The Lansdowns are a pox on our club

[BCFCinNW6]

12 minutes ago, Bat Fastard said:

Apart from the beautiful stadium, the state of the art training ground, the excellent academy and the fact that we have lasted in the Championship- what have the Lansdowns ever done for us??

Year on year failure in the football department. You know, the bit that matters. 

[cidered abroad]

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the SL regime, the current problem is one that would not be resolved if he sold BS or BCFC tomorrow to someone who would be prepared to plough shedloads into the Club.

Our problem now is FFP which is stopping us from bringing in the two or three top Championship quality that we need to save our Championship status.

[ExiledAjax]

8 hours ago, WessexPest said:

Yes, we could end up with unscrupulous buyers - if that meant success no one would care. Of course things could get worse, I’m not blind to that. But better under the current regime? Slim to no chance.

I'd care. 

[red panda]

Good post Captain Hindsight.

Most managerial appointments are huge gambles, and many that look great on paper don't work out. NP could prove one of those, yet many (most?) of us were ecstatic when he joined. Wilder and Hughton were names banded around here with lots of enthusiasm but they both failed in their most recent posts. Many clubs oscillate between experienced managers and up and coming younger ones, and the vast majority of both types of appointment fail.

Please, please, please let's not kid ourselves that there are lots of owners out there making successful managerial appointments and SL is some kind of exception. Two thirds of  current championship managers have been in post for less than seven months. Almost everyone is getting it wrong. That's football. 

[sh1t_ref_again]

5 hours ago, Supersonic Robin said:

Spot on.

• I go on Twitter to see top half Prem club Brighton celebrating their player winning the World Cup.
• I watch MOTD and see midtable Prem club Brentford beating Man United and Man City.
• I sit through transfer windows praying "I hope Premier League Bournemouth don't steal our best players!".
• I look up the Championship table and think "I wish we were doing as well as Luton".
• I even look at clubs around us in the Championship, and realise that Swansea, Birmingham, and Wigan have all won major domestic cups in the last 20 years.

It's utterly depressing and humiliating.

You have picked random sides who you perceive as having  done better, but what about our main rivals of 20 years ago, the gas, swindon Plymouth and Cardiff 

[Barrs Court Red]

22 minutes ago, Bat Fastard said:

Apart from the beautiful stadium, the state of the art training ground, the excellent academy and the fact that we have lasted in the Championship- what have the Lansdowns ever done for us??

That’s certainly true, but it’s all too late.  
 

Stadium - After many false dawns, it gets delivered and I don’t think anyone could argue that it’s not a fantastic venue.  Thing is though, it could have happened when he took over or joined if memory serves me correctly.  But Steve knows best right? 
 

Training Ground - Danny Wilson was crying out for a new facility how many years ago? It seems a decent site, however it’s not really delivering a competitive edge. What’s the facilities like at other clubs, did this just see us remain in near parity? 
 

The Academy - Strange choice as it was already there. Yes it’s been backed well more recently and is delivering.  Certainly one of the highlights

Championship football - True, but the last 3 years especially have been terrible.  

[Barrs Court Red]

8 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the SL regime, the current problem is one that would not be resolved if he sold BS or BCFC tomorrow to someone who would be prepared to plough shedloads into the Club.

Our problem now is FFP which is stopping us from bringing in the two or three top Championship quality that we need to save our Championship status.

I’ve said on here in recent weeks, it’s not just about the money (the fact too much of it has been spent is a major factor for the current mess)

 

It’s also about strategy and direction. The latter is seemingly desperately needed. 

[ExiledAjax]

9 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

You have picked random sides who you perceive as having  done better, but what about our main rivals of 20 years ago, the gas, swindon Plymouth and Cardiff 

Yeh, and no one ever mentions Oldham, Bolton, Ipswich, or as many other clubs that have suffered reversals of fortunes.

At the end of the day I do think that the Lansdown era should close soon. That family have done wonders for this club, keeping us stable whilst transforming the real estate and infrastructure. But a change is as good as a rest and a refresh is needed. Lansdown is adverse to innovation and new ideas in football. He's become adverse to fan engagement. He's become untrusting.

A new owner doesn't guarantee success in any way shape or form,  and the structure and funding of any investment would be key. 

