LJ: the good and the bad

[ChippenhamRed]

1 hour ago, New Dazzler said:

It really does sum up certain elements on OTIB that you have made it quite clear from the first and last sentences of your post that this thread is for a proper football discussion, not just the childish "yah! boo!" antics that threads often descend into, and yet one poster comes on here banging on about his nuts and pyjamas, with no apparent sense of irony !  When I was scrolling down the thread I did expect a few WUMs giving some insults just for a laugh, but Pyjama Boy obviously did not quite get it. 

Good post though, you have summed up the pros and cons of LJ very well.  I stated in a post just after Shrewsbury had beaten us in the cup that I think he is a great manager when we are winning and he does my head in when are losing.  A very simplistic view I know, but surely we are all sort of like that. I can't believe the number that don't want him to bring success to the club, equally if we got to a stage when we stop progressing he position must be questioned,  the same as any manager that we have had.

Thanks! Good post.

[Alessandro]

7 hours ago, Davefevs said:

@ChippenhamRed I’ve never known a manager who divides so much opinion.  He divides mine.  I don’t get the hate nor the love, he’s somewhere in between.

 

4 hours ago, ChippenhamRed said:

Yep that’s where I’m at. Ambivalent. I wouldn’t be gutted if he left but neither would I be jumping for joy.

This is very much the way I’ve headed over recent months and I’ve been trying to understand why it is and I’ve sort of come to a conclusion about it.

And that is that LJ is probably working under the greatest level of expectation of any manager at City for decades. 
 

We’ve had years of improvement, developed stadium, Bristol Sport, investment, etc etc and ultimately fans expectations are as high as they’ve been for years. We’re so close, we keep being told we’re so close, to the ‘promised land’. 
 

In turn, in my opinion, the raised expectation has pushed people into two camps, those whose expectations have been raised and feel he is underachieving to reach them and those who still have more, dare I say, patience or at least tolerance to the ups and downs, the mitigating circumstances and simply the difficulty of this league.

I regularly find myself in both camps and I’m simply not yet convinced a new coach could, or would easily walk in and turn the squad into a promotion winning machine.

[Tom Fleuriot]

23 hours ago, westonred said:

There is probably a bigger list of players that LJ has held back by never playing them or farming them out on loan. To say he is superb at improving players is not 100% accurate, some maybe have benefited, but by no means all the players he has coached 

This is the big question that I can’t decide. If we’re recruiting hard working and intelligent players with great potential, are we sure that LJ has improved them? Or would they have improved anyway? Reid as striker I can agree on. All the rest: I’m undecided as to whether LJ really developed them better or faster than any other average manager would have done.