Donald’s biggest mistakes


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1. Initial press conference. Saying that he and his partners had given Short £40m for the club when they hadn’t
2. Stating that we had a budget that even some Championship clubs couldn’t compete with
3. Over-emphasising the interest that Juan Sartori had in the club
4. The handling of the Maja situation
5. Stating that we didn’t need to offload our top earners and they offloading them all
6. Setting the 100 points target for Ross whilst providing no funds to improve the side be able to do it
7. The handling of the takeover(s). Feeding stories to the fanzines and press and then doubling down when they fell through
8. Appointing Phil Parkinson

There are other mistakes. But they’re the major ones for me
Spot on.
We’ve all heard SD talk utter s**t about thes above points. The bloke is a proven liar as far as I’m concerned
 
Not realising the fan base would not take to a guy like Methven, therefore you are guilty by association in the minds of many.

Stripping back the infrastructure far too quickly, because he didn't have the cash flow to do things bit by bit without the bottom falling out in the second year.

Underestimating the league as Short did with the Championship.

Playing hard ball with Maja and agent and then thinking he can impress everyone with the gift that is/was Will Grigg.

100 point target and quickly allowing Cattermole, Honeyman and Oviedo to leave after saying the wage bill was no problem. He disappeared off twitter there and then, arousing huge suspicion.

Sacking Ross and not upgrading .

Most of all, whatever unknown mess he made with MSD to turn a takeover into small investment and then into a loan.
 
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1. Initial press conference. Saying that he and his partners had given Short £40m for the club when they hadn’t
2. Stating that we had a budget that even some Championship clubs couldn’t compete with
3. Over-emphasising the interest that Juan Sartori had in the club
4. The handling of the Maja situation
5. Stating that we didn’t need to offload our top earners and they offloading them all
6. Setting the 100 points target for Ross whilst providing no funds to improve the side be able to do it
7. The handling of the takeover(s). Feeding stories to the fanzines and press and then doubling down when they fell through
8. Appointing Phil Parkinson

There are other mistakes. But they’re the major ones for me

In summary the bloke has been a cluster fuck from day one. An opportunist cluster fuck I might add that will profit from being a complete cluster fuck.
 
Hiring all his old pals who where not satisfactory to do their jobs.

Ran down the academy to the bare bones. Surely we should have enough talent to make a impact in league one.

No plans for recruitment, poor judgement in players.
Missed one GLARING (not glowing) error.
Appointed PARKINSON.
 
In summary the bloke has been a cluster fuck from day one. An opportunist cluster fuck I might add that will profit from being a complete cluster fuck.

Ive never had any problem with the notion that he was coming in to try and improve the club so he could sell it on for a profit. If that was his motivation then it would be mutually beneficial.

I only ever really had a problem with him and Methven making very bold claims and sections of our fanbase going along merrily with it all when ultimately it was obvious what was happening behind the scenes in terms of cost cutting (and front of shop for that matter). The whole ‘The Don’, ‘Charlie loves a pint’ and ‘given us our club back’ thing was very frustrating when we were quite clearly not really making any kind of progress that would help the club long term on or off the pitch.

If any lessons are to be learned here, it’s that we, as a set of long suffering supporters, should not be quite as willing and ready to drop our knickers to anyone moderately wealthy businessman/men who flutter their eyelashes at us and we should collectively scrutinise anyone who comes in. That isn’t abandoning or being disloyal to the club as some may perceive it, it’s doing the club a proper service.

Anyway, here’s to hoping we get a new owner(s) soon enough who can lead us back to where we should be.
 
