Dean Holden (Merged)

[Bat Fastard]

1 minute ago, soultrader said:

You seem to use the words "Hope" and "Faith" a lot when talking about this.   If DH is clearly the best person for the role.  Then it should be simple for someone at the club to say, here is what we are looking for and here is where DH blows the competition out of the water.  
Again, that surely doesn't take 5 weeks.   It hasn't previously has it?   So I am sceptical that a 5 week interview is the plan.   And again what has happened differs from the expectations set by MA and SL.  That is why people are questioning the plan

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that DH has been away.  For all we know transfer talks have still been ongoing and if DH is involved I feel sure he would have been at the end of a phone. We will be told in good time and as soon as everyone is organised. 

[supercidered]

1 minute ago, Bat Fastard said:

The selection is based upon the opinion of the board. I have faith they will choose the best candidate.

After reading most of your posts today. I can definitely say I love the blobfish photo or whatever it is. That's about it though.

[BCFC1512]

At least the cricket is going well........

[Kingswood Robin]

2 minutes ago, Roger Red Hat said:

I believe Chris Grayling has been co-opted onto the board to head up this process.

Why not just make him head coach?

[sglosbcfc]

13 minutes ago, Yozzarian said:

Some sort of glamour model/calendar girl event according to Ashton Gate's Twitter account

Will my season ticket get me in???

[Red-Robbo]

2 minutes ago, Kingswood Robin said:

Why not just make him head coach?

He'd play DaSilva in goal.

[Son of Fred]

9 minutes ago, Andy082005 said:

Am I the only one who actually wants Holden now....just so we can see what Ashton has to say about it 

I'm all ears

[soultrader]

2 minutes ago, Bat Fastard said:

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that DH has been away.  For all we know transfer talks have still been ongoing and if DH is involved I feel sure he would have been at the end of a phone. We will be told in good time and as soon as everyone is organised. 

You have skirted the points raised and just moved onto some other hypothetical possibility.

 

[SuperDziek]

15 minutes ago, Yozzarian said:

Some sort of glamour model/calendar girl event according to Ashton Gate's Twitter account

That was a year ago as it was a throwback tweet.

Cycled through there at 5ish and definitely something going on. Ashton and Lansdown’s cars both present along with various shiny range rovers. 

[Yozzarian]

Just now, SuperDziek said:

That was a year ago as it was a throwback tweet.

Cycled through there at 5ish and definitely something going on. Ashton and Lansdown’s cars both present along with various shiny range rovers. 

I stand corrected.  I did see a Bristol Bears player going in there at 2pm-ish. Maybe some distanced event?

[collier]

12 minutes ago, Bat Fastard said:

It is never a bad thing to check your plan using due process. This may have happened and they will hopefully have picked the best candidate for the job specification. If it is Dean Holden then he has won against tough competition.

You either have to be trolling or your head is so far in the clouds that you can't see what you are writing!!! How is appointing Holden 5-6 weeks after LJ got the sack anywhere near the plan or within the same ballpark of what SL stated in his interview??

[P'head Red]

Just now, SuperDziek said:

That was a year ago as it was a throwback tweet.

Cycled through there at 5ish and definitely something going on. Ashton and Lansdown’s cars both present along with various shiny range rovers. 

The plot thickens. The car park is usually dead at 5.15

[The Fat Controller]

1 hour ago, ChippenhamRed said:

No humble pie will be required. We’re working with the information we’ve been given combined with the stated ambitions of the board. Appointing Holden does not match those statements.

Has Holden been appointed? 

My initial comment was supposed to be light-hearted, that OTIB would either suffer a meltdown (with Holden's appointment) or people would have to eat humble pie (if we appointed Hughton). 

Appointing Hughton would match the stated ambitions of the board, IMO. 

[Davefevs]

36 minutes ago, Ron Swanson said:

If you got offered a job that could potentially set you up for life surely you would cancel your holidays and be on the first flight home?

If it's been reported that we're waiting for Dean Holden, yes Dean Holden, not Hughton or any other big managerial name to return from his holiday to announc this appointment then that is crazy.

 

The only thing that needs flying home for is to do the full press and photo announcement.  He may already be in situ as the new head-coach but media stuff can’t happen til he’s back.  He may indeed be in his way, trying to catch an earlier flight.  Who knows, but he will have gone on his break with the club / board decision makers fully aware of the timeline.

Being on holiday is not an issue, he can be in full contact...the joys of modern technology.

38 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

What is your rationale for thinking he would be an 'excellent choice'? Apart from the impossible to prove claims that he's popular with players. 

How does appointing Dean Holden, and taking such a long time to do it, satisfy any of the conditions and claims that Lansdown has spelled out in this interview?

