I have just been thinking in my lunch break

[Secret Site Agent]

1. As someone who drives 25,000 miles a year on average, do WHATEVER it takes to finish this job ASAP. The real cost of you running to budget/time alone, is millions and millions in lost revenue for people like me, something that is never factored in by contractors (no blame to you for that clearly!!) but I wish the MOT would simply say, ****** to the cost, let's get it done overnight because the real cost to the economy in cones is immesaruable... (let alone going over time!!!)

 

 

It is a strange misconception of the travelling public when they say, 'Why can't you do it a night?' Well, believe it or not, most road jobs are done either at night or are 24/7, 7 days a week, (and you'll be glad to know that I am back at work after working today). If you see cones in the day it is because the road is not safe to drive on as it hasn't been finished. A lot of repairs are done over night and the road is open in the morning and you just drive over it without realising. And as I said above, the cost is very heavy for me as if we go over our target cost, we, (the contractor) pay the rest. The time factor is also very tight for me because if I am late, I have to write a report to explain why I am late, and finally my companies performance is measured and if I am late and over budget, that ius another nail in our coffin and too many nails and we get thrown off the Framework, which is a lot of money to us. Bloodsy hell, isn't that the same as relegation? Construction and Football with similarities. All we need now are a few brown envelopes, and crook or two, and some back door shinanigans....OH, wait a minute,(for another time and another thread maybe)

 

Anyway, I am glad I have got the old juices flowing with you all though. I can't help but feel that THIS must be part of the plan. If it isn't then

 

Oh, and Legod you are showing your age as it's the Highways Agency now, not the Ministry of Transport.

[Secret Site Agent]

This is no different to many other threads upon the direction of the club and is only valid if we have this room to manoeuvre.

What is being done at the present is a long term plan that looks like it has some backing, only time will tell on that.

 

Very soon the accounts will be out and everyone can take their obligatory gasp and these threads will diminish.

 

Oh, and I disagree. I actually DON'T believe Lowe is trying to sell the family silver, where as a lot do. Remember, I am not keen on the man, nor do I find myself in a forgiving mood where he is concerned. My thread is mearly due to the fact that I have been able to draw some conclusions from my own personal experience.

[jam]

Are the sub contractors going to take you outside the budget?

 

If they go will the contract be finished within the alloted time, budget and minimum defects?

 

As he said in the post you quoted: no.

[jam]

The thing we have to remember is that we are trying to reduce costs - Lallana and Surman will not be on big wages and did not cost us anything, so why do we need to sell them?

 

Hallelujah...

 

Please can you post this on the Lallana thread?

[Wiltshire Saint]

Whilst sitting here in my lunch break and having a heated discussion with my QS, (which is a construction money man, or in my case a woman) and then reading this thread:

 

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=1240

 

I realised that some of my choices in my job actually reflect some of Lowe and Jans'.

 

Let tell you a quick story.

 

I am on a construction job. I have a limited workforce that are the wrong side of fifty, and a few in experienced youngsters, so I have 'bought in' a number of labourers from a sub-contractor to finish a section of the work. My QS wants to get rid of them all as they are a little expensive, and there are other sites with bigger budgets than mine that want them, as the subbie boys are pretty experienced and work really hard. As I explained politly, if I get rid of them all I will be reliant on older and less experienced operatives and I will not be able to complete on time, within my budget as the quality will go down, and the cost go up.

 

Suddenly I had a bit of a lightbulb moment.

 

Now, I don't really like Lowe or Wilde, to be fair, and I am a long way off forgiving or forgetting. But this is my revelation. Just like Saul on the road to Damascus it hit me. If Lowe is the proported financial wizz that he is supposed to be, and Jan is the 'I can work within a shoe string and youngsters to grater glory' master he is supposed to be, doesn't it boil down to the fact that Saints, even though they have to cut costs, would have an EVEN bigger financial problem if they got relegated?

