When you look back over the seasons since promotion to the championship and the Lansdown millions what has it really done put the club 40 million in debt and taken us back to league 1. Is this good business sence not in a million years,if that was hargeaves lansdown then it would be in severe trouble. Many say this club would or could not survive without him,well it has survived perfectly well before his arrival. Is the club in a better or worse place under his ownership that is the question. A number of years in the championship the last three struggling,40 million in debt something say it has been a failure.
A total failure in most peoples minds but worse still is the fact that nobody appeared to see it coming, when just about everybody in the seats was able to see the problems getting worse. Tonight might have been the final nail in the coffin but the service was booked months ago due to lack of due diligence by the people who should have known better. A sad day in our history but there it is, done and dusted.
Its us the fans which get the woes and watch as our club struggles. I think £40m is likely to be higher which our amazing owner SL has loaned to us to cover it (likely with interest) so he isnt bothered but if you look at that debt a lot of it was built up by him as the £14m recently reported was down to the Ashton Vale development, a development which would be owned not by the club but by SL and friends so they should have taken the costs. I guess our situation is no difference to what Man Utd fans have sometimes seen with their owners. But for a man who is involed in finance he clearly hasnt worked out that you have to balance the books which we have not done. There is no point spending money on players and wages when the income is not always there. Last season our away shirt had a community sponsor which even Barcelona has now worked out that having a pid sponsor makes you money. There are too many players as well paid over £10k a week. I dont know how much Baldock is on but Stead is on £12k so would expect he would be on more than that but guess it is still less than what GJ was paying Stern John of his £20k pay packet.
You paid Stern John £20k a week??????!!!!!! Good Gawd. That, my friends, is quite clearly the nub of your problem - playing journeymen spectacular wages.....
Stern John was 5 years ago in the season when we were trying to get to the Prem... Mike, its happened now, lets move on...
Ultimately, with our relegation we've wasted countless millions. However, I'll still consider our position right now as a lack of spending on a rebuild that was so desperately needed. Overspending to improve our position is no excuse for spending pennies in a league that requires pounds. At the start of the season I tipped us for relegation, even with the good signings McInnes made for us. It just wasn't enough, and the rot had set in well before McInnes joined us. We needed two top players: a top-class central defender that can lead the line and a creative midfielder that can provide us the ability to supply from the middle. £2M would have landed a top defender with resale value, and when fantastic midfielders like Nick Powell are available on loan and were desperate to play in the Championship it's just unacceptable that we didn't invest. These two players would have probably kept us up. I knew things were going badly for us when Lansdown came out in support of the academy system during the transfer window. Yes, he wants to invest in our own talent, and being in the south west we should have one of the strongest academies in England. However, these things take both time and money, and given our lack of spending this season I seriously doubt our academy could provide players that have the quality to play in the Football League. Outside of Lewis Carey and Joe Bryan none of these players would be good enough for the Gas, let alone our side. The fault of this campaign lies solely with the board, and the fans. We deserved relegation, and I'm happy that justice was done. It's also poetic justice that our rivals; a team we trounced at the start of the season to lead many fans on here to suggest that we were destined for the playoffs, and a team that turned its back on tradition for some spending money were promoted on the same day. We deserved to go down, and despite their disgusting attitude they deserved to go up. They will get eaten alive by the Premier League, which leaves how we'll deal with League 1... For me, the most important thing is that the board fully support SOD, and to do this they need to do three things. Anything less, and I cannot see us getting promoted next season: Push forward, harder than ever, with the building of the Ashton Vale stadium. This dark cloud has hung over the club for far too long and quite frankly the club needs at least one thing to go well. Renovating Ashton Gate is no longer an option because the club needs a new home that it can be proud of, and a new home that reflects what the board claim they want for the club. Open up the cheque book and provide SOD with the funds to build a side that is not only capable of winning League 1, but a side that can then perform in the Championship. Sell all dead wood. The board need to push this through as a matter of urgency, and quite frankly I'm happy to see the lot go bar a few. The likes of Richard Foster, Mark Wilson, Liam Fontaine, Lewin Nyatanga, Louis Carey, Neil Kilkenny, Brian Howard, James Wilson, Cole Skuse, Stephen Pearson, Ryan Taylor, Brendan Moloney, Paul Anderson, Dean Gerken, and Marvin Elliot should go, and SOD should be allowed to completely rebuild the side. Fully fund the building of a world-class academy. If the board are serious about the club then this should have been the first thing they did. For once, I'm actually looking forward to a new season. I think SOD is the kind of manager that will respect League 1 and I hope to see us be competitive. However, I think we're kidding ourselves if we think we'll be able to win League 1 with our current side. We need significant rebuilding if we are to gain promotion back to the Championship and with our current side in its current form we'll be lucky to be mid-table. The hard work starts now.
