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Luke Wilkshire Podcast


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An interesting listen. Michael Bridges is on it as well and they both say Gary Johnson was the worse manager they ever worked under and bullied a lot of players! Supposedly he forced them and Marcus Stewart out the club as he didn’t like working with players who had played at a high level previously. 

Given his successful career after he left City I think it was definitely one of GJ’s mistakes letting him go although Wilkshire said he couldn’t get out the door soon enough!

https://player.fm/series/the-gegenpod-presented-by-optus-sport/viduka-said-youll-pick-me-im-your-best-player

 

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Funny I was reading about Luke recently and read he hated his time here. I always felt he was a decent player. 

 

Bridges and Stewart were finished though weren't they? As much as I wanted them to succeed, and I imagine all 3 were on good money. 

Fact is Johnson took as to our highest place in years without them so he was clearly right. 

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Of course he tried to get rid of them! You want the manager to get rid of players who aren't good enough for what you're trying to do, especially if they're taking up a large chunk of wages you could use elsewhere. There was a thread recently about your most "exciting" signing and Bridges was mine, but geez, while it's not a nice way to go about it, GJ has to look after himself and the club and get rid of players he doesn't want.

If you look at Wilkshire's post city career, he definitely did well at a high standard, but if you remember him playing, it wasn't like he was doing anything for us. Totally mediocre. He left in 05/06, and we got promoted in 06/07. Notice he never came back to British football. It was good for him to go, and good for us to not resign him. Good player but suited slower international and continental football, not league 1, not the championship.

And honestly, even if he was amazing, it was worth to get rid of him to stop people calling him Wiltshire...!

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Incendiary stuff.  I can’t think why either would want to lie about it, and their accounts absolutely tallied so we have to assume there’s an awful lot of truth in it.  However, what one person sees as bullying might be an attempt at dealing with a bad culture, and we know for certain that Gary Johnson took on some appalling behaviour at the club (just read Christian Roberts’s book for the lowdown on the Danny Wilson era).

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Jesus. It’s like listening to Robbored with these two and their hatred of Johnson.

Wilkshire admitted he was in the side until December and didn’t want to sign a new deal so asked for silly money - therefore Johnson put him in the reserves. Can’t see any issue there.

They claim if he’d used them we’d have got success sooner. Whereas when we used them we had a horrible losing streak and after GJ started reshaping the side, we had a great run of form in the second half of the season followed by promotion followed by playoffs. So that’s clearly knackers.

Realise everyone has their own perspective but there is huge rewriting of history here by Wilkshire and Bridges
 

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In signing Bridges and Stewart I, like many others thought it was the dream ticket.

Unfortunately their quick thinking and movement was too good for the League 1 rest of the team plus, just to balance it off, we also signed that central defender to55er from Motherwell, one David Partridge. If I remember correctly and despite being a central defender (allegedly) he caught the ball in our penalty area at Dean Court in that awful champagne away top.

We then proceeded to loan him out to anybody & everybody.

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Really enjoyed that listen from their perspective. 

They both clearly didn't get on with GJ and others had success thereafter with him. I've listened to a few other players on OSIB who said he was disciplined and some players couldn't gel with that sort of management which is probably even harder to get to grips with when your not in the side regularly.  Still interesting nonetheless to hear behind the scenes on an era gone by..

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1 hour ago, Swede said:

In signing Bridges and Stewart I, like many others thought it was the dream ticket.

Unfortunately their quick thinking and movement was too good for the League 1 rest of the team plus, just to balance it off, we also signed that central defender to55er from Motherwell, one David Partridge. If I remember correctly and despite being a central defender (allegedly) he caught the ball in our penalty area at Dean Court in that awful champagne away top.

We then proceeded to loan him out to anybody & everybody.

Yes, we even loaned Partridge to Her Majesty. 

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9 hours ago, Gazred said:

Wow, that was a pretty brutal assement of their time here.

I did like the line about GJ's cheap Rolex though.

I’ve not had a chance to listen yet but is it just a cheap jibe from the players? After all it must be hard for someone like Gary with a cheap(fake?) Rolex trying to manage and motivate players who wear the real thing.

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Isn't it fairly standard, i'm sure there are many of Fergies rejects that have nothing but bad things to say about him in contrast to the golden generation who mostly think the sun shines out of him.

Not comparing GJ to Fergie in any way but i'm sure its a common tale for just about every manager to have disgruntled ex players who thought they deserved more than they got.

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Cheap shots from players who thought they should be guaranteed to play because they warmed the bench at premier league teams. Bridges was one of the most disappointing signings I can remember and listening to his attitude here really explains why. Well done Gary for getting rid and going on to the success we had as soon as they were gone 

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9 hours ago, Matthew me said:

Can't wait for a player managed by LJ to do an interview. I bet it's more of the same

Weirdly, I thought GJ was a likeable man. LJ, less so. 

In years to come, I think the job LJ did will be more valued by fans. He made us stable 

But his likeability for some reason just isn't what it should be

No way. LJ did stabilise us, but ultimately GJ got us promotion and a playoff final. The buzz at games during the good times in his tenure was the best I’ve seen it too (watching since 05).

GJ enjoyed more measurable success than LJ. LJ does deserve credit too, but managers don’t get remembered for ‘stabilising’ clubs.

I have no issue with GJ falling out with LW and MB either. I imagine there’s a couple of similar stories about each of our managers falling out with players. Nature of the job.

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I mean we know GJ had a bit of an issue with players with ego/perhaps had played higher but that's cheap shots from LW and MB who both got paid well when they were here.  Why drag it up 15 odd years later too..

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