My First ITK

[RichieB]

1 minute ago, S26 Owl said:

I heard a rumour hutchinson grabbed Monk by the throat

 

Also that Westwood isn't well liked by the squad, he went on his stag do to albufeira recently and only took pellupessy of all people

 

50 more pages. 

[SallyCinnamon]

Let’s be honest, our transfer recruitment in the first two seasons was barmy. Myself pointed it out the time. 
 

We were like a kid at the pic and mix section of cineworld. 
 

‘I want that one, no I want that one, actually I don’t like that one, I want that one instead.’

 

Its the reason we are where we are today. CC probably doesn’t get enough credit for getting us as close as he did. But at the same time his management style contributed to this massive hangover we’ve had since 2017. 

[Bing Cosby]

5 minutes ago, S26 Owl said:

I heard a rumour hutchinson grabbed Monk by the throat

 

Also that Westwood isn't well liked by the squad, he went on his stag do to albufeira recently and only took pellupessy of all people

 

Hardworking, good looking but once you get to know him, ultimately disappointing... The ideal wingman IMO.

[RichieB]

Just now, Bing Cosby said:

 

Hardworking, good looking but once you get to know him, ultimately disappointing... The ideal wingman IMO.

 

Plus the ladies are never impressed with his tackle 

[sonofbert2]

6 minutes ago, SallyCinnamon said:

Let’s be honest, our transfer recruitment in the first two seasons was barmy. Myself pointed it out the time. 
 

We were like a kid at the pic and mix section of cineworld. 
 

‘I want that one, no I want that one, actually I don’t like that one, I want that one instead.’

 

Its the reason we are where we are today. CC probably doesn’t get enough credit for getting us as close as he did. But at the same time his management style contributed to this massive hangover we’ve had since 2017. 

This is the crux.  The club was buying players to strengthen key positions with a few dodgy swerves thrown in that the manager and his philosophy and thus his “chosen ones” didn’t want.

 

Venancio still remains both the best example and biggest “mystery” to me.

Edited March 4, 2020 by sonofbert2

[markg]

12 minutes ago, S26 Owl said:

I heard a rumour hutchinson grabbed Monk by the throat

 

Also that Westwood isn't well liked by the squad, he went on his stag do to albufeira recently and only took pellupessy of all people

Bet Joey struggled when it was his round as he didn't have Bannan to pass the drinks to

[SallyCinnamon]

3 minutes ago, sonofbert2 said:

This is the crux.  The club was buying players to strengthen key positions with a few dodgy swerves thrown in that the manager and his philosophy and thus his “chosen ones” didn’t want.

There was more than a few dodgy swerves. If I can be bothered later I’ll compile a list of all the signings made under DC and consider whether they’ve been a flop or not. I imagine it will be a resounding victory for the flops. 
 

It’s clear half the players we signed CC didn’t really want. There was no strategy in place, it was just one massive gamble to get up as quick as we can. It nearly worked remarkably, but at the end of the day it was a failed gamble and the consequences have been a nightmare. 

[Samurai Blue]

1 hour ago, ChinaOwl said:

That was me - I can't remember when I switched usernames. 

 

Ok, I'll bite... 

Was it when you moved to China? ;)

[Ante's Bubbly]

1 hour ago, toppOwl said:

 

You mention three clubs there and yes they might be well run but they ain't going anywhere, DC came in with the aim to get us to the Prem, doing what these clubs do won't achieve that.

The biggest shock historically, before all the mega rich foreign owners came in, were Wimbledon, who built their success by producing players sourced from non-league or lower league clubs, improving them and selling them for a large profit. Before the ridiculous amounts of TV money turned our top flight into a football mercenary's circus, teams had to get money into the club by selling tickets and selling players. If you got big gates, you did not have to produce players, if you got small gates, like Wimbledon, you had to find them and churn them out, at a profit, just to keep going. 

 

More recently though, Bournemouth, the pigs, Brighton, Norwich... there are loads of clubs that do not waste money like we have and have been successful. The difference between them and us is that they have people at their clubs that understand how strong, future proof, successful, sustainable football teams can be built and we do not. Clever people can make money in this game, idiots can lose millions and Chansiri has surrounded himself with high earners that produce very little and quite a few of those have come in, taken the money and gone. That includes a lot of our players. Many of the players that have been idolised, have been paid way more than they could get elsewhere and not done anywhere near enough to justify those wages.

 

If a team's future success could be guaranteed by paying lots of older, unfit, injury prone players, very high wages, we would never have dropped out of the prem in the first place 20 years ago. We dropped out with such huge debts that we were stuffed for the next 15 years, just trying to pay off the interest on the debt. Luckily for us, when everybody else had given up hope, including our then owner and Chairman, he got the help from Owls fan and logically thinking, successful business man, Lee Strafford who prepared the ground with everybody involved, so that a new owner, (Milan Mandaric) could buy the club with our debt cleared, (with the bank and several of the other parties that were owed money) and the two other groups of fans that held shares giving everything up for the sake of a new fresh, debt free start for the club. Now we are so far up to our necks in debt that we are struggling already and will struggle on for a while yet, with our idiotic new owner.  We certainly are not going to get back there using the same model! 

[ChinaOwl]

Just now, Samurai Blue said:

 

Ok, I'll bite... 

Was it when you moved to China? ;)

 

Nope, the avatar was a photo taken in China. I just got fed up using that name and haven't done since.

