BrizzleRed

2 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

He should expect a tough reception I tend to agree. Whether he will get one is a different issue but he knows how it is, fans have long memories etc.

We all know it doesn’t always work out Mr Pop and I put forward Billy Sharp at Sheff utd as a perfect example of someone who always seemed to rub our noses in it!

On the other hand, we’ve seen other players who’s game has turned to absolute sh1t when the crowd has got on their back, so if we can help the team in any way, I’m good with that.  

Maybe worth us selecting someone more effectable in the Leicester side at the Gate!

5 hours ago, Ivorguy said:

No.  Absolutely not.  Mindless and unpleasant.

…… So would you prefer we roll out a red carpet and go and ask him for his autograph??

Sorry if it offends your sensibilities, but give me an intimidating AG any day.  Anything we can do to make the opposition uncomfortable, then that’ll do for me.  

Maybe Vardy thrives on that type of thing, but does that also go for his team mates, or does it help tip the contest in our favour??

22 hours ago, The Swan and Cemetery said:

SL is an odd cove, seems persistently most upset by his best decisions. 

A good point, but as I commented elsewhere, I suspect SL’s view of success with this club is very different from that of us fans!

18 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

According to this SL was the 14th richest English football club owner in 2017: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-richest-billionaire-football-club-owners-in-england-2017-5

What a waste.

The odd thing with SL for me is, for all his wealth and business success, after all these years owning this club, it’s still not totally clear what his aims really were/are.

We’re all aware of those other clubs with a single minded drive to get to the top and managers are hooked at the first sign of failure.  It can look ridiculous, as in Watford and Forest, but it does at least show genuine intent.  I’ve never personally detected any of that intent from SL, even when he was splashing the cash for LJ and MA.

Granted, he isn’t a great communicator, which doesn’t help, but I feel he’s a bit of a ‘steady Eddy’ as an owner.  He’ll play strictly by the rules and generally play it safe.  I suspect we’re now pretty much where he originally wanted us to be.  If we can keep churning out a few more young gems, maybe we’ll be approaching his sustainability ideal.  I suspect he’s always viewed the money involved in the Premier League with suspicion and a little trepidation, so we’ve probably been in his comfort zone for the last few years.

In SL’s mind, that may make his ownership a roaring success, but I think most of us fans were hoping for a bit more ambition than that from a man of his business success and extraordinary wealth.

6 hours ago, TV Tom said:

I'm pretty sure when he announced the team on Tuesday night he said  " No. 20, Sam Baldock" or was i hearing things ? 

Well, if you were hearing things, you were doing better than the rest of us!!!

39 minutes ago, Wedontplayinblue said:

An actual emergency PA announcement would come through another system. 

One such as

“please evacuate the stadium in a calm manner at the nearest available exit”

You wouldn’t have downsy running round screaming into the mic “GET OUT GET OUT WERE ALL DOOMED” 

So are you saying the problem is with Downsey’s mic then?

Whatever system is used, surely an emergency evacuation message will go through the same speaker system in the stands and if they’re the problem, we’d be stuffed.

4 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Not just a vibe, he actually said it too.

Though he had Dave, but I wasn’t sure.  This will definitely show if he’s as good as his word.  

I certainly don’t like the sound of that 777 mob, that’s for sure!  

29 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Indeed, but perhaps be just as careful about the bloke who is the one deciding who he’s gonna sell to!

This will be a real test of SL.  He has always given a vibe that he wouldn’t ever put the club in danger, so we’ll see.

To be fair to SL, it could be the deal didn’t happen because he wasn’t comfortable with it.  

Maybe we’ll find out one day

Although SL has clearly slammed the wallet shut in a big way, it would be penny pinching on an extreme scale to do this to just save the CEO's salary.  

If you were looking for any signs that a sale of the club is is in the pipeline, surely this has to be one with big, flashing lights on it?!!

Great news and good luck in your fight against the nimbys 

I was starting to think a certain owner had the site taken down to stop any speculation about a potential take-over happening!!!!!!  

I couldn't get on through iPhone, iMac or android and just showed the same error message on everything.

1 hour ago, Glen hump said:

He could end up at the gas , wouldn’t surprise me if he ended up there for a season or 2

Christ, imagine that

The jailbird’s already got them believing it’s them against the world …… Colin would take that to another level.

Hate his football, but really hope that doesn’t happen, as he’d probably get the b stards up, as they’re actually geared for that type of shit football.

