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City Football Group (CFG) [Owner of Melbourne City]


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14 minutes ago, playmaker said:

Sorry but I don't see a problem with my posts as in context to the discussion they are pretty clear what the intent is. If we are only allowed to post if we witness everything first hand then nothing would really be open to discussion. I don't get my back up at all mate. All good. I just find it interesting that Munn somehow gets absolved from responsibility when he is the captain of the ship. Sure he may have to point the ship as directed but he is ultimately responsible for everything that happens on there. Anyway enough said.

I don't think Marwood and Hodgson came over to play marbles at Bundoora that's for sure.

The biggest issue is that you seem to keep wanting to blame Munn for something he seemingly has no major influence over. The biggest failure of this club is the football department if we were successful on the field the majority of the other problems such as memberships below targets, poor crowds etc. would disappear. 

You keep trying to attribute the blame for the team's on field success and mentality (both of which are inextricably linked to each other) to Munn. This issue has been around since the very start. We know that previously as Heart, the coach was chosen by Sidwell, yes Munn and JD had input, but their recommendations were not necessarily followed (this is evidenced by Sidwell choosing JA over Milicic after having narrowed down the candidate pool to the two of them). I think it is fairly safe to assume that there is similar arrangement in place currently (possibly even with Munn getting less say on the Football Department's appointments) where by the coaching appointments are chosen by the higher ups. The fact that CFG sent in Roy Hodgson to identify the short falls in the football department is also evident that it is not local management that will be making a coaching appointment decision.

Now if you want to blame Munn out for failures in other areas feel free to, but don't blame him for things that in, your personal opinion, he is responsible for when the limited evidence we have suggests otherwise. 

Another point is that, in my opinion, JD should carry a fair chunk of the blame in relation to the on field and attitude problems as he was director of football. He has presumably been held to account as he has since (been) moved on.

36 minutes ago, playmaker said:

You are missing my point. Anyway I am sure that if he had invested into one of his offices enough needed to have the best of everything to dominate the competition and it was reported that the poor performance was due to a poor leadership and culture, then heads would roll starting at top, I have no doubt.

Once again the area where there is poor leadership and culture is in the men's team. We know that JVS was responsible for this and you can lay blame at the people who appointed JVS and/or chose not to terminate his contract early, but this person is highly unlikely to be Munn.

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2 hours ago, malloy said:

The biggest issue is that you seem to keep wanting to blame Munn for something he seemingly has no major influence over. The biggest failure of this club is the football department if we were successful on the field the majority of the other problems such as memberships below targets, poor crowds etc. would disappear. 

You keep trying to attribute the blame for the team's on field success and mentality (both of which are inextricably linked to each other) to Munn. This issue has been around since the very start. We know that previously as Heart, the coach was chosen by Sidwell, yes Munn and JD had input, but their recommendations were not necessarily followed (this is evidenced by Sidwell choosing JA over Milicic after having narrowed down the candidate pool to the two of them). I think it is fairly safe to assume that there is similar arrangement in place currently (possibly even with Munn getting less say on the Football Department's appointments) where by the coaching appointments are chosen by the higher ups. The fact that CFG sent in Roy Hodgson to identify the short falls in the football department is also evident that it is not local management that will be making a coaching appointment decision.

Now if you want to blame Munn out for failures in other areas feel free to, but don't blame him for things that in, your personal opinion, he is responsible for when the limited evidence we have suggests otherwise. 

Another point is that, in my opinion, JD should carry a fair chunk of the blame in relation to the on field and attitude problems as he was director of football. He has presumably been held to account as he has since (been) moved on.

Once again the area where there is poor leadership and culture is in the men's team. We know that JVS was responsible for this and you can lay blame at the people who appointed JVS and/or chose not to terminate his contract early, but this person is highly unlikely to be Munn.

The problem is CFG hired JVS twice. We should have hired a different coach three years ago instead of JVS. And then they just gave Valkanis the job for the rest of this season. They should have gave valkanis the coaching job for 2 weeks before getting a new coach

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The City group don't seem ruithless and driven enough to do what is necessary to make Mel City a top team.

