If We Hadn't Got Rid of Richardson.... (3 Viewers)

[Hobo]

Grendel, I agree at least Richardson tried to get us to the next level, he was bold and had some good attributes.

However he was probably the start of our downfall and too cavalier. I like lots of fans lapped it up at the time but now have to endure the hangover. Nobody since seems to have any ideas on how to turn the ship around and we continue to keep going from bad to worse.

 

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[skybluetony176]

What would the penalties of this been though?

At that point in time nothing. Much the same as it cost Leicester nothing. No doubting that our problems started with Richardson but I have to agree with (and this is going to hurt ) Grendull on this one. Richardson would have put us in admin, it would have been the best thing to do for the club at that time. Who knows, we might have even followed Leicester back into the premier league, both times. One thing for sure, we'd be saying SISU? SISU who? Right now because they'd never have touched us with a bargepole.

IIRC the point deduction for administration rule was of the back of Leicester going into admin and benefiting from it at the expense of other club's who were trying to deal with their debts. Also IIRC MM was one of the ring leaders of club's looking to get this addressed as it was unfair on us. Instead of just doing the same as the Leicester board.

 

[Jack Griffin]

Doesn't that look suspiciously like it was going to be built in Wasps' colours.......(cue the dramatic music).

Looks suspiciously like the condo on Tracy Island.

 

[DazzleTommyDazzle]

Looks suspiciously like the condo on Tracy Island.

The mystery deepens!

 

[skybluetony176]

The mystery deepens!

I thought the mysterons was captain scarlet?

 

[DazzleTommyDazzle]

I thought the mysterons was captain scarlet?

No, Captain Black was a mysteron!

 

[skybluefred]

This all comes down to the income generated by the Club and the Stadium. Once Highfield Rd became all seater
with a circa 22,000 capacity the Club had no chance of remaining competitive in the premiership.

Richardson chased the fans dreams of success by spending big money on average players. This is the cause of
today's sorry mess, in hindsight if Richardson had decided to build a suitable Stadium for the premiership instead
of wasting millions on players, we as a club may still be in the promised land.

Finally when the penny dropped he purchased the worst peace of contaminated land in Warwickshire for his new Stadium.
the rest is history.

 

[Grendel]

If only.

You start fights in empty rooms to get a reaction, you're worse than Grendel!

Thanks for that!

 

[Lamptey]

complete crook, heard stories about how he had houses mortgaged through the club and various other things, fingers permanently in the till.

 

[letsallsingtogether]

complete crook, heard stories about how he had houses mortgaged through the club and various other things, fingers permanently in the till.

Thing is he was minted so why did he need to to do it.

 

[Hobo]

Thing is he was minted so why did he need to to do it.

that is why he was minted

 

[martcov]

Richardson said that in order to compete with the best, we have to have a 40000 seater stadium with a retractable roof and pitch. That was necessary to get 365 revenues - you could hold events all year round. He also did the Tesco deal. He was right about the stadium - if that had happened he would be a hero. Tbf to him, he would never had allowed talk of a 12000 Micky Mouse stadium somewhere near Coventry. That would have definitely been the end of CCFC. But, things went horribly wrong and now we are discussing a Micky mouse stadium build....

 

[torchomatic]

McGinnity and SISU were/are bad but Richardson tops the lot for me. Although the aforementioned carried the mantel he started the whole thing off by getting rid of HR. Not to mention the wages paid, the team of Hondurans, the salary he paid himself which was more than the Premier League Chairman got, etc etc.

c**t.

 

[Astute]

McGinnity and SISU were/are bad but Richardson tops the lot for me. Although the aforementioned carried the mantel he started the whole thing off by getting rid of HR. Not to mention the wages paid, the team of Hondurans, the salary he paid himself which was more than the Premier League Chairman got, etc etc.

c**t.

Spot on Torch.

The one thing I find hard to believe is those that tell us that SISU are not to blame for everything......which is correct........refuse to blame and try to stand up for the person that put our club on the route it took by spending money we didn't have. And then selling HR whilst planning a new stadium we couldn't afford when HR was big enough and ours before it was sold.

HR might have been old and in need of improving. But our main problems have been caused when HR was sold without a replacement being built and then SISU playing silly games over ownership of the arena. It has left us homeless.

 

[phildownunder]

Have to admit I haven`t followed the minutia of the backroom activities of Richardson et al, but of course I know the general outline of the dubious dealings and mismanagement that occurred.

