Noades and the truth

[Baffled]

Quote from a posting on Beesotted: "In the brentford chiswick and isleworth times of 17th may, noades is quoted as saying;
"i am certainly sick of all the criticism. i am no longer prepared to fund the club and we are forecasting a loss of £1m next season. if anyone wants to take over they are welcome to do so. i have been prepared for the last 18 months to stand down if someone invests in the club, but there have been no offers.
i have invested £3m and we've had a great season yet some fans are not satisfied. they have fought me on every issue and not backed my ideas for a new ground"

Noades is having trouble with the truth again. A consortium has approached him with a £2m bid to but him out. Noades agreed the price. When the consortium returned to finalise the deal, Noades was nowhere to be seen. His accountant Waddington stood in for him and said the price had gone up and totally reneged on the deal.
Yet another example of Noades twisting the truth to suit himself.

 

[feltham]

The Staines Informer, which is a well read 'freepaper' that covers the Feltham (and Staines area has a story on the back page this week similar to the Chronicle one.

"Fans must take some Blame
Cardiff no show proves Noades point"

(These are some selected bits of the story)

...... When Noades arrived in 1988, he splashed out a bit of cash.....

...... He fully expected fans to repay him through the turnstiles and while gates have increased over the past four years, they are nowhere near Noades' break-even figure of around 10,000.

Understandable, he is fed up of bankrolling the club and his desire to sell-off Griffin Park and relocate to a new ground with a possible partner makes perfect sense....

..... The fact that Brentford were only able to sell just over 10,000 of their 20,000 allocation for saturdays' showpiece final is nothing short of scandalous.......

(You cannot tell from the story however if this is an interview or not and it has no reporters name against it)

 

[stedders]

Originally posted by feltham:
[B"Fans must take some Blame
Cardiff no show proves Noades point"

[/B]

Yep, I knew it would be my fault!

 

[bees66]

fans must take blame

so then in hindsight the chairmans we had in say the past 50 years should take the blame in putting us where we are today like
forever penny pinching,selling of our
best players,not matching wage demands & not
securing griffin park for development, so where does it end.
if we are to blame?
so then who would in there right mind take over the club while we have the worst
'set of fans in the world'
in this then who would therefore (except the fans no better)buy brentford,we are being killed from a cancer within us.

when ron resigned as manager that was it for us he then put his chairman hat on & put a stop to everything quite sad really.
ron spent money in tranfer market and that was great but since what have we spent?
thats right nothing .
it has had a domino effect on the club ,so then fans that dont come to brentford are not stupid they have had enough they have seen it all before.i suppose not to long there will be no fans left
.but i will dame well try and keep my club alive while we have a chance
at the end of the day there most be 10,000 bees fans out there that fill the same as i do

 

[WarrenBee]

Who asked R.N.to buy Brentford?
Who told him that the club could get an average home gate of 8,000??
Who asked his company to bank roll the club??
Come on you Bees.

 

[feltham]

(For complete fairness this is the full Staines Informer story, if it fits!)

