Steve Lansdown……..

[View from the Dolman]

1 hour ago, CyderInACan said:

https://www.reachfeverpitch.com/

Such an extensive and varied list of clients it seems & a huge body of work. 

I think it needs to be seen for what it is.

It's essentially an in-house design agency (Nationwide Building Society adopted a similar approach when it created its "Studio") as part of Bristol Sport so it's primary work will be Bristol Sport but they do also appear to be taking external work. When you look at the Fever Pitch Twitter account, you can see they've been getting some other work too - Oxford United and Saracens appear to be two who are essentially paying customers of Bristol Sport.

[mozo]

2 minutes ago, One Team said:

That play off final against them feels like the slidiest of sliding doors in our history! 

I wonder if Brighton fans ever think “where did it all go right?”!

Wow, yeah I still remember the game vividly.

[One Team]

7 minutes ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

Tony Bloom is what SL should have been.

And this is part of the issue people on this thread are leaning into.

For all the positive things we’ve achieved off the pitch under SL’s reign, on the pitch we’ve been left behind by clubs of the same size or smaller. I mean fair play to the likes of Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth and even now Luton, but it doesn’t half grind…

[LondonBristolian]

I think maybe the major problem with Steve Lansdown is that everyone who stays anywhere a long time eventually stays too long. You get thee sense that he's tired of it, he wants out and that his appetite and enthusiasm for it all has been worn down by the gambles that haven't paid off. For a long time, I was resistant to the idea that a change of ownership would be a definitively good thing, simply because - whilst the Tony Blooms of this world do exist - so do a lot of club owners who are far worse than Lansdown and you can easily end up with someone who does not have the clubs best interests in heart and it can be a disaster.

But, at the moment, there feels like a real inertia around the club. I don't really believe for a second Lansdown wants to bring Lee Johnson back for another tilt because I don't really believe he wants to do anything at all but find the right buyer who will preserve and build on his legacy. That's not easy but I think we need it sooner rather than later as a real drift could set in. 

[Ian M]

11 hours ago, steviestevieneville said:

No context from you just black & white. Plus ,you work with kanes dad . Are you 5 years old ? 
this is  what pisses me of with fans like you . If players are not instant success then they’re shit . Bajic is a kid but you’re judging him . Cornick will turn out to be decent signing long term . Blinkered short term thinking that’s what it is. You’ve decided anis is no good either . I really do wonder what some people watch during games .Don’t  take this personally  but Sorry imo your opinions are clueless when it comes to football 

....and one of the poster's criticisms of Pearson is that he has "signed a lot of players who are no better than he had before"

Where's the consideration for that being achieved whilst reducing the wage bill by circa £8m a year and knocking £10m a year off amortisation costs. That's before you even recognise he's over £25m in credit at player trading. From what he inherited to where we are today, we are potentially £79m+ better off over a three year FFP accounting period compared to carrying on as normal 3 years ago.

Pearson was sold a project that he would have it tough getting the club back on a sound financial footing but once he had we could make a proper go at getting promoted. He's done that, had his star player sold for £25m+ and yet this has had no effect on budgets set in March, even though it dwarfs any other income stream on which budgets are able to be set. He's definitely been done dirty.

I believe the nest egg is either SL planning a sale of the club ASAP or expecting to relieve Pearson of his duties and beginning the long process of shaping our squad in the new chosen one's favoured image. 

[cidercity1987]

6 minutes ago, Ian M said:

....and one of the poster's criticisms of Pearson is that he has "signed a lot of players who are no better than he had before"

Where's the consideration for that being achieved whilst reducing the wage bill by circa £8m a year and knocking £10m a year off amortisation costs. That's before you even recognise he's over £25m in credit at player trading. From what he inherited to where we are today, we are potentially £79m+ better off over a three year FFP accounting period compared to carrying on as normal 3 years ago.

Pearson was sold a project that he would have it tough getting the club back on a sound financial footing but once he had we could make a proper go at getting promoted. He's done that, had his star player sold for £25m+ and yet this has had no effect on budgets set in March, even though it dwarfs any other income stream on which budgets are able to be set. He's definitely been done dirty.

I believe the nest egg is either SL planning a sale of the club ASAP or expecting to relieve Pearson of his duties and beginning the long process of shaping our squad in the new chosen one's favoured image. 

