Holden Facing The Press This Afternoon

[Silvio Dante]

3 minutes ago, Sheltons Army said:

I didn’t realise it was known in the morning that no player would be attending Silvio - ta

But Dean not aware until the presser 

I guess then the possibility there is Dean busy in meetings himself etc (SL?) and thus not aware 

 

Possibly. As Fevs says the players go first so he may have assumed that someone had already gone, and hadn’t had time to be briefed that nobody had as getting a strip torn off him by SL. That may work, but again it would have been obvious for Holden to ask Barton - “who’s just gone”, as follow up questions may be about that player. 
 

@Davefevs - GMcG and you are in contact, has he given you a steer on what Barton said?

[Davefevs]

5 minutes ago, Red Exile said:

...but possibly not a bizarre as a couple of hours later the local press reporter being given the two bombshell titbits - that the Chair is in the Caribbean at a time of crisis (and pandemic lockdown) - a potential PR disaster - and - more incredibly - that the whole excuse for our fragility, lack of left sided cover, where we have thrown an 18 yearly to the wolves and for which we are expected to sympathise with the Head Coach - is down to the board refusing to sign any one of three available (and named) left sided defenders! 

But, but, but....the Lansdown family have never said no!!!  So who vetoed this then?

3 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Possibly. As Fevs says the players go first so he may have assumed that someone had already gone, and hadn’t had time to be briefed that nobody had as getting a strip torn off him by SL. That may work, but again it would have been obvious for Holden to ask Barton - “who’s just gone”, as follow up questions may be about that player. 
 

@Davefevs - GMcG and you are in contact, has he given you a steer on what Barton said?

I’ll see if I can dig.

[Robin Wood]

50 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

I just can’t get past this one line from Deano:

”I’d fancy us against anyone!”

God did he really say that unbelievable I wouldn't fancy us against the dog and duck 

[sh1t_ref_again]

Another maybe off the mark theory could be DH has already been told his time as head coach is over and that he needs to play along like a good boy to either get a nice pay off or see if the next manager will keep him in the coaching staff, perhaps they did not fancy putting in a caretaker particularly if they are already close to appointing someone else.

Anyone who has to experience the owner of a business going on radio to publicly apologise for the bad performance is not going to last long

[Rob k]

14 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

But, but, but....the Lansdown family have never said no!!!  So who vetoed this then?

I’ll see if I can dig.

I think it’s just me who would have no problem of not signing another permanent left back, we have JD and Cam Pring (who im told is the better player) and Rowe who can step in. Now i know we have injuries but surely a loan was the was to go?

[Davefevs]

26 minutes ago, Rob k said:

I think it’s just me who would have no problem of not signing another permanent left back, we have JD and Cam Pring (who im told is the better player) and Rowe who can step in. Now i know we have injuries but surely a loan was the was to go?

Yes, we don’t know whether loans or not.

 

 

Re no player put up for interview, Gregor said he was phoned by Dave Barton and it was to do with training times.  

[Silvio Dante]

4 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Re no player put up for interview, Gregor said he was phoned by Dave Barton and it was to do with training times.  

So....

The head of communications says no players were put up due to training times.

The head coach, in charge of training, is not aware that nobody is coming to the presser.

So, the head coaches scheduled training precludes players attending the presser. But the head coach, who is attending said presser, doesn’t know that he has scheduled training for the players at the same time as the presser.

Meaning the head coach is in the presser knowing that his players are training but doesn’t know that they’re not at the presser because they’re training.

Yep, that totally holds water.

[Tin Soldier]

I think most on OTIB have worked out by now that what comes out of Bristol City currently is BULLSHIT.

[mozo]

31 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

So....

The head of communications says no players were put up due to training times.

The head coach, in charge of training, is not aware that nobody is coming to the presser.

So, the head coaches scheduled training precludes players attending the presser. But the head coach, who is attending said presser, doesn’t know that he has scheduled training for the players at the same time as the presser.

Meaning the head coach is in the presser knowing that his players are training but doesn’t know that they’re not at the presser because they’re training.

Yep, that totally holds water.

My initial reaction was that Holden was just deflecting the question. Are we convinced that he didn't know? Wasn't he just sticking to the script that it wasn't his responsibility, therefore question avoided?

I totally agree that Lansdown must have orchestrated the embargo, particularly if true that his RB interview was a last minute thing. Sounds like he stage managed yesterday.

[ExiledAjax]

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Gregor said that he didn’t know why, but that he could only guess that it was because Sky, ITV etc were there, and they wouldn’t put there stuff out til 5pm, so Gregor restricted until that time.

 

Edit: @Sheltons Army has kindly quoted the last few messages. In my defence it is before 9am where I live and I'm yet to have my coffee.

[Sheltons Army]

1 minute ago, ExiledAjax said:

Dave, did Gregor tell you why there was no player present yesterday? When asked the question was deflected to Barton who said he'd tell the journo's afterwards. Any news on that? Seems odd.

 

46 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Re no player put up for interview, Gregor said he was phoned by Dave Barton and it was to do with training times.  

 

[Kibs]

1 minute ago, Sheltons Army said:

 

 

Clearly needed to buy some time to think of shit excuse. Why the hell couldn't he say that in the press conference? 

[Taz]

37 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

So....

The head of communications says no players were put up due to training times.

The head coach, in charge of training, is not aware that nobody is coming to the presser.

