[Archived] John Williams

[Rover-the-Top]

Football's an odd business. 

[Gav]

Speaking to West Brom fans down here, Williams wasn't fired for sacking Pullis or appointing Pardew, he was fired for 'suggesting' to the owners that sacking Pullis would be a good idea 

Foreign ownership, very rarely works does it......

[Parsonblue]

48 minutes ago, Gav said:

Speaking to West Brom fans down here, Williams wasn't fired for sacking Pullis or appointing Pardew, he was fired for 'suggesting' to the owners that sacking Pullis would be a good idea 

Foreign ownership, very rarely works does it......

I don't know Gav.  I suspect the fans of Chelsea, City, United and a number more would argue differently.  

[Gav]

1 minute ago, Parsonblue said:

I don't know Gav.  I suspect the fans of Chelsea, City, United and a number more would argue differently.  

Most United fans hate the Glazers, but obviously as with everything in football, you get exceptions to the rule.

For every Man City you have a Charlton, Orient, Hull City, Birmingham, Leeds and many many more...

[Parsonblue]

9 minutes ago, Gav said:

Most United fans hate the Glazers, but obviously as with everything in football, you get exceptions to the rule.

For every Man City you have a Charlton, Orient, Hull City, Birmingham, Leeds and many many more...

Ultimately, I don't think the nationality of the owner matters that much.  It's knowing how to run the club sensibly in terms of finance whilst trying to provide entertainment and success on the pitch.

[JHRover]

The case of Hull is an interesting one. Technically their owner is 'foreign' as he was born in Egypt but has lived in/around Hull for 50 years, including studying for a degree at Hull University. Still lives in the area and has done all sorts by way of gifts to local causes.

So despite being foreign born he is very much 'local' and has done all sorts for the area, yet has made some horrible errrors. Their desire to rebrand the club to Hull Tigers is the most obvious.

Goes to show that even someone who ticks all the boxes of being rich, local, living in the area for a long time and even getting Hull promoted twice and to the FA Cup final can still end up as a public enemy when making daft mistakes in running the club.

[FGS5635]

Really is a thankless task being a club owner

[arbitro]

13 minutes ago, Parsonblue said:

Ultimately, I don't think the nationality of the owner matters that much.  It's knowing how to run the club sensibly in terms of finance whilst trying to provide entertainment and success on the pitch.

I also think they have to understand the history, tradition, culture and community value that football clubs have. As an example Vincent Tan changed the colour of Cardiffs shirts from blue to red completely unaware of the bad feeling it would cause.

[Stuart]

7 hours ago, FGS5635 said:

Really is a thankless task being a club owner

*responsible

Irresponsible owners shouldn’t expect thanks.

Parson is right in that the nationality of owners isn’t important but and ability to understand the game and the fan mentality - even down to parochialism - is vital. Fans have to be able to trust their club’s custodians. When they don’t appear to care and their visible actions ride roughshod over the will of the fans it leads to problems.

Employing a novice, on the back of supposed bad advise and then rewarding him while he dismantles the club to the point of failure, whilst alienating the players and disenfranchising the fanbase, it’s a recipe for disaster.

The “thankless task” for our owners is to return us to the PL where they found us, and at the debt levels at that point. Thanks will follow when they better that. Maybe.

[Vinjay]

Foreigners (Venkys being an exception) generally understand the game just as much as Brits do. It's irrelevant. As for bad British owners the Oystons are arguably the worst of any nationality in England. It's a foreigner Belokon who scored that court victory. If people think he had to be "talked into it" by fans then they are utter fools.

As for the Glazers yeah they take money out but they aren't the only ones to use football as a cash cow. The hypocrites just want a benefactor. I saw one wishing death on the Glazers because they had "only" won one Champions League trophy during their regime. They hated Edwards and his Father as well. Their fans bring it on themselves anyway they deserve to be milked. As for their debt its obviously manageable if they can afford to spend such sums on Pogba and Lukaku.  

As for Tan he upset people with the shirts but he's also written off debts, etc. I always thought there was an arrogance to Mackay as well and my instincts were right. Plus I understood Tan's points that MM had wasted money, etc but people wanted to portray him as a comedy villain. Warnock said the recent deadline day was the best of his career. He's worked just fine with Tan. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

5 hours ago, Vinjay17 said:

Foreigners (Venkys being an exception) generally understand the game just as much as Brits do. It's irrelevant. As for bad British owners the Oystons are arguably the worst of any nationality in England. It's a foreigner Belokon who scored that court victory. If people think he had to be "talked into it" by fans then they are utter fools.

As for the Glazers yeah they take money out but they aren't the only ones to use football as a cash cow. The hypocrites just want a benefactor. I saw one wishing death on the Glazers because they had "only" won one Champions League trophy during their regime. They hated Edwards and his Father as well. Their fans bring it on themselves anyway they deserve to be milked. As for their debt its obviously manageable if they can afford to spend such sums on Pogba and Lukaku.  

As for Tan he upset people with the shirts but he's also written off debts, etc. I always thought there was an arrogance to Mackay as well and my instincts were right. Plus I understood Tan's points that MM had wasted money, etc but people wanted to portray him as a comedy villain. Warnock said the recent deadline day was the best of his career. He's worked just fine with Tan. 

They might understand the game, but they don't understand the feelings and passion of fans or the traditions of clubs. We do(I am including the Irish in this) as we have grown up with it on TV and all of our friends have also being interested. No way people from other countries get it as much. 

Although I suppose you are right about English owners being among the worst, but that usually comes down to greed. Then you have owners like Mike Ashley, who have the passion, but try to do things on the cheap. Although I do think Ashley gets a bad rep, to do what Newcastle fans want, he would risk bankrupting himself.