Thanks for your contribution over the week. It’s good to have people offering counter arguments and being prepared to listen to opposing views.
What I would say on DC is that probably 90% of people are critical of him on some front. On this forum I think most people are also recognising a change in approach from him and so are prepared (for now) to put his mistakes in the past and look forward.
We have debated ticket prices for years. Yes, we’d like them to be cheaper and for the average fan, the prospect of £40+ for some games for an adult ticket is a more than we would want to pay. That said, we have largely rationalised away prices (we’re not the cheapest, we’re not the most expensive), deadlines for renewal both in timing and length and other things as necessary evils to try to give us a competitive squad.
We know his communication style leaves something to be desired but most of us aren’t offended nor bothered by it. We don’t see it as that important.
What most of us care about are the sustainability of the club financially and on the footballing side.
It could rightly be said that Chansiri failed historically on both fronts. We have been subject to penalties due to fucking up the ground sale and that’s on him. We also chased glory from day 1, expecting to get promoted to the Prem and for us not to have to worry about FFP rules. Again, Chansiri takes some of the blame (though not all, as we were 90 minutes from the Prem and in the playoffs the year after but bottled it both times. You cannot argue he didn’t back his manager). But you can argue that our approach was short term thinking. When it failed and we were eventually relegated, we had to use short term thinking again to build a team to get promoted. We have never really been building for the future.
This season that has changed. We have bought decent young player who could bring resale income, not just signed players in their 30s.
We’ve got one of the best managerial talents there is. He is happy here, he is loving it. He is building something.
There are other signs that DC is learning, as AB has listed.
I acknowledge that DC is changing things for the better in the areas that matter to me and hope that continues.
I don’t fool myself that he is perfect but I do think he genuinely cares about the club. I also think he would sell if he found someone who could take the club to the next level and do a better job than him.
Anyway, good to have you here. Have a great evening.