A STATEMENT FROM SIMON SADLER........

I don’t think it’s the best way to communicate (as it is a bit combative), but it’s better than no communication and the statement itself is absolutely true.

I think the reactionaries are in a minority, but are a bigger chunk of the fan base than some say and coming out with a statement like this is well within his rights. The uproar Friday night was huge and I understand why he’d feel the need to make the statement, if you put up 5m of your own money each year and hundreds still said you weren’t putting in enough how would you feel?

He’ll never satisfy them so I hope he doesn’t feel the need to consistently make statements telling people off, but it is still refreshing to hear that he is as fully committed as when he first took over.

To be consistent he should start making statements like these once a fiscal quarter and make them not all about having the explain his process, they could be as simple as letting us know how he feels about on pitch performances!
 
hertfordseasider said:
I am one of his biggest critics, as far as the footballing side of the club goes and when I saw he had made a statement I was dreading reading it, but I don’t think that’s a defensive statement at all. I think he clearly reads this board and the rest of the social media (I do t so have absolutely no idea what they say) I thnk he is responding to the criticism, which he didn’t have to do, and it comes across as a passionate statement and certainly not having a pop at supporters.

I applaud him for that and I feel a lot more confident after reading it. He admits he makes mistakes, we all do, let’s hope NC can galvanise this squad so we can play like we did on Saturday.

I still think he’s generally crap at choosing managers though! 😂😂
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Crikey. Well done. Welcome back dude. :)
 
LA1 Seasider said:
A half decent marketing / comms department would avoid ALL of this. An extra £80k a year. Whoever’s responsible for it all now is doing a really poor job. Their fingers aren’t on the pulse and instead of having to put out reactionary statements more consistent messages should be going out regularly therefore shutting down the idiots on here and elsewhere before they even begin.
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Completely agree about regular messages, it is a mishap of his that he rarely communicates, he would do himself a world of good if he put out a quarterly message to fans, doesn’t have to be fancy, just a couple paragraphs about how he’s feeling.

He put out statements like that during the first year or so and then stopped after NC walked the first time, it’d do him a world of good to start again so that it doesn’t seem like he only comments when he has to explain his process to people.
 
voyeur said:
It's a PR victory for Sadler!

www.bbc.co.uk

Blackpool owner Sadler defends level of investment

Owner Simon Sadler defends his financial commitment to Blackpool, amid criticism from sections of the support.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
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Jesus Christ how embarrassing for the moaning fans is that 😂.

There’s dozens of clubs in the EFL who would kill for an owner putting money in like Simon does. They’ll be reading that, absolutely baffled reading Simon has been criticised.

I also don’t care that it’s combative. Kind of like it. None of this airy fairy nonsense. Wouldn’t mind a few swear words in the next one.
 
seasideone said:
Tone is a genuine problem when reading as people tend to read it in the tone they want to read it in 👍

More meaning is in actual tone than the words when people communicate.

It’s about 80% tone and 20% words on a phone call, so when you take tone away it’s very hard to communicate exactly what you mean and how you feel.

Give the guy a break!
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Do it by video then? Or get someone to proof read it?
 
It’s hilarious seeing so many fans of other clubs genuinely baffled at why our owner would feel the need to put out a statement like that.

From a Charlton fan- “What do you lot have to complain about? Sounds like a decent owner to me. At least he has put his hands in his pockets. Be careful what you wish for.”

That last part is particularly true… our owner doesn’t get everything right, but he gets far more right than wrong and is committed to improving all aspects of the club that desperately need improving.

Not signing anyone on deadline day after an already busy Summer is nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be. Annoying that the manager expected two and got zero? Yes. Worth wanting the owner out over, absolutely not.
 
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AmericanTangerine said:
It’s hilarious seeing so many fans of other clubs genuinely baffled at why our owner would feel the need to put out a statement like that.

From a Charlton fan- “What do you lot have to complain about? Sounds like a decent owner to me. At least he has put his hands in his pockets. Be careful what you wish for.”

That last part is particularly true… our owner doesn’t get everything right, but he gets far more right than wrong and is committed to improving all aspects of the club that desperately need improving.

Not signing anyone on deadline day after an already busy Summer is nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be. Annoying that the manager expecting two and got zero? Yes. Worth wanting the owner out over, absolutely not.
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Sadler has maybe provoked a discussion we needed to have?
 
