Steve Lansdown interview Today

[Glen hump]

1 hour ago, Port Said Red said:

I would imagine that Steve's devastated reading this thread, built a huge thriving business up from his back room, bought a football club and other sporting enterprises, invested millions in state of the art venues, and has great plans for the next step, but some randomers on an internet forum have pointed out what a mess he has made of his life, if only he has listened to them..... 

Being a very good accountant, business man is very different too knowing football ‘ there’s no way on this earth he’s a football man, he should of brought in a director of football years ago.

[Cidre Monita]

9 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

We continue to talk about it for the reason highlighted. 

We've seen this script before...

Indeed. That was mentioned for a reason. We got promoted from L1 by signing a certain type of player, then when we got some money went feral and lost it. Again. The point is, we cannot keep talking about the past and trying to make people who failed, appear to have been successful. When they were not. They did not create any legacy or platform. Far from it. But equally, it is energy lost to continue talking about it now. We have cleaned the decks, and have got the club in a greater condition to progress. we now understand what a team that might make the Prem looks like, rather than making it up with people who had no idea, there is now a platform. It is time to look forward. Irrespective of who the manager may be, we are in a far better place to attract better professional people on and off the field to become a Prem side. It is what we do next that matters but we must stick to the plan.  There is a reason why 50 plus clubs have been in the Prem and we are not one of them. Many of those weaknesses have been addressed, and it is now time to build and look forward. 

Meliora

[Glen hump]

The training ground is nowhere near up there with the best in the country, very nice set up though.

[tin]

6 minutes ago, Percy Pig said:

A fair point. 

From an infrastructure point of view, Lansdowns legacy will be unmatched. The stadium is fantastic and the training ground is finally in place and according to most is up there with the best in the country. 

From a backing point of view, it's tough to criticise the amount he has put into the club. £200m + the most recent total I've seen. 

But I guess the point that hits home most is the football and business decisions. Those have been significantly more miss than hit. 

If we take 2002 as the start point he's employed the following:

Tinnion: Failure

GJ: monumental success

Coppell: catastrophe

Millen: Failure

McInnes: Failure

O'Driscoll: Failure

Cotts: monumental success (Caveat being that he was Dawes' man).

Johnson: relative success ending in catastrophe 

Holden: Shocking failure

Pearson: relative success (from an on pitch perspective, monumental success off the pitch).

That makes some pretty grim reading.

Sexstone was good, Burt brilliant but binned off far too soon. Ashton an unmitigated disaster. 

I think it's fair to say Lansdown's legacy is mixed and for many it is those generally poor football decisions that carry the most weight. 

I also think he makes things worse every time he opens his mouth in public, from gloating when Holden won a couple of games, my club my way, promoting Jon to Chairman when he seemingly doesn't give a toss, judge me after Tinnion etc etc. To me it's been no surprise that the period he's been least "involved" has seen the football club begin to resemble a professional sports club... I worry that Pearson might well get us close and reinvigorate the old Lansdown. 

I think it's possible to be both grateful for the good stuff and think he's been a bang average owner. That's definitely how I view it. 

A lot of sense in there, but to describe SOD as a failure is a bit harsh IMO when he and Burt laid the foundations for Cotts’ “monumental success”.

Our training ground is something to grateful for, but nowhere near the best in the land. See Man City or Leicester for best in class. 

[Fuber]

19 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Paraphrased - I don’t get why the fans are critical of Mark he does a good job at the EFL.

Perhaps he should’ve looked at the job he did here!

This. It spoke volumes at the time and in a similar vein to "My Club I'll do what I want" etc.

I appreciate the job SL has done in backing the club financially - but it remains that his actual management and leadership has been at best shoddy, and the cost has been basically fixing his own mistakes caused by lack of longer term planning.

[W-S-M Seagull]

21 hours ago, steviestevieneville said:

I’d say millwall & cov are a year ahead of us in squad build. Cov  had problems off the pitch but their recruitment has been stable . Neither clubs have had to strip back £7-£8m off the wage bill getting rid of the high earners because they don’t function that way. We were in that position because Lansdown allowed it to happen 

Coventry for example have increased their wage bill by about 8/9 million whilst in the same period we've had to drastically cut ours. So it's not really any surprise that they are doing better than us currently. 

