| Brizzle fan in peace 21:01 - Apr 14 with 7555 views | BristolCityFan20 |
Hi all,
After the recent departure of MA to you guys and reading some of the posts on your forum, I thought I would sign up and give you my opinion on Mark Ashton and his time with us.
Firstly as you may have read he is very unpopular with much of the fan base and some fans have been crying for him to leave all season. Such disdain was said by previous clubs Watford and Oxford and when he first joined us.
The reasons for such dislike amongst City fans especially this season Is because some blame him for our horrendous injury crisis. We have had the most in the championship and our situation has been so bad that we were forced to bring in second string and youth players. Now the reason he gets the blame is because he controls the medical section and hired the staff. One of which was previously at West Ham when they had an injury crisis and then moved to Arsenal about 5 years ago. Now there's not really any evidence to suggest any incompetence but we have had an issue with Hamstrings throughout our team and reoccurring ones at that. Two of our central midfielders have made one or two appearances before getting injured again. There have been several reoccurring injuries relating to soft tissue Injuries and we have had over 10 first teasers out all season and the players agents publicly questioned how the club dealt with the players. Nigel Pearson has also said he has never known situation like it and an inquiry will be made.
The other reasons for dislike are that people perceive him as a 'suit' who throws around corporate slang too often. He appears more when things are going well and seems to contradict himself alot when discussing transfer policy and contracts. I feel sorry for the guy though and dont think he deserves all the abuse he is getting.
He gets given in my opinion false plaudits for the Stadium which was with our owners money and was always going to be redeveloped after our move down the road was cancelled due to a bunch of dog walkers.
Did he single handedly improve our standing...somewhat you could argue but he's not the only man in the building. Lee Johnson was very innovative but after a while things go stale and we have became a really soft touch with half the team showing no desire and fight whilst being low on confidence. Its been a tough season and we have been lucky not to be in the bottom three and as I saw last night Cook also alluded to a soft touch culture at your club, so we know the feeling.
Time will tell but overall our standing has improved and no doubt he has contributed to it and he commanded some great fees for some of our players but our club needs a complete overhaul and we are looking forward to a fresh start.
You could still get promoted this season but if not there's always next season. Strange to think when I stated watching football you got promoted to the prem and finished 5th! Good luck for the rest of the season.
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| Brizzle fan in peace on 22:55 - Apr 14 with 1246 views | RonFearonsHair |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 22:32 - Apr 14 by BristolCityFan20 |
Absolutely but the only club who does that is Brentford. We did for a couple seasons but the last two we have played awful football with no identity. Not saying its Ashtons fault but at one point we went like 3 games without a corner and 3 shots on target in 5 games. In league one Peterborough always had a good model and play really good stuff at times and finally look like they get autos. |
I’m sure your intention is for ‘3 shots on target in 5 games’ to come across as being poor rather than boastful. But to us, a record like that would be progress. |  | | |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 22:59 - Apr 14 with 1235 views | Guthrum |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 22:17 - Apr 14 by HARRY10 |
"he has contributed to it and he commanded some great fees for some of our players"
The question is what has he been brought in to do.
I think it is agreed that we need to completely upgrade the structure of the club, with a football man in charge and more defined roles for others.
However the above words from the OP makes me wonder if the intended return on the investment will be through player trading (as with Webster) rather than and all out attempt to get to the PL. |
The two go hand-in-hand. In order to be consistently trading up on the value of players, the club needs to be doing well. Otherwise they would never be spotted and thought worth spending really big bucks on.
Also, you have to trade quite a lot of players to make the same as one promotion to the Prem. |  |
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| Brizzle fan in peace on 23:03 - Apr 14 with 1225 views | ITFC_Follower |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 21:21 - Apr 14 by J2BLUE |
Don't mean to be rude but couldn't care less what your fans think. Nothing personal but over the years we've had countless fans sign up to tell us what sort of player, manager, coach we're getting and to be honest, they are rarely accurate. We've had no structure for 14 years. What you needed and what we need are night and day.
Again, no offence intended and appreciate the effort. |
Yer Bristol City fan coming on here using there own time to be informative and helpful.
