50 Transfers

[Lrrr]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

According to MA, clubs were flocking to come to see how Bristol City did stuff….but what bits did they take away???

How not to

[Numero Uno]

10 minutes ago, billywedlock said:

I had the displeasure of being in a room where he was talking to others. It was all “ I signed him , I did this “ . It took everything to not smack the smug idiot . If you are in business you see this type all time . But you can see it a mile off. He is the biggest blagger of blag city. How a billionaire businessman could not read that in a nano second is extraordinary. He was so full of crap . How people expect Nige to sort that pile of poo in a few months is even more extraordinary. Ashton was the worst thing to happen at city in recent years. He makes Pulls seem an angel . But as I say , what the hell was Steve L thinking . Did he have photos with sheep ? 

The crying shame in all this is not only did SL not “see through him” he told the supporters who had seen through him that they had got it all wrong. Truly remarkable. To not acknowledge an error is one thing but to compound it by pretty much saying you were right all along and everyone else is ignorant…….

[petehinton]

It's not just the duty (or lack of) in terms of scouting around the area, been done to death re who we've missed out on over the years, but seems like there's a bit of a god complex with Rovers and City once kids are through the door, or almost through.

Anyone academy or even pre-academy that comes through at Southampton, get free replica kit, shin pads, help with buying boots for different seasons, the lot. Made mascot for the next first team home game(s), family invited down to the same game, treated like royalty. You're part of a huge family. Better, Hassenhutl designs all the training sessions for all academy age groups, has close contact with all the coaches at all academy ages too, so there's a clear identity from top to bottom.

We had smidges of that under LJ, but fundamentally he was shitscared of using academy grads unless it was unavoidable. Even played Lloyd Kelly at LB. With City, have a picture taken in front of the Bryan & Reid portrait, ruffle of the hair, that's about your lot. Congratulations, but look how great we are, aren;t you lucky to be here, in essence. 

[Davefevs]

30 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

The crying shame in all this is not only did SL not “see through him” he told the supporters who had seen through him that they had got it all wrong. Truly remarkable. To not acknowledge an error is one thing but to compound it by pretty much saying you were right all along and everyone else is ignorant…….

Yep.  SL paraphrased “Mark gets a lot of unfair stick from the fans, but he um, um, um, represents my interests at the EFL”.

That was all he could give us!  Embarrassing imho.  I know he’s not gonna slag him off, but he could’ve said, about recruitment, operations, etc.  He didn’t.

And then when he announced he was leaving he said about how instrumental he was in the HPC.

[exAtyeoMax]

58 minutes ago, billywedlock said:

I had the displeasure of being in a room where he was talking to others. It was all “ I signed him , I did this “ . It took everything to not smack the smug idiot . If you are in business you see this type all time . But you can see it a mile off. He is the biggest blagger of blag city. How a billionaire businessman could not read that in a nano second is extraordinary. He was so full of crap . How people expect Nige to sort that pile of poo in a few months is even more extraordinary. Ashton was the worst thing to happen at city in recent years. He makes Pulls seem an angel . But as I say , what the hell was Steve L thinking . Did he have photos with sheep ? 

Yet, the Americans who have taken over Ipswich seem to have been taken in too…I wonder if they will be so forgiving if and when it goes wrong? I don’t expect so

[Davefevs]

2 minutes ago, exAtyeoMax said:

Yet, the Americans who have taken over Ipswich seem to have been taken in too…I wonder if they will be so forgiving if and when it goes wrong? I don’t expect so

Ashton has Mike O’Leary between him and the board.  O’Leary took him under his wing at West Brom and Oxford and into non-football companies like Alicydon Ltd (Property).  They will cover each ither’s arses.

[tin]

39 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Yep.  SL paraphrased “Mark gets a lot of unfair stick from the fans, but he um, um, um, represents my interests at the EFL”.

That was all he could give us!  Embarrassing imho.  I know he’s not gonna slag him off, but he could’ve said, about recruitment, operations, etc.  He didn’t.

And then when he announced he was leaving he said about how instrumental he was in the HPC.

SL has a history of falling for bullshitters who massage his ego, but what amazes me that both Lansdowns were seemingly bewitched by Ashton. I can understand SL falling for it, but JL surely wouldn't have held the same opinion? He should've stood up and shown some leadership and direction. He's meant to be a fan after all. 

On recruitment, we all know it's a shambles and has been since Burt left. I posted on another thread that even smaller clubs like MK Dons have a sporting director in the boardroom who oversees recruitment. How a club that's supposed to have PL aspirations is so rudderless at the top is beyond me. 

