Parlaci Gino

I like DNSYE. They're the best podcast. I like Justin anyway.

I just think they're being led by the nose with this affair and its yet another stalling tactic for the club to continue BAU whilst deceiving a portion of the fanbase with flattery or deception.

 

yes! And I heard at the ceremony we are being asked to swear allegiance to the evil pozzo empire! Or is that the coronation?

 

You'll have more chance of seeing Lord Lucan riding Shergar around the Vic on the day than Pozzo, Dux or anybody high up at the club answering any meaty questions about such things as finances, loans to the club, alleged fraudster agents, ex directors of one of the clubs holding companies holding shares in the alleged fraudster agents company which might indicate a conflict of interest, oh, and why agents fees have been so high for a club of our size and financial reach.

Ask Gino what his favourite cheese is and which Godfather film is best.

 

It’s reasonable but then don’t say it’s for everyone and don’t say enter in a ballot to have a chance of being chosen when those outside the UK if picked, won’t be able to attend. So call it what it is, which is a fan forum for all the podcasters, you tubers and social media “influencers” with a few random picks from a ballot and not everyone is welcome. That’s what it is.

It is the exact replica of the last fan forum but they don’t want to admit it because the last one was a massive failure and divided the fanbase. They are literally doing that all over again. It’s handpicked people/groups and only those chosen will know in detail what was discussed. You will then have those that were there, giving the rest of us limited info because “legally” they can’t say it all. So the rest of us get left out, not knowing what’s going on at our club, but a few privileged fans do. Just calling out their BS of the whole thing.

As much as I want to know about the finances, the reality is, Gino ain’t going to say much about it anyway, if he’s there. That’s why I asked Pete what his questions are. So I would rather them skip this question and have itlive streamed where everyone can partake. They are never going admit the full nature of our debt. They aren’t going to turn around and say, we have “x” amount of millions to spend on players this window.

So my take is, get everyone involved and live stream it. If the club had any sense, once DNSYE have done all the work, they should chuck it up on HiveLive and charge everyone £10-20 to watch it. Can guarantee most fans would be willing to pay for it.

If I can do deals with various companies all around the world without technical issues, then so can they.

 

Taking this idea on a bit - Hive Live Telethon. 17 non-stop hours of Gino and Dux answering questions whilst fans can ring in and make pledges via credit card or sending a cheque in payable to 'Watford Holdings Luxembourg plc'. Fans get answers, debt gets paid off, everyone wins. Michael Aspel to host.

 

Ask Gino how much he is willing to sell the club for.

 

Technical issues happen a lot. I work for a company that turns over $65bn a year and we still have technical issues. Hive Live has apparently been rubbish on many occasions this year so not sure that is the answer. I appreciate that those living outside the UK won't be able to go this event but the last thing we really need is technical issues holding up the event, shortening it or even cancelling it. I would like to listen to it but if it will cause problems I would rather wait for the feedback from those present. I'm sure there will be a minute taker

 

That’s all I’m asking for at the end of the day. So that way all fans get to be in the room, even though not physically. They can easily set up a camera, have mics etc so that everything is clearly heard online. I would gladly sign an NDA at login if they really want to push the financial questions, it’s really not that difficult. I’m not asking for a live stream where Uncle Ron can berate Gino from his laptop. Just give all fans the opportunity to “attend.” If the live feed cuts in and out now and then, so what. Much better to give all fans the choice to attend via live stream than have 200-300 fans in the room that won’t be able to share all the info stated. They just don’t want to do it. Which is why it’s an exact replica of the last meeting.

The feedback won’t be 100% though. It will be 80-90% of what was said, but 10-20% won’t be “allowed” to be shared. The problem is that the 10-20% is what all fans want to hear.

Yes the minute taker;

“er Gino, what’s the club’s finances like”
Gino: “good”
“Can you expand please?”
Gino: “No”
“How much debt do we really have?”
Due to legality reasons the following questions and answers will not be published
(10 minute discussion on clubs financial situation, Gino was very honest and everyone in the room clapped).

“Thank you ever so much Gino.”
*crowd claps for Gino again*

 

Important not to lose sight that the 'they' here though is really the club. It's them who've set out their stall in the past couple of years by declaring the old fan's forum format dead and buried, and have said how they feel a live broadcast event restricts the answers they can give. It's just more proof of the invidious position these fans groups have been put into by the owner. Either the fans groups insist on live broadcast, and Gino / Duxbury say 'I'd really love to give you a full answer but I've been clear I can't speak candidly in this format' to all the juicy questions, or they move towards the club's position in the hope of getting more detailed answers and cop flak for not broadcasting to everyone.

I think we have to accept their call on this. And I say that as someone who would much, much rather listen to the whole thing for myself than rely on minutes, or recorded clips, or podcasters giving me their spin or even a summary article in the WO after the event.

 

You can if it is important enough to you.

I appreciate the frustration, but on occasion practicality has to take precedence. The people organizing this are effectively volunteers and can't be expected to provide international audiovisual services. Sometimes the best solution is the simplest one.

 

Have to say I think the (entirely contrived at present, I appreciate) idea that they might stream it and charge for the privilege is a bit bloody rum, to my mind. They should be doing this anyway, by the rules of the league , for god's sake, (not that I think it will reveal anything or prompt any significant response or change from Gino and his winged monkeys) let alone making a profit off it.

 

Don't give them any ideas. They might even throw in a 10% discount off next season's Luton coach for the first 50 that sign up.

 

We might not be playing them next season.

 

Enjoyed reading the posts of the last few days,

I'm not a fan of the DNSYE podcast, it pandas to the extreme social media element of the fan base, but thats how you grow your audience, it worked a treat for arsenal TV so i get why they are doing it.

