Interesting thing ITFCPTC brought up about changing something in ITFC's history. So if there was one thing you could go back and alter, what would that be? Mine would be extending the SBR and Sir Alf stands, we could have just waited a little bit longer and got ourselves established in the premiership.
Selling Richard Wright.... (in 2001) Just a hunch, but I doubt we would have got relegated the next season.... and I doubt Wrighty would have faded into obscurity as well.
I can think of 2 and that's not appointing SAF and appointing Keane (not the same event) but as I was only around for one of them, so would have to go Keane. I agree with KOPR about selling Wright although think Keane was an obvious mistake others are usually 'ifs' and 'buts'
Appointing Simon Clegg. Hard to think of any one event or person that comes anywhere close to having been so destructive.
Obviously I'd say Keane trumps Clegg, I wasn't a Clegg fan but I think if we'd of had a decent manager he wouldn't have been such a problem. He didn't endear himself to fans (which really should've been a big part of his job) but at the end of the day alot of the decisions he made were ME's decisions. But having him and Keane appointed at the same time, was a bit of a disaster!! I can't think of one person who did more damage to us as a club than Keane but then again ME let him.
Keane has been on record saying that if he knew Clegg better he wouldn't have took the Ipswich Job! See he couldn't even introduce himself well enough and we got lumbered with the Darklord!
Perhaps we should have sent Clegg and Keane off on holiday before his appointment. Sounded like a very Keane thing to say after he'd been sacked. He's never bitter about leaving a club/country is he?? One thing I'm sure of, is if Clegg was that much of a problem I'm sure Keane is the sort of character to not stand for it, so he would've either complained(probably publicly) or resigned!! It's not as if the club didn't back him either, we signed a staggering amount of players (when we didn't need to)!!
I'm with Guru on the timing of the rebuilding of the North stand. It's like we're still trying to recover from that now after some poor managerial decisions. Plus, wasn't it Paul Gascoigne that Sir Bobby didn't sign?
Building stands has always done for us. The equivalent of millions on the then “Pioneer” stand brought financial struggle and eventual relegation under Bobby Ferguson. A year after the Pioneer Stand opened, there was an initiative to improve grounds and super-rich Liverpool were in the receipt of a grant of around 1.5M (a lot at the time) after they’d just spent huge quantities (by the standards of the time) on John Barnes, John Aldridge etc. No such subsidy for us. After the redevelopment of the Churchmans I remember David Sheepshanks’ smiling face on the telly saying “you’ve got to strike when the iron’s hot” on the subject of the rebuilding of the North Stand. I can remember thinking “for ****’s sake wait until we’ve at least survived second season syndrome”. And that was before huge parachute payments…
I hate to to bring up the past, but that c*nt of a referee Clive Thomas in the the cup semi reply against those cockenee wide boys in 75 ...... he robbed us of a place in the final........
I agree that the moment the decision was made to appoint Keano was one the mammoth disasters in our history. When you think of the financial support ME gave him: the thick end of 10M in transfer funds (as far as I’m aware he wasn’t in possession of a crystal ball to foresee the funds from Walters and Wickham) and generous subsidy from various parts of the ME Group to fund the wages and running costs. Imagine if a decent manager would have had that. It’s enough to make you weep. The decision on Paul Jewell wasn’t much better. Then we have to ponder what might have been if George Burley, after taking us back to Europe, hadn’t gone the way of big transfer fees and caused internal strife with giving vast salaries for Sereni and Finidi George.
ME taking over our club. He resolved one problem and we have since lurched from stupid idea to stupid idea. Appointing Keane, chucking 10m + at it, giving his replacement less than half that amount but still expecting us to be in the promotion picture and now we appear to have a decent manager (at last) but with no fees to play with. Our debt level is horrific and yes its internal debt currently but I dont trust the guy (or at least the corporation which uses his name, F*** only knows what he is like) If he wants to keep a low profile then fine but at least appoint a decent CEO, not Clegg a friend who has bugger all knowledge of football. When we were taken over we had a team o playing well and looking like it could be the start of something promising. Since then we have gone downhill rapidly, wasted god knows how much cash, bored and humilation 99% of our fans, made many fans not turn up at all and have fought relegation on more than one occasion. I put forward the case for ME being a disaster for this club. At least with the new stands it was for what was considered the best for the club. We were on the up and wanted to gain financially from it. It failed but I do believe the board were trying to keep at the crest of the wave.
