Bill Foley

paul49 said:
But he's not waving the freebee red flags!

Can we nominate him for a knighthood.

Arise Sir William Foley of Boscombe.
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I believe that in the same shot from the TV cameras, to his right his wife could be seen clutching her "beer towel". So she might have been waving for two ;)

As much as I like him, I think we should hold off with the knighthood until we have the training centre and stadium situation adequately sorted.

And even then, we should probably hold back even longer, just to wait and see to whom the consortium sells us, once they have a viable exit.

So no knighthood just yet but I would definitely buy him a pint of "limey warm beer" and shake his hand enthusiastically. Seems like a top geezer so far.
 
I see there‘s due to be an interview with him in the programme tomorrow. It will be interesting to hear his take on progress so far.
 
dragonm8 said:
Bill put his money where his mouth was, but got extremely lucky guaranteeing our safety.

Gary O'Neil deserves credit where it's due.
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Lucky in what way?

Genuine question by the way, not a dig.

I think it’s unfair to label it as luck, he put his money where his mouth is, allowing us to not only compete with, but also to outspend the clubs around us in the January window. Not only that, but he was brave enough to not only give the managerial job to a man that virtually nobody in the fan base wanted (let’s be honest it was the majority,) but was also then brave enough to stick with the courage of his convictions when it seemed as though things were falling apart. The easy (and it could even be strongly argued that the logical) thing to do would have been to accept that the appointment was a mistake and to source a more experienced manager after our post World Cup run of form. Nathan Jones for example, accumulated more points during this period than O’Neil and he also got Southampton to the semi final of a cup competition by beating Man City. This wasn’t enough for him to keep his job at what was one of our direct relegation rivals. Leeds and Everton sacked their managers and sourced experienced replacements, look at where they are too.

For me nothing about this has felt lucky, it feels very much like Foley had a plan and a vision for this season and he went about ruthlessly carrying this out, regardless of what the common consensus was from the outside. I questioned him in January and again questioned him when he decided to appoint and stick with O’Neil, I was wrong and so were the many others who felt the same. He deserves an immense amount of credit for the way he has handled this season, and to label it as luck is just completely unfair imo.
 
In short. I was wrong as well.
I think the substitutions and going very defensive when in control was a factor to many questioning his ability.
 
borisatha said:
In short. I was wrong as well.
I think the substitutions and going very defensive when in control was a factor to many questioning his ability.
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Yes, it was the fact that we blew those leads after being in complete control in both games that really tipped many over the edge into the O’Neil out camp. It was a pretty logical thought process too, a more experienced coach would naturally be more adept at managing the game out.

He did make some very weird tactical decisions to begin with too, playing Billing on the wing is hardly something that screams ‘competent PL manager.’

For a long time it felt like we had no real identity or style of play, I think that was in large down to losing Tavernier and having no real pace in the attacking areas to fill the gap. The way GON wants to play seems to be heavily centred around being direct and breaking at speed.
 
KingKieffer said:
The way GON wants to play seems to be heavily centred around being direct and breaking at speed.
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Which is awesome and will always keep the top teams on their toes, who like to dominate with their quality, which we will realistically never be able to match. I like how he has us playing at the moment and the players seem to be enjoying it too. With the odd tweak here and there, I can see us doing well in this league for a good few years.
Now let’s show Chelsea how it feels to be on the receiving end of „GO ball“ !
:utc::love:
 
KingKieffer said:
Lucky in what way?

Genuine question by the way, not a dig.

I think it’s unfair to label it as luck, he put his money where his mouth is, allowing us to not only compete with, but also to outspend the clubs around us in the January window. Not only that, but he was brave enough to not only give the managerial job to a man that virtually nobody in the fan base wanted (let’s be honest it was the majority,) but was also then brave enough to stick with the courage of his convictions when it seemed as though things were falling apart. The easy (and it could even be strongly argued that the logical) thing to do would have been to accept that the appointment was a mistake and to source a more experienced manager after our post World Cup run of form. Nathan Jones for example, accumulated more points during this period than O’Neil and he also got Southampton to the semi final of a cup competition by beating Man City. This wasn’t enough for him to keep his job at what was one of our direct relegation rivals. Leeds and Everton sacked their managers and sourced experienced replacements, look at where they are too.

For me nothing about this has felt lucky, it feels very much like Foley had a plan and a vision for this season and he went about ruthlessly carrying this out, regardless of what the common consensus was from the outside. I questioned him in January and again questioned him when he decided to appoint and stick with O’Neil, I was wrong and so were the many others who felt the same. He deserves an immense amount of credit for the way he has handled this season, and to label it as luck is just completely unfair imo.
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Guaranteeing not to be relegated was a big call, given our position at the time.

Chelsea have spent nearly a billion quid on players and that hasn't seen the ROI they would have liked.

Foley can really impose himself now if he wants to.

Buying a club like ours on the back of some heavy defeats is a huge risk, there was no guarantees of survival.

Massive achievement to stay up, a risk that was factored into the deal, and will see Max Demin with an extra 10 million quid.

There has been a certain amount of luck, no two ways about it.
 
billythekid said:
Those who had a programme, was there anything new re his plans for the stadium and training ground?
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Lots of talk with Jim Frevola focussing on sponsorship and ticketing.

More food service and hospitality inside the ground.

All the rusty poles are going to be painted red and black.

Indoor training pitch will be finished September/October. Aiming to be cat 2 in May.

Women will also move to the training facility and have their own pitch and some of the women will turn pro.
 
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