At the time like many others I think, I thought BR was the best chairman we`d ever had (I sure got that wrong!) and I can`t help feeling that with the right manager at the helm things could have gone much better on the football front at least. However he made the mistake of appointing Ron (cheque book Charlie) Atkinson who basically threw away much of the money provided which was the start of the decline IMO, and of course BR is equally to blame on that front for sanctioning RA`s extravagance.

I`m not for a moment suggesting that this was the sole reason for the later problems, for example I agree with much of what Fred and Martcov said re the ground, and a crook like BR might have buggered us up in some other way in any case. However if things had gone better on the playing side and the team had prospered, income would have been much healthier and who knows, the matter of administration might not have arisen.

 

[Astute]

This all comes down to the income generated by the Club and the Stadium. Once Highfield Rd became all seater
with a circa 22,000 capacity the Club had no chance of remaining competitive in the premiership.

Richardson chased the fans dreams of success by spending big money on average players. This is the cause of
today's sorry mess, in hindsight if Richardson had decided to build a suitable Stadium for the premiership instead
of wasting millions on players, we as a club may still be in the promised land.

Finally when the penny dropped he purchased the worst peace of contaminated land in Warwickshire for his new Stadium.
the rest is history.

We didn't purchase the land though. And the proceeds from selling HR went into keeping our club going for another year. All we got was a picture of a ground and not much more. Sound familiar? And how many games a season was HR not big enough for us?

 

[M&B Stand]

Richardson said that in order to compete with the best, we have to have a 40000 seater stadium with a retractable roof and pitch. That was necessary to get 365 revenues - you could hold events all year round. He also did the Tesco deal. He was right about the stadium - if that had happened he would be a hero. Tbf to him, he would never had allowed talk of a 12000 Micky Mouse stadium somewhere near Coventry. That would have definitely been the end of CCFC. But, things went horribly wrong and now we are discussing a Micky mouse stadium build....

The Tesco deal, 8 Million to 3 individuals. Nice work if you can get it.

 

[rupert_bear]

Had Richardson stayed the Ricoh may well not have happened and I think we would have bought back HR and re-developed that of that I'm certain, that would have cost others a lot of money. He stuck by Strachan far too long and didn't have the financial clout to fight others. Richardson was far from ideal but certainly wasn't the only bad guy.

 

[LastGarrison]

That weren't the trick though was it? Thought Hughes was Bellamy's replacement?

We just never replaced Aloisi.

And it was 5 million and one pound for Hughes.

 

[Astute]

Had Richardson stayed the Ricoh may well not have happened and I think we would have bought back HR and re-developed that of that I'm certain, that would have cost others a lot of money. He stuck by Strachan far too long and didn't have the financial clout to fight others. Richardson was far from ideal but certainly wasn't the only bad guy.

Nobody has said he was the only bad one. He is one of a list of people that has put us where we are now. But it was him that wasted millions that our club didn't have. And how could we have bought HR back when the money was used to keep us going? It was so bad that even the cost cutting never worked and we ended up with SISU.

 

[Grendel]

Nobody has said he was the only bad one. He is one of a list of people that has put us where we are now. But it was him that wasted millions that our club didn't have. And how could we have bought HR back when the money was used to keep us going? It was so bad that even the cost cutting never worked and we ended up with SISU.

You seem to be struggling with the one basic fact here.

Mcginnity point blank refused to wipe all those debts out in one minute. I don't thing Richardson would.

 

[Astute]

You seem to be struggling with the one basic fact here.

Mcginnity point blank refused to wipe all those debts out in one minute. I don't thing Richardson would.

Why did Richardson leave when we were so much in the shit? Why didn't he sort out the finances before he left?

It is you that is ignoring the biggest points here. Richardson set us on the path of spending many millions a year that we didn't have. He sold HR without a replacement. We have never recovered from it. And we have ended up with a hedge fund running our club that knows nothing about football. Yet you are trying to blame someone else further along the trail because of what you think Richardson would have done although he could have done it before he left our club.

 

[torchomatic]

Richardson created the debts in the first place though. There wouldn't have been anything for McGinnity to wipe out if it wasn't for Richardson.

You seem to be struggling with the one basic fact here.

Mcginnity point blank refused to wipe all those debts out in one minute. I don't thing Richardson would.

 

[torchomatic]

A sell-out 22K every week in the Premiership could EASILY have happened if we had stayed put. We could have redeveloped like we did with the East Stand.

The Ricoh is the single biggest mistake of our history and will prove to be our undoing. Meanwhile Richardson is sipping cocktails somewhere on his lilo.

This all comes down to the income generated by the Club and the Stadium. Once Highfield Rd became all seater
with a circa 22,000 capacity the Club had no chance of remaining competitive in the premiership.

