Steve Lansdown wipes out 35m debt

Thanks redprintt and I think we need to focus our attention on supporting SC and his boys on the field if we want to play our part. The happenings in the boardroom have long since baffled most supporters and if we just leave them to play their own game in their mysterious ways then we stand less risk of having a heart attack. All that concerns me right now is that we have someone in charge who does what he says and says what he does which is a refreshing change form the dross we have been fed lately.

Perhaps somewhere deep in the dark recesses of Ashton Gate someone has finally listened, and indeed woken up, to the mood of the paying public and chosen to support the person who pulls the real strings. Who knows, but perhaps there is at last some hope for us.

 

Nobody said Steve wasn't generous, or backing BCFC to the hilt.
The main criticism of Mr Lansdown has been in the running of the club and his dealings with the five previous managers who have, despite being financed when required, managed us into the depths of Div 1.
SL's involvement has been at the hiring stage. Also, his relocation to the Channel Islands, and his passing on the reins to his inexperienced son has given us all a chilled blood feeling. This has been irritating to many that had always felt Sir Steve, who was one of us to the marrow, was now turning his back on the club and counting his 50 million deficit (now 85 million of course). Fact is, that is the true cost of trying to kick start a football club who are starved of success. How much has Abramavitch spent, or Man City ? How much has West Ham cost Mr Tann so far, with relegation to look forward to ?
Finally, SL has realised something I howled about on here soon after Wembley, that the only way we can live in that sort of company is by creating a cutting edge youth academy and spending to attract talent rather than throwing it all away on loanees and dodgy journeymen (Hartley, Saborio etcetcetc). That realisation has finally come home, but too late to keep us out of Div1.
But the good news is...
For all the tellers of doom that criticised the appointment of Cotteril, it seems we do have the real deal in charge at last, or at least those are the early indications based upon his effects on the club and players. So not all the decisions made in the board room have been daft ones.
And we do now have a proper academy which is capable of churning out players that deserve to be in our first team on merit. And we do have, as I have advocated repeatedly for the last 4 years, people in charge of that academy who have delivered the goods on the continent (you know, that large place where they produce all the footballers these days).

So its been an expensive learning process Mr Lansdown, but like us i'm sure you now feel that the money is being channelled wisely and not wasted away, and that steady growth and investment will eventually result in the realisation of many people's dreams.
I look forward to hearing from the horse's mouth what he has to say at The New Beehive tomorrow.
See you at the match

 

Well said brightred. Makes me wonder why the right decisions weren't made in previous seasons but there it is and now we have to move onward and upward. Will be off the board for a while and in the meantime good luck to the boys at Bradford.

 

31 minutes to change your mind from gratitude to blame

Said it before your Italian


I don't care if someone makes mistakes, we all have to a certain degree in life. I married the wrong women for 14 years, and was unhappy. 14 years that I won't get back, before anyone says why stay, both me and her will say the same thing if it wasn't for a very unfortunet event involving our first child we would not of stayed together.

SL made mistakes because managers or people advised him that this player to this manager would make a difference. People on here are managers themselves can you honestly say every person you've employed has turned out to be the person you thought during interview or advise from anyone else?

I for one applaud him, don't care if it's a smokescreen or whatever it's a gesture of 35 million which JGF and Tampa explained.

If you're bitter because he didn't give it to the supporters trust, next doors cat then that's up to you, but to me it means he's still backing the club I support.

 

Wouldn't really say he has wiped the debt out, more like covered the debt which we will have to pay back at a later date and the main reason we have as much debt is because of his stadium plans and buy turning that debt into "shares" he now owns a greater chunk of the club.

Nothing is free in life

 

I have spent the last 10 years working for law firms, and what i have seen makes my taste buds go sour sometimes.
The Atkinson sketch where he plays the devil, welcoming a group of lawyers into Hell comes frequently to mind.
Not saying they are all twisted and unscrupulous of course, quite possibly there are some who are not (and its a safe bet SL is of a quite different breed from the back-street, back-stabbing accountant, cooking the books of some sleazy downtown whorehouse).

 

While it is great to see an owner doing this, he is effectively increasing control through this manoeuvre, and it's not something he can continue to do forever, and the further down the table we slide the most desperate our situation becomes.

The comments regarding us being thankful for Lansdown are laughable. It's his club, and he can do what he wants, but viewing him as some kind of deity that will bring the club to its knees if we don't worship him hard enough. These debts are partially his fault, so it's a good thing that he is committed to paying them off.

 

I like the terms "The financial mess WE ARE IN" surely if SL owns or controls 90% of the shares/club then it is the financial mess that he is in? and he is still with us? I will say again I would much rather be in the hands of SL who I believe to be a fan and has signed over 35 mill to shares (not guaranteeing him 35 mill in return) than being at the will of an owner like Vincent Tan and his Malaysian cronies. If Cardiff go tits up like we have done in the last few seasons, watch him run and leave the club in deep doo doo.

 

I dont think its usually money that makes these ogliarthic dictators run for the hills, more due to boredom or non-popularity. I think when the biz begins to slide they just get dictatorial and sack people. It becomes a challenge to assert themselves and get the show back on the road (not sure about the Glaziers in that statement though. The United fans must be permanently stressed these days)

 

He hasn't wiped the debt out he has moved it into the nothing. It thirty five million of nothing because the club itself is worth - something not + something = the nothing = no ground.

The clubs players + building based assets = monetarily less than Mr L 's shares = the nothing.

Nobody would buy a club worth - something = the nothing AND a debt of twenty million and buy out Stevie L's thirty million and rest in shares and still not own the ground ... He has it all by the short of curlies, it is his loss, his ground, his shares ... Don't think we will see him stroking a cat in front of 007 but ... Yipeee ... Is it?

 

It means nothing without the public support.
Good job he's a fan though

 

Doubt the average Cove in the street understands it all.

BCFC - Bristol City holdings - Vence LLP - Bristol Sport - Now Pul/Puila/Pullis inc - plc - ltd - who ... What's that it all about? Scoobied if I know.

What I do know is this that in 82 Deryn Coller, Marshall, Russe ... Saved what was left and created a BCFC owned by its support that own its own ground. It isn't now ... Public support never asked it wouldn't matter anyway, he can do what he wants and does.