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Another Mark Ashton Thread


DaveInSA

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3 hours ago, grifty said:

So you'd be happier if Hunt, Pato, Baker, etc had brand new 3 year big money deals right now? We should be glad that he didn't offer them contracts and that Fam didn't see fit to sign the one he was offered. We need to offload these players which is going to allow Pearson to re-build the squad (hopefully) for the better.

I wouldn't have been happier.

I'm trying to make the point that (if valuations are to be believed) that about 15-20 million of "talent" has left for free, when Arthur "Mark Ashton" Daley could have leveraged his great network to sell them for a fee AND saved the wages as well. 

In theory the wages freed up should be available for new players so it's not really a saving IMO.

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16 minutes ago, Red Skin said:

The fact 11 players are out of contract is definitely dereliction of duty on his part.  At least NP does have the opportunity to rebuild though.

I would also wonder how diligently his recruitment team were working in the interests of BCFC seek replacements too, given his son in law would be off to Ipswich as well.  

The duplicity of the man is astounding.  

I agree.  It's blind luck that most of those 11 we are pretty much in agreement that we wouldn't want to keep on.  The fact is that when these players were signed the recruitment team believed that they were good enough for us, so to negotiate contracts that see so many expire at the same time was a shocking decision at the time of the contract offers.  The pandemic has nothing to do with anything here.  The truth is that this situation was allowed to be kickstarted long before the pandemic.  Like I said, we're just lucky that most of those 11 we wouldn't have been fussed them going.  Imagine if they had all been starters!

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Firstly I'm not a Mark Ashton fan.

However, I wonder if a lot of clubs as the pandemic dragged on, began to realize that this was an opportunity to significantly reduce wage levels? In which case it's possible that clubs talked to each other and not renewing contracts while still valid, was a result of many minds rather than one. Maybe all the owners?

In our case apart from Diedhiou and possibly Paterson, Walsh, is anyone we've released, one that we would have wanted to keep?

 

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4 hours ago, Steve Watts said:

I agree.  It's blind luck that most of those 11 we are pretty much in agreement that we wouldn't want to keep on.  The fact is that when these players were signed the recruitment team believed that they were good enough for us, so to negotiate contracts that see so many expire at the same time was a shocking decision at the time of the contract offers.  The pandemic has nothing to do with anything here.  The truth is that this situation was allowed to be kickstarted long before the pandemic.  Like I said, we're just lucky that most of those 11 we wouldn't have been fussed them going.  Imagine if they had all been starters!

The galling thing for me is a good few of them had value, and we should have at least got something for them - as long as the saved wages too.

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12 hours ago, DaveInSA said:

He let major assets leave (Bryan, Reid, Kelly, Webster) without having any pipeline of talent to replace them

Hey I’m far from an Ashton fan - but didn’t we receive over £50m when we sold those four players? And more young players have come through and signed pro contracts since the departures of the four you named? 

And I’ve never seen him try to claim credit for the Ashton Gate rebuild - I’ll apologise if I’m wrong - but I reckon Mr S Lansdown has rightly taken all the plaudits for delivering our fabulous new facilities?

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7 minutes ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

Hey I’m far from an Ashton fan - but didn’t we receive over £50m when we sold those four players? And more young players have come through and signed pro contracts since the departures of the four you named?

The key here is only one of those was signed during MA’s reign.  Even Tommy Conway pre-dates MA!

And I’ve never seen him try to claim credit for the Ashton Gate rebuild - I’ll apologise if I’m wrong - but I reckon Mr S Lansdown has rightly taken all the plaudits for delivering our fabulous new facilities?

Red rag to a bull ?

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10 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Red rag to a bull ?

Are you talking about the ‘four major assets’ or the youngsters who have signed contracts recently? I was just highlighting how much dosh we got for the ‘four major assets’ and I’d never give Ashton any credit for developing our youngsters - none whatsoever! 

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18 minutes ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

Are you talking about the ‘four major assets’ or the youngsters who have signed contracts recently? I was just highlighting how much dosh we got for the ‘four major assets’ and I’d never give Ashton any credit for developing our youngsters - none whatsoever! 

No, I’m talking about Reid, Bryan and Kelly (not Webster)….and wondering why you’re giving him credit.  Especially in an inflationary market, when you look how much of a busted flush he look in a declining market.

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5 hours ago, Davefevs said:

No, I’m talking about Reid, Bryan and Kelly (not Webster)….and wondering why you’re giving him credit.  Especially in an inflationary market, when you look how much of a busted flush he look in a declining market.

I just think that negotiating selling transfer fees was probably the only thing he was reasonably good at - to get £30m for Bryan, Reid and Kelly was not too shabby, especially as Reid had only had one good season in his career up until that point ...

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On 21/05/2021 at 09:02, Davefevs said:

No, I’m talking about Reid, Bryan and Kelly (not Webster)….and wondering why you’re giving him credit.  Especially in an inflationary market, when you look how much of a busted flush he look in a declining market.

You can't not give him credit for selling players for the value he did because someone else 'could' have done the same. That could be the same for anything. You can't give Atyeo credit for the goal he scored because someone else 'could' have scored the same amount in his place too.

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18 minutes ago, grifty said:

You can't not give him credit for selling players for the value he did because someone else 'could' have done the same. That could be the same for anything. You can't give Atyeo credit for the goal he scored because someone else 'could' have scored the same amount in his place too.

You’re right, but the point I’m making is he didn’t nurture and develop those players.  3 out of the 4 he was selling off the back of others recruitment.  His record as CEO of players he’s brought to the club and subsequently moved on is pretty poor.  He’s basically done a good job selling other regimes’ players.  

