The Rod Petrie Appreciation Thread

[Wotherspiniesta]

This has probably been done before. But I'd just love to point out some of the excellent business that our Chairman has done over the past few years:
(I'll try keep this short and sweet)

Steven Whittaker to Rangers for £2m:
He was purchased as a defender, but is obviously a lot better getting forward. His "performances" in last season's Champions League were quite funny to watch, getting turned inside out and showing him up for a poor defender (nothing against the guy himself, he never had anything bad to say about his time at Hibs, and was a good player for us) But £2m for him was a great bit of business IMO.

Kevin Thomson to Rangers for £2m:
Probably the most loathed of all the ex-Hibs players in recent times. Quite rightly, the way him and his agent tried to manufacture a move from Hibs was quite disgusting, but all too typical of the modern day footballer. So what did Rangers get for a player worth £2m? A center midfielder who has scored 1 goal? since his move. A player with a bad disciplinary record and 2 crippling knee injuries. Again, another good bit of business by our Chairman.

David Murphy to Birmingham for £1.5m:
Murphy wanted to go back to England, He was a brilliant servant for the club and Mr consistent. He was one of the players we sold, who at the time I thought were getting cut short with. After selling Whittaker for £2m, I thought we could have got a little more for DM. However, since his move to England, he has been plagued with injuries and is now way down the pecking order at St Andrews. Seems like another shrewd move now.

Steven Fletcher to Burnley for £3m:
After all the talk of him moving to Celtic, Petrie priced them out of a move for him. (albeit the money offered from them was ridiculously low for a player of his talent and potential). He's proved a lot of Hibs fans wrong with his performances in the EPL with Burnley and is now being linked with a £7m move to Wolves with Hibs having a sell on clause reported to be around £20% of the profit. Another wise move from Sir Rod.

Scott Brown to Celtic for £4.4m
This IMO, was the best move of the lot. Brown is a player who will always give 100% so it didn't show in his performances at the time, but after handing ina transfer request, its quite obvious to see he wanted to leave. He was a great player with us and it was horrible to see him in a Celtic shirt. Since then though, he has gone backwards IMO. Strachan was playing him as a sitting midfield player which has seen his confidence dented. He's also had a bad injury and has often failed to deliver in big games for Celtic. The money was all up front with no add-ons and allowed us to purchase a state of the art training complex.

Next season we will see a brand new stand, the biggest UEFA compliant stadium outside of Glasgow, a new pitch and European Football return to Easter Road. Basically what I'd like to say is:

ALL HAIL THE TACHE:notworthy:

*Feel free to add more excellent pieces of Business by Rod Petrie*

[NAE NOOKIE]

This has probably been done before. But I'd just love to point out some of the excellent business that our Chairman has done over the past few years:
(I'll try keep this short and sweet)

Steven Whittaker to Rangers for £2m:
He was purchased as a defender, but is obviously a lot better getting forward. His "performances" in last season's Champions League were quite funny to watch, getting turned inside out and showing him up for a poor defender (nothing against the guy himself, he never had anything bad to say about his time at Hibs, and was a good player for us) But £2m for him was a great bit of business IMO.

Kevin Thomson to Rangers for £2m:
Probably the most loathed of all the ex-Hibs players in recent times. Quite rightly, the way him and his agent tried to manufacture a move from Hibs was quite disgusting, but all too typical of the modern day footballer. So what did Rangers get for a player worth £2m? A center midfielder who has scored 1 goal? since his move. A player with a bad disciplinary record and 2 crippling knee injuries. Again, another good bit of business by our Chairman.

David Murphy to Birmingham for £1.5m:
Murphy wanted to go back to England, He was a brilliant servant for the club and Mr consistent. He was one of the players we sold, who at the time I thought were getting cut short with. After selling Whittaker for £2m, I thought we could have got a little more for DM. However, since his move to England, he has been plagued with injuries and is now way down the pecking order at St Andrews. Seems like another shrewd move now.

Steven Fletcher to Burnley for £3m:
After all the talk of him moving to Celtic, Petrie priced them out of a move for him. (albeit the money offered from them was ridiculously low for a player of his talent and potential). He's proved a lot of Hibs fans wrong with his performances in the EPL with Burnley and is now being linked with a £7m move to Wolves with Hibs having a sell on clause reported to be around £20% of the profit. Another wise move from Sir Rod.

Scott Brown to Celtic for £4.4m
This IMO, was the best move of the lot. Brown is a player who will always give 100% so it didn't show in his performances at the time, but after handing ina transfer request, its quite obvious to see he wanted to leave. He was a great player with us and it was horrible to see him in a Celtic shirt. Since then though, he has gone backwards IMO. Strachan was playing him as a sitting midfield player which has seen his confidence dented. He's also had a bad injury and has often failed to deliver in big games for Celtic. The money was all up front with no add-ons and allowed us to purchase a state of the art training complex.

Next season we will see a brand new stand, the biggest UEFA compliant stadium outside of Glasgow, a new pitch and European Football return to Easter Road. Basically what I'd like to say is:

ALL HAIL THE TACHE:notworthy:

*Feel free to add more excellent pieces of Business by Rod Petrie*

You forgot the best bit of business of the lot £50,000 from West Brom for Shelton Martis

[we are hibs]

You forgot the best bit of business of the lot £50,000 for that centre half we sold to West Brom who's name totally escapes me. And he has a League cup winners medal with us too. Damn this old age !!!

shelton martis

i only remember cause he scored own goals all the time:grr:

[Ed De Gramo]

This has probably been done before. But I'd just love to point out some of the excellent business that our Chairman has done over the past few years:
(I'll try keep this short and sweet)

Steven Whittaker to Rangers for £2m:
He was purchased as a defender, but is obviously a lot better getting forward. His "performances" in last season's Champions League were quite funny to watch, getting turned inside out and showing him up for a poor defender (nothing against the guy himself, he never had anything bad to say about his time at Hibs, and was a good player for us) But £2m for him was a great bit of business IMO.

Kevin Thomson to Rangers for £2m:
Probably the most loathed of all the ex-Hibs players in recent times. Quite rightly, the way him and his agent tried to manufacture a move from Hibs was quite disgusting, but all too typical of the modern day footballer. So what did Rangers get for a player worth £2m? A center midfielder who has scored 1 goal? since his move. A player with a bad disciplinary record and 2 crippling knee injuries. Again, another good bit of business by our Chairman.

David Murphy to Birmingham for £1.5m:
Murphy wanted to go back to England, He was a brilliant servant for the club and Mr consistent. He was one of the players we sold, who at the time I thought were getting cut short with. After selling Whittaker for £2m, I thought we could have got a little more for DM. However, since his move to England, he has been plagued with injuries and is now way down the pecking order at St Andrews. Seems like another shrewd move now.

Steven Fletcher to Burnley for £3m:
After all the talk of him moving to Celtic, Petrie priced them out of a move for him. (albeit the money offered from them was ridiculously low for a player of his talent and potential). He's proved a lot of Hibs fans wrong with his performances in the EPL with Burnley and is now being linked with a £7m move to Wolves with Hibs having a sell on clause reported to be around £20% of the profit. Another wise move from Sir Rod.

Scott Brown to Celtic for £4.4m
This IMO, was the best move of the lot. Brown is a player who will always give 100% so it didn't show in his performances at the time, but after handing ina transfer request, its quite obvious to see he wanted to leave. He was a great player with us and it was horrible to see him in a Celtic shirt. Since then though, he has gone backwards IMO. Strachan was playing him as a sitting midfield player which has seen his confidence dented. He's also had a bad injury and has often failed to deliver in big games for Celtic. The money was all up front with no add-ons and allowed us to purchase a state of the art training complex.

Next season we will see a brand new stand, the biggest UEFA compliant stadium outside of Glasgow, a new pitch and European Football return to Easter Road. Basically what I'd like to say is:

ALL HAIL THE TACHE:notworthy:

*Feel free to add more excellent pieces of Business by Rod Petrie*

:top marks

All hail Sir Rod Of Petrie :notworthy::notworthy:

[new malkyhib]

This has probably been done before. But I'd just love to point out some of the excellent business that our Chairman has done over the past few years:
(I'll try keep this short and sweet)

Steven Whittaker to Rangers for £2m:
He was purchased as a defender, but is obviously a lot better getting forward. His "performances" in last season's Champions League were quite funny to watch, getting turned inside out and showing him up for a poor defender (nothing against the guy himself, he never had anything bad to say about his time at Hibs, and was a good player for us) But £2m for him was a great bit of business IMO.

Kevin Thomson to Rangers for £2m:
Probably the most loathed of all the ex-Hibs players in recent times. Quite rightly, the way him and his agent tried to manufacture a move from Hibs was quite disgusting, but all too typical of the modern day footballer. So what did Rangers get for a player worth £2m? A center midfielder who has scored 1 goal? since his move. A player with a bad disciplinary record and 2 crippling knee injuries. Again, another good bit of business by our Chairman.

David Murphy to Birmingham for £1.5m:
Murphy wanted to go back to England, He was a brilliant servant for the club and Mr consistent. He was one of the players we sold, who at the time I thought were getting cut short with. After selling Whittaker for £2m, I thought we could have got a little more for DM. However, since his move to England, he has been plagued with injuries and is now way down the pecking order at St Andrews. Seems like another shrewd move now.

