Skip to content

Statement from Rob Couhig

13»

Comments

  • @glasshalffull said:
    I’ve thought of something to throw back at those opposition fans moaning that we’re lucky to get a crack at the playoffs. In 1994-95, Wycombe finished 6th in the equivalent division to today’s League One but were denied a place in the playoffs due to the restructuring of the Football League that season. Perhaps it’s karma that fate could be on our side 25 years later.

    What a great thought!

  • Love this post on the Oxford forum. Genuinely hope that if the season somehow resumes, neither Oxford or Peterborough make the play-offs.

    I thought the EFL would have done a fit and proper test on the new owners of Wycombe only a few weeks ago to check that they had suitable funds to finance a football club. It is concerning to hear that they are claiming they haven't got any money already. Maybe the test the EFL did wasn't very good. Maybe they didn't bother doing it like they didn't with Bury's new owner. Maybe the EFL actually aren't very good at anything

  • Maybe, Oxford fans should look in the mirror & see how many times in the last 18 months HMRC have had to get to the court doors, before getting the monies owed to them by their football club?

  • To be fair, the last sentence of that post is probably correct @Gary!

  • Is it still the case that Oxford don't even own their own stadium?

    That and not having money to put a fourth end up are surely key reasons they shouldn't get too smug about anything.

  • @Gary said:
    Love this post on the Oxford forum. Genuinely hope that if the season somehow resumes, neither Oxford or Peterborough make the play-offs.

    I thought the EFL would have done a fit and proper test on the new owners of Wycombe only a few weeks ago to check that they had suitable funds to finance a football club. It is concerning to hear that they are claiming they haven't got any money already. Maybe the test the EFL did wasn't very good. Maybe they didn't bother doing it like they didn't with Bury's new owner. Maybe the EFL actually aren't very good at anything

    Astonishing. A club that is millions of pounds in debt, doesn't own it's stadium, has had a number of winding up petitions and bought a League Cup off stolen pensions is throwing shade on a club down the road that recently became debt free.

  • @OxfordBlue said:

    @Gary said:
    Love this post on the Oxford forum. Genuinely hope that if the season somehow resumes, neither Oxford or Peterborough make the play-offs.

    I thought the EFL would have done a fit and proper test on the new owners of Wycombe only a few weeks ago to check that they had suitable funds to finance a football club. It is concerning to hear that they are claiming they haven't got any money already. Maybe the test the EFL did wasn't very good. Maybe they didn't bother doing it like they didn't with Bury's new owner. Maybe the EFL actually aren't very good at anything

    Astonishing. A club that is millions of pounds in debt, doesn't own it's stadium, has had a number of winding up petitions and bought a League Cup off stolen pensions is throwing shade on a club down the road that recently became debt free.

    If anyone has an account over there, that would be a great response.

    Also asking how on earth a couple of them think we played bolton's kids twice. We played the second fixture mid feb! Unless that was an international break, but even if they lost two players that hardly makes them kids.

  • edited June 2020

    Oxford have had more unfit and improper owners than pretty much any other club. The delusional sense of entitlement of some of their fans is genuinely hilarious.

  • They're not wrong. I hope the Football League HAVE done a fit and proper test on whether Rob Couhig has the money to sustain the club, because we the fans certainly have no idea if he can or not. Telling all our off-field staff to start looking for new employment is not a sign that fills me with confidence. Others on here may want to brush that under the carpet and just continue an interminable discussion of which set of opposition fans are the most objectionable and deluded. My view is that being a supporter of WWFC means you don't ignore red flags being raised about your own club's financial position, even if that makes for uncomfortable reading.

  • @aloysius said:
    They're not wrong. I hope the Football League HAVE done a fit and proper test on whether Rob Couhig has the money to sustain the club, because we the fans certainly have no idea if he can or not. Telling all our off-field staff to start looking for new employment is not a sign that fills me with confidence. Others on here may want to brush that under the carpet and just continue an interminable discussion of which set of opposition fans are the most objectionable and deluded. My view is that being a supporter of WWFC means you don't ignore red flags being raised about your own club's financial position, even if that makes for uncomfortable reading.

    His proposal was always to run the club sustainably and not wrack up excess debts to him, seeing as we have no income, it follows that we need to reduce our outgoings significantly.

    I would have been more worried if we didn't announce cost cutting measures tbh.

    Obviously we don't know everything, but I'm comfortable with the statement

  • I doubt whether we could be in better hands in these, excuse the word, unprecedented times.

    I’ve not personally been furloughed. I work at home.

  • I think Rob’s terminology has been misinterpreted by some people. I understood him to be saying that he can’t continue to fund wages indefinitely whilst the club is receiving no income. I think that’s the situation with most clubs in the lower divisions and sadly redundancies will be inevitable the longer it goes on. He wasn’t telling staff that they’re fired, just advising them that he will understand if they seek alternative employment if the worst comes to the worst.

