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Post by witneygull on Sept 7, 2008 18:56:05 GMT
Time will tell on that....I am unconvinced that this season will be any different than we saw under Bateson.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Sept 7, 2008 19:06:21 GMT
I think a major concern, apart from the standard of football, Is how the gates are shrinking fast. Today 1700+ yet last season when we played a Sunday game that was also live on TV, I'm sure the gate was 2800.
Our last two home gate combined have only just beaten that figure, It must now be a worry that If gates do not improve and that will depend of results, what cuts the club might have to make.
While I do not know what the wage bill is at the club, I believe most players get well paid and then you look at who else has to be paid, then you realise that gates this low, will not even match the wage bill, let alone what else the club need to pay out.
I for one pray that things can turn around very quickly, If not I do fear that we may just slip even lower and If that was ever to happen I really could not see a way back, for a small seaside town.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Sept 7, 2008 19:16:11 GMT
I seem to remember Merse that when Leroy first move back to Bristol, I was very vocal elsewhere about him doing so. While I'm not able to check and confirm this, I would put money on it you defended him moving. Pretty sure you said It would make no difference.  Then you'd lose it Dave, I thought then and I still think it summed up the Mickey Mouse Regime we had become! Well sadly I'm unable to prove my argument, but I still think I remember when he very first moved, you had no problem with it, only latter, when results started going pear shaped, did you start referring to his move back to Bristol. I would like to know, why you feel that one manager should get support form the fans but not another, as in the case of Leroy, you can't blame everything on Leroy, I think he had got to a point, working on his own, with no support, that he just about gave up, with it all. Can't say I would blame him working under the conditions he had too. |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Sept 8, 2008 22:15:47 GMT
...... the shameful day when Don O' Riordon was effectively thrown to the mob by a shamefully disrespectful chairman. Well I had a word with the ringleader of the "mob" on Sunday to double-check my recollection of events and I can say that you really are making this one up Merse. Let me guess. You weren't there. You heard half a story and then concocted your own version of events to tie in with your preconceptions. Am I right? It wouldn't be the first time, would it? At the end of the Scunny game the fans were understandably angry and wanted the chance to express their views. If Bateson had ignored those calls, he would have been seen as refusing to listen. He came over to the pop and listened as our very own Jamie spoke angrily and passionately about what he had seen and what he thought. Everybody present thought Jamie summed it all up pretty well - no nastiness, no abuse just an honest appraisal of the situation. MB stood and listened and then walked off - there was no ritual sacrifice or anything like that. I think most people felt that Jamie had got the view of most fans over and been listened to. I believe MB and Don O had a meeting the next day and what had to be done was done in a proper and appropriate manner. Now I always like to see both sides of an argument. Judging whether to and when to sack a manager is rarely easy. But anyone who attended that Scunny game could see Don O was finished. I would have been amazed if he had survived that. |
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merse
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Post by merse on Sept 9, 2008 3:23:18 GMT
...... the shameful day when Don O' Riordon was effectively thrown to the mob by a shamefully disrespectful chairman. At the end of the Scunny game the fans were understandably angry and wanted the chance to express their views. If Bateson had ignored those calls, he would have been seen as refusing to listen. He came over to the pop and listened as our very own Jamie spoke angrily and passionately about what he had seen and what he thought. Everybody present thought Jamie summed it all up pretty well - no nastiness, no abuse just an honest appraisal of the situation. MB stood and listened and then walked off - ..................and in my opinion, that is absolutely NOT the way to conduct oneself as Chairman. That is absolutely NOT the time to be doing anything other than showing solidarity with one's employee whom you brought to the club. By all means take the views of the supporters on board in a proper and dignified manner, by all means take appropriate action regards continuing or discontinuing someones employment. But the way it was done and the time scale to which it was carried out smacked of "passing the parcel" with a ticking time bomb, it stunk of "it's not my fault guv, it's his" - it stunk! |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Sept 10, 2008 23:35:00 GMT
At the end of the Scunny game the fans were understandably angry and wanted the chance to express their views. If Bateson had ignored those calls, he would have been seen as refusing to listen. He came over to the pop and listened as our very own Jamie spoke angrily and passionately about what he had seen and what he thought. Everybody present thought Jamie summed it all up pretty well - no nastiness, no abuse just an honest appraisal of the situation. MB stood and listened and then walked off - ..................and in my opinion, that is absolutely NOT the way to conduct oneself as Chairman. That is absolutely NOT the time to be doing anything other than showing solidarity with one's employee whom you brought to the club. By all means take the views of the supporters on board in a proper and dignified manner, by all means take appropriate action regards continuing or discontinuing someones employment. But the way it was done and the time scale to which it was carried out smacked of "passing the parcel" with a ticking time bomb, it stunk of "it's not my fault guv, it's his" - it stunk! Merse, There was a situation where an angry group of fans refused to leave the ground. The situation was successfully defused. Is that not "the way to conduct oneself"? The alternative was to retire to the safety of the Boardroom for a glass of red and instruct the stewards to throw people out. Would that course of action have met with your approval? I doubt it! As for "showing solidarity with one's employee", you do that up until the point of no return - then you act fast. You constantly criticise MB for "showing solidarity with his employee" in giving Leroy more time. Do you think that it would have been more dignified to wait a few days after that Rochdale defeat (which was nowhere near the scale of the Scunthorpe disaster)? Of course not. Back them or sack them - but move swiftly from one to the other as there is no room for a halfway house. As soon as Don O's goose was cooked (and it was burned to a crisp that day), the right thing to do was to crack on ASAP. I am sure that would have happened the next day even if Jamie had not led the ranting and raving lynch mob that you were originally claiming devoured the corpse thrown to them by MB. |
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Post by andygulls on Sept 11, 2008 20:23:20 GMT
Jon
Good to have you back posting.
