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Ambition

Ambition

Jack Daniels said:
They've got the Andre Gray price wrong, he cost Burnley a record £6m. Burnley later sold him to Watford for £18m and spent £15m of that on Chris Wood from Leeds.

TJH seems to have a mental block 99% of the time on any fee above £1.3m, Whiteman being the exception.

I'm sick of being a North End fan at the minute, talk from the hierarchy every pre-season about "ambitions to reach The Premier League" and then we sign some reserve from the bottom half of L1.

Enough "talking the talk", time to actually "walk the walk".

Sadly, I really think that the two in control don't care one jot if we never make the top flight.

Sad state of affairs.
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To be fair Burnley were in the premier league at the time when they bought Chris Wood.

Bayliss, Potts and Riis are others for me who cost over 1.3 mil. Potts may have been 1.2.

The main issue is lack of a plan. Why did we spend 1.6 million on Bayliss when we could have Moore for roughly the same price the season before. The decision making above is shambolic at best. Hemmings is meant to be an astute business man yet we have wasted millions on crocks and shit league 1/2 players when we could have just bought in two/three quality players to get us promoted.
 
simonnisbet said:
When you’re worth over a billion at that age why do you settle on simply floating or existing when you could have a crack at glory? He is a passionate North ender, I have no doubt about that but what he is trying to achieve on the cheap is just strange! Does he think he will live forever or maybe die content with what we have obtained under his reign? Its a strange one!
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Good points. I think it's because he has a very positive outlook on life (read his rare interviews) and doesn't seem to realise that he won't be here in the not too distant future. In other words, he's just as careful with his money as he was when he started. But I agree, it doesn't make sense really.
 
JohnPNE said:
To be fair Burnley were in the premier league at the time when they bought Chris Wood.

Bayliss, Potts and Riis are others for me who cost over 1.3 mil. Potts may have been 1.2.

The main issue is lack of a plan. Why did we spend 1.6 million on Bayliss when we could have Moore for roughly the same price the season before. The decision making above is shambolic at best. Hemmings is meant to be an astute business man yet we have wasted millions on crocks and shit league 1/2 players when we could have just bought in two/three quality players to get us promoted.
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Riis was quoted at the Denmark end as being £1.2m.

Bayliss a similar amount of £1.2m. I presume there are Add Ons here which look, to date, unlikely to be met.

Potts was possibly £1 4m.
 
HemmingsHappyClapper said:
I have recently been contemplating Trevor Hemmings ownership of the club, and the absolute lack of any form of ambition, and the way we are just stagnating.

It made me think, my dad has never seen North End in the top division, and obviously neither have I. This has happened while all our neighbours have been there. And countless similar sized and smaller clubs across the country.

I then found this article below highlighting how we are possibly the biggest club to have never been in the Premier League. To me this highlights the awful job done by successive chairmen and owners.


For the Hemming ownership is now farcical, he doesn’t benefit from owning us, and we don’t benefit from him owning us and keeping us afloat treading water.

anyone can blindly support hemmings and ridsdale simply because we aren’t going bust is baffling.

I do not want my dad and myself to never see North end get promoted in our lifetimes. And unfortunately with Hemmings and Ridsdale in charge, that won’t change any time soon.

as you can tell, I’m on a bit off a downer about North End currently, but is anyone in the same boat as me?
P.s. Trev, sell up and find us someone with ambition
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Our BIGGEST problem is us thinking we are a big club, not anymore, we are an average sized club, gone are the day's PNE is a family club, trev and riddler have turned it in to a proper bang average business.
 
Realistic said:
Good points. I think it's because he has a very positive outlook on life (read his rare interviews) and doesn't seem to realise that he won't be here in the not too distant future. In other words, he's just as careful with his money as he was when he started. But I agree, it doesn't make sense really.
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Exactly.
 
We are the definition of "perennial also-rans" and under Hemmings and Ridsdale we firmly intend living up to that reputation seemingly forever.

When the inevitable calls do come for "Frankie Out" next year, I hope some real vitriol is saved to get the advisor out the door too.

The games moved on, yet we sit rooted in the past. Our new Head Coach "management structure" and hiring Beet and his laptop and calling it an "recruitment department" is fooling no one.

We need a complete lobotomy in terms of the club's management and vision.
 
Dreyfuss said:
We are the definition of "perennial also-rans" and under Hemmings and Ridsdale we firmly intend living up to that reputation seemingly forever.