[Davefevs]

12 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

I think this will be a Pearson decision. He brought in his own guy in Rennie for the fitness side of things. He says he is impressed with the recruitment set up. Maybe he will look to change things there or keep it the same. But I believe he is being trusted to make decisions on these things. Lansdown is not a football man, nor is Gould. 

EDIT. But actually yeah I guess what you say about relegation may change things because I doubt Pearson would still be here so Lansdown might then look to go with a different set up, back to having a head coach and then maybe a DOF/sporting director or whatever title. It would then probably be about getting the right sporting director in who would then choose the right head coach.

I would rather a football person chooses who our head coach is than Lansdown.

I agree, if in the scenario that we were to get relegated (i don’t think we will) then I think SL will pull the plug, or Nige might even decide to go himself.  SL then has a decision about how to structure the club.  I think he’d rather get the club sold before that happens, so it becomes someone else’s problem.

The structure should be being put into place now.  You could argue with Nige’s recent health that “Sporting Director” should be in place now, understand how he works with Nige, what the gaps / needs are, so that he can execute those changes with Nige, or how he might plan it with someone else.

Classic reactive Bristol City shining through.

[steviestevieneville]

3 hours ago, Numero Uno said:

The crying shame in all this is not only did SL not “see through him” he told the supporters who had seen through him that they had got it all wrong. Truly remarkable. To not acknowledge an error is one thing but to compound it by pretty much saying you were right all along and everyone else is ignorant…….

To make it even worse , he employed him twice 

[steviestevieneville]

2 hours ago, tin said:

SL has a history of falling for bullshitters who massage his ego, but what amazes me that both Lansdowns were seemingly bewitched by Ashton. I can understand SL falling for it, but JL surely wouldn't have held the same opinion? He should've stood up and shown some leadership and direction. He's meant to be a fan after all. 

On recruitment, we all know it's a shambles and has been since Burt left. I posted on another thread that even smaller clubs like MK Dons have a sporting director in the boardroom who oversees recruitment. How a club that's supposed to have PL aspirations is so rudderless at the top is beyond me. 

I’m not so sure Jon didn’t see through him. He was never comfortable when sitting alongside Ashton . Also when it was announced ashton was leaving , he had a pop at his old man saying along the lines of. It always dangerous having one man in control of everything . 

[Lanterne Rouge]

4 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

I’m not so sure Jon didn’t see through him. He was never comfortable when sitting alongside Ashton . Also when it was announced ashton was leaving , he had a pop at his old man saying along the lines of. It always dangerous having one man in control of everything . 

This. It always looked to me as if Jon wasn`t easy with the situation - maybe the reason he seems to have drifted away from the centre of things a bit?

[Alessandro]

For me, the top level structure of the club absolutely needs looking at.

Under MA he was seemingly board member, chief exec, head of operations, DOF, head of recruitment etc etc all rolled into one.

Little seems to have changed, we have a small board of directors (5?) and two of them JL and SL do so remotely and in JL's case, what does he do?

Every other comparable club to us, Brentford, Brighton, Burnley, Norwich etc, that we aspire to be like, have larger boards with a broader ranges of commercial skills in addition to people in important day to day positions such as head of operations, DOF's and head of recruitment etc.

I feel we are at least 3 appointments light in senior managerial positions at the club and it only adds fuel to the fire that SL likes to run a 'dictatorship' and with MA, he very much got hoodwinked, before he took advantage to his own "personal gain" before jumping ship before the realities of his performance set in.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Alessandro

[Davefevs]

29 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

For me, the top level structure of the club absolutely needs looking at.

Under MA he was seemingly board member, chief exec, head of operations, DOF, head of recruitment etc etc all rolled into one.

Little seems to have changed, we have a small board of directors (5?) and two of them JL and SL do so remotely and in JL's case, what does he do?

Every other comparable club to us, Brentford, Brighton, Burnley, Norwich etc, that we aspire to be like, have larger boards with a broader ranges of commercial skills in addition to people in important day to day positions such as head of operations, DOF's and head of recruitment etc.

I feel we are at least 3 appointments light in senior managerial positions at the club and it only adds fuel to the fire that SL likes to run a 'dictatorship' and with MA, he very much got hoodwinked, before he took advantage to his own "personal gain" before jumping ship before the realities of his performance set in.

Great post.  And Nige is trying to cover aspects of some of those roles too….as well as being manager.

[chinapig]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Great post.  And Nige is trying to cover aspects of some of those roles too….as well as being manager.

Which begs the question why? Not only have we not recruited senior football staff to support Nigel there is no indication at all that we plan to do so.

This is, frankly, amateurish. Not that that is anything new for us mind you.

[ScottishRed]

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I agree, if in the scenario that we were to get relegated (i don’t think we will) then I think SL will pull the plug, or Nige might even decide to go himself.  SL then has a decision about how to structure the club.  I think he’d rather get the club sold before that happens, so it becomes someone else’s problem.

