| Sheepshanks 16:30 - Mar 17 with 2931 views | FrimleyBlue |
Whilst there's a lot of mixed opinion on the guy, I miss the days of seeing Sheepy walking around, shaking peoples hands.
That was a proper ITFC Owner.
For all his faults, we miss him.
Got too excited. But at least he had the club to heart and it showed every week.
True story this,
I went to Sir Alfs Memorial in the town centre and we were away that day.
Sheepy was at the door and shook every persons hand who walked in
My dad, not one to pick the right moment for a speech, just came out with, Come on sheepy, we going to win today - literally at the bloody door to the church!
Sheepy looked and rather than keep a professional face on, he smiled, thanked my dad for his support and said I hope so mate, I bleed blue like you.
Bit random the above, but It just made me remember what's changed. |  |
| |  |
| Sheepshanks on 16:40 - Mar 17 with 2210 views | xrayspecs |
Sheepy did not own the club, he was the Chairman.
That the club were controlled by the Cobbold family throughout its history to around the time we went into admin is significant and contributed to the positive relationship between the club and fans.
The relationship has changed since ME took over, and not for the better. I think this was the point we were kicking around earlier. [Post edited 17 Mar 2017 16:41]
|  | | |
| Sheepshanks on 16:50 - Mar 17 with 2164 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Sheepshanks on 16:40 - Mar 17 by xrayspecs |
Sheepy did not own the club, he was the Chairman.
That the club were controlled by the Cobbold family throughout its history to around the time we went into admin is significant and contributed to the positive relationship between the club and fans.
The relationship has changed since ME took over, and not for the better. I think this was the point we were kicking around earlier. [Post edited 17 Mar 2017 16:41]
|
yeah apologies not 'owner' always label him that, but he wasn't. | |
| |
| Sheepshanks on 17:20 - Mar 17 with 2097 views | Blue_Moses |
| Sheepshanks on 16:50 - Mar 17 by FrimleyBlue |
yeah apologies not 'owner' always label him that, but he wasn't. |
Sheepshanks' poor management is a large part of the reason we are in debt and have Evans, you just miss the football we played | | | |
| Sheepshanks on 17:22 - Mar 17 with 2078 views | MJallday |
| Sheepshanks on 17:20 - Mar 17 by Blue_Moses |
Sheepshanks' poor management is a large part of the reason we are in debt and have Evans, you just miss the football we played |
i dont fully accept that. we'd have been in this state sooner or later, with or without sheepy - unless we'd have miraculously been taken over by the saudis/chineese |  |
| |
| Sheepshanks on 17:23 - Mar 17 with 2067 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Sheepshanks on 17:20 - Mar 17 by Blue_Moses |
Sheepshanks' poor management is a large part of the reason we are in debt and have Evans, you just miss the football we played |
I did put in my post he got too excited when we went up.
I agree. It did put us in a horrid situation in the end. Having said that had we not gone down. It could have been a very different future. Its not all down to sheepy. Burley is culpable as too is who ever kicked stewart in the jaw! Bstrd. And wrighty for his move to arsenal etc. Its not all sheepy. | |
| |
| Sheepshanks on 17:29 - Mar 17 with 2013 views | BackToRussia |
| Sheepshanks on 17:20 - Mar 17 by Blue_Moses |
Sheepshanks' poor management is a large part of the reason we are in debt and have Evans, you just miss the football we played |
ITV digital is the main reason we went into debt. |  |
| |
| Sheepshanks on 17:32 - Mar 17 with 1997 views | connorscontract |
| Sheepshanks on 17:20 - Mar 17 by Blue_Moses |
Sheepshanks' poor management is a large part of the reason we are in debt and have Evans, you just miss the football we played |
I'll consistently stand up for Sheepshanks as I don't think he did much wrong. Should have only built the SAR and not the SBR at the time, but apart from that he was right to give the Manager of the Year an enhanced teansfer budget and trust him to use it.
Marcus Stewart's jaw and ITV welching on their subsidiary's commitments were unpredictable events. Burley buying Sereni and Marshall rather than Mart Poom or Jussi Jaskelainen wasn't Sheepy's fault. Ditto Burley insisting on Finidi George when he was going to be missing at a crucial point for the African Nations Cup. It was Burley who brought in Pablo who then failed to score in the Premiership.
If any one of those factors had bern different it might have made the difference.
Once we were in a mess the failure to get a realistic fee for "Player of the World Cup" Matt Holland, because he refused to go to Villa shafted us. Sheepy had done the deal with Villa. He did what he could.
If ME could bring Sheepy back tomorrow, and give him pernission to change the Season Ticket offer, he would do a whole lot better.
