The Journalist

I expected top 12 and hoped for top 10 before the start of the season. That remains the case under Liam Manning. But, to use Mark Ashton’s phrase, let’s be really clear… we must still hold the board to account over the sacking of Nigel Pearson and the expectations they put on this season subsequently. We cannot let them off the hook just because we think they’re being unrealistic. One of our most experienced and popular managers in recent memory lost his job on that basis, so we’re told, and frankly the Lansdowns get away with enough as it is (the “my club” comment, the disappearing acts, the swathes of inexplicable redundancies of excellent staff, the crest changes etc etc). I’m not letting it go!

Yeah, I get that - I didn’t really mean it to sound as negative as it did. I really like the squad, I like how hard they work, I like the way they try to play. I liked us under Pearson and I suspect I’ll like us under Manning. But we really lack that extra bit of quality, particularly in the middle. We get punchy at times when we get some momentum behind us, but we struggle to really control a game. Southampton are clearly much better than us, which is fine, but my word do we give the ball away a lot. Anyway, all fine. I’m not the one expecting us to be better than mid-table.

Remember when this is supposed to be a team capable of being at the top end of the Championship? The quality just isn’t there. They run their bollocks off, just as they did for the previous manager, but the genuine consistent quality… it’s not there. And, ultimately, also just like the previous manager Liam Manning won’t be able to fix that without signing better players.

Got a couple of passengers out there at the moment, TGH the biggest culprit IMO.

Whatever kit Rico Lewis is wearing.

February 2020 was the last time Bristol City fans watched their team win at Ashton Gate with a number two in the starting line-up. Good luck coming up with a more pointless statistic than that…

I completely agree with this - and I say that as a huge Pearson fan who thinks the way it was all handled was a disgrace. IMO, the very fact different clubs have different ways of operating during an international break tells me there’s no perfect way of navigating it. There are pros and cons to everything. We need to move on, for now at least, and then hold the club to account depending on how it all pans out. It’s time to sit back, get behind the staff and players and see how everything develops. And, if we’re not in play-off contention, I’ll be the first to give the board pelters because they’ve either lied or just got it horribly wrong (in reality I suspect a combination of the two, but let’s see!)

Worth crediting your source here - https://www.goal.com/en-cm/lists/tottenham-points-deduction-investigation-finds-spurs-broke-agent-rule-jermain-defoe-transfer-portsmouth/blt3ea726edcc077f9d Now I know how it feels to be a teacher who suspects a child has plagiarised something because it was too well written.

For what it’s worth, I think people are being a bit overly harsh of both the interviewer and interviewee. Sure, Ed Hadwin is no Geoff Twentyman and Liam Manning is no Nigel Pearson, but the questions were fairly engaging and the new head coach spoke pretty well - especially when you consider the two will have barely met. It takes time to build rapport and trust. IMO people need to let go of the whole Nigel Pearson comparison thing. Those questions are for the board at the end of the season.

This almost needs pinning at the top of the forum as a reminder. I really hope that if we do end up well short of the play-offs that the local press get round to holding Lansdown and Tinnion to account. Neither of them have been yet. I’m not holding my breath. That said, I hope even more that we finish in the top six and they were right all along. But I’m not holding my breath over that either.

I really hope he makes a good start - through no real fault of his own, he's going to have to do an absolutely exceptional job for the fans to ever be happy with this.

I can summarise it for both of you… triggering!

Anyone that’s actually just slowly started getting over last Sunday’s news may be better off avoiding it tomorrow morning, in all honesty…

Given the constant rebranding and plethora of different club badges, this would make some sense commercially. A year or so as Frank Lampard’s Bristol City will go down nicely.

He also has less managerial experience in the Football League than Dean Holden and Keith Millen.

Just for context, a man with fewer Football League games as a manager under his belt than Lee Johnson when we appointed him.

"It's been a problem. When you have a tight squad you have to make sure the players are trained a certain way to play the way we want to play. Obviously we've fallen short a little bit on that with the amount of injuries we've had." So we are now directly blaming the manager/staff for all the injuries we've suffered, then.

I do agree with this to a point... I mean, they could've just not made such a bloody stupid decision in the first place!

Ah - yeah, the chart I was looking at missed off the most recent game! So, still incorrect, but not *quite* as bad as I said. Maybe he's going all the way back to the late 80s when the average attendances were below 10,000. Would seem legit and the obvious comparison...

The Williams Stand was demolished eight years ago, rather than nine. The lowest league average attendance during the past 20 years is 11,391 in 2004-05. The highest league average attendance during the past 20 years is 21,080 in 2018-19. That's less than a 100% increase - and I've tried to do him a favour by picking the absolute extreme numbers too. Apart from that, he's bang on.

It's a completely fair question, @NickJ. It's something I've spoken to a couple of people at the SC&T about. I've offered to help on the communication side of things if wanted because I know that's an area I could add something, but also my family and working circumstances (and the fact I very rarely get to see us play live anymore) mean I can't really be involved as heavily as I'd like to be as it stands. I'd feel a fraud if I tried to actively stick my oar in because I couldn't dedicate the time it merits. And, while I've been critical, that doesn't mean I don't appreciate how hard they all work on a voluntary basis! So yeah, hopefully in the future I can get stuck in (if welcome) - I'd love to help properly. I completely appreciate there's nothing worse than someone standing on the sidelines criticising but then not doing their bit. But also, as I've said before, I'm always on DM if I can ever help with messaging and communicating (although this statement is bob on, so not sure how much help is needed!). (Sorry to everyone else if this comes over all self-important, just answering the question!)

Our chairman thinks the squad Nigel Pearson has built is "one of the best since I've been involved" - but decides to sack the manager after two defeats in a row, one week after we were eighth in the table and when he has only 12 senior players available. Let that sink in for a minute. He's lying. He's sitting there lying to us. It's absolutely disgraceful.

I had to turn it off with 30 seconds still to go. Stomach-churning stuff.

Brian Tinnion in danger of coming across as a bit of a snake here - which I'd like to think isn't the case, given he's a bit of a hero of mine, but the optics aren't amazing.

I've been openly critical of the SC&T - as a few of you well know(!) - but this is a good statement. Well done. FWIW, while I do understand where @Henry is coming from and it's exactly the sort of thing I've been critical of, given we can't control what's gone before let's not go down that road here. Now's the time to stick together. This is exactly the sort of thing the SC&T should be talking about publicly and banging down doors about, so fair play to all involved. Spot on. (Hope you've sent it to all the local press and one of you is making yourself available for interviews, starting with an appearance on SOTC tonight!)