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Birmingham already have bigger commercial deals with Nike, Delta and Undefeated than most Championship clubs, there's an Amazon Prime doc about them which is going to draw in further sponsorship and the minority shareholder is Tom Brady who can pull in all kinds of money. Wagner himself fronts a $10 billion investment fund and the number one thing he's charged with is making sure that all the group's investments in the wider area help cover any P&S rules both in the Champ and PL.
Next year's Championship is going to be very hard work indeed for everyone not in receipt of parachute payments.
The folks back home in Chickenchoke Missouri just love little ol' Berm-in-Ham.
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Sky Sports Breaking News on 15:19 - Apr 29 with 3703 views
Sky Sports Breaking News on 15:07 - Apr 29 by SimplyNico
The Wrexham project is incredibly well run. I have been working with someone who has been involved in it at a very senior level. They are not mucking about with some tinpot two person "sports consultancy". They apparently had 16 fulltime New York based sports consultants working on the project last year. They have a new ground planned (which will go through on the nod), and the Premier League is the target.
Reynolds and McElhenney also have a tremendous amount of personal integrity. There has been, and there is going to be, a lot of people who fall by the wayside because they are not good enough to step up, and they look after them. They are stepchanging as they go, replacing the Exec team and the players with people that can do the job.
We are miles away from that. In fact, we are light years away.
Sky Sports Breaking News on 13:45 - Apr 29 by Hunterhoop
Meant to post it this earlier today but got distracted. The conversation has moved on (and Dave is completely right). However, still going to go ahead and post as it’s already typed..
A lot of us, who perhaps know a little, and infer more from it, are very aware Cifuentes is no angel. He is ambitious. His agent contacted a few clubs last summer (they weren’t interested in him), and I have no doubt he gave the green light on the Sun article about the relationship breakdown with Nourry, and i think it’s highly likely his agent was talking to WBA.
But these types of conversations are had by agents and players (under contract) all the time in the game. It is silly to get angry or upset about it. We did exactly the same thing when bringing him in from Hammarby IF.
Also, it’s my view that Cifuentes has done a good job 2 years running keeping us up with the cards he was dealt (firstly taking over Ainsworth’s mess, secondly getting survival out of this squad and some poor recruitment last summer). I think he has shown he is capable at this level, potentially someone who could improve and improve us to the next level.
Our CEO/DOF has not displayed he is competent or to be trusted yet. He has lied about his background and experience. This is provable. He has gone hot and heavy on data led recruitment, and it’s hardly been a success so far. His comms strategy is startlingly arrogant/naive (delete as you see fit). He continues to employ a friend in the role responsible for our fitness and conditioning (“Performance”), who is based permanently in Dubai and working for other sports outfits, whilst we have had a dreadful time of injuries, specifically soft tissue injuries the experts say are entirely avoidable with the right conditioning. All the while he wouldn’t allow a long serving employee (manager level) work from home FT forcing them to quit. Supposedly he wanted to sack Cifuentes back in November but was prevented by Ruben. Given results took off afterwards, it’s safe to conclude that decision kept us up. I have also heard from a couple of people now that he hired a PR consultant to work directly for him, not the media team, from back then to help manage Cifuentes’ exit. His own football rumours website, which he is still listed as the editor of, posted rumours about Cifuentes getting sacked and us hiring Gregory Vignal. He hasn’t allowed any access to Cifuentes outside of the league’s required channels. The fans forum was PR manipulation announcing stuff agreed weeks/months prior. The Fans Q&A has disappeared into thin air. We’re now letting away fans back in the School Lower when we said that wasn’t the plan. We’re meant to managing costs tightly and yet we have a bloated “Performance” department and a Head of Methodology (with no idea what they are accountable for). In the closed doors session with some fans who lead fan groups or social media channels, he deliberately lied to them about something - implying there was no way something would happen, which within a week had happened. It was a good thing but you can only conclude that was a deliberate lie to see if anyone leaked it. He has also lied to someone I know who has met him in a business capacity.