Steven Fletcher to Burnley for £3m:
After all the talk of him moving to Celtic, Petrie priced them out of a move for him. (albeit the money offered from them was ridiculously low for a player of his talent and potential). He's proved a lot of Hibs fans wrong with his performances in the EPL with Burnley and is now being linked with a £7m move to Wolves with Hibs having a sell on clause reported to be around £20% of the profit. Another wise move from Sir Rod.

Scott Brown to Celtic for £4.4m
This IMO, was the best move of the lot. Brown is a player who will always give 100% so it didn't show in his performances at the time, but after handing ina transfer request, its quite obvious to see he wanted to leave. He was a great player with us and it was horrible to see him in a Celtic shirt. Since then though, he has gone backwards IMO. Strachan was playing him as a sitting midfield player which has seen his confidence dented. He's also had a bad injury and has often failed to deliver in big games for Celtic. The money was all up front with no add-ons and allowed us to purchase a state of the art training complex.

Next season we will see a brand new stand, the biggest UEFA compliant stadium outside of Glasgow, a new pitch and European Football return to Easter Road. Basically what I'd like to say is:

ALL HAIL THE TACHE:notworthy:

*Feel free to add more excellent pieces of Business by Rod Petrie*

The sale of Gary O'Connor to Lokomitiv leaving us without a striker for THAT semi-final?

Sorry mate, I don't share your enthusiasm over a thread that celebrates selling our best players to the smellies.:confused:

[dawn]

I posted a thread (A man called Rod) in the dug out last night, the video is worth a look, makes me laugh ever time I watch it!
Perhaps one of the Admins could please move it to here instead! :greengrin

[Wotherspiniesta]

The sale of Gary O'Connor to Lokomitiv leaving us without a striker for THAT semi-final?

Sorry mate, I don't share your enthusiasm over a thread that celebrates selling our best players to the smellies.:confused:

I'm not celebrating selling our best players to the OF.

I'm celebrating the shrewd negotiator that is our chairman, Rod Petrie and the great job that he has done for us so far.

Jump on board the Petrie train.:thumbsup:

[Johnny_Leith]

I posted a thread (A man called Rod) in the dug out last night, the video is worth a look, makes me laugh ever time I watch it!
Perhaps one of the Admins could please move it to here instead! :greengrin

Just watched it, brilliant, truly brilliant:thumbsup:

[dawn]

Just watched it, brilliant, truly brilliant:thumbsup:
:smug:

[JohnScott]

The sale of Gary O'Connor to Lokomitiv leaving us without a striker for THAT semi-final?

Sorry mate, I don't share your enthusiasm over a thread that celebrates selling our best players to the smellies.:confused:

Yes perhaps your right but that's been the case for years. Before Petrie though they pissed off down the M8 for peanuts. 4m for Scott Brown was/is one of the greatest deals ever involving the Hibs and the Old Firm. And will not be equaled between Scottish clubs for years.

No doubt you and the other's who refuse to give our board a pat on the back, will still take your seat in the best football stadium outside Glasgow. You'll look around thinking how proud you are to be a Hibby yet will still not give credit where's it's due.

What they've achieved with a hard core support of only 10,000 is bloody marvelous. Before them we had home gates of 6000 and some as low as 4000.

One last thing, conveniently forgotten by many fellow Hibby's, is a quote from Alex Miller made in the early nineties: "If we stay at Easter Road and redevelop the stadium, we will have to sell our best young players for years to come."

We stayed, have redeveloped the stadium and done so by selling our best young players. So get real guys.

So Mr Petrie, if your reading this, thank-you from a very grateful Hibee. :notworthy:

[KeithTheHibby]

And punting GOC for 1.6m only to get him back on a free.:wink:

[Ray_]

Yes perhaps your right but that's been the case for years. Before Petrie though they pissed off down the M8 for peanuts. 4m for Scott Brown was/is one of the greatest deals ever involving the Hibs and the Old Firm. And will not be equaled between Scottish clubs for years.

No doubt you and the other's who refuse to give our board a pat on the back, will still take your seat in the best football stadium outside Glasgow. You'll look around thinking how proud you are to be a Hibby yet will still not give credit where's it's due.

What they've achieved with a hard core support of only 10,000 is bloody marvelous. Before them we had home gates of 6000 and some as low as 4000.

One last thing, conveniently forgotten by many fellow Hibby's, is a quote from Alex Miller made in the early nineties: "If we stay at Easter Road and redevelop the stadium, we will have to sell our best young players for years to come."

We stayed, have redeveloped the stadium and done so by selling our best young players. So get real guys.

So Mr Petrie, if your reading this, thank-you from a very grateful Hibee. :notworthy:

Don't forget the 18M debt we have almost paid off & the success of SUABC & oh yeah, you might want to give the fans some credit, for still turning up and spending large sums in the shop and on hospitality, even although much of the time they have only been left with dross to watch!

[Conrad Gray]

Getting Plymouth to pay compensation for Bobby Williamson..........................

Anyone know how much??

[Beefster]

This thread's a wee bit embarrassing.

Petrie may have done a decent job sorting out the debt that he racked up and building the infrastructure of the club but not many fans would celebrate the dismantling of the team that had more potential than we're likely to see at ER for a long, long time.

[bighairyfaeleith]

This thread's a wee bit embarrassing.

Petrie may have done a decent job sorting out the debt that he racked up and building the infrastructure of the club but not many fans would celebrate the dismantling of the team that had more potential than we're likely to see at ER for a long, long time.

We would always have lost the players though. Keeping hold of them for another year or two until there contracts ran out would just mean we got nothing for them. These players are ambitious and want to play at a higher level than we can offer, so we get the best out of them we can while they grow and learn then we sell and repeat the process with more youngsters. That has to be our way because we simply cannot afford to pay 10k a week wages. You only have to look at hearts to see were that policy gets you.

No one wanted to sell brown, o'connor, whittaker (a few maybe wanted to sell thomhun:greengrin) but we have rebuilt again and if we sell some more we will once again rebuild. It's just the cycle.

But we can sleep at night knowing our club is in safe hands and will be open for business the next day with a great stadium, great facilities, excellent youth policy and a good team trying to play football. There are a lot of football fans in Edinburgh who don't have that little luxury which we often take for granted.:notworthy:

[steviecarnie]

This thread's a wee bit embarrassing.

Petrie may have done a decent job sorting out the debt that he racked up and building the infrastructure of the club but not many fans would celebrate the dismantling of the team that had more potential than we're likely to see at ER for a long, long time.

Think u need to get realistic here, we are a selling club, always have been - always will be, getting the money we have got for these players is all down to petrie, others would have taken less or held out for too much and in the end got Sweet FA.

The Tache knows best :agree:

[down the slope]

Three crap managers , aye Rod has a shrewd eye.

[M11BMO]

Think u need to get realistic here, we are a selling club, always have been - always will be, getting the money we have got for these players is all down to petrie, others would have taken less or held out for too much and in the end got Sweet FA.

The Tache knows best :agree:

There's always gonna be a time when the players want to move on to try and further their careers. It seems Mr Petrie get's the deals right 9 times out of 10 in regards to negotiating transfer fee's.

I've got a die hard Ger's fan in my work and it was just Thursday that we were having a conversation regarding chairman and the financial situation of the SPL clubs. He was envious of the way that Petrie has been so clever through the years. Albeit by being labelled the tightest man in Scotland. Look at us now.

:top marksto The Tache

In Petrie We Trust.

[bighairyfaeleith]

Three crap managers , aye Rod has a shrewd eye.

Hold on

Sir Tony - Much loved by the hibs fans at the time
JC - League Cup win
Mixu - Yeah Fair Play
Yogi - I'm not his fan, but the jury is still out

Think you are perhaps being a bit harsh with that one.

[hibee4life1983]

Petries done a great job, he didnt start the stupid spending but did put a lid on it and start the now eufa compliant ''live within your means''

I think the guys a legend and deserves a big flag from us hibbys, an 'all hail the tache' flag would be great and it would wind away fans right up!

The only thing i do worry about is what happens now, we have our training complex, our stadiums looking cracking, we are back in europe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Do we now/next season pump more funds into the gaffers pockets? Do we expand on the wages department?

I do often wonder if we could take a bigger bite and really go for it.


ANYWAY, ALL HAIL THE TACHE INDEED!!!

[Brooster]

We would be *****ed without Rod and Sir Tom. Thanks a lot to both of them.

[random sub]

think I am more in the "this thread is embarassing" camp. Okay, any football club needs to trade players but it is not exactly like we have won a cup for fiscal responsibility...and if we did win such a cup it is not exactly going to be brought back to town on an open top bus!

[new malkyhib]

think I am more in the "this thread is embarassing" camp. Okay, any football club needs to trade players but it is not exactly like we have won a cup for fiscal responsibility...and if we did win such a cup it is not exactly going to be brought back to town on an open top bus!

Correct - it is embarrassing - I don't support a balance sheet, I support a team. The limit of Petrie's ambition is top 6 in a crap league and the odd cup run.

