Friday night discussion. Tonight: Milan Mandaric

[Fox92]

4 minutes ago, Corky said:

Why he didn't convince Vichai and Top they had a perfectly good manager and any takeover came with a man who had nearly delivered consecutive promotions in charge is beyond me. Sticking with Pearson and good financial backing and I think we may've been promoted in 2011.

 

Even at Portsmouth their best manager walked out before being asked to return.

The fact Mandaric/Top/Vichai went to the play off game against Cardiff and invited Sousa pissed Pearson off and I don't blame him.

 

I do believe if Pearson would have stayed we'd have been promoted earlier. This is the same manager that got us to 5th in the Championship, a tough division that season, with a squad that was mid table at best.

 

However who knows if we'd have gone onto win the Premier League. I said it in a general chat thread, and it may seem obvious, but it's so strange how timing effects absolutely everything.

[Corky]

5 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

The fact Mandaric/Top/Vichai went to the play off game against Cardiff and invited Sousa pissed Pearson off and I don't blame him.

 

I do believe if Pearson would have stayed we'd have been promoted earlier. This is the same manager that got us to 5th in the Championship, a tough division that season, with a squad that was mid table at best.

 

However who knows if we'd have gone onto win the Premier League. I said it in a general chat thread, and it may seem obvious, but it's so strange how timing effects absolutely everything.

Some investment and we'd have at least been on a par with QPR and Norwich who were the top two. That decision to appoint Sousa and let Pearson go set us back at least two years.

[Head Honcho]

28 minutes ago, Vacamion said:

 

It's weird that Portsmouth sank and almost disappeared after he sold up his interest there yet we soared after he sold us.

 

It's only sheer luck that we haven't ended up like Coventry.

 

The point of Mandaric is to make us fully appreciate Vichai and Top.

 

 

Portsmouth were crippled by contracts dished out under previous owners and the terms of their administration.

 

After three consecutive months of not being paid players gave them two weeks notice and found other clubs. Despite these players leaving on free transfers and signing contracts with new clubs when they went in to receivership these players registered themselves as creditors. Several years later when Portsmouth were playing in League 2 they were still paying players as much as £5k a week.

 

Two dozen players were paid £7m over three years despite the fact that they were earning at their new clubs...shame on them.       Nugent, Etutu, Ben Haim, Kanu, Benjani, James and Lawrence to name a few.

[Spudulike]

Did we ever find out what happened between him and Martin Allen? 

[TJB-fox]

9 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

Did we ever find out what happened between him and Martin Allen? 

Allen used a ‘fancy’ agent to bring players in throughout his managerial career, used him at Leicester and we signed a load of shite on good money, causing fractures between them. Eventually got sacked because a group of senior players, Fryatt highly involved, went to Milan and said you need to give Allen the boot and he duly obliged. 

Not sure if that 100% answers your question, sorry if it doesn’t. 

Edited 5 March 2021 by TJB-fox

[Collymore]

It was exciting for me at the time mainly because of the calamitous state of the years before his appointment meant I'd have got excited over Roy Cropper taking over us. 

[fleckneymike]

Utter charlatan. Bought the club on the cheap by leaking false stories of our imminent demise so he could drive the price down and appear a hero. Ran it on the cheap. Bought players no one needed via an agent who is now struck off. Went through a rogues gallery of manager. Got us relegated. Got lucky with Pearson. Sacked him to make the club more attractive to the Thai's. Sold to the Thai's. We got v v v v v v lucky finding the current owners (or they found him).

 

He previous clubs perhaps paint a more accurate picture of his acumen as an owner and legacy builder. Sold Pompey to crooks. Pompey sink and nearly die. Sold Wednesday to another Thai consortium and they are a basket case.

 

The man got lucky, very lucky.

[fleckneymike]

1 hour ago, Langston said:

 

De Vries didn't cost us that much, did he?! 

No. Not even close. He and Maybury combined cost 100k. 

[CosbehFox]

38 minutes ago, TJB-fox said:

Allen used a ‘fancy’ agent to bring players in throughout his managerial career, used him at Leicester and we signed a load of shite on good money, causing fractures between them. Eventually got sacked because a group of senior players, Fryatt highly involved, went to Milan and said you need to give Allen the boot and he duly obliged. 

Not sure if that 100% answers your question, sorry if it doesn’t. 

Not doubting your story but worth mentioning that we signed a few odd players under our time with Mandaric which had the classic agent favour (this was after Allen as well) 

[Head Honcho]

40 minutes ago, davieG said:

I believe that Levein actually cut the wage bill considerably and that's probably a big contribution to why he failed.

You're right he was told to cut the wage bill. He signed the same amount of players as had left. The quality suffered obviously.

 

The only player he sold for any money was Connolly and the wage bill was reduced when Elliott, Keown, Pressman and Nalis left but increased again when we signed Maybury, de Vries, McCarthy, Kisnorbo and Hughes. He spent the £2m we received from Wigan for Connolly well imo. We spent half of it on Fryatt and Hume who averaged a goal every three games between them. Shame about Hammond  

 

I desperately wanted Levein to suceed but he signed too many players with little or no experience of Championship football.