100% bang on

[Davefevs]

2 hours ago, CyderInACan said:

https://www.reachfeverpitch.com/

Such an extensive and varied list of clients it seems & a huge body of work. 

I know.  I’m not sure whether Fever Pitch is a team within Bristol Sport, or a separate company, but if it is external, it’s rather convenient that it’s source of revenue is Bristol Sport companies.

[GrahamC]

1 hour ago, Pezo said:

Just on season 3, so what has SL done that means he had to take a step back?

It was really making the comparison of successful, self made billionaire (which whatever you think of his football decisions, SL absolutely 100% is) & his likely successor (Kendall, Roman, Shiv, I won’t spoil it for you) being a total **** up.

@CyderInACan Watch it Reg, the best thing on TV for years, well, along with Ozark, but that’s me off at another tangent..

[Mr Popodopolous]

The Bloom v SL comparison is an interesting one and there are or were definitely some parallels. Up to a point.

Amex eemed to be built rather swiftly, worth remembering that we put in plans for Ashton Vale as far back as late 2007. Battled over it for 5, 6 years didn't we- not the club's fault. Had thst process gone smoothly we would have benefited from revenue far sooner than 2016-17 which was when it really started to kick in.

Council have done us few favours so that held up certain matters. On the pitch yes some questionable appointments for sure and odd rolling of the dice followed by austerity back again.

[mozo]

35 minutes ago, Ian M said:

Pearson was sold a project that he would have it tough getting the club back on a sound financial footing but once he had we could make a proper go at getting promoted.

Ian, as much as I like this narrative, is the bit in bold definitely true? How do we know that is what he was sold?

[Red-Robbo]

1 hour ago, glynriley said:

So what..? We signed A Fati on loan from Bournemouth not long back...

 Signed a few who might be an anagram of Ansu as well.... 

[Ian M]

6 minutes ago, mozo said:

Ian, as much as I like this narrative, is the bit in bold definitely true? How do we know that is what he was sold?

None of us can "know" anything, unless we are SL or NP but this is the take I get from all the various soundbites of the last 3 years during press conferences and interviews.

Maybe I should have pre-faced even more lines in my post as "It is my belief that...." I thought I had caught all the angles but I'll try to do better in future.

This isn't a criminal court so I am operating on the basis of "on the balance of probabilities"  

"What football makes, football can spend."

[HoldenBall]

2 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Basically & this has only just occurred to me, JL is a combination of Kendall Roy and Roman Roy from Succession (& if anyone hasn’t seen it, boy are you missing out), as Logan once said “you’re not serious people”.

Mark Ashton was clearly Bob Mortimer’s Train Guy, now it all makes sense.

I’m off for a lie down.

JON IS THE ELDEST BOY 

 

[Bris Red]

3 minutes ago, mozo said:

Ian, as much as I like this narrative, is the bit in bold definitely true? How do we know that is what he was sold?

We don’t know. Reading between the lines however you’d imagine that to get Pearson to commit in the first place back in 2021 some sort of promises were made.

I can’t imagine Pearson would have taken the job knowing full well it was going to be 2 years of cost cutting and struggle to then not be rewarded in some way and the shackles to come of and have a go at promotion in year 3. I just can’t see Pearson agreeing to that but its all purely speculation , none of us truly know what was discussed in the early meetings between Lansdown and Pearson.

[mozo]

1 minute ago, Ian M said:

None of us can "know" anything, unless we are SL or NP but this is the take I get from all the various soundbites of the last 3 years during press conferences and interviews.

Maybe I should have pre-faced even more lines in my post as "It is my belief that...." I thought I had caught all the angles but I'll try to do better in future.

"What football makes, football can spend."

Yep, I'm totally with you, but also a little wary of us being convinced that SL has messed Nige around. I could completely imagine it, but can't be sure it's correct. 

Like I said elsewhere, I think we'll start to get vibes from Nige (Nige-vibes), especially if the team starts to struggle.

[mozo]

1 minute ago, Bris Red said:

We don’t know. Reading between the lines however you’d imagine that to get Pearson to commit in the first place back in 2021 some sort of promises were made.

I can’t imagine Pearson would have taken the job knowing full well it was going to be 2 years of cost cutting and struggle to then not be rewarded in some way and the shackles to come of and have a go at promotion in year 3. I just can’t see Pearson agreeing to that but its all purely speculation , none of us truly know what was discussed in the early meetings between Lansdown and Pearson.

