Melbourne Heart FC buy out - Man City, Melbourne City FC, etc.

[sheepdog]

Took me bout 6 years to accept hellas wont get into a league.

So my advice would be to give it 6 years and you will eventually accept the colour change.

Me personally, dont like the colour change but knowing Australian soccer, have accepted it and moved on.

The earlier you do the easier it is.

So is that like the "it takes 8 months to get over the break up of long term relationship" rule? Yeh pretty much.

For me, I just love live professional soccer. No point being bitter about shit thats happened.

You may never get over it, its more accepting the fact and living with it.

[Red or Dead]

Bunch a whingers.

 

Same shit coach.  Same shit players.  Same shit football. 

 

CFG has done everything in its power to keep things feeling the same.

Yet, we have to watch the same shit coach and the same shit players play the same shit football but in white and blue instead of red & white!

 

I'm sure if they gave us a world class coach who'd have us play beautiful football AND be dominant (and get results) then maybe I wouldn't miss the red & white so much...but yeah... 

[[LIBBA]]

https://www.facebook.com/TheresNoNavyBlueInMelbourne

 

Feel free to like and share

Mate i love the idea and i 100% agree with the fact that the navy blue stripe shouldnt be there, but i just think its a pointless exercise to make a fb page against it.

 

Do you think CFG give a shit about what we think? The only way they'll sit up and take notice of anything we have to say is if we do a mass protest as a whole and for example not rock up to the game or something. Even though i hate to refer the the North Terrace, but they protested and that made thier club sit up and take notice. If the Melburnians did the same, it would hurt a hell of a lot more considering the smaller fan base, but i dont think it would happen.

 

BTW love the kit you had on the FB page. Only thing i would change is to make the stripes into a sash.

 

You do that and i think i can fall in love with the home kit again

[Kiro Kompiro]

The whole point of buying is to spread the Man City brand.

 

We'll by the "other blue team in Melbourne" as long as CFG owns us.

 

It ain't changing.  Accept it and move on

[Cityamatic]

The whole point of buying is to spread the Man City brand.

We'll by the "other blue team in Melbourne" as long as CFG owns us.

It ain't changing. Accept it and move on

Best summary of the situation I've read. There is no way red will feature in any significant way so long as CFG own the club

[[LIBBA]]

The whole point of buying is to spread the Man City brand.

 

We'll by the "other blue team in Melbourne" as long as CFG owns us.

 

It ain't changing.  Accept it and move on

My point exacty.

 

I have excepted it, but i have to be honest, there is nothing strong about our home kit atm what so ever.

[jw1739]

Phooey to this nonsense about "spreading the brand."

 

Unless I already knew that we were 75% owned by Manchester City our home kit does nothing to suggest "Manchester City" to me at all.

[SF33]

Ultimatly id preferre a white and sky blue kit. Maybe something similar to last years third kit with the quaters. Or even stripes. If we use white and sky blue then the club could argue there is enough of a difference with sydney as they use navy blue and sly blue more predominatly. Although this is all pretty irrelevant as the cfg are going to get their way eventually

 

Not really sure why that will necessarily be the case. The request to use sky blue was thrown out before this season; what's going to change 2,3,5 years down the track to make the league reconsider? If other teams get a vote, the consensus would be against us having sky blue. I think it sets a pretty bad precedent and as much as people think the league is just going to be pushed around by CFG, I don't think it would be too keen on a foreign investor buying an existing club and then just changing its colours willy nilly for no real reason. Can't say I've seen a lot of Manchester City retweeting any Melbourne news recently...do they really care what we wear?

[SF33]

 

Make sure you have a catchy hashtag that was pivotal to the #KeepMelbourneRedAndWhite campaigns success...

wanting a read strip and not wanting navy in our strip...that's two different things...

 

 

I agree with the sentiment. It's not a deal breaker for me and I guess it's kind of understandable when CFG had to scramble for a home kit after the sky blue was turned down, but from 2015/16 onwards, it's more a case of 'Throw us a bone, CFG.' Either add a red stripe to the navy and sky blue, or remove the navy and add red in its place. Surely not too much to ask.

[[LIBBA]]

Phooey to this nonsense about "spreading the brand."

 

Unless I already knew that we were 75% owned by Manchester City our home kit does nothing to suggest "Manchester City" to me at all.

No it doesnt, but at the same time, besides word of mouth and changing the kit to sky blue, how else would they spead the brand around. They cant just put Man City all over the kit and the emblem for example.

