The Debt.

[CrazyHorse]

Can you please explain 'the lies and the huge debt cover up'? The facts and the circumstances surrounding them have been fully explained every year in the club's audited Annual Report and Accounts. The only misrepresentations I have seen have come from disgruntled supporters and the odd journo who hasn't done his homework properly.

Because up until what...a couple of months ago the official party line was that our only debt was to Eddie. The overdraught was paid off, we owed nothing to nobody, everything was fine, we had nothing to worry about.

Lies, lies, lies.

[Enoch]

clearly they needed to cut much deeper and much faster.

In hindsight they most certainly did.

Though whatever the train of events that led us here, I seriously doubt there was ever a plan to grind the club to dust and wash it down the pan. It's gone tits up, but surely not by design.

Probably the point I realised the game was up is here.

[Peter Thompson]

clearly they needed to cut much deeper and much faster.

In hindsight they most certainly did.

Though whatever the train of events that led us here, I seriously doubt there was ever a plan to grind the club to dust and wash it down the pan. It's gone tits up, but surely not by design.

Probably the point I realised the game was up is here.

No plan & not by design but by sheer incompetence & mis management on a large scale by Phil Gartside (and as the owner who allowed Gartside to ruin the club ultimately Eddie Davies)

[Worthy4England]

clearly they needed to cut much deeper and much faster.

In hindsight they most certainly did.

Though whatever the train of events that led us here, I seriously doubt there was ever a plan to grind the club to dust and wash it down the pan. It's gone tits up, but surely not by design.

Probably the point I realised the game was up is here.

I know it's pi$$ easy with hindsight. Reality is Garty is paid big bucks to successfully resolve those gambles and didn't. My supposition is that he genuinely thought we'd go straight back up. I don't believe either bloke planned us to get to this juncture, but you have to ask what the cunning plan was in the eventuality that we didn't go straight back up, coz it's looking like there wasn't one.

[Gudnib]

Trying to be objective about this, I suspect Davies gave plenty of notice that his financial support had reached its limit. The issue appears to be despite knowing this Gartside didn't have a plan to reduce our operating cost to a sustainable level that didn't involve loans. Sounds like Gartside was banking on extra funding coming in and it hasn't happened. For me, that's at Gartside's front door.

I would be amazed if Eddie hadn't given notice time without number that he just couldn't keep pumping in support without limit and its completely inconceivable that the board had not fully understood that throughout.
Its also inconceivable that any member of the board would have banked on extra funding coming in. The best they could hope for was buying time for performances on the pitch to improve to the extent that the club was sufficiently attractive to potential investors.
Frankly they were between a rock and a hard place.

If it's inconceivable that any Board member was banking on additional backers/investment (and I think that's contrary to what the statements in the Accounts were suggesting), then clearly they needed to cut much deeper and much faster. They didn't.

I am not entirely clear about the statement you refer to but cutting to the extent implied may not just have been impossible (given the contracts in place) but also extinguished any possibility of passing on a going concern of any value to any prospective bidder. One of the problems of being in the Premiership is that to attract Premiership standard players you have to offer contracts they (and their agents) will accept. It involves making forward commitments that can only be sustained on Premiership level revenues and when you are relegated you have big problems if no-one wants to take these players off your hands.
You will recall that Blackpool's owners received substantial abuse for (apparently) repaying directors loans after gaining promotion and later were able to offload Charlie Adam at a profit. But there weren't too many takers for members of Owen Coyle's squad.
With hindsight it seems that the appointment of Owen Coyle was a big mistake but it was also a popular choice with the fans given the unpopularity of Gary Megson.
By the way I doubt you will find many people more attuned than I to the concept of accountability or with a dislike for incomplete or misleading statements in Annual Reports. But that does not mean I favour witch hunts.

[Gudnib]

Can you please explain 'the lies and the huge debt cover up'? The facts and the circumstances surrounding them have been fully explained every year in the club's audited Annual Report and Accounts. The only misrepresentations I have seen have come from disgruntled supporters and the odd journo who hasn't done his homework properly.

