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Richard Gould


Gillies Downs Leeds

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11 minutes ago, whoklldredrobin said:

I'd argue this was the most telling quote of them all. 

From BBC Sport:

Gould refused to be drawn on changes that might be made to the squad during the January transfer window, but praised the level of investment the team receives from majority shareholder Steve Lansdown.

"The investment that goes in already is genuinely exceptional. Our salary bills are probably twice the level that what we would otherwise be able to afford if we were relying on media revenues and gate income," Gould said. 

"The amount of investment is not in question, the issue is we need to get as much of that on the pitch as possible at any one time. We need to make every pound count. 

"There are clubs above us in this league currently with much smaller wage bills and they are simply managing to get more of their paying talent on the pitch performing and that's something that we now need to make sure we're doing."

This is exactly what I’ve been bleating on about for 3-4 years.  That’s not a definition in line with “well-run” is it?

And that’s after Nige has cuts costs significantly.

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1 hour ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

If he has then SAY he has. As I say, we don't need to be privy to everything, but we - the paying punters - have been with the club far longer than he has. Our families have often been for many decades upon decades. It's OUR club, not Lansdown's or the club executives. They are its temporary custodians.  We ask them to just give us a clue that you have some ideas on what to do, rather than just hope NP gets well very soon and is back to 100% health. 

I'd say that you are the naïve one in thinking that this club - the club that took weeks to decide to appoint Dean Holden - has done any planning at all before this point. I'll remind you, this situation has been going on for months. The decline in the team's effectiveness has been going on for months as well.

If they have plans, Gould should have said they have, because this thread and many others are testimony to the fact that all his interviews have done are sow confusion about the future, create doubt, anger fans and look like things are simply drifting out of control at Ashton Gate. 

Its OUR club (nice bit of sabre rattling) so we should be kept informed of ever decision and thought process going- you have got to naive in the extreme that any club, business or anything else does its planning in open forum or says any more than it needs to. Lucky you have nothing to do with running the club

Perhaps if GT had asked "are you making plans if NP is unable to return", he would have said yes of course we have to consider ever eventuality and you would of been happy, although sure would have found something else to be negative about

Instead you try to make out that RG is some sort of village idiot that has not thought I might need to consider what will happy if NP does not recover. There was me mistaken in that he was an experienced CEO, so I had to check and just to confirm teh sort of person SL has now employed:-

SMC, Strategic and Military Leadership 1989–1990 at Sandhurt, JDSC, Military and Strategic Leadership 1996 Cranfireld, AMP, Business/Commerce, General 2006 Harvard, served as a tank commander as well as being a very successful CEO at Somerset & Surrey cricket

Does this sound like someone who had not thought about what if? ohh best wait and panic at the last minute

 

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1 minute ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

Instead you try to make out that RG is some sort of village idiot that has not thought I might need to consider what will happy if NP does not recover. There was me mistaken in that he was an experienced CEO, so I had to check and just to confirm teh sort of person SL has now employed:-

My view is - he could have answered the questions better.  It left listeners really wondering what was going on due to authoritative answers from the club side but vague answers about Nige.  I’m not doubting his skills as a CEO, just thought he was a bit poor with a few answers.  I won’t judge his CEO credentials on some of the football questions he was asked….think he was trying to answer as best he could, and were really questions for a football person.

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Just now, Davefevs said:

My view is - he could have answered the questions better.  It left listeners really wondering what was going on due to authoritative answers from the club side but vague answers about Nige.  I’m not doubting his skills as a CEO, just thought he was a bit poor with a few answers.  I won’t judge his CEO credentials on some of the football questions he was asked….think he was trying to answer as best he could, and were really questions for a football person.

Don't disagree that some of the answers could be better, although I think so much is up in the air at the moment and anything you say is taken down and held against you at a later stage. My point was in response to a post criticising that we had no planning, which I find laughable.

