Seeing as it's Wednesday...

[Guy Profumo]

Any thoughts of Owls' new CEO?

Katrein "Customers" Meire?

Given her time at Charlton, I can't see it going well for the good people up Penistone Road.

[ursus arctos]

From longeared on the Championship thread on the day of her appointment.

"There's a reason I've been banging on repeatedly on this thread about the incompetent way Wednesday are being run, and this is the most terrifying decision by far. They do need a voice with football experience in the boardroom - but seriously, why Meire? What on earth did Dejphon Chansiri see in her given her experiences at Charlton? It's quite clear the clown who runs the club doesn't give a flying fuck about the fans, see the loss of stripes, the badge change, the massive whacking up of ticket prices, now he seems unaware of (or worse, welcoming) the potential for Meire to actively alienate the fanbase.

We've got a mass of injuries at the moment, that happens, but at the end of last season the entire medical team was sacked and a bunch of Carvalhal's mates brought in instead. We've had loads more injuries this season, many of them muscular. Word is that many of the players don't trust the medical team and are getting treatment elsewhere. Forestieri has been in Italy pretty much continually for his recovery.

We still don't know who recruits our players - possibly Doyen Sports who sell us their clients. The chairman doesn't like selling players "because they're part of the family" or something similarly nebulous so we've got an ageing bloated squad on long contracts with several players simply picking up their wage. This also seems a very limited strategy - who would want to join us if we potentially wouldn't sell them upwards?

We mutually consented with Carvalhal on Christmas Eve and still don't have anyone in line for a new manager, we're been linked with ridiculous names like Pablo Fonseca and Andre Villas Boas (admittedly the latter was in the S*n so they probably just made it up), we've got some very difficult fixtures coming up and there's a transfer window open. Caretaker boss Lee Bullen (who cares about the club and gets it) said "we need to appoint a new coach" in the post match interviews today, which indicates no appointment is imminent. Bear in mind Middlesbrough sacked Monk at the same time, had Pulis in straight away and won at Preston today.

Because the chairman makes every single fucking decision it means the club barely functions as an entity, we charge these massive prices and the club is run worse than before Chansiri took over and it was hardly an organisation of shining brilliance and wonder under Mandaric. Interested to see what he tries to charge for season tickets when they go on sale in the next few weeks, in the last couple of years he's got away with price rises because there was the potential of Premier League football. There's no chance of that happening this time.

We are going to get relegated this season or next. There are going to be protests. Which I'm quite looking forward to participating in given that Chansiri priced me out of regular attendance back in 2015."

[longeared]

The general consensus that has formed amongst the fans since Monday is that Meire at least deserves a chance. Maybe there were engagement issues and a breakdown of mutual trust at Charlton, maybe she's learned lessons and will apply them here. (All aboard the bullshit rodeo!) Her previous record though means that she starts with no credit in the bank. Given though that Chansiri makes every single fucking decision at the club he may not take it too well if Meire starts firing off as a loose cannon again.

The club seem to be engaging in Clusterfuck Of The Day at the moment. Yesterday the chairman announced that anyone who wanted a refund on their season ticket could have one (this following through on a promise made in a bizarre rant published on the club website at 1.30am on Christmas Eve). Given that he only appears to speak the language of money I do hope this isn't a way of saying "don't moan if you don't ask for a refund". Today the club recalled Jack Stobbs from loan at Port Vale and announced he was under consideration for the cup tie at Carlisle on Saturday, seemingly no-one having bothered to check that he'd come on as a sub for Vale in their first round game with Oxford.

We still don't have any sign of a new manager being appointed. It feels important to get a new boss in at the moment, even if it does end up being some unknown client of bloody Doyen Sports who was last seen being sacked from the Segunda Division. A new manager would at least give the fans and club something to rally around, they could start looking at the squad in this transfer window (or more likely act on decisions that are made being made above them) and crucially take some heat off Chansiri for a while.

Some good articles that have been written over the last couple of days:

War of the Monster Trucks' open letter to Chansiri

Former club employee Steve Chu

Nigel Short (not the chess player, he's one of the fans a former chairman attempted to sue a decade or so back)

Jon Newsome in the Star (warning; contains autoplay video with sound)

There is an awful lot of anger around at the moment. Probably not the time to be facing a banana skin of a cup tie at Carlisle followed by a trip to our neighbours.

[Guy Profumo]

Sorry.

Should of (sic) checked the Championship thread.

But I thought it deserved a thread of its own, and I couldn't resist making the pun.

[Kevin S]

He might be yesterday's man but I'm sure Nigel Worthington would help out as a caretaker manager until things settle down. But is that the kind of rational thinking that is not allowed under this leadership?

[ursus arctos]

John Chapman, who is Twitter's most respected writer on Belgian football in English, also thinks that Meire deserves a chance.

That said, his take is largely that she had no independent authority at Charlton, being merely a puppet of (and shield for) Duchatelet, while longeared's very valuable contributions make me think that she has walked into a near exact replica of that situation working for Chansiri.

[Third rate Leszno]

Probably not the time to be facing a banana skin of a cup tie at Carlisle ....

I don't think you need to worry yourselves unduly about that - I don't believe we've knocked out a side from two divisions above us in my lifetime.

[longeared]

The difference I can see between the situations at Charlton and Wednesday is that Meire was a useful shield for Duchatelet given that he appears to use Charlton as a club that is part of his wider footballing empire and has no particular interest in the individual club. Chansiri on the other hand owns no other clubs - his family owned Reading but they sold up at the end of last season - still goes to the majority of our games and has a hands on interest in proceedings when he's back in Thailand.