Because up until what...a couple of months ago the official party line was that our only debt was to Eddie. The overdraught was paid off, we owed nothing to nobody, everything was fine, we had nothing to worry about.

Lies, lies, lies.

You could not be more wrong on just about everything you seem to have swallowed but if that makes you more content so be it.

[midlands exile]

Trying to be objective about this, I suspect Davies gave plenty of notice that his financial support had reached its limit. The issue appears to be despite knowing this Gartside didn't have a plan to reduce our operating cost to a sustainable level that didn't involve loans. Sounds like Gartside was banking on extra funding coming in and it hasn't happened. For me, that's at Gartside's front door.

I would be amazed if Eddie hadn't given notice time without number that he just couldn't keep pumping in support without limit and its completely inconceivable that the board had not fully understood that throughout.
Its also inconceivable that any member of the board would have banked on extra funding coming in. The best they could hope for was buying time for performances on the pitch to improve to the extent that the club was sufficiently attractive to potential investors.
Frankly they were between a rock and a hard place.

If it's inconceivable that any Board member was banking on additional backers/investment (and I think that's contrary to what the statements in the Accounts were suggesting), then clearly they needed to cut much deeper and much faster. They didn't.

I am not entirely clear about the statement you refer to but cutting to the extent implied may not just have been impossible (given the contracts in place) but also extinguished any possibility of passing on a going concern of any value to any prospective bidder. One of the problems of being in the Premiership is that to attract Premiership standard players you have to offer contracts they (and their agents) will accept. It involves making forward commitments that can only be sustained on Premiership level revenues and when you are relegated you have big problems if no-one wants to take these players off your hands.
You will recall that Blackpool's owners received substantial abuse for (apparently) repaying directors loans after gaining promotion and later were able to offload Charlie Adam at a profit. But there weren't too many takers for members of Owen Coyle's squad.
With hindsight it seems that the appointment of Owen Coyle was a big mistake but it was also a popular choice with the fans given the unpopularity of Gary Megson.
By the way I doubt you will find many people more attuned than I to the concept of accountability or with a dislike for incomplete or misleading statements in Annual Reports. But that does not mean I favour witch hunts.

But we have been spending more of on wages than the vast majority of clubs in the championship ever since we were relegated, yet have received pitifully weak value for money. And whatever happened to the measures we were assured we had in place in case of relegation, such as release clauses or wage drops? All talk it would seem. So again I would contest that it is no witch hunt that ED and PG are facing - sadly, it is justified bad feeling for running the club we love into the ground.

[BWFC_Insane]

Can you please explain 'the lies and the huge debt cover up'? The facts and the circumstances surrounding them have been fully explained every year in the club's audited Annual Report and Accounts. The only misrepresentations I have seen have come from disgruntled supporters and the odd journo who hasn't done his homework properly.

Because up until what...a couple of months ago the official party line was that our only debt was to Eddie. The overdraught was paid off, we owed nothing to nobody, everything was fine, we had nothing to worry about.

Lies, lies, lies.

You could not be more wrong on just about everything you seem to have swallowed but if that makes you more content so be it.

That was the line the club was using. It was said many times.

[Enoch]

No doubt it's a succession of decisions made in an increasingly difficlt situation, each compounded by the previous. As has been said before, no one was complaining when the same team's decisions were taking us to Europe.

It's a car crash, just too simplistic to pour on the vitriol.

[CrazyHorse]

Can you please explain 'the lies and the huge debt cover up'? The facts and the circumstances surrounding them have been fully explained every year in the club's audited Annual Report and Accounts. The only misrepresentations I have seen have come from disgruntled supporters and the odd journo who hasn't done his homework properly.

Because up until what...a couple of months ago the official party line was that our only debt was to Eddie. The overdraught was paid off, we owed nothing to nobody, everything was fine, we had nothing to worry about.

Lies, lies, lies.

