Ron V Vic

[blue shrimp]

My memories regarding Vic Jobson are hazy to say the least being only young during his command,My dad installed his thoughts upon me and today he was pretty much spot on.

Under Vic we became all seater,south stand was built,500k players,prolonged period playing 2nd level football,promotions....All in all VJ apart from various run ins with fans achieved much during his watch,Personally Vic in some ways was an unlucky chairman simply because the club never attracted the crowds it deserved.

Under Ron we have seen cup finals, promotions and one season at second level,FF stills seems a million miles away,Threadbare squad trying to compete without any funding,Tilson IMO the best blues boss ever must be getting fed up as after every poor display Tillys rep nosedives.Rons past aquaintance with banned chairman and his arrest and of course being cleared of any crime still leaves a lot to be desired.

My verdict

Ron 2 Vic 5

 

[DTS]

I could be wrong here as like you was a kid during the Jobson era but I tihnk you will find the legacy of Vics reign left us with crippling debts which have created many of the problems that we have today.

Have you ever wondered how a club like us with half the support then and from my memort little commercial activity that we have today could afford to pay top players wages such as Whelan,Marsh, Boere,Byrne,Mcnally etc - All of whom must have been on top money?

Jobson also wanted to relocate the club to Basildon, likened the fans to the Hilter youth movement and lost Dave Webb at the height of our sucess and replaced him with Colin Murpy.

The jury reamains out on Ron until he delivers FF in my book but I do feel the club has come a long way under his rule

At the end of the day I dont think fans ever really like or trust a chairman unless they pump millions of there own money in the club. And when they stop being a cash cow they then become hated and are acused of asset stripping.

Its a thankless task and love or hate Ron I dont think any would argue he has a massive job on his hands trying to appease our fickle support.

 

[Napster]

Compared to previous chairmen we have had, Ron and Vic are saints.

 

[Napster]

I could be wrong here as like you was a kid during the Jobson era but I tihnk you will find the legacy of Vics reign left us with crippling debts which have created many of the problems that we have today.

Jobson also wanted to relocate the club to Basildon, likened the fans to the Hilter youth movement and lost Dave Webb at the height of our sucess and replaced him with Colin Murpy.

The jury reamains out on Ron until he delivers FF in my book but I do feel the club has come a long way under his rule.

To be fair, most clubs have debts. Yes, agreed Vic wasn't exactly endearing, but he did give Webby another chance to manager - and Murphy came as a recommendation from Howard Wilkinson (and he did buy Stan Collymore!). Vic also got Fry which was an achievement.

ps Vic also wanted us to move to Milton Keynes, and I'm sure Ron has entertained similar ideas himself as well.

 

[blue shrimp]

Vic will always be somewhat a hero for me..The signing of Mike Marsh for £500,000 still makes my dad chuckle today..In todays money would be the same if the club paid a couple of million for a player.

 

[The Flying Scotsman]

Under Vic we owned our Stadium.

 

[DTS]

Vic will always be somewhat a hero for me..The signing of Mike Marsh for £500,000 still makes my dad chuckle today..In todays money would be the same if the club paid a couple of million for a player.

Do you worship Hitler, Saddam Hussain and Fred West in the same way?

 

[South Bank Hank]

Interesting thread, but in all truth, I think we'll only be able to debate it sensibly many years down the line when our dream turns into a reality or a nightmare.

As a cautious optimist, I'm right behind our delicately coiffured leader and see many of our current struggles as the pain we need to work through to reach the gain. I'm also content that Ron's success is linked to ours such that he fails if we do. However, the hard times only become acceptable if the pay-off eventually arrives - otherwise it is only failure.

Thankfully, both Vic and Ron have had the luxury of an excellent manager beneath them to steady the ship - and even make significant headway - through rough times.

 

[Hooly]

Under Vic we owned our Stadium.

Although there was that time that the VAT men came down & started unscrewing the East Stand seats probably thinking they owned them!

 

[blue shrimp]

Do you worship Hitler, Saddam Hussain and Fred West in the same way?

Those 3 guys never affected my life in any way,However the current club tax issue may well alter my life in a big way.

 

[DTS]

Those 3 guys never affected my life in any way,However the current club tax issue may well alter my life in a big way.

Well you could argue the first two probably have affected your life in some way or another but I take your point.

 

[Ricky Otto]

I could be wrong here as like you was a kid during the Jobson era but I tihnk you will find the legacy of Vics reign left us with crippling debts which have created many of the problems that we have today.

