Gert Mare

Yes Dave, in League One, but he had clear aspirations for proven players at Championship level and wanted business done early in the close season so he had time to work with those players in pre-season. Remember those last minute £9 Million failed bids for Dwight Gayle and Andre Gray? That was all a bit bizarre?

Almost no experienced manager will work under our set up. Amazed that Nige accepted the challenge to be fair. Most managers / head coaches know that their futures are judged by results and they won’t be up for putting their necks on the line by utilising Academy players. They’ll expect financial backing. Nige was a pleasant exception. Hughton, Coppell, Cotts etc didn’t fancy dipping into the academy. Nige threw a lot of academy players in and guess what? He was sacked because results weren’t good enough!

I’m laughing, but, worryingly, it could well be true!!!!

I agree. The thing is I worry about their ability to sell to the right people based on their own track record of ‘rigorous process’ and ‘due diligence’!

It certainly looks that way doesn’t it Dave? @RollsRoyce Aligns with what you have said ins so much as they genuinely believe that they know what is best, but also highlights any insight or deep dive research. Makes me think back to how ‘rigorous’ our ‘rigorous process’ has been in the past and seemingly repeated most recently with the ‘due diligence’ performed on Liam Manning prior to his appointment.

It’s a culture of blame, paranoia and mistrust. It appears like there are a close knit band of ‘informants’ with their own ‘self preservation/interest’ agendas, happy to scapegoat others to save their own skins. This is again, very bad. Successful businesses are built on strong leadership, delegation of responsibility, collaboration and trust, not fear, mistrust and micromanagement.

If that is the case then wholesale changes have to be made for the club to be successful. The fallout simply cannot be the dismissal of Manning alone. As others have said, his tenure is simply a symptom and not the root cause.

Agreed. It’s just not calling out players individually by name. It’s always failure to follow / execute the process - blaming players and failure to take some responsibility himself. He needs to get the players onboard not alienate them. The players aren’t stupid and they read between the lines the same as we do. This isn’t good and things won’t turn around whilst these comments continue to be made.

Exactly. They didn’t tell the supporters due to a feared backlash as more and more people were beginning to notice a more positive feel around the club. Their biggest mistake were the reasons they gave behind Nigel’s sacking and the timing. The sad thing is that despite their attempts to hide things it has come out in the wash anyway and ultimately it has made matters worse as a result.

I’ve managed to listen this morning to SOTC from last night and agree that it was a very interesting and insightful debate. Interested when Peircy talked about the whole atmosphere affecting feelings of supporters and players. He also acknowledged that this whole debacle could have been better handled by the club. As I alluded to in another post elsewhere the club seem hell bent on creating a “them and us” divide between supporters and the board and I echo Piercy’s comments that Nigel was a figurehead who didn’t shirk from challenging comments, but also tried to get players and fans onboard by being authentic, honest, empathetic and displayed integrity. Yes, he might have called out individuals, but he also was true to his word that if a player showed willingness to improve and be ready to knock on the door when the opportunity arose again that he would give them another chance and he was a man of his word, thus earning respect. The board do not seem to grasp these qualities. Sometimes you need to call out negatives, but at the same time you balance it out by also giving credit for positive contributions. This creates motivation because the negatives are turned into learning opportunities and also provides accountability and people understand their responsibilities. The board should have been truthful in the reasons for their dismissal of Nigel Pearson and whilst some supporters may not have liked it at least they would haven’t tried to fill in narratives in their own minds. Instead they concocted a bizarre communication plan with wildly unrealistic aims and as Peircy indicated, it became the stick to beat the owners with as soon as things started to go wrong. Manning was set up to fail and anything else would have been a bonus. A lot of this toxic feel around the club could have been avoided by the board simply showing some integrity. Now they have nowhere to hide and will have to be held accountable due to stating that the squad is one of the best, top end, front foot, best chance of success this season blah, blah, blah - all because they blind-sided the supporters, threw Liam into a toxic cauldron and then ran away and hid. Everything good they do is undone by the divide they create through spineless communication. Bristol City can be successful, but only with strong leadership and those behaviours and stepping up and taking responsibility that Liam talks about starts at the very top and filters down throughout the club. I’m sorry, but until these fundamental requirements change then we’re doomed to mediocrity at best and abject failure at worst.

