You're the new Owner - What's your 2 Year Plan for Success

[Armadillo Roadkill]

I have a very limited understanding of the nuances of how a football club truly works. But my ideas are:

Review the hierarchy and ensure key senior positions are filled by suitable people with integrity and professionalism

Implement a mission statement or a clear view of where the club wants to be. I saw Brighton had a job vacancy recently and it said "Brighton are an ambitious club and our objectives include becoming an established, top 10 premier league club, and a top 4 wsl club" or something. I liked how clear it was.

Embrace the historical culture of the club, known for it's community ties and start to try to enhance communication and try to encourage fans back to the ground.

The aim has to be stability and promotion back to the Championship - where I believe we are best suited. So that would be my aim.

Get Rueben onside and his backroom staff.

Work closely with him and the senior people to start reviewing player contracts. Understand the following:
--- which are close to expiring and do we want to re-sign them?
--- who are the key ones, the core 5-6 who the owner and rueben sees as being here for the next few years and gaining promotion
--- who are not ones we want to keep or who we'd be satisfied at selling

Do all of the same with the academy too and the women's team. I understand this is unlikely to be something the owner does directly, but delegate it and treat it as very important.

Also recognise and document past failures. Such as the players who got away, the screw ups and try to work with senior club people to put procedures in place to prevent it. Similarly, understand our successes, why did certain players flourish and celebrate this - implement that as a culture within the academy and club, make it clear that we're a club of huge success for younger players. (I think this probably is already implemented tbf)

As part of the staffing, also put financial controls in place to cover essential costs like tax bills, wages of staff and players.

Not urgent, but look at things like the stadium, matchday experience, fan numbers and attendances. Understand the erosion that took place and how to rebuild it. How can we get fans back and also increase attendances. What does the ground need in 2-5 years time to ensure it's kept maintained. Things like re-painting, structural work, cosmetics, upgrading facilities. All can be covered if/when we get promotion and we stablise more.

Implement a plan of all the above, like:

Within 3 months - we want...
Within 12 months we want...
In 1-2 years:
2-5 years: etc...

Goals which focus on the criticality and the impact the changes will make.

Sack the PA man and ban "Sweet Caroline" forever.

Agree with all of this, except getting rid of DJ Megaparty - who is doing a fine job, has become a part of the ritual despite his iffy start to life in RG2, and would be missed by many.

[morganb]

I think DJ Megaparty would be the ideal man to help run the proposed roller disco in his spare time

[Armadillo Roadkill]

I think DJ Megaparty would be the ideal man to help run the proposed roller disco in his spare time

[Hendo]

Monorail from town to the stadium, obviously.

[Greatwesternline]

I may have dreamt it but I’m sure there was a discussion saying that if we drop to cat 2 academy again that’s it. We can’t get cat 1 back again. Ever. I have no idea whether that’s true or not. But if it is I would do everything possible to keep it. As this last two season have shown just how important it is.

I’d not pay a transfer fee again until we are in the premier league. As I’m almost certain you can build a team for free to compete at the top end of both the champ and the league 1 with free transfers.

I’d look to maximise match day revenue as much as possibles I saw something on here about spurs, it might have been gwl. Saying how they put loads of things on to keep fans at the stadium after the game. And encourage people to arrive early.

Concerts at the stadium.
American football at the stadium
Get a rugby team back to share the ground

Share the training ground with another club or American football team.

Increase ticket prices for adults . But reduce kids prices.

Sell players every season.

Get a statue built of sjm and ssc - celebrate our 106 team.

Open a club shop in town

Solar panel the roof and sell leecy back to the grid on non match days and be self sufficient on match days.

Bring catering in house to maximise profits.

Brew own beer on site like spurs do to maximise profits.

Get a better marketing team. Advertise the club in the town better. Work to get more sponsors. Work to increase the number of boxes full for corporate hospitality.

Get Amazon or Netflix to do a documentary series on us.

Do what the yanks do at baseball games where you get people walking up and down the stairs during the game selling hot dogs and coffee and bag of sweets for the kids.

It was me. Spurs do it. BHA do it.

I darkened the door of the Mad Stad for the Huddersfield game. Me and my pals wanted some beers after the game so went to the jazz cafe. One pint later we thought let's head to town before the busses dry up. They had already dried up. It's physically impossible to spend money in the club after a game unless you came by car.

So, when the weather is still nice, keep all the drinking establishments outside the East stand open till 6pm AT LEAST, and send a bus every 15 minutes until 630pm. Just try it out. You might sell another 500 pints.

