Earlier this week the Chairman Derek Shaw answered your questions and we have the transcript and audio from that event.

Chairman's question and answer session transcript

Matt: Good afternoon and welcome to Preston North End's exclusive question and answer session with chairman Derek Shaw and Ben Rhodes our general manager, who has joined us this afternoon. Thanks everyone for sending your questions in, we will get straight to it. Good afternoon gentlemen.

Derek and Ben: Good afternoon.

Matt: Plenty of questions and stuff to be getting on with, lots of it will be to do with the financial situation. Obviously, all clubs outside of the Premiership are always facing financial uncertainty. One of the big topics with Notts County getting investment this year is about takeovers and takeover offers. The first question for you Mr Shaw is would PNE plc be willing to listen to takeover offers?

Derek: The answer to that is a 'yes'. I think that at this moment in time there are not many clubs in he UK that wouldn't be willing to listen to takeovers. A football club at this level is very expensive. I was only looking the other day when Preston North End first went into the Championship in 2000/01, our wage bill including football staff was £4.3 million and our wage bill this financial year will be in excess of £11 million, that's players and football staff. That doesn't include any editions to the playing squad and that doesn't include the general running of the football club and the administrative staff. I can assure you the answers to that, as I have said many a time, would be yes.

Matt: Whose job would it be to source these outside investments or to look for somebody who perhaps would want to invest in Preston North End?

Derek: I think most people who are interested in football clubs receive an approach either through a lawyer, through an agency or through something like that. We have actually spoken in the past to people who specialise in this field and we have made it known that if the right type of offer was available, we would certainly be willing to listen. Then that would have to be put to the shareholders and the major shareholders. It isn't just my decision, something like that but I can assure you, but if somebody comes along with the right type of funding to push this club to the very next level, I very much doubt that there will be many of our shareholders who would stand in the way.

Matt: Some of those shareholders do actually make big investments in the club so we can't write that off completely. Mr Hemmings we know likes to take a back seat role, but he has a big financial role in the football club.

Derek: Without a shadow of a doubt. Over the last few years his assistance has helped us immensely in recruitment and wages going forward. I seem to keep being told now we have a small squad; yes, we do have a small squad of about 21 pros, but we also have five young pros underneath that and our small squad are paid significant Championship money and if we have approaching £11 million going out in player and staff wages, we could have players of lesser quality and have 30 players at the football club. Twelve months ago we probably had about 28 players at the football club with eight players who didn't seem to have much chance of getting a game. Now we have a smaller squad and all of these players are first team players.

Ben: This also shows that there is a misconception there, that Preston are a small club in the pool within the Championship in terms of wages going out, but that is not true. It may have been the case when we first came into the division, but as Derek said earlier the wages have gone from four and a bit million pounds to £11 million and I think that will now put us close to the top six or top eight payers in the division.

Derek: Unfortunately we can't afford 28 or 30 senior player like West Brom or Newcastle who probably might have 40. I don't know how many Middlesbrough have, but some of these bigger clubs have got quite a number of extra players, 28 or 30 like I just said. But we have a very highly paid squad for our level and we could have a bigger squad, but possibly the quality would be reduced.

Matt: Who makes that decision, is it upto the manager to say I would rather have a bigger squad of average players incase of injuries and suspensions, or I'd rather have a smaller pool but better quality players. Who makes that decision?

Derek: I think Alan Irvine would like 22 or 23 senior players who we could put in the side. I know he would like a couple more but we physically just can't afford it.

Matt: Paying these players leads to debt and we are obviously in debt and one question asks 'what was the club's debt figure upon entering this division a decade ago and what is the figure today?'

Derek: You've got to remember that there has been ground development and everything since all of this. When we first entered the Championship I would probably have thought the debt would maybe have about £3 million.

Matt: The question continued then with what is the current state of affairs?

Derek: The football club debt, you've got things like the fourth stand which is on a mortgage which is obviously a debt, but that's covered by the rent that it brings in so that is pretty much self funding. The football club debt to the bank is in the region of £6 million.

Matt: Paul Duckworth asks 'what is the solution, if there is one and should the fans be worrying about it?'