Agree. I also can't imagine Nige suffering in silence, and so far he's not dissented and even said we're happy with what we've got.

[Mr Popodopolous]

NP has already taken to not filling his bench so is that a sign of things to come.

8 subs at Hull 7 In the Cup v Norwich.

[Ian M]

Just now, mozo said:

Yep, I'm totally with you, but also a little wary of us being convinced that SL has messed Nige around. I could completely imagine it, but can't be sure it's correct. 

Like I said elsewhere, I think we'll start to get vibes from Nige (Nige-vibes), especially if the team starts to struggle.

The alternative is that SL sold the dream thus:

"Hey Nigel, would you like to come manage my football team? In year 1 you're gonna have to cost cut a lot. Year 2 loads of the same, I'm rather afraid we're in a bit of a mess. But when you reach Year 3 and have got us on an even keel, that's when we'll sell your team's best player from under you and not let this change the budgets set the year before at all. What do you say to that?"

If that worked I reckon SL should have a go at selling some Eskimos a batch of frozen water  

[Glen hump]

7 minutes ago, Bris Red said:

We don’t know. Reading between the lines however you’d imagine that to get Pearson to commit in the first place back in 2021 some sort of promises were made.

I can’t imagine Pearson would have taken the job knowing full well it was going to be 2 years of cost cutting and struggle to then not be rewarded in some way and the shackles to come of and have a go at promotion in year 3. I just can’t see Pearson agreeing to that but its all purely speculation , none of us truly know what was discussed in the early meetings between Lansdown and Pearson.

Anybody think with a little bit of heat coming Steve’s way ‘ he might come out and do a proper interview or get the new ceo to do 1 ‘ I think I know the answer ‘ a big fat no .

[Ian M]

6 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

NP has already taken to not filling his bench so is that a sign of things to come.

8 subs at Hull 7 In the Cup v Norwich.

That concerns me for the future.

Due to budgets set in March and not adjusted for player trading, we are left in a position where to fill the bench we have to select players who would otherwise be playing for the U21s.

Presumably U21 football is good for their development, otherwise why have it. So we are left with the choice to either let them develop in the U21s or have a full first team squad some weeks.

That's before you consider that taking Araoye and Knight-Lebel out of the U21s to fill spots on the bench has a detrimental impact on the development of the other U21s as they are now in a much weaker team, enjoying less of the ball etc

[Ian M]

3 minutes ago, Glen hump said:

Anybody think with a little bit of heat coming Steve’s way ‘ he might come out and do a proper interview or get the new ceo to do 1 ‘ I think I know the answer ‘ a big fat no .

It'd be advisable not to. Over the years, when there has been a bit of pressure from fans, that's when SL has come out with his worst soundbites. Eg "It's my club!"

 

[Fuber]

24 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

The Bloom v SL comparison is an interesting one and there are or were definitely some parallels. Up to a point.

Amex eemed to be built rather swiftly, worth remembering that we put in plans for Ashton Vale as far back as late 2007. Battled over it for 5, 6 years didn't we- not the club's fault. Had thst process gone smoothly we would have benefited from revenue far sooner than 2016-17 which was when it really started to kick in.

Council have done us few favours so that held up certain matters. On the pitch yes some questionable appointments for sure and odd rolling of the dice followed by austerity back again.

The council is literally killing the city - I actually feel for Rovers over the stand episode etc as it's stuff we've been through all over again.

They are a joke - simply put. That's not even mentioning the arena fiasco.

[Mr Popodopolous]

12 minutes ago, Ian M said:

That concerns me for the future.

Due to budgets set in March and not adjusted for player trading, we are left in a position where to fill the bench we have to select players who would otherwise be playing for the U21s.

Presumably U21 football is good for their development, otherwise why have it. So we are left with the choice to either let them develop in the U21s or have a full first team squad some weeks.

That's before you consider that taking Araoye and Knight-Lebel out of the U21s to fill spots on the bench has a detrimental impact on the development of the other U21s as they are now in a much weaker team, enjoying less of the ball etc

Agreed. The squad feels dangerously thin and as you say although winning isn't necessarily the be all and end all at that level, there have been some terrible results for us so far at that level!

