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Post by Vestan Pance on Jun 1, 2018 13:54:27 GMT
Just seen Dave Regis modelling the new kit.
He looks fit enough to play still...
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 30, 2018 10:22:39 GMT
If Josh King is the main target does that mean we have some indication that: a) Bournemouth would be willing to sell, & b) he would be prepared to drop down a division? Unless the answer to both those is a definite "yes" I hope we're not going to waste time on this when we should be looking elsewhere King is staying at Bournemouth as far as Josh King is aware , he knows nothing about any interest or a move to the championship having been on the verge of the England squad .its fair to say he wouldn’t be averse to a move north but Everton, Newcastle , wolves , would be the types of preferred destination . The gift that keeps on giving.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 30, 2018 10:18:36 GMT
Skills to pay the bills, Not the heart to be the part.
Shame, but he'll earn a good living kicking about before going back to Egypt when he's 27. Could have been a talent.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 29, 2018 10:23:20 GMT
You'd have to go a long way to see such blatant racism hiding in plain sight.
This is the final ascent of what has been a systematic and long running smear campaign against Raheem Sterling, who seems to have committed the most heinous crime of being Black, and having a few quid. he has been chastised by the right wing media for hiring a private jet, going economy class, getting engaged, eating food, and having a few nice cars. Whatever you might think of his tattoo, it's his body, his rationale and that's the end of it. He's a great player, getting better and flourishing in the City side, and as some have pointed out, i wouldn't blame him in the slightest if he came out and said "bollocks, it's not worth it".
This cannot be allowed to continue in my opinion.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 23, 2018 15:17:45 GMT
Good debate.
I think it was a perfect storm of tripe. We left the incumbent in far too long hoping that we would be able to scrape by and replace in the summer. By the Cov game they realised that there was no other options and pulled the trigger.
We then had the debaclé of selecting a manager. The first choice procrastinated then took the piss, the second choice chose to stick instead of twist (his perogative) and the third choice probably asked for too much (if his Villa days are anything to go by). Therefore we are left with option no. 4. You're not going to give your fourth choice a massive kitty so we brought in what looks to have been pre-agreed and hoped.
In the lon term i think it will suit us well. The squad was aged, full of mediocrity and to the Coates family, the club is a longstanding labour of love, not a short term project. By being relegated, we get to rebuild, at a significantly lower cost base than we would have been rebuilding in the Premier League, with a nucleus of players who we can build on. Bear in mind we've only ever won the Autoglass/Division 2 with Coates at the helm. Be nice to win the football league for him as well.
All in all i move into next season with renewed hope, excitement and optimism for the future. I am excited to see what Rowett does squad wise but most of all, i'm excited at the prospect of us trying to win every game, instead of scrambling for the 12 wins a year that keep us in the league.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 21, 2018 13:51:09 GMT
Purple Rain - Prince
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 21, 2018 11:44:43 GMT
8. And i was chuffed with that to be fair.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 21, 2018 8:47:55 GMT
You OK hun?
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 18, 2018 15:01:53 GMT
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 18, 2018 12:18:14 GMT
'bout time if true.
And i have my doubts.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 18, 2018 11:46:19 GMT
Bring him home. We'll look after him.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 17, 2018 11:02:04 GMT
Just read it.
So, according to the Sentinel, he employed basically because he knows a few agents?
What a load of unmitigated bollocks. Just clone his fucking sim card.
That's made me angry that has.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 17, 2018 10:46:05 GMT
Why can't i see it?
Fucking internet of things....