Derek: It certainly worries us and I'm sure it concerns the fans. The problem we have is we're running a top Championship club and every time you ask questions you have to go on about the crowd and it's a fact of life, your question lead you to it. Our crowds aren't big enough, we don't get the 20 or the 25 thousands, so many of these clubs who are competitors in this league are taking £250,000 per game more than Preston North End are.

Matt: Is there a figure which obviously in the ideal world in terms of crowds would help the club to compete more and be on more of an even keel?

Derek: Yeah, well the ideal figure would be 40,000! But the more you get the more money goes into the management pot but if we could get 18,000, it would give us a much better fighting chance. I know a hot topic of debate at the moment amongst supporters is pricing, but we are one of the cheapest clubs in the division. We introduced the children under 8's initiative, we have the family stand's and Ben has done a lot more research at other grounds and it maybe worth having a few words.

Ben: If you take a look back at what we were discussing earlier about the debt when we came into the division and the wage bill when we came into the division, wages have gone up 200 per cent since we came into the division yet prices have gone up five or ten per cent in some places. For example, when we came into this division in 2001, it was £8 for a junior to get in at the Town End, it is £5 now so we have reduced those prices. It was £11 for a young adult and OAP and now it is £12 so that is less than a ten per cent increase. We've gone from £18 to £20 for an adult and again that is about a ten per cent increase so we have only increased our prices somewhere between eight and ten per cent, but our wage bill has gone up 200 per cent. So you can see where the problem lies yet we get complaints that the prices are too high, but they are, as Derek has already said, some of the cheapest in the division. The young adult wage range is an example where there isn't another club in our division that offers as cheap a pricing for up to 20-year-olds. A lot of clubs don't offer a price reduction after 16 and some after 18, so therefore it is quite a significant reduction. We try to make it as affordable as humanly possible, but then at the same time that restricts your income and because of the numbers through the turnstiles.

Matt: Emma Thompson has asked 'you've mentioned before about delisting, are there any moves in place to get that process underway at the moment?'

Derek: If Preston North End came off of the stock market tomorrow, it wouldn't improve our funding into the football club. We either need backers, a very very wealthy owner, whether they will be a Chairman or if they stood back from the club like you see Jack Hayward do at Wolves for years and years where he supported the club from a distance. Coming off of the stock market wouldn't be the answer, new ownership from top to bottom or a small group owning the club who have got the cash to push the club on and to continue to push the club on, that's the very difficult bit. Spending money is the easiest profession in the world, it's very very easy to spend money but you have got to have that money to be able to spend it. I think we have proven in the past, yes we know we have made mistakes, people like Kevin Nicholls, a disaster for Preston North End, but there is no football club in this country or in the world who hasn't had players who have been a disaster. We've certainly signed some good players, some young players for the right money who have turned out to be top professionals here and we've sold them regrettably so to fund the football to keep going, to keep paying the wages we do to run a top Championship club.

Matt: I imagine that would be your answer to the question which has been sent in which reads 'if this continues in five years time, then will we have to continue selling players to compete at the top end of the division?'

Derek: I think the facts of life are that that is true. I don't like it no more than any of the supporters behind the goals and in the stands. I detest losing our top players. I certainly didn't like losing Sean St. Ledger, I didn't like losing David Nugent, but if we don't get that money in then this football cl;ub wont survive. We have to get cash in, either from a new ownership which I would welcome and the board would welcome, if that type of offer would come in for the football club then it would be put to the shareholders and hopefully accepted and then the club could move to the next level.

Ben: So the question now is if you kept a couple just for another season, what happens? But then the bank doesn't look at that, the bank don't look at when the debt in relation to the football season the bank want the money as soon as possible.

Derek: In all fairness our banks has been excellent over the years, but we're in difficult banking times at the moment, everybody can see it in the papers and it is on the news every night. The banks are much stricter on lending and there are tighter controls throughout the football club. To be honest with you, football clubs are not on the agenda for banks, they are a problem that banks have and they're more and more conscious of that and they want football clubs to bring their houses in order.

Matt: Paul Kerry has asked is it a costly exercise to withdraw from AIM and is it difficult?

Derek: No, I don't think it would be costly to come off AIM, but unless we were coming off for a specific reason then I don't actually see what that would gain. There are charges by being on AIM with advisors charges and everything but we need a bigger picture than that, we need our knock on the door with Billionaire investors and that's what this football club needs to push it on. I think we've gone as far as we can genetically and really we need the big push where we can add six to eight players to our squad and get the quality required to go the 46 games and get ourselves to the Premier League.

