We have become a very dull football club

[Final Stand]

They haven't built anything. Their legacy is fuck-all.

Can only agree, they would argue a new training facility, a nearly finished stadium, new floodlights etc etc.

So I could only view a relegation to division one as inevitable and part of a continuing downward spiral with this hierarchy and that would be my days of going North End finished. Absolutely no chance of a reset and an immediate return to the championship.

 

[noelpne]

I said to the person next to me today, that there seems to be a general feeling of apathy from everyone involved at the club, we need a big reset, whether that is relegation and a confidence boosting promotion push or a change in ownership, something has to happen. Mid table in the championship year after year with no hope of going up hardly inspires anyone

And that person....did they respond with,
" Am I bothered ? " or was it
" But apart from the Bryan Gray era, it's always been like this " or was it
"Peter's doing a great job" or was it
" Please, I'm trying to get back to dreaming of the Good Old Days with Sir Tom on the Wing"

 

[Durutti]

Looks like the owners would be quite happy with relegation ?

Lads on here who can read the financial statements said the only noticeable was difference was the wages plummeted.

 

[Durutti]

We were taking about this. It's magnolia football. Vanilla football.

It's all about the data. Whatever looks best on the post match spreadsheet analysis. But, wow, is it tedious ponderous turgid garbage.

Whatever happened to players with passion who were their heart in their sleeve? Cantona. Worthington. Gregan. Players who were brave enough to try something. Even players like Ruddock would liven up the spectacle.

We only have Mads. Then who? And our esteemed managers only start him every so often. Madness. (Madsness even) Mads is our only player worth paying to watch!

How much are your seriously prepared to pay again to watch Whiteman bump his pass completion stats up with another flurry of sideways and backwards passes?

And we've just splashed over £3 million on players who are even more magnolia than the was ones we've already got. They can't even get a start.

It goes beyond North End too.

How many players in the Championship can you recall or revere? Where have the characters gone?

Everyone is just a pale vanilla version of everyone else.

Same faceless fearful anonymous players. Same pointless own-half possession-based back passing. Same points in the league. Everyone.

Football has forgotten it's supposed to be an entertainment. We want to see passion from brave heroes who want to win at all costs. That's the whole point. Not a 0.25 xG increment. (For clarity, I'd take 0.25 right now)

From the moment we forced entry into the stadium through non-working turnstiles, tried to buy over priced drinks from another batch of staff in insufficient numbers to cope, tried to make out what the announcer was saying ... it was atrocious. The football was even worse.

Yesterday was offensively shit. It was insulting.

Both teams offered nothing. A festival of painful indifference. Why would anyone pay to watch that garbage?

It's been this way for 5 years. Maybe longer.

Hecky is morphing into every other manager: Lifts the mood. Then regresses into safety first tedium. Grow some Hecky.

I still believe he's better than that. And the January transfer window must help him. Ridsdale, however, is beyond help.

Agree with all that BUT I'm not going through another manager out thing regardless of what happens. Heck ain't perfect and I was worried when I saw the team sheet but he's most definitely the best manager we can attract at the point (I'm actually surprised he came here in hindsight).

Ridsdale out and or Hemmings out before there is even a conversation about PH.

I said on deadline day that Ridsdale and Hemmings had gifted PH a relegation battle and that's exactly how it's turned out.

 

[Thracia]

Can only agree, they would argue a new training facility, a nearly finished stadium, new floodlights etc etc.

So I could only view a relegation to division one as inevitable and part of a continuing downward spiral with this hierarchy and that would be my days of going North End finished. Absolutely no chance of a reset and an immediate return to the championship.

Aye:

• A "new" (to us) training facility that cost £2m, to go with our academy that's now a lower Category than when Hemmings took over - while the owners shamelessly built their houses all over Ingol instead of delivering their promised upgraded Prem-standard facility there. It's quite a legacy.
• An unfinished stadium that was equally unfinished when Hemmings took over, and now benefits from over a decade of neglected maintenance.
• New LEDs in the floodlights - well, maybe we can arrange a blue plaque to commemorate those.
• And while you say "etc. etc.", I think we all know there is no "etc. etc." worthy of note.

