Brent talks to the BBC

[Quizmike]

Why was FPC a members only place anyway? Surely that impacted on it's bar take?

 

[IJN]

It was very cliquey for many a year.

 

[TinTin]

After reading these 3 pages, thank God for "The amazing Brit" !!

Keep the Faith :scarf:

 

[andyr1963]

I'm not too sure about the statement of, pay the players more and they will be better.

It means pay more wages, get in better players, not making the existing ones play better.

He didn't say where the extra money is going to come from.

It was Simon Kuper who said it, not JB

http://www.abeautifulnumbersgame.com/2010/04/explaining-regression-through-enhanced.html provides a bit of math behind Kruper's words.

Essentially, they plotted league position against play payroll (actually the logarythm of the payroll as a multiple of the average payroll in league - but bottom line - player payroll - not transfer fees, or any other expenses associated with a club)

Bottom line - while some clubs do a little better with their money than other clubs - the higher the payroll the higher the league position.

Lots of clubs, lots of players, lots of competition, and you get what economists call a "efficient market." Which means better players get paid more. You want a player to join your club, you must pay them as much (hopefully not more) than other clubs are prepared to pay them.

Of course, clubs make poor decisions, get lucky with a player who improves rapidly, get bad breaks with injures or off-field problems, but, at the end of the day, when you have 92 clubs with squads of 24-30 players, it all averages out.

When we were in the championship, we paid more in wages, had better players and performed better. But, we got paid more than we could afford (probably a great inside story of why and who during Holloway's tenure) and then, when the money ran out, the *%#! hit the fan and everything fell apart. That is what "unsustainable" means.

Over recent years our player payroll has been hammered because of the need (legal requirement) to pay off the debts accrued before the implosion. A vicious cycle of less payroll, poorer players, relegations and less revenue, and back to less payroll.

While we are still paying off debts, we are better off than three seasons ago and our player payroll has (I assume) been rising. Less debts, more payroll, better players, better results, promotion fights not relation fights, and promotion will follow (this season dear god.)

Provided Brent balances ambition growth in player payroll with revenue, we move forward sustainably. Not as fast as we would like, but steadily. Of course, if he were a billionaire, he could throw money at the club, debt disappears, payroll gets subsidized and rises much faster, better players come in, we have better results, more fans, more revenue, better players, and we move up the league faster.

Adams now has a payroll budget for the season. Subtract the salaries of players already under contract and the biggest decisions of the year are now being made before the first game, before pre-season training, before the first signing. His decision of how many players will he put on payroll will lead to a range of possible salaries for Lewi's replacement, for a Hourihane-level midfielder, and others. Certain players we cannot afford, certain players will eat up budget and warm the bench "just in case" Everything that happens this season will flow from the decisions he makes over the coming weeks. Get fewer players at higher wages and keep them fit and all will be well (example - Ainsworth who either did a terrific job at Wycombe last season or got lucky with injuries). Over-commit the budget and he will have less less flexibility through loans.

I thought we were in the "silly season" How does a considered, reasoned post like this fit in? :greensmile:

 

[Womble]

I note Tin Tin used the word 'amazing' and Womble used the same word just after.

Other than that, no one said anything was 'amazing'.

It's amazing how many times this happens on the Internet.

I am truly amazed!

I have edited my post accordingly O Wise One

 

[IJN]

How very strange. One might almost say 'weird'.

 

[Mark Colling]

After all the talk of sustainability and loong term thinking, the lazy BBC monkey ends with "For Plymouth Argyle fans there is less than two months to wait before they can see whether this approach bears any more fruit."

 

[Josh Pope]

If you want a Far Post Club then you'll have to build it yourself, but you're looking at over £20,000 to get it up and running. Not that I'm quite sure why a place to get p*ssed is anyone's main priority.

Home Park is a state at the moment, went up there the other day and the area around the coub shop and the car park is digusting. A shame as you have a very well put together Life Centre which goes well with Central Park and then the old, grotty and dirty Home Park that desperately needs a facelift but a facelift that is not going to happen anytime soon.

No wonder we did the managerial interviews in Bristol.

 

[Emeraldinho]

Zackly. Its a bleddy disgrace.

 

[crownhill pilgrim]

Indeed, and the idea that we're relaying on (what is I presume) voluntary work from college kids and trust contributions to clean it up, is embarrassing beyond belief.

 

[Ollieargyle9]

Brent talks about vision and an approach to recruitment that he believes will allow Argyle to catch up with 21st centuary through innovation that should hopefully allow a "smaller club" like ourselves to compete and what do we start arguing about? The Far Post Club, I've heard about it on here but as far as I'm aware its a relic of yesteryear that hasn't been used in years or has been left to rot for years, either way it's the past not the future, football has moved on.

If something like this was going to be included in a wider development then maybe it would have a place in Argyle's future but rennovating an old pub is hardly forward thinking is it? Even if it was, it's hardly a huge issue in the grand scheme of things.

The wider HHP development was the issue, that was what was going to allow Argyle to progress. Sadly the idea appears to have died a death. With that now gone the best way forward has been identified and it's through the playing side and through a forward thinking "club building" manager who can re-connect our fanbase with the club again.

 

[IJN]

Indeed, and the idea that we're relaying on (what is I presume) voluntary work from college kids and trust contributions to clean it up, is embarrassing beyond belief.

We are where we are.

I'd much rather volunteers help out than we spend our 'self sustaining' money of stuff such as this.

Almost every (if not all) 4th tier club depends on initiatives such as this, from manning the shops, to cooking the food to cutting the grass. It's what clubs have to do this day.

Gone are the days (for a while at least) where we can be so blasé to the offers of help.

Tough but a fact of life in this league and most of the next I think.

 

[Josh Pope]

Ian is right sadly, there's no money to do such things. Sort of cementing us as a half decent Division 4 football club, ahh.

 

[crownhill pilgrim]

Fair point. Sad but true, I guess. Shows how far we have to go to complete with the likes of Sheff Weds, Wolves etc.

 

[IJN]

Yep, a massive gap, and getting wider probably.

I would love us to be bought by a multi millionaire who would make all of this seem like a distant dream, I'd love us to be bale to BUY players for £millions as well. I'd love us to have a brand new Grandstand and have a capacity of 25,000 (which wouldn't make sense but I'd still love it). Sadly, that's not what we have, and for a variety of reasons, probably never will have.

It's still the club we love though and most of us will stick through it thick and thin.