Pearson post match interview

[italian dave]

5 minutes ago, Fuber said:

Wouldn't take much of a shove to push us off the cliff at the moment. 

Keeping the fans onside and appointing NP seems to be the only ways to keep us fans onside with the Club at the minute, from my perspective. 

Issue is, SL and MA let things stagnate with LJ for too long. Anyone could see going into this season with the contract scenario being what it is that this year or next year were going to be financial black holes - and that was before Covid. Add in now needing to correct all of Ashton's dogshite appointments and signings of the past 30 months?

Nige can't exactly do much when we can't make 2 passes in a row, let alone score a goal. 

Its going to cost money we don't have, putting it bluntly. Think we would need serious cost cutting to take place.

Can see Weimann, Rowe, Adelakun, Diedhiou, Hunt, Wells, Nagy, Lansbury, Bentley, Moore, Mariappa, and Simpson all going to massively slash the wages and bulk short term cash flow.

Then look to lower league signings to bulk the squad with a couple loans going into next season with more reliance on the academy - Can see Nige possibly going in for Benkovic as he went after him when back at Leuvan in Belgium, add in the Leicester connection. Yates from Blackpool, as per rumours - could see Moore going in exchange plus £200k perhaps(?), examples of the type of deal I think we could see in the summer, being logical. 

Han has benefitted from Nige so far and Walsh must be in his plans if a contract extension is possible judging by him being thrown back in when 'fit'. Whether the former can get the latter the sign overruling MA is the better question. 

If the club doesn't appoint Pearson and let him replace the coaching and fitness staff, we'd be going into next season with no leg to stand on.

Serious work is needed, and we need to put the structure in place for the major rebuild needed ASAP. **** SL wanting NP wanting to work with whats given - it doesn't work if the foundation is literal manure. 

And wouldn't worry me one bit of all that lot went (maybe unfair on Weimann ).

Slightly worrying that the only player NP picked out for any sort of praise was Lansbury......

[CotswoldRed]

1 hour ago, Numero Uno said:

Too many people make excuses for players who aren’t motivated and can’t be motivated.

This is true. It's easier for a poor manager to excuse it than fix it. 

[Fuber]

1 minute ago, italian dave said:

And wouldn't worry me one bit of all that lot went (maybe unfair on Weimann ).

Slightly worrying that the only player NP picked out for any sort of praise was Lansbury......

In regards to the former, I think in lieu of the type of injury, I can't see us taking the chance, Andi was on circa £25kpw at Derby or thereabouts iirc. Don't think he's on much less here. 

I also forgot to add Baker and Paterson. 

Love the former but too injury prone, and Pato is the type of player who on his day is fantastic, but those have been near nonexistent for 18 months. 

RE Lansbury, we can't see what goes on behind the scenes. Who knows.

[RobintheRed Red]

3 hours ago, Red Army 75 said:

Appointing everyone’s mate in the summer was a recipe for disaster and are we surprised with how it’s panned out. The players were all happy when Holden was appointed and thought they got it easy. Now Pearson is giving them home truths they have gone into sulk mode . Absolute shambles of a season but a lot of people knew it would be . It was obvious 

Yes i saw a clip on here at a training session where a couple of groups were chatting in a  huddle he spoke with Authority and said lets be having you just stating he wont put up with crap .

[AshtonGreat]

7 minutes ago, Fuber said:

In regards to the former, I think in lieu of the type of injury, I can't see us taking the chance, Andi was on circa £25kpw at Derby or thereabouts iirc. Don't think he's on much less here. 

I also forgot to add Baker and Paterson. 

Love the former but too injury prone, and Pato is the type of player who on his day is fantastic, but those have been near nonexistent for 18 months. 

RE Lansbury, we can't see what goes on behind the scenes. Who knows.

25k a week to run around a lot. Wow

[italian dave]

5 minutes ago, Fuber said:

In regards to the former, I think in lieu of the type of injury, I can't see us taking the chance, Andi was on circa £25kpw at Derby or thereabouts iirc. Don't think he's on much less here. 

I also forgot to add Baker and Paterson. 

Love the former but too injury prone, and Pato is the type of player who on his day is fantastic, but those have been near nonexistent for 18 months. 

RE Lansbury, we can't see what goes on behind the scenes. Who knows.

