Mr Chairman

[Trotty]

If the chairmans only ambition now is to break even at all costs then i wonder whats in it for him? If the current board are unable or unwilling to put extra money in then for the sake of the club they need to find people who will. 

[DustCobb]

If the chairmans only ambition now is to break even at all costs then i wonder whats in it for him? If the current board are unable or unwilling to put extra money in then for the sake of the club they need to find people who will. 

100% Agree Mr Trotty.

[MCHammer]

Ok I've lost track since yesterday.

Are we still moaning that DC isn't spending any money and running up a debt or have we reverted to moaning about the debt he has run up and the money the club owes him?

Trotty, I think you can answer that question all by yourself if you try hard enough.

[Trotty]

Who said anything about more loans to the club? I doubt he expects to see this money returned. Is it too much to expect the board to  put some money in to bring players in?

[clarkeysntfc]

Football is not won and lost on the basis of a healthy balance sheet. Likewise football clubs don't exist by the same rules as any other business, I give you Notts County. Sure we don't want to be splurging millions we don't have, but some of our fans are being blinkered by DC's 'break even is good' mantra and think that's a good reason for us to be in midtable or worse! I reckon 20+ L2 teams will make a loss this season, but all will still be alive next season, some in L1.

[MK_Cobbler]

I for one am completely pissed off with the amount of false hope both the chairman and manager have given the fans in recent weeks. So now I couldn’t really give a f***. Everyone knows we need to at least get another striker in and we have had 3 months to do so, still no luck, absolute f***ing joke.

When there are no players coming in, terrible performances, no investment, lack of ambition and no passion. I certainly can’t be arsed to keep forking out £20 a week to see us slowly slipping down the football league.

[Son Of Geoff]

I'll keep forking out. I enjoy it. In fact, I love having a team to support.

It's got eff all to do with me whether the chairman invests more cash or not. It's his cash, he can do as he pleases with it.

[MK_Cobbler]

I'll keep forking out. I enjoy it. In fact, I love having a team to support.

It's got eff all to do with me whether the chairman invests more cash or not. It's his cash, he can do as he pleases with it.

Yawwwwnn!

[Son Of Geoff]

Too reasonable for you?

[NTFC Nut]

I's not even necessarily the money that's the problem. If Sammo and Crozzer assembled a team of title challengers the fans wouldn't care if they'd done so on a budget of twenty shirt buttons and a packet of monster munch. The thing is that at the minute, the club hasn't got any momentum, impetus or direction. In the absence of redevelopment it's just sitting there, stagnating- we need something to get us moving in the right direction, whether that be a cash injection or something else, because fans fork out a lot of money on the club, and they expect something in return.

If you've paid £300 for a season ticket and £80 for two new kits just to see a bunch of mediocre players finish 14th or 15th in the bottom tier and have it hailed as a successful season because we broke even off the pitch, you're going to wonder what the point in that was and more than likely you're not going to bother the following season. Football is an entertainment business and if the football isn't entertaining or you're not fighting for points to get a promotion, then you might as well go to the cinema instead. At least you can guarantee you'll get decent, hot food and a better atmosphere. 

I got a season ticket this year as it was only £100 and I have bugger all else to do on a Saturday. Next season though I'll be into the under 21 bracket and it'll be costing me about 3x as much. If we don't look like having a good season on the pitch, I probably won't bother. Will probably go to more away games instead as the match experience at Sixfields at this moment in time is the worst it's been in years.

[DrillingCobbler]

I try to look at this in a balanced way, weighing up the views of all our fans and what is going to keep them coming to Sixfield's year in year out and what is ultimately going to attract new supporters.

Personally speaking, Im almost as committed as I ever have been. I've been a continuous season ticket holder since the very dark days at the county ground but every single one of my friends that used to go - bar two - have since stopped going regularly. By regularly I mean every game to perhaps one or two matches a season. Its an evolution thing with many...birds, kids, moved away, other activities on a Saturday etc. HOWEVER, I think its a fair assumption to say that most of them would have stuck with it if the incentive had been there, watching a progressive team work its way up the leagues. How often does a cab driver or some old geezer on finding out your a Cobblers fan start telling you stories of how he went to Liverpool etc in 65/66, how he was there at the George Best game blah blah blah? Yet hasn't been for years!

