| McKenna and the club 10:37 - Feb 22 with 6474 views | Nutkins_Return |
I can be guilty of letting a bad result ruin a weekend etc but I try to keep some balance and as someone else said in the champ the next game to put it right comes fast.
What I hated yesterday and recently is the reactionary anti McKenna stuff that has crept in as well as some of the normal nonsense player scapegoats etc. I'm not talking about when people can have a balanced criticism of the manager or the team. It's the "he's got to go", "two years of failure", "mcKenna out - he lucked out and it was all Cook's work that got the promotions" - a favourite
I don't want us just to be another club jumping from Manager to Manager. McKenna is a class manager and also a class human being who has helped transform this club. He has invested himself into the club completely, he's brought a fantastic culture and mentality to the football club. As a football club I honestly think we have moved forward every season (infrastructure, youths, squad etc) albeit being in a different league brings a massive challenge for him to keep things cohesive.
This guy has done so much for us and brought so much happiness to the club (my kids couldn't have enjoyed those promotions more! And they got to see us have fantastic memories after years of bland nothing really). He works harder then anyone and that is hard work he's doing for us. The table adjusted for games we are realistically 3rd. With almost a new team. It's hardly outright disaster. We can still make autos. If not playoffs and if ultimately we don't go up whilst disappointing we have a first opportunity to build on a more settled team (Like Cov, Like Boro and like Sunderland did). We have a team to enjoy going into games as favourites regularly. Whilst not always clicking it's a team that play football the right way.
Let's try and manage our frustrations a bit better. Let's find a bit more respect in our club and it's people and each other. Let's get behind this team again and let's pick them up and then let them pick us up. It's a fantastic football club. Our fans did help pick it up and let's do it again FFS! |  |
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| McKenna and the club on 13:48 - Feb 22 with 943 views | RetroBlue |
| McKenna and the club on 13:11 - Feb 22 by nrb1985 |
I must have missed Bristol’s back to back promotions then.
Also, when you say spending other people’s money, do you think the chief exec should spend his own money on signings? |
You're missing the point entirely arent you. I think the term used on here is
" Whoosh"! |  |
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| McKenna and the club on 13:51 - Feb 22 with 932 views | grow_our_own |
| McKenna and the club on 12:43 - Feb 22 by nrb1985 |
Why would you expect that?
Have a look at some of the sh1t that’s been signed by Chelsea and United for billions in the last few years for example.
I was at the Chelsea game yday and the people I was sat with counted 6 successful signings in since Abramovich left - and they’ve spent 1.5bn…
Not as easy as it looks which is why I took offense to dear old Frimley blue, a man not known for his prowess or competence to put it mildly, calling Ashton his bunch of “merry men”.
I also think looking at our transfer record in the last year only is a stupid exercise. If you want a proper discussion then you should look at the entire sample size. Which still stacks up ok, despite some high profile misses of late. |
"Why would you expect that?" - because they were expensive. I forgot to include Nunez in the hit list above, so you're right it's 50%. But let's look at the hit rate of cheaper signings:
Hits:
Townsend
Furlong
Kipre
Palmer (did a good job for a long time following Muric)
Misses:
Ben Johnson
Ashley Young
Akpom
I'm excluding Dan Neil & Mehmeti as too early to tell (although looking good so far), and Cajuste & Azon are borderline (your mileage may vary). But at best there's no significant difference. At worst, the more we've spent, the higher the likelihood the player will be farmed out on loan or languishing on bench or U21s. | | | |
| McKenna and the club on 14:02 - Feb 22 with 900 views | nrb1985 |
| McKenna and the club on 12:55 - Feb 22 by FrimleyBlue |
Lol sure I have zero knowledge of chairmanship. Lol |
I, and I’m sure a fair number of people on this board too, think you have troubles tying your shoe laces mate let alone know much about how to run a football club. [Post edited 22 Feb 14:07]
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| McKenna and the club on 14:05 - Feb 22 with 888 views | nrb1985 |
| McKenna and the club on 13:48 - Feb 22 by RetroBlue |
You're missing the point entirely arent you. I think the term used on here is
" Whoosh"! |
Which is what sorry?