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, Bat Fastard said:

Apart from the beautiful stadium, the state of the art training ground, the excellent academy and the fact that we have lasted in the Championship- what have the Lansdowns ever done for us??

This beautiful stadium do we as a club have any say on who plays in it? and how much % wise do we get from concerts etc that also hire it? is it free for us to use it and its bars etc do we get that income? gen interested as anyone who is interested in buying us would they not also have to purchase the stadium as well?

[KegCity]

39 minutes ago, Bat Fastard said:

Apart from the beautiful stadium, the state of the art training ground, the excellent academy and the fact that we have lasted in the Championship- what have the Lansdowns ever done for us??

Are these all not the bare minimum you’d expect from competent owners? What’s been delivered on the pitch, where it actually counts? We beat Man United and we won some trophies in a league we should never have dropped down to in the first place. 

We aren’t a tiny little club who should be counting our blessings being in the championship. This attitude from our fan base has to go if we want to do anything successful on the pitch. Bristols a large city and we have a sizeable fan base, with better footballing decisions we could easily be knocking on the door of the top 6 on a regular basis and to have only made one playoff final under Lansdown is an atrocious return on investment.

We’ve got three quarters of a good stadium (as do most clubs our size) and we have a good academy (great), is that enough for some people? We’re in a financial mess directly because of Lansdown and we’ve only once had a sniff of Premier League football because of Lansdown’s decisions. 

Really wish our fan base would stop talking like we’re some minnows who have somehow made it to the championship. We’re a decent sized club, as big as many who have asserted themselves as Premier League clubs in recent years, yet we’re happy to give Lansdown a free ride because he built some new stands and we have a lovely training ground. As if we should actually be having tents for stands and training up the downs because we’re some tiny club. Do we have a god given right to top flight football? No. But we should have come a lot closer than we have under Lansdown given the money he has invested.

Undoubtedly things could be a lot worse but if our only ambition is to tread water in the championship long term that is embarrassing, football is about trying to win trophies. I have no interest supporting a club content to make up the numbers and count themselves lucky that they aren’t worse off.

[exAtyeoMax]

39 minutes ago, red panda said:

Good post Captain Hindsight.

Most managerial appointments are huge gambles, and many that look great on paper don't work out. NP could prove one of those, yet many (most?) of us were ecstatic when he joined. Wilder and Hughton were names banded around here with lots of enthusiasm but they both failed in their most recent posts. Many clubs oscillate between experienced managers and up and coming younger ones, and the vast majority of both types of appointment fail.

Please, please, please let's not kid ourselves that there are lots of owners out there making successful managerial appointments and SL is some kind of exception. Two thirds of  current championship managers have been in post for less than seven months. Almost everyone is getting it wrong. That's football. 

Did they fail because they were fired? Has Nige not failed because he hasn’t been fired? Would Nige have been given such a long time at different club?

[Bedred31]

People who think the Landsdowns are ‘a pox’ need to explain where the £20m + pa to cover our losses is going to come from without them? Vague ‘financial consortiums’ don’t come up with that sort of write off money, fans like SL do. And while I dare say that some is the spending under Junior/ Ashdown was unwise, these were the players ( ie this was the spending ) that allowed us to compete in the top half of the Championship. People on here who complain about ‘deadwood’ and ‘financial mismanagement’ really understand nothing about modern football, the effects of Covid or FFP. SL is a great chairman and when he’s gone- and I dare say he will be soon- we’re going to miss him mightily.

[Tin Soldier]

1 hour ago, Barrs Court Red said:

That’s certainly true, but it’s all too late.  
 

Stadium - After many false dawns, it gets delivered and I don’t think anyone could argue that it’s not a fantastic venue.  Thing is though, it could have happened when he took over or joined if memory serves me correctly.  But Steve knows best right? 
 

Training Ground - Danny Wilson was crying out for a new facility how many years ago? It seems a decent site, however it’s not really delivering a competitive edge. What’s the facilities like at other clubs, did this just see us remain in near parity? 
 

The Academy - Strange choice as it was already there. Yes it’s been backed well more recently and is delivering.  Certainly one of the highlights

Championship football - True, but the last 3 years especially have been terrible.  

