If We Hadn't Got Rid of Richardson.... (2 Viewers)

[Nick]

Yeah the old bloke who sits next to me at the Ricoh says he knows who wrote it and it's sitting in a vault waiting for Richardson to die. Apparently we don't know even half of what he was up to.

Wasnt Hatton Garden was it?

 

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[chiefdave]

It was on paperwork released that it was how much we were paying before we moved to the Ricoh. That was why they saw the massive rental agreement of the Ricoh as being reasonable.

950K or 1.2m is both missing the point. the rent at the Ricoh was, according to PWKH based on the rent when we left HR. When we left being the key words there as at that point the rent had shot up as we were being charged a penalty for moving out later than originally planned and delaying the redevelopment.

 

[Deleted member 5849]

Yeah the old bloke who sits next to me at the Ricoh says he knows who wrote it and it's sitting in a vault waiting for Richardson to die. Apparently we don't know even half of what he was up to.

It's worth noting that Robinson's biog managed to come out... and is worth a read.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/oct/31/firstchapters.reviews

 

[letsallsingtogether]

Yeah the old bloke who sits next to me at the Ricoh says he knows who wrote it and it's sitting in a vault waiting for Richardson to die. Apparently we don't know even half of what he was up to.

That's the one I too know who wrote it but cannot disclose it.
yes apparently some shocking stuff.
Oh well just hope I outlive him

 

[Rusty Trombone]

I want to help save Coventry City, says Bryan Richardson

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/want-help-save-coventry-city-3026911

An old link, I wonder whether he ever got in touch with SISU, or maybe it was just a spurious headline.

 

[James Smith]

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.

I will admit that I was very happy the day that it was announced he had been sacked. I will also admit that I enjoyed watching the likes of Dublin, etc that was a feature of our time in the premiership. However had I known what this was being built on I would have been less impressed. What we had was a business that was dependent on us staying in the premiership or the debts never being called in or basically going into administration to wipe as much debt out as possible. The first of those was what I think BR was going for when we bought expensive players (sometimes with the knowlege of the manager and possibly sometimes without?). The second was less likely to be achievable because the bank (which I think was the co-op wasn't it?) were unlikely to just let us off the hook, and then there was GR too. At the time I had no idea what administration really was and what would have been gained by doing that.

I do remember someone telling me at the time that the Leicester admin had had an affect on us too. I think and I don't have anything to back this up other than my failing memory that the company who built their stadium lost out massively as a result of the admin. They were the same lot that were lined up to do ours. They then pulled out of doing footy stadiums presumably after getting their finger burned and we had to look elsewhere for another builder.

Would we have had a better chance under Richardson than MMG is an interesting question. To me he built an impressive house but it had no (financial) foundations it was mostly built on debt. If you haven't got stable foundations then your house is liable to collapse and we certainly did that. He was gambling with very high stakes plus a lot of money but the odds weren't that good. Had it come off and we hadn't been relegated when we were we might not be having this discussion now, but we were unlikely to have avoided the drop for many more years. Was MMG just firefighting the massive debts that BR had built up which proved insurmountable? Was he being sincere when he said that Admin would hurt a lot of local businesses that the club owed money to or just looking out for GR and his own loan (if he had one at the time to the club)?

Should BR have even considered gambling on Arena 2000 given our financial state or just let us stay where we were happiest at our home in Highfield Road? I loved Highfield Road and whilst it wasn't the most modern of stadiums it was the only one I'd ever known as our home. However we needed to deal with the fact that access wasn't the greatest and there wasn't much room to expand. It wasn't great for the away team coach attempting to reach the King Richard Street entrance and that was tragically highlighted when one of the stewards Ron Reeves (RIP) died after he was crushed by the visitors coach whilst directing them in. I don't know where we would have been league wise if we had stayed at Highfield Road but I do know we would have had our home and not been homeless.

A taxi driver once told me that there were a lot of revalations about what had gone on during his reign after BR left the building, so to speak. However I have no idea if that's true or made up because it sounds plausible - will wait for the book to come out! He was the major shareholder though wasn't he and I don't know how MMG and GR got rid of him in that case. Couldn't he just vote them off the board with all his shares?