"Fans must take some Blame
Cardiff no show proves Noades point


If Bees Fans thought Saturdays 2-0 Division Two play-off final defeat to Stoke City was heartbreaking, it will be nothing compared to the goings on at the Club in the next month or so.
Its not overstating the severity of the situation to say, that the majority of Steve Coppell's, and certainly the better players, will be leaving for pastures new having failed to reach Division one of the Nationwide league.
Brentford were always likely to lose he likes of skipper Paul Evans, top scorer Lloyd Owusu and key defender Ivar Ingimarsson even if they had come up trumps at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.
But after the Bees failed to hit top gear against the Potters, owner/chairman Ron Noades seems certain to clear the decks of all but the fringe players as he continues his drive to balance the books.
Coppell looks to have already thrown in the towel and has been linked with the vacant Brighton and Hove Albion job in Division One.
If this is the case, the former England and Manchester United winger will certainly drag a few of the current contracted Bees along in his wake if the price is anything like reasonable to Noades.
Those who are free agents, Owusu and Evans, will have clubs knocking at their doors long before they return from deserved Summer breaks.
All of which makes dramatic reading for the Bees faithful, but in a way, they only have themselves, or rather those who stayed away from Griffin park, to blame for the current crises.
When Noades arrived in 1988, he splashed out a bit of cash, brought in a miixture of experience and youth and for the most built a promising squad.
He fully expected fans to repay him through the turnstiles and while gates have increased over the past four years, they are nowhere near Noades' break-even figure of around 10,000.
Understandable, he is fed up of bankrolling the club and his desire to sell-off Griffin Park and relocate to a new ground with a possible partner makes perfect sense.
With so many Clubs, even in the Premiership, beginning to fell the pinch, the days of Chairman ploughing vast sums of their own fortunes are drawing quickly to a close.
The fact that Brentford were only able to sell just over 10,000 of their 20,000 allocation for Saturdays' showpiece final is nothing short of scandalous.
At best the Club faces a long, hard slog next season and coach Wally Downes is the favourite to take on the arduous job having been beaten to the post by Coppell 12 Months ago."

(Copyright the Staines Informer Week Ending May 17, 2002)

[ 19 May 2002: Message edited by: feltham ]

 

[Gee Bee]

Bearing in mind that RN has agreed to sell to Bees United if they can take on the debt. Did this Consortium offer include taking on the full debt? Could they also not now join forces with Bees United, by supporting them with the required capital, to oust RN.
Also with the threat of adminisration looming, maybe this Consortium could make another bid. The offer may now look a little more attractive, although IMHO the bored of director might now think the best deal to get his money back is doing a deal with WIMPEY.

 

[Bee H]

Originally posted by Gee Bee:
Did this Consortium offer include taking on the full debt? Could they also not now join forces with Bees United, by supporting them with the required capital, to oust RN.

I've a feeling that I know the consortium that Baffled refers to - what happened was that they agreed to repay Mr Noades the physical monies that BFC had cost him together with taking on the debt that at the time. Negotiations were cut short however in an abrupt manner by BFC as the consortium had not finalised their plan within a whole two months (!) from date of first discussion.

The consortium was backing one person (a Bees fan) and was to consist of money and interest from the worlds of showbiz, sport, a top Dutch footie side and monies from abroad

crying shame really, they've no interest whatsoever in going for it again after the way they were treated and the fact that the debt has risen dramatically since

 

[Gee Bee]

Sad, yes very sad. I assume the Bees fan concerned has joined Bees United.
I do still think that maybe some money men could be found, bearing in mind the location of Brentford to Heathrow etc. Maybe an airline with money to burn? Easyjet possibly? a nice Easylife hotel at any new site and offices for its Car Rental op etc.
Wishful thinking perhaps but maybe an avenue could be explored.

 

[Mr Tree]

wouldn't bother with the informer - from what i can tell, it summarises teamtalk's best of the week for it's articles on brentford

noades is a "thick prat" if ever there was one, can't believe he's still attacking the fans...

 

[FunkyZeus]

Please Please please would the consortium consider making another bid to Ron. If any one knows this so called fan of Brentford who was part of this consortium, then get him to call his group of financial pals. As much as I would love Bees United to run the club in some way, a financial backer is needed to bring success.
Is it possible for Bees United to run the club along side a financial backer, as this would be the best way forward for the club, especially as Bees United won't have the financial might of other clubs?

 

[Edmundo in NYC]

So, I'm to blame, am I? Along with all my mates who I see at every BFC match? What exactly have we done wrong, Mr Noades?

One fine day there'll be a reckoning ...

 

[Roy_loak]

also from beesotted;
thursday's chronicle- noades says "is it right to start next season if we cant finish it?"
friday's b&c times "i've put £3m into this club and there are some fans who are still not satisfied"

noades has had his go at being a football manager with a team of expensive assistants. during this period a crippling and possibly fatal debt was accumulated. now he says we might not finish next season, and is surprised that there are fans who aren't satisfied!?!

