And there are ways around almost every rule or law that is ever introduced, whether in football or the wider community. As a financial expert, SL ought to be able to surf easily around FFP rules.
In a thread titled the facts are other chairman didnt put in more money than SL? you have no argument. they did not. not even close because under Laycock the club made a profit spent very little and relied on youth and the odd signing. That wrong as well? now you want SL to cheat? all you have as an argument is spend spend spend but would critisise a Pompey or cardiff as badly run.
Not by the actual amounts that they put in because in real terms allowing for inflation etc, Lansdown is a million miles in front of any owner/major shareholder of City, in my lifetime. But while he has dealt with the debts that his ownership created from 2008 to 2013 and he continues to do so, he is apparently willing to spend multi millions on transfer fees, there does appear to be a lack of willingness to go the whole hog and compete against other club's salary levels. I fully understand that SL's view on this aspect may have been discoloured by the greedy, lazy and incompetents that were recruited over that five year period. But we appear to have been unable to sign several players this summer because of salary levels, although success prospects of the clubs that they joined instead, may also have been a big factor. Also a big factor IMO is the ages limit that is being applied to new recruits. We desperately need three Championship experienced players through the spine of the team. A central defender to bring out the best in Flint who for all his outstanding efforts last season, is only now in his fourth full season as a league player. A midfielder who will bring to us what Wade did in League One. And a top class striker to score the ones that Kodjia will miss while he learns to adjust to the frantic pace of the Championship compared with the pedestrian Ligue 2 of France. We will have to pay high salaries for these but if we don't, then the gloom and poverty of League One will beckon and with it, a gate of around 7,000 hardly filling a quarter of the new stadium! The future is now very firmly in Steve Lansdown's hands. Will he grasp the nettle?
you seem to be coating off SL for creating debts for City but what applaud getting city up by having debts again [???] but want city to spend more on at least three TOP class players or is it one and yes lose yet more money which SL then deals with by bending rules. what nettle is that you want? big debts? more debts? smaller debts bigger debts? increase the losses? cheating? what? lots of words and posting things earlier that were not facts/ no ideas here unless cheating is one of them??? lay the plan out??
And the long term is? lay your plan out?? how will you compete in the long term? get rid of SL/SC what is it you think City could do so dramatically different to get these top class players in mentioned in this thread? is that a sky top top player which will be massive money or something else? or just a top player say at what seven eight nine million plus millions more in wages over a couple of seasons?
When/where have I asked SC or SL to be removed ? We don't need top top players as you put it. Kodjia, for a relatively small investment is already paying dividends. Frankly the ridiculous offers we made for Gayle and Gray were made out of sheer desperation as we realised we were miles behind the rest of the league in recruiting a team capable of just competing. We then made the second stupid mistake of offering £7-£9m pounds to Palace/Brentford in the hope that the respective players would accept £20 a week.
Nobody's really arguing about the input of SL and all the promises that have been made but when the hell do we see the benefit of all the money invested in what goes on down at Ashton Gate? It seems just when we are about to get somewhere that looks nice we fall flat on our proverbial asses again. When will they ever learn or at least know the rules of engagement prior to deciding what they want?
The scary thing is Kojak has been our best player since his arrival,and he has come from the french second division as well.
Of course I have but the goings on down in BS3 are somewhat confusing by anyone's standard. When Kodija was signed I said that we were at least thinking outside of the normal boxes and hoped it would continue. There is no doubting the financial commitment from SL but most of us are still asking what that spending has achieved (other than Kodija of course) and are we willing to lay down more money to save our season, or is all the confidence that last season brought us gone to waste? There is no point in deciding you want to be somewhere and when you finally arrive you haven't got a clue what to do to enjoy yourself. That sums up Bristol City in a nutshell when you consider we've all been down this road before and where it took us, and the only question that never gets answered is WHY.