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 17, 2018 9:12:36 GMT
That's just a giant nope on a fucking rope from me.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 17, 2018 9:09:47 GMT
It will be like the old days at school when you forgot your kit Vest and pants it is for next season Vestan Pance is a lot of things but not sure he'd pass muster a shot a Championship player? Literally fitter than Wimmer
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 15, 2018 12:57:03 GMT
This is my 5th relegation as a Stoke supporter, as I now conclude my 71st season of being nailed to the twin crosses of hope and despair. I first saw my team in September 1946- a "nobby" Steele hat-trick v Sheffield United, and what happened afterwards suggests that from then till now not a lot has changed. There was a long-serving manager who retired before the season started, making way for a younger alternative with "modern" views. "Forget the first 70 minutes" he told his players, "the last 20 are what counts, so make sure you are fit enough for them" Unfortunately the squad wasn't good enough. The "Stars" (Franklin and George Mountford) followed the money to Bogota FC, would you believe;there were a few ageing stalwarts, and the new signings didn't cut the mustard. We did the double over Man Utd, but lost to teams below us. On the last day, we had to beat already relegated Derby to survive, but contrived to lose at home 2-1 (sound familiar?) and along the way missed a penalty. And that was it for the next ten years. My first year of support we finished 4th, then we went down steadily for the next few years, until relegation. Yes, we had the glory days of 1946-7 when the football writer of the News Chronicle said he always looked forward to seeing Stoke play because every time they attacked he expected them to score. So you can dream and you can raise your expectations, and believe that somewhere there is a messiah who will take us to the promised land. The reality, however, the one I have lived with all these years, is that, to cut a long story short, Stoke City will ALWAYS give you a hard time. A glance at the history books will tell you that in 120 years, allowing for the two world wars, etc, Stoke have only finished better than 10th in 30 odd seasons,irrespective of which Division they were playing in(including Div. 3 North, in old money) and during the same period they have only reached the 5th round of the FA Cup on a similar number of occasions. I am comforted, however, by signs that many on this board are in it for the long haul, come what may. My wish for you all is that the wilderness years this time won't last too long! Smashing post.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 15, 2018 9:41:33 GMT
Can't help but feel this relegation will turn out the best for us in the long run and this is why I feel this. Sorry in advance for the long essay. had we of stayed up, looking at our squad, there are 17/18 players in there that are quite simply not Good enough to be Premier league footballers anymore. there isn't a chance we'd be able to replace anywhere near enough of them in the summer, especially with the world Cup happening, the transfer window closing earlier and having two idiots in Scholes and cartwright sorting things! We would of been just putting off the inevitable for next season. How many teams have we seen battle relegation for a few years, under a dark cloud over the club, to finally go down, then go down again! The timing of going down this year is also in our favour. There are good players still under contract and not entering there last year where we'd be forced to sell. There isn't an international tournemant next summer either so players are not going to be playing for places in their country's lineup. Im hoping going down quickly will give us chance to rebuild, say half of the 17/18 players that aren't prem players anymore. Away from the intense spotlight and constant scrutiny of the Premier league media and hopefully install some squad harmony again. Maybe even have a crack at winning the damn thing. I'd gladly take a championship winning season over another relegation scrap! I don't think this club has ever won that trophy has it? although I'd take top 6 right now. Anyway, just my thoughts, I know others will think differently. I've always been inclined to agree. Our financial backing means we're in a good place, and getting smashed out of the league with less points than a fork can have irreparable reputational damage to the brand (Derby, Sunderland) I do get the opposite side of the coin however.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 15, 2018 9:34:21 GMT