Letting Charlie knock out all the feel good stories, which in turn proved to be papering over all the cracks
 
Historically you don’t need to spend much to get out of league one, free transfers fill most promoted teams. Big missing ingredient is a decent scouting network. Nearly all new players have been below par at best
 
Easy to say some of these in hindsight but these are some that have left me frustrated:
Unnecessarily misleading the fans about how the club was purchased.
Not having an actual recruitment team for over 12 months & 3 transfer windows.
The Maja situation & subsequent handling of the purchase of Grigg.
Sticking with Ross despite failing to deliver promotion and a clear down turn in performances over a sustained period of time.
What turned out to be a shambolic summer transfer window for both incomings and outgoings.
Appointing Phil parkinson.
Stating how much he valued having communication with fans but then leaving twitter twice when things were tough (play off defeat and prior to the Parkinson announcement).
Telling one fan podcast that he wouldn’t be communicating through podcasts and days later telling another he wanted to do a podcast with them.
 
Here is my top 10 poor decisions, there are more........

1. Selling Maja too early (cost us promotion)
2. Releasing other players and not replacing with better (Honeyman, James, Catermole, Matthews)
3. Untruths about his investment capability and outside financial backing (Satori et al.)
4. Taking his eye off the ball trying to sell the club since before the playoffs
5. Not signing an in form striker
6. Sacking Jack Ross (had no chance given all of the above)
7. Replacing with Parkinson
8. Underestimating how hard it would be to attract better players (see item 2)
9. Not sacking Parkinson a month ago
10. Signing Grant Leadbitter when we didn’t need him (great attitude but legs gone)


I will give you 9/10 .... don’t agree with num 9. The same logic as 6 surely applies, a fix was needed which was going take longer than few weeks. You already cover the original appointment in 7.
Focused too heavily on trying to balance the books and manipulating the media profile of the club, meanwhile completely failing to develop the football side.

Relegation to league one should've been a golden opportunity to develop young players and create a brand new ethos that we can all get behind. Instead we got Will f***ing Grigg.

He's set us back years.


Yep. I fear he has
Buying a turkey and having no oven.


You mean he didn’t have an idea oven ready plan as promised...ooops sorry that was the other drama wasn’t it.
 
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Letting Charlie knock out all the feel good stories, which in turn proved to be papering over all the cracks
Interesting to know towards the end who was behind a lot of the pr, SD or CM, as they'd fell out and werent collaborating by then
 
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Ive never had any problem with the notion that he was coming in to try and improve the club so he could sell it on for a profit. If that was his motivation then it would be mutually beneficial.

I only ever really had a problem with him and Methven making very bold claims and sections of our fanbase going along merrily with it all when ultimately it was obvious what was happening behind the scenes in terms of cost cutting (and front of shop for that matter). The whole ‘The Don’, ‘Charlie loves a pint’ and ‘given us our club back’ thing was very frustrating when we were quite clearly not really making any kind of progress that would help the club long term on or off the pitch.

If any lessons are to be learned here, it’s that we, as a set of long suffering supporters, should not be quite as willing and ready to drop our knickers to anyone moderately wealthy businessman/men who flutter their eyelashes at us and we should collectively scrutinise anyone who comes in. That isn’t abandoning or being disloyal to the club as some may perceive it, it’s doing the club a proper service.

Anyway, here’s to hoping we get a new owner(s) soon enough who can lead us back to where we should be.

Let's face it as true supporters of the club, he ultimately sucked in all our good will, hopes and dreams and in return basically just squeezed out his personal cash rich turd at the end of of it.

He will be seen as the worst owner in the our club's history, and rightly so.
 
Opening his mouth being arrogant about our financial clout.

Biggest budget etc

Selling Maja

Not sacking Ross after Play off Loss

Last summer takeover leaks

Hiring Parkinson

Not Sacking Parkinson

Twitter spats

Lying
 
Not replacing Bain, not replacing Davison, not replacing CM...
No board meetings until the yanks asked to attend one (no wonder SD & CM were so out of sync on just about everything)*

Who has been running the club?

*Did that board meeting take place?
 
Posted on another thread but in case you missed it - recent post on our site (oxford) talking about stuart

I’ve always found north East fans bizarre. They really do have an insupportable superiority complex that makes them believe you’re privileged to meet them.

