| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) 22:22 - Sep 1 with 18780 views | Smithy |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 21:24 - Sep 2 with 4552 views | FevsBCFC |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 20:05 - Sep 2 by vanmunt |
You cannot get upset what people on their clubs forum say about other teams, i can’t imagine anything nice being said about Town on any lg 1 forum.
As you say, we don’t know why City are so upset about Ashton, and to be frank, you don’t have a clue what was going on here before Ashton arrived.
I rarely see anything particularly bad said about other teams on this forum (except Norwich) and quite recently there has been a bit of admiration on how your club has operated in recent years and a tinge of envy at the Lansdowns and your stadium, |
Hi, tried to post last night, but unable to do so. Bristol City fan in peace. Quite like your club, always seemed to do things properly.
Firstly most Bristol City fans have no feeling of entitlement to the Premier League, far from it. Our history, bar two short spells in the top flight has yo-yo'd between the second and third tier.
Onto Mark Ashton. I'm one of the more vocal posters on our forum OTIB (one team in bristol) and Twitter (@fevsfootball), so thought I'd take up the offer for a "sensible" (you can decide after this post) City fan to give their reasons.
Firstly a bit of history.
2012 - Ashton first came to City in 2012/13 as a consultant for his company Tactical Change Ltd. He got rid of the Head of Recruitment (Russ Richardson) who was Derek McInnes's man and implemented a recruitment database. He will tell you he delivered Cat 2 Academy status but he didn't.
When McInnes was sacked for poor results and terrible recruitment of older players on big contracts who went through the motions (players sourced using Ashton's database), Sean O'Driscoll was appointed and re-laid the foundations. Bringing a Head of Recruitment back in (Keith Burt) from Forest, binning the database and went back to traditional scouting methods.
O'Driscoll / Burt brought in Fielding, Pack, Flint, Derek Williams, and gave Joe Brian, Bobby Reid and Wes Burns game time.
Results were crap, but most fans feel he helped build the foundations for Steve Cotterill (who along with Burt) signed Ayling, Little, Wilbraham, Korey Smith, Kodjia, Wilbraham, Luke Freeman, Ryan Fredericks etc as we romped to the Lg1 title and began life in the Champ.
We struggled in 15/16 and with our owner Lansdown wondering whether to sack Cotts, Ashton was brought back in (again as consultant) early December 2015 to sack Cotts. Cotts knew the writing was on the wall because Burt (with O'Driscoll) had thrown Ashton's crappy database in the bin. Cotts was sacked then Ashton officially announced as Chief Operating Officer (COO), but getting his feet under the table. Lee Johnson appointed.
He quickly removed Keith Burt, then the scouting network (people like Mervyn Day over time). By the following summer he self-promoted himself as CEO, yet was far too involved in Recruitment. Our latest accounts show he earned £540k p.a. salary....four times that of other directors and out of kilter for a club whose football side had revenues of £16m.
He made good money selling players inherited from the previous recruitment teams but of the 69 players signed during his time here, very few were true successes (Webster and Brownhill the two main ones), quite a lot of 'meh' signings and a series of players that never played, many leaving on free transfers because the re-contracting strategy was piss-poor. It suits Ashton to have high churn, so he can curry favour with fans with each new signing. I blame Johnson and Ashton for this - they were a dangerous combo that resolved probs and boosted each other's egos by signing players, not by coaching on the training ground. Johnson famous for always wanting another "club in the bag" (his Dad's saying), Ashton enjoying the thrill of a new signing. Quite a lot of Wasseman players....ring a bell?
Basically over his time our costs grew stupidly and performances on the pitch dropped until Johnson sacked, and Covid has brought forward our struggling finances. Ashton went very quiet in his final year here. The club's pre-season tour to Florida in 2019 was him first sounding out US Investors (NSL investors looking at UK)....eventually culminating in Gamechanger Ltd. He took his eyes off the ball at City as he and O'Leary started working on the Ipswich deal.
He is a footballer wannabe, not good enough to make it as a keeper at West From...worked in their Community Programme for years but his CV would lead you to believe he was a Director there. He wasn't...he might've given himself that title.
It was at West Brom he got to know Mike O'Leary (your Chairman) and links to Eales at Oxford, etc.
It is well worth chedcking Companies House for the various businesses that Mark Anthony Ashton is or has been linked to:
Tactical Change
Grove Life
Alicydon (O'Leary)
either himself or with his wife (ex-wife?).
then look at LinkedIn and see the links to Luke Werhun (can never remember whether he's his nephew or brother-in-law), who has only ever worked in football for Ashton. No idea what qualifications he has to be Head of Operations at City and Club Secretary.
Then of course you'll find Andy Rolls and Andy Costin too. Rolls oversaw our shambolic injury record last season. I can't comment any more than that, but the cynic might look at his time at Arsenal and West Ham too.
Ashton has built himself a protective bubble. I'm sure he's a decent enough Football Administrator, but he does not know the football-playing side, the bit he is desperate to be associated with, hence why you have no recruitment dept....because it gives him control to use his contacts not scout players based on their ability / fit to the managers system. I see you're not even using data. I appreciate you let a lot of players go, but players signed earlier in the window must be wondering why another player has been signed in their position. Fraser and Barry etc must be worrying what they signed up to. Cook, I'm disappointed in, but he's the fall-guy....don't forget he talked himself out of the City job when interviewed last summer. I think he saw through Ashton at the interview.
There is no jealousy, I am so glad he has gone. I am angry that he pulled the wool over the eyes of our owner, I'm very disappointed Lee Johnson didn't have the balls to call him out over transfer business.
Go and ask Watford fans their view!
No smoke without fire.
Go and look at Bristol City's accounts, the rising costs, wages, amortisation. I'd love got see the money trail to agents.
No sensible City fan builds their view of Ashton by the way he talks or dresses, they have formed their opinion on how badly he ran our football club. Without the players he sold that were there before he arrived, his ability to recruit players is pretty poor, usually with overpaid fees and wages - he benefitted from an inflationary market....thats no longer viable.
Sorry, bit of a rant, but don't think we are jealous he's left us for you. I hope you see through him...it might take a couple of windows for you to realise he's out of his depth, and will constrain your club going forward.
Feel free to respond with any questions (or abuse!!!) 😂😂😂 |  | | |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 21:33 - Sep 2 with 4518 views | From82Ashes |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 21:24 - Sep 2 by FevsBCFC |
Hi, tried to post last night, but unable to do so. Bristol City fan in peace. Quite like your club, always seemed to do things properly.
Firstly most Bristol City fans have no feeling of entitlement to the Premier League, far from it. Our history, bar two short spells in the top flight has yo-yo'd between the second and third tier.
Onto Mark Ashton. I'm one of the more vocal posters on our forum OTIB (one team in bristol) and Twitter (@fevsfootball), so thought I'd take up the offer for a "sensible" (you can decide after this post) City fan to give their reasons.
Firstly a bit of history.
2012 - Ashton first came to City in 2012/13 as a consultant for his company Tactical Change Ltd. He got rid of the Head of Recruitment (Russ Richardson) who was Derek McInnes's man and implemented a recruitment database. He will tell you he delivered Cat 2 Academy status but he didn't.
When McInnes was sacked for poor results and terrible recruitment of older players on big contracts who went through the motions (players sourced using Ashton's database), Sean O'Driscoll was appointed and re-laid the foundations. Bringing a Head of Recruitment back in (Keith Burt) from Forest, binning the database and went back to traditional scouting methods.
O'Driscoll / Burt brought in Fielding, Pack, Flint, Derek Williams, and gave Joe Brian, Bobby Reid and Wes Burns game time.
Results were crap, but most fans feel he helped build the foundations for Steve Cotterill (who along with Burt) signed Ayling, Little, Wilbraham, Korey Smith, Kodjia, Wilbraham, Luke Freeman, Ryan Fredericks etc as we romped to the Lg1 title and began life in the Champ.