 

[bobwin out of town bee]

So here we go again its our fault
Well Mr Noades i'm afraid its your fault. You are the one who spent so much and put us in debt. Its about time you came out and admitted you have made mistakes instead of blameing everybody but yourself

 

[Gee Bee]

Originally posted by Roy_loak:
also from beesotted;
thursday's chronicle- noades says "is it right to start next season if we cant finish it?"
friday's b&c times "i've put £3m into this club and there are some fans who are still not satisfied"

noades has had his go at being a football manager with a team of expensive assistants. during this period a crippling and possibly fatal debt was accumulated. now he says we might not finish next season, and is surprised that there are fans who aren't satisfied!?!

Here we go again "Ive put £3m in", true but you will get it back, it hasn't been lost. Also on various occasions memebers of this board have asked the question on what tax savings you have made on the back of "funding". Another question I have previously asked, was about this consortium bid and the fact that RN had stated no offers for the club had ever been made. No answer has ever been forthcoming.

 

[Baz Bee]

I am sick and tired of Chairman Noades blaming everyone but himself.

He has run BFC like a dictatorship since he arrived in 1998. He has misled many, if not all, of the supporters regarding his financial involvement. He has played at being manager. He paid himself an obscene salary. He employed expensive assistants’ as he must have felt out of his depth. He was extravagant in how the team were treated regarding travel, hotels, training etc. He made mistakes, whether due to being an egotistical maniac or just naive I do not know, regarding the financial and marketing prospects of the club. He was aware of Bosman yet still paid out on big('ish) transfers and top notch contracts. I could go on but this is enough for now.

Chairman Noades has put nothing in to BFC. He has deposited some of his National Goldberg Lottery winnings at Barclays PLC. He has not put in anything of any significance of his own in. I am sick of asking what tax and/or other financial benefits he and/or Altonwood derive from the depositing of this money at Barclay's. I find it somewhat amusing that on most other matters he is quick to shout off his rather large mouth by criticising and ridiculing people. Just ask why he will not answer this question?

All in all Chairman Noades has made many bad decisions regarding how the financial side of BFC has developed since he arrived. They were his decisions that have got us in this mess. Not yours or mine, but his. If he did not want to get in to this position then he should either have stayed away from BFC or otherwise acted with more professionalism and skill than he has obviously used in getting us to where we are now.

Chairman Noades, you have presided over your BFC empire and taken it to where it is today. How dare you try and shift one iota of responsibility elsewhere. Had things been different I am sure you would be basking in the glory and taking the sole credit. Well, nows your chance to be a man and take the sole credit for the mess you have created.

BTW, I would still like the answer to my question above please.

 

[Gee Bee]

Sending this back to the top. As Hanwell Bee has just asked the question re Consortium and what is now being spouted in Teamlies.
This is where they get the story!!!!!!

 

[California Bee]

What happened to "the customer is always right"?
That has been the mantra of success in business from time immemorial. Professional football is a business.

 

[Nigel Brooks]

Originally posted by California Bee:
What happened to "the customer is always right"?
Professional football is a business.

And anybody who believes otherwise is sadly, sadly disilusioned.

No business survives by calling it's customers 'thick pratts' or by blaming them for fundamental errors in managerial judgement.

In a professional capacity I advise companies in how best to maximise the 'value' of their customers. I honestly can't think of a situation where I would advise them to insult their revenue stream.

I have tried to read between the lines and wanted to believe that the latest outburst was some deeply sincere attempt to engender action from Hounslow Council or other partners by raising the profile of the financial situation at Brenford. I am, however, not going to disillusion myself any longer in that regard, it is simple managerial incompetence and indeed an insult to try to lay the blame for your own mistakes at the feet of others. It may work for politicians (the old deniability tactic), but rarely, if ever, works within small businesses. Because, like it or not, with a turnover of around, what is it, £3-3.5 million Brentford is a small business and should, indeed could, have been run along those lines.