[Samurai Blue]

Just now, ChinaOwl said:

Nope, the avatar was a photo taken in China. I just got fed up using that name and haven't done since.

 

Dammit. I was so certain of being right, I even had this gif lined up. 

 

 

[toppOwl]

3 minutes ago, Ante's Bubbly said:

The biggest shock historically, before all the mega rich foreign owners came in, were Wimbledon, who built their success by producing players sourced from non-league or lower league clubs, improving them and selling them for a large profit. Before the ridiculous amounts of TV money turned our top flight into a football mercenary's circus, teams had to get money into the club by selling tickets and selling players. If you got big gates, you did not have to produce players, if you got small gates, like Wimbledon, you had to find them and churn them out, at a profit, just to keep going. 

 

More recently though, Bournemouth, the pigs, Brighton, Norwich... there are loads of clubs that do not waste money like we have and have been successful. The difference between them and us is that they have people at their clubs that understand how strong, future proof, successful, sustainable football teams can be built and we do not. Clever people can make money in this game, idiots can lose millions and Chansiri has surrounded himself with high earners that produce very little and quite a few of those have come in, taken the money and gone. That includes a lot of our players. Many of the players that have been idolised, have been paid way more than they could get elsewhere and not done anywhere near enough to justify those wages.

 

If a team's future success could be guaranteed by paying lots of older, unfit, injury prone players, very high wages, we would never have dropped out of the prem in the first place 20 years ago. We dropped out with such huge debts that we were stuffed for the next 15 years, just trying to pay off the interest on the debt. Luckily for us, when everybody else had given up hope, including our then owner and Chairman, he got the help from Owls fan and logically thinking, successful business man, Lee Strafford who prepared the ground with everybody involved, so that a new owner, (Milan Mandaric) could buy the club with our debt cleared, (with the bank and several of the other parties that were owed money) and the two other groups of fans that held shares giving everything up for the sake of a new fresh, debt free start for the club. Now we are so far up to our necks in debt that we are struggling already and will struggle on for a while yet, with our idiotic new owner.  We certainly are not going to get back there using the same model! 

 

That's very well written, its almost totally nonsense but it sounds good.

[ChinaOwl]

2 minutes ago, Samurai Blue said:

 

Dammit. I was so certain of being right, I even had this gif lined up. 

 

 

 

 

No!

 

Ironically, when I joined Owlstalk for the first time, it was at the beginning of the Geoff Sheard debacle. I came on as ChinaOwl and raised a number of doubts regarding the reliability and integrity of Sheard. It was long before Billsaja came on the scene and nothing negative could be raised about Sheard in those days. After the battering I took at the time, I changed to Distraught! Some of the posters that ripped me a new one at that time have been highly supportive of views that I have had on other topics so I just put those dark days behind me and certainly do not hold grudges.

 

Then I just got fed up with using that name but I can't remember precisely when it was.

[Guest Bulgaria]

2 hours ago, StudentOwl said:

Yeah, not like us- we're going places!

Like Swindon, for the first game of next season...

I will take that.

 

Last time we played Swindon first game of the season we were 3-0 up at half time and I got a reyt sun tan.

 

Think it ended up 3-2?

Sun stroke has eroded my memory!

[TrickyTrev]

4 minutes ago, Bulgaria said:

I will take that.

 

Last time we played Swindon first game of the season we were 3-0 up at half time and I got a reyt sun tan.

 

Think it ended up 3-2?

Sun stroke has eroded my memory!

That was probably the best away day I've ever been on.

 

Drinking in the Sun outside the Dolphin, then "we all follow Kingy" all the way to the ground.

 

Scorching hot day, Wednesday win and a few beers with Phil King before heading back to Sheffield.

 

Great day out that was.

[Guest Bulgaria]

55 minutes ago, S26 Owl said:

Also that Westwood isn't well liked by the squad, he went on his stag do to albufeira recently and only took pellupessy of all people

He had to take one of the squad and chose Joey, as it's easy to lose him.

 

 

 

[toppOwl]

Well my neg count has certainly increased this morning. 

 

I might ask a few on here to pick my lottery numbers.

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Mr Farrell said:

 

There were hundreds of concerns raised and he knows it.

 

Definitely an orchestrated campaign this morning to shift blame.

 

Very interesting.

An orchestrated campaign hahaha , what you tryna suggest ? DC has sent his henchmen out to convince the owlstalk massive he’s not an ‘evil fu5kr’ ??    Gi or with urself , definitely on the wind up you 

[thewookieisdown]

2 hours ago, toppOwl said:

 

Not quite the same then is it, so you accepted the model when it was going well but wanted a different approach from day one once it turned sour, as I said - hindsight.

No that’s rubbish. Just plain rubbish. No one accepted the model. No one knew what “the model” was. If Chansiri has said that the model was to spend heavily but we had a short window for promotion and if we failed we would be in trouble, I would have regarded that as insane. So surely would the overwhelming majority of fans. 

[toppOwl]

2 minutes ago, thewookieisdown said:

No that’s rubbish. Just plain rubbish. No one accepted the model. No one knew what “the model” was. If Chansiri has said that the model was to spend heavily but we had a short window for promotion and if we failed we would be in trouble, I would have regarded that as insane. So surely would the overwhelming majority of fans. 

 

Of course no one knew but the vast majority went along with the ride, your yet another working with hindsight, the clubs a mess currently but the crowd numbers in DC's first season prove that no one was thinking too far ahead.