I think it’s very difficult for any manger / head coach to be successful at this level with the current regime in place. The is definitely a change in culture required. Micro-management and mistrust need to be replaced by trust, delegation of responsibility, integrity, authenticity innovation and collaboration. Drop the ‘them and us’ attitude, create unity (definitely visible during Nigel’s reign - at least externally) Give the manager / head coach the ability to identify their own targets, not just pick one or two from a list identified by the hierarchy. Obviously there needs to be an understanding of our financial position and a pathway for our academy players, but the priority should be to preserve current league status as a minimum. Don’t sack a manager / head coach unless the club is in a relegation battle (avoid instability). As soon as directors say things like “It’s my club”, well, that said all I needed to know a few years back. Will always be grateful for the investment, but future success requires a monumental shift in mindset and culture and I don’t think that the current regime is capable of that.

Manning was set up to fail, but Manning out. Tinnion out. Jon Lansdown out.

I’ve gone past wits end @Davefevs Now I’m just numb and emotionless, so I should fit in well with Liam’s plan and style of play.

And to think we gave Manning a 3 year contract so he could learn how to make us a top end challenging squad this season and be 10 points better off next season too? Oh, and buy another season ticket. Surely, this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back? Surely?!!!! Just get it done and show some integrity to the supporters for once and admit the mistakes.

So all of what Ian has been saying in recent weeks about an over-reacting OTIB forum and yet now he’s as mystified as they over-reacting OTIB posters….”Don’t care who the manager is anymore” The smartest thing Ian can do now is to disassociate himself from his unwavering allegiance to Tinnion whilst he still can. Some overreacting OTIB posters could only see the ridiculous dismissal of Pearson going horribly wrong for the club and I’m sure that quite a number of those who felt he had taken us as far as he could would have felt more comfortable with him seeing the season out rather than the current manager. Our loyal supporters at The Hawthorns singing “We’re ******* shit” and now Ian Gay throwing Manning under the bus. It could only be worse if we finish the season in the bottom 3 and go down. I’ll take being an over-reacting supporter all day long and I certainly won’t take delight in saying “Told you so” but it’s beginning to look like reality and it’s really hard to witness the incomprehensible and needless self-sabotage which has undone 3 years of damn hard work to resolve the complete mess that had been created by bad decisions of the past. The sacking of Nigel Pearson and replacement with a bloke who needs to ‘learn on the job’ has to be one of this clubs worst decisions in recent history. Utterly, utterly, despairingly and deludedly idiotic!!!

Well, Liam has certainly managed to remove my emotion and has replaced it with emulsion and I’m watching it dry…..weekly.

Correct But that doesn’t apply to Manning as he needs some time to learn how to manage. Something doesn’t add up does it? Oh well, at least we were ALL happy after Southampton

Being completely over-run now. Joke. ”Manning is learning on the job” - Hang on? I thought we made the change to challenge top end this season?

Best squad since Jon’s been here. Everyone is happy - Tins

Renew your season tickets quick for front foot football……from the opposition.

Our board decided we were good enough having walked League One and were very enthusiastic about tightening the purse strings. Cotts wanted business done early to give him the pre-season to prep the team. The board thought otherwise and he started the season a rather frustrated man. In hindsight he was right in wanting business done early, but it's "their club" at the end of the day and they set the strategy. When the wheels came off and he spouted his frustrations Keith Dawe's man had to go..... I wish Cotts every success at Forest Green. How I wish he had been backed to the hilt here with us. Still, we don't want any manager to be more popular than the board now do we? If that becomes the case we should always find out who's club this really is. Toys out of the pram, break, easy.

How much for a maverick sports carbuncle?

The Pearson sacking and subsequent lies are the straw that broke the camels back for a lot of supporters when it comes to the Lansdown’s reign.

They say what they want They say what they waaaaaaaant It’s Jon and Brian’s club They say what they want They lie when they want They lie when they waaaaaaant Supporters are just customers They lie when they want

He’s great with the academy, agreed, but when it comes to the first team…..