Can't argue with that Ender. Must admit, Relegation was on my radar from the beginning of the season and so am not surprised what has happened today. I hope we ultimately focus on getting back up and that SOD puts together a squad to do that. The youngsters should be allowed to have a go in the Johnsons Paint to gain experience. It's a sad day, but I hope SL will provide the backing required from the start so we can rebuild in time for the start of next season. Lets hope he still has the hunger and passion!
We are £40m in debt, but Cardiff are £80m in debt. Everyone tries to buy success, its just how deep the pockets go, and SL clearly decided that keeping on backing red when it was coming up black was not going to work for him.
Mistakes have been made, that's for sure, but for fans to blame Steve Lansdown is simply idiotic. He has personally invested a small fortune in the club but has been lead by the decisions of managers who are football pros. He is not. He is an owner and a fan. Anyone who tries to correlate investing in a business and investing in a football club clearly has minimal grasp on reality. No one invests in a football league club, or indeed most Premier league clubs, to make money. It is simply not a sound investment. Rather it is an investment of the heart for the local businessmen and a status symbol / toy for the overseas investors. Steve Lansdown has only thrown money at the club as he wants his club and his city to be successful. Those who are picking fault with him now are the reason that local businessmen walk away from their hometown clubs as they realize that you can never appease fans who demand success. We are lucky, very lucky to have him as our owner and he will stay the course and bring us a more successful club unless we drive him out the door. Back the club, back the owner and back the manager next year and maybe we will have smiles on our faces this time next year rather then whet we are all feeling this evening.
It heads one way. Mr Lansdown even bought his own player in David James. He isn't a Tan City but there has been mistake after blunder after mistake.
First of all guys, and despite the words we've sometimes had in banter this season, I'm genuinely sorry that you lads have gone down a division. It can't be pleasant to see your team struggle when you're a passionate fan. On this debt subject though, I've asked the question before regarding whether Lansdown was picking up the accumulating losses through the issuing and purchasing of equity in the club, or just loaning the money either as an "on demand" or term loan. In the past, it's been suggested that he was using the equity route, but given the contents of this thread, it doesn't seem to so clear cut. If that is the case, and depending upon the all-asset debenture he should hold securing it, you could be in big trouble if he wants out. He may be a genuine fan who sees his cash being put to good use, but when it isn't, the doubts can surface.
If he walked away now we wouldn't owe him anything, He paid the money (losses) out of his own pocket. We are not 41m in debt that's just how much has been lost/spent in our championship time.
Shiny - are you suggesting that he effectively just wrote out personal cheques? I have no idea about Lansdown's motives or methods, but that would be a first.
He turns losses into shares. BCFC is really Steve Lansdown Fc. The club's owner says he will not put the club at risk, seven no reason to not believe him. He also owns the rugby club and it appears to be part of a bigger picture.
I think you'll find it's a loan with no interest...the club is in debt to him. Happy to be proven wrong!
Well if he hasn't issued and purchased equity in the club, Lansdown could (would?) walk away having paid over £40M out of his own pocket to fund running costs and meet losses with no security being taken? Being an ardent fan (if that's what he is) doesn't mean he's had a realism bypass and make him stupid. Shiny - I'm no expert by a long chalk, but I've been in business for over 30 years and there aren't many people like that around - perhaps Steve is the exception that proves the rule though.
As far as i am aware from what i have been informed it is a loan but it is unclear how that money is paid back. He hasnt written it off as even though he is a rich bloke how many people can just pay off £40m? On top of this he has had to fund buying Bristol Rugby club and likely other things around his other business. Its similar to Mike Ashley at Newcastle who has loaned his club the money and until recently it was the same at Chelsea until the ruling came in about debt and bein able to play in champions league so it was written off. There arent many clubs which dont have debt as everyone is spending above what they can afford but at league one there will be less fans coming through the gates and less tv money so we could be seeing more than 50% of our current income gone so on paper we need a smaller squad built around the younger players who will be on less wages. I do think most of the out of contract players will however be offered new contracts and they will have an option to stay on less or leave and at the moment id take around about £5m for Albert, Baldock and Davies which could go along way to paying off some of our debt. Sad to say but fonts will still be here as he is under contract and would not pass a medical even if we could find a club for him to leave. To think last season if he had passed a medical he would have gone and we would of had £1m to spend on a possible replacement.
