Not posted on here for many a year but am a regular visitor and continue to hold season tickets making all home games. I've watched the takeover with great interest and the occasional raised eyebrow. However the latest appointment of our new CEO has left me underwhelmed and approaching the future less enthusiastically.

For those of you who think the title of "director" in the current era of banking means board level experience and the ability to run a company are sadly disillusioned. "Director" merely means senior. A business development manager's role is to attract credit worthy businesses to a bank and NOT to run these businesses - that's an entirely different skill set. Whilst our new CEO may be able to read a balance sheet he has no experience of running a business.

Even more worrying is that most recently all the BDMs in the Co-ops north west region were told their roles were being withdrawn and redundancies were made so circumstances have made his services available rather than any great quest for the right man.

This smells more of a " make do and mend " rather than a successful search for the previous CEOs replacement and is worrying. I sincerely hope I'm wrong and David does a great job but he doesn't seem the calibre of individual to take a sporting club forward. Perhaps more "Marwan's man" which would make me wonder why more suitable/experienced people couldn't be attracted.



An argument could be made that Mike Rush who was recently appointed CEO at Saints had no business experience which is true however he has been involved in
the club and the sport for many years having started his tenure as an academy coach and working his way through the structure. Time will tell and as I say I hope my concerns are unfounded - I doubt they are.

Surely with the Docs (have we decided if we are allowed to call him that yet following the ing contests on another thread?) background Mathews will be anything but an " make do and mend " appointment. I do like the idea of getting someone on board who doesn't have ties to current employees, hasn't any connection with people within the game and is local (I personally thought that Farish moving from Australia to take on the role previously was always doomed to fail).
I hope that Mathews has been given carte blanch to cut away dead wood, the club is going for a re branding next season but that for me can only fail if the same old marketing ideas from the same back room staff are employed. Bringing new and fresh ideas from a different market sector can't hurt but as said above I guess time will tell.

....Sorry Butcher,I need a link or two to prove a point



biscuit,
If you care to scroll down the link you will find,under the Helen Clark,Account Manager profile that Cooperative Bank is considered a blue chip company.[url=http://www.clear-communications.co.uk/team.htmlLink[/url

The owner of the club that reaches Grand Finals is a former banker [url=http://www.sthelensreporter.co.uk/news/local/a-privilege-and-an-honour-1-4296132Eamon McMANUS[/urland his appoinment for a CEO is the well respected former
youth academy coach,Mike Rush.
A similar position with a similarly qualified individual has been appointed at Castleford.
Leeds,of course,have Gary Hetherington who does seem to lack blue chip experience prior to all of his input into rugby league in general,and Leeds in particular [url=http://www.leedscarnegie.com/club/12603.phpRare Link[/url

I take it Bradford have spent more than Salford.Drat !

You got me wrong RDP, I love a good link.

I’m hearing a few employees on the administration and marketing side have been told this week that their services are no longer required. It seems the new CEO Mr Matthews is hitting the ground running in his new role.

It’s never nice to see people lose their jobs but I think changes have been inevitable for some time since the arrival of Dr Koukash.

The new CEO is the guest on the RL programme on Radio Manchester tonight. Looks like his first task as CEO, then, is to see if he can get a word in past Jacko.

well you say your making a point I'm not sure what that point is. but I do like the fact that to try and prove that the Coop Bank is a Blue Chip company you provide a link to some birds profile on a website....

it looks a top notch web site btw the woman at the bottom of the list with the 1970's look has strong Research and organisational skills. thats using google and tidying drawers ... and head of Security is a poodle............not one of your better links.

the coop in Essence is everything a blue chip company isnt. as its a mutual owned bys its members it does not appear in the FTSE 100 index. It hasnt traded on the stock market ever.* so no one has been able to cash in on those famous blue chip stocks.... you can become a member for a pound and you can get a dividend card and get points on what you spend thus getting some great money off vouchers twice a year... hardly blue chip !!

* until last month that is when due to the massive black hole in Coop bank funds it has had to turn bonds in to shares and float them on the Stock exchange - the founding fathers will be turning in their graves......

To me this appointment is driven purely by this guy's connections within the NW business community with a view to bringing more local businesses on board as sponsors and also for matchday income from corporate entertainment. I wouldn't view him as the sort of appointment to get involved in the details of running a rugby league club - from the outside it appears MK has his own views on how a lot of things should be run which may be why him and Farish didn't get on. This guy is probably more Trish than (I can't say Tarry as he was completely incompetant so I'll say) David Gill.

Incredible. How many of us could name the CEO of [iany[/i other club, yet our appointment of a new CEO is a discussion point for any Tom, Dick or Harry (Flying Biscuit is a Dick, obviously).

Back on to relevant things, in tonight's RL programme, he said (amongst other things) that his job is to improve the business side of the club, that there are two more signings already made but which can't be announced yet, that clubs are trebling transfer fees when Salford come knocking (can't help but think this is partly of our own doing) and Marwan won't pay over the odds for a player (which I took to be him hinting that the Rangi Chase deal might not go through), and that they're looking at moving matches to Sunday afternoon (yayyy!)

He also said he checks Twitter, Facebook, etc. to see what fans are thinking.

I was hoping you would go off and argue the 'blue chip' bit with one of the ladies shown on the link,and with your terminology it is a particular shame that you did not.
You have answered that age old age conundrum as to whether a cracker is a biscuit because you Mr biscuit are certainly a cracker !
Your cogent arguments have forced me into agreeing that the chairmen at Widnes and Bradford are superior and Dr Koukash has simply uttered empty words and will no doubt he will be 'found out' by the hoity toity at Royal Ascot as easily as he has been by the MENSA members at Castleford,Widnes and yourself at Warrington.
I know when I am beaten.Nothing will improve at Salford.David Matthews is NOT from a blue chip company and all I have to look forward to is a future of abject failure.
I have just heard Mr Matthews on the radio and feel I detected a certain regional accent.
Woe is me.
Your prescience is masterful.
I leave our disagreement in total awe of your brilliance.
Thank you for your enlightenment.
I now know the games I attend in 2014 will not be as exciting as I had hoped and only my intransigence will be forcing me to purchase my season ticket and only lemmings will be following me in their thousands.

Since when has David Gill been a yardstick for success?