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Cotts - Covid


robin_unreliant

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Excellent news, just in time to take over here, if it's not to be Nigel ;)

Seriously they did a great job for Shrewsbury this season, thank god Rovers didn't employ him when they could, but of course the fanbase would never have allowed it anyway. Oh dear, how sad.

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33 minutes ago, fgrsimon said:

Excellent news, just in time to take over here, if it's not to be Nigel ;)

Seriously they did a great job for Shrewsbury this season, thank god Rovers didn't employ him when they could, but of course the fanbase would never have allowed it anyway. Oh dear, how sad.

Cotts and Wilbs returning to The Gate to manage the City would certainly whet my appetite........

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2 hours ago, Sir Leigh of Somerset said:

Cotts and Wilbs returning to The Gate to manage the City would certainly whet my appetite........

I want Pearson to stay but if not I’d love Cotts and Wilbs back here. 
Build a team from scratch full of leaders and winners and passion who know their roles.... again. 

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7 minutes ago, Mendip City said:

I want Pearson to stay but if not I’d love Cotts and Wilbs back here. 
Build a team from scratch full of leaders and winners and passion who know their roles.... again. 

More chance of seeing Holloway (feel dirty saying that name) manage us than seeing Cotts return.

Won't happen.

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8 minutes ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

What nonsense.

He became the longest serving Championship manager while at Burnley.

Are you allowed to state facts on here? ?

He’s a strong manager, had loads of jobs and experience - leaving most clubs in a better place than when he arrived... including this one. It’ll never happen but he’d be great to breathe life back into City. 
 

Right now I’m just glad he’s on the road to recovery and that we (just about) won’t have to face him and Wilbs next season. 

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3 hours ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

What nonsense.

He became the longest serving Championship manager while at Burnley.

That was 14 years ago! And for 3 years, he was hardly Alex Ferguson.

I like the guy, I loved the spirit, success and football he bought in league 1. Backed or not, the squad was ok but we were dire in the championship under him and he was beyond dire at Birmingham after and has subsequently only been employed by *checks notes* Shrewsbury town.

He is not good enough and some people need to take off their rose tinted spectacles and try to look forward

 

2 hours ago, Mendip City said:

Are you allowed to state facts on here? ?

He’s a strong manager, had loads of jobs and experience - leaving most clubs in a better place than when he arrived... including this one. It’ll never happen but he’d be great to breathe life back into City. 
 

Right now I’m just glad he’s on the road to recovery and that we (just about) won’t have to face him and Wilbs next season. 

I’m literally the one stating facts, not nostalgic drivel like everyone else

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1 hour ago, Fjmcity said:

That was 14 years ago! And for 3 years, he was hardly Alex Ferguson.

I like the guy, I loved the spirit, success and football he bought in league 1. Backed or not, the squad was ok but we were dire in the championship under him and he was beyond dire at Birmingham after and has subsequently only been employed by *checks notes* Shrewsbury town.

He is not good enough and some people need to take off their rose tinted spectacles and try to look forward

 

I’m literally the one stating facts, not nostalgic drivel like everyone else

The previous poster stated SC was the longest serving manager whilst at Burnley. He was. It’s a fact. Whatever other opinion you, he or I have... that one point is a fact. 
Most things on here are unprovable opinion that’s the beauty of it. Everyone’s opinion is valid. 
SC was great for us but I doubt we’ll ever see him back. I hope NP can be a championship version of him.... 

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Brilliant article in The Athletic this AM:

Roughly 30 minutes have elapsed of Shrewsbury Town’s game versus Oxford United, on the face of it a regulation League One fixture on a Saturday afternoon in sunny Shropshire.

The home team have just taken a 2-1 lead and a voice emanates from the directors’ box. It’s raspy, hoarse and a little faint, but what you can detect loud and clear is anger.

Two of Shrewsbury’s coaches stop watching the game and turn around to face the shouty man. Then journalists in the press box turn around. Then Shrewsbury’s substitutes. Then Oxford’s.

The man is holding court to pretty much the entire stadium. His words are hard to decipher but they include “distribution” and “slow”.

Steve Cotterill is back.


It’s hard to underplay what Shrewsbury’s boss has been through in the past four months. To put plainly, he was close to death.

The 56-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 in January and went into intensive care, before recovering and leaving hospital in mid-February. A couple of weeks later he took a turn for the worse and went back to Bristol Royal Infirmary, suffering from COVID-pneumonia.

Despite his life-threatening prognosis, Cotterill, who was appointed in November and took charge of seven league games before being struck by the virus, continued to work.

In total he spent 69 days recuperating and being treated in hospital. He spoke to his assistant boss Aaron Wilbraham on every single one of those 69 days. Sometimes Wilbraham would wake up in the morning to receive pages of detailed tactical instructions, sent by Cotterill at 4am. The former Bristol City striker, in his first coaching role, calls it an “overwhelming, crazy experience”.

On Saturday, six weeks after being discharged, Cotterill returned to the club.

After driving himself 120 miles north from Bristol to Shrewsbury — a tiring task in itself for someone who had spent the majority of this year in a hospital bed – he arrived at Montgomery Waters Meadow and took it all in. Cotterill walked down the tunnel and out onto the pitch. He was said to be overwhelmed at being back.

He and Wilbraham met face-to-face for the first time in four months, then he met some of his players for the first ever time, such as January transfer window additions Nathanael Ogbeta and Curtis Main.

steve-cotterill
Cotterill chatting to Dave Edwards and Karl Robinson before the game (Photo: James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images)

Cotterill is still on medication and has CT scans and x-rays to undergo in the coming days, so this was intended to be a “muted” return, as the stadium announcer described it pre-match. It was anything but.

