Steve Lansdown

[Esmond Million's Bung]

7 minutes ago, DT The Optimist said:

I agree. Perhaps I am older than a few  key board warriors here, and watched us nose dive from the old first division and stood in the cold with a 3000 gate, in the old enclosure, when we lost to Torquay to go bottom of the old Div 4 on a crap wet night.  Now that is, and was a problem.

yes, this season has been a massive let down, because expectation was high, and higher than it should have been.  The signings indicated a good season, and the wheels fell off, and we're never put them back on.  Relegation is now most likely a distinct possibility as it will take a remarkable change of form to win a few games, which we have not looked like doing in the last 22 games. 

If the worse comes to the worst LJ will be gone and here we go again. With what we have now have facility wise , our stay would be short in League 1. 

Yes, SL might have made the wrong call re retaining LJ who presided over worse run in history of BCFC , but make no mistake, we are so much the better for this guy. Cast your mind back to the 'reform group' of directors when the old Atyeo was opened  

 

And I can probably go back as far if not farther than you and I was there that night as well and the difference all 11 of TC's boys fought their bollox off for the club and the fans knew and respected that, this bunch under this useless manager wouldn't understand that and wouldn't care anyway.

Some of the keyboard warriors you so describe were probably at Newcastle and Vllla and most home games and were shat on by SL's recent comments.

And you really believe that life in league 1 will be that easy? My god you must have selective memory my friend.

[Keepers Ball]

Before anyone gets excited at the money,stadium etc just remember its not a gift. We pay for the "privelage" remember.

[Atticus]

2 hours ago, Maltshoveller said:

Its the same when they think they could manage and coach the team better than who ever is in charge!!!!!

The problem is that's exactly what SL is doing, and failing clearly.

[RaspberryRed]

2 hours ago, j1974 said:

We are very very lucky to have Steve Lansdown as our chairman , most of us would of agreed with a large percentage of  the managers he has appointed oddly enough except for Cotterill ( our most successful recent manager) so in  some ways it was hard to knock him when he brought Johnson in.

Of coarse Lansdown has made mistakes but haven't we all? 

When you look at the mess other clubs have recently been in through their owners Blackburn,Blackpool, Leeds , Forest and Cardiff to name a few I think we are very lucky.

Just for the record and apologies for repeating myself but SL did not appoint Steve Cotterill

[Sniper]

2 hours ago, j1974 said:

We are very very lucky to have Steve Lansdown as our chairman , most of us would of agreed with a large percentage of  the managers he has appointed oddly enough except for Cotterill ( our most successful recent manager) so in  some ways it was hard to knock him when he brought Johnson in.

Of coarse Lansdown has made mistakes but haven't we all? 

When you look at the mess other clubs have recently been in through their owners Blackburn,Blackpool, Leeds , Forest and Cardiff to name a few I think we are very lucky.

SL is not the Chairman anymore but the owner. It doesn't surprise me though that this gets missed a lot of the time as our actual Chairman is some bloke called Keith Dawe whose pretty well invisible!

Here is a picture of him................

[Marina's Rolls Royce]

1 hour ago, reformed_red said:

He took over as Chairman in 2002, since which we have spent 7 years in L1, and 7 in Championship, this season being the 8th I believe. So, relegation this year would see us having spent 50%of our time in both leagues during his tenure. Hardly progress. 

No doubt he has put money into the club, and the club (including every single fan) should be eternally grateful for what he has done - OFF the pitch. However, apart from the stadium re-build, we aren't actually any better off than when he took over in footballing terms.

The most frustrating part of this current episode is that we have spent A LOT of money on the playing squad compared to other clubs at the bottom of this league, and it's gone horribly wrong. 

In a 14 year period, I think it is more than fair to allow the fanbase to expect us to have become established in the top half of the Championship. 

 

What a fabulous post to shoot yourself in the foot with.

 

Now let us look at the 14 year period before SL took charge. 4 relegations and a bankruptcy and survival based on players tearing up contracts. 

It's all about perspective. Why not have a quick cry with the Coventry fans and Portsmouth fans and (imo) even worse- the Leyton Orient fans. 

