Sheltons Army

Fair enough Well not fair at all , it’s a nonsense !

So Rashford isn’t interfering with play or active where he was ?

Yes , but they are coming up on the outside , only a few laps behind

Anyone just see United s third goal Am I going crackers but is Rashford not offside when the balls played to Eriksen ? He looks at least a yard off , but VAR , or the Lino don’t seem to have noticed that

A few questions about his lifestyle

VAR have now admitted that they made errors in respect of both the West Ham and Newcastle decisions yesterday Simply embarrassing and incompetent , some would get their cards in real life

As I understand it they amalgamated the roles The toilet cleaner now makes the tea as well Bit hectic on match days apparently !

I can see Tierney losing control of this game, don’t rate him at all He completely bottled Martinez doing Gabriel after 3 mins and I can see it getting spicy

He was , had to disclose his earnings in Mags Court when he was convicted of speeding Money kills hunger in so many

Bull was playing in the old Div 3 when he played for England and went to Italia 90

Thanks for posting that Dave ?? Absolutely brilliant , 3 individual involvements and a move that was training ground perfection level Great angle of it and capped off by the fans singing Conways name - brilliant little video clip

Not sure if it’s been posted before but below is an extract (About his Leicester times) from a piece with NP from The Coaches Voice An interesting short read , giving a good insight into him , and interesting in relation to his current work ——————————————————————————————————————————— While I was at Southampton, Leicester were relegated to the third tier for the first time in their history. I became the sixth manager they’d had in 16 months, and I could sense it from the moment I went in, not just from the players but some of the staff, too. It was that feeling of: “I’ve heard it all before.” If managers come and go so quickly, people go into survival mode. It becomes very difficult to ask them to pin their loyalty to your way of working. If you’re going to be gone in six months why should they side with you? Everything is written in chalk. They’ll wipe it off when you’re gone. “Sometimes you only change the culture by changing players” It’s not straightforward to get people to change those attitudes. For that, you need a bit of patience. Believing in what you do is one thing, but believing in what may be happening over a period of time is more difficult. It’s not easy for people who are involved in it to get it, or believe it, or think that it’s the way forward, and you can’t force it. Change is inevitable, but there are subtleties involved in how you do it. Sometimes you need a strong hand, and sometimes it requires more of a subtle touch. I was fortunate at Leicester, in that I inherited some outstanding staff at the club, as well as an open mentality. When you work at places where you don’t have that you realise it’s a huge gift. The nucleus of senior players was good, and we brought in some young ones with the drive and desire to do well. It was a good blend – one that took us straight back up to the Championship. That first year was probably the most enjoyable season I’ve had in football. Certainly as a manager. For all of us it was a season in which we grew. That’s a bit of a poor word to use, but it’s probably the right one. Our first season in the Championship ended with all the staff putting the season to bed with a couple of drinks in my father-in-law’s pub. We’d lost to Cardiff on penalties in the semi finals of the playoffs. Unfortunately that was my first stint at Leicester over. “Some believe that batsmen have to play themselves back into form. There’s an element of that with footballers too” On that occasion it was my decision. Things happened off the field that I wasn’t particularly happy with. It was probably a bit of stubbornness from me, but there are moral dilemmas I won’t back down on. I decided it was time for a change. When I went back almost 18 months later, I walked into a Leicester City that was under new ownership and with a playing squad that had changed hugely from when I left. On paper all of us agreed – good side. But we quickly found out that the reason it was a good squad of players that weren’t getting results was because they were precisely that – a good squad on paper. We recognised pretty quickly that we needed to change things, both in terms of the players and the culture. Sometimes you can only change the culture by changing the players. It’s something that evolves over a period of time, which can be one of the difficult things as a manager. It’s not always just about the results – you can get quite low when you can’t see a shift in the mentality. We got there in the end, but it took patience. A manager’s best work is often done when the results are bad. When everybody else is moaning – that’s when you’re probably doing your best work. The summer after I went back to Leicester we signed Jamie Vardy. He was coming into the professional game late, from non-league. We’d spent a million quid on him, but my expectations of him being game-effective in the first year were relatively realistic. “One of my strengths is actually to manage under pressure” He has said himself that he struggled with self-doubt in that first season – we had to find a way of helping him through that. It’s difficult to get the balance right of knowing when to keep a player playing through a bad spell. In cricket there’s a school of thought that batsmen have to play themselves back into form. There is an element of that with footballers, too. If a player has a bit of a difficult time and knows he’ll be taken out of the firing line every time then all you’ll ever have is a player who’s either in form, or one who’s in a total loss of form. Strikers judge themselves by how many goals they score. You can say, “You’re doing exactly what we need when we don’t have the ball”, but it’s hard for them to believe. It is a calculated risk sometimes when you say: “I’m going to keep playing you.” It could have backfired with Jamie, but we believed he could succeed. That season we lost narrowly in the playoff semi finals again. My message to everyone – staff, and players – after that game was simple. Make sure that when you come back the disappointment is gone. None of us – me included – could come back with anything other than a positive intent for the following season. If we returned with any lack of clarity as to what we needed we’d have had a nightmare. From the first day back we talked about promotion. That’s what everybody expects you to get, so why be afraid of it? We started that season well, but it was around Christmas that we really hit the run of form that got us promoted. Between mid-December and April we didn’t lose a single game. “In football there are lots of different ways of finding success” Gaining momentum is hard, but once you’ve got it it’s about not messing around with things too much. We used to work at what we did – we’d plan for what we’d do in games. But if I’m honest, one of the big things in that season was feeling that the players were confident. We’re not talking about technical stuff here. We’re talking about managing the mood – allowing people to feel good, and to drive it themselves. What they need from the staff is structure, and the belief that what we are doing is alright. I thought we’d do better the following season, in the Premier League, than we did. We’d constructed a team that we thought was good enough to get there – one we thought might be good enough once we were in it, too. Some of the games we expected to do better in we drew. We were losing at home. At times it was a struggle to find a rhythm that allowed us to win games. In every league in the world, when you go from the second division to the top you get punished by players who have that extra bit of quality. Even in tight games when we played pretty well we just couldn’t get over the line. All year we knew we were competitive, but we were losing by the odd goal and sitting bottom of the league. My position came under intense scrutiny at times. I suppose you cope in different ways – publicly, I obviously didn’t manage it very well. People might argue differently, but I will say that one of my strengths is to manage under pressure. Though everybody has a saturation point.

