If YOU were in charge of the City since 2007... (1 Viewer)

Post of the year

I agree with the kids tickets...

Maybe 1000 free tickets per home game....

As MJ said... The children are our future ...

I wouldn't have stuck with Coleman, truly dreadful manager

I take it u wouldn't have signed sick-note bell on a 5 year contract either

CJparker said:

what would you have done differently?

Here's mine:

1) accept ACL proposal for variable rent based on league status

2) secure King, Gunnarson and Westwood on longer contracts.

3) not sell Keogh or Bigi or Best or Juke or Tabb

4) kept faith with Chris Coleman with AT as chief scout / director of football - Ranson to be a non-football director

5) work closely and productively with council to buy half of Ricoh (at least)

6) not mortgaged Ryton

7) not sold future ST revenues years in advance

8) re-named various stands after club legends like Hill and George/John

9) communicated much better with fans, including having a Trust rep on the board

10) made sure that the Ricoh train station was finished by encouraging Network Rail and the council

11) put in place better bus service from city to Ricoh, as Reading have

12) do more work in schools to give tickets to kids, filling up the Arena more and planting the seed with future fans

All very well with the benefit of hindsight - but hard to argue against all these points!

oh and 13) not sign ROD on a 3-year £5k p/w deal!!!

Click to expand...

How would you of financed all of this?

Would have simply done my research on SISU, like Southampton did

Agree CJ. Best post for ages. Cannot disagree with much.

1 - Yep
2 - Yep. They went to bigger clubs. And they wanted to go.
3 - Yep. Again though, they wanted to leave.
4 - Ha, no.
5 - Yep.
6 - Yep.
7 - Is that true?
8 - Nice idea, doesn't bring in revenue though
9 - Yes for the first part, no for the second.
10 - This really is out of the Club's hands, surely? As you know, it's the Council's stadium after all.
11 - Again, is that something the club can influence? I don't get the bus, so it is a big problem then?
12 - Yep.
13 - Is this true? Where did you get the info from?

As you say hindsight is a wonderful thing. The above would cost loads, where would the money come from?

Torch, why not yes for both parts of 9?
A supporter on the board as a none-exec would be great.

stupot07 said:

How would you of financed all of this?

Click to expand...

It's all utopian, apart from 4 (!) we had to sell what he had to balance the books as the owners aren't Arab/Russian/Yankee billionaires.

9 and 12 SISU definitely could've been done.

True SB Taylor but we all have dreams of how it could have been.

Steve.B50 said:

True SB Taylor but we all have dreams of how it could have been.

Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if all (bar 4) were the case, but isn't, the reality is, we had to sell players, I wish we owned the stadium etc. etc. but is it all possible? I don't think it was.

No probably not but like I said, we need all need dreams.

I would have proposed a target driven incentive agreement with the council.

They demanded certain criteria before they would ever consider selling their share or not vetoing the sake if the Higgs share.

I would have made an agreement with the council that as each of the criteria is achieved but by bit a percentage if ownership of ACL/Ricoh is bought at cost price.

CJparker said:

what would you have done differently?

Here's mine:

1) accept ACL proposal for variable rent based on league status

Depends on the arrangement. Given we were paying 6 times the average in the championship not too optimistic on that score.

2) secure King, Gunnarson and Westwood on longer contracts.

In La La land that would be nice but they all wanted to run the contracts down

3) not sell Keogh or Bigi or Best or Juke or Tabb

Well we either sold them or they would have gone for free

4) kept faith with Chris Coleman with AT as chief scout / director of football - Ranson to be a non-football director

Ludicrous. Coleman was a shambles of a manager and I wouldn't credit Thorn with sufficient intellect to direct traffic. "Debt free" Ranson of course whored SISU around until he found a willing partner.

5) work closely and productively with council to buy half of Ricoh (at least)

Would be nice

6) not mortgaged Ryton

CCFC (Holdings) own Ryton don't they

7) not sold future ST revenues years in advance

No opinion on this really

8) re-named various stands after club legends like Hill and George/John

Why not? We can name a toilet after Thorn as well - I'd use it

9) communicated much better with fans, including having a Trust rep on the board

Not sure what a Trust representative would do -- like the old Workers Co-operatives of the 70's - a waste of time

10) made sure that the Ricoh train station was finished by encouraging Network Rail and the council

Hardly a major issue

11) put in place better bus service from city to Ricoh, as Reading have

Would be nice

12) do more work in schools to give tickets to kids, filling up the Arena more and planting the seed with future fans

OK I suppose

All very well with the benefit of hindsight - but hard to argue against all these points!

Easy to argue against some of them

oh and 13) not sign ROD on a 3-year £5k p/w deal!!!

