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Talks about us quite a bit on this and some of it is pretty similar to the one he did with Simon Jordan a few weeks back. Probably the most open I've heard speak about the Beale situation though.. 'Michael's a very confident, confident person' There's a thin line between confidence and arrogance Les!
[Post edited 26 Mar 9:53]
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 08:19 - Mar 28 with 3204 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 20:02 - Mar 27 by 1JD
Could also have been Tim Iroegbunam. Had some shockers and was certainly not deserving of a starting place at times. Beale played a big part, which fits Ferdinand’s story. There were penalty clauses for not playing him.
And from what I’ve seen of Alex Aoraha, who plays the same position, I’d much prefer Aoraha. A player we own, who has genuine quality, but who has not yet had a chance.
It could be Tim Iroegbunam but the timing in terms of the alleged falling out between Sir Les and Warburton in the final few months of that season would make more sense with Sanderson who was signed on loan in January and sent off in one of his first games for the club.
I’ve not seen enough of Aoraha but he’s struggling to get into our first team squad whilst Iroegbunam‘s recently played in the Premiership and Europe for Villa which I suspect tells a story.
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 09:39 - Mar 28 with 3065 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 08:19 - Mar 28 by traininvain
It could be Tim Iroegbunam but the timing in terms of the alleged falling out between Sir Les and Warburton in the final few months of that season would make more sense with Sanderson who was signed on loan in January and sent off in one of his first games for the club.
I’ve not seen enough of Aoraha but he’s struggling to get into our first team squad whilst Iroegbunam‘s recently played in the Premiership and Europe for Villa which I suspect tells a story.
100% it was Andre Gray.
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 09:56 - Mar 28 with 3025 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 21:47 - Mar 27 by 1JD
“We’d taken a kid on loan and were paying quite a lot of money. And he’d had a couple of horror games. .. and this is what I’m talking about, development and giving people an opportunity. You’ll take someone from a Tottenham or an Arsenal, take them on loan, and allow them to play badly, in 10 games, but your very own you give 1 game to; and if he plays like that; you’re like right he’s out the door [from the managers perspective]. And that’s the only time I’ve had an argument with the manager.”
The context suggested to me it was related to a young player. A young prem loan, blocking our own young player that Les was not happy with. Either way, it was a fascinating listen behind the scenes.
at the time Les was pushing for Sinclair Armstrong to get in the squad as they were trying to get him to sign a new deal which is why I thought it was Gray, but could be anyone really, might be going back further to when McLCaren was playing any old shit instead of bright Samuel and Manning
[Post edited 28 Mar 9:57]
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 13:33 - Mar 28 with 2830 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 09:56 - Mar 28 by daveB
at the time Les was pushing for Sinclair Armstrong to get in the squad as they were trying to get him to sign a new deal which is why I thought it was Gray, but could be anyone really, might be going back further to when McLCaren was playing any old shit instead of bright Samuel and Manning
[Post edited 28 Mar 9:57]
Yeah, Gray and Armstrong does make sense.
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 13:45 - Mar 28 with 2794 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 08:19 - Mar 28 by traininvain
It could be Tim Iroegbunam but the timing in terms of the alleged falling out between Sir Les and Warburton in the final few months of that season would make more sense with Sanderson who was signed on loan in January and sent off in one of his first games for the club.
I’ve not seen enough of Aoraha but he’s struggling to get into our first team squad whilst Iroegbunam‘s recently played in the Premiership and Europe for Villa which I suspect tells a story.
Personally, I wasn’t a fan of Iroegbunam, whilst acknowledging he has talent. Talented, but lacks a defined position. Neither an attacker or defensive player, and seemingly not got the energy, hunger and desire needed to be box to box. I’d be surprised if he’s makes it at villa.
Aoraha is currently injured long term with a broken leg, which is a big shame as he was on the cusp of being given first team opportunities, as stated by Cifuentes himself. One of a very few select group of our youngsters who I thought could make it as this level having watched the u21s regularly over the last 10 years or so.
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 13:49 - Mar 28 with 2765 views
I believe there was a falling out about Gray around December/January 21/22. So either he's talking about that, or he's not being entirely truthful with his "that's the only time I fell out with a manager".
