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What went wrong at Bristol City Football Club


NickJ

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4 minutes ago, exAtyeoMax said:

I just hope that Mark Ashton is flexible enough when appointing the new manager/coach, and doesn't stick too rigidly to corporate ideas of DNA etc. I understand the need for someone who fits into the structure of the club but we also need someone who knows how to manage a football team

I think that's spot on.  He's used the term 'process' a lot, but I'd like to think they've got a framework or a set of principles for the new man.  If you are looking for someone who fits every one, you limit yourself, and potentially miss out on someone who has 80%, but maybe brings something else that gives a different edge.

Principles are there to be challenged and changed.

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2 minutes ago, exAtyeoMax said:

I just hope that Mark Ashton is flexible enough when appointing the new manager/coach, and doesn't stick too rigidly to corporate ideas of DNA etc. I understand the need for someone who fits into the structure of the club but we also need someone who knows how to manage a football team

'Manage' and 'Coach' are two different things EAM...wouldn't you agree?

Mr Ashton and present DoF 'manage' the football side of the club.

Whatever name we wish to attach to the person who will coach, pick the team and make the players develop into a 'Team' is another thing.

We need someone who is a 'Football' person in place....as all the other parts of 'managing' will be done for them.

 

1 minute ago, NickJ said:

I've never spoken to a manager but I have been told the same or similar by many others.

I have fella...and all to a man said they didn't have a clue as to what many at the club did.

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2 minutes ago, spudski said:

'Manage' and 'Coach' are two different things EAM...wouldn't you agree?

Mr Ashton and present DoF 'manage' the football side of the club.

Whatever name we wish to attach to the person who will coach, pick the team and make the players develop into a 'Team' is another thing.

We need someone who is a 'Football' person in place....as all the other parts of 'managing' will be done for them.

 

I have fella...and all to a man said they didn't have a clue as to what many at the club did.

I basically talking about the team of players, not the other bits of football management. 

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1 hour ago, spudski said:

How anyone can condone and excuse what happened over the summer is beyond me. We shoot ourselves in the foot year in year out...yet there are always some fans that will say it's bad luck. Blinkered to say the least...either don't want to believe it...or can't see the wood for the trees.

If we were Crewe or S****horpe...I'd get it...but we are not...we've thrown money at short term fix's, have had no structure...managers don't have a clue as to who does what at the club. Then you get managers that try to work it the best they can in there own way. Dof's and 'Accountants' get put in place and they don't sing from the same hymn sheet.

Board members allegedly not seeing eye to eye or agreeing on things. 'People' feeling betrayed.

It's like a bloody soap opera down there.

You might not be directing your words at me spudski but as you quoted me, I'll assume you were.

I haven't condoned what went on in the summer or since.  It's clearly been a disaster in terms of recruitment.   The last three loan signings and Scott Golbourne's 2.5 year deal could make a lot of difference assuming the players are fit enough.

I don't think we shoot ourselves in the foot year in, year out.  Although I would agree that we do it more than we should!  It's not blinkered to say that we have been unlucky to lose points this season due to late equalisers and late defeats.  We've had a few hammerings and those aren't unlucky.  But sometimes teams get goals, sometimes they don't - there is an element of luck when the result is decided by a single goal.  In only slightly different circumstances we could have taken more points from games against Burnely, Preston, MK Dons, Cardiff, Bolton, Charlton and Reading.

It's been a rubbish season so far.  But if you look at club revenue, the size of our supporter base, our historic 'lack of success' and where we have spent most of our history there is nothing to suggest we are better than a lower Championship side.  And that's what we are this season.

We all might want more, we all might think Steven Lansdown could afford better but in real terms we're a lot closer to Crewe than we are to Nottingham Forest and Leeds.  And they aren't exactly flying.

I'm a realist.  We had a great season.  We're having a poor season.  There is a lot less doom and gloom at the actual matches even when the result goes against us.  OTIB makes me feel like the world is ending at times.

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Yes this Football club appeares to have been run the same way for years now.

Total naively by all involved at the top especially around the GJ rein and post that era to now.  Like many have stated far from the managers fault. They couldn't even identify the right person to liaise with if what is being implied is true. 

It's little surprise then that SL wanted to distance himself from the everyday running of the club, by leaving his position as chairman.  Or be it still holding the reins through the eyes of his son. It does make me wonder how the has built a huge corporate investment/pensions company. Worth over a billion in personal assets. But put him in charge of a football club.... he does seem at a loss at times.

