Mark Ashton & Geoff Twentyman Interview

Full transcript as Geoff Twentyman and Bristol City CEO Mark Ashton spar over Holden appointment
The former Bristol Rovers defender went head to head with the Robins CEO, drawing praise from City fans for his hard line approach to the interview

Ding, ding - round one!

Strap yourselves in for the full interview between Mark Ashton and Geoff Twentyman following the announcement of Dean Holden as Bristol City manager.

The pair were involved in an often heated interview on BBC Radio Bristol's Sound of the City programme, with Twentyman grilling Ashton on everything from the interview process to Holden's lack of experience.

Tensions and frustrations were rife, with Ashton's sighs audible and Twentyman's interruptions evident, but what transpired was an in depth, detailed account of how Holden became the newest Robins boss.

The former Bristol Rovers player was praised for his tenacity when interviewing the City CEO, with Bristol City fans' 'favourite Gashead' not taking no for an answer on several questions.

He pushed for answers on Chris Hughton, Paul Cook and Holden's targets and will have left feeling the winner of a 20 minute boxing bout, with both corners taking it in turns to swing.

Read every single word below.

GT: Some big names linked with this job, what's the logic in sacking your head coach and appointing his assistant?

MA: We've run a really rigorous process. It's taken some time and I can understand fans frustration at the time it's taken but we went into this with a really open mind.

We interviewed managers and coaches from a variety of walks of life and clubs and as we went through the process it was really clear Geoff that Dean Holden was the right person for the job.

GTid you make an offer from anyone else before you made an offer to Dean?

MA: Absolutely not.

GT: So Chris Hughton, he was the name that kept coming around during my programmes, during the restart, what happened with Chris Hughton.

MA: Geoff look, I'm not going to talk about individuals.

GT: I think you should.

MA: I would not do that.

GT: You've got tens of thousands of your fans listening right now and I think they deserve to know what happened with Chris because that was the kind of name they expected.

MA: His and other names were heavily linked in the press, not by the football club. There were other names that were linked and we went through a process where a number of those names were interviewed, and through that process it was very clear that Dean Holden again was the right person for this football club.

We do our job properly. Listen, this is a football club Geoff that is run well from top to bottom. We can look at clubs in this division and you can see what's happening, clubs are being deducted points, clubs are in administration, clubs being relegated-

GT: Yeah I know that Mark.

MA: You've asked me a question and I'm answering it.

GT: I respect that, and Dean's got no problem by the way because I spoke with Dean earlier and I said if you weren't first choice is it a problem to you, and he said not at all, I just want to manage Bristol City. Don't worry about upsetting Dean.

MA: No but Dean was first choice.

GT: So Dean was first choice and you didn't offer it anyone else?

MA: No. 100 per cent.

GT: Well that's something. And how many people did you interview?

MA: We had a fast number apply, we had detailed conversations with around 10, we then whittled that down to four and Jon and I vigorously interviewed those four on a number of occasions.

GT: Okay so all four had several interviews?

MA: Yes.

GT: I'm assuming Paul Cook and Chris Hughton were in that quartet?

MA: Again, they're names, those people would not respect me, not be happy if I talked about them as individuals because we promised them that we wouldn't do that but we interviewed a really good, wide range of candidates.

GT: Steve Lansdown was on Talksport on the ninth of July and he said, I wrote the quotes down because I've got to be very accurate with what I put to you, he said: "We need someone to take us to the next step, bring a breath of fresh air into the club, and we have particular type of person that we want to come in." Did that change after the ninth of July up to today in terms of the criteria.

MA: Absolutely not Geoff. Steve has been attached to the process, Jon and I have led the process. As I said, we went into this with a really open mind and through meeting people, having detailed discussions with people, it became very clear that through that process that Dean was the right person for the job.

GT: Tell me more about that then, you can tell me that without breaking any confidence, why is he the right man for the job? What are the attributes he's got?

MA: I think that there are two elements to that Geoff. I think that is the human, he is a really really good person. He knows this football club, he knows our players, he knows the challenges of the group, he knows where he believes that we've gone wrong, he has a clear plan in his mind that he's presented to us on how he wants to take the team and the club forward on the pitch.

He was a very concise in that, and he was again clearly, clearly through the interview process the right candidate for us.

GT: And yet he's only managed those five games in the Championship and you're expecting him to get you to the Premier League. Has the goals changed on the timescale, because year on year Lee had to improve, have you gone back to start now and just see how it works?

MA: No Geoff. Absolutely not. The ambition and the targets haven't changed, we need to challenge for promotion, Dean is very aware of that and the board are very aware of that, that's driven right from the top from Steve and that will not change.