You said Ashton was doing what he did at Bristol.
I pointed out gently that Bristol didn’t ever get back to back promotions and haven’t been in the PL for a long time either.
Enlighten me on what I’m missing?
Also - if you KM did just “OK” in his first two seasons with us. Point me in the direction of the scores of other managers that in their first three seasons in professional management do considerably better than him, for you to rank his performance as “ok” | | | |
| McKenna and the club on 14:08 - Feb 22 with 874 views | nrb1985 |
| McKenna and the club on 13:51 - Feb 22 by grow_our_own |
"Why would you expect that?" - because they were expensive. I forgot to include Nunez in the hit list above, so you're right it's 50%. But let's look at the hit rate of cheaper signings:
Hits:
Townsend
Furlong
Kipre
Palmer (did a good job for a long time following Muric)
Misses:
Ben Johnson
Ashley Young
Akpom
I'm excluding Dan Neil & Mehmeti as too early to tell (although looking good so far), and Cajuste & Azon are borderline (your mileage may vary). But at best there's no significant difference. At worst, the more we've spent, the higher the likelihood the player will be farmed out on loan or languishing on bench or U21s. |
And as I’ve pointed out to you, there are plenty of clubs have spent many multiples of what we have and have a far smaller hit rate.
I’m sure though, like the many others in this thread criticising the current administration, you could do far better…
And if you think every “expensive” signing should work out I’d suggest you haven’t been watching football for very long. [Post edited 22 Feb 14:10]
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| McKenna and the club on 14:14 - Feb 22 with 854 views | FrimleyBlue |
| McKenna and the club on 12:45 - Feb 22 by Nutkins_Return |
I honestly think you must project and confuse 'what Frimmers wants' with what is fair.
What is actually happening is McKenna and Ashton are being shit at because of the unrealistic expectations they have raised through success. To a degree that's inevitable when you get some success. And we all want us to kick on and we are. But it doesn't mean it will happen and go exactly to plan every season. Football isn't like that. The best funded and best squad does not always go up. There are so many elements - quality, coaching, recruitment, cohesion, settled team, competition for places, positive support and momentum, a bit of luck and so on and so forth. |
I wasnt discussing the season. Or anything to do witb promotion. Non promotion.
Or anything to do with the club being well funded and what that should mean.
My gripe was with how I personally feel ashton was and is a loose cannon when hes in charge of spreading the money around.
All these pot shots back at me from the other poster about the processes involved at the club and churchman again believing that anything bc fans said Must be wrong and cant be used in any ashton discussion point. Despite the clear coincidences of him repeating the same transfer mistakes.
Many of us on here said that time the chairman left and ashton made himself chair/ceo that it wasnt a good thing.
Begin a town supporter doesnt mean you have to like what everyone does within it. Is it based on what frimmers wants. Sure let's call it that. You and others dont want anyone being critical about any town aspects because thats what you want. [Post edited 22 Feb 14:22]
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| McKenna and the club on 14:17 - Feb 22 with 848 views | FrimleyBlue |
| McKenna and the club on 14:02 - Feb 22 by nrb1985 |
I, and I’m sure a fair number of people on this board too, think you have troubles tying your shoe laces mate let alone know much about how to run a football club. [Post edited 22 Feb 14:07]
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Believe what you want to. Its funny how precious you are because someone doesnt rate a clubs ceo. | |
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| McKenna and the club on 14:24 - Feb 22 with 829 views | pointofblue |
| McKenna and the club on 14:17 - Feb 22 by FrimleyBlue |
Believe what you want to. Its funny how precious you are because someone doesnt rate a clubs ceo. |
It's very similar to the Evans era to a degree. We don't appear to be taking advantage of the financial benefit we have over most of the division. Maybe we will by the end of the season but it could be some are concerned of history repeating itself. We don't go up, the financial advantage dwindles and our position of strength will weaken.