 

Im at a point now that i know the Sky blue will most likely end up getting through and ive accepted that.

 

If by any chance the sky blue doesnt get through, then we need a much better kit than what we currently have. It has to be something different than an old 3rd strip Man City used a couple of seasons ago.

 

It has to be strong and something i can be proud to wear. No matter how short and how poor history was, i was always proud to wear the red and white Heart kit and still am to this day

[benzema23]

Well if people feel strongly about the kit, join the page: https://www.facebook.com/TheresNoNavyBlueInMelbourne

[Swiss Toni]

Well done benzema23 , ignore the knockers.

[Shahanga]

Lucky we had these guys come I n and buy the club, things are so good now.

[Dylan]

Lucky we had these guys come I n and buy the club, things are so good now.

 

 

and they were so good before? 

[Semper Cor]

No, things weren't so good before, but in order to come to that conclusion you will be comparing it to a very low benchmark.

 

The reality is that the CFG took over Melbourne's second licensed franchise in January earlier this year and it is now end of November, some 11 months later, and really we haven't seen any improvement in the team at all.  

 

If anything one can say we have gone backwards in some departments e.g. the team’s defence. This is particularly worrying as we all know the A-League is one where standing still is the same as going backwards as all other teams have shown improvement year upon year with this season being no exception. 

 

Taking into account issues over the club's identity, jersey, merchandising, the Villa debacle, and other issues, the team’s performance is an epitome of this club lacking any real leadership and direction.

 

IMO I think the CFG have grossly underestimated football in Australia and the A-League in general and have relied far too heavily on their Man City reputation and the ability of star drawing power like Villa and Duff to do most of their heavy lifting. 

 

This isn’t the EPL you can’t buy trophies here you need attitude, culture, courage, footballing nous and other values that money typically cannot buy.  The reality is that changes of substance need to be made and we have yet to witness any. 

[CityHeart]

 

 

This isn’t the EPL you can’t buy trophies here you need attitude, culture, courage, footballing nous and other values that money typically cannot buy.  The reality is that changes of substance need to be made and we have yet to witness any. 

 

 

But you can buy the correct people for the right positions.

 

We/they havnt done that yet. 

 

hopefully this off-season sees a club overhaul. A real one.

[gunheart]

This isn’t the EPL you can’t buy trophies here you need attitude, culture, courage, footballing nous and other values that money typically cannot buy. The reality is that changes of substance need to be made and we have yet to witness any.

But you can buy the correct people for the right positions.

We/they havnt done that yet.

hopefully this off-season sees a club overhaul. A real one.

Ah, the off-season. The time for all us Heart supporters to make a wish and hope that shit players are replaced with good players, and we make finals.

[gunheart]

This isn’t the EPL you can’t buy trophies here you need attitude, culture, courage, footballing nous and other values that money typically cannot buy. The reality is that changes of substance need to be made and we have yet to witness any.

But you can buy the correct people for the right positions.

We/they havnt done that yet.

hopefully this off-season sees a club overhaul. A real one.

Ah, the off-season. The time for all us Heart supporters to make a wish and hope that shit players are replaced with good players, and we make finals.

.....only about 19 weeks to go!

[Defibrillator]

It seems we're all pretty down about our current predicament. I've been really enjoying the insights from Falatsur and fellow Mancunians about CFG and their optimism towards where we'll end up. Whilst I understand the role of incremental change, I also think this needs to be balanced with action to prevent loss of good-will from fans and potential lost marketing opportunities if it takes too long to get our house in order.

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking about what CFG should be doing - plenty of vented spleens above would confirm that!! But I'm trying to think broadly about what CFG can do and what they can offer.

When you boil it down, CFG can bring four things to us that other clubs in the A-league can't access, or access to a lesser extent.

1. Money - and lots of it. Valuable especially for marquee players, coaching staff, administrative staff and facilities.

2. A global scouting network - I suspect only valuable for visa players.

3. Unique opportunities (like Manchester training camps and access to top flight coaching) which would be attractive especially to younger talented players.

4. The ability to loan us players from one of their three other clubs (if you include their Japanese interests).

Whilst we've seen our team head off to Manchester, the other three points of value adding have largely been ignored (I don't think the Villa "loan" was fully realised obviously). So I think we're coming to the crossroads to see how serious CFG are to this project. I would hope that in the (very near) future they will start exercising their advantages. So what could they do?

