Bournemouth

[PHeffernan]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Evening. Some thoughts from sunny, sunny Bournemouth.

I'm unsure how this will work out for any of us in this group structure. I'm not a fan of the concept and don't think it should be allowed, but I don't make the rules, and many others have been doing the same for a long time. Modern football is rubbish sometimes. Often, even.

I wouldn't have too high expectations about our youth system. When it was run on some borrowed school playing fields with a staff of one, we still managed to turn out some decent players. Danny Ings for example. We've been investing more into it for about ten years but only this season got up from a Category C academy to a Category B one. Facilities are hard to build in a conurbation with no free land but luckily we managed to buy up a golf course and Foley is seeing the plans come to completion. Sadly, Category B still means that if we get a really exciting prospect anyone with a Category A academy can take them off our hands for a pittance. Because, you know, the big clubs need all the help they can get. I don't know if Cat A is a goal for us but if we are going to try and build everything we need for it, until we get it we remain sitting ducks.

The best chance we both have is if there is a plan to recruit young players from around the world who are 18+ so they can sign a pro deal which would keep the vultures at bay, for a little bit of time anyway. There was a South American midfielder we were meant to be after in January but that never materialised in the end. That kind of thing.

The EPL is absolutely a financially dominated league divided into clear groups. There are basically three leagues in it. Six or seven clubs that are on another planet, a few middle riders and then everyone else. Don't believe the hype that there's any kind of equality there. Plus, every year the biggest clubs try and bring in more rules to ensure they get to keep even more of the pie. I always want to see my team play as high as they can but, at the same time, the EPL is the most boring league I've ever watched us in. And that includes other divisions and seasons where we might have been stuck in a relegation battle.

I'm not convinced Foley understands the structural barriers that the big teams have spent the last thirty years erecting to try and keep others away. My worry is what he will do when the penny drops, but hopefully we're a long way from that still. I hope he finishes the new stadium before that moment!

Anyway, I'll drop in occasionally. Feel free to ask me anything about AFCB and I'll try and give an honest response to the best of my knowledge.

Good post.
FWIW I don't see the EPL as a proper league anymore.
It's just one big money harvesting platform for investors with the faces of big legacy football clubs.
EPL R.I.P.
The saddest thing is the supporters can never get their club back.

In Scotland our 2 big clubs are PLC's and there are now American owners and influence at Hibs, Aberdeen, Dundee and Dundee Utd. Only Hearts of our bigger clubs have not been infiltrated and that was through circumstance rather than by design.
Our protection for years was that it was all but impossible to make money from Scottish football, so the sharks stayed away, but with the new multi club models that has changed.

Keep in touch.

[Keith_M]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Evening. Some thoughts from sunny, sunny Bournemouth.

I'm unsure how this will work out for any of us in this group structure. I'm not a fan of the concept and don't think it should be allowed, but I don't make the rules, and many others have been doing the same for a long time. Modern football is rubbish sometimes. Often, even.

I wouldn't have too high expectations about our youth system. When it was run on some borrowed school playing fields with a staff of one, we still managed to turn out some decent players. Danny Ings for example. We've been investing more into it for about ten years but only this season got up from a Category C academy to a Category B one. Facilities are hard to build in a conurbation with no free land but luckily we managed to buy up a golf course and Foley is seeing the plans come to completion. Sadly, Category B still means that if we get a really exciting prospect anyone with a Category A academy can take them off our hands for a pittance. Because, you know, the big clubs need all the help they can get. I don't know if Cat A is a goal for us but if we are going to try and build everything we need for it, until we get it we remain sitting ducks.

The best chance we both have is if there is a plan to recruit young players from around the world who are 18+ so they can sign a pro deal which would keep the vultures at bay, for a little bit of time anyway. There was a South American midfielder we were meant to be after in January but that never materialised in the end. That kind of thing.

The EPL is absolutely a financially dominated league divided into clear groups. There are basically three leagues in it. Six or seven clubs that are on another planet, a few middle riders and then everyone else. Don't believe the hype that there's any kind of equality there. Plus, every year the biggest clubs try and bring in more rules to ensure they get to keep even more of the pie. I always want to see my team play as high as they can but, at the same time, the EPL is the most boring league I've ever watched us in. And that includes other divisions and seasons where we might have been stuck in a relegation battle.

I'm not convinced Foley understands the structural barriers that the big teams have spent the last thirty years erecting to try and keep others away. My worry is what he will do when the penny drops, but hopefully we're a long way from that still. I hope he finishes the new stadium before that moment!

Anyway, I'll drop in occasionally. Feel free to ask me anything about AFCB and I'll try and give an honest response to the best of my knowledge.

Welcome to the forum, mate, and for a very informative first post.

[AFCBfan]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Cheers for the post.

Something I’m really curious about is who the footballing brains behind the Black knights are? Clearly it won’t be Bill Foley so who was it that made the call to get rid of O’Neil and bring in your current manager (sorry, name escapes me).

