If Only Dick Knight Had Tony Bloom's Money

[big nuts]

There is no way the club would be run as it is now, by and large during Knight's tenure the club was harmonious (Wilkins excepted) and the club retained a soul and identity. The club had a certain feel good vibe and supporters and the board worked together to achieve Falmer.

There is no way Knight would have created a hierarchy like we have now, and Barber wouldn't have been let within 100 feet of the club.

There is no doubt about it Knight was a far better chairman and figure head of Brighton & Hove Albion, just a shame he didn't have the finances to shape the club his way.

 

[BensGrandad]

That is one reason why he didnt have the money and had to continually go cap in hand to wealthy fans becuase he didnt have the business accumen of TB.

As TB says look at the situation after the window closes we will be ok.

 

[big nuts]

That is one reason why he didnt have the money and had to continually go cap in hand to wealthy fans becuase he didnt have the business accumen of TB.

As TB says look at the situation after the window closes we will be ok.

Business acumen is one thing but running a football club is another and right now Knight made a much better fist of things despite modest resources.

It's nothing short of a disgrace how the club have frittered away all the good feeling and feel good vibe of the new stadium. We may never have that buzz again and it will take a big turnaround for season ticket sales not to drop under 15k.

Knight made fantastic decisions for the club e.g. Martin Perry Vs Paul Barber. If things were going wrong he would come out and talk to fans, he certainly wouldn't have made **** up's like releasing the press release to sack Poyet the same time as he was live on BBC during the Copa America.

The appointment of Barber on a vast salary not forget has robbed the club of it's spirit, hence Knight's comments about Albion in the Community. The club has been heading for a car crash ever since Barber was appointed.

 

[el punal]

Is there anyone left at the club who we can blame for anything that goes wrong? Maybe the ball boys or the mascots, oh, no one's had a go at the tea lady yet.

 

[BensGrandad]

Sorry got to disagree DK made many bad decisions but sucked up to fans groups for support and wealthy fans to bail him out.

 

[aolstudios]

That is one reason why he didnt have the money and had to continually go cap in hand to wealthy fans becuase he didnt have the business accumen of TB.

As TB says look at the situation after the window closes we will be ok.

Just as an aside. You are aware he said that about the September window, aren't you?

 

[wilko1]

If he had the money we would be well and truly F****d

 

[warmleyseagull]

Is there anyone left at the club who we can blame for anything that goes wrong? Maybe the ball boys or the mascots, oh, no one's had a go at the tea lady yet.

This. The whole blame game is starting to get silly. Personally I think Archie Macaulay has a lot to answer for - fancy leaving us to become a traffic warden.

The truth is that a whole lot of things conspire to make or break. OG's leaving left us unprepared (perhaps TB should not have been but he was); there was a lot of faffing about with 'will he won't hes' like Clayton then a sudden rush of signings, which most of us felt were are least competitive but now look to be an unmitigated disaster, due to or at least compounded by a manager who has no right to call himself one.

TBH, 3 wins on the spin and things would suddenly look a lot better. No, I can't see it either but sometimes these things happen. Ricky Lambert got sent off and suddenly we beat Saints 3-0 and went 12 games (stattos correct me if wrong) unbeaten.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

You don't need business acumen to run a football club that wins things you just need a lot of money. Think Man City, extremely rich, think liverpool everton, quite rich, think birmingham very rich.

If you are quite rich you will soon lose all your money, if you are very rich you will lose all your menu eventually, if you are extremely rich you can keep messing up and but eventually the money will win you things.

I think TB isn't as rich as people think he is and the strain is beginning to tell, The Amex is costly to run due to location, transport costs, security, design, set up and running costs.
When Ken Brown ran it money was flooding out which is why P Barber was brought in to get more business and to cut costs.

 

[BensGrandad]

You don't need business acumen to run a football club that wins things you just need a lot of money. Think Man City, extremely rich, think liverpool everton, quite rich, think birmingham very rich.

.

I think TB isn't as rich as people think he is and the strain is beginning to tell,.

None of us can be certain but I wonder if his financial advisors have said stop spending you cant afford to keep doing it.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Business acumen is one thing but running a football club is another and right now Knight made a much better fist of things despite modest resources.

It's nothing short of a disgrace how the club have frittered away all the good feeling and feel good vibe of the new stadium. We may never have that buzz again and it will take a big turnaround for season ticket sales not to drop under 15k.

Knight made fantastic decisions for the club e.g. Martin Perry Vs Paul Barber. If things were going wrong he would come out and talk to fans, he certainly wouldn't have made **** up's like releasing the press release to sack Poyet the same time as he was live on BBC during the Copa America.

The appointment of Barber on a vast salary not forget has robbed the club of it's spirit, hence Knight's comments about Albion in the Community. The club has been heading for a car crash ever since Barber was appointed.

Dick Knight was not perfect and made mistakes. They were less noticeable as we were very small and very tinpot. Happenings such as Zamora rescued the club. I don't know who made that possible, but that contributed a huge amount to the club.

I personally felt more affinity to the club then as it was very much us against the world. "Cupsets down at a little athletics stadium..." and stamping feet at the risk of structural failure were more exciting.

But that's the same with everything. I'd much rather buy a steak from a friendly butcher than a Waitrose employee trained to say nice things.

"I was there when we played Luton and Carpenter made a 30m tackle by gliding across the soaking turf". Those little things that kept us interested.

What do I want to see? A bit of passion and excitement on the pitch. I'm not overly interested on getting to the top flight and reaching our PLR status. I'm not that fussed about winning.

This is the first season whereby we have seen a downward spiral on the pitch for many moons. All clubs go through that at some point.

