Wtf? You made an argument out of it by trying to suggest sinik being here means anything. What an overreaction..
I haven't twisted anything. Feel free to reread my original post which I even quoted and bolded. If you find that passive aggressive I can only apologise as that wasn't my intention I was just trying to emphasise what my original point actually was as you seem to think I've twisted things when I thought my original point was quite clear. We signed a lot from the Turkish league. They didn't work out. We signed less from the Turkish league. We then signed Lincoln and people were skeptical that it would work out. It's not much deeper than that.
True but they already have the tradition and history behind them. Generations were brought up on it. Grandfather, father and son, brought up supporting a big successful club in a one club community. I'd give my right arm to have that here in Hull. I was brought up supporting City obviously, and I was only taken to my first game because we'd drawn a big club in the FA Cup, it was not on our league performances. I remember my father and all his mates jumping on the RL bandwagon in 1959 and again in 1960 to going to Wembley, which was a massive trip in those days, all dressed in black and white to support the Airlie Birds, and all of Hull were proud that a Hull team was there representing our home city. Same with Rovers in 1964. Neither of them won. All we ever heard as kids was that Hull City will never get in the first division 'because they couldn't afford it' I've followed City for over 60 years and the only 'success' I'd seen was winning Div 3 in 1966, and we still speak about a 2-2 draw at Chelsea in the Cup also in 1966. My generation were then fed years and years of neglect, under investment and lower league football. No wonder thousands deflected to RL and other more successful clubs and our supporter base sunk to a 3,000 hardcore Sunderland have never had that. We get the crowds we do today because we had a bit of success, but massive in Hull City terms, when we moved to the new stadium. Premier League and Wembley, heights my generation could only dream of. For those of us still here to see it, that dream actually came true, but like all dreams it didn't last.
We had one golden opportunity when Assem Allam met the council and wanted to develop the stadium and move the club forward. But a lack of enthusiasm from the council, and the public to be fair, and the usual Hull apathy saw the deal binned before it got off the table. Maybe Assem didn't have the funds at the the time, maybe he did want some financial commitment from the council? All maybes, all immaterial now because no-one gave it a chance, no-one serious believed it was possible and therefore it never happened. And I doubt if we will ever get that chance again.
We had a golden opportunity then too and I remember it well. Recently promoted from Div 3 as champions in 1966, attracting big crowds, playing from one of the newest stadium in the county, and with a talented team we kicked off life in Division Two......but never strengthened the team that won the Third Division. We never bought another player. Can you imagine that happening today? Again in 1970. Again we had the bones of the 1966 team still playing, still had the ground which we owned outright and had just recruited the Arsenal captain and Irish International and team manager, Terry Neill as our player manager, the city was behind us again. Then we launched an appeal to buy players. We asked the fans to donate a £1 each to a team building fund, non league stuff, when we should have gone out and bought a goalkeeper, maybe a fullback and another centre half to give Neill a fighting chance. No outside investment was invited into the club at the time, no-one sought to give the aging Harold Needler a helping hand and it was kept in family. The early season new manager bounce saw us challenge for promotion right up to the first week in March, then we fell away at a time when we actually did strengthen the team with Knighton and Baxter, possibly bought from the proceeds of our FA Cup run. We then suffered 25/30 years of decline. What could have been eh?
Even when Tan was there the Walton Street Sporting Village plan was never going to happen. Funding avenues where looked into, but it was all lip service and sound bites, neither the club or the council had any real heart or desire ( or money) to see the idea reach fruition.
How do you know? The golden opportunity was that Hull City were a Premier League club at the time. And would it have been such a bad deal if the stadium had of been owned by the owner of the football club and West Park had been developed on the back of it ? What has happened around there since................................... how many bricks have been laid?
Because I met with the leader of HCC on a couple of occasions and he told me what had happened. He was actually very open to a development around the stadium, though not one that included West Park (which the Council weren't in a position to grant permission for anyway) or saw the Fair moved.
And I met the Allams and heard their side of the story. At least some sort of deal was on the table, none has been put forward since and the council have done nothing themselves. The 'public square' which was supposed to replace demolished properties directly across the road from the stadium entrance, is still undeveloped today by the council. They have done nothing in the area since the stadium was built. It was a failure on both sides to come to some sort of agreement and I repeat it will be a long, long time, if ever, when another successful local businessman who has put millions of pounds of his own money into this city puts forward another deal for the council to consider with development of the stadium and the whole area surrounding it in mind.
The plans the SMC had drawn up after the Council rejected the idea of moving the fair (to develop the land within the existing lease footprint), were pretty good, didn't you think?
The SMC are a loss making side arm of the football club, they haven't a penny of their own so any plans they may have drawn up are for lip service purposes only. They had no funding to put any plans they may have had into operation. The Fair has been moved before and could be moved again if there was a will to do so. Maybe the Labour administration were shy of making that decision but Mike Ross ( I know) hasn't dismissed the idea, nor has he put any backing behind any move to do so. All of this doesnt matter one dot because the only man who did put a blueprint down for this area and was serious about doing something is no longer with us. Its a shame all the parties couldn't have come together when the time was right to do so.
The SMC was owned by the Allams and obviously nobody at the SMC arranged for an architect to draw up plans for a large development without them knowing.
That is a whole different ball game. Despite architects plans not a single brick has been laid on the land surrounding the stadium. That is a fact. Nothing.
I'm aware of that, they never filed the application, which is a shame as it was pretty good. Problem is, by the time the plans were drawn up, Assem had already decided to pull the plug.
