I feel bit bad for him, he's done a lot for the club and they're treating him like that. He makes mistakes like everyone does but that is a bit to much, how shit would you feel if that was you?
Evening all. It's all a bit doom and gloom down here. I've remained pretty impartial with regards to the chairman. He can talk sense about the business side of the club, improving the infrastructure and imposing a strict wage limit... but thats there where it ends. It all started at Notts County last year when Mitchell apparently went into the dressing room at half time and caused chaos. It had a massive effect on Eddie Howe, combine that with the sale of the likes of Josh Mcquoid (when top of the league) and Brett Pitman and their relationship was doomed. Howe didnt want to leave but it was obvious he couldnt stand Mitchell - you had all that on/off moves to your club and Palace before finally going to Burnley.
At the time Howe was seen to be more of the fault man, afterall he said pubicly he was staying one week, only the leave the day after. The appointment of Bradbury was not met with too much delight - it was seen as the cheap option at the time. After 10 games things has settled down, still in the top 3, no need for any alarm bells. What started to become apparent was that Mitchell started to revel in selling players. He blamed Marvin Bartley for an underhand move to Burnley (who has since accussed Mitchell of lies and unfair dismissal of another player). He blamed Wiggins for publicly wanting out and disrupting the squad (he said he had to be restrained when Wiggins said "I don't care about the Bournemouth fans apparently). Players like Hollands and Anton Robinson were not signing contracts. There was a general feeling that the players did not want to be at the club anymore - difficult to know whether that was due to Howe leaving or Mitchell.
And so the story continued. As the team lost confidence and slipped out of the automatic places without a recognised striker - only to be partly saved by the young Danny Ings. Despite all this and the penalty shoot out miss against Huddesfield, the season ended on a high, the feeling more upbeat than not. So what changed? The mass exedous of players was one. Mitchell blamed players wanting more money, which could be difficult to argue if the 1.5 k wage limit is to be believed. What the fans did not start believe was Mitchells intentions. After Pitman, Mcquoid and Bartley went Wiggins, Hollands, Smith, Pearce, Robinson and Ings. Never before had so many players been sold, generating over 3 million in income. Considering the club was meant to be debt free before this, the question was - where has all the money gone? Money was being spent on new changing rooms, new car parks and ice baths but nothing was being spent on replacing the 8 players that had just been sold. To make matters worse our chief scout and youth manager walked out (not to other jobs)- the very people that had generated this player income were no longer there. When we came to sell Jason Pearce Mitchell did not know there was a 50% sell on clause to Portsmouth (how can even think of selling a player without knowing the terms of the deal) and blamed the previous establishment for signing players with such clauses.
So, there was still the feeling that 'at least the club is safe'. The truth is we don't know. There were still CCJ's hanging around, people claiming money was owed to them and a feeling that all the building work was benefiting Mitchells building business rather than the club. Despite his drunken ramblings on local radio, accusations of not playing bar bills when we played Southampton and lots of other voices of discontent I still walked into the fans forum the other week with an open mind.
Then I heard him speak. It was a disaster. Apart from the 'support Southampton' jibe he seemed in complete denial, I'm not an accountant, I don't know how money in the bank' and so on. It was an incredibly awkard and tense hour, it almost seemed surreal. The manager was sitting next to him and he looked livid when he said 'Don't blame me for not bringing in any players' only to say five minutes later 'it was my fault Constable did'nt sign for us. After that forum I came to the conclusion I had no trust whatsoever in this man - Bradbury and Fletcher were the fall guys in the middle.
I had left on Saturday without witnessing the scenes on the pitch - call it brave, arrogant, passionate, naive, stupid.. not sure which... but just hearing his defence on SSN this evening was laughable - this man is in complete denial!
I am just listening to the forum and the first 10 mins is shocking to listen to what the chairman has to say. The fans are obviously concerned and rightly so and all the chairman can say is "It's not may job" or "If you don't like it go and support Southampton" in my view that is totally mental from a Chairman of a football club.
We are lucky to had Richard Murray as chairman because he responded well and professonally and connected well with us.
Heard his live phone interview on SSN at 8 tonight with Jim White and Mitchell sounded drained. Was hoping he would lose it and tell Jim White to do one but alas not.
I listened to the fans forum on BBC (45 mins approx I think). I was amazed when the Chairman made his comments to disgruntled fans. Telling your customers to basically Naff Off if they want to make any comment of critisism is not a clever business move.
I see his point that he saved them and turned around the clubs fortune but then if it wern't for Howe making it happen on the pitch what state would they have been in under his reign, as they have basically sold a whole team less a couple out of contract players.
His main arguement is all the players sold wanted to go for better wages and a few were refusing to play for the club to get out of contracts. I am sure there is a lot of truth in this point but to sell on a complete team and lose your backroom people shows it goes deeper than just this argument, he is in charge of the club so must shoulder some of the blame.