GT: What length of contract is he employed on? Because people are asking me to ask you?

MA: Yeah Dean is on a 12 month rolling contract.

GT: And recruitment, who has the final say on signing players, ins and outs.

MA: Geoff this is something you've asked me time and time again and I'll happily repeat it, the head coach. Lee Johnson had total sign off on every player that came into the football club, Dean Holden will have exactly the same.

GT: And your scouting network at the moment, have you got people in place? Did I read somewhere that certain people had left their positions.

MA: Nope, no one in the recruitment department has left, we continued to add to the recruitment department over the last 12 to 18 months.

We have a really strong technical recruitment department, we have strong UK scouts, we have a lead international scout on a full time basis. That department has not changed.

GT: Korey Smith, it was announced yesterday by the club, after the player had put it on his Instagram account that he was leaving the football club. A former captain, longest serving player, scored that incredible goal in that incredible win over Manchester United. Could the club not have handled the breaking of that news with a bit more control and dare I say a bit more respect to Korey?

MA: Okay let's be really clear again. I'm glad the fans are listening because let's understand the process that happened. Local media ran a story that Korey was about to sign a new contract, Korey was not offered a new contract, that was a football decision which was signed off formally by Dean.

Korey was aware of that, so Korey then decided, his decision, no problem with that, to put the story that was in the local media straight. He was not signing a new contract.

Which triggered a chain reaction and then we have to react off the back of it. We were planning on doing a formal announcement to thank him for everything he had done for the football club, but it got triggered wrongly in the local press which Korey decided to make his own statement on, which is his call, I have no problem with that.

We have a really good relationship with Korey. We always have done and we always will do. He decided personally to react to story personally that was put out that was incorrect, that's his call.

GT: Sure. But had you been proactive in the first instance as a football club, that would have negated all of that wouldn't it?

MA: Geoff look at the time scales. We were talking to Dean about the position at the end of the week. I'd spoken to Korey literally every week towards the end of the season about his new contract.

I'd spoke to him over the last couple of weeks. I'd made it very clear to him that he was comfortable with, the we couldn't make a decision on his new contract until the new head coach came in. We were talking to Dean at the back end of last week working on a formal offer.

At that point, he then thought about it and made his decision on Korey and if you follow the timeline, I'm not sure we could moved any quicker.

GT: Okay. The two coaches you've brought in, Paul Simpson and Kieith Downing, they're currently with England U20s and U19s, will they be leaving their positions with England and coming to City full time, or will there be a bit of betwixt in between?

MA: No Geoff it's a good question. That's all been cleared up. They have now formally left their positions and will be with Bristol City tomorrow morning full time.

GT: That's very progressive decisions, were these your decisions to bring them in or were these Dean's decisions?

MA: No ultimately they're club appointments. We ratified them but they were Dean's recommendations. He was very clear about the type of people he wanted around him.

The challenge was could we extricate them from the FA because they're obviously held in very high esteem and both have been very successful at international level and also at club level with the likes of Keith Downing already achieving two promotions to the Premier League with West Brom and Wolves.

I can understand as you go back to why haven't we appointed an experienced coach, and I think it's a fair question from yourself and the fans.

We think Dean has got a lot of tools in his locker. One thing we can't give him, or we can't give ourselves right now, is that experience. So let's be really clear, what he wanted to do and what he presented to us, he wanted that experience around him in a different part of the team.

That I think makes us really strong. It's a really strong dynamic coaching team who've got experience of taking clubs from the Championship to the Premier League.

I think we're in good shape.

GT: I get that. You haven't just gone for the cheaper option because many fans think, 'oh typical City, they've gone for the cheap option here'.

MA: No, and look. The cheap option, or the wrong option should I say, normally ends up being the most expensive option because you end of changing and we won't do that.

We've been under no pressure from Steve on what we could or couldn't spend. As ever, he has been absolutely fantastic through the whole process. So this is the one thing for sure you can guarantee with the Lansdown family, is they do nothing on the heap. They invest on the squad year on year.

The new training ground opens early in the new year, you've seen the stadium. They do nothing on the cheap. They simply invest and invest into this football club.

GT: Going back to Steve because you mention him, he wanted someone to take the club to the next step, bring a breath of fresh air into the club, particular person in mind. Did you have to convince him that this was the right man to do it in terms of Dean? I don't think when he said that he had Dean in mind.

MA: Well listen you'd have to ask Steve what he had in mind at that specific time, all I can say to you, as ever, Steve is really consistent, really clear with his communication to me. Absolutely, we keep him informed every step of the way and the direction of travel that we're going.

