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Potentially, or potentially not. Strange how SL’s cheque book was found after he sacked SC wasn’t it. SC gave us fans the best season in decades, he deserved some loyalty from the owner imo.

Sunderland fans have worked out that David Brent talks bollocks after 12 games. It took Lansdown almost 5 years. It should be laughable but actually angers me to think we replaced a top bloke and great man manager and motivator with that cretin.

He was potentially taking us straight back down in Jan 2016- did you miss that key point?

Define achievements? He saved us from relegation and turned us into a solid Championship side, challenging in and around the play offs. He got us our best cup run in 30 years, beating the biggest club in the country and going toe to toe with the best team in the world at the time over 2 legs. We played some of the best football I've ever seen from City, especially when you consider the level we were at (Cotts team was fantastic, but it was L1 football) The end was shit, and it was probably the right time for him to go, but it's nonsense to say he didn't achieve anything here.

This is bollocks, the cheque book was open to Cotts but he tried to spend it all on one player, twice, and not even in the most important position at the time. When that failed he decided to throw his toys out of the pram and leave spaces on the bench rather even give some of the kids a bit of experience. I don't know why we have to keep going over this, we had one wonderful season which we are all grateful for, but he was the one that tried to initiate a power grab on the back of it and failed. If we were getting any decent results in this league, he might have succeeded.

As if that wasn’t bad enough.... to rub our noses in it we get the Cretin’s apprentice!

It's sad how people talk about him He didn't do much wrong here except talk a bit of nonsense and ultimately the football went a bit stale, as it does with every manager at every club in the world at some point. As a person, he's not done anything to make him a "cretin". He's a decent bloke who worked bloody hard to at least TRY and get success for this club. If he outstayed his welcome that's not his fault, it's the people above him

SC is mad as a box of frogs, and anyone that has spent even a short time in his company (as I have, and know others that have spent much more time with him) would tell you that. Did he sometimes come across as calm, polite and amiable? Yes. Did he also have a foul temper and was liable to unprovoked rants where he would come across as unhinged? Yes. At Pompey he was intensely disliked by players, staff and supporters. His half-time talks would frequently be heard pitchside as he screamed at players, one time memorably going around the changing room and pointing at each player and screaming "****" in their faces. He was said to be bitter about what the players earned and frequently raised their salaries in rants. When he came back managing Forest he allegedly threatened to stab Dave Kitson outside the players entrance. He was frequently rude and aggressive to members of staff, a trait followed through at Ashton Gate, screaming at groundstaff among others. The latter just does not fit into modern football management and with SC it is always a matter of time before he blows up, as he did at City. Did he have legitimate grievances? Yes. Were the Lansdown family partly responsible for screwing up summer 2015? Yes. But he could have played the hand he was given much better than he did, and no offence to the revisionists but within just a couple of months LJ had turned the team around from getting pumped 3-0 at the likes of Rotherham to beating Sheff Weds 4-1 at home, guiding us to safety comfortably. People are mocking opposition fans' opinions of LJ. Go on some football forums - other than this one - and find me anything other than mocking and ridicule of SC. Not saying it's justified, but the reality is he has a poor reputation and that is part of the reason he has been out of work for so long. Shrewsbury is a perfect job for him and he will do well, but let's not pretend that makes him suitable for this job right now, or that it was anything other than the right decision to sack him back in 2016.

I very much suspect the unofficial arrival of Ashton in Dec 2015 (officially appointed in January), to prepare his sacking might’ve caused the flip / row. Especially when SOD and Burt, then Cotts and Burt had chucked all Ashton’s 2012 Recruitment stuff in the bin. Cotts knew he was a gonner. One day I’m gonna stalk him at Millennium Square and ask him!!! ??? Pretty sly from SL to sack Cotts by text (allegedly). Pretty sly from SL to sack Cotts the evening he’d done his afternoon pre-match presser. Pretty sly from SL to appoint Ashton (officially) two days later. There is still a 2012 Ashton recommendation in the Recruitment Analysis team, and a mate of Jon Lansdowns too, who I understand has had a variety of jobs until they found one they could hide him in.

At least one Bristol team are capable of decisive action when things aint going well.

I don't think LJ coaching lacked innovation...it was more likely the opposite. He overcomplicated things, then got muddled, trying to incorporate different methods. In the process it got completely confusing...you could see it in the players...they were frozen, playing without freedom. Then after losses, pressure mounted. That made it even worse...they literally couldn't make a pass and many went hiding not wanting the ball. For me, it all started to go pear shape when we signed Famara. He looked to become more physical with more presence. It had a knock on effect...he tried to play the same way with a high press and energy, but didn't work. Then the experimenting started...buying 'clubs in the bag' for every scenario. We became a confused mis mash of different methods. Neither here nor there. And we are still that way. I can see shape and organisation when defending...although we don't carry it out very well. Going forward...it's all over the place. Its a guessing game. No clear direction.

