The Owners

[Rammy Blue]

Still think he's having us over Dave?

I think Billy's being a bit mischievous, if I'm honest...

not many, dull as fuck as well.

 

[Anonymous]

BillyShears is TMQ and i claim my fiver!

 

[r.soleofsalford]

I posted this in another thread, but think it deserves a thread of it's own.

It's apparent that there's again moral outrage on Bluemoon at Mark Hughes' inability to improve the players he has, to beat the likes of Burnley, Fulham, Birmingham, et al To do anything other than blame Elano and Sven for all his own shortcomings. To dismantle a perfectly good youth system. To sack all the decent staff at the club and replace them with under-qualified mates of his. To play nothing but negative, long ball football. To be a glorified Sam Allardyce. The list of Hughes' crimes are as endless as the Hughes Out threads...

It begs the question...what the fuck are these supposedly perfect owners of ours doing sitting on their hands. Ultimately, the buck stops with them. They are the ones who have been publicly backing Hughes since they took over. They are the ones who have let him fritter away over 200 million pounds on workhorses like Bellamy, Santa Cruz, and Tevez.

Surely it makes sense to just get shot of Hughes now and bring in someone better - which lets face it, if we believe even 50% of the stuff written on here about Hughes - won't be difficult. The reality is that come the end of this season, if we don't finish 4th, there's no way we will be capable of attracting the kind of players we would want. Furthermore, even attracting a manager of the ilk of Mouinho or Hiddink is out of the question irrespective of what other people think, if we aren't playing champions league football next season.

So you see, it's a huge season this one. Isn't it time our owners stepped up to the plate. Showed that they know what they're actually doing in running a football club. Demonstrate the kind of nous which undoubtedly is going to be required in the coming years to ensure long term success at the club. Shouldn't they now, or in the very very near future, take responsibility for the "Mark Hughes Project" - rather than hiding behind the blank cheque book which they've given him. Accept that he is not what the fans want, and he is not good enough. I'll repeat myself. Take some fucking responsibility, show some leadership and character, and stop hiding behind empty rhetoric about stability, and long term planning...

ffs im i having a clarkie moment

 

[Anonymous]

I think Billy's being a bit mischievous, if I'm honest...

not many, dull as fuck as well.

Oh, right. I get it now. Makes sense. It's perfectly okay to have thread after thread after thread about Hughes being shite. It's perfectly okay to "debate" his relative merits as a manager. But it's not okay to suggest, that if Hughes isn't up to scratch, and this season is in the end a total failure, then our owners maybe don't know what they're doing...

Interesting...

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

I do actually understand where Billy is come from and why he raised the issue.

I firmly believe that our fans believe our owners can do no wrong. But the simple fact is they are still very new to this football lark, so completely different and unpredictable in nature than any other business which they may diversify in.

My own opinion is they are currently caught between 'a rock and a hard place', with regards wanting to be seen as careful and considered custodians, and actually fast-tracking their obvious aims.

They are to be commended in trying not to be perceived as just another get-rich-quick ego-driven foreign owner. Their fabulous wealth, actually hamstrings them.

£200m is certainly a huge amount, but not to these guys, and if the Kaka figures are anything to go by, a small drop in the ocean and a greater indicator to where they want to go and be.

So in answer to Billy, Khaldoon and Sheikh Mansour must surely acknowledge a dilemma exists. They continually have to use Garry Cook as a sounding board in terms of City's progress.

This, itself, is a problem in that Garry Cook is also 'learning on the job' having never worked in football club before, and made the appointment of Hughes.

Their future is directly linked, a vote of no confidence from Cook in Hughes, is him conceding he made the wrong appointment.

So, apart from outright outcomes on the football pitch, Khaldoon, Cook and Sheikh Mansour, are basically like us, football supporters who don't, at this present time, know what it takes to make a successful football club.

Hughes has a management structure in place which also champions his cause. My opinions of Hughes have never wavered. Just as I thought Sven was an absolute fraud when fellow blues felt appalled at his impending departure.

He can only take my club so far. The investment made this summer would allow for improvement at any other Premier League club, although I concede, we were in a sorrier state than most.

Hughes has been given enough rope to hang himself with in terms of the objective this season.

I liken our current situation to the same as Chelsea. Abramovich ultimately concluded (correctly) that the very likeable and popular Claudio Ranieri would not take the club where he wanted it to go.

Ranieri, like Hughes, was allowed to spend a lot of cash in the initial takeover, but it was simply the calm before the storm and a certain Special One.

He crashed-out at the Champions League stage, against an average Monaco side that year, having beaten Arsenal at Highbury in the quarters.

My opinion is that the same rule of thumb exits for Hughes. Champions League or bust. Of course I hope we get there, although I believe it would be in spite of him, rather than because of him.

