Eddie Hitler

1 minute ago, CotswoldRed said:

His explanation for youngsters buying their own kit was ridiculous. Perplexing even. 

It was the best bit, I'll type it out as I was just going "What?" when he was rambling about it:

Geoff: Is this true that the [Academy] lads buy their own kit?

Steve: Let me tell you, let me tell you that we have an exceptionally fine Academy manager in Johnny Henderson...

Geoff: Do they pay for their own kit?

Steve: ... and part of the basis that he wants to feel, you know, he believes that these guys should actually earn the right to be part of our Academy.  Now this is his policy, we support it, and I think that's one of the introductions he's made

Geoff: That they buy their own kit?

Steve: Absolutely, because you know they believe that actually that's part of, part of the make-up of being part of our Academy.

Geoff: Can they afford to do that?

Steve:  Well.... if they can't then obviously, uh,  they can find support elsewhere in terms of people helping them.  That is something that I think he wants to introduce.  Uh, I saw them last Wednesday night at Oxford United in the youth cup and they played extremely well we've got some very talented young mans (sic).  I am very happy about that department of the football club, it's well run and so far we haven't lost anybody that we don't wish to lose and, uh, there's a great loyalty bond there, and uh, I think that's one area that I feel very pleased about.

Absolutely superb performance by Mr Twentyman there; take a bow sir.

He remained polite and kept it moving but Hamer was clearly rattled and defensive.

• He's the owner - you don't hear from Roman Abramovich
• He's the manager - he can shut up and look after the team

And the loan won't be called in until Rovers reach the Premiership

Great listen, I love the random references that Hamer shoves in "World War Two Bomber Found on the Moon".

That thing about it being good that their Academy boys have to buy their own kit was reminiscent of those Bird and Fortune head to heads where one becomes more and more ludicrous and the other, whilst goggling incredulously at him, keeps going "Yes, I see, yes".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05lps2z

Comedy programme of the week!  I turned off Alexei Sayle's show earlier and this was far funnier.

6 hours ago, Bristol Rob said:

One of their big wigs is in radio Bristol tomorrow night.

My guess? No searching questions will be asked, no open answers will be offered and more laughter from us.

Hamer's a very entertaining raconteur who would have a great career as an after dinner speaker so I might well listen; he can entirely avoid answering a question but in such a diverting and amusing way that you don't mind.

I can see why he was employed by a club that has no real answers to the big questions: what are they going to do about the poor state of the:

finances

ground

field, sorry, training ground, and

team.

17 minutes ago, Vincent Vega said:

Championship ready my ass.

Think what a state they'd be in if they weren't owned by one of the world's richest families 

26 minutes ago, Spoons said:

Roll back a few months and that could have been otib you were talking about !!

Um, yes.

(feels not entirely innocent in this case)

2 minutes ago, WessexPest said:

Interesting....pasted from their FB page; terrible spelling, punctuation and grammar left intact...

"Same old , today we reached a new low , summer recruitment awful , no feedback from the board , and to beat it all , all the tables removed to the new players lounge , which was being used for the scouts from other clubs , spoke with Dennis Rolf who represents Charlton , he was turfed out along with the Millwall rep , all I can say , Rovers don’t give a toss about the supporters , all about Clarke and his bunch of bandits , and there wives ,"

Everything's up for sale including the white plastic chairs as that's the only way they can finish the season without Dwane Sports actually putting some cash in unsecured.

They are being taken to the cleaners and applauding the people doing it; I did actually read one lone voice calling for a pitch invasion and protest today.  There's one fan who can see the truth.

It's tipping from funny into tragic.  I speak as one who wants Bristol to have two professional football clubs.

51 minutes ago, Son Of Nob said:

He looks a broken man.

I have an 8 week old baby, a stressful job and inherent chubbiness.... he makes me look like an Olympic athlete 

Yes.  That was hard to watch; he looks a broken man.  I was going to post some witty quip but it doesn't seem appropriate.  I actually feel sorry for him.  Crikey

41 minutes ago, Spoonbed said:

Hey, your in no position to comment Mr Eddie Hitler. 

Fancy naming yourself after the most despotic dictator of the 20th century. 

Very good! 