  • Agree @Username He hung on longer than pub owner Mr Brexitaspoons at least, he told his staff to sling their hooks to Tesco as soon as he was forced to close. If anyone does not think there are financial implications of the lock down for a lower league football business without casting shade on the finances and motives of our owner I'm not sure what news they been watching. And as far as I recall no-one on here at least has ever been backward in coming forward with their concerns about the funding and future of the club or have I dreamed the last two years?

  • It sounds like the club have been pretty honourable making up staff wages to 100%.
    Companies certainly have no obligation to do so. Mine hasn't.

    And it strikes me as very honest of the club to lay out the situation for staff. They'll get what the government will fund going forward but after that unfortunately redundancy looks likely so if you can get a job elsewhere take it.

    I dare say a lot of us on furlough haven't had any such clarity.

  • @Gary said:
    Love this post on the Oxford forum. Genuinely hope that if the season somehow resumes, neither Oxford or Peterborough make the play-offs.

    I thought the EFL would have done a fit and proper test on the new owners of Wycombe only a few weeks ago to check that they had suitable funds to finance a football club. It is concerning to hear that they are claiming they haven't got any money already. Maybe the test the EFL did wasn't very good. Maybe they didn't bother doing it like they didn't with Bury's new owner. Maybe the EFL actually aren't very good at anything

    Perhaps the EFL didn’t read the section on “our financial proposal in the case of a global pandemic which closes down our income for a prolonged period”. If they had I’m sure it would have contained the same information as all other clubs have put in this mandatory section of their business plans.

  • Inviting employees to file for unemployment or look for work elsewhere is fairly standard procedure at this point isn't it?

  • Jeez, reading through some of that thread, they have couldn't found a better way to alienate their own fans.

  • Very odd stance. I can't speak for Sunderland, but where I've seen this discussed by Wycombe fans, I've not seen a single person say they'd want or request a refund. However, the moment you tell people you wont offer them the option that they're probably legally entitled to, you get their backs up, even if they wouldn't have claimed it anyway.

    Seems a very odd battle to pick. The Wimbledon approach seems sensible here: Yes you're entitled to a refund, but please please dont claim it if you can possibly avoid it.

  • Also, there was some good chat among Oxford fans about how they definitely dont want refunds on their season tickets, but absolutely want refunds on their Wycombe away tickets because we're a scummy bunch of cheats.

    I'm very welcome to be corrected on this, but I'm fairly certain Oxford will not have passed the ticket money on to us as lockdown started 2 weeks before the game. So they'll just be taking money from their own club. Let's not tell them...

  • @Last_Quarter said:
    Very odd stance. I can't speak for Sunderland, but where I've seen this discussed by Wycombe fans, I've not seen a single person say they'd want or request a refund. However, the moment you tell people you wont offer them the option that they're probably legally entitled to, you get their backs up, even if they wouldn't have claimed it anyway.

    Seems a very odd battle to pick. The Wimbledon approach seems sensible here: Yes you're entitled to a refund, but please please dont claim it if you can possibly avoid it.

    AFC Wimbledon went with that approach early on, I'd imagine we'll do the same when things are clear.

    Sunderland doing this stinks of their owners wanting out and not wanting any more outgoings.
    There's some real kickers in the details around families with several tickets or in higher cost seats all being told to just watch it on ifollow with no refunds and it penalises people who chose to pay for next year early.
    Their fans pay more than us, have had to watch some garbage over the last few years, are on average from poorer backgrounds and are more at risk of job cuts with Nissans announcements and others. Some of them might not like us but clubs shouldn't be allowed to act like this.
    How silly does £4m for Will Grigg sound now btw, even beyond how silly it looked then.

  • Yes...certainly not very good PR. I think most of us on here will be happy to watch the playoff victories on ifollow for free and not be asking for our ST money back. :smile:

  • @Wendoverman said:
    Yes...certainly not very good PR. I think most of us on here will be happy to watch the playoff victories on ifollow for free and not be asking for our ST money back. :smile:

    Yep. Even the doziest fan has to look at the logic.
    Most clubs will be sketching around for cash, and then they want to take more money back from them, that will already have been allocated?

    Imagine helping to send your own club to the wall.

  • @glasshalffull said:
    I think Rob’s terminology has been misinterpreted by some people. I understood him to be saying that he can’t continue to fund wages indefinitely whilst the club is receiving no income. I think that’s the situation with most clubs in the lower divisions and sadly redundancies will be inevitable the longer it goes on. He wasn’t telling staff that they’re fired, just advising them that he will understand if they seek alternative employment if the worst comes to the worst.

    Spot on, that's exactly how I understood it too.

Sign In or Register to comment.