However, regardless of how much is or is not his fault, telling your fans to go feck their selfs is stupid and out of order, they are the life of the club and there next generations, he is as all owners of football clubs the caretaker for a period of time.
Speaking to those at the game today it appears that his behaviour off camera was far worse. The fans were behind the team for 90 mins and only made their feelings known at the end THEN they started clapping the players as they could see how down they were. Mitchell decided to go over and didnt like it when a few questioned where the money had gone. He totally lost it and could have got very nasty. Also has a habit of going in the drssing room and rumoured to have taken a swing at a player who remonstrated. Dear me.
Or mine or Polo's much earlier in the thread. They are not asking for the moon, just a better explanation of where the money has gone in light of burger all of it being on the pitch and them supposedly being debt free before they started selling off most of the team this summer.
In my experience they are very much aware that they are in a difficult position financially, they just don't want to be taken for the mugs that Mitchell is trying to.
tbh though bournemouth without him they proberly wouldnt have a club, i also think although its wrong because you dont buy a club to make money, if and it is only an if he has pocketed some of the transfer cash which i believe the insinuation from bournemouth fans is,
surely he should be entitled to as it was his cash used to save them
it aint right i amn not saying it is but theres two sides to this coin i think
Evening all, good comments here on a good message board. Of course we are grateful that the club still exists ... however it's not like Mitchell invested his own money per say - it's a repayable 500k loan (to be fair the previous establishment put loans in too)... we don't know the interest rate and it just adds to the clubs debts. I would argue that anyone could save the club by selling 8 players and getting close to 3 million..... to then hear that money is spend on building work on a stadium we don't even own is the bit that gets to the fans (by coincidence he owns a property company in a down turn)
fair point drag back i dont know enough about your club and you post reasonable debate and answers so it is very interesting to hear the fans point of view,
Has there always been question marks over mitchels stewardship?
I dont think you can defend any owner or chairman who intereferes with the playing side or even enters the changing room to do anything other than congratulate the players
i think that the 3 mil figure could easily be swallowed up debts and other out payments but i also reckon he could pocket a few quids too, it must make you very fearful that he is taking money out before it vanishes into a black hole that could be lurking in the back ground
which is the wrong thing to do mog but only because it leaves you open for criticism,
but it is not wrong if the ground needs doing why not use your own company, if you are only doing work for the sake of doing work then it is very worrying
i know it doesnt sit right but it is not totally illegal but it proberly is more ethically wrong
Know what you're saying NLA, but, At Full price, then tell your supporters to "Go and support Southampton..." and then go on the pitch after a 3-0 Home defeat and "offer out" fans ? The Guy has less credibility than simon jordan (S**t, did I just say that ?)
I'll reserve judgment until I've seen the figures. Bournemouth may have sold £3m worth of players, but most football clubs run at a day to day loss, I suspect that much of that money has disappeared already in wages and signing players - even Bosman transfers g=have a cost as their signing on fees need to be paid for. What Eddie Howe did with no money was phemomenal and it was always going to be tough following that once the side broke up. That doesn't excuse Eddie Mitchell's behaviour though, but I think the real problem is that he's out of his depth and doesn't understand PR. Another egotist who's living the dream as owner of a football club and regretting every minute.
Comments
Evening all. It's all a bit doom and gloom down here. I've remained pretty impartial with regards to the chairman. He can talk sense about the business side of the club, improving the infrastructure and imposing a strict wage limit... but thats there where it ends. It all started at Notts County last year when Mitchell apparently went into the dressing room at half time and caused chaos. It had a massive effect on Eddie Howe, combine that with the sale of the likes of Josh Mcquoid (when top of the league) and Brett Pitman and their relationship was doomed. Howe didnt want to leave but it was obvious he couldnt stand Mitchell - you had all that on/off moves to your club and Palace before finally going to Burnley.
At the time Howe was seen to be more of the fault man, afterall he said pubicly he was staying one week, only the leave the day after. The appointment of Bradbury was not met with too much delight - it was seen as the cheap option at the time. After 10 games things has settled down, still in the top 3, no need for any alarm bells. What started to become apparent was that Mitchell started to revel in selling players. He blamed Marvin Bartley for an underhand move to Burnley (who has since accussed Mitchell of lies and unfair dismissal of another player). He blamed Wiggins for publicly wanting out and disrupting the squad (he said he had to be restrained when Wiggins said "I don't care about the Bournemouth fans apparently). Players like Hollands and Anton Robinson were not signing contracts. There was a general feeling that the players did not want to be at the club anymore - difficult to know whether that was due to Howe leaving or Mitchell.