Matt: There is often unfounded criticism levelled at you saying that you don't actually want this club to get to the Premier League…

Derek: Eighteen years now I have been doing this and if anybody thinks that I don't want Preston to get to the Premier League then they are barmy! There is nothing I would like more in life, it's a bit of an obsession of mine, but I've said before the top two places would be very difficult but there is always room for a Preston, a Watford or a Burnley, there is always room for a club of our size to get in through the Play-Off's. If we can't get into first or second then that is what we aim to do.

Matt: Moving on, the sale of Sean St. Ledger whch is something that has been big in the news for Preston North End, was there a Plan B in place, Emma Thompson asks, if Sean was to have broken his leg before that deal took place?

Derek: Well there wasn't really a Plan A, we just know that every now and again we have got to top the well back up and unfortunately this time it was Sean. We have other assets at this football club who somebody maybe willing to take on, we have had other enquiries for players at Preston, we have had previous enquiries for Sean St. Ledger and we have not wanted to sell him. Eventually it is just like your credit card, you have got to pay some back now and again otherwise you can't get anymore. I'm bitterly disappointed that we have lost a players of Sean's quality, we moved on it before by bringing Collins in from Wolves and he's doing a good job for us so hopefully he will replace Sean long term with a little bit of luck.

Matt: One of the emails that came in was why was he sold to one of our rivals and why was it seemed to be rushed through?

Derek: Well he was sold to one of our rivals because we got what we saw as a very good offer. Previous types of offers were half the type of money Sean will eventually be going for and it possibly looked like it was being rushed through because the deal was happening inside the window but Sean was away with the Irish party so we were unable to complete that. That's why it had to happen as a loan that will eventually become a permanent transfer.

Matt: You can imagine that some of that perception stemmed from it being a matchday…

Derek: Well the buying club wanted him in there squad as we would have done if we were bringing a player in.

Matt: Graeme Lucas asks 'is Alan Irvine going to be allowed to strengthen the club at all in January if he see's the need?'

Derek: Alan has signed nine players in the 18 months he has been here. We have always attempted to support our manager and if we're in a strong position in January and there is a case for strengthening somewhere then we will do everything in our power to find the money to strengthen or loan.

Matt: Another question that has come in says 'why not let Alan spend money on good young players from the Premiership like Crystal Palace did for Freddie Sears'?

Derek: There is no 'why not let Alan' anything. Alan comes to us with the players who he has seen who he thinks will be better for Preston North End like all previous managers have done. We don't interfere with who the manager is trying to sign. We have bought quite a quantity of good young players to Preston.

Matt: While we are on the subject of Alan, we have had it in previous managers contracts, is there a clause in the managers contract which would allow the club to receive compensation?

Derek: Yes, I think that has been heavily publicised with the Wet Bromwich Albion affair. There is a clause in the contract that protects Preston North end and there is a clause in the contract that, if it is reached gives Alan permission to talk to another football club. I think that is quite common within the game these days.

Matt: A ticketing and attendance question now, the West Brom game was originally said to have been 11,100 but the actual figure was nearer 12,400, so we apologise for that one. With crowds so low against West Brom, would it be better to reduce the ticket pricing to £5 and get an extra 5,000 fans at the game?

Derek: I'll touch on that and then maybe Ben will come in with a little bit more. I'm always conscious that pre-season we sell approximately 8,000 season tickets and these people come before we have kicked a ball and they pay us by cash, cheque or on the account deal we do. These people come forward and support Preston North End, many a family, husband, wife, couple a children and they give their money to North End for the season. In the past, we have had many an offer which leads to complaints on my desk and Ben's desk about; 'we've put our money up front' and 'we've given you our cash and you've reduced it by half price'. Then I get told by many a supporter that 'I'm a season ticket holder, it won't bother me'. We reduced prices against Leicester in the Carling Cup, £10, and £5 and only 7,000 people came so it doesn't always make it that we're going to have a big gate. We are willing to listen to any type of idea that would improves our gate and there seems to be some sort of myth out there that the board won't listen and Ben won't listen, of course we will listen. But so many of these ideas have been tried before, time and time again different ideas for students etc, and it leads to a lot of aggravation with our 8,000 season ticket holders whose money we need to pay the bills in the summer. A lot of people don't realise that our season ticket money keeps us going for about two and a half months. We desperately need that money and we want big gates here but sometimes you think to yourself when top has played third and only 12,000 people have turned up then it is very very disappointing. It must be very disappointing to people who are out there looking to buy a football club, Preston North End's gates don't help that situation.