We struggled in 15/16 and with our owner Lansdown wondering whether to sack Cotts, Ashton was brought back in (again as consultant) early December 2015 to sack Cotts. Cotts knew the writing was on the wall because Burt (with O'Driscoll) had thrown Ashton's crappy database in the bin. Cotts was sacked then Ashton officially announced as Chief Operating Officer (COO), but getting his feet under the table. Lee Johnson appointed.
He quickly removed Keith Burt, then the scouting network (people like Mervyn Day over time). By the following summer he self-promoted himself as CEO, yet was far too involved in Recruitment. Our latest accounts show he earned £540k p.a. salary....four times that of other directors and out of kilter for a club whose football side had revenues of £16m.
He made good money selling players inherited from the previous recruitment teams but of the 69 players signed during his time here, very few were true successes (Webster and Brownhill the two main ones), quite a lot of 'meh' signings and a series of players that never played, many leaving on free transfers because the re-contracting strategy was piss-poor. It suits Ashton to have high churn, so he can curry favour with fans with each new signing. I blame Johnson and Ashton for this - they were a dangerous combo that resolved probs and boosted each other's egos by signing players, not by coaching on the training ground. Johnson famous for always wanting another "club in the bag" (his Dad's saying), Ashton enjoying the thrill of a new signing. Quite a lot of Wasseman players....ring a bell?
Basically over his time our costs grew stupidly and performances on the pitch dropped until Johnson sacked, and Covid has brought forward our struggling finances. Ashton went very quiet in his final year here. The club's pre-season tour to Florida in 2019 was him first sounding out US Investors (NSL investors looking at UK)....eventually culminating in Gamechanger Ltd. He took his eyes off the ball at City as he and O'Leary started working on the Ipswich deal.
He is a footballer wannabe, not good enough to make it as a keeper at West From...worked in their Community Programme for years but his CV would lead you to believe he was a Director there. He wasn't...he might've given himself that title.
It was at West Brom he got to know Mike O'Leary (your Chairman) and links to Eales at Oxford, etc.
It is well worth chedcking Companies House for the various businesses that Mark Anthony Ashton is or has been linked to:
Tactical Change
Grove Life
Alicydon (O'Leary)
either himself or with his wife (ex-wife?).
then look at LinkedIn and see the links to Luke Werhun (can never remember whether he's his nephew or brother-in-law), who has only ever worked in football for Ashton. No idea what qualifications he has to be Head of Operations at City and Club Secretary.
Then of course you'll find Andy Rolls and Andy Costin too. Rolls oversaw our shambolic injury record last season. I can't comment any more than that, but the cynic might look at his time at Arsenal and West Ham too.
Ashton has built himself a protective bubble. I'm sure he's a decent enough Football Administrator, but he does not know the football-playing side, the bit he is desperate to be associated with, hence why you have no recruitment dept....because it gives him control to use his contacts not scout players based on their ability / fit to the managers system. I see you're not even using data. I appreciate you let a lot of players go, but players signed earlier in the window must be wondering why another player has been signed in their position. Fraser and Barry etc must be worrying what they signed up to. Cook, I'm disappointed in, but he's the fall-guy....don't forget he talked himself out of the City job when interviewed last summer. I think he saw through Ashton at the interview.
There is no jealousy, I am so glad he has gone. I am angry that he pulled the wool over the eyes of our owner, I'm very disappointed Lee Johnson didn't have the balls to call him out over transfer business.
Go and ask Watford fans their view!
No smoke without fire.
Go and look at Bristol City's accounts, the rising costs, wages, amortisation. I'd love got see the money trail to agents.
No sensible City fan builds their view of Ashton by the way he talks or dresses, they have formed their opinion on how badly he ran our football club. Without the players he sold that were there before he arrived, his ability to recruit players is pretty poor, usually with overpaid fees and wages - he benefitted from an inflationary market....thats no longer viable.
Sorry, bit of a rant, but don't think we are jealous he's left us for you. I hope you see through him...it might take a couple of windows for you to realise he's out of his depth, and will constrain your club going forward.
Feel free to respond with any questions (or abuse!!!) 😂😂😂 |
Respect to you Fevs for taking the trouble to write and explain to some of their posters , some really don’t deserve the courtesy
In case any of you are actually interested , which it appears not, read his post
Fevs is the intelligent , balanced , and well researched and knowledgable view of just about anything Bristol City , an excellent analyst on a variety of subjects with a very professional background and excellent knowledge in finance and footballing matters |  | | |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 22:22 - Sep 2 with 4371 views | CornishMariner |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 21:24 - Sep 2 by FevsBCFC |
Hi, tried to post last night, but unable to do so. Bristol City fan in peace. Quite like your club, always seemed to do things properly.
Firstly most Bristol City fans have no feeling of entitlement to the Premier League, far from it. Our history, bar two short spells in the top flight has yo-yo'd between the second and third tier.
Onto Mark Ashton. I'm one of the more vocal posters on our forum OTIB (one team in bristol) and Twitter (@fevsfootball), so thought I'd take up the offer for a "sensible" (you can decide after this post) City fan to give their reasons.
Firstly a bit of history.
2012 - Ashton first came to City in 2012/13 as a consultant for his company Tactical Change Ltd. He got rid of the Head of Recruitment (Russ Richardson) who was Derek McInnes's man and implemented a recruitment database. He will tell you he delivered Cat 2 Academy status but he didn't.
When McInnes was sacked for poor results and terrible recruitment of older players on big contracts who went through the motions (players sourced using Ashton's database), Sean O'Driscoll was appointed and re-laid the foundations. Bringing a Head of Recruitment back in (Keith Burt) from Forest, binning the database and went back to traditional scouting methods.
O'Driscoll / Burt brought in Fielding, Pack, Flint, Derek Williams, and gave Joe Brian, Bobby Reid and Wes Burns game time.
Results were crap, but most fans feel he helped build the foundations for Steve Cotterill (who along with Burt) signed Ayling, Little, Wilbraham, Korey Smith, Kodjia, Wilbraham, Luke Freeman, Ryan Fredericks etc as we romped to the Lg1 title and began life in the Champ.
We struggled in 15/16 and with our owner Lansdown wondering whether to sack Cotts, Ashton was brought back in (again as consultant) early December 2015 to sack Cotts. Cotts knew the writing was on the wall because Burt (with O'Driscoll) had thrown Ashton's crappy database in the bin. Cotts was sacked then Ashton officially announced as Chief Operating Officer (COO), but getting his feet under the table. Lee Johnson appointed.
He quickly removed Keith Burt, then the scouting network (people like Mervyn Day over time). By the following summer he self-promoted himself as CEO, yet was far too involved in Recruitment. Our latest accounts show he earned £540k p.a. salary....four times that of other directors and out of kilter for a club whose football side had revenues of £16m.
He made good money selling players inherited from the previous recruitment teams but of the 69 players signed during his time here, very few were true successes (Webster and Brownhill the two main ones), quite a lot of 'meh' signings and a series of players that never played, many leaving on free transfers because the re-contracting strategy was piss-poor. It suits Ashton to have high churn, so he can curry favour with fans with each new signing. I blame Johnson and Ashton for this - they were a dangerous combo that resolved probs and boosted each other's egos by signing players, not by coaching on the training ground. Johnson famous for always wanting another "club in the bag" (his Dad's saying), Ashton enjoying the thrill of a new signing. Quite a lot of Wasseman players....ring a bell?
Basically over his time our costs grew stupidly and performances on the pitch dropped until Johnson sacked, and Covid has brought forward our struggling finances. Ashton went very quiet in his final year here. The club's pre-season tour to Florida in 2019 was him first sounding out US Investors (NSL investors looking at UK)....eventually culminating in Gamechanger Ltd. He took his eyes off the ball at City as he and O'Leary started working on the Ipswich deal.
He is a footballer wannabe, not good enough to make it as a keeper at West From...worked in their Community Programme for years but his CV would lead you to believe he was a Director there. He wasn't...he might've given himself that title.
