Leaderboard

or is that "he's taken us as far as he wants to take us"? It's difficult to know with the Lansdowns, and it's probably time to recognise them as a collective. Whether it's in terms of day to day decision-making or a horrible worst case scenario, it's not just Steve that is, or would, make decisions involving the football club, it is also Maggie and Jon. Some may consider it inappropriate to speculate in this way, but should the worst happen to Steve, I believe Maggie would inherit his shares. And so forth. Therefore, it is important to recognise that Bristol City FC, RFC, WFC and Flyers are owned by "The Lansdowns". Steve owns 99% shares in Bristol City FC, yet I still see people banging on about there being "a board". The board is Steve, Maggie and Jon, because guess what? They own 99% of the club. Brian Tinnion, Lee Johnson, Mark Ashton, Nigel Pearson, Richard Gould - employees, nothing more. Their say, pretty much subservient with their level of power at the club. Over the past 20 years The Lansdowns have presided over the football club and been key to all decision making, including the appointment of managers. When I say "key", I mean appointing every single one of the football managers and agreeing to every single signing made by the football club, without exception. Ah, bar one Steve Cotterill, who was only appointed following an extremely persuasive case put forward by recruitment specialist Keith Dawe. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure very persuasive cases were put forward, by someone, of why we should sign Gustav Engvall and Sammy Szmodics, however the buck stops with the man, and his family, that sanctioned these signings. And sanctioned the people that were put in place to make these signings. Recuitment has been an unmitigated disaster over the past three years, and ultimate responsibility must be laid at the door of the family signing off this wastage. As we head back towards L1 for a potential third relegation under The Lansdowns, the question has to be asked: Have they taken us as far as they can, or indeed, as far as they want to take us? From where I am, it's a resounding yes. And I'd go further and say they would be quite happy with us being a big fish back in L1. Derby County are about to be sold for £50m. It got me thinking. The Lansdowns picked up the club and ground for comparative peanuts. Mel Morris still owns Pride Park so that is not part of the deal. If The Lansdowns were to sell Bristol Sport including the ground, I would hazard a guess that it wouldn't be too far off the £150m+ they have invested. Further to that, I would speculate that once the sporting village is complete they would break even AT WORST on their investment. This isn't supposed to be a hatchet job, just an honest appraisal of The Lansdowns running of our football club. From where I'm standing, I hope what I read today in The Athletic, and what I already knew to be fair, is true and help or potentially a full takeover is on the way.

The appointment of Holden, nice bloke that he was, pretty much finished me where it comes to SL's ownership. For all the talk of getting to the Prem when LJ was sacked, it showed me 1 of 2 things. All the talk is just that, talk. Or he has clearly not learnt from the internal appointments of Tinnion and Millen. I can't think of a worse appointment for a club with "Premier League ambitions" than a man taking on his first role.

I think that much of the comment on this thread is rather disrespectful of SL and his family. In the years he has been in business it is clear that he is a gifted businessman and he has now been in football long enough to have picked up a considerable amount of knowledge and wisdom. We should take stock and look at the state of our beloved club since he took over the reigns. The infrastructure will be with us for many decades into the future and can provide a sensational platform for all elements of Bristol Sport to progress. If these has been a fault - it may just be a degree of bad luck. Expensive stars being signed and then suffering long-term injuries after a very small number of games. The injury crisis that sunk Dean Holden. COVID - that impacted all clubs but together with FFP has made it difficult to simply buy our way out of current difficulties. Unfortunate recruitment - maybe. These kind of difficulties can affect any business and luck has a part to play. Looking back, I think we have made sensational progress and the academy looks likely to save a fortune in the transfer market in years to come. Maybe we are further progressed than many think and providing we can avoid the drop this year, the future looks quite promising and maybe also sustainable. I feel very comfortable with someone like SL in charge because he is building for the City of Bristol as well as Bristol City. I think Steve is a visionary leader and we are very lucky to have him. Those who wish for change, should be very wary of what they wish for - it may be that the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence and that we should fertilise our grass by supporting the club and the Lansdowns to the utmost. The future is bright although there are some squalls to get past in the near future.

Thank Christ. If Kalas is out and Atkinson or Baker missing, we might need him in central defence...

The entire corporate governance of the club is wrong: Two directors, one not in the UK for much of the year, combined with an owner who has taken a hands-off policy recently and is based off shore. It all leaves City as a bit of a rudderless ship. I don't know if Richard Gould can shoulder giving the club direction alone. In his work at Surrey CC he was in charge of the wealthiest county club in the UK - a slightly different challenge than he has here. I'm grateful to Steve for his investment over the years. It has moved us forward: AG was a ground that was an embarrassment in the second tier; We now seem more like a "natural Championship side" than we did when he arrived. But our current poor form - for the entire bloody year! - is horrendous, and the "Nigel away until we know not when, Curtis Fleming in charge because we can't think what else to do" thing, just underlines how, still, decisions are not taken by Bristol Sport, the club is ambushed by events. We have the foresight of Mr M'Goo. "Medium-term strategy? Contingency planning? What is that!?" If this new investment means a farewell to the Lansdowns, I'm cool with that. If it means, a co-owner who might shake things up a bit and not allow the drift we've seen, I'd be cool with that as well. But something's gotta give.

Sorry @Major Isewateryour top comment really irks me and the same when the Lansdowns come out with it. Input into the club is relative to income, and whilst none of us (I suspect) could put the amount of money the Lansdowns have into BCFC there will be many who’ve put in a higher % of their wealth / income

SL reputedly has £1.5 billion and he has invested approx £150 million in City. That is on tenth of one per cent of his wealth. When I bought £70 of shares in BCFC 1982, that was 99% of my available cash.

