Representing the club in the Ninian Park boardroom were owner Sam Hammam and Media Officer Julian Jenkins. Attending on behalf of the website were the site's administrator, Mike Morris, and message board users Heathblue, Mozzer, Sirenblue, BluebirdPaul, TommoHawk, Spike, Papa Ratzi, Steve the Tea and myself.
Sam had requested the meeting as he wanted to learn more about how this website works, and wished to seek some assurances about the future use of the site's message board. He also wanted to give some of the site's regular users a chance to ask him whatever questions we liked about the club.
He following is an account of the meeting, which lasted almost five hours. A great many issues were discussed during that time, lots of questions were asked by all involved and a large amount of ground was covered.
Sam didn't dodge a single question during what was a very frank discussion, and I will attempt to report as much of it here as I can remember. I will avoid giving my own personal opinions on the relevant issues during this account.
As the report will be a fairly lengthy one, I will post it in six different sections in case I encounter any technical problems as I go along. These sections will cover the main topics discussed, which were as follows:
1) This Website, 2) Finances, 3) the New Stadium Project, 4) the Management of the Club, 5) the Media, 6) the Team.
Here goes:
1) THIS WEBSITE
Mike gave the meeting an account of the history of the site and its message board, and gave a bit of background as to how the site actually operates.
Sam and Julian both expressed serious concerns about the malicious, offensive, inaccurate and libellous content of various posts that have appeared on this message board over the last few months.
Pages full of examples were produced, and Sam explained how damaging and hurtful he felt such posts can sometimes be, not only to the individuals they are aimed at but also to the club itself and the business it conducts.
Concerns were also expressed about the activities of certain individuals, who have been using the message board to post abuse, and inflammatory and unfounded accusations, under a variety of different usernames. Clear evidence of these activities was presented to the meeting.
Sam was at pains to point out that he has no problem at all with fans making criticisms of him, the manager, the players or the club in general. On the contrary, he said that he always welcomes the input of the supporters. However, he said that he believes the personal abuse and false accusations that have often been made against various individuals on this message board are unacceptable. Sam asked if anything could be done to limit the number of such posts in future, and also asked if we believed that any sanctions could or should be taken against the individuals who are found responsible for such content.
Mike pointed out that the situation has improved considerably over the last few weeks since the introduction of the new registration system, and Julian confirmed this to Sam. It was explained that it is now far more difficult for individuals to post messages under multiple usernames. However, everyone present agreed that the type of material to which Sam and Julian had referred is indeed unacceptable, and that while the registration system has certainly contributed to a significant reduction in the number of malicious posts, the fact that the club has been winning a few matches and signing new players in recent weeks has also had a major impact.
The group discussed some ideas for future improvements to the security of the site, and undertakings were given by Mike, Julian and myself to investigate a few of the possibilities mentioned. In the meantime, it was decided that the board will continue as it is, but will be closely monitored by all concerned to see if any further security measures are deemed necessary.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I want to make it 100% clear that Sam was not talking about the genuine criticisms of him, the team or the club which regularly appear on the messageboard. He said he welcomes such opinions. Sam was only worried about the kind of unfounded allegations and malicious abuse that was often appearing here before Mike introduced a registration system.
2) FINANCES
Sam was asked if administration was ever a serious danger during last season.
He replied that there was a period of time when administration was a possiblity, as the club's cash flow problems had reached a critical stage. There were a number of factors which brought about that situation, the major one being the delay to the stadium project, although Sam admitted that several other major issues were involved.
He said he believed that the biggest mistake he has made since he arrived in Cardiff is that he didn't place his own people alongside him from the start. Although he accepted overall responsibility for the situation at the club, Sam said that others had also made serious financial mistakes, while some had been working to their own agendas. He said it had often been easier for him to deal with outside agencies such as the Inland Revenue than it had been to deal with his own board.
I don't believe it would be appropriate to repeat a few of the things that were said on this particular subject in case it could put Mike, or Sam, or anyone else, in trouble. But suffice to say that there seems to have been a considerable battle going on behind the scenes at Ninian Park - a battle that has been damaging to the club, and one that could have been catastrophic.