Please add Baker and Paterson - won't affect my view!

Lansbury - that's what was worrying - he made specific reference to his part in the game. Not behind the scenes. Cant see it.

At the moment I'm giving NP the benefit of the doubt and taking the view that he's just trying things out, testing things and personnel. I certainly hope so because I can't see anything in the way of a NP style emerging, anything in terms of a better shape or purpose, and some of the tactical decisions are baffling.

1 minute ago, AshtonGreat said:

25k a week to run around a lot. Wow

Bear in mind we pay some of our players not far short of that and we don't even get the running around a lot for it!

[AshtonGreat]

2 minutes ago, italian dave said:

Please add Baker and Paterson - won't affect my view!

Lansbury - that's what was worrying - he made specific reference to his part in the game. Not behind the scenes. Cant see it.

At the moment I'm giving NP the benefit of the doubt and taking the view that he's just trying things out, testing things and personnel. I certainly hope so because I can't see anything in the way of a NP style emerging, anything in terms of a better shape or purpose, and some of the tactical decisions are baffling.

Bear in mind we pay some of our players not far short of that and we don't even get the running around a lot for it!

:laugh: very true!

[reddoh]

2 hours ago, Ivorguy said:

Certainly I would. This is the 21st century not the 19th.  Due process in getting references, asking opinions, having third independent person in on interview., written submission from Pearson in advance on present situation and way forward.

Not rocket science after all.

Rocket Science is about jet propulsion. he used to play for us. We always had 3 nice guy ,tech guy, psych guy Asking about your last holiday meant you hadn't got the job appleogies to any onetibers who I asked about about there last holiday.

[Tin Soldier]

The only positive I can take from this game today, is that finally most City fans have finally woken up to that fraud Ashton who has created this mess. SL needs to act ASAP and sack the **n*, to allow someone a chance to develop a plan for next season. I would hope that man is NP.

[CotswoldRed]

1 minute ago, GasDestroyer said:

The only positive I can take from this game today, is that finally most City fans have finally woken up to that fraud Ashton who has created this mess. SL needs to act ASAP and sack the **n*, to allow someone a chance to develop a plan for next season. I would hope that man is NP.

I'm convinced SL thinks his players are worth what we paid for them in terms of fees and wages, and we just need to "get them playing right". 

Until SL accepts we are overpaying a bunch of donkeys, nothing will be solved. 

[TomThumb84]

Unfortunately, and as others have alluded to, we have deeper set problems than the playing squad.

The whole “cosy club” culture at our football club is sadly ingrained through recruitment, medical team, boardroom, all of it.

The problem we have with the playing squad is monumental, a mish-mash of a collective put together to play on the counter attack as it is easier and lazy to coach in this way, and a core of the squad OOC shortly and protecting their careers and future moves (and why shouldn’t they). They should not have been allowed to get to this point without being sold, or tied down to contracts. Any decent players we have somehow stumbled across have had their progression stunted by our complete ineptness to make good players better.

I have said it ad-nauseam but the appointment of Holden should tell anyone with an ounce of instinct or nous, how hard it is for someone to manage this football club. I firmly believed then and still do now, that no-one wanted it, and Holden’s appointment was borderline professional misconduct from the recruiters responsible.

NP has come in and for me, seems like he cannot believe what a shambles we are top to bottom.

Based on that interview, I think he will want to stay as he probably sees us as a massive project and challenge. That will not stop us doing our best to self-sabotage his permanent appointment though as we come to terms with what it may actually mean to keep him on and enable him to be successful.

In hindsight, and we are not there yet, staying in this division this year will be a massive achievement. Those odd wins whilst getting battered v Forest (a), Coventry (h), Huddersfield (h), QPR (a) have saved us. Imagine going into League One with this lot and our set-up.

 

[BrizzleRed]

1 hour ago, 42nite said:

 

And Ashton!

 

Hopefully

[TomThumb84]

2 hours ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

It’s interesting how before Pearson came in a performance such as today’s (eg Watford) would have been (and was) blamed entirely on Dean Holden’s inability to manage and coach.  Today’s performance is blamed entirely on the players.  How can Dean Holden have been entirely responsible for disastrous performances during his tenure, but Pearson have no responsibility for what happened today?  What I saw today was a team not playing for their manager, and surely the manager has to share the responsibility for that?  If he cannot motivate a reasonable squad of players to produce a better performance than that, then I question his ability as a manager.  Too many people on this site thinks he walks on water.