I don’t agree he’s an excellent choice, but I’ve posted several times I saw plenty of positives.  There were negatives too.  He isn’t the best candidate on paper by any stretch.  But I also don’t feel worried either.  Maybe I just am more prepared to wait and see and critique as time goes on.  I’ve said before that Hughton was my no1, but I wasn’t excited by it.  Just been a weird process for me overall.

32 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

I think it's possible to make a separation between how you feel about an appointment and how you'll react to the new manager both on here if and when we can make it to Ashton Gate.

Like many supporters, I'm massively underwhelmed by Holden and cannot see the reason why the club are going for him rather than other managers in the frame. To be clear, I would have understood it if, back when LJ was sacked, the club's communications had pressed the need for austerity and continuity in the weight of COVID and said an internal appointment was best for the financial and practical stability of the club. But, given SL talked about wanting to bring in someone "fresh" and MA's talk about an ambitious range of applicants, along with SL making clear that the aim was to get someone in who could take "the next step" to promotion, it's pretty clear 'austerity' wasn't the plan at the start. I thought Holden did okay as caretaker manager but was slow to make subs or changes to the starting line-up even when the players were clearly exhausted and he has not done enough to make me excited about the job. This, combined with the mixed messages from the club, does give me a lack of faith in the senior leadership at the moment.

BUT, if he gets the job, I will obviously want him to do as well as possible and I will support him in what he tries to do. But I think it is possible to support the manager whilst doubting that he was the right choice and I honestly don't think the current ambivalence to his appointment means supporters will refuse to give him a fair chance. But I do think it means there will be a lot of anger towards the club if his reign ends in disappointment. 

 

That’s kinda how I felt with LJ.

21 minutes ago, ciderwithtommy said:

I posted on another thread a while back, this decision was the transparent one. Who we pick tells us what our true ambitions are. Forget the PR chat from Ashton, this is all about making a statement, one way or the other.

I truly believe that the forthcoming season is the most wide open the league has ever seen, FFP unlikely to be enforced, multiple clubs in danger of points deductions, short pre season with the transfer window open until Oct, this is the time to take leadership IF you have the means to do so. Which surely we do?  By waiting so long we have lost an advantage already. It's really disappointing to see that, but the club has to act now. 

It surely now has to be Holden, we will then lose Fam and Nic, I think he has a job on to keep us up. 

If we had appointed Hughton, lets say, we may now have players contracts sorted, players in talks, pre season sorted. I would then say we were top 6 material. 

My rambled point is this. We have fought so hard against the big boys for 3/4 years, and now the door has opened for us, and we are walking away. 

I like this post, don’t agree with all of it.

Ultimately whoever is appointed will be judged on results and what they do with the players that have, how they use them, etc.

We have to see how the squad shapes up through pre-season, early games and then October when the window shuts until January.  It’s good discussion value, but pretty futile at the mo to discuss where we might finish.

There will be some players really pleased that Holden might be in charge, some might’ve been dreading someone else....and vice versa.  Holden will at least understand the individual personalities.  He will however have to learn the good cop bad cop dynamic quickly.  I do sense he is his own man.  Time will tell.

[Port Red]

6 minutes ago, sglosbcfc said:

Will my season ticket get me in

Let's suggest they make it an annual event with your season ticket getting you access.  

it might be the only way to stop people asking for refunds once the manager is appointed!

[soultrader]

3 minutes ago, P'head Red said:

The plot thickens. The car park is usually dead at 5.15

Dogging ?

[P'head Red]

Just now, soultrader said:

Dogging ?

That's 10.15

[The Coach]

Just now, P'head Red said:

That's 10.15

In the morning 

[AshtonG666]

2 hours ago, Roger Red Hat said:

......Or into it..

True hahaha

[soultrader]

Just now, Redpool said:

In the morning 

MA designated the car park as "A re-imagining of the car park space, a paradigm shift, towards a muti faceted modern space"

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

9 minutes ago, Port Red said:

I'm starting to think that too.  That being said I can't work out which of the 2 would go for Holden over Hughton.  

I would assume JL would win any argument by phoning up Dad and therefore he must be voting Holden with Ashton wanting to splash out on a big name, hence the links to Gerrard.

Ultimately we will see soon and I wouldn't be surprised to see the end of Ashton which will please many after all of this.

 

I don’t know about a split or a power struggle, but the one thing I think we can assume pretty much for sure is that we are WAITING for something.  What else could explain what has now become deafening silence?  And the more I think about it, the harder I find it to explain the wait if the club intends to appoint Deano as first team coach.  This business about him being on holiday is surely neither here nor there.

The only think I can therefore say, which isn’t helpful at all, is that SOMETHING is going on and that the silence does imply that it might be something that could be unexpected.  I have no idea what that will be, but logic does suggest that the longer this goes on, the less likely it becomes that Deano is going to get the number one job.  I do seriously wonder whether Paul Cook is the man, with Deano as his deputy, and we are waiting for clarification of legal issues following his departure from Wigan.  At least that might explain the delay, knowing what lawyers are like.