It was at West Brom he got to know Mike O'Leary (your Chairman) and links to Eales at Oxford, etc.
It is well worth chedcking Companies House for the various businesses that Mark Anthony Ashton is or has been linked to:
Tactical Change
Grove Life
Alicydon (O'Leary)
either himself or with his wife (ex-wife?).
then look at LinkedIn and see the links to Luke Werhun (can never remember whether he's his nephew or brother-in-law), who has only ever worked in football for Ashton. No idea what qualifications he has to be Head of Operations at City and Club Secretary.
Then of course you'll find Andy Rolls and Andy Costin too. Rolls oversaw our shambolic injury record last season. I can't comment any more than that, but the cynic might look at his time at Arsenal and West Ham too.
Ashton has built himself a protective bubble. I'm sure he's a decent enough Football Administrator, but he does not know the football-playing side, the bit he is desperate to be associated with, hence why you have no recruitment dept....because it gives him control to use his contacts not scout players based on their ability / fit to the managers system. I see you're not even using data. I appreciate you let a lot of players go, but players signed earlier in the window must be wondering why another player has been signed in their position. Fraser and Barry etc must be worrying what they signed up to. Cook, I'm disappointed in, but he's the fall-guy....don't forget he talked himself out of the City job when interviewed last summer. I think he saw through Ashton at the interview.
There is no jealousy, I am so glad he has gone. I am angry that he pulled the wool over the eyes of our owner, I'm very disappointed Lee Johnson didn't have the balls to call him out over transfer business.
Go and ask Watford fans their view!
No smoke without fire.
Go and look at Bristol City's accounts, the rising costs, wages, amortisation. I'd love got see the money trail to agents.
No sensible City fan builds their view of Ashton by the way he talks or dresses, they have formed their opinion on how badly he ran our football club. Without the players he sold that were there before he arrived, his ability to recruit players is pretty poor, usually with overpaid fees and wages - he benefitted from an inflationary market....thats no longer viable.
Sorry, bit of a rant, but don't think we are jealous he's left us for you. I hope you see through him...it might take a couple of windows for you to realise he's out of his depth, and will constrain your club going forward.
Feel free to respond with any questions (or abuse!!!) 😂😂😂 |
Thanks for taking the time to lay all these points out. There is a lot there, some of which seems like it might transfer to Ipswich, some not.
We have already got a few hamstring injuries and that seems a concern and we shouldn't let our previously awful record with injuries cloud our judgement here. If nothing else it shouldn't stop the questions being asked.
A lot of the ups and downs still seem to depend on the manager though.
The relationship with the chairman/owner is interesting - its early days for us. O Leary has an important role and the Americans are no mugs so I suspect they will be keeping a close eye on the way the pension funds are being used.
Compared to previous transfer windows where everything was so slow that we always seemed to be missing out on the best buys (getting worse year after year), this feels like a dream to us at the moment but there is nothing wrong with a bit of vigilance going forward. |  |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 22:39 - Sep 2 with 4303 views | Vic |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 21:33 - Sep 2 by From82Ashes |
Respect to you Fevs for taking the trouble to write and explain to some of their posters , some really don’t deserve the courtesy
In case any of you are actually interested , which it appears not, read his post
Fevs is the intelligent , balanced , and well researched and knowledgable view of just about anything Bristol City , an excellent analyst on a variety of subjects with a very professional background and excellent knowledge in finance and footballing matters |
I’m not sure he understands the situation at Town though. He infers that we don’t have a recruitment team because Ashton doesn’t want one. Well, let’s see that one in 12 months time. But we didn’t have one before he started and he’s hardly had the chance to put one in place since he started. Given that he’s stated he wants to have one let’s see where we are on this in 12 months time?
Judging him on what he’s done so far he’s done OK. |  |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 22:44 - Sep 2 with 4285 views | 44_not_out |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 21:33 - Sep 2 by From82Ashes |
Respect to you Fevs for taking the trouble to write and explain to some of their posters , some really don’t deserve the courtesy
In case any of you are actually interested , which it appears not, read his post
Fevs is the intelligent , balanced , and well researched and knowledgable view of just about anything Bristol City , an excellent analyst on a variety of subjects with a very professional background and excellent knowledge in finance and footballing matters |
Let’s face it, we might get promoted this season or next, but a couple of seasons of mid-table obscurity in the Championship will soon have the numbskulls foaming at the mouth and it is likely Ashton will be public enemy number 1. | | | |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 22:46 - Sep 2 with 4285 views | _sanctimoanious_ |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 21:24 - Sep 2 by FevsBCFC |
Hi, tried to post last night, but unable to do so. Bristol City fan in peace. Quite like your club, always seemed to do things properly.
Firstly most Bristol City fans have no feeling of entitlement to the Premier League, far from it. Our history, bar two short spells in the top flight has yo-yo'd between the second and third tier.
Onto Mark Ashton. I'm one of the more vocal posters on our forum OTIB (one team in bristol) and Twitter (@fevsfootball), so thought I'd take up the offer for a "sensible" (you can decide after this post) City fan to give their reasons.
Firstly a bit of history.
2012 - Ashton first came to City in 2012/13 as a consultant for his company Tactical Change Ltd. He got rid of the Head of Recruitment (Russ Richardson) who was Derek McInnes's man and implemented a recruitment database. He will tell you he delivered Cat 2 Academy status but he didn't.
When McInnes was sacked for poor results and terrible recruitment of older players on big contracts who went through the motions (players sourced using Ashton's database), Sean O'Driscoll was appointed and re-laid the foundations. Bringing a Head of Recruitment back in (Keith Burt) from Forest, binning the database and went back to traditional scouting methods.
O'Driscoll / Burt brought in Fielding, Pack, Flint, Derek Williams, and gave Joe Brian, Bobby Reid and Wes Burns game time.
Results were crap, but most fans feel he helped build the foundations for Steve Cotterill (who along with Burt) signed Ayling, Little, Wilbraham, Korey Smith, Kodjia, Wilbraham, Luke Freeman, Ryan Fredericks etc as we romped to the Lg1 title and began life in the Champ.
We struggled in 15/16 and with our owner Lansdown wondering whether to sack Cotts, Ashton was brought back in (again as consultant) early December 2015 to sack Cotts. Cotts knew the writing was on the wall because Burt (with O'Driscoll) had thrown Ashton's crappy database in the bin. Cotts was sacked then Ashton officially announced as Chief Operating Officer (COO), but getting his feet under the table. Lee Johnson appointed.
He quickly removed Keith Burt, then the scouting network (people like Mervyn Day over time). By the following summer he self-promoted himself as CEO, yet was far too involved in Recruitment. Our latest accounts show he earned £540k p.a. salary....four times that of other directors and out of kilter for a club whose football side had revenues of £16m.
He made good money selling players inherited from the previous recruitment teams but of the 69 players signed during his time here, very few were true successes (Webster and Brownhill the two main ones), quite a lot of 'meh' signings and a series of players that never played, many leaving on free transfers because the re-contracting strategy was piss-poor. It suits Ashton to have high churn, so he can curry favour with fans with each new signing. I blame Johnson and Ashton for this - they were a dangerous combo that resolved probs and boosted each other's egos by signing players, not by coaching on the training ground. Johnson famous for always wanting another "club in the bag" (his Dad's saying), Ashton enjoying the thrill of a new signing. Quite a lot of Wasseman players....ring a bell?
Basically over his time our costs grew stupidly and performances on the pitch dropped until Johnson sacked, and Covid has brought forward our struggling finances. Ashton went very quiet in his final year here. The club's pre-season tour to Florida in 2019 was him first sounding out US Investors (NSL investors looking at UK)....eventually culminating in Gamechanger Ltd. He took his eyes off the ball at City as he and O'Leary started working on the Ipswich deal.
