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Steve Lansdown interview


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Here are my thought for what it's worth.

Negatives

1. Living on Guernsey as he does SL needs a powerful CEO to run the club day to day. Ashton is capable and works hard but is paid too much and  has too much influence in deciding managers + players to employ. He has got it completely wrong on too many occasions. The appointment of Holden was a complete disaster.

2. We have departed recently from purchasing players with further potential to signing 30 +journeymen on fat wages.

3.We continue to be perceived as a nice club but with a soft underbelly.

4.SL is risk averse, which is probably why he is so wealthy, but we nearly always end up employing a cheaper second rate manager without the experience or ruthelesnes to take on Ashton or make the necessary demands of the players.

5 There is something drastically wrong in our physio/medical department.

6. It's very tough under ffp to compete with clubs with parachute payments. This will only change if we can somehow manage to get into the prem ourselves, even if it's only for one season 

Positives

1. We are now an established Championship club with a superb ground, training facilities and academy that it starting to produce many talented young players. We regularly attract crowds of 20,000. This is a massive leap from from where we were in the 80's with crowds of 8,000 and we were yoyoing between League 1 and The Championship. This ia all down to the investment of SL.

2.SL is still massively passionate about the club. He cares and the new training facilities should push the club closer towards the goal. I Can see city in future years yoyoing between The Premiership and Championship in a similar vein to say Norwich City. If we had only won our one visit to the play off final, I think that's where we would be now.

The limit of our potential would be something like Leicester City. 

3. We just need to make the right appointment. If we can start to make the play offs, on the law of averages we will make the leap to the prem if only for one season and then become one of the parachute payment clubs that can get back up much more easily. There is then reason to hope we can become a Brighton or previously Bournemouth and stay there for a few seasons.

Conclusion.

This next appointment is critical.

The appointment of Eddie Howe would be a master stroke and would give me massive grounds for optimism.

The appointment of Paul Cook would be give me real hope of making the play offs in the next couple of years

The appointment of someone like Ryan Lowe would be similair to Lee Johnson. We might make the play offs if we are lucky.

The appointment of someone like Michael Appleton would convince me Ashton has too much control and would not fill me with confidence.

Over to you Steve and thanks for all you have done, we really appreciate it ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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There were exp managers last time but because they didnt go with "the ethos" they didnt get a look in. The selection of managers is not working, the "ethos"/plan needs to change and we need to go with someone who has exp of this div and of getting teams out of it whatever the cost or it will be same old, same old.......round and around we go.

Seems like Steve is just going to repeat the other manager selection processes and take forever about it  and we will end up with another the just the same as the others, too nice and inexp.

Steve if you continue doing the same things the same results will follow, change the plan, lets go for it.

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5 minutes ago, glos old boy said:

There were exp managers last time but because they didnt go with "the ethos" they didnt get a look in. The selection of managers is not working, the "ethos"/plan needs to change and we need to go with someone who has exp of this div and of getting teams out of it whatever the cost or it will be same old, same old.......round and around we go.

Seems like Steve is just going to repeat the other manager selection processes and take forever about it  and we will end up with another the just the same as the others, too nice and inexp.

Steve if you continue doing the same things the same results will follow, change the plan, lets go for it.

This is what I’m perplexed by... continuing to use the same process, using the same personnel and expecting a different outcome.

If you fail, and repeat fail, you review process and personnel. You either modify one or both.

This applies to every aspect of the Clubs business, the selection of manager, medical team, fitness gurus, recruitment analysis.... and do you know what? There’s one common denominator in all our failings.

I can’t understand why Steve doesn’t see this. 
 

Without any personnel/process review we will only get things right by luck. We accidentally fall on the right candidate/formula because, with a high turnover, you are bound to get someone right eventually. Just seems to be a rank bad, expensive way of running a business to me. 

 

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8 hours ago, YGBjammy said:

Agreed. I'd like to see Ashton's role changed if he isn't going to be removed completely. Bring in a person who knows their football (maybe an ex-manager, or someone who has worked as a DoF elsewhere) to act as a Director of Football or "head of recruitment" (call it whatever Ashton wants to make him feel better) who can be in charge of WHO we recruit, both manager and players, and let Ashton stick to corporate stuff and contract/transfer fee negotiations etc.

I would agree with this Ashton's role should change to focus on what he appears to be good at, negotiating!  

Problem is the post covid world is likely to be different with lower transfer fees and less of an opportunity to get big money for our players.  Makes him less important and hopefully less powerful.

