Bristol City
Midfield
Second line marraSays the lad who wrote a f***ing thesis
“For any Sunlan fans still interested in Ipswich’s squad, a better articulated view of Ashton, courtesy of @DaveFevs”
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Second line marraSays the lad who wrote a f***ing thesis
I gave up after the first line. Most Ipswich fans thought you absolutely robbed us only paying 2.5m for him. Although im sure after add one it ended nearer 4m but even that was daylight robbery.This is coming from a club that said 25m Adam Webster wasn’t worth the 2.5m we paid
For any Sunlan fans still interested in Ipswich’s squad, a better articulated view of Ashton, courtesy of @DaveFevs
“Hi, tried to post last night, but unable to do so. Bristol City fan in peace. Quite like your club, always seemed to do things properly.
Firstly most Bristol City fans have no feeling of entitlement to the Premier League, far from it. Our history, bar two short spells in the top flight has yo-yo'd between the second and third tier.
Onto Mark Ashton. I'm one of the more vocal posters on our forum OTIB (one team in bristol) and Twitter (@fevsfootball), so thought I'd take up the offer for a "sensible" (you can decide after this post) City fan to give their reasons.
Firstly a bit of history.
2012 - Ashton first came to City in 2012/13 as a consultant for his company Tactical Change Ltd. He got rid of the Head of Recruitment (Russ Richardson) who was Derek McInnes's man and implemented a recruitment database. He will tell you he delivered Cat 2 Academy status but he didn't.
When McInnes was sacked for poor results and terrible recruitment of older players on big contracts who went through the motions (players sourced using Ashton's database), Sean O'Driscoll was appointed and re-laid the foundations. Bringing a Head of Recruitment back in (Keith Burt) from Forest, binning the database and went back to traditional scouting methods.
O'Driscoll / Burt brought in Fielding, Pack, Flint, Derek Williams, and gave Joe Brian, Bobby Reid and Wes Burns game time.
Results were crap, but most fans feel he helped build the foundations for Steve Cotterill (who along with Burt) signed Ayling, Little, Wilbraham, Korey Smith, Kodjia, Wilbraham, Luke Freeman, Ryan Fredericks etc as we romped to the Lg1 title and began life in the Champ.
We struggled in 15/16 and with our owner Lansdown wondering whether to sack Cotts, Ashton was brought back in (again as consultant) early December 2015 to sack Cotts. Cotts knew the writing was on the wall because Burt (with O'Driscoll) had thrown Ashton's crappy database in the bin. Cotts was sacked then Ashton officially announced as Chief Operating Officer (COO), but getting his feet under the table. Lee Johnson appointed.
He quickly removed Keith Burt, then the scouting network (people like Mervyn Day over time). By the following summer he self-promoted himself as CEO, yet was far too involved in Recruitment. Our latest accounts show he earned £540k p.a. salary....four times that of other directors and out of kilter for a club whose football side had revenues of £16m.
He made good money selling players inherited from the previous recruitment teams but of the 69 players signed during his time here, very few were true successes (Webster and Brownhill the two main ones), quite a lot of 'meh' signings and a series of players that never played, many leaving on free transfers because the re-contracting strategy was piss-poor. It suits Ashton to have high churn, so he can curry favour with fans with each new signing. I blame Johnson and Ashton for this - they were a dangerous combo that resolved probs and boosted each other's egos by signing players, not by coaching on the training ground. Johnson famous for always wanting another "club in the bag" (his Dad's saying), Ashton enjoying the thrill of a new signing. Quite a lot of Wasseman players....ring a bell?
Basically over his time our costs grew stupidly and performances on the pitch dropped until Johnson sacked, and Covid has brought forward our struggling finances. Ashton went very quiet in his final year here. The club's pre-season tour to Florida in 2019 was him first sounding out US Investors (NSL investors looking at UK)....eventually culminating in Gamechanger Ltd. He took his eyes off the ball at City as he and O'Leary started working on the Ipswich deal.
He is a footballer wannabe, not good enough to make it as a keeper at West From...worked in their Community Programme for years but his CV would lead you to believe he was a Director there. He wasn't...he might've given himself that title.
It was at West Brom he got to know Mike O'Leary (your Chairman) and links to Eales at Oxford, etc.
It is well worth chedcking Companies House for the various businesses that Mark Anthony Ashton is or has been linked to:
Tactical Change
Grove Life
Alicydon (O'Leary)
either himself or with his wife (ex-wife?).
then look at LinkedIn and see the links to Luke Werhun (can never remember whether he's his nephew or brother-in-law), who has only ever worked in football for Ashton. No idea what qualifications he has to be Head of Operations at City and Club Secretary.
Then of course you'll find Andy Rolls and Andy Costin too. Rolls oversaw our shambolic injury record last season. I can't comment any more than that, but the cynic might look at his time at Arsenal and West Ham too.