My suspicion is that ME won't fund us next season. The earned income will be the budget. Mick will go in the summer and a cut price, lower division manager will be expected to make sales to make it workable. It's set up for "if the fans won't put their money in, why should I?" | | | |
| Sheepshanks on 17:34 - Mar 17 with 1991 views | witchdoctor |
| Sheepshanks on 17:29 - Mar 17 by BackToRussia |
ITV digital is the main reason we went into debt. |
this is often cited as the reason for our problems.....wasn't it the same for all the other clubs?....why did it affect us more than them?.... |  | | |
Login to get fewer ads
| Sheepshanks on 17:42 - Mar 17 with 1961 views | BackToRussia |
| Sheepshanks on 17:34 - Mar 17 by witchdoctor |
this is often cited as the reason for our problems.....wasn't it the same for all the other clubs?....why did it affect us more than them?.... |
Only 3 got relegated out of the Prem at the same time I suppose. | |
| |
| Sheepshanks on 17:42 - Mar 17 with 1958 views | PrideOfTheEast |
| Sheepshanks on 17:34 - Mar 17 by witchdoctor |
this is often cited as the reason for our problems.....wasn't it the same for all the other clubs?....why did it affect us more than them?.... |
It impacted an awful lot of clubs but clearly those getting relegated who had entered into contracts on the basis of receiving inflated ITV money would have been impacted worst. Both ourselves and Leicester for example. | | | |
| Sheepshanks on 17:43 - Mar 17 with 1956 views | xrayspecs |
| Sheepshanks on 17:34 - Mar 17 by witchdoctor |
this is often cited as the reason for our problems.....wasn't it the same for all the other clubs?....why did it affect us more than them?.... |
We were almost able to trade our way out of trouble. Had MH or HH moved on for fees agreed, we would have had enough money to avoid administration and the fire sale that followed.
We were only a few million short and the ITV deal was about £2m if I recall correctly.
Sheepy should take a fair amount of the blame as our budget was over-stretched to the point that a small financial shock tipped us over the edge. | | | |
| Sheepshanks on 17:49 - Mar 17 with 1941 views | connorscontract |
| Sheepshanks on 17:34 - Mar 17 by witchdoctor |
this is often cited as the reason for our problems.....wasn't it the same for all the other clubs?....why did it affect us more than them?.... |
Itv Digital was supposed to pay a decent chunk for rights to the second tier. They couldn't get enough subscribers and folded, taking (if my memory is correct) an anticipated £3 million from our budget.
We were hit more hard than most because we had just been relegated from the Prem with players on new, Prem level, contracts (and no parachute payments at the time) and because we had borrowed £12* odd million (I think) to rebuild South and North stands.
So we had Prem level wages, a big, new, capital debt and our supposedly valuable players were rendered illiquid when the upshot of the ITV Digital collapse was that the Football League transfer market collapsed: no other Champ or lower club could afford to buy players as they had all lost a big chunk of anticipated revenue. The Prem Clubs then swooped like vultures picking up promising players for relative peanuts as distressed assets.
Perfect storm.
* edited to correct stand debt figure. [Post edited 17 Mar 2017 18:06]
| | | |
| on 17:50 - Mar 17 with 1925 views | _ |
| | | |
| Sheepshanks on 18:08 - Mar 17 with 1870 views | oldbluestu |
Like putting Dracula in charge of blood stocks |  | | |
| Sheepshanks on 18:13 - Mar 17 with 1837 views | Jonnosdreadlocks |
| Sheepshanks on 17:20 - Mar 17 by Blue_Moses |
Sheepshanks' poor management is a large part of the reason we are in debt and have Evans, you just miss the football we played |
spot on. the bloke spun more than shane warne and was an utter c@nt who got the club in to deep brown stuff which led to administration and the sale to Evans. Blamed Burley and Royle when it as he responsible for financial f@ckups yet used his plummy Etonian contacts to get another cushy Fa job post town. He also had the audacity to say he is an authority on leadership training. |  |
| |
| Sheepshanks on 18:14 - Mar 17 with 1834 views | PhilTWTD |
| Sheepshanks on 17:49 - Mar 17 by connorscontract |
Itv Digital was supposed to pay a decent chunk for rights to the second tier. They couldn't get enough subscribers and folded, taking (if my memory is correct) an anticipated £3 million from our budget.
We were hit more hard than most because we had just been relegated from the Prem with players on new, Prem level, contracts (and no parachute payments at the time) and because we had borrowed £12* odd million (I think) to rebuild South and North stands.