I thought the squad was a bit thin post January again partially out of necessity, let alone now with the multiple injuries. They and arguably Yeboah should all be learning their trade still at U21.

Edited August 31, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[Bristol Oil Services]

1 hour ago, cidercity1987 said:

100% bang on

Only 100?

[Red-Robbo]

33 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Council have done us few favours so that held up certain matters.

 

Don't forget it was the government's TVG legislation and the "independent inspector" who sank the Ashton Vale project. The council backed it and granted permission.  North Somerset added their objections to the resident (and non-resident) objectors though. 

[Ian M]

2 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Agreed. The squad feels dangerously thin and as you say although winning isn't necessarily the be all and end all at that level, there have been some terrible results for us so far at that level!

I thought the squad wasa bit thin post January again partially out of necessity, let alone now with the multiple injuries. They and arguably Yeboah should all be learning their trade still at U21.

Yeboah at least is getting minutes off the bench which will aid his development. RA and JKL just sit on the bench "just in case they're needed".

How have we set a budget that does not allow us to fulfil the requirements of the club's first team just weeks into the season.

Let's hope we don't have an injury crisis akin to last Autumn where we were left playing without any recognised centre backs.

[mozo]

12 minutes ago, Ian M said:

The alternative is that SL sold the dream thus:

"Hey Nigel, would you like to come manage my football team? In year 1 you're gonna have to cost cut a lot. Year 2 loads of the same, I'm rather afraid we're in a bit of a mess. But when you reach Year 3 and have got us on an even keel, that's when we'll sell your team's best player from under you and not let this change the budgets set the year before at all. What do you say to that?"

If that worked I reckon SL should have a go at selling some Eskimos a batch of frozen water  

I think if I'm being boring now and playing devil's advocate it is conceivable that pitch was as follows:

"Nige we've got quite a task ahead. I want the club to be self-sustaining and I don't want to bankroll the operation like I have done for years. We need to reduce the wage bill to x, we need to maximise transfer income and minimise transfer outgoings. If we can offload the deadwood in the squad, take of advantage of the academy recruits, and recruit hungry young talent from lower leagues or free transfers from our competitors, you can then use your experience to create a positive culture and a tight-knit squad. Lets push as far up the league on that basis as we can."

So the promise doesn't include spending to push for promotion.

Nige has clearly had to make requests along the way, such as new coaching staff, and paying off player contracts for the good of the team spirit.

But did he expect anything other than what is happening now? Hopefully we'll find out...

[Bristol Oil Services]

59 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I know.  I’m not sure whether Fever Pitch is a team within Bristol Sport, or a separate company, but if it is external, it’s rather convenient that it’s source of revenue is Bristol Sport companies.

Fever Pitch is a book, Dave, and nothing else.

[Ian M]

5 minutes ago, mozo said:

I think if I'm being boring now and playing devil's advocate it is conceivable that pitch was as follows:

"Nige we've got quite a task ahead. I want the club to be self-sustaining and I don't want to bankroll the operation like I have done for years. We need to reduce the wage bill to x, we need to maximise transfer income and minimise transfer outgoings. If we can offload the deadwood in the squad, take of advantage of the academy recruits, and recruit hungry young talent from lower leagues or free transfers from our competitors, you can then use your experience to create a positive culture and a tight-knit squad. Lets push as far up the league on that basis as we can."

So the promise doesn't include spending to push for promotion.

Nige has clearly had to make requests along the way, such as new coaching staff, and paying off player contracts for the good of the team spirit.

But did he expect anything other than what is happening now? Hopefully we'll find out...

But if a promotion challenge wasn't part of the "sell", why was SL quick to pushback when Twentyman probed him about a new deal for Nigel that he hadn't achieved anything yet. JL too has accused NP of under-achieving. If cost cutting and treading water was the only target then NP is meeting that very nicely and talks would already have begun.

[Bristol Oil Services]

2 minutes ago, Ian M said:

But if a promotion challenge wasn't part of the "sell", why was SL quick to pushback when Twentyman probed him about a new deal for Nigel that he hadn't achieved anything yet. JL too has accused NP of under-achieving. If cost cutting and treading water was the only target then NP is meeting that very nicely and talks would already have begun.

Because they speak with forked tongue, them Lansdowns