Not sure RG was prepared or the right person to ask some of the football questions, think it was a hastily arranged exercise to try and put some of the rumours that NP has left to bed and reach out to supporters with a bit of information, in a time when its difficult to actually say that much

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16 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

Don't disagree that some of the answers could be better, although I think so much is up in the air at the moment and anything you say is taken down and held against you at a later stage. My point was in response to a post criticising that we had no planning, which I find laughable.

Not sure RG was prepared or the right person to ask some of the football questions, think it was a hastily arranged exercise to try and put some of the rumours that NP has left to bed and reach out to supporters with a bit of information, in a time when its difficult to actually say that much

Unfortunately City have form when it comes to failing to plan ahead, or indeed - to use your earlier suggestion - coming up with plans that look as though they've been calculated on the back of fag packet. Dean Holden being a case in point. It's what got the club into this mess.

 

Edited by Red Exile
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10 minutes ago, Red Exile said:

Unfortunately City have form when it comes to failing to plan ahead, or indeed - to use your earlier suggestion - coming upon with plans that look as though they've been calculated on the back of fag packet. Dean Holden being a case in point. It's what got the club into this mess.

 

Don't disagree it can look that way, although I have always been of the opinion their was a lot more to that, will also add that the current CEO we are talking about was not here at that time.

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22 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

Its OUR club (nice bit of sabre rattling) so we should be kept informed of ever decision and thought process going- you have got to naive in the extreme that any club, business or anything else does its planning in open forum or says any more than it needs to. Lucky you have nothing to do with running the club

Perhaps if GT had asked "are you making plans if NP is unable to return", he would have said yes of course we have to consider ever eventuality and you would of been happy, although sure would have found something else to be negative about

Instead you try to make out that RG is some sort of village idiot that has not thought I might need to consider what will happy if NP does not recover. There was me mistaken in that he was an experienced CEO, so I had to check and just to confirm teh sort of person SL has now employed:-

SMC, Strategic and Military Leadership 1989–1990 at Sandhurt, JDSC, Military and Strategic Leadership 1996 Cranfireld, AMP, Business/Commerce, General 2006 Harvard, served as a tank commander as well as being a very successful CEO at Somerset & Surrey cricket

Does this sound like someone who had not thought about what if? ohh best wait and panic at the last minute

 

 

It isn't just "if Nigel doesn't return", it's now.

Long Covid is just that. Long. It can take months to get back to full fitness. I really pray that NP isn't one of those poor souls that seem never to regain fitness. 

You might think the combination of Curtis Fleming and Alex Ball is an acceptable interim replacement, but I - and many others - do not. Moreover the results are tending to suggest not.

I'd hope that Gould recognises this and is looking at all possible options - from extra coaching help to temporary managers to sounding out possible permanent replacements.

As you say, this is what a competent CEO would do. However since when has Bristol City been run competently? We seem to stagger from one illogical decision to the next and as for long-term planning, we don't take decisions, decisions overtake us.

So, if you wonder why so many people are doubting that anything sensible is being done, it's partly that history of incompetence and partly that nothing appears to have been done to prepare BCFC for where we are now. Despite months of warning bells sounding. Nigel hasn't just developed Long Covid last weekend. It's been ongoing - as has the team's underperformance.

IF the club are and have been making all kinds of preparations then Richard Gould is only guilty of giving an unclear, hesitant and obfuscating interview.

And that's a different sort of incompetence. 

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6 hours ago, Sarumred said:

Had the club/RG not requested the interview there would have been widespread criticism of the club not communicating with their fan base, given our recent run of bad form and NP's health situation. We now have a situation that RG is being criticised, by some, for giving the said interview. Hence my original comment.

I would disagree. 

There was no reason to go on the phone in on Monday night, there was nothing new happening and nothing to tell us

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5 hours ago, billywedlock said:

The point that has not been picked up much , regarding performance linked to budget was that he said we need to get players on the field that consume the budget . Words to that effect . Meaning the budget is ok but not if you have players like Palmer on x amount and contributing little . 