And so the story continued. As the team lost confidence and slipped out of the automatic places without a recognised striker - only to be partly saved by the young Danny Ings. Despite all this and the penalty shoot out miss against Huddesfield, the season ended on a high, the feeling more upbeat than not. So what changed? The mass exedous of players was one. Mitchell blamed players wanting more money, which could be difficult to argue if the 1.5 k wage limit is to be believed. What the fans did not start believe was Mitchells intentions. After Pitman, Mcquoid and Bartley went Wiggins, Hollands, Smith, Pearce, Robinson and Ings. Never before had so many players been sold, generating over 3 million in income. Considering the club was meant to be debt free before this, the question was - where has all the money gone? Money was being spent on new changing rooms, new car parks and ice baths but nothing was being spent on replacing the 8 players that had just been sold. To make matters worse our chief scout and youth manager walked out (not to other jobs)- the very people that had generated this player income were no longer there. When we came to sell Jason Pearce Mitchell did not know there was a 50% sell on clause to Portsmouth (how can even think of selling a player without knowing the terms of the deal) and blamed the previous establishment for signing players with such clauses.
So, there was still the feeling that 'at least the club is safe'. The truth is we don't know. There were still CCJ's hanging around, people claiming money was owed to them and a feeling that all the building work was benefiting Mitchells building business rather than the club. Despite his drunken ramblings on local radio, accusations of not playing bar bills when we played Southampton and lots of other voices of discontent I still walked into the fans forum the other week with an open mind.
Then I heard him speak. It was a disaster. Apart from the 'support Southampton' jibe he seemed in complete denial, I'm not an accountant, I don't know how money in the bank' and so on. It was an incredibly awkard and tense hour, it almost seemed surreal. The manager was sitting next to him and he looked livid when he said 'Don't blame me for not bringing in any players' only to say five minutes later 'it was my fault Constable did'nt sign for us. After that forum I came to the conclusion I had no trust whatsoever in this man - Bradbury and Fletcher were the fall guys in the middle.
I had left on Saturday without witnessing the scenes on the pitch - call it brave, arrogant, passionate, naive, stupid.. not sure which... but just hearing his defence on SSN this evening was laughable - this man is in complete denial!
Looks like from the outside it could be a long and painful season for you guys. Good luck.
We are lucky to had Richard Murray as chairman because he responded well and professonally and connected well with us.
I see his point that he saved them and turned around the clubs fortune but then if it wern't for Howe making it happen on the pitch what state would they have been in under his reign, as they have basically sold a whole team less a couple out of contract players.
His main arguement is all the players sold wanted to go for better wages and a few were refusing to play for the club to get out of contracts. I am sure there is a lot of truth in this point but to sell on a complete team and lose your backroom people shows it goes deeper than just this argument, he is in charge of the club so must shoulder some of the blame.
However, regardless of how much is or is not his fault, telling your fans to go feck their selfs is stupid and out of order, they are the life of the club and there next generations, he is as all owners of football clubs the caretaker for a period of time.
Or mine or Polo's much earlier in the thread. They are not asking for the moon, just a better explanation of where the money has gone in light of burger all of it being on the pitch and them supposedly being debt free before they started selling off most of the team this summer.
In my experience they are very much aware that they are in a difficult position financially, they just don't want to be taken for the mugs that Mitchell is trying to.
tbh though bournemouth without him they proberly wouldnt have a club, i also think although its wrong because you dont buy a club to make money, if and it is only an if he has pocketed some of the transfer cash which i believe the insinuation from bournemouth fans is,
surely he should be entitled to as it was his cash used to save them
it aint right i amn not saying it is but theres two sides to this coin i think
Evening all, good comments here on a good message board. Of course we are grateful that the club still exists ... however it's not like Mitchell invested his own money per say - it's a repayable 500k loan (to be fair the previous establishment put loans in too)... we don't know the interest rate and it just adds to the clubs debts. I would argue that anyone could save the club by selling 8 players and getting close to 3 million..... to then hear that money is spend on building work on a stadium we don't even own is the bit that gets to the fans (by coincidence he owns a property company in a down turn)
fair point drag back i dont know enough about your club and you post reasonable debate and answers so it is very interesting to hear the fans point of view,
Has there always been question marks over mitchels stewardship?
I dont think you can defend any owner or chairman who intereferes with the playing side or even enters the changing room to do anything other than congratulate the players
i think that the 3 mil figure could easily be swallowed up debts and other out payments but i also reckon he could pocket a few quids too, it must make you very fearful that he is taking money out before it vanishes into a black hole that could be lurking in the back ground
which is the wrong thing to do mog but only because it leaves you open for criticism,
but it is not wrong if the ground needs doing why not use your own company, if you are only doing work for the sake of doing work then it is very worrying
i know it doesnt sit right but it is not totally illegal but it proberly is more ethically wrong
mate i aint saying he is not a prize clown of the highest order i think if i am honest he is up there with risdale for likability
i just think that there is more to this than any of us i know