1. Bolster / rebuild / change the coaching (the latter preferable to me - one place where money can make a huge difference and I'm thinking seriously high profile), local scouting and football administration. Our five years have shown administratively we've been poor. The aim of this club is to win silverware - turning a profit should not be the primary reason to put a team on the park like the previous administration. Don't forget a high profile and excellent coach would be a point of difference to any developing player starting out on their career. If you offer a young player the ability to be mentored by a renowned coach and access to Manchester opportunities, it becomes a point of difference to attract better players.

2. An overhaul of the squad - especially focussing on visa players who are young enough, talented enough and fit enough to be on the park every week. Here the global scouts come in to their own. If we opened up 12-14 positions in the squad at seasons end, every player manager with a player coming off contract in Australia would surely be talking to us. Pick the best available 6-7 and fill the rest with the best youth as above. In all honesty, bar Mooy, Koren (b/c of contract), Paartalu (who I think will come good), and Melling, everyone should be looked at with a very critical eye. (Personally I'd keep others obviously, but the previous players mentioned are probably the only walk up starts or show great potential). I know you can't replace everyone, but I think someone needs to look ruthlessly at the market and become ruthless in trying to shift non performing contracted players. A top administrator would go a long way to achieving this.

3. Access one or two (sequentially if necessary) reliable, young, resilient loan players with a guaranteed tenure and commitment. Can value add in marketing and obviously to the squad where unexpected deficiencies come to light.

4. Upgrade our facilities, either current or a new location. Whilst this has been happening at LaTrobe, I think the City club should be located in the City. Obvious.

Are CFG up for this? Time will tell and I get the feeling we'll know sooner rather than later.

I'm ignoring the cultural/historical issues here, which is another topic in itself, in order to concentrate on getting a competitive team on the park. As we all know, a competitive team has so many spinoffs obviously including marketing and membership.

I'd be interested in other people's thoughts.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Defibrillator

[Peter]

A very good and well thought out post Defib (serious).

Yes they could do all that. Or they could go back to Manchester and allow backers who want to build a club for the people of Melbourne to take over and do the business. I would prefer the latter.

[HEARTinator]

Defib,

There are things that can be done immediately and there are things that will take time. In the immediate timeframe, we can, and we need to, overhaul the football department. I wrote during the game:

 

"Merrick takes a budget squad, has a backpacker in Riera and a Fijian Krishna, spuds like Muscat and Sigmund and turns then into a respectable team. Enuf said."

 

And this is the crux of the problem IMO. Surely with our cattle, on paper at least, we are not a side that should be beaten 5:1 by the Nux. No way! Our capitulation is down to our preparation or lack thereof and I suspect players may be losing confidence in JVS.

[Defibrillator]

A very good and well thought out post Defib (serious).

Yes they could do all that. Or they could go back to Manchester and allow backers who want to build a club for the people of Melbourne to take over and do the business. I would prefer the latter.

Fair call and like it. Not beyond the realms of possibility - time will tell.

[silva10]

 

A very good and well thought out post Defib (serious).

Yes they could do all that. Or they could go back to Manchester and allow backers who want to build a club for the people of Melbourne to take over and do the business. I would prefer the latter.

Fair call and like it. Not beyond the realms of possibility - time will tell.

 

 

Trust me when I say CFG will not walk away

 

They will get things right and the team will become successful in the long term. In the short term they need to make the one decision they can do amd move JVS on!

[M13]

_{CFG are never in a hurry... or rather, not concerned by time really}

Edited November 30, 2014 by M13

[NewConvert]

Its becoming obvious that CFG erred in the administration and football departments. Although to be fair to CFG regarding the coaching staff from when Aloisi was coaching and the team that is now in place, IIRC only one person remains. The NYL team is doing well and I think better than in the past so maybe the assistant is doing his job. But ultimately I am disappointed that the JVS that arrived to take over JA has disappeared and now more than likely has lost the players. The recruiting well somebody has to be responsible for the lack of balance.

[jw1739]

Excellent post Defib - agree with everything you say.

 

For me the most important thing that CFG needs to do, and do immediately, is to move to restore the faith and goodwill of the fans. Let's face it, things are going wrong both on and off the field, and the club seems to have no sense of belief in itself in anything that it attempts to do.

 

The common factor in the malaise that was Melbourne Heart and is now Melbourne City is the senior management at the club - Munn, Didulica and van 't Schip. I can see no improvement forthcoming until these people are moved aside or removed altogether.