I would be very interested to know what the real reason why some of those player deals that happened actually happened. Are the rumours untrue and the manager was consulted on all of the players we signed or were the stories that Wee Gordon first found out about some of our new signings in the press true? Were the rumours that the bank was demanding we come up with the money (which forced us to sell players) to cover the interest on our loans true and if so when did it start, under BR or MMG?

I certainly wouldn't welcome BR back to our club and I would imagine there are more than a few people who like me would love to ask him some questions about his time as chairman.

Too many unanswered questions then and now.

 

[James Smith]

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.

Richardson wasn't only an employee was he though he was a shareholder. And not just any old shareholder but the biggest shareholder in the club.

 

[James Smith]

...but he was wise enough to insist on a buy-back clause for Highfield Road... which was for less than the value of the land for building on.

That clause, in fact, was used by the club...

Not sure that was BR, I seem to remember a post stating that it was someone else who had the buy back clause added. I'll have a look tomorrow on a break when I'm not suffering from insomnia.

 

[torchomatic]

I remember the outrage too when we were relegated that he awarded himself a huge bonus. He was earning £500K a year when we went down. Again, I say if it leaked that Fisher was earning that....

Richardson wasn't only an employee was he though he was a shareholder. And not just any old shareholder but the biggest shareholder in the club.

 

[Astute]

I remember the outrage too when we were relegated that he awarded himself a huge bonus. He was earning £500K a year when we went down. Again, I say if it leaked that Fisher was earning that....

I would want Fisher burnt at the stake

IIRC about half of it was including a bonus he paid himself for sorting out the sale of HR.

 

[torchomatic]

Yes, brilliant, eh? So he not only sells ours home condemning us to a slow, slow death, he gets paid a bonus for it too!

I would want Fisher burnt at the stake

IIRC about half of it was including a bonus he paid himself for sorting out the sale of HR.

 

[Astute]

Yes, brilliant, eh? So he not only sells ours home condemning us to a slow, slow death, he gets paid a bonus for it too!

Stop it Torch. Can we blame the ones that took the mess on that he left now?

This is the problem. Too many of our supporters remember him running our club when we had good players. They remember our downfall and who was in charge during it. And we have quite a few that put too much blame on SISU. Blaming the vast majority of our problems on SISU would be like the wife catching me sorting out another bird and kicking me out, yet the kids blaming her for kicking me out :thinking about:

 

[Moff]

Yes, brilliant, eh? So he not only sells ours home condemning us to a slow, slow death, he gets paid a bonus for it too!

He was even more brilliant than that. Paid himself over 500k for selling land to Tesco, that it later transpired that the club didnt even own, and that we had to go to cap in hand to the council to, to purchase it on our behalf...and look how well that turned out.

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

Tim Fisher will be doing alright salary wise and if the figure I was given is correct he is not far behind Richardson including the bonus

 

[chiefdave]

Tim Fisher will be doing alright salary wise and if the figure I was given is correct he is not far behind Richardson including the bonus

Remember the fans forum where he claimed he only got paid if we did well? He must owe SISU money if that's how his contract is written!

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

Remember the fans forum where he claimed he only got paid if we did well? He must owe SISU money if that's how his contract is written!

If he was earning no money why is he here? He is an experienced business man in the real world. Anything that he says must be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

[torchomatic]

I look forward to the "Tim Fisher was misunderstood" threads then in 2030.

Tim Fisher will be doing alright salary wise and if the figure I was given is correct he is not far behind Richardson including the bonus

 

[torchomatic]

I don't think anyone argues he's not being paid. I would be surprised if it's £500K a year though. And that wage was 15 years ago too, which if you take inflation into account would be a hell of a lot more than that, around £775K in fact.

If he was earning no money why is he here? He is an experienced business man in the real world. Anything that he says must be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

[chiefdave]

I look forward to the "Tim Fisher was misunderstood" threads then in 2030.

How bad are things going to be if we're looking back at the good old days when Fisher was in charge???