He is a footballer wannabe, not good enough to make it as a keeper at West From...worked in their Community Programme for years but his CV would lead you to believe he was a Director there. He wasn't...he might've given himself that title.
It was at West Brom he got to know Mike O'Leary (your Chairman) and links to Eales at Oxford, etc.
It is well worth chedcking Companies House for the various businesses that Mark Anthony Ashton is or has been linked to:
Tactical Change
Grove Life
Alicydon (O'Leary)
either himself or with his wife (ex-wife?).
then look at LinkedIn and see the links to Luke Werhun (can never remember whether he's his nephew or brother-in-law), who has only ever worked in football for Ashton. No idea what qualifications he has to be Head of Operations at City and Club Secretary.
Then of course you'll find Andy Rolls and Andy Costin too. Rolls oversaw our shambolic injury record last season. I can't comment any more than that, but the cynic might look at his time at Arsenal and West Ham too.
Ashton has built himself a protective bubble. I'm sure he's a decent enough Football Administrator, but he does not know the football-playing side, the bit he is desperate to be associated with, hence why you have no recruitment dept....because it gives him control to use his contacts not scout players based on their ability / fit to the managers system. I see you're not even using data. I appreciate you let a lot of players go, but players signed earlier in the window must be wondering why another player has been signed in their position. Fraser and Barry etc must be worrying what they signed up to. Cook, I'm disappointed in, but he's the fall-guy....don't forget he talked himself out of the City job when interviewed last summer. I think he saw through Ashton at the interview.
There is no jealousy, I am so glad he has gone. I am angry that he pulled the wool over the eyes of our owner, I'm very disappointed Lee Johnson didn't have the balls to call him out over transfer business.
Go and ask Watford fans their view!
No smoke without fire.
Go and look at Bristol City's accounts, the rising costs, wages, amortisation. I'd love got see the money trail to agents.
No sensible City fan builds their view of Ashton by the way he talks or dresses, they have formed their opinion on how badly he ran our football club. Without the players he sold that were there before he arrived, his ability to recruit players is pretty poor, usually with overpaid fees and wages - he benefitted from an inflationary market....thats no longer viable.
Sorry, bit of a rant, but don't think we are jealous he's left us for you. I hope you see through him...it might take a couple of windows for you to realise he's out of his depth, and will constrain your club going forward.
Feel free to respond with any questions (or abuse!!!) 😂😂😂 |
Thanks for the write up. How can one man be responsible for all that is awful and for nothing that was good? You assume all his employers are mugs and only the fans can see through him. Im sure he isn’t perfect but who is? I imagine his position makes him the easy and visible fall guy like all the others at all the struggling clubs. O’Leary obviously knows him well and trusts him to employ him again but fans will always somehow know more about the deep inner workings of a football club to know better. He may end great or awful, we will see but I’m sure he isnt a crook or charlatan and is infinitely better than what we’ve had for the last two decades. [Post edited 2 Sep 2021 22:53]
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 22:48 - Sep 2 with 4282 views | FevsBCFC |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 22:22 - Sep 2 by CornishMariner |
Thanks for taking the time to lay all these points out. There is a lot there, some of which seems like it might transfer to Ipswich, some not.
We have already got a few hamstring injuries and that seems a concern and we shouldn't let our previously awful record with injuries cloud our judgement here. If nothing else it shouldn't stop the questions being asked.
A lot of the ups and downs still seem to depend on the manager though.
The relationship with the chairman/owner is interesting - its early days for us. O Leary has an important role and the Americans are no mugs so I suspect they will be keeping a close eye on the way the pension funds are being used.
Compared to previous transfer windows where everything was so slow that we always seemed to be missing out on the best buys (getting worse year after year), this feels like a dream to us at the moment but there is nothing wrong with a bit of vigilance going forward. |
I should add that the players you’ve signed are really good. But for me it’s too many. I follow @itfcanalytics on twitter and when I saw your squad depth chart it looks like too many signings, I sense disharmony in the dressing room, especially if results don’t come.
It’s a big season to gamble too. League One has 10+ clubs capable of getting automatic promotion, that means 4+ won’t even make the playoffs. Other clubs have recruited strongly from better foundations.
There’s no way enough due diligence has been done on scouting the players, whether that was physical or via data and video analysis. Let alone enough thought into who might fit in with whom. Cook is relying on a bit of luck that players will gel. I’ve normally been a fan of Cook’s eye for a player from his days at Stanley, Chesterfield and more recently at Wigan where he went big and athletic. I don’t see a plan to this summer’s recruitment. But I’m looking in from outside. There are quite a few on 3 year deals that will be hard to shift if things don’t work out.
Anyway, enjoy the ride. | | | |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 22:58 - Sep 2 with 4228 views | _sanctimoanious_ |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 22:48 - Sep 2 by FevsBCFC |
I should add that the players you’ve signed are really good. But for me it’s too many. I follow @itfcanalytics on twitter and when I saw your squad depth chart it looks like too many signings, I sense disharmony in the dressing room, especially if results don’t come.
It’s a big season to gamble too. League One has 10+ clubs capable of getting automatic promotion, that means 4+ won’t even make the playoffs. Other clubs have recruited strongly from better foundations.
There’s no way enough due diligence has been done on scouting the players, whether that was physical or via data and video analysis. Let alone enough thought into who might fit in with whom. Cook is relying on a bit of luck that players will gel. I’ve normally been a fan of Cook’s eye for a player from his days at Stanley, Chesterfield and more recently at Wigan where he went big and athletic. I don’t see a plan to this summer’s recruitment. But I’m looking in from outside. There are quite a few on 3 year deals that will be hard to shift if things don’t work out.
Anyway, enjoy the ride. |
Pure conjecture of course. We have no idea how much due diligence was done! We’re all on the outside looking in and can assume as much as we like. Cook will admit 19 is too much but will also say it was necessary. The owners are level headed and know what they have done and VERY MUCH have a plan for what they’re doing. We’re all aware in may not work straight away so it won’t be a huge surprise.
Enjoy your season and forget about us and Ashton. | | | |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 22:59 - Sep 2 with 4225 views | Vic |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 22:48 - Sep 2 by FevsBCFC |
I should add that the players you’ve signed are really good. But for me it’s too many. I follow @itfcanalytics on twitter and when I saw your squad depth chart it looks like too many signings, I sense disharmony in the dressing room, especially if results don’t come.
It’s a big season to gamble too. League One has 10+ clubs capable of getting automatic promotion, that means 4+ won’t even make the playoffs. Other clubs have recruited strongly from better foundations.
There’s no way enough due diligence has been done on scouting the players, whether that was physical or via data and video analysis. Let alone enough thought into who might fit in with whom. Cook is relying on a bit of luck that players will gel. I’ve normally been a fan of Cook’s eye for a player from his days at Stanley, Chesterfield and more recently at Wigan where he went big and athletic. I don’t see a plan to this summer’s recruitment. But I’m looking in from outside. There are quite a few on 3 year deals that will be hard to shift if things don’t work out.
Anyway, enjoy the ride. |
Cheers, you sound like a decent guy!
Your original post was about Ashton. This one is about Cook - and I you make some good posits which I agree with. However, in reality, with a few exceptions, we’ve really only got two players in each position, which is what any club with ambitions to progress would want to have. If we were in the champ or prem it would be exactly the same. I’m assuming most of the players knew what they were singing into - unless JA is totally lying to us about this so - so they shouldn’t be surprised.
The key thing, I think, will be future recruitment. Will it progressively get better as we improve? Only time will tell.
Going back to Cook, the question currently is if he really has the tactical nous to make the best use of the excellent squad that has been built here. This is the most urgent thing for us, o5 questions about JA. | |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 23:26 - Sep 2 with 4176 views | King_ding_a_lin_g |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 22:48 - Sep 2 by FevsBCFC |
I should add that the players you’ve signed are really good. But for me it’s too many. I follow @itfcanalytics on twitter and when I saw your squad depth chart it looks like too many signings, I sense disharmony in the dressing room, especially if results don’t come.
