Do you trust the decision making of the leadership/ownership?

Maybe its that guy sat two rows in front of us when I criticized Hughes for his playing out from the back that cost us a goal against Colchester, maybe I'm to blame for having an opinion not shared by others, did you see him gesturing to me on Saturday before the start of the game to give the team encouragement, my hands were dropping off by halftime.

 

Well yes what else would you call it when a section of the crowd jeers their own manager and players? When a sizeable majority on here ( self selecting I know) have been calling for him to go and scapegoating individual players? (There's always at least one per season who 'isn't fit to wear the shirt'). What effect is this going to have on such as Bobby Pointon, who's come through the academy, clearly loves playing for City, and then sees his teammates and his boss trashed by a vocal minority? Perhaps I'm getting sentimental in my old age but i cant help feeling that this level of negativity is counter productive.

 

The Harrogate manager certainly thinks it is he used it against us in his teamtalk on Saturday

 

I was not condoning booing and jeers it is counterproductive. I doubt the Board will make the decision based on the booing. It will be looking at the performance, recruitment and team cohesiveness, ST absenteeism and the sheer lack of entertainment. If MH gets the order of the boot then he can only look at himself.

 

Yes I did. Did he come out for the second half?

 

I'm not sure but some were still coming out of the hospitality (seats to our left) 15 minutes after the second half had started, now I accept the first half was dire but they're a pain coming in at that time.

 

As Bobby has said in one of his recent interviews he was a regular with his mates on the Kop from being a kid, I'm sure he realises how frustrating it can be for fans and once again the first half was crap even with the majority of possession we rarely looked like breaking them down after the first 10/15 minutes when we looked bright, no one likes to hear or see manager/players getting criticised or booed but how else do some make their feeling known, some say stay away not for me.
The next few weeks are a massive test for Hughes and his players, when the injured players return if we don't start to perform better and accumulate points unfortunately there will be more frustration from fans, and that's all it is frustration I'm sure every one who booed would prefer to be clapping and signing/chanting their team on to victory.

 

One name who had been linked with buying City previously was Huw Jenkins, and it looks like he's trying once more with his consortium to purchase this weekends opponents, Newport County. Newport have been owned by the supports trust since 2015 and next Thursday will conduct a special meeting to present forward the preferred bidder in the two horse race between The Jenkins lead consortium and an offer from a US based but Newport-born businessman Jon Pratt.

It looks like the trust will elect to sell too as County posted a loss of £1.2million for the year ending June 2022 and have liabilities of just shy of £400,000 while they operate with structural losses of around £300,000 a year (they don't own their ground or training base either). The board believe the ownership structure must change if County to avoid slipping out of the Football League and sliding down the pyramid.

 

Directors of Football in League Two:

Gillingham - Kenny Jackett
Notts County - Richard Montague
Swindon Town - Jamie Russell
Wrexham - None
Mansfield Town - None
Crawley Town - Chris Galley
Crewe Alexandra - None
Accrington Stanley - David Burgess (Managing Director)
MK Dons - Liam Sweeting & Simon Crampton
Barrow - Iain Wood
AFC Wimledon - Chris Cope
Newport County - Chris Finn
Stockport County - Simon Wilson
Walsall - None
Grimsby Town - None
Morecambe - None
Bradford City - None
Colchester United - Dmitri Halajko
Salford City - Chris Casper
Harrogate Town - None
Forest Green Rovers - Allan Steele
Doncaster Rovers - Mikey Walker
Tranmere Rovers - Nigel Adkins (Technical Director)
Sutton United - Terry Bullivant

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Any surprises?

There might be some errors, I just kinda threw this together.

I'm not going to dictate to anyone what it means, but there's a pretty sizable cluster of sides in the bottom half who don't operate with a Director of Football (or anything obviously related that I could find).

EDIT: Almost looks like a naive Northern section... But that's more a talking point than an outright statement lol

 

In purely this case, it's surely cost, right? Naturally Newport will be far cheaper than City, but also negotiating takeovers with a supporters trust that cant afford to keep their head above the water, is probably going to end up being far cheaper than negotiating with Rupp for us who are running smoothly on our self sufficient model. And both bidders are from south Wales.

But yes, fully take your point and agree with you. When you look at clubs like Gillingham, Carlisle and Newport having a new money takeover in 2023 and we don't even get a rumour of interest or some backing from our own owner.

 

I'm not sure how much stock we can put into "not even a rumour of interest".

Didn't we find out via the WAGMI rejected bid that if Rupp turns someone down, they're not allowed to make mention of it via NDO's? I'm sure I'm not making that up.

We might have serious enquiries every couple of months, but we're simply not gonna know unless something goes wrong with the non-disclosure side of things.

 

I bet City are the equivalent of the boutique clothing stores of my teenage years down the Arcades in Leeds or Deansgate in Manchester. No prices on the goods in the windows, see a nice item of clothing, go in to ask the price, walk away when it's 5-10 times what you were expecting.

 

I was being more tongue in cheek when comparing to all these smaller in stature clubs having bidders over the last 6 months or so, rather than actually believing there was not even a rumour.

 

Ironic for some isn’t it? What have most of these clubs getting taken over got in common?. They are fire sales because they are in financial trouble.
Rupp invested in city not because he loves football he isn’t really interested but because he wanted to profit on it.
Sparks and co have done such a good job financially we are in a healthy position so there won’t be a fire sale here Rupp can pick when he wants to go rather than escape from debts..
So there will be people interested in the club but they will have to match somewhere near the asking price or forget it but let’s face it if they can’t do that they can’t put the funds in we all want to rocket us forward

 

Is the lack of a fire sale preventing serious investment? You make a solid point, but an ambitious owner might still want value for money and pick anyone but us to put money into if were the only overpriced side.

 

Jenkins will be getting Newport for about the 10th of the cost Rupp wants for us.

 

What's wrong with that?

Sounds like it's aimed at those who doubt Bradford City?

Shoving it in their faces that we won 1-4

 

He does right! The muppets who cause the trouble with flares etc at away games have been giving him dogs abuse on Instagram. Darragh MacAnthony of Peterborough would have done exactly the same.