Alessandro

Tinnion was bullish on twitter about being on Sound of the City - so presume he's stepping up tonight? Will be interesting to hear...

Timing of the next appointment will be interesting - feels like this time it needs to be a quick appointment. Earlier this week - they were already pretty much lined up. End of week/early next week - see above or TBF to the club they've got a plan, drawn up a list and got their man quickly. Anything into end of next week or week after - They had no plan and I will be worried the process not going as easily as they expected i.e targets are turning us down. IMO the new man should be at the Sheff Wednesday game, at least watching, if not in full charge yet.

Superb article @Ron W

Well we presume what will be expected from the new coach stays the same: develop youth, buy cheap and add value. Make the squad greater than the sum of it's parts. Work within tight (midtable) budgets. Eustace and Rowett have both done some of those things, but with quite defensive/hard to beat styles of play. Eustace fired in part IIRC for the football not being exciting enough for the owners? I really don't know - some of my best options I would say are in jobs currently. Could we poach someone like Liam Rosenior or more realistically a Steven Schumacher type? Micheal Duff widely considered an excellent coach at improving players too. The bigger names not in jobs I don't see working under all of those above conditions, unless SL promises them big cash to spend (change of strategy, again).

For all those fans saying, big deal sacking NP, he's just an expendable coach, a new one can come in and progress the team....here is the reality. That theory only works if you have a succession strategy, you have a vision and a plan - in terms of playing ethos and style and therefore manager. Do we have that?? Rowett appears, in footballing style terms, is very different to NP. So the squad NP has assembled doesn't on paper appear to suit Rowett's style. So from a squad/footballing point of view, SL could have us back at square one, with a manager (In Rowett's case with little/no record of success) who treads water for rest of season, wants a whole load of cash to rebuild in Jan/Summer and so the Lansdown cycle of stagnation goes on.

Yeah I don't want to be too negative because we are, or at least very much should be, an exciting prospect for a new manager. The potential is there. But for me, if I was a Dean Smith, Chris Wilder or John Eustace etc, i'd be left with a lot of questions about the job - the fact the owners are publicly trying to sell the club, the manner of NP's sacking, the available funds, will they have to continue to sell their best players, the current state of the squad etc etc. The management structure/board of the club would have any top coach concerned IMO - are the right people in the right places to enable them to do their job successfully? Irony is for all the development we've seemingly made as a club, now we're looking again for a new head coach, I feel like, and SL will find out again, we're still in a position where the best calibre managers at our level would rather stay on gardening leave and hold out for a 'better offer'. Again, I hope i'm wrong...

Maybe it's just me being negative, but sleeping on it, i'd be concerned that some of the more qualified managers on the available list simply won't take the job if offered anyway. We'll see - but if they read the clubs statement after sacking Nige (TOP 6?!) and look at the tools they'd have available....we've traditionally failed to get top, upcoming managers in anyway under SL....for some reason - I fear this trend will continue. Hope to be wrong. Rowett, doesn't particularly inspire me...but I actually fear for worse TBH.

Merge - This is just a view point from someone who wants their voice heard louder and have said nothing that can't be said on the "He's Gone" or many other threads already.

Just had a look on twitter to gauge the mood there and not just on OTIB - fair to say it's 100's if not 1000's of near 99% universal support of Pearson and disagreement of the club from both City fans and other football fans alike. EDIT - Same on Instagram - so much so that the club's social media team have (re)posted 3 away kit posts to try and push the NP leaving post out the lime light...

I’m not going to go all in on Tinnion regarding this decision, as it will have been SL’s don’t be in any doubt - but I have been quietly surprised at his gradual promotions up the ladder to positions that I’m not sure his experience, talent or ability is quite qualified for…actually that sounds quite harsh, apologies

Even in our days of ‘big spending’ the reality was our accounts showed how our wage budget was only ever, top half, top 10 approximately. Given the club have reduced that wage bill budget drastically, how can they justifiably expect a top 6 finish?

That’s what we’ve been doing for the last 20 years - where the hell has it got us?!?

I’d question which one of those ‘top’ options would actually come? Suspect it’s becoming more and more obvious in the football world that we have an owner who likes to meddle in first team matters. And the context of Pearson’s sacking will raise eyebrows outside the club. People talk. But look, there are some good options out there, proven track records. History (Tinnion, Millen, LJ, Holden) tells us it won’t be one of those, but another one of SL’s ego appointments.

Obvious it’s been coming, but still shocked it’s happened. Well, it’s a massive “over to you then SL” - let’s see what the grand plan is.

**** off Lansdown Bristol Sport bot

Yeah it’s got a bit like those Twitter bots supporting the Tory’s at times on here…

Well ultimately they're the club as a whole signings, because NP can only bring in what he can on the budgets the club sets...so....

Injuries and fatigue are clearly going to be massive factors today, no doubt, so I won't be too critical. Despite that thought we actually acquitted ourselves pretty damn well - better than vs. Ipswich - and it's another de-ja-vu feeling of we wouldn't have lost that game with a full (well fuller) squad. A few of the more 'senior' players stepped up IMO, Dickie, Knight and TGH (yes had a few moments in possession but he passed and moved and quarterbacked excellently considering) Cornick put in a shift, Sykes out of position had moments. Disappointed with the levels of some others today. Ironically James/Williams out meant TGH and Knight deeper and I thought Knight had his best game there, and TGH very good on the whole. Mehmeti didn't disgrace himself centrally. Knight-Lebel looked the better option if we're still needing the U23's to cover our depleted squad.

