Time for action - An open letter to Preston North End FC (Meeting & responses added).

[Bodney Rewes]

"Our streamlined organisational and decision-making infrastructure gives us a fighting chance in the ever complex and data-driven world of scouting new football talent. Layers of infrastructure inevitably leads to layers of bureaucracy and costs which then leads to a slower decision-making process. To compete, PNE has to be a lean and focused operation. We have to get more bang for our buck."​

"Streamlined" is obviously the spin they're giving for the rank bad company governance of having one 72-year-old man in charge of multiple key club functions, despite him being unqualified for them, leading to zero accountability when things go wrong.

We are being asked to make the mental contortions necessary to imagine Ridsdale is "a lean and focused operation".

How streamlined can it be when you're having to rely on one man being available while he's also busy sorting out all the commercial deals and all the other hats he's wearing?

And if he's not that busy, doesn't that just show that he could busier and trying to improve the club's revenue?

 

[jgriff2296]

"Our streamlined organisational and decision-making infrastructure gives us a fighting chance in the ever complex and data-driven world of scouting new football talent. Layers of infrastructure inevitably leads to layers of bureaucracy and costs which then leads to a slower decision-making process. To compete, PNE has to be a lean and focused operation. We have to get more bang for our buck."​

"Streamlined" is obviously the spin they're giving for the rank bad company governance of having one 72-year-old man in charge of multiple key club functions, despite him being unqualified for them, leading to zero accountability when things go wrong.

Lean? I've seen Ridsdale and he's anything but lean!
Fat and useless I'd say. (Nothing against overweight people per se but I make an exception for the fat controller(

We are being asked to make the mental contortions necessary to imagine Ridsdale is "a lean and focused operation".

 

[Bodney Rewes]

It completely misses the point that the reason teams do this is to get more "bang for their buck". In software development, the more money you spend on analysis and design, the more money you save further down the line.

It's surely the same in recruitment? The more money you spend on data analysis and scouting, the more money you save as you aren't blowing money on players who don't play for the rest of their contracts (Jamie Thomas, Izzy Brown etc) and you aren't blowing transfer fees on players who don't fit a team (Tom Bayliss) or on a downward spiral (Scott Sinclair).

A data analyst and a scout aren't going to cost as much as a footballer, even just on wages alone. A decent analyst and scout saves you the money on those wages and maybe improves your income if the player moves on. One Clive Middlemass is far better value for money than Jamie Thomas, Izzy Brown, Connor Wickham etc

I'm not sure you even work quicker with a smaller team. I tend to find on projects that you get more work done if you have more workers available to do the work. You don't have to deal with so many bottlenecks when people aren't available for whatever reason or there's just too much work an individual has to do. The only exception to this is if you have more project managers who want to spend more time in meetings discussing the work rather than letting people do their work

 

[Thracia]

Will be interesting to dig deeper into the finances though, especially considering this comment:

“As I have mentioned in the past, because we recognise the net income and not the turnover achieved from our commercial and retail divisions, it is often assumed, incorrectly, that our income from these activities is inferior to our close competitors. This is not the case. If we were to recognise revenue rather than net income our turnover would increase by about £3m more per annum which would take the income generated by our commercial team in line with or above clubs with similar sized fanbases. Notwithstanding this, we continue to drive our commercial revenues forward.”

It stands out to me for two reasons:
1) "It is often assumed, incorrectly, that our income from these activities is inferior to our close competitors".

Then why are we always pleading poverty and pointing to how small our budget is? You can't talk about Premier League Ambitions and improving position in the table in one breath, small budgets and FFP in another, and being similar to close competitors in another. What's the narrative here? Where are you expecting us to be?

2) It's interesting that distinction has been highlighted. I wonder what story that is telling.

I've never understood the defence that "our commercial income isn't that bad, we just report it differently to everyone else". If this is the case, why are we reporting it differently to everyone else? Are we gaining anything by making us look worse than everyone else?