I have almost literally dodged this site for the entire premier league experience, but as this has now come to a close, i felt a poignant urge to come on and share some thoughts about the next chapter in our collective experience. It'll probably be long, so i'd quit while i was ahead if i were you. Firstly, shame isn't it? We have fallen into a trap that is so bloody avoidable. We haven't failed as a result of foreign ownership losing interest and then pulling the financial plug, a fate commonplace in the Premier League (Sunderland, Villa, Pompey, Fulham etc), nor is our financial model unsustainable. We failed because of a heady mixture of misplaced loyalty, hesitancy and a bewildering inability to see what for us all of us was as clear as day. We were done as an effective force in this league in January 2016, and wholesale changes were required not only with the playing staff, who many were as unfit as they were disinterested, but of those who were in charge of overseeing and steering the club, and it is there i would like to place my focus. Firstly, the myopic position taken on the playing situation. I don't blame Peter Coates, not in the slightest. Peter has few faults, but those he does have have been brutally exposed this season. Peter has openly said that he and his family place loyalty and stability high on their professional agenda, and in the wider business context this is to be applauded; these are the bedrocks upon which good companies are founded. But football is a business unlike any other, and you cannot simply transpose those qualities within a footballing context and expect success. The Coates family have continued to bend over backwards for their customers', ensuring a season ticket costs no more today than it did a decade ago despite the significant expenditure associated with Premier League football, and have supplemented that with offering free coach travel to supporters who are already financially burdened by an extremely expensive hobby. This has been rightly applauded throughout the football community, but whilst he was happy to offer customers (supporters) these concessions, what he failed to do was to address concerns, legitimate concerns being very vocally shared by supporters who are known to prefer to take a calm, measured approach to their club. As supporters, i genuinely believe that we are among the easiest to please, certainly given our tenure in the Premier League. We don't expect tens of millions invested every window, nor did any sensible fan cry out for "the next level", what we expected, and would happily applaud, is endeavour, fitness, passion and a bit of flair if the opportunity arises. That's basically it. And as far back as spring 2016 it was apparent to a large section of our support, myself included, that we were losing significant compenent elements of this mixture. We were unfit, struggling in the latter stages of games, departing players were openly dismissive of our approach to defensive work and players who were coming in looked not to have the essential "DNA" of our club to make a significant impact, either on the pitch or in the dressing room. As supporters, we are consumers of the product. It is churlish to dismiss supporters because they "have never played". A good chunk of the people who are reading this will have seen upward of 500 matches, some many, many more. If Apple made an IPhone and their core consumers don't like it, you can be sure they would make the changes necessary to retain their custom, and support. Peter's "what's all the fuss about" was a flippant comment that has gained too much leverage, but it does speak to a boardroom who didn't understand that the supporters knew something was rotten, and it wasn't addressed. That's criminal in my book and somebody needs to carry the can for that. My final point relates to the strategy for onboarding players, and this is where we have been most exposed as a football club. Footballers are, in a business context, assets to their company, no more, no less. We get emotive about players, because football is an emotive business, but for those who are tasked with bringing players to the club, it is imperative to be as dispassionate as possible. We haven't been. We have been guilty of loyalty to players who would never extend us the same courtesy (Johnson, Affelay, Ireland) when it was clear that their days were beyond numbered as professional footballers, let alone those plying their trade at the highest, most brutal level. We have given contracts to players like Darren Fletcher that their existing club would not..why is that? Because Albion knew it was very likely that his legs had gone, and they were only prepared to offer a contract befitting a 35 year old who has had ongoing issues from a medical perspective. That warning that we failed to heed will cost north of a million pounds most likely in cancelled contracts. It's no longer small fry and we seek to reduce our budget significantly. The biggest, and most desperate area of failure has been big-name player recruitment, and this is where we have been negligent to the point of malfeasance. Aside from wages, we have paid £54,000,000 on 4 players (Imbula, Witter, Berahino, Jese) who have absolutely no interest in the profession, or the club who were paying them so handsomely. Going back to my earlier point regarding assets, what