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Ashton Gate 8 question.


Prinny

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2 minutes ago, Miah Dennehy said:

I think it was pretty personal to a lot of people. I was pretty surprised to see some of the post on here actually, with the possible exception of Garland, it was hardly superstar footballers and a couple in particular were true City legends and treate dpretty shabbily (and that's putting it mildly)

No doubting that and probably why following boards of directors , chairmen wanted to brush it under the carpet. As fans though we’ve never forgotten and even though I’ve been critical of the club recently the nod to the Ashton 8 on the new shirt brought a tear to my eye. Jon Lansdown did also mention in his interview something else happening in the future . 

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6 minutes ago, Miah Dennehy said:

I think it was pretty personal to a lot of people. I was pretty surprised to see some of the post on here actually, with the possible exception of Garland, it was hardly superstar footballers and a couple in particular were true City legends and treate dpretty shabbily (and that's putting it mildly)

Sadly, companies fail and people lose jobs every day, some are able to negotiate a payout, others don't.

The fact they got anything is amazing and testament to those who took over the club, so whilst there is some who think these players are still owed something, in the circumstances they did okay out of it. (Not brilliant, but okay).

I think some of the bitterness directed towards the players at that time was due to the fact 3million other people were also unemployed and never got anything close to the settlements they player did.

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4 hours ago, cidered abroad said:

I heard at the time this.

In summer 1978, Gary Collier became the first player to leave a club under the new "Freedom of Contract" rules. The fee was set by a committee of people not directly involved with either club.

AD was livid about this and went to the Board to say that Collier was the last player to leave City without his permission. The board and him decided that a long contract would stop this. It did because then no player wanted to leave at all because all the first team squad were on 8 to 11 year contracts.

What they did not consider was the effect if we ever got relegated and attendance's dropped by 50%.

Some moved on like Gow, Doyle and Ritchie. Even after AD left we threw money away with Houghton and Hodgson coming in after taking Malmo to European Cup Final. Salary levels?

So when we got to bottom of Division Three, the inevitable happened. We were bust!

What Deryn Coller, Ken Sage and others like Bob Boyd and all the fans who bought shares did was to save the club and they should be remembered as much as the Eight.

Interesting insight certainly.

No such thing as relegation clauses in those days, parachute payments? Pfft. Bet broadcasting, merchandising, let alone corporate hospitality and off the pitch revenue streams all quite minimal too.

Then a significant fall in attendances come the late 1970s in football more widely and this carried through to the mid 1980s when things bottomed out and started improving again.

Mix of on and off the pitch reasons but the the board or boards couldn't have foreseen it surely! Or could they? 

See also, traditionally bigger Sheffield United and Wolves dropping to Fourth Division and arguably a similar sized club to us in Bolton as well! While Watford finished 2nd in top flight, Luton and Oxford won the League Cup!

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footballleagueatt.jpg

While this isn't City specific and is from 2012, the graph is indicative of some historic factors in a sharp decline in attendances on average nationally. 

Ours would still have declined IMO but not to the levels they did. Bit of a perfect storm for us tbh.

Accompanying article.

https://rowzfootball.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/the-end-of-growth-have-english-football-attendances-peaked-and-what-happens-next/

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On 04/09/2020 at 14:25, CodeRed said:

Oh dear

Grossly overpaid bad footballers !   Chris Garland Geoff Merrick Trevor Taunton etc

They were on £400 a week and got 10k to walk away. Really overpaid weren't they.

Surely £400 a week in 1982 was a lot of money? That’s £20k a year. 

An average house in 1982 was “only” £22k 

 

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2 hours ago, S25loyal said:

Surely £400 a week in 1982 was a lot of money? That’s £20k a year. 

An average house in 1982 was “only” £22k 

 

I don't know the figures, but I would be astounded if Peter Aitken & Julian Marshall were on anything like that amount of money. I seem to remember it being openly discussed in the press that Clive Whitehead had  a 10 year contract at £500 a week (of course that doesn't make it true, but it was certainly mentioned often) so possibly the likes of Geoff Merrick were on decent money, after all, he had captained the club to promotion, but these players certainly weren't rich men and I think I'm right in saying they all went onto 'normal' jobs after football. Except for Aitken of course who still holds down a glamorous dream job.:)

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On 04/09/2020 at 14:07, Prinny said:

Excuse the ignorance, I've really never been bothered to look into the exact details of this but the kit announcement today made me think of a couple of questions.

So their choice was stick to their contract, club goes bust or take a pay off to cancel their contracts?

When a business goes bust, people who are owed money have to wait and might not get everything they are owed. So it's a gamble. Maybe business laws were radically different then?

Obviously grateful that they chose the latter, but once they had their contracts torn up they could play as a non contract player elsewhere and then play for someone else later right?

I mean, maybe it's a short term loss, and salaries weren't what they are now but if they're any good another team would snap them up?

And looking at the post city careers, it just looks like we grossly overpaid bad footballers, and they took a  guaranteed pay off over gambling over waiting for more money? That's an uncharitable way to look at it so these are questions rather than opinions! Looking to be educated here. Thanks in advance!

