The "self-funding" or "breaking-even" model can work

It is my belief that the most plentiful substance in football is stupidity, so a club run on sensible lines can most certainly out-perform other clubs - even though those other clubs are receiving large injections of cash. We all know this to be true. We were not competitive financially - even with Ipswich - in 2011 - but we went up. Since Evans took over, Ipswich have spent every penny they have earned, increased their debt by £65 million, sold every inconceivable asset -- and the net effect is that they have got a bit worse and lost a lot of their fan base. If money talked they would have gone up years ago.

The problem is that I do not believe that this football club is being run on sensible lines. Put bluntly: basing key appointments on the old-pals act and nepotism is a recipe for disaster.

There is an alarming lack of business expertise and a total lack of football expertise on the board. The job of the non-executive directors is to scrutinize the management of the club. They do not have the skills to do this. I've spoken to Ed Balls, he's a nice chap, but his knowledge of football is roughly on a par with mine. I do not believe that either of us should be in the business of overseeing Webber. Thank goodness that I, at least, am not. We've been here before: Doncaster once said that Worthington was basically given a totally free hand. That approach ultimately led to relegation to the third tier and near administration in 2009. Only then were Doncaster and the oleaginous Munby shown the door.

To the credit of the three owners they took action at that point - by appointing as Chairman one of their fiercest critics. Together with his two key appointments - Chief Executive and team manager the club was transformed by 2012.

The current board worries me. Other than being Mrs Wynne-Jones's nephew what does Tom Smith add? Fine put him on the board, but please put on one or two people who can actually do the job of non-executive .
director properly.

The appointment and dismissal of Jez Moxey was an expensive fiasco. Whatever you think of him, he was an entirely known quantity. To decide six months down the line that he didn't "get" Norwich and that, in fact, the whole structure was wrong is plain ridiculous. It worries me that the individuals responsible for that costly f**k-up still have authority at the club.

And then there's Steve Stone. I have no idea whether he's good at his job - all I do know is that in the Summer of 2016 the current board had so little faith in him that they paid Ed Balls £90,000 to do his job for him.

Which brings me to Webber. This seems to be a reasonable appointment - he is experienced and highly-regarded in some quarters. Farke is an interesting appointment. We can all see the problem - lack of experience of this sort of football - but if he is a good coach and motivator then the upside will currently outweigh the downside. Based on what I saw yesterday - if the board have faith in him they're really going to have to be resolute.

It's Webber's other appointments that concern me. Granted our scouting has been poor - but were the two best options two blokes who had been with Webber at Wolves? Was their scouting that brilliant? (Genuine question - I really don't know). I'm really concerned by the dismissal of Richard Money and the appointment of two blokes from Huddersfield - whose academy's performance was so abject that it was shut down. Seems like it's not what you know, it's who you know.

The recipe for success should be:
1. A board with the skills necessary to run a football club
2. A scouting system that works
3. An Academy that produces players of the requisite quality.

I don't believe that we currently possess any of those three ingredients.

Posted By: Bryan Salad Surgery, Nov 26, 17:36:39