the hell happened? was any due diligence undertaken? if you're paying £18 Million for an asset, surely it is worth paying an extra £100,000 to a consultant to ensure you understand the person, as well as the talent? Imbula, Jese & Berahino all had documented off-field problems, and whilst you might be prepared to take a risk on 1, would you do it for three? in a dressing room that was widely known for not suffering fools gladly? Of course it was doomed to failure, and the cost of that failure is going to have a massive impact on our ability to compete next year. The Coates family might have huge wealth, but they still have to abide by FFP, and for the 3 assets still on our books, we'd be lucky to recoup half of the £48 Million spent. It's a disgrace. And so, to conclude. Lambert has to go. He had the time and a transfer window to paper the cracks to keep us in the poorest Premier League i have seen us feature in, and he has spectacularly failed to do so. No loyalty, no hesitancy, he's gone after the Swansea game. he's not a bad man, he's just got an air of failure about him, and i'm frankly sick of having someone like that at the helm. Tony Scholes has to go. Whilst he is not primarily responsible for player recruitment, the CEO has to carry the can for failure. He's been handsomely rewarded for his efforts, far more than he would have earned in a normal CEO role. Failure begets failure, and he's failed. But the people i hold almost entirely responsible are Hughes and Cartwright. Hughes stopped caring, made bewilderingly stupid decisions knowing as he did that he would be cocooned by owners who hate confrontation. His choice of player, formation, squad and tactics are nothing short of disgraceful, and whilst i refuse to bit at Robbie Savage's twitter remarks, i understand those who do. The only saving grace is that he is bound to fail again at Southampton, because it is all he knows how to do. I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire because of what he has done to my club. Cartwright is a disgrace to the role, his lack of due diligence, his failure to understand what sort of man we were buying, as well as what sort of player, is a mistake that will hamper the club for years. He will never work in football again after we get rid, and neither should he. Thanks for reading. Great post. An antidote to the self-obsessed idiots that seem to spend 24/7 on here poisoning every post they don't agee with - especially if it contains any reference to Pulis. The only point I'm not certain of, VP, is the role of Cartwright. I don't know enough about his specific brief. It might well be that he's failing in the way you suggest. Or possibly he's simply facilitating deals that the former manager decided he wanted at a fee set by the Chief Exec?? It's a good counter-argument. The principal role as i understand it (in our context at least) is that it is his role to bring in players identified by the manager within a pre-agreed set of parameters laid down by the club. My argument to this is that Cartwright is employed by the football club, not Mark Hughes, and it is the former that will retain the asset should the latter depart. Therefore his only loyalty and responsibility is to his employers, and if he believes that a particular individual poses a risk, it should be highlighted at board level. Hughes is a paid employee, not the be all and end all. What we have seen IMHO is a perfect storm; Hughes has been allowed to display the same errors that have besmirched his entire management career (good with other managers' players, crap when he has a budget of his own), PC is too emotionally involved to weigh in with an objective opinion, because he's basically a fan and just wants us to do well, and Cartwright & Scholes (for reasons beyond me and unbefitting exec level staff) got stung by Arnautovic's comments re; ambition, and went a bit mental with regard to Wimmer/Jesé. It's a melting pot of inadequacy, emotional thinking and inobjectivity. Which for me (as OldStokie pointed out so eruditely, hi Mick) is why Denise needs to take a more active role in defending her asset, and bring some much needed hard-nosed pragmatism into the club, even if it is the medicine we might not want. There's a man about to lose his job who specialises in the sort of fire fighting/rebuilding that is required here, and he'll absolutely get Stoke City Football Club. I hope we've already been in touch. Sam Allardyce might not be the man we want right now, but IMHO he is absolutely what we need. It's an important distinction.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 14, 2018 13:23:39 GMT
VP, top post and very accurate. I presume a business background, given the use of terms like onboarding? It was a great post apart from the use of "onboarding" and the now acknowledged poor Apple analogy. I can understand your point of view. I had just finished writing a paper. I have to use words like that a lot to stay in with the cool kids. I'll try to refrain in future....