Click to expand...

Very interesting

dongonzalos said:

I would have proposed a target driven incentive agreement with the council.

They demanded certain criteria before they would ever consider selling their share or not vetoing the sake if the Higgs share.

I would have made an agreement with the council that as each of the criteria is achieved but by bit a percentage if ownership of ACL/Ricoh is bought at cost price.

Click to expand...

Even more stupid than suggesting we bring back Coleman. Seriously not one private business would ever agree to this.

Grendel said:

Even more stupid than suggesting we bring back Coleman. Seriously not one private business would ever agree to this.

Click to expand...

And the route they choose instead.........

All that would probably take an investment of about 60million!!!

dongonzalos said:

And the route they choose instead.........

Click to expand...

Is irrelevant, fact is no company would allow a council to dictate terms - why the hell should they.

Out of interest other than being a football ground is the Ricoh Arena of any use to the City as an asset at all?

Grendel said:

Is irrelevant, fact is no company would allow a council to dictate terms - why the hell should they.

Out of interest other than being a football ground is the Ricoh Arena of any use to the City as an asset at all?

Click to expand...

What a crazy idea.

Force the council to allow you to get ownership step by step just by making your own business a success ( which unless I am mistaken any private business would be trying to do anyway?)

dongonzalos said:

What a crazy idea.

Force the council to allow you to get ownership step by step just by making your own business a success ( which unless I am mistaken any private business would be trying to do anyway?)

Click to expand...

LOL you are funny

is this thread a sisu love-in or are we not party to some private info

Couldn't agree more. SISU are sh*t at running a football club. Not the first clue. We're unfortunately a 1 off in this country. Plus we played some real decent football under coleman. But i'm still hoping...............

grendel is a sisu employee so hos replies not exactly constructive cj

CJparker said:

what would you have done differently?

Here's mine:

1) accept ACL proposal for variable rent based on league status

2) secure King, Gunnarson and Westwood on longer contracts.

3) not sell Keogh or Bigi or Best or Juke or Tabb

4) kept faith with Chris Coleman with AT as chief scout / director of football - Ranson to be a non-football director

5) work closely and productively with council to buy half of Ricoh (at least)

6) not mortgaged Ryton

7) not sold future ST revenues years in advance

8) re-named various stands after club legends like Hill and George/John

9) communicated much better with fans, including having a Trust rep on the board

10) made sure that the Ricoh train station was finished by encouraging Network Rail and the council

11) put in place better bus service from city to Ricoh, as Reading have

12) do more work in schools to give tickets to kids, filling up the Arena more and planting the seed with future fans

All very well with the benefit of hindsight - but hard to argue against all these points!

oh and 13) not sign ROD on a 3-year £5k p/w deal!!!

Click to expand...

1) Yes, but the rent was way over the odds in the first place. Negotiate that first.
2) Yes, no chance of keeping them, all went to better clubs
3) Yes, all wanted to leave however.
4) Coleman was terrible! Wouldn't mind Thorn as scout though.
5) If rent was negotiated (see 1) then this isn't a priority for the first 5/6 years. Leave it as an option though
6) Yep
7) Did that happen?
8) No, as nice as it would have been this is the 21 century; all sponsorships. Name the refreshment areas like then have done (Jimmys, Bar 87 etc...)
9) Communication would be good but would not like a member of the trust on board.
10) Out of the club's hands.
11) More likely than 10 but still out of hands
12) Tried, tested and didnt work. Remember getting free tickets when I was at Cardinal Wiseman (albeit older than Primary School), plenty of kids threw tickets in the bin. Success will bring kids to the Ricoh
13) Agree. Not just O'Donovan though. Bell, Wood on high wages/long contracts.

King and gunnar went to bigger clubs hahaha! I nearly spat my toast out. What div posted that.......

Wasn't Dowie in charge in 2007....Ranson installed Coleman in 2008 didn't he?




What would I have done in 2007? Probably put us straight into administration....

...We'd be exactly where we are now, except I wouldn't have had to endure the last 6 years of shit...

...I mean, Coleman then Hoofroyd then Thorn....jesus...Its a wonder I never took my own life

valiant15 said:

King and gunnar went to bigger clubs hahaha! I nearly spat my toast out. What div posted that.......

Click to expand...

Certainly went to BETTER clubs, which is a difference.

CJparker said:

what would you have done differently?

Here's mine:

1) accept ACL proposal for variable rent based on league status

2) secure King, Gunnarson and Westwood on longer contracts.

