With meeting notes flying round all sorts of Coventry City forums, it seems the latest in a line of Q&A has us no nearer to knowing just what the actual fuck is going on at our club, but still, thought it’d be fun to TRY and decipher the gibberish that Fisher and Waggott seem to have trademarked,
So, the lucky folks who were at the SCG meeting were as follows.
Tim Fisher (Chairman) (TF)
Steve Waggott (CEO) (SW)
Steve Brookfield (Finance Director) (SB)
Laura Deering (LD)
Jim Brown (SCG) (JB)
Peter Ward (SCG) (PW)
Oh, and TM throughout this is obviously Tony Mowbray
You ready? Here we go.
The SCG had presented in advance five key issues which were addressed as follows:
The thing about this I don’t understand, is why give them the key issues and questions in advance? Are we not just giving them time to weasel their way out of the actual truthful answer? Why not get them to the meeting, give them rough agenda topics, and just fire the questions at them straight. Then we wouldn’t have to try and cut through the business & corporate bullshit clichés, and no one would be left wondering ‘what the hell did I just read?’
Just an idea….
SB provided a broad financial overview of operating loss results for the last three years. We discussed the historic performance and also confirmed that losses for the current financial year before interest and tax will be significantly less than the 2013-14 results. It was also noted that the Board will be looking to move to a break even position before interest and tax in the 2015-16 financial year
Thanks Steve, you would hope for the love of god the losses now would be less than 2013/14, considering we have sold anyone who is any good, probably completely filled staff positions with zero hour contract workers and pawned off the 87 cup memorabilia. What does a Keith Houchen framed and signed diving header photo fetch in Cash Converters? Must have a few of them to flog.
As for breaking even, does it even matter? When you look at our actual position, we do not own a stadium, we rely solely on loans and academy players, we have one of the most disengaged fan bases in league football, and certainly the most tortured generation of Coventry City fans since time began, but hey, were breaking even, so we may not have to hold out for £250k for James Maddison ….we can now offload him for 100k.
Player wages budget 2015/16 is again likely to be upper quartile for League 1
Yuk. AGAIN is the worst word in this sentence, this just means we are hugely overpaying our current contracted players for zero return. Just imagine having one of the top 6 wage budgets in the league, and being in an incredibly real relegation scrap. How is that even possible? Who is accountable for wasting that budget? Fisher? Waggott? Pressley?
The players on this money are not to blame; we wouldn’t turn down the wages if they were offered. Come the end of the season we should clear up an awful lot of funds from players out of contract. NEED to spend them better, and focus on quality over quantity. Let’s not be afraid to spend £6k a week on good League 1 players instead of getting 3 guys in as squad fillers on £2k a week.
SW explained at this point that discussions ongoing with Tony Mowbray (TM) regarding the squad profile and criteria for 2015/16, and benchmarked against other League 1 clubs the player squad budget should be adequate to challenge for promotion from League 1.
SHOULD be adequate? So we are now basically an optimistic League One side, who we shouldn’t rule out for promotion if by some miracle we win more than 2 games on the bounce. Hard to imagine how detailed these talks are at this stage also, with Mowbray only ‘technically’ here for another 5 games
PW & JB questioned why this year’s squad had failed to deliver against this target
*Insert own joke*
SW explained the last close season recruitment campaign had failed for 2 key reasons
The expectancy to be playing the season at Sixfields had proved a major hurdle to attract the target players competition had been severe from other Clubs in League 1 who had made significantly higher offers to key players, at levels that are unrealistic and unsustainable; SW gave a couple of examples where players had been targeted, had come to Ryton and been offered and accepted terms, for the Club to be gazumped at the final hour.
Wait? We’re now being gazumped!? By who? Can’t he just name those players? Be fascinating to see who is gazumping us.
‘Wanna join us at Cov’
‘Sure’
‘Nice one’
‘Hold on, change of heart, just had an offer from Scunthorpe. See ya’
I’ve paraphrased slightly..
So, with one of the top 6 wages budgets in the league, we are actually nowhere near being competitive in the market. Are we placing too much emphasis on our past? We won the cup in 87 and spent ages in the Premier League, want to come and play in front of 8000 people for a grand a week? Ermmm.
PW & JB asked what were the key learnings and what would be different this time round
SW stated that a greater depth of targeting would be required, and this has been put in place with TM, whereby 3 targets are identified and pursued for each position required
So that’s now 3 players in EVERY position who will be responsible for a gazumping…
SW spoke of the level of detail on player profiling to ensure the correct “DNA” is targeted, with a 1st, 2nd 3rd target identified, with special emphasis on the spine of the team
Horrible word, DNA. What is the correct DNA for playing for Coventry City at the minute? Must be young, good, and have a decent sell on price, with the emphasis placed on the latter. He needs to go into more detail of what he sees is the required DNA of a player to play for this club.
Regarding scouting, SW thanked JB for putting forward the offer on behalf of the Former Players Association.
Your welcome?
SW explained that this was being considered, however, the scouting network and structure of intelligence gathering has to be a long term commitment with scouts needing to be available every weekend, and not something to be managed on an ad hoc “when it suits” basis; SW acknowledged that there may be some helpful talent within the FPA to assist
Scout required: Must be available to work every weekend, you know, because that is when the majority of football is played…
SW advised that a number of individuals within his network had already been introduced to TM, and together with TM’s contacts, strong links were in place with a number of Premier League and Championship Clubs
SW was hopeful that these links would help to increase the total number of professionals within the Club, in particular he aims to increase the number of trialists to complement existing academy and youth players, and to fulfil the large number of fixtures when taking into account U18 and U21 commitments
We don’t need to necessarily increase the number of trialists, we just need to improve the current ratio of trialist to first team player.