The buck has to stop somewhere. I believe there are 5000 people who know where that is.

 

[Jimbo]

noades spent loads on his own personal championship manager game, but it must also be remembered that he earned a tremendous amount as well through the huge fee we gained through the herman sale, did those travel taverns eat up all that money as well?
The debt is increasing now, when we have a small squad who were mainly signed on frees and who as a unit are taking home a smaller wage packet then the other clubs in division two.
See this is what i dont get. We are losing 900k a year now right? And the current debt to Noades is 3m and the bank is owed best part of a million i think. But over the years Noades has been at the club that would make the loss we are suffering now probably higher than we have averaged the past four or five seasons wouldnt it? I mean if we lost 900k over the past five years the debt would be 4.5m . So well i dont know if that all makes sense or whether i have missed something but i am sure someone will , as always , be good enough to help me out over here.

 

[MikeL]

Actually, I think that Ron has not expressed himself well - as usual. He can't blame the fans because they are the people who turn up game after game. Surely, he must mean the PHANTOM fans. In other words, even though the team played exciting football, were playing for an automatic promotion place, won the semifinal for the final promotion place, people still did not turn up. For the Club to survive, it must get fans through the turnstiles. There's little hope of that as even in our best Season for years, the average home crowd was around 6000.

It's not the fans fault, it's the ones that stayed away. I'm sure that we all brought extra people to Cardiff and even then, we only mustered 10,500.

It's not the lack of marketing. There were plenty of initiatives during the year and the best advertisement is the team's performances on the field which, of course were superb.

Ron could have made a fast buck at the latter part of the season by selling the out of contract players - but he didn't and gambled on them helping us to promotion. Unfortunately it didn't pay off and those players will leave for nothing.

I'm sure that the Board have a lot to answer for in their handling of affairs. If we'd won promotion, then the INVESTMENTS would have paid off. In the event, we didn't and money has been WASTED (I hear you say). Well, I've got news for you. In business one is paid to make decisions. Some pay off and others don't. OK some people think that Ron has been economical with the truth and he probably has. But remember that under his reign, we have had some great times. This season has been unbelieveable. So, get off his back. I'm sure that he would be the first to enter into a proper debate with us. But with abuse such as the "Silver Parasite" flying around, small wonder that he's fed up with us. One thing that you can say is that Ron Noades is football expert and a businessman. Maybe we feel that the two don't mix but in these uncertain times we need someone (maybe not him) at the top who understands the business and doesn't just lead with the footballing emotion.

And if we really cared, every contributer here would be a member of BEES UNITED. I wonder how many are? Channel your energies into the Trust and cool down with the abuse. Because if you don't, Brentford will simply disappear.

 

[PAZ]

Out of interest, when was the last time that any of our directors (excluding Ron) either funded or lent the club any amount at all?
And what were the figures involved?

I say this because I saw that the Cambridge United directors were going to rescue the club themselves.

Why are our directors directors if they're not putting any cash in, and not doing anything positive for the club?

Even in my student state, I'd probably have put more cash into the club than any of them, and I'd have made some much better decisions too.

What's going on?

 

[California Bee]

Originally posted by MikeL:
Actually, I think that Ron has not expressed himself well - as usual. He can't blame the fans because they are the people who turn up game after game. Surely, he must mean the PHANTOM fans. In other words, even though the team played exciting football, were playing for an automatic promotion place, won the semifinal for the final promotion place, people still did not turn up. For the Club to survive, it must get fans through the turnstiles. There's little hope of that as even in our best Season for years, the average home crowd was around 6000. It takes time for crowds to swell in West London. Chelsea already dominates the market. Clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal take a thick slice of local loyalty away every week. Fulham have surged forward under El Fayed and have drawn accordingly. Queens Park Rangers still have a broadly based fan following. Brentford will need to win consistently over a period of three or four years before they can expect five figure attendance figure on a regular basis. This is not a situation for someone wanting to make a fast buck. It is one that calls for unity, patience and investment. Unity between the club, the players, the fans and the local authorities and businesses. That calls for leadership. Ron Noades has brought a lot of good qualities to the club but he has not succeeded in uniting the various elements and moving forward together to realise a dream. It is very saddening to see and hear the endless outpouring of criticism and negativity. That is not what supporting and running and playing for a football team is all about.
I want to belong to a fellowship of Brentford fans who pull together and suffer together and exult together. I'm sick of the present climate of fingerpointing and despondency.
Can't we find a way of working together for our common dream?
It means suffering financial loss today for the rewards of tomorrow.

