vaughan
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 1,237
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Post by vaughan on May 21, 2018 11:08:07 GMT
The power of love.
Let's meet on the City Centre tonight and as well as discussing tents and sanatoriums, let us not forget the power of love.
When someone denigrates the good name of the genial Wael, please remember the power of love.
When we bicker as a group of brothers over open-top bus celebrations, let's not lose sight of the power of love.
When we reminisce about the career of Andy Spring, do not think about the strippers and the primary school mishap, but recall the power of Bobby Gould's love.
For love is a fire and Gas produces fire and fire fuels the power of love.
Martin Curry - Horfield Baptist Church - 21st May 2018.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2018 11:21:58 GMT
Bring back KS/RR/CIS/NQSS. Bring back SWISS. Bring back INTERCEPTOR. Bring back ASTAVJEVS. Cheer up KP. You could be KD. I haven’t actually gone away Shoveler but I’ve realised that a lot of my postings are not of much interest to the majority of fans and in fact they upset quite a few. Being of the same generation as KP I understand how he feels and it is very frustrating to find so many Rovers fans are completely content with mediocrity. Back in the day we used to sing “we hate Aston Villa, we hate Fulham too” and now I guess we would sing “we hate Wycombe Wanderers we hate Fleetwood too”. I can understand that thousands of fans are still having fun watching Rovers and following the team around the country just as I did. But when you start to accept second best and go out of your way to convince yourself everything is well, despite all the evidence to the contrary, I think you are on a slippery slope. My view of the Dwane Sports regime is very similar to the one I had of the Higgs regime which is that if there truly was a vision and a plan we would be getting the message loud and clear. When business owners are on top of their game they want to share their vision and plans because that’s part of the thrill of owning a business. Some fans say Dwane Sports don’t communicate because they are cautious bankers and private people but to me that doesn't stack up because in 2016 Wael was all over the media telling us his life story and what his plans were for Rovers. The reality is that when things are not going well behind those famous scenes we find that business owners start to contradict themselves, get irritable with critics and eventually cease communication altogether which is what seems to be happening now. A friend told me recently that he was absolutely delighted with the polished and professional event management at the Players Awards Evening which is something we have been yearning for at Rovers for many years. But, as a businessman, he cannot bring himself to hide away from the underlying negative outlook in terms of finance and lack of leadership. I have never claimed to be ITK but, like KP, the snippets of information I do get point to a situation which, if left unchecked, will completely overwhelm the positive cosmetic changes and the feel good factor which Darrell Clarke has managed to induce at the club. This is why my great hope is that Dwane Sports are actively seeking to attract new investment into Rovers and will be willing, if necessary, to capitalise their loan and relinquish their majority stake in order to secure it. Back in the day we sang "we hate aston villa and fulham" simply because those 2 clubs had fallen on hard times,we could just as easily sing "we hate sunderland and coventry" now so i think that comparison is just daft. Looking at the finances of the present clubs in the championship i wondered which club you think is a suitable business model to follow realistically. I mean brentford are a similar size club so if our owners put the £100m plus that matthew benham put into the club maybe that will do the trick?
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Post by swissgas on May 21, 2018 15:37:21 GMT
I haven’t actually gone away Shoveler but I’ve realised that a lot of my postings are not of much interest to the majority of fans and in fact they upset quite a few. Being of the same generation as KP I understand how he feels and it is very frustrating to find so many Rovers fans are completely content with mediocrity. Back in the day we used to sing “we hate Aston Villa, we hate Fulham too” and now I guess we would sing “we hate Wycombe Wanderers we hate Fleetwood too”. I can understand that thousands of fans are still having fun watching Rovers and following the team around the country just as I did. But when you start to accept second best and go out of your way to convince yourself everything is well, despite all the evidence to the contrary, I think you are on a slippery slope. My view of the Dwane Sports regime is very similar to the one I had of the Higgs regime which is that if there truly was a vision and a plan we would be getting the message loud and clear. When business owners are on top of their game they want to share their vision and plans because that’s part of the thrill of owning a business. Some fans say Dwane Sports don’t communicate because they are cautious bankers and private people but to me that doesn't stack up because in 2016 Wael was all over the media telling us his life story and what his plans were for Rovers. The reality is that when things are not going well behind those famous scenes we find that business owners start to contradict themselves, get irritable with critics and eventually cease communication altogether which is what seems to be happening now. A friend told me recently that he was absolutely delighted with the polished and professional event management at the Players Awards Evening which is something we have been yearning for at Rovers for many years. But, as a businessman, he cannot bring himself to hide away from the underlying negative outlook in terms of finance and lack of leadership. I have never claimed to be ITK but, like KP, the snippets of information I do get point to a situation which, if left unchecked, will completely overwhelm the positive cosmetic changes and the feel good factor which Darrell Clarke has managed to induce at the club. This is why my great hope is that Dwane Sports are actively seeking to attract new investment into Rovers and will be willing, if necessary, to capitalise their loan and relinquish their majority stake in order to secure it. Back in the day we sang "we hate aston villa and fulham" simply because those 2 clubs had fallen on hard times,we could just as easily sing "we hate sunderland and coventry" now so i think that comparison is just daft. Looking at the finances of the present clubs in the championship i wondered which club you think is a suitable business model to follow realistically. I mean brentford are a similar size club so if our owners put the £100m plus that matthew benham put into the club maybe that will do the trick? I think in those days we sang about Aston Villa and Fulham because we were looking upwards, we were challenging them and believed we could compete with them. Today we are more likely to sing about Wycombe or Fleetwood because we are looking inwards, they are easier targets and we have lost the ability to challenge. Football is a business for gamblers. If our owners want to gamble some of their surplus cash, or find someone else with surplus cash who does, then we have a chance of reaching upwards once again.
