Take Over

[radcliffe white]

1 minute ago, Marc505 said:

He'll be allowed back in, probably given a heroes welcome, when really even though I defend him on a lot of stuff he may want to take a step back and look at his role in stirring up emotion amongst an active twitter fanbase and whether it was really what was needed at certain times.

Does seem to fit the style of the Evening News reporting at the minute though, just look at how the paper itself tweets reports, very opinion based. They've definitely had a change of direction I think, other day I was reading a report from one of their own about the dangers of walking down Bradshawgate, it read like a postbag letter.

Went to the dogs moons ago that paper 

remember actually having it delivered to my house before the internet days and looking forward to reading it after work

[Marc505]

2 minutes ago, radcliffewhite1 said:

Went to the dogs moons ago that paper 

remember actually having it delivered to my house before the internet days and looking forward to reading it after work

Haha same! Match reports and player ratings were actually important reading!

[kent_white]

3 minutes ago, radcliffewhite1 said:

Went to the dogs moons ago that paper 

remember actually having it delivered to my house before the internet days and looking forward to reading it after work

To be fair - they've only got about 3 reporters left and they really on syndicated stories to bulk the paper out. Not like the old days when they had 30 odd newshounds driving heavily in the pubs all day and keeping their ears open for stories! 

[Chris Custodiet]

18 hours ago, birch-chorley said:

Why though? 

Our biggest outgoings are players wages, apart from perhaps Ben Amos every other player contract will have been signed by Ken himself. If we are still spending more than we have coming in then it’s down to the playing contracts that have been dished out during his three years here 

I was of the understanding that he was looking to balance the books, he certainly seems to have taken many a swipe at the playing contracts he inherited. 

Ive just had a look and Burton Albion have realeased their accounts for last season and they managed to take us to the wire with a Turnover of £12m whilst staying in reasonable financial shape.

If our turnover is circa £20m in the championship and our non playing staff related operating costs are circa £10m then we should still be able to get a squad together on roughly the same budget as Burton. It’s not like anyone is saying live within our means with a team of players earning £250 a week 

If Ken’s overspending was delivering mid table obscurity then I’d sort of get it, but it isn’t, we are completely atrocious 

Edit - Barnsley’s accounts for last season are also out, turnover £14m, outgoings roughly the same 

You might find it helpful to look at PNE's 2018 accounts and particularly the going concern notes. Without going into lengthy explanations these provide a very good yardstick of BWFC's prospects and needs.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/00039494/filing-history

 

[Mounts Kipper]

7 minutes ago, Chris Custodiet said:

You might find it helpful to look at PNE's 2018 accounts and particularly the going concern notes. Without going into lengthy explanations these provide a very good yardstick of BWFC's prospects and needs.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/00039494/filing-history

 

Reality will hit them sooner or later they will have to get costs under control because they can’t rely on Hemmings forever. It’s quite clear to me that if any club goes bust there is a high chance it’ll be a middling size championship club. 

[Traf]

26 minutes ago, Marc505 said:

He'll be allowed back in, probably given a heroes welcome, when really even though I defend him on a lot of stuff he may want to take a step back and look at his role in stirring up emotion amongst an active twitter fanbase and whether it was really what was needed at certain times.

Does seem to fit the style of the Evening News reporting at the minute though, just look at how the paper itself tweets reports, very opinion based. They've definitely had a change of direction I think, other day I was reading a report from one of their own about the dangers of walking down Bradshawgate, it read like a postbag letter.

Yesterday, Iles tweeted about a dozen links back to negative BN stories. Bonnar retweeted each one and some other reporter of theirs also retweeted them.

They're clogging up the twitter feed and keeping the club firmly in the spotlight, they know exactly what they're doing.

[radcliffe white]

2 minutes ago, Traf said:

Yesterday, Iles tweeted about a dozen links back to negative BN stories. Bonnar retweeted each one and some other reporter of theirs also retweeted them.

They're clogging up the twitter feed and keeping the club firmly in the spotlight, they know exactly what they're doing.

Bit like that prick Michael Harrison on Facebook pages, soon as iles posts its straight up 

Edited March 6, 2019 by radcliffe white

[Burndens Bogs]

Obviously a bygone era, but the sports journalist Frank Booth had it right when he was sports journo at the Bolton Evening News back in the 60’s/70’s. He always had the best interests of the club and town at heart, he didn’t usually speculate, he reported facts. He personally knew most of the players and  managers from that time - they respected him and he respected them. Last of the old school sports journalists.

[Chris Custodiet]

16 minutes ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Reality will hit them sooner or later they will have to get costs under control because they can’t rely on Hemmings forever. It’s quite clear to me that if any club goes bust there is a high chance it’ll be a middling size championship club. 