But I thought it deserved a thread of its own, and I couldn't resist making the pun.

It absolutely deserves one, I'd been chewing over starting one anyway and it stops me clogging up the D2 thread.

[ursus arctos]

Yes, that is an important difference.

[longeared]

Today's clusterfuck; the season ticket refund that has been offered comes with the condition that anyone taking it up can no longer apply in the future for a season ticket, club membership or similar. Stop fucking dividing the fans during this difficult phase and run the fucking club properly, you clown.

In other news, there's a fan forum on Thursday to discuss pricing. I hope this is going to be an open and honest discussion about the nature and position of our finances. The chairman has said that "whoever turns up will be deemed as representative of the fan base" so given past behaviours this will probably end up as a one sided debate where the club explains that nothing much will change other than a cheap game or two will be reinstated. Or it'll be our fault for not paying silly prices.

[longeared]

The fans forum I mentioned in my previous post lasted some six hours, Meire apparently came across well and those who went suggested the chairman was open to a debate about future strategy. So they've decided to have a supporter survey, though I'd like to know how to participate in it. Anyway, they asked the following spectacular questions.

[ad hoc]

If you do find out longeared let me know

[longeared]

Found a link to the survey on Owlstalk, so I feel a bit dirty now. Apparently it was emailed out. I notice they attempt to minimise fake responses by asking for a client number.

Also subsequently spotted that cantaglo started a thread with this in. Strongly suspect it'll be the chairman behind this rather than Meire - he makes every single decision at the club.

[pebblethefish]

In fairness, the way your "key senior players" have performed this season, question eleven is not as clear cut as they might think.

[ad hoc]

To be fair the majority of our "key senior players" are injured and have been for months

[longeared]

Which is also an indictment of flawed strategy as we changed the entire medical team last summer (at Carvalhal's behest) and now players keep being rushed back before they're ready. Barry Bannan and Keiren Westwood both returned to full training this week and immediately had setbacks. That said we don't really need the latter at present given Joe Wildsmith's excellent form.

Completed the survey, disappointed to note there was no way of getting across that the "ongoing strategy" is working to the extent that I won't be there this afternoon as I refuse to pay thirty three quid to watch the 16th placed team in the division take on Birmingham.

[cantagalo]

No problem. This is a better place for it.

I thought that Meire might be trying to make an early impression. If Chansiri is making all the decisions, it does beg the question as to why he is paying Meire a presumably substantial salary.

[longeared]

It's been frequently said that Chansiri needs a football person to be giving advice. We've had a rotating cast of characters through along with assorted other advisers in the last three years but at the end of the day Chansiri is the person who makes all (and I mean all) the decisions.

Subsequent events have shone a light onto a different question - it's not how much money the club has, rather can they be trusted to spend what they have efficiently and effectively? On today's evidence the answer is no.

[longeared]

Wednesday released their annual accounts today - they're downloadable here as a PDF. Quite a few points that raise an eyebrow, shall we say.

- We made a £20m loss last year. That's half way to the FFP limit in a single season. Add that to a £9m loss the year before and that's another chunk of the way there. In other words we need a loss of c.£9m this year to avoid breaching FFP. This is unlikely to happen given that we've spent £11.5m on new players (Rhodes £8m, van Aken £3m, Pelupessy £500k - the latter largely covered by the cup run) and not sold anybody of value.
- Turnover up by only £1m despite a 5k increase in average attendance and the club proudly announcing we'd taken catering back in house
- A wage to income ratio of an eye bleeding 125% excluding amortisation (another 26%)
- Debt of over £30m - that's more than we had when HMRC took us to the High Court in 2010. Admittedly this is to the chairman rather than external bodies. Taken two years to achieve that!

In other words the club bet the absolute shop on getting promoted. Now this hasn't happened, there's a lot of ageing players on long contracts who we're not going to be able to sell for money any time soon and there's likely to be an embargo sooner or later. We are in all sorts of trouble.

[ad hoc]

Thread:

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/970584781300862976

[ursus arctos]

That's a fascinating thread that illustrates very clearly just how much Championship clubs are betting the farm on promotion.

This, for instance, is rather unsustainable

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/970584958518616064

[longeared]

So, on the eve of the new season Wednesday are the only one of 62 teams not to renew their commentary deal with the BBC as they offered a 10% reduction in terms. Instead there's no radio coverage of us this season and instead the club have proudly announced they will provide commentary online for all matches via our iFollow service. Which costs £4.49 a month.

There's a fans forum on Monday night which is likely to be quite lively as a consequence of both this and having not signed anyone all summer, it's widely assumed we're under a transfer embargo as a result of breaching FFP. The club won't confirm this in case fans are rude about them on Twitter.

[longeared]

The fans forum tonight sounds quite tasty, though I need a bath after reading the club hashtag on Twitter for the last quarter of an hour. We've been under a transfer embargo since April for breaching FFP rules so we can't sign anyone and can't currently renew any players contracts until the contract ends. This is quite significant given that there are twelve players out of contract next summer. Chansiri admits we need to get promoted this season (um). Oh and it's the fans fault we signed Jordan Rhodes, he didn't want to.

https://twitter.com/Owlstalk/status/1026571214276505600

This is all entirely self inflicted by the chairman and rapidly becoming a textbook example of what happens when a club bets the farm on Premier League promotion and fails.

[cantagalo]

He may well have been told to blame the fans by Katrin Meire. That’s what she did at Charlton.