It's shit and it will get better. How tragic that a gas head has to come on our forum to remind us that.

 

[Gert Mare]

2 hours ago, Bob Thompson said:

The audacity of people who have had no experience in the professional world of football telling SL how to run a football club from the stands is unbelievable.

I know what you mean. We haven't exactly been in freefall have we?

[Gert Mare]

2 hours ago, Maltshoveller said:

Fact is 99.9% of posters on here would not have a clue

how to coach the team

 

Fact 99.9% couldn't do much worse than Lee Johnson.

[Ska Junkie]

2 hours ago, Maltshoveller said:

Fact is 99.9% of posters on here would not have a clue

how to coach the team

 

Johnson would be in good company then as he's most certainly not in the 0.1%. 

[Gert Mare]

1 hour ago, Bob Thompson said:

Try talking to non football  people they are laughing their heads off at the way city fans are behaving at the moment.

Which is why they are non football people i.e they are as clueless as Lee Johnson

[tinman85]

2 hours ago, kevster3 said:

As long as we have SL running the club,we will never achieve any progress.

Agreed. I feel the stadium is his legacy. Time for new direction. 

[The goal is that way]

9 hours ago, j1974 said:

We are very very lucky to have Steve Lansdown as our chairman , most of us would of agreed with a large percentage of  the managers he has appointed oddly enough except for Cotterill ( our most successful recent manager) so in  some ways it was hard to knock him when he brought Johnson in.

Of coarse Lansdown has made mistakes but haven't we all? 

When you look at the mess other clubs have recently been in through their owners Blackburn,Blackpool, Leeds , Forest and Cardiff to name a few I think we are very lucky.

All these clubs have had premier league football and most are above us in the league now 

[reformed_red]

7 hours ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

What a fabulous post to shoot yourself in the foot with.

 

Now let us look at the 14 year period before SL took charge. 4 relegations and a bankruptcy and survival based on players tearing up contracts. 

It's all about perspective. Why not have a quick cry with the Coventry fans and Portsmouth fans and (imo) even worse- the Leyton Orient fans. 

It's shit and it will get better. How tragic that a gas head has to come on our forum to remind us that.

 

Gas head? Is that the phrase you use to describe those with a different perspective?

My post was in relation to someone saying we have made PROGRESS by virtue of spending more time in the Championship than L1 under Lansdown, and if you read it properly I'm hardly berating him, more pointing out we haven't gone that far, and certainly not as far as even he himself would have liked. 

And if you're going to be using phrases such as "shoot yourself in the foot", perhaps you yourself should have a cry with the Coventry fans too - they got a shiny new stadium as well didn't they....

[BigAl&Toby]

SL is and remains a wealthy man.

He has invested heavily in Ashton Gate over a number of years. Ashton Gate is now a superb venue.

He has created a home for a variety of activities - football, rugby, badminton and basketball. There are also breakfast clubs and the Lansdown Club.

If you want to watch live beam backs and eat and drink at Ashton Gate then you now can.

Ashton Gate will continue to be developed. Soon there will be a hotel. There was talk of a new stadium at Ashton Vale. I suspect land was acquired then as part of those plans. I also suspect that other land in and around the area has been acquired. The training facilities at Failand will be upgraded from portacabins into something more befitting.

All of that financed not through trading but through debt - or an investment from SL.

When though is investment or debt a bad thing?

Before SL BCFC was a football club. It was the only thing that really interested me - and I suspect many others. I might have watched Bristol Rugby occasionally and I have a dim and distant memory of watching Mr Z speed around the docks in his power boat.

But that was the extent of my interest in Bristol Sport. All I wanted to watch and really cared about was The City. Nothing else. And that remains.

For sure  we've had some great moments under SL but BCFC as a footballing entity has made no real progress under his watch. We're now simply a tenant in an asset that SL has acquired through his investment in what was our club.

Look at whatever balance sheets are publicly available. The freeholds aren't valued there at their true market value. The accounts all point to a legitimate I'm sure off shore company where SL is the ultimate beneficiary.