Still hoping it won't  be us, but let's recognise that League 1 is also no land  of milk and honey. Losses are the norm. Its just that they aren' t usually as  big as  those of Championship clubs. Wigan lost £7.7million in winning League1 last season

[Guest]

53 minutes ago, radcliffewhite1 said:

Went to the dogs moons ago that paper 

remember actually having it delivered to my house before the internet days and looking forward to reading it after work

Circulation today? 6,000?

[Kane57]

34 minutes ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Reality will hit them sooner or later they will have to get costs under control because they can’t rely on Hemmings forever. It’s quite clear to me that if any club goes bust there is a high chance it’ll be a middling size championship club. 

They've invested wisely in young players on long contracts (Pearson, Stockley, Harrop etc) and so should the needs arise to raise a few million at short notice then their ability to do so is far more an easier task than it would be for us. 

[radcliffe white]

1 minute ago, boltondiver said:

Circulation today? 6,000?

God knows 

can’t remember last time I bought any paper, in fact seriously think it was when I glossed the doors needed something to put down 

[Mounts Kipper]

1 minute ago, Kane57 said:

They've invested wisely in young players on long contracts (Pearson, Stockley, Harrop etc) and so should the needs arise to raise a few million at short notice then their ability to do so is far more an easier task than it would be for us. 

We invest in young players, we’ve sold 2 in recent years we’ve got a hot property in Connell and there’s couple more coming through, sadly we sell before they reach their full potential. 

[MickyD]

1 hour ago, Marc505 said:

Does seem to fit the style of the Evening News reporting at the minute though, just look at how the paper itself tweets reports, very opinion based. They've definitely had a change of direction I think, other day I was reading a report from one of their own about the dangers of walking down Bradshawgate, it read like a postbag letter.

Part of Iles' job is to up the readership. I imagine most of BN's income comes from advertising; certainly the telesales department seemed busier the last time I visited their offices than the editorial side. This will apply to both physical newspapers and the on-line version. Iles' news stories will get more readership or clicks if it's edgy or revealing, irrespective of factual content. As a journalist, his job is to find that edginess. Maybe the reason he's disliked on here is because he always seems to be taking the negative side of stories about OUR club. 

And regarding the "It sounds like a postbag letter - I used to write the report for Bolton Rounders League every weekend, based on results from the previous week. I was described as a reporter but had no journalistic training. I'd send around 3-400 words and Iles or Bonnar would edit down to about 250 where necessary. This was the bridge between me as the untrained writer and them as the trained. Occasionally my entire wording would be used as sent. Would this read like a postbag letter? Probably, because that's pretty much what it was; my ideas about what was interesting to a bunch of women playing rounders 4 nights a week.

Edited March 6, 2019 by MickyD

[bwfcfan5]

1 minute ago, MickyD said:

Part of Iles' job is to up the readership. I imagine most of BN's income comes from advertising; certainly the telesales department seemed busier the last time I visited their offices than the editorial side. This will apply to both physical newspapers and the on-line version. Iles' news stories will get more readership or clicks if it's edgy or revealing, irrespective of factual content. As a journalist, his job is to find that edginess. Maybe the reason he's disliked on here is because he always seems to be taking the negative side of stories about OUR club. 

I don't mind him being negative - what I mind is him slanting a story negatively but leaving out the crucial pieces of information that would allow a reader to come to a definitive similar viewpoint.

It seems to be a common editorial technique nowadays.....

And his twitter is a reflection of that but worse. 

Here's an example. "Wages haven't been paid - this is terrible the end of the world a disaster". But at no point does he write why, what the reasons are, nor does he report some conversations that took place within the club that he does know about. It was a bad situation. But he omitted crucial stuff that was known by many within the stadium. 

For example - I didn't see him report over the weekend the fact that players had been told to expect a takeover this week. 

[snowball]

 

 

10 hours ago, Moon boy said:

The Bolton news reporter is a Professional Journalist, anything he writes in the BN will have been checked and possibly edited by someone senior to him, anything he puts out on Twitter is probably nearer to his true thoughts, like the rest of us he can say what he wants, he may even post on here.

Some of the personal insults and nastiness towards him are tiresome and unwarranted, plenty of  Iles haters quote him regularly though, if you think he’s shit don’t follow 

[snowball]

Re Iles and Bolton News. Think we need to realise all they are interested in is boosting their circulation/profits. The truth of this whole takeover process is probably too complicated/boring/confidential to be interesting so they need to keep things ticking over get folks riled and bad/negative news does that .Its frustrating coz no.one else in the media gives a shit so many rely on the.local rag for info. I dont do social media at all so im immune to the hysteria and bollox on there. As clint once said 'opinions are like arseholes. Everybody has got one'

Hopefully something will happen soon .Iles latest article shows he hasnt a clue whsts going on and our esteemed journo is just trawling the internet for rumours.

