Ostrich

can we have nige back pls

Really great Pearson like performance. Always found this weird Pearson teams, don’t have the be spectacular to be very watchable. Early season, only game I’ve seen from you but looked a super solid Championship performance, the sort that gets you in the top half and wondering whether there might be more, especially as the league looks a bit meh this year

Has your keeper been on the lash all afternoon or something?

What is it that Luton do well, like specifically rather than generically? I'm actually just interested cos I don't follow it too closely and am impressed by their league position and results. It'd be an interesting one to see go up, don't expect they'd survive but we need something interesting to make up for Fulham's next dismal effort. That being said, are they just another Barnsley and they're having their moment? Every time I've watched Luton, got to be 5 or 6 times this season, they've been an awful watch, clearly lack actual quality but bang the results in.

I don't have much time on my hands to really keep up with what's been going on at your gaffe in that last couple of months but when I check the results it always seems to be 1 step forward, 1 step back. There was a moment when I thought you could make a late run for the playoffs given how close everything was and you'd had a good couple of results. Not that I think it would have done you much good in a weird way. But glad to see Nige being Nige when I have managed to check in. Let's be honest, Nige wears his heart on his sleeve a bit and can't comprehend people that won't do similar, or at least give it everything instead of coasting. Once he gets his players, he'll calm down but I enjoy managers that throw shit at their players publicly, maybe in this day and age it's less advisable but I think it sorts the wheat from the chaff in terms of their reaction. From his point of view, he probably knows there will be little consequence to him so he might as well go with it, all being well they'll be gone soon enough and he probably sees that the job starts properly in the summer. Reading the thread, you have many a similar problem to we have and the managers have reacted in similar ways recently. Whilst the managers have to take responsibility, mentality is key and both of our teams seem to be sorely lacking that. The less of Nige's players (and staff) that are around, the worse we seem to have got for having spineless fancy dans that don't want to do the hard work, that don't have a real desire to stop the ball going into the net. I'd trust him to get that right come the summer.

Oh no there's been a couple back in the day. He called Mike Dean the most arrogant man on the planet, or words to that effect, after we lost 4-3 at Tottenham. The reason he started sitting in the stands is because he was sent off and then made comments about the ref when we lost at Charlton in 13/14. Then I can't remember who it was against but Gavin Ward upset him once by supposedly interrupting his half time team talk. An infamous night due to a thread on foxestalk beforehand when somebody the ref was his mate before the game and then he put in the worst refereeing performance I've ever seen. i'm sure there must be more, admittedly he does seemed to have calmed down since his time with us. In fact I miss some of Pearson's comments. I'm not a huge fan of whinging about refs but he was at least amusing with it and everyone we've had since has been a bit vanilla. Here's his Mike Dean piece https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/9770497/pearson-furious-with-arrogant-referee ?

Fellas and Felladettes, One is considering a move to Bristol (among other places). In short, I have a fully remote job, no commitments, am bored of living where I do now and am looking to move somewhere else, time for a new adventure. As far as I'm concerned, if I don't enjoy it after say 6 months then I'll have no tie and can escape, if I do then woop for all the upside. I studied at uni in London and stayed there for work until the pandemic with a brief spell in Leeds, came back to my family home at the start of the pandemic and haven't moved since. Have no real desire to head back to London whilst I don't need to (maybe future work will dictate moving back one day) so let's find somewhere new. Have visited Bristol a handful of times - a couple of times for a weekend, a couple of times for the football (a win, a defeat and a win against the ones with squares on their shirts) but I'm not hugely knowledgeable beyond the standard everyone saying it's a great place to live cos x,y,z and lots of ex-Londoners moving out there. I'm a bit of a pretend country bumpkin so I don't want to live slap bang in the centre but I'm not yet ready to, so just the classic nice suburban/edge of the city area with an active social scene for young professionals and easy enough transport is what I'll be looking for. I'm all for suggestions on where to live/help etc but let me also put it to you a bit differently to that, what are the things a local (or an adopted local even better) would tell an outsider to think about if moving to Bristol, either good or bad?

