A criminal waste

[ex_pat_magpie]

In all of my years I can't think of one single club in the country which has been taken over by new owners which had so much potential for success as this club had and has been criminally wasted.

[ronandtet]

In all of my years I can't think of one single club in the country which has been taken over by new owners which had so much potential for success as this club had and has been criminally wasted.

blackpool

[TheOtherTerryMac]

blackpool

Sunderland

[Kal]

I think we have a sh!t load more potential than Blackpool or Sunderland.

[ghostrider]

When this club was taken over it had zero potential for success.
Once it was taken over it was a case of building it back up to become debt free, externally and to run from it's own in house steam.

It does this, basically.
As for the potential for success being criminally wasted. It depends on how success is actually judged.....not just by us, but by fans of other clubs that were also taken over and who were also teetering on the cusp of a wave, only to be fall down it and then waiting for the next rise to the cusp.

But what of this potential?
Potential to survive relegation?
Potential to simply be a part of a premier league and fight for middle of the road?
Potential to get into the champions league?
Potential to win the FA cup?
Potential to win the premier league?


Until Ashley took over we had zero potential to do anything but fall from grace under the regime we had, who had zero cash to keep the club afloat never mind do anything meaningful, potential wise.

As is stands now as it did from the day Ashley took us over...we can hold our own without pulling up major trees, like most other big clubs, as it stands.

We've had the good times and the bad times, football wise, under Ashley.
We've had finishes we didn't expect, positively and we've had finishes we didn't expect, negatively.

A big club in a big city with an amazing fan base.
How many big clubs in big cities/towns with amazing fan bases?

How many are sitting in positions below us and how many would secretly choose to be in our position?

We certainly harbour thoughts of winning FA cups or getting back into the champions league like we did in the past and it can easily be cast aside as is, with the mindset of believing we have an owner who's criminally starving some of the fans of something they feel they're entitled to.

If there's a reason why we're entitled to more than all the other clubs that are playing also ran against the elites or those clubs trying to play catch up with us from below leagues, then I'd like to see why.

I think we're entitled to have a club to continue to support and be a fan of.
I think we are entitled to hope for better.
I think we're entitled to expect to have a stadium fit for purpose.
I think we're entitled to have a squad of players that, in general, care.

I think we have all of this.

What we don't have...is.....high end trophies....but we do have trophies in Ashley's time.
It was exciting even if it wasn't high end trophies, because neither was it low end trophies.

Doesn't count, right?
5th place and Europa.
Championship league champions twice.

You could argue the criminal element came in in his first season owning the club. You could argue that his criminality was coming in and not backing Sam Allardyce, because by not doing this, created the spiral that sent us down and birthed the hatred of him and the reasons, to this very day why he's consistently vilified by many.

Just picture this.

Since Ashley came in he made the biggest error of his entire tenure of this club. His biggest error.
Getting rid of Allardyce and replacing him with what he believed was the messiah he thought the fans would love and who would actually make it all happy families and likely success on top of it.
That's my guess.

At this very point I think most fans has the word "successful" floating around inside their heads.
In that one season we changed managers 6 times, albeit most were simply caretaking.

Sam Allardyce 15 May, 2007 09 Jan, 2008.
Nigel Pearson 09 Jan, 2008 16 Jan, 2008.
Kevin Keegan 16 Jan, 2008 04 Sep, 2008.
Chris Hughton 08 Sep, 2008 29 Sep, 2008.
Joe Kinnear 29 Sep, 2008 02 Apr, 2009.
Alan Shearer 02 Apr, 2009 31 May, 2009.

The above was were it all went sadly wrong and were the club really did have to start to fill in the holes it dug for itself.

The badness was created with the above.
But whose fault was it?

It wasn't just Ashley's. It was a mucky mixture of all things That transpired from that particular point in time.

You see, why I mention Allardyce is merely because that one person, if allowed to do his job, may well have done a reasonable job over the period of his contract and we may never have went down the road of bringing back a over the hill messiah, which most fans didn't or wouldn't have been too keen on, anyway.
You see, the first time was a fairytale wonderland where everything fitted into place in the jigsaw, until we find that the jigsaw had pieces missing.


From that point it was finding the pieces that appeared to be lost. They were never found and eventually we started another but still based it on the past jigsaw start, which is pointless, because things move on and things change....and change they did........massively, with the oil barons.


Anyway all that aside, it comes back to ....so much potential for success...... and criminal waste.

The reality is, all football is a criminal waste for fans, because it's ran in a less than fair manner which is criminal in itself.....but......but......is this all down to Ashley?
Nahhhhh. Look around at all the other clubs and realise that we are just one tooth in that cog.

Many fans of many clubs would love to be in our position, in my honest opinion.

Expectation has taken over the minds of some fans, all based on not being able to rid themselves of the wonderland past.
Anyone who wants to jump in and deny this is the case from their point, need not to. If it doesn't apply to you then there's no need to argue your case, because clearly it would not be a case for you to answer to.


So....when people think an owner is criminally responsible for the demise of a club or the lack of success, think about how many criminals that makes....throughout.
But whilst you do that you really need to run your own club on this level to actually understand what's required in order to tug the skirts of the elites, let alone climb up the back of them.


Football is all about if's and but's and will and won't and could've and would've and can and can't.
It goes from the top to the bottom and can do it in short order.

If....I say "if" Joelinton scored a dozen goals up to this point, nobody would be arguing his price.
As it stands, he's not worth 40 million to many and you can see why anyone would say that.
However, time can change even the most menial things into mammoth and yet when that does sometimes happen, gone are the days of " he's not worth 40 million" to be replaced by, " he's got to be worth more than what we paid, now."


I'm not specifically picking out Joelinton, because he may not come to the fore...but it's possible.
However, how many wanted Perez never to kick another football?
How many thought he was worth very little and yet some other club seen enough to pay 30 million.
Was he worth even a fraction of that when people were getting on his back?

Did Ashley realise he was coming good and realised the fans were seeing he was coming good again, so he sold him out of nastiness to get at the fans, even though he supposedly knows nothing about football.


Oh I've harped on but I'm simply giving little snippets of just how fans see certain situations and run with it, then turn it into whatever fits the narrative at the time.


I've said it many a time and I'll say it again. I'd sooner have Ashley owning us than many other owners...even oil rich blank cheque sheikh's.
Why?
Because, as much as we know we can do better, we are a real club as it stands...working on the restraints of what it generates, whether people think that's bad or a cop out of simply a billionaire owner making stuff up.

[TheBigSausage]

The above is a criminal waste of Internet space

[Kal]

^^^ This ^^^

[Milburn9]

Anybody read that?

[AP69]

I read that it was a mistake to get rid of Fat Sham for Keegan 😂😂😂😂

[ghostrider]

I read that it was a mistake to get rid of Fat Sham for Keegan ��������

It was in terms of what's happened in the aftermath of it all.