ADUG have already built up enough good faith to believe they will ultimately make the right decisions when they have a greater understanding of what is going on.

I was ridiculed early last year when I posted that there were individuals actively seeking to determine Jose Mourinho's situation.

Aside from my own admiration for him, ultimately, he is in a very small minority who can deliver on our real aims, and why I still see him as a City manager one day.

 

[Cheltblue]

"The Owners" are backing the manager 100%, giving him absolutely everything he wishes for in order to attain a top4 finish.

The public top6 target was an obvious move in keeping expectations in check, i think it is fairly straight forward to assume chumps league is our goal this season.

IF we lose pace with the top4 I expect the axe will fall rather swiftly.

Does the writing really have to be on the wall in big red indelible ink before our owners act. Surely it makes more sense, in a season where the top 4 are genuinely there for the taking, to be a little more pro-active than to wait until we've slipped out of the top 4 race altogether...

Spot on for me Billy.

I would love to see Hughes turn it around but forget the last 5 draws, there is absolutely nothing i have seen in 16 months that suggests that Mark Hughes has the tactical/managerial nous to get us into a top four spot this season or next or the one after that.

I dont know for sure but i believe this is our owners first venture into the football world and while we are very lucky to have them on board there is nothing to say that they have any more idea on how to assess a managers performance and potential than any other club owner.

Obviously the decisons lay with them, but that doesnt mean they are getting it right .

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Our owners are referred to as astute businessmen and we all take this glib statement for granted but they are clearly as useless as Hughes. Mediocrity likes mediocrity. Appointing someone who is better than you is an owner or supervisor's worst nightmare.

Sheikh Mansour already owned a football club before taking us over but (and let's be brutally honest here) Al-Jazeera is hardly among the leading lights of world football. A bit like Altrincham when compared to our mighty club. So there's even a parallel with our history here - Sheikh Mansour is the new Peter Swales. After all, everyone though he was an astute businessman and he made a few bob by being in the right place at the right time.

I think they've made a number of dubious decisions. Like Bernstein with Keegan's early dealings, they've not scrutinised or challenged most of Hughes' buys. Bridge, Lescott, Tevez have all been a complete waste of money. Just like Vuoso, Macken, Negouai and Fowler. The one buy they did challenge (Bellamy) has actually turned out to be a master-stroke. They've also let him get rid of reliable stars like Elano, Dunne, Vassell, Ball & Caicedo (albeit on loan) yet keep clearly useless players like Garruido, Benjani and Richards.

Worst of all, they appoint a chairman who's just a businessman and knows bugger all about football. And don't get me started on Garry Cook. Ivan Gazidis, the first choice for the job, clearly saw through Thaksin yet Cook fell for the con-man's patter hook line and sinker.

So why would anyone expect these useless idiots to act in the first place. After all, if they didn't have the foresight to appoint people like BillyShears as Chairman and MikeD as Director of Football, with their obvious qualities and qualifications then what hope is there?

 

[bluemoon1078]

I posted this in another thread, but think it deserves a thread of it's own.

It's apparent that there's again moral outrage on Bluemoon at Mark Hughes' inability to improve the players he has, to beat the likes of Burnley, Fulham, Birmingham, et al To do anything other than blame Elano and Sven for all his own shortcomings. To dismantle a perfectly good youth system. To sack all the decent staff at the club and replace them with under-qualified mates of his. To play nothing but negative, long ball football. To be a glorified Sam Allardyce. The list of Hughes' crimes are as endless as the Hughes Out threads...

It begs the question...what the fuck are these supposedly perfect owners of ours doing sitting on their hands. Ultimately, the buck stops with them. They are the ones who have been publicly backing Hughes since they took over. They are the ones who have let him fritter away over 200 million pounds on workhorses like Bellamy, Santa Cruz, and Tevez.

Surely it makes sense to just get shot of Hughes now and bring in someone better - which lets face it, if we believe even 50% of the stuff written on here about Hughes - won't be difficult. The reality is that come the end of this season, if we don't finish 4th, there's no way we will be capable of attracting the kind of players we would want. Furthermore, even attracting a manager of the ilk of Mouinho or Hiddink is out of the question irrespective of what other people think, if we aren't playing champions league football next season.

So you see, it's a huge season this one. Isn't it time our owners stepped up to the plate. Showed that they know what they're actually doing in running a football club. Demonstrate the kind of nous which undoubtedly is going to be required in the coming years to ensure long term success at the club. Shouldn't they now, or in the very very near future, take responsibility for the "Mark Hughes Project" - rather than hiding behind the blank cheque book which they've given him. Accept that he is not what the fans want, and he is not good enough. I'll repeat myself. Take some fucking responsibility, show some leadership and character, and stop hiding behind empty rhetoric about stability, and long term planning...