So we had Prem level wages, a big, new, capital debt and our supposedly valuable players were rendered illiquid when the upshot of the ITV Digital collapse was that the Football League transfer market collapsed: no other Champ or lower club could afford to buy players as they had all lost a big chunk of anticipated revenue. The Prem Clubs then swooped like vultures picking up promising players for relative peanuts as distressed assets.
Perfect storm.
* edited to correct stand debt figure. [Post edited 17 Mar 2017 18:06]
|
Essentially right, think it was £2 million a year from ITV Digital but the stands and the £25m bond weren't really a factor at that point, more of a problem later on down the line post-admin. |  | | |
| Sheepshanks on 18:28 - Mar 17 with 1798 views | oldbluestu |
| Sheepshanks on 17:29 - Mar 17 by BackToRussia |
ITV digital is the main reason we went into debt. |
100% WRONG
relegation was the reason why we went into administration, he had spent money we never had. If we had avoided relegation then no administration. | | | |
| Sheepshanks on 19:11 - Mar 17 with 1746 views | HARRY10 |
| Sheepshanks on 17:29 - Mar 17 by BackToRussia |
ITV digital is the main reason we went into debt. |
ABSOLUTE NONSENSE ! ! !
The money lost there was around £2m - we defaulted £4.7m to the taxman alone, never all the other paymenst we missed out on.
Sheepshanks took a massive gamble and lost. Whatever the money we could have received from Herman andMatt should have ben taken so as to ensure finacial stability. Sheepshanks believed that we could bounce back and we didn't.
We had been carrying around £8m debt before pronotion in 2000 so I doubt very much if £2m in 2002 would have let to bankruptcy.
The continuing peddling of thsi myth helps no one, and is sadly one of those 'lies' that the newer generation continue to put out. It was the huge loss of TV income that did for us coupled with not adjusting oour outgoings at the beginning of the season, that was the cause.
If there is any dispute, akternative view then it is how much of that solely lies with sheepy. He was chairman not the single decision maker. | | | |
| Sheepshanks on 19:27 - Mar 17 with 1709 views | witchdoctor |
| Sheepshanks on 19:11 - Mar 17 by HARRY10 |
ABSOLUTE NONSENSE ! ! !
The money lost there was around £2m - we defaulted £4.7m to the taxman alone, never all the other paymenst we missed out on.
Sheepshanks took a massive gamble and lost. Whatever the money we could have received from Herman andMatt should have ben taken so as to ensure finacial stability. Sheepshanks believed that we could bounce back and we didn't.
We had been carrying around £8m debt before pronotion in 2000 so I doubt very much if £2m in 2002 would have let to bankruptcy.
The continuing peddling of thsi myth helps no one, and is sadly one of those 'lies' that the newer generation continue to put out. It was the huge loss of TV income that did for us coupled with not adjusting oour outgoings at the beginning of the season, that was the cause.
If there is any dispute, akternative view then it is how much of that solely lies with sheepy. He was chairman not the single decision maker. |
that's what I thought.....I don't get now and I didn't at the time get the love in for the bloke..he squandered money left right and centre on his vanity projects and who can forget the bonus the he and Bownan wanted ....20K each was it...just for not losing as much money as had been projected?...still a massive loss mind you..... | | | |
| Sheepshanks on 19:50 - Mar 17 with 1658 views | stonojnr |
| Sheepshanks on 19:27 - Mar 17 by witchdoctor |
that's what I thought.....I don't get now and I didn't at the time get the love in for the bloke..he squandered money left right and centre on his vanity projects and who can forget the bonus the he and Bownan wanted ....20K each was it...just for not losing as much money as had been projected?...still a massive loss mind you..... |
20k each ? and the rest, how much did he pay himself as a bonus for finishing 5th, before promotion IIRC we were losing 1million quid a year, why we had to keep selling the likes of Dyer to keep going, so even going up simply meant we just broke even. and I distinctly remember from all that "voluntary administration" nonsense when the real figures came out, even had we stayed in the Premiership, we'd have still made a humoungous loss because the outgoings totally dwarfed the income we were getting,we literally were spending money we simply hadnt got. I mean they totally refurbished the club reception to make it more premiership in style, ,bought loads of flat screen/wide screen tvs, and they werent a few hundred quid from Tesco ones, they were renting flats on the waterfront, and in that churchmans complex at the height of the property rent boom, they believed the hype we werent a good championship team anymore who'd got promoted and had a bit of a luck, they spent money like we were guaranted top 5 premiership team every season. | | | |
| Sheepshanks on 20:04 - Mar 17 with 1626 views | good_at_COD |
| Sheepshanks on 19:11 - Mar 17 by HARRY10 |
ABSOLUTE NONSENSE ! ! !