Matt: Ben, I'll let you come in a second but there a few more similar questions. Pete says 'Why can't you reduce the adult price for the Crystal Palace game to £10'. That is obviously referring to the juniors being allowed in for a pound that game. 'Have you considered buy one get one free tickets', that's from Reverend Keith Borwick and Keith also asks 'has the club ever considered targeting fans in the PR6 area?'

Ben: We look at so many different offers ideas. There are a wealth of ideas out there and there are a wealth of ideas internally. but its about striking a balance because you can't really upset your season ticket holders, they give you vital money at the start of the season. At the same time, you have to try and encourage new fans and those fans who haven't been for a while to come as much as possible. By being one of the cheapest clubs in the division and by being a regular top six side, you would hope that that is quite an encouragement to do it. There are so many activities as well on top of that where we work so hard to bring people in. We work in the schools for example, we visit 40,000 school children, we visit 280 primary schools every year with a very small amount of staff being able to do that. They go out and visit these schools and promote Preston North End. We do work with so many different areas in pricing, people talk about students all of the time, when we had that student scheme, only 300 people were registered on that scheme. We know have 5,000 who are registered on our system who are between 16 and 20 which is our young adult range. So that shows that the amount of people of is eligible and have bought tickets from our system already. In terms of students we do work in all sorts of area. We went to The Mall recently where they had the big 'Lock In' event with 6,000 students in one place and we worked very closely in promoting to UCLan, Preston College and Runshaw students that were there. You have got to try and promote the awareness of the team and promote the awareness of the price ranges, but you cant continue to reduce the price because it devalues the product at the same time. As I mentioned earlier, striking the balance is the key.

Matt: Graeme Lucas asks 'are you disappointed with the current level of support with not only the number of supporters who turn out but by the atmosphere on a matchday'?

Derek: Obviously the ones who turn up to Deepdale we thank every one of them and our away support is magnificent, but at times the atmosphere at Deepdale is very flat. Alan Irvine recently went to watch our friends down the road who play in tangerine at a game and he said the atmosphere all around the ground was buzzing throughout the ground. We used to have that kind of thing in the old ISA, not long after John Beck was here and the Town End was buzzing with atmosphere. There were many initiatives with ticker-tape and banners and things like that. That side of it does seem to have gone flat whether it's the all-seater, whether it's the size of the ground or the fans being spread apart, I don't know. I think that at some of the away games, the atmosphere is fantastic, the fans cheer for 90 minutes but at times we don't seem to get going at Deepdale.

Ben: We have done a significant amount in the ten years I have been here and when you think of all the things we have done to increase the atmosphere through give-aways, things on seats, clappers, cards, scarves. To have all of those costs a significant amount of money as well so you are in a vicious circle, what do you want us to spend the money on do you want us to spend the money on the football side and increasing the quality of the team or do you want to spend it on that? One of those initiatives Derek mentioned, I used to stand in the old Town End in those days and a lot of those were fan lead and fan funded and people came and said we will raise some money by doing this, that and the other and we were very grateful and very well supported but it isn't always possible to put financial support into these things. Really an £11 million wage bill says it all on our front.

Matt: John Naylor would like to know 'have you ever considered offering the front four or five rows in the stand a discount'?

Derek: It's all well and good that kind of thing but what happens is, is that fans will just move to the back and sit anywhere. Next thing it is leading to problems for the stewards and we've had that kind of thing, believe it or not with people claiming disabled benefits where they have not sat at the front but they have to the back into seats that have been reserved for season tickets. So it is very difficult for that kind of thing John.

Ben: We had a similar question from I think saying can you price it different in the wings, on the edge of the stands and make it cheaper in those areas and Derek is right, if we charge less then people will migrate. We have got significant numbers of seats and therefore you will pay the cheaper seats and migrate into the middle seats. So it is difficult to charge for different areas without putting in actual segregation.

Matt: We have another question on the email that says 'why aren't all of the stands priced the same'?