I know someone who used to work for the club about a year ago who said there were some concerns at the time that MA was getting too powerful and big for his boots, perhaps as a result of his success in the transfer market.  As Chairman I would have expected JL's role is to keep him under control which it doesn't sound like was happening, he was probably happy to let MA get on with it so he could do the bits he liked.

SL isn't stupid, in the same way we have to pay-off Holden the same will apply to Ashton, he is probably on a 1 year notice period and so adding an extra £500k to get rid might not be an option.  Recent interviews and visibility of SL implies to me that he is going to be more involved in the process, it wouldn't surprise me if we appoint a manager who wants more control which would no doubt upset Ashton, he would have to either put up with it (if his ego allows) or resign, perhaps avoiding paying him off.

Perhaps that's wishful thinking but it's what I would do.  Let's wait and see what happens and hope the rigorous process will be shortened this time, it needs to be.

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11 hours ago, markcarter said:

I remain unclear why it was decided that Lee Johnson having failed over 4 years, a poundshop Johnson - Dean Holden - had any chance at all.  He really really never did. It was a 10,000 - 1 shot.  It worries me that there still isn’t recognition that that was a catastrophic decision, because that means they could still repeat it and make another horrific one.

It was a ludicrous decision and most people saw that. I share your concern that history could easily be repeated.

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10 hours ago, Harry said:

 

- He says what a great club we are and the rest of football know it, but perhaps our own fans don’t realise. 

Billionaire finds people say only nice things to him and things he likes to hear about what he does - who knew?

Either Steve is disingenuous or fibbing here, or clueless; if it's the latter, no wonder he "reads" people wrong, like Coppell. I would suggest getting Mrs L involved in the meetngreet part, women being far superior to men at sussing what others are about. Seriously. 

This forum might be a repetitive, gormless pit of resentment and vituperation most of the time but there's enough useful and nuanced feedback on here if you look for it for a bloke too used to people telling him how tremendous he is to his face (as most of us would likely do, were we to meet him in person).

 

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27 minutes ago, Port Red said:

Problem is the post covid world is likely to be different with lower transfer fees and less of an opportunity to get big money for our players.  Makes him less important and hopefully less powerful

The market should level itself out . Those players on pre COVID deals are going to have to accept that the money is no longer there and they either accept a cut in wages or they will find themselves without a club.

This equally means that we won’t have to pay as much for quality players and should be a good prospect for them due to our ownership and stability.

As for being ‘ less important and powerful ‘ the CEO will still be overseeing a multimillion pound ‘ business’ so not too much of a change in importance. 
 

Putting Ashton’s personality aside , his appointment was a big step forward in ‘ professionalising’ our erstwhile gentleman’s club image. 
 

 

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38 minutes ago, Top Robin said:

Bit concerned he said that they are going to take their time with the appointment....normally I'd be fine with that but as it stands we are in downfall and we need some one right now, before it's too late.

Not if we can pick up some points quickly . That will give him time, pressure off to make the right decision. 

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23 minutes ago, TedsHeadIs Red said:

I’m surprised no one on here has picked up on the big hint he dropped into that interview. We’re going to be getting our first female head coach.

How about that to bring publicity to the club?

I picked up on that, he said he or she, who's in charge at Chelsea, Emma something?

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10 hours ago, red panda said:

 

Nothing personal - I could have chosen other quotes.  I think there probably was a plausible case for DH in the summer.  None of us really knows what happened in the interviews, but if DH came in and said - look, we've nearly made the playoffs in the last few seasons, we don't need to change very much, the problem is that LJ overthinks things and confuses the players, I know what he's been doing wrong and I know how to fix it - that could have been a quite a persuasive argument, perhaps giving him over the edge over someone who doesn't know the club, hasn't done enough preparation and seems to want to throw the baby out with the bathwater?

I don't doubt that may have been the scenario. Seems very plausible...

...all the established candidates look around at what has been built - at all the investment of which SL is so proud and they say, 'I've been there and done it and you're doing it wrong...on the basis of my experience you need to do x and y.' SL doesn't want to contemplate that and rejects them, and appoints the last man standing, Dean Holden.

The bit that is ridiculous though is that any process that started with the ambition of appointing a manager to improve on LJ would have dismissed Holden at the outset. That he wasn't leaves me with little confidence this time around, unless SL takes a different approach. No sign in that interview that he is going to. 

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1 hour ago, RedRock said:

This is what I’m perplexed by... continuing to use the same process, using the same personnel and expecting a different outcome.

If you fail, and repeat fail, you review process and personnel. You either modify one or both.