With the OF at their lowest ebb in years, the Hibs should be pushing on and challenging for the league IMHO. And for all the Petrie arse-licking that goes on on this forum, that should be the measure and the challenge for the highest paid Board of Directors in Scotland for the next few years.

I suspect though that there will always be another "capital project" that will be at the forefront of RP (i.e. STF's agenda) to the detriment of the team on the park.

Love to be wrong, suspect I won't be though.

[Sprouleflyer]

Correct - it is embarrassing - I don't support a balance sheet, I support a team. The limit of Petrie's ambition is top 6 in a crap league and the odd cup run.

With the OF at their lowest ebb in years, the Hibs should be pushing on and challenging for the league IMHO. And for all the Petrie arse-licking that goes on on this forum, that should be the measure and the challenge for the highest paid Board of Directors in Scotland for the next few years.

I suspect though that there will always be another "capital project" that will be at the forefront of RP (i.e. STF's agenda) to the detriment of the team on the park.

Love to be wrong, suspect I won't be though.

And how do you know that?

Also what would you have done over the last 10 years if you were in Petrie's position?

[Hibs07p]

Correct - it is embarrassing - I don't support a balance sheet, I support a team. The limit of Petrie's ambition is top 6 in a crap league and the odd cup run.

With the OF at their lowest ebb in years, the Hibs should be pushing on and challenging for the league IMHO. And for all the Petrie arse-licking that goes on on this forum, that should be the measure and the challenge for the highest paid Board of Directors in Scotland for the next few years.

I suspect though that there will always be another "capital project" that will be at the forefront of RP (i.e. STF's agenda) to the detriment of the team on the park.

Love to be wrong, suspect I won't be though.

Lighten up man, the 'tacheman is a legend, in fact I think he deserves his own song!
Altogether now,

Hail, hail, the ‘tache is here,
He wisely spends our money,
Building the Hibs Academy,
Hail, Hail, the ‘tache is here,
Give him your money now,

For it’s a grand old team to pay for,
And it’s a terrific AGM to see,
And if, you know your balancesheet,
It’s enough to make your wallet go oh oh, oh, oh,

We don’t care who the Jamtarts pay,
What the hell do we care,
For we only know,
That there’s gonna be a show,
And the Edinburgh Solvent Hibees will be there.

[blackpoolhibs]

Correct - it is embarrassing - I don't support a balance sheet, I support a team. The limit of Petrie's ambition is top 6 in a crap league and the odd cup run.

With the OF at their lowest ebb in years, the Hibs should be pushing on and challenging for the league IMHO. And for all the Petrie arse-licking that goes on on this forum, that should be the measure and the challenge for the highest paid Board of Directors in Scotland for the next few years.

I suspect though that there will always be another "capital project" that will be at the forefront of RP (i.e. STF's agenda) to the detriment of the team on the park.

Love to be wrong, suspect I won't be though.

If the old firm are at their lowest ebb in years, can you explain how we should be challenging them? Can you explain how you would do this on our turnover, and what type of wages you would pay compared to them?

[weecounty hibby]

I can't believe folk are buying this rubbish about the OF being at their lowest ebb for years stuff, it's just not true. What you are reading is the pain from OF obsessed journalists who believe they should be challenging for the top Euro honours but have yet to get the reality check that it will never happen again.

Anyway back to Rod, I think he has done an unbelievable job in the last few years at ER debt and infrastructure wise and to some extents playing wise, but it is time to take it to the next level ON the park, so I will reserve my hail hailing of him till after the close season. If he keeps our top performers and maybe even extends a contract or two, signs a couple of stars and improves the team then it will indeed be :notworthy: all hail The 'Tache.

[Matty_Jack04]

Correct - it is embarrassing - I don't support a balance sheet, I support a team. The limit of Petrie's ambition is top 6 in a crap league and the odd cup run.

With the OF at their lowest ebb in years, the Hibs should be pushing on and challenging for the league IMHO. And for all the Petrie arse-licking that goes on on this forum, that should be the measure and the challenge for the highest paid Board of Directors in Scotland for the next few years.

I suspect though that there will always be another "capital project" that will be at the forefront of RP (i.e. STF's agenda) to the detriment of the team on the park.

Love to be wrong, suspect I won't be though.

I think giving the green light to sign players like stokes and miller last summer told us he intended to help in anyway he could to get a better product on the park and challenge for Uefa places, thats what gets bums on seats after all. Hibs are years in front of every other club in SPL regarding the way we have tackled our debt and whilst doing this we have completed the stadium and built a training centre!! the way the board as a whole have worked (although frustrating at times) has been amazing. :top marks

[jdships]

This thread's a wee bit embarrassing.

Petrie may have done a decent job sorting out the debt that he racked up and building the infrastructure of the club but not many fans would celebrate the dismantling of the team that had more potential than we're likely to see at ER for a long, long time.

How is it embarrassing ?
Look at the "turn over" of this club then look at the class of player we have produced then think about what wages these guys would be looking for once they had "made it"
Keep them and it adds up to a Tynecastle "scenario" - massive debt and a crumbling stadium.
If we had gone down that road what would you honestly think the future would have held ?
This club, since they late 1940's, has been a selling club and will probably remain so.

Petrie , and don't let's forget STF and others behind the scenes , has stabilized this club against the odds and I only hope I live long enough to see their hard work rewarded with some real success on the playing field .

I for one agree totally with the OP :top marks

:flag:

[bighairyfaeleith]

Correct - it is embarrassing - I don't support a balance sheet, I support a team. The limit of Petrie's ambition is top 6 in a crap league and the odd cup run.

With the OF at their lowest ebb in years, the Hibs should be pushing on and challenging for the league IMHO. And for all the Petrie arse-licking that goes on on this forum, that should be the measure and the challenge for the highest paid Board of Directors in Scotland for the next few years.

I suspect though that there will always be another "capital project" that will be at the forefront of RP (i.e. STF's agenda) to the detriment of the team on the park.

Love to be wrong, suspect I won't be though.

I don't see anyone outside of the old firm and hearts paying more wages than us?

Now we all I think would agree that we shouldn't pay the sort of wages hearts do because look at what has happened to them. So instead we have steadily increased our wage limit as finances have allowed, the new stand will hopefully help to attract some more folks back to easter road, along with a couple of exciting signings like stokes and miller last summer, and riordan the year before that and we should hopefully be able to have a good season next year.

We should always aim for the old firm, but we shouldn't go bust in the process. Just ask the yams. In fact don't because the reply will make no sense:wink:

[we are hibs]

Petries done a great job, he didnt start the stupid spending but did put a lid on it and start the now eufa compliant ''live within your means''

I think the guys a legend and deserves a big flag from us hibbys, an 'all hail the tache' flag would be great and it would wind away fans right up!

The only thing i do worry about is what happens now, we have our training complex, our stadiums looking cracking, we are back in europe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Do we now/next season pump more funds into the gaffers pockets? Do we expand on the wages department?

I do often wonder if we could take a bigger bite and really go for it.


ANYWAY, ALL HAIL THE TACHE INDEED!!!


:agree::top marks

[JohnScott]

This thread's a wee bit embarrassing.

Petrie may have done a decent job sorting out the debt that he racked up and building the infrastructure of the club but not many fans would celebrate the dismantling of the team that had more potential than we're likely to see at ER for a long, long time.

You've got a strange outlook on life Beefster if your embarrassed by this thread :confused:

As for the argument that it's we fans that have paid for the stadium? I'm sorry but that's guff, almost as bad as Rangers fans expecting the bank to write off their debts! It's the sale of players that have built the stadium. Some would argue we've been lucky having the talent but that was done by the hard work carried out by Alex Miller, Donald Park, Alex McLeish and our youth coaches.

The present board doubled our crowds by taking our club into the 21st Century. I for one have good memories of the old Easter Road but don't miss standing on the high terracing in rain and snow. Or sitting in the cowshed with the wind howling through it.

Of course our money helps develop these players, pays wages and helps run our club but it doesn't account for our total income. Hearts fans could use the same argument but their club are tens of millions in debt because they chased the dream of competing with the Old Firm. If Beefster wants to talk about embarrassment then lets talk about the Hearts board's talk of securing financing for a new stand. 50m down to 15m.

We have a bright future unlike Hearts, Rangers and many down south who will be arse twitching at the moment given the plans to make teams live within their means.

So Beefster if you think you can do better than Petrie tell us now. How would you have built our stadium, kept our "potentialy great team" together while paying relatively low wages, built a state of the art training centre and (as I was reminded above :rolleyes:) financed the debt. In fact any of you that still boak at the thought of crediting Rod Petrie for anything. Here's your chance.......WHAT would you have done differently? And please include YOUR choice of managers. :bye:

[Gerard]

This has probably been done before. But I'd just love to point out some of the excellent business that our Chairman has done over the past few years:
(I'll try keep this short and sweet)

Steven Whittaker to Rangers for £2m:
He was purchased as a defender, but is obviously a lot better getting forward. His "performances" in last season's Champions League were quite funny to watch, getting turned inside out and showing him up for a poor defender (nothing against the guy himself, he never had anything bad to say about his time at Hibs, and was a good player for us) But £2m for him was a great bit of business IMO.