This lot have clumsily tumbled down to our level, like many other sides before with slightly above average support like Portsmouth, Blackburn, Man City, and seemingly want us to all be in awe. They are no different except for the sheer levels of delta between reality and expectation. That article is completely devoid of the actual reasons for their anger , just more emotive nonsense about some romanticized ideal of who they claim to be. So what are these awful crimes the owner has committed. He’s had about 18 months to turn around years of engrained failure embedded into the seeds of their dna. Do they understand what it takes to turn a business around? Methven, for all his ills, may be right about the lack of corporate education up there.

1. Stadium sold off?
2. Name and colors changed?
3. Asset stripped?
4. HMRC payments missed?
5. Failure to buy players? (Griggs must be a record at this level and shows huge commitment given debts and operating losses at this level)

They’re actually showing huge ignorance as to the operating costs at this level relative to the lack of tv revenue and commercial revenue. They built this pitiful lower league existence by being part of the premiership money gravy train for so long, suckling on the teet of sky TVs money and ignoring the plight of the lower leagues. Now they reap their reward. Welcome to the other side of the fence you gravy train muppets. Deal with it or change it if you ever rise from league one, which no doubt they will eventually.

What they really need to learn is a dose of humility and recognition of where they are. The article states that those outside the region won’t understand. Another statement laced in self importance and the equivalent of Christians argument of “the greatest trick the devil pulled was making you think he doesn’t exist”. Impossible to disprove but substantiates nothing. We are perfectly capable of recognizing what we see.

In reality their first season they got to a play off final. Good season. They can look to their own impatience for the demise of their reasonably decent last manager and so called current plight where they are still well within touching distance of the play offs and only half the season gone. How many teams get relegated and bounce back first time?

Given they’ve won f**k all in decades then perhaps they should just enjoy a new league with new stadiums to visit and more real opposition fan base to engage with rather than the plastics of higher leagues.Rather than creating a toxicity, forcing a relatively decent guy out as owner, and ending up with a genuine devil in charge that the likes of Blackpool and Charlton could reference for them
Your stadium has 3 stands and is 14 miles out of the City, off you trot
 
Posted on another thread but in case you missed it - recent post on our site (oxford) talking about stuart

I’ve always found north East fans bizarre. They really do have an insupportable superiority complex that makes them believe you’re privileged to meet them.

This lot have clumsily tumbled down to our level, like many other sides before with slightly above average support like Portsmouth, Blackburn, Man City, and seemingly want us to all be in awe. They are no different except for the sheer levels of delta between reality and expectation. That article is completely devoid of the actual reasons for their anger , just more emotive nonsense about some romanticized ideal of who they claim to be. So what are these awful crimes the owner has committed. He’s had about 18 months to turn around years of engrained failure embedded into the seeds of their dna. Do they understand what it takes to turn a business around? Methven, for all his ills, may be right about the lack of corporate education up there.

1. Stadium sold off?
2. Name and colors changed?
3. Asset stripped?
4. HMRC payments missed?
5. Failure to buy players? (Griggs must be a record at this level and shows huge commitment given debts and operating losses at this level)

They’re actually showing huge ignorance as to the operating costs at this level relative to the lack of tv revenue and commercial revenue. They built this pitiful lower league existence by being part of the premiership money gravy train for so long, suckling on the teet of sky TVs money and ignoring the plight of the lower leagues. Now they reap their reward. Welcome to the other side of the fence you gravy train muppets. Deal with it or change it if you ever rise from league one, which no doubt they will eventually.

What they really need to learn is a dose of humility and recognition of where they are. The article states that those outside the region won’t understand. Another statement laced in self importance and the equivalent of Christians argument of “the greatest trick the devil pulled was making you think he doesn’t exist”. Impossible to disprove but substantiates nothing. We are perfectly capable of recognizing what we see.

In reality their first season they got to a play off final. Good season. They can look to their own impatience for the demise of their reasonably decent last manager and so called current plight where they are still well within touching distance of the play offs and only half the season gone. How many teams get relegated and bounce back first time?