Ben: I think it's traditional that people have suggested that it is a better view from the sides so you charge differently. I don't think that is unique to here but wherever you go, every single ground in the 92, you will pay more on the side than you do behind the goals and the closer you get to the centre you pay more.

Derek: I think you get that in the theatre and many a sporting event.

Ben: I don't think there is a bad seat in Deepdale. You would struggle to find a seat where your view is not exceptional here.

Matt: Going back to the student issue, we have already touched on it but Paul Kelly wants to know 'did you consider splitting the young adults bands into 16 to 18's and 19 to 22-year-olds'?

Ben: I mentioned what we have done there earlier. We removed the student category but expanded the young adult range. The young adult range originally was just 16 to 18, so we went 16 to 20 and we are one of very few clubs who offer that price. In fact we are cheaper than the majority if not all of the Championship clubs for a 20-year-old or a 19-year-old. As mentioned before, the amount of people that now opens that pricing to is just ten, 15 or 20 times what it was by just making it for students. The student population in Preston is obviously a transient population and of course we want to get as many of them to come along during term time as possible. We go out, we work with the university, but we also want to make sure all of the young people from Preston, whether they can afford to be a student, whether they work, whether they are at college or they are unemployed can come along. Therefore making that price range for 16 to 20 and making it quite an affordable price, £12 for example behind the goal, I think that opens it out to far many more people then say students with an NUS card pay £15.

Matt: So what you're really saying is that you have opened it up to more people who might be on less money at that age group and not just students who don't have the money at that age?

Ben: Absolutely and there was a very big gap, so if you were 16 paying and only paying £60 for your season ticket and suddenly we're asking you for a full adult price just because you have got a minimum wage job, it is very hard to continue that support. To put in a balance for as much as four years, a sort of in-between price, hopefully it allows people to continue their support of Preston North End at an age where you don't necessarily get paid a lot of money.

Matt: And you are still engaging the students I believe, last week's student 'Lock In' was attended by Preston North End.

Ben: We had a number of staff giving away thousands of leaflets which has continued after than event as well working with UCLan, Preston College, Newman and with Runshaw to continue the push with those colleges and their students.

Matt: Eric Crtichley asks 'why aren't the club doing more pre-match entertainment?'

Ben: Again that comes down to cost. We know the sort of times people in the ground and the majority of people come into the ground 20 minutes prior to kick-off. What do you want to do, people may suggest getting kids on the pitch for example? If you get kids on the pitch all of the time, particularly in the winter months, it starts to damage the pitch and the manager wants as little on the pitch as possible. So then you say okay then let's get some singers. Singers now, even the average singer might cost you about £500 a time. Last season, for example, we had our half time competition we had singers which were free, it was fantastic, a really good competition but this year we have utilised things like brass bands. Every time you get a brass band in, the next week somebody will write in saying I hate brass bands, why did you get a brass band in. Mostly it is down to cost. We work with schools, entertainers, all sorts of different people to provide what we can. For example, the Crystal Palace game we have got the family day, we have got a number of circus entertainers coming down to provide entertainment for us at very little cost. We are very grateful for people like that, for bands, musicians and singers who will volunteer their services for the exposure. Those are the sort of people we want to work with and have to work with because we can't afford to spend £500 a time to bring a singer in.

Matt: Catherine Billington asks 'why do we seem to have stewards who seem intent on stopping the fans getting behind the team?'

Derek: I would find that very disappointing if that is so. It is something we will take up with ground safety and the reasoning behind that. We all want to see fans getting behind the team so it might be useful if Catherine could contact Ben and gives us a few more details about what that problem is.

Ben: The ground safety officer is a big football fan himself and understands what football fans want. He has been new to the role recently but everything he does with the stewards is about customer service and about making it an enjoyable day. Obviously they have a responsibility to meet requirement but at the same time our ground safety officer wants supporters to come in and enjoy their day and the messages he gives to his stewards and the training they receive teach them to make peoples days more enjoyable rather than to do anything on the contrary.

Matt: A lot of fans have asked questions about the way the club is marketed and it seems to be a big area which is related to the attendances, Paul Duckworth asks 'what is being done to engage fans and interest them into coming to Deepdale and support our boys?'

