Fan plan to buy players

[Ball Comrade]

Wednesday's supporter's trust now wants 10,000 fans to chip in £100 each, so that we can spend it on players. Not pay off debt, not reduce ticket prices, not buy shares in the club, but buy players. The last time we spent that much we ended up with Franny fucking Jeffers, but that's beside the point really. The point is that they just don't get it. Here's the Trust's chairman explaining the rationale:

Keys, long resigned to the Geoff Sheard enterprise failing, said: "Now that this has fallen away, I can't see any individual writing out a big cheque in the current economic climate. The only realistic way to repay debts is to get back to the Premier League. And to do that there has to be investment in the squad.

Of course, £100 isn't a 'big cheque' for 10,000 wednesday fans, oh no.


Sheffield Telegraph story

[Ray de Galles]

Fan plan to buy players

We had some kind of stunt in 2000 where supporters allegedly helped to fund the purchase of Kurt Nogan.

The fans behind it were a couple of loudmouth fantasist self-publicists though (one of them now works for the club, natch) so nobody really ever knew exactly how much was raised and contributed.

And , in the end, it was only Kurt Nogan.

[Ball Comrade]

Fan plan to buy players

It's this bit that gets me:

The only realistic way to repay debts is to get back to the Premier League. And to do that there has to be investment in the squad.

If we have any spare cash we should not be shovelling it at footballers. If Wim Jonk, Andy Hinchcliffe, Gilles de Bilde, Ian Nolan, Peter Atherton, Gerald Sibon and the rest have taught Wednesday fans nothing, we're fucked.

[TMA]

Fan plan to buy players

A friend from work was playing alongside Kurt Nogan, last year, for ENTO Aberaman Athletic in the Welsh First Division. Not sure if he's still playing.

Which one of the two involved now works for the club, Harri? I take it it's the one with the initials JJ?

[Ray de Galles]

Fan plan to buy players

I believe so, it's a terrible indictment that despite our supposedly improved status some of the people working at the club are the same sadsacks who looked incompetent 10 years ago.

[Sixmartletsandaseagull]

Fan plan to buy players

Kurt Nogan was the absolute business for Brighton. Terrific player, though his brother was better I think.

When I was little the Albion bought Bert Murray through a Buy-a-Player scheme.

People took part in fundraising schemes and £10,000 was raised.

Such was the popularity of the guy, a curry seemed to be referred to as a Bert Murray or Bert, rather than say a Ruby, by all football loving folk down Brighton way (and that lot in Hove)for many a year, well even now among my peers and older.

The People's Player indeed.

We the fans repeated this in 1998 by buying Rod Thomas from Chester City, while of course one lucky fan managed to buy/win Colin Kazim Richards through Coca-Cola.

[Cavalry Trouser Tips]

Fan plan to buy players

I remember when we didn't have a pot to piss in back in 2002 and some poor fucker stumped up the wages so we could have 30-year-old Wigan striker Lee Ashcroft on loan.

Four games, no goals. The same return we got from Kevin Kyle on loan from Sunderland back in 2000. And Michele Ngonge from Watford the same year.

The only striker I remember being a success was Peter Ndlovu, who we really should have moved heaven and earth to sign from Birmingham, but instead he went to Sheffield United as part of the convoluted £1m deal for Curtis "the boxer" Woodhouse.

[E10 Rifle]

Fan plan to buy players

The only realistic way to repay debts is to get back to the Premier League

This is self-delusion of the highest order (as it would be for fans of comparable clubs in the Championship).

[Anton Gramscescu]

Fan plan to buy players

E10's right.

Being bought by a self-aggrandizing billionaire is a much more realistic path to debt freedom.

[loppy]

Fan plan to buy players

I wanna know who decides which players the pot gets spent on. Surely after investing their hard earned cash into the scheme the fans will want a say in who the club sign, while the club presumably will have their own targets in mind - if the last 12 years is anything to go by, probably some seemingly inspirational signing who seems to perfectly complete the jigsaw, then spends the 4 years of his contract injured.

One things for certain, I won't be joining in. I struggle enough to afford my ticket, never mind the new [Bob] De Bilde. And as much as I might like being partly responsible for potentially signing the next Whelan, Brunt or Bougherra, it hurts enough already when they're sold to other Championship clubs at knock-down rates, never mind when I've helped pay for them.

[Houdi Elbow]

Fan plan to buy players

The fans behind it were a couple of loudmouth fantasist self-publicists though (one of them now works for the club, natch) so nobody really ever knew exactly how much was raised and contributed.

What a good job that doesn't apply in this case ...oh.

QUOTE:
The only realistic way to repay debts is to get back to the Premier League

This is self-delusion of the highest order (as it would be for fans of comparable clubs in the Championship).

Even more so if they believe that we are just one player away from a team that can challenge for promotion.

[loppy]

Fan plan to buy players

Houdi Elbow wrote:
[quote]

Even more so if they believe that we are just one player away from a team that can challenge for promotion.

To be fair, nowhere does it specify it would only be one player. Know what your looking for a million or so could buy you two or three, which if spent right, in a tight league like the Championship, could see you fluke a play-off spot.

[Houdi Elbow]

Fan plan to buy players

OK I'll rephrase.

Even more so if they believe that we are just one million pounds away from being a team that can challenge for promotion.

[Ball Comrade]

Fan plan to buy players

It seems that the initial report was slightly inaccurate. The idea is to ask businessmen and women to raise more, so that eventually the fund would total £10m. This would then be spent on players.

NHH: Are these fuckers allowed to call themselves a supporter's trust? Can you not disqualify them or something?