Sam was asked if Michael Isaac had given the club a £1 million interest-free loan or had ever been paying the wages, as was reported in the local press. The answers were that he had done nothing of the sort.
He was asked how much the club had borrowed from the PFA. He told us it was less than £200,000.
Sam was asked to explain the situation regarding the unsecured loan notes. He told the meeting that loan notes are issued through financial brokers in a similar way to that in which bonds, stocks and shares are issued. A loan note is a document which evidences the terms on which a debt is owed to you by the issuer. Interest is payable to the loan note holder until the debt is paid back during, or at the end, of a fixed period.
Sam explained that the club had issued loan notes to the value of £30 million, and that £24 million worth had been subscribed to. Please don't quote me on those figures - they may be wrong as I didn't make notes and this is from memory. Basically, the club has to honour those loan notes in 2012 (I think).
This is all very complicated stuff to anybody (like me) who knows nothing about the finacial markets, but it seems that the club paid off the Citibank loan and issued loan notes instead to spread the debt over a longer period and to pay better rates of interest.
Sam claimed it was a sign of his good standing in the American financial markets that the club was able to make this move, and it was an indication of the strength of CCFC's future business plans that the financial institutions were prepared to back the club.
This was a topic of discussion that Sam was clearly very comfortable with, and he went into great detail about it, but I'm afraid I'm not at all knowledgable about such things so I've probably explained it incorrectly. Either that or I've misunderstood it. But I did my best!
Sam was asked about the persistent rumours that either David Sullivan, or Ron Noades, or both, were somehow financially linked to to the club and its new stadium project. He angrily dismissed these rumours out of hand.
As you can imagine, almost all of the topics discussed on the night concerned finances to some degree, but I'll report on each of those topics in turn. Stay tuned.
3) THE NEW STADIUM PROJECT
Sam was asked if the new stadium project was any closer to fruition now than it was six months ago.
While this subject was being discussed, Sam's frustration and disappointment was crystal clear. He said it was impossible to answer the question with any certainty because of the complexities of the situation.
He told us that there is another key meeting set for the near future and that the go-ahead could be given any day now. But then he said: "How many times have we said that before?"
It was clear from the meeting that Sam is very proud of the plans and the planning permission that has been granted, and he seems to feel he has a very strong partner in the local council. But, nevertheless, the project still faces one delay after another.
Sam was asked if there was any possibility, however remote, that the club could eventually find itself homeless as a result of the recent land sale agreement with Redrow. The answer was an emphatic no, as that agreement doesn't take effect until the new stadium is built.
He was asked if the Redrow deal had had any effect on the club's current financial situation. The answer was that the financial benefits will only come into play further down the line when the stadium project is underway, but that it was a significant piece in the jigsaw all the same.
Sam explained some very complicated financial details involving the stadium, and he did so in great detail. I won't dare attempt to repeat them here - I doubt I'd have managed even if I had made notes - but it seems there are a number of elements to the project that should earn the club a steady income over the years. Providing the damned thing gets built.
Let's keep our fingers crossed.
4) MANAGEMENT
Sam was asked why he brought Peter Ridsdale to the club. He explained that he badly needed someone to get a grip of the finances, and that he has known and trusted Ridsdale for many years.
Sam said he believes Ridsdale was unlucky at Leeds in many respects, and he took great delight in pointing out that everything was going according to plan up there until we dumped them out of the cup.
It was clear that Sam regards Ridsdale as a proper professional who will do a good job for the club. He pointed to the ex-Leeds boss's years of experience in the top flight, and explained that between them they are on good terms with the top men at just about every major club in the country (Ridsdale apparently served on some very influential committees during his time at Leeds).
Sam was asked if David Temme still had a role to play at the club. He was very complimentary about Temme and said he had a lot of time for the man. He explained that Temme is now working solely on the stadium project, while Ridsdale is responsible for most other areas of the club's operations. That leaves Sam to concentrate more of his time on footballing matters.
Sam hinted that another experienced professional may join the board in the near future, although he made no mention of that person's identity.