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Post by badbloodash on May 21, 2018 19:22:34 GMT
My only revelation on the Rovers front is that I have it on good authority that it was a gentleman called Sam Sparrow who picked up the corner flag against Southampton in 1978. Sam - where are you? We need to track him down, ask for the truth and then put him on a lie detector. It was indeed the stuttering Sam. Alas he hasn’t been the same since he fell off a wall backwards at Twerton Park. He is indeed fine except for his broken ankle from the last night at dings old ground walking back across the uwe site to the station 👃
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vaughan
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 1,237
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Post by vaughan on May 21, 2018 20:55:19 GMT
Is Sam using the corner flag as a walking stick?
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2018 22:32:39 GMT
It was indeed the stuttering Sam. Alas he hasn’t been the same since he fell off a wall backwards at Twerton Park. He is indeed fine except for his broken ankle from the last night at dings old ground walking back across the uwe site to the station 👃 Really? What a twat.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2018 22:33:56 GMT
Is Sam using the corner flag as a walking stick? Ah, now that conjures up memories of Kerry using Fran’s crutch on QPR supporters heads in the Tote End.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2018 0:36:46 GMT
Back in the day we sang "we hate aston villa and fulham" simply because those 2 clubs had fallen on hard times,we could just as easily sing "we hate sunderland and coventry" now so i think that comparison is just daft. Looking at the finances of the present clubs in the championship i wondered which club you think is a suitable business model to follow realistically. I mean brentford are a similar size club so if our owners put the £100m plus that matthew benham put into the club maybe that will do the trick? I think in those days we sang about Aston Villa and Fulham because we were looking upwards, we were challenging them and believed we could compete with them. Today we are more likely to sing about Wycombe or Fleetwood because we are looking inwards, they are easier targets and we have lost the ability to challenge. Football is a business for gamblers. If our owners want to gamble some of their surplus cash, or find someone else with surplus cash who does, then we have a chance of reaching upwards once again. Gamble is a good word. What people are really saying to our owners is please give away about £80m which you probably will never get back just like most of the owners in the championship. Even when owners like lansdown and the brentford owner as well as countless others do spend crazy amounts of cash the fans still boo and demand better signings. Reference bristol city fans moaning about the january window and brentford fans booing the team despite the club spending 166% of their total turnover on players wages. Posters worrying about a £2m loss and a charge against the mem but at the same time demanding a new stadium which would cost £50m? and the owners would need to ensure the playing budget was good otherwise the new ground would be empty ish! What happens when your owners dont appear to want to throw big money away but own your club?
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2018 4:29:19 GMT
I think in those days we sang about Aston Villa and Fulham because we were looking upwards, we were challenging them and believed we could compete with them. Today we are more likely to sing about Wycombe or Fleetwood because we are looking inwards, they are easier targets and we have lost the ability to challenge. Football is a business for gamblers. If our owners want to gamble some of their surplus cash, or find someone else with surplus cash who does, then we have a chance of reaching upwards once again. Gamble is a good word. What people are really saying to our owners is please give away about £80m which you probably will never get back just like most of the owners in the championship. Even when owners like lansdown and the brentford owner as well as countless others do spend crazy amounts of cash the fans still boo and demand better signings. Reference bristol city fans moaning about the january window and brentford fans booing the team despite the club spending 166% of their total turnover on players wages. Posters worrying about a £2m loss and a charge against the mem but at the same time demanding a new stadium which would cost £50m? and the owners would need to ensure the playing budget was good otherwise the new ground would be empty ish! What happens when your owners dont appear to want to throw big money away but own your club? Don't ask us, ask Wael. He says that the owners are ambitious and that there was UWE and then a Plan B. He never mentioned Plan B involving just survival in the 3rd division in the existing facilities, quite the opposite in fact.
