We can't keep spending at the rate we are The wage bill has to be cut - if this means being a mid-table League 1 team next season, then so be it As for the £40m - if Steve Lansdown has spent this money with a view to wanting it back, then he is not the man I think he is - simply don't believe that
I feel it is possible to disagree with the manner Steve Lansdown has ran the club since 2008 [the start of increased spending way past income], and not be considered an idiot. I do not feel lucky that last night BCFC was relegated. My view is relegation is linked to the short-termism of the above.
Just a thought on Mr Lansdown. Despite the spending, it's a sad day for Bristol City. Despite the spending to acquire Bristol Rugby club who were walking the Championship at the time, a few weeks later the Rugby Club didn't even make the final for the promotion match to reach the Premiership. He has now sponsored the Bristol Academy Women's Rugby team who after a long time association with the Rovers have changed their club colours from blue to red. Will they succeed or fail? Is Steve despite his best intentions, just a Jonah when it comes to his sporting associations? No WUM intended an observation. Jonah - a person believed to bring bad luck to those around him; a jinx
If you put the time and effort in, Eventually it will pay off. Rome wasn't built in a day, He will get his reward, Patience is a virtue. He just has to get all the little things right first, Bristol Rugby could still be promoted to the Premiership as its a play off which they are in. Bristol Academy are in the Semi finals of the cup, Granted City aren't doing to well but I believe we have the right man in charge to put things right and next season can be a enjoyable one, Hopefully with promotion. We can then learn from previous mistakes and try and be a force in the Championship, With hopefully high morale and confidence from a league 1 promotion. Norwich and Southampton are examples to follow by.
With respect Shiny, I wish our rugby club well, but Newcastle have a 100% record. They play their last match at home to Bristol this weekend. Bristol will be lucky to get to the final playoff match.
Shiny - forget what you read on forums and get it from the horse's mouth. The annual accounts are publicly available and this will tell you what you need to know. In summary, Steve has a 35 million secured loan (as of May 2012 when the last accounts were published). The loan is secured against the assets of the company and it's subsidiaries and earns interest at 2% above Barclays base rate. The interest is not actually charged but is payable as and when the loan is repaid - which will never happen unless we sell AG for several hundred million. The annual accounts are prepared on a "going concern basis". For non finance folks, this means that there is serious doubts cast by the company's independent auditors that the company can continue to meet it's obligations as they fall due - in other words we are skint. The only reason we continue to exist is due to the financial support of Steve Lansdown. This is not uncommon for many football clubs - indeed Real Madrid have been bank rolled by the Bank of Madrid for decades in their never ending quest to out-do their Catalan rivals. The accounts also state that Steve will invest in additional share capital if required - this will basically mean a equity conversion of loan to shares. In other words, he will write off the loan in it's entirety if required. This would be required if the Football League deemed us to be insolvent (which we already are but we have Steve's personal guarantee behind us). The reality check here is that those on this board can bad mouth Steve Lansdown for his apparent failings but at the end of the day, it is his own personal money he has wasted and hopefully this painful experience will make the entire club smarter going forward. Of course by relocating to Guernsey, Steve saves on UK income tax and on his wealth, that probably in the region of 20 million a year. So in essence, he's spent his tax savings on the club. Bristol City needs to get it's financial house in order, as do the vast majority of football clubs, otherwise the reliance on a super rich benefactor will continue and there's no guarantee that will be available in the future. We are not alone in this - all of football worldwide needs to have a wake up call as the over spending on players simply cannot continue. For now we live to fight another day and I for one, tip my proverbial hat to Steve and say "thank you sir".....
Well summed up Tampa......and nice and clear to understand. Its simple realy, if we had no SL we would'nt have been relegated last night........because we would have folded a few years back!.....ok, a bit extreme, but you know what I mean. He IS Mr BCFC, and the sooner people realise that just because he is mega mega rich, it does'nt mean he will plow loads of cash into the transfer market just to keep us lot happy. He is a business man and will treat City as such. I am sure the whole lot "upstairs" have plans for a re-shape and re-build next term, including players (obviously!) and a new financial plan to follow.......interesting times ahead!
The only reason City could have folded was because of Mr Lansdown. He took over a club with easily managed debts. City even showed a odd profit. Mr Lansdown chose to run the club at a loss and he can do that as he is only answerable to himself,the board is virtually only his employees and son. Since John Laycock left due due to not agreeing with the way the club was being run there has been no challenge to how city are ran at board room level. It is silly to state the club would be this because it survived without him without reaching the depths Rvovers have. Clubs spending less have done more.