The entire Lansdown era, starting with the missed appointment of Moyes right up to current wreckage left by Ashton, has been a huge missed opportunity IMO. Yes, he’s been a safe pair of hands, for which I’m grateful, but it’s long gone stale and BCFC needs new impetus. Every one of his managerial appointments except for GJ have been underwhelming (most of us know Cotterill was Dawe’s man). Even when we were top of the Championship under GJ and before FFP, he kept the purse strings tight. We could've had Ebanks-Blake, ended up with Adebola. Getting involved with Ashton, after SOD had done the donkey work to put the sort of backroom hierarchy in place that we now crave, was his worst mistake. I think SL gets hoodwinked by bullshitters, which makes him a classic fool in the footballing world IMO. The Gate’s a nice ground nowadays, but I preferred the old days of the East End. Maybe it’s too nice; too nice for the opposition, little atmosphere etc. As for the new training ground, it delivers anything but high performance and therein lies the irony. Can anyone share the whole article from The Athletic, please?

I'm surprised people keep mentioning Wells. Since he's come back from injury he's started pretty much every game, looks decent and is clearly busting a gut.

Personally, I think it’s time for a change. I’ve lost confidence in SL and I never had any in JL in the first place.

The Championship Is For Sale Owning a football club is fun and there are worse ways to spend your money than bringing enjoyment and pride to thousands. But they are bloody expensive — money pits, if you will. According to Kieron O’Connor, the football finance expert behind the Swiss Ramble Twitter feed, Championship clubs have lost a combined £2.5 billion over the last decade, which is what happens when you spend £1.16 on wages for every £1 you earn, as the clubs did in 2019-20. So, they are all “for sale”, to one degree or another, as nobody can afford this level of attrition forever — their accountants, families or investment committees won’t let them — but, clearly, some are a lot more for sale than others. Here, then, is our attempt to rank them in terms of how badly they need someone else to pay the bills, or how ready they are to share the burden. For sale or foreclosed You cannot get more “for sale” than being in administration, so let us turn the Championship upside down and start with Derby County. Local tech tycoon Mel Morris bought the two-time English champions in 2015 and spent the next five years breaking transfer records and churning through managers. Having faltered twice in the play-off semi-finals, Derby went one worse in 2019, losing to Aston Villa. That was the beginning of the end for Morris. He sold the club’s Pride Park stadium to himself to help Derby avoid breaking the English Football League’s spending rules but the ensuing controversy caught up with them in the end. Mel Morris pictured in 2016 (Photo: Tony Marshall/Getty Images) In 2020, the league charged Derby with overvaluing the stadium and manipulating the cost of their transfer spending, which triggered a legal tug-of-war that was only resolved this week. Derby beat the stadium charge but were found guilty of the accounting offence. Hoping to avoid another tribunal, club and league spent months in talks to find an agreed penalty. They finally settled on nine points. That took this season’s subtractions to 21 points, after the club were hit with the automatic 12-point penalty for entering administration in September. That was when Morris decided enough was enough. He was at least £200 million down. Insolvency specialists Quantuma are in charge now and have said they can fund the club, which is still losing money, until January. But they have had to borrow more money to do that — from whom and on what terms they have not said — which is not going to make this sale easier. One of English football’s founding clubs, Derby were a big team in the 1970s. They have a large fanbase and have had two spells in the Premier League. They also have a good reputation for developing talent and having someone as marketable as Wayne Rooney as their manager is a bonus, regardless of how good at it he may be. On the flip side, Derby have been on the market for at least two years, with proposed sales to Swiss-based businessman Henry Gabay, Dubai royal Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan and Spanish boxer-turned-agent Erik Alonso collapsing along the way. There is also about £50 million in debt on the books that Morris cannot write off or Quantuma magic away. That is a lot to shell out before you address the squad, rebuild the organisation or buy back the stadium, which is worthless to anyone other than a professional football team in Derby. We want out… or do we? No team in England have had the sale signs up longer than Hull City. They first went up in September 2014 when owner Assem Allam issued a statement to say he was selling the club he bought in 2010, adding: “I will give it away. Out means I’m out. Have I ever said anything and gone back on it?” Allam put the club up for sale because of spectacular fallings-out with the club’s supporters and landlords. The first of those is the most famous, as he wanted to change the club’s name to Hull Tigers, believing it to be more marketable. The fans disagreed and the Football Association concurred, blocking it in April 2014. But it is believed Allam also wanted to drop “City” because he was fed up with the council after it refused to sell him the stadium it built in 2002 for the club and one of the city’s rugby league sides, Hull FC. Which of those frustrations was the final straw is a matter of debate but whichever it was, the result was the same: the then-Premier League side, which had reached the FA Cup final that May, were available for £120 million. Hull City celebrate promotion back to the Championship last April (Photo: Rich Linley – CameraSport via Getty Images) Since then, numerous bidders have been linked with the club, with the most serious being a group led by American-based Chinese businessman Chien Lee in 2016. They eventually decided Barnsley (see below) were better value. A Chinese group led by Dai Yongge and his sister Dai Xiu Li, who eventually bought Reading (also see below), got close in 2016, too, only to encounter undisclosed issues with the Premier League’s ownership checks. The Athletic has spoken to several parties who have looked at Hull. They have all said the main reason they did not proceed was that Allam and his son Ehab have a habit of changing the price or terms at the last moment, making them wonder if they really want to sell at all. After three relegations and two promotions in seven years, Hull are back in the Championship. But they are in the relegation zone and under an EFL transfer embargo for taking one of the league’s COVID-19 loans. They also owe the Allams about £40 million. This means the asking price has fallen to a more realistic £20 million up front, with the potential for bonus payments if the club is promoted. The amount and timescale of these bonuses have been among the sticking points. The Allams have agreed a deal in principle with Turkish media magnate Acun Ilicali. But they have been in talks for months, during which time at least one US-based party has been in for a tour. Ilicali is also understood to want to pay in instalments. Is Acun the one? Hard to say but he was back in Hull on Tuesday for a