I don't have a problem with that. If he has chosen to invest his money in the way that he sees fit then he should see a return and have some security.

What I hate is how many see him as a saviour for our club. I'd say that whilst he's been involved we've made little if any footballing progress.

And ask yourself this. Is he really any different from any other successful businessman who has invested in a football club? Has he ever stood in the rain at Stockport or Swindon? Has he ever eaten an under cooked and over priced pie? Or relieved himself of a pint in a urinal that consists of little more than a glazed pipe? Or been kettled in Swansea whilst the helicopter is overhead and the police and dogs are snarling?

I'd suggest not. He's not a fan. He's a convert with a lot of money. Nothing more. Nothing less.

[Marina's Rolls Royce]

1 hour ago, reformed_red said:

Gas head? Is that the phrase you use to describe those with a different perspective?

My post was in relation to someone saying we have made PROGRESS by virtue of spending more time in the Championship than L1 under Lansdown, and if you read it properly I'm hardly berating him, more pointing out we haven't gone that far, and certainly not as far as even he himself would have liked. 

And if you're going to be using phrases such as "shoot yourself in the foot", perhaps you yourself should have a cry with the Coventry fans too - they got a shiny new stadium as well didn't they....

I feel  sorry that you can't research what I said before you post.  I certainly have a more refined range of descriptives than to resort to calling someone I disagree with a gashead. I look at that as bad as someone calling LJ a dwarf or SL a clown.

I was referring in my post to @Miah Dennehy a regular on here and also a well known gas supporter who gave his view in the 'c u later' thread that the response on here was somewhat OTT , that football success is cyclical which I thoroughly agree with. And rovers are a great example of that.

As for Coventry's new stadium and Boltons and many many more: they lost them because they either didn't own them in the first place or were sold off by owners who had spent more money on trying to achieve success by spending cash they didn't have.

Steve Lansdown is not entirely dissimilar other than that he does have the cash howsoever he spends it and the stadium he owns houses two relatively well supported clubs.

You said in his 14 years that the fans had the right to want to be a consolidated Championship side and I responded by asking you to look at the preceding 14 years before his ownership/investment for comparison and balance. This enormous investment in BCFC and Bristol Sport still represents less than 10% of his assets.

We could argue until hell freezes over but I can't agree with fans turning against SL and biting the hand that feeds the club.

If someone with more desire and better ideas and enough money comes along and wants to take over then fair enough but they haven't so I am really glad we've got the Lansdowns.

In the last 14yrs there was one guy who stepped forward ( very publicly) saying he was at the head of a mystery middle eastern/far eastern consortium who felt he could do a better job than SL at BCFC. The same guy who 8yrs later lost tens of millions of pounds of pensioner's cash on dodgy/unlawful investments and caused many businesses to collapse.

[megansdad]

WE DESERVE BETTER STEVE

 

What exactly is it that makes you feel entitled to something better OP? and why do you feel SL walking away will achieve that. some of us live through four consecutive relegations and made a trek to Newport not knowing if we would see another game. Things may be bad but they are nowhere near as bad as may on here would have us believe. Every supporter in the country wants success and am sure SL wants it as much as if not more than any of us. Getting that success is not easy. I for one think the club has progressed hugely under his stewardship and I look forward confidently to better days ahead. 

[kevster3]

11 hours ago, Ivorguy said:

Do hope SL holds a fan meeting at The Amex, as suggested. I will be there.

I shall have to choose my question with care.  Any suggestions from those unable to come welcome what I should ask on behalf of many of us ?

Please ask him why the he'll he has allowed us to get into this position and done nothing to stop it, Thanks. 

[Port Said Red]

13 hours ago, Scrumpylegs said:

Calm down ffs. If you've supported this club for 33 years as you claim you'd have seen worse times than this!! As long as we've got the backing that Steve L gives us, this club will not fail in the long term. Even if we go down we can pick off the others at that level like we did last time. The (long term) future is not in doubt as far as I'm concerned.

 

The worst thing about this run is that people equate current form with the overall health of the club. The investment in infrastructure and the Academy, in other words the future has been enormous, and has impressed a lot of people outside the club. That doesn't stop people calling us a "basket case" and other such terms. 