The structure should be being put into place now.  You could argue with Nige’s recent health that “Sporting Director” should be in place now, understand how he works with Nige, what the gaps / needs are, so that he can execute those changes with Nige, or how he might plan it with someone else.

Classic reactive Bristol City shining through.

I think that is fair. My feeling is that NP has total control of the football side and, is currently, much more than simply the first team manager. 

I suspect that Nigel will look to appoint a DoF in due course, which may be himself once he has other fundamentals in place.

[Olé]

5 hours ago, Davefevs said:

but he um, um, um, represents my interests at the EFL

Hell of a multi-tasker is our Mark. Represents Steve Lansdown's interests at the EFL. His own interests in our recruitment  dealings. And Gamechanger/Ipswich Town interests during our US tour. If there was any time left in his busy schedule he occasionally did bits and pieces for City too, like deleting all references to Beard Construction from project updates about development of the High Performance Centre, before forwarding them on to Steve each week as his own work.

[ScottishRed]

2 hours ago, Alessandro said:

For me, the top level structure of the club absolutely needs looking at.

Under MA he was seemingly board member, chief exec, head of operations, DOF, head of recruitment etc etc all rolled into one.

Little seems to have changed, we have a small board of directors (5?) and two of them JL and SL do so remotely and in JL's case, what does he do?

Every other comparable club to us, Brentford, Brighton, Burnley, Norwich etc, that we aspire to be like, have larger boards with a broader ranges of commercial skills in addition to people in important day to day positions such as head of operations, DOF's and head of recruitment etc.

I feel we are at least 3 appointments light in senior managerial positions at the club and it only adds fuel to the fire that SL likes to run a 'dictatorship' and with MA, he very much got hoodwinked, before he took advantage to his own "personal gain" before jumping ship before the realities of his performance set in.

Could not agree more. My hope, and it could be in vain, is that SL has said to Nigel, you are totally in charge of the football side of the ‘business’ you have 3 years and X budget get us promoted.

Because ultimately, I believe SL would love to be the owner of an EPL club - even if it is only for 1 season - but, remember his background, there is no way that he is going to break rules to get there and nor should he.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, chinapig said:

Which begs the question why? Not only have we not recruited senior football staff to support Nigel there is no indication at all that we plan to do so.

This is, frankly, amateurish. Not that that is anything new for us mind you.

We can only hope the right person / people weren’t available immediately / at the mo’.

Hope that will be rectified asap. 

1 hour ago, ScottishRed said:

I think that is fair. My feeling is that NP has total control of the football side and, is currently, much more than simply the first team manager. 

I suspect that Nigel will look to appoint a DoF in due course, which may be himself once he has other fundamentals in place.

Yep. Maybe hoped to get either Walsh or McKenzie but has had to play a waiting game.

57 minutes ago, Olé said:

Hell of a multi-tasker is our Mark. Represents Steve Lansdown's interests at the EFL. His own interests in our recruitment  dealings. And Gamechanger/Ipswich Town interests during our US tour. If there was any time left in his busy schedule he occasionally did bits and pieces for City too, like deleting all references to Beard Construction from project updates about development of the High Performance Centre, before forwarding them on to Steve each week as his own work.

What is this?  

[bcfcredandwhite]

A lot has been made of the money spent/wasted by Ashton and LJ but look at the wage earners:

https://salarysport.com/football/sky-bet-championship/bristol-city/

Palmer is overpaid - which we all know (Ashton got him in against LJs wishes apparently) No - the big surprise is who is at number 5. 
Poor old Nige inherited when money was tight - that makes number 5 even more ‘interesting’ - particularly considering his age compared to the others  

 

Edited December 1, 2021 by bcfcredandwhite
Add words

[View from the Dolman]

1 minute ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

A lot has been made of the money spent/wasted by Ashton and LJ but look at the wage earners:

https://salarysport.com/football/sky-bet-championship/bristol-city/

Palmer is overpaid - which we all know (Ashton got him in against LJs wishes apparently) No - the big surprise is who is at number 5. 
Poor old Nige inherited when money was tight - that makes number 5 even more ‘interesting’. 

 

I wouldn't give those numbers any credibility - the total wagebill figure of £11.9m is so far from the published accounts that it's blatantly clear they don't have a clue. 

[bcfcredandwhite]

3 minutes ago, View from the Dolman said:

I wouldn't give those numbers any credibility - the total wagebill figure of £11.9m is so far from the published accounts that it's blatantly clear they don't have a clue. 

Fair enough. 
what are the real figures then?