44 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Also a way of life at this level to some extent, look at a host of clubs. Truth perhaps lies somewhere in the middle, for a time FFP was a factor but not anymore.

Oh definitely, but at least teams with recent Prem experience, or at least displaying genuine ambition may have a chance of getting an extra season or two out of a star player before they move on.  

I just can’t see any of our players seriously believing they’ve got a realistic chance of reaching the Prem with us.

10 minutes ago, Cidre Monita said:

Appreciate what you’re saying Dave but I think that Gould would have stayed if he thought SL had any serious intentions of getting to the PL. Even at international level cricket is small fry compared to top level football and the money involved. 
Whilst we’re on the topic can you remember a tweet a few years back from Angus Scott (City fan/broadcaster & brother of Steve) saying that he had inside knowledge of what a basket case the club was under the Lansdowns and that we would never make the PL with SL as owner. I think the tweet may have been deleted quite soon afterwards?! 

Totally agree regarding Gould and ambition at BCFC.  

I think you could also say the same for any of our players with serious ambition too.  They can all pay lip-service by saying they’d like to reach the Premier League with City, but I’ll bet none of them actually believe it and is why we can’t hang on to our young stars

56 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

Yeah, I know what you mean, but the thought that you'll be a bigger/better club in the future due to the cash investment is what would keep you going and be your consolation.

Just imagine the rants on here when we get out-competed by Luton Town, as well as Bournemouth!  With SL’s admiration for them, we could even become their feeder club!!!

Fair play to them.  They’ve gone for it and if they play their cards right, they could really set themselves up in a big way.  

I’d take season of dickings, for two years of parachute payments.

1 hour ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I don't disagree with this but I suppose the million dollar q as I put on the hypothetical takeover thread.

A) How much should we spend and over what time period? In other words how much should the cost base go up by.

B) How big a risk are we keen to take if it goes wrong ie if we plan to spend x and it leads to a major FFP breach 2-3, 4 at a push years down the line if we don't go up, are we as fans willing to accept a major downside risk.

Or try and go up in 2 frontloading expenditure making a 3rd or 4th year fail risk irrelevant.

I don't think we are spending enough now btw.

I for one certainly wouldn’t want to see some chancer come in and put us in danger.  Even under SL we were sailing close to the wind with FFP in the last few years, but how much of that was caused by the amount of multi-million pound transfer fees being written off with players leaving us on a free?!

If that money had been spent more wisely, there would have been a far better return on the outlay and our finances would have looked a lot healthier.  What I’m saying is, a new owner could conceivably stay within fhe same budget, but use the money more effectively and get far more from their investment.

I think the ideal situation would be for someone to come in with the attitude fhat we’ve got a hell of a lot going for us, if only we are run properly.  They can then formulate a clear plan, making sure they have people in place with the right expertise to carry out that plan.  

The owner can then stand back and let the people in post get on in doing the job they’re paid for, without unecessary interferance, or constant moving of the goal posts.  Hopefully we could then avoid the regular wasteful rebuilds, as we lurch from one ‘plan’ to the next

Only a dream I know, but I’d love to see it happen.  I’m just bored with hearing SL occasionally outlining his aims, including play-offs and ultimately the Prem, whilst his actions often seem to completely contradict his words.  We’ve heard it all far too many times now!

1 hour ago, Lord Northski said:

Apologies for my naivety on the subject of extra investment from a new sugar daddy. But there seems to be a sizeable amount of people who believe a new owner is going to be allowed to invest in the club (give us more money for players) than we are given presently by SL (Scott money aside)

Surely FFP rules will apply to the probable Spiv that comes in a promises sunlit uplands too. 

Plus, Don’t those who want a financial return want the right to flog stuff off if their investment goes pear and they get relegated etc . Sale of the training ground could be a possibility. etc 
Reeducation most welcome  

 

 

 

Alternatively, they could come in and actually make a serious attempt to go for some of the Premiership £millions, rather than just paying lip service to having genuine ambition, when clearly not meaning it.

Obviously costs also rise with the Prem, but at present, we are treading water at best.  We aren’t talking huge money to strengthen and a couple of targeted additions to this current squad could work wonders.

it seems pretty clear that any ambition SL may have had for City in the past is long gone and he’s maybe looking for new, probably more rewarding challenges.

Are we wrong to want a new impetus and energy around the club, or should we be content to just stagnate and eventually slip downwards out of this division?

32 minutes ago, headhunter said:

You're assuming the interview process was our usual "vigorous & rigorous" approach. 

