CCFC's biggest ever mistake? (4 Viewers)

Jimmy Hill's Chin

Well-Known Member
If you had a time machine and could reverse one thing in CCFC history what would it be? A few contenders here for me. Ones that stand out in the last two decades or so are:

Dismantling the 87 team and buying Kevin Drinkell with the proceeds
Sacking John Silllett and replacing him with Terry Butcher
Letting Bryan Richardson take over as Chairman
Appointing Jim Smith as Assistant Manager in 2001/2002 season
Sacking Eric Black
Leaving Highfield Road for the Ricoh without owning the stadium
Letting SISU buy the club

What do people reckon is the most significant mistake of these or are there any others I've missed?
 

Nonleagueherewecome

Well-Known Member
Sillett for Butcher takes some beating out of that list, Jimmy.

Not signing Hartson sooner is my contribution.
 

@richh87

Member
Not giving Jimmy Hill the 10 year contract he wanted. Just the thought of what could have been makes me want to cry like a baby.
 

stupot07

Well-Known Member
Richardson becoming Chairman and deciding to "have a go", spending money we didn't have on transfers and wages.
 

Moe-Lask

New Member
When it comes to my generation of City fans it would be sacking Eric Black, couldn't beleive we got Peter Reid in to replace him - good call Mike McGinnity
Leaving Highfield Road for the Ricoh without question is my number one!

Letting SISU buy the club (goes without saying)

And finally the one mistake me and my dad called that we would regret was releasing Gary McAllister... I honestly think we'd of had more of a chance of staying up.

Ah well we can all dream!
 

torchomatic

Well-Known Member
Bryan Fucking Richardson. I think the phrase "end of" is appropriate here.
 

wingy

Well-Known Member
Not getting strachan out 18months earlier ,contrdiction in terms ,don't advocate the revolving door,but BIG SAM would have lead us to the promised land Richardson would be hailed and the stadium in the prem would have been our making ,go on shoot me down :slap:
 

The soothsayer

New Member
If you had a time machine and could reverse one thing in CCFC history what would it be? A few contenders here for me. Ones that stand out in the last two decades or so are:

Dismantling the 87 team and buying Kevin Drinkell with the proceeds
Sacking John Silllett and replacing him with Terry Butcher
Letting Bryan Richardson take over as Chairman
Appointing Jim Smith as Assistant Manager in 2001/2002 season
Sacking Eric Black
Leaving Highfield Road for the Ricoh without owning the stadium
Letting SISU buy the club

What do people reckon is the most significant mistake of these or are there any others I've missed?

pointless thread, probably would have given your dad a condom..
 

ccfcway

Well-Known Member
not signing chris marsden
not playing John Aloisi
Selling Ben Turner
Not giving King a 3 year deal
Not signing Caroll for 1 million
Anything to do with SISU
Cashless Tills
No train station
Ken Delieu
Text for subs
Bell + McPake on 10 year contracts


i cant go on, its too upsetting and i need to go to bed before 4am
 
When it comes to my generation of City fans it would be sacking Eric Black, couldn't beleive we got Peter Reid in to replace him - good call Mike McGinnity
Leaving Highfield Road for the Ricoh without question is my number one!

Letting SISU buy the club (goes without saying)

And finally the one mistake me and my dad called that we would regret was releasing Gary McAllister... I honestly think we'd of had more of a chance of staying up.

Ah well we can all dream!

well we didnt release mcallister. liverpool came in for him and how could he turn that down, as for black, ive never got this obsession with him, yes he was doing ok but he hasnt managed anyone since so to me that shows he wasnt cut out for management, no doubt the biggest mistake was leaving highfield road, such a shame how things have turned out, heard an interesting stat that when we line up against crawley next year it will be crawley who will be the financial big boys, tragic how far we have fallen
 

Houchens Head

Fairly well known member from Malvern
Not keeping that fabulous chocolate kit! :D
 

Snozzer

New Member
Not on the list but as somebody else said the biggest mistake we ever made was not giving Jimmy Hill the 10 year contract he wanted. Closely followed by moving to the Ricoh, total disaster.
 

torchomatic

Well-Known Member
Letting Jimmy Hill buy the Washington Diplomats with our money.
 

curlyc_

New Member
Selling McSheffrey just days after launching 'operation premiership'.
Buying Kevin Kyle to spearhead said operation.
Buying Keith O'Neil.
Buying Ray Woods.
 