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

I don't think anyone argues he's not being paid. I would be surprised if it's £500K a year though. And that wage was 15 years ago too, which if you take inflation into account would be a hell of a lot more than that, around £775K in fact.

I can't deny that Richardson was over paid and all 3 were total sum bags especially Robinson who was involved in causing my family a huge loss many years ago.

The club has been a mess ever since Robinson got well involved I am sure I remember the club saying they were 1 million in debt when Poynton was in charge and as a young boy I was horrified.

 

[covcity4life]

mcgnitty was a prick

 

[torchomatic]

To be fair you could add those three little words after the names of many of our custodians.

 

[Grendel]

mcgnitty was a prick

Not very polite but accurate.

If we had never had Bryan Richardson then we'd never had the good times of the late 90's and if we'd kept him we'd now be playing at Highfield Road and not in league one.

 

[torchomatic]

Good times? Yes. Affordable times? No. In hindsight, for me at least, I would rather have not had quite so many players we couldn't afford and now be in a healthy state and higher up the league ladder.

Richardson was a greedy opportunist and all our ills can be traced back to his "vision" and "ambition".

Not very polite but accurate.

If we had never had Bryan Richardson then we'd never had the good times of the late 90's and if we'd kept him we'd now be playing at Highfield Road and not in league one.

 

[Grendel]

Good times? Yes. Affordable times? No. In hindsight, for me at least, I would rather have not had quite so many players we couldn't afford and now be in a healthy state and higher up the league ladder.

Richardson was a greedy opportunist and all our ills can be traced back to his "vision" and "ambition".

If he was available now (age discounting) I would bring him back with no hesitation. Drive, focus, selfishness and egotistical passion is exactly what we need. No club could afford relegation then, especially with ITV digital collapsing. The point you really miss is its McGinnity who sold Highfield road not Richardson.

 

[henry the wasp]

The reappraisal of Bryan Richardson.
Looking forward to, "Robert Maxwell and the pension funds: It was all just a bit of a misunderstanding." Next week on skybluestalk.
Fucking charlatan.

 

[shmmeee]

Agree with OP. Android keyboard is shit so will leave my thoughts at that

 

[shmmeee]

The reappraisal of Geoffrey Richardson.
Looking forward to, "Robert Maxwell and the pension funds: It was all just a bit of a misunderstanding." Next week on skybluestalk.
Fucking charlatan.

Who is Geoffrey Richardson?

 

[torchomatic]

I hate to say it but I might be joining Astute and Tony's team. Never read such absolute rubbish.

The ground was sold in 2000 if I recall and BR wasn't ousted until 2002.

If he was available now (age discounting) I would bring him back with no hesitation. Drive, focus, selfishness and egotistical passion is exactly what we need. No club could afford relegation then, especially with ITV digital collapsing. The point you really miss is its McGinnity who sold Highfield road not Richardson.

 

[shmmeee]

Not very polite but accurate.

If we had never had Bryan Richardson then we'd never had the good times of the late 90's and if we'd kept him we'd now be playing at Highfield Road and not in league one.

Or we would have spent to get back up, succeeded, built the original slide roof Ricoh and be playing European football right now.

But probably the Admin thing

 

[henry the wasp]

Who is Geoffrey Richardson?

Apologies. Bryan Richardson. I will edit. My anger at GR and BR got the better of me.

 

[fernandopartridge]

As I've said countless times. The reason we're in the shit is that certain parties sold our ground and failed to exploit the opportunity to buy it back. That is it.

Everything since then is playing around the edges.

 

[M&B Stand]

As I've said countless times. The reason we're in the shit is that certain parties sold our ground and failed to exploit the opportunity to buy it back. That is it.

Everything since then is playing around the edges.

Tried to send you a message Fernando, said your inbox was full or summat..

 

[Nick]

Hectic at work today so not fully read, but Torch agreeing with Astute and tony and Schmeee agreeing with Grendel?

Have accounts been hacked? Next people will telling me Martcov is at the game tomorrow!

 

[fernandopartridge]

Tried to send you a message Fernando, said your inbox was full or summat..

I'll get in and delete some of the letters of support I've had