We got smashed 6-0 at Watford and poor Towler was picked to play against Sarr who is one of the best players in the division, and he got demolished.

Today was about individual player errors not overall set-up, and Pearson’s history as a manager is rather different to Dean Holden’s, so grants him the gift that we should assume he knows what he is doing.

Pragmatist does not mean push unpopular opinion at all costs despite all common-sense dictating otherwise.

[Jerseybean]

The short-term appointment provided both parties an opportunity to have a look and evaluate each other. NP has clearly expressed, in recent interviews, his views of the situation he’s inherited, whereas we are less informed about what the club’s hierarchy think about NP.

It is entirely reasonable that SL would want to meet NP in person and look him in the eyes before committing to a long-term appointment plus the club aren’t known for saying too much about things until a deal is sealed. So we need to be a little patient and allow the meeting to take place.

Personally, I will be truly delighted if/when NP is confirmed longer-term. He knows (as we know) there is a huge challenge in front of him but he gives me the impression that he would relish taking it on. 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, prankerd said:

I got my last job from a zoom chat so yeh im guessing people do especially in this covid era

Funnily enough I got offered a job with Hargreaves Lansdown via zoom just before Xmas.  I turned it down....

....because I wanted to see the whites of SL eyes before I accepted it.

Okay the first bit was true, as was the turning it down....not the last bit.

25 minutes ago, Jerseybean said:

The short-term appointment provided both parties an opportunity to have a look and evaluate each other. NP has clearly expressed, in recent interviews, his views of the situation he’s inherited, whereas we are less informed about what the club’s hierarchy think about NP.

It is entirely reasonable that SL would want to meet NP in person and look him in the eyes before committing to a long-term appointment plus the club aren’t known for saying too much about things until a deal is sealed. So we need to be a little patient and allow the meeting to take place.

Personally, I will be truly delighted if/when NP is confirmed longer-term. He knows (as we know) there is a huge challenge in front of him but he gives me the impression that he would relish taking it on. 

There will be some players who won’t be relishing that.

[Red-Robbo]

3 hours ago, Swede said:

It's difficult for NP.

You've inherited a pot full of toothless 5hit. You can't sign anyone as its outside the window apart from free agents.

You stir it one way it's still a pot full of toothless 5hit. You stir it the other way its still a pot full of toothless 5hit.

It's going to be a watershed few months for the club as this could define the next 5 to 10 years. This is because when NP eventually sits down with SL to not only discuss the player's futures but also his own. Inevitably, recruitment, the five pillars, "Bristol City" people & injury recovery protocols will be discussed at length and with it a level of criticism is bound to be apportioned to the board and CEO for making these decisions in the first place.

Now it may be that SL, or for that matter, NP won't like the criticism or will not accept the massive overhaul needed or want to change the club strategy and there will be a parting of the ways. If that happens we would've missed out on a fantastic opportunity. I wouldn't be surprised though if we revert to type & it doesn't happen as SL has an unfortunate history of that "safe" ambition with Tinnion, Millen & latterly Holden.

I think the "safe" approach is really what he prefers because it gives the board more control but has proved time and again that it simply does not work long term.

Balance that with season ticket sales and the feel good factor as well.

If SL indeed has the courage and  embraces it then it will signal a major overhaul of the coaching and playing staff.

This could be a very fortuitous time with revenue streams in football diminished by Covid.

The next few months will be very interesting.

 

How dare you write down everything that's inside my brain on this topic!  

Seriously, that's a great post, which makes all the points I want to make.

Lansdown needs to be bold. He knew when he appointed NP he wasn't getting a poodle, a learner or a second-in-command-to-Ashton. He must know that the blame for these poor performances cannot be laid at the door of the man who inherited all the problems.

Our owner has got to be honest with himself. He's got some things badly wrong. Structural things about the club. He's been talked into a situation where we have virtually no first teamer performing to their ability - talked into it by snake-oil salesman/incompetents (delete as necessary!)

He needs to trust Pearson. Listen to Pearson. Act on his recommendations - even if that means taking tough decisions.

Let's just hope he has the nous to do so.