You know someone's hiding something when such a situation occurs and they fail to mention anything they could possibly have done wrong. You can think Pearson is a *****, you can think the way he treated Mills (and others) was too much and that he's a bully etc etc but with Mills playing holier than thou and saying that all he did wrong was play shit away at Watford then it's obviously he's not telling the full story. I know that he's not telling the full story and good luck finding many players from that time that didn't think he was a ***, certainly don't think many would agree that he was the adult at a kids club. His recall of some of the basic facts of the time is off as soon as he starts speaking about it, tells you all you need to know about his story.

Simpson isn't a RWB either, it would be playing him out of position. When Pearson played 3/5 at the back in the Great Escape run, Albrighton played RWB, not Simpson (nor De Laet for that matter). Wasn't because Simpson wasn't 'on the bus', it was because he gets an avalanche of blood leave his nose if he has to go beyond the halfway line

One of the strangest things to happen is him getting 3 years - for a lot of that time they could have got Pochettino instead. Ruined my corn flakes that they’re looking for an interim solution. Ends hopes that they could rescue us from what’s looking like a tricky situation and relationship that’s going south.

Oh yeah don't get me wrong, the period where Ian Baker was around the vast majority did (there'll always be some issues), but certainly not when he first came back which is the comparable situation. Some people would think he's a bully, some people won't, depends on your viewpoint. There's no allegedly about it, he did headbutt Matt Mills and whilst I think it was Ben Marshall who basically said Mills deserved it, it's not really the best behaviour from a manager to one the players in the squad but ultimately the whole dynamic was needed for long term success.

From the outside looking in, it does remain a mystery that you've never managed anything like a sustained push towards the top division. Given how long he's owned the club, you have to say that's down to him and whether he has the club set up to be well run. But also from the outside, you have to be careful wishing for new owners, it can go as wrong as it can right - the Championship is a graveyard of bad ownership.

He certainly wasn’t loved by a few he inherited when he returned which is exactly the situation here. Kasper says he’s a fantastic man manager but Matt Mills thinks he’s a complete ***, some might think he can be a bit of a bully. Don’t think Albrighton was his biggest fan and I think he and Knockaert fell out in the end too. Plenty of successful organisations swear by recruiting for culture, particularly in their growth phase, and weed out those that don’t fit. That’s what happening here. It’s up to the players to prove that they fit or they’re on the sidelines and free to leave. We can’t all fit in every environment, if there’s a split it will be between those that can thrive in Pearson’s environment and those that don’t, entirely possible it exists but it has a purpose at the end of the day. Kasper says that Pearson walked in thinking Kasper wouldn’t be his type but he changed his mind within a week.

Sounds like NP isn't in good shape, I hope he does put all his energy into getting himself back on form again but you do wonder whether he'd be better off packing this in and concentrating on himself but off he might be the kind of person where another focus is far more helpful to him. The constants knocks to your health gets you down as well as the health issues themselves. I have met him and been able to speak to him for a decent amount of time and he's a thoroughly decent, funny bloke, you could have a top evening over a few pints with him I'm sure. So I hope he looks after himself and can get back to health It may well be why you've looked rudderless in recent weeks if he has been absent a lot. It's a shit situation for everyone concerned to be in. Where the heck do you go from here, it's not a good situation for a football club to be in.

If Nige’s health is really a problem, it’d be best for everyone if he just stepped down to allow himself to recover I’m sure Nige will be on the blower to Shakespeare asap but did see this morning some talk of him possibly heading to Watford ..which would finally put to bed some rumours that Shakespeare stabbed Ranieri in the back. No idea of the source and Shakespeare was part of it at Watford when Nige felt badly treated

There's two reasons this doesn't work. I really don't think Pearson wants to deal with the bullshit of the behind the scenes of football. Secondly, Shakespeare isn't a manager in a month of Sundays - it was really bizarre when we gave him the job full time and thankfully we didn't stick with it for long.

They're superb atm and mostly really great to watch. Never liked them as a football club, never liked Moyes before but hard not to admire them of late and seem to have stolen our crown of the 'lesser' team to look up to, at least on the pitch. Long season but lots to envy about the way they approach games currently

It is to do with coaching. You’ve got the 4th lowest pass completion in the division, have the 3rd lowest average possession, the 5th lowest number of completed short passes, the 5th highest number of incomplete short passes. A team that isn’t used to passing, having the ball and isn’t very good at passing it isn’t suddenly going to become able to do it even against 10 men. It’s compounded today by the fact there’s not a leader in midfield, I think Matty James would have helped somewhat. It’s not the only issue, nor do you need to play that way if you’re ahead but the fact that your passing and possession stats are dire, and they’ve got worse as the season has gone on is the responsibility of the coaches. You can play different ways but there’s nowhere to hide if you don’t play any way well.