It’s a big season to gamble too. League One has 10+ clubs capable of getting automatic promotion, that means 4+ won’t even make the playoffs. Other clubs have recruited strongly from better foundations.
There’s no way enough due diligence has been done on scouting the players, whether that was physical or via data and video analysis. Let alone enough thought into who might fit in with whom. Cook is relying on a bit of luck that players will gel. I’ve normally been a fan of Cook’s eye for a player from his days at Stanley, Chesterfield and more recently at Wigan where he went big and athletic. I don’t see a plan to this summer’s recruitment. But I’m looking in from outside. There are quite a few on 3 year deals that will be hard to shift if things don’t work out.
Anyway, enjoy the ride. |
The potential ride over the next few years is more exciting than it has been for at least 15 years. 15 years! That is how stagnant we had become.. can you imagine how hopeless a fan base we are?
I'm not as easily won over as some seem to be with Ashton, with some giving him Messiah status already, despite the fact we haven't actually got a clue yet whether the players he (and apparently Cook) has brought in will deliver the all the promises. The squad looks good on paper, but how many times has football seen excellent paper squads turn to shreds and ashes?
Our first team squad, however, has seen fewer incomings than outgoings, despite the 19 signings. For my liking, not enough of the 19 were academy players with potential to hit the first team in, say, two or three years.
I get Brizzle's concerns but it appears that a lot of the alleged problems stem from an apparent lack of internal control. Why had Ashton been allowed to create so much havoc if it was so obviously detrimental? It doesn't really all stack up, although I am sure there are some half truths in there.
This database you are so critical of doesn't exist here. He hasn't had the time to install a recruitment system and it is currently therefore acceptable that he has recruited based on contacts... that being said, some of the higher profile recruits are quite clearly players who have played under Cook and therefore it stands to reason that they are his choices. We can only hope, based on your accusations, that the powers that be will not be giving him a loose leash when it comes to sorting it out.
Why on earth would any football club give Mark Ashton licence to sign the players that he, rather than the manager, thought would improve the side? I think your discontent should be directed towards the people who allowed this, rather than the man himself. |  | | |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 00:02 - Sep 3 with 4108 views | TRUE_BLUE123 |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 21:24 - Sep 2 by FevsBCFC |
Hi, tried to post last night, but unable to do so. Bristol City fan in peace. Quite like your club, always seemed to do things properly.
Firstly most Bristol City fans have no feeling of entitlement to the Premier League, far from it. Our history, bar two short spells in the top flight has yo-yo'd between the second and third tier.
Onto Mark Ashton. I'm one of the more vocal posters on our forum OTIB (one team in bristol) and Twitter (@fevsfootball), so thought I'd take up the offer for a "sensible" (you can decide after this post) City fan to give their reasons.
Firstly a bit of history.
2012 - Ashton first came to City in 2012/13 as a consultant for his company Tactical Change Ltd. He got rid of the Head of Recruitment (Russ Richardson) who was Derek McInnes's man and implemented a recruitment database. He will tell you he delivered Cat 2 Academy status but he didn't.
When McInnes was sacked for poor results and terrible recruitment of older players on big contracts who went through the motions (players sourced using Ashton's database), Sean O'Driscoll was appointed and re-laid the foundations. Bringing a Head of Recruitment back in (Keith Burt) from Forest, binning the database and went back to traditional scouting methods.
O'Driscoll / Burt brought in Fielding, Pack, Flint, Derek Williams, and gave Joe Brian, Bobby Reid and Wes Burns game time.
Results were crap, but most fans feel he helped build the foundations for Steve Cotterill (who along with Burt) signed Ayling, Little, Wilbraham, Korey Smith, Kodjia, Wilbraham, Luke Freeman, Ryan Fredericks etc as we romped to the Lg1 title and began life in the Champ.
We struggled in 15/16 and with our owner Lansdown wondering whether to sack Cotts, Ashton was brought back in (again as consultant) early December 2015 to sack Cotts. Cotts knew the writing was on the wall because Burt (with O'Driscoll) had thrown Ashton's crappy database in the bin. Cotts was sacked then Ashton officially announced as Chief Operating Officer (COO), but getting his feet under the table. Lee Johnson appointed.
He quickly removed Keith Burt, then the scouting network (people like Mervyn Day over time). By the following summer he self-promoted himself as CEO, yet was far too involved in Recruitment. Our latest accounts show he earned £540k p.a. salary....four times that of other directors and out of kilter for a club whose football side had revenues of £16m.
He made good money selling players inherited from the previous recruitment teams but of the 69 players signed during his time here, very few were true successes (Webster and Brownhill the two main ones), quite a lot of 'meh' signings and a series of players that never played, many leaving on free transfers because the re-contracting strategy was piss-poor. It suits Ashton to have high churn, so he can curry favour with fans with each new signing. I blame Johnson and Ashton for this - they were a dangerous combo that resolved probs and boosted each other's egos by signing players, not by coaching on the training ground. Johnson famous for always wanting another "club in the bag" (his Dad's saying), Ashton enjoying the thrill of a new signing. Quite a lot of Wasseman players....ring a bell?
Basically over his time our costs grew stupidly and performances on the pitch dropped until Johnson sacked, and Covid has brought forward our struggling finances. Ashton went very quiet in his final year here. The club's pre-season tour to Florida in 2019 was him first sounding out US Investors (NSL investors looking at UK)....eventually culminating in Gamechanger Ltd. He took his eyes off the ball at City as he and O'Leary started working on the Ipswich deal.
He is a footballer wannabe, not good enough to make it as a keeper at West From...worked in their Community Programme for years but his CV would lead you to believe he was a Director there. He wasn't...he might've given himself that title.
It was at West Brom he got to know Mike O'Leary (your Chairman) and links to Eales at Oxford, etc.
It is well worth chedcking Companies House for the various businesses that Mark Anthony Ashton is or has been linked to:
Tactical Change
Grove Life
Alicydon (O'Leary)
either himself or with his wife (ex-wife?).
then look at LinkedIn and see the links to Luke Werhun (can never remember whether he's his nephew or brother-in-law), who has only ever worked in football for Ashton. No idea what qualifications he has to be Head of Operations at City and Club Secretary.
Then of course you'll find Andy Rolls and Andy Costin too. Rolls oversaw our shambolic injury record last season. I can't comment any more than that, but the cynic might look at his time at Arsenal and West Ham too.
Ashton has built himself a protective bubble. I'm sure he's a decent enough Football Administrator, but he does not know the football-playing side, the bit he is desperate to be associated with, hence why you have no recruitment dept....because it gives him control to use his contacts not scout players based on their ability / fit to the managers system. I see you're not even using data. I appreciate you let a lot of players go, but players signed earlier in the window must be wondering why another player has been signed in their position. Fraser and Barry etc must be worrying what they signed up to. Cook, I'm disappointed in, but he's the fall-guy....don't forget he talked himself out of the City job when interviewed last summer. I think he saw through Ashton at the interview.
There is no jealousy, I am so glad he has gone. I am angry that he pulled the wool over the eyes of our owner, I'm very disappointed Lee Johnson didn't have the balls to call him out over transfer business.
Go and ask Watford fans their view!
No smoke without fire.
Go and look at Bristol City's accounts, the rising costs, wages, amortisation. I'd love got see the money trail to agents.
No sensible City fan builds their view of Ashton by the way he talks or dresses, they have formed their opinion on how badly he ran our football club. Without the players he sold that were there before he arrived, his ability to recruit players is pretty poor, usually with overpaid fees and wages - he benefitted from an inflationary market....thats no longer viable.
Sorry, bit of a rant, but don't think we are jealous he's left us for you. I hope you see through him...it might take a couple of windows for you to realise he's out of his depth, and will constrain your club going forward.
Feel free to respond with any questions (or abuse!!!) 😂😂😂 |
Thanks for the post, really interesting points.