How dare they.
No really welcome and thank you. |  | | |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 23:14 - Apr 14 with 1207 views | jeera |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 23:03 - Apr 14 by ITFC_Follower |
Yer Bristol City fan coming on here using there own time to be informative and helpful.
How dare they.
No really welcome and thank you. |
J2 means we don't need negativity atm, which we don't.
We've had enough of it and want to look forwards.
BC fans creating accounts on here to tell us Ashton is a mistake is going to be helpful isn't it.
The OP has posted about his own club and credited as little as possible to Ashton. Under some circumstances that would be considered subtle trolling, although I'm sure the chap's intentions aren't dishonourable. [Post edited 14 Apr 2021 23:32]
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| Brizzle fan in peace on 23:15 - Apr 14 with 1205 views | jeera |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 22:55 - Apr 14 by RonFearonsHair |
I’m sure your intention is for ‘3 shots on target in 5 games’ to come across as being poor rather than boastful. But to us, a record like that would be progress. |
Ha.
Bloody coming on here bragging about their 3 shots on target.
The b*****ds. | |
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| Brizzle fan in peace on 23:32 - Apr 14 with 1187 views | King_ding_a_lin_g |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 22:17 - Apr 14 by HARRY10 |
"he has contributed to it and he commanded some great fees for some of our players"
The question is what has he been brought in to do.
I think it is agreed that we need to completely upgrade the structure of the club, with a football man in charge and more defined roles for others.
However the above words from the OP makes me wonder if the intended return on the investment will be through player trading (as with Webster) rather than and all out attempt to get to the PL. |
I don't think this is a secret.. clearly a massive element of the business plan is to make significant gains on player trading. We just have to hope that that also drags along with it a competitive team and a promotion or two.
Ipswich Town being divisionally successful is a by-product. |  | | |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 23:52 - Apr 14 with 1172 views | Illinoisblue |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 21:46 - Apr 14 by Ftnfwest |
I honestly think the players as a squad have been hit by a bit of a sledgehammer in (proper) training recently and they’re both rebelling against it and unable to also keep the energy levels going into games. Can’t wait for the majority to go. |
Needs to be a proper clear out too; not inventing a coaching role for Skuse because he’s a nice bloke. Clear the fooking decks and get people in with a winning mentality |  |
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| Brizzle fan in peace on 00:32 - Apr 15 with 1137 views | haynes_toe1 |
Let's be honest. Bristol City fans know more about Ashton than we do. And other than they need to make money out of it, we have no idea about our new owners either. Not really.
Some could argue Ashtons only proven level ability it selling players for good prices. Well that fits in nicely with the new owners.
Not what we want to hear and I dont believe its the case but in theory a complete clearout to bring wages to a League One level and introduction of more of our young players and our owners might be happy with another 2 or 3 seasons in this league - there could still be the opportunity to sell young players at a premium price and certainly home grown ones at this level could fetch multi millions. | | | |
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| Brizzle fan in peace on 08:06 - Apr 15 with 1024 views | ITFCBlues |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 21:15 - Apr 14 by BristolCityFan20 |
Ouch well as I said no evidence to suggest its the medical team, some have alluded to our pitch or even our training sessions. Its buzzare because we had players out on loan and we recalled them to cover the injuries and within a few days they are injured as well. |
Webster being the prime case here. He spent much of his time here injured. Joins you and doesn't suffer with injuries.
I'd like to think from that point of view, things really can't get any worse than they currently are! |  |
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| Brizzle fan in peace on 09:02 - Apr 15 with 975 views | Guthrum |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 00:32 - Apr 15 by haynes_toe1 |
Let's be honest. Bristol City fans know more about Ashton than we do. And other than they need to make money out of it, we have no idea about our new owners either. Not really.
Some could argue Ashtons only proven level ability it selling players for good prices. Well that fits in nicely with the new owners.
Not what we want to hear and I dont believe its the case but in theory a complete clearout to bring wages to a League One level and introduction of more of our young players and our owners might be happy with another 2 or 3 seasons in this league - there could still be the opportunity to sell young players at a premium price and certainly home grown ones at this level could fetch multi millions. |
You'd have to sell a heck of a lot of players to earn back the price paid for the club, let alone any return on the investment.