 

I remember thinking at the time how big the gap was between playing in the Championship and playing in Scotlands top league. 

 

 

[Ric Flair]

2 hours ago, Head Honcho said:

Most of our opinions on Milan Mandaric will largely depend on when you started supporting City. A quick search of his name on here will prove that!

 

His tenure was a rollercoaster ride that's for sure but I loved every minute of it.

 

For me his legacy was finding us the owners we have today and for that I shall be forever grateful.

 

So what are your opinions off him?

 

 

I remember how torturous it was waiting to see whether he was going to be successful with the takeover or not. It seemed to last for months and Foxes Trust were getting a very bad name for being really negative about it all.

 

I've 2 stories to share.

 

1) Fulham away in the FA Cup 3rd round replay. Cadamateri had done the job and rescued us a replay and a day on the piss in London. Soon as the final whistle had gone I booked 3 national express tickets for the 1st bus down and the last bus back, the bog on the way down was broken and I had to piss in a 3 litre bottle of coke that I bought off 2 Korean lads who'd got on at Milton Keynes. It was a breathtaking gig, absolutely steaming and I spent about an hour and a half non stop chanting Milan is a Leicester fan in the boozer right by the Fulham ground. Got thrown out for being sick. 

 

2) Mandaric's first game as owner - Cov at home. My brother was working for a car leasing firm and one of his main clients had a box down the blue army, we got completely garried from about 10am onwards and I was asked to not be allowed any further drinks within half an hour of being in the hospitality suite. No bother, I went and let myself in next door and cleared out about 8 bottles of Speckled Hen. Think I was sick. Didn't watch much of the game as you couldn't swig whilst facing the pitch, probably drank the hens sat on the shithouse. Andy Johnson (the crap Welsh one scored I think for us) Horsfield too?

 

Mandaric came and did a meet and greet at the end, I was the absolute pits and rumour has it I tried to get him in a friendly headlock for a knuckle rub as a welcome. Offered him a speckled hen. 

 

My brother left that company a few weeks later due to unknown reasons. 

 

The glory days

 

 

[TJB-fox]

15 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

Not doubting your story but worth mentioning that we signed a few odd players under our time with Mandaric which had the classic agent favour (this was after Allen as well) 

He worked with a quite few European agents did Milan. Not a bad guy just took advice from all the wrong people. In response to the original question, the main issue was that the players hated Allen and not because of Allen/Milan relationship. 

Edited 5 March 2021 by TJB-fox

[dayday]

3 hours ago, Freeman's Wharfer said:

He was a necessary evil at the time. Swung into town on a wave of good PR when we were desperate for something, anything, positive, and used it to get a ridiculously good deal.

 

Chased the quick fix and found that throwing money at it and playing Russian roulette with his managers didn’t work before getting lucky with the appointment of Pearson. Not forgetting, of course, that he was weighing up whether to cut and run when we dropped to League One initially.

 

Once we were back to the level we were at when he took us over he wanted to sell to the highest or first bidder and did nothing to repay Pearson for having got us back there so brilliantly and then taken us to the play-offs. Big measure of the man, that.

 

When he did sell, it was our turn to get lucky. He’d have sold us to everyone and anyone and we struck gold with it being King Power. And it came at the right time as he was about to sell off Belvoir Drive and take the real estate money due to the facilities “not being fit for purpose” and training at Loughborough University supposedly being a better alternative (funny how we spent the best part of another decade there...)

 

We danced with the devil and got away with it. When you look at us and the other clubs he’s owned, it’s clear that it could have been much much worse.

 

 

To be fair to Mandaric, he did say he would only sell the club to people who would  take the club forward, he was true to his word. 

[Ric Flair]

We were promised Todorov when he arrived and signed Luigi Glombard instead

[Samilktray]

2 hours ago, Head Honcho said:

I think I'm right in saying that he appointed five managers in under three years and another five caretaker managers

 

However, we shouldn't forget how awful the administration he replaced were. They saved our club from extinction and I appreciate that but they didn't have a clue when it came to dealing with agents and they would have ruined us had they not sold to us MM.

 

Some of the contracts they sanctioned under Craig Levein were staggering.

 

I was out in Amsterdam watching Scotland play the Netherlands and on the flight back I was sat next to Ferrie Bodde. He played for Swansea and he was very good friend of Mark de Vries. He told me that on the day we signed Mark de Vries from Hearts he rang him and said "I've just won the lottery"

 

Saying that his last minute FA Cup winner against Spurs in 2006 when we was 2-0 down was worth the £1.5m fee     

I remember Ferrie Bodde being very good in the championship when he was at Swansea 

[Dan LCFC]

3 hours ago, Freeman's Wharfer said:

He was a necessary evil at the time. Swung into town on a wave of good PR when we were desperate for something, anything, positive, and used it to get a ridiculously good deal.