[Major Isewater]

19 hours ago, formerly known as ivan said:

It is and I think any other season would most likely be the case but both Millwall and Coventry have outperformed themselves this season. If anything it should give us hope. 

Luton are the club I’m most disappointed with being so far behind in terms of where we are. Based on last season they have not over performed, more so they now give themselves a decent shot of the playoffs on a nothing budget.

After losing Naismith and Cornick ! 

[spudski]

Whenever SL speaks...it's the same old rhetoric on here. It's so polarised.

Those for and against him, find ways of picking bits out of his comments to underline thoughts or agendas they have. 

Why can't he be listened to with a balanced perspective? 

For example...he never said he expects us to be in the play offs next season. He hopes/ would like us to be. He never gushed over Mark Robins...he mentioned how well he'd done and in the same breath Rowett. He was also very complimentary of NP. He said he'd signed a 3 year contract and hoped for promotion in third year...' let's see where we are then' was his comment. What's wrong with that? 

I love this forum...but in the last year or so it's become very black or white. For or against, left or right, he said, she said. Less and less is viewed with neutral balanced eyes imo. 

[Kid in the Riot]

5 minutes ago, spudski said:

Whenever SL speaks...it's the same old rhetoric on here. It's so polarised.

Those for and against him, find ways of picking bits out of his comments to underline thoughts or agendas they have. 

Why can't he be listened to with a balanced perspective? 

For example...he never said he expects us to be in the play offs next season. He hopes/ would like us to be. He never gushed over Mark Robins...he mentioned how well he'd done and in the same breath Rowett. He was also very complimentary of NP. He said he'd signed a 3 year contract and hoped for promotion in third year...' let's see where we are then' was his comment. What's wrong with that? 

I love this forum...but in the last year or so it's become very black or white. For or against, left or right, he said, she said. Less and less is viewed with neutral balanced eyes imo. 

Not sure what thread you've been reading, but on this one people are highlighting SL's good and bad points, and discussing them in a civil manner.

The very definition of a balanced discussion is taking place. 

[spudski]

Just now, Kid in the Riot said:

Not sure what thread you've been reading, but on this one people are highlighting SL's good and bad points, and discussing them in a civil manner.

The very definition of a balanced discussion is taking place. 

You have people for or against. It's obvious. It maybe balanced in as much as you are getting arguments from both ends...but it's obvious the arguments are agenda led or with a one sided perspective. Very little is contributed from in the middle 'or neutral' perspective...or in reality an observation of the truth/ how it was said. 

[Port Said Red]

55 minutes ago, Percy Pig said:

A fair point. 

From an infrastructure point of view, Lansdowns legacy will be unmatched. The stadium is fantastic and the training ground is finally in place and according to most is up there with the best in the country. 

From a backing point of view, it's tough to criticise the amount he has put into the club. £200m + the most recent total I've seen. 

But I guess the point that hits home most is the football and business decisions. Those have been significantly more miss than hit. 

If we take 2002 as the start point he's employed the following:

Tinnion: Failure

GJ: monumental success

Coppell: catastrophe

Millen: Failure

McInnes: Failure

O'Driscoll: Failure

Cotts: monumental success (Caveat being that he was Dawes' man).

Johnson: relative success ending in catastrophe 

Holden: Shocking failure

Pearson: relative success (from an on pitch perspective, monumental success off the pitch).

That makes some pretty grim reading.

Sexstone was good, Burt brilliant but binned off far too soon. Ashton an unmitigated disaster. 

I think it's fair to say Lansdown's legacy is mixed and for many it is those generally poor football decisions that carry the most weight. 

I also think he makes things worse every time he opens his mouth in public, from gloating when Holden won a couple of games, my club my way, promoting Jon to Chairman when he seemingly doesn't give a toss, judge me after Tinnion etc etc. To me it's been no surprise that the period he's been least "involved" has seen the football club begin to resemble a professional sports club... I worry that Pearson might well get us close and reinvigorate the old Lansdown. 

I think it's possible to be both grateful for the good stuff and think he's been a bang average owner. That's definitely how I view it. 