Apparently he was told before the game that he was gone. Strange situation that.

Just seen that and perplexed. They could have got rid of him after a 7-0 defeat, that would make sense. Even last week when they were insipid against Leeds who were also poor. Idk if they got away with it today but to sack him after a win given the chances they've had to sack him recently is odd.

Bit of a cop out that imo. I looked on my phone after about 25 mins and the pass completion was 52% so I'm not sure how he can be happy with the first half, I took the piss out of Rotherham last year when you played them because at half time they had a 48% pass completion. 52% in the first 25 minutes is diabolical. That's either a case of players playing at a standard far above what they should be (clearly not, these aren't conference level players) or the structure and shape make it difficult to make the passes and play through, or it's tactical but even then I don't think even Warnock or Big Sam or Pulis would take that. I think there's an element of what he says though, nobody really bust a gut when it mattered, there wasn't enough aggression, there was a real lack of concentration (the penalty is some of the worst defending you'll see all week especially given the time and situation). But even then Weimann is a player you might not apply the lack of desire and poor attitude too but he's running around pointlessly half of the time which is a coaching thing, Massengo looked under-coached too (he was awful, I was impressed with him against QPR but today I was really disappointed, even the basics weren't there). They don't even have to be bad players or players that aren't arsed but once you get a group of players in a long-term rut, it's easy for them to just go through the motions and the atmosphere never recovers. You could pick them off individually and they might look decent elsewhere, there's clearly a group problem that needs smashing through whoever is manager going forward.

Tbf, the rate Villa are going, if Pearson stays then there’s a possible route to adding Shakey

Just got back in. I’d be absolutely foaming at that if I was a fan, it was tough enough as a soft fan for the day. Cant blame anyone for wanting the manager gone based on that. Impossible to work out what they do all week in training and the inability to pass a ball was astounding, particularly in the first 30 mins. Some of the players don’t cover themselves in much glory and there’s a lot of passengers but it’s still on the manager if you look rudderless. To then lose 3-1 over 45 minutes against 10 men is unforgivable and I really can’t say it was cruel to lose it so late - it wasn’t the right result over the course of 90 mins. You could forgive a poor team that looks like it knows what it’s at least trying to achieve on the pitch but that was a poor team with no discernible idea on it’s approach from my vantage point. Fair play to Cov, well drilled side that all know their roles. Don’t think they’re better players necessarily but they’re a proper team, they look interested and they look coached. Fans still as grim as ever but after what they’ve been through even I can’t begrudge some better times again. General observations is that you do forget the difference between the PL and CH until you watch them both in the flesh. PL is so much quicker, both in terms of power and pace of the players and in terms of the speed of thought. Even slow possession football in the PL is fizzed around quicker than a lot of play in CH. Albeit this wasn’t Bournemouth or Fulham. Nice day though. I’ll watch any football me and chatted to a few decent fellas, some wanting to give Pearson time and some fed up with him but everyone seemingly exasperated at the mess the club has made of things in recent years. Hi if any of you are on here. I know you’ve been there done it a few times in recent years but when we were in a real mess (worse than this cos we didn’t have a pot to piss in or any investment at all) going down to League 1 seemed to do us the world of good, even if it was the end of the world at the time. You came up stronger last time, plus Cov themselves are an example of having to hit a real low and coming back all the better for it. Never desirable and it can go wrong but today reminded me of those years growing up where we were an absolute mess and it’s tough to get out of it as a club without a total reset.

As I said it’s a different sort of crap. Obviously it’s better than struggling in the Championship but we’ve been poor all season. I’m sure the growing minority that want Brendan gone or at least imply but don’t say it would baffle almost everyone on here. But I look forward to Saturday and tbh I’d absolutely love to see a classic Championship smash and grab, disappointed Matty James may not play.

Actually looking forward to this. I'm expecting it to feel regretful come about 3:30 on Saturday but it'll be a different experience at least. Been in a couple of other teams away ends but don't think it's ever been as many as 3k. Tbh even if it's crap, at least it's a different crap to watching my own team atm.