[The Coach]

Feels like this guy is running the show...

[reformed_red]

3 hours ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

I feel  sorry that you can't research what I said before you post.  I certainly have a more refined range of descriptives than to resort to calling someone I disagree with a gashead. I look at that as bad as someone calling LJ a dwarf or SL a clown.

I was referring in my post to @Miah Dennehy a regular on here and also a well known gas supporter who gave his view in the 'c u later' thread that the response on here was somewhat OTT , that football success is cyclical which I thoroughly agree with. And rovers are a great example of that.

As for Coventry's new stadium and Boltons and many many more: they lost them because they either didn't own them in the first place or were sold off by owners who had spent more money on trying to achieve success by spending cash they didn't have.

Steve Lansdown is not entirely dissimilar other than that he does have the cash howsoever he spends it and the stadium he owns houses two relatively well supported clubs.

You said in his 14 years that the fans had the right to want to be a consolidated Championship side and I responded by asking you to look at the preceding 14 years before his ownership/investment for comparison and balance. This enormous investment in BCFC and Bristol Sport still represents less than 10% of his assets.

We could argue until hell freezes over but I can't agree with fans turning against SL and biting the hand that feeds the club.

If someone with more desire and better ideas and enough money comes along and wants to take over then fair enough but they haven't so I am really glad we've got the Lansdowns.

In the last 14yrs there was one guy who stepped forward ( very publicly) saying he was at the head of a mystery middle eastern/far eastern consortium who felt he could do a better job than SL at BCFC. The same guy who 8yrs later lost tens of millions of pounds of pensioner's cash on dodgy/unlawful investments and caused many businesses to collapse.

I don't disagree with much of what you say. I'm not too sure that looking back at the 14 years prior to SL is overly constructive though. Perhaps in the first 5-10 years, but after some time surely performance must be measured against one's self? We could look back to say City we're once top flight, how far do we go by that logic?

I think it is entirely fair for fans to be frustrated at yet another threat of relegation, back to L1 football. It does seem to most that the manager is the issue. So then it is up to the owner/chairman to act.

I like SL, I really do. However, his recent video asking for unity and somewhat condemning fans who showed otherwise was, in my option, extremely ill-advised. As was his insistence that Kodjia would not be sold to a Championship side, for example. It is snippets like these that will infuriate fans, and when the going gets tough, I don't care how great our stadium is or how the books are balanced, I just want to see a team that looks like it might actually have a chance of winning a game of football.

I also l, at that point, don't care that if we look back to 14 years ago, in the 14 years prior to that we were better than these last 14 years. What I do care about, however, is that SL looks set to preside over another relegation from the Championship, due to what many would agree is the failing to appoint a competent manager. 

I appreciate you may disagree with my view, which is fine, we all have different opinions. 

 

And as you didn't reference the "gas" comment, apologies I assumed it was aimed at me. I'm sure we can both agree when reading a comment at 6:30 in the morning before leaving for work assuming it's aimed at you, one would be inclined to respond.

[Natchfever]

4 hours ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

MRR - I thought i'd come back to you on a few points in your post yesterday during lunch, although of course you were responding to someone else.

As for Coventry's new stadium and Boltons and many many more: they lost them because they either didn't own them in the first place or were sold off by owners who had spent more money on trying to achieve success by spending cash they didn't have.

Steve Lansdown is not entirely dissimilar other than that he does have the cash howsoever he spends it and the stadium he owns houses two relatively well supported clubs.

BCFC has already "lost" Ashton Gate, but i'm satisfied that at this time, the primary shareholder in the company that owns the stadium is happy for BCFC to be there.

As for the primary users of the stadium, the support will almost certainly dwindle if both clubs continue to fail and I predict that is a nailed on certainty for 2017/18. However, in the event (the most likely) that the rugby club reaches the promised land and becomes a European powerhouse, then don't be surprised to see priorities in BS shift towards them including the allocation of funds. After all, the cost of maintaining the very best rugby club is rather less than that of a second level football club, and perhaps most importantly,the demographic of paying rugby fans is precisely what BS wants to see in the stadium

You said in his 14 years that the fans had the right to want to be a consolidated Championship side and I responded by asking you to look at the preceding 14 years before his ownership/investment for comparison and balance. This enormous investment in BCFC and Bristol Sport still represents less than 10% of his assets.