Our standards should dictate that this last season was an appalling failure in not reaching the grand final and also not making the acl notwithstanding the FFA cup win The response from the City group has been tepid at best.Heads need to roll both on and off the field.

By contrast I noted this comment from Jason Geriatric in today's paper. Regarding the grand final

"I feel privileged this is the second one I am involved in but at Melbourne Victory we set our standards pretty high and grand finals and championships are the standard for us."

City Group need to get hungrier for success and make a statement for next year. In my view expectations need to be raised across the board and the best way to do this is appoint Gus Hiddink as coach.

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1 hour ago, TheStig said:

The City group don't seem ruithless and driven enough to do what is necessary to make Mel City a top team.

Our standards should dictate that this last season was an appalling failure in not reaching the grand final and also not making the acl notwithstanding the FFA cup win The response from the City group has been tepid at best.Heads need to roll both on and off the field.

By contrast I noted this comment from Jason Geriatric in today's paper. Regarding the grand final

"I feel privileged this is the second one I am involved in but at Melbourne Victory we set our standards pretty high and grand finals and championships are the standard for us."

City Group need to get hungrier for success and make a statement for next year. In my view expectations need to be raised across the board and the best way to do this is appoint Gus Hiddink as coach.

 

I think they are weary of appearing to owners who chop and change managers at the drop of a hat. Whether this is right or wrong is a different issue altogether.

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5 hours ago, malloy said:

The biggest issue is that you seem to keep wanting to blame Munn for something he seemingly has no major influence over. The biggest failure of this club is the football department if we were successful on the field the majority of the other problems such as memberships below targets, poor crowds etc. would disappear. 

You keep trying to attribute the blame for the team's on field success and mentality (both of which are inextricably linked to each other) to Munn. This issue has been around since the very start. We know that previously as Heart, the coach was chosen by Sidwell, yes Munn and JD had input, but their recommendations were not necessarily followed (this is evidenced by Sidwell choosing JA over Milicic after having narrowed down the candidate pool to the two of them). I think it is fairly safe to assume that there is similar arrangement in place currently (possibly even with Munn getting less say on the Football Department's appointments) where by the coaching appointments are chosen by the higher ups. The fact that CFG sent in Roy Hodgson to identify the short falls in the football department is also evident that it is not local management that will be making a coaching appointment decision.

Now if you want to blame Munn out for failures in other areas feel free to, but don't blame him for things that in, your personal opinion, he is responsible for when the limited evidence we have suggests otherwise. 

Another point is that, in my opinion, JD should carry a fair chunk of the blame in relation to the on field and attitude problems as he was director of football. He has presumably been held to account as he has since (been) moved on.

Once again the area where there is poor leadership and culture is in the men's team. We know that JVS was responsible for this and you can lay blame at the people who appointed JVS and/or chose not to terminate his contract early, but this person is highly unlikely to be Munn.

I agree with everything you have written with exception to Munn's limited role in poor decision making. Ultimately the responsibility lays with the CEO as I have already stated.

I look at it from the viewpoint of going forward and with the some of the the changes imminent, I really wouldn't want anything getting in the way of the radical changes needed for the club's long term success.

Furthermore, I don't think anyone can say that Munn is necessary for our future success and if anything he poses a potential risk if indeed I am right.

Anyway time will tell, and regardless I just hope everyone gets their shit together.

Edited by playmaker
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1 hour ago, TheStig said:

The City group don't seem ruithless and driven enough to do what is necessary to make Mel City a top team.

Our standards should dictate that this last season was an appalling failure in not reaching the grand final and also not making the acl notwithstanding the FFA cup win The response from the City group has been tepid at best.Heads need to roll both on and off the field.

By contrast I noted this comment from Jason Geriatric in today's paper. Regarding the grand final

"I feel privileged this is the second one I am involved in but at Melbourne Victory we set our standards pretty high and grand finals and championships are the standard for us."

City Group need to get hungrier for success and make a statement for next year. In my view expectations need to be raised across the board and the best way to do this is appoint Gus Hiddink as coach.

 

Completely agree with u. For the three seasons we have been apart of CFG. We should have made the ACL twice but we didnt because of stupid loses we should have won and stupid tactics we played. We could have beaten adelaide in the semis last year if novillo played or if we played with a defensive tragedy. We could have made second this year(possibly first) if we had the right coach.