Ashton has built himself a protective bubble. I'm sure he's a decent enough Football Administrator, but he does not know the football-playing side, the bit he is desperate to be associated with, hence why you have no recruitment dept....because it gives him control to use his contacts not scout players based on their ability / fit to the managers system. I see you're not even using data. I appreciate you let a lot of players go, but players signed earlier in the window must be wondering why another player has been signed in their position. Fraser and Barry etc must be worrying what they signed up to. Cook, I'm disappointed in, but he's the fall-guy....don't forget he talked himself out of the City job when interviewed last summer. I think he saw through Ashton at the interview.
There is no jealousy, I am so glad he has gone. I am angry that he pulled the wool over the eyes of our owner, I'm very disappointed Lee Johnson didn't have the balls to call him out over transfer business.
Go and ask Watford fans their view!
No smoke without fire.
Go and look at Bristol City's accounts, the rising costs, wages, amortisation. I'd love got see the money trail to agents.
No sensible City fan builds their view of Ashton by the way he talks or dresses, they have formed their opinion on how badly he ran our football club. Without the players he sold that were there before he arrived, his ability to recruit players is pretty poor, usually with overpaid fees and wages - he benefitted from an inflationary market....thats no longer viable.
Sorry, bit of a rant, but don't think we are jealous he's left us for you. I hope you see through him...it might take a couple of windows for you to realise he's out of his depth, and will constrain your club going forward.
Feel free to respond with any questions (or abuse!!!) ”
The first line was some light hearted fun, although I did see several comments of that ilk.I gave up after the first line. Most Ipswich fans thought you absolutely robbed us only paying 2.5m for him. Although im sure after add one it ended nearer 4m but even that was daylight robbery.
My mate Brian ( massive ITFC fan) who I met on holiday 20 years ago, reckons a resounding win on Satday Vs Bolton .I gave up after the first line. Most Ipswich fans thought you absolutely robbed us only paying 2.5m for him. Although im sure after add one it ended nearer 4m but even that was daylight robbery.
Bradford then IpswichWere Ipswich 2nd the year we pissed Division 1 under Reid?
Bradford then Ipswich
I *think* they lost in the playoffs in our Reid season of domination, then won the playoffs the following year, then finished 5th in the PL (when we got 7th) so achieved Europe!I imagine they got up the following season then? Seem to remember it was around then that Stewart and that got them in Europe
I *think* they lost in the playoffs in our Reid season of domination, then won the playoffs the following year, then finished 5th in the PL (when we got 7th) so achieved Europe!
Good times for both teams. Stewart was a right goal scorer like. Envious that they made Europe but what a run they went on, never minded Ipswich but don’t like this whole pension fund/spend stupid money in L1 thing they’ve got going on. Funny that they haven’t won yet mind
Add Tom Carroll, Rekeem Harper and Louie Barry to the bench and it’s a very competitive swuad.I don’t like it either. We’ve seen it play out before very recently here though.
Walton
Vincent-Young - Edmundson - Burgess - Coulson
Morsy - Evans - Fraser
Edwards - Bonne - Chaplin
Looks decent at this level and they should be challenging. Jackson, Woolfenden, Piggot and Burns all good options. I expect them to pick up and the fall short - similar to what we’ve done on a few occasions.
On a side note, loved Marcus Stewart when he was here.
Barry won’t be getting near it in my opinion. I doubt Villa will be too happy about it and I doubt many other clubs will be giving much consideration to loaning their best prospects to Ipswich any time soon in a hurry (not that they need it).Add Tom Carroll, Rekeem Harper and Louie Barry to the bench and it’s a very competitive swuad.
The thing is, I have no idea if they have any specific underlying football philosophy ‘play style’ that’s being implemented, or whether it’s just try to get a load of random championship players in to win us games.
The thing I’m most excited by with our squad is the football we’re producing - playing it out from the back, direct forward passing at every opportunity, link up play between midfield and forwards - so refreshing and it’s clear as day that Speakman and LJ are executing something specific.
We’ll have to wait and see, and it’s only the 6th game approaching, but being 9? Points behind is already a handicap
Imagine buying 19 new players man
BumpMy mate Brian ( massive ITFC fan) who I met on holiday 20 years ago, reckons a resounding win on Satday Vs Bolton .
He's too tight to pay for Sky so he didn't see Bolton totally outplay Burton. Given you are still tinkering about with your team, I have a feeling you might get a shock IF, Bolton play anything like the way they did Monday.
Saying how good it’s been then playing so shit, the manager is almost putting a target on himself for the sack.Big piece in The Athletic with Cook and Ashton front and centre talking about how great their summer has been.
How Ipswich Town hit the nuclear reset button - 19 new signings and 20 departures in one window
Ipswich Town's new owners want success - and quickly. Change on and off the pitch has come at a rapid pace in recent months at Portman Roadtheathletic.com
You'd think, given that they have no wins from their first 5 games, they would have the sense to read the room and keep their heads down at least until they start to win games?