 

Therefore my conclusion is this:

 

Lowe may want to sell all and sundary to make money, and clear debt, but if you reduce the capability of the 'workforce', you reduce the ability to keep to your projected cost target. In other words if the target for Saints is to reduce costs they CANNOT afford to be relegated, therefore a comfortable mid table place would be needed, and you cannot achieve a mid table place in the CC with Div 1 and past their best players.

 

Is this the plan? Is this what they are aiming for?

 

Please discuss using rational, cogent and well thought out constructive remarks.

 

And also please remember, I could build you a bridge/Road/Sewage Treatment Works/Tunnel/House/office block/sports standium etc. any where you like, within time,within budget and with minimum defects, but I can't predict the scoreline on any Saints match in the last year.

 

And this was your great revelation? That if we sell all our best people we may get relegated? How come this thought has not crossed anyone elses mind?

It's also as if you havn't followed any Saints news at all. Do you understand why we are tryig to rid of players? It is not because, like your "subbies" they are "quite expensive". It is because our costs are so high we could go into administration. Besides which, most of them are **** anyway.

[Legod Second Coming]

It is a strange misconception of the travelling public when they say, 'Why can't you do it a night?' Well, believe it or not, most road jobs are done either at night or are 24/7, 7 days a week, (and you'll be glad to know that I am back at work after working today). If you see cones in the day it is because the road is not safe to drive on as it hasn't been finished. A lot of repairs are done over night and the road is open in the morning and you just drive over it without realising. And as I said above, the cost is very heavy for me as if we go over our target cost, we, (the contractor) pay the rest. The time factor is also very tight for me because if I am late, I have to write a report to explain why I am late, and finally my companies performance is measured and if I am late and over budget, that ius another nail in our coffin and too many nails and we get thrown off the Framework, which is a lot of money to us. Bloodsy hell, isn't that the same as relegation? Construction and Football with similarities. All we need now are a few brown envelopes, and crook or two, and some back door shinanigans....OH, wait a minute,(for another time and another thread maybe)

 

Anyway, I am glad I have got the old juices flowing with you all though. I can't help but feel that THIS must be part of the plan. If it isn't then

 

Oh, and Legod you are showing your age as it's the Highways Agency now, not the Ministry of Transport.

 

 

Yes friend and here is what I love about this government. How much did it cost to rebrand to the Highways Agency and stick all those bloody signs up telling me how long the job is going to take and how proud they are when it's finished???!!! I'd rather they simply gave the money to YOU to get the job done quicker!!!

 

My beef is that your target cost should be at least double!! I know it's not really true but if it takes one man four weeks to paint a bridge, then give him four men and do it in a week!!!

[Secret Site Agent]

And this was your great revelation? That if we sell all our best people we may get relegated? How come this thought has not crossed anyone elses mind?

It's also as if you havn't followed any Saints news at all. Do you understand why we are tryig to rid of players? It is not because, like your "subbies" they are "quite expensive". It is because our costs are so high we could go into administration. Besides which, most of them are **** anyway.

 

No, my great revelation is that the man I hate is not selling all and sundery for the money, but is actually trying to keep hold of the ones that are part of Jan's master plan.

 

If you would have asked me last week if he would have sold Lallana and Surman, I would have said in a heartbeat.

 

Hope this clarifies

[tttdcs]

I have passed this onto my estimating department.

 

 

£2,902,624.00

 

Should our tender be under consideration there are a number of items that would require further discussions.

[Charlie Wayman]

... and this WAS your light-bulb moment?

 

Better keep taking the sedatives in the hope that in even more relaxed moments you'll come up with even more flashes of the blindingly obvious.

[Secret Site Agent]

... and this WAS your light-bulb moment?

 

Better keep taking the sedatives in the hope that in even more relaxed moments you'll come up with even more flashes of the blindingly obvious.

 

Please provide, as they say, evidence to support you claim that it is blindingly obvious that because I don't trust Lowe and believe it he will sell everything not nailed down, he is actually doing something more cautious in total contrast to my prejudiced beliefs.

 

Also please provide how your reply is rational, cogent, well thought out and constructive.

 

Many thanks