I think this season was always going to be about finding our footing when it came to adjusting finances to adhere to the dreaded FFP. Probably not a good time to employ a veritable rookie, but i have no idea who applied for the job.

Sorry for rambling.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

None of us can be certain but I wonder if his financial advisors have said stop spending you cant afford to keep doing it.

I think TB will know his own position and had worked out how much he was going to gamble getting the albion to the Prem. Around the playoffs with Gus that position was reached and hence the ceiling comments.

People here want TB to keep spending and signing as if money is no object, truth is there are very few Britons with enough money to do that in modern football - Ashly at Newcastle is extremely rich but even he does' blow his money because I bet even he can't afford to spend like Citeh or Chelsea can.

 

[beorhthelm]

some people need a wake up: Falmer under Knight would have been the same, FFP would have been the same, corporate sponsorship and quieter stands would ahve been the same. he probably wouldnt have taken a risk like Poyet and we might well have stayed in L1 with our new stadium, or else facing massive loses and selling up to the next oil sheik/russian oligarch/dodgy italian businessman that was passing.

 

[big nuts]

I think TB will know his own position and had worked out how much he was going to gamble getting the albion to the Prem. Around the playoffs with Gus that position was reached and hence the ceiling comments.

People here want TB to keep spending and signing as if money is no object, truth is there are very few Britons with enough money to do that in modern football - Ashly at Newcastle is extremely rich but even he does' blow his money because I bet even he can't afford to spend like Citeh or Chelsea can.

If Bloom decided to gamble and then pull back from investing then that is one of the biggest problems for me. We were spoilt and dined out on Champagne, Caviar & Oysters (Vicente, Ulloa & Bridge) we now have to feed of scraps from the reduced section at Lidl's (O'Grady & Halford).

Mine and most supporters expectations were risen and now we are coming down with a bang it's very hard to stomach. If we had of made steady progress at the Amex e.g. 18th 15th then 13th this season wouldn't feel so bad but at the moment it feels utterly depressing and changes need to be made starting with Hypia and hopefully Barber, although I cannot see the former being dismissed.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Sorry got to disagree DK made many bad decisions but sucked up to fans groups for support and wealthy fans to bail him out.

I take it that the reference to "sucking up to fans' groups" is intended to suggest that Dick Knight involved fans in the work that the Club did to achieve a return to a stadium in Brighton and getting permission, in the face of massive opposition, to getting a new stadium located at Falmer.

Are you seriously suggesting that a football club is better run if the Chairman has nothing to do with fans?

 

[Chicken Runner61]

some people need a wake up: Falmer under Knight would have been the same, FFP would have been the same, corporate sponsorship and quieter stands would ahve been the same. he probably wouldnt have taken a risk like Poyet and we might well have stayed in L1 with our new stadium, or else facing massive loses and selling up to the next oil sheik/russian oligarch/dodgy italian businessman that was passing.

If it wasn't for TB Falmer would not have happened, he was the man for that moment and probably the only person that was willing to put so much personal money in to the building for what was at the time a shoestring budget club.
Remember at that time banks were in really dire straights and it would have needed another Albion fan with a lot of money and willing to gamble a lot of it and possibly lose it .

We are more likely to end up with an oil sheik now than we were in 2009 I don't think someone like DK could afford to run the Amex now.

 

[Geriatric Seagull]

As TB says look at the situation after the window closes we will be ok.[/QUOTE]

Didn't he say something like that after the last one-and look where that's got us!

 

[BensGrandad]

I think DK involved fans too much because it suited his purpose. As for getting back to Brighton he didnt have a choice we had no ground to go to. We couldnt afford to stay at Gillingham and nobody else offered us a ground so that turned out to be fortunate for him.

When we got The Amex it was obvious that we were going to have to suddenly become more proffesional irrespective of who was chairman TB or DK.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I take it that the reference to "sucking up to fans' groups" is intended to suggest that Dick Knight involved fans in the work that the Club did to achieve a return to a stadium in Brighton and getting permission, in the face of massive opposition, to getting a new stadium located at Falmer.

Are you seriously suggesting that a football club is better run if the Chairman has nothing to do with fans?

I took it to mean (much less confrontationally) that the excellent fan relationships Dick Knight worked so hard on, meant he was looked kindly on, even when he did make inevitable mistakes. People forgave any mistakes, because they knew he ultimately just wanted the best for the club.

It's very sad that Tony Bloom is denied that same courtesy by some.

 

[clapham_gull]

I remember talking to Gillivers Travels in the sports bar in Leceister Square watching Brighton - Wolves away I think when Kuipers made that world class double save ?

Anyway - the subject of debate that night was "what happens when we become a proper football club?"

I thought about it all the time during the Falmer campaign. What would be the fall out....

I don't think there is a major conspiracy. Just the club has got...

The PR/Brand a bit wrong. Needed to embrace the past a bit more and have a bit of continuation from even the Withdean years. Can't think of an example but a nod to the past.

I don't feel the club is supporter focussed enough. The marketing is crass is times, simply not savvy enough. Not sure it's talking to everyone. Personally the Amex at times feels like a visit to Tescos.

We got used to a chairman with all his faults talking directly to the fans in a manner they understood. Now we get programmes notes from a CEO. Paul Barber is probably a great bloke but he no connection to me as a fan and it may as well be coming from a contract Project Manager or "Director of Change".

The crux of the matter is all the corporate structure, behaivour and communication was designed to cut costs, generate income with a view to creating a promotion challenging squad. That's failed massively quite obviously this season.

All I'd like to hear is "we've f***** up but we're trying to fix it." That's how you talk to a real fan.

I'll return to the Amex when I hear a bit of honesty and evidence of an attempt to fix it. I'm quite used to watch Brighton lose, but not a heads in the sand, emperor's new clothes response to the absolute disaster this season.