Have you ever wondered how a club like us with half the support then and from my memort little commercial activity that we have today could afford to pay top players wages such as Whelan,Marsh, Boere,Byrne,Mcnally etc - All of whom must have been on top money?

Jobson also wanted to relocate the club to Basildon, likened the fans to the Hilter youth movement and lost Dave Webb at the height of our sucess and replaced him with Colin Murpy.

The jury reamains out on Ron until he delivers FF in my book but I do feel the club has come a long way under his rule

At the end of the day I dont think fans ever really like or trust a chairman unless they pump millions of there own money in the club. And when they stop being a cash cow they then become hated and are acused of asset stripping.

Its a thankless task and love or hate Ron I dont think any would argue he has a massive job on his hands trying to appease our fickle support.

Top post! Pretty much mirrors my opinion.

I am yet another who was a kid during Jobsons reign and would be interested in hearing the opinions of the older members on SZ?

 

[Firestorm]

Under Vic we owned our Stadium.

Vic was given the stadium by the fans , and then sold it towards the end of his reign to clear debts

 

[Napster]

Vic was given the stadium by the fans , and then sold it towards the end of his reign to clear debts

Correction - the stadium was taken by the Rubins, IIRC, long before Vic.

 

[The Flying Scotsman]

then sold it towards the end of his reign to clear debts

Wasn't that SEL?

 

[Crawliano]

Vic once sneered at me when I saw him in the car park and said hello, so I called him a prick. Ron once wrote me a nice email. Ron wins.

 

[Reg Martin]

My memories regarding Vic Jobson are hazy to say the least being only young during his command,My dad installed his thoughts upon me and today he was pretty much spot on.

Under Vic we became all seater,south stand was built,500k players,prolonged period playing 2nd level football,promotions....All in all VJ apart from various run ins with fans achieved much during his watch,Personally Vic in some ways was an unlucky chairman simply because the club never attracted the crowds it deserved.

Under Ron we have seen cup finals, promotions and one season at second level,FF stills seems a million miles away,Threadbare squad trying to compete without any funding,Tilson IMO the best blues boss ever must be getting fed up as after every poor display Tillys rep nosedives.Rons past aquaintance with banned chairman and his arrest and of course being cleared of any crime still leaves a lot to be desired.

My verdict

Ron 2 Vic 5

The thing both have had in common is that they are the only two to have been chairman when we reached the second tier so as someone else pointed out they both could be said to be way ahead of all our other chairmen.

I think your summary is biased towards VJ - not everyone would regard building the south stand as a major triumph nor some of the big money signings. IIRC he was also the chairman who threatened to move the club to Basildon. You fail to mention that attendances have doubled during the RM era (and regard VJ's failure to do so as bad luck!) We also seem to be giving higher priority to youth development under RM.

As a matter of interest does your Dad post on here?

 

[The Flying Scotsman]

What's the difference between VJ and RM?

PR

 

[Crawliano]

What's the difference between VJ and RM?

PR

Worst joke ever.

What's the difference between VJ and RM?

One's dead cool, the other's dead.

 

[ElstreeBlue]

Vic was given the stadium by the fans , and then sold it towards the end of his reign to clear debts

Correction - stadium was sold after Vic left, at a lower value than had previously been given to it. It's not clear how you would value a stadium, though, until you try to do anything else with it.

My summary of things as I see it (and see my very first posts on SZ for more) is Vic came in and saved the club from a much worse fate. He did an incredible job in stabilising the ship and attracted good people such as Webby. He was a true fan. He was the person for winning the war, but not the person to win the peace. He alienated too many people as time went on, but still ran a tight ship despite low attendances. The club's finances were relatively stable. He wanted a move within Southend, but this was opposed by many backward-looking (at the time) fans and a dreadful unhelpful council. Losing patience, he threatened Basildon - I believe it was just a threat directed at the council but he knew the club's future lied away from Roots Hall to go forward - but this backfired badly with the fans. When he had poor health in the last couple of years, finances worsened dramatically - did he take his eye off the ball? We had the worst manager in our history who had no concept of what managing a club like Southend entailed and the club nearly ended up bust.

Cue Ron Martin's companies to come to the rescue. Not a football fan, but interested in the club as a vehicle to make himself some money through the other revenue streams at FF. Has he become a fan now? Stumbled on Tilly by accident and his successes as manager have enabled us to have lucrative results. Despite that, we're losing an eye-watering £2m a year, in big debt, don't own the assets that we once did and are facing a winding up petition. As SBH said, won't know how history will judge him until after he's gone. Will we survive the month/year? Will the stadium ever be built? Will the stadium provide extra revenues for the club or will we simply have extra rent to pay? We don't know yet.