Three years ago today: City 3-0 Sunderland (HT) Don’t recall what the scoreline finished up that day, but I bet we ******* smashed them!

Probably this belter from Slagchat last season. ”800 sold” wow! About half of what we took on our last League visit. They are the ‘envy’ of a lot of clubs when they travel in such humongous numbers...hahaha weapons! ?

So unfair. He was doing a brilliant job moving the club in the direction the vast majority of football fans in Bristol wanted. Gutted!

We were in terrible form and the fans were not happy- I'm conflicted on the end of Cotts, part of me thinks it was needed and part of me isn't sure. Seem to recall the row between fan and Cotts after the Preston game? He was refusing to fill his bench, there were some reasonable loanees- I'm wondering if a season of consolidation until the income grew properly in 2016/17 might have been in order, and then Cotts might have benefited from that extra income in the transfer market. One eyed revisionists such as NickJ though...

https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/mr-johnson-post-shrewsbury-defeat-video.1541667/ https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/not-bringing-our-usp-out-in-games.1541665/

“What first attracted you to the billionaire Wael al-Qadi?”

Exactly. @JBFC II - worth going back over the accounts, and look what Cotts achieved through “quality, not quantity” strategy. He had a very similar budget to SOD. He also signed players with longevity / improvement, that his successor benefitted from. In fairness Cotts benefitted from SOD (Fielding, Pack, Flint, Williams) too. Cotts spending power was peanuts compared to Johnson. I don’t include the 14/15 season in my xls, but for info. Wages (inc NI, Pensions) £9.7m (SOD £9.6m) Amortisation £1.5m (SOD £1.1m) Other £5.5m (SOD £2.9m) Transfer Profit £1.4m (SOD £1.1m) So, “To be fair, nobody in our history had had the spending power Cotts had with us” is factually incorrect. Basically Cotts recruited efficiently. Free transfers: Little, Elliott, Ayling (£200k compo), Wilbraham Swaps: Smith for L.Kelly (plus £500k to Oldham) Bought: Agard (£800k), Freeman (£250k) Sold: Baldock (£2m) Look at the numbers I’ve posted above! As for Agard v Baldock. Don’t you think that was canny, to get your target in ahead of selling the player going out. Baldock was rumoured to be leaving most of the summer. Nor do you buy the League One title. Sheffield Utd on a bigger budget than us didn’t romp the league. Swindon Town didn’t publish detailed accounts Preston / MKD had about 80% of Cotts budget Yeah, we were a big fish....but we executed perfectly. Plus JPT revenues, FA Cup 4th round, revenues, whilst on reduced capacity, impacting revenues. Cotts actually increased revenues by 55% over previous season, because he filled the ground every week. I think it would almost be applicable to end this with “FACT”, but I won’t.

Anyone else find these intense, circular battles over previous managers incredibly tedious.

He is so full of cr@p, how on earth could Lansdown have been so taken in by it. Probably because Ashton is also full of it!

Sam Nicholson has played 26 games for Rovers and is about to get his 4th different manager..! #shambles #basketcase #hahaha

I’ve no idea what was expected of Tisdale, it’s not like they strengthened in January and they have nobody who could score - i reckon Hollowhead will be in there by the end of the week

That's true he measured the bleedin grass and i was there at Sunderland when he did it. Innovator? Tosser more like.

Nailed it for me Spudski. Like many, many people I was underwhelmed when Johnson came in. But, after a while and reading a few things , I was impressed with his eagerness to study and learn other tactics and styles. I thought he doing the right thing with his 1% and all that looking at everything trying to improve. The problem came when he was unable to pick out the few bits, the best bits, the things he could use to make an effective side. He got confused and tried to throw everything at it and passed that confusion onto the players. Totally agree with you that they ended up hiding. We are struggling to put that right still. This is where I was hoping for an experienced man to come in, shake it up but with simple straight forward ideas. What we have (seemingly) is LJ 2.0. The Club head to toe , 2 assistants apart, is the same as it was 18 months ago, but the coach has 2/3 years less experience and knowledge.

Cretin ? Really? Is that necessary?

I worked in Tyneside for a while, and the Mackams know there football, trust me. They won’t be taken in by all his bullsh*t for long from that cretin. How the heck did he last so long at City. Oh yeh, the CEO and owner loved all the bullsh*t. Quite a few on here did also. If my memory is right, Cotts wanted some £££s for transfer targets he ID’d and got a NO, so Cotts played politics with SL and the rest is history. Poor old DH has inherited the mess. Major clear out coming this summer IMO.