[Snowflake Royal]

Sack the PA man and ban "Sweet Caroline" forever.

Now we're oxf*rd talking!

[On Strings]

I suppose this is dream land, but I'd tie Selles down to a 3 year contract with big release clause; get us back to Cat 1, tie down our best players to improved longer term deals, and same for the young talent; and because in L1 for some bizarre reason there's no FFP, I'd throw £20m at the team to get us back to the Championship ASAP. All the while, re-hiring Brian McDermott as Chief Scout, and build our recruitment team back up again. Maybe bring Hammond back as DOF as well. Get the band back together!

Oh I wish!

[stealthpapes]

There was an article I read somewhere that cited 'The Sunderland Vortex'.

After a strong previous season, Steve Bruce’s Black Cats found themselves in a relegation fight in 2011/12. The board didn’t hesitate and sacked Bruce a month before Christmas, hiring Martin O’Neill in his place. O’Neill more than did his job, getting Sunderland to a solid 13th-placed finish, before it inevitably fell apart the following year. This time, Sunderland parachuted in Paolo Di Canio with seven games of the season remaining, and he just about did enough to keep the team up before, yep, things got rocky the next season and he was replaced by Gus Poyet. Inevitably, Poyet kept Sunderland up before getting into trouble the next year, when Dick Advocaat came in to save the club and should have left in the summer, but stuck it out until October before the Black Cats swapped him for Sam Allardyce. “Big Sam” stayed clear of relegation until the England job came calling (whoops), and Sunderland were forced to replace him with David Moyes. That year, the team completely fell apart and finished 20th.

Each of those managers came in, wanted to bring in their own players, some would have frozen out other players pour encourage les autres, reshape the squad in their vision. Short term constraints dominate any long term vision, just to stay up, just to pay the next set of bills. Each successive “firefighter” brought in has to do more, as there's more dead wood to manage and an increasingly incoherent squad.

And at some point, almost inevitably, you’re going to hire the absolute wrong person. I'd even go so far as to say a run of bad luck or injuries might be enough. This clearly applies to the Championship, with Birmingham and Reading two clear examples. In our case, we had many wrong people - a good half-decade of pretty mediocre managers - but what ultimately relegated us was the points deductions.

So, what I would so? Avoid that ^^^
It is clearly possible to avoid it. It is clearly possible to reverse it and build back. Money helps BUT in the absence of money, what could you do?

It's basically what others in the thread have said, have some long term plan and vision, buy the players and use the academy accordingly. Frankly, our academy has kept the squad afloat. Things could have been much much worse if we didn't have solid players coming in and some cash flow from selling the prospects.

I actually don't really care what the details of the plan are beyond that big picture vision. Differences in style will be minor compared to the bigger picture stuff.

This sits aside to the off-field stuff, where bringing everything back under one roof and maximising the income, 'maximising the customer experience', but also build a rapport between club and fanbase again.

Do you remember when the helicopters nodded at each other? Of course you do.

[Brogue]

There was an article I read somewhere that cited 'The Sunderland Vortex'.

After a strong previous season, Steve Bruce’s Black Cats found themselves in a relegation fight in 2011/12. The board didn’t hesitate and sacked Bruce a month before Christmas, hiring Martin O’Neill in his place. O’Neill more than did his job, getting Sunderland to a solid 13th-placed finish, before it inevitably fell apart the following year. This time, Sunderland parachuted in Paolo Di Canio with seven games of the season remaining, and he just about did enough to keep the team up before, yep, things got rocky the next season and he was replaced by Gus Poyet. Inevitably, Poyet kept Sunderland up before getting into trouble the next year, when Dick Advocaat came in to save the club and should have left in the summer, but stuck it out until October before the Black Cats swapped him for Sam Allardyce. “Big Sam” stayed clear of relegation until the England job came calling (whoops), and Sunderland were forced to replace him with David Moyes. That year, the team completely fell apart and finished 20th.

Each of those managers came in, wanted to bring in their own players, some would have frozen out other players pour encourage les autres, reshape the squad in their vision. Short term constraints dominate any long term vision, just to stay up, just to pay the next set of bills. Each successive “firefighter” brought in has to do more, as there's more dead wood to manage and an increasingly incoherent squad.

And at some point, almost inevitably, you’re going to hire the absolute wrong person. I'd even go so far as to say a run of bad luck or injuries might be enough. This clearly applies to the Championship, with Birmingham and Reading two clear examples. In our case, we had many wrong people - a good half-decade of pretty mediocre managers - but what ultimately relegated us was the points deductions.