I am concerned about Ashton because I trust that every fan at his previous club has said, they cannot all be making it up. Right now, Ashton has delivered on what we wanted, we have brought in real quality for this level, we cannot knock him for that.
I am concerned that its easy to be the main man and lap it up when you are signing really good players for league one, but if this does go t1ts up, are we going to hear from MA as much as we are now. Would Cooks replacement (if it happened) be a good one, we know Michael Appleton is the man he wanted.
I am not in the business of treating MA like he is the second coming, right now I am happy with his transfer business, but I trust other clubs fans, and I am keeping my eye on MA |  |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 00:27 - Sep 3 with 4038 views | FevsBCFC |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 23:26 - Sep 2 by King_ding_a_lin_g |
The potential ride over the next few years is more exciting than it has been for at least 15 years. 15 years! That is how stagnant we had become.. can you imagine how hopeless a fan base we are?
I'm not as easily won over as some seem to be with Ashton, with some giving him Messiah status already, despite the fact we haven't actually got a clue yet whether the players he (and apparently Cook) has brought in will deliver the all the promises. The squad looks good on paper, but how many times has football seen excellent paper squads turn to shreds and ashes?
Our first team squad, however, has seen fewer incomings than outgoings, despite the 19 signings. For my liking, not enough of the 19 were academy players with potential to hit the first team in, say, two or three years.
I get Brizzle's concerns but it appears that a lot of the alleged problems stem from an apparent lack of internal control. Why had Ashton been allowed to create so much havoc if it was so obviously detrimental? It doesn't really all stack up, although I am sure there are some half truths in there.
This database you are so critical of doesn't exist here. He hasn't had the time to install a recruitment system and it is currently therefore acceptable that he has recruited based on contacts... that being said, some of the higher profile recruits are quite clearly players who have played under Cook and therefore it stands to reason that they are his choices. We can only hope, based on your accusations, that the powers that be will not be giving him a loose leash when it comes to sorting it out.
Why on earth would any football club give Mark Ashton licence to sign the players that he, rather than the manager, thought would improve the side? I think your discontent should be directed towards the people who allowed this, rather than the man himself. |
Just for clarity, I don’t blame Ashton for everything. I blame the owner and manager too. They all showed incompetence in various aspects. They showed no critical analysis of any processes or outcomes, Ashton and Johnson in particular both more interested in blowing smoke up each other’s arses that trying to understand why the good things were good and the bad things were bad, and then repeat the good things.
I hope Ashton is reined in for your sakes, the early activities and interviews suggest not. What the hell is a CEO doing high-fiving the crowd?
But he’s now your problem / messiah.
I just came to post my view as someone asked. As I said, you are free to make your own views, I don’t have the in-depth knowledge of your club, and a lot of City fans were the same with Watford posters on our forum at first. Just be mindful of going “all-in” so soon.
Cheers for letting me post my thoughts.
See you back in the Champ at some point. | | | |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 05:39 - Sep 3 with 3909 views | powinswitch |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 00:27 - Sep 3 by FevsBCFC |
Just for clarity, I don’t blame Ashton for everything. I blame the owner and manager too. They all showed incompetence in various aspects. They showed no critical analysis of any processes or outcomes, Ashton and Johnson in particular both more interested in blowing smoke up each other’s arses that trying to understand why the good things were good and the bad things were bad, and then repeat the good things.
I hope Ashton is reined in for your sakes, the early activities and interviews suggest not. What the hell is a CEO doing high-fiving the crowd?
But he’s now your problem / messiah.
I just came to post my view as someone asked. As I said, you are free to make your own views, I don’t have the in-depth knowledge of your club, and a lot of City fans were the same with Watford posters on our forum at first. Just be mindful of going “all-in” so soon.
Cheers for letting me post my thoughts.
See you back in the Champ at some point. |
I feel FevsBCFC has made a series of very considered posts. They are not rants. Nor can we assume that the issues he raises will be repeated here. There is no doubt that we have had an exciting summer recruitment wise, and we are yet to see some of the newcomers play. But one oint that he made stands out for me. Wtf is a CEO doing high giving the crowd. Don’t recall that from any director in the Cobbolds days. MA appears to have made an excellent start, and I sincerely hope he continues in that way. But I also recognise that fans of previous clubs have serious concerns, which Fevs has articulated well. There is seldom smoke without fire | | | |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 07:03 - Sep 3 with 3841 views | shamboy |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 05:39 - Sep 3 by powinswitch |
I feel FevsBCFC has made a series of very considered posts. They are not rants. Nor can we assume that the issues he raises will be repeated here. There is no doubt that we have had an exciting summer recruitment wise, and we are yet to see some of the newcomers play. But one oint that he made stands out for me. Wtf is a CEO doing high giving the crowd. Don’t recall that from any director in the Cobbolds days. MA appears to have made an excellent start, and I sincerely hope he continues in that way. But I also recognise that fans of previous clubs have serious concerns, which Fevs has articulated well. There is seldom smoke without fire |
These are cogent and considered posts from Bristol City fans, with little hint of malice. Their experience has not been good. Individually, football fans can be idiotic, but when there is such a unanimous consensus, we would do well to listen.
But Ashton is with us now and we should judge him on how he conducts himself here. His initial PR was fine and only in recent days has he let it slip. The assertion that the club had no recruitment department was cheap. Everyone in the game knows that Lambert 'sub-contracted' recruitment, for better or worse. Equally, the claim that players are coming to the club on less money than they could get elsewhere is sheer braggadocio, which we could have done without.
He needs to rein himself in, not assume we are all gullible, and his PR will incrementally have substance to it.
If what we are being told is true, then we will soon find out. The relationship with Paul Cook will be the first test case, and the second will be MA's choice as a replacement. | | | |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 07:10 - Sep 3 with 3821 views | chrismakin |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 05:39 - Sep 3 by powinswitch |
I feel FevsBCFC has made a series of very considered posts. They are not rants. Nor can we assume that the issues he raises will be repeated here. There is no doubt that we have had an exciting summer recruitment wise, and we are yet to see some of the newcomers play. But one oint that he made stands out for me. Wtf is a CEO doing high giving the crowd. Don’t recall that from any director in the Cobbolds days. MA appears to have made an excellent start, and I sincerely hope he continues in that way. But I also recognise that fans of previous clubs have serious concerns, which Fevs has articulated well. There is seldom smoke without fire |
Point of order here
Is M/A being judged because he wanted to be part of the crowd.. like sheepshanks used to do every week?
I'm all for it. We are all in I together so it's good to see him in it with the fans. |  |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 07:22 - Sep 3 with 3795 views | Vic |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 07:03 - Sep 3 by shamboy |
These are cogent and considered posts from Bristol City fans, with little hint of malice. Their experience has not been good. Individually, football fans can be idiotic, but when there is such a unanimous consensus, we would do well to listen.
But Ashton is with us now and we should judge him on how he conducts himself here. His initial PR was fine and only in recent days has he let it slip. The assertion that the club had no recruitment department was cheap. Everyone in the game knows that Lambert 'sub-contracted' recruitment, for better or worse. Equally, the claim that players are coming to the club on less money than they could get elsewhere is sheer braggadocio, which we could have done without.
He needs to rein himself in, not assume we are all gullible, and his PR will incrementally have substance to it.
If what we are being told is true, then we will soon find out. The relationship with Paul Cook will be the first test case, and the second will be MA's choice as a replacement. |
“Equally, the claim that players are coming to the club on less money than they could get elsewhere is sheer braggadocio,“ so it might be, but if it’s true it’s true! Why not push back against accusations against us that are false? I’m not hailing MA as a Messiah; as other have said, there’s nomsmoke without fire. But currently he has delivered on what he and the owners said they would do. If anything he has over delivered and 19 new players seems a little excessive.