I still think he's a good coach at this level...he reminds me of an enthusiastic student...which he is still in reality. At least he's trying to be better. You can't help but admire his dedication and enthusiasm. Fans would warm to him more if he spoke in layman's terms. Tbh...as a coach or manager, whatever you say, win or lose, you set yourself up for ridicule. You've only got to look at our own DH. So many said what a breath of fresh air, no bullshit, straight talker. Poor performances later...and he's clueless and out of his depth :laugh:...so you can't win. TBF...I think LJ is a better coach than DH. But neither good enough to make us top 6 candidates imo. And in all honesty...if we stick with DH I think he'll relegate us.

Personally I didn't think it would be possible to hate those ctuns any more than I do. But just imagining even the remotest possibility of Hollowhead in charge makes my piss fizz...!

Would be a good appointment for them.

Couldn’t make it up.

To counter Kitson, there are views of Clarke Carlisle & Wilbs who absolutely loved playing for him and don't have a bad word to say about him. Wilbs even mentioned in that under the cosh interview that a lot of the Birmingham lads will tell you he was the reason they stayed up, not Redknapp. It is possible that Cotts mellowed out slightly since the stories Kitson - TSF has mentioned in books.

He ain’t a snake charmer either. ? “For my next trick, I will pull a rabbit out of a hat...” ”That’s a football, Paul, and that’s a skip - and I saw one of your players put in there earlier.”

TBH it's the deficiencies of the current regime I'm interested in. Can't do owt about the distant past. There's at least one poster whose love of one previous manager and hatred of another is so extreme that I speculate about their mental health. All I'll say is direct comparisons are difficult. Johnson was given the freedom to buy more players, but he also had to sell players as soon as they started to look really good. Johnson achieved better results with much the same group of players, but he did have Lee Tomlin, who was key that half season as a crucial addition. Tomlin's arrival was not his work. Maybe I'm odd, but I don't love one ex-manager and hate the other. They both played an important role in establishing where I think we as a club should be, the top half of the Championship. Whether we can stay there is another - more pressing - question.

For months. Its an example how ill planned Mr Johnson football was. The transfer window saw him recruit players alongside others within his squad who could not progress that football. Not only did he not progress the high tempo game, he in months put it onto reverse. Bristol City went from a high possession, short passing, high tempo team to a low scoring , low possession side that played counter attacking football at home. His biggest failing is frequently over looked. In 2016 he stated that his intent was to create a footballing identity that ran through the club. Mr Johnson frequently mentioned, this identity, the painstaking recruitment process that ensured the dna of the players fitted the project. Within a season of his tenure it was clear that he was talking bollocks. Despite years at the club and record resources he never put in place this identity. The team had no identity. The pathway from academy to XI was faltering. The developmental philosophy was unclear to non existent i.e. the academy and U teams were playing different formations and systems to the XI ,and it would have been impossible for them to develop players for an XI that went from long ball to short ball to high press to medium block to low block x seven formations over astonishingly short timescales. This was not storming and norming it was a man out of his depth. To not put in the keystone behaviours of this fabled playing identity over a period of four years is a dismal achievement. He there damaged the potential of the FC. Nice bloke, don't think he is a bad man but for a supposedly modern coach and the FC the above is a disgrace.

It’s Absolutely not true - i was right next to it, probably the guy behind the bloke who was rowing. it was completely unwarranted from SC, he came back out to row and was pretty much told to do one. It was a long time ago now so can’t remember the exact exchange word for word but it was very unnecessary from a manager of a football club

He lasted so long because we continued to improve under his management. He took a relegation threatened side, that may well have gone down that season under Cotts, to a side on the cusp of the play offs. Nothing to do with his phrases or Brentisms

Always has been and always will be a total bluffer. 4 jobs, zero achievements. I don't expect him to be at Sunderland next season as they will not tolerate the utter nonsense that comes out of his mouth. He's only likely to survive a bit longer as there's no supporters. Total, total bluffer. This has taken them 12 games to figure out and sounds all too familiar: "I liked his first interview when he talked about getting bodies in the box and pulling crosses back but he seems to think he is some sort of football scientist and baffle people with jargon. Sadly, it got boring pretty quick. It sounds good when you are winning but when you can’t organise a team for shite you look a bit stupid. I’m guessing the players have stopped listening too..."

Gash now immunized against COVID after two shots of the Oxford vaccine a couple of weeks apart. What a peculiar interview from T*tsdale - I’ve not heard a comedy figure prattle on so much about magicians since G.O.B. on Arrested Development... The fact he thinks they were “fabulous” is driving the Fewers up the wall. They don’t agree with that appraisal of the night’s work. ?

