‘This isn’t about politics... all I care about is raising £30k for Paolo' (From Swindon Advertiser)

It's nice for fans to help the club. But most fans do already and many cannot afford to. Pdc has already offered so why not let him put his money where his mouth is. Would go some way to making up for his part in helping to spend the original budget. Would we do a collection every time we need players? 30k will only last a month on 3 players max and probably not even that. And there are those that complain when prices go up by the club - this is no different. I'd put in to save the club if we were about to go under but this is just a conversation that should have remained just that. Give your money to a local charity instead and buy an extra burger at the ground if you must.

Ha! Get out of your bed the wrong side this morning or something?!

How anyone can see this fund as a bad thing is beyond me. Say Paolo or Black do stump up, and we don't need to use the fund this time, then it'll sit there earning interest until we do need it.

Things are going pretty well these days, but you never know how far away that rainy day is.

Modern football is rubbish. Get donating.

People will spend their money where they want to spend their money. Maybe a donation to charity, maybe on fast food! But if they have the disposable and want to give it to the Red Army Fund then that's their business. Personally, I'm undecided at present, but don't criticise.

stfc2012 wrote:
It's nice for fans to help the club. But most fans do already and many cannot afford to. Pdc has already offered so why not let him put his money where his mouth is. Would go some way to making up for his part in helping to spend the original budget. Would we do a collection every time we need players? 30k will only last a month on 3 players max and probably not even that. And there are those that complain when prices go up by the club - this is no different. I'd put in to save the club if we were about to go under but this is just a conversation that should have remained just that. Give your money to a local charity instead and buy an extra burger at the ground if you must.

Stfc2012, ! think £30k would last a bit more than a month. However, Bostock reportingly is on about £8k which will cost us about £30k for 4 months, the other two are Championship players and probably will not be earning more than him, the other point being we don't know if we are paying the players 100% of their salary, but at a guess to keep all 3 of them until end of season will cost us about £100k.

I'm sure there is still a bit in reserve in the budget and if we can get keep Caddis, Benson, Cox and Rooney loaned out, the £30k Paolo eluded too will probably be sufficient to see us through, whether that would be enough to include bringing in another player as has been suggested, guess we will have to wait and see.

stfc2012............
...You say..."It's nice for fans to help the club. But most fans do already and many can't afford to". I totally agree with you but these donations would be voluntary, so why not, if fans want to go ahead with it.

davel4848 wrote:
stfc2012............

...You say..."It's nice for fans to help the club. But most fans do already and many can't afford to". I totally agree with you but these donations would be voluntary, so why not, if fans want to go ahead with it.

There's absolutely no need for any debate on this. If you want to contribute then 'just do it' and if you don't, then don't. Simples!

Bostock may well be on £8k at Spurs but there is no way on earth we are paying him that - I'm sorry but if a loanee on the fringe is taking up 10% of our budget something is seriously wrong at the club!
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Like Den said - having fans scrape round for 30k when your owners are worth close to £500m is surreal!
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However, if people do want to contribute to it great and if it gets used and we go up great

I'm not saying don't donate. I'm saying I wouldn't give unless we actually needed it for survival. I can't see any player costing much less than 10k a month on loan or otherwise and I think Paolo stated 30k for a reason - that will solve January extensions. He's offered - thanks very much Paolo very nice of you. Should have allowed him to back that up. Instead we've got people running round making up for cash shortfalls brought on by our own mismanagement of cash. It's not a criticism or questioning of fans loyalty whether they donate or not. Its not saying pdc isnt trying his best and is desperate to get us up. It's a personal comment on the comments section of the article relating to this story.

Blazing Riff wrote:

davel4848 wrote:
stfc2012............


...You say..."It's nice for fans to help the club. But most fans do already and many can't afford to". I totally agree with you but these donations would be voluntary, so why not, if fans want to go ahead with it.

There's absolutely no need for any debate on this. If you want to contribute then 'just do it' and if you don't, then don't. Simples!

Sorry dave14848 this wasn't meant to be a respose to your post just quoted in the wrong box.