Three Lions - I could not disagree more. The though that Lansdown purposely ran the club to lose money is insane. What he did was invest his own disposable capital into the club he both owns and loves to try and achieve the ultimate goal of Premier League football. It was a gamble that did not pay off but for those of us that went to Wembley with just a single game separating us from the "dream", it was a gamble that we all supported. In hindsight he would have made different decisions but neither he or we have that benefit at the time. We all rode the wagon together - he just paid the fares. Yes, we survived before him but football has changed beyond recognition in the last 10 years, in my opinion not for the good, as money now dictates success, not scouting, development and sound management. We have tried and thus far failed but we are still here and so long as Lansdown sticks with us, relatively healthy. Ask a Pompey or Glasgow Rangers fan if they would swap places with us..... Support the man for what he tried to achieve...don't moan whilst HE picks up the tab.
Everybody please take yourselves back to our first season in the Championship when, as far as I can remember, we played in front of close to full houses every game. We also had the playoff semi-final vs Palace followed by the Wembley final and yet we still lost a fairly significant amount of money which boggles the mind. As far as I'm concerned that was when our troubles really started because we clearly had no control over the outgoings, including the wage bill. What kind of club can lose money when you had that kind of season, only a fiscally irresponsible one as far as I can tell. Major financial and business mistakes were made but we live to fight another day and let's hope that this time we get it right.
Nowhere have I said that Steve Lansdown has put City at risk. What he has done is take over the club totally and had a punt with his money. He has chosen to increase his losses season on season. I thought it wrong when he started chucking money around still do. I didn't support the mess he made although I did attend. What he is appears to be doing now with this manager and academy in my book is right. Money does not dictate success always have a look at Swansea.clubs like city should spend smart and plan long term. .
Tampa i agree with some of what you say but us the fans have also paid a lot and over the odds at times so its not just one man who has paid in. Yes he has paid more but his earnings are also a lot more to be in that position. Swansea have been mentioned and they are a great example as they still have players that were with them in the lower leagues and prime example was Albert we wanted double what they were willing to pay so they went abroad and bought someone better for less. They have also brought in a manager who suits the style of football they have players for. Currently we have a manager who has been trying to play his way with players that cant play that way and he had to either play a way to get the best out of what he had or loan players in which is why our recent form has been very poor the more injuries we picked up. The club has been ran poorly from top to bottom and im sure even SL would admit that and hopefully they can turn things around. Plenty of teams like Leeds and Norwich in recent years have been relegated to league one and come back stronger so there is always hope
Got to be honest, if I was Steve Lansdown reading some of the stuff on here, other forums, the radio phone in and twatter. I would think **** you, you ungreatful ****ers! If we want him to run the club as he would run his other businesses he would make a business decision to shut the lame duck down. No he runs this to achieve something that only a small minority can recall and that's to get us to the premiership. He made the decision this year that he has allowed himself and previous managers misspending his money. We go down, we rip up the previous blueprint that one didn't work, we remodel ourselves on a leaner more hungry team and go forward with sellable assets. He bought the Rugby club because he wanted it plus it can generate money once a week at AG instead of the ground being currently occupied 23+ times a season it's now going to be 40+. He bought Bristol Ladies because it has the facilities to school youngsters who still need education in normal schooling when here, with that you get a better cat rating. Yes we are in debt wether people like it or not, we owe the money to Steve Lansdown who has been good enough to bankroll his and OUR dream. Which at the moment does not look like its going to be called in at any time soon or if ever. My suggestion to anyone who thinks they could run this club better. Please send your request to purchase the club to BCFC. I'm not aiming this at anyone so don't get defensive But for people to suggest what I do with my money pisses me off greatly, I can imagin it does to you all imagin if it was to the tune of 40 million telling you that you wasted it and ****ed the club up. And if someone says we will be here long after Steve Lansdown is gone, I hope so and I suspect we would be in far better position than some clubs around us with him helping us now.
Don't shoot the messanger,but i was told yesterday he has a interest and investment in the new rovers stadium,anybody heard about this.
So now the thinking is he's got fingers in three or four pies, Ashton Vale, judgement pending, Ashton Gate, plan B including Bristol Rugby being prepared, U.W.E stadium god knows what, oh why don't we throw in Glos Cricket Club, the rumours are rife he's taking over that team, throw in Bristol Ladies football at Filton....... This man is a power house, watch this space......