I think a lot are enjoying performances and the ‘signs‘ , as much as the results I’m none too sure we have the depth to remain consistent but just really enjoying it and the feel of the Club again I hope if and when we hit a few bumps everyone stays level and enjoys the ride If looking for trajectory / health indicators the individual performance & form of players is always a good one for me I accept positive results is likely to mean positive individual performances , but the performances and a team ethic have to come before you can string results together . Looking at the players in the current squads , a fair number of them are performing the best they have done so in a City shirt Some of the additions , Atkinson , Sykes, Naismith certainly (I’d add James and even King particularly away from match time) appear to have added and enhanced us, (Tanner , Wilson we await and see) and certainly as a group Add to the emergence and game time and significant impact of Conway and Scott and there are , for me , some positive signs there Is there anyone who’s gone ‘backwards’ ?

All down to conditioning really

Interesting CA You go back further than me, but I originally had in my post, ‘Have we ever made a better appointment’ But then trying to compare with Dicks , and a different era and then the jobs JJ , GJ & SC did , I held off , and deleted it , but , whatever happens here on in and looking deep , I do wonder whether we have

If anyone wants to see more ? I’d recommend not too much or too long ! but his reaction to our goals is , cruel or not , hilarious , especially ? our third when he thinks it’s been disallowed for offside, but then sees it isn’t ? Slide to and Watch a a minute or so from 58m 1h 28m 1h 47m for reaction to our goals

Ha ha , like it I heard he’d been impressed by Jon’s friend at college who had done several courses and had told SL that he could have the Bentley doing 0-60 in 4 secs whilst doing 85 mpg , all he would need is a few parts Apparently initially the Bentley spluttered a bit , then ran ok for a bit , even though the new parts didn’t seem to last long , but then began to break down regularly , no pleasure to drive , and despite the repeated parts changing and ridiculous bills incurred , had lost complete value or usefulness ??