Kevin Thomson to Rangers for £2m:
Probably the most loathed of all the ex-Hibs players in recent times. Quite rightly, the way him and his agent tried to manufacture a move from Hibs was quite disgusting, but all too typical of the modern day footballer. So what did Rangers get for a player worth £2m? A center midfielder who has scored 1 goal? since his move. A player with a bad disciplinary record and 2 crippling knee injuries. Again, another good bit of business by our Chairman.

David Murphy to Birmingham for £1.5m:
Murphy wanted to go back to England, He was a brilliant servant for the club and Mr consistent. He was one of the players we sold, who at the time I thought were getting cut short with. After selling Whittaker for £2m, I thought we could have got a little more for DM. However, since his move to England, he has been plagued with injuries and is now way down the pecking order at St Andrews. Seems like another shrewd move now.

Steven Fletcher to Burnley for £3m:
After all the talk of him moving to Celtic, Petrie priced them out of a move for him. (albeit the money offered from them was ridiculously low for a player of his talent and potential). He's proved a lot of Hibs fans wrong with his performances in the EPL with Burnley and is now being linked with a £7m move to Wolves with Hibs having a sell on clause reported to be around £20% of the profit. Another wise move from Sir Rod.

Scott Brown to Celtic for £4.4m
This IMO, was the best move of the lot. Brown is a player who will always give 100% so it didn't show in his performances at the time, but after handing ina transfer request, its quite obvious to see he wanted to leave. He was a great player with us and it was horrible to see him in a Celtic shirt. Since then though, he has gone backwards IMO. Strachan was playing him as a sitting midfield player which has seen his confidence dented. He's also had a bad injury and has often failed to deliver in big games for Celtic. The money was all up front with no add-ons and allowed us to purchase a state of the art training complex.

Next season we will see a brand new stand, the biggest UEFA compliant stadium outside of Glasgow, a new pitch and European Football return to Easter Road. Basically what I'd like to say is:

ALL HAIL THE TACHE:notworthy:

*Feel free to add more excellent pieces of Business by Rod Petrie*

:confused::wink:
Arise Sir Rod:wink:
G

[jdships]

You've got a strange outlook on life Beefster if your embarrassed by this thread :confused:

As for the argument that it's we fans that have paid for the stadium? I'm sorry but that's guff, almost as bad as Rangers fans expecting the bank to write off their debts! It's the sale of players that have built the stadium. Some would argue we've been lucky having the talent but that was done by the hard work carried out by Alex Miller, Donald Park, Alex McLeish and our youth coaches.

The present board doubled our crowds by taking our club into the 21st Century. I for one have good memories of the old Easter Road but don't miss standing on the high terracing in rain and snow. Or sitting in the cowshed with the wind howling through it.

Of course our money helps develop these players, pays wages and helps run our club but it doesn't account for our total income. Hearts fans could use the same argument but their club are tens of millions in debt because they chased the dream of competing with the Old Firm. If Beefster wants to talk about embarrassment then lets talk about the Hearts board's talk of securing financing for a new stand. 50m down to 15m.

We have a bright future unlike Hearts, Rangers and many down south who will be arse twitching at the moment given the plans to make teams live within their means.

So Beefster if you think you can do better than Petrie tell us now. How would you have built our stadium, kept our "potentialy great team" together while paying relatively low wages, built a state of the art training centre and (as I was reminded above :rolleyes:) financed the debt. In fact any of you that still boak at the thought of crediting Rod Petrie for anything. Here's your chance.......WHAT would you have done differently? And please include YOUR choice of managers. :bye:



First class post thumbsup:

As I said in previous post - Look at the annual turnover at this club and you surely can see what a fantastic job Petrie et al have done.
OK no one would like success more than me but unlike some posters , JohnScott , myself and a few others live in the real world

[Spike Mandela]

Yes he's a good accountant and knows how to maximise his return and deserves credit. The investment in infrastructure ensures he will be a very wealthy man when he walks away from Hibs and we will be on solid ground.

However when you are old and look back on your treasured memories of Hibs will it be the opening of the training centre, the west,North or FF stand or the new east stand that you look back on or will it be cup victories and greats like Sauzee, Riordan et al and exciting European nights???

Whilst his canniness is worthy and (admittedly) required it is incredibly dull , unexciting and doesn't stir the blood of the average football fan.(Apologies to Caversham and all the resident finance experts:wink:)

Now is the time finally, please God finally, to at last put all our focus on to what happens on the park and attempt to realise our ambitions, where trophies are won , Europe is regular not twice every 15 years or so and Hibs have players to the envy of most outside the OF.

Only then will the Tache deserve a statue of himself outside ER.:greengrin

[ekhibee]

Yes he's a good accountant and knows how to maximise his return and deserves credit. The investment in infrastructure ensures he will be a very wealthy man when he walks away from Hibs and we will be on solid ground.

However when you are old and look back on your treasured memories of Hibs will it be the opening of the training centre, the west,North or FF stand or the new east stand that you look back on or will it be cup victories and greats like Sauzee, Riordan et al and exciting European nights???

Whilst his canniness is worthy and (admittedly) required it is incredibly dull , unexciting and doesn't stir the blood of the average football fan.(Apologies to Caversham and all the resident finance experts:wink:)

Now is the time finally, please God finally, to at last put all our focus on to what happens on the park and attempt to realise our ambitions, where trophies are won , Europe is regular not twice every 15 years or so and Hibs have players to the envy of most outside the OF.

Only then will the Tache deserve a statue of himself outside ER.:greengrin
Best post on the subject, and one I totally agree with. :top marks

[FranckSuzy]

Yes he's a good accountant and knows how to maximise his return and deserves credit. The investment in infrastructure ensures he will be a very wealthy man when he walks away from Hibs and we will be on solid ground.

However when you are old and look back on your treasured memories of Hibs will it be the opening of the training centre, the west,North or FF stand or the new east stand that you look back on or will it be cup victories and greats like Sauzee, Riordan et al and exciting European nights???

Whilst his canniness is worthy and (admittedly) required it is incredibly dull , unexciting and doesn't stir the blood of the average football fan.(Apologies to Caversham and all the resident finance experts:wink:)

Now is the time finally, please God finally, to at last put all our focus on to what happens on the park and attempt to realise our ambitions, where trophies are won , Europe is regular not twice every 15 years or so and Hibs have players to the envy of most outside the OF.

Only then will the Tache deserve a statue of himself outside ER.:greengrin

I agree with the majority of the above but as for the bit in bold, the key surely is because of 'Petrie's prudence', Hibs will almost certainly still be around for us to look back on when we're in our dotage. Unlike some other teams.... :wink:

[Ryan91]

Its strange to think that 20 years ago, Hibs were in a really bad way, Hearts were one of the better teams in the league, now look at us, we have a complete stadium, our own training centre, and are in a stable financial position, which will help us build for the future. What have our massive neighbours got? Not much, they were supposed to be champions of Scotland by 2007 and they were supposed to be champions of Europe last week, none of that has come to fruition, they have an old main stand riddled with asbestos and is crumbling, they have a training centre, but it's a rented facility and they get kicked off at lunch time by the students, they are £35 million in debt, they are supposed to have a new main stand by now, it was going to be £50 million and consist of a shopping centre, and a hotel, now they've cut it back to £15 million, and are hoping to break even in 2 years, a very difficult task considering that they made something like an £8 million operating loss this season, if that was a company rather than a football club they'd have closed down long ago. It is true that in the past we have lacked ambition, but for good reason, we were building for the future.

[basehibby]

Getting Plymouth to pay compensation for Bobby Williamson..........................

Anyone know how much??

:agree: This was truly a masterstroke - we got about 500K compensation for Blobby IIRC!

Re the OP, I think Whittaker is a class player and was worth every single penny of the £2M the huns paid for him - the masses of goals he's scored for them from RB/Midfield are testamemt to this.

Even still, £2M was as much as I'd reasonably have expected to get for him and Petrie deserves a lot of credit for the way he's played hardball for Hibs in the transfer market. It was agony to see many of these players sold but it was inevitable that most of them would leave sooner rather than later and the board did extremely well in maximising the returns :top marks

[Ray_]

While our infrastructure has been a major success the same can’t be said on the park, we are one of Scottish football’s top teams & our playing record is atrocious. Out of the twelve teams that played in the SPL last season, only four teams haven’t won the Scottish Cup within the last twenty five years, they are Falkirk, Hamilton, ST Johnstone & Hibs and in that same period we have qualified for Europe around five times, where as in the first twenty years of European competition, we most likely qualified in more than half the season’s that it was available.

I agree others have gone in to debt to achieve their success, however, we were also in serious debt but without gaining the success others achieved. I am delighted that we have turned things around at the club, but we are not there yet, despite achieving 4th last season, much of our football was poor, which can’t be said on the other occasions we achieved European qualification & the money and crowds we are attracting to the club, are way below what can be achieved.

People are right, the club has secured some big money transfers, but to think we are going to carry producing same amount of talent that came through during the early part of this millennium, would be folly, the last time we have brought though anything remotely like that was about forty years ago.

We are going well as a club, but we still have a long way to go, we struck lucky in the respect that we produced a crop of youngsters that brought in the cash it did. In many ways the hard work is starting now as we need to produce the sort of football that will fill the new stands that have been built in recent years and we are all still craving the success a club of our size should expect.

