The Lansdowns are a pox on our club

[Bristol Oil Services]

19 hours ago, BigTone said:

I think we need to be very cautious as to what we wish for as replacements. 

Why's that? What we wish for won't make a jot of difference to anything.

[BigTone]

51 minutes ago, Bristol Oil Services said:

Why's that? What we wish for won't make a jot of difference to anything.

But what we get might

[Cowshed]

2 hours ago, Jacki said:

Ok, if you’re comparing HPC to most of those clubs then your point about it not being ‘top class’ is a fair one.

Which was the point made. Bristol City's training facilities are of a standard I would expect to see.

A point I posted years ago on this forum was that BCFC could have invested far earlier. David James wages for a season would finance a network of coaches at regional youth development centres for seasons. Bristol City have had a lot of these wages not achieving a lot, but creating significant financial losses. The money Mr Lansdown spent on restructuring repeatedly debts of tens of millions could have been invested in going down a path of a state of the art, excellent, top-class facility and a regional network of development coaching across the South West. 

 

[adamski]

Reflecting back over the past 50 odd years, I'd say the stability and continual improvement provided under the Landsdowns is unprecedented at this club. From 76 things went down hill(and let's be honest, things over the previous 60 years had been pretty average). We did not invest in future players, but tired old has beens. The board did not look at sustainability and we ended up at rock bottom. From that point we scrambled out of the 4th division and were a division 3 team, with short lived bursts into the second for nearly 20 years, apart from a couple of seasons the fare was shite delivered by an army of average players- with the odd exception.

Since 2002 we have had stability, now we have expectations, decent facilities and some hope, if they are a pox, what the hell have rovers got? 

Some people have shady memories or have not been around AG long enough

[Mr Popodopolous]

The pox thing is disrespectful and well ott.

Have errors been made? Certainly. Also think Jon Lansdown, there was a significant downturn when he took a bigger role in the early 2010s but they may have run out of road, run their course a bit by now.

It could be and have been better yes but could also have been a hell of a lot worse.

There seem to be a fair few Championship clubs with fan discontent, who have suffered mismanagement, or stagnating- the model seems a bit broken really for a lot of clubs at our level. A certain level of hopelessness outside some of the a) Parachute clubs or b) Better managed clubs with lower budgets.

Perhaps that's ott but the landscape isn't a good one.

[AppyDAZE]

2 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

The pox thing is disrespectful and well ott.

Have errors been made? Certainly. Also think Jon Lansdown, there was a significant downturn when he took a bigger role in the early 2010s but they may have run out of road, run their course a bit by now.

It could be and have been better yes but could also have been a hell of a lot worse.

There seem to be a fair few Championship clubs with fan discontent, who have suffered mismanagement, or stagnating- the model seems a bit broken really for a lot of clubs at our level. A certain level of hopelessness outside some of the a) Parachute clubs or b) Better managed clubs with lower budgets.

Perhaps that's ott but the landscape isn't a good one.

Hear, hear

[marmite]

4 hours ago, adamski said:

Reflecting back over the past 50 odd years, I'd say the stability and continual improvement provided under the Landsdowns is unprecedented at this club. From 76 things went down hill(and let's be honest, things over the previous 60 years had been pretty average). We did not invest in future players, but tired old has beens. The board did not look at sustainability and we ended up at rock bottom. From that point we scrambled out of the 4th division and were a division 3 team, with short lived bursts into the second for nearly 20 years, apart from a couple of seasons the fare was shite delivered by an army of average players- with the odd exception.

Since 2002 we have had stability, now we have expectations, decent facilities and some hope, if they are a pox, what the hell have rovers got? 

Some people have shady memories or have not been around AG long enough

Agree with most of this but even you must agree that the club has now stalled where it matters most, on the pitch. Even when we win, I don't walk away from the ground feeling entertained or exited by what I've seen. 

I've met and spoken to all the Lansdown family in recent years and they usually come across as very enthusiastic about the club and its future.

However, the silence from the top is deafening at the moment and although the appointment of Phil Alexander is welcome, just where are the chairman and the owner. I find that quite worrying.

[Red_Alligator]

That's a bit harsh.

Although I remain annoyed that the initial goal of Premier League Football for Bristol City FC, has morphed into the much more generic Bristol Sport, as being SL's legacy.

I don't think many of us saw that coming, and I do feel let down to be honest.

Not my money to spend though, as some sage will doubtless point out.

 

[adamski]

6 hours ago, marmite said:

Agree with most of this but even you must agree that the club has now stalled where it matters most, on the pitch. Even when we win, I don't walk away from the ground feeling entertained or exited by what I've seen. 