So, what I would so? Avoid that ^^^
It is clearly possible to avoid it. It is clearly possible to reverse it and build back. Money helps BUT in the absence of money, what could you do?

It's basically what others in the thread have said, have some long term plan and vision, buy the players and use the academy accordingly. Frankly, our academy has kept the squad afloat. Things could have been much much worse if we didn't have solid players coming in and some cash flow from selling the prospects.

I actually don't really care what the details of the plan are beyond that big picture vision. Differences in style will be minor compared to the bigger picture stuff.

This sits aside to the off-field stuff, where bringing everything back under one roof and maximising the income, 'maximising the customer experience', but also build a rapport between club and fanbase again.

Do you remember when the helicopters nodded at each other? Of course you do.

Whilst I agree with the sentiment. I would suggest that the chopping and changing of the managers at Reading is not the same as what was seen at Sunderland. They were chasing unrealistic ambitions of finishing higher in the division and they had no right to. Finishing 13th in the premier league and sacking a manager is ridiculous.

Let’s look at our managers since Brian was sacked in 2016

2016 -2018 Jaap stam 1 win in his last 18 games. Should have gone sooner. We had no choice in letting him go. It was March and we were 3 points above the drop

Paul clement March 2018 - December 2018 - a 23% win ratio which I think is the worst of any Reading Fc manager in our history. Sacked in December, we were 21st in the league only outside of relegation on GD, 4 wins in 20

Jose Gomes December 2018- October 2019. A 23.6 % win ration - our second worst manager on win percentages. 3rd from bottom when sacked no win in 6. 2 wins in the first 11 games. Only 9 wins in the 38 games he was in charge for.

Mark Bowen. October 2019 - August 2020

Bowen was not ‘sacked’ he was offered to go back to his role upstairs. We finished 14th at the end of the covid season. Bowen ended with stats of 14 wins 12 draws and 14 defeats in his 40 games in charge.

Pauno august 2020 - feb 2022- 12 games without a win 21st in the champ. Terrible cup exits.

Paul ince feb 2022- April 2023 - 22nd in the champ no win in 8.

All of the above sacking were becuase we we on dreadful runs and had relegation looming over us. Every sacking was just. We were not chasing glory or sacking managers because we finished mid table.

[stealthpapes]

Maybe. Maybe not.
Either way, the end result was very similar and the details about deadwood and incoherent squads very much the case.

And maybe it is telling that the one manager in all that we've 'forgiven' a bad spell seems to be coming up good.

(Yes, I am fully aware of there being mitigating circumstances.)

[stealthpapes]

Just to be deliberately ornery ...

Finishing 13th in the premier league and sacking a manager is ridiculous.

In that spell described, Sunderland finished 13th, 10th, 13th, 17th, 14th, 16th, 17th, so just avoided relegation a number of times (two, three in seven years). This is similar to our post 2012-13 run of ten seasons, where we had four successful relegation fights before failing (not sure where to count 2015-16, think we were midtable and our form cratered after the cup run but we were never in any danger).

Steve Bruce took them to the first 13th position and was fired halfway through the second 13th finish season, with a record that season of W2 D5 L6, a win % of 16% that season.

From then on, I think the case parallels Reading pretty closely. O'Neill finished 13th, sacked in a relegation fight. Paulo Di Canio lasted a year, sacked in a relegation fight. Same with Poyet. Same with Advocaat. Allardyce left (the bad luck factor, perhaps), then Moyes.

EDIT - added a section about win percentages, Sorry Brogue, got my head stuck in Wikipedia the last five minutes.

Paul clement March 2018 - December 2018 - a 23% win ratio which I think is the worst of any Reading Fc manager in our history.

so I've dug out the comparable numbers.

Steve Bruce - 30,7 (to get a sense of scale 13th, 10th, sacked in second 13th season)
Martin O'Neill - 35.2
Di Canio - 23.1
Poyet - 30.7
Advocaat - 21.1
Allardyce - 29.0

The same arguments you made do appear to apply.

As far as I can see, in the period described, at no point did they sack a manager for just finishing midtable.

If I've misunderstood anything, happy to look at it.

[Snowflake Royal]

There was an article I read somewhere that cited 'The Sunderland Vortex'.