[MickyD]

Isn't writing on a football forum "social media" or have I missed the ironic content of your post?

[snowball]

5 minutes ago, MickyD said:

Isn't writing on a football forum "social media" or have I missed the ironic content of your post?

Yeah realised that after sorry! Should have said opted out of twatter and facebook types. 

[burnden]

Alan Nixon‏ @reluctantnicko 18s19 seconds ago

BOLTON. Progress on game going ahead. Should be sorted. Ownership battle taking some interesting twists. Many ways to skin a

[Mounts Kipper]

14 minutes ago, burnden said:

Alan Nixon‏ @reluctantnicko 18s19 seconds ago

BOLTON. Progress on game going ahead. Should be sorted. Ownership battle taking some interesting twists. Many ways to skin a

Nixon now reporting Kenyon been in but we should see next move soon. 

[Tonge moor green jacket]

Micky- quite an interesting take on the role of BN journalists. No doubt clicks equate to cash, but I see the potential for that stance to hugely backfire.

If the BN cannot be relied upon for accuracy, and becomes little more than an opinion based forum. Much like this or any other.

Isn't there a danger that numbers drop as does revenue and it ceases to be?

They do need to retain some level of credibility; or they may well start to lose the ear of contacts etc.

[Chris Custodiet]

Ignorance is the offspring of prejudice and I have often wondered whether prejudice was the cause of the errors and omissions that seemed to have been the product of the BN's sportswriting team.

How, otherwise, can you begin to explain the absurd falsehoods, like the claim that the money from the sale of Nicolas Anelka wasn't re-invested or that Gordon Hargreaves funded the building of the Reebok. I cannot believe that these claims were  made when  their authors knew them to be untrue. No. Isn't it more likely that prejudice was so endemic that none of them even thought to check the claims, daft as they were, before going into print?

One of the more difficult tasks the club has faced over the last three years was the Blumarble loan, signed off by Dean Holdsworth, and repayable within a few days of the risibly named, Sports Shield, takeover. The costs of Dean Holdsworth's involvement in the club has plainly been substantial yet the BN has chosen to disregard it, instead focussing almost entirely on the easy target that is Ken Anderson who, in case it's escaped the BN's notice, managed to save £1million in interest charges and crucially defer repayment of the Blumarble loan for two and a half years.

Edited March 6, 2019 by Chris Custodiet

[ErnestTurnip]

Sorry for another long post, I seem to be trying to take up the slack that Sluffy has temporarily left.

Our academy getting mentioned in this thread and the way Brentford run their set up being mentioned somewhere else got me wondering if we know how much it costs us to run it and if it is actually worth doing ? We've had the two obvious ones who got sold, Vela, and there's the likes of maybe Connell/Turner/Politic currently who may or may not make it.

I don't know the figures and the gut feeling is that you should always have one to bring your own lads through to the first team or make them saleable assets but I had a quick search and it appears that although academies get audited that data is kept private.

We have this news from the club website on 7th March 2018 saying we were ranked 2nd in the whole 92 in terms of productivity for season 2013/2014 - 2016/2017:

https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2018/march/bolton-wanderers-academy-celebrates-productivity-success/

Then there's this article that gives us the figures for 2016/2017 showing us as 24th :

https://the72.co.uk/95878/top-10-most-productive-academy-set-ups-in-football-league/ - the link to the data is towards the bottom of the page or here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s73sf44j08345af/Academies .JPG?dl=0

And then there's this for the 2017/2018 season showing us to be 31st :

http://trainingground.guru/articles/academy-productivity-rankings-2017/18

Obviously I can't vouch for any of the data in any of the 3 links but we have a bit of a feel good buzz about the academy as they do well in academy level cups and leagues but in reality that doesn't actually matter because that's not their primary goal - it could be a side effect but doesn't seem to be ?

The productivity rating would seem to cover us selling them on (early or not) and so although it might feel like we are putting decent investment into the youth is it actually doing us any good?

Like I said it "feels" the right thing the do and it also "feels" like they are doing a good job but if we've gone from 2nd to 31st then summat has gone wrong and gone wrong quickly, whether that is down to the current administration is another discussion.

[gonzo]

@KieranMaguire

is a great twitter feed. Too many to post but it really does show what’s needed and how it’s a fuckin miracle we are still a football club.