Stoke show RFC how to run a Real Football Club

[brendywendy]

you are the most dull and uninspiring team boarder ever schards


cheer up m8!

[Tony Le Mesmer]

stoke buying players and showing much interest in others.

STOKE make READING look like a JOKE.

So so sad but so so true

You were Quimming over Jim White last night like a Gurning Gimp, weren't you?


* Copyright FOF

[Schards#2]

:roll:


you are the most dull and uninspiring team boarder ever schards


cheer up m8!

Sorry if the truth hurt you there m8.

We are following a path this is as close to guaranteeing going backwards on the pitch as it gets, Stoke are not. Their plans may implode at some point but, they may not, at worst they'll be deducted 10 points at some stage. Meanwhile, we will watch an extremely slow motion car crash as the team/squad deteriorates year in year out.

[brendywendy]

LOL! why would your truth hurt me schards?
you and i are free to believe what we want either way.i cant help it if im relebntlessly cheerful any more than you can help being a crushing depressite.
you say the team deteriorates, i say it remains at pretty much the same level, but always with the potential for improvement!
you can keep waiting for the walls to come crumbling down about us, and with a some luck it may even happen for you, but il console myself that youve wasted years moaning and worrying about it, while ive been blissfully ignorant and happy.

[Royal Rother]

[Wycombe Royal]

You know the games up when clubs like Stoke spend 22 million on players. What chance have we got? It was'nt that long ago I went to the Brittania on a freezing mid week for a mid table first division game, there must have been about 6,000 there we won 4-0 Mceever? I think that was his name scored a hat trick. Never mind Delilah and the loudest fans in the Prem, that night buy 21:30 the only fans left in the ground were a few hardy souls who had travelled up from Berkshire.

The difference being, Stoke got some success and built on it, we got some success and, basically, cashed in our chips.

The difference being Stoke have very wealthy owners who are ploughing millions in to the club in search of success (although I suppose that is if you class mid table Prem as success). They won't see their money come back and all the time their level of debt is increasing.

[Schards#2]

LOL! why would your truth hurt me schards?
you and i are free to believe what we want either way.i cant help it if im relebntlessly cheerful any more than you can help being a crushing depressite.
you say the team deteriorates, i say it remains at pretty much the same level, but always with the potential for improvement!
you can keep waiting for the walls to come crumbling down about us, and with a some luck it may even happen for you, but il console myself that youve wasted years moaning and worrying about it, while ive been blissfully ignorant and happy.

It's the whole Socrates and the Pig argument.

Your other point collapses, as the RTG's view always does, on the premise that people who think Reading will fare badly actually want them to fare badly.

[brendywendy]

LOL!



@ me having a point, #
or caring about RTG Vs STG


im just pleading with you to cheer the oxf*rd up.i worry about you man.

[Royal Rother]

Good luck to the Coates family. I'm sure they'll be very popular while it all lasts.

Hopefully the Stoke fans will enjoy the ride and give them the love and respect they deserve for their investments and not run them out of town when it goes wrong like they did the last time.

As with every other club enjoying sustained success in the PL (relative to their size) it is being built on a mountain of "debt" that will (most likely) never be repaid.

Thankfully that particular business model doesn't float everyone's boat.

[RobRoyal]

stoke buying players and showing much interest in others.

STOKE make READING look like a JOKE.

So so sad but so so true

Lulz at a club that pays £10m for Peter Crouch.

Palacios a better signing, mind.

[Svlad Cjelli]

But Stoke are running their business in more or less exactly the same way that Reading are - by looking at income and spending accordingly.

Let's look at the income figures :

Stoke City
PL Prize money : £6.048M
TV income (including facility fees) : £43,620M
Total : £49.668M (excluding gate income and FA Cup money)

Reading
PL "Solidarity Payment" : £2.2M
TV income (to drop 23% next season!) : £2.9M
Total : £5.1M (excluding gate income and play-off money)

So I think it's perfectly justified for Stoke to spend more than Reading do, as they have an assured income stream at least 9.7 times greater.

[Yorkshire Royal]

But Stoke are running their business in more or less exactly the same way that Reading are - by looking at income and spending accordingly.

Let's look at the income figures :

Stoke City
PL Prize money : £6.048M
TV income (including facility fees) : £43,620M
Total : £49.668M (excluding gate income and FA Cup money)

Reading
PL "Solidarity Payment" : £2.2M
TV income (to drop 23% next season!) : £2.9M
Total : £5.1M (excluding gate income and play-off money)

So I think it's perfectly justified for Stoke to spend more than Reading do, as they have an assured income stream at least 9.7 times greater.

Exactly.

Good luck to the Coates family. I'm sure they'll be very popular while it all lasts.

Hopefully the Stoke fans will enjoy the ride and give them the love and respect they deserve for their investments and not run them out of town when it goes wrong like they did the last time.

As with every other club enjoying sustained success in the PL (relative to their size) it is being built on a mountain of "debt" that will (most likely) never be repaid.