He was asked why Dave Jones was approached about the manager's job, and how much input Ridsdale had in Jones's appointment. Sam said he'd known, liked and respected Jones for many years and simply thought he was the right man for the job at the right time. He was very enthusiatic about Jones's qualities, and said the appointment was all his own work.
Sam admitted he takes a very active role in the signing of new players and watches a huge amount of games during a season - more than almost every manager in the league he reckons. But he said the final decisions on transfers are always made by the managers.
He also told us that he discusses playing matters with the manager and the coaching staff on a very regular basis, but issues such as team selection, tactics and substitutions are left to the manager.
5) THE MEDIA
It was suggested to Sam that Dave Jones has been playing his cards very close to his chest with regards to potential signings this summer, and that his policy seems to be paying dividends. Sam was asked whether, in retrospect, he thought that both he and Lennie Lawrence had been too open with the press about the club's transfer dealings in the past.
The answer to this question was quite surprising. Sam said that he and his managers had always adopted the same policy, but that the termites within the club had contacted the press as soon as they'd got wind of any possible deals.
Sam said that it had taken some time to find out what was going on, but he'd recently brought in the pest controllers and the termites had now been dealt with. We were left in absolutely no doubt as to the alleged identity of the chief termite. He was the one who was reported to be going to save the club a while back.
Sam was asked if he believed that banning the Echo's Mark Bloom had been absolutely necessary. He insisted he'd been left with no alternative, not only because of Bloom's inaccurate reporting and an apparent anti-Sam agenda, but because of his behaviour at Ninian Park press conferences.
The current fued with the Echo seems to run deep - mention was made of two articles that had to be removed from the official site after threats of legal action from the paper, and of the new editor failing to turn up for meetings without any warning - but Sam also acknowledged that the paper has a significant role to play in the club's future activities, so hopefully the two parties can get together and sort something out soon.
6) THE TEAM
This was the part of the evening where Sam went into overdrive, and was really in his element.....
Firstly, he told us that the club's aim has been to get the annual pay budget down from around £7 million to approximately £4 million. That objective has almost been achieved, but it's possible the club will go a little over budget again this season depending on what happens with the striker situation. More of that later.
Sam told us that he was very sorry to lose Jobi McAnuff as he regards the player highly, but West Ham were holding the club to ransom over the outstanding payments on his fee. As they wanted Collins (in particular), they were offering to waive the rest of McAnuff's fee in return for a deal. But if City wanted to keep Collins, they could have imposed a transfer embargo, and the outstanding portion of the fee would also have attracted some hefty additional penalty payments.
In the end, McAnuff was sold to Palace in a deal that was good for both the player and the club, and it put the club in a stronger position with West Ham.
We all knew that the big earners needed to be moved off the wage bill, so Gabbidon's sale would have come as no surprise. But Sam told us that the club didn't receive a single concrete offer from anyone for Gabby. And West Ham were only interested if they could take Collins too.
Dave Jones was apparently not too bothered about losing Gabbidon, but he was very disappointed to lose Collins. £2.5 million of the fee went to Peter Ridsdale to sort out the creditors, while £600,000 went into the transfer pot according to Sam.
Sam also said that Jones was not worried about losing Thorne, although he admitted the centre-forward positions are those are currently giving the most concern.
The new signings you all know about by now. Koumas signed very shortly before the meeting began, hence Mike's exclusive. Purse has now signed, as has Mulryne and Cooper.
As of Tuesday evening, the club were still unsure what to do about the front positions, although it looked at that stage as if Lee was in pole position and Jerome would probably start alongside him. Sam told us the club were tracking a few players, but he wasn't ceratin if we were looking to sign none, one or two new strikers. That area was still under discussion.
Sam also told us that we could expect to see three more players move out. One of those was Margetson, who I thought was already gone but who must be on the payroll to some degree as Sam talked about trying to get him fixed up with another club. Meanwhile, neither Langley nor Campbell figured in Sam's lengthy squad discussion, so it didn't take a genius to work out that those were the other two players he was talking about.
There were a few other issues that were discussed, such as Sam's time at Wimbledon, and there were a few funny stories about past and present players too. Also there was some interesting stuff from Sam on his relationship with the fans and our relationships with each other.