I dont think we need a take over lansdown does alot, i think its only a matter of time until jon lansdown steps up will be interesting i think when he does, maybe another director with a few bob and some expertise in areas none of our current directors are so familiar with, I am sure the club are always on the look out for potential backers
Very interesting thread about the wider issues of a football club. Life on the pitch is what most see - life off the pitch can be just as interesting and discussable. Apologies for invading, but as you well know, we've gone through the hoop several times over these issues. A potential backer (owner?) needs a willing seller. Would Lansdown want to let it go and if so, at what cost? Presumably he would try to recoup the huge losses he's picked up personally over the years and that could be a stumbling block. On the other hand, I suppose with the way things are going, letting it go would at least cut his ongoing cash committment. There's no guarantee that new owners would be the saviours you'd wish for, but from recent years under this regime, you appear to be going nowhere but downwards. The analogy with the Coventry and Portsmouth scenarios is fair, but that's glass half empty stuff. Standing still in today's football world is effectively going backwards and that appears to be the situation at BCFC. Maybe the purists would rather keep a local owner who pumps money in (at the moment) but is very poor at making the footballing decisions necessary to run a modern day football club, rather than having someone effective in control who can build a good management team to move the club forward. That's fair enough, but success in the current league pyramid rarely happens by accident - it has to be worked at behind the scenes as a business and not just be a "nice thing" to be able to say you own. Vince Tan may not be everyone's cup of tea, but by God can he run a business. You may also fairly say to that "aye, but at what cost" regarding the issues that we've faced as a result, but you can't always have it both ways. If you can find an ex-local cash cow like Joe Lewis at Spurs to fund it and appoint someone like Levy to run it, that would be fine, but there aren't many like that about.
In its current condition its unclear how BCFC could be sold. BCFC does not own its stadium, Mr Lansdown does. The clubs majority shareholder, as its owner is also Mr Lansdown. Its debts in the form of equity are re-payable(?) to Mr Lansdown. Ashton Gate as lovely as it is requires updating - Mr Lansdown again is paying. All for a community (fan) owned BCFC but how do you sell the above?
Like what? I can't see anything tangible that the club has done. Without Ashton Vale, Lansdown's list of achievements at this club is very small.
Backed us with signings even whilst the clubs cutting back Set up an academy which he has invested heavily into to get cat 2 status with cat 1 planned players like reid,bryan,burns,ajala starting to come through now Bank rolled us into the championship and one game away from the prem, say what you like about the guy he has the club at heart, something that may of been questionable about some of our past owners davidson exempt i believe he set the bar and since then it been a good continuation the club has progressed hugelly off the pitch community trust another example
He must be the only owner in the world who is a billionaire with a football club languishing at the bottom of the 3rd division . When it has really mattered SL has made massive MASSIVE mistakes... Not investing in a couple of really decent players to put us in the EPL when we were top of the league in early 2008, appointing Tinnion, appointing Millen, approaching Coppell and if true, taking David James on behind the managers back I will always be grateful to him for his involvement in the early days, but we're still going backwards at a rate of knots at the moment under his ownership and have been since we lost to Hull. It's now a question of how far we fall and how quickly. I've always maintained that if Hargreaves Lansdown was run the way BCFC is, then he'd be bankrupt.
Interesting one this. I recall a good few years back when Scott Davison was selling up, a lot thought we would not get any better back then, and along came SL. No doubt SL is rich and wants the best for BCFC, but sometimes that is walking away if it does not work. I for one want SL to stay, but his son can do one!
As Angelic said, too many incorrect appointments, backing the wrong people, buying gaffa tape players on their way down a very steep ladder with broken rungs, shows that he needs help to run the club, not give it to his son as a toy. If we had bought the likes of Taraabt for a million like he went for, bought Chris Eagles before he went to Burnley, instead of investing in the likes of Byfield, Adebola, Stern John, I mean the list goes on. I want to see up and coming, not down and on the way outs.
We've signed players, but as already said, many of these have been stop gap signings, and there is probably enough evidence to suggest that most of our managers after GJ (Coppell, Millen, McInnes) have wanted players and were not given the funds to get them. The club have been frugal for years now, but we've still hemorrhaged money by spending money on third/fourth choice players. Aside from Bryan and perhaps Reid I cannot see many of these players being good enough for us. They're a similar level to what we've produced before. It took little work to get to category 2 status because we've already offered that level of coaching. Lansdown has only recently invested in the academy, probably as another way of being frugal. It's yet to make any profit, so I reckon it could be another failed venture for Lansdown. No one truly believes that he doesn't have the club at heart. What many of us want is to see the board acknowledge their failings, and to explain why the business side of the club has not grown since Lansdown has taken over. I can understand our club struggling on the football side of things. What I cannot understand is why the club hasn't pushed to become more self-sufficient, by raising the attendances, pushing the business side of the club, etc. I feel that Lansdown put all his eggs in one basket with Ashton Vale, and now that he's given up we're left with a huge bill and nothing to show for it.