Richardson chased the fans dreams of success by spending big money on average players. This is the cause of
today's sorry mess, in hindsight if Richardson had decided to build a suitable Stadium for the premiership instead
of wasting millions on players, we as a club may still be in the promised land.

Finally when the penny dropped he purchased the worst peace of contaminated land in Warwickshire for his new Stadium.
the rest is history.

 

[torchomatic]

Exactly! We were in trouble four months after moving into the Ricoh. Shameful, what Richardson did to our club. And I'm amazed so many think he isn't "the only bad guy".

Saints alive!

Nobody has said he was the only bad one. He is one of a list of people that has put us where we are now. But it was him that wasted millions that our club didn't have. And how could we have bought HR back when the money was used to keep us going? It was so bad that even the cost cutting never worked and we ended up with SISU.

 

[Grendel]

Richardson created the debts in the first place though. There wouldn't have been anything for McGinnity to wipe out if it wasn't for Richardson.

Every club was in debt in the premier league - most clubs had 80 - 90% of turnover on wages.

Our situation was no different to others.

 

[Grendel]

Why did Richardson leave when we were so much in the shit? Why didn't he sort out the finances before he left?

It is you that is ignoring the biggest points here. Richardson set us on the path of spending many millions a year that we didn't have. He sold HR without a replacement. We have never recovered from it. And we have ended up with a hedge fund running our club that knows nothing about football. Yet you are trying to blame someone else further along the trail because of what you think Richardson would have done although he could have done it before he left our club.

Er he left because he was forced out.

So you think when Leicester went into administration they were in the wrong and should have just sold everything?

 

[olderskyblue]

Saints alive!

Only because SISU didn't get their hands on them......

(not too much of a diversion NW ??)

 

[torchomatic]

It was, ours was 125%.

And every other club didn't have their ground sold on a pipe dream (nightmare!) by their Chairman.

Every club was in debt in the premier league - most clubs had 80 - 90% of turnover on wages.

Our situation was no different to others.

 

[Astute]

A sell-out 22K every week in the Premiership could EASILY have happened if we had stayed put. We could have redeveloped like we did with the East Stand.

The Ricoh is the single biggest mistake of our history and will prove to be our undoing. Meanwhile Richardson is sipping cocktails somewhere on his lilo.

Other than the bounce in attendances when we first moved to the Ricoh I can't think of anything else good that has come from it. By the time the move had happened the financial mess we were in had made sure we would struggle to compete in a lower division.

 

[Astute]

Er he left because he was forced out.

And why was that?

Maybe something to do with our club getting into more of a financial mess the longer he was with us and him doing anything he could to keep up with what he was doing including selling HR and not wanting to sort out our clubs finances as you claim to think.

 

[olderskyblue]

And every other club didn't have their ground sold on a pipe dream (nightmare!) by their Chairman.

Only just read this thread today, but thinking about it, this must surely rank as the most singular event that has caused our downfall. Richardson's folly..

 

[Grendel]

It was, ours was 125%.

And every other club didn't have their ground sold on a pipe dream (nightmare!) by their Chairman.

The fact remains that every club relegated during that period, unless they secured promotion in the two years after relegation experienced further relegation, administration. In fact, I think only one club avoided both fates.

Also even in the championship the only time we ever came close to promotion was in season one. Once mcginnitty had full control his hopeless bungling on the playing side came to the fore. Sacking Nielsen for Mcallister proved a master stroke. He even repeated the scenario a couple of years later.

It's also worthy of note that the arena deal wasn't sanctioned until Richardson had left the building. We could have re purchased.

Also what was mcginnitys role at the club in the 8 years prior to succeeding Richardson? I can't recall much objection of the strategy from him then - can you?

 

[shy_tall_knight]

Can'r believe this thread, the single biggest reason why we are in this current mess is the crazy deision to sell highfield Road before we had a new home to move to - that decision was in the Richardson era - we were no longer in control of our destiny once we were homeless.

Richardson gave Big Ron money to spend which was wasted on transfer fees and wages that we couldn't afford and brought no tangible success
Started the Ricoh project which we couldn't fund

But richardson was only an employee and all the key decisions would have required boarf approval and so why would the owners allow the club to go into admin risking their investment in the club, Turkeys voting for Xmas wouldn't have happened.

 

[torchomatic]

I'm certainly not saying McGinnity was an innocent little lamb, but he certainly didn't start the ball rolling and 15 years down the line we are in a perilous position because of Richardson.

Also what was mcginnitys role at the club in the 8 years prior to succeeding Richardson? I can't recall much objection of the strategy from him then - can you?