Just tried emailing the Football Trust to see if such a fund exists but their email page isn't working!!!!! Frustrating.

stfc2012 wrote:
I'm not saying don't donate. I'm saying I wouldn't give unless we actually needed it for survival. I can't see any player costing much less than 10k a month on loan or otherwise and I think Paolo stated 30k for a reason - that will solve January extensions. He's offered - thanks very much Paolo very nice of you. Should have allowed him to back that up. Instead we've got people running round making up for cash shortfalls brought on by our own mismanagement of cash. It's not a criticism or questioning of fans loyalty whether they donate or not. Its not saying pdc isnt trying his best and is desperate to get us up. It's a personal comment on the comments section of the article relating to this story.

what!? No ones trying to make up for any bad management. Its simply fans wanting to donate money as a gesture more than anything. Its a showing of togetherness. If you dont want to you dont have to, nobodys forcing you!

This is a great initiative, as was the STFCTrust of which I am a life member. The red army fund raised much needed funds to pay for loan players and secure the training ground at Liddinton.
All donations are purely voluntary, whether you agree with the scheme or not it's your choice. Personally I'll give a couple of quid or whatever I can afford.
STFCTrust and the Red army fund still exists and they have about 9k in funds at present which they are willing to hand over to Paolo I understand.

I think its a great idea. You've probly all seen me on here lately moaning about ticket prices, and i cant afford to go to many games, but i will certainly be finding a few quid to help out.
I may not afford £25 every fortnight, but i can afford a fiver or tenner to help out. People being negative should kind of keep hush really, although everyone is allowed an opinion. But what i mean is if they have reasons for not doing it, some of them very good and valid points, then fair enough. But they shouldn't come on here abusing people that do want to, because for some of us, its the only way we can afford to contribute towards the club at the current time.

It's also worth nothing that buying an extra burger at the ground mainly benefits the private company who terndered for and won the contract to sell food at our ground.

Put money into the Red Army Fund and 100% of it, plus any interest it earns, will go to the club.

*tendered*

It's great to see the goodwill towards the club at this time, as it is scary looking at the costs and all the uncertainty of running a club. But isn't that what life's about?

Most on here are probably bread winners, but we don't get up in the morning wondering if we'll fall under a bus today, or if the missus will run off with the next door neighbour (ok some of you might hope that happens!), or that the bank calls in your mortgage.

Some of this is in the back of our minds, but we just get on with it all. But when it comes to OUR football club we're either on a high - after the last 3 games - or we're panicking that we might not be able to afford any of the 3 loan players.

Where would we be without STFC? For Better for Worse...it relates to our team just as much as the other...just don't let her know!!

Town Of The Future wrote:
I think its a great idea. You've probly all seen me on here lately moaning about ticket prices, and i cant afford to go to many games, but i will certainly be finding a few quid to help out.
I may not afford £25 every fortnight, but i can afford a fiver or tenner to help out. People being negative should kind of keep hush really, although everyone is allowed an opinion. But what i mean is if they have reasons for not doing it, some of them very good and valid points, then fair enough. But they shouldn't come on here abusing people that do want to, because for some of us, its the only way we can afford to contribute towards the club at the current time.

I think the term 'abuse' is mis-used here. If you don't like opinions on comments boards then don't read them. If you read my posts in full, and your comment is aimed at me that is. It's a sad state of affairs when fans are having to fork out for players. That doesn't mean, as obviously stated before, that is criticising the intentions of the fans. Give a man a fish you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life. What happens in a month, what about after that? If the purpose of the fund is for players wages then so be it, I respect that. I just don't think we are in crisis and the manager has offered to chip in. Let him. Use the cash when we are in dire straights. I fully respect making an effort. But like when people were talking about paying pdc's fa fine last season, I think the club needs to sort itself out rather than a fundraiser for a months worth of 2/3 players. Bostock doesn't even start or come on. 1 of the other 2 is done and 1 close. Lets get rid of our dead wood and the fund can stay where it is earning some interest.