Correct, all the tools but no idea how to use them

[LondonBristolian]

9 hours ago, Kid in the Riot said:

I think he wants to keep Bears but would be willing to sell City and AG.

Yep, he would not accept even if offered. 

Not doubting you as I know you have something of an inside track but, out of interest, what is the value of keeping the Bears but not AG? I would have thought the ground was where the profit was? Or does he think he can maximise value on the redevelopments by selling now?

Edited December 27, 2022 by LondonBristolian

[cidered abroad]

1 hour ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

You have picked random sides who you perceive as having  done better, but what about our main rivals of 20 years ago, the gas, swindon Plymouth and Cardiff 

Football League is nationwide.

Not just the South West & South Wales league!

[LondonBristolian]

Personally I think all discussions on the Lansdowns quickly fly to extremes. They aren’t a ‘pox’ on the club and plenty of clubs have far worse owners but we also get a bit stuck on the idea that, if they went, there is absolutely nobody else out there who would not destroy the club.

Truthfully - whether you feel it should have happened quicker or not - Lansdown has got us to a point where we have the foundations of a top flight club - in terms of quality of stadium, training ground and academy - but a combination of bad luck and the wrong decisions at the wrong time have meant he has not delivered top flight football and he has clearly reached a point where he needs the club to wash its own face - which few clubs do, especially whilst succeeding on the pitch - and is at least open to, and perhaps very keen on, selling out entirely.

Of course there are risks with a sale that we end up with a Sisu, a Mike Ashley or whoever it is at Charlton but we could also end up with a new owner who can take the facilities in place and appoint the necessary football people to finally deliver.

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, Bedred31 said:

People who think the Landsdowns are ‘a pox’ need to explain where the £20m + pa to cover our losses is going to come from without them? Vague ‘financial consortiums’ don’t come up with that sort of write off money, fans like SL do. And while I dare say that some is the spending under Junior/ Ashdown was unwise, these were the players ( ie this was the spending ) that allowed us to compete in the top half of the Championship. People on here who complain about ‘deadwood’ and ‘financial mismanagement’ really understand nothing about modern football, the effects of Covid or FFP. SL is a great chairman and when he’s gone- and I dare say he will be soon- we’re going to miss him mightily.

Disagree with this, our losses are not ours but SL`s ALL HIS choices decisions which has got us to where we are today, which by the way is almost exactly the same league position as where we were when they dropped SC after that manager got us to this division; the only mis management is by SL and HIS choices

[Winterstoke toad]

1 hour ago, KegCity said:

Are these all not the bare minimum you’d expect from competent owners? What’s been delivered on the pitch, where it actually counts? We beat Man United and we won some trophies in a league we should never have dropped down to in the first place. 

We aren’t a tiny little club who should be counting our blessings being in the championship. This attitude from our fan base has to go if we want to do anything successful on the pitch. Bristols a large city and we have a sizeable fan base, with better footballing decisions we could easily be knocking on the door of the top 6 on a regular basis and to have only made one playoff final under Lansdown is an atrocious return on investment.

We’ve got three quarters of a good stadium (as do most clubs our size) and we have a good academy (great), is that enough for some people? We’re in a financial mess directly because of Lansdown and we’ve only once had a sniff of Premier League football because of Lansdown’s decisions. 

Really wish our fan base would stop talking like we’re some minnows who have somehow made it to the championship. We’re a decent sized club, as big as many who have asserted themselves as Premier League clubs in recent years, yet we’re happy to give Lansdown a free ride because he built some new stands and we have a lovely training ground. As if we should actually be having tents for stands and training up the downs because we’re some tiny club. Do we have a god given right to top flight football? No. But we should have come a lot closer than we have under Lansdown given the money he has invested.

Undoubtedly things could be a lot worse but if our only ambition is to tread water in the championship long term that is embarrassing, football is about trying to win trophies. I have no interest supporting a club content to make up the numbers and count themselves lucky that they aren’t worse off.

You’ve hit the nail on the head right there . The blindness and lack of ambition from some of our fanbase is staggering. Bristol is one of englands biggest cities with a huge catchment area , the potential of this club is massive and shows how badly we’ve been run over the years.

For a club that’s never achieved anything of note in its history to be able to pull in over 20,000 crowds even though it has the most expensive ticket prices in the league is amazing . As a fanbase it’s time we start realising that we deserve more and stop accepting piss poor mediocrity .