meeting with the Allams and is said to be very bullish the deal will go through. If he is not the one, the search will continue. After all, out means out, right? China calling We are now into the first of our groups of clubs, as these teams are all “for sale” for broadly the same reasons. Birmingham City are technically always for sale by dint of their parent company’s listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The same principle applies to Manchester United but that is where the comparisons end. Birmingham are 15th in the Championship, a fair reflection of the club they have been since relegation from the Premier League 10 years ago. Like Derby, they have had their scrapes with the EFL, lost points and sold their stadium. And like most others in this division, they have racked up huge losses. They have been under Chinese ownership since 2007, when Carson Yeung led a takeover that made former owners David Gold and David Sullivan a lot of money and left Birmingham in the hands of an entertainment and sportswear company based in Hong Kong but registered in the Cayman Islands. Troy Deeney joined Birmingham City in the summer (Photo: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images) That company, now called Birmingham Sports Holdings (BSH), has changed hands a few times and Yeung was ousted as chairman in 2014, when he was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in Hong Kong for money laundering. BSH, which has a market capitalisation of about £250 million, still owns most of Birmingham City but has been trying to sell the team, with varying degrees of effort, for years. The problem is it will only get a fraction of the money it has poured into the club. Everyone knows that but BSH does not want to admit it as it would mean a significant loss of face and value on the balance sheet. Former Watford owner Laurence Bassini is the latest to be linked with Birmingham but there is no reason why anyone should think he is more likely to get this deal over the line than any of the others he has attached himself to. So, Birmingham will remain for sale, with mysterious owners who have no obvious link to the club, city or English football. The same can be said of local rivals West Bromwich Albion, who are in better shape on and off the pitch but are also under Chinese ownership that no longer makes much sense. Guochuan Lai bought the club in 2016 at the height of China’s football gold rush. This was a giddy period that saw investors — some state-backed, some just showing off — throw money at clubs at home and abroad. The Guangdong-based investor is understood to have paid about £200 million to join the fun. But what fun? Promotion is OK but relegation isn’t and neither are annual losses. And that is why a story about a West Brom bid comes up every six months. Lai has never looked like he was enjoying it and is certainly not getting any love in China for investing in a strategic asset. On the contrary, all of China’s football speculators have been told to bring their money home. Guochuan Lai visits West Brom in August 2016 (Photo: Matthew Ashton – AMA/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images) But can he accept a 50 per cent hit? Because £100 million or so, depending on how certain promotion is looking, is the going rate for a yo-yo club, with a medium-sized ground in an unfashionable location. Which leads us to Reading, the Championship’s other Chinese-owned club. As mentioned, the Dai siblings tried to join the football party at Hull in 2016 but ended up in Berkshire a year later. Their story has shades of Birmingham and Derby about it, as they have thrown money at getting back to the Premier League, lost pots of it and had to pull the stadium-sale trick. They still face a points deduction for overspending, though. Dai Yongge’s fortune is wrapped up in a retail property firm listed on the Chinese stock market, and retail property has struggled in China as much as it has everywhere else during the pandemic. There is no evidence he is short of cash but he has shut down the football clubs he owned in Belgium and China. A fight against relegation awaits. That makes Reading hard to value, even before you get into any conversation about what Dai Yongge’s pride would accept. A change of circumstances Our next group of clubs are in this category for different reasons and they also differ from each other in lots of ways. But they are all for sale, whether they would publicly admit it or not. Huddersfield Town head this group as the circumstances of majority-owner Phil Hodgkinson have rapidly changed in the last few weeks, prompting speculation about his ability to hold onto the club. He bought them in 2019 from Dean Hoyle, the founder of greeting cards retailer Card Factory. Hoyle had been in charge of his boyhood club for a decade that saw the West Yorkshire side go from League One to the Premier League. His health was failing, though, so he decided to sell the club to another local boy made good in Hodgkinson, who owned non-League side Southport but sponsored Huddersfield and made it clear which club he really wanted to own. After sorting out Southport’s sale, Hodgkinson took over at Huddersfield, now back in the Championship, with Hoyle retaining 25 per cent and about £45 million in IOUs. His first two seasons in charge saw the club struggle on the pitch, finishing 18th and 20th, but run a tight ship by the division’s standards, with Hoyle’s debt falling to under £35 million. Alex Pritchard and Steve Mounie celebrate a Premier League goal against West Ham in November 2018 (Photo: William Early/Getty Images) But earlier this month, Hodgkinson put nine of his companies, including claims firm Pure Legal, into administration. This put hundreds of jobs in jeopardy but it also told every accountant, agent, banker and lawyer who specialises in club takeovers that Huddersfield were in play. Huddersfield issued a statement to point out the club was a separate entity to the Pure companies and there was no need to panic. It should also be stated that Hoyle’s health has improved. With him involved, there is no suggestion Huddersfield must be flogged off pronto. Hoyle will be looking for help, though. Preston North End are another club that is being discussed by people who watch the market, albeit with great respect, as Preston’s owner Trevor Hemmings died last month. The bricklayer-turned-billionaire had been on Preston’s board since the 1970s but only bought them outright in 2010. His support helped get Preston out of League One in 2015 and turned them into solid Championship performers. But like their rivals, they lose money every season, even before COVID-19. His son Craig wrote an open letter last week that talked of honouring his father’s legacy and “getting on with things”. It was well written and exactly what fans, players and staff will have wanted to hear but he admitted the family have always seen themselves as “custodians” whose goal it is “to leave the club in better condition than when we took over (when/if that day eventually comes)”. Nobody is suggesting that day is imminent but Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic are three neighbours who found new custodians soon after their long-term benefactors died or decided to hand over the keys. Sheffield United, or more precisely their owners, United World Group, are also understood to be open to offers. United World Group is controlled by Prince Abdullah bin