Rob Couhig interview on WTV
An interesting interview with Rob on WanderersTV. Big take-out for me is that they are receiving offers for the club and have admitted that they are now more likely to listen to these offers as some of the fun for them has gone with Pete no longer able to be within the UK.
I appreciate the transparency, but for me it does call into question some of the expensive investments the Couhigs plan to make over the next 12 months. It feels a little reckless to make those investments on behalf of the club if they genuinely can’t see a long term future for themselves as WWFC owners. Rob said during the interview that his end goal is that people look back at the Couhig ownership and say it was the best period in Wycombe’s history. For me that slightly conflicts with previous messaging about them only being temporary custodians of the club, as it implies that everything goes downhill (to a greater or lesser extent) when the Couhigs sell the club.
Clearly I’m in no position to dictate what the Couhigs do, and their lasting legacy will be very strong with the commercial and development squad side of the business improving during their time, but if they really feel as if it’s a possibility that they could sell the club ASAP if the right offer came along, then perhaps it’d be wise to not put any investment burdens on the club and simply allow the next owners to decide what they wish to do.
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Is this a new interview? Or the one that caused controversy a couple of months ago?
It does seem like they underestimated how huge a thing it was for Wycombe to get into the championship.
It’s new - https://twitter.com/wwfcofficial/status/1608048487064559616?s=46&t=zKJ98_S-g0l8PGhsNINMXw
"We're not little Wycombe, we're not little Wycombe, we're not little Wycombe, Plymouth and Derby get loads more fans than us and so can spend more money"
Bit facetious above really
It's a good interview as it goes, Phil asks all the pertinent questions
Really don’t see the point you’re trying to make. It’s a fact that in our league some clubs have bigger gates and therefore greater revenues. We know we have to be more creative and work harder to generate income from other avenues to compete . You’re not telling me Vokes, Horgan and others are not on decent and comparable wages to players at the big clubs in our league.Certainly not ‘little Wycombe’ any more in my view.
Derby have 11 players earning over £7k per week with two over £10k. Plymouth have 2 players earning £18k each per week. Sheffield Wednesday have 9 players earning well over £7k per week including Bannan on £21k.
I doubt we have more than three earning over £7k per week
Have you picked those salaries up from this site?
ihttps://salarysport.com/football/sky-bet-league-one/plymouth-argyle/
The 2 players supposedly on 18k a week are on loan for one thing. Including them would be like including Jamal Blackman when he was on loan for us on sky high parent club wages.
Also that's the site that reckons we casually lash out £8.5k a week on Mawson, renewed Horgan on £5.4k a week only to not play him, and also supposedly only pay Vokes £600 a week.
Plus paying Wakely £100 a week less than McCleary!!
I think I'd believe the Revs stuff over these wages.
This is spot on. We can't seem to decide whether we want to be 'Little Wycombe' or not. My take is that we should not even care how we are perceived by others. However, if it comes to it, we will always be a small club by fan base, but are currently upwardly mobile owing to fantastic management and overachievement against that base. Our real reputation is a grudging respect that we have been able to be amongst bigger clubs and give as good as we get for several seasons now.
I’ll get an extra large ‘we’ll always be non-league’ banner to display when we win the playoffs.
There could also be a 'Worst Team In League One: 2018-2020 & 2021-2023' commemorative quote as well to honor the feelings of our opponents.
‘The elephant has climbed the tree again.’
The thing that jumped out at me was robs message about the goals for this season. No longer the. Bombastic declarations of auto promotion but a more considered and realistic ambition of "Firmly in the playoffs maybe a little better".
This, for me, is a huge difference in a message to pre-season and exactly the sort of messaging I expected from him back then. There’s nothing wrong with showing ambition but having that ambition grounded in the reality of the situation means more people will take you more seriously imho.
Return of the Banner Gang?
Just the style he goes for.
Pre the planned Yeovil takeover there was a golden line about making Yeovil the best football experience in the country!!
How long have the Couhigs been here and still harping on about Yeovil. Give the guy a break.
6:34PM Flag
The point is - we are little Wycombe but we've been spending like big Wycombe.
The Trust encouraged members to vote to reduce their shareholding from 25% to 10%, when who would have guessed it?, we hear The Couhigs are currently in talks to sell, or reduce their 75% shareholding.
The Couhigs have discovered, along with 91 Football Club owners, the club is not sustainable irrespective of what was previously stated at the time they sought our vote.
Furthermore, given the projected losses, WWFC is less sustainable than before.
Quote
We’ve always been here son.
Give me a shout big man
It's one thing to declare we're going for automatics at the start of the season when all the teams are zero points. I don't think even Rob Couhig could say with a straight face that we're still expecting to be in the automatic places when we're 15 points behind.
The posts above are talking about the big talk aims in the summer - I'm just pointing out that's his style.
Surely the issue with Pete was never insurmountable.
Rob and family arrived at an extraordinary time of good fortune on and off the field. When that good fortune became normal service they seem to have bolted.
He was honest when he arrived about their model of turning underperforming outfits into profitable ones. I guess the success came quicker than anticipated and he felt he had no more lands to conquer
Indeed, but he and others can't complain when people say that he's living in cloud cookoo land with the Boombastic and unrealistic claims just because that's "the style he goes for".
If anything I hope this shows he has learned to be ambitious without setting himself, or worse GA, up for a fall.
The recent run of form has taken the focus off the last interview, but the unease is still there.
Pete going from insanely involved, to not at all - relayed as "visa" issues, but in the same interview Rob admitting Pete was cheesed at the lack of a ground sale, and had lost interest!
This leading to Rob talking of exit strategies and talk of considering offers.
Yet at the same time, seemingly looking into a new stand and new road!
Most of us learnt quite young that under promise and over deliver works better!
Gareth has always worked to that.
Obtaining approvals for a new stand and a new road might make the club more attractive to a purchaser. A new owner would not be obliged to exercise the approvals but would have the option to do so.
The stand doesn't seem too much issue - although I wonder how much space we actually have behind the current one - is there the same space for what we have at the other end for example?
But a new road - I think we'll all believe that when we see it.
Those last two things aren't seperate things.
New Stand, New Roads etc can make a purchase more attractive (Adds value to the proposition).
Edit: Apologies, didn;t see Mooneyman replied in much the same way.
People can see whatever conspiracy they want to behind Pete’s lessened involvement, but there’s no reason to believe that living in a different country from his family, and dealing with the labyrinthine visa system was more effort than it was worth.
The Couhigs have had ups and downs, but with how many actual dodgy owners there are out there (see West Brom for starters) I would definitely be concerned about who we are going to get on the owner's roulette wheel if they do sell.
Little is a comparative word and largely irrelevant in terms of performance on the pitch. A friend who supports his local club - Holmer Green - sees Wycombe as a really big club.
Gareth Ainsworth, Richard Dobson and team have worked absolute wonders for many years and, for as long as they are in charge, the players they put on the pitch will “punch above their weight”.
@davecz’s reference to Vokes and Horgan is interesting insofar as (if they really are on wages comparable to the wages of players at the big clubs in League 1) we are not exactly reaping the benefits.
Wrote this late yesterday and fell asleep. Probably totally out of step with what’s been written since but didn’t want to waste it.
Hope it helps others to get to sleep.
Got until 11pm to fine tune tomorrow’s grocery order !