Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2015 4:37:15 GMT
Some interesting comments from Irish and Bamber.
We can debate historical performance all we like, but to me there has always been an underlying theme of poor club management.
If you think about when we started, and think of similar dated clubs and where they are these days, fast forward 50 years and a catastrophe which invoked selling the freehold of the stadium. A decusion by the board that came back to haunt the club
Fast forward twenty years from that point and we have a team vying for promotion to the 1st Division. The then catastrophe of one of the best players ever to put the shirt on getting seriously injured, and what did the board do? Nothing.
The decline from that point, relative especially to the clubs that were vying in those days for promotion to the 1st Division, Liverpool, Leeds etc was stark into the 1960's.
20 years followed with some great games at Eastville, Aston Villa, Arsenal in the cup a promotion to div 2, Brighton away etc.stick in my mind
But in the main pretty ststic in terms of development.
Then the catastrophe of 1986, losing, albeit if we are honest a decrepit, stadium.
Then a period of good luck, good scouting and a hard core of 3500 keepin the club afloat along with Denis Dunford.
And, almost unbelievably, promotion to Div 2.
And what did the board do?
Sold the best players, made some quite ridiculous decisions on choice of managers post Francis, spent silly amounts of money on very average players bar Tillson, and we got relegated.
Again.
The last, I would claim, of the remnants of our youth development / scouting system brought us Stewart and Taylor and we made the playoff final.
Lots of reward from a big Wembley appearance, but we lost.
What did the board do?
Sell our best players.
Fast foward 5/6 years and back in Bristol we have one of the most exciting teams I have watched, managed and developed under Holloway.
One player breaks his leg and the board recruit a couple of kids and the team gives up. We fail (again).
What do the board do?
Sell the best players and sack the manager.
Now real decline sets in. A mass clear out results in a new conference level team managed by a dinosaur and just avoid losing our league status.
What does the board do?
Degenerate into acrimony.
And the fans chuck em £1m for their efforts.
Then we get a break and a new player really works in a team being managed by an old hand and an up and coming coach.
Promotion and high hopes. Huge windfall from a (now new) Wembley appearance, followed by a halcyon season with big cup games and a decent league position.
What does the board do? Squander a milion plus on silly stadium redevelopment scheme(s), sell the best player and sack half, then both, of the management duo that got us to that position.
We get relegated, again.
What does the board do?
Become a laughing stock by making appointments as manager, multiple appointments, that cemented the decline.
What does the board do?
Camauflage this decline with stories of a fully funded new stadium.
We get relegated, again, this time losing our league status.
What does the board do?
Camauflage the truth about new stadium funding and time lines with hubris and bravado.
And appoint a manager whose only expetience was Conference level football.
In the meantime, and particularly since the mid 90's they are operating in an environment where media money has been pouring into the game and the locality in which they operate witnessed a full decade of evonomic growth and expansion.
And what did the board do? Nothing except split, with the club left in the hands of one man, the man that has been a key player during the abject performance of the club since 2009.
Anyone spot a trend here?
And Bamber is exactly right. There is absolutely zero evidence that the next decade will be any different.
What will hapoen, I believe, is that the club may receive a substantial windfall from the enforcement of the contract with Sainsburys.
But it will not be enough to build a new stadium.
This then becomes a shareholder windfall, whereupon just wait for the stories of jam tomorrow whilst we ground share at some god foresaken place and team performance declines still further and we, as a club, are left with nothing.
It will never happen, will it?
We can debate historical performance all we like, but to me there has always been an underlying theme of poor club management.
If you think about when we started, and think of similar dated clubs and where they are these days, fast forward 50 years and a catastrophe which invoked selling the freehold of the stadium. A decusion by the board that came back to haunt the club
Fast forward twenty years from that point and we have a team vying for promotion to the 1st Division. The then catastrophe of one of the best players ever to put the shirt on getting seriously injured, and what did the board do? Nothing.
The decline from that point, relative especially to the clubs that were vying in those days for promotion to the 1st Division, Liverpool, Leeds etc was stark into the 1960's.
20 years followed with some great games at Eastville, Aston Villa, Arsenal in the cup a promotion to div 2, Brighton away etc.stick in my mind
But in the main pretty ststic in terms of development.
Then the catastrophe of 1986, losing, albeit if we are honest a decrepit, stadium.
Then a period of good luck, good scouting and a hard core of 3500 keepin the club afloat along with Denis Dunford.
And, almost unbelievably, promotion to Div 2.
And what did the board do?
Sold the best players, made some quite ridiculous decisions on choice of managers post Francis, spent silly amounts of money on very average players bar Tillson, and we got relegated.
Again.
The last, I would claim, of the remnants of our youth development / scouting system brought us Stewart and Taylor and we made the playoff final.
Lots of reward from a big Wembley appearance, but we lost.
What did the board do?
Sell our best players.
Fast foward 5/6 years and back in Bristol we have one of the most exciting teams I have watched, managed and developed under Holloway.
One player breaks his leg and the board recruit a couple of kids and the team gives up. We fail (again).
What do the board do?
Sell the best players and sack the manager.
Now real decline sets in. A mass clear out results in a new conference level team managed by a dinosaur and just avoid losing our league status.
What does the board do?
Degenerate into acrimony.
And the fans chuck em £1m for their efforts.
Then we get a break and a new player really works in a team being managed by an old hand and an up and coming coach.
Promotion and high hopes. Huge windfall from a (now new) Wembley appearance, followed by a halcyon season with big cup games and a decent league position.
What does the board do? Squander a milion plus on silly stadium redevelopment scheme(s), sell the best player and sack half, then both, of the management duo that got us to that position.
We get relegated, again.
What does the board do?
Become a laughing stock by making appointments as manager, multiple appointments, that cemented the decline.
What does the board do?
Camauflage this decline with stories of a fully funded new stadium.
We get relegated, again, this time losing our league status.
What does the board do?
Camauflage the truth about new stadium funding and time lines with hubris and bravado.
And appoint a manager whose only expetience was Conference level football.
In the meantime, and particularly since the mid 90's they are operating in an environment where media money has been pouring into the game and the locality in which they operate witnessed a full decade of evonomic growth and expansion.
And what did the board do? Nothing except split, with the club left in the hands of one man, the man that has been a key player during the abject performance of the club since 2009.
Anyone spot a trend here?
And Bamber is exactly right. There is absolutely zero evidence that the next decade will be any different.
What will hapoen, I believe, is that the club may receive a substantial windfall from the enforcement of the contract with Sainsburys.
But it will not be enough to build a new stadium.
This then becomes a shareholder windfall, whereupon just wait for the stories of jam tomorrow whilst we ground share at some god foresaken place and team performance declines still further and we, as a club, are left with nothing.
It will never happen, will it?