Tough times ahead

[MC RISK77]

Don’t know about anyone else but I don’t even think Pearson is enjoying it here- is this really a job/project that he wanted? Because he certainly isn’t coming across with any enthusiasm.

[Sturny]

55 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

Are you ignorant or stupid

Lansdown isn't allowed to give him money you've been told thid by countless posters countless times

There is a little thing called ffp preventing lansdown from giving money

Or should we do a Derby or Birmingham or Portsmouth or Sheffield Wednesday or the numerous others?

And end up with a points deduction and a 2 year transfer embargo

Your choice

Either way, the outcome seems to be the same for us that we’re going down might as well have a transfer embargo with all this lack of business

just kidding  

[Lack of Action Man]

We needed investment in players this summer desperately. 

I don’t understand the ins and outs of financial fair play, so I can’t say I understand what percentage of our budget could have been dedicated to transfers. 
 

What I can say is that we have been shafted by the previous recruitment team (/CEO) signing a shed load of bang average players who haven’t lived up on the promise/club mantra of either developing as a player for our first team OR improving in transfer value.

Biggest mistake of the previous regime was over inflating the squad with dross for £XYZ instead of signing 2 or at a push 3 quality players for £XYZ. 

[Sturny]

46 minutes ago, MC RISK77 said:

Don’t know about anyone else but I don’t even think Pearson is enjoying it here- is this really a job/project that he wanted? Because he certainly isn’t coming across with any enthusiasm.

Probably not at the moment, it’s obvious he still has his work cut out for him at the moment which is not the fun bit. He just needs to make the team click and then we’ll start getting results. 

[Phileas Fogg]

I am fully behind Pearson and believe he needs plenty of time & patience from the fan base. He has a lot of work on and not the huge funds to do much quickly.

One creeping doubt I do have is whether he’s been out of the loop in the football world. I know he was at Watford, and was unlucky to get dismissed, before that just under 2 years in Belgium. 

The bulk of his signings have been players he knows from his time at Leicester plus Atkinson who was a standout performer in L1. I know the recruitment arm has changed - but those signings support this theory to an extent.

Johnson joined directly from Barnsley. Say what you like about him as a manager - but he was very ‘match fit’ in manager terms and ready to hit the ground running.

Cotterill joined soon after doing a course on tactics (namely the 532 he implemented here so successfully) after taking time to develop and improve after Forest. He was clearly very hungry for success.

Pearson had almost a year our prior to joining and had various issues including a bad case of Covid. I suppose the nagging doubt I have on him is whether the hunger to grow and improve is what it was, or whether he’s getting by on his experience.

I think he’s the right man and deserves time from the fan base - but that is one thought I’ve had about him. 

 

[Suffolk Red]

Wow!

We played very very well for 70 minutes on Saturday, had we hung on people would be saying we turned the corner! 

Tonight Pearson uses a cup game to take a look at those who didn't play Saturday. At the moment a Carabao cup run is not a priority. 

Again if we had hung on for 1 more minute people would have gone home happy. Agreed it's an annoying habit to concede so late, but let's keep some perspective.

Let's see where we are when we've played 10 games and the inevitable transfer merry-go-round completes before we make sweeping judgements.

 

[Major Isewater]

8 hours ago, Bedred31 said:

Leaving the Gate at the final whistle is literally the only positive at present. Can you imagine paying an additional £150 for the pleasure of not leaving and waking up next morning to see the sunrise over the Gate. Like sawing your own leg off twice.

Who’s Terry Copper ? 

[MarcusX]

8 hours ago, bs3 said:

Nigel Pearson have inherited a basket case of a team due to mismanagement and a owner a sleep at the wheel.  
There are two people to blame for this shambles at the moment and there are Mark Ashton and Steve Lansdown for employing Mark Ashton.
 

I was never Lee Johnson biggest fan but how the hell was he meant to gain promotion ( Lansdown stated aim every season ) while having his best players sold every year. 
 

Steve Lansdown banged  on and on about promotion and being Premier League ready ,  and yet having 20 years at the club we are further away then we have ever have been.  
 

We desperately required a major investment in the playing staff over the summer if we wanted to compete but we now have a squad which will do well to stay up.   
 

If we just stay up where next next? Without major money spent on the squad we will have a tough few years struggling in this division and then relegation, can anyone other than external optimist see other outcome.

How are we further away than we've ever been? I've seen us sat at the bottom of League 1 under SL's tenure 

 

[Red Army 75]

1 minute ago, Suffolk Red said:

Wow!