No one said there'd be a reset and immediate return to the Championship - there's too much "legacy" for that.

Just a reset. Possibly better, possibly worse, possibly one for a while, then the other. But at least something different. Something new.

Something potentially more interesting than years more of this. Years more Potts, Whiteman, Ledson, Storey, Lindsay - the list of mediocrity goes on - looking second-best and clueless against all-comers, including a succession of newly-promoted clubs from L1 who all look better equipped than us with each passing year.

 

[lenny]

And that person....did they respond with,
" Am I bothered ? " or was it
" But apart from the Bryan Gray era, it's always been like this " or was it
"Peter's doing a great job" or was it
" Please, I'm trying to get back to dreaming of the Good Old Days with Sir Tom on the Wing"

Probably said why the F**k have you woke me up .

 

[PNE04]

Aye:

• A "new" (to us) training facility that cost £2m, to go with our academy that's now a lower Category than when Hemmings took over - while the owners shamelessly built their houses all over Ingol instead of delivering their promised upgraded Prem-standard facility there. It's quite a legacy.
• An unfinished stadium that was equally unfinished when Hemmings took over, and now benefits from over a decade of neglected maintenance.
• New LEDs in the floodlights - well, maybe we can arrange a blue plaque to commemorate those.
• And while you say "etc. etc.", I think we all know there is no "etc. etc." worthy of note.

No one said there'd be a reset and immediate return to the Championship - there's too much "legacy" for that.

Just a reset. Possibly better, possibly worse, possibly one for a while, then the other. But at least something different. Something new.

Something potentially more interesting than years more of this. Years more Potts, Whiteman, Ledson, Storey, Lindsay - the list of mediocrity goes on - looking second-best and clueless against all-comers, including a succession of newly-promoted clubs from L1 who all look better equipped than us with each passing year.

This worries me. We’ve only managed a point against the three newbies this year so far. Granted two games have been away, but Derby are abysmal away from home yet still looked comfortable yesterday. We were well beaten against Oxford and Portsmouth, both sides deserved all 3 points. The three teams who came up in 22/23 are above us right now (one is playing Man United this evening).

The list of teams who we are confident we’re better than gets shorter each year. It’s a matter of when we get relegated, not if.

 

[Joanpne]

I drove past Bradford's ground on Thursday and as I did, I thought to myself that I could easily see us being like them in 3 years time. Big ground, cheap season tickets, mid table in the basement every year.

It’s exactly where we are heading.

 

[thebutterpiepodcast]

Is there any genuine reason why there has been no active buyers albeit the club actively being up for sale for a good number of years?

 

[Yeti]

Is there any genuine reason why there has been no active buyers albeit the club actively being up for sale for a good number of years?

Presume it is the price they get quoted.

 

[Henry Weston]

Is there any genuine reason why there has been no active buyers albeit the club actively being up for sale for a good number of years?

The sellers overvaluing it is probably a major issue.
Edit: @Yeti got there before me!👍

 

[Mer5eywhite]

Is there any genuine reason why there has been no active buyers albeit the club actively being up for sale for a good number of years?

You ever looked in the estate agents and see the houses for sale? There’s always one that’s been on the market way longer than the others. Mainly because the owners are asking too much and aren’t hugely interested in selling.

 

[Joanpne]

Why do anything about it?

Let the Isle of Man own the apathy, let them reduce the budget, let the club slide meekly into relegation without a whimper, and let Ridsdale explain in his post-season Club Sermon how everything is going to plan, it's just the injuries and those mean old refs.

What's the point in Ridsdale leaving? That would be a mirror image of Lowe leaving - incompetently building an absolute disaster then buggering off rather than face the consequences, so he can prophesise from afar "see? they were doing fine until I left". Fuck that. Ridsdale needs to be held accountable for the mess, and that means he has to stay in post while the ship goes down.

The only way the club will change is with a change of division. Luckily, the division we are in isn't decided by what we say on here, or what Ridsdale says in his sermons, it's determined by how shit we are at football, and right now we're very shit.

I still think relegation would be a total disaster. The budgets would reduce even more drastically and as a poster said we could well be the new Bradford or Accrington Stanley. I can hear it now, my great grandchildren saying “Preston North End who are they”.