[ekhibee]

We would always have lost the players though. Keeping hold of them for another year or two until there contracts ran out would just mean we got nothing for them. These players are ambitious and want to play at a higher level than we can offer, so we get the best out of them we can while they grow and learn then we sell and repeat the process with more youngsters. That has to be our way because we simply cannot afford to pay 10k a week wages. You only have to look at hearts to see were that policy gets you.

No one wanted to sell brown, o'connor, whittaker (a few maybe wanted to sell thomhun:greengrin) but we have rebuilt again and if we sell some more we will once again rebuild. It's just the cycle.

But we can sleep at night knowing our club is in safe hands and will be open for business the next day with a great stadium, great facilities, excellent youth policy and a good team trying to play football. There are a lot of football fans in Edinburgh who don't have that little luxury which we often take for granted.:notworthy:
Surely one of the main aims at Hibs should be for US to be at this 'higher level' so that there isn't a constant moving on of good players on a regular basis. Yogi, or for that matter any other manager can't really talk about building a team if every 2 years or so we sell our best players to other teams, for whatever figure, we are just grooming them for teams outside Hibs. And what some people describe as realism, or 'living in the real world', could also be seen as the club's lack of ambition. Of course we don't need to throw money away as the likes of Hearts have, but we don't need to go to the opposite extreme either, sacrificing ability on the field for an excessively good bank balance. The weaknesses in the team will have to be addressed, and that's going to cost money like it or not. So many perspectives on this topic really, none of them totally wrong, but from MY perspective we really do need to progress ON the pitch, we are after all a football club, not just a well run financial institution. The financial position of the club has been focussed on by the board for a number of years now it would seem, we are now seemingly the envy of many others that way, but we will keep on losing good players if we don't progress on the park, that's just my opinion.

[Beefster]

How is it embarrassing ?
Look at the "turn over" of this club then look at the class of player we have produced then think about what wages these guys would be looking for once they had "made it"
Keep them and it adds up to a Tynecastle "scenario" - massive debt and a crumbling stadium.
If we had gone down that road what would you honestly think the future would have held ?
This club, since they late 1940's, has been a selling club and will probably remain so.

Petrie , and don't let's forget STF and others behind the scenes , has stabilized this club against the odds and I only hope I live long enough to see their hard work rewarded with some real success on the playing field .

I for one agree totally with the OP :top marks

:flag:


You've got a strange outlook on life Beefster if your embarrassed by this thread :confused:

As for the argument that it's we fans that have paid for the stadium? I'm sorry but that's guff, almost as bad as Rangers fans expecting the bank to write off their debts! It's the sale of players that have built the stadium. Some would argue we've been lucky having the talent but that was done by the hard work carried out by Alex Miller, Donald Park, Alex McLeish and our youth coaches.

The present board doubled our crowds by taking our club into the 21st Century. I for one have good memories of the old Easter Road but don't miss standing on the high terracing in rain and snow. Or sitting in the cowshed with the wind howling through it.

Of course our money helps develop these players, pays wages and helps run our club but it doesn't account for our total income. Hearts fans could use the same argument but their club are tens of millions in debt because they chased the dream of competing with the Old Firm. If Beefster wants to talk about embarrassment then lets talk about the Hearts board's talk of securing financing for a new stand. 50m down to 15m.

We have a bright future unlike Hearts, Rangers and many down south who will be arse twitching at the moment given the plans to make teams live within their means.

So Beefster if you think you can do better than Petrie tell us now. How would you have built our stadium, kept our "potentialy great team" together while paying relatively low wages, built a state of the art training centre and (as I was reminded above :rolleyes:) financed the debt. In fact any of you that still boak at the thought of crediting Rod Petrie for anything. Here's your chance.......WHAT would you have done differently? And please include YOUR choice of managers. :bye:

I knew that I'd get this sort of response. In case you missed it first time round, I said that Petrie HAD done a decent job in certain areas.

My issue is with the fans 'celebrating' the selling of our players. Yes, I'm realistic enough to know that the best players will move on eventually but seriously, do we need to revel in it? Are we really that desperate for something to crow about?

As for Hearts, I honestly don't give two hoots about what's going on over there. If our ambition is being a better run club that them, we won that particular race years ago.

PS When Hibs start paying me £100k+ per annum, I'll start devising solutions to the club's problems and recruiting management candidates.

[Spike Mandela]

We are going well as a club, but we still have a long way to go, we struck lucky in the respect that we produced a crop of youngsters that brought in the cash it did. In many ways the hard work is starting now as we need to produce the sort of football that will fill the new stands that have been built in recent years and we are all still craving the success a club of our size should expect.

We also struck 'lucky' that we had a piece of land behind the East stand we sold for 10 million.

That is a piece of luck we won't have again and Rod was the first Chairmen who had to take advantage of this bit of security.

[RickyS]

While our infrastructure has been a major success the same can’t be said on the park, we are one of Scottish football’s top teams & our playing record is atrocious. Out of the twelve teams that played in the SPL last season, only four teams haven’t won the Scottish Cup within the last twenty five years, they are Falkirk, Hamilton, ST Johnstone & Hibs and in that same period we have qualified for Europe around five times, where as in the first twenty years of European competition, we most likely qualified in more than half the season’s that it was available.

I agree others have gone in to debt to achieve their success, however, we were also in serious debt but without gaining the success others achieved. I am delighted that we have turned things around at the club, but we are not there yet, despite achieving 4th last season, much of our football was poor, which can’t be said on the other occasions we achieved European qualification & the money and crowds we are attracting to the club, are way below what can be achieved.

People are right, the club has secured some big money transfers, but to think we are going to carry producing same amount of talent that came through during the early part of this millennium, would be folly, the last time we have brought though anything remotely like that was about forty years ago.

We are going well as a club, but we still have a long way to go, we struck lucky in the respect that we produced a crop of youngsters that brought in the cash it did. In many ways the hard work is starting now as we need to produce the sort of football that will fill the new stands that have been built in recent years and we are all still craving the success a club of our size should expect.

excellent post Ray, Rod had done us proud up to now, but we need in the coming 2-3 seasons to be building a team capable of 3rd every season and being un-catchable for 3rd and then pushing for 2nd, all the while leaving others in our path:top marks

[ekhibee]

:top marks
While our infrastructure has been a major success the same can’t be said on the park, we are one of Scottish football’s top teams & our playing record is atrocious. Out of the twelve teams that played in the SPL last season, only four teams haven’t won the Scottish Cup within the last twenty five years, they are Falkirk, Hamilton, ST Johnstone & Hibs and in that same period we have qualified for Europe around five times, where as in the first twenty years of European competition, we most likely qualified in more than half the season’s that it was available.

I agree others have gone in to debt to achieve their success, however, we were also in serious debt but without gaining the success others achieved. I am delighted that we have turned things around at the club, but we are not there yet, despite achieving 4th last season, much of our football was poor, which can’t be said on the other occasions we achieved European qualification & the money and crowds we are attracting to the club, are way below what can be achieved.

People are right, the club has secured some big money transfers, but to think we are going to carry producing same amount of talent that came through during the early part of this millennium, would be folly, the last time we have brought though anything remotely like that was about forty years ago.

We are going well as a club, but we still have a long way to go, we struck lucky in the respect that we produced a crop of youngsters that brought in the cash it did. In many ways the hard work is starting now as we need to produce the sort of football that will fill the new stands that have been built in recent years and we are all still craving the success a club of our size should expect.

[bighairyfaeleith]

Surely one of the main aims at Hibs should be for US to be at this 'higher level' so that there isn't a constant moving on of good players on a regular basis. Yogi, or for that matter any other manager can't really talk about building a team if every 2 years or so we sell our best players to other teams, for whatever figure, we are just grooming them for teams outside Hibs. And what some people describe as realism, or 'living in the real world', could also be seen as the club's lack of ambition. Of course we don't need to throw money away as the likes of Hearts have, but we don't need to go to the opposite extreme either, sacrificing ability on the field for an excessively good bank balance. The weaknesses in the team will have to be addressed, and that's going to cost money like it or not. So many perspectives on this topic really, none of them totally wrong, but from MY perspective we really do need to progress ON the pitch, we are after all a football club, not just a well run financial institution. The financial position of the club has been focussed on by the board for a number of years now it would seem, we are now seemingly the envy of many others that way, but we will keep on losing good players if we don't progress on the park, that's just my opinion.

I agree, just think in every young players career there will come a time where either hibs let the player go because he is not good enough or sell him because we won't be able to afford to increase his salary in a new contract.

I think we have shown in the last two years an increase in our spend on wages and I expect this to continue, however we are a long way off championship wages and the OF wages so we need to still be sensible about when we sell.

I think most of us are saying the same thing, just in slightly different ways

[ekhibee]

I agree, just think in every young players career there will come a time where either hibs let the player go because he is not good enough or sell him because we won't be able to afford to increase his salary in a new contract.

I think we have shown in the last two years an increase in our spend on wages and I expect this to continue, however we are a long way off championship wages and the OF wages so we need to still be sensible about when we sell.