Bullshit of the highest order!

 

[Nicholas van Whatsisface]

I posted this in another thread, but think it deserves a thread of it's own.

It's apparent that there's again moral outrage on Bluemoon at Mark Hughes' inability to improve the players he has, to beat the likes of Burnley, Fulham, Birmingham, et al To do anything other than blame Elano and Sven for all his own shortcomings. To dismantle a perfectly good youth system. To sack all the decent staff at the club and replace them with under-qualified mates of his. To play nothing but negative, long ball football. To be a glorified Sam Allardyce. The list of Hughes' crimes are as endless as the Hughes Out threads...

It begs the question...what the fuck are these supposedly perfect owners of ours doing sitting on their hands. Ultimately, the buck stops with them. They are the ones who have been publicly backing Hughes since they took over. They are the ones who have let him fritter away over 200 million pounds on workhorses like Bellamy, Santa Cruz, and Tevez.

Surely it makes sense to just get shot of Hughes now and bring in someone better - which lets face it, if we believe even 50% of the stuff written on here about Hughes - won't be difficult. The reality is that come the end of this season, if we don't finish 4th, there's no way we will be capable of attracting the kind of players we would want. Furthermore, even attracting a manager of the ilk of Mouinho or Hiddink is out of the question irrespective of what other people think, if we aren't playing champions league football next season.

So you see, it's a huge season this one. Isn't it time our owners stepped up to the plate. Showed that they know what they're actually doing in running a football club. Demonstrate the kind of nous which undoubtedly is going to be required in the coming years to ensure long term success at the club. Shouldn't they now, or in the very very near future, take responsibility for the "Mark Hughes Project" - rather than hiding behind the blank cheque book which they've given him. Accept that he is not what the fans want, and he is not good enough. I'll repeat myself. Take some fucking responsibility, show some leadership and character, and stop hiding behind empty rhetoric about stability, and long term planning...

Billy. I can't work out whether you're being serious or not, but if you're genuinely claiming that you think our owners should take heed of the load of reactionary, unrealistic, dogmatic, demanding, intolerant, bombastic and downright needy drivel that passes for opinion on here half the time, then I think you need you need to rethink.

Just because some irate City fan comes on here after yet another tedious bore draw and claims Hughes is Sam Allardyce in disguise certainly does not mean our ownwers should pay any attention whatsoever to them, nevermind use this in some way to inform their decision making. I would like to think they see the running of the club from behind the scenes, and know a hell of a lot more than some jumped up fan on an internet forum about how well or otherwise the Club is being run. This should be the information they use when making decisions about the Club.

This forum serves a purpose for a lot of fans - allowing them to vent spleen behind a shield of anonymity when they're pissed off with the team. Lets not try and make it out to be something that it isn't, ie: a sensible, reasoned barometer of opinion.

If our owners made decisions based on the 'insights' they read on here, I would genuinely be concerned. And then I would be questioning their suitability to run a football club. As it stands, I'm quite sure that's not what they do.

 

[Dubai Blue]

Our owners are referred to as astute businessmen and we all take this glib statement for granted but they are clearly as useless as Hughes. Mediocrity likes mediocrity. Appointing someone who is better than you is an owner or supervisor's worst nightmare.

Sheikh Mansour already owned a football club before taking us over but (and let's be brutally honest here) Al-Jazeera is hardly among the leading lights of world football. A bit like Altrincham when compared to our mighty club. So there's even a parallel with our history here - Sheikh Mansour is the new Peter Swales. After all, everyone though he was an astute businessman and he made a few bob by being in the right place at the right time.

I think they've made a number of dubious decisions. Like Bernstein with Keegan's early dealings, they've not scrutinised or challenged most of Hughes' buys. Bridge, Lescott, Tevez have all been a complete waste of money. Just like Vuoso, Macken, Negouai and Fowler. The one buy they did challenge (Bellamy) has actually turned out to be a master-stroke. They've also let him get rid of reliable stars like Elano, Dunne, Vassell, Ball & Caicedo (albeit on loan) yet keep clearly useless players like Garruido, Benjani and Richards.

Worst of all, they appoint a chairman who's just a businessman and knows bugger all about football. And don't get me started on Garry Cook. Ivan Gazidis, the first choice for the job, clearly saw through Thaksin yet Cook fell for the con-man's patter hook line and sinker.

So why would anyone expect these useless idiots to act in the first place. After all, if they didn't have the foresight to appoint people like BillyShears as Chairman and MikeD as Director of Football, with their obvious qualities and qualifications then what hope is there?

They can organise a cracking BBQ though.