My thoughts on the subject are that most people eventually get bored and disillusioned watching a struggling side play s*** football year in year out and cut their ties. Some more so than others. Look at our stands next Saturday. Most fans I reckon are either over 50 or under 25. My age range - Im 37 - is not very well represented because most of my generation have 'done their stint'. Most of the under 25 fan base will not be seen at Sixfield's in 10 years but they will be replaced by the next generation. The over 50's are here to stay - they are well and truly hooked and will keep coming back for more punishment. Most accept we are crap, most defend the chairman's spending policy on the basis that they are happy just having a football club to support and that they are 'realistic'. Which is fair enough.

I think I've gone full circle. Calderwood's style of play and tactics with all that money at his disposal very nearly drove me away. Many will disagree but I started liking going again from Crewe away, Gormans first game in charge. Those 3 years - even factoring in 2 playoffs and a promotion - were the most unenjoyable 3 years of supporting the club I have had. The only period of time when I can honestly say that we completely under-achieved given the resources. Everybody will have their own reasons for ending their weekly association with the club, but for me I enjoy going more now than I have since Atkins took us to Wembley with the exception of Wilsons/Broadhurst promotion season. Purely because the team is not failing to meet my expectations! HOWEVER, I accept that most people want far more - we all do - but for that to happen the club needs investment. End of. I don't agree with the way its being financially managed - but lets face it the Labour party and the coalition both disagree with the way to deal with the countries finances so there are two very big arguments as to the best way to deal with things off the pitch. If I was in charge - starting from scratch - and had a few million quid I would look to start off with a low budget and increase it gradually every year. Block by block. 1 million quid this season, 1.2 million next season, 1.4 million the year after....the team would improve over time, gates and sponsorship would gradually increase. My issue is that every year the budget is going down and exactly the reverse is happening. Gates are dwindling and the team is getting worse. At this rate, next season we will be getting 3 - 3500 and the budget will be set accordingly, say 800k. And so on and so on.

DC will obviously have another outlook on things and will be able to justify it. And at the end of the day its his money so what can we do? If he was to chuck another 250k in Sammo's direction it would be the kind of knee jerk reaction that got us in the s*** in the first place. There is an awful lot of financial baggage around the place and unless he forgets about the 8 million (or at least puts it to one side until the development thing happens - IF it does) and starts afresh with another 5 year plan then we will end up in the conference. My opinion that is. Of course with Sixfields as it is our realistic ambition can only be top half of league1. But if we were to get there again and fill the ground week in week out the momentum of the development will never get going. If Sixfields was selling out every week then the council, in my view, would be forced to letting us do something. At the moment their life is too easy on the subject and that - not the recession - is why I think very little is likely to happen.

[cox23jam]

I very much doubt that even if sixfields sold out every week that the council would approve development as even the saints are struggling to get permission to extend franklins gardens and will have to play some of their european matches at milton keynes this season. If saints don't get the support being one of the top teams in the country what chance do we have even if we can again be on the verge on being a championship team.

[cobblersareus]

As far as I'm aware the council are letting us expand the ground, it's the way we're funding it they're having problems with. It wouldn't matter if we filled the ground every home game.

[Mark-JB]

I pretty much agree with everything Drilling's said there. The only thing you've missed there in terms of why the 25-40 age group don't really go to the football that much anymore is because many of us have left the town, almost certainly never to return.

Unfortunately the club and its ambitions match the town's. There simply aren't many good, well paid jobs in Northampton, and with the council being utterly backwards there's little chance of this improving. Out of all of the lads I used to go to the football with during the 1990s I only ever see 1 at games, and even that's only periodically in the North Stand. The rest are now dotted around London, Nottingham, Birmingham and even Reading (yes, even Reading have more, better paid jobs and career choices than us!).

In turn the Cobblers are now in a position where they are never going to get regular Championship football. The facts are we've got a Chairman who is £8m down on an investment that may never come into fruition and there is no-one with the money (or stupidity) to invest in the club and take it off his hands. As such we have no option but to run at break even, or ruin the Chairman. Bear in mind every penny he pays over and above what he has now means that a takeover by someone else becomes even more remote. The council won't budge on their stance, Legal & General won't invest in the Grosvenor Centre for at least the next decade and the economy is going to take years to fully recover.