 

[Baz Bee]

Originally posted by Jimbo:
.................

And the current debt to Noades is 3m and the bank is owed best part of a million i think. ........

Unless I have misunderstood the club owes Chairman Noades very littel and certainly not the £3m. The £3m that Chairman Noades has used is on deposit at Barclays PLC so that they will release further overdraft credit to the club. Therefore, as I understand it, it is Barclays PLC that are owed all of the £4m+ debt.

This then gets back to the longstanding question that I have been trying to get Chairman Noades to answer for many months. Namely:

By depositing this money at Barclays PLC what finacial benefit, tax adavantages or the like does Chairman Noades personally and/or Altonwood derive. I am told there are some, and they may be quite advantageous, but I'm not an accountant so do not personally know this.

So it may well be that Chairman Noades and/or Altonwood are doing very nicely whilst BFC is slowly bled dry.

WHY NO ANSWER TO MY QUESTION? WHO HAS SOMETHING TO CONCEAL FROM THE FANS?

 

[PAZ]

Originally posted by PAZ:
Out of interest, when was the last time that any of our directors (excluding Ron) either funded or lent the club any amount at all?
And what were the figures involved?

I say this because I saw that the Cambridge United directors were going to rescue the club themselves.

Why are our directors directors if they're not putting any cash in, and not doing anything positive for the club?

Even in my student state, I'd probably have put more cash into the club than any of them, and I'd have made some much better decisions too.

What's going on?

I'm bumping this question.

 

[California Bee]

It takes time for crowds to swell in West London. Chelsea already dominates the market. Clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal take a thick slice of local loyalty away every week. Fulham have surged forward under El Fayed and have drawn accordingly. Queens Park Rangers still have a broadly based fan following. Brentford will need to win consistently over a period of three or four years before they can expect five figure attendance figures on a regular basis. This is not a situation for someone wanting to make a fast buck. It is one that calls for unity, patience and investment. Unity between the club, the players, the fans and the local authorities and businesses. That calls for leadership. Ron Noades has brought a lot of good qualities to the club but he has not succeeded in uniting the various elements and moving forward together to realise a dream. It is very saddening to see and hear the endless outpouring of criticism and negativity from club and fan alike. That is not what supporting and running and playing for a football team is all about.
I want to belong to a fellowship of Brentford fans who pull together and suffer together and exult together. I'm sick of the present climate of fingerpointing and despondency.
Can't we find a way of working together for our common dream?

 

[Roy_loak]

Originally posted by Baz Bee:
I am sick and tired of Chairman Noades blaming everyone but himself.
Chairman Noades, you have presided over your BFC empire and taken it to where it is today. How dare you try and shift one iota of responsibility elsewhere. Had things been different I am sure you would be basking in the glory and taking the sole credit. Well, nows your chance to be a man and take the sole credit for the mess you have created.

well said that man. noades bought bfc. noades installed himself as manager in place of adams. noades received a fantastic salary for a rookie manager. noades told the world he was funding the club. now noades is blaming everyone else for the plight we are in.
yes i am pointing the finger at noades because when i think about what he has done to my beloved brentford f.c it makes my blood boil.
somebody said on here when sticking up for noades "compare bfc when he took over to how it is when he hands over the reins, you'll see what a fantastic guy he is and how lucky we are to have him". that guy is probably a bit quiet now.