Jump to content
IGNORED

LJ’s post match interview: players I can trust


Fordy62

Recommended Posts

5 hours ago, hodge said:

A big plus point for him staying for me would be what standard manager would we attract in the current financial situation? Probably unlikely to have much to spend to put their stamp on the squad, LJ still has 3 years on his contract we’d need to be paying out until he found a new job, would a new manager demand their own back room staff? More contracts to be paying out on. Under the current financial situation it could make more sense to stick with LJ for another season.

when football finances recover we may be a bigger package as a club with training ground finished etc as well much better prospect.

So you would keep him simply because he is contracted for another three years?

The terms of his contract are probably a year's pay if the club terminate it. That is, at a guess, about £500,000 which is a pittance compared with some of our top earning players.

Keeping him will not be for the good of the Club. Safe this season but start next one like we performed at Blackburn and there will be a very bad odour around Ashton Gate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, hodge said:

A big plus point for him staying for me would be what standard manager would we attract in the current financial situation? Probably unlikely to have much to spend to put their stamp on the squad, LJ still has 3 years on his contract we’d need to be paying out until he found a new job, would a new manager demand their own back room staff? More contracts to be paying out on. Under the current financial situation it could make more sense to stick with LJ for another season.

when football finances recover we may be a bigger package as a club with training ground finished etc as well much better prospect.

But I think most of us believe we have a good squad that doesn’t need much spending on it. 
 

Weigh up what we’d save on keeping LJ and offset it against how much he’ll blow on dross or good quality player he’ll make look useless. We’ll be well in credit. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 21/06/2020 at 10:37, Cider red said:

Johnson is trying his best. Let's be honest, with the players we have now and where we should be going as a club, he is completely out of his depth. When we finish 12th I have a feeling he will be gone, SL clearly has a good relationship with the Johnsons but he will only put up with so much. Particularly if performance continues as they have. There is no way he is even getting 70% out of this current group, which is the most talented I've seen in 22 years of watching city. That cant continue. 

I’ve always hoped that, given the relationships between the Lansdowns and the Johnsons, that Lee would know when he had gone as far as he can, and would leave by mutual consent, much like his father did (yes, I know that wasn’t straightforward but at least he sat next to SL for a press conference afterwards).  I think LJ has been good for the club and I had real hopes that he could be The One, but the issue is whether he can take us out if what is becoming a very repetitive cycle, and I’m beginning to doubt that.

But my real concern is who replaces him, because I think the Lansdowns have implemented a model which we need to stick to.  I certainly don’t want a repetition of the years of chaos that followed GJ’s departure.  Some of the names bandied about on this forum have been absurd, and I haven’t heard any name that appeals to me yet.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Red7 said:

It must be the name 'Johnson'.

I think Lee Johnson would be devastated if his time here was less successful than his dad, who he things he’s a far better manager than.  Gary had a promotion and a playoff.

3 hours ago, cidered abroad said:

So you would keep him simply because he is contracted for another three years?

The terms of his contract are probably a year's pay if the club terminate it. That is, at a guess, about £500,000 which is a pittance compared with some of our top earning players.

Keeping him will not be for the good of the Club. Safe this season but start next one like we performed at Blackburn and there will be a very bad odour around Ashton Gate.

Yes, fairly typical pay-off terms.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, hodge said:

A big plus point for him staying for me would be what standard manager would we attract in the current financial situation? Probably unlikely to have much to spend to put their stamp on the squad, LJ still has 3 years on his contract we’d need to be paying out until he found a new job, would a new manager demand their own back room staff? More contracts to be paying out on. Under the current financial situation it could make more sense to stick with LJ for another season.

when football finances recover we may be a bigger package as a club with training ground finished etc as well much better prospect.

I'm not sure a better set of coaches couldn't work better with what we already have to be honest.

Send Lee and his mates to the garden and perhaps the owner can ponder why he gave out such silly long contracts which aren't worth the paper they are written on when someone wants to go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, hodge said:

A big plus point for him staying for me would be what standard manager would we attract in the current financial situation? Probably unlikely to have much to spend to put their stamp on the squad, LJ still has 3 years on his contract we’d need to be paying out until he found a new job, would a new manager demand their own back room staff? More contracts to be paying out on. Under the current financial situation it could make more sense to stick with LJ for another season.

when football finances recover we may be a bigger package as a club with training ground finished etc as well much better prospect.