The history of Melbourne City has been the best team with the most expensive players in the A-league but shit coaching and management.

Yes the womens and youths win titles. But the main silver wear that represents the club is the A-league title and thats something we do not have. We have youth players that possibly could be stars but i find that if they play with the ridiculous strategy and they will not get an opportunity to play because you need to have the best defenders, the best midfeilders and the best attackers to be able to play the way we do and its not working out for us anyway so why keep playing it.

We should play flat 4-4-2 with 2 defensive midfeilders, one runs up while the other stays back. Our fullbacks run half way run back or if they keep running foward then our wingers drop back. We do not press our defenders high as well as it creates opportunities for our opponents to counter attack. We have a strong striker who is good in the air (Cahill) up front and the other striker right behind him (fornaroli)

Thats my rant done 😂

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12 hours ago, malloy said:

I think they are weary of appearing to owners who chop and change managers at the drop of a hat. Whether this is right or wrong is a different issue altogether.

Pretty much. When Khaldoon and Garry Cook sacked Mark Hughes back in 2009, they were ruthlessly savaged by the British media for being everything wrong with football - heck, a full year on, when Hughes's new Fulham team played Manchester City, leading sports journalists declared live on TV that it would be a "victory for football" if Fulham were to win the game, for no reason other than because they thought they club needed to be taught a lesson about how unfair it was to sack him after a mere 18 months. The fact that they had retained a managerwho they hadn't even appointed in the first place (he was hired just weeks before the takeover) for so long was entirely irrelevant. This is also before the Barcelona guys joined CFG, and everyone knows that Barcelona like to base the way they work on natural succession rather than frequent change and so on.

Ever since then, it's seemed fairly strongly to me that they have a real aversion to not giving managers long enough to prove themselves. The only really like to step in when they think that things just aren't working. Firing Jason Kreis in New York after only one season is pretty much the only time that they have leapt to action since then, and I can only presume that that is because they were just getting the vibe that he simply was not working in terms of what they wanted from a manager.

Others here have observed multiple times that in spite of JVS' serial failures, he was slowly achieving what could be deemed his minimum required standards every year. It was always my gut instinct that they were keeping him on 'til the end of his contract simply because they felt that a sacking would go against their word from the start of each season that he would continue if he met X, Y and/or Z conditions. People will say that them bringing in a new manager now means that the clock is reset and we're now going to be stuck with a new guy who could serially fail until the end of his contract. The corollary to hiring a brand new manager, of course, is that he will have targets set at exactly where they think Melbourne City should now be at, and not based on a function of growth since the manager's previous season.

Anyway, as Malloy says, whether you think this is a positive or negative, that's the indication I get of how CFG operates.

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Falastur, the only thing I would add to the above is that Jason Kreis was actually Head Coach at NYC for almost two years - 1st January 2014-2nd November 2015. That period included only one playing season, but he was there while the first squad was being assembled. 

Interestingly Kreis is doing quite well so far at Orlando City.

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5 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Falastur, the only thing I would add to the above is that Jason Kreis was actually Head Coach at NYC for almost two years - 1st January 2014-2nd November 2015. That period included only one playing season, but he was there while the first squad was being assembled. 

Interestingly Kreis is doing quite well so far at Orlando City.

Yeah, Orlando are doing surprisingly well this year. However, their previous season under Kreis was every bit the disappointment that Kreis' time at NYCFC was, so it remains to be seen whether it's a flash in the pan or the start of something new.

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Since the takeover, Melbourne Victory have been Premiers, FFA Cup winners, two grand final appearances and one championship.... just let that sink in CFG.

We have a FFA Cup, choked 1st position (15/16), choked 3rd position.

Edited by haz
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I wouldn't get your hopes up about any meaningful announcements from Melbourne City HQ at the moment. The news drip-feed out of the club has pretty much dried up. I think we're in one of our periodic snooze breaks.

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4 hours ago, Chris p said:

Didnt we just sign Petrillo ? 

Petrillo is football operations manager, Munn is the current CEO.