There’s more too but it can’t be said/posted/alluded to.
All that being understood, part of me feels for Cifuentes. I would be looking at other opportunities in the same situation. It’s not an environment conducive to success for Cifuentes or the club.
Everything points to the bloke being a chancer. A smart, well educated chancer, but a chancer nonetheless. 3.5 years ago he was running an advisory business in the social media space, FFS. I don’t like this type of character normally, but much less so when they are in a position of leadership. And it’s far worse when it’s the role leading your football club!
I think he makes decisions for his best interests, not the interests of the football club. And even if/when he does the latter, I have little confidence he will make the right decision because he is unqualified for the role. And I don’t trust him.
It’s just not a he said/she said scenario where they are both as bad as each other…
Back to Dave’s point, it’s ultimately on the Board, as ever, for giving the go ahead to appoint him and give him both roles. However, it is something the Board could easily resolve in the summer.
[Post edited 29 Apr 14:42]
"Everything points to the bloke being a chancer. A smart, well educated chancer, but a chancer nonetheless. 3.5 years ago he was running an advisory business in the social media space, FFS. I don’t like this type of character normally, but much less so when they are in a position of leadership. And it’s far worse when it’s the role leading your football club!"
I've never met the man so can't speak from personal experience.
But I always think a good indication of a CEO's competence is what their own staff say about them out of earshot.
Without naming names has anyone heard what the overall morale of the staff is like and how they feel about Nourry?
And I'm referring to the overall mood/consensus, not individual opinions one way or the other.
[Post edited 29 Apr 15:44]
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Sky Sports Breaking News on 15:31 - Apr 29 with 3565 views
Sky Sports Breaking News on 15:03 - Apr 29 by slmrstid
How's Hammarby's current manager doing? Maybe if he's any good after Marti goes we can pinch him, then the same after etc, and in effect treat Hammarby as our de facto recruiters.
Very good, only 37 and son of a long term Swedish league manager.
Swansea wanted to speak to him a few days ago and were told to fck off.
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Sky Sports Breaking News on 15:42 - Apr 29 with 3422 views
Sky Sports Breaking News on 15:03 - Apr 29 by slmrstid
How's Hammarby's current manager doing? Maybe if he's any good after Marti goes we can pinch him, then the same after etc, and in effect treat Hammarby as our de facto recruiters.
Hammary finished second in the league last season and third after six games this season:
I had been thinking recently that we have heard very little about what the plan is for our stadium, be that refurbishment, a laws of physics defying subterranean or hover-stadium or a move to a totally new site (probably on Lundy Island, knowing us ).
I have zero inside knowledge and this is total speculation but, given the above and some other factors discussed here: - The CEO/DoF fudge - Poor communications from pretty much the whole board - Project Big Ben it strikes me that the owners are focused on merely keeping the club ticking over while they seek a buyer, rather than on trying to help us make meaningful progress.
I might be completely wrong, but that's my suspicion.
Even if the owners' focus is "just" on maintaining the status quo, though, I still want to thank them wholeheartedly, because even that is not easy when the league is so competitive and when it costs them a cool £2m a month just to keep us the club and its infrastructure operational.
It *is* frustrating, though, to experience this long wait for change and a proper strategy for the future while other clubs hatch and roll out ambitious plans to overtake us. Sigh
"Things had started becoming increasingly desperate at Loftus Road but QPR have been handed a massive lifeline and the place has absolutely erupted. it's carnage. It's bedlam. It's 1-1."
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Sky Sports Breaking News on 16:46 - Apr 29 with 2955 views
Sky Sports Breaking News on 14:12 - Apr 29 by KensalT
Stansfield had already proven he could do it for them in the Championship so it wasn't that much of a risk.
Knighthead have very big ambitions for Birmingham.
TK1 is right to compare them to Man City, at least in terms of what they want. But they certainly have a lot further to go than City had to.
Tom Wagner is pointing at Villa's recent success and saying that should be us.
They have their sights on a new campus with a 60,000 seat stadium and a state of the art training centre similar to what Man City have done in Manchester.
