New owner confirmed…

Fair enough, apologies.

I am always dubious about entering these kinds of discussions as I feel like we enter a world of gate keeping over who’s a better fan due to a liking or disliking of the Allams.

Taking everything into account (and there’s a lot I dislike about what the Allams have done over the years) the biggest problem for me has been that I haven’t been able to get enthused what the club are trying to do on the pitch.

I’m not a supporter who wants the owners to be throwing cash around, but I think there is a way to build ambition without bankrupting a club.

I think the Allams want to follow Brentford, but they haven’t got the ambition (or know how) to do it. I haven’t seen enough that they are prepared to speculate to accumulate and make the most of the profits we’ve made on Bowen and Maguire, amongst others. Instead, we’re following a downward trend, rather than an upward one.

That’s why I describe it as joyless. I don’t blame them for penny pinching as they attempt to sell the club, but it does mean that I struggle to get enthused when I feel like instead of building something competitive and making a profit by moving forward, it instead comes down to whether financially it works on a spreadsheet.

I appreciate many may say we have developed the academy and we’ve now got Greaves and KLP to sell and I applaud them for that, but on the pitch this hasn’t translated to anything I can particularly get behind. Since Silva left it’s felt more like staving off the next loss.

Alongside all of this is McCann and since 2019 his seeming inability to change things when it’s going wrong. I appreciate if we’d been in the ground during our promotion it might have felt different but unfortunately there’s nothing any of us can do about that.

I feel we need a breath of fresh air.

 

How can you say that ?
I don't see it like that or this 'joyless experience' thing either. I still look forward to going to watch City and missed it massively during last seasons lockdown.
We've had several 'joyless owners' I know that, I remember attending AGM's when Chris Needler, the 'reluctant owner', as he called himself, listened to all the concerns of the shareholders gathered then said we could vote for what we want but it wouldn't mean a thing because he held more votes, and the ones that matter, so he makes the decisions, not us. Then he went onto to preach to us all that if anyone else fancies taking up the reigns then please step forward. No-one did. We were sliding down the football league at an alarming rate, watched by fewer and fewer people and the ground was falling to bits around our ears and the players were car sharing to away games. The AGM's were held in the club gym, with no heating and water dripping through the roof. He spoke to us like an angry headmaster ticking off a class of naughty schoolboys.
I don't recall the David Lloyd years being a barrel laughs either with his constant threats, one of which was moving the club to Wimbledon, changing the clubs name and wanting to merge us with Hull FC, and we were bottom of the old 4th division with a manager who was totally clueless. .
The Sheffield Mafia robbed us blind and wanted thanking for doing it. They never put a penny piece of their own into the club.
I think the Allams have some serious competition for the title of 'worst owners we have ever had'.
Because this club has had more then it's fair share over the years, What was it ? Two title wins in 104 years, one of which was the 3rd div North and the other the 3rd division ?

 

Bowen, Tymon, Townsend to name a few more academ products. Greaves and KLP are the most recent but there have been a few. There were decades where City's academy got stripped of its talent well before any prospect even got close to the first team.

 

Don't get that, are you suggesting that if the buyer pays 30 million with a promise of 20 million more if we get to the premier league we will still owe 30 million to an outside party?

I was thinking the buyer would pay with his own money so it's not really a debt or if do you think there are plans to borrow the money needed to buy the club.

 

It's what Pearson did.

I suspect illicali will have personal arrangements with backers to raise the cash as AP did with Wilkinson.

 

I see it different to you.

I find it easy to say. They are, by a country mile, the worst owners we’ve had,

 

Agreed but therein lies my problem, you can’t do what they want to do without taking a few more risks.

They weren’t prepared to do that, and I understand why, but it means it isn’t going to work as well as they wanted.

 

I can't disagree with that. It's one thing generating good young players but to get the most value you need experience of the level alongside them.

I'd also say that when we were still spending that recruitment was underwhelming also. We didn't really get value for players contracts under Slutsky or Adkins.

There's been a distinct lack of ambition for years now.