 

For the life of me I cannot see why CFG doesn't bring in the necessary people from Manchester on an interim basis. The longer this is delayed the worse the situation is going to become.

Edited November 30, 2014 by jw1739

[Peter]

 

 

A very good and well thought out post Defib (serious).

Yes they could do all that. Or they could go back to Manchester and allow backers who want to build a club for the people of Melbourne to take over and do the business. I would prefer the latter.

Fair call and like it. Not beyond the realms of possibility - time will tell.

 

 

Trust me when I say CFG will not walk away

 

They will get things right and the team will become successful in the long term. In the short term they need to make the one decision they can do amd move JVS on!

Sorry to hear that.

 

Hopefully we can have a successful side the people of Melbourne will be proud to support.

[mjake1234]

A very good and well thought out post Defib (serious).

Yes they could do all that. Or they could go back to Manchester and allow backers who want to build a club for the people of Melbourne to take over and do the business. I would prefer the latter.

Fair call and like it. Not beyond the realms of possibility - time will tell.

Trust me when I say CFG will not walk away

They will get things right and the team will become successful in the long term. In the short term they need to make the one decision they can do amd move JVS on! Sorry to hear that.

Hopefully we can have a successful side the people of Melbourne will be proud to support. Hear hear. I am not just interested in being able to beat the tards. I want city to provide entertainment and I want Melbourne to be the capital of football

[Melburnian]

Do something you morons CFG.

[Falastur]

In 2008, when Sheikh Mansour bought MCFC, his company was fronted by a loud-mouth tool called Suleiman Al-Fahim - one of the men who would go on to buy Portsmouth and assist in driving it into the ground, leaving it in the precarious position it was until recently. He promised ridiculous things - a dream-team consisting of the most expensive players in the world, all bought at once. He did a lot to create the atmosphere of hostility in which we City fans still have to suffer. Mansour sacked him after less than a week, realising that what he was saying and doing was not in the best interests of the club. Instead he brought in Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, who is Chairman of City and I'm sure has a strong influence on Melbourne City - he is after all Ferran Soriano's boss. Under him, rather than spending stratospheric sums on players we realistically never had a chance with, we paid - admittedly over the odds - for proven PL players who could take the team to the next level. Khaldoon knew that these players would never win the league for the club, they weren't quite the right level, and none of those signings remain at the club (exceptions of Kompany and Zabaleta, both of whom were signed just before the takeover, and not by Mansour), but he signed them because he knew that that was what was required to progress. When we had made the transition to a consistent top-table team, then they started phasing out those players and replacing them with genuine quality, but they didn't go for those guys right away.

 

It was under Khaldoon that we established our 5-year plans. He asked for the club to qualify for the Champions League in 3 seasons and win the league in five, and he's the guy who has set our current "5 trophies in 5 years" ambition. He's a man who came in with no experience of running a club, but instinctively took over the reins like a pro - you only need to hear him talk to know that he is a very intelligent guy. Point is, CFG's leadership know that building a winning product takes time, and they don't try to just do it in one go. I'll be honest here - I don't think that the team you see before you right now is what they envisioned 12 months ago. Obviously we know they renewed a few contracts for a reason - I think because they thought that this would be the core of the old team, the ones they thought could be relied on to be the basis of a rebuild. Perhaps CFG have now realised they were mistaken in this belief, but I reckon they intended to fill more places than they actually did, and perhaps struggled to fulfil that intention. Nevertheless, they are not the type to panic, and in the next transfer windows, they will continue their project to update the team. I suspect that, just as in Manchester, they do not believe that they can build a championship-winning side in one season, and are planning to do so in two or three instead.

 

For those who argue that it's not just the players which need changing but the mentality - trust me that CFG knows this too. Khaldoon has spoken on several occasions about the problem that Manchester City had with mentality, and how they needed to fix it. This is something that the guys in charge will be sensitive to. In many ways I can't help but feeling that Citys Manchester and Melbourne have far more than a passing resemblance in the circumstances they were both in when they came under the Abu Dhabi umbrella, and this can only help CFG in their experience in Melbourne.