A long way ahead for now., though. | |
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| McKenna and the club on 14:25 - Feb 22 with 827 views | nrb1985 |
| McKenna and the club on 14:17 - Feb 22 by FrimleyBlue |
Believe what you want to. Its funny how precious you are because someone doesnt rate a clubs ceo. |
I wouldn't say it's precious, I just take a bit of mild offence to somebody with your track record referring to Ashton as his "merry men" - when he's demonstrated himself over 4.5 years to be an extremely capable and effective operator at this level.
You on the other hand are a grown man whose had to be banned from a football message board - twice - for failing to control his verbal diarrhoea.
So I will side with our friend Mark on this occasion, yes. | | | |
| McKenna and the club on 14:27 - Feb 22 with 819 views | nrb1985 |
| McKenna and the club on 14:24 - Feb 22 by pointofblue |
It's very similar to the Evans era to a degree. We don't appear to be taking advantage of the financial benefit we have over most of the division. Maybe we will by the end of the season but it could be some are concerned of history repeating itself. We don't go up, the financial advantage dwindles and our position of strength will weaken.
A long way ahead for now., though. |
I think that's a fair take.
I don't think though people can smash the current administration over the head too hard for that though given the exceptional job they've done up to this point.
Keeping in mind of course that the only reason we have a financial advantage was because of the success they've delivered on the pitch. Which I'm sure you'll agree, is very different to the financial advantage we had when Evans came in. | | | |
| McKenna and the club on 14:27 - Feb 22 with 817 views | FrimleyBlue |
| McKenna and the club on 14:05 - Feb 22 by nrb1985 |
Which is what sorry?
You said Ashton was doing what he did at Bristol.
I pointed out gently that Bristol didn’t ever get back to back promotions and haven’t been in the PL for a long time either.
Enlighten me on what I’m missing?
Also - if you KM did just “OK” in his first two seasons with us. Point me in the direction of the scores of other managers that in their first three seasons in professional management do considerably better than him, for you to rank his performance as “ok” |
Km did wonders with the champ promotion side.
League 1 was bare minimum considering we were offering 4x salaries to the likes of Joe piggott.
And regarding BC
No they didnt get promoted. They also didnt hire mckenna either.
We will see who we next get when the time comes.
What is similar however is the scattergun approach to recruitment. Thats not a discussion about hits. Misses etc. Thats for another time especially once players move on as thats when you know. But when youre loaning out wingers to then bring another one in and then spend 20 mill on another and then trying to spend another 12 plus mill on another. Whilst also having at one point 4 right backs. But 1 fit left back and consistently missing out on a true no.9 target... its ok to feel our recruitment under ashton is really poor as a general subject. | |
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| McKenna and the club on 14:33 - Feb 22 with 792 views | FrimleyBlue |
| McKenna and the club on 14:25 - Feb 22 by nrb1985 |
I wouldn't say it's precious, I just take a bit of mild offence to somebody with your track record referring to Ashton as his "merry men" - when he's demonstrated himself over 4.5 years to be an extremely capable and effective operator at this level.
You on the other hand are a grown man whose had to be banned from a football message board - twice - for failing to control his verbal diarrhoea.
So I will side with our friend Mark on this occasion, yes. |
Your counter to that is to be personal yourself so not sure why its ok for you to do that yet I cant when we are talking about ashton. What's so offensive exactly about my description of the situation. I haven't been personal towards him as an individual and his merry men is a common phrase especially when he has the likes of werhun with him who followed him from bc.