50 minutes ago, BobBobSuperBob said:

We have a poster on here who used a serial killer as his avatar

No one said a thing

36 minutes ago, Vincent Vega said:

Really, who  ?

Ditto.

I am sure Bob is entirely correct as he's a longstanding respected poster but as I don't recall it then I think it highly likely that people, including myself, didn't realise it at the time.

7 minutes ago, CotswoldRed said:

I read the last week as... 

DC knows there is no money there. 

The owner has no money to spend and the interview /article is to position them as an attractive takeover prospect. 

That looks to be about the size of it.  They just need to somehow prevent any potential investors who, on the strength of that article, think that they are buying the next Man City from ever visiting the ground.

I was having a quick browse of gaschat, or "slumming it" as I believe it to be known, and the mood has very much changed.

It seems to be yesterday's DC interview that has passed around the collective coffee which most of them have now smelt and woken up.

Little steps I know but you need that realisation phase as a first foot on the road to becoming a normal fan base that holds "Sack the Board" demos when they're being taken for a ride.

Has their fan base genuinely woken up though; or will a couple of decent wins see them drifting off again?

8 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

reads like someone who's fed up and firing one into the lack of funds from the owners, expect him to be gone by the turn of the year

Worry ye not gasheads because I have checked and, since leaving Chesterfield in glory in 2015, one of the best managers in the country, Dean Saunders, remains available.

Actually I suggest you sack Daryl now and get Deano appointed before Arsenal comes in for him.

I had assumed that the Fred West one was a photoshop to make the gas look bad.

I am astounded that one of their fans genuinely did that.

1 minute ago, Ska Junkie said:

Indeed, that's makes sense Eddie. The interest forms part of the £10M charge so the actual amount available is lessened. Given their alleged current debt levels, the spring could be interesting.

Their companies' house site will be worth a regular visit for filings, SJ.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04501223/filing-history

Accounts (to June 2017) are due end of March but there could be other charges as they scout around to secure any more money they may have to put in to complete the season.

Maybe a further £1.1m charge on the ground as it's valued in the accounts at £11.1m.

21 minutes ago, Ska Junkie said:

This is what led to my question TBH Eddie. If the the AQ's wanted out as soon as the value of the supposed £10M charge is reached, bearing in mind they've made 6% in interest, couldn't they conceivably bankrupt the club and still get their £10M back, plus interest, regardless of a buyer being available? I appreciate they wouldn't be too popular but could they conceivably do it?

Yes they could just pull the plug though it is a faff that they would presumably rather avoid; though the £10m includes the interest.  So they would would be getting their money back plus interest rather than £10m plus interest.  If you see what I mean!

12 minutes ago, Loon plage said:

My thoughts are that when the money taken against the charge runs out they are ****** unless they can raise cash via a January sale of their talented squad members.

If I was the AQs I'd put in sufficient extra funds to take them to the end of the season ?£300k - £500k and then aim for a sale as a going concern with a Div 3 place.

They'll get far more for that than for a Div 4 club in administration.

This strategy does require a buyer coming in in the summer.

1 hour ago, Rudolf Hucker said:

Personally, I think that the only way out of this for the 15ers is for the supporters to galvanise themselves and persuade HG to sell his business to buy the club and its ground, probably from the Administrator in order to get the best price. Any prospect of redeveloping the ground or building a new one disappear in the scenario although expect to see crowdfunding efforts start in 2018.

I think this is indeed what the future holds for them; I await the comedy hour when Geoff interviews the new Chairman on "Having a Gas".

"Well Mr Henbury; I understand that the ground has been sold so the council can build an incinerator, Stu Sinclair is back to begging in the precinct again, you're renting at Twerton again, the club never owned the training ground in the first place because it was bought directly by Dwane Sports, and you're bottom of the fourth division.  It's not looking good is it?"

"You been listening to them gurt Teds, Geoff; it's all going really well.  I have total faith in myself as owner and anybody who doesn't isn't a proper gashead.  We have lots of assets but they just don't show up in the accounts and our league position is in no way reflective of the way that we have played in those games, all the referees are secret Teds who just want us to lose." 

17 minutes ago, Cheesleysmate said:

Delusional Sag alert.......