Derek: The other week, second played third in the division and the week before that we beat Leicester and there were fantastic reports in every Sunday and Monday newspaper. After this there were good reports on Sky Sports, good reports on the BBC, good reports in the LEP, it was a very positive week for Preston North End. We are in the newspaper six nights a week, we are the biggest building in Preston, we have been here well over 100 years and people keep going on about marketing. It really puzzles me, we got to Wembley the other year and Cardiff a few years ago. We got beat in the play off final and then the opening game of the season we had 14,000 on the gate. This word is abused around Preston the word marketing, I find it unbelievable. We are on the radio six nights a week, everybody knows that North End is here. Somebody has suggested that we should bring in a sports marketing expert, well if someone can prove to me that will make our gates significantly bigger then we will have him in tomorrow. At time I despair at it, we are clutching at something that is not there. How this club could get marketed at times more than it is, is amazing.

Matt: One of the questions which isn't down here is 'what is done with the information the club collects' and I suppose this relates to what do we do to try and keep hold of season ticket holders who have chosen not to renew.

Ben: We write to fans as often as we can afford to do. Each season we mail out to our season ticket holders and our previous season ticket holders. Large scale mailouts again involve massive massive costs but we use our resources to contact as many people as we can. Our marketing team have some great ideas and a strategy in place in how market us but they have also got a superb CRM system which we have developed over a number of years now. This can tell us all about our fan base, it can allows us to contact certain people, it can contact certain individuals and they do actually do that. Just to go back to a point Derek was saying about as well, we already have staff within the club who work tirelessly to promote Preston North End. Every member of staff in effect, that's there whole responsibility, is to promote PNE in the local area and beyond it. We have many ideas on how to promote the club and we use the resources that we have got and the financial mobility we have got to do everything possible. I mentioned earlier about the work the marketing and community team do in schools, I mentioned about the relationships we have got as well. We work extremely hard with the local newspaper; we have got a very good relationship with the local reporter Dave Seddon. We have got an excellent relationship with Central Radio, the new Preston radio station and also I and our marketing manager have a meeting with Rock FM tomorrow to maintain a good relationship with them, so everything that can be done is being done. Another example is that our community team have just set up a superb relationship with Preston City Council which will allow us to market ourselves across the city in quite a unique way, which we will be announcing in the next couple of weeks. These things have been done without any cost to them; it is about creating an awareness and creating campaigns that don't drain our resources. People say get a person to do that, get a person into do that but they don't realise what it costs and what it brings in. You have got to make sure that all costs are covered by what you do and a tremendous amount is done behind the scenes here without being a drain on the finances and people don't see it and don't realise.

Matt: Andrew Nelson 'what incentives are there for regular fans and season ticket holders?' I think there are plenty of incentives if you are a season ticket holder surely?

Derek: There are numerous vouchers in the book with offers in the shop, etc. There are five or six free games with season tickets so the incentive for season tickets is phenomenal.

Ben: We are extremely for the support that has gathered, we have already talked about the financial aspect but their long term commitment is something we are very grateful for. We look every year at how they can be rewarded and as Derek says, on one shoulder you have people saying 'reduce the prices', and on the other shoulder you have season ticket holders saying 'well if you reduce the prices then what are you doing for me?' Last season, I think we had one ticket price offer because we didn't want to devalue the season ticket holder. We work extremely hard to keep their prices as low as we possibly can. The good thing with the CRM system, which I mentioned before is that we are able to see how long season ticket holders have been supporting us and it allows us to look at that and continue to find other ways of saying thank you.

Matt: Chairman you are in the media quite a lot and Kevin Hodgson asks; 'does the message that we are punching above our weight send out a negative message to the fans?'

Derek: To be honest, I am not on the radio as much as I used to be and I am very rarely in the newspapers. I try to do that because quite frankly, eventually all of the questions become the same. They always go on about crowds, they always go on about money, they always go on about what you can give the manager and they always go on about who you are signing. I have to try and answer these questions openly and honestly and I have to tell people the difficulties we have at this football club in trying to do what we do with the resources we have. Then everybody starts saying that it is negative, so it's the same as fans forums, you get asked the same types of questions time and time again and I try a little bit to keep away from the radio. I had an interview the other week with Gary Hickson when Sean St. Ledger went and no sooner have you got on with it, it is what will Alan Irvine be getting. One way or another, every single penny will be going into the football club to keep it alive, to keep it afloat, to keep paying wages, to keep doing any loans, to keep paying contracts, to keep taking them to the away games in the best luxury we can do to make the preparation right for the manager. We do everything we can to do it properly, but to do that you need money all of the time and every time you do an interview, they start becoming the same questions.

