Jeremy Peace behind the runaway horses in London

[Spandaubaggie]

Opinions are like assholes everyone's got one, as Clint Eastwood once said in a Dirty Harry film, and the marmite reaction to Peace shows this.
How much was those shares really worth to the fans and how did they help our club I ask?
Peace established us as a Prem team and the kind of club many of us thought we'd never be again. What was that worth in value to the shareholders?
That blueprint to get us a midtable Prem side took years of hard work and a vision that we'd not had before.
Blaming him for Lai is a bit like any of us selling our home and then your old neighbours saying a few years down the road you are to blame for the new neighbour's kids making too much noise jumping on the trampoline, and why haven't they painted the house either.
Of course money was a factor, but I think he thought the Chinese would do OK for us. Once he left it really wasn't his problem.

[Tom Joad]

Opinions are like assholes everyone's got one, as Clint Eastwood once said in a Dirty Harry film, and the marmite reaction to Peace shows this.
How much was those shares really worth to the fans and how did they help our club I ask?
Peace established us as a Prem team and the kind of club many of us thought we'd never be again. What was that worth in value to the shareholders?
That blueprint to get us a midtable Prem side took years of hard work and a vision that we'd not had before.
Blaming him for Lai is a bit like any of us selling our home and then your old neighbours saying a few years down the road you are to blame for the new neighbour's kids making too much noise jumping on the trampoline, and why haven't they painted the house either.
Of course money was a factor, but I think he thought the Chinese would do OK for us. Once he left it really wasn't his problem.

I'd say you are being generous. More generous than you would be were you a "small" shareholder. Peace was only good for Albion while Albion were good for him. He branded us the 'mid table championship club', failed to spend anything of note on either the ground or the team, paid himself more than the Arsenal equivalent got paid, didn't invest in the (Paul Thompson's) training ground and sold us to the first chancer that offered the maximum return for him. Just remember, we got back to the Prem during someone else's chairmanship and look at how he systematically alienated othe directors and shareholders. He had an exit strategy that went better than anyone could have foreseen, fair enough, but as soon as he saw the finish line he was gone. Anyone seen him at The Hawthorns lately? Of course not.

[Spandaubaggie]

Opinions are like assholes everyone's got one, as Clint Eastwood once said in a Dirty Harry film, and the marmite reaction to Peace shows this.
How much was those shares really worth to the fans and how did they help our club I ask?
Peace established us as a Prem team and the kind of club many of us thought we'd never be again. What was that worth in value to the shareholders?
That blueprint to get us a midtable Prem side took years of hard work and a vision that we'd not had before.
Blaming him for Lai is a bit like any of us selling our home and then your old neighbours saying a few years down the road you are to blame for the new neighbour's kids making too much noise jumping on the trampoline, and why haven't they painted the house either.
Of course money was a factor, but I think he thought the Chinese would do OK for us. Once he left it really wasn't his problem.

I'd say you are being generous. More generous than you would be were you a "small" shareholder. Peace was only good for Albion while Albion were good for him. He branded us the 'mid table championship club', failed to spend anything of note on either the ground or the team, paid himself more than the Arsenal equivalent got paid, didn't invest in the (Paul Thompson's) training ground and sold us to the first chancer that offered the maximum return for him. Just remember, we got back to the Prem during someone else's chairmanship and look at how he systematically alienated othe directors and shareholders. He had an exit strategy that went better than anyone could have foreseen, fair enough, but as soon as he saw the finish line he was gone. Anyone seen him at The Hawthorns lately? Of course not.

I'm not saying he was perfect and I know people who have met him and said he was a controlling and unpleasant character, but for all that he was better than what we saw before from the Silk era of the early 80s and a sight better than Lai.

He left us in a strong position financially and had a year as an advisory role. I do wonder though if Paul Thompson had survived Megson's power battle would Thompson have faired better and be seen more positively.

[Woodman scoreboard]

You’re moving two things.  We became a PL club under his tenure, he also did it all for personal gain, ripped shareholders off and despite our PL status did lover term damage for his short term gain.

The greatest trick the devil pulled…

I'll take his kind of personal gain benefitting the club any time over the shyte we've had since. Most prosperous tenure probably in the club's history followed by one that almost needed to sell all of our heating equipment.

I still believe that shareholders didn't actually have to sell, if they did we wouldn't have S4A and the like would we? Or did I miss something there?

The Peace stuff has been done to death though, and I don't remember these kind of things being said when we were getting up and staying up.

Long term damage? Leaving with £40m in the bank, we really shouldn't have struggled after he went.

The share cancellation did happen. He also performed a share consolidation so anyone with less than 5 had to buy more shares, or their shares were cancelled and bought off them. It happened to me.

Ditto

[Spandaubaggie]

You’re moving two things.  We became a PL club under his tenure, he also did it all for personal gain, ripped shareholders off and despite our PL status did lover term damage for his short term gain.

The greatest trick the devil pulled…

I'll take his kind of personal gain benefitting the club any time over the shyte we've had since. Most prosperous tenure probably in the club's history followed by one that almost needed to sell all of our heating equipment.

I still believe that shareholders didn't actually have to sell, if they did we wouldn't have S4A and the like would we? Or did I miss something there?

The Peace stuff has been done to death though, and I don't remember these kind of things being said when we were getting up and staying up.

Long term damage? Leaving with £40m in the bank, we really shouldn't have struggled after he went.