Methinks that's a red having fun.

3 minutes ago, Big Red Rich said:

Genuine question. How far down the pyramid would they need to go to have the best facilities in the league?

Gateshead has a cracking ground and they're level six or seven so somewhere below that. Cherry Red Records Hellenic League would be my guess.

4 hours ago, wendyredredrobin said:

Value of the Mem?  I understand that an arcre amounts to around 15 building plots, so assuming it is around 2 acres, it can't be worth more than £8m even before development costs.  I'm not sure what it would be worth for commercial property, but if a loan of £10m has been secured on it, what kind of valuation makes it worth that?

Deduct the cost of building 30 houses on it at say 150k per house, that reduces the land value to circa £4m.

I would guess for residential development it would be £30k a plot so if you're correct with the sizing then 2 x 15 x £30k = £9m if selling to a developer so the £10m is about right IMO with another £1m for the white plastic chair mountain.

2 minutes ago, Bristol Rob said:

As much as it pains me, I just don't see Wally walking away. Not if he still has FIFA ambitions.

I think they'll be fine.

11 minutes ago, Bianconeri said:

Truro must be in that world of pain too. I think their ‘derby’ this season is with WSM, must be a 300 mile round trip.

I know a fan who told me that their combined distance of all away games (and he goes to pretty much all of them) would actually be lower in Conference North than their current in Conference South; with all those trips to Kent, London and East Anglia.

23 minutes ago, Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan said:

I don’t think for one second that they will go under, however if the shit was to hit the fan big time I’d have much more sympathy for them if they hadn’t constantly thrown 1982 in our face for the last 30 odd years.

 

The thing is nobody ever goes under as in disappeared and gone.  Accrington Stanley, Bradford Park Avenue, Aldershot all still going.

So even if they imploded financially with a massive "whump": ground seized, players released from contracts, Santa's Grotto auctioned off to the highest bidder, Sinclair reclaiming his begging patch etc. then with their crowds they would get a berth in something like the Southern League Premier Division or only two leagues below where they were a couple of years' ago.  All they need to do is rally behind a reformed club founded by the Supporters Club; put some financial guarnatees in place, recruit some semi-pro players and they're off again.

There is no "end" for clubs as long as they have supporters.

2 minutes ago, I'm Sparti-Bob said:

Very concisely put, and possibly one for Twentyman to broach next time he invites Hamer or Wally onto his show (not that I expect either to answer with any honesty or clarity).

I can practically hear Hamer's answer now: a twenty minute ramble bringing in some dated cultural references talking about football finance in general terms, parachute payments, how small clubs can't compete, problems at other clubs, how he found his lost sock under the bed that morning.  Everything but answer the question. 

And to give him his credit he is a decent and avuncular speaker who has over many years mastered the art of saying nothing at great length but in an entertaining way.

32 minutes ago, Red34 said:

I'm not even sure there was much of an initial purchase cost. 

From what I've heard of Higgs and the debts, it sounds like the purchase may have been for a token amount (£1 say), with the agreement to take on the debts including those to the old directors.

As Higgs etc would be getting their loans back I imagine they were just happy with not having lost it all to administration when the Wonga loan was called in.

And as all debts are being paid by the club according to the accounts, as you suggest Dwane Sports can walk away with their interest payments and maybe the Colony, take the Mem due to the charge and just fold Rovers... 

Good profit already, and if they then sat on the Mem site for a few years until it's worth even more than the valuation for the charge at call in time, it could be a great profit... 

Or I suppose they could take the ground for the debt and then sell the club without either it or the debt; and then rent the ground to the club until they want to sell it to developers.

I would guess they'd want something like £600k a year rent to match the interest lost; and we can dust off the "rent boys" monciker for them again.

You couldn't see an outside investor wanting to buy the club on these terms so it would probably be a fans' consortium.  The one at Exeter has run that club decently but they have the huge advantage of owning their own ground and have recently pulled down a stand to redevelop it. 

There probably are enough wealthy Rovers' fans to pull this off short term but they would need to build a new ground or arrnage a groundshare pretty soon as £1.2m of losses plus £0.6m of rent will empty a lot of pockets in short order.