Musaid Al Saud. The Saudi royal first bought a 50 per cent stake in Sheffield United for £1 in 2013 but that was when he and former owner Kevin McCabe were partners. That relationship ended up in the courts, with Prince Abdullah winning the right to pay £5 million for the other half of the club in 2019, as well as market value for property assets linked to the club. In the meantime, Prince Abdullah has built his own multi-club group, with teams in Belgium, Dubai, France and India. McCabe and Prince Abdullah in happier times (Photo: Chris Brunskill/Getty Images) Some sources believe he may have overstretched himself, a situation not helped by the pandemic. But others say there is a simpler reason why Sheffield United are available: there can only be one English club in Saudi Arabia and that is Newcastle United. Speaking to the Sheff United Way YouTube channel in September, Prince Abdullah admitted Sheffield United “had to sell players” this summer but did not want to tell the world that news. As a result, the club got good prices, particularly for Aaron Ramsdale following his £24 million move to Arsenal. But to avoid getting into that position again, the owner added: “We’re trying to get some partners to make the group more strong financially.” Will someone make me an offer, please? We’re getting into mid-table now and first up is Bristol City, a club in a similar corner of the market to Preston, in that this is a question of succession. Owner Stephen Lansdown is very much alive and still fabulously wealthy, having made billions in stockbroking, some of which he has spent on turning Bristol City, basketball team Bristol Flyers and rugby union club Bristol Bears into a multi-sport gang called Bristol Sport. Lansdown is 69 and has been involved at Bristol City for 25 years. His son Jon is chairman of Bristol City but Stephen Lansdown told a Bristol City fans’ podcast earlier this year that he and his family were thinking about how much longer they wanted to do this — the football club lost £10 million in 2019-20. Jon Lansdown repeated the same sentiments last month. The Athletic is aware the search for help, and potentially a full takeover, is underway. Bristol City have lots going for them — a great ground and a state-of-the-art training facility — but they have only spent nine of their 126 years in the top flight and were a third-tier side as recently as 2015. The feelers have been put out at Nottingham Forest, too, although it can sometimes be hard to work out if people claiming to have “mandates” to sell clubs really do, or if the plan is to find the buyer first and then contact the club’s owner to see if they are interested. That could be said about half a dozen clubs in the Championship. What we can say about Forest is that Greek media and shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis bought them in 2017 for £50 million and promised to restore the double European champions to continental competition within five years, as well as redeveloping the City Ground and training facility. Forest have finished 17th, ninth, seventh and 17th under his watch, and are currently 13th. Steve Cooper is his sixth manager (nine including caretakers) and Forest lost more than £45 million between 2017 and 2020. There has been no discernible progresson the building work, either. Blackburn Rovers‘ Indian owners the Rao family would be forgiven for wanting out, too, having bought the Lancashire club for about £43 million, including debt repayments, in 2010. Best known for their chicken business, Venky’s, the Raos have put close to £200 million into Blackburn, which is hardly a paltry sum. Relegated to the third tier in 2017, they bounced back at the first opportunity and have been a mid-table side for the last three seasons. They are currently seventh. It could be a good time to get out. Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan is another mega-rich businessman who came from Malaysia in 2010. Tan has enjoyed two promotions to the Premier League but Cardiff’s stays in the top flight were fleeting and they are no longer one of the lucky half-dozen clubs on parachute payments. They lost £12 million in 2020 and 2021’s figure will be worse. The 69-year-old’s main business is the Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya Corp, which lost nearly £80 million last year. Tan is still very rich but nobody can lose money forever. Of course we’re for sale, what do you think we’re doing here? That leads us to the next group: Barnsley, Coventry City, Millwall and Swansea City. Four teams owned, or largely owned, by US-based investors. We have listed them alphabetically, as none is more for sale than the other but all have been linked with takeovers, or talk of new investment, in recent years, which is not surprising when you remember who owns them and why they bought them. As mentioned, Barnsley were bought in late 2017 by a group comprised of Chinese-American hotel entrepreneur Chien Lee, American investor Paul Conway’s Pacific Media Group, Indian businessman Neerav Parekh and Oakland Athletics exec Billy “Moneyball” Beane. An eclectic bunch, then. Lee and Pacific Media Group have already cashed in one football investment, OGC Nice, and reinvested the money in teamsin Switzerland, Belgium, France, Denmark and the Netherlands. They will do so again if the price is right or the player-trading returns are not working. Coventry City should probably be the most “for sale” of these clubs, though, as they are owned by a hedge fund run by an American who was admiringly called the “queen of debt” by The Sunday Times in 2005. Few Coventry fans have spoken about Joy Seppala in such positive terms during the 14 years Sisu Capital has owned their club. Sisu has been by far the most controversial of this subset of owners, having spent most of the last 14 years in dispute with various landlords at the Ricoh Arena — a row that has seen Coventry spend a year playing at Northampton Town and then two years at Birmingham City. They also got relegated to League Two in 2017. But, despite numerous “rescue” offers, Seppala and Sisu are still in charge and Coventry are back in the Championship, at the Ricoh, playing well. She even gave an interview to the BBC recently, saying Sisu was committed to building a new ground. Wonders never cease. But equally, if someone was to offer her, say, £50 million in cash, with another £20 million on promotion, they would not need to repeat themselves. Millwall are majority-owned by John Berylson. The 68-year-old first invested in the club in 2007, attracted more by the development potential around the stadium and its proximity to central London than any great passion for football. But the Boston-based businessman has stuck around, far longer than anyone expected, and has helped them to become a stable Championship side on a modest budget. They lost “only” £10 million in 2020, having made a small profit the year before. It is no secret, however, they would like some help to realise that development potential and perhaps even mount a serious tilt at promotion. Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien teamed up to buy 80 per cent of Swansea in 2016, when the Welsh side were still in the Premier League. Kaplan is the co-founder of a successful asset management firm that specialises in distressed securities, a tradeable debt in stricken companies. Hmmm. Levien is a lawyer turned agent, who joined actor Will Smith in a group that bought NBA team the Philadelphia 76ers in 2011. Smith, of course, is “West Philadelphia born and raised”. Levien swapped that stake for one in new NBA team the Memphis Grizzlies but not before he and fellow Sixers owner Erick Thohir had bought majority stakes in MLSside DC United. In 2019, he joined a consortium that bought 75 per cent of Australian basketball team Brisbane Bullets. That is how these guys roll and the longer Swansea remain a) outside the Premier League and b) loss-making, the likelihood grows they will sell their stakes and go to a league where the downsides are less terrifying. We’re OK, thanks… unless you want to make me an offer? Only eight clubs left, so we are getting to the ones who could probably look each of us in the eye and say “no, we’re not for sale” and sound like they mean it. This next group is made up of five clubs owned by British or Irish owners, some of whom still live in the area and appear to like football, which is nice. Dublin-born entrepreneur Darragh MacAnthony bought Peterborough United in 2006, having learned about the opportunity from Big Ron Manager, a documentary about former Manchester United manager Ron Atkinson’s efforts to find the League Two side a new owner. MacAnthony was only 30 at the time, the youngest owner in the league, and he delivered on his promise to get them up to the Championship in two years. They have been up and down twice since then but he is still very engaged in the business, despite living in Florida — a state full of wealthy people who seem to want to invest in English clubs, so maybe someone will make him an offer. Luton Town were led out of administration in 2008 by a consortium of supporters, including TV presenter Nick Owen. He stood down as chairman in 2017, by which time the club had climbed out of the National League. They would be promoted to League One in 2018 and the Championship a year later. They finished 12th last season and are currently 11th, which is some achievement for a club run on a sustainable basis. They are a model club in many ways but have been trying to build a new stadium for as long as anyone can remember. That may require some help. Hong Kong-based hedge fund boss Simon Sadler bought his boyhood club Blackpoolin 2019, when a court ordered the former owners, the Oyston family, to sell to settle an unpaid debt to a former partner. For fans who had been boycotting the club until the Oystons left, this was the best news since promotion to the Premier League in 2010. Blackpool celebrate promotion to the Championship via the play-offs in May (Photo: Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images) Blackpool earned promotion back to the Championship last season, Sadler’s second, and they have made a good start to this campaign. He is also pushing ahead with plans for a new training ground and a new stand at the club’s Bloomfield Road home. Middlesbrough have been owned by their local-boy-done-good for far longer than two years, as Steve Gibson joined the board at 26, formed a consortium to save them at 28 and then became the club’s majority owner at 35. The transportation entrepreneur is now 63 and has been bankrolling the club for 37 years. They spent 11 straight seasons in the Premier League between 1998 and 2009, winning the League Cup in 2004 and getting to the UEFA Cup final two years later. Boro have only had one season in the top flight since 2009, though, which has forced Gibson to dig deep into his pockets. The club lost nearly £36 million in 2020. He has reined in his support a bit since then and become an advocate for tighter financial controls across the game, but there is no sign of him wanting to cash his chips in just yet. The division’s other great local benefactor, the Coates family, also appear to be happy to keep subsidising their team, Stoke City, although they would actually prefer it if the league would let them spend even moreof the millions they make from their Bet365 empire than they are currently allowed. Stoke born and bred, Peter Coates first became the club’s majority owner in 1986 but sold the club to an Icelandic consortium in 1999. Seven years later, however, he bought Stoke back, as they were struggling on and off the pitch. A decade in the Premier League came to an end in 2018 and the last three seasons have been frustrating. But the arrival of former Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill has improved matters and they are currently fifth. Peter’s son John is now the club’s co-chairman and his daughter Denise runs Bet365. There seems to be no danger of the family running out of money: she earned £469 million last year. Unfinished business That leaves three clubs owned by wealthy foreigners or, in one club’s case, more than one wealthy foreigner. We will start with them because Queens Park Rangers could once claim to have the richest owners in football. That was when Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal joined Formula One bosses Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone at Loftus Road in 2007. Mittal was one of the world’s richest men at the time but it soon became apparent he was not really involved at all, and QPR was something for his British son-in-law Amit Bhatia to do. Bhatia is still involved but Briatore and Ecclestone handed their keys over years ago. Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes became the majority shareholder in 2011, with compatriot Ruben Gnanalingam making it a triumvirate again in 2015. Fernandes (right) with QPR’s director of football Les Ferdinand in 2017 (Photo: Stephen Pond/Getty Images) On their watch, QPR have enjoyed two promotions, followed by two quick relegations. They also eventually accepted an EFL fine of more than £40 million in 2018 for overspending during their 2013-14 promotion season. That persuaded them to stop throwing money around and the trio now talk a refreshingly good game on sustainability. They also seem to enjoy their football and clearly do not need the money. Bournemouth owner Maxim Demin is another who does not need the money, having made the best part of a billion in petrochemicals, but it is hard to know what the Russian thinks as he never speaks publicly. He has homes in the UK but lives in Switzerland and is rarely seen at games. But he has been the Cherries’ sugar daddy for a decade. After five seasons in the Premier League, they were relegated in 2020 and lost in the play-off semi-finals last season. They look determined to avoid the thrills of the play-offs this season, as they are currently top of the table, eight points clear of third-placed West Brom. Club sources have said Demin might not look like he is enjoying it much but he is determined to get Bournemouth back to the big time. And that is undoubtedly true of Fulhamowner Shahid Khan, too. According to US business magazine Forbes, the Pakistani-American is worth £6.7 billion, having made a fortune from car bumpers. He bought the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars in 2012 and Fulham a year later. Including the amount he spent buying the club from former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, Khan is probably in for about half a billion pounds at Fulham. But he loves the competition and his son Tony Khan fancies himself as a player recruitment specialist. With a third promotion to the Premier League in five seasons in reach, the Khans will be hoping they can stick around a bit longer next time.