I think by keeping him it will end up costing us more than we save.  The football side feels really stale at the moment, it feels like we’ve run out of a plan both on match days but also the clubs future direction.

im not a Lee fan but around the time of the Manchester cup run I thought I could see a glimpse of how I thought a LJ team would play and I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.  Whether that type of football was unsustainable it’s certainly not the direction we’ve progressed in.  It’s dross what we are served week in week out and definitely not a sum of the parts on offer.  You can count the good 60/70 minute performances on one hand.

every manager has their time and for Lee it was up a long time ago.  I can’t blame him for hanging on as it will be ages before he gets offered a club like ours again.  I appreciate SL likes him and there’s a family connection but surely there’s a limit to everyone’s support.  
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, General Zod said:

I think by keeping him it will end up costing us more than we save.  The football side feels really stale at the moment, it feels like we’ve run out of a plan both on match days but also the clubs future direction.

im not a Lee fan but around the time of the Manchester cup run I thought I could see a glimpse of how I thought a LJ team would play and I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.  Whether that type of football was unsustainable it’s certainly not the direction we’ve progressed in.  It’s dross what we are served week in week out and definitely not a sum of the parts on offer.  You can count the good 60/70 minute performances on one hand.

every manager has their time and for Lee it was up a long time ago.  I can’t blame him for hanging on as it will be ages before he gets offered a club like ours again.  I appreciate SL likes him and there’s a family connection but surely there’s a limit to everyone’s support.  
 

I still think the blueprint was to copy autumn / winter of 17/18.  That 460/4411 whatever you wanna call it, the high press....but have cover to rotate.  That should’ve been the plan.

But instead it was “you cannot press all season, I need a different plan”, and to some extent he ripped up what had been successful the season before.

What were the differences?  In terms of players:

Reid sold - replaced by Weimann ✅

Flint sold - replaced by Kalas ✅ and Webster ✅✅

Bryan (LW) sold - emergence of O’Dowda / Eliasson - should’ve been a ✅ but never worked ⛔

Magnússon (LB) sold - emergence of Kelly and Dasilva ✅

Paterson - backed Diedhiou when in retrospect he’d contributed poorly on his return from injury the previous season, never hit it off with Weimann who in fact played better with Taylor ⛔

Wright (RB) - brought Hunt in ✅

So recruitment wise, pretty solid job the summer before last.

Playing style though very different.  Perhaps Smith’s injury, forcing Brownhill in off the right for most / all of the season was part of the problem.  Smith and Pack were excellent in the 17/18 games against top players.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, General Zod said:

I can’t blame him for hanging on as it will be ages before he gets offered a club like ours again.

I wouldn't be so sure, I think if he left at the end of the season I think he'd walk into another championship job, if Warnock didn't want the job into next season I think he'd get the Boro job, think he could also get a job like Birmingham and could see him getting other jobs like Swansea/Reading/Sheffield Wednesday if they had vacancies

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

I’ve always hoped that, given the relationships between the Lansdowns and the Johnsons, that Lee would know when he had gone as far as he can, and would leave by mutual consent, much like his father did (yes, I know that wasn’t straightforward but at least he sat next to SL for a press conference afterwards).  I think LJ has been good for the club and I had real hopes that he could be The One, but the issue is whether he can take us out if what is becoming a very repetitive cycle, and I’m beginning to doubt that.

But my real concern is who replaces him, because I think the Lansdowns have implemented a model which we need to stick to.  I certainly don’t want a repetition of the years of chaos that followed GJ’s departure.  Some of the names bandied about on this forum have been absurd, and I haven’t heard any name that appeals to me yet.

 

Mark Robins , Chris Hughton to name but two .

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

Not trying to be ageist, but how old is Chris Hughton?  62?  Robins is a more interesting suggestion...

Both of those would kick arse but in talking about possible new managers we have to accept that anyone who might challenge SL will not be considered.

We come back again and again to the nub of Bristol City FC's lack of progress - our owner.

As individual City fans we have a dilemma :

"Even though my guts get a thorough turning over every season, following a Club with huge potential that just isn't going anywhere because of the set-up we have, I will continue to be a fan, being grateful to a careful, over-controlling billionaire owner for his regal patronage"

urggh urggh urggh.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, southvillekiddy said:

Both of those would kick arse but in talking about possible new managers we have to accept that anyone who might challenge SL will not be considered.

Can someone go through Steve Lansdown's friends on Facebook and see if there are any likely candidates on there?

Or you never know, Jon might fancy managing a club as well as designing the shirts & doing the rebranding himself. . . 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, CyderInACan said:

Can someone go through Steve Lansdown's friends on Facebook and see if there are any likely candidates on there?

Or you never know, Jon might fancy managing a club as well as designing the shirts & doing the rebranding himself. . . 

Well said. This may be our only hope - that the real Jon is set free one day.

The real Jon decides he has had enough of the Johnson/Lansdown type love-in and appoints a proper manager and coaching team. The proper manager, shakes Ashton Gate from top to bottom. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I still think the blueprint was to copy autumn / winter of 17/18.  That 460/4411 whatever you wanna call it, the high press....but have cover to rotate.  That should’ve been the plan.