So how does that Management record stack up against the majority of the other 92 clubs? I don't really follow these things enough to give an informed view, but I am aware of how many Managers sacked every season and each of them is probably considered a failure by their respective clubs. Many however go on to do well at other clubs, or were successful at other clubs prior to joining theirs. 

It's easy to say in hindsight that these Managers were destined for failure, but many have shown qualities in previous or subsequent roles, Tinnion for example had/has an eye for talented players as has now been proved, Coppell and O'Driscoll looked ideal, McInnes and Lee bright young things with fresh ideas, Millen a top coach at various clubs, even Holden is doing a pretty good job at Charlton. 

Is it that he chose well, but circumstances conspired against many of these people perhaps? But for a catastrophic level of injuries, Johnson Jr could have got us the success we all want, Tinnion and McInnes struggled to win over the dressing room.

I personally think that buying David James with money that Coppell had earmarked elsewhere was a poor decision, akin to the ones that Scott Davidson made with Ward, but again, it's easy to say that from here on my sofa.

[One Team]

1 hour ago, Percy Pig said:

A fair point. 

From an infrastructure point of view, Lansdowns legacy will be unmatched. The stadium is fantastic and the training ground is finally in place and according to most is up there with the best in the country. 

From a backing point of view, it's tough to criticise the amount he has put into the club. £200m + the most recent total I've seen. 

But I guess the point that hits home most is the football and business decisions. Those have been significantly more miss than hit. 

If we take 2002 as the start point he's employed the following:

Tinnion: Failure

GJ: monumental success

Coppell: catastrophe

Millen: Failure

McInnes: Failure

O'Driscoll: Failure

Cotts: monumental success (Caveat being that he was Dawes' man).

Johnson: relative success ending in catastrophe 

Holden: Shocking failure

Pearson: relative success (from an on pitch perspective, monumental success off the pitch).

That makes some pretty grim reading.

Sexstone was good, Burt brilliant but binned off far too soon. Ashton an unmitigated disaster. 

I think it's fair to say Lansdown's legacy is mixed and for many it is those generally poor football decisions that carry the most weight. 

I also think he makes things worse every time he opens his mouth in public, from gloating when Holden won a couple of games, my club my way, promoting Jon to Chairman when he seemingly doesn't give a toss, judge me after Tinnion etc etc. To me it's been no surprise that the period he's been least "involved" has seen the football club begin to resemble a professional sports club... I worry that Pearson might well get us close and reinvigorate the old Lansdown. 

I think it's possible to be both grateful for the good stuff and think he's been a bang average owner. That's definitely how I view it. 

Fantastic post, nailed my thoughts and views there also. 

[mozo]

19 hours ago, Dredd said:

Let's not also forget that if a certain Mr Johnson was still here then Scott and Conway would probably be on their 3rd loan spell each and nowhere near the first team. Nige blooding these players ...

 

4 hours ago, petehinton said:

IMO Bell, Conway and Benarous are nowhere to be seen in the line up under LJ. 

 

4 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Yeah, don’t think they would all have got minutes, nor the volume of minutes…but I do feel that Nige wouldn’t have created bloat

This is all wild speculation my friends!

First of all, we're talking about two completely different remits. LJ was tasked with getting top 6. He didn't have any wonderkids available to him and besides Kelly, we're there any starlets that we feel he mismanaged?

NP, however, has in my opinion been given a direct brief to cut the wage bill and utilise the academy talent. Lucky for him, he arrived just as a Premier League talent joined the club and also had two strikers with the skillset to make an immediate impact.

Yes we can credit Nige and Co for getting the best our of Conway and (to a lesser extent) Bell, but LJ also got extraordinary performances out of players who in hindsight weren't as good as we thought. If we credit Nige for Conway, let's credit LJ for Reid.

This isn't me saying that LJ was as good a gaffer as Nige. I'd choose Nige put of the two.

But I'm saying that the comparisons being made here are flimsy. No offence, you're all great, it just doesn't add up to.

[Davefevs]

4 hours ago, italian dave said:

On Bell, Conway, Belarous: appreciate that LJ is fair game as the whipping boy for most things, but I think it’s taking it a bit far to criticise him for the presumed failure to select players who simply weren’t available at the time. We’ve no way of knowing that at all. 

