Have we ever had any non bullshitting board members? Thought it went with the territory.
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To a degree it seems to.
I was in a meeting with Mehmet Dalman in January 2015, during which he boldly stated he wasn't involved with Cardiff City when the club was rebranded. In truth, he joined the board in January 2012.
Dalman was appointed as City's Chairman seven years and nine months ago. If his latest claims are true and the club really has needed Vincent Tan to put in £3 million a month to keep it going, that's a damning indictment of the way in which he the board have been running the show. Premier League parachute payments, season ticket money and an additional £3 million a month to maintain a mid-table Championship club with a mediocre squad? Great work.
Assuming that you have spent time in his company, no doubt he speaks very highly of you as well. Also I would have no doubt that you would have spent the time touching your forelock, licking his arse and trying to get match tickets out of him because thats the kind of person you obviously are - say one thing and do the exact opposite.
Bennett did his ACL at the start of March, so he's likely to miss the first three months of the season and probably longer. If he signs a new contract, are we going to get another left back on loan until January or rely on Bagan with Ciaron Brown in reserve?
You couldn't really have got this more wrong. I was invited to one meeting at the club which Dalman hosted. It lasted about an hour. I felt the whole thing was a bit nauseating - a daft PR exercise overflowing with bullshit on both sides from start to finish. Dalman came across as very smooth but more than a little oily. I turned down an invitation to speak to him one-to-one after the main meeting and also declined an offer of a free ticket to the next home game.
So what do you reckon regarding Dalman's apparent claim (which he intially made in January) that Vincent Tan has been putting in £3 million a month during the pandemic to keep the club afloat? £36 million a year in hand-outs from the owner on top of the Premier League parachute payments and your season ticket money to keep a mid-ranking Championship team going - do you reckon that's likely? If so, what do you think about the way the club is being managed in financial terms? After all, if Dalman and Co are spending so much money but achieving so little, it can't be healthy, can it?
Yes, I do believe it. I also believe that every single Championship club is in exactly the same position to different degrees. I don't understand why anyone would not believe it. What is there to be gained from making it up ? The accounts can easily be checked when they are filed. If the club has any ambitions at all to be successful then that is what it costs to run a club of our size. Instead of moaning all the time about anything they do, we should be bloody grateful that he is keeping us afloat, at the same time as backing the manager/team in still trying to get promotion.
I don't think that would be a valid comparison. One was the club owner, the other is the Chairman and they seem to be very different characters. Besides which, I've only spent an hour or so in Dalman's company, during which he was busily engaging in a cheesy PR exercise. I spent much more time in Hammam's company, often on a one-to-one basis, during which he talked about all manner of crap.
Perhaps a better comparison would be Peter Ridsdale, but again a direct comparison is difficult as I attended many meetings with him in a variety of settings and only one with Dalman which was staged by the club. I'll admit I always liked Ridsdale - he was entertaining company and I greatly admired how hard he worked and the phenomenal amount of hours he put in while he was Chairman. I reckon there's every chance the cub would have crashed in 2005 without him. However, he was obviously dodgy to put it mildly and could bullshit with the best of them. He had that down to an art form.
Indeed they can and it'll be interesting to do so when we finally get the chance. What is there to be gained from making the figure up? I don't know, but I'm confident it's exaggerated. After all, the club's Premier League wage bill in 2018/19 was £42.5 million. It's sure to have reduced significantly since then, so given the fact that the club has received large parachute payments for the last two years, where have these enormous sums Dalman referred to been going?
I wouldn't rule the idea out completely, though. After all, I firmly believe that the claims some fans have been making about the club being a well-run operation in recent years is fiction.
Whats the rules on FFP.?
If Tan is putting in 3m then losses of around 36m must be putting us in dodgy ground.
Just doesnt sound right. I think Dalman may be being a bit economical with the truth. Maybe the 3m is going in to cover costs then reclaimed when an income stream like a parachute payment comes in.
I think there are a lot of players at the club who are on big wages. Reports were that Smithies alone is on £35k per week, that's £1.8 pa for just one player. If, as stated, there are about 4 or 5 others on c £20k per week that's another £5m+ pa. And all the other players across the whole club, not just the first team squad. And the cost of the coaching staff and backroom people. The running of the ground too, someone above says £500k for business rates? And what we are paying for transfer fees, for the like of Murphy possibly, Glatzel, Flint etc, and the loan players. From talking to someone at another club I know a big cost is NI contributions c10% of the total wage bill and I know this has been a factor in cutting wage bills.
All this with income from the parachute payment's final year, and some income from season tickets. The season ticket income will be lost next season as people will have credit for missing this season (I hope, because I am one of them). No match day income, no potential big crowds for important games and derbies against Swansea and Bristol City. I expect it all adds up.
But it will have been the same for most clubs.
Next year will be difficult, very difficult for us with no parachute payments. Same for Swansea (unless they go up!). And the clubs coming down will be in the same position, losing the PL money and taking a drop down to parachute payments.
I expect Bamba and Bennett to follow Hoilett out of the club, one or two sales maybe and Glaztel sold or loaned out again. Transfers fees will be negligible but more important to get players off the wage bill.
A lot of other clubs are in trouble, Derby we know about, and a big club like Sheffield Wednesday in League 1. A lot off clubs could end up in serious financial mess.
I just hope we do OK. I still reckon we will get some decent signings in but it won't be silly fees like previous season. I just hope Harry Wilson comes back.
Yes, I met Tony Clemo a few times, including in later years when he always attended shareholder meetings. He won't be remembered fondly by many fans, but I think the truth is that for most of his tenure he simply didn't have the financial clout to do anything with the club and nobody else was interested. They were truly grim times.
Interesting piece about him here - he was involved in more stuff behind the scenes than was apparent at the time:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/...ormer-16449180