The Shrewsbury boss gave the pre-match team talk, the half-time team talk and the post-match debrief. At 5.45pm he was still in the dressing room chatting to the players. If this was supposed to be him taking it easy (Cotterill sat in the directors’ box throughout the game and forewent media duties post-match) then full-pelt must be something to behold.

“SWITCH ON… STAY THERE JOSH,” Cotterill screams as he organises his players from the very back of the main stand.

“Get the pass off! *******… ****… ****,” his voice tails away as a player dawdles in possession.

Ever seen a substitute trot up a flight of stairs, studs clinking, to receive hushed instructions from a manager in a directors’ box? It felt like there were a few firsts at Montogomery Waters Meadow.

“GET THEM UP THE PITCH,” Cotterill yells at his assistant Wilbraham. “UUUUP, AARON!” The fact Cotterill is the loudest man in the stadium and every single player can hear this appears to be irrelevant. It is Wilbraham who must pass on the instruction that everyone has already heard.

Wilbraham is wearing earphones via which he was meant to communicate with his boss. As Cotterill ramps up the volume the longer the match goes on, they’ve become completely redundant.

With the score at 2-2 and time running out, Shrewsbury win a free-kick 10 yards outside their own box. Cotterill, full volume, demands keeper Harry Burgoyne’s attention as he instructs him to take it. After three shouts of “Harry!”, he gives his manager a thumbs up.

Even in quiet sections of stadiums there’s always one absolutely enraged supporter who kicks every ball and bellows instructions to every player from the back of the stand, eyes bulging, face reddening. Today it’s Shrewsbury’s manager.

Play-off chasing Oxford score a late winner and, despite forcing two good chances (and two great saves) in six minutes of stoppage time, Shrewsbury can’t force an even later equaliser.

But in the grand scheme of things, it matters little to the home team. The day’s focus, for a club that has already impressively secured League One survival in his absence, is all on one man.

“It’s not in the manager’s nature to take it easy,” Wilbraham says. “He’s had to take it easy for the past four months and he’s hated every minute of it. I could tell he was a bit overwhelmed and nervous (being back) but he was soon having banter with the lads.

“I gave him a big hug when I saw him. First of January to first of May, I’d not seen him.

“You could see people’s faces beaming when they saw him. It wasn’t like; ‘Oh I’ve missed you’, it was just banter, telling them what they look like. That’s what everyone wanted.

“I never felt any pressure while he was away, only from him to produce and get the club safe, I like that pressure. When he came back I did feel relief. It was a strange feeling.”

The goodwill towards Cotterill was universal.

Oxford boss Karl Robinson chatted to him for half an hour before the game.

“He’s a good football man,” Robinson says. “Me and him went toe to toe for 46 games five years ago (at MK Dons and Bristol City). He’s a pleasure to share a touchline with. To see him back is a nice feeling, to know he’s on the mend, we look forward to welcoming him back to the football community next year.

“You could still hear him (from the box)! You could put Cotts in the car park and you could still hear him.”

A strange day of strange feelings and heightened emotions, topped by a moving and poignant speech given by Cotterill to the players before the game. He told them how close he came to dying, he told them everything he’d been through. He told them how hard life has been. He told them he didn’t think coronavirus could “get him”, but it had and that they should be careful. He told them to run their hearts out on the pitch and enjoy it while they could. He told them to appreciate life.

“It was special to be in there,” Wilbraham says. “At times he might have thought he might not come back. A lot of the boys, as soon as he walked out, were saying ‘wow’.”

steve-cotterill
Cotterill in the directors’ box on Saturday (Photo: Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)

The players, who found out two days before that their manager would finally be returning to the dressing room (his voice had been there for months, via occasionally dodgy bluetooth speakers), have never heard anything like it.

“I was taken back, I got quite emotional,” former Bolton man Josh Vela says. “He’s got a family at home, he’s got children. He was close to dying. The type of person and character he is, he’s come through it. It’ll give us a big boost going into next season.

“I could hear him in the first half shouting something at me! He’s not the type of person to chill out, he wants to be involved in the game. Even when he wasn’t here he in the last few months he was shouting and bawling at us over speakers.

“The job (Wilbraham) and David Longwell have done is unbelievable. It’s (Wilbraham’s) first job. They’ve got us up and out the mess we was in.

“It’s put things in perspective, football comes second when someone you look up to has health problems like he has. He’s come through it because he’s a fighter.”

With Cotterill missing 24 games and going through what he has, Shrewsbury comfortably avoiding relegation is one of the most notable achievements in the EFL this season.

All that matters to Shrewsbury Town, the English football community and to everyone who knows Steve Cotterill, is that he’s still with us.

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13 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Even in quiet sections of stadiums there’s always one absolutely enraged supporter who kicks every ball and bellows instructions to every player from the back of the stand, eyes bulging, face reddening. Today it’s Shrewsbury’s manager.

:wub: 

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26 minutes ago, pride of the west said:

How can you not love the bloke

100%.

He’s absolutely mad but I love him to bits.

He builds a side, a spirit & I’ll always be grateful for that title winning team.

His faults are obvious, he’s stubborn beyond belief & really crap at the politics of football, but his time with us was great, I know some will now reply & say he was taking us back down (which with the games left that is only an opinion) but his side, even then, absolutely battled for everything, totally unlike now.

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