Why get 15 trialists in and sign one just to say you are increasing the number? Let’s get 5 quality trialists in and sign all 5. Shock, horror. It might have a bloody effect on the team.
Also, in the Premier League we may have got away with an U18 and U21 team, but it’s just not plausible now, let’s just call it the u18’s. Let’s not fool anyone, most of our u21s are in the first team squad or sold before they hit 21. I don’t like loading our squad just to meet requirements of u18’s and u21’s games.
PW & JB asked for clarification about the potential threat to Category 2 academy status
SW reiterated the importance of the academy, confirming that TM is an advocate / believer in youth development and Academies
SW explained the Club’s £1.25million commitment to the Academy, and his determination to maintain Cat 2 status as a fundamental pillar of the model going forward
Now this is vital, mainly because of how reliant we have become on the academy over the years. There is no doubt that the talent coming through is second to none, but we need to be ensuring that we have the right team out there recruiting the best young talent alongside keeping the CAT 2 status.
We can never match a Southampton academy, it just isn’t realistic, they are in the enviable position of being the biggest club in their country. They have their choice of all the talent around there. Even when Portsmouth were in their prime none of the investment was on youth. We are one of many clubs within the Midlands so will constantly be battling out with Villa, Birmingham, WBA, Wolves etc.
This makes it much more vital that our scouts are on the ball with spotting these youngsters early enough.
In response to the question of competing with Wasps for priority share of discretionary spend within the area, SW outlined an intense programme of engagement within the local community, working with schools, various further education establishments and industry via Chamber of Commerce etc
Excellent. I wholeheartedly agree with Waggott here if he is being serious.
Look, we cannot attract kids to the games if we are not literally giving the tickets away. FACT. As a parent it’s bad enough paying for yourself let alone forking out cash for your kids to go aswell. The standard of football is bad and kids will be the biggest critics.
The people of Coventry are so disillusioned with their club it needs to have an element of it given back to them. Make it a club that they can be proud of. Community work will help, local partnerships with schools will help, use the allocated number of games we get from the FA for ticket offers to really fill the stadium. Family of 4 for 20 quid, kids for a quid, BOGOF, free merchandise with every ticket bought, free ticket with every shirt sale, loyalty schemes where if they go to a certain amount of games a season you get a free shirt, or £50/100 off next year’s season ticket. The possibilities are endless.
Let’s be creative, retro day was a success, despite the low turnout, let’s make it an experience going up to watch the City. The players and SISU are responsible for their side of it, but so are we.
SB gave an overview of the Football League’s process for policing Financial Fair Play, cash flow considerations and the need for CCFC to increase revenues, citing various models in play within League 1 with which CCFC are competing; eg the “benefactor” model versus a sustainable business model
Jargon to 99% of us, that ‘e.g’ is so vague.
PW & JB asked if SW and SB would be prepared to present this particular topic to the SCG, when a full meeting could be allocated to the subject – important that supporters have a much greater understanding of the parameters within which the Club is working, and the various options available (agreed, target next meeting 22 April)
SW stated this might also provide an opportunity to consult with supporters about stadium configuration for next season, conscious that measures must be taken to improve atmosphere, whilst recognising that some supporters may be asked to make a compromise
He ‘might’. Basically, don’t hold your breath. Also, what compromise will supporters be asked to make?
TF advised that pricing for next season was still “work in progress”
‘What is the maximum that the diehard fans will pay to watch our fullbacks kick it to Nouble for 90 minutes? £350? Let’s just charge them that then.’
PW & JB asked for clarification about the recent rumours concerning former manager Steven Pressley. SW confirmed that a commercial agreement had been reached.
So once more we needed a threat of legal action to adhere to a legal requirement. Don’t you love this club?
SW confirmed there was absolutely no truth in the rumour about theft of the player database
Phew. Jim Brown and Peter Ward ladies and gentleman, asking the questions YOU care about.
Regarding the new stadium, TF advised that the media had recently reported, accurately, that discussions had taken place with Rugby Borough Council about potential sites for the new stadium; stating that discussions will continue on a commercially sensitive basis
Correct me if I am wrong, wasn’t the plan of a new stadium first discussed like 4 years ago? So it’s taken them that long to ask a question to a local council if they might have any land available?
If we are working along those timescales then I can’t wait for the opening game in our brand spanking new stadium.
See you there in 2050….
Time constraints meant that Jan Mokrzycki’s extensive list of questions was deferred; TF advised he would endeavour to answer those questions in writing as far and soon as possible
Poor Jan. I hope he didn’t turn up expecting answers, what a waste of a journey. Fisher has endeavoured to respond when he’s free, so that means anytime he isn’t trying to ignore legal binding contracts, chat with local councils to see if they have any land they want to flog, or generally pissing on our history.
In-fact, I hope none of use expected answers, because what we have above is exactly the answers you get when you send the questions to the club 8 weeks before the meeting.
Im not calling for a parliament meeting you see these fatcat bankers undertake, but I just want some honest, human answers from the ‘team’ that are in charge of running my club. Is that too much to ask?
#PUSB 