Having said that I wouldn't want anyone else here, but we have been running to stand still, in terms of his goal to get the premier league for years now. 

You know at this present time. Can't really see his dream coming to fruition. 

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14 minutes ago, Redrobbin said:

Yes this Football club appeares to have been run the same way for years now.

Total naively by all involved at the top especially around the GJ rein and post that era to now.  Like many have stated far from the managers fault. They couldn't even identify the right person to liaise with if what is being implied is true. 

It's little surprise then that SL wanted to distance himself from the everyday running of the club, by leaving his position as chairman.  Or be it still holding the reins through the eyes of his son. It does make me wonder how the has built a huge corporate investment/pensions company. Worth over a billion in personal assets. But put him in charge of a football club.... he does seem at a loss at times.

Having said that I wouldn't want anyone else here, but we have been running to stand still, in terms of his goal to get the premier league for years now. 

You know at this present time. Can't really see his dream coming to fruition. 

Red, he had a bloo*y good partner in Peter Hargreaves who was the brains at HL. Some people in life are lucky enough to team up with a whizz kid (PH) who will make their business life easy for them but cant quite make it if they are 'cut adrift'. How many times in history have you seen the siblings of successful people squander their inheritance as they do not have true business acumen ?

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21 minutes ago, Xiled said:

You might not be directing your words at me spudski but as you quoted me, I'll assume you were.

I haven't condoned what went on in the summer or since.  It's clearly been a disaster in terms of recruitment.   The last three loan signings and Scott Golbourne's 2.5 year deal could make a lot of difference assuming the players are fit enough.

I don't think we shoot ourselves in the foot year in, year out.  Although I would agree that we do it more than we should!  It's not blinkered to say that we have been unlucky to lose points this season due to late equalisers and late defeats.  We've had a few hammerings and those aren't unlucky.  But sometimes teams get goals, sometimes they don't - there is an element of luck when the result is decided by a single goal.  In only slightly different circumstances we could have taken more points from games against Burnely, Preston, MK Dons, Cardiff, Bolton, Charlton and Reading.

It's been a rubbish season so far.  But if you look at club revenue, the size of our supporter base, our historic 'lack of success' and where we have spent most of our history there is nothing to suggest we are better than a lower Championship side.  And that's what we are this season.

We all might want more, we all might think Steven Lansdown could afford better but in real terms we're a lot closer to Crewe than we are to Nottingham Forest and Leeds.  

Forest average 19,900

We average 15,099 (with a limited capacity. It would be quite a few more if the ground was finished).

Crewe average 4,600.

 

Real terms there. Let's not talk ourselves down (or up). Let's just have it right: we can belong in this league. We'll never be a Leeds but if we get things right off the field (in the summer) we can be more than we have been in this league for a long, long time.

We're 16th/24 in the average gates league table. (Sorry @Xiled, hope you don't think I'm stalking you!)

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1 hour ago, Jack Dawe said:

Forest average 19,900

We average 15,099 (with a limited capacity. It would be quite a few more if the ground was finished).

Crewe average 4,600.

 

Real terms there. Let's not talk ourselves down (or up). Let's just have it right: we can belong in this league. We'll never be a Leeds but if we get things right off the field (in the summer) we can be more than we have been in this league for a long, long time.

We're 16th/24 in the average gates league table. (Sorry @Xiled, hope you don't think I'm stalking you!)

I'm not a big fan of looking at the past as it doesn't always have much relevance to the present or the future but Forest have won the European Cup twice and the League Cup four times so at least they have a decent trophy cabinet!

This is perhaps more relevant to where we actually stand in the English football pecking order:
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/50-biggest-clubs-england-man-united-1st-arsenal-2nd-daily-mail-graphic/

Joint 47th out of the top 50 clubs last year.  Again, I'm not taking too much from this set of fairly loose metrics but I do think we need some realism when expectations seem to be unrealistically high.  There's a danger of drifting off-topic but I do feel that the question "What went wrong at Bristol City Football Club?" is not fair criticism to throw at the club at this present time.

Not feeling at all stalked @Jack Dawe - all good discussion!

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2 hours ago, Xiled said:

You might not be directing your words at me spudski but as you quoted me, I'll assume you were.

I haven't condoned what went on in the summer or since.  It's clearly been a disaster in terms of recruitment.   The last three loan signings and Scott Golbourne's 2.5 year deal could make a lot of difference assuming the players are fit enough.