I also think this is all a waste of time, why?

1) IMO Gino is only going to give generic answers, vague assurance and promises to try to improve, noithing substantial.

2) a minority of Watford fans (but enough to be an issuie) are baying for blood, and noithing short of gino offering to sacrifice himself is going to please them. This is, in part, (yes, i know results haven't helped!) an unfortunate result of the hysteria whipped up on such places as DNSYE (and here!). Its not healthy and creates an enviroment so toxic it feels impossible to repair.

BUT, i do admire Pete and his crew for trying to get this of the ground, you are clearly spending a lot of time and effort. I truly hope im wrong and your efforts are rewarded with satisfying answers from Gino and co.

 

I'd pay to watch (or read) a journalist put a series of well-structured questions to Pozzo and Duxbury in a coherent way, with a chance for proper follow-ups. I would not pay £10 to £20 as suggested earlier in this thread to watch a fans forum-type event, especially when you can broadcast live on YouTube for buttons.

It's either an open dialogue with supporters or it's not.

I've been to many fans forum events over the years – during the Vialli year, the Lewington years, the Boothroyd years, the Mallky years, the Dyche year, which was when they started to get more Soccer AM style with the At Your Place idea, which was fine and quite entertaining but wasn't really a place to ask serious questions or attempt to hold anyone to account and get answers on the record.

Most of the fans forum events where the microphone is handed to the floor m0re or less at random are excruciating. There's all sorts of questions about the egress from the Lower Rous in the south-west corner, or the fact the lids don't fit properly on the tea, or absolute pie-in-the-sky questions about players that are never going to get answered.

To regain some sort of credibility, there has to be a root-and-branch reckoning by the club in which they don't just say "mistakes have been made and we're looking to the future," which is a cop-out, but they explain what those mistakes were, why the happened and what structural and cultural changes have been made to enable better decision-making and, hopefully, better outcomes.

They need to be pushed on the detail, the fine detail, of the relationship with Bayat, on the scattergun recruitment, on how much it's all cost and who has profited from it – because with £124m of debt stacked up it's clearly not Watford Football Club.

They need to be asked to explain in detail how that debt is structured, what it's secured against and what mechanisms are in place to protect the entity that is Watford FC, not the myriad holding companies and investment companies that form the opaque network.

And if they don't answer or they fudge matters and deflect, well, we have our answer.

But the way this is set up, it's quite a daunting prospect for anyone to go into any room, whether recorded or broadcast or not, with the weight of expectations of an entire fan base on their backs, with their thinking swayed by the noisiest rather than the most incisive, and hold that power to account.

Instead of asking dozens of questions on a wide range of subjects and allowing them give superficial answers before moving onto the next, I'd suggest the complete opposite approach. Pick three key questions and spend 90 minutes drilling into the detail.

For example 1. Who actually is Mogi Bayat and why did he get to wrap his tentacles around the club? What is his relationship with Pozzo? How often do they meet? Why does he come to games? List all his clients? Who pays him? How much did he get paid by WFC? What is the nature of the investigations against him? Will Watford be called into any of the court cases? Why is he so necessary for the club to operate?

That's 10 questions on one subject and even that won't get close to uncovering the full picture, so go deeper.

Then move on to the club's finances. Then onto the coach and player recruitment.

In 90 minutes – assuming it'd be as long as that – there's really not time to delve into much more than that.

 

Great post. Unfortunately I think it's going to be many questions, with low detail, vague answers. Wouldn't be surprised if Duxbury put his foot in it by somehow being surprised and getting offended that people are worried about the finances, and he'll do something easily disprovable like failing to mention the fact we owe millions on player instalments, but that is probably the best we can hope for.

 

I'd love to see the event made available on Kindle

 

I agree with this but I also think that this is what they're attempting to do by getting the questions in advance and grouping them into key topics such as finances, corporate structure, managerial appointments etc.

Ok they've gone for five (I think) areas rather than three but from the most recent podcast it was suggested that once the questions are in, they'll be grouped - it does seem like the people organising it are aware this might be their one shot to pose the difficult questions and are not planning on letting it drift into a free for all. They've already said that they are taking advice from financial experts within the fanbase.

Whether it works or not remains to be seen but the tone of recent podcasts (not the phone in ones) has changed and seems to becoming far more forensic. If it were down to me there would be a fair few questions that quote Duxbury's words back to him and ask him to explain how the actions the club have taken are in such stark contrast to what he's said in public and how anyone can trust them.

 

Seems from twitter like the cowardly wfc management have not yet confirmed a date to DNSYE for “parlaci”.

 

Like it was ever going to happen.

 

Maybe so. But pretty bad of Duxbury to encourage these guys via his programme notes to spend a lot of time promoting this and courting questions etc if they have no intention of doing it. Pretty despicable.

 

Got a link please? Can’t say that’s remotely surprising.

 

Was interchange between DNSYE and that Alan Latham bloke who suggested just cancelling it because club are being so ridiculous about it.

 

Has anyone bothered checking google translate to see if Parlaci is the right spelling? Could just be a simple misunderstanding and oversight on Gino’s part.

 

*Insert pretends to be shocked gif*

 

Well I hope they apologise profusely for their failure over the last 4 years.

 

Shock horror.

 

Absolutely no surprise. Operation "Kick the Can Down the Road" in full flow.

They could do worse than send everything to the Football League.

 

We wont achieve anything unless we are all pulling in the same direction .... thats the DoF, Coach, players, fans and those running the club ...... keeping up the silence is making it worse, come out and speak, release a statement, tell us the plan for the club next season. I am not surprised 90% of the squad are so weak, spineless and gutless when those running the club, creating the culture are worse. Gino, Dux, shame on you

 

I swear to god if I don't get my Parlaci soon...