Here is our update from Monday evening’s Fans Focus event. Plenty of subjects covered.
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Nothing new learnt.
We know Keates has a ■■■■■ budget, there’s still no chips and the advertising board is still working.
I learnt a new word - vomitory 
What a waste of time and a complete load of ■■■■■■■■. But at least it has made it easy for me to make my decision to stay away from home matches.
I went to the FF meeting in Feb 2008 and it’s the same questions and the same answers as back then - “looking” to make improvements here and there, Jeff still is passionate. Yawn. Glad I didn’t bother. Still at least we now have hot water in toilets (the fact that hot running water was commonplace in the 1930s shouldn’t detract from this momentous achievement).
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UTS wasn’t there. Wrote a story anyway…
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No confirmation on the Bradshaw sell on either?
So we all knew Deano was up against it with his poor budget…tonight we find out he has had to fund our scouting network out of it . iIt should be part of a professional clubs set up and not have to come out of the managers playing budget ffs.
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Over the last few years the club has diverted money to its academy instead of scouting. Changes in the way wealthy clubs pay for kids may have changed the dynamic here, but we deserve an explanation.
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I can see lots of derision about the fact the Keates needs to find his own money for scouting.
But surely there is one big (I say big, but you know what I mean) pot of money for football. This encompasses all matters on the playing side. Who else should control that pot other than the football manager? The fact that the previous incumbent chose not to spend any of that pot on scouting whilst the current one does, is surely down to the preferences of the two individuals involved.
I can’t understand why the club are getting stick for this.
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Agreed P.T…I am just pleased DK has gone down this route which I think most supporters think is wise.
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Because it shouldn’t be a choice between do I sign players or do I afford a scout when you have one of the smallest budgets in the league to begin with.
Scouting is a basic requirement of a football club. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice playing funds for it.
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Exactly. We extend our scouting network to find better players to bring the club but then we are unable to offer those players attractive financial packages because part of our player funding is spent on finding them in the first place.
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Two points:
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The new trendy thing amongst ‘clubs struggling to compete’ is membership schemes. The example I know best is Aberdeen because I used to live there and subjected myself to a season of watching the SPL (Highland league was far superior). They set up a controversial scheme called ‘AberDNA’ where basically you give them 20 quid or so a season to 1. get access to tickets, 2. get discounts in the shop and 3. fund an expanded transfer pot. This is also a thing at clubs like Brentford (and lots of premiership clubs) but, as far as I know, with no promise of funds going to transfers. Aberdeen talk about a few hundred thousand extra budget being given to the manager which obviously helps. Its controversial because it means folks can just buy their way to glamour fixture tickets etc. Obviously we are on a lower level in terms of support but would that ever work at Walsall?
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On another point, I think some disconnect has happened between what used to be football clubs as part of the community. For example, do folks volunteer (or are they asked) anymore to help paint/renovate parts of the stadium over the summer? I spotted this on Kidderminster’s facebook page recently. Perhaps its time we took back the tasks that can help the stadium look better.
20 odd quid a home game to sit in the one decent stand is more than enough thank you very much.
Yep, I guess 90% of people would say that and fair enough.
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Agreed. Either Dean uses his budget to secure scouts, coaches etc, or the club cuts his budget and does the signing for him.
Even with JB’s perceived creative book keeping the overall budget can only stretch so far. Especially when the club has to spend money on many other aspects of the club, youth system, facilities, anti-chip propaganda and so on.
Why should the scouting network come out of the playing side of the budget? It’s the infrastructure of the club. We’re not sticking a scout up front it’s a basic requirement of a football club.
The budget was only big enough to scrape safety last season and is already one of the smallest in the league. That’s why people are angry at the club.
i mean how much is a scout these days 50 to 100K for the year? Hmmm if only there was some way we could afford that without taking it out of the playing budget…
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Would imagine DK’s whole scouting network (including full-time Chief Scout, freelance regional scouts and all travel and expenses) costs a lot less than 100k a year.
I was being generous to avoid a pedantic response of “well it would be more than that though” to be honest.
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