 

I can't see Pignata coming to us, he would't cope not being able to open his mouth like he does at Sydney

Edited by haz
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On 5/6/2017 at 3:46 PM, xXCiTyZeNXx said:

The problem is CFG hired JVS twice. We should have hired a different coach three years ago instead of JVS. And then they just gave Valkanis the job for the rest of this season. They should have gave valkanis the coaching job for 2 weeks before getting a new coach

Might wanna fact check that one buddy. I may be wrong but December comes before January.

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3 minutes ago, thisphantomfortress said:

I do agree they got the Valkanis situation wrong, IMO.

Of course l. It makes sense to try to look for a proper successful manager who has had much more experience then keeping valkanis. 

The big problem with valkanis is you would have thought he learnt something from Gombau, Amore and JVS but it went in 1 ear and out the other.

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14 minutes ago, thisphantomfortress said:

I think you missed my point, the CFG never hired JVS. He was hired in December, the CFG bought Heart at the end of January.

Unfortunately you are wrong there Phantom.

When van 't Schip came back after Aloisi was fired, it was as Interim Head Coach. He was re-appointed, under the ownership by CFG/Manchester City, on a new contract as Head Coach in March 2014, as per the following announcement on the Club web-site:

Heart web-site 19th March 2014

Melbourne Heart FC has today announced the signing of John van’t Schip as its Head Coach.

Van’t Schip, Melbourne Heart FC’s inaugural Head Coach, re-joined the Club as interim coach in January this year and has agreed a new three year contract through to the end of the 2016-17 season.

Melbourne Heart FC Chief Executive Officer Scott Munn said van’t Schip had demonstrated his suitability for the role by his proven leadership skills and coaching approach which have resurrected the team’s fortunes during the past 11 rounds.

“John has not only secured great results and helped the team build on our philosophy of playing attractive football, but he has illustrated that he has the ability and desire to take the Club forward next season,” Munn said.

Ferran Soriano, Chief Executive Officer of Manchester City FC, the majority owner of Melbourne Heart FC, said: “We are very happy that John van’t Schip will remain Head Coach of Melbourne Heart FC. Playing good football is at the centre of our plans for the future of the Club and John has already demonstrated his ability to help us achieve that ambition.”

 

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Just now, jw1739 said:

Unfortunately you are wrong there Phantom.

When van 't Schip came back after Aloisi was fired, it was as Interim Head Coach. He was re-appointed, under the ownership by CFG/Manchester City, on a new contract as Head Coach in March 2014, as per the following announcement on the Club web-site:

Heart web-site 19th March 2014

Melbourne Heart FC has today announced the signing of John van’t Schip as its Head Coach.

Van’t Schip, Melbourne Heart FC’s inaugural Head Coach, re-joined the Club as interim coach in January this year and has agreed a new three year contract through to the end of the 2016-17 season.

Melbourne Heart FC Chief Executive Officer Scott Munn said van’t Schip had demonstrated his suitability for the role by his proven leadership skills and coaching approach which have resurrected the team’s fortunes during the past 11 rounds.

“John has not only secured great results and helped the team build on our philosophy of playing attractive football, but he has illustrated that he has the ability and desire to take the Club forward next season,” Munn said.

Ferran Soriano, Chief Executive Officer of Manchester City FC, the majority owner of Melbourne Heart FC, said: “We are very happy that John van’t Schip will remain Head Coach of Melbourne Heart FC. Playing good football is at the centre of our plans for the future of the Club and John has already demonstrated his ability to help us achieve that ambition.”

 

Fancy that, I thought we hired him full time straight off the bat. I wonder what influence if any CFG had at that point.

6 minutes ago, xXCiTyZeNXx said:

Of course l. It makes sense to try to look for a proper successful manager who has had much more experience then keeping valkanis. 

The big problem with valkanis is you would have thought he learnt something from Gombau, Amore and JVS but it went in 1 ear and out the other.

Hmm I don't think its that simple. It is a very big ask for a first time manager to turn around a rot that had been going for around a month by that point.

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6 minutes ago, thisphantomfortress said:

Fancy that, I thought we hired him full time straight off the bat. I wonder what influence if any CFG had at that point.

I'm going to guess - not too much. At that stage they did not own us outright (the "Storm interests" held 20%). I suspect that it was more CFG/Manchester City rubber-stamping what was recommended by Heart. It was a surprise to many at the time that both Munn and Didulica held their jobs under the new ownership.