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 13:55 - Mar 28 with 2728 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 13:49 - Mar 28 by Northernr
I believe there was a falling out about Gray around December/January 21/22. So either he's talking about that, or he's not being entirely truthful with his "that's the only time I fell out with a manager".
or 'everybody wanted me to stay except the toxic fans, who drove me out'
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 13:55 - Mar 28 by EastR
or 'everybody wanted me to stay except the toxic fans, who drove me out'
I don't think (in the main) it was the toxic fans who drove him out - it was getting overruled by the board a lot of the time and not being able to do the DoF role properly.
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 13:55 - Mar 28 by EastR
or 'everybody wanted me to stay except the toxic fans, who drove me out'
not quite what he said, he did say it wasn't all fans but he's right it was toxic at the time and only real option was to go when the board were trying to get him to ride it out
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 15:32 - Mar 28 with 2529 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 14:18 - Mar 28 by daveB
not quite what he said, he did say it wasn't all fans but he's right it was toxic at the time and only real option was to go when the board were trying to get him to ride it out
He said it became toxic, which it clearly did. Can't believe there's someone else rolling their eyes about that on this thread. Not sure how else you could describe people singing 'fck off Les Ferdinand' at games and sticking up pictures of him, Hoos and Bhatia as clowns on the way to and all over the ground. All three have left, all family men. Probably a coincidence.
Interesting that he says he doesn't have social media but was clearly aware of ex-players (Kevin G) slagging him off. I still think he did far more good for the club than bad, and those figures he cited convince me even more. Yes, a poor final 18 months, but I think we treated him - our greatest number 9 and a decent, hardworking servant of the club subsequently - shamefully. But hey ho. I'm sure we'll never do that again to someone else.
I always really enjoy Stick To Football, easily the best football pod, but wish they'd done a tiny bit of research before this week so they could've asked some better questions of him. Everything he said was news to them (but not to us).
Pretty sure he was talking about Sanderson, who came in in January on an absolute packet and then shat the bed for eleven games while we sent Masterson out on loan in the same window. Gray and Hendrick also pathetic, expensive path blockers. I'd have fallen out with Warbs over all three too.
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 17:44 - Mar 28 with 2384 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 13:49 - Mar 28 by Northernr
I believe there was a falling out about Gray around December/January 21/22. So either he's talking about that, or he's not being entirely truthful with his "that's the only time I fell out with a manager".
Indeed, he was clearly being ‘economical’ with the truth which is fine and understandable, it’s a platform for him to tell his side.
Ramkilde-gate in itself would be one example of falling out with the manager after Les gave him a very generous contract and Warburton had 0% interest in him and used him once out of spite at left wing.
Also his statement that he ‘never signed a player the stakeholders didn’t sign off on’ was clearly a massage of the reality when you accept the board were in no position to challenge him on a players ability and is an extremely generous self assessment of him going and outbidding Aston Villa for Jay Emmanuel-Thomas when Ramsey was manager by default and in Les’ words we were trying to reign in costs.
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 18:48 - Mar 28 with 2305 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 17:44 - Mar 28 by lassel
Indeed, he was clearly being ‘economical’ with the truth which is fine and understandable, it’s a platform for him to tell his side.
Ramkilde-gate in itself would be one example of falling out with the manager after Les gave him a very generous contract and Warburton had 0% interest in him and used him once out of spite at left wing.
Also his statement that he ‘never signed a player the stakeholders didn’t sign off on’ was clearly a massage of the reality when you accept the board were in no position to challenge him on a players ability and is an extremely generous self assessment of him going and outbidding Aston Villa for Jay Emmanuel-Thomas when Ramsey was manager by default and in Les’ words we were trying to reign in costs.
Once again flabbergasted at the access you have lassel. Covers everything from Ruben's thinking to contracts of players we signed 10 years ago. Whoever your contact is, they must be both high up and have a wide-ranging brief at the club. If I sat and thought about it, judging by who's still at the club and the kind of info you have, it can only be one of a handful of people. I'm surprised they're ok with how much you divulge on here, I have to say, but it's always interesting to read it.
Bare bones.
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 23:12 - Mar 28 with 2028 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 20:57 - Mar 28 by Loyalitat
Only started in 13 of those games too.
Gray was an interesting one. Reasonable return in terms of goals but impact beyond that was zero but was clinical at times.Was very overweight and fans around me were generally negative towards him.
We may thi k this is dream land when currently after 38 games top goalscorer has 5 goals.