This applies to every aspect of the Clubs business, the selection of manager, medical team, fitness gurus, recruitment analysis.... and do you know what? There’s one common denominator in all our failings.

I can’t understand why Steve doesn’t see this. 
 

Without any personnel/process review we will only get things right by luck. We accidentally fall on the right candidate/formula because, with a high turnover, you are bound to get someone right eventually. Just seems to be a rank bad, expensive way of running a business to me. 

 

Exactly this...maybe Steve doesnt want to see this...........and maybe by law of averages he will get lucky but it has not worked so far and it maybe a while until it does.

Silk purse out of a sows ear comes to mind. If you want a silk purse Steve buy one, simple really.:dunno:

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Good interview. Certainly makes me feel a bit better about things, THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE COMMUNICATE! Some of the questions could of been better worded or a bit more challenging, but obviously it’s an in-house interview & basically was never the point in doing it in the first place.  Gives me a bit more hope moving forward that’s for sure. With the wording he uses, it also makes me feel more confident that we will be at least looking to have a chat with Eddie Howe, who given the way SL wants the club to move forward, would be a good fit in the short & long term imo. We are undoubtedly lucky to have an owner like we have, that’s not to say he hasn’t made mistakes, he accepts that himself, but I wouldn’t swap him with many others. I’ve always seen SL as a ‘common sense’ type of owner, thinking in the best interests of the club/community in general. The only slight you could chuck at him would be his managerial appointments, but let’s face it, that is a bit of a lottery anyway. But you can certainly hedge your bets in that department, so the COMMON SENSE appointment would be someone who has achieved promotion, develops players, has a good persona & has achieved a level of success in the Premier League, is a good age & has room to grow with the club. Go have a chat with Eddie, do the common sense thing Steve. COYR 

 

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4 hours ago, markcarter said:

It’s worse than that, I’m afraid.  Bermuda is not in the Caribbean, it’s in the North Atlantic nearly a thousand miles away.

Small town in Cornwall, you're just a...

59 minutes ago, Top Robin said:

Bit concerned he said that they are going to take their time with the appointment....normally I'd be fine with that but as it stands we are in downfall and we need some one right now, before it's too late.

Surely they did the vigorous work last summer?! Should be easy this time.

43 minutes ago, TedsHeadIs Red said:

I’m surprised no one on here has picked up on the big hint he dropped into that interview. We’re going to be getting our first female head coach.

How about that to bring publicity to the club?

We definitely won't but fair play to SL for recognising that it's an option in the modern day.

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9 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

I seen a rumour on Twitter yesterday that Emma Hayes has applied

She's a very good football manager and if you hear her speak about the game you understand why she's been so successful. 

I loved her response to being linked with the AFC Wimbledon job, telling everyone it's a step down as she's currently working with the cream of the crop of women's players. 

Having said all of that I still would prefer a manager who has achieved promotion to the Premier league as least once to be the new boss. 

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18 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

Not if we can pick up some points quickly . That will give him time, pressure off to make the right decision. 

He should already have a exp replacement lined up, he had almost record breaking time, last effort. Sometimes a snap go with your head decision pays off without endless thought.

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Give DH a rolling year contract (no one would sign a single year contract) to get us through this year. 
The way I heard it with the words destroy, was not so much the taking control of recruitment, but more of the buying young developing and selling high. Using the academy, as some managers don’t agree in this and would rather let someone else develop players. 
Three managers, that we may of been sniffing around but timing wasn’t right in the summer. 

Slavisa Jokanovic  who was not necessary available in the summer who could be now. He’s at a Qatar club probably being paid a fortune and would of cost too much to get out of it at the time. 

Eddie Howe who wanted to take take a year out and would then become available.

Steven Gerrard (very long shot) It was rumoured he was SL’s choice, which would of taken a lot to get him in the summer and I suspect his stock has risen further than a Championship post. 
 


 

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59 minutes ago, Top Robin said:

Has he said to Downing and Simpson that you will be off once we get a new manager in because he probably won't want you.

Or has he told them that if they perform well, they might be in the frame for the manager position.

Be good to know.

Absolutely no chance they'd get it. He wouldn't risk that again, there would be absolute uproar. 

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9 hours ago, Dynamite Red said:

 

Exactly that and confirmed the current recruitment policy and culture will stay the same. Said new man needs to slot in their system and culture, this will not change. 

Screams another yes man. No chance a Cook, Hughton or any credible successful manager will accept having their hand strung like this unless we learn to be more flexible and evolve our structure and Mark Ashton/Steve Lansdown's remit.

 

My interpretation was different.