Think it was far easier (factual?) to criticise the players signed and available that he didn’t play!

[Merrick's Marvels]

2 hours ago, Glen hump said:

Being a very good accountant, business man is very different too knowing football ‘ there’s no way on this earth he’s a football man, he should of brought in a director of football years ago.

Tbf, he actually recognised this after the Coppell fiasco and so sought "professional" help. Unfortunately, that help was called Mark Ashton. Lansdown asked the right questions about how he was running the club but came up with the wrong answer. Wouldn't it be interesting to know what led him to the door marked 'Swiss Tony, Snakeoil Salesman'?

Edited April 30, 2023 by Merrick's Marvels

[Kid in the Riot]

6 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

Tbf, he actually recognised this after the Coppell fiasco and so sought "professional" help. Unfortunately, that help was called Mark Ashton. Lansdown asked the right questions about how he was running the club but came up with the wrong answer. Wouldn't it be interesting to know what led him to the door marked 'Swiss Tony, Snakeoil Salesman'?

Ashton arrived first in a consultancy role too, so SL did try before he bought to an extent. 

Ashton's references from Watford and Wycombe must have got lost in the post.

[Merrick's Marvels]

18 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Ashton's references from Watford and Wycombe must have got lost in the post.

The under statement of the season! Given his initial consultancy 10 years ago was a failure - and required the arrival of Cotterill and Burt to sort the mess we were in - it's scarcely credible that Lansdown went back for more.

Perhaps he doesn't get the try before you buy concept. 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Merrick's Marvels

[Glen hump]

27 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Ashton arrived first in a consultancy role too, so SL did try before he bought to an extent. 

Ashton's references from Watford and Wycombe must have got lost in the post.

What I find more concerning is the amount of time he gave Swiss, most fans had sussed him out after a year or so, or was it his ego wouldn’t let him admit he had got it wrong again.

[italian dave]

1 hour ago, Port Said Red said:

So how does that Management record stack up against the majority of the other 92 clubs? I don't really follow these things enough to give an informed view, but I am aware of how many Managers sacked every season and each of them is probably considered a failure by their respective clubs. Many however go on to do well at other clubs, or were successful at other clubs prior to joining theirs. 

It's easy to say in hindsight that these Managers were destined for failure, but many have shown qualities in previous or subsequent roles, Tinnion for example had/has an eye for talented players as has now been proved, Coppell and O'Driscoll looked ideal, McInnes and Lee bright young things with fresh ideas, Millen a top coach at various clubs, even Holden is doing a pretty good job at Charlton. 

Is it that he chose well, but circumstances conspired against many of these people perhaps? But for a catastrophic level of injuries, Johnson Jr could have got us the success we all want, Tinnion and McInnes struggled to win over the dressing room.

I personally think that buying David James with money that Coppell had earmarked elsewhere was a poor decision, akin to the ones that Scott Davidson made with Ward, but again, it's easy to say that from here on my sofa.

That’s a good point, PSR. And I even had the same thought about the financial mess that’s the subject of so much discussion on this thread - and others. 

I’m not trying to under-play the mess we were in financially. And, on the same point that @spudski makes about polarisation, I don’t get this binary ‘it was all down to covid’ or ‘it was all down to MA/LJ’ - it’s quite possible for it to be a bit of both (and probably one or two other things! 

And I also recognise that it was SLs stated intent to make the club self-supporting - although he’s made a bit less of that recently.

But nevertheless, half the clubs in the championship have been in a desperate financial state over the past 5 years or so. We’ve never actually got to the point of points deductions, transfer embargos or ground closures. So as I say without underestimating the risks associated with where we got to, we don’t stack up that differently to a load of other clubs.

[italian dave]

9 minutes ago, Glen hump said:

What I find more concerning is the amount of time he gave Swiss, most fans had sussed him out after a year or so, or was it his ego wouldn’t let him admit he had got it wrong again.

And even then, it was MA’s decision to leave, wasn’t it?

Albeit, I think SL may then have realised how he’d been stitched up with the Americans and Ipswich. 

[italian dave]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Think it was far easier (factual?) to criticise the players signed and available that he didn’t play!