[Winterstoke toad]

38 minutes ago, Bedred31 said:

People who think the Landsdowns are ‘a pox’ need to explain where the £20m + pa to cover our losses is going to come from without them? Vague ‘financial consortiums’ don’t come up with that sort of write off money, fans like SL do. And while I dare say that some is the spending under Junior/ Ashdown was unwise, these were the players ( ie this was the spending ) that allowed us to compete in the top half of the Championship. People on here who complain about ‘deadwood’ and ‘financial mismanagement’ really understand nothing about modern football, the effects of Covid or FFP. SL is a great chairman and when he’s gone- and I dare say he will be soon- we’re going to miss him mightily.

:laugh: he has to cover those big losses because he runs the club so badly in the first place .

[Bedred31]

7 minutes ago, gl2 said:

Disagree with this, our losses are not ours but SL`s ALL HIS choices decisions which has got us to where we are today, which by the way is almost exactly the same league position as where we were when they dropped SC after that manager got us to this division; the only mis management is by SL and HIS choices

And, like, having no commercial income at all from ticket sales, food, drink etc for over 12 months was irrelevant to all this? 

[The Swan and Cemetery]

There’s a risk in football that we assess success vs what we want to achieve, rather than what we are achieving, but as it’s zero sum, as many must be failing/going down as succeeding/going up. Based on a quick look at the 2015/16 table, we’re joint 3rd longest serving in the Championship. Brentford and Bournemouth were with us that season, so were Derby and Sheffield Wednesday. Personally not convinced we’re failing, but we maybe (8 consecutive seasons in the same league) a bit boring. Pretty sure SL doesn’t wake every morning, look in the mirror and say “yet one more day of perfect decision making ahead Steve” as lots of decisions, particularly with hindsight, haven’t been great, but “pox”, definitely not. 

[Duncandrew]

7 hours ago, Supersonic Robin said:

Spot on.

• I go on Twitter to see top half Prem club Brighton celebrating their player winning the World Cup.
• I watch MOTD and see midtable Prem club Brentford beating Man United and Man City.
• I sit through transfer windows praying "I hope Premier League Bournemouth don't steal our best players!".
• I look up the Championship table and think "I wish we were doing as well as Luton".
• I even look at clubs around us in the Championship, and realise that Swansea, Birmingham, and Wigan have all won major domestic cups in the last 20 years.

It's utterly depressing and humiliating.

Well , the reality is very painful when we see it listed like this! Well said, but god does it hurt.

 

[daored]

1 hour ago, cidered abroad said:

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the SL regime, the current problem is one that would not be resolved if he sold BS or BCFC tomorrow to someone who would be prepared to plough shedloads into the Club.

Our problem now is FFP which is stopping us from bringing in the two or three top Championship quality that we need to save our Championship status.

FFP is a problem that we have to work around, but for me the question is who is responsible for putting us in this position, who approved the high wages / expenditure 

[Merrick's Marvels]

2 hours ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

You have picked random sides who you perceive as having  done better, but what about our main rivals of 20 years ago, the gas, swindon Plymouth and Cardiff 

Some of us don't judge ourselves against the gas, Swindon and Plymouth, mate. We need to set the bar higher than that!

Some just wonder why a club from the 8th biggest city in the country, with so many obvious advantages over about 75% of other professional clubs, continues to be such an under achieving mess - year after year after year.

One of the reasons for that is because some people are just happy we're doing better than the gas, Swindon and Plymouth, btw! 

That sort of mediocre mindset is one of a multitude of problems Pearson has to contend with here. It may even be the thing that defeats him - that not enough people want it, really want success down to their bones, want it so much it hurts.

Perhaps Bristol City - from whoever the owner is at the top, through whoever works for the club on and off the pitch, to whoever supports it from the stands - doesn't want success so much that it hurts? Perhaps we're all happy to just be doing ok, so long as it's better than the gas and Swindon and Plymouth? Perhaps it's something in the water or it's the Bristol DNA - success is nice but we can take it or leave at the end of the day?

What else can explain over 100 years of mediocrity, given all that we'vegot going for us? 