People often trot this line out without any evidence of course as if SL was some backroom boy there. He understands finance brilliantly, he really didn’t make the fortune he has simply by being Hargreaves’ puppet. He just doesn’t understand football though or make the right calls often enough to put us in the hands of those who do.

That's absolutely right. When they walk away from Bristol City, I am convinced the Lansdowns will do so having not made a substantial personal financial loss, and with the sporting quarter and Ashton Vale elements, may in fact walk away with a handsome profit. The company that submitted the sporting quarter application has three named directors, by the way: Martin Griffiths, Gavin Marshall and Jon Lansdown. All three stand to be enriched considerably by that project. Marshall seems a decent enough guy, but seems to have come from nowhere. I'd be interested to know how and why he has got himself into a position where he stands to make a considerable amount of money from a Bristol Sport project. It appears that the Lansdowns are now "looking after" a few of their closest allies, as the end of their reign nears. Nothing illegal or even morally wrong with it, necessarily, but something that I feel people need to be aware of. Griffiths, Marshall, and Steve and John, will surely walk away with millions between them from this project. Yet to most City fans they are viewed either as club employees or benefactors. That's certainly not the full story...

Totally delighted that he’s back and well enough to resume his role. Loved the ‘some players are not on-side and I will do everything I can to get rid of them’ line. NP is the future and I have complete confidence in him turning this situation around. Welcome back Nigel.

Anyone who pushed the rumours that Pearson was unwell not because of covid but something else needs to think about their actions.

Got any hard evidence of that? or is it just made up agenda supporting complete bollocks?

Sorry, but they use "short form billions" these days - so it is 10% of his wealth, not 0.1%. Also you are comparing his wealth to your available cash - I very much doubt he had £150 million in loose change down the back of his very expensive sofa. There were several sales of H-L shares reported at the time if I recall

It doesn't sound like a split dressing room at all. It sounds like there are a couple of players that don't want to be at Bristol City, for whatever reason, and that as a result they will be moved on at the earliest opportunity.

I get the impression some players have been told that aren't good enough, or haven't been able to get up to speed so to speak and realise the enivitable. Have downed tools and are now just going through the motions. He's now left with a smaller pond to dip into. And some are injured. It's now very black and white imo. We have players NP doesn't want/ trust even after giving them a chance. Has been left with smaller options to pick from...some injured, and others wanting it, like some of the youngsters, but they haven't got the experience or talent to put in consistent championship games week in, week out. January will be tough imo. I think that will be the tipping point to our season. If we don't sell, don't recruit as wanted, continue to have injuries to key players in NP plans, then we are screwed. If you've got the likes of Palmer on the suggested wages he's on, not making an impact, then that's a massive blow.

Fighting talk - some players aren't onboard and he will do everything he can to get rid of them.

Are you referring to the 20man interview? Clearly at that time RG had no idea how serious Nige’s illness was and essentially sat on the fence. Sensible approach to take imv.

Completely agree Tony, it all feels very stale now. It's almost as if the Lansdown era has run it's course; and the Sports village was the last opportunity to grind out some money out of the situation. The thing with the necessary change though, is how can it happen whilst the Sports village is going through the required planning application/building phase? Any new owner would probably have to keep the project running in order for everybody concerned to make their money out of it. So any potential buyer of Bristol City would have to recompense SL's shares, then pay for the building fixtures/fittings (AG,HPC); then possibly the Sports Village. Would they have to buy Bristol Sport as well? Rugby/Basketball all the other minor sports under that umbrella. I can't image the Lansdown's going ahead with the Sport's village if the football club isn't tied into the package. The whole thing feels so unwieldy at the moment; and that we've taken our focus off what is happening on the pitch with the team. Really it should be the team's success that it the momentum for upgrading stadia/training facilities/Sports villages. Just feels more like asset building at the moment.

The thing about it being Lansdown' money is that all the equity that SL has put into the club, has been converted into shares, that are owned by him It's not the Mel Morris case at Derby, where the whole pack of cards has come falling down, and he's lost a fortune. If SL was to walk away/sell the club; then the £150m that he has invested (then converted into shares) would be recompensed by the buyers. He's certainly not going down the Eddie Davies at Bolton route, of writing off £125m worth of loans. I admire Lansdown's determination to upgrade AG, and the Failand facility. But he is no mug when it comes to finances. Any loss made by the club, will not of impacted on his own finances/wealth. You just offset the loss against other companies operating under the Pula/Bristol City stadium Holdings banner, and any loan to cover that loss; is converted into yet more shares. Those shares will get cashed out at some later stage i'm sure; one way or another.

What pisses me off is when the likes of Mark Kelly describe the facilities as world class. Maybe if you’re going to a conference or are in hospitality, but I don’t call the concourse bars or the toilet facilities world class by a long chalk. Having to queue for the entirety of half time to get a pint is far from world class.

