“To me” “To You” by Jebu

Last updated : 10 June 2004 By Bigrich.....

To Me To You
Mr Freeman is a wealthy man but the actual extent of his wealth is relatively unknown. Most of us agree he probably does not have the cash to run RUFC as a business on his own. The cost of being a football chairman in todays market is extreme, especially in a club like RUFC that needs dragging into the modern era.

However, the reason I have full confidence in Neil is that he has and will always remain a very shrewd, clever businessman that can build himself a network of people to push forward success.

Neil Freeman
I would expect that within a few weeks of officially taking over from Mr Booth that a host of people either join the board or the club in some capacity, adding a massive financial clout while doing so. It is this network of people that in my opinion is more important than one man, a good business needs a strong leader but around that leader needs to be expertise and financial backing.

This takes me nicely onto my next point. Something that is desperately needed in my opinion is a clearout of some of the deadwood and input from a whole new source of people, creative people, people to take RUFC forward not hold them back. I wont name names as that would be unfair but there are several key roles that RUFC need to fill to drive us forward.

First of all we need an experienced, educated person to drive the marketing and development of RUFC. Case in point is Sunderland who hired in some well respected managers to drive the development of the club and pull in the support. Months later the stadium of light opened and they were selling out in the premiership. However, the club slacked, thought they had done the job and became complacent; crowds have dropped and along with some poor management went through a rather bad patch. They are now left to pick up the pieces and get back on track.

Time to go!!
As much as people had issues with Mr Booth he ensured one thing, that was to ensure RUFC was ran like a business and to ensure we never spent far more than we could afford. The problem is that his “scrap man” like business mentality can only take you so far. What is needed is educated, well managed risks that the club can sustain. We have been running a ZERO risk policy which was never attractive for investment. What I hope we don’t get now is the polar opposite where far too many risks are taken and we are plunged into administration. Like all good businesses, they find a medium level of risk that is optimal; we need to hope our new chairman Mr Freeman has a knack of finding that level!

So Mr Booth, a man I never have abused on any of the forums, always respected the man for saving RUFC and whereas he didn’t run the type of business many of the fans would have liked he did run a tight ship, one that meant where others were sinking we were remaining afloat. Albeit it was tough to see some of the old rusty ships that years back were the same as the good ship RUFC now turn into prestigious cruise ships, HMS Bolton would be the perfect example. That said, Mr Booth is now moving on and handed over the baton to Mr Feeman. If Mr Booth would not have gone this summer my opinion of him was about to change. I was ready to go down the route of many others but alas it appears I can rest knowing in his old age he has made the ultimate business decision he could for RUFC, to pass it on.

So lets sit back and see where we move from here. All the message boards on the internet serve a purpose in letting us the fans voice our opinions. It is of my opinion that this new Millersmad site setup by Big Rich has by far the most potential for giving us the public a forum for airing our views. I would like to thank Rich for his hard work on the site and am pleased that my football team, The Internet Millers, have become linked and officiated with this site. Keep up the good work big man and the futures bright, and from the looks of our new home kit, the futures orange.

Jebu out…