How many people were seen or was it simply, as rumour has it, SL sought Richard Scudamore's advice and went with PA whose track record, on paper, is exemplary - if he could survive Ron Noades & Simon Jordan, I would say SL is a puppy in comparison!

…… Or maybe he’s a right pain in the arse to work for.  

We’ve been continually rebuilding the squad and clearing out managers, head coaches and now CEO’s.  The one constant at this club is SL, and I’m coming to the conclusion that he may be the root cause of the problems and underachievement here and not the solution.

Maybe he just can’t sit back and let the people he employs get on and do the job they’re paid to do.  There are so many rumours of him meddling, that it makes you wonder if this could be the cause of many of our issues.   

Who knows, but we really shouldn’t be such perennial underachievers with the amount of investment he’s piled into the club, so something’s going wrong somewhere.

24 minutes ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

The return of Ashton…..unless Gould wants to come back! 

We’ll, they’re higher up the table than us, so could be.

Maybe SL thinks they’re the new Luton and he’s trying to get in early 

Just now, Charlie BCFC said:

Do we know for sure that this is true? Or is it just murmurs between fans? Timing just seems weird

It’s fair to say, a lot seems weird about this club right now.

10 minutes ago, milo1111 said:

Whether on World Cup duty or not that is nowhere near a full strength bears line up.

 

Maybe SL received some offers he couldn’t refuse for a few of them!!!

6 hours ago, Harry said:

It’s a penalty. I thought so at the time and I think so after watching the replay. 
Naismith comes from slightly behind and comes through the man to get the ball. 
If that was against us, we’d be moaning about not getting penalties. 
 

But we don’t get penalties, so we’d be right.  

To anyone moaning on the West Brom side, I’d say tough shit, now you know what it’s like for us!

To anyone overanalysing it from our side, I’d just remind them of how many far more clear cut ones we’ve had waved away in recent years.

11 minutes ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

This is the crux of the matter and is unarguable.

When someone labels someone else's post with a word that is completely over the top, and easily shown to have been inappropriate by the definition of the word, they really should have the good grace to accept they were wrong to use it in the first place, rather than continuing to use the word and insisting they were right to do so.

 

Pretty much the same as the massively over-used ‘vile’ these days.  

That seems to be some people’s go-to word for any action they don’t personally like, and its use is often totally inappropriate and ott.

6 minutes ago, Bristol Oil Services said:

I like to think there's room on Otib for odd posts.

It's a pot-pourri of things with LJ, what I'm throwing in to the hat, is the idea that we are not always fully aware of why we think the things we think, nor the judgements and conclusions we come to, especially about other people.

I'm not saying you cannot make it as a player if you are small, although how often does a kid get told: yer too small to make it? I'm talking about Lee as a manager. 

It doesn't necessarily stop you, but it puts you at a disadvantage being quite short, I want to say. A bit like being black puts, or certainly put, ex players at a disadvantage of securing manager/leader roles. People have fixed ideas about things such as what a leader looks like (he looks like Nige, tough; not like Martin Woolford, woolly), 

There will be a reason Lee projects himself as "cleverer than most around him" and I am suggesting that his stature is part of that.

Yes, the forum is all about variety and I completely get that.

The point is, football, unlike many areas in society seems to be a meritocracy, where success is rewarded, regardless of who you are.  If you can do the business, you’re, so to speak.

That’s why I don’t totally agree with what you say about black footballers.  There are plenty who get to the very highest levels on the field, so don’t appear to be disadvantaged at all there.  It may just be they don’t generally have the same desire to go into coaching and management.  I see no reason why they’d be rejected if it looked like they could ‘produce the goods’, as it didn’t hold them back on the field and football is a results business after all.

Really interesting that you raise the point about Martin Woolford.  He was shocking for quite some time, so the hair and hairband were something that didn’thelp his cause.  He  then had that great start to one season and I well remember that song starting, along the lines of ‘Woolford, Woolford, he used to be shite, but now he’s alright, oh Woolford’.  Not exactly glowingly complimentary, but people definitely warmed to him when he stopped being shit!

As for your last sentence, you’re basically describing small/short man syndrome, which is certainly understandable in his situation.  That said, they aren’t the most endearing social traits, which could equally be responsible for his low popularity rating with many fans.  A bit of a chicken and the egg situation I guess, so was he unpopular because of his height, or general demeanour.

30 minutes ago, Son of Fred said:

Steve Pantsdown

About the only thing the Sags have got right