I think most of us are saying the same thing, just in slightly different ways
:agree:

[HFC 0-7]

I think rod has done a good job in selling players although I wouldnt be shouting about it too much. Rod is good at selling players but where he has failed recently IMO is spending money in the right way. I think he has been to tight when signing managers and has gone for the cheap option which has seen a lot of money lost due to bad buys and poor league positions.

The stadium will be great when finished but whats the point if we dont have a team on the pitch that fills it. With Rangers in financial trouble along with pretty much the rest of the SPl now would have been the time to strengthen the squad rather than the stadium.

IMo I would rather have a rubbish stadium and be winning cups than have a minted stadium and winning nothing. If this season coming is average, and the attendances are down the new stand will look a bit embarrasing half full and all us Hibbys have to shout about is having little or no debt and a minted stadium, when other clubs like Dundee Utd are winning scottish cups and being 3rd best in the country.

Sorry for being so negative, just think that those millions we have just spent on the new stand could have been put towards wages to up the wage structure to get some quality experienced players in and start challenging in cups and leagues.

I dont think the players would have minded celebrating winning things in front of our 'old manky' east stand, I for one wouldnt have minded being in there celebrating.

[jdships]

Yes he's a good accountant and knows how to maximise his return and deserves credit. The investment in infrastructure ensures he will be a very wealthy man when he walks away from Hibs and we will be on solid ground.

However when you are old and look back on your treasured memories of Hibs will it be the opening of the training centre, the west,North or FF stand or the new east stand that you look back on or will it be cup victories and greats like Sauzee, Riordan et al and exciting European nights???

Whilst his canniness is worthy and (admittedly) required it is incredibly dull , unexciting and doesn't stir the blood of the average football fan.(Apologies to Caversham and all the resident finance experts:wink:)

Now is the time finally, please God finally, to at last put all our focus on to what happens on the park and attempt to realise our ambitions, where trophies are won , Europe is regular not twice every 15 years or so and Hibs have players to the envy of most outside the OF.

Only then will the Tache deserve a statue of himself outside ER.:greengrin



I am not an accountant but have run my own business and know what it takes to ensure one operates within ones means
With a turnover of around £8m per annum how exactly would you go about paying wages to attract top players while keeping your existing staff happy financially ?
In 2009 "staff costs" were 60% of turnover - unsustainable regardless of what business you are running
"Pie in the sky" is OK if you have a rich backer prepared to squander his cash on a " no return on capital investment basis "
Also take a look around UK at the FC's who have tried to "buy" success and how many are now in the "poo"

No one would would be happier to see Hibs win something on a regular basis than me - but - I would rather know I had a club to support next year !!

[down-the-slope]

Slightly off topic...but

To those who are downing the return of financial stability of a club that not so very long ago died......:bye:

Yes i want us to progress on the field and keep good players as long as we can...but this ludicrous notion that paying bigger transfers / wages = better players is just rubbish.

A quick look across the road would should anyone with inteligence that its a daft notion. We could triple our wage structure...and there would still be teams in the Championship who could offer double that figure....
What we need is like with Fletch ..getting our best youngsters on contracts long enough to give us control of when...and to some extent how much is paid for them should they move. And make the most of Edinburgh as a City Hibs as a club with traditions of passing footie / good training facilities...and a stadium not made out of recycled timbers from the Ark..to attract player who need a platform to restart their careers (Like miller / stewart etc) to bring a blend.
The one area we seem to have done poorly in is scouting the lower divisions for prospects to bring on (Bamba being the exception)

I'm sure Rod will spend my 3 year season ticket money well :greengrin

[HibeeMG]

Yes he's a good accountant and knows how to maximise his return and deserves credit. The investment in infrastructure ensures he will be a very wealthy man when he walks away from Hibs and we will be on solid ground.

However when you are old and look back on your treasured memories of Hibs will it be the opening of the training centre, the west,North or FF stand or the new east stand that you look back on or will it be cup victories and greats like Sauzee, Riordan et al and exciting European nights???

Whilst his canniness is worthy and (admittedly) required it is incredibly dull , unexciting and doesn't stir the blood of the average football fan.(Apologies to Caversham and all the resident finance experts:wink:)

Now is the time finally, please God finally, to at last put all our focus on to what happens on the park and attempt to realise our ambitions, where trophies are won , Europe is regular not twice every 15 years or so and Hibs have players to the envy of most outside the OF.

Only then will the Tache deserve a statue of himself outside ER.:greengrin

So, let me get this straight. RP brings down the debt while completing the stadium and building our training complex all the while paying the best wages we ever have and all you can say is he's a good accountant!?

Jeezo!

Would you have like to have been able to look back to the great Champions League adventure we had?

I'm sure we all would.

And whilst reminiscing about it, I'm sure you'll shed a tear for the club that overspent and didn't prioritise. The very same club that went out of business!

I could put it another way.

We're all really happy that the new stand is being built.

Should we have just chucked it up as quickly as possible though. The quicker we can get in there and show it off the better, yeah?

And when we find that we never paid enough attention to the foundations and it all comes crashing down around us, what then?

Anyone who thinks we should have put glory chasing before stability should never be allowed to comment on our neighbours again.

[Ray_]

Slightly off topic...but

To those who are downing the return of financial stability of a club that not so very long ago died......:bye:



After the point that we nearly died we became debt free, so I don't understand what that has to do with financial stability now?

[IWasThere2016]

I'm with Ray and Beefster.

We are now an off the field success we were not for a long time and not before STF set down the modus operandi.

We are not a success on the park - and we've not been so for a long time. To be fair we weren't a long time before RP and STF also.

Post the completion of ER - how long do we give it before some proper and perhaps sustained on field success comes along?

Being 4th in the SPL should be expected IMHO - quite frankly we've got to be higher that that and very regularly also. Three LC successes in nearly 40 years is unacceptable IMHO.

IMHO there are few reasons - and fewer excuses IMHO - why we shouldn't be MUCH improved on the park going forward .. and giving the state of those around us I think we needn't have to be 'patient' either ..

[new malkyhib]

I don't see anyone outside of the old firm and hearts paying more wages than us?

Now we all I think would agree that we shouldn't pay the sort of wages hearts do because look at what has happened to them. So instead we have steadily increased our wage limit as finances have allowed, the new stand will hopefully help to attract some more folks back to easter road, along with a couple of exciting signings like stokes and miller last summer, and riordan the year before that and we should hopefully be able to have a good season next year.

We should always aim for the old firm, but we shouldn't go bust in the process. Just ask the yams. In fact don't because the reply will make no sense:wink:

Alright i'll try and reply without it making "no sense":wink:

When the dust settles on the new stand, and the ground's complete, then we'll see the appetite (or otherwise) for really pushing things on on the playing side of things in terms of signing players that'll guarantee a (minimum) European spot every year (as it used to be the way with the Hibs).

I suspect however that "prudence" will always be the watchword at ER, and the "as long as we still have a team to watch" mentality exists that seems to prevail on here, we'll be continual also-rans under Petrie's stewardship.

I really, really hope to be wrong on that last point, but don't think I am.

As far as the yams go, they're not going bust anytime soon as far as I can see, and i'd like to see us put together a sequence of results against them that we can throw in their face as opposed to "we've got a better balance sheet than you" as that's all a bit pathetic IMO.

Cue the usual Gretna/Hearts/Leeds counter arguments....

[Ray_]

I am delighted about us having the training facilities we have and the stadium development, but I refuse to go overboard about the way the club has been run in recent years, as a business, we pay an awful lot of money in wages for the board to make the right decisions.

I went to my last Hibs game around a month ago, I went with two friends and my fourteen year old son, it cost me £98 for the tickets alone, this was to watch a mediocre game in a modern environment. When I first started going to football, our party would have been standing in a run down stadium, but at the total cost of 87p and as this was the late sixties, the entertainment on the park was of a considerably higher standard.

Hibs have had a number of owner’s in its 135 year history; they have had five since I started following them & there has been varying degrees of investment from the various owners, however, it is only the current custodians that have ever been in a position to make serious money out of selling the club. I am not in the slightest suggesting that this has been a motive or it wasn’t deserved, only that it’s a fact.

On the other side of the coin, while we have being paying top dollar the product is far too often second rate, a lot of the time the football has been, quite frankly, dire, which will reflect on the cash coming in to the club, so that part of our business has not been so good.

So to finish, like I said earlier, we have got this far & now is the hard part, produce a team on the park that will regularly fill the grand stadia surrounding it & I will vote RP for president all day long.

[Spike Mandela]

So, let me get this straight. RP brings down the debt while completing the stadium and building our training complex all the while paying the best wages we ever have and all you can say is he's a good accountant!?

Jeezo!

Would you have like to have been able to look back to the great Champions League adventure we had?

I'm sure we all would.

And whilst reminiscing about it, I'm sure you'll shed a tear for the club that overspent and didn't prioritise. The very same club that went out of business!

I could put it another way.

We're all really happy that the new stand is being built.

Should we have just chucked it up as quickly as possible though. The quicker we can get in there and show it off the better, yeah?

And when we find that we never paid enough attention to the foundations and it all comes crashing down around us, what then?

Anyone who thinks we should have put glory chasing before stability should never be allowed to comment on our neighbours again.