But instead it was “you cannot press all season, I need a different plan”, and to some extent he ripped up what had been successful the season before.

What were the differences?  In terms of players:

Reid sold - replaced by Weimann ✅

Flint sold - replaced by Kalas ✅ and Webster ✅✅

Bryan (LW) sold - emergence of O’Dowda / Eliasson - should’ve been a ✅ but never worked ⛔

Magnússon (LB) sold - emergence of Kelly and Dasilva ✅

Paterson - backed Diedhiou when in retrospect he’d contributed poorly on his return from injury the previous season, never hit it off with Weimann who in fact played better with Taylor ⛔

Wright (RB) - brought Hunt in ✅

So recruitment wise, pretty solid job the summer before last.

Playing style though very different.  Perhaps Smith’s injury, forcing Brownhill in off the right for most / all of the season was part of the problem.  Smith and Pack were excellent in the 17/18 games against top players.

Recruitment has been ok in most places but centre mid has been shocking.  We should be improving on the likes of Pack and Brownhill not going backwards.  When the future involved a high press at least we should have been able to focus recruitment on certain players. Method to recruitment seems to have gone out the window.  We stockpile fairly expensive, similar players at a time when money is tight (Patto, Palmer, szmodics) (Eliasson, Watkins, odowda) when realistically only a couple max will play.  We then get can’t afford the quality we need in midfield but let Brownhill go as the money was too good to turn down.  Perhaps less of a scattergun approach to spending Steve’s money and we might not have to off load so readily.

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I still think the blueprint was to copy autumn / winter of 17/18.  That 460/4411 whatever you wanna call it, the high press....but have cover to rotate.  That should’ve been the plan.

But instead it was “you cannot press all season, I need a different plan”, and to some extent he ripped up what had been successful the season before.

What were the differences?  In terms of players:

Reid sold - replaced by Weimann ✅

Flint sold - replaced by Kalas ✅ and Webster ✅✅

Bryan (LW) sold - emergence of O’Dowda / Eliasson - should’ve been a ✅ but never worked ⛔

Magnússon (LB) sold - emergence of Kelly and Dasilva ✅

Paterson - backed Diedhiou when in retrospect he’d contributed poorly on his return from injury the previous season, never hit it off with Weimann who in fact played better with Taylor ⛔

Wright (RB) - brought Hunt in ✅

So recruitment wise, pretty solid job the summer before last.

Playing style though very different.  Perhaps Smith’s injury, forcing Brownhill in off the right for most / all of the season was part of the problem.  Smith and Pack were excellent in the 17/18 games against top players.

Recruitment has been ok in most places but centre mid has been shocking.  We should be improving on the likes of Pack and Brownhill not going backwards.  When the future involved a high press at least we should have been able to focus recruitment on certain players. Method to recruitment seems to have gone out the window.  We stockpile fairly expensive, similar players at a time when money is tight (Patto, Palmer, szmodics) (Eliasson, Watkins, odowda) when realistically only a couple max will play.  We then get can’t afford the quality we need in midfield but let Brownhill go as the money was too good to turn down.  Perhaps less of a scattergun approach to spending Steve’s money and we might not have to off load so readily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 20/06/2020 at 20:31, forestofdean said:

keep saying the same we need a bloody leader,i never see a player try to wind are players up,take responsibility and most of all wind the opposition up,what I would give for a Paul Hartley ,tommy doc or bobby hutch and im sure the older ones would say a Gerry gow

Agree leader or leaders needed, problem is leadership requires strong will and LJ will fear being challenged!
We have had strong willed players under LJ and every time the dressing room has suffered and there have been obvious falling outs.

LJ is lacking in so many ways, but it’s now become ridiculous, we used to play a high press and did really well at it, now personality rules his decisions, sit back, soak up the pressure and leak goals - the players want to play football as it happens not follow a script like extras in a movie.  
No room in an LJ team for the attacking football we saw a few seasons ago, Moore is the only defender we have that wants to take the ball forward and where is he? 
Throw ins from centre line are defensive when there are 2 or 3 players unmarked in the attacking half.

Boring uninspiring football - massive amounts of skill and money wasted

Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, General Zod said:

Recruitment has been ok in most places but centre mid has been shocking.  We should be improving on the likes of Pack and Brownhill not going backwards.  When the future involved a high press at least we should have been able to focus recruitment on certain players. Method to recruitment seems to have gone out the window.  We stockpile fairly expensive, similar players at a time when money is tight (Patto, Palmer, szmodics) (Eliasson, Watkins, odowda) when realistically only a couple max will play.  We then get can’t afford the quality we need in midfield but let Brownhill go as the money was too good to turn down.  Perhaps less of a scattergun approach to spending Steve’s money and we might not have to off load so readily.