Given they’ve won f**k all in decades then perhaps they should just enjoy a new league with new stadiums to visit and more real opposition fan base to engage with rather than the plastics of higher leagues.Rather than creating a toxicity, forcing a relatively decent guy out as owner, and ending up with a genuine devil in charge that the likes of Blackpool and Charlton could reference for them

Even in your wildest pull your tiny cock off dreams Oxford United would never be more than the afterthought in comparison to Sunderland AFC.

Now do yourself a favour an fuck off back to your 16 Facebook & Twitter mates who give a shit about your inane ramblings. There's a good boy.....
 
Posted on another thread but in case you missed it - recent post on our site (oxford) talking about stuart

I’ve always found north East fans bizarre. They really do have an insupportable superiority complex that makes them believe you’re privileged to meet them.

This lot have clumsily tumbled down to our level, like many other sides before with slightly above average support like Portsmouth, Blackburn, Man City, and seemingly want us to all be in awe. They are no different except for the sheer levels of delta between reality and expectation. That article is completely devoid of the actual reasons for their anger , just more emotive nonsense about some romanticized ideal of who they claim to be. So what are these awful crimes the owner has committed. He’s had about 18 months to turn around years of engrained failure embedded into the seeds of their dna. Do they understand what it takes to turn a business around? Methven, for all his ills, may be right about the lack of corporate education up there.

1. Stadium sold off?
2. Name and colors changed?
3. Asset stripped?
4. HMRC payments missed?
5. Failure to buy players? (Griggs must be a record at this level and shows huge commitment given debts and operating losses at this level)

They’re actually showing huge ignorance as to the operating costs at this level relative to the lack of tv revenue and commercial revenue. They built this pitiful lower league existence by being part of the premiership money gravy train for so long, suckling on the teet of sky TVs money and ignoring the plight of the lower leagues. Now they reap their reward. Welcome to the other side of the fence you gravy train muppets. Deal with it or change it if you ever rise from league one, which no doubt they will eventually.

What they really need to learn is a dose of humility and recognition of where they are. The article states that those outside the region won’t understand. Another statement laced in self importance and the equivalent of Christians argument of “the greatest trick the devil pulled was making you think he doesn’t exist”. Impossible to disprove but substantiates nothing. We are perfectly capable of recognizing what we see.

In reality their first season they got to a play off final. Good season. They can look to their own impatience for the demise of their reasonably decent last manager and so called current plight where they are still well within touching distance of the play offs and only half the season gone. How many teams get relegated and bounce back first time?

Given they’ve won f**k all in decades then perhaps they should just enjoy a new league with new stadiums to visit and more real opposition fan base to engage with rather than the plastics of higher leagues.Rather than creating a toxicity, forcing a relatively decent guy out as owner, and ending up with a genuine devil in charge that the likes of Blackpool and Charlton could reference for them
We were for two seperate decades of football history the greatest team in the land and the most successful club in the history of the game until 1950 You are right the club has been shite since 1958...........however we have always had a great support and given our lack of success i would argue we are the best fans in the land ..Donald and charlie are doing their best to destroy that ..We have league one team a premiership ground and training facilities but champions league fans ..take the piss of our team and i would agree with you critique our infrastructure and ypu look a fool but take the pissof our fans you will look like what your club has been since 1893 a complete non entity!
 
1. Initial press conference. Saying that he and his partners had given Short £40m for the club when they hadn’t
2. Stating that we had a budget that even some Championship clubs couldn’t compete with
3. Over-emphasising the interest that Juan Sartori had in the club
4. The handling of the Maja situation
5. Stating that we didn’t need to offload our top earners and they offloading them all
6. Setting the 100 points target for Ross whilst providing no funds to improve the side be able to do it
7. The handling of the takeover(s). Feeding stories to the fanzines and press and then doubling down when they fell through
8. Appointing Phil Parkinson

There are other mistakes. But they’re the major ones for me
Spot on. Although the maja situation at the time was a bit tricky.
hindsight is easy to say he’s got it wrong but I agree with everything you’ve said.
 
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