The money lost there was around £2m - we defaulted £4.7m to the taxman alone, never all the other paymenst we missed out on.
Sheepshanks took a massive gamble and lost. Whatever the money we could have received from Herman andMatt should have ben taken so as to ensure finacial stability. Sheepshanks believed that we could bounce back and we didn't.
We had been carrying around £8m debt before pronotion in 2000 so I doubt very much if £2m in 2002 would have let to bankruptcy.
The continuing peddling of thsi myth helps no one, and is sadly one of those 'lies' that the newer generation continue to put out. It was the huge loss of TV income that did for us coupled with not adjusting oour outgoings at the beginning of the season, that was the cause.
If there is any dispute, akternative view then it is how much of that solely lies with sheepy. He was chairman not the single decision maker. |
Well said Harry, although I have it on good authority that he was indeed the sole decision-maker and the other members of the board soon realised they were wasting their time standing up to him. This was particularly relevant when he insisted on building two new stands, rather than one, which became hugely significant in the club's subsequent demise.
One other thing - while Evans continues to subsidise the club, albeit to a level most on here find unacceptable, Sheepshanks withdrew what he thought was his entitlement and never, as far as I am aware, invested one penny of his own cash. The level of 'salary' taken by Sheepy was far in excess of the amount mentioned elsewhere in this tread - as high as £750,000 if memory serves.
I also recall Sheepy addressing the extraordinary general meeting and insisting that Marcus Evans was the only bidder for the club when, in fact, I have since met someone in attendance that evening who was denied the opportunity to speak by Sheepy and who still insists he was acting on behalf of another interested party.
Make of that what you will. | |
| |
| Sheepshanks on 20:08 - Mar 17 with 1602 views | Suffolktractor |
| Sheepshanks on 19:50 - Mar 17 by stonojnr |
20k each ? and the rest, how much did he pay himself as a bonus for finishing 5th, before promotion IIRC we were losing 1million quid a year, why we had to keep selling the likes of Dyer to keep going, so even going up simply meant we just broke even. and I distinctly remember from all that "voluntary administration" nonsense when the real figures came out, even had we stayed in the Premiership, we'd have still made a humoungous loss because the outgoings totally dwarfed the income we were getting,we literally were spending money we simply hadnt got. I mean they totally refurbished the club reception to make it more premiership in style, ,bought loads of flat screen/wide screen tvs, and they werent a few hundred quid from Tesco ones, they were renting flats on the waterfront, and in that churchmans complex at the height of the property rent boom, they believed the hype we werent a good championship team anymore who'd got promoted and had a bit of a luck, they spent money like we were guaranted top 5 premiership team every season. |
Yes but it was still hell of a lot more fun and entertaining going to Portman Road in those days than it is now.
Sheepie probably made a few mistakes, so did others, but to me it does matter that the top of the club right through really cares about the club, rather than see it and us as a business decision only. | | | |
| Sheepshanks on 20:21 - Mar 17 with 1564 views | GeoffSentence |
| Sheepshanks on 17:42 - Mar 17 by BackToRussia |
Only 3 got relegated out of the Prem at the same time I suppose. |
All three of whom went into admin. |  |
| |
| Sheepshanks on 20:45 - Mar 17 with 1483 views | PhilTWTD |
| Sheepshanks on 17:43 - Mar 17 by xrayspecs |
We were almost able to trade our way out of trouble. Had MH or HH moved on for fees agreed, we would have had enough money to avoid administration and the fire sale that followed.
We were only a few million short and the ITV deal was about £2m if I recall correctly.
Sheepy should take a fair amount of the blame as our budget was over-stretched to the point that a small financial shock tipped us over the edge. |
That is essentially it re the £2m, the club wasn't far away from trading itself out of trouble and that additional £2m would have kept the wolves at bay. Even after MH and HH had turned down their moves if Marcus Bent had moved on in the January they would have made it to the summer when they would have been able to trade again without having gone into administration.
As you say, the budget was overstretched due to having Premier League contracts in what's now the Championship and eventually the club ran out of money. Contrary to some posts in this thread the stands weren't a factor which led to administration even if the bond was a significant problem in the years afterwards. | | | |
| Sheepshanks on 20:56 - Mar 17 with 1428 views | PhilTWTD |
| Sheepshanks on 17:42 - Mar 17 by PrideOfTheEast |
It impacted an awful lot of clubs but clearly those getting relegated who had entered into contracts on the basis of receiving inflated ITV money would have been impacted worst. Both ourselves and Leicester for example. |
It was no coincidence that all three relegated clubs - us, Leicester and Derby - all went into administration. | | | |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