 

For an informed opinion, please contact the Supporters Club and Trust to purchase a copy of 82, The Year Bristol City Nearly Died, which was published in February 2007 to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Ashton Gate 8. This edition was launched at the commemorative dinner held in the former Dolman Exhibition Hall, which was attended by all the players and around 200 fans.

It contains interviews with each of the 8, plus then manager Roy Hodgson, Mick Harford, Deryn Coller who along with the late Ken Sage put together the rescue package, former player and club legend Gerry Sharpe who succeeded Hodgson following the rescue, then Bristol Evening Post City correspondent Peter Godsiff, and last but not least Gordon Taylor.

Sponsored by City fan Robert del Naja, of Massive Attack, who also gives his take, you'll find it an honest and fascinating 32 page account of the saga. And I say that as the person who was lucky enough to conduct all of the interviews.

 

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6 minutes ago, Curr Avon said:

For an informed opinion, please contact the Supporters Club and Trust to purchase a copy of 82, The Year Bristol City Nearly Died, which was published in February 2007 to commemorate the 25 Anniversary of the Ashton Gate 8.

It contains interviews with each of the players, plus then manager Roy Hodgson, Mick Harford, Deryn Coller who along with the late Ken Sage put together the rescue package that saved our club, former player and club legend Gerry Sharpe who succeeded Hodgson following the rescue, then Bristol Evening Post City correspondent Peter Godsiff, and last but not least Gordon Taylor.

Sponsored by City fan Robert del Naja, of Massive Attack, who also gives his take, you'll find it an honest and fascinating 32 page account of the saga. And I say that as the person who conducted all the interviews.

 

Apologies. Please can you delete this one.

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On 04/09/2020 at 14:07, Prinny said:

Excuse the ignorance, I've really never been bothered to look into the exact details of this but the kit announcement today made me think of a couple of questions.

So their choice was stick to their contract, club goes bust or take a pay off to cancel their contracts?

When a business goes bust, people who are owed money have to wait and might not get everything they are owed. So it's a gamble. Maybe business laws were radically different then?

Obviously grateful that they chose the latter, but once they had their contracts torn up they could play as a non contract player elsewhere and then play for someone else later right?

I mean, maybe it's a short term loss, and salaries weren't what they are now but if they're any good another team would snap them up?

And looking at the post city careers, it just looks like we grossly overpaid bad footballers, and they took a  guaranteed pay off over gambling over waiting for more money? That's an uncharitable way to look at it so these are questions rather than opinions! Looking to be educated here. Thanks in advance!

 

You idi*t. Educate yourself before making assumptions. These guys sacrificed it all. Heros

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On 04/09/2020 at 17:28, bcfc01 said:

True.

And it was his brother Steve that the club were really after - a Scotland schoolboy international full back.

Steve and Tom came as a package and, because of his age, Tom was given a pro contract whilst Steve was a 15 year old apprentice and the parents came down as well - I believe they had apprentices lodge with them, could be wrong on that.

Ironically, Tom turned out to be a diamond while younger brother Steve (full back) didn't.

Tom had a sister as well 

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11 hours ago, Curr Avon said:

For an informed opinion, please contact the Supporters Club and Trust to purchase a copy of 82, The Year Bristol City Nearly Died, which was published in February 2007 to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Ashton Gate 8. This edition was launched at the commemorative dinner held in the former Dolman Exhibition Hall, which was attended by all the players and around 200 fans.

It contains interviews with each of the 8, plus then manager Roy Hodgson, Mick Harford, Deryn Coller who along with the late Ken Sage put together the rescue package, former player and club legend Gerry Sharpe who succeeded Hodgson following the rescue, then Bristol Evening Post City correspondent Peter Godsiff, and last but not least Gordon Taylor.

Sponsored by City fan Robert del Naja, of Massive Attack, who also gives his take, you'll find it an honest and fascinating 32 page account of the saga. And I say that as the person who was lucky enough to conduct all of the interviews.

 

Thanks for sharing, didn't know that existed! Does it include the views of people who don't like the the eight?

The reason I don't consider myself myself educated on the subject is all I've ever heard is the club side, the positive side, and that never matched my basic read of the situation. As you can see from this thread, views are much more mixed than the club would say. There's certainly supporters who do not view them as heroes.

 

11 hours ago, Redwhitepurple said:

You idi*t. Educate yourself before making assumptions. These guys sacrificed it all. Heros

That is what I'm doing. By asking questions. People have been kind enough to post resources to read which I'm doing and to share their views, which aren't documented elsewhere. Not only have I educated myself, but I think that by other people posting their own unique views, it's given whoever has read the thread a bunch of new perspectives even if they disagree with them.

Educate yourself before making assumptions is one of the most stupid remarks I've ever come across. Do you walk around in a blank slate state before you fully understand everything about a topic, or do you have opinions? Do you recognise that you don't fully understand everything about a topic admit your ignorance and ask questions in order to learn more? Are you ever comfortable giving an opinion or making an assumption without as much detail as possible?

They clearly didn't sacrifice it ALL because they waited to agree compensation. If it was 100% about them helping the club, there wouldn't have been negotiations. Now obviously they have to take care of themselves and their families, so you can't can't blame them for this, but you don't canonise them either.

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