All very good but Dull, Dul, Dull.:grr:

If you read my post again nowhere does it suggest spending outrageously beyond our means. Yet another myth by those who worship at the Petrie altar and would welcome an open top bus along Princes St with a balance sheet on it.

My only thoughts are that all the money spent in the past on infrastructure and stability as you rightly point to can now equally now be focussed on the team. Not money we don't have.

If we get money in for a player now, spend it on the team, if we get money in for season tickets, spendit on the team and if we get a good European windfall spend it on the team.

Why should we be content'just to have a team'

[bighairyfaeleith]

I don't see anyone who has suggested this shouldn't happen

Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

[nonshinyfinish]

We love you Rodney, we do
We love you Rodney, we do
We love you Rodney, we do
Oh, Rodney, we love you

[down-the-slope]

After the point that we nearly died we became debt free, so I don't understand what that has to do with financial stability now?

Rubbish - no we didn't We have never been debt free in years. The debt was taken over by Tom Farmer. That debt has only been managable due to his involvement and being prudent in financial dealings since. So that we are progressing while keeping the debt within relation to our turnover.

The infastructure is like your mortgage...and the player wages / other overheads are like the general spending we all have...bottom line is that you cant spent more than you earn...or you will be living on the streets...Hibs are no different

[Ray_]

Rubbish - no we didn't We have never been debt free in years. The debt was taken over by Tom Farmer.

And there was me thinking the price Tom Farmer paid for the club was the debt, but as you rubbished my account, perhaps I'm wrong, however, given your obvious lack of decorum, I wouldn't put my mortgage on it!!

As for the rest of your post, I have no idea what any of that has to do in relation to what I had said.

[Aldo]

First off I am a fan of RP always have been. The guy tried in the late 90's early 2000's with paying wages to make us better and we had limited success. He was big enough to admits this. A plan was put in place and that was to reduce the debt whilst producing young talent to sell on.

We have been a selling club in the past and TBH we will be a selling club in the future. Once the stadium etc is in place we can then start thinking about getting a team on the park.

We need to be patient however I am not sure for how long. Hughes for me has another season to really bring HIS team into play. This is a really big transfer window for him and if we can keep the team together and bring in a couple of other players (defenders etc) then I am sure we will see an improvement on the park.

RP has to be given credit for where we are know and has stood up and has been counted.

When our stadium is finished we will have a minimal amount of debt, excellent stadium and training facility and hopefully a manager that can attract the right sort of player.

RP must now ensure we do better than last year by investing wisely.

RP take a bow :thumbsup:

[bawheid]

This is a good thread. It's clear there are a stubborn few who simply refuse to give Petrie or STF any credit.

He's reduced the debt from £17m to practically nothing [ah,but we should never have been in debt in the first place]

He's overseen complete stadium redevelopment [ah, but at the expense of the team, and we spent too much on chandeliers]

He's overseen the opening of a state of the art training centre, the envy of most clubs across the UK [ah, but it cost too much and it's not providing instant results so mustn't be working]

We also have the theory that somehow we should be challenging for the league or "guaranteed" Europe every single season. A quick check of SPL annual accounts should show us that (at the moment) it's ridiculous to think we should be beating the Old Firm. We shouldn't even be beating Hearts with their wage bill, but luckily they're a complete shambles.

The turnaround in Hibs since I started watching them is incredible. Check out some of the footage on youtube of the old stadium. It was falling to bits. A walk along Hawkhill Avenue today should make any Hibs fan burst with pride.

We were good for a few years in the 50s and two or three in the 70s and maybe a season here or there in the 90s and 00s, but for large parts of our 135 year history we've been a middle of the road, mediocre Scottish club. Of course the aspiration should be to improve on this, but this has to be gradual and sustainable. Even two seasons ago it would have been ridiculous to think we could have signed Liam Miller and Anthony Stokes, re-signed Derek Riordan and been linked with Paul Hartley and Garry O'Connor.

We are so far ahead of our rivals financially it's untrue. They have all our pain of the 90s and 00s to come. We've come through it and provided the club with infrastructure that is second to none in Scotland.

Dundee United will be a shadow of the club they are now as the cost cutting bites. Aberdeen don't have a pot to piss in. Hearts...well, they'll get what's coming to them...there's simply no getting away from that. Even Rangers aren't safe.

We are though, and that's down to Sir Tom Farmer and Rod Petrie. Get the statues built!

[matty_f]

Alright i'll try and reply without it making "no sense":wink:

When the dust settles on the new stand, and the ground's complete, then we'll see the appetite (or otherwise) for really pushing things on on the playing side of things in terms of signing players that'll guarantee a (minimum) European spot every year (as it used to be the way with the Hibs).

I suspect however that "prudence" will always be the watchword at ER, and the "as long as we still have a team to watch" mentality exists that seems to prevail on here, we'll be continual also-rans under Petrie's stewardship.

I really, really hope to be wrong on that last point, but don't think I am.

As far as the yams go, they're not going bust anytime soon as far as I can see, and i'd like to see us put together a sequence of results against them that we can throw in their face as opposed to "we've got a better balance sheet than you" as that's all a bit pathetic IMO.

Cue the usual Gretna/Hearts/Leeds counter arguments....

I think the board have backed up their claims that they'd incrementally increase spending on the playing side as and when finances dictated by steadily increasing the wage budget over the last few years.

We've seen bids for players knocked back and the players later allowed to leave the club for free, because it was the right thing for the team on the pitch at that point in time, regardless on the impact on the finances (we're able to do that because we're in a good position.)

Now that the stadium is (almost) complete, the training centre in place - there really is no excuse for a stepped-up increase in the spend on the first team. What else do we need? I suppose we could look at setting up Academies in other areas to widen the net of youth development, but is that necessary? :dunno:

We should be in a great position to move on from here, and we're certainly better placed than most other SPL sides to take advantage of our financial position.

I think the board deserve huge credit for what they've done. For all it's easy to dismiss it as good fortune, they took hugely unpopular decisions at times and it's only over the last couple of seasons that we're seeing how good those decisions were.

[HFC 0-7]

This is a good thread. It's clear there are a stubborn few who simply refuse to give Petrie or STF any credit.

He's reduced the debt from £17m to practically nothing [ah,but we should never have been in debt in the first place]

He's overseen complete stadium redevelopment [ah, but at the expense of the team, and we spent too much on chandeliers]

He's overseen the opening of a state of the art training centre, the envy of most clubs across the UK [ah, but it cost too much and it's not providing instant results so mustn't be working]

We also have the theory that somehow we should be challenging for the league or "guaranteed" Europe every single season. A quick check of SPL annual accounts should show us that (at the moment) it's ridiculous to think we should be beating the Old Firm. We shouldn't even be beating Hearts with their wage bill, but luckily they're a complete shambles.

The turnaround in Hibs since I started watching them is incredible. Check out some of the footage on youtube of the old stadium. It was falling to bits. A walk along Hawkhill Avenue today should make any Hibs fan burst with pride.

We were good for a few years in the 50s and two or three in the 70s and maybe a season here or there in the 90s and 00s, but for large parts of our 135 year history we've been a middle of the road, mediocre Scottish club. Of course the aspiration should be to improve on this, but this has to be gradual and sustainable. Even two seasons ago it would have been ridiculous to think we could have signed Liam Miller and Anthony Stokes, re-signed Derek Riordan and been linked with Paul Hartley and Garry O'Connor.

We are so far ahead of our rivals financially it's untrue. They have all our pain of the 90s and 00s to come. We've come through it and provided the club with infrastructure that is second to none in Scotland.

Dundee United will be a shadow of the club they are now as the cost cutting bites. Aberdeen don't have a pot to piss in. Hearts...well, they'll get what's coming to them...there's simply no getting away from that. Even Rangers aren't safe.

We are though, and that's down to Sir Tom Farmer and Rod Petrie. Get the statues built!

This is what is worrying me. When all the other clubs are having financial difficulties and will struggle to pay the wages they have been in recent years, should we not be making all the effort to be well ahead of them in terms of the players not the stadium.

IMO if we have money it should first be used to better the team not the stadium. I could see a case if we were constantly selling ER out as we would be losing income by not accomodating all the fans but we are not selling it out.

With the financial problems with all the other clubs right now I feel we are missing a chance to use the money available on the playing staff and start pushing for honours or at least cement our status as the 3rd best team in the country with consitent league finishes, before the other clubs financial positions stabilise and we are not as far ahead of them financially.

I must admit I am looking forward to how the stadium will look but I am puzzled by why the board felt we needed it now. The east was very much still loved, no one was really shouting for it to be replaced. we were no where near selling out ER so the increased capacity was not required, so the only reason was that steel was cheap and we could save money at this moment in time.

At the end of next season we will have a brilliant stadium, one to be proud of, but will we have a team that is as good as the stadium, personally I would rather be watching a team that has had millions ploughed into it from an old crumbling stand than watching a team with not much money invested in it from a lovely new stand.

[Removed]

personally I would rather be watching a team that has had millions ploughed into it from an old crumbling stand than watching a team with not much money invested in it from a lovely new stand.

Really? Bet the trumpets in Gorgie aren't thinking that at the moment. What do they have to show for all their millions spent. One SC and a CL qualifier they couldn't even play in their own stadium.