Imo Pearson isn't just trying to fix a leaky back 4, wobbly keepers, a non existent midfield, players eyeing more money and new contracts elsewhere, players offered less money to stay, an FFP blackhole - the death star that's sucking us backwards towards League 1. That's not all he's got on his plate. That's not all he's trying to fix.

Whether he realises it or not, he's also trying to fix Bristol and Bristolians. He's wrestling with a question of attitude, of mentality. And it might be the one thing that beats him, like it's beaten so many before.

Pray God, it doesn't. 

"Somerset, and the livin is easy, wurzels sleepin cos the cider is dry" as George Gershwin so accurately wrote. 

Edited December 27, 2022 by Merrick's Marvels

[ZiderMeUp]

1 hour ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

You have picked random sides who you perceive as having  done better, but what about our main rivals of 20 years ago, the gas, swindon Plymouth and Cardiff 

Swindon and Cardiff both been in the prem. Cardiff twice.  Although swindon before lansdowns time

[Fordy62]

Man vilified for spending his own money. Yeh, sure… he spent it unwisely. He mixed business with pleasure, but at the end of the day it’s his money. Imagine if it were ours, then we’d have real grounds to moan. 

[phantom]

2 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

Man vilified for spending his own money. Yeh, sure… he spent it unwisely. He mixed business with pleasure, but at the end of the day it’s his money. Imagine if it were ours, then we’d have real grounds to moan. 

I'd argue that we do invest, we all spend money on tickets, merchandise etc

At the end of the day it's all compative depending on the number of zeros in your bank account 

[Ron W]

42 minutes ago, Winterstoke toad said:

You’ve hit the nail on the head right there . The blindness and lack of ambition from some of our fanbase is staggering. Bristol is one of englands biggest cities with a huge catchment area , the potential of this club is massive and shows how badly we’ve been run over the years.

For a club that’s never achieved anything of note in its history to be able to pull in over 20,000 crowds even though it has the most expensive ticket prices in the league is amazing . As a fanbase it’s time we start realising that we deserve more and stop accepting piss poor mediocrity .

Why does it have to be totally black and white? There's far too much nuance in 20 years of ownership. Lansdown can both have not led us to success without being chased out of town.

Completely agree with most of what @KegCity wrote too, but it then wades into the binary debate. He's not been terrible, and his footballing judgement has often been poor. He's wasted a lot of (his own, not our) money. We could have had better owners, we could've had worse.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Ron W

[Bat Fastard]

47 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

Personally I think all discussions on the Lansdowns quickly fly to extremes. They aren’t a ‘pox’ on the club and plenty of clubs have far worse owners but we also get a bit stuck on the idea that, if they went, there is absolutely nobody else out there who would not destroy the club.

Truthfully - whether you feel it should have happened quicker or not - Lansdown has got us to a point where we have the foundations of a top flight club - in terms of quality of stadium, training ground and academy - but a combination of bad luck and the wrong decisions at the wrong time have meant he has not delivered top flight football and he has clearly reached a point where he needs the club to wash its own face - which few clubs do, especially whilst succeeding on the pitch - and is at least open to, and perhaps very keen on, selling out entirely.

Of course there are risks with a sale that we end up with a Sisu, a Mike Ashley or whoever it is at Charlton but we could also end up with a new owner who can take the facilities in place and appoint the necessary football people to finally deliver.

Every change of ownership is a huge gamble - the devil you know for the devil you don't know.  We will not have a choice in any of this because it will be between SL and the new people. We just have to hope that we end up better off.  You are right about elements like timing and the various events that have troubled the past few years but it is not beyond the realms of possibility that SL will invest in the squad again when the circumstances and FFP permit.

[Winterstoke toad]

1 minute ago, Ron W said:

Why does it have to be totally black and white? There's far too much nuance in 20 years of ownership. Lansdown can both have not led us to success without being chased out of town.

Completely agree with most of what @KegCity said is saying, but it then wades into the binary debate. He's not been terrible, and his footballing judgement has often been poor. He's wasted a lot of (his own, not our) money. We could have had better owners, we could've had worse.

I understand your point but given his recourses he’s been extremely poor . Yes we have a nice stadium which is good for non match day revenue but what really matters is the football and we’ve underachieved massively during his ownership.