After a strong previous season, Steve Bruce’s Black Cats found themselves in a relegation fight in 2011/12. The board didn’t hesitate and sacked Bruce a month before Christmas, hiring Martin O’Neill in his place. O’Neill more than did his job, getting Sunderland to a solid 13th-placed finish, before it inevitably fell apart the following year. This time, Sunderland parachuted in Paolo Di Canio with seven games of the season remaining, and he just about did enough to keep the team up before, yep, things got rocky the next season and he was replaced by Gus Poyet. Inevitably, Poyet kept Sunderland up before getting into trouble the next year, when Dick Advocaat came in to save the club and should have left in the summer, but stuck it out until October before the Black Cats swapped him for Sam Allardyce. “Big Sam” stayed clear of relegation until the England job came calling (whoops), and Sunderland were forced to replace him with David Moyes. That year, the team completely fell apart and finished 20th.

Each of those managers came in, wanted to bring in their own players, some would have frozen out other players pour encourage les autres, reshape the squad in their vision. Short term constraints dominate any long term vision, just to stay up, just to pay the next set of bills. Each successive “firefighter” brought in has to do more, as there's more dead wood to manage and an increasingly incoherent squad.

And at some point, almost inevitably, you’re going to hire the absolute wrong person. I'd even go so far as to say a run of bad luck or injuries might be enough. This clearly applies to the Championship, with Birmingham and Reading two clear examples. In our case, we had many wrong people - a good half-decade of pretty mediocre managers - but what ultimately relegated us was the points deductions.

So, what I would so? Avoid that ^^^
It is clearly possible to avoid it. It is clearly possible to reverse it and build back. Money helps BUT in the absence of money, what could you do?

It's basically what others in the thread have said, have some long term plan and vision, buy the players and use the academy accordingly. Frankly, our academy has kept the squad afloat. Things could have been much much worse if we didn't have solid players coming in and some cash flow from selling the prospects.

I actually don't really care what the details of the plan are beyond that big picture vision. Differences in style will be minor compared to the bigger picture stuff.

This sits aside to the off-field stuff, where bringing everything back under one roof and maximising the income, 'maximising the customer experience', but also build a rapport between club and fanbase again.

Do you remember when the helicopters nodded at each other? Of course you do.

The key is not having everything built and around staying up being the be all and end all. The club must be set up so its capable to manage a drop in performance and recover.

As you say, this endless cycle of panic stations to stay up at all costs eventually fails and leaves you far worse off.

Sometimes you just need to get relegated under a manager who has struggled, and give them a chance to learn from it.

[stealthpapes]

The key is not having everything built and around staying up being the be all and end all. The club must be set up so its capable to manage a drop in performance and recover.

Yes. Fully agree,

[Forbury Lion]

I think it will take sometime to unravel the current mess. If I took ownership now I think keeping things ticking over to the end of the season is what I would do first until I've got the management structure in place and had a deep clean of the accounts.

1. Get rid of the old regime, the CEO, anyone else on that side of the fence.
2. Appoint someone to run the club on my behalf who knows what they're doing
3. Chuck in as much money as I can in the form of director loans without breaking the Profit & Sustainability rules
4. Communicate with the employees, fans, sponsors and media
5. Back the manager
6. Ensure wages paid on time/tax paid etc

Long term, I would push the academy to keep producing players and have a pipeline whereby a player breaks into the first team, becomes established and then have the next one break in and at that point we sell the first one for a big profit and repeat. Basically what Brighton have been doing.

[MartinRdg]

All of the above sacking were becuase we we on dreadful runs and had relegation looming over us. Every sacking was just. We were not chasing glory or sacking managers because we finished mid table.

And, in fact, you could argue that some of them should have been sacked before they were

[Snowflake Royal]

All of the above sacking were becuase we we on dreadful runs and had relegation looming over us. Every sacking was just. We were not chasing glory or sacking managers because we finished mid table.

And, in fact, you could argue that some of them should have been sacked before they were

And you could argue Selles should have been sacked this time last year, and Coppell after Xmas in his second year.

It obviously helps if you don’t appoint clowns in the first place.

Clement, has obviously gone on to do nothing, and had a terrible record, but it's the sort of situation maybe we should have given him time, risked taking relegation on the chin and seeing how he got on in L1. Maybe he'd have turned it around.

Selles improved quicker, but with a comparatively stronger team for the league he was in. His first 21 were W7, L11 though, so not hugely better.

Just every aspect of recruitment has to be smarter. From manager and coaches through players.

Pog, Drenthe, John, Hendrick, Drinkwater, etc etc.

The all had attitude or fitness or failure issues. Abject failures in scouting and recruitment.