Standard deluded Slaghead. Average about 600 on the road each season, not even impressive in L1. The only thing massive about their away support is their overinflated balloon heads. They ‘fill’ town centres........with the stench of piss and B.O. “Other clubs fans love us...” ? people will say anything to escape once they’ve been pinned in a corner in ‘the Welly’ by 6 needy mutants demanding to have their fragile egos stroked. Funnily enough the majority of Bristolians (the people whose opinions REALLY matter) think they’re a bunch of nobs.

Grimsby is the nearest club to where i live so have a fair few codhead friends. Holloway was an absolute travisty for them. Agreed when taking over he would invest 100k in them but never did as he couldnt sell his house. Bought a load of non league players in the summer all of which are gash and they are pretty doomed now. I hope the gas appoint him as hes a fraud.

They do. Wherever fans gather together, no matter where on the planet that is, to discuss the beautiful game the legendary club from north Bristol are spoken of with reverence and glasses are raised in their honour. As it should be.

Agree totally. Even as much as I loved the spell too, I’m not bound by rose tinted specs either. I enjoyed short spells under LJ too. My biggest beefs with LJ were 1) playing philosophy consistency and 2) the recruitment double act with Ashton which is likely to put us back to where we were in 2012 when SOD replaced McInnes....which coincided with Ashton’s previous stint at Bristol City as part of his tactical Management Ltd consultancy. If you’re who I think you are, then our mutual friend, told me some interesting stuff about that period which I wasn’t aware of. Basically that Ashton got rid of the Recruitment person who McInnes trusted, and after a promising start as City boss, it all went pear shaped. That recruitment person is back with McInnes at Aberdeen. I very much suspect McIness (as a young manager) was duped (as has SL) by the dodgy Brummie.

With all respect, that is absolute rubbish. The sale of Baldock financed Cotts' signings, which he transformed into players worth several times their cost. Johnson then benefitted from that, plus youngsters for whom the academy coaches not Johnson should be given credit, to sale for massive amounts in order to spunk on players like Engvall and others.

I guess it takes our collective mind off the current one ?

As a manager you NEVER throw your team under the bus (one of the 1st rules you learn), which Johnson did numerous times. Glad to see the back of him.

Yep, this is yet another ‘love in’ for Cotterill and we’ve been here many times before............ You’re absolutely right PSR. SC has sacked for two main reasons. Not giving youth an opportunity and asking SL for finances to sign a striker claiming ‘I’ve got all I can out of this squad’. He was sacked shortly afterwards and in came another Johnson..................

Some cracking comments on that forum...made me chuckle. My first thought when he signed for Sunderland, was if he continues with his way of talking he will get slaughtered. Needs to reign it right in.

I’ve always said that - the clowns on here who talk about ‘toxic’ atmospheres at Ashton Gate, haha - haven’t got a clue - being an owner, Director, Manager, head coach, player at Bristol City is a walk in the park - we can lose around 10 games in a row and you’ll just get a few disgruntled fans aiming some tame vitriol at the bench - we are just too laid back for ‘toxic’ - in Bristol we love our club but in Newcastle, Leeds, Portsmouth etc they are absolutely obsessed with their clubs, their clubs define their daily lives, the club crests and colours are seen everywhere and they have built up a serious ‘we are all in it together and our club is huge’ mentality. In Bristol we mutter and moan occasionally but we never come close to ‘toxic atmospheres’ - we just wouldn’t know how ...

Tosser on RB now spouting off "Wherever we go, we go in huge numbers, and everybody loves us !" **** me

Possibly one of the greatest ever threads on OTIB. I have read it, but not yet contributed. Why now? Well I don't know, but that doesn't matter. I have been really down for several months for numerous reasons. Sometimes coming to OTIB helps... sometimes it doesn't. But this thread reminds me that there are some really wonderful people in the world. I have had ups and downs and left and rights over the last 6 months. I have seen myself get very close to ending up in some extremely dark places, and at points questioning life. What is life? How valuable is life? Is life worth living? It was scary, very scary. The most important thing I have done in my life is reach out to family, and friends, and to tell them how I'm feeling. Even last night I messaged a friend at 9pm to say "Not so good, just needed to get in touch with someone". We were then on the phone for almost an hour, and I felt better afterwards. I was scared of getting professional help. It made me feel weak. A failure. Someone who couldn't live a life. All this even though I have had counselling before. You feel embarrassed (Even though you don't need to tell anyone you still do). I did it. I picked up the phone in and I made that call. I want help. I need help. Am I better? No not yet, it can be a long road, but I am beginning to see things in a different light. I am now at a stage where I can fight those dark thoughts rather than absorb them and end up falling in to a bigger, deeper, darker hole. Hesitant about reaching out to others? Unsure if you should get professional help? Do you feel sad or embarrassed that you have got to this place? Don't be. It's human nature to help other humans. Someone will be there for you.... Always.