It we just that the time was wrong

[Bill Johnson]

A classic line from a classic song. Driving past BDBL just now and seeing the near completed huge development catering largely for the cities large and growing Chinese student community got me wondering. If we were to be hooked up with Chengdu Blades now would we be tapping into a very lucrative partnership ? As my dear old Gran used to say, " The wheel never grinds with the water that is passed", the clock can't be turned back but maybe it was a case of great idea wrong time?

It WAS just that the time was wrong!

 

[Revolution]

A classic line from a classic song. Driving past BDBL just now and seeing the near completed huge development catering largely for the cities large and growing Chinese student community got me wondering. If we were to be hooked up with Chengdu Blades now would we be tapping into a very lucrative partnership ?

No. People in the PRC only like clubs that win all the time. The big evil CL clubs. I don't see how we'd make any money out of it. There are also few decent PRC players.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

A classic line from a classic song. Driving past BDBL just now and seeing the near completed huge development catering largely for the cities large and growing Chinese student community got me wondering. If we were to be hooked up with Chengdu Blades now would we be tapping into a very lucrative partnership ? As my dear old Gran used to say, " The wheel never grinds with the water that is passed", the clock can't be turned back but maybe it was a case of great idea wrong time?

It WAS just that the time was wrong!

It's come up on different streets, they were both streets of shame...

 

[georgebernardshaw]

It's come up on different streets, they were both streets of shame...

...both dirty, both mean

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

...both dirty, both mean

The dream was just the same...

 

[YouFUMS]

...both dirty, both mean

....we gotta move these colour Teeee Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.......

 

[bibbity bobbity boo]

....we gotta move these colour Teeee Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.......

wrong song, right band or was it a deliberate fuck up

 

[Cerberus Blade]

A classic line from a classic song. Driving past BDBL just now and seeing the near completed huge development catering largely for the cities large and growing Chinese student community got me wondering. If we were to be hooked up with Chengdu Blades now would we be tapping into a very lucrative partnership ? As my dear old Gran used to say, " The wheel never grinds with the water that is passed", the clock can't be turned back but maybe it was a case of great idea wrong time?

It WAS just that the time was wrong!

Your gran was eloquent for these parts Bill!

I like that saying. Never heard it before.

My gran used to say things like:

“Anybody can bend darn and pick nowt up”

And

“ There’s a difference between fartin and tearing your arse”

She was educated mind, and had a flair for poetry. She had a foul mouth though. Still, she once won the village annual “dirty limerick competition”. Her winning entry was so bad they couldn’t read all of it out. They had to substitute the really disgusting words with “de” It went like this:

De de de de de de de de,
De de de de de de de de,
De de de de de,
De de de de de,
De de de de de de de fuck!

 

[Grizzly blade]

The dice was loaded from the start

 

[SheepdipBlade]

A classic line from a classic song. Driving past BDBL just now and seeing the near completed huge development catering largely for the cities large and growing Chinese student community got me wondering. If we were to be hooked up with Chengdu Blades now would we be tapping into a very lucrative partnership ? As my dear old Gran used to say, " The wheel never grinds with the water that is passed", the clock can't be turned back but maybe it was a case of great idea wrong time?

It WAS just that the time was wrong!

I thought the whole Chengdu/Fradi etc thing was a brilliant idea. The board knew we hadn't the finances to compete at the top end of the PL and tried to innovate their way through. Links with Australia, Scandinavia,Turkey and Belgium too - sharing scouting networks, not just trying to raise funds - was a top idea. It's a pity that an experiment to see whether a club with the limited resources we have, could compete at the highest level if supported by an international network - was sunk by liars, cheats and self-entitled London bastards.
The board have got a lot wrong down the years - but IMO - this wasn't one.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

I thought the whole Chengdu/Fradi etc thing was a brilliant idea. The board knew we hadn't the finances to compete at the top end of the PL and tried to innovate their way through. Links with Australia, Scandinavia,Turkey and Belgium too - sharing scouting networks, not just trying to raise funds - was a top idea. It's a pity that an experiment to see whether a club with the limited resources we have, could compete at the highest level if supported by an international network - was sunk by liars, cheats and self-entitled London bastards.
The board have got a lot wrong down the years - but IMO - this wasn't one.

spot on.

UTB

 

[Minty]

I thought the whole Chengdu/Fradi etc thing was a brilliant idea. The board knew we hadn't the finances to compete at the top end of the PL and tried to innovate their way through. Links with Australia, Scandinavia,Turkey and Belgium too - sharing scouting networks, not just trying to raise funds - was a top idea. It's a pity that an experiment to see whether a club with the limited resources we have, could compete at the highest level if supported by an international network - was sunk by liars, cheats and self-entitled London bastards.
The board have got a lot wrong down the years - but IMO - this wasn't one.

I think that's a very good assessment.

The other fly in the ointment, if we had managed to stay up and further the experiment, would have been a manager incapable of managing in the PL.

