Rob is enthusiastic and always bigs us up and our future goals, it's great to hear.
He's not stupid enough to think we are a big club or we should be in the Championship. The man is highly intelligent and very good at reading situations. He's been an excellent owner IMHO apart from the huge overspend this season.
I certainly think with Pete not being happy here in the UK and the over spend this season that Rob is a little unsure of how to move forward. He or the club should not be losing 3M in a season, that should have come down considerably with the sale of Anis, compensation for Gareth etc and the lowering of the wage bill in January.
If we are in League One next season I fully expect the wage bill to go from circa 5M down to 3M. If we are in League One next season it will be very different to the last two seasons.
The general view is the wage bill will come down dramatically if we stay in League 1. I wonder if Matt during his interview asked what the budget would be for 23/ 24 season. Or was he just pleased to come home without any assurances about budget.
Yeah but we're going to have a big party to look forward to... oh no sorry, upgrade of all the toilets and hot water is more important... oh, shit hang on !
He was convinced we’d be getting crowds of 8000+ each week and we’d be offering the greatest fan experience in world football and seemingly based budgets around that.
I also think a lot of the phenomenon excitement was skewed by regular travellers to Vipienne, which perhaps also heightened their revenue expectations.
i don’t use any of the sponsors bars etc, but it seems to me there is very little interest in doing up the ground, despite the rhetoric. Flash advertising hoardings and a nice scoreboard are all well and good but the damn roof needs fixing along with the toilets and the terrace.
Rob’s timing of the takeover was hugely fortuitous just as the stars aligned with Gareth having assembled such a special group of players who achieved beyond our wildest dreams. Being an owner must have seemed like the easiest job in the world, but history shows just what a cutthroat world football ownership is.
That Vipienne comment is one I've often wondered about.
There was all the "World Wide Wycombe" business.
Did that totally disappear because Bayo left? Or because the club realised a huge percentage of "foreign" views were actually vipienners?A mix of the two?
This on-going conjecture is all well and good but, having deep dived into the latest Trust minutes, I see that knitted Gonks may be available in the very near future. So, I take it our funding future is looking bright.
I do hope the first one is presented to Blooms, if only to see if his reaction is a priceless as Gaz receiving that concrete Gnome a couple of years back.
Actually thinking about it, now that Gaz has gone , where is the Gnome? Yet more opaque shenanigans from the club.
It actually felt like they almost ditched it mid-season last year, so not sure. As someone who belongs to the phenomenon I did the whole international sponsorship for a player (Nick Freeman, shockingly), but only got half the promised items and it all petered out, with that sponsorship no longer offered from what I can tell. It seems like the plug was just pulled. I might just be seeing the whole thing from my own perspective, though.
On the plus side, if Wycombe ever visit Vipienne for a pre-season friendly, it will be an absolute sell out.
Maybe not @peterparrotface , but there seemed to be a ‘build it and they will come’ philosophy and that people would flock through the gates once the ‘offer’ was right. We’ve seen so many initiatives to get more fans through the gate over the years, but even the excitement of Gormania didn’t really increase the core 4000 or so who turn up every other week. And as much as I love Ainsworth, we’d often serve up some pretty turgid stuff which didn’t always endear us to the neutral
Then there was all the fuss about getting the best catering, merchandise and fan experience, but I haven’t seen too many successes there, save for the beer tent. They didn’t even bother opening one of the kiosks in the family stand the other night, presumably as demand has dropped off.
It just sticks in the craw as I’m fed of of getting wet feet in my seat and would like to give the club more money on match days with my 50/50 and decent value grub, but it simply isn’t there.
Tbh the floodlights had to be done for the championship, otherwise we'd probably still have the old ones.
If I'm honest, I'm trying to think. The only definite improvements off the pitch that didn't have to be done are the scoreboard and the beer tent. Wifi is fine depending on where you are in the ground.
As it happens I can handle not having a big party, and washing my hands in cold water if the money for it is helping the club elsewhere... I'd just rather not be bullshitted about it in the first place.
It would be really interesting to see exactly how much money the owners have invested in the club, or whether our Championship adventure and other incomings have balanced that out somewhat. We will probably never know.
Re. That last paragraph - I think we're in danger of slightly re-writing history there. The Couhig money was crucial for assembling that squad in 19/20 - without the signings we made via their investment Gaz stated many times we'd have stared relegation in the face with comfortably the lowest budget in the division. You're quite correct though that Gaz still got them playing above their level to take us into the Championship.
As long as you didn’t take too seriously any of the over-enthusiastic sales pitch, as things currently look (I accept that can easily change) the Couhigs have:
Taken over the club in a financially precarious position and enabled (by whatever means) us to be able to actually put together a team.
Backed and supported the manager to build a competitive squad for the lower reaches of the Championship (minus ‘The Player’) and the top end of League One,
Been lucky in gaining promotion to the Championship so early but then unlucky that the absence of crowds meant that we lost the potential to really grow the fan base (the great unknown is what crowds we could have got in that season and how that could have changed the picture).