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 14, 2018 13:22:17 GMT
Just out of curiosity, and I remember you from the old GDB days, why did you avoid the site so much during the PL era? Excellent conclusions, btw, spot on imo. The only bits I find myself disagreeing with are the statements about not expecting tens of millions spent in the transfer windows (we did, lots of us did) and lots of people on here did indeed cry out for the club to be taken to the next level. Whether or not they were 'sensible' I'll leave up to you to decide! Hiya, DavesViews. I lost my rag with it all. It went from being a fun place to exchange thoughts/opinions to either waiting for DavesViews to appear, asking where he had gone, or bombarding him with a million desperate questions, none of which got answered. I remember some poster congratulating him on a excellent transfer window, and that was when i shut my metaphorical laptop. I am (significantly) older and wiser now, and am in far better position to ignore it all.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 14, 2018 10:33:06 GMT
If he tries to wind me I'll give him a dead leg, the Pauline Calf-looking Welsh Cunt. That's smashing that is. Well said.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 14, 2018 9:52:23 GMT
You don't get out your cheque book and offer lucrative contracts to anyone before you have conducted a thorough research into their (a) character (b) hunger (c) lifestyle. Unfortunately for us our beloved Mr Hughes failed to learn the lessons of his time at QPR where he squandered the owners money on high-earning, unmotivated. wastrel freeloaders. My great fear is that we will be forced to watch on helplessly as Hughes is offered a long-term contract at Southampton whilst we languish in obscurity for the next 5/10/20 years as a consequence of his gross incompitance. Whilst i agree in principle, Hughes should have never been given the opportunity to do so. if you get together with a shagger, don't be astounded if they then go off and shag. The fault for the onboarding of these players lies with Scholes & Cartwright, both of whom are answerable to the Chairman, not to the manager.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 14, 2018 8:50:01 GMT
Agree with most of that apart from the Iphone adage. They will buy any old shit as long as it's got an Apple symbol on it. Might not have been the best analogy. Pretty sure if there was an ITurd there'd be a queue round the block... You get my drift though old bean...
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 14, 2018 8:41:27 GMT
Thanks.
I remembered why i love this club. You made me exceptionally proud to be a Stoke City supporter. That's how you go down. With dignity, defiance and good humour.
Every step along the way.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 14, 2018 8:38:00 GMT
Good to see you back VP. In your post the 2 key points that resonate with me are with regard to recruitment and the correct assessment of the timescale relating to our decline. Running a business you cannot learn everything about your recruits when you take them on but Christ on a bike you can conduct proper due diligence & learn from a variety of sources that the striker you have been chasing for ages has a series of behavioural trate that make him unsuitable, a Spanish guy has serious personal problems that will severely impact on his use & a defender that has hardly played for the last 3 years was unlikely to be able to deliver the fitness levels required of him. It's of course difficult to apply or apportion blame but even if Hughes initially pushed for these signings Teflon & Carthorse are in positions where it's their jobs to do the due diligence & then say no to such signings - for that reason the business owner must say they have failed, lost me a lot of money over the last 18 months & left me liabilities for years to come & you both are no longer required. My other main bugbear is the hesitation to take action when it was necessary. Hughes should have been replaced at the end of last season when a good supply of candidates for the job were available. If the rumours are correct Hughes was very likely to go if we had lost at Watford. I watched that game, we won a dire match with the only shot on target in the game. He should have gone then despite the win. Then the 2 final nails in the Premier league status coffin. Firstly we get rid of Hughes when we obviously didn't do the appropriate due diligence to ensure we had a definite replacement ready to sign. At that point we were dead in the water. Secondly we fell for the story of a desperate chancer that he knew what our squad was about & he had the know how to get enough out of it to move us to safety. PL has failed miserably & for that reason must go. All of that of course is easy to say, it confirms our mistakes but does not address what now happens to turn the situation back to a positive one. That's where I get depressed - there will be a race to the exit door by players that see themselves better than Championship status & a need for a great number of new players that are up to the new challenge. There are 3 positions to fill with people that are considerably better than the current incumbents that have to deal with probably a total of 25+ in & outs in just over 3 months. I'm not traditionally a pessimist but that's a business scenario I wouldn't like to have to manage. I think this is why the notion of an immediate return needs to be put to one side. It would take a turnaround of biblical proportions to turn us into an effective unit capable of a promotion push, not should that be our objective for next season. I've heard tales of Cartwright being against the signing of Imbula, but the point is he should have put his foot down. Managers can moan about having the "overall say" but no club, or business, runs like that. The ramifications of the players signed in the latter part of Hughes' reign will not be felt by Hughes, they will be felt by Stoke City & the Coates family, and ultimately that is who Cartwright is responsible to. Hughes should have been talked down and it is no good blaming people after the event. It doesn't wash.
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Post by Vestan Pance on May 11, 2018 14:53:09 GMT
I have almost literally dodged this site for the entire premier league experience, but as this has now come to a close, i felt a poignant urge to come on and share some thoughts about the next chapter in our collective experience. It'll probably be long, so i'd quit while i was ahead if i were you.