It’s another defensive post, telling us little that we don’t already know. The guy is far too sensitive and if he reads these posts the message from me is, you bought the club, nobody forced you to. There would have been other interest, so you need to stop these sort of messages.

You bought a football club, so accept that with that will come praise & criticism. It doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate you, I know I do, but I can still ask questions. I know you’ve put in money, but again it’s your choice, your business.

You’ve made significant errors in managerial appointments, contrary to what many of your fans knew would happen. Of course fans will have concerns, they are entitled to, they buy the tickets and merchandise.

Just accept that the criticism is all part of football, just as praise comes with success.
 
At times I think you can end up in a bit of a self-contained bubble with regards to these things. I’ve never understood the depth of some of the criticism and I wonder if people are just a bit addicted to the ‘drama’ at times.

Social Media helps for things to get completely blown out of proportion, for ill founded rumours to circulate and gain momentum and it magnifies the impact of minority opinions.

On balance our club is in a very good place and is a world away from where it was under the last ‘regime’.

As I’ve said before, we need to be flexible / resilient enough to cope with some failure as well as success… In football it happens quite a lot… without the constant background noise of “sack the manager / sack the board” rumbling in our ears from the reactionary bed-wetters.

We win together and we lose together…👍
 
Hankey2009 said:
To get rattled by fkn idiots that love to make comments such as he’s no different to Oyston. Such a flippant comment would hurt any normal person and those that say he shouldn’t pay any attention I do genuinely think it’s a good thing as shows how passionate he is about the club and how he wants to drive it forward
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I agree, if he was some random owner they'd probably shrug it off, but he's a fan, of course it hurts to be compared, even by a tiny tiny minority, to the Oystons.

Especially when the reality is he's nothing like them so makes no sense anyway.

I like his statements as it's always good to check in and hear his thoughts, he's the man at the top, setting the vision, in control of the finances and all the facts.

As fans we're left somewhat in the dark and see only that we've sold someone for x amount according to a source and payed an undisclosed fee. It's also easy to forget about or underestimate costs in running a club, even with signing loan players or 'free transfers' etc.

We do get the accounts quite a bit later which always confirm what he's saying so it is about time he was trusted more.

It will be good once one or some of these bigger projects get underway or are completed, like the east as thatll transorm the stadium feel, as then he'll have even more physical proof of what he's achieved, even more credit in the bank. Until then you'll always get the old "well we've been promised things before" from some, which is basically another comparison to the past and undoubtedly the past created trust issues. Even with the improvements to the stadium, pitch, and current TG, plus the investment on the pitch, which is obviously way more than the past, until those bigger projects get going some will always doubt in that area.

There are things we can improve but equally Simon deserves some credit.
 
Generally, I thought the statement was OK. There does need to be more regular communication from the club (not just NC) though. However, actions, not words are most important though - team winning matches, strengthening the squad each window, update on the planning application on the training ground and projected start date, progress on the East etc. Most fans recognise that everything doesn't happen short term or is within the control of the club, but knowing where we are in relation to expected time lines would be useful. There also needs to be a bit more realism from some fans. We have now to rebuild from league one finances and base. We have also had a huge turnover of playing and backroom staff.
Fully behind SS and NC, but it can be frustrating at times! All part of being a football fan.
 
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foggy said:
Anybody who claims to want transparency should be reading the accounts...
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I would personally read them and have but then in my former life( retired now) I was an FCA Accountant so they might be of more interest to me than others from a professional viewpoint( I can always claim them part of my continuing professional education to maintain my I C A E W membership😂😂)if nothing else.
I certainly used to look at those of the companies BFC loaned money to😡😡 as well as those of the football club and the ones Oyston had an interest in.

Others might not bother and maybe in some circumstances because it wouldn’t suit their agenda🤔
 
If there is anyone out there who has the means to fund the Club and believes that they are a more suitable custodian of Blackpool Football Club than I, then they should make themselves known and I will hear them out.
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Wonder if @Phil_bfc deux is emptying his piggy bank 😁
 
Not read all the replies but I think that it's about time that he said something ! If he's putting in the amounts that he says that he is then he should broadcast it to his customer base rather than expect them to know it as fact ! Communication is vital and it's something that the club are very poor at resulting in the rabid negativity that has been rampant on here for the last week !
 