So yeah I do feel youre being incredibly precious about it. In my original reply I said what I was thankful for and that Includes most of what youve said. Is it wrong to be thankful but also question other aspects? | |
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| McKenna and the club on 14:49 - Feb 22 with 777 views | ottovonbismark |
i respect your thoughts but we can't live in the past forever either, the club has to move forward, make progress on and off the field. For many, myself included, we are under performing and especially so away from home. Confidence in the group of player seems to brittle, and this has been a hallmark all season long. | | | |
| McKenna and the club on 15:36 - Feb 22 with 729 views | farkenhell |
| McKenna and the club on 12:56 - Feb 22 by Churchman |
Is Nunez on loan? I thought he was contracted - my mistake. Good use of the £5m line because that knocks out Mehmeti and Furlong. Excluding Hutchinson was good too because it helps with your percentage hit rate of 45%.
Good use of the words waste and treasure too. Makes it sound all the more dramatic. Sort of up there with the post that said we’d wasted £200m which happily ignored money received from sales and valued the whole squad at zero.
Personally, I don’t like branding players as a failure or a success until they move on. If I think of say Jackson and Donacien they were failures. They were even bomb squaded by, to some the new messiah responsible for two promotions, Cook yet they both finished serving this club well.
As for Frimley’s take on Ashton it’s very much the Bristol City knuckle dragger line from 4 years ago. They’ll be happy to read it. Personally, I don’t know how the club is structured to any degree, unlike many on here. However, I doubt Ashton is on anything other than a very short lead. He’s hinted at that in the past. O’Leary spent less than a couple of days a week at the club. His input fell away after his main task of negotiating for the purchase of the club.
However, like recruitment, there is no point in Ashton, McKenna or the tea lady explaining how anything works because the dismals have made their mind up.
In conclusion, has our recruitment been a universal success? No. Of course not. Has it been a total failure? No. As always, some good some puzzling. In other words, same as at most clubs.
It might help if people realised the club is trying to operate at a different level to previously. It was wrecked by Evans and bought for £40m. It’s worth a little more than that now and the income and expenditure on everything is at a completely different level. Add to that general player transfer fee inflation and the upper end of the game is a totally different place now to five years ago. And so are we. |
Some good points. I skimmed his post, noted the artificial threshold of £5m and laughed where he said he was discounting Hutchinson.
Was this really the same poster who said that we had wasted £200m? I saw that yesterday. Deary me. | | | |
| McKenna and the club on 15:43 - Feb 22 with 712 views | J2BLUE |
| McKenna and the club on 12:55 - Feb 22 by FrimleyBlue |
Lol sure I have zero knowledge of chairmanship. Lol |
You don't. This is a Championship club not a Sunday league team. |  | | |
| McKenna and the club on 15:46 - Feb 22 with 705 views | FrimleyBlue |
| McKenna and the club on 15:43 - Feb 22 by J2BLUE |
You don't. This is a Championship club not a Sunday league team. |
Wasnt what they said j2. It was about dynamics.
Also not talking about sunday league football either. Some of my closest friends are league level chairman thank you. | |
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| McKenna and the club on 15:48 - Feb 22 with 702 views | lazyblue |
| McKenna and the club on 10:57 - Feb 22 by boysof1981 |
Ashton is so far up his own backside he can’t the issues the club has. He has too much power and needs reigning in by the owners or at least someone above him to oversee matters. Personally like to see him gone, the crap when we were getting back to back promotions, the fist pumping the crowd, the Brent-esque interviews were cringy.
Think he and McKenna will be relieved of their duties after this season, hopefully. |
Sorry but that’s the most rubbish I have heard in this board , Ashton has grown this club. | | | |
| McKenna and the club on 15:54 - Feb 22 with 690 views | nrb1985 |
| McKenna and the club on 15:46 - Feb 22 by FrimleyBlue |
Wasnt what they said j2. It was about dynamics.
Also not talking about sunday league football either. Some of my closest friends are league level chairman thank you. |
Of course they are!