Firstly, shame isn't it? We have fallen into a trap that is so bloody avoidable. We haven't failed as a result of foreign ownership losing interest and then pulling the financial plug, a fate commonplace in the Premier League (Sunderland, Villa, Pompey, Fulham etc), nor is our financial model unsustainable. We failed because of a heady mixture of misplaced loyalty, hesitancy and a bewildering inability to see what for us all of us was as clear as day. We were done as an effective force in this league in January 2016, and wholesale changes were required not only with the playing staff, who many were as unfit as they were disinterested, but of those who were in charge of overseeing and steering the club, and it is there i would like to place my focus.
Firstly, the myopic position taken on the playing situation. I don't blame Peter Coates, not in the slightest. Peter has few faults, but those he does have have been brutally exposed this season. Peter has openly said that he and his family place loyalty and stability high on their professional agenda, and in the wider business context this is to be applauded; these are the bedrocks upon which good companies are founded. But football is a business unlike any other, and you cannot simply transpose those qualities within a footballing context and expect success. The Coates family have continued to bend over backwards for their customers', ensuring a season ticket costs no more today than it did a decade ago despite the significant expenditure associated with Premier League football, and have supplemented that with offering free coach travel to supporters who are already financially burdened by an extremely expensive hobby. This has been rightly applauded throughout the football community, but whilst he was happy to offer customers (supporters) these concessions, what he failed to do was to address concerns, legitimate concerns being very vocally shared by supporters who are known to prefer to take a calm, measured approach to their club.
As supporters, i genuinely believe that we are among the easiest to please, certainly given our tenure in the Premier League. We don't expect tens of millions invested every window, nor did any sensible fan cry out for "the next level", what we expected, and would happily applaud, is endeavour, fitness, passion and a bit of flair if the opportunity arises. That's basically it. And as far back as spring 2016 it was apparent to a large section of our support, myself included, that we were losing significant compenent elements of this mixture. We were unfit, struggling in the latter stages of games, departing players were openly dismissive of our approach to defensive work and players who were coming in looked not to have the essential "DNA" of our club to make a significant impact, either on the pitch or in the dressing room. As supporters, we are consumers of the product. It is churlish to dismiss supporters because they "have never played". A good chunk of the people who are reading this will have seen upward of 500 matches, some many, many more. If Apple made an IPhone and their core consumers don't like it, you can be sure they would make the changes necessary to retain their custom, and support. Peter's "what's all the fuss about" was a flippant comment that has gained too much leverage, but it does speak to a boardroom who didn't understand that the supporters knew something was rotten, and it wasn't addressed. That's criminal in my book and somebody needs to carry the can for that.
My final point relates to the strategy for onboarding players, and this is where we have been most exposed as a football club. Footballers are, in a business context, assets to their company, no more, no less. We get emotive about players, because football is an emotive business, but for those who are tasked with bringing players to the club, it is imperative to be as dispassionate as possible. We haven't been. We have been guilty of loyalty to players who would never extend us the same courtesy (Johnson, Affelay, Ireland) when it was clear that their days were beyond numbered as professional footballers, let alone those plying their trade at the highest, most brutal level. We have given contracts to players like Darren Fletcher that their existing club would not..why is that? Because Albion knew it was very likely that his legs had gone, and they were only prepared to offer a contract befitting a 35 year old who has had ongoing issues from a medical perspective. That warning that we failed to heed will cost north of a million pounds most likely in cancelled contracts. It's no longer small fry and we seek to reduce our budget significantly.