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Igitur
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 2,294
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Post by Igitur on May 22, 2018 5:41:21 GMT
This smacks of lazy reporting similar to the open air bus photo in a national paper. The usual desperation to find some news, any news, and then misreport it is too common and has woken up the anti aQs brigade. The word 'redevelopment' is like chucking a grenade into a petrol store; it's a small stand put in so families can sit that's all - end of.
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eppinggas
Administrator
Ian Alexander
Don't care
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Post by eppinggas on May 22, 2018 8:47:08 GMT
This smacks of lazy reporting similar to the open air bus photo in a national paper. The usual desperation to find some news, any news, and then misreport it is too common and has woken up the anti aQs brigade. The word 'redevelopment' is like chucking a grenade into a petrol store; it's a small stand put in so families can sit that's all - end of. There really isn't an "anti A-Qs brigade". If there is - I'm not in it. I think to write of £2mil a year for the "foreseeable future" whilst they put a senior management team in place and hopefully (at some point) upgrade facilities and infrastructure then this is a commendable thing. I thank them for that. What there appears to be... is a number of people asking fairly reasonable questions, but not getting any answers. If the binary option is 1. blind faith, or 2. to keep asking questions and try to hold our owners to account Then I am in the latter camp. UTG.
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Peter Parker
Global Moderator
Richard Walker
You have been sentenced to DELETION!
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 4,920
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Post by Peter Parker on May 22, 2018 8:55:07 GMT
This smacks of lazy reporting similar to the open air bus photo in a national paper. The usual desperation to find some news, any news, and then misreport it is too common and has woken up the anti aQs brigade. The word 'redevelopment' is like chucking a grenade into a petrol store; it's a small stand put in so families can sit that's all - end of. There really isn't an "anti A-Qs brigade". If there is - I'm not in it. I think to write of £2mil a year for the "foreseeable future" whilst they put a senior management team in place and hopefully (at some point) upgrade facilities and infrastructure then this is a commendable thing. I thank them for that. What there appears to be... is a number of people asking fairly reasonable questions, but not getting any answers. If the binary option is 1. blind faith, or 2. to keep asking questions and try to hold our owners to accountThen I am in the latter camp. UTG. Certainly never against that stance, given the questions I have asked of the old regime, but that goes back to the point you make at the start.
The old regime lost money hand over the fist essentially doing nothing. We are currently losing money hand over fist, but the current ownership at least looks like it is implementing change and a lurch into the 21st century
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eppinggas
Administrator
Ian Alexander
Don't care
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Post by eppinggas on May 22, 2018 9:09:28 GMT
I think in those days we sang about Aston Villa and Fulham because we were looking upwards, we were challenging them and believed we could compete with them. Today we are more likely to sing about Wycombe or Fleetwood because we are looking inwards, they are easier targets and we have lost the ability to challenge. Football is a business for gamblers. If our owners want to gamble some of their surplus cash, or find someone else with surplus cash who does, then we have a chance of reaching upwards once again. Gamble is a good word. What people are really saying to our owners is please give away about £80m which you probably will never get back just like most of the owners in the championship. Even when owners like lansdown and the brentford owner as well as countless others do spend crazy amounts of cash the fans still boo and demand better signings. Reference bristol city fans moaning about the january window and brentford fans booing the team despite the club spending 166% of their total turnover on players wages. Posters worrying about a £2m loss and a charge against the mem but at the same time demanding a new stadium which would cost £50m? and the owners would need to ensure the playing budget was good otherwise the new ground would be empty ish! What happens when your owners dont appear to want to throw big money away but own your club? Who is? Not me. It is clear that Dwane Sports are not prepared (or probably able) to spend £40-£50mil on a new stadium / full Memorial Stadium redevelopment. Fair enough. Not a problem. Just bloody tell us. A bit of honesty wouldn't go amiss. It's a "material inconsistency" that has been peddled for nearly a year now. We have had no clear communication regarding the stadium situation since August 2017. Given the senior management team we now have in situ - this is very disappointing. Wael Al-Qadi said in the wake of the UWE collapse said he had a Plan B and was already working with people who have built "not 3 or 4 but 12 new stadiums" (I paraphrase). This is incredibly poor expectation management. The elephant in the room won't go away until Dwane Sports / Wael Al-Qadi front up. For the record (once again for the rose-tinters) - I am a fan of the Al-Qadi's. I genuinely believe we are lucky to have them and that they saved us from a post-Higgs apocalypse.
