Henning Berg is the latest manager to be given his marching orders by a foreign owner after only 10 matches in charge. Based on the sacking yesterday of Sean O'Driscoll I have to seriously question the business sense in allowing overseas ownership of our teams particularly when you look at the records of some culprits. The list of teams that have come under the influence of foreign money seems to grow by the day and do you think that this is the way to go? I know some teams have prospered under this new regime but in general I think it is a negative factor in the game and they have to be held responsible for the ridiculous increase in salaries that have permeated the game. They have essentially made life more difficult for teams such as City who have no chance of competing in the salary wars and are only interested in themselves, and I suspect the tax write offs. Apart from some obvious teams who fly in a different atmosphere to us do you really think that this major shift in ownership criteria has been beneficial, or a noose that will eventually strangle teams like us who will no longer be able to compete without breaking the bank.
The days of the local business man owning his club, and the wages of the team and manager coming out of the match day attendances have long gone, except in a few cases - and those teams are not in the first two tiers of English Football.
The championship has become the premier league 2. Its so hard to compete iin this league and it seems only 2 types of teams get promoted. Either Rich clubs with great backing or teams promoted from league 1 who have the confidence and momentum from the previous season to help them achieve top 6. We all know how rich lansdown in (this isn't having a go at him) but compared to how much money he has and how much money we spend in the transfer market, Its no wonder we are where we are. I really think if he wants this club to stay up this year Lansdown has to dig deeper in to his pocket than he ever has and spen 4-5 million strengthening the team. We're not that far away from being a good team IMO and there are 5 players we should build the team around. Them being Heaton, Cunningham, Adomah, Baldock and Davies, Ive left danns out because he isn't our player, but it one we should be definitely going all out to get. Having only 5 good players is why we are where we are. A RB, RCB, LCB CM CM LM this is what we need in the January transfer window and it breaks my heart to see McInnes saying we will be looking to get 1 or 2 in, If he really thinks 2 players will keep us up then the mans deluded. I know most don't want us going north of the border for our transfers but I really think Murray Davidson would be a great addition hes tall can win tackles and on top of that he is a creative player. It would be like skuse and marvin but who plays like Danns. So Danns and Davidson in the middle would improve us dramatically and seeing as Davidson is out of contract in the summer we could get him for as little as 400k but would face competition from rangers, Though we should be more attractive with DM being his ex manager
1 or 2 is just normally a figure of speech. Murray Davison has been linked to us for a while now so you never know. But back to the topic of thread. Foreign ownership is killing the game in this I want it now attitude, the reason for sacking SoD was that Forest could not win more than 2 games on the bounce after 5 months!! The Venkys on the other hand persevered with Keane for a while against what the fans wanted and backed him heavily in the transfer market. They rushed to get Henning Berg as I see it they probably choose a ex player to pacify the fans. I do wonder now how many of their fans wished they kept Keane? We have a owner that wants the big time but at least he is being patient and waiting for it, and didn't he once say when WE as fans start to back the team he would put more into it. 12k - 13k home attendances with the away following contributing to 1500 - 2000 of this. We can blame the dross we are being shown but we then sing "city till we die" and then as Red Robin says season ticket holders not turning up! We are a small player compared to a lot of these teams like Forest who as been mentioned have a good history unlike ours and also have a big fan base. But now they have owners that won't be happy unless they get instant success. Which will result in if it don't happen will probably get bored and pull out. I for one am glad we have Steve Lansdown.
Shiny, you forget the impact of the FFP regulations... There are strict limits on the % of your turnover that you can lose per annum which means that once they kick in, we will not be able to pay as much in wages/transfer fees. So, although we could do it this year, we would literally not be allowed to pay half our players next year. Thats why it is so important that we have 13 players out of contract in the summer... THIS IS WHY WE NEED THE NEW STADIUM, better players = hopefully more success = bigger crowds = more turnover = more monry top spend on players and wages. Vicious circle mate....
I agree prem, So why did Mcinnes sign players that never play? Its all very well bringing up the FFP regulations to cover up for not bringing in loads of players, But more than half the players McInnes has brought in have either been **** or not played.
I reckon a lot of McInnes' signings were meant to be backups to keep the current squad on its toes, and that the likes of Jody Morris and co were never going to get more than 5 games a season. It makes me wonder why so many backups were bought though, when three of those players would probably be worth one genuinely good player. McInnes seems confident in his longevity, so I reckon Lansdown and Dawes have sat down with him to say that he's got until the end of the season. This either means that we now mean business and the board trust McInnes to get us out of this with new signings, or that we don't even have the money to sack McInnes. I fear the latter, and if we don't invest in January our fate is as good as sealed.