The biggest, and most desperate area of failure has been big-name player recruitment, and this is where we have been negligent to the point of malfeasance. Aside from wages, we have paid £54,000,000 on 4 players (Imbula, Witter, Berahino, Jese) who have absolutely no interest in the profession, or the club who were paying them so handsomely. Going back to my earlier point regarding assets, what the hell happened? was any due diligence undertaken? if you're paying £18 Million for an asset, surely it is worth paying an extra £100,000 to a consultant to ensure you understand the person, as well as the talent? Imbula, Jese & Berahino all had documented off-field problems, and whilst you might be prepared to take a risk on 1, would you do it for three? in a dressing room that was widely known for not suffering fools gladly? Of course it was doomed to failure, and the cost of that failure is going to have a massive impact on our ability to compete next year. The Coates family might have huge wealth, but they still have to abide by FFP, and for the 3 assets still on our books, we'd be lucky to recoup half of the £48 Million spent. It's a disgrace.
And so, to conclude. Lambert has to go. He had the time and a transfer window to paper the cracks to keep us in the poorest Premier League i have seen us feature in, and he has spectacularly failed to do so. No loyalty, no hesitancy, he's gone after the Swansea game. he's not a bad man, he's just got an air of failure about him, and i'm frankly sick of having someone like that at the helm.
Tony Scholes has to go. Whilst he is not primarily responsible for player recruitment, the CEO has to carry the can for failure. He's been handsomely rewarded for his efforts, far more than he would have earned in a normal CEO role. Failure begets failure, and he's failed.
But the people i hold almost entirely responsible are Hughes and Cartwright. Hughes stopped caring, made bewilderingly stupid decisions knowing as he did that he would be cocooned by owners who hate confrontation. His choice of player, formation, squad and tactics are nothing short of disgraceful, and whilst i refuse to bit at Robbie Savage's twitter remarks, i understand those who do. The only saving grace is that he is bound to fail again at Southampton, because it is all he knows how to do. I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire because of what he has done to my club. Cartwright is a disgrace to the role, his lack of due diligence, his failure to understand what sort of man we were buying, as well as what sort of player, is a mistake that will hamper the club for years. He will never work in football again after we get rid, and neither should he.
Thanks for reading.
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Post by Vestan Pance on Sept 1, 2015 12:33:21 GMT
I have to confess that Higginbotham gets on my nerves more than most. I never liked him as a player (thought he was bang average) and the only affection he holds for the club is based on the premice that we were the only team that would have employed him in the Premier League. Given that we put his career back on track when it was dying a death at Southampton I think a little more gratitude wouold be in order.
He is, by and large, disparaging to the club since his departure, and seems unimpressed with Hughes quiet, measured revolution of the Potters. It's not an opinion I share and harking back to the good old days flies in the face of the evidence on the pitch, particularly borne out by Albion's incredible lack of ambition and effort on Saturday. We're better now than we have been at any stage of our Premier League life, and he should recognise that, not get into twitter arguments with supporters (myself included) who don't necessarily subscribe to his version of events.
Or he could fuck off back to United. Either way.
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Post by Vestan Pance on Aug 25, 2015 10:51:55 GMT
I just got 13/20 with Bet365.
All on it, tramp on chips odds those are...
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Post by Vestan Pance on Aug 25, 2015 8:54:45 GMT
World TV plus is a free app. It works on the iphone but not the ipad (sadly). It picks up the NBC feed that, to my knowledge, picks up all Premier League kick off times. It's HD quality as well. There's some pop ups to start with but they do calm down after a while.
Stoddy, that's exactly right.
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Post by Vestan Pance on Aug 25, 2015 8:16:25 GMT
Funnily enough, yes I do. Whats the relevance of your question?. Shit, kinda wished I hadn't put this up now. Let me phrase so its is clearly understood. Instead of me believing Crooks is deluded, let me change it to I believe he is not in a clear state of mind purely because I felt his written piece suggested that Butland was lucky to get in his team over the cack Sunderland goalkeeper. Me personally, I believed that it wasn't even close regardless of the couple of saves Pantilimon had to make. Butland was on another level Saturday and was head and shoulders above any other keeper……in my opinion. So you think someone with a different opinion to you is not in a clear state of mind? You may have to concede that "deluded" and "not in a clear state of mind" are probably excessive given that his opinion is slightly contrary to yours. Even though he places out Goalkeeper in his team of the week. Which in all honestly most people, probably including you, don't really give a shit.
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