They're looking to redevelop a run down part of the second biggest city in the country. Their proposed new ground is not far from the airport and will be close to the HS2 link (if it ever gets built!)
There's a lot of risk involved and a lot could go wrong but they have a lot more potential than Wrexham.
"The project, which is expected to set Knighthead back towards £3bn, is set to create over 8,000 jobs and substantially boost the local economy and the owners of Blues have been in regular talks with the Government about their plans for the east of the city."
I'm sure Wagner's plans for Brum are very impressive and am in absolutely no position to judge whether these things are feasible or not.
But I did see one little issue which caused an eyebrow to raise ever so slightly:
Birmingham FC chairman proposes £20m tunnel for new stadium
I personally cannot see how anyone could ever build a 1 1/2 miles tunnel under Birmingham for £20m (or anything like it).
On the bright side however, if it should prove unfeasible, then I have a bridge I could sell him to do the job instead....
He's looking for government funding so he's clearly not daft enough to pay that himself!
Details in the article are a bit confusing. One minute it's talking about connecting to HS2, the next it's talking about a connection to New Street station.
HS2 will be going to a new station at Curzon Street, not New Street:
Sky Sports Breaking News on 15:17 - Apr 29 by GaryHaddock
How are they getting round the P&S rules though?
They are printing money. Have you seen the most recent accounts? Whilst there is a £2m loss, turnover is up 155% from TV (Welcome to Wrexham) and sponsorship. No PSR issues there.
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Sky Sports Breaking News on 17:08 - Apr 29 with 2731 views
Takes on everything going re:Marti here. Dave Mc knows a lot more about how this stuff gets out than we do, and is pretty clear who he thinks benefits from these links. Increasingly feels like this is Marti wanting out (for some fair reasons) more than anything else to me.
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Sky Sports Breaking News on 18:14 - Apr 29 with 2281 views
It’s my understanding we have been approached by at least a couple of groups to buy the club. One was certainly an American group. I don’t really understand what the focus is of the board. They don’t seem to be at games that often. They don’t seem to have any desire to get to the Premier League. They don’t want to do anything to our ground. Our ground has not had anything major done to it in about 40 years. Look at virtually every club in the top 2 divisions. They have all had a new ground or some major redevelopment. I am literally still going to the same seat in the Loft that I had when it was added. It really is embarrassing and shows such little ambition of the club. I can’t believe in my lifetime we have allowed the likes of Fulham and Brentford to go past us on every level with their stadiums and are now established PL clubs. We go into another summer with little stability and the only aspiration next season is to try and finish above the likes of Oxford, Portsmouth, Luton etc. Just so frustrating when I’ve just forked out for my 2 season tickets for next year.
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Sky Sports Breaking News (n/t) on 18:14 - Apr 29 with 2283 views
Takes on everything going re:Marti here. Dave Mc knows a lot more about how this stuff gets out than we do, and is pretty clear who he thinks benefits from these links. Increasingly feels like this is Marti wanting out (for some fair reasons) more than anything else to me.
[Post edited 29 Apr 19:16]
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Sky Sports Breaking News on 18:32 - Apr 29 with 2119 views
Sky Sports Breaking News on 12:01 - Apr 29 by daveB
The problem wasn't sacking Critchley it's why did we give him the job to start with, They were gonna go with Marti at the time but got in a mudle again and it never looked a great fit
At the time, Marti was 1st choice, but, IIRC,we couldnt/wouldn't pay the compensation to Hammarby.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)
Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky
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Sky Sports Breaking News on 18:47 - Apr 29 with 1953 views
Sky Sports Breaking News on 13:45 - Apr 29 by Hunterhoop
Meant to post it this earlier today but got distracted. The conversation has moved on (and Dave is completely right). However, still going to go ahead and post as it’s already typed..
A lot of us, who perhaps know a little, and infer more from it, are very aware Cifuentes is no angel. He is ambitious. His agent contacted a few clubs last summer (they weren’t interested in him), and I have no doubt he gave the green light on the Sun article about the relationship breakdown with Nourry, and i think it’s highly likely his agent was talking to WBA.