Agreed. However...making every pound count sounds like a fantastic business philosophy, but football is a strange business. Recruitment in football (the expensive bit) is very high risk due to injury (see Williams) and a variety of influences on form.

Can we get our money worth out of Wells and Palmer? Doubtful. For starters how do you create a system that not only accommodates them both, but also works to their individual strengths?

Could we compensate for the waste spent on those two by getting unexpected value out of young players like Scott and Bell? Hopefully, and perhaps that's what RG was on about; getting equivalent value on the pitch from the squad as a whole to the money spent overall.

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It sounds like he’s either gone or been given the International break to rest & think about what he wants to do. 
Gut feeling is he’s off & a shortlist is probably being prepared to make a swift replacement as the messages seem very much like relegation is not an option.

It’s never dull here is it. 

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16 minutes ago, mozo said:

Can we get our money worth out of Wells and Palmer? Doubtful. For starters how do you create a system that not only accommodates them both, but also works to their individual strengths?

Huddersfield 16/17???

Actually the current output of Martin / Weimann is superior, believe it or not.

Edited by Davefevs
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11 minutes ago, Nugget said:

It’s never dull here is it. 

It's yet another instalment in our club's grand tradition of finding a way to self-combust!

3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Huddersfield 16/17???

Ha - yeah, what a great squad Hudds had back then, mind

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6 hours ago, Red Exile said:

Unfortunately City have form when it comes to failing to plan ahead, or indeed - to use your earlier suggestion - coming up with plans that look as though they've been calculated on the back of fag packet. Dean Holden being a case in point. It's what got the club into this mess.

 

… as a QC once said to one of my colleagues … this strategy looks like it’s been drawn up on the back of a fag packet, the pity is, it didn’t even reach that stage. 
 

It seems to me that our CEO was originally going to announce something on a decision that was reversed/postponed late on or was straight-jacketed on what he could say either by Steve and/or legal concerns. Very guarded responses that provided little clarity on what’s happening behind the scenes.

I suspect Richard’s objective with the interview to be ‘seen’ to be communicating with the fans and deal with the immediate rumours of Nige having already left. In that sense, it ticked a couple of boxes.
 

 

Edited by RedRock
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Unless I've missed it, there seems to be very little chat about the comments from Gould that we're in the market for players in January due to our current emergency. 

I wonder how we make those deals? Seems like a bad market to be in, particularly when you're in a panic.

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10 hours ago, Red Exile said:

Unfortunately City have form when it comes to failing to plan ahead, or indeed - to use your earlier suggestion - coming up with plans that look as though they've been calculated on the back of fag packet. Dean Holden being a case in point. It's what got the club into this mess.

 

We're only making plans for Nigel
We only want what's best for him
We're only making plans for Nigel
Nigel just needs that helping hand
 
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23 hours ago, SecretSam said:

Amusing to read the responses here, and the speculation about the manager's health - see my separate thread, in which my question about Pearson's long-term health results in getting slaughtered.

What's Gould supposed to say? By law, you can't get rid of someone who's legitimately ill without their consent. And there's a lot of uncertainty and unknowns about long COVID (if that's what it is*). So he's hardly going to announce on air that we're binning an employee. 

 

*Source: I've got it

You can actually. You need a clear sickness policy around capability due to health and usually need medical advice around how long the person is going to be off and the likelihood of resuming full duties.

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9 hours ago, phantom said:

I would disagree. 

There was no reason to go on the phone in on Monday night, there was nothing new happening and nothing to tell us

Absolutely agree.  I think we can all now see what is happening - Pearson is ill and the club don’t know if he’s coming back but the ball is in his court because there are rules about severance and ill health - but why go on Twentyman if you’re not in a position to say what contingency plans you are making?  Because surely, as others have said, the club is making contingency plans,

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6 hours ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Another factor regarding the Gould interview is what the players will make of his answers. They aren’t stupid, some will have listened and/or seen summaries. Some probably read this forum.

The uncertainty won’t help them either 

 

I'm pretty sure the uncertainty is a factor in why they've been performing so badly for a while.

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