BS3_RED Posted May 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 This is an absolutely superb post! To the OP, all I would say, and the OP is a personal friend, is that a few years ago, we were arm in arm, on the pitch, singing for Steve Lansdown to appear to the supporters celebrating reaching the Championship play off final with promises of his backing GJ with £30M. It was alright then but now he's the one at fault? Sorry pal, SL has tried to fund the dream which may have covered his losses, now he's the devil incarnate? Sorry mate, your OP post is nothing but utter hipocrasy (sp). The guy has admitted mistakes, said he would never call the debt in and tried (single handedly) to kick this city into life! Without him, we couldn't survive and without him we can't go again. Without him, we are royally screwed TBH. Lots of issues yet not one solution apart from ' he shouldn't have done X and shouldn't have done Y'. On the pitch at the Gate, not so many years ago, you would have had the blokes children!!! Enjoy Wembley tomorrow mate, maybe the County is where you belong as you obviously have a major axe to grind about our relegation or the pursuit of success at BCFC. Tim, i know you are getting old but i had only met you once before the Palace game and never even saw you that night in the ground. So how we could be arm in arm is beyond me. Also, you say Hypocrisy but show me where i have demanded that SL spend anything, i think you will struggle my friend. Finally what my taking my daughter to watch HER home town club at Wembley has to do with my loyalty to City i am unsure, better than her being a plastic Chelsea fan. Oh enjoy the Chelsea game next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS3_RED Posted May 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 How did you support the club today? Were you there? No i was not. I stopped watching a couple of weeks ago after we got relegated with our players showing no passion for the club whatsoever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS3_RED Posted May 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 Mods i agree that this has been done to death. Lets lock this thread and leave it at that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kaiser Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 To quote my old man "Seen it all before, City fans always want a scapegoat. Before you were born your grandad and I sat behind a bloke who yelled his head off at Harry Dolman 'what you gonna do about this Dolman etc?'. This chap had put in about 30 bob into the club and Harry had put in millions. Idiots, they'll never be happy until you ask them what they're doing and you'll hear 'yeah but if I had the money....'" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkeh Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 To quote my old man "Seen it all before, City fans always want a scapegoat. Before you were born your grandad and I sat behind a bloke who yelled his head off at Harry Dolman 'what you gonna do about this Dolman etc?'. This chap had put in about 30 bob into the club and Harry had put in millions. Idiots, they'll never be happy until you ask them what they're doing and you'll hear 'yeah but if I had the money....'" Yea but if I had the money......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS3_RED Posted May 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 Yea but if I had the money......... This time next year we'll be millionaires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonBristolian Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 I don't really understand this thread. Steve Lansdown gave an interview after the Hull game where he took the blame, admitted his mistakes and said he needed to do things a lot better. Why are people asking him to take the blame when he's done so already? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southport Red Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 Thing is ( and, strange as it sounds, I REALLY mean this), despite everything, I still wouldn't swap with Cardiff. Would rather be relegated in red as Bristol City, than be promoted in Blue as Bristol Panthers* *Other pseudonyms are available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS3_RED Posted May 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 I don't really understand this thread. Steve Lansdown gave an interview after the Hull game where he took the blame, admitted his mistakes and said he needed to do things a lot better. Why are people asking him to take the blame when he's done so already? In fairness I have not seen the interview and fair enough if he did. I still think personally that in the future his tenure will not be looked back on with any real positives. Though I do appreciate as shown by the support he has got in this thread there are a lot of fans right now who do look at his time here positively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eco Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 In terms of Championship longevity SL can be considered a successful City chairman. Time to regroup now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonBristolian Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 In fairness I have not seen the interview and fair enough if he did. I still think personally that in the future his tenure will not be looked back on with any real positives. Though I do appreciate as shown by the support he has got in this thread there are a lot of fans right now who do look at his time here positively. I don't know about no positives - obviously he was responsible for Johnson and the Play-off final and three seasons of us competing in the top half of the Championship. Things have gone badly wrong at the moment. Personally I'm not worried about the debt - I'd rather we hadn't built it up but I understand why Lansdown doesn't pay it off and don't really have an issue with that - but there's no question the last three years have been massively depressing and, aside from anything else, I really want us to get a positive mood around the place. Supporting City just seems so permanently depressing at the moment. I'd agree that, if Lansdown went now, we'd have to judge his time in charge as a relative failure. Sure, he got us up for seven seasons but we're back where we started and back overpaying wages on poor players like the end of the Wilson era. But my feeling is that he knows where things have gone wrong and is starting to try to put things right (see the revamp of the youth and coaching set-up and I think the plan with SOD is to appoint a manager so that the club has a clear philosophy). I'm willing to give it a while and see how that goes before making a judgement on SL overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS3_RED Posted May 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 Thing is ( and, strange as it sounds, I REALLY mean this), despite everything, I still wouldn't swap with Cardiff. Would rather be relegated in red as Bristol City, than be promoted in Blue as Bristol Panthers* *Other pseudonyms are available. I agree but I am sure that if someone had said six years ago that 3 average and 1 awesome and two awful years in the Championship would cause a debt of more than 40million and in my opinion the loss of AG, a lot of us would have chocked on our dinner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrs Court Red Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 We havnt lost Ashton Gate. Its still owned by Bristol City holdings. It was separated in a commercial sense to ensure tje club couldnt lose the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southport Red Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 I get your point BS3. But, another way of looking at it is: 1) we got to the Championship. 