Ben: If you tell the truth, you get criticised its a bit of a vicious circle sometimes and it can be about the way it is written or said. As I said before, we have got an excellent relationship with our local news reporter and I think the message has been quite clear this season with the interviews Dave has done with Derek. The message has been that this club wants to get out of this division and this club is optimistic about getting out of this division. It has got quality players, a quality manager and everybody wants to get promoted internally. We all buy into that and want to work for a Premiership football club behind the scenes, the players want to play at a Premiership football club, the manager wants to manager a Premiership football club and the board want to be the board of the Premiership football club. We all want to get promoted and we know the fans do so we are all united in what we want.

Matt: Chairman, you mentioned these fans doing these group Q & A's out in the community and Brian Herron asks 'is there a reason that the fans haven't had a meeting yourself or the manager recently?'

Derek: The manager has been to a couple of fans meetings only recently in Lancaster. I've not had a meeting with fans in just over 12 months when I met a number of the PSG people. Quite frankly it is the same as before, I just feel that you get the repeat questions about investment and everything and I just don't know how many times I need to same the same things. I'll meet with the people from PSG anytime they want, I have no qualms about that but I don't particularly think it does any good meeting in a social club or meeting in a room with 200 people with half of them going for the crack. A lot of them ask an awful lot of nonsense and while I'm here I'll be open, honest and fair and I'll tell people as it is. I don't want to do it any other way but sometimes people don't like hearing the truth.

Ben: There is an opportunity for this here. This is being broadcasted through PNE Player, it will then go on the PNE site, then it will go on as a written opportunity and we have around 40,000 people looking at the website every month. This sort of opportunity gives everybody out there a chance to get their question answered. There isn't anything that has been sent in which has been left off of the question list and the chairman hasn't hidden from anything. Therefore you can repeat the same answers only so many times.

Derek: I've only just seen them when I came in the room, I didn't want to see them, I have nothing to hide. I work tirelessly to try to get this football club to the next level, but sometimes you need that financial support, you can't get over the line without that financial support. It is so important to you, I am not saying it will never happen and we have a damn good chance of getting promoted but we will keep doing what we can. However, so many people keep coming up with the same old thing, why aren't we doing this, we don't we do that, and we haven't got the money to do some of things people are asking us to do.

Matt: I think its fair to say that listeners who are listening today know that the channels of communication between yourself and the fans are never closed You are often ringing fans up and speaking to them.

Derek: Yes I do, I often get great big emails asking loads of questions and I think to myself I will respond to that. Ten minutes later after I haven't finished I think I will ring them up, I find it much better to have some dialogue and fans can say their point and hopefully I can answer that point.

Matt: One of the email questions asks do you use the internet forums, do you engage the opinions of the supporters and if you do, what have the club done to respond to any of the issues raised?'

Derek: I do view the PNE forum and at times I find it outrageous and some of the stuff on there is disgusting. I will talk to people and answer people but some people can get so personal and go on about things that they don't know about. I think it can be very rude when I read some of the things they say and quite frankly I don't think it does the football club any good.

Ben: Other channels of communication are always open as well, every single letter, every single email, every single phone call we get is responded to at the football club whether it is Derek, to me or each individual department. We get back to every individual who contacts us with any answer that is deemed appropriate. Some people may not be happy with the response that they get, and others may receive an explanation they may not have known. Those channels have always been there and will continue to be there. We are a company that is open to contact from any of its supporters.

Matt: Moving on, Gemma Clegg asks 'can you advice what the plans are for a new youth academy down at Springfield's and can the club reach academy status without this facility being built? If so are there plans to do so?'

Derek: Well we can't reach academey status with the facility we have at the moment. We do require a couple of more pitches and we would need a huge amount of money spending on the changing rooms and unfortunately the first team has to come first. We have not got the money to do it, we have the plans and know what we to do but we probably will need about £2million to complete that. It would be wonderful; I think it is something the club needs with massive competition in this area from Premiership clubs. I think it would help but in its own kind of way, we do very well with out centre of excellence because a lot of parents think that youngsters will have a better chance at a Championship club than some of the higher Premiership clubs where they are looking for a higher standard.

