Eddie

Timely reminder - Don’t do twitter / X folks.

Yeah but at least we can discuss actual football that’s happening on the pitch that’s doomed, instead of finance and transfer policy guesswork that’s repeatedly argued as fact 😴

Can’t wait for the season to start

FFS don’t start all this again. We’re not spending £5m+ on ACD so it’s all irrelevant. I’m with @Casino - I still think he goes out on loan this season.

Second string, other than Dalby and Dong where we don’t really have a back up. Interesting to see how Ritchie gets on with some proper minutes.

Only really one outcome when that happens. It’s not even a message, it’s too obvious to be - I’d imagine Randall knows the score and he won’t be here come the end of the window.

He had absolutely nowt to lose by the end of last year. Think he probably took that one to heart and so spent the vast majority of the immediate aftermath of the play off final (including following days in fannies / Ibiza) without a top on. The lad’s in good nick and from what we hear, he’s dying to be a success here - just need to see it on the pitch now. If he can find it and have a good season in the Champ then he’s got the potential (character wise) to turn himself into a bit of a cult hero. I really hope he can but based on everything I’ve seen to date I just don’t think he’s got the quality to make the step up (genuinely hope I’m wrong before people shoot me down).

Announce stadium roof

I keep hearing this but I’ve no idea how they benefit from this increased utilisation of the ground etc. They’ve invested in a loss making business. If we use their money to invest in infrastructure that sees in bring in new revenues, then unless it turns us profitable and they can be paid a dividend (it won’t) then they just have a slightly less loss making business that they’ve invested in. They don’t get anything back for us only losing £4m a year instead of £14m. They only way they get cash back is if we turn profitable (impossible without player sales) or we get to the prem and sell the club. No fucker invests in a football club if they’re not interested in the football side of it. It’s the most insane idea I’ve ever heard. There are 1,000 ways to increase your wealth more easily than investing in a loss making championship football club and not caring what happens to the footballing side of things.

Fair enough, all valid views and opinions. We’re way apart on what makes sense to a US investor in a northern town’s championship football club but we won’t know until it happens. Whoever is right, I only hope it benefits the football club

I have been but there are seriously different fundamentals between the UK and the US and assuming that things that work in the US will translate to the UK is one of the key things US investors get very wrong. We do a lot football club deals and one of the things that is often repeated is that average stadium spend per person in the US is about $50. In the UK it’s closer to £5. Yanks assume they can roll out their initiatives and have a massive upside on matchday revenue - it doesn’t work, we’re a different culture. That’s a slight tangent but the point remains. They don’t make material returns in any other situation than Bolton Wanderers being a Premier League football team.

But the Co-op is an all year round dedicated indoor concert venue, the only one it’s competing against really is the AO. It raised an eyebrow because I too thought there wouldn’t be the need with already having the AO but it’s taken share. You cannot compare that to our place though. Other than being a dedicated music venue, it’s in Manchester!! I don’t care that we’re “20 minutes down the road”, being in Manchester vs. being in Bolton counts for a hell of a lot. If it were that easy and profitable to turn a football stadium into a concert venue, do you not think the likes of the Coates at Stoke, who basically have unlimited money in Championship terms, would have done it ages ago? He’s here for one thing and one thing only, for Bolton to be a premier league football team. It really shouldn’t take much to realise that it is the only way in which Bolton Wanderers is an attractive and valuable football club. P.s - if there is a roof on it in the next 25 years I’ll bungee jump from it naked.

Some fucking rose tinted glasses on here about what Bolton offers to the rest of the country / world.

I’m not saying that they won’t look to make some improvements to the stadium but it’s not a good return on their investment. There are 2 months in the year where we can make money on concerts and even then, we have to compete against the AO arena, Co-op, Etihad, old Trafford cricket ground, Hill Dickinson etc etc which are all far more attractive. Let’s say we managed to be successful and attracted 5 big concerts in those 2 months. This is complete pie in the sky but you’re not adding more than £2-5m of profit from those considering the costs that would go into it. Nice to have - absolutely, worth the required investment and the way that these Yanks reckon they will make their big money with us - no chance. You could instead stick the money into the team to try and get lucky and hit 8th in the league and reach the playoffs offs. Who knows from there, we all know it becomes a bit of a lottery. If it all goes right and we reach the promised land then these guys have just 100x their money. That’s what they want, not reducing our losses whilst pumping capex in to do so. It absolutely makes sense that they will use whatever nouse they have to improve commercial revenues - frankly it reduces the amount of their own money they have to pump in. Anyone thinking that this is the main reason for buying us though is mad. World class concert venue for 2 months and a L1 football club for the other 10 is no use to anyone, especially them.