Jimmy Hill's Chin

Well-Known Member
I'd say moving to the Ricoh without having a stake in the ground was easily the biggest mistake. Bigger even than letting SISU take over the club, the footballing equivalent of letting a fox inside a hen house. I also think the Jim Smith appointment is often overlooked as we were heading for at least a play off spot before he came on board. If we'd bounced straight back we could now be where West Brom are. Other mistakes for me include:

Bobby Gould letting the team go onto that army assault course which destroyed Lee Hurst's career
Selling Huckerby to Leeds
Appointing McAllister as manager - nice guy and amazing player but not a manager
Not appointing Dennis Wise as a coach when he finished his playing career
Coleman freezing out Elliott Ward
Appointing Boothroyd when there were better alternatives
 

rob9872

Well-Known Member
Moving to the Ricoh was NOT a mistake since we already were paying rent on HR. SELLING HR was the biggest mistake. We weren't even filling it consistently and set our expectation levels too high.

Others on here have selected various reasons and many are contributory, but I'm sure if any one of the previous regime had realised what a cash-cow the EPL would have become then they would have gambled a little bit more with what we were trying to achieve. When I look at some of the clubs who we now can't compete with it saddens me - we have no divine right but it should have been us there if we could have just ridden the tide for another 12-18 months.
 

DazzleTommyDazzle

Well-Known Member
A couple of others:

Selling Dennis Mortimer - always felt he could have captained the side to great things, wonder what happened to him after he left.....

Selling Garry Thompson - Sexton was building a really good young team, they saw the writing on the wall when Garry went and so Thomas, Hateley, Gillespie et al followed him out of the door
 

rob9872

Well-Known Member
Sorry not meaning to single this post out but its the most recent:

Bobby Gould letting the team go onto that army assault course which destroyed Lee Hurst's career: Hindsight is a wonderful thing. ~Hurst was looking decent as a CM but had been pants at LB before. Could Hussey do the same?
Selling Huckerby to Leeds - we got £4m, which was fair value. I always liked Hucks, but he wanted to go, we got market value, he was frustrating with his off-sides and its the re-investment that counted
Appointing McAllister as manager - nice guy and amazing player but not a manager - agree out of his depth, but agreed with the appointment at the time and a shame it didn't work for him or us. I was fully behind the appointment
Not appointing Dennis Wise as a coach when he finished his playing career. ~Why? Amazing player but he had other aspirations and not all great players make great mangers.
Coleman freezing out Elliott Ward - the Elliot Ward whop was amazing for 89 minutes or the one who made the mistake every time he pulled on the shirt?
Appointing Boothroyd when there were better alternatives. What alternatives? Didn't agree with his style but I welcomed his appointment and would have given him longer.
 
J

Jack Griffin

Guest
Richardson becoming chairman as a few of the others wouldn't of happened without him.

Yup, the bringer of all our woes. Gambled with CCFC & royally screwed the club for more than a decade.
 

rob9872

Well-Known Member
I resent BR for what happened, the selling of top players, the gambling, the selling of the ground, the appointments and total mismanagement - in short he was useless, the start of all our problems and we wouldn't be in this mess with SISU were it not for him. However, where I struggle is that we stayed up each year and were operating with smaller crowds to stay in a position of budget better than it has currently managed, with a much more entertaining product where it counts. It may not have been ideal but I think he genuinely wanted it to work and couldn't make the numbers stack up.
 

Moe-Lask

New Member
Sorry not meaning to single this post out but its the most recent:

Selling Huckerby to Leeds - we got £4m, which was fair value. I always liked Hucks, but he wanted to go, we got market value, he was frustrating with his off-sides and its the re-investment that counted

If you read Huckerby's book he said he didn't want to leave. They wanted the £4m to allow them to buy Keane. His book is a good read by the way.
 

rob9872

Well-Known Member
Easy to say he didn't want to go, but he had a contract and was offered more. I respect and like him and I may have it all wrong, but I think its naive to think he wanted to stay with us when bigger clubs with more financial clout came in.
 

derbyskyblue

Well-Known Member
Easy to say he didn't want to go, but he had a contract and was offered more. I respect and like him and I may have it all wrong, but I think its naive to think he wanted to stay with us when bigger clubs with more financial clout came in.
I must admit ive never had a problem with any player who has left us for bigger and better things, and at that time...well leeds were. We got 4 million so good business....for someone.
 

coop

Well-Known Member
Richardson for me as that's where fall started.Where did the money go for the sale of highfield road?Why did they not invest that money into the ricoharena?
 

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