This is just my take - but if they've outsourced a commercial operation, such as catering or retail, they have no choice but to "recognise the net income and not the turnover achieved", because all the turnover is achieved on some other company's books - the company we outsourced to. We have no visibility of the turnover occurring within another business - it's literally none of our business.

We make the choice to outsource. An inevitable consequence of that choice is, the outsourcing company receives the grosses, but then has all the associated costs to deal with. We can't then credit ourselves with their gross revenues when comparing ourselves with other clubs, as if we are running everything in-house. That's not how it works.

If they want to do that, and credit themselves with an extra spurious £3m in turnover, then it's simple - run things in-house!

 

[Dreyfuss]

Here's some streamlined questions for Craig...

In the last 10+ years we've only had 2 academy products start 5 or more championship games. We paid one of them off to leave. The other hasn't started a league game in over a year. What is the purpose of our youth academy and why have we aspired to run it into the ground?

In the last 10+ years why has not one single player that we spent over 500k+ on, been sold for a profit? Does the club actually understand the concept of player trading?

In the last 10+ years why has our director, head of football operations & chief contract negotiator got seemingly unending spare time to respond to fan emails/texts, rather than do his actual roles effectively?

 

[Bobbage]

We are being asked to make the mental contortions necessary to imagine Ridsdale is "a lean and focused operation".​

Ridsdale.

"Lean"

 

[Sid Snot]

https://www.pnefc.net/news/2024/december/02/club-comment-on-202324-finances/

'Bullshit baffles brains'

The Facebook sycophants are creaming themselves reading that.

 

[NorthEndNerd]

Here's some streamlined questions for Craig...

In the last 10+ years we've only had 2 academy products start 5 or more championship games. We paid one of them off to leave. The other hasn't started a league game in over a year. What is the purpose of our youth academy and why have we aspired to run it into the ground?

In the last 10+ years why has not one single player that we spent over 500k+ on, been sold for a profit? Does the club actually understand the concept of player trading?

In the last 10+ years why has our director, head of football operations & chief contract negotiator got seemingly unending spare time to respond to fan emails/texts, rather than do his actual roles effectively?

I had an interesting conversation with a physio who used to work at current and former Premier League, Championship and League One none of which were Preston and I was talking about the very relative and fair point around our dire output when it comes to youth team prospects and he made some really interesting points on youth team academy's.

He said to me if you haven't been in the Premier League then the chances of you getting a category 1 academy are zilch due to it being gate keeper by the Premier League elite the only reason Rovers get it for example is because they were regulars there for so long. The Premier League clubs want to hoard all the best talent and cast off who they don't want at their leisure and this is the reason why we probably won't invest because we will never be awarded the status to then get the best talent. He did also make the point that a lot of youth teams and academies don't really produce too well referencing Burnley and others.

Just thought I'd mention this for the good of the topic.

 

[Jürgen Krapp]

I had an interesting conversation with a physio who used to work at current and former Premier League, Championship and League One none of which were Preston and I was talking about the very relative and fair point around our dire output when it comes to youth team prospects and he made some really interesting points on youth team academy's.

He said to me if you haven't been in the Premier League then the chances of you getting a category 1 academy are zilch due to it being gate keeper by the Premier League elite the only reason Rovers get it for example is because they were regulars there for so long. The Premier League clubs want to hoard all the best talent and cast off who they don't want at their leisure and this is the reason why we probably won't invest because we will never be awarded the status to then get the best talent. He did also make the point that a lot of youth teams and academies don't really produce too well referencing Burnley and others.

Just thought I'd mention this for the good of the topic.

This is why I've always felt an Under 23's like Brentford would be best suited. There's a number of Category 1 academies near by that we can get cast offs from. But we don't do that either as it's 'ballet dancing'.

It's the ownership that talks about looking to get Category 2 though, so we ought to see progress towards it if it's part of their plan.

 

[thebutterpiepodcast]

 

[Bodney Rewes]

This is just my take - but if they've outsourced a commercial operation, such as catering or retail, they have no choice but to "recognise the net income and not the turnover achieved", because all the turnover is achieved on some other company's books - the company we outsourced to. We have no visibility of the turnover occurring within another business - it's literally none of our business.