My view re Les, was shockingly poor treatment by large percentage of fans being extremely bitter towards him.
If the Rangers job had not come up, Beale wasn't leaving and no matter how shit he departed on - and I certainly did not like it either - we were sixth and he had got a tune out of a squad that Critchley and Ainsworth hardly got any wins.
I don't like Beale now and sure Les feels the same, because he could have been a success here. But the anger then turned on Les, so much so that when they had thirtieth anniversary half time reunion with great team of 92 / 93, the star man Les, was not able to be a part of it.
For me that wasn't our fan bases finest hour !!!
There is no doubting the passion and work ethic of Sir Les.
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 13:49 - Mar 28 by Northernr
I believe there was a falling out about Gray around December/January 21/22. So either he's talking about that, or he's not being entirely truthful with his "that's the only time I fell out with a manager".
Gray could hardly be described as a kid though, it's hard to imagine anyone in football using that terminology for a senior player.
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 23:12 - Mar 28 by numptydumpty
Gray was an interesting one. Reasonable return in terms of goals but impact beyond that was zero but was clinical at times.Was very overweight and fans around me were generally negative towards him.
We may thi k this is dream land when currently after 38 games top goalscorer has 5 goals.
Proper striker making proper strikers runs and scoring goals. Might be awhile before we see anything like that again.
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 08:54 - Mar 29 with 1768 views
Really good listen but it’s pretty clear he is really having a pop at Warburton on more than one occasion.
A little torn on his treatment by fans. But the bottom line , in his own words was, the MO was to produce youngsters to sell on . 1 in 10 years isn’t a great return in anyone’s standards no matter what the orbiting circumstances that contribute to that .
However, I think it’s important we do not forget Lee the player and what he achieved and helped us achieve in his time with us .
In that respect a total legend who we should now embrace no matter what went on after
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 10:55 - Mar 29 with 1689 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 21:34 - Mar 28 by Antti_Heinola
Once again flabbergasted at the access you have lassel. Covers everything from Ruben's thinking to contracts of players we signed 10 years ago. Whoever your contact is, they must be both high up and have a wide-ranging brief at the club. If I sat and thought about it, judging by who's still at the club and the kind of info you have, it can only be one of a handful of people. I'm surprised they're ok with how much you divulge on here, I have to say, but it's always interesting to read it.
Both the mentioned parts are public info Antti.
Ramkilde’s agent gave a (very ill advised) interview to a Danish paper when he joined us saying the deal was driven by Les and they’d hoped for a short term extended trial sort of deal as he had spent 2 years injured and paying out of his own pocket for operations and physios to try and play football again, so were understandably ecstatic when Les offered 18 months on proper wages.
On JET, he was on Onouha’s podcast discussing how he ended up at QPR - he went up to Villa with his agent to meet Tiger Timmy Sherwood, left happy with the offer and on the drive home they got a call from Tim & Les’ shared agent saying QPR wanted him and would they come to meet Les and Chris Ramsey to do the deal…
In the same interview JET mentions that at the start of 16/17 Hasselbaink was told that JET couldn’t play for the club and had to go out on loan, JETs agent lined up a deal with Reading and the next day they were told ‘from above Hasselbaink’ he couldn’t go to Reading and they had to go down a division on loan. He also says at the start of 16/17 he sat down with Holloway and agreed that if he came back for pre-season in proper shape he would be in the squad for 17/18. He came back and met the agreed target (corroborated by Onouha) but the deal was pulled, leaving him spending the entire season training with the kids on great wages.
Now of course we must add the disclaimer that Onouha also wasn’t very happy about how he left QPR, but even so, they’re pretty strong allegations to make up and there is no ambiguity about who they’re talking about.
Have a listen Antti - ‘Kickback with Nedum’, it’s still on Spotify and Apple…..from 30-40 minutes (so you don’t have to JET too much). That podcast is gold for stories about the clubs management team from Zamora, Granero, Faurlin, SWP, JET, Ephraim, Phillips, Fabio, Taarabt, Bidwell, Hoilett and others.
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 11:51 - Mar 29 with 1644 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 10:55 - Mar 29 by lassel
Both the mentioned parts are public info Antti.
