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Training ground update

Training ground update

billymac said:
This just smacks of Hemmings adoration from someone who can see NO wrong in anything TH does. The fans through the fantastic support JK gathered to help get the planning decision overturned have been smacked right in the face, treated with contempt and USED by TH, no amount of your garbled sycophantic drivel can disprove this.

Why have the temerity to say that the training ground land was to be "gifted" to the club then sell it to the club at "market price" £1.5m (who established the going rate) and that your ambition was to reach the prem asap????

You keep saying the club is run in a prudent way (sell your best players and spend nowt) but with a worth of over £1.2bn his contribution is less than 0.05% of his wealth, it TH wanted to sort the training complex HE COULD and easily, but you along with the other hand wringers tell us all to just hold on a wee bit longer, how long is this fuckin piece of string we are being told to hold on too????

I am sure that if a new stable block was needed, a new golden wheelbarrow for shovelling shit was required, the very best in horse feed and jockeys salaries there would be NO delay.
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I get your frustration. I would love to see TH inject more and I think he's making a mistake not backing AN a bit more.

The Club's communication on this issue has indeed been pathetic at best. A credible plan should be put forward, but I suspect they are scared to say how long they are really planning on because of outrage, rather than because they don't intend to follow through.
 
billymac said:
This just smacks of Hemmings adoration from someone who can see NO wrong in anything TH does. The fans through the fantastic support JK gathered to help get the planning decision overturned have been smacked right in the face, treated with contempt and USED by TH, no amount of your garbled sycophantic drivel can disprove this.

Why have the temerity to say that the training ground land was to be "gifted" to the club then sell it to the club at "market price" £1.5m (who established the going rate) and that your ambition was to reach the prem asap????

You keep saying the club is run in a prudent way (sell your best players and spend nowt) but with a worth of over £1.2bn his contribution is less than 0.05% of his wealth, it TH wanted to sort the training complex HE COULD and easily, but you along with the other hand wringers tell us all to just hold on a wee bit longer, how long is this fuckin piece of string we are being told to hold on too????

I am sure that if a new stable block was needed, a new golden wheelbarrow for shovelling shit was required, the very best in horse feed and jockeys salaries there would be NO delay.
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But who do you think has put the £1.5 million into the club to pay for the land deal?
 
This is getting beyond ridiculous. We do not know what is, isn't, will be or won't be happening with regard the training ground.
I've said on other threads it is beyond time and unreasonable that the club have not provided a clear statement of intent, via JK, to all of us who supported the Ingol project.
I think I recall JK intimating something may be in the offing in that regard (requesting clarification? - apologies JK if memory incorrect.)
I'd support any such approach, presumably with the backing of every person who supported the application.
Until such a statement is received, whatever our views, our debate is about as useful as knitting fog.
We need, and I'd suggest are more than entitled to, a clear statement of facts and intent.
 
Keeper1 said:
This is getting beyond ridiculous. We do not know what is, isn't, will be or won't be happening with regard the training ground.
I've said on other threads it is beyond time and unreasonable that the club have not provided a clear statement of intent, via JK, to all of us who supported the Ingol project.
I think I recall JK intimating something may be in the offing in that regard (requesting clarification? - apologies JK if memory incorrect.)
I'd support any such approach, presumably with the backing of every person who supported the application.
Until such a statement is received, whatever our views, our debate is about as useful as knitting fog.
We need, and I'd suggest are more than entitled to, a clear statement of facts and intent.
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Great post. The approach should show we are not stupid and understand things take time, face challenges and require a stable business plan, but we would like to know what the overall plan really is.
 
Chartley said:
Great post. The approach should show we are not stupid and understand things take time, face challenges and require a stable business plan, but we would like to know what the overall plan really is.
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Cheers Chartley, think all of us, irrespective of views, just need the common decency of clarification.
 
Chartley said:
Honestly I think this will eventually occur and we should just be patient. Tin hat and riot shield going on now.

My view:

1. The club has an asset worth 1.5 million pounds. Surely we will make use of it.
2. We have a history of buying cheap young players and then selling them on at a profit. We are all convinced that a decent training facility would help us to develop players and therefore get more money for them when we sell them. Do we seriously think the Club has not thought of this?
3. We believe some players may be put off by Springies, so we end up with less players to choose from. Do we seriously think the Club has not thought of this?

So, to those who are rightly frustrated by the delay, I urge patience. The Club, with the financial support of Uncle Trev, are operating a financially prudent policy. If we are right and that the training ground is a cheaper way to develop players, then I have no doubt they will get it sorted, even if it takes longer than we would like.

I'll get my coat.
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Worth noting the point that the club themselves stated all the reasons why the club needed this facility to help us achieve Premier League football.

It was highlighted that when attracting the young players we need to develop to compete Springfields just doesn’t cut it.

The fact we are having to have this discussion two years on shows the contempt that the owner has for the supporters on this issue.

JK should not need to put out a statement or a letter to the club, the club and owner should start being more transparent and stop trying to take us for fools.

I thought it was tremendous the solidarity on show when the forum and the fans united behind the appeal. The Lancahshire Post took a huge risk and did so too.

It would be a real shame if it takes JK putting something out to spark a response from the owner. However I’d fully back such action.
 