We make the choice to outsource. An inevitable consequence of that choice is, the outsourcing company receives the grosses, but then has all the associated costs to deal with. We can't then credit ourselves with their gross revenues when comparing ourselves with other clubs, as if we are running everything in-house. That's not how it works.

If they want to do that, and credit themselves with an extra spurious £3m in turnover, then it's simple - run things in-house!

Thanks @Thracia! I'm not particularly knowledgeable on this sort of thing to be honest but is there a way to see what our turnover achieved is compared to other teams? Basically, I'm wondering what numbers Ridsdale is comparing us against because other teams will outsource some elements too so I'd imagine not everything they report for their commercial income should be their complete turnover

 

[Thracia]

'Bullshit baffles brains'

The Facebook sycophants are creaming themselves reading that.

Without the full accounts (which have not been published, despite what they say), this spinning-like-a-pulsar "club comment" is pretty worthless.

Just as one example, they are crediting themselves that "turnover has increased from £15.6m to a record £16.9m (an increase of just over 8%). The third year in a row of record turnover."

Well, the corresponding increase in turnover in 2023 compared to 2022 (which was just over 12%), as their own accounts state, "mainly relates to ticket income from Championship and FA Cup matches and increased income from the English Football League and Premier League central funding distributions".

And indeed mainly it did - their turnover from all other sources bar these grew a puny £262,000 - take out rental income, which doesn't appear on the football club's accounts, only the holding company's, and the increase was just £158,000.

Their revenue from merchandising actually fell from 2022 to 2023.

Thank heavens for new TV deals and those bumper away crowds paying our increasingly expensive full matchday prices!

 

[California_PNE]

How fucking stupid does Peter ridsdale think pne supporters are?

 

[Joanpne]

A lot of Ridsdale speak in that rushed out statement.
How did we manage to get 55 applicants in the few hours that Lowe left and Heck was installed, not withstanding that i thought we approached him (one outstanding candidate from those that applied according to that).

That’s the trouble they never remember the fibs. That statement is the usual bullshit, and it looks like Ridsdale is going nowhere and neither are the Hemmings. Boredom to prevail it is then!

 

[Joanpne]

How streamlined can it be when you're having to rely on one man being available while he's also busy sorting out all the commercial deals and all the other hats he's wearing?

And if he's not that busy, doesn't that just show that he could busier and trying to improve the club's revenue?

When they say streamlined they mean cheap. How they can claim it works quicker is a joke, the transfer windows are as you would expect with a 72 year old, two speeds dead slow and stop.

 

[Pennyhome]

Let’s get the meeting ticked off then we can move to stage 2

Clearly not being taken seriously

 

[Ando60]

Here's some streamlined questions for Craig...

In the last 10+ years we've only had 2 academy products start 5 or more championship games. We paid one of them off to leave. The other hasn't started a league game in over a year. What is the purpose of our youth academy and why have we aspired to run it into the ground?

In the last 10+ years why has not one single player that we spent over 500k+ on, been sold for a profit? Does the club actually understand the concept of player trading?

In the last 10+ years why has our director, head of football operations & chief contract negotiator got seemingly unending spare time to respond to fan emails/texts, rather than do his actual roles effectively?

I would add to that :

What was the logic behind buying Jeppe Okkels when we had no manager in situ ?
What is the strategy for January recruitment ? Do we have one ? Is there any funding available ?
Will we be utilising the loan market in January?

 

[Sid Snot]

Without the full accounts (which have not been published, despite what they say), this spinning-like-a-pulsar "club comment" is pretty worthless.

Exactly. Throwing out unfounded positivity in the midst of a relegation crisis isn't addressing the genuine issue here. Worthless is the exact description of that statement.

 

[Joanpne]

How fucking stupid does Peter ridsdale think pne supporters are?

A lot of them are!

 

[Ando60]

A lot of them are!

Well, you don’t have to be so blunt about me Joan 😁😁