Conway is looking fine in the video arriving at the ground. Looks like Chinese whispers….

Shocking injury levels means you have to ask some questions. Was pre-season too intense? Is training causing issues? Is the squad too small? You can say we've been unlucky with some, McCrorie. But all the soft tissues of Conway, Wells, Vyner, Tanner etc?? Is the squad balance to blame? Feel like we have a few sick-notes like Williams but is there also too much pressure on more injury susceptible players like Weimann, James, Naismith who realistically need to be managed, fatigue-wise? You've got to ask the question because it's not good enough. TBH feels almost as bad as it's ever been.

It’s mental isn’t - I think about the people who abused him, no doubt fuelled by certain areas of our press - all fans that probably have the attitude ‘if someone hits you, hit them back’ - all loving and cheering the aggression in English football usually, taking pride in that football style that takes no prisoners, shirts off abroad, chucking chairs around French bars. But then losing their temper at an England player who loses his temper and reacts to being trampled on. English hypocrisy at its best. We love to sit ourselves on a pedestal don’t we.

As I was saying, you can pick your argument. What about Bournemouth, Brighton, Fulham, Cardiff, Swansea, Burnley, Brentford, Luton, Leicester, Southampton...need I go on?!

Yes he did get on fairly quickly with planning the much needed new ground/development. But that training ground reference; I think that may be something different to what we ended up with, Mr Pop? Because that was 2007 and planning for the HPC was in 2015 and submitted in 2017 IIRC - and we don't share anything with QEH as far as i'm aware (as referenced in old 2007 BBC link) - didn't we buy the land off the golf club? So unless there was 10 years of legal rangling, there was a delay or put on the back burner, for whatever reason.

Yes some of these things have been done, but far far too late IMO. For too long SL has been a reactive owner rather than proactive owner. If he's been involved with us for 25 years, it took until 2018 for him to get the HPC planned, meaning for 20 odd of his 25 years we'd been training in a secondary school's playing fields. I played golf with Steve Coppell back in 2011/12 ish and he told me then he asked SL for £20k to improve the gym and got given £8k. It's taken far too long to get the facilities to the level it should be. Fair enough, the ground plans were in place at Ashton Vale for a while and the nimbys slowed all that down and we did get on with the redevelopment at Ashton Gate. R.E the academy, it's exactly the same as the training ground. Too late - Minimal investment was put into it until the 5 pillars back in 2014-16 - so again, it's taken SL 15 plus of his 25 years to realise the need for the academy and need for real investment, as young player after young player were being poached from our area. It should not have taken us 20 plus years for us to be producing academy products at the rate we finally are. Regarding other owners, look you or I can pick or choose examples of good and bad owners to suit our argument - I'm not actually making comparisons, i've never really done that ever TBH - it's not about anyone, it's about what works. What makes clubs successful, SL has had 25 years to try and work that out and still can't - yet still seemingly believes that only he can lead the way, hence his tiny board and tiny group of senior management. For me, the clubs that have the dictatorship owners rarely succeed. Those who pay up and put football people in all the football positions from the board room to the physio and let them do their jobs and stay out the dressing room, tend to see the most success. Has he been a bad owner, absolutely no. He's provided some incredible continuity and stability for his 25 years on the whole. The heart and intentions are there no doubt. But let's not fall into the trap of thinking it's all been give give give by SL. This is after all the same man who, you don't need to speculate why, decided to leave England and live elsewhere..and I'm sure the businessman has found ways to make owning BCFC 'beneficial', if not now, in the future. Off the pitch we are as good as we've ever been yes - but it's still only us catching up to a level that rival clubs have been at for years - don't forget the clubs like Stoke, Middlesborough, Hull etc etc all moving to new all seater stadiums was back in the 90's! Those 3 all seeing something we've not since, Premier league football. I was fully behind him when he looked like he had a plan finally back in 2014/15 and was willing to give that a chance - I realised when he appointed Holden little had changed and frankly the shit show he oversaw with MA and at the end of LJ shows a complete lack of football knowledge. So the more you look at his appointments, the patterns, the repeated errors and the way he runs the show, the increasingly out of touch comments in the media (before he gave up with the media and city fans as he's seemed to do) the more it feels he's stuck in an echo chamber. We know he wants to sell up, but with his asking price and the package it's already looking easier said than done. Yes be careful what you wish for, some will say. Probably the same people though that say maybe we should sack NP and see what other options are out there....

I’ve always felt this over the years too - but the more I think about the more I think “that’s football” these days. Yes it’s a huge sum, but people will say to you it’s often a debt of his own mis management - and more over time I’ve come to agree with this. He’s thrown good money after bad time and again. The reality is football doesn’t make money outside the premier league, at least not for long periods. You own a club, you lose money - why bother? Many reasons probably but mainly because you want to get to the money of the premier league - that’s the jackpot. Ironically, just pumping in the bare minimum to keep you a float, or throwing good money after bad, is counter productive - it’s like having a container ship with multiple holes in the hull, patching up one at a time and carrying a smaller payload to minimise the losses. No, haul the ****** out, invest in filling all the holes then you can fully load up the cargo and make some real money. OK random analogy but hopefully you get the idea.