I remember that day vividly. I held Don in high regard as a person. I had had several conversations with him at Junior Gulls events where my twin lads would be present. He always had time for a chat and a discussion about life as well as football and always acknowledged the boys and my wife in the ground on match days.
Sadly things just did not work out they way we might have liked and I am sure that Don would have known what would happen as his team disintegrated around him. He stood a forlorn figure in the ground at the end.
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jamie
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Post by jamie on Sept 11, 2008 20:58:20 GMT
Wow, to think that something that happened in 1995 in being discussed now makes me feel old.
I still have the video of that day (the only thing is I dont have a video player anymore!
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jamie
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Post by jamie on Sept 11, 2008 21:07:46 GMT
Oddly enough I think merse and jon have fair points to make. Jon rightly argues that don was not thrown to the mob and the fans probably played little part in deciding the outcome. His goose was cooked to say the least. But Alan makes a fair comment that with hindsite it was easy for Mike B to scapegoat Don rather than look at what was actually happening in the running of the club. Not like me to see both sides! Maybe it is the week I have had?  Now let's all kiss and make friends  |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Sept 11, 2008 22:46:28 GMT
Oddly enough I think merse and jon have fair points to make. Nothing odd about that Jamie! Merse always has a fair point to make. But his style is usually to take an extreme view and he often ends up (in my opinion) over-egging the pudding to get his point across. You only have to listen to his views on Buckle and Rosenior. I like to take a more balanced view, so often see the point Merse is making but also see the other side. I can see bad in Buckle and good in Rosenior. I don't tend to get into arguments on opinions - can't really see the point. I do tend to chip in when I see someone distorting history - although I have taken a hell of a lot of abuse for that from one of your pals in the past. As you know I am keen on seeing TUFC's history portrayed accurately. I let the distorted view of Don O's dismissal go the first time, but when it was repeated I just felt that I couldn't let it pass unchallenged - particularly as the ringleader of the mob is a friend of mine As Anygulls says, Don O was a nice bloke. He did a great job in his first season. He had to contend with his better players being sold and he worked without an assistant. When all was going well, that was fine. When things started to go downhill, he really looked a man under pressure. How would he have got on with a bigger budget and a stronger backup staff? We'll never know, will we? I'm not up for giving Merse a kiss (even if it is his birthday!), but I think we both accept and respect our differences - at least I hope so. If we were a central midfield pairing he'd be the one charging around all over the place, I'd be the one calmly sitting in front of the back four! |
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Sept 12, 2008 0:07:36 GMT
Oddly enough I think merse and jon have fair points to make. Don O was a nice bloke. He did a great job in his first season. He had to contend with his better players being sold and he worked without an assistant. When all was going well, that was fine. When things started to go downhill, he really looked a man under pressure. How would he have got on with a bigger budget and a stronger backup staff? We'll never know, will we? Which other Manager does that remind me of  ? |
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merse
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Post by merse on Sept 12, 2008 2:30:18 GMT
If we were a central midfield pairing he'd be the one charging around all over the place, I'd be the one calmly sitting in front of the back four! Not at 56 I wouldn't......................more like standing and pointing!  |
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Post by ealinggull on Sept 12, 2008 23:55:01 GMT
Alan rather than standing and pointing, isn't it sitting & pointing (from a high vantage point in the stand, near the half-way line) these days. See you there tomorrow |
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merse
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Post by merse on Sept 13, 2008 7:45:00 GMT
Alan rather than standing and pointing, isn't it sitting & pointing (from a high vantage point in the stand, near the half-way line) these days. See you there tomorrow Well I can still point (occasionally)! |
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merse
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Post by merse on Oct 20, 2008 19:24:53 GMT
I don't want to get into a slanging match with Merse, but the last time I went to London was over 30 years ago and the first thing that hit me as I walked up the slope out of Paddington Station was the smell of traffic fumes. And you have to be a bit careful what you say these days, but I did wonder if I had been transported to a foreign country.**************************************************** I came on to this forum to get away from the stupid, inane and positively ascerbic statements made there, only to find people like Merse on it!!  Yes you do have to be careful what you say these days Atheringtongull, and you should have felt the need when you walked up that slope thirty years ago. I'm big, old and fat enough to take your views that I make stupid and inane points with a role of the eyes and a resigned sigh; but red necked, right wing and knee jerk reactions such as those highlighted in red are not only an embarrassment to a fellow Devonian but an insult to one who's own children derive half of their heritage to a "foreign country". Had it ever occurred to you that the smell of traffic fumes might have been due to the fact that you would have been walking up the taxi ramp instead of the pedestrian one where you would have had to rub shoulders with all those "foreigners"? Don't forget there are towns in Belgium and France with less kilometres (That's .62 of a mile by the way) between them and London than your home in Devon. Take note also please, that the "foreign" kids you might see with me at a United match some day are in fact as British as you (do I presume correctly?) and I, having been born in this country's capital city to mixed heritage parents. That said, kindly do not forget my reaction then to your statement and take note now of my reaction to your latest contribution informing us of your memory retention...................and yes, your views on Paul Buckle did leave you with egg (free range I hope) on your face! If any of this comes over as stupid or inane, I apologise; but for it to be interpreted as acerbic (note the correct spelling) is quite intentional!  |
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Then you'd lose it Dave, I thought then and I still think it summed up the Mickey Mouse Regime we had become!
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