FBC Live Podcast @ 4.00 PM - can we draw any positives from that gutless display at snowy Bramhall Lane?

[daored]

8 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Agree with much of that.  I think what is evident is how key certain players are.  Two genuine “old skool” leaders - James and Williams - in my book.  Baker a leader of physicality (to his own detriment), Kalas a leader by example.  Bents is a shouter….I don’t care if he has the arm band or not, when Williams and James are missing we look different.  That’s not to say we always play well with them, but we aren’t the same without them.  Midfield is key.

I saw structure early in the season.  I saw method.

I saw grit and determination last week, a bit of structure, but mainly off the cuff as we learned the new system on the job.

I genuinely feel we had to go back to go forward, and we are still in that “gone back” stage.  Hence why the constant “we haven’t progressed under Nige since he came”, gets on my nerves.  We were always gonna go backwards to a large extent.  We lost loads of players in the summer.  They left for £0, no fee to reinvest.  Even one player under contract (Nagy) left for free.  Did people genuinely think it was gonna be seamless transition?  Just because he was here last season doesn’t mean the summer upheaval would be easy.  This is a big change…in part because of the dire financial situation.  If we were sat there with a sustainable balance sheet, with a transfer market with value in it, you could trade your way out if it.  But we aren’t.  We can’t even sell players to cover the losses, let alone replace them like for like.  It’s painful, it’s gonna be slow progress, and yes, it feels like no progress at all at the mo’.

But if you want to rip it up and start again, the new manager isn’t starting from scratch, he’s starting with his hands tied too.  Probably trying to come to terms with the wages and contracts dished out to players in boom-time that no relevance today, and you can’t move them on.

I’m far from happy, because I want us to be doing better, but where we are is where we are!

Perhaps I just see a different problem?

Pearson has been very open about timescales and what has to be done - he isn’t sugar coating anything. I think the post by @Harryis really interesting about recruitment and is certainly something the club needs to be looking at.

I think when contributors go into a podcast whether it’s FBC, OSIB or 3Peaps they have to be realistic about our position. Financially we’re in a corner and likely to have such limited options. I appreciate the players leaving out of contract has reduced our wage bill but to let 13 players walk out the door for nothing considering what we spent on them was criminal. I really think the club haven’t had to answer that , and ultimately you have to say Lansdown would have approved that approach?

[Davefevs]

3 hours ago, daored said:

Pearson has been very open about timescales and what has to be done - he isn’t sugar coating anything. I think the post by @Harryis really interesting about recruitment and is certainly something the club needs to be looking at.

agree, he isn’t.  There’s not a lot else he can say is there.  People expect him to go into tactical detail post-match.  That’s just not his style, although we have started to hear a few titbits in recent interviews…I think that’s as much as we’ll get though.

I think when contributors go into a podcast whether it’s FBC, OSIB or 3Peaps they have to be realistic about our position. Financially we’re in a corner and likely to have such limited options.

in a perverse way I’m hoping that when the accounts come out they are so bad that it gives people a wake up call.

I appreciate the players leaving out of contract has reduced our wage bill but to let 13 players walk out the door for nothing considering what we spent on them was criminal.

dereliction of duty, and not just MA.  Don’t forget MA was quoted as saying that SL said we’d get our value on the pitch with Fam.  Summed it up for me.  Fam was never signing a new deal, not in May, nor January, nor any time in the 2 years before his contract expired.  £5.3m to £0. Wow.  I guess MA didn’t care, he had his next job lined up, and it appears he was placed on gardening leave, and wheeled out like a deceased Brezhnev to wave at the crowds. SL got conned.  I bet he’s fuming, but it shows that football-wise he’s not got a clue.  He’s a bloody accountant too…how did he fall for it.  Surely, he just keeps going back to the numbers and realising they didn’t match the bullsh1t?  I can’t get my head around that.  Think there is a bit of protection for Jon, in that he was supposed to be his man on the ground.

I really think the club haven’t had to answer that , and ultimately you have to say Lansdown would have approved that approach?

Absolutely he did.

[ray savino]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

SL got conned.  I bet he’s fuming, but it shows that football-wise he’s not got a clue.  He’s a bloody accountant too…how did he fall for it.  Surely, he just keeps going back to the numbers and realising they didn’t match the bullsh1t?  I can’t get my head around that.  Think there is a bit of protection for Jon, in that he was supposed to be his man on the ground.

Again, I’ve no inside knowledge and most of my views based purely on speculation and my own reading of the situation. But I would say you’ve got this spot on @Davefevs.

Most of us do not like feeling we’ve been conned let alone publicly admitting it. I have found that this often seems the case with people in charge, are incredibly successful, etc. SL is human and yes is probably livid. His son is on the board as his eyes and ears, so he’s probably even more frustrated that the football operation turned into a ****ing shitshow. But as I posted yesterday, our Board of Directors on the football side needs expanding with intelligent, visionary, knowledgeable people who know the football industry. Also more representation on the Board would hopefully allow for different ideas and maybe have a voice to challenge decisions that have allowed the likes of Mark Ashton run amok within his role. I don’t advocate large Board membership for the sake of it, particularly if we had personnel who demonstrably made a plan which made the footballing side better. But we haven’t. SL has been fantastic at developing the physical infrastucture, buildings, facilities, etc. of the club - all with help and advice of people who know that side of the business. On the football side, much less so. Apart from the academy investment which is starting to show real signs of bearing fruit. Until we get Board members with the imagination and intelligence to build the football side I fear we will tred water as we have done during most of SL’s tenure.

I actually feel SL is a decent owner and genuinely wants the club to succeed. But he needs to find a Board member with that football world know-how that he trusts to build and implement a realistic, but dynamic plan to get the club move in the right direction. He may have thought he had this with MA, and unless he is in denial about the outcomes of MA’s reign as CEO, he is understandably unsure about relinquishing power to someone again. 

This is why part of me hopes he can find the right investors to share some of the ownwership of the club, and most importantly have the vision and knowledge to give us a plan that can be followed throughout the club. 

At the end of the day, Football is the product of BCFC. We can artificially build it’s brand with smart logos, fashionwear, hospitaility packages and social media campaigns. These all help in todays world however much we may criticise them at times. But they will only truly work if we get our primary product right, because after all that’s what we really all go for and share with eachother as customers...sorry I mean fans!