firstdivision

I wasn’t going to reply. Then I saw you used every word that I would have used.

I suppose he hadn’t lost two in a row, the latest one in the last minute to a piece of dire defending, at the Hen and Chickens - an altogether less stressful and frustrating situation. Anyway, it’s early days. I’ve said before that I didn’t enjoy NP’s football very much but I wouldn’t have sacked him. The board should have read the room and realised that enough fans were behind him. But it’s far too early to judge LM. I actually thought we were superb for 15 minutes before half time and we could have cleaned Norwich out. And an ordinary Stoke side did the same to NP as an ordinary Norwich side did to LM today. We’re just not very good. We didn’t strengthen enough in the summer. Poor from the board after the sale of AS. We’re at least two players short. NP was left short. And now LM is finding out what it’s like having to bring on AM and HC.

The biggest problem with the club interviews are the awful questions he’s asked. It means the interview doesn’t work as a piece of meaningful communication.

Far too sensible, Dave, with not enough headline-catching observations. Absolutely typical performance. We are 12th. We've beaten one team above us (they are 10th) and six teams below us. That's where we are. We don't have a play-off squad, despite what JL asserted. I was really disappointed with yesterday's second half - we were outplayed, or out-controlled - but it didn't surprise me. I wouldn't have sacked NP, although his football was pretty dull to watch and bored me a lot of the time. I'm reasonably pragmatic though. I hope LM can makes us more interesting to watch (although I hope it won't be Martin-ball). That will take time. We don't have enough players at the moment who are really comfortable on the ball.

First time we’ve started with this eleven.

I’ve always thought top six this season was pie in the sky. Still do. I thought we were capable of an improvement on last season. Still do.

Birmingham City a few weeks ago?

Very good observations, Dave. I couldn’t go to the game yesterday because I wasn’t in the country but I was shouting and swearing at my laptop for the reasons you articulate. Last 15: there were at least a couple of occasions when we just needed to move the quickly ball to an unmarked player to open them up. And totally agree about the tactical nous of our forward subs. My god… One thing it’s easy to overlook, I suppose, is the deeply human side - the potential for panic, the thought that, ‘we really should be beating this lot. They’re bottom. They have ten. But they won’t lie down. And they’ve got some big lads for set pieces. And. And. And.’ The negative voice on your shoulder. A good confident side would have seen them off comfortably, though. Sam Bell would have seen them off if he’d taken one quick touch before shooting. Control left, bang right either side of keeper. Even so, one touch should have been enough.

When you see Sam Bell’s miss, you wonder what a clear goal-scoring opportunity is for us. But surely this is a clear goal-scoring opportunity. Sheffield-born Hackett’s angle doesn’t take into account our players free left and right either. If that had happened against us, I couldn’t make out a really strong case for a yellow. It was an unusual situation, though.

You won’t get anywhere on this forum at the moment with opinions like that but I know supporters who have pretty similar views to you. They don’t come on here. They’re not social media posters. And they probably wouldn’t want the emoji barrage anyway. i wouldn’t have sacked him, but the case for the defence is not water tight (as you set out).

Liam Rosenoir is a coach to keep an eye on. I know a perceptive Hull supporter who was convinced they'd finish top six this season. I've heard you say he's bit of a moaner, Dave, but plenty are in football. I know someone who's known him since he was a lad - always said he was bright and a nice lad. His dad's a decent bloke, too. I know that from personal experience. We could do much worse than Liam, not that I think it's a likely option this time.

It’s under the thread Board Interference.

Perfectly well written, albeit subjective, article but it doesn’t tell us anything new. It’s a rehash of everything that’s on here. And few people outside Bristol give a flying fig about our club so it’s not exactly taking our dirty laundry to a national audience. I speak as someone who lives in London. More interesting is James Piercy’s piece about the last weeks of the messiah.

Aaron, I've had a look back at the quotes from young Lansdown in Feb 2022. He said we should be performing better than we were. Not a particularly controversial statement in my opinion - I think most fans would have felt the same. Some might think it's a stinging criticism but what chairman is going to say 'nah, 17th, with 10 wins from 32 is fine' when asked a question on radio? That's where we were at the time. It's actually quite a tricky question to answer unless you are skilfully media trained and can see the potential traps. He can't really do the following: 'So John, you're 17th. How do you feel it's going?' 'Oh, really well. 17th was always the plan at this stage.' Fans think: 'are you sure?' I can't find any quotes in that interview that said we had a top-six squad at the time. (Someone else might be able to find them from Feb 2022.) NP publicly disagreed with him and called the club's previous transfer policy 'bonkers' and 'who does that?' That's quite a strong criticism in football terms, even if you think it's true. At that point, NP was a year into the job. Are you sure he hadn't said anything publicly about the club's way of operating before that?

Ok. Thanks for letting me know, John.

Good joke but it’s not though, is it? All three have had some success in the Championship. Who would you go for, Pete?

These are good questions. I don’t think we know the answers yet.

That certainly crossed my mind.

You say ‘the odd little moan’, Dave. Don’t you think there were enough digs at the hierarchy to make it pretty clear what he thought? Also, his comments have effectively rallied his supporters in the fan base behind him, and created an us and them situation. Don’t you think he knew what he was doing and couldn’t help himself? No football hierarchy likes being called out in public. Never has, never will. I wouldn’t have sacked him, and I think SL made a strategic error by not releasing some funds from the AS sale, but surely no one is particularly surprised that it’s happened. People are angry, yes (not me btw - I just think this is brutal, modern football. My reading is the we reached a clutch moment where we had to make a big decision, contract or no new contract, with planning for the future required, eg January window.) The narrative about NP’s seeming clash with the board has come from one person: NP. Not least because the hierarchy has largely been silent (apart, perhaps, from the telling statement that none of the AS money was made available.)

You’re going to have to help me out with this sentence, Ivan.

And I bet you loved it at the time. I bet you didn’t think ‘you know what, this bit of success is all well and good but that Lee Johnson is not trying to get us promotion or to a Wembley final, the scoundrel is trying to ruin my club.’

The level of discourse goes up another notch. Nice one, Sir Geoff.

Just by getting up in the morning. Really? I didn’t know that. Thanks.

So was that Mark Ashton to blame? Or Steve Lansdown who sanctioned it? (I get confused who we should hate the most at any given time). And did we bring in any money in from transfers? Did some players leave to offset the 68? And did a world pandemic happen? And is there any nuance left in the world? So many questions.

I don’t know. I quite liked finishing top half of the championship. And I quite liked beating Manchester United and some of the wonderful pre-Christmas football in that season. But I hadn’t realised until now that Lee Johnson got up every day and thought, ‘you know what, how can I run this club into the ground?’