The black knights and the people involved will be leaving on people with a lot of knowledge, has there ever been any suggestion as to who this is?

It's a good question and I think there are two answers. I've no idea who is advising them on which clubs to buy, valuations, and how to run the multiclub model but would assume there is someone with football knowledge in the organisation. I can't recall a name being mentioned but there has to be somebody.

At AFCB club level, Foley has been leaning quite heavily on (former Scottish international) Richard Hughes who used to play for us and ended up being appointed in a senior backroom role when Howe was at the club. I'm not sure of his exact job title but essentially he's the man in charge of all the football side of the business. The O'Neil decision is interesting and there's quite a lot to it. Word is that before they appointed him, they tried to get Iraola but he wouldn't move clubs mid-season. However, his contract was only until the end of the season and he told his old club he wouldn't be signing a new one.

Meanwhile O'Neil did a good job of shoring up the team after the mess Parker left and so got the full job. He's a man that splits opinion but he did the job of keeping us up which is impressive. However, he approached it in such a dull and defensive way it was eye-gouging to watch at times. The thing that most bugs me about it is that, after a bad run of results where we were in the mire, he finally threw caution to the wind for a few games and we looked really good and picked up some outstanding points. Somehow, he'd got us safe with four games to go when we looked dead and buried and he then had the chance to try and attack those last games. Instead, in those free hit four matches and for no discernable reason he went back to being ultra defensive and horrible to watch. It looked like that was his default preferred approach and the crowd turned on him a bit. I think those four games and the fact that first choice target Iraola was now a free agent prompted Hughes to go to Foley and tell him to make the change.

Foley has fronted up a few times and said it's on him, but he's also indicated the advice came from Hughes and our CEO Blake, who doesn't have a football background so probably didn't have much to say. I still think if O'Neil had tried to win those last four matches rather than snatch a 1-0 with 18% possession and eleven men defending for 90 minutes then he'd probably still have the job.

I haven't watched Wolves this season apart from our match against them when they were terrible to watch but got a fortunate win thanks to a moment of madness red card from one of our players and then a goalkeeping howler in injury time. However, his results indicate he's doing well so maybe it was the tough love moment he needed to see there's more to football than defending.

My guess is when it comes to footballing matters, he'd be looking at someone inside your club for advice. Of course, it is slightly different in that he only has a minority share with you but owns us outright.

[DIXIHIBS]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

It's a good question and I think there are two answers. I've no idea who is advising them on which clubs to buy, valuations, and how to run the multiclub model but would assume there is someone with football knowledge in the organisation. I can't recall a name being mentioned but there has to be somebody.

At AFCB club level, Foley has been leaning quite heavily on (former Scottish international) Richard Hughes who used to play for us and ended up being appointed in a senior backroom role when Howe was at the club. I'm not sure of his exact job title but essentially he's the man in charge of all the football side of the business. The O'Neil decision is interesting and there's quite a lot to it. Word is that before they appointed him, they tried to get Iraola but he wouldn't move clubs mid-season. However, his contract was only until the end of the season and he told his old club he wouldn't be signing a new one.

Meanwhile O'Neil did a good job of shoring up the team after the mess Parker left and so got the full job. He's a man that splits opinion but he did the job of keeping us up which is impressive. However, he approached it in such a dull and defensive way it was eye-gouging to watch at times. The thing that most bugs me about it is that, after a bad run of results where we were in the mire, he finally threw caution to the wind for a few games and we looked really good and picked up some outstanding points. Somehow, he'd got us safe with four games to go when we looked dead and buried and he then had the chance to try and attack those last games. Instead, in those free hit four matches and for no discernable reason he went back to being ultra defensive and horrible to watch. It looked like that was his default preferred approach and the crowd turned on him a bit. I think those four games and the fact that first choice target Iraola was now a free agent prompted Hughes to go to Foley and tell him to make the change.

Foley has fronted up a few times and said it's on him, but he's also indicated the advice came from Hughes and our CEO Blake, who doesn't have a football background so probably didn't have much to say. I still think if O'Neil had tried to win those last four matches rather than snatch a 1-0 with 18% possession and eleven men defending for 90 minutes then he'd probably still have the job.

I haven't watched Wolves this season apart from our match against them when they were terrible to watch but got a fortunate win thanks to a moment of madness red card from one of our players and then a goalkeeping howler in injury time. However, his results indicate he's doing well so maybe it was the tough love moment he needed to see there's more to football than defending.

My guess is when it comes to footballing matters, he'd be looking at someone inside your club for advice. Of course, it is slightly different in that he only has a minority share with you but owns us outright.

Can you help arrange a wee friendly in the summer? Nice to get down to the south coast for a few days😀

[linlithgowhibbie]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Can you help arrange a wee friendly in the summer? Nice to get down to the south coast for a few days😀

I would agree with that

[Jones28]

We Scottish fans are well versed in big clubs erecting barriers for everyone else!

Thanks for stopping in and all the best for the season.

How far away from staying up are you? Forgive my ignorance, other than the odd match of the day I never watch English football.