Basically - unless anyone has some great ideas, you are supporting a club that will be treading water for the next generation. You as a result have two choices - sit back, relax and accept it or get angry, stamp your feet and eventually walk away. I'm firmly in the first group, but then as I live in South London I get to watch the dross once every so often rather than every week so it makes my position easier.  

[Insider]

I've reached a point now where I wish the Cardozas would just PISS OFF.  (Note to Gareth - prepare writ).

[GrangeParkCobbler]

I've reached a point now where I wish the Cardozas would just PISS OFF.  (Note to Gareth - prepare writ).

I dont think you are alone in that, as time goes by more and more people become dissolutioned. Of course, there will always be a large number of fans with their heads in the sand, believing everything is ok, these are the people who support for today but dont stop and ask themselves "where is this club going? Wheres it going to be in 3 5 or 10 years time?" Every club will have supporters who stick with the club through thick and thin, who toe the club line and fall for every promise the club makes.

Unfortunately though, people want more! Everyone wants more for their hard earned cash, its not just football that that refers to either. You've got to move with the times, you cant stand still or else you get left behind. Running a "break even" operation does just that....standing still! It means that the only way you can ever see us spending a bit of cash again is to earn it through player sales, although I dont hold out a lot of hope of that happening either!! I mean, Jefferson Lake announced a couple of weeks ago that Bunn went for "more than the reported 350k"......how much of that did you see come back into the playing team?

We may make 200k from the Liverpool game, but of course the transfer window is closed now, no more signings until January, by which time gates will (at the current rate) have dwindled further and the payday earned from that tie just goes towards the infamous "running costs".

Lets be honest, we know the Cardozas ploughed in a lot of their cash, they shelled out for a large number of signings in the early days, it could have all worked out....but it didnt, fingers were burned, leading to the course we are plotting today.

Sentiment does not last forever.....and I dont see todays situation, with the club selling/releasing players and not replacing them adequately, with the general lack of investment, and the general lack of any direction but downwards, much different to the days of the "Underwood Out" and "McRitchie Out" protests in Abington Avenue!!

[SteveRiches]

I've reached a point now where I wish the Cardozas would just PISS OFF.  (Note to Gareth - prepare writ).

I don't understand the logic of spending more than we earn. It so clearly is the path to ruin. Does nobody on this site have a grip of basic economics? Or do we expect a chairman who is some sort of dozy Father Christmas with a big sack of money he wants to give away and never see again?
The only time to spend more than you earn is to invest in something that will eventually bring in more money than you've invested...and in this respect the club has failed pathetically for the last 5 years by not being bold enough to finance a proper striker who would repay his cost.  I am prepared to join criticism in that respect, but in general terms the priciple of not spending more than we earn must hold good.
I know we're all frustrated by injuries to players, poor results, the attitude of NBC toward the Cobblers etc. etc., but to keep attacking the chairman is both pointless and unfair.

[Insider]

but to keep attacking the chairman is both pointless and unfair.

Why? There's a strong argument that he got us into this mess in the first place.  I never agreed with Manwork's personal abuse of DC or anyone else for that matter, but if for the next 16 years until 2026, DC is not prepared to invest in the club - and he appeared to make that very clear as a threat the day they announced the deferring of key planning decisions until 2026 - then bluntly he should write off his loan, leave the club in exactly the position it was in when he took over (reportedly £900k of debt) and stand sown.  His chances of paying that debt down appear slim unless each year he can get one or two bumper cup tie pay offs, or sell a Jacobs every year for £500k.  Hardly realistic.  NTFC is suffering a slow and painful death which is plain for all to see.  And I don't buy this "small town, we'll also be mediocre theory".  Witness Rochdale, Sc***horpe. 

[DustCobb]

I just wish sometimes we'd speculate to accumulate.

I can understand us being careful and am happy with that, at the end of the day i'd rather have a club to support, but sometimes the odd risk might just be worth it!

[Trotty]

It would appear that Sammo is to be given some extra funds now to spend on wages which is pleasing.

On wider issue given that we broke even last year is why the playing budget is that much less than last season?

I dare say the extra tv revenue this season and the liverpool money will eclipse what we recieved for Jackman last year. Perhaps I'm missing something.