But these types of conversations are had by agents and players (under contract) all the time in the game. It is silly to get angry or upset about it. We did exactly the same thing when bringing him in from Hammarby IF.
Also, it’s my view that Cifuentes has done a good job 2 years running keeping us up with the cards he was dealt (firstly taking over Ainsworth’s mess, secondly getting survival out of this squad and some poor recruitment last summer). I think he has shown he is capable at this level, potentially someone who could improve and improve us to the next level.
Our CEO/DOF has not displayed he is competent or to be trusted yet. He has lied about his background and experience. This is provable. He has gone hot and heavy on data led recruitment, and it’s hardly been a success so far. His comms strategy is startlingly arrogant/naive (delete as you see fit). He continues to employ a friend in the role responsible for our fitness and conditioning (“Performance”), who is based permanently in Dubai and working for other sports outfits, whilst we have had a dreadful time of injuries, specifically soft tissue injuries the experts say are entirely avoidable with the right conditioning. All the while he wouldn’t allow a long serving employee (manager level) work from home FT forcing them to quit. Supposedly he wanted to sack Cifuentes back in November but was prevented by Ruben. Given results took off afterwards, it’s safe to conclude that decision kept us up. I have also heard from a couple of people now that he hired a PR consultant to work directly for him, not the media team, from back then to help manage Cifuentes’ exit. His own football rumours website, which he is still listed as the editor of, posted rumours about Cifuentes getting sacked and us hiring Gregory Vignal. He hasn’t allowed any access to Cifuentes outside of the league’s required channels. The fans forum was PR manipulation announcing stuff agreed weeks/months prior. The Fans Q&A has disappeared into thin air. We’re now letting away fans back in the School Lower when we said that wasn’t the plan. We’re meant to managing costs tightly and yet we have a bloated “Performance” department and a Head of Methodology (with no idea what they are accountable for). In the closed doors session with some fans who lead fan groups or social media channels, he deliberately lied to them about something - implying there was no way something would happen, which within a week had happened. It was a good thing but you can only conclude that was a deliberate lie to see if anyone leaked it. He has also lied to someone I know who has met him in a business capacity.
There’s more too but it can’t be said/posted/alluded to.
All that being understood, part of me feels for Cifuentes. I would be looking at other opportunities in the same situation. It’s not an environment conducive to success for Cifuentes or the club.
Everything points to the bloke being a chancer. A smart, well educated chancer, but a chancer nonetheless. 3.5 years ago he was running an advisory business in the social media space, FFS. I don’t like this type of character normally, but much less so when they are in a position of leadership. And it’s far worse when it’s the role leading your football club!
I think he makes decisions for his best interests, not the interests of the football club. And even if/when he does the latter, I have little confidence he will make the right decision because he is unqualified for the role. And I don’t trust him.
It’s just not a he said/she said scenario where they are both as bad as each other…
Back to Dave’s point, it’s ultimately on the Board, as ever, for giving the go ahead to appoint him and give him both roles. However, it is something the Board could easily resolve in the summer.
[Post edited 29 Apr 14:42]
Thanks for going to the effort of writing that. I feel I have a much better understanding of what’s been happening.
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Sky Sports Breaking News on 19:07 - Apr 29 with 1794 views
Takes on everything going re:Marti here. Dave Mc knows a lot more about how this stuff gets out than we do, and is pretty clear who he thinks benefits from these links. Increasingly feels like this is Marti wanting out (for some fair reasons) more than anything else to me.
I think this is really good and gives both sides of what is a complicated argument, some of the criticism of Marti on this pod is very fair imo
Would agree with the conclusion though that to keep this shower up 2 years in a row shouldn't be underestimated and a big risk by the club if they want to change it
It's going to be an interesting few weeks and at the moment I think his chances of getting another job are not great
1
Sky Sports Breaking News on 19:26 - Apr 29 with 1642 views
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