You are a legend Mr Clowes. Now, please plan for the next stage

[DarkFruitsRam7]

You don't need to be loaded to get to the Premier League. You need to be smart.

I fear we're not smart.

[ramit]

Being competitive while living within our means is what I have long hoped for, Mr. Clowes delivered that, I can't praise the fellow enough.

[Duracell]

We could've gone out of business. Keeping ourselves afloat in the top three tiers without doing a Portsmouth or Bolton - or even just completely vanishing like Bury - was in itself a miracle.

Instant promotion to the Championship isn't realisitc.

[Mucker1884]

3 hours ago, kevinhectoring said:

But here we are: a 60% chance of staying in this godforsaken league for at least another season. And as each year goes by, our club’s stock falls lower. 

 

3 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

How have you calculated our likelihood of us staying in this league at 60%?

 

28 minutes ago, kevinhectoring said:

Used my fingers and it’s windy outside.  I’d say we have a 10% chance of making autos, 30% of winning the play offs if we don’t.

 

 

A/  8.333% chance of autos.
B/  16.666% chance of making the play-offs (and a 25% chance of winning them thereafter... if we do get in them).
C/  75% chance of us staying in this godforsaken league.  (By the end of normal season/prior to play-offs)  
D/  "You should have stated the "I'd say..." bit in your first post.  You initially made it appear to be fact (In which case your figures were wrong), when it was mere opinion all along.
E/  I'm calling utter tosh, and/or wummery of the first degree.

[Gringo]

3 hours ago, Wolfie said:

.....and you know he isn't doing this already, how?.

I don't know the man but he doesn't strike me as someone who doesn't have a plan. Maybe he should do it "quietly and selectively" but keep us all informed at the same time?

I don't believe we are up for sale at the moment I get a notification whenever a football club goes up for sale, Fyi I got this one below recently, FWIW I cannot see DC selling unless he gets all of his investment back including the funds he is injecting to cover current running costs, therefore no sale until at least in the championship.

Finally I would point out that being owned by a billionaire is no guarantee anymore the most successful are owned by countries (Man City, PSG, etc) or Private Equity (think Chelsea)/Pension funds (think Ipswich)

Football Club UAE Third Division League

Businesses For Sale - Sports Teams - United Arab Emirates - New Arrival - $5,000,000 

Member Rating: Premium content. Upgrade required.

Listing Type: Promoted

For sale a Football Club playing in the UAE Third Division League. UAE Third Division League is the fourth tier of football league competition in the United Arab Emirates, the league is organised by UAE Football Association for private funded clubs. The league was established for the 2021–22 season. 12 teams participated in the first edition, divided in two groups of six. On 6 July 2022, UAEFA announced that the number of participants will increase from 12 to 16 teams for the 2022–23 season, an increase of 4 teams from the 2021–22 season. 

The Club take part to the United Arab Emirates Football Association (UAEFA; Arabic: الاتحاد الاماراتي لكرة القدم), the governing body of association football, beach soccer and futsal in the United Arab Emirates. 

FINANCIALS (USD)

Sales Not Disclosed

Price $5,000,000

Cash Flow Not Disclosed

DEAL TERMS

Represented by broker? Yes

Buyer Fee? Available On Request

Seller Financing? Available On Request

Willing to co-broke? Available On Request

Principals only? Available On Request

Franchise? Available On Request

Management will stay? Available On Request

Relocatable? Available On Request

Real Estate? Available On Request

[ariotofmyown]

I think every club in the top 4 divisions should be owned by a billionaire. Proper football.

[kevinhectoring]

3 hours ago, Returning ram said:

 

We didn't exactly have buyers knocking the doors down last time we were up for sale 

 

Mm and then Q were selling a can of worms and neither did it well. If DC targets suitable investors (owners of US sports franchises would be a good group to look at), he now has a clean club to sell. The (?only) complication is to agree how he gets back over time sufficient return on his outlay.  
 

(As others have said, this might be ongoing who knows?)

[Returning ram]

Are we now fully free of our embargo now ? Or are we still under some restrictions from the EFL.

Surely the EFL wouldn't let someone come in and risk putting us where we were two years ago, let's not forget MM still had money he could, but choose not to, spend on the club.

[Carl Sagan]

As a fan, David Clowes paid vastly over the odds to save the club he loved. The price was that of a top Championship Club with a decent chance of Premier League football. He isn't "wealthy" in the sense of regular football owners, so can't afford to lose too much on his investment, as would happen if following the advice in the OP. But the line about buying a football club to make a small fortune is a truism, and he will be losing significant dosh at the moment. I'm sure it's frightening to look at the balance sheet.

The only way Clowes might make most of his money back is to get a speedy promotion and sell us as an upwards-moving Championship club. I remain deeply unconvinced Warne will take us to that point, but the dice weren't rolled and now all we can do is see how things pan out for the rest of the season. I really doubt DC can afford to employ someone to sell the club to high rollers at this point in the cycle.