 

Chased the quick fix and found that throwing money at it and playing Russian roulette with his managers didn’t work before getting lucky with the appointment of Pearson. Not forgetting, of course, that he was weighing up whether to cut and run when we dropped to League One initially.

 

Once we were back to the level we were at when he took us over he wanted to sell to the highest or first bidder and did nothing to repay Pearson for having got us back there so brilliantly and then taken us to the play-offs. Big measure of the man, that.

 

When he did sell, it was our turn to get lucky. He’d have sold us to everyone and anyone and we struck gold with it being King Power. And it came at the right time as he was about to sell off Belvoir Drive and take the real estate money due to the facilities “not being fit for purpose” and training at Loughborough University supposedly being a better alternative (funny how we spent the best part of another decade there...)

 

We danced with the devil and got away with it. When you look at us and the other clubs he’s owned, it’s clear that it could have been much much worse.

Essentially exactly how I remember the whole thing. Never felt totally comfortable with him but it worked out so yeah.

[Scotch]

The way I look at it is, would we be where we are now without him? 

 

Would we have went under? No.

Would we still have been relegated? Maybe, maybe not.

Would we have ended up in the hands of KP and went on to be champions of England? I don't think so...

 

Chances are, we would have ended up in the hands of some steady Eddie owner and would still be yoyo-ing up and down the championship to this day. 

 

He was a lot of things and he was certainly no Khun Vichai but I don't think he was a Mike Ashley either. 

[Ross 'LCFC' Turner]

It’s interesting to hear how much of a big part the Birch played in Milan buying the club, he pretty much approached him as last chance saloon. 

[Paninistickers]

1 hour ago, fleckneymike said:

Utter charlatan. Bought the club on the cheap by leaking false stories of our imminent demise so he could drive the price down and appear a hero. Ran it on the cheap. Bought players no one needed via an agent who is now struck off. Went through a rogues gallery of manager. Got us relegated. Got lucky with Pearson. Sacked him to make the club more attractive to the Thai's. Sold to the Thai's. We got v v v v v v lucky finding the current owners (or they found him).

 

He previous clubs perhaps paint a more accurate picture of his acumen as an owner and legacy builder. Sold Pompey to crooks. Pompey sink and nearly die. Sold Wednesday to another Thai consortium and they are a basket case.

 

The man got lucky, very lucky.

This x 10000000

 

 

A dreadful, dreadful white collar financial crook. All his supposed spending was on the never never. Racked up on the club's own credit cards. 

 

On the take with agents.Getting his slice at both ends, all on the club. 

 

Absolutely fluked selling to the family. Fortunately Mandaric has the luck of someone blessed, and it rubbed off on us. We hit the jackpot. But make  no mistake, it was a lucky punch. 

 

 

[surrifox]

11 hours ago, fleckneymike said:

Utter charlatan. Bought the club on the cheap by leaking false stories of our imminent demise so he could drive the price down and appear a hero. Ran it on the cheap. Bought players no one needed via an agent who is now struck off. Went through a rogues gallery of manager. Got us relegated. Got lucky with Pearson. Sacked him to make the club more attractive to the Thai's. Sold to the Thai's. We got v v v v v v lucky finding the current owners (or they found him).

 

He previous clubs perhaps paint a more accurate picture of his acumen as an owner and legacy builder. Sold Pompey to crooks. Pompey sink and nearly die. Sold Wednesday to another Thai consortium and they are a basket case.

 

The man got lucky, very lucky.

Managed to persuade a jury that the offshore payments made to Redknapp’s dog were bona fide 

[surrifox]

11 hours ago, mancunianfox said:

This is roughly the first two transfer windows under Mandaric. I feel this needs some kind of Trigger Warning...

 

Summer: DJ Campbell, Josh Low, Radostin Kishishev, Bruno N'Gotty, Carl Cort, Hossein Kaebi, Sergio Hellings, Jamie Clapham.

 

January: Zsolt Lascko, Gabor Bori, Steve Howard, Matt Oakley, Lee Hendrie, Kelvin Etuhu and Barry Hayles. We got Marton Fulop on loan at some point in between who was good until getting recalled.

Casino Jimmy was summer too I think 

[AS78UK]

The lows makes the highs taste even sweeter.  Wouldn't change our history, pre Mandaric we nearly didn't have a club, post it we have the been Premier League champions.   

[HighPeakFox]

28 minutes ago, surrifox said:

Managed to persuade a jury that the offshore payments made to Redknapp’s dog were bona fide 

Always reminds me of this.

 

 

[AshbyBlue]

He signed  3 shirts in his first press conference when he took over the club and I bought the yellow/gold one Its in a frame now.Maybe worth more now than I what I paid for it.Saved our club whatever you think of the bloke.

[Fox92]

12 hours ago, Spudulike said:

Did we ever find out what happened between him and Martin Allen? 

Didn't Mandaric go for players Allen didn't want?

 

Remember when we were linked with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and rumours were he turned up and Allen told him to leave