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go wash and brush up, got a date with Margot Robbie this evening. | | | |
| McKenna and the club on 15:55 - Feb 22 with 690 views | ITFCSG |
| McKenna and the club on 15:48 - Feb 22 by lazyblue |
Sorry but that’s the most rubbish I have heard in this board , Ashton has grown this club. |
Grown the club in what way, as an event mega venue?
If Ashton wants to run one he should go apply for the job at the O2 Arena, not ITFC.
There's no point bringing in concerts and boxing matches when you can't even improve on recruitment and scouting i.e. the bread and butter of a football club [Post edited 22 Feb 15:55]
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| McKenna and the club on 15:59 - Feb 22 with 670 views | FrimleyBlue |
| McKenna and the club on 15:54 - Feb 22 by nrb1985 |
Of course they are!
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go wash and brush up, got a date with Margot Robbie this evening. |
Go for it. Enjoy it | |
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| McKenna and the club on 16:01 - Feb 22 with 670 views | nrb1985 |
| McKenna and the club on 15:55 - Feb 22 by ITFCSG |
Grown the club in what way, as an event mega venue?
If Ashton wants to run one he should go apply for the job at the O2 Arena, not ITFC.
There's no point bringing in concerts and boxing matches when you can't even improve on recruitment and scouting i.e. the bread and butter of a football club [Post edited 22 Feb 15:55]
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Well done Sir, in a very competitive field you have won the stupidest post of the day...
If you're looking for ways in which we've grown, you may have noted the following:
They paid 40m for a club which is now worth 250-350m - this due to the on field success we've enjoyed.
We are 3rd in the Championship via a season in the PL vs. mid table in league one.
And as you may have noticed, the ground looks a bit different now too. | | | |
| McKenna and the club on 16:09 - Feb 22 with 646 views | grow_our_own |
I'm the hit/miss guy. I'm not an Ashton outer, I continue to think he's been a success for the club. I also think our big-money recruitment has, on balance, been poor since summer 2024. But he brought in KM, won us double promotions, rebuilt the training ground, and elevated academy to cat 1. All of these things can be true. My criticism is targeted.
(no I don't think we've wasted 200m, and I excluded Hutch from our big money signings bc when initially recruited he was a fee-free loanee). [Post edited 22 Feb 16:23]
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| McKenna and the club on 16:17 - Feb 22 with 631 views | farkenhell |
| McKenna and the club on 15:55 - Feb 22 by ITFCSG |
Grown the club in what way, as an event mega venue?
If Ashton wants to run one he should go apply for the job at the O2 Arena, not ITFC.
There's no point bringing in concerts and boxing matches when you can't even improve on recruitment and scouting i.e. the bread and butter of a football club [Post edited 22 Feb 15:55]
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The measure by which MA has grown the club is to compare where we were when he joined (mid-table in League 1 going nowhere) to where we are now (4th in the Championship with automatic promotion in our own hands). We are light years away from where we were then. | | | |
| McKenna and the club on 17:19 - Feb 22 with 591 views | Nutkins_Return |
| McKenna and the club on 14:49 - Feb 22 by ottovonbismark |
i respect your thoughts but we can't live in the past forever either, the club has to move forward, make progress on and off the field. For many, myself included, we are under performing and especially so away from home. Confidence in the group of player seems to brittle, and this has been a hallmark all season long. |
"We can't live in the past forever"!? I'm not living in the past at any point. As I say I'm looking at the bigger picture and the club is moving forward and pretty much every level. Mckenna hasn't had a chance to have a stable squad sing the L1 promotion really. I believe he's doing a good job and will continue to help the club move forward in the now and the future.
Losing games this season and reacting to that immediately doesnt change that. He's class and he'll get it right again. That's my opinion. [Post edited 22 Feb 18:20]
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| McKenna and the club on 18:01 - Feb 22 with 558 views | mrshallisfit |
Are you really enjoying this current team though. There are a few players that can produce moments individual brilliance but I dont really see a team. Thats after 5 months and alot of money spent. | | | |
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