Good posts on their forum @Superjack??

? He has got that face and grin though ! I always think if young guns Tommy and Alex popped around , and you got distracted , that you’d find Tommy and your sports car missing , and Alex upstairs with your daughter ?

Agree, would have been ideal, and a good fit for us

? Dont....just don’t...... .........my god ...you can .....can’t you ?

Yes thanks @glynriley , I’ve listened to it , and then listened again ! I found it absolutely fascinating , listening to it now , and considering his words in various interviews since , and yesterday’s , and what has happened and what we’ve seen along a bumpy road I found the interview good, interesting, and quite reassuring at the time , but when you listen to it back , now , it was IMHO absolutely brilliant Hes a very level headed , intelligent , strong , wise , man , deep thinking and the absolute epitome (For me) of a true ‘leader’ It’s absolutely clear that he made a brilliant and very astute professional assessment of the Club and its issues at that time and you could feel that he had a clear plan and idea of what he needed to do, and you can see , one by one , things he talked about in that interview being ticked off or significantly improved Besides the improvement on the pitch , it leaves me feeling very reassured about our trajectory and our current health Its ironic , that the actual mess we were in , I actually believe in a twist of fate did us a favour Nigel Pearson is himself , clearly stimulated , and I’d guess ‘at his best’ , by a ‘challenge’ and to a large degree we may have been the perfect fit for him (With the facilities etc we were at least a Club in decent shape) , a project , a challenge with the potential tools attainable or available , in time I think we needed him , he’s possibly the most assured ‘leader’ I can recall in my years , and I think we , and the challenge have brought / are bringing out , the best of him I really like and admire the fact , that he was so realistic about the challenge , especially knowing the financial constraints moving forward, and actually openly relished it, and no changing goalposts since, whining about lack of budget etc etc , just got on with it and attempted to deliver exactly what he said he would do , or try to. I like that he absolutely gets supporters , and their desire to see commitment (He mentions it regularly) and to enjoy their football , and the responsibility of the players in respect of supporters Is he taking us up at some point ? Not a clue ! But personally , I think we are very fortunate to have him , ( it’s a shame we couldn’t have had him a few years back ) and their are lots of things to take real pride in being a City fan at the moment and Pearson is one of them I really like him, and more importantly I really rate him , totally trust him

If you listen to him , he’s actually a gentleman , straight talking but very measured , and very ‘strong’ in stature and presence , but conducts himself so well ( * mind you , I Would have loved to have been a bystander when he found Marley hiding in the HPC to avoid training ?) You can guarantee he will be giving , say Alex Scott , a roasting mid training on Tuesday for sloppy passing , and walking off from the session 25 mins later with his arm around him , grin on his face , pulling Scott’s leg and reminding him what a good player he is and how well he is doing !

He’s like that middle aged , weathered RAC guy who turns up to you as you are marooned on the side of the M5 with steam emerging from somewhere under the bonnet and a very poorly motor, you’re thinking catastrophic Stressed , because you absolutely have to get somewhere and babbling your stress in blind panic to him He gives a slight grin as he opens the side door on his van reaching for some tools , turns to you , chuckles and says with a slight smile ‘Don’t worry mate ............I’ll have you off and running in 20 mins or so’ And you realise......he will

Players who sign say that there is a lot to take in / learn under Pep and his precise requirements (Look at Grealish too) and most need a fair ‘integration’ spell Dont get me wrong , I’m not saying Man City would be mad not to swoop , and it would be a big challenge to any player , and would be to Alex Scott Its a bit , you are gold , can you reach platinum, and not all players , even good ones would cope Alex Scott ? looking at his attitude , his technical ability , his football intelligence ..... I actually think he’d thrive and find another level again He showed at the Euros that he was completely at home with that standard and his teammates , many Premier League U23s, and at times , looked the conductor Its probably unlikely to happen but I’d love to see him in a Pep side Just my opinion