 

I know that this is all frustrating to behold. I desperately want to see Melbourne City succeed too, and I feel the same frustration. We know what it's like to support a team which is on a hiding to nothing and only angering its fans more day by day as it seemingly makes no progress. Trust me when I say that the emotions you will have felt at losing to Wellington Phoenix are still not as bad as what we felt when we lost 8-1 to Middlesbrough in 2008 and then had to watch our players laughing and joking with each other as they walked off the pitch because they cared so little about what had just happened. Incidentally, that was the very last match before Mansour came to Manchester. Ours is a club with a long history of disgrace and disappointment, so I hope that you'll believe us when we say that there are good things around the corner and that you can have confidence in CFG. We aren't just being brash, we were in your shoes not so long ago.

 

The only thing I can really beg of you is patience, and this is the point I have been taking a little too long to reach in the rest of my post. CFG know what they're doing, and while there will always be slip-ups and the odd disaster along the way, they intend to get there. It's just that they aren't a group prone to rushing things, nor to addressing issues in a really public way. They just get on with it behind the scenes, and if it turns out not to be good enough then they make sure that the next move is better. If you aren't satisfied then fine. I'm not going to tell you what to think, and I accept that some, perhaps many, won't be happy with this. But just give it time and see what happens. I suspect that next summer CFG will intend much more to wipe the slate and push on, and I'm very confident that in only a year or two's time that you'll be watching a team that firstly plays entertaining football without the penchant for collapse, and secondly begins to challenge for silverware. Just don't expect CFG to build Rome in a day. There are a lot of football club owners around these days who like to promise that, but CFG simply aren't one of those.

 

Anyway, that's my piece. Maybe it'll help, maybe it won't, but I just wanted to put that out there.

[moops]

I would rather watch city loose 5-1 and have a moan than go to the other side.

[mulhollanddrive]

Are we waiting for Ange to get sacked.

[thisphantomfortress]

Are we waiting for Ange to get sacked.

 

God I hope not.

[NewConvert]

Thanks Falastur. Appreciate the time you took to write that and every now and then I do need some encouragement.

[Moraiwe]

In 2008, when Sheikh Mansour bought MCFC....

It amazes me how you place so much faith in CFG when they have only one success(Manchester City) under their belt. Sure, there are no gaping failures that I am aware of, but I don't really see how they can be seen for being in for the long haul when they have never really been in a position to cut and run yet. Six years is hardly long term, not for anyone older than 35 at least. In regards to their A-League adventure they are, at best, an unknown.

I'm no expert on the subject, so I wouldn't mind being enlightened upon what makes CFG so great. Perhaps you could tell me what massive failures of their own doing that they've managed to rectify?

[belaguttman]

 

 

The only thing I can really beg of you is patience, and this is the point I have been taking a little too long to reach in the rest of my post. CFG know what they're doing, and while there will always be slip-ups and the odd disaster along the way, they intend to get there. It's just that they aren't a group prone to rushing things, nor to addressing issues in a really public way. They just get on with it behind the scenes, and if it turns out not to be good enough then they make sure that the next move is better. If you aren't satisfied then fine. I'm not going to tell you what to think, and I accept that some, perhaps many, won't be happy with this. But just give it time and see what happens. I suspect that next summer CFG will intend much more to wipe the slate and push on, and I'm very confident that in only a year or two's time that you'll be watching a team that firstly plays entertaining football without the penchant for collapse, and secondly begins to challenge for silverware. Just don't expect CFG to build Rome in a day. There are a lot of football club owners around these days who like to promise that, but CFG simply aren't one of those.

 

Anyway, that's my piece. Maybe it'll help, maybe it won't, but I just wanted to put that out there.

Thanks Falastur

I think that the current predicament and our despair results from

- a lack of stakeholder level communication from CFG regarding what is going on - we get corporate speak, glossy email communications that ignore the elephant in the room and we are still being asked to #believe. Given what has happened in the last 4 season we are understandably cynical

 

- I think that CFG have underestimated the task here. In part this may because they don't have experience of operating in a salary capped environment where each player investment needs to be particularly astute, compounded by the size of the lists here, it means that every recruiting mistake is magnified. Players can't be bought ad sold so easily during the season and there are less alternatives for off-loading mistakes during the season.

 

- Understandably given the relative size of the investments, Melbourne City is third by a long way on the pecking order but requires way over that level of thought and investment in human capital to get results. Sure, it may happen in time but the risk is that the current supporter base, the passionate supporters will be lost. This will risk Melbourne City becoming successful but with a predominance of bandwagons and celebrity fans who won't hang around in poor seasons - and all teams have those.