Probably over-extended the budget this season in a bid to get back to the Championship, but then taken measures to rein in costs when it became apparent that the somewhat chaotic start to the season meant that we were always playing catch up.
On that side of the equation, I think it is hard to be too critical.
On the other side however I really think they have made many unforced errors, possibly due to cultural differences, around the fan experience.
The ‘village’ to be fair works well but things like the cashless only option (I was highly amused that Hillsborough is cash only) poor and overpriced catering and merchandise, does grate a little and whilst it probably makes financial sense in the short-term may not over a longer stretch of time.
On balance, I think as owners they have so far done us well. It can be very easy to forget how bleak the forthcoming 2019/20 season looked as we went into the early weeks of that summer.
@Lloyd2084 I may be misremembering but I thought when the Couhigs turned up at the start of that League One season we were down to six players, a gardener and the ball boys and they played a reasonable part in helping assemble the team that Gareth built rather than just walking in and enjoying the benefits.
They may be slightly boosterish colonials who took some time to get the drift of the football soccerising in the UK but I think they've done all right by us...and as others have noted I can stick the cold water if the money is being spent wisely elsewhere. Not for me but some people like the fireworks.
Having said that, I am not being dripped on or moved for Opposition fans.
The hot chocolate I paid £2 for on Tuesday night was godawful. It's a shame there is no tradition of massive chains of coffee shops in the UK to draw on and supply customers with hot beverages of a decent standard.
Comments
Rob is enthusiastic and always bigs us up and our future goals, it's great to hear.
He's not stupid enough to think we are a big club or we should be in the Championship. The man is highly intelligent and very good at reading situations. He's been an excellent owner IMHO apart from the huge overspend this season.
I certainly think with Pete not being happy here in the UK and the over spend this season that Rob is a little unsure of how to move forward. He or the club should not be losing 3M in a season, that should have come down considerably with the sale of Anis, compensation for Gareth etc and the lowering of the wage bill in January.
If we are in League One next season I fully expect the wage bill to go from circa 5M down to 3M. If we are in League One next season it will be very different to the last two seasons.
The general view is the wage bill will come down dramatically if we stay in League 1. I wonder if Matt during his interview asked what the budget would be for 23/ 24 season. Or was he just pleased to come home without any assurances about budget.
Good point @Otter87
I actually don't think a small squad will be the worst thing in the world if we keep the right players and have a little injury luck.
Yeah but we're going to have a big party to look forward to... oh no sorry, upgrade of all the toilets and hot water is more important... oh, shit hang on !
He was convinced we’d be getting crowds of 8000+ each week and we’d be offering the greatest fan experience in world football and seemingly based budgets around that.
I also think a lot of the phenomenon excitement was skewed by regular travellers to Vipienne, which perhaps also heightened their revenue expectations.
i don’t use any of the sponsors bars etc, but it seems to me there is very little interest in doing up the ground, despite the rhetoric. Flash advertising hoardings and a nice scoreboard are all well and good but the damn roof needs fixing along with the toilets and the terrace.
Rob’s timing of the takeover was hugely fortuitous just as the stars aligned with Gareth having assembled such a special group of players who achieved beyond our wildest dreams. Being an owner must have seemed like the easiest job in the world, but history shows just what a cutthroat world football ownership is.
That Vipienne comment is one I've often wondered about.
There was all the "World Wide Wycombe" business.
Did that totally disappear because Bayo left? Or because the club realised a huge percentage of "foreign" views were actually vipienners?A mix of the two?
This on-going conjecture is all well and good but, having deep dived into the latest Trust minutes, I see that knitted Gonks may be available in the very near future. So, I take it our funding future is looking bright.
I do hope the first one is presented to Blooms, if only to see if his reaction is a priceless as Gaz receiving that concrete Gnome a couple of years back.
Actually thinking about it, now that Gaz has gone , where is the Gnome? Yet more opaque shenanigans from the club.
@Lloyd2084 is that 8000 crowd comment fair? I can’t remember anything being said of being convinced of that?
It actually felt like they almost ditched it mid-season last year, so not sure. As someone who belongs to the phenomenon I did the whole international sponsorship for a player (Nick Freeman, shockingly), but only got half the promised items and it all petered out, with that sponsorship no longer offered from what I can tell. It seems like the plug was just pulled. I might just be seeing the whole thing from my own perspective, though.
On the plus side, if Wycombe ever visit Vipienne for a pre-season friendly, it will be an absolute sell out.
Maybe not @peterparrotface , but there seemed to be a ‘build it and they will come’ philosophy and that people would flock through the gates once the ‘offer’ was right. We’ve seen so many initiatives to get more fans through the gate over the years, but even the excitement of Gormania didn’t really increase the core 4000 or so who turn up every other week. And as much as I love Ainsworth, we’d often serve up some pretty turgid stuff which didn’t always endear us to the neutral
Then there was all the fuss about getting the best catering, merchandise and fan experience, but I haven’t seen too many successes there, save for the beer tent. They didn’t even bother opening one of the kiosks in the family stand the other night, presumably as demand has dropped off.