3) not sell Keogh or Bigi or Best or Juke or Tabb

4) kept faith with Chris Coleman with AT as chief scout / director of football - Ranson to be a non-football director

5) work closely and productively with council to buy half of Ricoh (at least)

6) not mortgaged Ryton

7) not sold future ST revenues years in advance

8) re-named various stands after club legends like Hill and George/John

9) communicated much better with fans, including having a Trust rep on the board

10) made sure that the Ricoh train station was finished by encouraging Network Rail and the council

11) put in place better bus service from city to Ricoh, as Reading have

12) do more work in schools to give tickets to kids, filling up the Arena more and planting the seed with future fans

All very well with the benefit of hindsight - but hard to argue against all these points!

oh and 13) not sign ROD on a 3-year £5k p/w deal!!!

Click to expand...

CJparker said:

Thanks for the replies (including some grudging "s'pose so" from Grumpy Grendel...

In terms of financing, if we had kept many of the players we released, we could well be challenging for the play-offs in the Champ, if not in the Premier by now - with a half share in the Ricoh, the commensurate drop in rent, and with crowds of 25k per home game that success brings, finance would not be much of an issue for these fairly modest proposals.

My source for ROD's wages is Mr Steve Waggott - have got an even funnier story from him about "Goals" O'Donovan...aka "the best player in the Championship" by his own admission!

Yes, SISU did mortgage Ryton to raise funds, though I understand that the mortgage has now been closed it are back under full CCFC ownership. The sales of future ST revenue is true - Igwe defended this as "standard business practice" (only if you are Glasgow Rangers of Fiorentina circa 2000!)

Above all, this was not meant to be a SISU-bashing thread as such, just looking at where things could have been different.

Click to expand...

1, was that on the table to SISU? yes it was offered to Geoffrey and friends howwever the council would have seen a potentially rich "Mayfair Hedge Fund" and thought they could carry on taking the rent as it was.

2, I think the only realistic option of keeping one of those was King, and thats if you believe he was going to sign the verbally offered deal. Westwood was always going to run his deal down, we were interested in Murphy, who run his deal down, they both shared the same representation, I dont think its beyond belief that the club and agent engineered the whole situation.

Gunnars was apparently offered double his wages to stay (according to Ranson) said on stage in the Casino, again I dont think he was ever going to sign.

3, Keogh, we were relegated and more than likely had to seel rather than lose on a free.

Bigi was sold, the next day our Academy status was preserved, read into that what you will.

Best, Juke Tabb, all come under the top scorer, player of the year type and we have sold on. I agree such moves undermine the whole set up of the club and instinctively the remaining players can have their enthusiasm dampened which leads to further losses etc.

4, Cant see why we should have kept Coleman, he allowed the "it's Coventry" attitude to seep into the players and his mind, the writing was on the wall for him as soon as SISU failed to back Ranson in the market and by selling the Crown Jewels...

5, My opinion is the Council dont want that too happen, at the moment with SISU in charge they can hide behind the opinion that SISU cant be trusted therefore they will not sell, but if we ever do get new credible owners I wonder what they will say then. The Ricoh is obviously not costing them money (may even be making them a bit) but the regeneration potential around is still enormous, they will want a slice of that pie.

6, they mortgaged it, but paid it back, without knowing the full story cant really comment, I would however guess that SISU were not prepared to put a million or so into running the club therefore it was that or potentially sell a player.

7, see above.

8, who was in charge of naming stands, was it a way of producing revenue, I would say yes it was, Who received such money?

9, a failing yes, but in my eyes a football club cant simply give out all the answers wanted by fans.

10, I seriously dont think it matters apart to a few fans....

11, whats wrong with the bus service?

12, they already do a lot of work in schools, they initially targeted local football teams, however that system was abused by adults keeping the tickets for themselves and in some cases also selling them on....

ROD, an odd one. Be good to hear the other story though....

11) put in place better bus service from city to Ricoh, as Reading have

Click to expand...

Reading have put a bus service in place to The Ricoh, what a great club, thanks Reading:claping hands:

Stayed at Highfield Road and invested rent money for the Ricoh Arena into our debt, Highfield Road, Ryton and playing squad! Employed a young hungry manager instead of the likes of reid, coleman, dowie!
GK. Westwood
RB. Keogh
CB. Turner
CB. Dann
LB. Fox
RM. Tabb
CM. Bigirama
CM. Gunarsson
LM. Mcsheffery (Never let him go to Birmingham so they could ruin a great player!) Le Fondre (Paid that little more that reading were willing to pay!) or even years before we tried!
ST. Juke
ST. King

Subs
Murphy
Christie
Wood
Mcpake
Baker
Best
Le fondre (Sighned him a couple of seasons before we tried! he was scoring goals for fun for years!)

Great stuff and very practical. I have also come up with a list of equities I would have bought and sold this year.