I don't think we shoot ourselves in the foot year in, year out.  Although I would agree that we do it more than we should!  It's not blinkered to say that we have been unlucky to lose points this season due to late equalisers and late defeats.  We've had a few hammerings and those aren't unlucky.  But sometimes teams get goals, sometimes they don't - there is an element of luck when the result is decided by a single goal.  In only slightly different circumstances we could have taken more points from games against Burnely, Preston, MK Dons, Cardiff, Bolton, Charlton and Reading.

It's been a rubbish season so far.  But if you look at club revenue, the size of our supporter base, our historic 'lack of success' and where we have spent most of our history there is nothing to suggest we are better than a lower Championship side.  And that's what we are this season.

We all might want more, we all might think Steven Lansdown could afford better but in real terms we're a lot closer to Crewe than we are to Nottingham Forest and Leeds.  And they aren't exactly flying.

I'm a realist.  We had a great season.  We're having a poor season.  There is a lot less doom and gloom at the actual matches even when the result goes against us.  OTIB makes me feel like the world is ending at times.

I understand your views and respect them Xiled...however...like Pemberton said recently....you make your own luck.

It was the 'actions' that happened over the Summer that left us short of players.

Having a lack of players, meant the squad was over used, often playing injured, in a system that is renowned for extra excursion both physically and mentally.

A mistrust of squad players, led to us using the same players the majority of time. Fatigue sets in...mistakes made and concentration lost. Hence why we conceded in the dying minutes of games. Plus our GD is massive. Results and facts don't lie.

Our 'bad luck' happened for a reason.

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9 hours ago, spudski said:

I understand your views and respect them Xiled...however...like Pemberton said recently....you make your own luck.

It was the 'actions' that happened over the Summer that left us short of players.

Having a lack of players, meant the squad was over used, often playing injured, in a system that is renowned for extra excursion both physically and mentally.

A mistrust of squad players, led to us using the same players the majority of time. Fatigue sets in...mistakes made and concentration lost. Hence why we conceded in the dying minutes of games. Plus our GD is massive. Results and facts don't lie.

Our 'bad luck' happened for a reason.

Couldn't agree more. It's maybe bad luck if it happens once or twice, but the amount of points we have dropped from winning or drawing positions going into the end of a match is not bad luck. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results - something had to change.

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13 hours ago, Xiled said:

You might not be directing your words at me spudski but as you quoted me, I'll assume you were.

I haven't condoned what went on in the summer or since.  It's clearly been a disaster in terms of recruitment.   The last three loan signings and Scott Golbourne's 2.5 year deal could make a lot of difference assuming the players are fit enough.

I don't think we shoot ourselves in the foot year in, year out.  Although I would agree that we do it more than we should!  It's not blinkered to say that we have been unlucky to lose points this season due to late equalisers and late defeats.  We've had a few hammerings and those aren't unlucky.  But sometimes teams get goals, sometimes they don't - there is an element of luck when the result is decided by a single goal.  In only slightly different circumstances we could have taken more points from games against Burnely, Preston, MK Dons, Cardiff, Bolton, Charlton and Reading.

It's been a rubbish season so far.  But if you look at club revenue, the size of our supporter base, our historic 'lack of success' and where we have spent most of our history there is nothing to suggest we are better than a lower Championship side.  And that's what we are this season.

We all might want more, we all might think Steven Lansdown could afford better but in real terms we're a lot closer to Crewe than we are to Nottingham Forest and Leeds.  And they aren't exactly flying.

I'm a realist.  We had a great season.  We're having a poor season.  There is a lot less doom and gloom at the actual matches even when the result goes against us.  OTIB makes me feel like the world is ending at times.

It is , probably not in our lifetimes .

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Two things stuck out for me after a very quick skim through the article. Our belt tightening seemed to happen after GJ left, he 'had to be paid off', this makes be believe he was on a relatively huge salary/mutually agreed severance. He is till this day the only Manager who had a farewell press conference.

Also the mess of who does what board-wise. Still too many Chiefs, increasing so since Bristol Sport umberllas the football club now. And Mark Ashton, recently returned, is quoted as being 'increasingly influential'. No wonder he is taking his time sorting out the mess now, he certainly was part of it before.

