What Do You Think Mr Carter?

Quote: vastman "Problem with MC as I see it is not the deals he’s done - I assume he takes advice from his coaching team who are clearly crap.

He’s done some good stuff especially the BV deal.

It’s his attitude and his style that bother me. I really don’t like his angry dad routine. More Importantly is his management style as I see it that worries me. As someone who’s job means he works for many companies I meet a lot of Managers and a fair few CEO’s at some of the smaller outfits. For me there are broadly speaking two kinds of managers in my experience. Reactive and pro-active.

To me MC seems very much reactive as indeed most accountants are by nature.

Here is an example of what I mean. Monies tight because of attendances dropping lower than budgeted for mid season. MC’s response - sell a good player. That’s fine in pure accountancy terms as it instantly balances the books. However IMO it’s no use to us. What I would like is a pro-active response at least first

This would be something like ‘where else can I make the shortfall before selling the family silver”. I know, a share issue, ask Squadbuilder to put on a dinner dance, come up with some sort of imaginative promotion for the fans or businesses. I can’t be exact because I’m not the CEO and perhaps there were no other options - however I firmly believe he probably never even looked because his default setting is cut cut cut and never ever speculate.

Basically not a businessman but a decent accountant - in which case we will probably always have some sort of club but not a winning one.

I could be a million miles off but it’s certainly the impression he gives off and it seems to rub off on the players who are a defeatist and negative as he seems to be. MC yes you do need to balance the books but remember this - no one ever supported a club because it's double entry book keeping was exceptional - true in most other industries it would get you brownie points but not this one so stop going on about it it's not helping - sorry.

One thing I am certain of is that he has no natural ability to engage with fans or push what little positive PR there is. His desire to foliow up a good news story with a bad one is staggering. Best performance of the year against Bradford and he spends all week chasing up a none story about abusive fans. Bloody hell Michael forget about them and push the positive - sort that one out quietly in the background. It doesn’t matter how right you are or the need to appease the RFL what matters is making people want to support the team.

I think the kindest thing I can say is that MC is probably very good at running the club day to day but is pretty poor at leading it which is a very different job.

Do I think I could do it any better?

Yes actually I do for the very reasons you suggest Prince - how much better I don’t know - but although I do have the pound required to buy it that’s where it stops.

So I live in hope that like Ted MC eventually learns the ropes, because as both you and I know it took Ted a few years to stop being mugged by every passing Aussie.