 

Which is true but we’re a little club and always have been. and you either accept that and continue to support or give up as they don’t meet your ambitions.

 

A little club with the biggest ever thread on perspective new owners.

 

I have continued to support.

I don’t accept however that you can’t find ambition as a little club.

You can go the Brentford route and have a long term plan to invest properly in prospects, which then pays off.

Or you can do what Millwall, Burnley and countless others have done and forge the club and supporters together as a them against us kind of thing. Really get everyone pulling in the same direction to generate excitement that SOMETHING could happen.

We’ve not really had either. Which is why I find it joyless. Others may disagree, I’m only giving my thoughts

 

I'm not going to get into an argument about was or wasn't our worst ever owners.
I've enjoyed every City victory over the years no matter who was owning the club at the time.

 

It’s easier to go the Brentford route with rich man like that who invested a massive fortune just to get them to the championship
Same as Brighton
Not many of them around
Youve named a few successful instances but look how many unsuccessful ones there are.
Derby for one
Others not gojng doesn’t stop my enjoyment one bit I won’t let it

for all the hope this new owner is going to be good he isn’t a fan
So how he sees it when we don’t get up or the fans turn against him will be interesting to see

but I’ll still enjoy going and supporting my team

 

I’m hoping hutch comes back to do the last post on here!!

 

Does he have a bugle?

 

Where do I start ? Been through the good Needler era , the bad one , the Fish/ Dolan the 2-3 k gates , kept going home and away.
Stood on Bunkers freezing watching Steve Terry whoosh the ball higher longer farther . Put up with ****ty ignorant locals and the gobby FC fans on their bandwagon haven’t forgiven them . Kept going through Lloyd , Hinchcliffe and the rest up to now but what is shame it took the premiership seasons to make me more joyless than ever before . The on pitch cheating , influencing refs Rooney / Gerard etc, the ridiculous wages for average players and mercenaries , lack of loyalty and one question used to crop up . What’s the point ? It was the only time I seriously considered stopping because it seemed fruitless. Because unless you are in the top 5-6 you will never get there without a billion now - that’s if those clubs will let you. So do we settle for being mid table premier for the rest of our days or same in the Championship and watch the years go by like we have done and my father and brothers for 70 years ?
something inside makes me go on match day despite all this gloom - sorry guys!
I am trying to hope that these guys will be good guys . Something to remember there was no way the Allams could have expected us to get to the premier that soon - they got lucky - did we? I don’t believe they were worst on some levels but were on others Lloyd had the same attitude to fans too. Off my chest now for another pill to cheer me up

 

I would say Assem Allem is definately a joyless owner as he's owned a football club for 11 years without experiencing any joy for the game of football & any joy for his hometown football club. We all wondered why he suddenly stepped up in Dec 2010 & purchased the club & was adamant it would not go into administration. We now know it was to protect the money he had invested in the club at the request of Russell Bartlett that he would have lost if the club had gone into administration.He ended up with a football club he never wanted & had no idea how to run. He then came up with a money making idea of lending the club money at 5% interest & by keeping the club permanently in debt to himself made millions in interest payments every year (since Dec 2010 do we know the exact amount paid to Allamhouse Ltd in interest payments on the loan ?)
Assem Allam has never had any empathy or respect for the fans of Hull City & couldn't care less about them as long as the payments kept getting made to Allamhouse Ltd
Thankfully he is about to be replaced by a man who does love football, who is a lifelong supporter of a club & therefore does have empathy with the fans of Hull City & will treat them with respect.

 

Agree that we need someone who understands football and football fans.

Every owner we have ever had, has taken a wage or dividend of some form out of the club though. Its a bit naive to expect them not to.

I suspect the Allams won't end up with a profit from the sale of the club though - and the investment has been curtailed to be somewhat close to the eventual selling price. Meaning basically that the interest and tax offset at Allamhouse against losses at the club will be the eventual total financial benefit they receive.

We won't know until the sale figures come out, but I doubt owning City will have made them very much richer by the end of it all.

 

Everything is forgotten when City score a goal - so simple
And scoring one away from home even if we got thrashed was always enough
Funny old. Game