I've met and spoken to all the Lansdown family in recent years and they usually come across as very enthusiastic about the club and its future.

However, the silence from the top is deafening at the moment and although the appointment of Phil Alexander is welcome, just where are the chairman and the owner. I find that quite worrying.

I think the club is at a cross roads, if the owner wants to push into the Prem, then some big money will have to be spent, Brentford style promotions are the exception, not the rule. If the club is to stay safe in the Championship(in the hope that a "lucky season" might come along (as happened with Daddy Johnson)) , then the Babby Johnson/Ashton legacy will have to be undone, which will cost money. In short, SL picked the wrong people to spend his money, a couple of unproven chancers. I'm sure he knows what they did and what's required to fix it. I guess it's a question of whether he wants to resource it and put in the effort required. After all, it's his money, there's no way that kind of revenue could be raised by supporters/commercial activity. Which might well explain the silence. I'm with you on the current performances, lacking spirit and excitement....probably due to a lack of purpose

[W-S-M Seagull]

I think some of our fans have become a little bit too desperate for Premier league football and this has made them a little bit out of touch with how far we have actually come. 

We've managed to spend an extended period of time in this division. For me that is great progress. 

Results haven't been great, granted. However the performances have been decent by and large. I've not walked away from many games and thought "we got battered there" 

I don't let short term results dictate my overall opinion. We are incredibly lucky to have a fantastic stadium and the training ground. We've never ever had it this good in that regard. My motto in life is to never forget where you've came from. I think some of our fans may have.

I am incredibly positive about the future of this club whilst we pull ourselves out of this little hole. So many incredible positive things are happening. The new CEO will add a different dimension and hopefully create a bit of a buzz around the place. 

I don't listen to all the waffle about Lansdown losing interest, he prefers the rugby etc. Those that say that are just frustrated and looking for an easy explanation. 

[chinapig]

10 hours ago, adamski said:

I think the club is at a cross roads, if the owner wants to push into the Prem, then some big money will have to be spent, Brentford style promotions are the exception, not the rule. If the club is to stay safe in the Championship(in the hope that a "lucky season" might come along (as happened with Daddy Johnson)) , then the Babby Johnson/Ashton legacy will have to be undone, which will cost money. In short, SL picked the wrong people to spend his money, a couple of unproven chancers. I'm sure he knows what they did and what's required to fix it. I guess it's a question of whether he wants to resource it and put in the effort required. After all, it's his money, there's no way that kind of revenue could be raised by supporters/commercial activity. Which might well explain the silence. I'm with you on the current performances, lacking spirit and excitement....probably due to a lack of purpose

We need to continue to reduce our operating costs. Wells' new contract is presumably another step in that direction but we need to increase our income also.

But an owner can't just pay off any FFP deficit so the only way to raise substantial funds is to sell players.

[Bobbie]

On 26/12/2022 at 23:17, WessexPest said:

Yes, I realise there aren’t exactly a busload of wealthy buyers at hand but the Lansdown family have engineered a slow and steady malaise of our club while making some boneheaded managerial appointments.

Yes, Pearson’s time is up - I don’t know what I expected from him but after two years at the helm it was certainly more than this rancid cheesewater - but why would you trust the morons at the head of our club who couldn’t organise their s*** into the pan to get it right next time? The whole rotten lot needs to go.

Short term there’s no outcome other than League One football. Unacceptable but sadly the reality. 

Pathetic 

[adamski]

1 hour ago, chinapig said:

We need to continue to reduce our operating costs. Wells' new contract is presumably another step in that direction but we need to increase our income also.

But an owner can't just pay off any FFP deficit so the only way to raise substantial funds is to sell players.

I doubt Wells contract on its own will make much difference, The 3 year FFP deficit might be an issue in the short term, however, moving forward, should an owner decide to inject cash, and I'm not for one minute suggesting/demanding that SL should invest further, then it should not be an issue - if someone does not, then you are absolutely right, we'll have to sell and prey!

[chinapig]

8 minutes ago, adamski said:

I doubt Wells contract on its own will make much difference, The 3 year FFP deficit might be an issue in the short term, however, moving forward, should an owner decide to inject cash, and I'm not for one minute suggesting/demanding that SL should invest further, then it should not be an issue - if someone does not, then you are absolutely right, we'll have to sell and prey!

The cumulative savings from both reducing the squad size and renegotiating contracts on significantly lower wages is a key part of fixing the disaster left by the previous regime (and by SL himself). We have reduced our costs by £10m and Gould was keen at the fans forum to give Nigel his share of credit for that. But we need to make further savings across the club's operations.

The fact remains though that FFP does not allow owners to keep pumping in cash to remain compliant so SL doesn't really have that option. Though I doubt he would do it if he could.