Ramkilde’s agent gave a (very ill advised) interview to a Danish paper when he joined us saying the deal was driven by Les and they’d hoped for a short term extended trial sort of deal as he had spent 2 years injured and paying out of his own pocket for operations and physios to try and play football again, so were understandably ecstatic when Les offered 18 months on proper wages.
On JET, he was on Onouha’s podcast discussing how he ended up at QPR - he went up to Villa with his agent to meet Tiger Timmy Sherwood, left happy with the offer and on the drive home they got a call from Tim & Les’ shared agent saying QPR wanted him and would they come to meet Les and Chris Ramsey to do the deal…
In the same interview JET mentions that at the start of 16/17 Hasselbaink was told that JET couldn’t play for the club and had to go out on loan, JETs agent lined up a deal with Reading and the next day they were told ‘from above Hasselbaink’ he couldn’t go to Reading and they had to go down a division on loan. He also says at the start of 16/17 he sat down with Holloway and agreed that if he came back for pre-season in proper shape he would be in the squad for 17/18. He came back and met the agreed target (corroborated by Onouha) but the deal was pulled, leaving him spending the entire season training with the kids on great wages.
Now of course we must add the disclaimer that Onouha also wasn’t very happy about how he left QPR, but even so, they’re pretty strong allegations to make up and there is no ambiguity about who they’re talking about.
Have a listen Antti - ‘Kickback with Nedum’, it’s still on Spotify and Apple…..from 30-40 minutes (so you don’t have to JET too much). That podcast is gold for stories about the clubs management team from Zamora, Granero, Faurlin, SWP, JET, Ephraim, Phillips, Fabio, Taarabt, Bidwell, Hoilett and others.
Yeah I love Ned's pod and listened to a lot of it, cheers! I think you've made a few leaps in what you're presenting as fact in that case, however, and some of the adjectives you use are slightly questionable. I know someone who's worked at the club for two separate stints for a number of years. They would tell me bits and pieces - some of it was true, some of it I later found out wasn't quite how they painted it, because all people have their prejudices and slants they put on things for different reasons (much like how any employee of any company likely thinks the people running the company are idiots and/or out of touch etc etc). There's a fair bit of conjecture about exactly what Ramkilde's wages might have been, for example, and what might be good wages to a Dane playing in Denmark may not be quite so out of the ordinary for a Championship player (although whatever he was paid it was a waste!). And for what it's worth I think how Ned was treated by the club, Les (and for many years, a section of our fans) was pretty disgraceful.
Bare bones.
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Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 12:19 - Mar 29 with 1591 views
Les on the Stick to Football podcast on 15:32 - Mar 28 by TK1
He said it became toxic, which it clearly did. Can't believe there's someone else rolling their eyes about that on this thread. Not sure how else you could describe people singing 'fck off Les Ferdinand' at games and sticking up pictures of him, Hoos and Bhatia as clowns on the way to and all over the ground. All three have left, all family men. Probably a coincidence.
Interesting that he says he doesn't have social media but was clearly aware of ex-players (Kevin G) slagging him off. I still think he did far more good for the club than bad, and those figures he cited convince me even more. Yes, a poor final 18 months, but I think we treated him - our greatest number 9 and a decent, hardworking servant of the club subsequently - shamefully. But hey ho. I'm sure we'll never do that again to someone else.
I always really enjoy Stick To Football, easily the best football pod, but wish they'd done a tiny bit of research before this week so they could've asked some better questions of him. Everything he said was news to them (but not to us).
Pretty sure he was talking about Sanderson, who came in in January on an absolute packet and then shat the bed for eleven games while we sent Masterson out on loan in the same window. Gray and Hendrick also pathetic, expensive path blockers. I'd have fallen out with Warbs over all three too.
Its incredible how little these premier league types know or care about the restrictions and issues down below. Actually it isn't incredible at all tbh but is sad and sums up the state of the modern game. That said, Stick to Football is largely excellent.
I thought it was very interesting and always believed he was doing his best and was undermined at times. Too many keyboard warriors were all too quick to jump on the "black mafia, Les's black mates" bandwagon, which says plenty about them. Most of the poor decisions likely came from above him in terms of meeting manager demands and going away from the plan.
I immediately thought of Gallen when he mentioned ex players. He might have been a good football player but there isn't much intelligence there.
As for Warbs, really liked him as a coach and he did a pretty good job while here. However there's clearly a side to him which isn't that pleasant.
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