 

[Ando60]

I still think relegation would be a total disaster. The budgets would reduce even more drastically and as a poster said we could well be the new Bradford or Accrington Stanley. I can hear it now, my great grandchildren saying “Preston North End who are they”.

Exactly……

 

[Thracia]

Is there any genuine reason why there has been no active buyers albeit the club actively being up for sale for a good number of years?

Ridsdale claims this:

"For those who think we should be opening the doors at Euxton and looking for someone with an oil well under their arm, we keep opening the door and having a look - but there is nobody there. And if anybody were to be interested, we would always welcome them. [...]​

​

"What [the owners] are also saying, very clearly, is if somebody turned up at the door and said 'here is how much cash we've got; this is what we'd like to do with the football club' - and the belief was they could sustain it and take it forward, they would be welcomed with open arms. Nobody is here in a sort of bunker mentality, saying 'leave us alone, we don't want to talk to you'."​

Which suggests it's not just about the asking price, but also some weird controlling impetus to decide what the new owner should do with the club as well, as if that's any of their business.

Plus it suggests an overwhelmingly passive and disinterested attitude to selling the club - literally expecting someone to come to the door with a ton of cash, rather than actively going looking for buyers, or pricing the place to sell.

 

[Final Stand]

I can hear it now, my great grandchildren saying “Preston North End who are they”.

Think many are already saying that, “Preston what division are they in ? Cannot remember them doing anything, wasn’t Moyes the manager there once ? “

 

[thebutterpiepodcast]

You ever looked in the estate agents and see the houses for sale? There’s always one that’s been on the market way longer than the others. Mainly because the owners are asking too much and aren’t hugely interested in selling.

Also think that a certain advisor would be advising against selling to save their job on the EFL board.

 

[Thracia]

I still think relegation would be a total disaster. The budgets would reduce even more drastically and as a poster said we could well be the new Bradford or Accrington Stanley. I can hear it now, my great grandchildren saying “Preston North End who are they”.

We can hang on to the pretense that we're a well-run Championship club for as long as it lasts, but relegation is inevitable sooner or later under the current strategy. It's just a matter of time.

I'm personally not interested in being in the Championship out of vanity, as if it's a status worth having regardless of the football on offer. But then, I'm not trying to sell the club for way more than it's worth.

 

[Joanpne]

Ridsdale claims this:

"For those who think we should be opening the doors at Euxton and looking for someone with an oil well under their arm, we keep opening the door and having a look - but there is nobody there. And if anybody were to be interested, we would always welcome them. [...]​

​

"What [the owners] are also saying, very clearly, is if somebody turned up at the door and said 'here is how much cash we've got; this is what we'd like to do with the football club' - and the belief was they could sustain it and take it forward, they would be welcomed with open arms. Nobody is here in a sort of bunker mentality, saying 'leave us alone, we don't want to talk to you'."​

Which suggests it's not just about the asking price, but also some weird controlling impetus to decide what the new owner should do with the club as well, as if that's any of their business.

Plus it suggests an overwhelmingly passive and disinterested attitude to selling the club - literally expecting someone to come to the door with a ton of cash, rather than actively going looking for buyers, or pricing the place to sell.

The trouble is the Hemmings and their Advisor are now very close to being unable to sustain the football club in the same position their father bought it, and taking it further is about as realistic as a mermaid on a unicorn turning up at the door with the oil well under their arm. These excuses are wearing very thin. They could always give the club back to the fans via shares again or offer to come in with them with absolutely no chance of conning the fans again but I bet they won’t.

 

[jumping mouse]

Agree with all that BUT I'm not going through another manager out thing regardless of what happens. Heck ain't perfect and I was worried when I saw the team sheet but he's most definitely the best manager we can attract at the point (I'm actually surprised he came here in hindsight).

Ridsdale out and or Hemmings out before there is even a conversation about PH.

I said on deadline day that Ridsdale and Hemmings had gifted PH a relegation battle and that's exactly how it's turned out.

.
Yes I like and back Hecky. But if he's as good as we hope he is he needs to get a tune out of this failing squad. A squad who are painfully low on belief. We've seen this play-safe slump with every manager.