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Igitur
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 2,294
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Post by Igitur on May 22, 2018 9:15:31 GMT
This smacks of lazy reporting similar to the open air bus photo in a national paper. The usual desperation to find some news, any news, and then misreport it is too common and has woken up the anti aQs brigade. The word 'redevelopment' is like chucking a grenade into a petrol store; it's a small stand put in so families can sit that's all - end of. There really isn't an "anti A-Qs brigade". If there is - I'm not in it. I think to write of £2mil a year for the "foreseeable future" whilst they put a senior management team in place and hopefully (at some point) upgrade facilities and infrastructure then this is a commendable thing. I thank them for that. What there appears to be... is a number of people asking fairly reasonable questions, but not getting any answers. If the binary option is 1. blind faith, or 2. to keep asking questions and try to hold our owners to account Then I am in the latter camp. UTG. Oh blimey, there I was pointing out this tread had descended into the oft produced circular arguments/observations about the aQs. Less than half way down the first page it was pointed out poor journalism had sparked this thread, and soon after the motives of the aQs started to be debated again, among other side issues, and continued off and on for two further pages. "Anti aQs brigade" is merely a general phrase, and should be viewed as such.
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eppinggas
Administrator
Ian Alexander
Don't care
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Post by eppinggas on May 22, 2018 9:20:38 GMT
I thought that was how forums "work". Initial thread title is discussed and then leads to other issues that are then debated. I don't like the polarisation of the debate that implies that if you are not 100% behind the Al-Qadi's - you must be in the "anti Al-Qadi" gang. UTG.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2018 9:22:47 GMT
Did someone mention roses? Glorious this time of year, beginning to bloom and filling the air with a beautiful fragrance. Lovely.
Regards, A Titschmarsh, Roses (flower and Stone) fan, BS3.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2018 9:56:17 GMT
I thought that was how forums "work". Initial thread title is discussed and then leads to other issues that are then debated. I don't like the polarisation of the debate that implies that if you are not 100% behind the Al-Qadi's - you must be in the "anti Al-Qadi" gang. UTG. We've been here before, of course threads evolve and drift from the original topic, just as conversations in real life do. Never understood why some people get stressed by it, if you don't like it, don't read it, seems quite straightforward to me. Ref your 2nd point, I'm pretty sure that we are all 100% behind the owners, we all want them to be successful running the club, unlike the last owners they haven't created any personal battles that I'm aware of, what we are trying to understand is what the plan is exactly and why we can't be told about it?
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Igitur
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 2,294
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Post by Igitur on May 22, 2018 10:01:36 GMT
I thought that was how forums "work". Initial thread title is discussed and then leads to other issues that are then debated. I don't like the polarisation of the debate that implies that if you are not 100% behind the Al-Qadi's - you must be in the "anti Al-Qadi" gang. UTG. Agree, perhaps I'm a little fed up of the discussion of the motives of the a-Qs, which may be what a forum is for, but it's been over done, of course fuelled by the lack of info -plus ça change.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2018 13:28:35 GMT
Gamble is a good word. What people are really saying to our owners is please give away about £80m which you probably will never get back just like most of the owners in the championship. Even when owners like lansdown and the brentford owner as well as countless others do spend crazy amounts of cash the fans still boo and demand better signings. Reference bristol city fans moaning about the january window and brentford fans booing the team despite the club spending 166% of their total turnover on players wages. Posters worrying about a £2m loss and a charge against the mem but at the same time demanding a new stadium which would cost £50m? and the owners would need to ensure the playing budget was good otherwise the new ground would be empty ish! What happens when your owners dont appear to want to throw big money away but own your club? Who is? Not me. It is clear that Dwane Sports are not prepared (or probably able) to spend £40-£50mil on a new stadium / full Memorial Stadium redevelopment. Fair enough. Not a problem. Just bloody tell us. A bit of honesty wouldn't go amiss. It's a "material inconsistency" that has been peddled for nearly a year now. We have had no clear communication regarding the stadium situation since August 2017. Given the senior management team we now have in situ - this is very disappointing. Wael Al-Qadi said in the wake of the UWE collapse said he had a Plan B and was already working with people who have built "not 3 or 4 but 12 new stadiums" (I paraphrase). This is incredibly poor expectation management. The elephant in the room won't go away until Dwane Sports / Wael Al-Qadi front up. For the record (once again for the rose-tinters) - I am a fan of the Al-Qadi's. I genuinely believe we are lucky to have them and that they saved us from a post-Higgs apocalypse. I dont need to know everything about plan a,b or c ,maybe the social media age demands that at a modern football club? I know ive seen a great many improvements at the club and some very good signings under the current owners. Im going to sit back and enjoy the football confident that the owners will find a solution to financing a modern stadium in a reasonable timescale.
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vaughan
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 1,237
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Post by vaughan on May 22, 2018 14:50:19 GMT
So many words and so much guesswork on an Internet forum.
Why don't some of you write to the Chairman with your concerns and questions? Try it. You will receive a prompt and courteous response.
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