 

[8lade]

It's a pity that an experiment to see whether a club with the limited resources we have, could compete at the highest level if supported by an international network - was sunk by liars, cheats and self-entitled London bastards.

Without putting up anything that could cause trouble, where do you see that this failed? I always thought it seemed selfish on behalf of United, using the other clubs (of which Fenerbahce had a much better recent history) to further our aims at their expense. (My test for 'is something fair', is to put myself or in this case United in the position of the subordinate and see how I feel about it).

 

[Blade56]

Your gran was eloquent for these parts Bill!

I like that saying. Never heard it before.

My gran used to say things like:

“Anybody can bend darn and pick nowt up”

And

“ There’s a difference between fartin and tearing your arse”

She was educated mind, and had a flair for poetry. She had a foul mouth though. Still, she once won the village annual “dirty limerick competition”. Her winning entry was so bad they couldn’t read all of it out. They had to substitute the really disgusting words with “de” It went like this:

De de de de de de de de,
De de de de de de de de,
De de de de de,
De de de de de,
De de de de de de de fuck!

I love your Gran

 

[Bladesway]

I thought the whole Chengdu/Fradi etc thing was a brilliant idea. The board knew we hadn't the finances to compete at the top end of the PL and tried to innovate their way through. Links with Australia, Scandinavia,Turkey and Belgium too - sharing scouting networks, not just trying to raise funds - was a top idea. It's a pity that an experiment to see whether a club with the limited resources we have, could compete at the highest level if supported by an international network - was sunk by liars, cheats and self-entitled London bastards.
The board have got a lot wrong down the years - but IMO - this wasn't one.

Don’t agree. Anyone at the time could see that China etc are fantastic if you are Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool etc. No one was ever going to have their heads turned by SUFC rocking up and buying a club for branding purposes. It was a classic cart before the Horse moment. You have to be established before you go to these places, otherwise they will still wear Man U shirts etc.

Our scouting network never unearthed anything that I can remember from these places. We took aging internationals and didn’t play them. How is that a good thing? Same with the purchases of players like Seck and Fathi. Just all seemed wrong. I don’t blame anyone but our own board for these flights of fancy.

The whole thing was utterly flawed. And if I were to be more cynical it perhaps had more to do with property than football. But I can’t state that as fact, just gut feeling.

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

My brother built them brick buildings across from the BP garage. True story.

 

[Bill Johnson]

I was really thinking about how we might attract a lot of new fans from the local Chinese student population if we still had Chengdu. It would be a very good marketing tool.

 

[northsomersetblade]

It's never a bad time for bawdy merriment

 

[SheepdipBlade]

Without putting up anything that could cause trouble, where do you see that this failed? I always thought it seemed selfish on behalf of United, using the other clubs (of which Fenerbahce had a much better recent history) to further our aims at their expense. (My test for 'is something fair', is to put myself or in this case United in the position of the subordinate and see how I feel about it).

I think it failed as our relegation from the PL shifted the goalposts of our relationship with many of our partner clubs and "invalidated" the very premis upon which they were built.
I wouldn't be so damning about the relationships either. Fradi gained promotion back to the Hungarian top tier in part due to the efforts of lads we sent out to play for them (and didn't Keith Curle start his managerial career with them at the time?) - Woule from Belgium sent some of their lads over to BDTBL to benefit from the better medical and physio services we have - and the Aussies got Monty. Some on here will think that was a curse - but Monty was a stand out player in their league when he arrived. Chengdu Blades sold hundreds of shirts through the Lane Shop and got a UK friendly tour. And I'm sure there were other benefits our partners got that ordinary Blades like us wouldn't be aware of.

 

[SheepdipBlade]

Don’t agree. Anyone at the time could see that China etc are fantastic if you are Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool etc. No one was ever going to have their heads turned by SUFC rocking up and buying a club for branding purposes. It was a classic cart before the Horse moment. You have to be established before you go to these places, otherwise they will still wear Man U shirts etc.

Our scouting network never unearthed anything that I can remember from these places. We took aging internationals and didn’t play them. How is that a good thing? Same with the purchases of players like Seck and Fathi. Just all seemed wrong. I don’t blame anyone but our own board for these flights of fancy.

The whole thing was utterly flawed. And if I were to be more cynical it perhaps had more to do with property than football. But I can’t state that as fact, just gut feeling.

Got to disagree with you B.

I don't think it was ever just about branding (you'd be right if it was) - I think there was a wider picture. I'd recognise we didn't unearth any diamonds - but China was seen at the time as a rising football superpower, Turkey had done well in recent World Cups and their players were doing well in the Bundesliga, we'd previously had Scandinavian nuggets like Jostein Flo - and look at the power Belgium have become. The idea seems sound to me - perhaps the implementation less so - - but imagine a Blades XI in the PL with the likes of Zlatan, Hazard, de Breune and Tosun. That would have been competitive!

To say it was utterly flawed seems overly harsh to me.