I've always thought his little laugh is a tell. You know "I've just ran through the real answer in my head, and I can't even begin to give that version to you. Here's the diplomatic version ..."

I watch his interviews and it looks so controlled and thought through. He is literally biting his tongue, making sure he isn't saying what he really wants to say, for fear of repercussions. It's a mix of some fans get it, but a majority don't, but it's not their fault because they don't know the real truth in what he's dealing with. And judge on only what they hear. What a nightmare for any manager. Even when they leave they often can't say anything down to ' gag orders'. I look and think wtf...why get emotionally involved in something you'll never know the truth about. It's so superficial, yet so financially and emotionally involved, for everyone concerned, both sides of the fence. When you look at it from afar, it's all a bit mad. Fan gets emotionally and financially attached to a club that he knows probably 10% about...nuts really. NP and SoD are two managers that look away from the interviewer and scream ,' If only you knew the truth' indirectly to the listener.

Probably explains how he sucks his own ?

So the old joke is "how do you become a millionaire?, Start with a billion and invest it in a football club." right? So my view is that Lansdown is too smart to allow that to happen to him but, everything else he has invested in and has planned will only allow him to get his money back. I don't believe there is a massive profit in this unless something surprising happens in the future to the football, the womens game, rugby or UK basketball sides that we can't foresee. Even reaching the premier League is only going to allow some investment on the playing side without further input from him. I don't think this is a bad thing, we have a ground the majority of us appreciate, the team is currently out of form, but the consensus of opinion on here in the last 10 years was that we wanted an extended spell in the Championship, and we have had that. In another post @BigAl&Toby suggested that he was never interested in Ashton Vale, I am not sure why he spent 10 years fighting for it, spent a large sum on buying land for it then. It would have definitely been cheaper starting from scratch and the income from match days would have been higher due to no disruption while the build was going ahead. There is also the peripheral benefits to the City that people seem to overlook, regeneration of the Ashton area, new jobs in hospitality, conferencing etc, it all comes from the investment of one man. He has also done this with little help, and in some cases downright opposition from Bristol City Council over the years. Why should that cost him a large percentage of his fortune? Over the last 55 years I have seen so much lip service paid by successive Chairmen since Harry Dolman to the progression of this club. At every turn they either took more money out of the club than the put in, or suggested investment that never came. Lansdown has done pretty much the opposite, when he has added money from the sale of shares just to keep us afloat, there has been little or no fanfare about it. Forget red herrings like "% of income invested" and "I pay through the turnstiles" rhetoric, combined we would do well to match what he has put into this club over his time here. I should think that he feels his £150 - 200m investment is pretty unappreciated right now, no wonder he wants to pass it on to some other sucker.

For me, it's all about a plan. A top business will disclose to its stakeholders their strategy for the next 5 years (and even longer in the case of long-term impacts like climate change). As long as SL has been in place, this piece of work is missing. At least it isn't visible to key stakeholders - the supporters. What is the long term vision for BCFC and how does that fit into Bristol Sport? I have no idea - we have a goal to be in the "premier league" - along with 22 other championship teams and the rest of the EFL and the premier league clubs themselves. I've said before - we don't have a plan. Without a plan how do you recruit players and create a succession plan for managers. How do academy players feed into the first team? You can't make an omelette without cracking eggs. Steve doesn't like omelettes. So we continue to underachieve because the stability in structure and the strategy to achieve it isn't in place. As long at the Lansdowns are there, I can't see this changing. Unless, unless, they finally get it an put the structure in place for long term success.

Just a hunch but I gotta feeling JD is one that Nige is talking about. Palmer an obvious shout of course too…

20 goals a season strikers? I'm interested for a friend.

We used to say that every season early 80s....

Yup. Listed twice for some reason. My point about having employees as directors still stands though. I think one of the problems with BCFC is the composition of the board: the owner's son and a bloke who has the profile of the invisible man, plus two people employed by the owner. Where's the oversight? Where's the expertise? Who was there to say, "I don't think Dean Holden is ready to manage at this level", for example? Where is an independent voice? We'd be much better with it, which is why I welcome new investment in the club. New stakeholders should mean the cosy consensus is challenged.

Glad I did not subscribe, what a crock of sh1t

I think this is a very underrated point. Bottom line is Lansdown's never invested in the club to make money so what he wants out of it must be something else. My guess is local kudos from developing sport in Bristol plus the enjoyment of doing something "fun" with the money he has made. If he gets as much criticism as kudos and the club isn't much fun to run at the moment, I'm sure there's a point where he would step away. Going back to @Kid in the Riot's opening post, I think he is right that the appetite is no longer there to take us further. I think from our point of view, it puts us in an interesting situation. There is no doubt that other owners - such as Tony Bloom or Matthew Benham - have achieved more than Lansdown has with clubs that started at similar or worse points. However there are also the examples of new owners running clubs into the ground. A sale would end the sense of stagnation and treading water around the club but there are two directions we could go from there. It reminds me of when we sacked Lee Johnson. Essentially we gave up a guarantee of mildly underachieving in the top half of the table. That might get us somewhere worse or might get us somewhere better and it is uncertain where the cards will ultimately fall.