So, the head coaches scheduled training precludes players attending the presser. But the head coach, who is attending said presser, doesn’t know that he has scheduled training for the players at the same time as the presser.

Meaning the head coach is in the presser knowing that his players are training but doesn’t know that they’re not at the presser because they’re training.

Yep, that totally holds water.

He didn't know because he had had a long lengthy zoom meeting with Steve L getting a bollocking, and had no clue what had been going on in the few hours previous to the meeting.

I don't know this for a fact, just reading between the lines of what SL has said....

[Davefevs]

43 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

So....

The head of communications says no players were put up due to training times.

The head coach, in charge of training, is not aware that nobody is coming to the presser.

So, the head coaches scheduled training precludes players attending the presser. But the head coach, who is attending said presser, doesn’t know that he has scheduled training for the players at the same time as the presser.

Meaning the head coach is in the presser knowing that his players are training but doesn’t know that they’re not at the presser because they’re training.

Yep, that totally holds water.

So, in summary, we don’t want our players going off-piste and saying something they shouldn’t.

[ExiledAjax]

Just now, Davefevs said:

So, in summary, we don’t want our players going off-piste and saying something they shouldn’t.

My conspiracy theory is that SL phoned Barton and told him to lock Kalas in the cupboard before he could get to the press conference. SL knows that Holden had to do the press conference, but he also knows that Holden won't say anything to jeopardise his own job. By removing the 'wild card' player from the press conference SL knows that he can go on RB immediately after the press conference in the safe knowledge that the only words that can be thrown at him are Holden's. Add to that the fact that the Club handily embargoed the press conference until 5pm, so it would 'conclude' only 30 minutes before SL's own RB appearance, and you have a radio appearance by the owner that is, as much as it can be, the sole source of news on the subject.

[Davefevs]

27 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

My conspiracy theory is that SL phoned Barton and told him to lock Kalas in the cupboard before he could get to the press conference. SL knows that Holden had to do the press conference, but he also knows that Holden won't say anything to jeopardise his own job. By removing the 'wild card' player from the press conference SL knows that he can go on RB immediately after the press conference in the safe knowledge that the only words that can be thrown at him are Holden's. Add to that the fact that the Club handily embargoed the press conference until 5pm, so it would 'conclude' only 30 minutes before SL's own RB appearance, and you have a radio appearance by the owner that is, as much as it can be, the sole source of news on the subject.

This
 

Aligned to Silvio’s post too.

[Rob k]

2 hours ago, Sheltons Army said:

I can follow those thoughts Silvio 

As for the missing player - I wondered or suspected whether they may be in some sort of ‘ meeting ‘ , or getting addressed by SL

Add in JPs claim that DH struggles with the politics and it’s all looking a bit messy

I’ve not read the whole thread but could the no player thing be as simple as he was at home resting after training before today’s game seeing the press conference was at 17.00?

[DingleRed]

19 minutes ago, Rob k said:

I’ve not read the whole thread but could the no player thing be as simple as he was at home resting after training before today’s game seeing the press conference was at 17.00?

The press conference took place before 5, the publication was embargoed until 5.

Usually there appears to be quite a long gap between the player and the head coach appearing, often like an hour judging by Gregor's comments at the time. Players could well be at training still, well into the afternoon. I would expect that, given the circumstances they find themselves in.

[Superjack]

3 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

So....

The head of communications says no players were put up due to training times.

The head coach, in charge of training, is not aware that nobody is coming to the presser.

So, the head coaches scheduled training precludes players attending the presser. But the head coach, who is attending said presser, doesn’t know that he has scheduled training for the players at the same time as the presser.

Meaning the head coach is in the presser knowing that his players are training but doesn’t know that they’re not at the presser because they’re training.

Yep, that totally holds water.

The football might be shit, but this forum has given me some chuckles in the last twenty-four hours.

[Rinkadink]

On 15/02/2021 at 21:37, Red Exile said:

courtesy of Gregor:

SL: "Pat Lam is an exceptional coach. The likes of a Pat Lam in football is equivalent to a Pep Guardiola... We're not quite in that category at the moment. We have to build to that. I understand that envy. Enjoy what the Bears are doing."

Personally - as someone with zero interest in rugby - I neither envy the 'Bears' nor take any enjoyment from anything they achieve.

And even if I did it wouldn't compensate for having season ticket to watch turgid football.

Pat Lam wasn't 100% tested at Premiership Rugby level and above, it's not the same as Pep at all. With that said Lam seems to be changing into that type and improving also. Before Lam a more recognised DoR/Head Coach was appointed in Andy Robinson (Won EU title, England International DoR, etc) which didn't go so well. There's more to just a name or previous success, I guess this is what Lansdown had in the back of his mind when Ashton appointed Holden but will all respect to Holden, he is no Pat Lam. 

It's a shame the comment has caused such hostility (some of it like Bears success not easing the pain of City's poor form understandable, others like the posh lad BS can get in the bin this is Bristol not was jacket fox botherers at Barf) as it appears he's clumsily trying spin a positive after being asked a question about Bears/City. 

Reading between lines of comments made (and the sacking of Holden subsequently) it seems like changes are finally coming. Will they be enough though? More needs to be done to get City where we want them to be IMO.

[mozo]

I don’t know why ‘honest Dean‘ didn’t acknowledge that he knew his neck was on line and that he was under pressure to win to save his job.

He seems to prefer his NLP reframing to calling a spade a spade and it shows that the straight talker myth was baseless.