 

[Numero Uno]

7 hours ago, AshtonGreat said:

25k a week to run around a lot. Wow

Compared to paying Wells that does **** all

[mozo]

7 hours ago, Jerseybean said:

It is entirely reasonable that SL would want to meet NP in person and look him in the eyes before committing to a long-term appointment plus the club aren’t known for saying too much about things until a deal is sealed. So we need to be a little patient and allow the meeting to 

I'll challenge that. Why? What difference does 'looking him in the eyes' make? Does he need to smell him and touch him too?!

Appointing a manager can't be done virtually? What will SL learn from having NP close up?

I think it's just buying the club time to decide what they want to do.

[Kingswood Robin]

7 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

How dare you write down everything that's inside my brain on this topic!  

Seriously, that's a great post, which makes all the points I want to make.

Lansdown needs to be bold. He knew when he appointed NP he wasn't getting a poodle, a learner or a second-in-command-to-Ashton. He must know that the blame for these poor performances cannot be laid at the door of the man who inherited all the problems.

Our owner has got to be honest with himself. He's got some things badly wrong. Structural things about the club. He's been talked into a situation where we have virtually no first teamer performing to their ability - talked into it by snake-oil salesman/incompetents (delete as necessary!)

He needs to trust Pearson. Listen to Pearson. Act on his recommendations - even if that means taking tough decisions.

Let's just hope he has the nous to do so.

 

Indeed, I hope SL has the nous to listen. I don't know him personally, so can only go on the many interviews and statements made down the years. He strikes me as someone that's easily irritated by criticism or questioning of approach. This type of questioning is usually met by a, we've worked hard behind the scenes to get to this, outsiders don't know what's best for the club but we do, type of response. How well he'll react to some Nigel Pearson straight talking remains to be seen. It's easy to think everything is going really well when you're too close to it.   

[DaveInSA]

11 hours ago, Swede said:

It's difficult for NP.

You've inherited a pot full of toothless 5hit. You can't sign anyone as its outside the window apart from free agents.

You stir it one way it's still a pot full of toothless 5hit. You stir it the other way its still a pot full of toothless 5hit.

It's going to be a watershed few months for the club as this could define the next 5 to 10 years. This is because when NP eventually sits down with SL to not only discuss the player's futures but also his own. Inevitably, recruitment, the five pillars, "Bristol City" people & injury recovery protocols will be discussed at length and with it a level of criticism is bound to be apportioned to the board and CEO for making these decisions in the first place.

Now it may be that SL, or for that matter, NP won't like the criticism or will not accept the massive overhaul needed or want to change the club strategy and there will be a parting of the ways. If that happens we would've missed out on a fantastic opportunity. I wouldn't be surprised though if we revert to type & it doesn't happen as SL has an unfortunate history of that "safe" ambition with Tinnion, Millen & latterly Holden.

I think the "safe" approach is really what he prefers because it gives the board more control but has proved time and again that it simply does not work long term.

Balance that with season ticket sales and the feel good factor as well.

If SL indeed has the courage and  embraces it then it will signal a major overhaul of the coaching and playing staff.

This could be a very fortuitous time with revenue streams in football diminished by Covid.

The next few months will be very interesting.

I wish I wrote that

Something needs to trigger SL into action. He's been asleep at the wheel for 4 years.

All roads lead to Ashton, which unfortunately lead to SL. He's been baffled by bullshit, and I think he's pretty peeved that he's been duped.

Ashton, and all of his staff needs to leave. I posted before about what needs to be done - lean and mean backroom, proper manager, with a 5 year strategy. It's time to throw the baby and the bathwater out.

As for NP, I'm conflicted by what I think he wants. He either wants to stay on his terms (bye bye Ashton) or he will leave.

[Isawjonshaw]

I was never convinced NP would be in for the long haul once he'd had a good look to how the club is ran.  I look at the side now I up to that night we beat Man  United and want to cry at how it's all fell apart.  I for one won't be stepping back into the ground any time soon especially if I have to roll up with my vaccine passport.  The club is an absolute sh1tsh0w.  

[Redtucks]

9 hours ago, prankerd said:

I got my last job from a zoom chat so yeh im guessing people do especially in this covid era

Just out of interest, which club or company are you managing, and what sort of budget do you have?

