Fans Parliament Meeting Minutes

[Kenny]

Didn't even know there was a meeting!!

Anyhoo

http://www.wolves.co.uk/news/article/read-fans-parliament-minutes-2833773.aspx

 

[Kenny]

Really

Matt Grayson promised to check out a complaint from Ian Smith that Scott Golbourne’s choice of under-shirt made him look ‘a right scruff’ – this after the subject had been discussed at the last meeting.

Fuck sake.

 

[YoungWolf]

I can see why Paddy doesn't go after reading those minutes.

 

[Kenny]

The only interesting bit is the update on the sale. Good to see we have entered talks with a couple of serious bidders.

 

[Del Woppio]

They've served their purpose now, in reality

 

[Derby Wolf]

Richard Perkins spoke of the transfer policy for next month and asked both whether there would be spending and whether Benik Afobe would be sold if there was a £10m bid. Jez responded: “We are currently working to see what we can do in January...that’s the acid test. We thought it was the best thing for the team at the time to refuse to sell Benik but we didn’t seem to get much credit for having done so likewise with refusing to sell Sako last January when we could have. Now, given the position of the club being up for sale, everything has to be up for debate and renewal. We’ll have to think about it very carefully
Read more at http://www.wolves.co.uk/news/article/read-fans-parliament-minutes-2833773.aspx#SeqBHBGhFgkCQeE3.99

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

It is a complete waste of time and has been for over a year.

 

[FrankMunro-371]

Richard Perkins spoke of the transfer policy for next month and asked both whether there would be spending and whether Benik Afobe would be sold if there was a £10m bid. Jez responded: “We are currently working to see what we can do in January...that’s the acid test. We thought it was the best thing for the team at the time to refuse to sell Benik but we didn’t seem to get much credit for having done so likewise with refusing to sell Sako last January when we could have. Now, given the position of the club being up for sale, everything has to be up for debate and renewal. We’ll have to think about it very carefully
Read more at http://www.wolves.co.uk/news/article/read-fans-parliament-minutes-2833773.aspx#SeqBHBGhFgkCQeE3.99

That does seem a somewhat strange comment. Why should credit be expected for not selling Afobe. Surely receiving praise or criticism is irrelevant, the club should do what is in the best interests of the club and the team.

 

[malta mick]

I thought these meetings were nly of any benefit if the Manager and/or Owner is present to answer questions. What happens otherwise is they are just shrugged off.

 

[SSB]

“It’s a really serious question that we have grappled with for years. I think the majority are happy with what they now have....a stand they stand up in.”.

As least he's not bothered about the South Bank standing up anymore.

 

[Tony Towner]

Grayson's defence of his boss throughout that is cringeable. Does he look like Smithers?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Not particularly. He actually is a very decent bloke who puts a lot of time into organising the Parliament. I have a lot of time for him. Yes. there is always going to be an element of being on club line, but why expect anything different?

 

[Tony Towner]

His "At what point do we get credit for recruiting Afobe" reads as petulant and the "we" has nothing to do with him even though there is merit in his broader point

 

[Del Woppio]

Matt's a thoroughly decent guy, and a bona fide Wolves fan. He works his balls off from what I've seen. Clearly as a regular spokesman as part of his comms director role, he's got to follow the company line publicly, but behind closed doors, the views expressed will be closer to a fan's than from any other senior employee at Wolves. And save for a man crush on Olofinjana, he knows his football.

 

[Johnny75]

Who dictates the company line? And he maybe a decent guy but clearly doesn't have the bollocks to stand up to his bosses and tell them it's s shit line to take and a cowardly one at that. Any decent PR guy wouldn't do it as it. Easy to have a pop at the fans for not congratuling the club on signing a good player as they have no ability to call him and the club out for that.

Maybe it's escaped his and his bosses attention but they should be buying good players every time so Afobe should be the norm. Good guy or not Wolves comms and PR has been abysmal for years and he may just not have the ability to be competent enough.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Sorry Johnny but your first paragraph is nonsense. He is employed by the club. Why is he expected to do this "standing up"? Why is he a "coward"? That is absolutely unfair.

However. this sort of reaction also indicates exactly why I think the FP is dead. Anyone involved is getting attacked. And the line from the club that it appears to be moving the fans and club further apart is the start of the endgame for it as an institution.

 

[Del Woppio]

I'm quite sure that, behind closed doors, he's honest, forthright, candid and probably even brutal at times. But ultimately he's got a job to do, and that's to communicate the message that the club want communicating. Jez (rightly) wouldn't stand for otherwise.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Richard Perkins spoke of the transfer policy for next month and asked both whether there would be spending and whether Benik Afobe would be sold if there was a £10m bid. Jez responded: “We are currently working to see what we can do in January...that’s the acid test. We thought it was the best thing for the team at the time to refuse to sell Benik but we didn’t seem to get much credit for having done so likewise with refusing to sell Sako last January when we could have. Now, given the position of the club being up for sale, everything has to be up for debate and renewal. We’ll have to think about it very carefully
Read more at http://www.wolves.co.uk/news/article/read-fans-parliament-minutes-2833773.aspx#SeqBHBGhFgkCQeE3.99

So a bid of over £8m and he’s off then.

 

[Johnny75]

Sorry Johnny but your first paragraph is nonsense. He is employed by the club. Why is he expected to do this "standing up"? Why is he a "coward"? That is absolutely unfair.

However. this sort of reaction also indicates exactly why I think the FP is dead. Anyone involved is getting attacked. And the line from the club that it appears to be moving the fans and club further apart is the start of the endgame for it as an institution.

I think you've misunderstood me Paddy, and Del may be right, but I would expect a comms director to put his case forward that a nakedly aggressive stance taken to their customer base is a bad communication strategy. Particularly for a football club in a position Wolves finds itself in.

I did not call him a coward but said it was a cowardly stance as the line is attacking the fans for not congratulating him/ the club on doing his/ their job and your last paragraph is indeed prophetic as this has nailed the clubs colours to the mast.

Of course he may have been told what to do come what may and a CEO that blatantly overrides his staff is a pretty poor CEO, alternatively he wanted to use that line in an inexplicable piece of poor PR.

If they want congratulations on buying a player and not reaching their goals forcing them to sell said player for a profit then I suggest the place to do that is at the shareholders meeting.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It's a bit of a self-defeating circle, the club shouldn't be expecting to be patted on the back (and a lot of our PR in general is sub-par) but then the fans really don't help matters; especially at a time when there's plenty to pick at concerning the club's strategy and on field fortunes, they just make shit up or refuse to give the club any credit at all for anything ever. Would you believe there was someone at the meeting who in all seriousness spent his time ranting that we were a worse run club than Birmingham City? Where to even start with that nonsense. As Jez has said before, the club had multiple opportunities to sell Sako across the course of his contract and turned the money down, we could have sold Afobe for an eight figure sum three months ago and said no. Yet there's a sizeable section of our support which would have you believe we just sell at the first hint of interest from elsewhere, they voice this opinion as well and it seeps through to the club. I wouldn't excuse the club for going on the defensive, it doesn't look good and it doesn't help anyone, but I can understand it.