The share cancellation did happen. He also performed a share consolidation so anyone with less than 5 had to buy more shares, or their shares were cancelled and bought off them. It happened to me.

Ditto

How much in monetary terms had the shares been worth just as a matter of interest?

[Woodman scoreboard]

You’re moving two things.  We became a PL club under his tenure, he also did it all for personal gain, ripped shareholders off and despite our PL status did lover term damage for his short term gain.

The greatest trick the devil pulled…

I'll take his kind of personal gain benefitting the club any time over the shyte we've had since. Most prosperous tenure probably in the club's history followed by one that almost needed to sell all of our heating equipment.

I still believe that shareholders didn't actually have to sell, if they did we wouldn't have S4A and the like would we? Or did I miss something there?

The Peace stuff has been done to death though, and I don't remember these kind of things being said when we were getting up and staying up.

Long term damage? Leaving with £40m in the bank, we really shouldn't have struggled after he went.

The share cancellation did happen. He also performed a share consolidation so anyone with less than 5 had to buy more shares, or their shares were cancelled and bought off them. It happened to me.

Ditto

How much in monetary terms had the shares been worth just as a matter of interest?

The truth is I can't honestly remember I paid for a 10 year season ticket and they gave you a share if my memory serves me right but it wasn't the money was the issue .....we wanted it to stay in the family I think it was around £1500.

[CA Baggie]

It's more that he used the clubs money to position himself into the 89 or so % than what he paid or didn't pay and how he was making shareholders, people that put money in when Tony Hale was chairman and we were crying out for the money (I was one too). It was buy more or sell them to me - fair enough. But it wasn't sell them to me, it was the club will buy them with the clubs money and I now own a bigger %.

Peace was good when his and clubs needs aligned. He appointed well with Ashworth and Garlick but he was also the beneficiary of "Right place, right time" when stepping in to replace Thompson. He took over a PL club and when he left we were a PL club, hardly a revolution, we'd just been programmed to not have the expectation of being a top flight club. He helped perpetuate that too.

[Spandaubaggie]

I'll take his kind of personal gain benefitting the club any time over the shyte we've had since. Most prosperous tenure probably in the club's history followed by one that almost needed to sell all of our heating equipment.

I still believe that shareholders didn't actually have to sell, if they did we wouldn't have S4A and the like would we? Or did I miss something there?

The Peace stuff has been done to death though, and I don't remember these kind of things being said when we were getting up and staying up.

Long term damage? Leaving with £40m in the bank, we really shouldn't have struggled after he went.

The share cancellation did happen. He also performed a share consolidation so anyone with less than 5 had to buy more shares, or their shares were cancelled and bought off them. It happened to me.

Ditto

How much in monetary terms had the shares been worth just as a matter of interest?

The truth is I can't honestly remember I paid for a 10 year season ticket and they gave you a share if my memory serves me right but it wasn't the money was the issue .....we wanted it to stay in the family I think it was around £1500.

It's a weird one regarding Peace and I get it why shareholders feel frustrated, but painting him out like the anti Christ doesn't sit right with me either.

I remember in the early years reading about how he'd painstakingly researched into clubs of a similar fan base in Europe and he did a blueprint of exactly how the club should be run.

He ran us professionally and put so much right infrastructure wise, with training facilities etc and changed us completely as a club. He got Dan Ashworth in, built a great academy and gave us some great memories of promotions, wins at all the big clubs etc.

To have built a legacy I think improving the Halfords Lane, up to a 30,000 capacity, and maybe a League Cup would have him as an all time great in the eyes of most.

I feel those great years on the pitch gets overlooked and whilst he did very well out of us I don't begrudge him that. He did stick around to teach Lai etc how the club should be run, but they learnt nothing.

Without him we may have thrived and found someone else who would have done the same or we may have continued to be a committee of relatively small time businessmen and be a club like Preston or Blackpool now.

No one knows.

[Fido]

The share cancellation did happen. He also performed a share consolidation so anyone with less than 5 had to buy more shares, or their shares were cancelled and bought off them. It happened to me.

Ditto

How much in monetary terms had the shares been worth just as a matter of interest?

The truth is I can't honestly remember I paid for a 10 year season ticket and they gave you a share if my memory serves me right but it wasn't the money was the issue .....we wanted it to stay in the family I think it was around £1500.

It's a weird one regarding Peace and I get it why shareholders feel frustrated, but painting him out like the anti Christ doesn't sit right with me either.

I remember in the early years reading about how he'd painstakingly researched into clubs of a similar fan base in Europe and he did a blueprint of exactly how the club should be run.

He ran us professionally and put so much right infrastructure wise, with training facilities etc and changed us completely as a club. He got Dan Ashworth in, built a great academy and gave us some great memories of promotions, wins at all the big clubs etc.

To have built a legacy I think improving the Halfords Lane, up to a 30,000 capacity, and maybe a League Cup would have him as an all time great in the eyes of most.

I feel those great years on the pitch gets overlooked and whilst he did very well out of us I don't begrudge him that. He did stick around to teach Lai etc how the club should be run, but they learnt nothing.

Without him we may have thrived and found someone else who would have done the same or we may have continued to be a committee of relatively small time businessmen and be a club like Preston or Blackpool now.

No one knows.

From someone else who doesn’t know all the ins and outs I think this is a fair assessment of where I am too.

[SausEggBaton]

The true parasite in Albion history.

That's a bit strong TBF. Without Peace I doubt we'd be in the position we are, and probably in League One or worse.