Pure speculation on my part of course (and you all know I’ve made no secret that I’m in the ‘whoever it is let’s get behind them camp), but this now monumental delay does suggest that something unusual is going on.

[Colemanballs]

52 minutes ago, Ron Swanson said:

If you got offered a job that could potentially set you up for life surely you would cancel your holidays and be on the first flight home?

If it's been reported that we're waiting for Dean Holden, yes Dean Holden, not Hughton or any other big managerial name to return from his holiday to announc this appointment then that is crazy.

 

"So Mark, I've got a family holiday booked but the missus will understand if I have to cancel."

"No, don't worry Dean. It'll take me more than a week to figure out how I'm going to spin this to the fans. Off you go and enjoy yourself. Oh, make sure you have a complete break. No logging in to OTIB while you are away." 

[RedorDead BCFC]

I hear that maybe Hughton didn’t want to stick to the plan and Dean probably does. 
 

Can someone explain to me what the plan actually is? For the past 3 years it’s been get as close to the top by Christmas then fall away, between Jan and April. 
 

If that’s the plan, it’s a f king stupid plan. 

[Port Red]

I wouldn't have a problem with Holden if he has the right support.  Perhaps the delay are around trying to find an experienced head to support him as Director of Football.  This would also leave Ashton time to do what he is good at, "trading" and BS.

I do feel for Dean as he is on a hiding to nothing if he takes the job, I will support him fully and direct any anger in the direction of the board.  

[Davefevs]

7 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

I don’t know about a split or a power struggle, but the one thing I think we can assume pretty much for sure is that we are WAITING for something.  What else could explain what has now become deafening silence?  And the more I think about it, the harder I find it to explain the wait if the club intends to appoint Deano as first team coach.  This business about him being on holiday is surely neither here nor there.

The only think I can therefore say, which isn’t helpful at all, is that SOMETHING is going on and that the silence does imply that it might be something that could be unexpected.  I have no idea what that will be, but logic does suggest that the longer this goes on, the less likely it becomes that Deano is going to get the number one job.  I do seriously wonder whether Paul Cook is the man, with Deano as his deputy, and we are waiting for clarification of legal issues following his departure from Wigan.  At least that might explain the delay, knowing what lawyers are like.

Pure speculation on my part of course (and you all know I’ve made no secret that I’m in the ‘whoever it is let’s get behind them camp), but this now monumental delay does suggest that something unusual is going on.

If you’ve got a spare 45 minutes, see if there’s anything in this.  I only listened until he mentioned staff and players had been paid in June, and staff had been paid in July, but not players!

Paul Stanley comes across as exactly the type of Administrator you need in football.

1 minute ago, Port Red said:

I wouldn't have a problem with Holden if he has the right support.  Perhaps the delay are around trying to find an experienced head to support him as Director of Football.  This would also leave Ashton time to do what he is good at, "trading" and BS.

I do feel for Dean as he is on a hiding to nothing if he takes the job, I will support him fully and direct any anger in the direction of the board.  

Yep, I feel that too.

[Nuno Gomes]

12 minutes ago, P'head Red said:

That's 10.15

Over at 10.17

[Clint]

1 minute ago, Port Red said:

I wouldn't have a problem with Holden if he has the right support.  Perhaps the delay are around trying to find an experienced head to support him as Director of Football.  This would also leave Ashton time to do what he is good at, "trading" and BS.

I do feel for Dean as he is on a hiding to nothing if he takes the job, I will support him fully and direct any anger in the direction of the board.  

That’s the twist, Dean as coach and LJ is back as Director of Football!

[MATT BCFC]

6 minutes ago, RedorDead BCFC said:

I hear that maybe Hughton didn’t want to stick to the plan and Dean probably does. 
 

Can someone explain to me what the plan actually is? For the past 3 years it’s been get as close to the top by Christmas then fall away, between Jan and April. 
 

If that’s the plan, it’s a f king stupid plan. 

Buy players cheap who are likely to have a good sell on value. I don't think there's any plan other than this which appears to be why no proven manager wants to come here.

[exAtyeoMax]

3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

If you’ve got a spare 45 minutes, see if there’s anything in this.  I only listened until he mentioned staff and players had been paid in June, and staff had been paid in July, but not players!

Paul Stanley comes across as exactly the type of Administrator you need in football.

Yep, I feel that too.

CH as DoF and DH as HC would be fine…I'd be more than happy with that. MA can do his BS elsewhere…

[42nite]

2 minutes ago, exAtyeoMax said:

CH as DoF and DH as HC would be fine…I'd be more than happy with that. MA can do his BS elsewhere…

DOH  a dear a female dear, RAY a drop of golden sun, ME....   ETC  ETC!