I wonder if the very public face and obvious attempts to reach out to the fan base by MA, MOL and the Owners is in part due to the total lack of connection we experienced in the past? Is it a kind of almost over reaction, over compensation? The yanks especially have felt just too friendly and almost smarmy at times. | |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 07:38 - Sep 3 with 3756 views | shamboy |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 07:22 - Sep 3 by Vic |
“Equally, the claim that players are coming to the club on less money than they could get elsewhere is sheer braggadocio,“ so it might be, but if it’s true it’s true! Why not push back against accusations against us that are false? I’m not hailing MA as a Messiah; as other have said, there’s nomsmoke without fire. But currently he has delivered on what he and the owners said they would do. If anything he has over delivered and 19 new players seems a little excessive.
I wonder if the very public face and obvious attempts to reach out to the fan base by MA, MOL and the Owners is in part due to the total lack of connection we experienced in the past? Is it a kind of almost over reaction, over compensation? The yanks especially have felt just too friendly and almost smarmy at times. |
The reason for not claiming that players could earn more elsewhere is because MA is saying 'Look what a clever boy I am. I have got you Championship players on League One salaries'. He is praising himself, plain and simple. Its not even subtle.
No one can prevent you from believing it, That is your prerogative. | | | |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 08:40 - Sep 3 with 3604 views | Churchman |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 07:38 - Sep 3 by shamboy |
The reason for not claiming that players could earn more elsewhere is because MA is saying 'Look what a clever boy I am. I have got you Championship players on League One salaries'. He is praising himself, plain and simple. Its not even subtle.
No one can prevent you from believing it, That is your prerogative. |
I don’t agree with that. Ashton is pushing back on what has been said by third parties in the game and I don’t have a problem with that. He is also saying we’ve managed to bring in decent players. Fine. In his interview he was at pains to thank the other people involved in this, if anyone cared to listen.
With regard to the clapping the fans thing I don’t have a problem with that as long as it’s not a weekly thing. There is nothing bad about it. No it’s not what the Cobbolds did, but it was a totally different world then.
Many years ago I worked for a bloke with the worst reputation possible. I didn’t want to work for him. He was known as an intolerant, nasty barsteward. Nobody had a good word to say about him. But if I wanted promotion I had to take that job. He was one of the two best people I ever worked for. I learned to never judge a book by its cover.
Now Ashton may well turn out to be Satan in disguise. If he does then my boot will go firmly in. Until then I go by what he does here. So far, he’s delivered what he’s said in terms of players. He’s increased engagement with the supporters and has said nothing I don’t understand.
He’s explained how recruitment was done and I have no reason to call him a liar. He has talked about the club infrastructure in terms of personnel and bricks and mortar. Does anyone think there wasn’t a problem here? According to him, even the Receptionist desk was empty for goodness sake.
I do not really hold with ‘no smoke without fire’. I do hold with it’s what people do, what people deliver. So far he’s done nothing wrong. He, O’Leary and the owners have been crystal clear on what they want for the club. I dearly hope the deliver and in the first few steps of what is a largely new club they’ve not disappointed. Anyone really want the dead hand of Evans back?
Cook on the other hand, who came here with a glowing reputation, hasn’t impressed me so far. His three promotions etc mean nothing if he can’t produce a winning team here. [Post edited 3 Sep 2021 8:49]
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 08:49 - Sep 3 with 3582 views | doodah |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 07:10 - Sep 3 by chrismakin |
Point of order here
Is M/A being judged because he wanted to be part of the crowd.. like sheepshanks used to do every week?
I'm all for it. We are all in I together so it's good to see him in it with the fans. |
The problem is such behaviour all looks a bit too false and forced. The time to high-five the fans is when promotion has been achieved. Given what Bristol and Watford fans have almost unanimously said about MA it leaves me concerned that he's a bit of a well-suited Del Boy. Given the Brizzle fan's comments I'm just a bit concerned that the 19 signings that have got us all very excited is MA's attempt to buy short-term popularity at the expense of long-term success.
Having said that, the squad assembled ought to be good enough to secure promotion once it begins to click. But then I fear it doesn't look like one that would make any real in-roads on the champs, and we will be stuck with this squad for a few years given they have only just arrived. Hopefully they will be able to consolidate in the champs for long enough to develop a more refined long-term policy of developing younger talent in a similar vein to the unmentionables up the road. We are the big spenders in league 1, but in the champs what we have spent on the whole squad won't buy us one decent top six team level player. We desperately need a strategy that shows how we might plausibly compete at that level because I don't see a pension fund coughing up for several £5m+ players to buy us that opportunity.
If MA is not to be considered a fly-by-night we need to see some real evidence soon that he has a genuine realistic long-term strategy for progression of the club to be competing for a place in the PL. His record to date is not encouraging, but we have little alternative other than to hope that he has changed his ways significantly from his previous clubs. | | | |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 09:05 - Sep 3 with 3512 views | ElephantintheRoom |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 19:05 - Sep 2 by From82Ashes |
As a Bristol City Fan of half a century + , and someone who grew up watching a fantastic footballing team(s) of Woods , Mariner , Mills , Muhren etc and like many at the time having Ipswich as an adopted second side , I thought I’d sign up , and sensibly explain exactly why , to a man , and woman , the Clubs fans dislike, and many totallydespise Ashton , and why we were delighted to see him dissapear and the work to repair the massivemess he left behind could begin
But then I read numerous posts on this thread calling us everything from delusional to the pitiful ‘window lickers’ comment above - embarrassing to be quite honest and if this thread is reflective of your fan base , Well......
For those posts , and there are numerous , I think instead of even starting to bother trying as a fellow football fan , to explain the reasons why to you , a whole number of your fan base need to start reading up on Mr Mark Ashton and the staff and relatives he brings with him , not just at our Club but other Clubs he and his entourage have landed on.
Instead of the pitiful insults from the naive and blind and insulting , I suggest a few start to research , read , and understand , why , Ashton leaves an angry legacy whereever he’s been ..... but somehow I don’t expect that to happen.
So instead I will safely predict that some of you are going to get , exactly what you deserve ,
for the decent Ipswich Fans who deserve far better, it might look and sound good right now , but I genuinely sympathise [Post edited 2 Sep 2021 19:09]
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Thank you for a balanced answer that shames the ridiculous and deluded response of what seems the majority of 'Ipswich supporters' - or at least the version that lurks here.
I'm on the opposite side of the fence - I adopted City (and Rovers) when I was a student in Bristol in the Geoff Merrick, Tom Ritchie.Keith Fear, Trevor Tainton era (and Smash & Grab) when a student for a five year stint in Bristol. I rather liked City from the way so many of the youth cup final team that lost to Town graduated to the first team - and grew with them up into the top division I've been following them from afar ever since. The amusing thing about Ashton is that gullible Town fans have actually seen his type before in David Sheepshanks. IF, having run the club to ruin, Sheepshanks had popped up at Bristol City, promising the earth and spouting garbage about 'his club' he would be ridiculed on these very same pages.
It is quite bizarre what is happening at Ipswich at the moment - pretend owners delegating to people who have achieved very little in a much more impressive environment than Ipswich. Strange that it hasn't gone very well so far. | |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 09:06 - Sep 3 with 3506 views | Metal_Hacker |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 08:49 - Sep 3 by doodah |
The problem is such behaviour all looks a bit too false and forced. The time to high-five the fans is when promotion has been achieved. Given what Bristol and Watford fans have almost unanimously said about MA it leaves me concerned that he's a bit of a well-suited Del Boy. Given the Brizzle fan's comments I'm just a bit concerned that the 19 signings that have got us all very excited is MA's attempt to buy short-term popularity at the expense of long-term success.
Having said that, the squad assembled ought to be good enough to secure promotion once it begins to click. But then I fear it doesn't look like one that would make any real in-roads on the champs, and we will be stuck with this squad for a few years given they have only just arrived. Hopefully they will be able to consolidate in the champs for long enough to develop a more refined long-term policy of developing younger talent in a similar vein to the unmentionables up the road. We are the big spenders in league 1, but in the champs what we have spent on the whole squad won't buy us one decent top six team level player. We desperately need a strategy that shows how we might plausibly compete at that level because I don't see a pension fund coughing up for several £5m+ players to buy us that opportunity.
