TOPIC: Director of external affairs

Is dealing with player transfers a Director of External Affairs role. No. Is it a Managing Director role. Yes. Please drop the ridiculous job title when the role clearly involves more than the description, and stop hiding behind the Finance and Sales and Marketing Directors, when anything media related comes out of the club. Ffs!!!

A shambles and very predictable as per the secret conversation thread back in July way before any of these roles were even announced.

Weren't we allegedly planning on bringing a new MD in? To do these kinds of things?

cufcmike wrote:
This was to be John's title and role under Lapping's plans, with a new MD appointed. Now however, a new MD is not going to be appointed, however John took the title in any case, like many of Lapping's ideas!!

Without sounding like I'm Pro custodians, I'm not sure there's anybody at the club at this moment in time who would do any better than Nixon has done in the last few seasons.

To be fair to the man, for all he does wrong, Grainger, Jabo, Dicker (some may question), Kennedy, Asamoah, Troy.... I mean, I don't mean to play devils advocate but they're pretty decent signings...

When we have a new MD, yes, absolutely let him take the reigns. But at this moment in time, after a kitchen sink of a year, can we actually afford a new five figure MD? Or are we best seeing if possible promotion, extended cup revenues can chip away at the deficit and then when we're a bit financially sounder, appoint someone?

Of course the argument from some will be "can we afford not to".

My view is, he's actually performed better on this front as of late (and of course a couple of solid signings pre curle) without being guided by incompetent managers.

I agree with a lot of what Matt said. There is a very definite gap at present. At the next BM I'm going to ask about this.

I feel i must say again as with everyone at the club he's been welcoming & reminded me everytime the door is open. I messed about near the directors entrance yday & he said again i could go in. Me & my bobble hat didn't meet dresscode like.

This role is at times between a rock & a hard place. I am absolutely in the role to ensure our voices are heard. But it's also to build up a bit of trust from the club too.

Anyway... the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. email is working again but I've lost everything i had.

Claire_Like_Eh wrote:
That is all very nice and lovely, however when you have seen John, have you given him the Set B Q's from Griff and demanded answers (Q s that you have asked CUOSC to answer)?

In my expetience demanding answers rarely gets the desired outcome. I'm being honest with how i see things. I know that leaves me wide open for criticism. I continue to believe change at the top is needed, which is why i will be asking about the MD role. Hopefully CUOSC will respond to the Qs too.

Why have the questions been given to CUOSC and not John?

The set of questions were given to me to answer as fans rep. I did so for those i could. The ones i couldn't give an answer to i fwd on to CUOSC as they too have a fans rep & have been involved in discussions around investment.

Mouldy wrote:
I wish youd said that before i voted for you. You are probably right though, since the goldfish from the last floods passed away there probably hasnt been anyone at the club to do a better job. Im sure Andrew Lapping said last summer the type of MD he'd be looking to bring in would pay for his own salary. Maybe if he didnt hed be doing better than the man whos tenure is costing the club half a million a season. So yeah hes doing a tremendous job.

Dancingbear wrote:
If Lapping was going to appoint someone who's decisions effectively foot the bill, that's brilliant.

However, as much as we wanted it to happen, Lapping hasn't been successful with his takeover, and I certainly wouldn't trust the current top brass to appoint the MD meeting that criteria he was looking for.

At this moment in time, I feel our their option would be to give PK the role on a temporary basis, purely to appease critics and get some fresh ideas into the role.

I'm not saying Nixon is a God DB, and I know as well as we all do that there are huge gaps in the model costing us money, which he is accountable for as MD, but I'm just being in my opinion realistic about the situation with his involvement in player signings as per the O/P.

To put it in no uncertain terms:
I want Nixon et al out.

I wanted Lapping to succeed with his takeover.

I want someone else to succeed with their takeover.

I think it's ridiculous and incredibly disrespectful to the fan base that the club are so deceptive about what is going on.

But...Perhaps without Nixon currently (short term only) staying involved we may have faltered on a couple of the signings - we also may not have.

I'm happy with the signings and think we're well geared up for promotion. A promotion would bring new interest in the club in all areas - players, executives, sponsorship, fans, investors. Then we can appoint the calibre of person(s) needed to steady us and guide us further forward.

I suppose if theyd appointed the bloke that Nixon and Lapping both interviewed then id have had confidence in the decision.

Yeah, I would have also, as AL has a track record of investing in a dog of a business and getting a return on his investment. Doing that by having a team of the right people in there.

But hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it. Hypothetically, if AL was involved with the decision it would have gave a lot of supporters faith.

The reason I wanted to employ an MD was largely down to the obvious conflict of interest between being MD and being owner-no accountability if things went wrong as turkeys don't vote for Xmas.Most successful companies are run this way.I also made the point at the time that I wanted to 'professionalise' the back office,rather than rely on largesse,charity and benevolence.The exec team also needed change and a succession plan.Phil King and Suzanne are part of that change.

To be fair to JN,he has fulfilled this role without remuneration for a long while.That is also wrong.Despite this,he is also now seeing that even when the Club is performing,he is on a hiding to nothing.

Could the Club afford an MD?I thought so and so did the rest of the team at the time-it was about investing in the future rather than making do.

There are some out there who still think a club should be run on benevolence,free time and favours-show me any successful Club in the modern game run on that model.

The Club will change-it has to and the Board know that.We should encourage rather than berate them at this juncture as things are pretty good just now and this is a long game.Likewise,give Claire a break and see what she can influence in her own way-I have no doubt she is doing her best.

I agree with the vast majority of what your saying Andrew i will however still berate the board until they get there heads out of their bottoms and step aside. Or at least make it clear thats what they want to do. So far i dont believe for one minute thats what they want to do.

You might be right DB-I have plenty to moan about after my treatment but the Club is bigger than any of us and will be here long after the present regime,whether you like or dislike them.

I have taken the view that berating something which is a big part of my life is unhealthy for my state of mind!

All I wanted was to make the Club be the best it could be and to achieve that,things had to change-we had been left behind through a lack of investment in the ground,technology and a few bad decisions over managerial appointments.The whole lot created a spiral which has been arrested thankfully

A good MD more than earns their wage, hence why a paid role should be a necessity...

The board said they were holding off on appointing a new MD until after the 'billionaire' situation had been sorted out, as they may want to being their own man in.

So as soon as they admit there's no billionaire, we'll get a new MD...

Not a jn fan here, but with his contacts through his FA roles over the years he is by far the best to carry out the first enquiries. I'd rather have a mate ring me that I've known for years about 1 of my players than having some new dude called Paul (name as an example) ring me up and just pop out with that question


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chopper wrote:

DeckchairBlue wrote:
If they admit there is no billionaire, they are admitting to lying. So there will be no new MD.