Bristol City have hardly been down this road before. The redevelopment does not have a parallel. The model of FC - Bristol Sport again has no historical comparison at Ashton Gate. It is not "we" who will be laying money down, it is Mr Lansdown. How much do you propose he decides the FC will lose this season and how would you deal with the losses?
We seem to be in a time warp and although the situations change year by year on most fronts our overall lacklustre planning never gets us moving forward in the way it is intended. Best laid plans etc.
I'm confused, you keep harping on about the past being the same but you've been answered, that this time is not the same. Once the ground is complete we can finance the deals for all the players you want. At the moment we are being financed by one man, and unless you want to either double the turnstile prices or put some money into the club nothing can change. Let's forget about Lansdown saying Prem in five years, because he said that the last time we was in the championship. This time he says he wants us to be self sufficient. Offering a bid for Gayle was silly he was never going to drop in wages, unless they was about to offer ala Bournemouth style big signing on fee low wages in line with FFP it was pointless. Gray on the other hand who was the first choice and tracked throughout the summer was probably on lower money than he would of been offered. We lost out to Burnley offering a better offer. That is hardly the SL, KB or SC fault as they still have to keep harmony in the rest of the squad. What we forget is saying that we was crap in summer signings, time was taken up negotiating new deals for players still here. But don't worry, maybe I'm a happy clapper who can only see that one game in eight we've played ****, the others we've just got to be like others learning from mistakes.
At one one point Mr Lansdown was footing dealing or something with 75% of citys losses himself. at a consultation it was explained that for city to break even each fan would have to pay EIGHTY POUNDS per game.
Love your optimism ROD but how many more years are the tortured supporters of Bristol City going to have to endure false promises. I will agree that the changes to Ashton Gate will be a key factor in determining our future regarding gate monies but hasn't someone forgotten that we will need a competitive squad to get those people in the seats. Although, finally, our stadium is getting the necessary upgrades to make us more competitive on the revenue side it is only one component of what makes a successful football team, it looks to me like we are missing the point on some of the other relevant issues. Putting all the aspects of the programme that you want to use as your base for success isn't easy, I will admit, but if you look around the league at teams supposedly similar in aspect to us a lot of them have been more adept at reading the book on how to succeed than us. Some of your response comments highlight some of our shortcomings since our rise from the ashes of League One and yet you criticise others for saying some of the same things as you did. SL has already fed us the line about self sufficiency and being in the Prem in 5 years time as you stated, so that is what I was referring to in my comments about the past because in case nobody has noticed we have indeed been down this road before and probably will again. Please let me play my harp ROD because it makes my day and without it I turn to Victor Meldrew. Have a nice day.
I have many of the same thoughts as Invermere Mike, but maybe that is because we have both supported City for 60 odd years. Forgive us younger ones if we sound too pessimistic this early in the season but we have seen this situation so many times before. In 1965 we went up from Div 3 to Div 2 and just missed promotion the first season up. But then followed nearly six years of constantly battling against relegation. Even when we got to the First, the board was split, fiddling Gate figures and thus income, was a way of life. We got relegated because the investment in the team stopped after Joe Royle arrived. Do those of you under the age of forty know what three successive relegations are like? I believe that many of us who stuck with the Club all the way down to 92nd place were actually quite depressed by the whole experience. 1998 when John Ward signed plenty of strikers but no defenders. Is this year déjà vu? We have had people who put money in but rarely enough to get any lasting success. Just remember that no City fan has ever forced Dolman, Gooch, Davidson or Lansdown to join the board. They do it for many reasons but are doing it because they want to. I am not anti Steve Lansdown. I think what he has and is doing for our club is fantastic. But is the return for what he has "donated" sufficient? He has publicly stated that he wants City in the Prem within five years. Does the time lag include a return to League One? Unless we invest very quickly in a squad to keep us up, the answer is firmly Yes.
It is hard to understand what point you are making. Mr Lansdown has put in considerable sums of money. It can be argued that his largesse should have achieved more, but your argument is that he needs to pour even more cash in, even if he has to flout rules designed to safeguards clubs against irresponsible spending.