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13 hours ago, oldstandrobin said:

Red, he had a bloo*y good partner in Peter Hargreaves who was the brains at HL. Some people in life are lucky enough to team up with a whizz kid (PH) who will make their business life easy for them but cant quite make it if they are 'cut adrift'. How many times in history have you seen the siblings of successful people squander their inheritance as they do not have true business acumen ?

You could not be further from the truth.

You know neither PH nor SL.

It would be impossible for a business partnership to grow from zero to an established FTSE100 company in around 30 years unless there was huge input and commitment from both.  It is an insult to suggest otherwise. 

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In reading this article, does anyone think that Bristol City is somehow alone in this situation? It seems to me that if you change the name of the football team in the article and the list of player names and managers, this could have been written about 40 other league clubs.

The reality is over the past ten years or so, especially since ITV pulled their funding, the lower league financial crisis is less of a single collapse and more a fact of life. 

Looking at the Championship, the current debt is at around 1.1bn.

To name a few:

Bolton - £182.1m DEBT

QPR - £179.6m DEBT

Ipswich - £82.4m DEBT

Cardiff - £81.8m DEBT

Blackburn - £79.8m DEBT

Forest - £46m DEBT

Huddersfield - £37.4 DEBT

and so on....

Championship average - £48.5m.

City down at a relatively low £25m and this is our first season back in the championship with the higher revenues. But of course SL and the others are driving us headlong, blindly to financial ruin.

@NickJ - as you seem so vocal and knowledgable about how a football club does it's financial and transfer dealings, why don't enlighten us on how things should be done?

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Maybe I'm simple but I don't understand the point of the article, or why it's been brought up now.

Supporting BCFC is an up and down experience. Bit like life. To enjoy the highs you need the contrast of the lows. The Hull game and all that lead up to it was, for me, exactly that. Ifs and buts. We were slightly fortunate to be there, Orr should have been substituted before Windass was anywhere near the ball, etc etc. Last season we were consistently superb. This season far less so.

That, for many fans, is football.

I've bought a 4th ticket for tomorrow and me and the boys will be there. I'll collect my tickets for Charlton and MK Dons and we'll be there too,

Coppell, James, Kilkenny, Johnson, Hunt and many others? Part of the past. Look forward.

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16 hours ago, spudski said:

Maybe the 'Author' has similar 'knowledge' but can't reveal sources...as many journalists don't.

Maybe the author read your posts on here.

 

14 hours ago, oldstandrobin said:

Red, he had a bloo*y good partner in Peter Hargreaves who was the brains at HL. Some people in life are lucky enough to team up with a whizz kid (PH) who will make their business life easy for them but cant quite make it if they are 'cut adrift'. How many times in history have you seen the siblings of successful people squander their inheritance as they do not have true business acumen ?

I don't know Peter Hargreaves, but everything I've read either about him or said by him suggests he's not a man to suffer fools gladly. I find it pretty hard to imagine him staying in partnership with Steve Lansdown for 30 years if he didn't think Lansdown was making a valuable contribution to the business. It seems quite offensive to me to suggest otherwise.

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54 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

In reading this article, does anyone think that Bristol City is somehow alone in this situation? It seems to me that if you change the name of the football team in the article and the list of player names and managers, this could have been written about 40 other league clubs.

The reality is over the past ten years or so, especially since ITV pulled their funding, the lower league financial crisis is less of a single collapse and more a fact of life. 

Looking at the Championship, the current debt is at around 1.1bn.

To name a few:

Bolton - £182.1m DEBT

QPR - £179.6m DEBT

Ipswich - £82.4m DEBT

Cardiff - £81.8m DEBT

Blackburn - £79.8m DEBT

Forest - £46m DEBT

Huddersfield - £37.4 DEBT

and so on....

Championship average - £48.5m.

City down at a relatively low £25m and this is our first season back in the championship with the higher revenues. But of course SL and the others are driving us headlong, blindly to financial ruin.

@NickJ - as you seem so vocal and knowledgable about how a football club does it's financial and transfer dealings, why don't enlighten us on how things should be done?

Don't those figures make you sick? Obscene amounts of money - knew QPR were bad, but didn't realise it was at that level

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14 hours ago, oldstandrobin said:

Red, he had a bloo*y good partner in Peter Hargreaves who was the brains at HL. Some people in life are lucky enough to team up with a whizz kid (PH) who will make their business life easy for them but cant quite make it if they are 'cut adrift'. How many times in history have you seen the siblings of successful people squander their inheritance as they do not have true business acumen ?