I'm with Bawheid (and others) on this one.

The home is built, the credit cards are cleared, now we can think about spending money on the the luxury holiday while everone else goes to Port Seton (Nae offence to Port Seton, but hopefully you get the analogy)

Our time is coming soon :agree:

[down-the-slope]

And there was me thinking the price Tom Farmer paid for the club was the debt, but as you rubbished my account, perhaps I'm wrong, however, given your obvious lack of decorum, I wouldn't put my mortgage on it!!

As for the rest of your post, I have no idea what any of that has to do in relation to what I had said.

:yawn: - sorry but if you don't know the relationship between debt / expenditure / income then I doubt my limited skills will be able to enlighten you :wink:

[Ed De Gramo]

I'm with Ray and Beefster.

We are now an off the field success we were not for a long time and not before STF set down the modus operandi.

We are not a success on the park - and we've not been so for a long time. To be fair we weren't a long time before RP and STF also.

Post the completion of ER - how long do we give it before some proper and perhaps sustained on field success comes along?

Being 4th in the SPL should be expected IMHO - quite frankly we've got to be higher that that and very regularly also. Three LC successes in nearly 40 years is unacceptable IMHO.

IMHO there are few reasons - and fewer excuses IMHO - why we shouldn't be MUCH improved on the park going forward .. and giving the state of those around us I think we needn't have to be 'patient' either ..

IPWT :cool2:

[Ray_]

:yawn: - sorry but if you don't know the relationship between debt / expenditure / income then I doubt my limited skills will be able to enlighten you :wink:

As company accounts were part of my post-grad I would hope that I knew something about the relationships that you mentioned.

Instead of enlightening me, lets have a closer look at what you said, as we have already done it, we won't go over the "rubbish" bit again.

"The debt was taken over by Tom Farmer. That debt has only been managable due to his involvement and being prudent in financial dealings since"

Well that bit's not true is it? We would never have been about 18m in debt and had to completely change direction if that was the case.

I acknowledge we always had the land at the back of ER to fall back on, but we could never have predicted that the best crop of youngsters in forty years would come through and be so instrumental in giving the board the opportunity to put us in the position we are now.

It’s not just the transfer fees where we gained financially from those players, we have to remember that the performances from that team also attracted record amount of cash through season tickets, merchandising & hospitality.

As for the rest "The infastructure is like your mortgage...and the player wages / other overheads are like the general spending we all have...bottom line is that you cant spent more than you earn...or you will be living on the streets...Hibs are no different" I believe that little lot means we cannot live out with our means, who on earth had said anything to the contrary?

If we are talking about limited skills, I would suggest it is your ability to debate without getting insulting that's limited.

[Hibs07p]

Rubbish - no we didn't We have never been debt free in years. The debt was taken over by Tom Farmer. That debt has only been managable due to his involvement and being prudent in financial dealings since. So that we are progressing while keeping the debt within relation to our turnover.

The infastructure is like your mortgage...and the player wages / other overheads are like the general spending we all have...bottom line is that you cant spent more than you earn...or you will be living on the streets...Hibs are no different

:thumbsup:

I definitely prefer STF's involvement than Wallace Mercers! Without him, HFC as a club, would have died a long time ago. His continuous involvement has allowed us to develop our stadium and infrastructure even though it meant us having a high level of debt to start with. Because of his business model, we have recognised the downturn in revenue streams quicker than other clubs, and were better prepared to deal with it. In poker face Rod, we have one of the best negotiators in the business when it comes to transfer fees, and between the pair of them, our club is in the safest hands possible. The hard bit is almost over, we are in the best possible position to take advantage of other teams financial weaknesses, lets see what the transfer window and new season brings.

[Ray_]

:thumbsup:

I definitely prefer STF's involvement than Wallace Mercers! Without him, HFC as a club, would have died a long time ago. His continuous involvement has allowed us to develop our stadium and infrastructure even though it meant us having a high level of debt to start with. Because of his business model, we have recognised the downturn in revenue streams quicker than other clubs, and were better prepared to deal with it. In poker face Rod, we have one of the best negotiators in the business when it comes to transfer fees, and between the pair of them, our club is in the safest hands possible. The hard bit is almost over, we are in the best possible position to take advantage of other teams financial weaknesses, lets see what the transfer window and new season brings.

I don’t think anybody has suggested that they would rather have someone other than Tom Farmer on board . For me the difference of opinions on here is not so much about appreciation of the job done so far, it’s about the level of appreciation and the value of the job that still has to be done. An example, unlike you, I think the hard part is yet to come, admittedly, the platform is in place [and that is all a board can do] to take the next step.

To get where we are now, the board provided a model and stuck to it, the hiring of TM was a masterstroke, as his team ignited the imagination and the money poured in. The board, despite being thwarted by the refusal for the redevelopment of the land behind the east stand, done well to secure the deal they did, when they did. This obviously was a big help with the debt, as was the sale of the playing assets.

Regarding the sale of the playing assets, again I’m not all the way down the road of RP, the magician. We sold O’Connor for 1.7m at a critical time in our season, after a year in the relative backwaters of Russia, he moves to England with his value having soared by more than two thirds.

As well as RP, I believe John Collins deserves a fair bit of the credit for Hibs getting the value they did for our players, as it was him [backed by RP], who said that players won’t move until Hibs got what they believed was their worth & as such we got what we did Thomson & Brown. Even now, the infirm could cash in on those pair and get considerably more than Hibs got for them. Remember Hearts got more for Gordon than Hibs did for Brown, Thomson & Whit's.

The model we had was relatively safe, but only with good control and management, by far the most difficult part of it all was the balance between the safe and the business being attractive enough to grow. I would suggest that this part of the model has given us a mixed bag, while TM was a masterstroke, politely; others have not been so good.

The next step is having a team on the park that can be successful and fill all those modern stands that we have now and this is what I believe is the hardest part of the equation and when we have achieved this, I will gladly participate, unconditionally, in threads such as this by giving RP all the hero worship that he would have deserved.

[Hibs07p]

I don’t think anybody has suggested that they would rather have someone other than Tom Farmer on board . For me the difference of opinions on here is not so much about appreciation of the job done so far, it’s about the level of appreciation and the value of the job that still has to be done. An example, unlike you, I think the hard part is yet to come, admittedly, the platform is in place [and that is all a board can do] to take the next step.

To get where we are now, the board provided a model and stuck to it, the hiring of TM was a masterstroke, as his team ignited the imagination and the money poured in. The board, despite being thwarted by the refusal for the redevelopment of the land behind the east stand, done well to secure the deal they did, when they did. This obviously was a big help with the debt, as was the sale of the playing assets.

Regarding the sale of the playing assets, again I’m not all the way down the road of RP, the magician. We sold O’Connor for 1.7m at a critical time in our season, after a year in the relative backwaters of Russia, he moves to England with his value having soared by more than two thirds.

As well as RP, I believe John Collins deserves a fair bit of the credit for Hibs getting the value they did for our players, as it was him [backed by RP], who said that players won’t move until Hibs got what they believed was their worth & as such we got what we did Thomson & Brown. Even now, the infirm could cash in on those pair and get considerably more than Hibs got for them. Remember Hearts got more for Gordon than Hibs did for Brown, Thomson & Whit's.

The model we had was relatively safe, but only with good control and management, by far the most difficult part of it all was the balance between the safe and the business being attractive enough to grow. I would suggest that this part of the model has given us a mixed bag, while TM was a masterstroke, politely; others have not been so good.

The next step is having a team on the park that can be successful and fill all those modern stands that we have now and this is what I believe is the hardest part of the equation and when we have achieved this, I will gladly participate, unconditionally, in threads such as this by giving RP all the hero worship that he would have deserved.

I agree with most of what you say, but really, we're just splitting hairs are we not?

So you're quite happy up till now, and will be delighted if we can take it a stage further?
So will I be, but without taking the steps that we have already taken, we would not be in the position to take advantage of the real growth potential that we now have. That can still go tits up if we don't get it right, but I believe Yogi is the man to bring stability within the playing squad, add the few missing bits over the next 1-2 seasons, and with that, the potential to increase our attendances. Only time will tell though.

[Ray_]

I agree with most of what you say, but really, we're just splitting hairs are we not?

So you're quite happy up till now, and will be delighted if we can take it a stage further?
So will I be, but without taking the steps that we have already taken, we would not be in the position to take advantage of the real growth potential that we now have. That can still go tits up if we don't get it right, but I believe Yogi is the man to bring stability within the playing squad, add the few missing bits over the next 1-2 seasons, and with that, the potential to increase our attendances. Only time will tell though.

Yes & no, the crux of what I feel is that the time for celebration & whole hearted appreciation will be after we have achieved the next very difficult and crucial step.

[Hibs07p]

Yes & no, the crux of what I feel is that the time for celebration & whole hearted appreciation will be after we have achieved the next very difficult and crucial step.

Ah well, roll on next season and see what that brings, we are in a better position than most other teams and it's up to us to capitalise on that. :agree:

[Phil D. Rolls]

Thanks Mr Petrie sir, :tug forelock: you are a real gent and no mistake :fawn: :fawn: