grifty Posted March 1, 2021 Report Share Posted March 1, 2021 4 hours ago, soultrader said: I get that. Wasn't meaning to suggest otherwise. But I think that NP has rocked up to Ashton Gate on his own. He has not (yet) demanded his back room staff are shipped in. He (apprarently) has listened to Tins about fielding youngsters on the bench. So it would appear to me that NP is happy to work with whoever and give them a chance. Yes they may get on live a house on fire, but if MA were to leave, I would have thought the NP would be OK working with whoever comes in. Plus NP may well have some input on MA replacement? Either way, I'm not worried about MA staying of going If MA were to leave, I hope NP would be straight on the phone to Steve Walsh and get him in as DoF. We are always talking about emulating clubs like Brentford and more recently Barnsley... Leicester should be the target! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ostrich Posted March 6, 2021 Report Share Posted March 6, 2021 All, Leicester fan here. I signed up last weekend but it took an age to be approved and I imagine the mood around here is much different this week looking at the half time score. I'm delighted to see Nigel rock up with you guys, particularly as I may move down to Bristol in the coming months so fingers crossed he's still there next season. Since he left, I think a lot of us have been hoping for him to get this sort of job since he left. Derby are a basket case and never looked a good match, Watford never looked like a long-term match and well Leuven was an adventure into the unknown that didn't work out for a number of reasons. From the outside, Bristol City look like a solid club with plenty of potential, and a good owner. He first came in at our lowest ebb, on the back of a good few years where the club was a complete mess (how I caught the bug growing up through that period is beyond me), turned the tide and started the momentum to get us to where we are now. He immediately brought back some pride and respect to the club which was sorely missing since we lost to Wycombe in the FA Cup in 2001. I think a lot of Leicester fans still say that was the most enjoyable season we've had, admittedly new grounds being part of that but also because of how Nige brought back the enthusiasm from the fans. When you see the mess that some end up in when they go down there, it can't be understated how important that season was and we pissed it. Okay, when you look at our squad for that season in League 1, it was clear we were too good for the division (our problem when we went down was scoring goals) but we still needed someone to knit it together. He added some decent signings (as wells bringing Andy King through from the academy), Jack Hobbs, Michael Morrison, Tunchev (this guy could have played in the PL had injuries not destroyed him), Lloyd Dyer, Bruno Berner(underrated) with Mark Davies (another that was ruined by injury) and Cleverley coming in on loan. First season back up, he got us into the playoffs having been up the top end of the table all season. Another super season, all in all. The squad didn't change massively, we added Richie Wellens and Gallagher for a bit of cash (probably from selling players when we went down), Nobby Solano was ace and Chris Weale from you lot was okay but the rest of the frees were either crap or permanent deals for loanees. Waghorn came in on loan too. We weren't really good enough to go up but had it not been for Kermogant and Waghorn missing in a shootout at Cardiff, we could have been in a play-off final against Blackpool. Unfortunately, Nige then left for Hull. I don't think he wanted to leave but in the play-off home leg against, Paulo Sousa was in the crowd as a guest of the club. King Power took over that summer and I'm not sure if Sousa being there was a Mandaric thing or if KP wanted a more' fashionable' manager upon taking over. Anyway, Nige left and Sousa came in (Brendan went to Swansea). Sousa was a disaster, tried playing 2010 Barcelona football with a squad not capable of it and he was gone in October. Sven followed, spunked a whole heap of money but was out after a 3-0 home loss to Millwall. Roughly 18 months (November 2011) after leaving, Nige came back from Hull to sort out the mess that Sven had created when he filled the squad with a bunch of expensive, overpaid, unfit mercenaries (Schmeichel, Nugent, and Konchesky excepted). Nige confronted it head on immediately. Not long after he came back, we lost 2-0 at home to Barnsley and he did an interview after complaining about 'delusions of grandeur' at the club. Some fans took it to be aimed at them (there was huge expectation cos of the £££s spent) but it was very much aimed at the crap that Sven had brought in. There's an infamous incident where Nige supposedly head butted Matt Mills who doesn't have very much positive to say about NP but then nobody has anything good to say about Mills. First January transfer window he signed Big Wes making him captain, Drinkwater, and Ben Marshall. It shouldn't be underestimated the crap he walked back into, he quickly binned off the ones that he couldn't work with, used those that he could but phased them out as quick as possible. We did well to finish 9th in the end. Following season was the Watford play-off semi final season. That summer we signed Knockaert, Vardy, De Laet, Matty James and then Chris Wood in January (we also signed Kane, Lingard and Michael Keane on loan that season). Add that to Kasper, Wes, Drinkwater, Nugent, Konchesky, Dyer, King and you have most of the squad that got us up in the end, all but 3 came through in either of Nige's spells. We should have gone up that season, we were second at the start of February having scored 6 in a game twice that season but we only won 3 of our last 17 games, scraping into the play-offs with a 90th minute winner at Forest at the end of the season. Things did turn a bit unpleasant during that 17 game run, there was a lot of anger directed at NP and the team after another defeat to Barnsley. I think most people expected him to be sacked after the Watford game but he stayed on, picked the team up and we smashed the division the next season. It rankles with a lot of Leicester fans that the media always seem to overlook that team for the best Championship team ever. We were in a mess with FFP that year so we only added experienced pros on a free (yeah we broke it in the end due to 'a different interpretation of the rules') plus Mahrez in Jan for 400k. One of the things that he did every year here was added experienced pros on the cheap/free. Berner in League 1, Nobby Solano the season after, Dean Hammond, Kevin Phillips and GTF in the year we went up, Cambiasso in the PL. Some of the football we played that season was unbelievable, we battered an in-form Derby 4-0 at home with some superb football that was very much in the same mould as the Premier League winning season. I don't think NP teams will ever get credit for their style but he's often miscategorised in this respect, he'll have you playing very watchable football but without the plaudits someone like Brighton get despite being all style and little substance (they'll probably beat us tonight now). When we went up, we started well, drawing at home to Everton and Arsenal, beating Man Utd at home and Stoke away. After that it went downhill. Kevin Phillips, who was a coach that year, has since said we became too focused on the opposition rather than what we could do. But it has to be said, despite ending up marooned at the bottom and on a terrible run of 2 wins in 26 games we were never really out of games, we were unfortunate to lose 4-3 at Spurs, 2-1 at Arsenal, we drew 2-2 at Liverpool in a game we deserved to win and had 2 handball penalties go against us (one for Wes heading the ball) which is still our best performance at Anfield. Idk how much credit Nige gets for the 7 wins in 9 to keep us up after that, there's lots of talk about Cambiasso rallying the troops and plotting our escape but it did coincide with a change in shape and the shackles coming off. I think it's pretty clear the pressure got to Nige that year, telling a fan to **** off and die, strangling McArthur on the touchline (after which he was sacked and reinstated) and his 'Ostrich outburst. Then it all ended at the end of the season after a club trip to Thailand where 3 academy players were involved in the racist orgy sex tape. He and the club didn't see eye to eye is the official line so presumably he stuck up for his son. He might not have been directly involved in what was to follow, nor probably would it have happened had he still been in charge but make no mistake of his role in creating the story. From sorting the mess out after our relegation to League 1, to sorting Sven's mess out, to building the team to get us up in the first place and then it being mainly his team that went on to do the job (Fuchs and Okazaki also signed before he left). So hopefully, he'll do enough to get a contract for next season and has the right environment to have a go at doing again. There's question marks around whether he can do it without Shakespeare and possibly Walsh so it'd interesting to see. Maybe he can get the group back together, get Matty James in on a free in the summer, Knockaert in too, Drinkwater might as well drop down to that level now, maybe tempt Mahrez into it. With all the Premier League on TV, I haven't seen much of the Championship in the last 18 months, I saw bits of you when Benkovic (no idea what's going on with him)was on loan. My interest was piqued when the dream of Forest, Derby, and Cov all going down looked possible but it looks like they'll all probably have enough to stay up. When I was in London, I followed it more closely because I used to go down to see Brentford. I always remember you being nearly men, mostly entertaining and being very streaky under Lee Johnson. Looking at your squad, there's plenty of names there that are easily recognisable as Championship players but I wonder if there's an element of overpaid crap in there. We shall see what Nige can build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin phantom Posted March 6, 2021 Admin Report Share Posted March 6, 2021 16 minutes ago, Ostrich said: Looking at your squad, there's plenty of names there that are easily recognisable as Championship players but I wonder if there's an element of overpaid crap in there. Our club are funny, in that we go through spells of working hard building a decent squad then have stages of panic where we bring in average at best players. I'm normally sorry to see any player leave the club but this summer I'm delighted so many are out of contract and we have an opportunity to sweep out so much rubbish We just have to hope the right person is left to rebuild in the summer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Thompson Posted March 7, 2021 Report Share Posted March 7, 2021 What type of players does he favour, quick feet , physical, runners etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davefevs Posted March 7, 2021 Report Share Posted March 7, 2021 27 minutes ago, Bob Thompson said: What type of players does he favour, quick feet , physical, runners etc? When he loaned Martin to Fulham (when at Derby) he said he liked pace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coppello Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 This interview was published last night on Coaches' Voice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Maesknoll Red Posted March 8, 2021 Admin Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 2 hours ago, Coppello said: This interview was published last night on Coaches' Voice. I like what he says, we’ve been driven to the edge with waffle and bullshit, he’s straight talking and appears to have the range of management techniques from the arm around the shoulder through to the hair dryer. I hope we keep hold of him at the end of the season and give him a reasonable budget to build his own team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ostrich Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 On 07/03/2021 at 22:15, Bob Thompson said: What type of players does he favour, quick feet , physical, runners etc? Players that win games. No seriously I don’t think there’s an archetypal Pearson player, as with any manager he’ll be looking for balance and will adapt and evolve as situations or football changes anyway. The team that got us promoted was really well balanced. A top goalkeeper, Liam Moore/Wasilewski (both strong and good in the air but could play a bit too) and Wes Morgan at CB. Right side was Knockaert or Mahrez after Jan so tricky, skilful wingers with Ritchie De Laet at RB bombing forward on their outside. Kick and run rapid Lloyd Dyer on the left with Konchesky as a deeper LB(sometimes Schlupp at left back which gave us an insanely fast left side) Drinkwater and James in the centre, really solid B2B midfielders. And then Nugent would play just behind Vardy which was nice combination. Sometimes Vardy would play out wide if Wood played and we went 433. I think at the time, it was noticeable how much quicker and explosive our side was compared to the rest of the Championship. We had pace and runners in abundance and I think that’s what anyone wants/needs to be successful. However, I think it’s pretty clear you have to have the right mentality. Everyone talks about the ‘band of brothers’ and togetherness of the dressing room from the PL title winning season and whilst they could never have imagined engineering it that well, signings had to fit a mould that would fit into that. I think if you look at his signings with us, and at Hull too, there was a real desire to get young, hungry players in, with a couple of older, experienced heads thrown in. During his second spell, we signed a few players who were dropping down from Premier League academies having had loan spells away but were looking for a permanent home. Drinkwater, James, De Laet all came from Man Utd, Wood from West Brom, Marshall from Stoke. At Hull, they signed Cameron Stewart, Corey Evans and James Chester from Man Utd and Jay Simpson from Arsenal, plus Robbie Brady on loan who went on to make a permanent move after Pearson left. With us, he supplemented with older heads, players you could tell were proper professionals coming to the end of their career like Kevin Phillips, Dean Hammond, Chris Powell and Nobby Solano in his first spell, Cambiasso in the PL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 From Bristol Post/live; NP; while talking about things inc; training ground, planning pre season, set piece training etc mentioned "private talks are ongoing with MA regarding next season, players etc" also mentioned about NP being here next season and that "we will see where we are in a few weeks" and any anouncement about that will come from the club. Sooner the better imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
42nite Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 Like others have said, I am expecting a fanfare announcement from the club around season ticket renewall time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 1 hour ago, 42nite said: Like others have said, I am expecting a fanfare announcement from the club around season ticket renewall time. Or.......wait until ST`s are sold/selling, then break the news that no-one wants to hear. is the other possibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cidered abroad Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 12 minutes ago, glos old boy said: Or.......wait until ST`s are sold/selling, then break the news that no-one wants to hear. is the other possibility. You cynic! That would be immoral to take our money under false pretences. Would they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slacker Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 1 hour ago, glos old boy said: Or.......wait until ST`s are sold/selling, then break the news that no-one wants to hear. is the other possibility. Who could ever imagine the club doing something like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 6 hours ago, cidered abroad said: You cynic! That would be immoral to take our money under false pretences. Would they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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