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

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

scortonwhite said:
The killer statement is:

"Hemmings was keen to advise that whilst stadium infrastructure costs are not part of FFP, it all comes from one budget, so any spending on areas such as the Town End roof or Floodlights has to be balanced against strengthening the team."

This makes it crystal clear that Hemmings is only willing or allowed to put a set amount of money into the club each year. He is not prepared to invest outside FFP eg in the academy or completion of the Invincibles stand to make the club more attractive to potential investors. He also says there has been no interest in the club since Kercher, but several clubs have been sold around the country in the last few seasons. There are buyers out there but it seems Hemmings cannot be bothered to get off his backside and try to make something happen.

I don't understand it. If he gave the club away he would save £30 million + over the next 3 years.

It is now crystal clear to me that PNE has no hope of progression with Hemmings in control. Get him to sell and Ridsdale will no doubt be gone under new owners.

The big problem is the owner, who doesn't even have the sense to appoint a younger and more dynamic person with modern business acumen to run the club instead of Ridsdale.
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Edited, food for thought?
 
Trouble is our strap line is “Time for Action”.

In this meeting, Hemmings has categorically confirmed there will be no action from the club and there will be no investment in any of the areas of concern raised.

So that leaves us campaigners having to take action other we’ll look a bit soft. So the next steps need to be discussed and decided upon, in my opinion.
 
In regard to the academy any talk of a dome is very misleading. Ridsdale simply doesn't believe in youth football & Hemmings prefers spending as little as possible. That's the bottom line.

Back in 2020, Ridsdale wrote:

“We have taken a strategic decision not to attempt to move from Category Three to Category Two for two reasons. From a cost point of view the increased mandatory spend level including the cost of an Under 23 team is not insignificant and would merely reduce the amount that we have to spend on the first team."

"In addition, it is our view that ‘Under 23’ league football is far removed from the challenges that ‘men’s football’ brings with it and we would much prefer to see those U18s that we think stand a chance, going either straight into our first team squad or going out on loan to lower league clubs."

It's been a "strategic decision" ever since Westley was hiring plasterers and brickies for the first team. A so called strategy that has led to 10+ years of absolutely stagnant youth development at Deepdale.

In an alternative universe the council could hand North End a dome for free... but that wouldn't satisfy Peter & Craig. Cos running a Cat 2 academy costs more than what they think it's worth. So they wouldn't be interested.

We could form a U-23 team or B-team overnight without a dome and without Cat 2 status. We simply choose not to. And call it a strategy.
 
Youth development; Crucial.

JK said:
Craig Hemmings confirmed that he believes investing in player development is crucial for the club's future success. While there had been efforts to improve facilities, such as investing in Springfields, he acknowledged that the club had not yet achieved the desired success in bringing through youth players into the first team. Hemmings also discussed ongoing discussions with the local council and the EFL to improve the club's academy standing, although rules about having a dome in the EFL's academy rules had made progress difficult.
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But not actually crucial enough to invest in. Blah blah blah FFP or summat.

JK said:
...although he also mentioned that any investments in stadium maintenance would have to be carefully considered alongside player signings due to the constraints of Financial Fair Play (FFP).

Hemmings was keen to advise that whilst stadium infrastructure costs are not part of FFP, it all comes from one budget, so any spending on areas such as the Town End roof or Floodlights has to be balanced against strengthening the team.
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Fuck off.
 
raefil said:
One thing I took from that, Our billionaire owners have a set a limit of how much theyre willing to pump into the club, Its their money, their prerogative, and that limit has the square root of fuck all to do FFP.
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The figure put into the club by 'the family' was given as £75 million.

Not had any chance to check how accurate that is.
 
Gordon Bennett said:
There can be positive changes made to youth structure and player trading, CH seems aware of that, but it will likely take years to see the benefit of it.
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Don't disagree with anything you said, but I would be ok with that fact if they actually tried to invest in an academy.

I fully expect any success from youth structure to take a while, what I'm not expecting to take this long is to have sense of plan or any actions to implement the plan. How long have we been going on about a dome with absolutely nothing to show for it?
 
Thracia said:
Ridsdale is obviously a non-starter, while Ben Rhodes doesn't even tick the EFL Regulation 128 box on who must attend these meetings from the club side, since club secretary is not a "senior executive" position.
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This point was raised which we highlighted was a contradiction to the holding statement Craig put out.

One other thing, Craig Hemmings said that he never 'puts his name to anything' and that any statements with his name have been written by him.
 
Thracia said:
Craig's the "main man" only once the money has arrived at Deepdale: "Hemmings clarified that he is solely responsible for signing off on all key financial decisions, including transfers, departmental budgets, and the general running of the club."

But the annual budget itself is decided in the IoM.

Nothing has changed regarding Revitt - no one has said whether she was brought up at the meeting.
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The budget is decided by the trust, which owns the football club.


.
 
Gordon Bennett said:
There can be positive changes made to youth structure.
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It came across to me that Craig has been holding back on this due to differing views on the board.

We actively have encouraged him not to take any shit and to push ahead, because everyone can see it is what needs to happen.
 
When I read the first section which finished with Craig criticizing Peter for the statement he made he made to the press regarding spending 4 hours persuading lowe to stay I though here we go. Unfortunately, the rest of it was very disappointing just more of the same. All credit to JK and all those who attended but I would suggest it’s time to move on to the next phase.
 
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