It just sticks in the craw as I’m fed of of getting wet feet in my seat and would like to give the club more money on match days with my 50/50 and decent value grub, but it simply isn’t there.
Looking on the poitive side, there are probably still some fireworks left in the cupboard!
If the regime ended tomorrow it'd be interesting how many of the actual changes would be judged a success.
Clearly hitting the championship was a step that needed the budget being enhanced, fused with Gaz's supreme management.
Also, we do have the lasting improvement of the floodlights, eye scorching boards and wifi.
But a lot of the fireworks, food and merch offerings have been mixed success to say the least.
Tbh the floodlights had to be done for the championship, otherwise we'd probably still have the old ones.
If I'm honest, I'm trying to think. The only definite improvements off the pitch that didn't have to be done are the scoreboard and the beer tent. Wifi is fine depending on where you are in the ground.
As it happens I can handle not having a big party, and washing my hands in cold water if the money for it is helping the club elsewhere... I'd just rather not be bullshitted about it in the first place.
It would be really interesting to see exactly how much money the owners have invested in the club, or whether our Championship adventure and other incomings have balanced that out somewhat. We will probably never know.
That party is one of the great mysteries of our time.
The party was great if poorly attended. Me, Pete and Taff down Revs. Looks like most of the e-Mail invites must have gone into junk?
Personally I couldn’t care less about the mysterious party, I didn’t interpret it as an event as such.
For me the issues on the FA concourse remain and little has been done to improve queueing or choice in kiosks.
I suspect like others I actively want to spend more money on a match day but I need something to buy!
If only the Couhigs had taken @aloysius's advice in January 2021 and invested in The Player. How different things would (probably) be now ;)
As it’s winter I’m still on the bovril as there’s not much else up there to splash the cash on.
We had Uche, who made a big impact. And we had Vokes after that. I doubt we'd have got anyone better than those two.
Are you seriously trying to tell me that Dave Tarpey wouldn’t have kept us up?
Re. That last paragraph - I think we're in danger of slightly re-writing history there. The Couhig money was crucial for assembling that squad in 19/20 - without the signings we made via their investment Gaz stated many times we'd have stared relegation in the face with comfortably the lowest budget in the division. You're quite correct though that Gaz still got them playing above their level to take us into the Championship.
As long as you didn’t take too seriously any of the over-enthusiastic sales pitch, as things currently look (I accept that can easily change) the Couhigs have:
Taken over the club in a financially precarious position and enabled (by whatever means) us to be able to actually put together a team.
Backed and supported the manager to build a competitive squad for the lower reaches of the Championship (minus ‘The Player’) and the top end of League One,
Been lucky in gaining promotion to the Championship so early but then unlucky that the absence of crowds meant that we lost the potential to really grow the fan base (the great unknown is what crowds we could have got in that season and how that could have changed the picture).
Probably over-extended the budget this season in a bid to get back to the Championship, but then taken measures to rein in costs when it became apparent that the somewhat chaotic start to the season meant that we were always playing catch up.
On that side of the equation, I think it is hard to be too critical.
On the other side however I really think they have made many unforced errors, possibly due to cultural differences, around the fan experience.
The ‘village’ to be fair works well but things like the cashless only option (I was highly amused that Hillsborough is cash only) poor and overpriced catering and merchandise, does grate a little and whilst it probably makes financial sense in the short-term may not over a longer stretch of time.
On balance, I think as owners they have so far done us well. It can be very easy to forget how bleak the forthcoming 2019/20 season looked as we went into the early weeks of that summer.
Thanks @Last_Quarter and @bookertease for the astute observations.
They hired @bluntphil permanently too. That's a big check mark in the win column!
It is good to have a balanced view and the Gasroom provides that, whereas other fans forums seldom do. 👍👍
I thought the party was in The Big Easy which probably accounted for the low turnout!
@Lloyd2084 I may be misremembering but I thought when the Couhigs turned up at the start of that League One season we were down to six players, a gardener and the ball boys and they played a reasonable part in helping assemble the team that Gareth built rather than just walking in and enjoying the benefits.
They may be slightly boosterish colonials who took some time to get the drift of the football soccerising in the UK but I think they've done all right by us...and as others have noted I can stick the cold water if the money is being spent wisely elsewhere. Not for me but some people like the fireworks.
Having said that, I am not being dripped on or moved for Opposition fans.
The hot chocolate I paid £2 for on Tuesday night was godawful. It's a shame there is no tradition of massive chains of coffee shops in the UK to draw on and supply customers with hot beverages of a decent standard.
Are you sure your hot chocolate was not tainted by an earlier heavy consumption of cheese and onion crisps?