If people feel they want to donate to help secure the services of players and are able to give a little try; www.truststfc.co.uk .
I really cant understand why someone would moan about this initiative nor abuse those that are pro the scheme.
It's not about fans V the board it's about everyone pulling together to achieve the same goal which is surely success.
O.K if (when ) we win this league I'll be a few quid up and if I can help myself by helping the team then everyone is happy.
I'm very appreciative of the board , and Paolo has got to be the best manager ever for us. He has forfieted his name rights to help keep the players fit, he has offered to put his own money into the club and he is the most hard working, loyal and committed manager you will probably ever see.
I think that if we can all afford to help then we should although I appreciate that there are some that will have great hardship in doing so. We are not fighting to save the club , just trying to enhance it. If there is any chance that we can keep Paolo then this is the opportunity , lets show the same level of committment as our manager !

Stilloyal wrote:
If people feel they want to donate to help secure the services of players and are able to give a little try; www.truststfc.co.uk . I really cant understand why someone would moan about this initiative nor abuse those that are pro the scheme. It's not about fans V the board it's about everyone pulling together to achieve the same goal which is surely success. O.K if (when ) we win this league I'll be a few quid up and if I can help myself by helping the team then everyone is happy. I'm very appreciative of the board , and Paolo has got to be the best manager ever for us. He has forfieted his name rights to help keep the players fit, he has offered to put his own money into the club and he is the most hard working, loyal and committed manager you will probably ever see. I think that if we can all afford to help then we should although I appreciate that there are some that will have great hardship in doing so. We are not fighting to save the club , just trying to enhance it. If there is any chance that we can keep Paolo then this is the opportunity , lets show the same level of committment as our manager !

Lovely post! Makes me smile when people talk passionately and in a positive way.

stfc2012 wrote:

Town Of The Future wrote:
I think its a great idea. You've probly all seen me on here lately moaning about ticket prices, and i cant afford to go to many games, but i will certainly be finding a few quid to help out.
I may not afford £25 every fortnight, but i can afford a fiver or tenner to help out. People being negative should kind of keep hush really, although everyone is allowed an opinion. But what i mean is if they have reasons for not doing it, some of them very good and valid points, then fair enough. But they shouldn't come on here abusing people that do want to, because for some of us, its the only way we can afford to contribute towards the club at the current time.

I think the term 'abuse' is mis-used here. If you don't like opinions on comments boards then don't read them. If you read my posts in full, and your comment is aimed at me that is. It's a sad state of affairs when fans are having to fork out for players. That doesn't mean, as obviously stated before, that is criticising the intentions of the fans. Give a man a fish you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life. What happens in a month, what about after that? If the purpose of the fund is for players wages then so be it, I respect that. I just don't think we are in crisis and the manager has offered to chip in. Let him. Use the cash when we are in dire straights. I fully respect making an effort. But like when people were talking about paying pdc's fa fine last season, I think the club needs to sort itself out rather than a fundraiser for a months worth of 2/3 players. Bostock doesn't even start or come on. 1 of the other 2 is done and 1 close. Lets get rid of our dead wood and the fund can stay where it is earning some interest.

Agree 2012 (cue ridicule from NS). I fully respect the views of those who choose to donate. However, let's remember that this all started with PDC plucking the figure of £20k-£30k out of the air. It's an amount he said he would put in IF it was the only way to secure the services of the loan players. Nobody at the club had ruled out keeping those players. Nobody had said we needed another £20k-£30k to keep them. I saw the comment as PDC's way of applying a little pressure to AB. We were not suddenly in dire need of £20k-£30k.
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My guess is that when AB was generous enough to dig us out of the transfer embargo caused by overspending, his equity investment at that time was not simply just enough to get us back within the 65% limit. I think he probably included a decent sized buffer to give us a bit of leeway for the rest of the season - an insurance policy if you like. I also believe it is likely that, when injecting that cash, he told the new Chairman it was not to be spent unless such spending was unavoidable. Given the impact that the loan signings have had on our recent fortunes, it seems likely that Black instructed Patey to release some of this "emergency fund" to PDC. He (Black) may have been a little reluctant to do so, given that PDC had already accounted for almost all of the £4.5m that had been set aside for the whole season, but perhaps recognised that this is a real opportunity to bolster our push for promotion.
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Obviously much of what I have just said is supposition but I would wager that it's somewhere close to the truth.
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All in all, no need for panic, no necessity for anyone to stump up their hard-earned cash when times are hard. Let's also remember that the club are making a big price cut for a forthcoming game. They would be unlikely to do that if they are in desperate need of cash. They will probably get more bums on seats. Whether it will be of much help financially is debatable.
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Of course everyone's generosity is to be applauded but, like stfc2012, I think the fund would be better kept for rainier days at the club than we have at the moment.