[View from the Dolman]

5 minutes ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

Fair enough. 
what are the real figures then?

The last set of published accounts for Bristol City Football Club Ltd (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03230871/filing-history/MzI4OTg3NDY1NWFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0) put the wage bill at £24m before social security and pension costs. 

[Davefevs]

18 minutes ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

Fair enough. 
what are the real figures then?

I reckon quite a few of the senior players are in the right ball-park.

Here’s my stab:

tick - in the right ball-park

L - I reckon they’re on less

H - I reckon they’re on higher.

Weimann’s is probably last season’s before he renegotiated it.

But pure guesswork by me.

10 minutes ago, View from the Dolman said:

The last set of published accounts for Bristol City Football Club Ltd (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03230871/filing-history/MzI4OTg3NDY1NWFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0) put the wage bill at £24m before social security and pension costs. 

That’s not just players though, that includes all football staff.  Included MA’s half a million!

FWIW I reckon Nige cut last seasons wage bill by between £5-6m this season.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Davefevs

[bcfcredandwhite]

54 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I reckon quite a few of the senior players are in the right ball-park.

Here’s my stab:

tick - in the right ball-park

L - I reckon they’re on less

H - I reckon they’re on higher.

Weimann’s is probably last season’s before he renegotiated it.

But pure guesswork by me.

That’s not just players though, that includes all football staff.  Included MA’s half a million!

FWIW I reckon Nige cut last seasons wage bill by between £5-6m this season.

Possibly - by letting Fammy and Paterson leave without replacing them!

[Davefevs]

21 minutes ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

Possibly - by letting Fammy and Paterson leave without replacing them!

And there’s the reality of the current situation.  Expect more cost cutting overall.

[bcfcredandwhite]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

And there’s the reality of the current situation.  Expect more cost cutting overall.

But signing Simpson - why? 
 

[Davefevs]

6 minutes ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

But signing Simpson - why? 
 

Because he thought he could do a job on and off the pitch, likely low wage, and would buy him some time to look at a longer term replacement or see Vyner become his go-to RB.  That would be my thoughts on why he did what he did.  Whether it was right or wrong is down to our opinions.  I saw the logic at the time.  In the 2 league games he started I thought he did perfectly fine.  As it currently stands it looks like the wrong decision.

I liked the look of Matthew Olosunde on a free.  He went to Preston, who recruit well in general.  Yet to play a game, damaged his Achilles in pre-season.  Shit happens.

 

[Major Isewater]

On 29/11/2021 at 21:56, Numero Uno said:

I think the point is that the structure we have (or certainly did have under our last Fraud of a CEO) doesn't help us. Scouting players is about doing the hard yards and sending people to hundreds of games every season, it's not done on spreadsheets. If you aren't out there watching these players you can bet your bottom dollar your rivals will be. I'm sure many scouts will tell you they probably have to watch those hundreds of games to find that one player who they look at and think "with the right coaching there's a player in there". Sometimes you might be unsure and have to watch a player three or four times before deciding either way. On occasion by being out and about and developing contacts you get players recommended to you perhaps by scouts at top clubs who have looked at a player and think "he's just a little bit short of what we need but the kid can certainly play". You don't get random telephone calls with that information, you need people on the scouting circuit networking. That's the nature of the job and always has been yet the previous CEO of the mighty Bristol City FC seemingly thought they could bin all that and recruit from behind a laptop..........

 

If a player has a choice of clubs is he going to be more impressed by those who actively scouted him over several games or the one who number crunched and decided that his were the best stats? 
 

[The Bard]

11 hours ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

A lot has been made of the money spent/wasted by Ashton and LJ but look at the wage earners:

https://salarysport.com/football/sky-bet-championship/bristol-city/

Palmer is overpaid - which we all know (Ashton got him in against LJs wishes apparently) No - the big surprise is who is at number 5. 
Poor old Nige inherited when money was tight - that makes number 5 even more ‘interesting’ - particularly considering his age compared to the others  

 

Number 5 doesn't ring true. 

[Northern Red]

8 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Because he thought he could do a job on and off the pitch, likely low wage, and would buy him some time to look at a longer term replacement or see Vyner become his go-to RB.  That would be my thoughts on why he did what he did.  Whether it was right or wrong is down to our opinions.  I saw the logic at the time.  In the 2 league games he started I thought he did perfectly fine.  As it currently stands it looks like the wrong decision.

I liked the look of Matthew Olosunde on a free.  He went to Preston, who recruit well in general.  Yet to play a game, damaged his Achilles in pre-season.  Shit happens.

 

See Joe Williams as an example. Last summer there will have been fans of other Championship clubs thinking that's a cracking signing and that they would have liked him at their club, yet injuries mean we've barely seen him.