Yes, that’s  very true Dave. Although to be fair he had so many to choose from…….! The Mark Ashton lottery game: just buy as many random players from L1 or lesser known European clubs, and one in 5 will turn out to be a Kodjia or a Webster! 

[Mr Popodopolous]

12 hours ago, Glen hump said:

 it’s great he’s covering loses every year but we’re losing millions because of his incompetence .

The external environment is also a factor.

Wealthy and at times reckless owners, the distortions of Parachute Payments...very much factors.

Stoke had a cash loss of £39m last season to finish midtable in the Championship. Just one example. If SL wanted to bolster his case a bit more he could cite some of these.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[formerly known as ivan]

3 hours ago, Major Isewater said:

After losing Naismith and Cornick ! 

Naismith was deemed a loss, Cornick… 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, spudski said:

Whenever SL speaks...it's the same old rhetoric on here. It's so polarised.

Those for and against him, find ways of picking bits out of his comments to underline thoughts or agendas they have. 

Why can't he be listened to with a balanced perspective? 

For example...he never said he expects us to be in the play offs next season. He hopes/ would like us to be. He never gushed over Mark Robins...he mentioned how well he'd done and in the same breath Rowett. He was also very complimentary of NP. He said he'd signed a 3 year contract and hoped for promotion in third year...' let's see where we are then' was his comment. What's wrong with that? 

I love this forum...but in the last year or so it's become very black or white. For or against, left or right, he said, she said. Less and less is viewed with neutral balanced eyes imo. 

left/right/middle its the way of the world and on this forum, we all have our views its what a forum is for. Otherwise there would just be one view the Clubs and the forum would be obsolete. You must understand all posters views are "balanced" in each posters eyes.

It may well be same old, same old but a forum is all about opinions, is it not? rightly or wrongly they are just that opinions.

Edited April 30, 2023 by gl2

[Street red]

5 hours ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Not sure what thread you've been reading, but on this one people are highlighting SL's good and bad points, and discussing them in a civil manner.

The very definition of a balanced discussion is taking place. 

Spot on.

[Bristol Rob]

11 hours ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Problem with this theory has always been that LJ couldn't wait to get Kelly in the first team, playing him out of position to shoehorn him in, in fact. Persisted with Bobby when pretty much every City fan had concluded he wasn't good enough.

Then there is the absence of academy graduates at that time, who despite LJ apparently overlooking them, went on to succeed in football despite him - who are they and where are they? 

I personally think it's more a case that 3-5 years on we have a better crop of academy talent, blended with some really smart young signings like Antoine and Scott, which can be credited to Tinnion. 

Also, when did the academy and first team start using a shared facility?

[2015]

7 hours ago, tin said:

A lot of sense in there, but to describe SOD as a failure is a bit harsh IMO when he and Burt laid the foundations for Cotts’ “monumental success”.

Our training ground is something to grateful for, but nowhere near the best in the land. See Man City or Leicester for best in class. 

SOD got way too much stick for his time here. We were an absolute shambles when he took over and a sinking ship that needed stabilising. Fans forget he brought in Fielding, JET, Pack, Flint, Williams and gave Reid and Bryan game time at the start of League 1 campaign in 13/14. He absolutely laid foundations down for that squad and there is no doubt some of the players who played under him would admit that too.

[Major Isewater]

SOD was the first City manager to talk to supporters as ‘adults’ , his first mistake .Many prefer clichés and up and at ‘em war cries . 
He told it how it was and tried to explain what we were trying to do. So many cretins could not see past his accent and delivery ,which is also something that Pearson suffers from. 

He was undermined and sold down the river. 

[exAtyeoMax]

21 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

The only problem there is, I actually agree pretty much with what you have written, if we don't go up how much would Scott's value fall by next summer? He's happy here, enjoying it as SL said, having fun- and I believe one more year here with the stability of the environment would serve him well.

Surely it’s dependent on the player’s ability? Why would his value go down if we didn’t get promoted?

[Loosey Boy]

4 minutes ago, exAtyeoMax said:

Surely it’s dependent on the player’s ability? Why would his value go down if we didn’t get promoted?

By that time, he would be entering the final year of his contract…..