'Recruitment policy' I take to mean we must continue to sign young improvers who we can sell on for a big profit, as well as the occasional old head; culture is to keep bringing through Academy products. 

I think both are reasonable policies and should not in themselves prove a stumbling block to getting the calibre of manager we all want.

The difference now I think is SL will tweak roles so that a new more experienced manager, such as Cook, who has proved himself very capable at signing young players at other clubs, will be given the largest say in these players, and Ashton keep much more to just sorting out the financial aspects which appears to be a strength of his that SL will not want to part with.

I thought it was an encouraging interview where SL accepts things cannot be the same as before in the recruitment process, or after it.

Hope so anyway!

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Suffolk Red said:

Here are my thought for what it's worth.

Negatives

1. Living on Guernsey as he does SL needs a powerful CEO to run the club day to day. Ashton is capable and works hard but is paid too much and  has too much influence in deciding managers + players to employ. He has got it completely wrong on too many occasions. The appointment of Holden was a complete disaster.

2. We have departed recently from purchasing players with further potential to signing 30 +journeymen on fat wages.

3.We continue to be perceived as a nice club but with a soft underbelly.

4.SL is risk averse, which is probably why he is so wealthy, but we nearly always end up employing a cheaper second rate manager without the experience or ruthelesnes to take on Ashton or make the necessary demands of the players.

5 There is something drastically wrong in our physio/medical department.

6. It's very tough under ffp to compete with clubs with parachute payments. This will only change if we can somehow manage to get into the prem ourselves, even if it's only for one season 

Positives

1. We are now an established Championship club with a superb ground, training facilities and academy that it starting to produce many talented young players. We regularly attract crowds of 20,000. This is a massive leap from from where we were in the 80's with crowds of 8,000 and we were yoyoing between League 1 and The Championship. This ia all down to the investment of SL.

2.SL is still massively passionate about the club. He cares and the new training facilities should push the club closer towards the goal. I Can see city in future years yoyoing between The Premiership and Championship in a similar vein to say Norwich City. If we had only won our one visit to the play off final, I think that's where we would be now.

The limit of our potential would be something like Leicester City. 

3. We just need to make the right appointment. If we can start to make the play offs, on the law of averages we will make the leap to the prem if only for one season and then become one of the parachute payment clubs that can get back up much more easily. There is then reason to hope we can become a Brighton or previously Bournemouth and stay there for a few seasons.

Conclusion.

This next appointment is critical.

The appointment of Eddie Howe would be a master stroke and would give me massive grounds for optimism.

The appointment of Paul Cook would be give me real hope of making the play offs in the next couple of years

The appointment of someone like Ryan Lowe would be similair to Lee Johnson. We might make the play offs if we are lucky.

The appointment of someone like Michael Appleton would convince me Ashton has too much control and would not fill me with confidence.

Over to you Steve and thanks for all you have done, we really appreciate it ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Negatives

2.  I don't see this as a negative.  The 30+ signings are, in my opinion, a temporary change so as to reduce as much as possible our ongoing contractual obligations.  They they are on short term contracts with Only Chris Martin contracted next season.  The only major signing was Joe Williams which wasn't a departure and  who I believe will become an excellent signing and should become captain.

There is scope for maybe 8 signings in the summer.  That is an attractive situation for a new head coach.

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11 minutes ago, glos old boy said:

He should already have a exp replacement lined up, he had almost record breaking time, last effort. Sometimes a snap go with your head decision pays off without endless thought.

Absolutely. Taking time to make sure he gets it right seems to be ignoring the fact that we are dropping like a stone!

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9 hours ago, RED4LIFE said:

See, I saw it the opposite way to that.

SL says, Mark I want you to run the rule over X, Y & Z managers and give me your opinion but they must be willing to fit into the way I have decided the way the club should be ran.

MA then speaks to X, Y & Z and gives Steve his opinion on them and Steve then decides who he wants. LJ was a prime example of this. MA then needs to spin it to make it sound like it was a group decision. 

Basically, I saw that interview as 'I run this club the way I see fit even though, officially, I'm not on the board'.

He owns the majority of shares and pays the bills so he is entitled to do so. Whether he makes the right decisions is another argument altogether

I honestly don't believe SL spends his time finding out what managers are available etc.

Imo...the managers, coaches would be monitored by MA and his team. 

A list of suitable candidates put together by MA.

SL may see from afar how well someone is doing at another club and ask to the chances...but I can't see him being more involved than that, until list of candidates drawn up.

Just how I see it.

It's what he pays MA to do.

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