 

- I think that CFG have underestimated the sophistication and competitiveness of the local market. Sport fans here are savvy and there are a lot of compelling alternatives for their sport dollars, alternatives that don't deliver the same regular frustration, disappointment, anger and disappointment that game after game of watching this team deliver. We haven't even won a single home game since March! Promises and platitudes will  only go so far. Nobody will buy future season tickets on the promise of a guest 'star' after the Villa debacle for instance, and we have all heard and are sick of promises that things will be different when all the evidence points to it being exactly the same.

[KSK_47]

Thanks for the input Falastur. It is always encouraging to hear the positive experiences from you guys. For fans of 4 and a half year old club to complain about being "long suffering" (i dont use those words but others have) may be pretty funny to a City supporter but I think one of the biggest challenges we face is that unlike in the UK where you are born with a club people in Australia have seen Soccer teams fold over and over again (including our entire league). People dont have the same kind of attachments to these clubs yet and considering the sports history we are also very mistrusting of words without actions. So when people say long suffering consider all the crap we have seen before Heart existed too. 

 

As Bella points out here are plenty of other options to chose from when it comes to sport in Melbourne. We need to get it right because most people simply dont have time for more bullshit when in comes to football. 

 

I do believe you when you say we will be successful eventually. Its just frustrating that most of us on here saw these problems before they happened ... again. 

Edited December 3, 2014 by KSK_47

[Falastur]

In 2008, when Sheikh Mansour bought MCFC....

It amazes me how you place so much faith in CFG when they have only one success(Manchester City) under their belt. Sure, there are no gaping failures that I am aware of, but I don't really see how they can be seen for being in for the long haul when they have never really been in a position to cut and run yet. Six years is hardly long term, not for anyone older than 35 at least. In regards to their A-League adventure they are, at best, an unknown.

I'm no expert on the subject, so I wouldn't mind being enlightened upon what makes CFG so great. Perhaps you could tell me what massive failures of their own doing that they've managed to rectify? Eh...this is a subject I don't like to talk about because I'm aware that some people don't like this side of it but...you have to look at CFG in context. This is not a personal power trip for Mansour. You only have to look at how CFG compares to Abramovic, or Cardiff or Hull. Similarly, compare against Arsenal or the scum on the opposite side of Manchester (no offence meant to any United fans here) to see that his motives are not financial. Mansour's motives are twofold - he is a football lover and he is a patriot. CFG is designed to be the world's first global network of interlinked teams, but it is also designed to help out his country.

Basically, Mansour and Khaldoon want to engineer a situation where if you think of Abu Dhabi, you think of CFG. Note that I did not say that when you think of CFG you think of Abu Dhabi - I'm sure they would be happy for that to happen but that's not their goal.

Right now, as most of you are surely aware, the Gulf states are going through something of a crisis, and that crisis is the long-term future of the oil market. These states exist on oil revenue in a way it's almost impossible to think about, but they know it won't last forever, and so they are having to diversify. That's why they are marketing themselves as a peak tourist destination, and it's why they are putting huge funds into investment portfolios around the world. In this world, CFG exists as what is known as a "loss leader" - a product on which you deliberately lose money in order to market yourself and thereby create money for your other assets. In the Middle East business world, he is essentially marketing the reputation of his country on his ability to build a successful club. There has already been a number of sources which we've seen in Manchester which say that Mansour's business meetings now begin with a discussion on football. His intention is to encourage investment in Abu Dhabi and in his other network of businesses by saying "look guys! This is my pride and joy. See how much attention I'll put into the rest of my country too."

So basically, this is why CFG is in it for the long run. Of course Mansour cares about football - the reports say that, no matter where he is I'm the world, he has never missed watching a Manchester City match, and I'm sure he now pays close attention to Melbourne too - but he has staked his own name as a businessman on CFG. I know that CFG will be here for the long term and will succeed because if it falls apart, it will have a direct knock-on effct on the rest of his life.

I've just got to the office after spending my entire bus journey writing this, so I'll have to address other points later, maybe on my lunch break.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Falastur

[gunheart]

Off-field if they can let us members know what they are doing and why they are doing it.......great. I couldn't care less if they drink apple juice and piss on the AAMI Park pitch to help make it grow quicker. It'd be something.

On-field I want to see improvement, as everyone does.

As others have said in posts, we just hear the same bullshit and excuses. Coach and players don't give us much. If the board or owners group can let us know something.

[belaguttman]

The purpose of loss leaders is to get people in the door. Melbourne City is driving them out of the door! Look at our crowds, already 50% of Round 2 and falling.