I have been a STFC fan for 44 years (I know I'm and idiot, I could be a Manu, Arsenal or Chelsea fan and really be a sad git), and there have been a lot of lows over the years, but there has also been an incredible amount of highs. Wembley 5 times, division champs, runner-ups, and we have been in Europe (beat Juve home and away) and won the Anglo-Italian Cup. I will give to the fund, after all we did for Gordon Greer so waht's the problem now.

Happy to donate to this but I need to understand exactly what I am donating to. I agree with the comments above about what is the exact amount required and what is it required for.
If I was going to donate to the local church tower fund I'm sure I would be informed as to how much it was going to cost to repair the tower and thus how much the target would be.
If the trust are talking to the club could there not be some kind of joint statement. At least then we could all decide whether or not to contribute.
I just wonder how many other fans like me are waiting to find out more ?

Some superb points and posts here, I would only add that I cannot see the point of jumping on somebodies back who is trying to help the club. I give them full credit for what they are trying to do and sincerely hope they are successful in their quest. Up until yesterday I knew nothing of them to any detail, I hope now they raise their profile to gain more members.

I'm donating ! Each to their own but anything I can do to help the club I love then more the better. I love the fans proactively trying to help the team, I think it shows loyalty, unity and spirit. Some won't contribute due to cash pressures, beliefs or another view and fair play to them, no arguement that they should. I for one though will be chipping in, great idea, great sentiment and seemingly done for all of the right reasons. Well done for thinking of the idea and for organising, good man (I assume it came from a man, the best ideas normally do ;o) and he was called Chris in the article which sounds pretty manly (apologies if it was a Woman))

I still think the best way to support the club is to go to extra games you weren't planning to; or if you go to them all, take a friend along.

That way the club still gets your money, the team play in front of a bigger crowd, and we may convert some new supporters along the way.

That's what I'm doing anyway.

madterrier says...
12:34pm Tue 8 Jan 13

I still think the best way to support the club is to go to extra games you weren't planning to; or if you go to them all, take a friend along.

That way the club still gets your money, the team play in front of a bigger crowd, and we may convert some new supporters along the way.

That's what I'm doing anyway.”

- All these ideas are good, and we will all choose which we like or don't like. It's all about letting the club and the players see they have a lot of real fans, not Sky Sports 'supporters' of the flavour of the month team.

Just think what a lift the Pompey players must get when they go out on the pitch, hearing those fans, and knowing they have contributed to buying some shares. It will also add to the club's attraction to potential buyers.

I would like to see clubs allowing fans' representatives to put their views at board meetings after any confidential stuff has been discussed, just like town councils do.

Another view wrote:
It's great to see the goodwill towards the club at this time, as it is scary looking at the costs and all the uncertainty of running a club. But isn't that what life's about?

Most on here are probably bread winners, but we don't get up in the morning wondering if we'll fall under a bus today, or if the missus will run off with the next door neighbour (ok some of you might hope that happens!), or that the bank calls in your mortgage.

Some of this is in the back of our minds, but we just get on with it all. But when it comes to OUR football club we're either on a high - after the last 3 games - or we're panicking that we might not be able to afford any of the 3 loan players.

Where would we be without STFC? For Better for Worse...it relates to our team just as much as the other...just don't let her know!!

Your biggest worry might be if your missus is planning to run off with a bus driver.....

Last step wrote:
It's also worth nothing that buying an extra burger at the ground mainly benefits the private company who terndered for and won the contract to sell food at our ground.

Put money into the Red Army Fund and 100% of it, plus any interest it earns, will go to the club.

All so you will lose money on the burger with the day off you will have from work with the s~its

I live in Leicester, retired, broken hip, so can't get to the CG myself. I won't donate straight cash, but I would fund a couple of tickets for a new lad/lass plus guardian who wants to go to a game but can't afford it.
That might bring in revenue for the future. I don't know how the thing could be organised. Maybe some disabled child could have a day out.