If MA is not to be considered a fly-by-night we need to see some real evidence soon that he has a genuine realistic long-term strategy for progression of the club to be competing for a place in the PL. His record to date is not encouraging, but we have little alternative other than to hope that he has changed his ways significantly from his previous clubs. |
Maybe I'm missing something here as I've not taken the time to read the whole thread BUT are we looking for things that aren't there as yet ?
Are we judging MA on evidence that might be there at other clubs but not at ours ?
Are we looking for issues and problems that at present don't really exist ?
Are we still waiting for our first win ?
Worry about the here and now and not what MIGHT happen !!
Enjoy it for what it is now.... |  |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 10:12 - Sep 3 with 3358 views | itfcjoe |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 08:40 - Sep 3 by Churchman |
I don’t agree with that. Ashton is pushing back on what has been said by third parties in the game and I don’t have a problem with that. He is also saying we’ve managed to bring in decent players. Fine. In his interview he was at pains to thank the other people involved in this, if anyone cared to listen.
With regard to the clapping the fans thing I don’t have a problem with that as long as it’s not a weekly thing. There is nothing bad about it. No it’s not what the Cobbolds did, but it was a totally different world then.
Many years ago I worked for a bloke with the worst reputation possible. I didn’t want to work for him. He was known as an intolerant, nasty barsteward. Nobody had a good word to say about him. But if I wanted promotion I had to take that job. He was one of the two best people I ever worked for. I learned to never judge a book by its cover.
Now Ashton may well turn out to be Satan in disguise. If he does then my boot will go firmly in. Until then I go by what he does here. So far, he’s delivered what he’s said in terms of players. He’s increased engagement with the supporters and has said nothing I don’t understand.
He’s explained how recruitment was done and I have no reason to call him a liar. He has talked about the club infrastructure in terms of personnel and bricks and mortar. Does anyone think there wasn’t a problem here? According to him, even the Receptionist desk was empty for goodness sake.
I do not really hold with ‘no smoke without fire’. I do hold with it’s what people do, what people deliver. So far he’s done nothing wrong. He, O’Leary and the owners have been crystal clear on what they want for the club. I dearly hope the deliver and in the first few steps of what is a largely new club they’ve not disappointed. Anyone really want the dead hand of Evans back?
Cook on the other hand, who came here with a glowing reputation, hasn’t impressed me so far. His three promotions etc mean nothing if he can’t produce a winning team here. [Post edited 3 Sep 2021 8:49]
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Good post - and it's where I am on it.
There was a large void at the top echelons of this club, and Ashton is filling it whilst bringing in help, and showing humility with it.
He's done some things I don't agree with, but the majority of what he has done and said so far has been exactly what I've wanted to see and hear. If that ratio of 90% good, 10% bad carries on then as a club we'll be in a fantastic position going forward.
Overhauling the playing staff was the easy thing though, rebuilding the club from the bottom up whilst hoping the team on the pitch gets results is the hard part - I'm sure he's relishing that challenge and will have learned from any mistakes previously. He will make mistakes here, it's only human - but as long as he reacts to them well and makes more good decisions than bad we'll be fine |  |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 10:19 - Sep 3 with 3339 views | hype313 |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 08:40 - Sep 3 by Churchman |
I don’t agree with that. Ashton is pushing back on what has been said by third parties in the game and I don’t have a problem with that. He is also saying we’ve managed to bring in decent players. Fine. In his interview he was at pains to thank the other people involved in this, if anyone cared to listen.
With regard to the clapping the fans thing I don’t have a problem with that as long as it’s not a weekly thing. There is nothing bad about it. No it’s not what the Cobbolds did, but it was a totally different world then.
Many years ago I worked for a bloke with the worst reputation possible. I didn’t want to work for him. He was known as an intolerant, nasty barsteward. Nobody had a good word to say about him. But if I wanted promotion I had to take that job. He was one of the two best people I ever worked for. I learned to never judge a book by its cover.
Now Ashton may well turn out to be Satan in disguise. If he does then my boot will go firmly in. Until then I go by what he does here. So far, he’s delivered what he’s said in terms of players. He’s increased engagement with the supporters and has said nothing I don’t understand.
He’s explained how recruitment was done and I have no reason to call him a liar. He has talked about the club infrastructure in terms of personnel and bricks and mortar. Does anyone think there wasn’t a problem here? According to him, even the Receptionist desk was empty for goodness sake.
I do not really hold with ‘no smoke without fire’. I do hold with it’s what people do, what people deliver. So far he’s done nothing wrong. He, O’Leary and the owners have been crystal clear on what they want for the club. I dearly hope the deliver and in the first few steps of what is a largely new club they’ve not disappointed. Anyone really want the dead hand of Evans back?
Cook on the other hand, who came here with a glowing reputation, hasn’t impressed me so far. His three promotions etc mean nothing if he can’t produce a winning team here. [Post edited 3 Sep 2021 8:49]
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Excellent post, wholeheartedly agree.
The other thing to take into consideration is the fact that his remit here might be slightly different to Bristol City and Watford, whilst bringing in youngsters to then sell on was part of their DNA, I do wonder if going forward we might not be under so much pressure to do so given the Investors (I know Steve Landsown isn't short of a few quid)
So far, Ashton has been very good, and in comparison to the previous regime has been a breath of fresh air, think we just need to keep an open mind going forward. |  |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 10:24 - Sep 3 with 3326 views | MaySixth |
Dean Holden |  |
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| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 10:26 - Sep 3 with 3320 views | tractorboy1978 |
| Brizzle City Fans, what exactly is their beef with Ashton? (n/t) on 08:40 - Sep 3 by Churchman |
I don’t agree with that. Ashton is pushing back on what has been said by third parties in the game and I don’t have a problem with that. He is also saying we’ve managed to bring in decent players. Fine. In his interview he was at pains to thank the other people involved in this, if anyone cared to listen.
With regard to the clapping the fans thing I don’t have a problem with that as long as it’s not a weekly thing. There is nothing bad about it. No it’s not what the Cobbolds did, but it was a totally different world then.
Many years ago I worked for a bloke with the worst reputation possible. I didn’t want to work for him. He was known as an intolerant, nasty barsteward. Nobody had a good word to say about him. But if I wanted promotion I had to take that job. He was one of the two best people I ever worked for. I learned to never judge a book by its cover.
Now Ashton may well turn out to be Satan in disguise. If he does then my boot will go firmly in. Until then I go by what he does here. So far, he’s delivered what he’s said in terms of players. He’s increased engagement with the supporters and has said nothing I don’t understand.
He’s explained how recruitment was done and I have no reason to call him a liar. He has talked about the club infrastructure in terms of personnel and bricks and mortar. Does anyone think there wasn’t a problem here? According to him, even the Receptionist desk was empty for goodness sake.
I do not really hold with ‘no smoke without fire’. I do hold with it’s what people do, what people deliver. So far he’s done nothing wrong. He, O’Leary and the owners have been crystal clear on what they want for the club. I dearly hope the deliver and in the first few steps of what is a largely new club they’ve not disappointed. Anyone really want the dead hand of Evans back?
Cook on the other hand, who came here with a glowing reputation, hasn’t impressed me so far. His three promotions etc mean nothing if he can’t produce a winning team here. [Post edited 3 Sep 2021 8:49]
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Also, any idea that Ashton has complete control here is nonsense. That very likely was the case at Bristol City where Lansdown was even more absent than Evans and by all accounts more interested in the rugby team. Here, he has O'Leary in the building as a steadying hand and it's clear that the American owners/investors, whilst not physically here are very, very involved and monitoring everything closely.
He may well have made mistakes at Bristol City but we can only judge on what he does here and so far it's been overwhelmingly positive. | | | |
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