Recruitment has been ok in most places but centre mid has been shocking.  We should be improving on the likes of Pack and Brownhill not going backwards.  When the future involved a high press at least we should have been able to focus recruitment on certain players. Method to recruitment seems to have gone out the window.  We stockpile fairly expensive, similar players at a time when money is tight (Patto, Palmer, szmodics) (Eliasson, Watkins, odowda) when realistically only a couple max will play.  We then get can’t afford the quality we need in midfield but let Brownhill go as the money was too good to turn down.  Perhaps less of a scattergun approach to spending Steve’s money and we might not have to off load so readily.

Another reason why our best players leave is to experience football at a higher level .

If we look like troubling the Prem , like we have been this season, albeit with horrible football, then the likes of Wells, Afobe and company will take a chance on us . 
 

If this promise does not transfer to reality then we will sink back as the football world overlooks us for more dynamic or historically strong clubs. 
 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I think Lee Johnson would be devastated if his time here was less successful than his dad, who he things he’s a far better manager than.  Gary had a promotion and a playoff.

I was thinking more of Boris than Gary, Dave :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, glen humphries said:

Can anyone name any teams in the championship who play a more unattractive style than us , there can’t be many 

I'm going to take a guess at Boro for the rest of the season as I reckon Warnock will go for a Rotherham style of play to keep Boro up

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

Just something about his sides I like. Really liked the chesterfield side he got to the play offs the year we won league one. 

.....and a nice bit of trivia that he like Cotts.also managed Sligo Rovers!

Two titles and a playoff in this country and a few trophies back in Ireland.

Cultured left peg in his playing days too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I still think the blueprint was to copy autumn / winter of 17/18.  That 460/4411 whatever you wanna call it, the high press....but have cover to rotate.  That should’ve been the plan.

But instead it was “you cannot press all season, I need a different plan”, and to some extent he ripped up what had been successful the season before.

What were the differences?  In terms of players:

Reid sold - replaced by Weimann ✅

Flint sold - replaced by Kalas ✅ and Webster ✅✅

Bryan (LW) sold - emergence of O’Dowda / Eliasson - should’ve been a ✅ but never worked ⛔

Magnússon (LB) sold - emergence of Kelly and Dasilva ✅

Paterson - backed Diedhiou when in retrospect he’d contributed poorly on his return from injury the previous season, never hit it off with Weimann who in fact played better with Taylor ⛔

Wright (RB) - brought Hunt in ✅

So recruitment wise, pretty solid job the summer before last.

Playing style though very different.  Perhaps Smith’s injury, forcing Brownhill in off the right for most / all of the season was part of the problem.  Smith and Pack were excellent in the 17/18 games against top players.

Perhaps I'm being unfair, but given that was an extremely small portion of Lee's overall time here my suspicion is that he genuinely doesn't know or understand what it was that made us play that way - and so he cannot replicate it. He's tried formations, players, and tactics but can't come close.

It's not even like we've been seeing an improved (or even equal) iteration of that period. What we have now is unrecognisably different. As you said, it appears at surface level he tried to replicate the players - which is an indication he was trying.

It was our most successful period in terms of entertainment AND results. The only thing I can think of is not that he's refusing to replicate it, it's that he can't. Lee has been here what, 4 years now? That fact we're still talking about a 3-4 month period almost 3 years ago now tells me it was the exception, and not what we should be expecting again. Hopefully I'll be proved wrong...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, IAmNick said:

Perhaps I'm being unfair, but given that was an extremely small portion of Lee's overall time here my suspicion is that he genuinely doesn't know or understand what it was that made us play that way - and so he cannot replicate it. He's tried formations, players, and tactics but can't come close.

It's not even like we've been seeing an improved (or even equal) iteration of that period. What we have now is unrecognisably different. As you said, it appears at surface level he tried to replicate the players - which is an indication he was trying.

It was our most successful period in terms of entertainment AND results. The only thing I can think of is not that he's refusing to replicate it, it's that he can't. Lee has been here what, 4 years now? That fact we're still talking about a 3-4 month period almost 3 years ago now tells me it was the exception, and not what we should be expecting again. Hopefully I'll be proved wrong...

Very fair point(s).

I guess you could argue the fact that he went straight back to Diedhiou when he became fit, that it was never his intention.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Reid’s performances that season were critical to how we played, and I’m not just talking about his goals. I’ve never seen more effective pressing and effective endless energy, not even from Weimann. Of course, there is no guarantee that Reid himself would have been able to replicate that for us had he not left. It was his first season in that role and he must have been at his hungriest, knowing if it didn’t work out that he might have been offloaded to League 1 or lower as he was unlikely to get back in as a midfielder. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...