In a crowded market, without progress on the pitch, there's a limit to how many 'premium prices' we'd get in League One and the majority of our Youth are simply not worth a huge punt. We seem to have (in the Championship, mind) manged two really big sales in the last decade - Wickham and Mings. But we'd need about five of them within your 2 or 3 seasons just to clear the £40m that Gamechanger20 supposedly paid within that timescale.
I really don't think it's a viable way for our new owners to proceed. | |
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| Brizzle fan in peace on 14:34 - Apr 15 with 878 views | chrismakin |
How long have you had an injury crisis for to put the blame at his door out of interest.
Weve had one. But it's been about 7 years worth.
But it would interesting to know yours as whilst I appreciate you've had injuries this season. It doesnt appear to be a unique situation.
Liverpool for example have had nothing but waves of injury issues.
I remember hull this season suffering
Plus a few others.
It clearly isnt just a medical team issue if it's being suffered by more than 1 team. [Post edited 15 Apr 2021 14:41]
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| Brizzle fan in peace on 16:00 - Apr 15 with 818 views | J2BLUE |
| Brizzle fan in peace on 23:03 - Apr 14 by ITFC_Follower |
Yer Bristol City fan coming on here using there own time to be informative and helpful.
How dare they.
No really welcome and thank you. |
Aww you've really taken a shine to me recently haven't you? Bless.
Who said they shouldn't come on here and post? I was just pointing out that it's rarely relevant. Different clubs have vastly different needs. I know how this forum works. Despite having the injury record from hell for a decade the first injury we get will be blamed on Ashton. It's always the same.
Also we've had loads of these threads telling us people were useless and they turned out to be great for us. My personal favourite was the detailed account of Neil Alexander. Apparently he was average and had never saved a penalty. He was great for us and saved two in a week after he signed.
Another point is they are unhappy he's £600k a year. If you could rewind the clock since Evans came in would you happily see us pay £8.4m to a CEO? I would. Would have paid for itself ten times over. MOL has worked with him twice before and thinks he's the man for us. As jeera says all I really want is for people to give him a chance without forming an opinion based on other fans in advance. I didn't for a second suggest the OP shouldn't post or that he's unwelcome. |  |
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| Brizzle fan in peace on 07:55 - Apr 16 with 673 views | backinbeige |
Firstly- thank you very much for taking the time to sign up and post this.
I think that not many MDs / CEOs / corporate types who have to run the business side are well liked. They tend to be the people who have to say no to spending. The manager wants to sign everyone and the MD only sanctions a few. The agents want every transfer to go through so are leaking news to the press against the club hierarchy to force deals through; they only get paid when they happen. Fans want everything done yesterday, me included.
The suits have to choose the balance between increasing the playing budget, upgrading the training pitch, investing in the academy or doing up the stadium and someone's always going to be annoyed when one of those four doesn't happen.
These are all generalisations, but I get the sense you can be disliked rather than liked more quickly in this role. It's like having a referee calling the decisions in the back office - someone's got to do it.
If MA was picking the medical staff at Bristol City and they were problematically bad then that's a red flag. There's also the chance that 2+2=5; we don't know the Bristol City physio was sabotaging everyone's hamstrings, he's probably trying to repair the damage from an over-enthusiastic training session. Maybe tell the coaches to ease off sprinting drills lads.
I suspect the medical/physio situation might be a one off - for that issue to repeat itself at Playford Road he has to hire the exact same team here. We've already got a medical team (and a few posters are suggesting replacing them is odds-on going to be an upgrade).
If he's a suit with a lot on his plate who wants to get his ducks in a row so he can synergise the talent sphere to perform a deeper dive on the topics to empower colleagues to develop a win-win situation so he can bite the bullet on all the low hanging fruit that are on his radar... fine. If you're like that an ineffective then it's annoying, if you're like that and effective then as long as he's not emailing me it's ok.
So for an MD to come out of a tenure with a balanced view isn't awful. [Post edited 16 Apr 2021 8:18]
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