
Originally Posted by
the other bob wilson
I agree to the extent that it's not as straightforward as saying Tan is uselss full stop. Especially in his early days, enough money was spent to result in City becoming a Brighton, Brentford, Palace type club if it had been spent well. Tan's money has kept us going in latter years, while, although he's not delivered on his promise to have a debt free club, his debt to equity conversions have resulted in an easing of financial burdens.
However, two things happened over ten years ago that gave us the warning that what he have now was a strong possibility if Tan stayed. First, there was the rebrand. Now, I was neutral about that at first and was too influenced by the promise of debts being written off etc. A few months of us playing in red persuaded me that my original viewpoint was wrong, but there were still many who were prepared to keep us in red - were there any who supported it completely like Tan did all the way through the two and a half seasons where we played in red?
The second matter which had a profound effect on how we've been run was Tan's feeling of betrayal with Malky Mackay and Iain Moody which had its roots in the purchase of Andreas Cornelius. Tan certainly had a point that we paid far too much for Cornelius at that stage of his career, but in the years following that transfer we've pissed away millions of pounds ds on equally poor signings who did not have Cornelius' potential for development.
A sensible Director of Football whose views were respected by the Board would have, hopefully, been able to nip in the bud, the awful 2019 transfer window where Neil Warnock was allowed to indulge himself with the parachute money whoch should have been the foundation on which a more realistic bid for a return to Premier League football could be based.
Instead, Tan has decided that he doesn't trust the concept of a Director of Football and the result is he's lost what most of us would regard as a fortune. Tan isn't the first footballer club owner who doesn't understand thew game, but most of them realise that and make appointments which help to compensate for that, Tan doesn't - for a decade and ,more he's stood by a Chairman and CEO who've made getting it wrong into an art form.
Worst of all though, Tan shows no sign of learning from his mistakes. In fact, things are getting worse under him - i there may be those who are ambivalent about a Director of Footballl, but is there anyone else with an affinity for City who agrees with him that we're better off without one?
Despite the efforts of some on here recently to defend Tan's time in charge, it's an in escapable fact, that we're now worse off than we were when he took over. Clearly, we've got a worse team and the fact that the Academy is now producing good enough youngsters is wasted because of years long distrust of them by the people picking the team. Crowds are now lower than they were pre Tan and, although the club's away support deserves a medal, the growing evidence seems to be that, finally, the home support has had enough after four and a half seasons of, the very occasional exception apart, having dross served up at home.
The saddest thing of all is to imagine what could have been if the Tan money had been used sensibly with knowledgable staff advising him best to proceed. I find it impossible not to contrast what's happened in North Wales where enthusiastic foreign owners have gone out of their way to create connections with the locals by extending their influence beyond football matters - can you imagine the powers that be at Wrexham issuing a response to what was, when you consider what they've had to put up with, a reasonable request for more information by supporters' representatives?