>>I'm not disagreeing, but not agreeing, as a lot of this is speculation on what would have happened if we, 1) had a stay of execution 2) Become a team/ Club business that could stay in the CL<< THer is no way we could guarantee CL football - especially after Abramovich bought Chelsea. We'd be in the same boat as Newcastle - built for the CL but unable to qualify for it. But Newcastle isn't a PLC...
>>As you'll see below I share some strong beliefs myself, but we'll just never know either way<< What happened is the only outcome once Ridsdale mortgaged the future the second time. We MIGHT have got away with the £60m, but the second £20m (money for Fowler, Seth etc) did us once an for all. A stupid gamble that failed. >>We are a nation where cannot see into the short term future, It was no different back then, I remember being a lone voice when Iraq was invaded saying I thought it was illegal, now you'll find it hard not to find someone who doesn't agree with me, least of all some of my pals from the 'old' Black Watch who lost a few mates over there, I'm not anti war, I'm an ex Gulf War 1 vet and proud of the gongs I got for that particular chapter of my life<< Hang on, we saw the biggest ever public protest on the streets of London after Iraq was invaded. I don't know many people who were for that... Re the accounts, yes you're right, but we all had access to a calculator and they weren't hard sums Leeds United - 10 million here, 12 million there, 7 million here ..... And the press were telling us of the wages situation, I recall being alarmed about Bridges wages and medical bill while recovering from the horror of Besiktas, Batty falling out with the club and his reputation shot to bits because of financial implications attached to him So no, I don't accept this 90% thing, we as shareholders should have picked up on this and got Ridsdale and co sacked, however, in-between champion league games and full grounds it must have escaped our minds to bring it up - the facts and figures were all in the public domain - The horse is actually shergar and its ran out of fields<< But we DIDN'T know! How could we know that Seth Johnson was on £37,000 a week? Or that O'Leary's contract was payable IN FULL on his dismaissal? These were stupid decisions made by a CEO out of his depth. But the details didn't emerge until after the rot had set in. >>Nor do I accept Ridsdale was at full fault, he was certainly not blameless, he just never had the team behind him that had a clue what was going on. He obviouslly had to take the drop, but he is one of the larger cogs of a very large wheel of which myself as a minor shareholder was connected<< Ridsdale was placed in the position of making the decisions, and therefore must shoulder much of the blame. But the other directors were equally culpable - especially Allan Leighton, who as a non-exec with FAR more business experience than Ridsdale (who was a marketing man). Leighton should have been butting the brakes on Ridsdale - but in fact he was driving the plan forward. Result - no checks and balances, like you would find in a normal business. Ridsdale and Leighton had banked on a European league being formed, containing about four English teams. ManU, Liverpool and Arsenal were shoo-ins - but geographically and in terms of recent results we fitted the bill as the fourth (the "competition" was Newcastle). You cannot build a strategy round guesswork as vague as this. Leighton should have known this - but was too distracted with his 97 other directorships to put any real intellectual focus on the plan. The w*nker. >>We just accepted at that time that the club had half a clue what they were doing - How much were match days bringing in? We were never off TV, Sponsorship wasn't a problem, alas it went pear shaped and was a shambles happening before our disbelieving eyes - true?<< Yes, we did accept that. We had no idea how incompetent they were. They were running a PLC. We were following a football team. >>PLC or not, it did have a chance of working had the Business plan been correctly executed.<< The plan was never going to work because it was based on a false premise - ie a Euro Superleague. The really stupid fact is that they had it right before they thought of that - JFH being sold because he wanted too much money, remember? Focus on youth development? Whether you're a PLC or a private comnpany, you can only be successful if you get the basics right. Match income and outgoings; cash-flow etc. Ridsdale & co didn't do any of those things. >> Either that or a rich American or Russian become a lifelong Leeds fan :)<< Sadly this is just about the only way a football club can find success - as a billionaire's Subbuteo set. >>The management of the club was poor from grass roots up, not so much on the field but behind the scenes, I'm not blaming Ethil the tea lady though, nor DOL, I didn't like him at the best of times, but he did some good.<< He didn't question the logic, though. Do you think Martin O'Neill, or Arsene Wenger (ie someone brighter than DOL) would not have baulked at the money being splashed out? >> I'd have rather given Richard Walker all that money and thrown him on the bench, they'd have been scared sh!tless to lose and they'd have been sent to Colchester had they underpreformed,... Make Paul Cundell his assistant ... nae botha<< I'd personally favour the Walker-Humphries dream ticket ;-) >>It was planet Leeds United and we were all on the ride, yes, Bill Gerrard.... thanks, that was him..... several of us were concerned enough to realise the seriousness of the problem that we gave several weeks of our life to trying to do something about it, but like any Poorly run Business or semi political organisation (which we became) that went pear shaped too I'm not sure if you know too much of what went on ...... But here's a little of what I got up to with a few of this list, as a mate of mine says, you couldn't make up this chit if you tried Personally I wanted the fans to have more of an input and was ready to get Ridsdales, and his sons and I believe Alan Leightons shares Proxied to LUST which is what we wanted to do as a group (I was secretary at this time) I had a solicitor set up to get these shares proxied, I had Peter Ridsdale all but prepared to give these shares to the supporters - If you recall he had just taken over at Bradford and I simply picked up the phone, called him and asked (some listers should stop having baths) - This created me to become expelled from LUSC and resign from LUST as nobody could see past the emotion and the hatred of Ridsdale, and Ray Fell possibly now wishes he'd have taken a political role during this time and help act on behalf of the fans Ridsdales name was dirt - he would not have been attending, or using those shares in the December AGM, he would have possibly got some breathing space from the death threats he was recieving, and the YEP maybe even write something favourable about him...... The January the 19th deadline was fast approaching and everyone was sucking their thumbs watching it happen, with very poor co-ordination or communication between those groups supposed to representing the fans I was speaking to the financial advisor of someone in the Golfing world who may have had some disposable income (and connected to the Scottish supporters Club) Had we held those shares at LUST, we would have had over 10% of the shares of the club and a real say in the future months of turmoil, surely between our fanbase we have a dozen intelligent, professional passionate people who could handle something like this on behalf of the fanbase - Not many shared our vision or belief<< I do remember this and was interested in the idea - but ultimately I guessed that if the business failed (which it was bound to do by that stage), your efforts would have been wasted because the PLC would have been wound up (and your shares cancelled) with the Football Club subsidiary sold as an asset - the proceeds of which would have gone to the creditors. This is what happens in receiverships. And it's what happened with Leeds United. Been there as a creditor of a company that owed me money. Got nowt :-( >>Judy was Kresners email address, Paul C will remind me I'm sure, it was a very busy period of my life<< Krasner in drag? Eew. You've put me off my lunch! >>I'm sure we have good times ahead, just got to see who the cleverest person is to find out how we achieve it !<< I agree. At the end of this season we're actually going to be in our best financial position since before Ridsdale mortgaged the farm. We probably won't be promoted, but actaully that's no bad thing - as I think the squad needs proper restructuring. You need players who believe they'll still have a job once we get promoted (like Reading this season). Let's hope Bates brings in a decent investor this summer (as he did with Chelsea and Matthew Harding) and a decent, experienced manager - even if it means writing off this season... Mark _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist oh alright then :-)
