Dale Rumbold was at the shareholders' briefing held in the Galleria on Wednesday night. He outlines the highlights for TWTD.

The speakers at the meeting alternated between Messrs Sheepshanks and Bowden. I noticed John Kerr in attendance, and apparently so too were board members Roger Finbow and Philip Hope-Cobbold.

David Sheepshanks opened the meeting and gave a briefish introduction:

• We had made immense progress financially
• He was excited about Sunday (presumably his local hunt is riding...)
• We were fortunate to have the services of Derek Bowden and Joe Royle
• Our budgets are based on continuing Division One football
• There will be no parachute payment next season and therefore 90% of our income will need to be self-generated
• We are now reaping the benefits of our Academy which is 10 years old

Derek Bowden took over to talk about the club's KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) :

Obviously, without promotion, next season's media income goes down to near zero, so significant savings are required.

Bowden also spoke about the Education and Sports Trust, which covers community projects and now has charitable status.

Half an hour into the meeting David Sheepshanks returned to the lectern to talk about the Academy in more detail.

During this last season, 30% of first-team appearances have been by players that are home grown (this includes Richard Naylor), and 37% of the first-team squad are ex-Academy lads. The money spent on the Academy remains unaltered at £922,000 per annum.

Questions were then invited from the floor:

Can the board give a guarantee to prospective season-ticket renewers that we will not sell any of our young players?
No, but it is the intention not to, although no club can ever totally rule sales out.

Why did we sell Thomas Gaardsøe?
Joe Royle wanted to give Georges Santos a permanent deal, and the board told him that he would need to sell someone to make this happen. The only bid on the table was for Gaardsøe, and Joe Royle decided that it was worth selling him to secure the services of Santos (Muttering from the floor: "That was clever, then" to which Sheepshanks said "Hindsight is a wonderful thing.")

Why did we sell Darren Ambrose?
Deloitte and Touche, the administrators, accepted a low bid against the wishes of the board.

Will there be further share issues?
Possibly.

Are there any further payments due from other clubs re : players sold
Charlton have already paid 'small' stay-up payments in respect of Holland and Hreidarsson. WBA have been invoiced for the further small fee due on Gaardsøe.

What is the Marcus Bent situation?
Leicester have him until June, so he is not available for us in the play-offs. Leicester have the option of taking over his contract for the next season: it would be a free transfer. If not, he returns to us.

Money generated by play-offs?
£250,000 from the semis, £1m if we reach final.

When will we have decent transfer money coming in again?
When the swallows come back to Capistrano ... sorry, that should read "When the transfer market returns".

Were the press stories about a possible take-over by 'that betting bloke' (Colin Davey) true?
Yes. The board met him to discuss terms, but told him he was limited to a small percentage of the shares, not a takeover. He declined.

How would we spend promotion money?
On new players/improved contracts that would only apply at Premiership level.

The formal meeting broke up at about 8.35, and many people retired to the bar. I looked around briefly to see if there was anyone there that I knew, and there wasn't, so I went home to get something to drink.

So, in summary, it seems the club is now on a sound, albeit tenuous, financial footing, with better than expected income providing a small operating profit. There were very few searching questions asked of the board and those that were elicited an accomplished professional response from Bowden, and the usual red-faced indignation from Sheepshanks.

Photo: Action Images

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