Matt: An academy wouldn't be the be all and end all and we have a very hardworking youth department..

Derek: I think the last person Liverpool got through their Academy was Steven Gerrard so Academy's don't work all of the time and Manchester United has a massive run ten years ago of players coming through their academy but recently it hasn't done that well. We have some good lads coming through at the moment and hopefully they will push on for the first team.

Ben: We have strengthen that area of the coaching as well with David Unsworth coming in recently to try and aide those players progressing to the level up .There is obviously a big step up from youth team football to reserve team football to first team football and we are trying to bridge that gap with David's recent appointment.

Matt: A question you get asked almost every year when you do the accounts and the figures about the Legend's building and Friends of Preston North End?

Derek: First of all, we have not taken any rent on the Legend's building for about ten months now. We bought the Legend's building because Mr Dougan, who owned it, was selling the building for £400,000. We offered him a premium on that to get the deal done. We bought the building to protect the property and the footprint of Deepdale. It is owned by the council and we have a 65 to 70 year lease on that, but we bought the lease. We did the building up and we rented it to the football club. The rent was a low rent and we deliberately did that. We got outside experts in to value it and then we took a rent for the building which appears to have got peoples backs up. We have not taken the rent for all of this financial year and we are not taking any rent at all at the moment. We also have the £1million loan into the football club, but we don't take any interest and quite frankly this is a case where you try to do what you feel is right for your club and a number of people have a go at you. So if anybody wants to buy the building off of us then we are quite willing to sell it to them because it just becomes quite thankless when you work so hard to help the football club and people just have a go.

Matt: Emma Thompson asks; 'if the fans of PNE set up a supporters trust, would you give your backing to it?'

Derek: Well I'm not quite sure what a supporter's trust is. Do they have an ownership? If they are all shareholders, I don't see how a group of shareholders could not become a supporter's trust overnight. If they have suggestions to help the football club, we all have the same goal in life so I don't see there to be any problems providing there is no problems with a plc status what we have and where they would fit in. If people have ideas to help this football club then we haven't got a problem with that and why there seems to be some people thinking we are trying to drive a wedge between us and them. If it would help this football club get more people on board and helps us to progress then let's get on with it.

Ben: The club itself is currently working on a new project which we should be setting to launch this year/early next year which will allow all supporters to feel apart of his club or trust. It will allow interaction without being governed by the football club so this is one of the things that is going on behind the scenes but is taking a significant amount of work, time and preparation. Therefore that maybe something that creates something that fans will feel part of on a later date.

Matt: Jan Nayler asks why are the catering staff not run by PNE?

Derek: That goes back to the development of the first stand we did on matchday. There is an army of staff to run these places and we feel that it is better with people who are involved in catering, that's why we do that and we receive a decent rent. We have monitored what we receive out of it with similar clubs of our size and we feel that doing it this way is probably best for ourselves because we don't have the huge resource of staff to run it on match days only.

Matt: Just to mention that we do not wash our hands with any complaints or suggestions we get for the catering and everything is looked at and taken to the people.

Derek: Yes it is and I thoroughly agree with many a supporter who thinks that the prices are high, but you get that wherever there is a captive audience. Caterers charge accordingly and I don't know if going much cheaper would improve sales volume-wise but we have put this to them and they choose to do it as they do.

Matt: We've run out of questions now, but I will just ask you one more, Lord Mawhenney last week gave a very long speech about the future of football league clubs and I know it is something that you wanted to talk about because it is a difficult time and a difficult thing to run a football club.

Derek: Yes I don't know if many people saw that speech in the media but I thought it was an excellent sppech by Lord Mawhinney about esculating wages and everything we have to put up with, its very difficult. I remember Michael Appleton was the first payed player to earn £100,000 at PNE and we have players who are earning way, way, way over that and we still have the same kind of crowds coming along. So it is extremely difficult, the bosman ruling hasn't helped. Players know that they can let their contracts run down and also the gulve with the Premiership and the wages that people receive, if they get a three year contract then they are millionares overnight. It is very difficult as I have said before but we keep going and like many a club at the moment we would like to get some outside investment to push on even quicker and if not we will keep working hard and aim for the Premier League.