A new training facility really is imperative
Don't think some on here realise how much the modern day footballer takes into account things outside just game time nowadays... training ground facilities, Club liason managers and generally anything they need to make their lives easier.. Right or wrong that's just the way it is now
And let's be honest Springfield hasn't got a
great deal of attractiveness to it!
TH really needs to move on this if we have any ambitions of attracting top top talent to the club... Although part of that process means investing funds in the team too... Oh well ?‍♂️
 
I've just heard that the young pros are still training with the youth team because Springfields isn't big enough.

Surely that can't be good for their progress.

The penny has now dropped on why this is so important!!!
 
Chip Barm said:
Had this been an announcement for a development that went wrong ( the Fanzone) we couldn't complain but the nature of the fans involvement makes this a different case

There are many aspects of this debacle where the fans have every right to be livid with Trevor Hemmings.

Comments by John Kay (at the forum and in the paper) and more recently by Peter Ridsdale on various emails I have seen are actually insulting to our intelligence.

This forum and our fan base made a concerted effort to firstly indicate to the club and owner a appeal would be backed publicly and secondarily to ensure the planning committee came out in force to back the appeal at a public ticketed hearing which was unheard of in Preston.

Correspondence prior to and at this publicly held meeting clearly indicated he training facility would be funded by the owner who would then sell housing land to reclaim this money. There was assurances that it would be built first but without the whole plans being accepted wouldn’t be built as the owner wouldn’t fund it otherwise.

Planning consent was gained despite very organised campaign against it.

Since then we have been told or it’s been implied that:

Newts caused a delay and couldn’t be moved until the spring.

It was mentioned we could start the pitches but not the building.

The ground is softer than expected.

Issues with access routes.

Told at a forum that “What would you prefer ten million on a player or ten million on the team”

The club have acquired the training ground land as an “asset!”

All that aside this new line being peddled by the club that “it was clear the housing would need to be sold first”

Is misleading at best or a blatant lie at worst.

So back to my original point the fans involvement in gaining this permission and taking on the residents, the council and the contempt to the fans when we question the lack of progress is disgraceful.

Hemmings is mistrusted by many in Preston with his motives for this development and sadly at the moment this mistrust is warranted.

Two years on,JK and every single person who signed that petition are entitled to an apology and explanation by the club.
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Yep. I’m an Hemmings in man, on balance, but that doesn’t exempt me from criticising him over this.

I played my part in getting a Spanking new , state of the art, training ground for the club, as per that video we all watched, paid for out of what I assumed was part of his profit on selling a wasting asset that the fans helped him realise. I actually thought I was doing it as a “thank you” to Hemmings for what he has done for the club. I admit felling very let down on this matter.

That and having my shares compulsory purchased, are my two main gripes against our owner.

On balance though, unless and until I see a better alternative, I’m Hemmings In.
 
Thracia said:
Exactly.

TH has "gifted" the club the training ground land in the same way that the club has "gifted" TH the Hugill, Robinson and Cunningham money.
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There's probably more than an element of truth in this; I do not for one minute be seen to defend TH on the training ground issue, but he's a business man, and in his eyes he makes decisions that seem sensible from a business point of view, that may be at odds with statements he's made in the past about pushing the club forward towards the premier league. I have a inclining that he has one eye on the on cash flow and the money coming in from the sale of players in particular. We have an issue when looking to spend the money coming in from transfers, in that if we were to look to buy players for much more than £2M, we'd have a problem meeting the salary demands of the player (yes I know we could buy more players around this value, I don't know why the club aren't doing this). My understanding is that TH is investing the money he's putting into the club each year as share capital not loans, so he isn't able to recall loans to offset any tax bill we could end up with as a result of unspent transfer income and with some of the sums involved even taking a payment holiday in a tax year @£6M may not be enough to offset the income for tax purposes. So he may be looking to spend money on the training ground at specific times that limits the clubs tax liabilities.

As I said at the start of this post I'm not trying to make excuses for the owner, just trying to come up with a rational reason for why he would want to delay investment in the training ground from a business perspective.
 
PNETOWER1970 said:
In fairness what will a better training ground give us?

The pitches at Springfields are immaculate.

Don't understand what the big deal is!
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Loads of scope, AND space at Springies which I do not see why this hasn't been developed into something sensational anyway. The pitches are beautiful as you say.
 
PNETOWER1970 said:
I've just heard that the young pros are still training with the youth team because Springfields isn't big enough.

Surely that can't be good for their progress.

The penny has now dropped on why this is so important!!!
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Given that we have a first team squad of around 30 it's plausible. If this is the case for Simpson then it means that he'll have even less chance of making the grade with us and his chances look slim so far. O'Reilly and Baxter might be given the relevant time with the club to develop over the next couple of years but the likes of Ethan Walker might decide his future would be better elsewhere if he's playing with the first team one night and then back with the kids the next morning.
 
Chip Barm, I need to ask you a question regarding your post

"All that aside this new line being peddled by the club that “it was clear the housing would need to be sold first” "

Can you please confirm that this point has been stated by the club, not just claimed in the forum ?

I haven't heard this point (from the club) before and it wasn't factored into my earlier post.

This is a critical point.

In my view, it has a major bearing on how the forum should respond.

My view on the 1.5m land purchase:
The land/asset went in to the club by one 'door' and the money to pay for it went in to the club by another 'door'. It's a gift. Simple.
 
TH was expecting the complex to be 10 to 12M, was turned off when he found out it was going to be 14 to 16M. Still at a standstill (ITK)
 
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