You could not be more wrong on just about everything you seem to have swallowed but if that makes you more content so be it.

Yeah.
You're right. The problems were actually well documented over the last couple of years and I'm just too contented to see it.

[CrazyHorse]

Contented. We're facing relegation to the third tier and possibly may not even exist next season and I'm contented.

[midlands exile]

Contented. We're facing relegation to the third tier and possibly may not even exist next season and I'm contented.

We've never had it so good, don't you know?

[Gudnib]

No doubt it's a succession of decisions made in an increasingly difficlt situation, each compounded by the previous. As has been said before, no one was complaining when the same team's decisions were taking us to Europe.

It's a car crash, just too simplistic to pour on the vitriol.

Thank heavens! A sensible voice at last. Sometimes the ability for folk to misconstrue seems like watching Father Ted, if not nearly as funny.
'Didn't Father Jack once have a trial for Liverpool'? said Dougal.
'No, he was once on trial in Liverpool', replied Father Ted

[Prufrock]

Contented. We're facing relegation to the third tier and possibly may not even exist next season and I'm contented.

If only. I've hated Bolton Wanderers since the first time my dad dragged me along. If we went bust I might even be able to stop wastng my time talking on the internet to a bunch of sad knobheads I don't know

No such luck, I bet. They'll carry on the club. Just to spite me.

[Gudnib]

No doubt it's a succession of decisions made in an increasingly difficlt situation, each compounded by the previous. As has been said before, no one was complaining when the same team's decisions were taking us to Europe.

It's a car crash, just too simplistic to pour on the vitriol.

Thank heavens. Sensible comments at last.
Following BWFC websites is a bit like watching Father Ted without the humour.
'Didn't Father Jack once have a trial for Liverpool'? said Dougal.
'No, he was once on trial in Liverpool', replied Father Ted

[CrazyHorse]

Yeah but is following BWFC websites a bit like watching Father Ted without the humour?

'Didn't Father Jack once have a trial for Liverpool'? said Dougal.
'No, he was once on trial in Liverpool', replied Father Ted

[CrazyHorse]

'Didn't Father Jack once have a trial for Liverpool'? said Dougal.
'No, he was once on trial in Liverpool', replied Father Ted

[Harry Genshaw]

No doubt it's a succession of decisions made in an increasingly difficlt situation, each compounded by the previous. As has been said before, no one was complaining when the same team's decisions were taking us to Europe.

It's a car crash, just too simplistic to pour on the vitriol.

Thank heavens! A sensible voice at last. Sometimes the ability for folk to misconstrue seems like watching Father Ted, if not nearly as funny.
'Didn't Father Jack once have a trial for Liverpool'? said Dougal.
'No, he was once on trial in Liverpool', replied Father Ted

Forgive my rather simplistic view.

We were in the Premier league for what was it? 12 unbroken seasons? That's the Premier league. The 'we'll pay every club in it squillions of pounds just for being here' premier league.

We no longer have the proverbial pot to pee in. We're bottom of the championship. In danger of going out of business.

Now you can blame me if you like for not buying enough pies, not singing enough, whatever. Personally, I'm blaming the 'businessmen' who showed such financial acumen to leave us in this state.

[Gudnib]

It would be possible to use a lot more but you have managed to hit on the the one word that really says it all- simplistic.

[Gudnib]

Yeah but is following BWFC websites a bit like watching Father Ted without the humour?

'Didn't Father Jack once have a trial for Liverpool'? said Dougal.
'No, he was once on trial in Liverpool', replied Father Ted

In a way that's true enough. There was quite a bit of wit and some wisdom in the Wanderers fanzines and some of it carried over to this website. Its not been totally extinguished but it gave ground firstly to arrogance (we are a cut above teams like Ipswich, PNE or Nottingham Forest for example) followed by a malevolence that maliciously blamed the board and its financial backer for failing to keep us in the manner to which we had become accustomed. The price to be paid is now that our very existence is under serious threat.