When the inevitable calls do come for "Frankie Out" next year, I hope some real vitriol is saved to get the advisor out the door too.

The games moved on, yet we sit rooted in the past. Our new Head Coach "management structure" and hiring Beet and his laptop and calling it an "recruitment department" is fooling no one.

We need a complete lobotomy in terms of the club's management and vision.
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Absolutely this. Next year Frankie might need to go, but we need to make sure Ridsdale isn’t that far behind him. Absolute football dinosaur
 
Thracia said:


Kieran Maguire summarises the Brentford Model as above.

And it's obviously true that - compared to us - they sign way better talent. Not just "identify" - they sign it.

And they pay better wages - but they don't spend a lot more than us on wages in total, and they employ a lot more players and coaching staff for their money (between 80 and 100, while we stick to around 70-80).

They don't blow us away on turnover either - although in the last 2 years they've seen some modest growth, while we've seen modest decline (even pre-Covid).

Cup runs and getting on the telly don't seem to do them any harm.

Can't help feeling we're spending inflated wages compared to the numbers and quality in our squad and staff.

I think part of this is how we squandered the first 2 seasons after promotion "balancing the books" - our wages precisely matched turnover for both of Grayson's seasons, while Brentford's wages always exceeded their turnover from promotion onwards - as if they were planning for something more than just minimising the owner's financial contribution.

More recently, Brentford's squad book value has risen from £9m in 2017 to £32m last year - while ours rose from £1.7m to £5.6m.

Brentford have finished above us every season bar one since promotion, and with better goal difference too (+14, +37 and +44 over us in the last 3 seasons).

This huge quality gap despite similar resources can only be down to poor management.

Player trading is central to Brentford's whole strategy - it's how they overcome the limitations of their traditional income streams, which (like ours) aren't going to change.

They have clearly been excellent when it comes to player trading - whereas we seem to be allergic to paying competitive transfer fees, and a very soft touch for handing out extensions to crocks and fringe players, and 2-year deals to players with zero resale value.

Brentford responded to losing the play-off final last year by investing a club record fee in Ivan Toney and going straight back to Wembley again.

We responded to tumbling meekly out of 6th place last year by falling apart on and off the field this season.

They're now looking forward to the Premier League, while we're looking forward to 2 more years of hoofing it up to Ched Evans.
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Just awesome posting this. We did a lite version a few years back and got some serious players in. The 'rafferty' model currently adopted is mind boggling. The contract extensions are madness.
 
Thracia said:


And they pay better wages - but they don't spend a lot more than us on wages in total

Can't help feeling we're spending inflated wages compared to the numbers and quality in our squad and staff.

Player trading is central to Brentford's whole strategy - it's how they overcome the limitations of their traditional income streams, which (like ours) aren't going to change.

They have clearly been excellent when it comes to player trading - whereas we seem to be allergic to paying competitive transfer fees, and a very soft touch for handing out extensions to crocks and fringe players, and 2-year deals to players with zero resale value.

Brentford responded to losing the play-off final last year by investing a club record fee in Ivan Toney and going straight back to Wembley again.

They're now looking forward to the Premier League, while we're looking forward to 2 more years of hoofing it up to Ched Evans.
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Some interesting points there. Surprised their wage bill isn't at least double ours. They must have some highly paid players so must be offset with low paid players who are also regular starters.

They have been very successful with transfers but it needs a combination of a good coach and sound financial planning (we see plenty of clubs like Derby and Stoke who likely outspend Brentford but aren't so savvy with their selection of the coach and financial planning).
 
JohnPNE said:
Signing Bayliss for 1.6 million when we could have got Moore for the same amount.
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I wouldn't blast North End for that. He could have turned into a 10m player but didn't (maybe the player's fault, maybe Alex's fault, who knows?) But that signing was in the Brentford model.
 
pnenycx said:
I wouldn't blast North End for that. He could have turned into a 10m player but didn't (maybe the player's fault, maybe Alex's fault, who knows?) But that signing was in the Brentford model.
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Too right I will blast the club for that. We needed a striker and refused to sanction about the same amount for Moore the season before yet we bought a central midfielder - a position we had a lot of quality for anyway.
 
Signing Bayliss was potentially a good idea, but then never playing him made it a lot more pointless- we didn't need to invest in midfield.
 
Trev Ridders if your reading?
 

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