The KUMB interview with Scott Duxbury has now been posted online in full. It’s an excellent piece of interviewing. Although it covers some of the same ground as I have done, there’s a lot of different stuff too. The extract on Sheffield United is particularly interesting.
Enjoy!
I have at least four more parts of my interview to publish, but I need to transcribe them first so I am afraid you will have to be a little patient as I have a very busy week at work. But I hope to have an extract up later today which reveals that Zola nearly walked out, 45 minutes before the press conference announcing his appointment. Is that enough of a taster for you?!
Iain, I have just read the KUMB interview and it is an excellent piece. It covers a lot of the ground and for a man in his position I think that Dux was very open and honest. I couldnt help thinking when I read some parts (most notably the ownership, stadium and tevez issues) that I wished I was reading your questions as a response can be shaped so much by the manner and inflection of the question.
What the interview did do for me though was to make me very positive about the club and the coming season.
I have talked at length about the reckless way that football clubs are run and it is refreshing to see an ambitious and still sensible approach.
I was also glad to read the part about BG and the respect that Dux has for both him as a man and for the work he did for the club. It is just a shame so many fans prefer to slag him off than go to the effort of understanding what he did for this club.
I still stand by my belief that we will see BG back at the club and not just for a free dinner at a home game but time will tell on that.
I tuned in to watch you on sky news earlier and I must say I enjoyed it. One question though? Were you expecting a bigger desk that would hide your jeans or were you going for the urban chic / hip teacher jeans and tie commbo?
Quite refreshing transparency at last lets all be patient and hang in for the ride but i would just love to get taken over by a wealthy person and watch zola go then.
Yes that was a very quality interview.
It’s nice to know that most of the TV money we get next season will go on players.
The shefield deal very interesting but just wish we could have afforded to take them on, still every dog has it’s day and as Dux said we are still PL they are fizzy pop.lol
One thing that did come out of the interview was that everything BG done was from bank loans made to the club. He put very little, if any of his own money in. Yeah great stuff. Players brought, the £30 million extra he was supposed to have put in, all loans. Yeah, we have every reason to be gratefull? He left the club in a crisis. Paying wages of champion league winners to injury prone, sometimes average players was sound business? No-wonder the likes of LBM dont want to leave and see out his contract.
The new owners says funds would be made available and now we learn that there will be none forthcoming in the fore-seeable future.
At least Scott Duxbury, his business plan and the football project gives us reason to be hopefull, lets hope there is no more nasty suprises around the corner. Seems we have even more reason to give 100% support to Zola and Clark for the great job they have done so far. COYI
Another question I would of like to ask, Did BG buy the club with any of his own money, or was that all bank loans too? I wouldn’t mind betting the club is still paying for it’s own buy-out, just like Man U, Liverpool ect.
Excellent questions , excellent answers and above all reason to be cautiously optimistic for the coming season’s.
Oh and another thing, perhaps some of the scaremongers who have appeared on WHTID recently with long posts on their perceived ideas on West Hams finances can lay off for a bit.
Very interesting interview, not just from the financial angle, but it also gives us an insight into Zola’s mind – I like what I see.
It appears that GZ will be adopting Cole up front next season with Jimenez at the tip of the diamond, with Behrami, Parker, Noble or Collison completing the other points.
I’m surprised Neill has been offered the same as the best players and had the temerity to turn it down. I would rather he left and feathered his nest somewhere else.
I’m also very encouraged with SD’s comments re; Upson & Green – he also po poos Ashton’s release, which along with his assessment of Dixon, gives us a stronger looking front line next season.
These are really refreshing interviews, fascinating reading. I’m seeing SD in a whole new light. Swallowing your pride and paying off Scumfield Utd in the face of a ridiculous decision that could have easily buried our club takes some balls.
I don’t want a wealthy owner injecting loads of cash and interfering in the running of the club. I want us to stick to our principals of being a smaller but ambitious club producing some of the best home grown talent in the country, and as a business being run sensibly within budget. If we start hanging on to our best Academy players and winning a few more matches, brilliant!
The reasons behind GFZ’s decision to come are really refreshing too and fill me with optimism.
It appears that the club is being run very well at the moment, the future looks bright, there seems to be enthusiasm at every level! For the first time in years I’ve got a real buzz about the coming season.
Just read the interview, I thought it was excellent. Shame SD is not a multi-billionaire he could buy the club! I like the fact that we have a plan and that Gianfranco want to work in this way.
The fact that Scott Duxbury does want to communicate with the fans is a positive. I was pleased to hear that he had put some thought to renaming the west stand and perhaps the centenary stand to help reflect our past players/managers. The John Lyall gates all helps to create a special atmosphere. With this kind of dialogue it can only be a positive thing.
Yeah – I like the idea of the John Lyall gates – a fitting tribute for a proper West Ham man.
Spurs have got the Harry Redknapp revolving doors at WHL
I keep reading on various sites that people can’t believe that WH players were bought with bank loans. I presume that the loans were from a bank owned by the club owner and loan finance would be more tax efficient.
The unlucky side for the club is that the bank/owner went bust but the club still has the liabilities.
Devo Devo; That is funny man!!
I don’t know why the Lyall family were interested in having the gates named after John,as he was shown the door at West Ham,so shouldn’t he be named after the front door and not the gates?
Seriously though,I would have thought it would be better to be named after one of the stands,but it’s a personal choice I suppose?
I rather like being seated in the Bobby Moore Stand and to have all our stands named after managers or players from the past is a great idea i m o.
Book marked website. Thank you for discussing. Definitely valued at time from our tests.
I would like I’d known all this sooner. would have saved myself a lot of hassle