Here is the article from The Athletic: If there is one club that is forever called "Sleeping Giants" it is Bristol City. Peter Goldthorne of The Athletic examines the legitimacy of this claim: I have reached the conclusion that it is grossly unfair to label Bristol City as "Sleeping Giants" for even those of gargantuan stature that are asleep do at times awake and then rightly adopt the mantle of giants. In Bristol City's case they remain constantly asleep. Medical opinion is unanimous in cases of giants being asleep for 41 years plus that they are not actually sleeping at all but are either deceased or in a comatose state from which they are unlikely to arise. Thus I feel Bristol City should be called "Comatose Giants" as if prodded, unlike those that are dead, they do exhibit signs of life (unless it's approaching the 90th minute or beyond in a game). The Athletic believes that although comatose so not strictly dead that owner Steve Lansdown should try and return the club back to the shop in Bolton from whence he bought it and try to convince the shop owner that it is indeed a dead club and not one that is just resting or pining for the (Fred) Fords. We believe that it should then be put back on the shelf with a price tag of £150,000,000 the high asking price due to the fact that the club comes replete with a modern 27,000 seater stadium that hosts the Bristol Bears rugby club as well as having lighting that considerably pisses off Tilly Vacher in Clifton.

Do you remember AG before the upgrade? AG has been redeveloped to its maximum potential given the location in BS3. There’s no other ground space available to expand it further. That’s why SL wanted to relocate but the ‘village green’ legislation put a stop to that. AG is now as good as gets.

Can someone post what it actually said? Fed up with the having to subscribe to everything!

I think it would be fair to say that apart from our success in league one the league cup run and a couple of ok seasons in the Championship it would be right to say that city under SL has not been the success we or he would have hoped for, personally I wouldn't mind somebody else having a go but that is a bit of a risk but who knows it could be for the best.

My view, a cynical view is….The football club is the loss-leader for the opportunity of “everything else”….the flats / houses, land, etc. I’m sure if you net them off, he’ll make money on the overall “thing”. I also think that he is doing it for good reasons too, but he isn’t gifting the money.

It tells you everything about how tiny the Gash's horizons are now that beating Oxford United in the first round of the FA Cup is a "giant-killing" for them. Tinpot overstates it. More like an ill-fitting Tupperware container. As plastic as most of the Mem.

@Kid in the Riot Some interesting points, but like others have asked, what article are you referring to in the Athletic? I think it's a classic case with the Lansdowns of a businessman, who probably doesn't know that much about football trusting the wrong people to invest on his behalf. That article that showed we had recieved the most in player sales in the EFL (£75M+), but rather than invest in 15 quality players, we bought 60 mediocre ones in an attempt to generate future income. In the process, we have sold the family silver (I know some of the players wanted to leave), and have invested in something akin to a dodgy timeshare investment. Unlike other owners in the Champ, Lansdown can't bring himself to push the moral boundaries of FFP. Probably more down to his personal ethics, than a business decision. If you look at the clubs that haven't had parachute payments, and got up to the PL, then there's probably only a few that haven't gambled financially. I just can't see us doing that. The whole Bristol Sport set up is probably more of a hindrance than benefit to City. The infrastructure of the club means that to spin it out on it's own, would make the whole concept unsustainable. Rugby/basketball, wouldn't really work on their own. Would any interested party also have to buy the whole Sports village plans? Once again a massive potential investment, that might not be in their future plans. For me, what is the point spending £60m+ on a ground upgrade, training facilities; and then a Sports Village in the future, when the main attraction on the pitch gets relegated? Tough decisions in Jan i think. Relegation would set us back a number of years, and knock tens of millions off any purchase price. But this team at the moment is only going in one direction, and has been for a number of years. Thank you ?, but as you say probably needs a cut and paste by someone with a subscription.

I don't claim to have your depth of knowledge and analysis of our game sir. For what it's worth I like Nige and still want him to succeed. However important the culture of the team/club is, it just seems common sense to me that the coaches must take some responsibility for our current woes. We see week after week how easy it is to get crosses in against us. Full backs too narrow, coming out late and often facing up to two men with no support. I certainly don't see other teams allowing us to do that to them. Is that attitude, lack of ability, or not following instructions? I honestly don't know, but it seems a basic weakness which I would hope could be addressed by the coaches. Maybe they DO set out with a plan to prevent this and the players don't follow it, who knows. My perception is they aren't set up to stop it but maybe I am being naive.

I think Steve and family will stay as long as what they are doing makes them happy. They are getting older and you do look at life differently. You have different priorities with your time, which is just as precious as money believe it or not. Right now how happy is the club making them?

I also wonder that if Mr Hargreaves had been a football man, would we be where we are today? There are always at least two in every partnership and anyone at Hargreaves Lansdown will tell you who was the boss and the driver and who knew that there was no upside to owning a football club.

I was reading that article, waiting for it to mention City and then read a load of nonsense….but it was spot on. Matt Slater is a good writer, but I wondered whether he had some conversations with Gregor or James too. Not sure Derby won’t be sold without Pride Park, but the company structure makes Pula look like a kids jigsaw puzzle! I do wonder in hindsight whether LJ was SL’s last hurrah? I often joked it was his Trading Places equivalent with Eddie Murphy being played by LJ! Was that SL’s final go at showing the fans / football world he knew football? I dunno, but I sense the flame is going out. I don’t go down the line of “be careful what you wish for”….I don’t think SL would sell to a bunch of sharks. Interesting times ahead. Need to stay in the Champ though.

This is the problem when people jump on snippets of a post about an interview and take it out of context. here is someone that took the time to listen / read the interview post-match and not spin an agenda onto it. I’d copy the link to the club post-match interview and the James Piercy transcript in here, but it’s futile when people have made their mind up that all blame lies at Nige / Coaching Staff’s feet….and virtually every post finds a way to further spin that agenda. I am definitely not absolving them of responsibility, but to think it’s “one thing” is naive.

I live about 5 mins walk away, inside the RPZ zone. The RPZ sorted our parking out totally - it was terrible before and it's good now. Busy when there's a game on but that's fair enough and fine the rest of the week. I think the Bedminster side has been totally stuffed by the council refusing to extend the RPZ. One side of the North Street having restrictions and the other not is a disaster (for those with no restrictions).

I know just the man.....