 

[Crewton]

Kev presents his plan for promotion in our time:

[sage]

9 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

As a fan, David Clowes paid vastly over the odds to save the club he loved. The price was that of a top Championship Club with a decent chance of Premier League football. He isn't "wealthy" in the sense of regular football owners, so can't afford to lose too much on his investment, as would happen if following the advice in the OP. But the line about buying a football club to make a small fortune is a truism, and he will be losing significant dosh at the moment. I'm sure it's frightening to look at the balance sheet.

The only way Clowes might make most of his money back is to get a speedy promotion and sell us as an upwards-moving Championship club. I remain deeply unconvinced Warne will take us to that point, but the dice weren't rolled and now all we can do is see how things pan out for the rest of the season. I really doubt DC can afford to employ someone to sell the club to high rollers at this point in the cycle.

 

This

[G STAR RAM]

Not for me thanks.

Find it much more appealing to have a local good guy trying to make us a sustainable club, over a billionaire treating us like their train set.

[G STAR RAM]

15 hours ago, The Last Post said:

My the word "Legend" is being bandied about a bit today 🙄

 

Agreed but for once I'd it may be deserved.

[Tamworthram]

12 hours ago, Returning ram said:

Are we now fully free of our embargo now ? Or are we still under some restrictions from the EFL.

Surely the EFL wouldn't let someone come in and risk putting us where we were two years ago, let's not forget MM still had money he could, but choose not to, spend on the club.

I don’t think the EFL ask for details of future plans from prospective buyers do they? 

[kevinhectoring]

2 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Not for me thanks.

Find it much more appealing to have a local good guy trying to make us a sustainable club, over a billionaire treating us like their train set.

Fair enough.

Will you say the same in 3 years time, if we are still in the third tier and if Portsmouth and Wrexham are about to join Forest in the PL ? 

[Crewton]

Search the world for a willing billionaire eh.... what could possibly go wrong....

TAXI !!!

[swanny]

I suspect that every club, just like every player is always for sale at the right price. You dont need to stick the place on right move to be visible.  Mel tried that and it was disastrous. 

 

I'm not sure we have any Derby born billionaires, so the best you can hope for is an investor looking to buy "A" football and they'll be making their decision based on costs, debt, league position, fanbase, assets etc.  

 

I'm not sure most big investors would go for league one clubs, the risk is too high. But championship clubs with a shot at premier money, they seem to be worth a roll of the dice

[MadAmster]

13 hours ago, Returning ram said:

Are we now fully free of our embargo now ? Or are we still under some restrictions from the EFL.

 

Please don't take this personally. I am astounded that this question is still being asked. After everything that has been in the news, on the club website, on Twitter/X/FB over the past 2 years, all the plethora of threads on forums, that there are still people who, apparently, are unaware that clubs coming out of Administration have to keep to an agreed business plan in the first 2 seasons thereafter. The club writes the business plan, submit it to the EFL and they have to agree to it. If they don't agree, they will request changes. This is our 2nd season. We have to adhere to the plan WE wrote and the EFL agreed to.

This leads me to another point. I may be wrong but I doubt it. We may not exceed what is in the business plan, that's a fact. Last year's plan was based on 17K gates. We averaged >27K. I estimate that to mean we got around £6M more in than the plan budgeted on. We couldn't spend that on transfer fees, agent fees or wages. I am of the opinion we still have that "in the bank". We have a limited budget this year too. Wages "cap" is higher but not extravagant. Agent fees are allowed. Moderate transfer fees are allowed. Last year we were allowed to spend £8M. That figure is higher this season. Several people seem to be intimating that we are losing money and DC is having to pump millions into the club to keep it afloat. We aren't allowed to overspend. Therefore, I don't see (and that might be my fault) how DC will be having to pour millions into the club to keep it afloat when DCFC isn't allowed to spend more than it has and possibly less than that.

[Returning ram]

12 minutes ago, MadAmster said:

Please don't take this personally. I am astounded that this question is still being asked.

I never take anything personally...the point i was trying to make, is that you can have all the money in the world, we are still under restrictions, be it a business plan or FP. The business plan was "relaxed" this season, but my understanding is that no one knows what it looked or looks like now, we are allowed to spend on transfers, but I don't know how much, unless you are saying that is common knowledge, in which I stand corrected 😊

[MadAmster]

11 minutes ago, Returning ram said:

I never take anything personally...the point i was trying to make, is that you can have all the money in the world, we are still under restrictions, be it a business plan or FP. The business plan was "relaxed" this season, but my understanding is that no one knows what it looked or looks like now, we are allowed to spend on transfers, but I don't know how much, unless you are saying that is common knowledge, in which I stand corrected 😊

No figure has been made public, just the phrase "allowed to pay moderate fees. My own guess is that, at L1 level, that would see a max of around £500K...