2) We got awful close to the Premier League 3) for a while we were competitive 4) If SL wants to waste his money, that's up to him 5) We had a go at it, it didn't work, but we had a go 6) it's only REALLY a debt if there is a chance you have to pay it back 7) We still play in Red 8) The City crest is still on our shirts 9) We are still called the Robins 10) our owner lives in the Channel Islands, not the other side of the earth 11) Our owner is a supporter, he did not draw us out of a hat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mangotsfield Red Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 In fairness I have not seen the interview and fair enough if he did. I still think personally that in the future his tenure will not be looked back on with any real positives. Though I do appreciate as shown by the support he has got in this thread there are a lot of fans right now who do look at his time here positively. It may have been an idea for you to have taken the time to watch SL's interview. As already mentioned, he's held his hands up and work is well underway to remodel the club behind the scenes. Hindsight's great and all that, but I'm really not sure what else you want the bloke to do now. Easy to moan and offer no solutions when things go wrong, I guess... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTFiGO!?! Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 We're at, or around, our average historical position. That is 100% SL's fault. Groundhog Day.. I remember 2007 and AG, virtually to a man, chanting ''there's only 1 Steve Lansdown!''..swings and roundabouts an as we're on the negative end of that saying right now, it is indeed our right to put the boot in. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nibor Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 Bottom line is this. Six years a go and before we were a league 1 club with a small debt and owned our own ground. Today we are a league 1 club, over 40 million in debt ( it does not matter if SL says he will never call it in, IT IS STILL DEBT) and we no longer own our own ground and now have to share it and give equal say in it to the rugby club. If anyone can not see this as a complete an utter disaster then they are blind. I am really worried about next season and really feel we could be in for another relegation battle and Steve, IT ALL YOUR FAULT. You took your eye of the ball, by putting all your attention to AV, you allowed managers to bring in players on large transfer fees and high wages that we the had to pay off cos no one else wanted them. You allowed the academy to produce nothing for the last decade, yet spent a fortune running it. You put inexperienced foot ball people in the board room. The worst thing is that apart from SL having us by the balls now with his complete control of the club, the club has lost its identity and is not the club that i started supporting as a boy. For those that say with out SL we would be in the shit....your right but only because SL has allowed this club to ran as bad as it has. Blame is pointless. We still own the stadium and the rugby club will be tenants whose opinion will be listened to not equal. Stop scare mongering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkeh Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 You will find almost all football clubs now a days have their grounds owned by a holdings company it's to protect if a club goes into administration, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo7 Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 The time to criticise the signing of players the club could not afford has long passed - we will not be doing it again for the foreseeable future. I recall posting my concerns on here early in the 2010-11 season that the profligate spending on wages and loans would lead to annual losses nearer £15M than the £7M (reported for the season 2008-09) and that such practice would be unsustainable regardless of SL's wealth. Since then: 2009-10 - lost £12M 2010-11 - lost £11M 2011-12 - lost £14M 2012-13 - I project a loss of around £10M 2013-14 - wage bill to be reduced to around £5M from £17M in just two seasons - and as a product annual losses will fall to £2M-£3M A change of approach at that time (when I was calling for it) may have brought earlier relegation but would have saved SL more than £30M and we would be in better shape today. However few if any posters on here seemed to share my concerns at that time. Truth is few seemed to care about the losses or consequent debt until action was taken to begin to rectify the situation. As ever, nothing concerns supporters except results on the park. When we were (just about) holding our own the finances seemed irrelevant to most BUT now we are failing they provide another ground for hurling abuse! As elsewhere in life borrowing is good it's repaying that hurts! Just to be clear once again - the OP is wrong to say that Bristol City no longer owns Ashton Gate. In simple terms the company restructuring effectively renamed "BCFC 1982 Ltd" as "Bristol City Holdings Ltd" beneath which two wholly owned subsidiaries were created, one to run the football club and another to run the stadium. All those who owned shares in BCFC 1982 Ltd (SL, KD and countless others on a much smaller scale) now own shares in Bristol City Holdings Ltd. Neither SL nor any other company independently owns any part of Ashton Gate. Of course there is nothing to prevent ownership in Ashton Gate being transferred to SL or anyone else in part or full repayment of SL's £50M+ loan but to date (as far as I know) this has not been proposed. I should add that although I am a shareholder - I have not received the letter reported by the Post to have been sent to shareholders regarding his proposals for restructuring the debt. Furthermore I e-mailed the new Company Secretary to inquire why I have not received the letter on 23 April but to date I have received no response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciderup Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 Tim, i know you are getting old but i had only met you once before the Palace game and never even saw you that night in the ground. So how we could be arm in arm is beyond me. Also, you say Hypocrisy but show me where i have demanded that SL spend anything, i think you will struggle my friend. Finally what my taking my daughter to watch HER home town club at Wembley has to do with my loyalty to City i am unsure, better than her being a plastic Chelsea fan. Oh enjoy the Chelsea game next week. I never mentioned kids bud but I wouldn't, the 'County' was actually a 'tongue in cheek' comment. Poor little dig about who MY SON supports and I expected better from you TBH. He can be what ever he wants to be and YES, I will enjoy taking him to the Chelsea game next week. Anyway, back on topic.... We can assume there are posts from you, criticising Lansdown for over spending once we were promoted then? We can surely find posts criticising Lansdown when we spent big (for us) money on Maynard? We must be able to find posts stating Ashton Vale shouldn't happen as it would cost too much? Plenty of posts must be around stating SL shouldn't try to prop the clubs' finances in the Championship? Sorry bud, this is a 'blame' thread' and I just don't see the point! We are in this situation and blaming anyone is pointless, surely we should be looking for solutions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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