Some excellent comments on my post that explain both sides of the predicament that we face. Begs the question as to which came first, the chicken or the egg, when we have to face the reality that we are a club that is destined to struggle based on our numbers in the seats and the lack of major revenue on all fronts. The new stadium would in theory up the source of revenue through the turnstiles but surely you need a decent team to start with, so back to the chicken and egg. Currently we have a team that can't punch it's way out of a wet paper bag so how on earth can we expect the lost customers to return in droves to continue to watch our lot that are in freefall to League One. It's been said many times on this site that we seem totally incapable of organising a team that can compete at this level and that hasn't happened overnight but rather allowed to fester for far too many years. Laying the blame at someone specifically will never address the well known problems when it appears so evident to me that no-one is willing to grab it by the throat and say that it needs to fixed NOW. By my definition the only person who needs to read the writing on the wall is Steve Lansdowne and until such time as he antes up the required funding then we will continue to struggle. Now in saying that I realy do believe we are very lucky to have him as our leader but the time must come soon when he has to decide what he wants his team to be when they grow up. I believe if he was to ask the loyal supporters who are starting to lose their collective patience there would be few, if any, who would reply that their beloved City are exactly where they want them to be. It's called customer service and it's something we have lacked for a long time and it's only the uninformed that ignore it at their peril.
Well his signings have not kept the players on there toes, More so have let them get away with murder because the current starting 11 know that there "back ups" are even worse than them. We need a complete overhaul in the summer, No matter what league we're in, We cant compete with teams in the championship for good players so we will have to look at leagues 1 and 2, Id be looking at teams who have failed promotion, The like of MK Dons have some great players but when it comes to that last little push they haven't got a squad capable of getting into the championship, Gleeson is a player to watch of theres, No doubt he'll be gone if they fail to win promotion this year
The new players who have been bought in and have SO FAR been "fringe" have been described as not costing us that much. A new reality is already beginning to set in wages-wise apart from of course, the very top of the game... My guess is that we were not going to see any new permanent new players arrive until the summer when wages demands would have taken a reality check given the probably larger number players being out of work however, our current predicament may mean that a couple of our summer targets may be moved forward, added to a one or 2 loans to the end of the season....
You could call Baldock (12 starts) and Davies (5starts) 'fringe' players - '"fringe" have been described as not costing us that much' ???? - These 2 cost plenty. They're fringe players because McInnes has to many strikers and can't play them regularly. He's a prize tw*t who's left us without a decent CH in sight.
Kuwaities and Indian/Asian owners at Forest and Blackburn have demonstrated that they know absolutely nothing about English football or what the fans want, and whilst I wouldn't be unhappy were SL to sell City to get some serious investment into the club, I wouldn't want it to be to a clueless consortium.
Yes but all these "fringe" players who don't play all add up, Danny Wilson, Jody Morris, Paul Anderson, Mark Wilson, I bet all of there wages put together is about 25k-30k a week of which we could have 3 players within out wage limit who would be regular starters. Im sorry McInnes has got it wrong, this shovels getting blunt his whole is so deep Baldock and Davies is the 2 players who have kept him in IMO without them we would be maybe 15 points from safety at the very least. Perhaps if he played them more we would be 15 points above the relegation. I'm loosing an incredible lot of patience with the bloke
I think City bought players on the basis that they thought players were leaving and didnt want to get to the end of the transfer window let a player go and not have time to get a replacement so bought early and failed to see players leave. Anderson was brought in to replace Albert who City couldnt agree a fee to sell Believe they brought in Davies and Baldock thinking Pitman was heading to Burnley which didnt happen as why would you sign two new strikers when you already had Taylor, Stead, Pitman, Holloway plus u21 strikers. If they had sold the players it would have worked. Instead it has increased squad size and wage bill.
I agree with this, even though I like transfer deadline day. It was easier for clubs before as at the moment if a club shows interest in one of your main stars and know your interested in selling all they have to do is hang on to the last minute so you take lower prices. If it went back you will see clubs rebuilding throughout the season.
'Believe they brought in Davies and Baldock thinking Pitman was heading to Burnley' - And the world is flat. Even if you believe this rubbish - 2 to replace 1 ? 'why would you sign two new strikers when you already had Taylor, Stead, Pitman, Holloway plus u21 strikers' Good question - ask Mcinnes. What some don't get / can't admit is we have a fool from a pub league in charge of BCFC.
Well if you thought, Stead Taylor Holloway and other under 21s strikers are good enough then like our manager, You're deluded. How many goals do they have between them this season. Baldock and Davies have scored more in 1 game
Of course you know everything that happened in the background RP so you are uniquely positioned to comment on the comings and goings whilst the rest of us are all just stupid. EVERYONE (including you) knew that Brett didn't feature in DM's plans plus as I highlighted in great detail a few weeks ago, we have barely been scoring more than a goal a game for the last few seasons but of course, our old strikers were just fine. You still don't seem to realise that the manager has been given the remit to rebuild this club from top to toe, not something done in 12 months and he won't be able to complete this until most of the rest of the old guard depart next summer. Luckily, more of us realise this than not so no matter how much you tell us how stupid we are, YOU ARE STILL IN THE MINORITY and that really rankles with you doesn't it...
The whole foreign invasion has wrecked the national and domestic game in the uk. We have gone backwards in my opinion. Until we get our house in order it will not get any better,bit like the country really. i