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2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

You’re right, but the point I’m making is he didn’t nurture and develop those players.  3 out of the 4 he was selling off the back of others recruitment.  His record as CEO of players he’s brought to the club and subsequently moved on is pretty poor.  He’s basically done a good job selling other regimes’ players.  

As someone who was promoting his actions above all else it becomes pretty obvious he decided that it was time to move on before the muck hit the fan

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11 hours ago, martnewts said:

As someone who was promoting his actions above all else it becomes pretty obvious he decided that it was time to move on before the muck hit the fan

Quite. The antagonist exits stage left.

I still wonder at what point would JL and SL have realised we actually had a problem at the top?  It's frightening to think that MA could have still been here running the show (ok, not exactly running...) had the Ipswich takeover not happened.

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7 minutes ago, Sleepy1968 said:

Quite. The antagonist exits stage left.

I still wonder at what point would JL and SL have realised we actually had a problem at the top?  It's frightening to think that MA could have still been here running the show (ok, not exactly running...) had the Ipswich takeover not happened.

Big question for me is….why has he taken a backward step in terms of division Ipswich are in versus City, if he had what he wanted here.

Not a Director at Ipswich either.

Surely they aren’t paying him as much as here (£500k+)?

Ipswich aren’t a given for promotion, this will be their third down in Lg1.  Still wouldn’t surprise me to see Cook not there by August.

People like MA are always looking for their next “job”, sometimes to get out before being found out.  I’m sure at some point, SL would’ve started questioning MA….I’m not sure he noticed until Pearson came in, and I suspect NP made him aware of the problems at the club.  I think Steve felt that get it right off the pitch and it will come together on it.  It doesn’t go hand-in-hand does it?

I know little about Gould, but hearing him on Sky he doesn’t seem to be a person who needs his ego massaged.  So that’s good imho.

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1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Big question for me is….why has he taken a backward step in terms of division Ipswich are in versus City, if he had what he wanted here.

Not a Director at Ipswich either.

Surely they aren’t paying him as much as here (£500k+)?

Ipswich aren’t a given for promotion, this will be their third down in Lg1.  Still wouldn’t surprise me to see Cook not there by August.

People like MA are always looking for their next “job”, sometimes to get out before being found out.  I’m sure at some point, SL would’ve started questioning MA….I’m not sure he noticed until Pearson came in, and I suspect NP made him aware of the problems at the club.  I think Steve felt that get it right off the pitch and it will come together on it.  It doesn’t go hand-in-hand does it?

I know little about Gould, but hearing him on Sky he doesn’t seem to be a person who needs his ego massaged.  So that’s good imho.

The question is why would SL need telling? The position was clear enough to plenty on here after all.

He told GT that our recruitment had been good for instance, which suggests that, quite apart from what was happening on the pitch, he hadn't noticed that the squad and the wage bill had become bloated. Talk about taking your eye off the ball!

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7 minutes ago, chinapig said:

The question is why would SL need telling? The position was clear enough to plenty on here after all.

He told GT that our recruitment had been good for instance, which suggests that, quite apart from what was happening on the pitch, he hadn't noticed that the squad and the wage bill had become bloated. Talk about taking your eye off the ball!

Because unfortunately SL think he knows football.  He doesn’t. ?

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On 22/05/2021 at 19:24, martnewts said:

As someone who was promoting his actions above all else it becomes pretty obvious he decided that it was time to move on before the muck hit the fan

Well, there are a fair number of assumptions in these posts.

1. Lansdown says one thing in public but in private may have made his mind up some time ago. The convenience of Ipswich made it easy.

2. Ashton surely realised he was not wanted by fans not months ago but years. Perhaps he thought he could ride it out but the total fk up of the Dean appointment debacle and his fate was sealed, likely in the minds of the Lansdown's too.

3. I think most fans wanted him gone before he drove in the door.

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5 hours ago, havanatopia said:

Well, there are a fair number of assumptions in these posts.

1. Lansdown says one thing in public but in private may have made his mind up some time ago. The convenience of Ipswich made it easy.

2. Ashton surely realised he was not wanted by fans not months ago but years. Perhaps he thought he could ride it out but the total fk up of the Dean appointment debacle and his fate was sealed, likely in the minds of the Lansdown's too.

3. I think most fans wanted him gone before he drove in the door.

Re.2.  I remember one of the early Forever Bristol City podcasts saying that MA was taking a helluva risk appointing Holden.  I wasn’t against it at all, but it was a big risk.  I said if it went wrong Jon wasn’t gonna get the blame was he.

What angers me is that the Ipswich thing might’ve come to light early this year, but it must’ve been going on for ages beforehand.  With Mike O’Leary’s involvement in the American Group, Ashton must’ve been at least had his head turned before the papers and Kid got wind of “an existing EFL CEO” was gonna be part of it.  SL couldn’t have had any idea, or he’d have sorted earlier, even if purely sending Jon back from Bermuda.

What has transpired (in hindsight) is Ashton ducking the club over in his final season.  I would imagine he would be very unwelcome in the board room should City host Ipswich at some point.  SL isn’t gonna say anything bad about him, but surely he’s seething.

Shit sticks, the Watford press knew the score, many of us on here thought similar.  But he’s Ipswich’s problem now, but he’s left a shit on the carpet after burgling our house hasn’t he?

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On 20/05/2021 at 09:55, DaveInSA said:

He'll take the credit for:

  • Building Ashton Gate
  • Building the Robins High Performance Centre
  • Bringing in revenue (from both players and business revenue)

But was that ? benefit down to him?

 

This tweet was liked by one person, interestingly that person was Mark Kelly

 

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