 

[One Team]

44 minutes ago, DaveInSA said:

I wish I wrote that

Something needs to trigger SL into action. He's been asleep at the wheel for 4 years.

All roads lead to Ashton, which unfortunately lead to SL. He's been baffled by bullshit, and I think he's pretty peeved that he's been duped.

Ashton, and all of his staff needs to leave. I posted before about what needs to be done - lean and mean backroom, proper manager, with a 5 year strategy. It's time to throw the baby and the bathwater out.

As for NP, I'm conflicted by what I think he wants. He either wants to stay on his terms (bye bye Ashton) or he will leave.

Agreed it was a superb post as is your follow up, both spot on summaries of our position. 

I just hope SL will finally wake up and see it for what it is. 

[Super]

I think if he could grab some of these wasters around the throat he would. Pathetic excuse for footballers.

[AshtonGreat]

2 hours ago, Numero Uno said:

Compared to paying Wells that does **** all

Yeah none of them deserve a tenth of what they're getting paid

[Tomo]

It's interesting that he said that he doesn't care about what peoples personal circumstances are... 

That's a wierd one. Of course none of us know about the players personal lives and that should remain private anyway. 

As an example, we know that Kasey has just had another baby, but I can't see Nige leaving him out of the starting line up because of a 'lack of sleep' at home.... 

I'm assuming he means the players who are out of contract. Regardless of their 'personal circumstances' those players are currently contracted to the club and should give 100% effort everytime they pull on the shirt. 

 

 

 

 

[Red Skin]

14 hours ago, Gilli74 said:

It’s concerning that this squad is so poor that we don’t even get a new manager effect, bringing in someone like Pearson.. (although did get one with Holden) The rebuild job here is massive, 11-12 OOC potentially leaving, several others needing to go... is this job what he expected ? Is it more than he wants to take on, specially having to work with Ashton to get players in. How many windows will it take to get in 10-15 players that HE wants. Hell of a mission if he’s up for it.

 

Also, we cannot operate on a small squad given the current medical and conditioning team.  That has to change urgently.

As a professional footballer, the quality of the backroom staff and they history dealing with injuries would be a major factor influencing whether I'd sign.   Even very good money over a 3 year contract could not be worth the risk of a poorly managed injury that could threaten my career.  

Good to see him identify this as an issue.

[GrahamC]

2 minutes ago, Tomo said:

It's interesting that he said that he doesn't care about what peoples personal circumstances are... 

That's a wierd one. Of course none of us know about the players personal lives and that should remain private anyway. 

As an example, we know that Kasey has just had another baby, but I can't see Nige leaving him out of the starting line up because of a 'lack of sleep' at home.... 

I'm assuming he means the players who are out of contract. Regardless of their 'personal circumstances' those players are currently contracted to the club and should give 100% effort everytime they pull on the shirt. 

 

 

 

 

I think the point you make at the end is exactly what he meant.

There were 4 starting yesterday who are either on loan or out of contract this summer & I think he meant he expects effort from them.

Interestingly on a day when he could have substituted about 8 if he could, 3 of those 4 were taken off.

[Merrick's Marvels]

6 minutes ago, Tomo said:

It's interesting that he said that he doesn't care about what peoples personal circumstances are... 

That's a wierd one. Of course none of us know about the players personal lives and that should remain private anyway. 

As an example, we know that Kasey has just had another baby, but I can't see Nige leaving him out of the starting line up because of a 'lack of sleep' at home.... 

I'm assuming he means the players who are out of contract. Regardless of their 'personal circumstances' those players are currently contracted to the club and should give 100% effort everytime they pull on the shirt. 

He wasn't talking about their private lives. It was his way of referring to the Out of Contract players. 

That's how I understood it anyway 

[SecretSam]

15 hours ago, Redstart said:

I'd chuck most of the players, as many on here would - I am massively concerned that we just won't be able to recruit the quality we need next season though, in the numbers we need. 

We are literally going to be back to the beginning, hopefully the quality manager we have screamed out for will be secured but other than that we won't pay the wages, we need virtually a whole new team and I just don't see the attraction for players to come to us, especially on the back of this crappy season. 

Feeling a bit gloom and doom at the mo

Trouble is, this isn't FIFA21 or Football Manager, you can't assume he can sign a dozen players.