I was going to come back and respond to your post but I see that it had been answered very thoroughly above before I had the chance, as good as straight from the horses mouth as you can get ( no offence intended M) !

 I was going to say that if PH was the brains and an excellent businessman, why would he put up with such a lame partner in that case? But it's already been proven as total rubbish so I'll bow out gracefully.

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54 minutes ago, Badger said:

You could not be further from the truth.

You know neither PH nor SL.

It would be impossible for a business partnership to grow from zero to an established FTSE100 company in around 30 years unless there was huge input and commitment from both.  It is an insult to suggest otherwise. 

Don't take it personally Mrs L.

Feelings are still running high on here and many folk including myself were sorry to see SC go after last season. A lot of us are trying to understand why and don't necessarily believe it was purely down to results.

That said, some folk tend to express their views as facts, as opposed to what they are, merely opinions. Many of which are ill informed.

After all most of what is contributed is little more than gossip!

I guess the vast majority are happy and grateful for what we have and hope that the influx of new players help to get us up the league.

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1 hour ago, Badger said:

You could not be further from the truth.

You know neither PH nor SL.

It would be impossible for a business partnership to grow from zero to an established FTSE100 company in around 30 years unless there was huge input and commitment from both.  It is an insult to suggest otherwise. 

you have your opinion, I have mine, and I dont need to know them either, try reading Hans Christian Andersens 'The Emperors New Clothes'

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46 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

 

@NickJ - as you seem so vocal and knowledgable about how a football club does it's financial and transfer dealings, why don't enlighten us on how things should be done?

You seem vocal as well - why don't you.

You also seem to have access to information which the ordinary fan would not come across, which is good, because opinions are always likely to be better if based upon fact. However the facts in your post are not really relevant to the random question which you have posed.

If you have a problem with this thread - which most people seem to agree does show striking similarities to past mistakes - then I can't help that as its already out there, so maybe just not read.

So far as your question is concerned, it is not my area of expertise, but I would expect those running the football club to have that expertise. Leading on from that, I have never said, anywhere, whether I think they do have that expertise, or not, specifically in relation to financial and transfer dealings.

I have however stated that I do not think that the current board of directors are the best qualified to run our football club, as in, Bristol City Football Club Ltd. Funnily enough many people seem to agree. What do you think?

If you have some sort of problem with something else I have said, by all means try again, though it would be easier if you could respond to a specific comment I have made.

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4 minutes ago, oldstandrobin said:

you have your opinion, I have mine, and I dont need to know them either, try reading Hans Christian Andersens 'The Emperors New Clothes'

I respectfully suggest that you should do a bit of research into the poster before going any further with this.;)

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1 minute ago, Frenchay Red said:

I respectfully suggest that you should do a bit of research into the poster before going any further with this.;)

????? enlighten me please or PM me, I am intrigued. If you look at most of my posts they are very light hearted, but since the sacking of SC, this forum seems to be employing the Witch Hunter General about a club that I and many others have spent years supporting ( and in my case sponsoring) Am I missing something or what ??

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8 minutes ago, Frenchay Red said:

Don't take it personally Mrs L.

Feelings are still running high on here and many folk including myself were sorry to see SC go after last season. A lot of us are trying to understand why and don't necessarily believe it was purely down to results.

That said, some folk tend to express their views as facts, as opposed to what they are, merely opinions. Many of which are ill informed.

After all most of what is contributed is little more than gossip!

I guess the vast majority are happy and grateful for what we have and hope that the influx of new players help to get us up the league.

I wouldn't want either Mrs L or Mr L to take it personally, very nice people on the occasions I've met them! I can see that it would be hard to not to feel a tad sensitive about criticism…but that comes with the territory I guess. 

What's hard for people who care about the club…and in their own ways invest time, money and emotion in it…is that FACTS are so hard to come by. And all we're are left with is guess work informed by the insights/indiscretions of those more ITK than the rest of us.

I'm not sure that's good enough really. In my opinion it would be good if the people in charge could be more open. We all want the club to succeed.

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2 minutes ago, oldstandrobin said:

????? enlighten me please or PM me, I am intrigued. If you look at most of my posts they are very light hearted, but since the sacking of SC, this forum seems to be employing the Witch Hunter General about a club that I and many others have spent years supporting ( and in my case sponsoring) Am I missing something or what ??

'Mrs L' is the wording under the profile name. 

Hmm. Mrs L. I wonder who it could be?

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