He's a great sound on the board, he's there to challenge, give reason, perspective and I don't think it was a question of convincing him, we talked him through the process that we'd gone through, what we thought the strengths and the weaknesses were and he whole-heartedly supported them.

GT: Famara Diedhiou is a fans favourite, he's your most potent goalscorer, I'm not great on lengths of contracts, I think he's got a year left, likewise talented Niclas Eliasson has also edging towards a departure lounge potentially. What's the situation with those kind of guys and renewing contracts and keeping talent at Ashton Gate.

MA: Listen, those negotiations go on all throughout the year, they don't simply start at the end of the season. I think again, Geoff you've been in this game a long time, you understand how it works. If you go back 12 months and look at, say, the Webster sale, we turned down in excess of £15m from one Premier League club a year ago for Webster.

That then increased and increased and at that point, the player knocks on the door and says look, I want to go. I can earn two/three/four times the money and I want to play in the Premier League and at that point, the player normally moves.

It's been the same with every player we sell, we've not actively gone out to try and sell players, although we do trade and we won't hide away from that-

GT: You do make that quite public though Mark. You almost make yourselves quite proud that you do that.

MA: Well I think it's something that we've done really well. You look at the financial state of some of the clubs in the country right now, it's part of our model and it's part of the business plan that Steve Lansdown clearly asked me to put together when I joined the club and clearly asked me to continue with.

But we don't actively go out to market and and try and sell all our players. I think it's something to celebrate from the coaches that they develop these players to a certain level and clubs normally in the Premier League want them.

GT: I would love you to keep them and get yourselves in the Premier League on the back of doing that.

MA: Listen I can't disagree that we would like to keep these players and get into the Premier League but, we have to balance the books. We're a club that still loses cash each year, we are dependant on owner funding, we're very fortunate to have that, and even when we player trade, the Lansdown family still funds the football club to a certain amount.

But I go back to what I said Geoff, when the deals get to a certain point, the player normally knocks on the door and says they want to leave because I can earn four times the amount in the Premier League.

eah I get that. Jamie McAllister, what's the situation?
MA: Jamie McAllister has left the club as of yesterday, Dean will tell you this himself. That was Dean's decision, Dean wanted to bring in his own staff and Jamie leaves this club as a friend and will always be welcome back, but be under no illusion, Dean is his own man and he wanted his own staff.

GT: How are feeling today then five weeks on? I don't envy you one bit, I know it's your job and you have to do it, sacking a manager and appointing his assistant, when you sacked Lee did you, hand on heart tell me the truth, did you expect to appoint his assistant the day you sacked him?

MA: The day I sacked him I was just focused on Lee. Listen as someone who has worked with him for four and a half years and spoken to him numerous times every day and worked hand in hand with, that was the right decision to make. At that moment in time, it was emotionally a difficult decision to make. That day was all focused on Lee.

Moving on from that, and I think I said this, we haven't done what some clubs would would do and go behind Lee's back to try and line someone up. In industry talk, that would just not have happened under the Lansdown tenure. We went into that with an open mind and it was one thing that the Lansdowns asked me to do.

It was to go into it with an open mind, no preconceptions and run a full process and Geoff, I promise you and I promise the fans, that's what we did.

GT: Okay last question, I've probably had you longer than I should have.

MA: Fair play to you mate.

GT: Dean has got a 12 month rolling contract, what must he acheive in his first season positionally to make sure he is still in a job in 12 months time?

MA: I'd ask that question slightly differently, I don't think we hold a gun to anyone's head, we've never done that-

GT: With respect, I'm asking the question, where do they have to finish in the league in 12 months time to make sure he's doing the right job.

MA: We have said we want to be challenging for promotion. We want to be right up there challenging for promotion but that doesn't mean if we're not, he's dismissed, we don't operate like that.

We start on the front foot for our new head coach, get behind him with all the resource we can with him, to get this club again challenging for promotion. And it was right up until the end of this season that we were doing that.

We haven't got across the line, ultimately Lee paid the price for that. We have a good squad and we'll be looking to make additions again before the window closes to make sure that we are challenging for promotion again.

GT: Okay, but it doesn't have to be top six?

MA: There is no target on his job, that's what I'm saying to you Geoff. We haven't sat down as a board and Steve has not said to us, if he's not in that position, he's being sacked.

The Lansdowns don't work like that.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport...ll-transcript-geoff-twentyman-bristol-4417980

 

Obviously Mark Ashton and Jon Lansdown think he is a better prospect than LJ, they sacked him and employed DH saying he was the number 1 man.

 

I think it was a terrific interview, GT was not afraid to ask the questions and he had Ashton ducking and diving all over the place, "gashead" he might be but I think he did a good job on our CEO.