Biggest mistakes of the decade.

[waspish]

Easy Not buying VVD

Could of said Hazard but if we bought him we wouldn’t of bought Aguero.

 

[Rolee]

Signing up to Bluemoon.

 

[Kenward Garg]

From what I recall from that summer, Ter Stegen was stuck behind Bravo and threatening to leave if he didn't become the starter, and we were happy with getting whichever ended up losing out. Bravo if Barca chose to play Ter Stegen, and vice versa.

City’s goalkeeping coach, Xavier, used to come into the bar I used to work at and have a couple of pints of Guinness. I asked him when Pep became manager if Hart was finished at City. He smiled sheepishly so I asked him if Ter Stegen was coming. He told me he has a £115m buy-out CL which was too expensive so it was Bravo who was the cheaper option.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Over the last 5 years, City have averaged around £10m profit, so that £1.5m is around 15% of our bottom line profit. I wouldn’t say that makes it insignificant, but I do understand where you are coming from.

If they are wringing an extra £1.5m per year from us, that’s an extra £22.5m over 5 years compared to if they’d have just frozen it for 5 years. Our £50m profit over 5 years would almost be halved if they’d frozen ticket prices for that time.

2018/19 - £10.1m profit
2017/18 - £10.5m
2016/17 - £1.1m
2915/16 - £20.5m
2014/15 - £10.7m

We've never made a profit purely on our operations but have relied on the profits from our transfer dealings. This last financial year we were able to offset a £28m operating loss with a £38m profit on transfers.

For me, commercially, the biggest mistake was the failure to think through ticket pricing properly. We adopted a load of short-term measures (including Platinum) which might look good in an MBA case study but simply didn't pay any heed to where we were as a club and where we need to be in the next 20 years. It's been shockingly shortsighted. We've completely overestimated the demand for hospitality and done ridiculous things like price different rows in the same block differently.

Another big mistake was our failure to manage the Mancini situation effectively. We should have had the courage to part company with him in the summer of 2012 when the problems were already obvious. But I think we were swayed by the fuss over the sacking of Mark Hughes and backed down from a course of action we must have known would be inevitable at some point in the near future.

It's tempting to say that we also should have taken UEFA on in 2014 but I think I understand why we didn't at the time. One reason being that all the stuff that came out in Der Spiegel would probably have come out in court. In hindsight that probably would have been a price worth paying as some of UEFA's crap would also have come out.

 

[Kenward Garg]

Allowing Toure to undermine the club on numerous occasions until Pep made him and his odious agent “know their place”.

 

[Marvin]

We've never made a profit purely on our operations but have relied on the profits from our transfer dealings. This last financial year we were able to offset a £28m operating loss with a £38m profit on transfers.

For me, commercially, the biggest mistake was the failure to think through ticket pricing properly. We adopted a load of short-term measures (including Platinum) which might look good in an MBA case study but simply didn't pay any heed to where we were as a club and where we need to be in the next 20 years. It's been shockingly shortsighted. We've completely overestimated the demand for hospitality and done ridiculous things like price different rows in the same block differently.

Another big mistake was our failure to manage the Mancini situation effectively. We should have had the courage to part company with him in the summer of 2012 when the problems were already obvious. But I think we were swayed by the fuss over the sacking of Mark Hughes and backed down from a course of action we must have known would be inevitable at some point in the near future.

It's tempting to say that we also should have taken UEFA on in 2014 but I think I understand why we didn't at the time. One reason being that all the stuff that came out in Der Spiegel would probably have come out in court. In hindsight that probably would have been a price worth paying as some of UEFA's crap would also have come out.

If City have overestimated hospitality sales, is Man Utd's hospitality sector also exaggerated?

City should be able to steal their 'clients'. Banks don't care where their box is. They just want to have facilities with which they can entertain guests and staff.

 

[KS55]

Letting Sancho go, for a very small fraction of what he was worth within roughly a year of when he left.

We had no choice, his apprentice contract was finished.

 

[Marvin]

Do City's management learn from their mistakes? Are they competent?

We all make mistakes as people and in business. City's CEO and top officials are competent. However, do they run the club on a day to day basis? No.

I think City should by now have started on the expansion of the North Stand. We're already losing revenue because every home league games and some Cup games have sold out. We're behind the curve on that.

 

[Kenward Garg]

Even Mancini wasn't sold on Hart - and Pellers too.

Once transferred, Hart either declined if you wish... or validated numerous management concerns over his performance/attitude/commitment/whatever - Mancini, Pellers and Pep did not fancy him as our #1.

Yep. After Mancini was sacked, David Platt - his assistant - was quoted as saying he would have been transferred that summer if Mancini was still in the hot seat.

 

[cptaidan88]

Easy Not buying VVD

Could of said Hazard but if we bought him we wouldn’t of bought Aguero.

Hazard joined Chelsea 12 months after we had signed Aguero.