Well that explains deadline day. No time to do deals if composing that s…..tuff!

Not read it all that deeply, nor the thread but it does appear to be very defensive.

Just seek out another investor to help.
 
Unfortunately there will be the usual idiots who are always on here doing there usual attention seeking no matter what Simon Sadler puts out but its good to show them up for what they are occasionally
 
clappers said:
There was no chance of Critchley being poached for his start to this season as he desperately scrambled for convincing results and performances. I just wonder why after every bad spell followed by a result or two we get one of these spikey statements and very little at all otherwise.
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Yes, would he have put that statement out, had we lost to Wigan. I’m not sure he would, and none of us should get carried away with a win.

What he doesn’t seem to grasp is that fans just wanted NC to be flexible with tactics. He cannot argue that we were heading in the wrong direction and NC made some positive changes.

I don’t believe there was anything more to it, because for me this squad can challenge. I don’t think there was any need for the statement. I don’t expect SS to be have an open cheque book, but I would like him to realise this is a business like few others. It’s naive coming to football club ownership thinking it’s not and then getting regularly upset.
 
foggy said:
I'm not jumping on him or really holding this against him, he just really doesn't need to do this. I have no idea why people think a PR statement is "transparency". We publish financial accounts every year. The Oystons were actually quite transparent. We knew they spent 3.5m on transfer fees in the Premier League season and we knew Owen paid himself 11m. We also knew 30 odd million or so also went to his other companies in unsecured, interest free loans and those companies were named in black and white, and their own accounts were publicly available. Likewise we can see in the accounts the 20m or so Sadler has put directly into BFC. That's all I need, at least when it comes to assessing financial support. Not a 500 word statement.
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Well it's gone down a treat on Facebook, almost universal praise, so it's seems it did good to me. It's usually quite negative on FB too at times.
 
voyeur said:
Now the scruffs are all arguing about a statement! Its liking throwing a bone to a pack of dogs!
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It's certainly taken the attention away from the excellent performance and atmosphere on Saturday.

I'm not sure there was any need for it tbh. We didn't get a statement from him when we got relegated from The Championship, but we get one when we beat Wigan in September.
 
I think we need a guru one reset in the relationship between the club and fans. It’s been an emotional few years, but the club need to put a bit of distance in the relationship and get a professional coms person to handle statements and updates. There’s no need to meet with the several factions or get rattled by avftt / social media.
 
Football clubs are money pits no doubt about that. I generally just go to the games & if we play ok come home happy. Equally if we play crap & scab a win or undeserved draw I come home happy. When we lose it hurt’s. I’m pretty sure our player sales & ST monies are nowhere near enough to challenge. That’s up to the governing bodies to actually do something about, but it has to start at the top. With the Saudis now buying their way in I don’t believe it’ll be anytime soon. So what do we have? Well clubs gambling on getting to the next level & many falling foul in that aim. Simon Sadler has said he’s still having to prop us up against the principle of the model he would prefer. It must piss him off no end reading some of the shite posted on various social media platforms. But I’m sure he will be astute enough to realise that some people are never happy. Yes I didn’t want Appleton or Critchley back but they weren’t my decisions to make. I accepted both eventually & hope we can be successful. I’m entitled to my opinions & that’s about it. However unless it’s to bamboozle the opposition, I think a bit better communication wouldn’t go amiss.
 
Jke92 said:
Passive aggressive drivel. Owners will be judged on the decisions they make, which so far have us in the same position as when he took over, not defensive statements citing woolly mammoths. Stop reading message boards and start putting in place a proper recruitment strategy.
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What is not proper about a recruitment strategy where the owners money has, “ helped us to bring in established pro’s like Oliver Norburn, Matthew Pennington, Richard O’Donnell and Jordan Rhodes, whilst also sign younger players such as Kyle, Tashan Oakley-Boothe, Albie Morgan and Kylian Kouassi “ and enabled us to buy “Kyle Joseph, the highest known transfer fee this year in League One”?
 
The thing is, he's just doing what every other owner of a football club is doing by providing the running costs. He took over the club when we were in League One and here we are 4.5 years later in League One. The thin-skinned reactions to any perceived criticism are unnecessary imo, especially when he doesn't actually address the shitshow last season and the failures in recruitment and managerial appointments.
 
