumbling around in the dark.

For a bloke who revels in being 'in charge', he's not keen on accepting responsibility.

Instead it's 'the manager/ the former manager/ the EFL/ FFB/ the council/ Uncle Trev/ Covid/ the caterers/ lower league managers/ anybody else but not me, Guv.'

As expected, he's got an answer for everything and it's laugh-out-loud funny how many times his comments are quoted in the minutes as 'PR explained, PR reiterated, etc' like he was making statements of unquestionable truth. 🙄

They think patronising words and disingenuous 'explaining' are enough to fob the fans off; 'no further action required.'

They'll even try to twist this meeting as part of their fan communication requirements, so they don't have to face 'the plebs' again anytime soon.

In a sane world, the next steps would be get the club to agree a set of measureable outcomes within a set timeframe.

In such a sane world, the club would act on suggestions from supporters who are trying to help them revive a failing business that is costing them millions to keep afloat.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

And yet here we are. 'Peter' knows best. Nothing to see here. Move along. 😏

Good effort by all involved on the fans' side, but a predictably depressing outcome. 🙁

Ridsdale out.
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I'm surprised he didn't mention the war in Ukraine 🙄
 
JK said:
In terms of the redisitrubtion of Premier League money.

Estimates are it would increase to about £22 million for a club like ours and then a team coming down from the Premier League would get about £30 million.

The fans told them we will be believe it when we see it.
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When you can only spend a certain % of your turnover it doesn't really matter what the sum is. £10m, £15m, 20m. We will still be a bottom six budget club and player wages will keep on going up. Because most other clubs don't sit idle and most have better infrastructures and income streams than we do.

To compete financially we need a successful youth academy, a proven player trading philosophy and significant commercial revenues. We've snubbed the whole lot to concentrate our focus on billionaire penny pinching.

If we don't get rid of the ownership before the redistribution rules, we may be stuck with them for our entire lifetimes. They'll absolutely adore the fact they can only spend a % of turnover. Cos they go out of their way to keep that sum low.

We will effectively be like a stuffed dead animal. Dead but still existing. Out of sight, out of mind.
 
Well having read that the only conclusion is why bother writing the letter in the first place? What a waste of time and effort by everyone. If they can't be arsed why do they expect anyone else too. We have been this boring and predictable for 60 sodding years and I'm flippin fed up and angry in equal measure.
 
I really struggle with the amount of blame being put on Lowe and Neil here, who just so happen to not be present.

"Lowe is happy with the squad"

So why did he publicly say that he wanted two more before the window shut, and has since said after the Blackpool loss that everyone knows we need more? Who is he lying to, because it's either the national media or Peter Ridsdale?

"Neil wanted us to give Harrop a new contract and wanted us to sign Bayliss for 1.5m but never played him"

Are we really suggesting that a manager as good as Alex Neil was stupid enough to spunk a large percentage of his incredibly modest budget on Tom Bayliss rather than someone with proven quality, and that he wanted us to extend the contract of a player that he barely ever used by 3 whole years?

"We had Dolan, we wanted to keep him but Neil didn't so we let him go for nothing"

What. The. Fuck.

If we had produced someone of the level of Lionel Messi, would we have treated Alex Neil's opinion of whether he should be signed up as gospel, despite everything else we could see? I'm not saying Dolan is even all that good, but he's worth far more than the fuck all that he was allowed to leave for and the fact that the club didn't think to tie that asset down is negligent. A club we are being led to believe is as financially handicapped as ours, by CH and PRs own admission in the same fucking meeting, should be maximising profits wherever it can.

"It cost us a lot to tear up Earl, Bayliss and Harrops' contract"

Well yeah, but it's a shame that you decided that Lowe would be punished for "Alex Neil's" failings. To me, those costs should have been one-off expenses and written off, not taken out of the playing budget, used to hold over the managers head and say "there goes a bit more of your budget".

"Lowe spent a lot of his budget quickly"

Again, it would be nice to have that confirmation from the man himself. If our budget is so small, why are we throwing money at the likes of Woodman who, whilst a good player, is probably not a financially secure move if your transfer budget is £2.50 and a packet of Monster Munch.
 
onemorecup said:
This is completely underwhelming - if it is true that RL was happy with that transfer window, then I despair.
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It's not true.In fact we all know that it's bollocks..............

Everyone involved with this attempt to communicate really need a standing ovation... That said, the overwhelming outcome seems to be what we already suspected/know/see :

Business as usual... And unless we get extremely lucky the only direction it will take us is down..... At best it's stagnate..

This lot have no long term plan whatsoever. It's just survive as long as possible for as little as possible.
 
I got the impression that "they" the club, thought they were doing a great job, they have a plan that doesn't actually have a plan, promotion is pretty much based on some pot luck signings that fit into the budget, the thing about PR is everytime he is challenged or he doesn't like the line of questions his defence walls come up and goes on the attack (not in a nasty way but you can tell he gets his knickers in a twist quite quickly)

I know it's easy for us looking in to make assumptions and @JK had a long debate about the perception of how things look for fans but the club admittedly said they need to improve communication and be more transparent.
 
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222Mark said:
I got the impression that "they" the club, thought they were doing a great job, they have a plan that doesn't actually have a plan, promotion is pretty much based on some pot luck signings that fit into the budget, the thing about PR is everytime he is challenged or he doesn't like the line of questions his defence walls come up and goes on the attack (not in a nasty way but you can tell he gets his knickers in a twist quite quickly)

I know it's easy for us looking in to make assumptions and @JK had a long debate about the perception of how things look for fans but the club admittedly said they need to improve communication and be more transparent.

I've written a few figures down from the night that hasn't been published in the minutes regarding squad value V's income from player sales and the stuff regarding Riis but I'm not sure if I can release that into the public domain, what do you reckon @JK?
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See #49 mate..........And well done for flogging a dead horse....... Your numbers the other night that changed slightly between the meeting and you getting home were bang on.
 
Well as others have said thank you to all the fans involved in making this happen, I do however retract my previous statement of thanking those from the club itself for their involvement. Piss off you patronising twats. And if Lowe is to blame for player recruitment why wasn't he at the meeting to confirm this?
 
ashtonlad said:
Well as others have said thank you to all the fans involved in making this happen, I do however retract my previous statement of thanking those from the club itself for their involvement. Piss off you patronising twats. And if Lowe is to blame for player recruitment why wasn't he at the meeting to confirm this?
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They probably sent him "scouting" possible so he couldn't defend himself.We all know that can't be right 'cos Riddler scouts the good ones which we can afford (or not)

ps How can they reconcile short term contracts and players good enough with building a promotion chasing side over 3 or 4 transfer windows?
 
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222Mark said:
I got the impression that "they" the club, thought they were doing a great job, they have a plan that doesn't actually have a plan, promotion is pretty much based on some pot luck signings that fit into the budget, the thing about PR is everytime he is challenged or he doesn't like the line of questions his defence walls come up and goes on the attack (not in a nasty way but you can tell he gets his knickers in a twist quite quickly)

I know it's easy for us looking in to make assumptions and @JK had a long debate about the perception of how things look for fans but the club admittedly said they need to improve communication and be more transparent.
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I think I’ve sussed it. Their “plan” to take us to the next level is so impressively cunning and well disguised that none of us mere mortals are able to recognise it………
 
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