😂😂 we’re not hosting 11pm tennis matches! All this talk of big ideas with concerts - @jmjhb has pointed it out, we’re worth a lot less if we get relegated and a fuck load more if we get promoted, regardless of whether we get a Harry Styles residency through the summer. I’ve no doubt that they’ll use any expertise they have to increase none football revenues but their number one focus to make our football club worth more than it is today (obviously their aim) is to get us promoted. I would therefore suggest that any money invested is going on players and football infrastructure and not a roof over the Toughsheet!

My guess would be that we’d want one more for that side regardless. We can’t get through a whole season with Stephenson right back and Larrazabal in front (Christie is only here by default and not a credible Championship option). If we were to get ACD then I think it’s most likely to be a loan late in the window. It would then mean 2 very different (from the looks of it) options for the right side of midfield / right wing but also from the sounds of it Larrazabal could drop to right back and cover if Stephenson was out - Christie therefore used in absolute emergencies. Might not be ACD but I’d be very surprised if we didn’t bring another right winger in.

I must have watched that VHS over 100 times as a kid, think I actually burnt it out in the end. Every time I hear Peter Smith on sky sports it just reminds me of it

I know, I was being a bit facetious. Although like @Greg_BWFC says, I do think it probably increases the anger towards Tuchel because this does feel like we’re peaking when plenty others are at the bottom of their cycle and so it really feels like a wasted opportunity.

With multiple world cups to their names? 13 between them, each having won one of the last 6. They are obviously all in a worse place than us at this point in time, but when they were in their good points - they won it. Not bad shoes to be fair to them. I agree with @gonzo, that team is as good as we think it is. Is the defence a bit weak - yes, but I’m also watching Porro, MacAlister and fucking Romero in a World Cup final. No team is perfect 1-11. Our team from midfield onwards is as good as it gets and even the defence still includes 3 City players (and a Chelsea player when he can stay fit). Our problem now is that we have no striker coming through when Kane winds down. Bellingham et al should get better for the next one, but the difference having a world class striker makes is huge, and this is likely the last one we’ll have it for. Tuchel blew our best shot by turning us into a L1 team playing city in a cup game once we went ahead, it really is as simple as that.

He was brought in for the very reason of getting through those big games. We’ve been able to get to that point for a long time now and so he shouldn’t really get much credit for it. His game management was Evatt-esque, he completely went to pot at the very moment he was here for. And now he’s shifting blame. That last half an hour was as bad as Southgate starting a World Cup semi with a midfield 3 of Henderson, Alli and Lingard.

I agree, they’ve set up rules to do what they can. But the lunatic can prove they’ve got all the money in the world, it doesn’t mean they’re going to put it into the club if they get bored / fall out with fans / have assets frozen etc. Short of making a new owner put something like 5 years’ worth of expected losses into escrow (which they’d never do and frankly couldn’t do), they just don’t have the levers to pull to make sure any new owner keeps pumping cash in year after year to cover the inevitable losses - so you’re relying to a degree on good faith.

Then roll it forward. They’re subject to a winding up order, likely to go out of existence within weeks/months - no sane person is going to come and save them, but a lunatic who says he’s got the money and wants to buy them and therefore save them comes forward. Do you let them go bust or give them the chance to at least survive for a bit longer? I don’t think you can ever solve it whilst football finance in general is such as basket case.

ChatGPT could have a field day with this

By any chance had you set it up from the sky sports website? It was doing the same for me but I’ve deleted that one and added the version from the bwfc website - I think that’s updated if you want to reduce your admin.

Seriously Sluffy, read that bit again and think about it. Every business has a payroll report…