Bispham_Seasider said:
As others have pointed out though, the comments on AVFTT, are minimal in comparison to the likes of twitter, Instagram and Facebook, on the clubs official accounts.
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Ohhh - right, I get it now. So, basically, people should feel free to post any old shite they like on here, because they'll always be safe in the knowledge that no matter how offensive/insulting/defamatory/ libellous the nature of the information they are freely disseminating, it won't be anywhere near as damaging as the stuff which appears on twitter, and the like.

I'm glad that's settled.
 
Briggs5 said:
The thing is, he's just doing what every other owner of a football club is doing by providing the running costs. He took over the club when we were in League One and here we are 4.5 years later in League One. The thin-skinned reactions to any perceived criticism are unnecessary imo, especially when he doesn't actually address the shitshow last season and the failures in recruitment and managerial appointments.
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All those other clubs didn't basically have to start from scratch after the Oystons scorched earth policy.

It's exactly the same scenario that Labour will face taking over from the Tories. Everything in ruins and people having a pop from minute one.
 
Wizaard said:
All those other clubs didn't basically have to start from scratch after the Oystons scorched earth policy.

It's exactly the same scenario that Labour will face taking over from the Tories. Everything in ruins and people having a pop from minute one.
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You're absolutely right and I've thanked him loads of tines for that. But do we have to preface every slightly critical post or opinion with a 'thank you for saving us' for ever more? Or just never be critical at all? I thought we wanted to be a normal football club and fanbase now? Part of that is asking for a bit of clarity and questioning things, especially if you've gone through a few managers in a season and been relegated.
 
Mr Tangerine Man said:
I think this "statement" will need revisiting at the end of the season...
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And, once this has been done, and if ever the need should arise for us to pore over this item again, to paraphrase the title of a true rock classic album from his 'Bobness', we can start making reference to: 'Statement 23 Revisited'.
(With apologies to Mr Tangerine Man.)
 
Briggs5 said:
You're absolutely right and I've thanked him loads of tines for that. But do we have to preface every slightly critical post or opinion with a 'thank you for saving us' for ever more? Or just never be critical at all? I thought we wanted to be a normal football club and fanbase now? Part of that is asking for a bit of clarity and questioning things, especially if you've gone through a few managers in a season and been relegated.
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It's getting the balance right for me.

Some, especially on Twitter, are saying it's no different than under the Oystons. It's completely different, as anyone glancing around when in the ground could see.

Investments are being made on and off the field and one season aside, progress is being made. We have a proper club now, and that trumps all the niggles for me.

Yes, there have been missteps, but that's been the choice of managers, but that's with hindsight.

Saturday's win showed we can compete with and beat the top sides in the Division. With 40 games to go I'm confident we'll go from strength to strength, and if the need is there in January Critchley will get full backing.
 
foggy said:
Said it before and will say it again, whether it's him or people who report to him, they need to spend less time reading avftt, it's not representative of the fanbase at large and these weird annual statements I find completely bizarre. Just get on with it and stop stressing about what drunk people say about you on a Saturday night on a message board. Between the over the top defensiveness and references to other clubs who have spent and got themselves into danger this was Oystonesque communication.
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It wasn’t Oystonesque it was sating facts. A very good and honest statement.
StAnnesonseaBFC said:
In other words all the muppets who haven't got a clue about owning a football club back in your box ...Love it Simon !!!
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Yes and this forum has more than it’s fair share of muppets.
 
1966_and_all_that said:
And a fair one too. But, "over the top defensiveness," "Oystonesque"? You could save that for another occasion. We wanted communication and we've got it. I think we communally deserved that spanking.
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Each to their own n' all that, but how d'ya know there are others out there who happen to share what I'm taking to be (rightly or wrongly) a personal fetish of yours? Or were you speaking metaphorically? Or was it maybe a statistically-based conclusion you came to? I'm just curious...
 
A decent enough statement outlining some of what he’s had to face and confirming his ambition for the long term future and stability of the club. Some of us on here (myself included) have been unhappy about the lack of communication about the club’s plan, so this goes some way to appease that.

What riled us more though was, until last Saturday, the tactics of the man SS ‘kept going back to’ were dire and showed no ambition at all.

I’m not saying we should be told about everything going on at the club, but there’s a good number of us have bought season tickets (and pay £60 a game train fare). I don’t think it unreasonable to want to know what a player’s injury is and how long he’s likely to be out.
 
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