Now that we have our new Board, which has been doing a lot of pushing and shoving of FFA, I suspect that CFG has a much bigger say in what goes on locally. However, as per recent Forum discussions on Munn's future, I don't think any outsider knows exactly how the whole structure operates.

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1 minute ago, playmaker said:

I think it is naive to suggest Munn didn't have a significant influence in the appointment of JVS part 2. As for Valkanis, whoever was responsible for that needs to be belted.

Nobody is arguing that? We were pointing out it is unlikely the CFG had a big role in it, if you look at it objectively Munn clearly did,

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1 minute ago, thisphantomfortress said:

Nobody is arguing that? We were pointing out it is unlikely the CFG had a big role in it, if you look at it objectively Munn clearly did,

Yep.

Just making a statement out of frustration mate.

The more I think about how the management/administration steered our team into this season's rot, the more frustrated I get.

 

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Wassnt it established last year that effectively when CFG first came in they effectivly said to the current group we will give you a chance with our resources, which seems to be their standard MO according to our Manchester posters?  Seems to be a lot of chopping and changing on here on how much CFG actually gets involved with day to day with lots of unsubstantiated rumors thrown about. Personally, I was under the impression that they have a hands off approach unless help is requested, bar the usual meetings and reporting that you would expect. 

With the Valkanis thing, Im not surprised at all with how they appointed him for the rest of the season and that Valkanis basically continued what JVS was doing. Makes sense if you put yourself in his shoes, someone with little experience is of course going to continue the same work of the old manager that he was heavily involved in anyway. The only thing he did change was bring in a 4 man defense which was worse than our 3 man defense. 

 

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I think whats getting overlooked and is actually interesting to me is that you can't really look at the individual appointments such as Valkanis and Munn more so their position in their team (coaching and managerial ).

When JVS announced his departure instead of bringing in a new coach or just appointing his assistant they restructured the entire coaching staff of Men women's and youth.

So in effect they just continued the same plan and structures they have been developing. It will be interesting to see what happens when a new senior coach is appointed. 

A well experienced well connected coach will bring in his own assistants and what happens to the existing coaching team. Or will I be just a single person to fill the single position. 

Very interesting. 

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14 hours ago, haz said:

Petrillo is football operations manager, Munn is the current CEO.

 

I can't see Pignata coming to us, he would't cope not being able to open his mouth like he does at Sydney

Which is a shame, There's nothing wrong with a bit of personality in football 

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  • 3 weeks later...
20 minutes ago, Dylan said:

Doesn't mince words does he. Completely slams the men's teams finish and mentality 

Yes, identifies the character of the team as the issue and confirms a new coach is coming. Hardly a series of groundbreaking revelations but good to hear nevertheless

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The Blues and Reds of Melbourne raise funds for Manchester

mcfc supporters

 

 

Monday, 5 June 2017 -

Melbourne’s Manchester City and Manchester United Supporters Club put their football allegiances aside as they gathered to raise funds for the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing.

The supporter clubs gathered at the Imperial Hotel on Bourke Street on Sunday to raise $17,000 for the emergency fund managed by the British Red Cross and the City of Manchester Council.

Over 60 items were raffled to raise money for the appeal, with Melbourne City donating a range items that both City and United fans of the Club snapped up over the day.

Melbourne City would like to congratulate both supporter clubs on their fundraising efforts.

 

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OK so first off - huge kudos to the men and women who organised and donated to the above fundraiser. 

Now this is synical at least conspiracy theory at worst. I just find it very interesting that our club puts out a media release about a fundraising event unrelated to our fans. I can think of three examples of similar things our fans did (melburnians good Friday appeal, greatest shavers this year and the sleep at the g)  all of these the club were well aware of but no similar article was put out. 

So greatest shave they pushed Brattan so I get them not talking about fan stuff. But this just makes me feel that they give more of a shit about Manchester City fans than Melbourne City fans. The club is horrendous at engagement and they don't seem to be improving with celebrating the success of the Manchester City fans club while ignoring our own fans successes. 

Am I looking too much into this or are others seeing it the way I am? 

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