Thankfully that particular business model doesn't float everyone's boat.

It's hardly a mountain of debt though is it? Compared to most others, Stoke are in a good shape. It would take something monumental like online gambling being made illegal to plunge them into trouble.

#mongdiv

you are jealous of stoke m8

Seems they're no longer taking the prudent spending route anyway - looks like their spend today will be in the region of £22M - admittedly it would be nice to have an owner with spending power, but that's not the case with us, so it would be pretty stupid to be jealous.....

Being prudent is only spending what you can afford. Which is exactly what they are still doing.

[Royal Rother]

It's hardly a mountain of debt though is it? Compared to most others, Stoke are in a good shape. It would take something monumental like online gambling being made illegal to plunge them into trouble.

Yes, that's why I put debt inside " " because it's really loans (some converted to capital) from Coates...

Same sort of thing as Whelan has done at Wigan but on a smaller scale. Still unlikely to be recouped anytime soon whatever their success.

Fine if it's what the Coates want to do with their money but spending £22m in transfers and the wages associated with Crouch and Palacios (and the impact on the rest of the squad who have been on some of the lowest PL wages) is very risky business.

[RoyalBlue]

One thing yesterday's PL excesses have shown is that it would be pretty much pointless us returning to the PL with the current chairman in place. We just couldn't/wouldn't be able to compete financially with the other clubs at that level and it would be stupid to think our manager could uncover gems (purchased at bargain prices) every year and perform the miracles necessary to keep us up.

Of course Stoke's expenditure won't guarantee that they keep their place at the highest level but equally I think it would be pretty dumb to suggest it hasn't significantly improved their chances of doing so.

[Svlad Cjelli]

It's hardly a mountain of debt though is it? Compared to most others, Stoke are in a good shape. It would take something monumental like online gambling being made illegal to plunge them into trouble.

Yes, that's why I put debt inside " " because it's really loans (some converted to capital) from Coates...

Same sort of thing as Whelan has done at Wigan but on a smaller scale. Still unlikely to be recouped anytime soon whatever their success.

Fine if it's what the Coates want to do with their money but spending £22m in transfers and the wages associated with Crouch and Palacios (and the impact on the rest of the squad who have been on some of the lowest PL wages) is very risky business.

Yes, but risking £22M with an assured income of £50M is less risky than spending £10M with an assured income of £5M. Even more so when the Chairman has a personal wealth and income stream so that he can underwrite things if it does go tits up.

[Vision]

It's hardly a mountain of debt though is it? Compared to most others, Stoke are in a good shape. It would take something monumental like online gambling being made illegal to plunge them into trouble.

Yes, that's why I put debt inside " " because it's really loans (some converted to capital) from Coates...

Same sort of thing as Whelan has done at Wigan but on a smaller scale. Still unlikely to be recouped anytime soon whatever their success.

Fine if it's what the Coates want to do with their money but spending £22m in transfers and the wages associated with Crouch and Palacios (and the impact on the rest of the squad who have been on some of the lowest PL wages) is very risky business.

Yes, but risking £22M with an assured income of £50M is less risky than spending £10M with an assured income of £5M. Even more so when the Chairman has a personal wealth and income stream so that he can underwrite things if it does go tits up.

Its the wages aspect that interests me here. Just this week Pulis and to a lesser degree Coates were saying that they have a tight wage structure and have pulled out of deals where players wanted more than that. The signings of Upson and Woodgate previously raised a few eyebrows with regard to that statement but with Crouch and Palacios I'd imagine that tight wage structure isn't as tight as it was.

[Svlad Cjelli]

You may be right - in which case expect wages to rise for all the other players soon.

Or it may be that the new players have agreed to fit into existing structure in order to play - Crouch especially. Or it may be that their contracts are loaded with bonuses and incentives, with a relatively low basic.

[Royal Rother]

Few questions.

1. How much will Peter Crouch be earning?
2. How much will Wilson Palacios be earning?
3. How much will the rest of the squad who have done so well for the club be earning?

I suspect that the difference between the highest and lowest earners in Stoke City's regular 1st team has just grown massively (and I mean MASSIVELY) and I really do think that will undermine the team ethic that has done them so well.

I predict relegation in the next 2 years.

Edit: Oh, this has just been covered in part....

[Handsome Man]

Quimming

Good luck to Stoke, and I hope that Palacios and Crouch come good for them, but the club is now a rich man's toy, and will be completely self-reliant opn the owner for the duration of the contracts.

[Yorkshire Royal]

You may be right - in which case expect wages to rise for all the other players soon.

Or it may be that the new players have agreed to fit into existing structure in order to play - Crouch especially. Or it may be that their contracts are loaded with bonuses and incentives, with a relatively low basic.

The wage structure changes each year they stay in the Premiership. So all existing players will benefit when negotiating new contracts. They will still have a cap which these players will fit into. Bonuses and signing on fees help "bend the rules" though.