The past is irrelevant in my view, just as Manchester City fans will regard their past, albeit fondly remembering their occasional successes.It is entirely natural for fans to consider the investment made and believe that we should have achieved far far more even within 14 years.

We could argue until hell freezes over but I can't agree with fans turning against SL and biting the hand that feeds the club.

Firstly otib represents a very small percentage of the fanbase although it can be argued to be broadly representative. Secondly, the "turning against" SL is relatively minor, and only in very few instances can it be termed vitriolic. Further, it is almost entirely focussed on one area of concern, namely his unconditional support of a terrible coach. Frankly, if he is so omnipotent that he cannot be criticised on specific points or even questioned then I would rather feed elsewhere because the alternative is a dictatorship in sporting terms.

If someone with more desire and better ideas and enough money comes along and wants to take over then fair enough but they haven't so I am really glad we've got the Lansdowns.

I can't see that happening. Firstly, SL wants a legacy that extends beyond having a stand with his name and I cannot see him giving up on that as there are other opportunities to do so other than the football element of BS. Secondly, it is unlike anything else in the UK in that anyone sniffing around would surely have to buy the entire enterprise? If not, then some deal would need to be cobbled up that involved rents, percentages of matchday income etc which would make BCFC very unattractive. SL knows this so the "Lansdown out" brigade needs to understand that also.

In the last 14yrs there was one guy who stepped forward ( very publicly) saying he was at the head of a mystery middle eastern/far eastern consortium who felt he could do a better job than SL at BCFC. The same guy who 8yrs later lost tens of millions of pounds of pensioner's cash on dodgy/unlawful investments and caused many businesses to collapse.

A charlatan. Easily tumbled by appropriate due dilligence unless a seller didn't give a shite. Whatever I think about SL's support of a singularly untalented and undeserving coach/personal friend, and the fact that he doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes,that simply isn't how I believe SL would conduct himself.

 

[PHILINFRANCE]

22 minutes ago, Loon plage said:

A charlatan. Easily tumbled by appropriate due dilligence unless a seller didn't give a shite. Whatever I think about SL's support of a singularly untalented and undeserving coach/personal friend, and the fact that he doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes,that simply isn't how I believe SL would conduct himself.

I must have missed that story.

Who was he?

[ontariored]

6 minutes ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

I must have missed that story.

Who was he?

Jimmy Saville?

[PHILINFRANCE]

5 minutes ago, ontariored said:

Jimmy Saville?

In the last 14yrs there was one guy who stepped forward ( very publicly) saying he was at the head of a mystery middle eastern/far eastern consortium who felt he could do a better job than SL at BCFC. The same guy who 8yrs later lost tens of millions of pounds of pensioner's cash on dodgy/unlawful investments and caused many businesses to collapse.

I was just wondering if it was the chap who wanted to take over Hereford - presumably to sell their ground etc.

 

[cidered abroad]

18 hours ago, j1974 said:

We are very very lucky to have Steve Lansdown as our chairman , most of us would of agreed with a large percentage of  the managers he has appointed oddly enough except for Cotterill ( our most successful recent manager) so in  some ways it was hard to knock him when he brought Johnson in.

Of coarse Lansdown has made mistakes but haven't we all? 

When you look at the mess other clubs have recently been in through their owners Blackburn,Blackpool, Leeds , Forest and Cardiff to name a few I think we are very lucky.

We are in a bloody great mess in spite of the "benefit" of having such a good benefactor. Of the clubs you have quoted above, all except Blackpool are above us in the Championship. I'd like for city to be failing in a similar way to them.

We have spent more on incoming players since last May than we ever have in the same time, allowing for the difference in the value of money, since I started in 1950 and yet we are heading for relegation. Are you and all of those who are telling us that SL and LJ are doing a very good job, happy with the very real prospect of League One in August?