We played very very well for 70 minutes on Saturday, had we hung on people would be saying we turned the corner! 

Tonight Pearson uses a cup game to take a look at those who didn't play Saturday. At the moment a Carabao cup run is not a priority. 

Again if we had hung on for 1 more minute people would have gone home happy. Agreed it's an annoying habit to concede so late, but let's keep some perspective.

Let's see where we are when we've played 10 games and the inevitable transfer merry-go-round completes before we make sweeping judgements.

 

Agree. Saturdays performance whilst still a lot of work to be done. Was far better than anything I seen on Robins TV in the last 4/5 months of last season. 

[The Bard]

12 minutes ago, Red Army 75 said:

Agree. Saturdays performance whilst still a lot of work to be done. Was far better than anything I seen on Robins TV in the last 4/5 months of last season. 

Agree.  The very same people who have predicted we'll finish about 16th wet the bed after we draw a game and then lose on penalties with a second XI.

I mean, they predicted we'd have a tough season so stop whining when there are very early signs we're not Top 6 material.

[swanker]

Tough times ahead, maybe? I think we’ve got a good manager though who knows what he’s doing and I’m looking forward to the progress he’ll bring to the club. 
 

[Tin Soldier]

Complete over reaction on here? Maybe? The fact is BCFC (part of Bristol Sport remember), has been a basket case for a number of years now. Bad financial and management decisions have got us here. The passing of Terry Cooper last week reminded me of just how good it was to watch City back in the 80s. 
Avoiding relegation will be a good result this season for City. Good luck Nige because you will need it. Sign some decent players please.

[CyderInACan]

9 hours ago, bs3 said:

I found it very interesting if not a little disappointing when Steve L was interviewed on Radio Bristol at the weekend and asked about renaming a stand after Terry Copper , Steve reply was that  Ashton Gate also belonged to Bristol Bears . 

Which of course is correct - albeit he didn't rule out anything in terms of remembrance etc as far as I can remember. 

[Fuber]

1 hour ago, Phileas Fogg said:

I am fully behind Pearson and believe he needs plenty of time & patience from the fan base. He has a lot of work on and not the huge funds to do much quickly.

One creeping doubt I do have is whether he’s been out of the loop in the football world. I know he was at Watford, and was unlucky to get dismissed, before that just under 2 years in Belgium. 

The bulk of his signings have been players he knows from his time at Leicester plus Atkinson who was a standout performer in L1. I know the recruitment arm has changed - but those signings support this theory to an extent.

Johnson joined directly from Barnsley. Say what you like about him as a manager - but he was very ‘match fit’ in manager terms and ready to hit the ground running.

Cotterill joined soon after doing a course on tactics (namely the 532 he implemented here so successfully) after taking time to develop and improve after Forest. He was clearly very hungry for success.

Pearson had almost a year our prior to joining and had various issues including a bad case of Covid. I suppose the nagging doubt I have on him is whether the hunger to grow and improve is what it was, or whether he’s getting by on his experience.

I think he’s the right man and deserves time from the fan base - but that is one thought I’ve had about him. 

 

Just to point out, recruitment was Ashton's remit and he had his own 'team'.

I think we may have been completely shafted in the scouting department because of this. Hence Pearson signing old companions.

He iterated before he's a delegator; his specialisation is working with data and performance analysts, i.e. working from the posh seats vs Blackpool, he left recruitment to Walsh. He left performance and player fitness to Rennie. Among others.

[tin]

1 hour ago, OddBallJim said:

We needed investment in players this summer desperately. 

I don’t understand the ins and outs of financial fair play, so I can’t say I understand what percentage of our budget could have been dedicated to transfers. 
 

What I can say is that we have been shafted by the previous recruitment team (/CEO) signing a shed load of bang average players who haven’t lived up on the promise/club mantra of either developing as a player for our first team OR improving in transfer value.

Biggest mistake of the previous regime was over inflating the squad with dross for £XYZ instead of signing 2 or at a push 3 quality players for £XYZ. 

I see the predicament we find ourselves in pretty much the same way. 

We had momentum under Cotts and Burt, who built a young and hungry squad that needed to one or two quality additions when we came up. 

That wasn’t good enough for SL so he appointed a friend (LJ), who surfed on that wave for a short while, and put his faith into a charlatan (MA), who sold the family silver and squandered the proceeds without any plan. 

When those wheels came off as they inevitably would, it was clear there was no succession plan for either a manager or in the boardroom. Then the pandemic hits and the purse strings are tightened.

The irony for me is we have an experienced manager who I feel is putting a lot of things right behind the scenes, but has next to no cash available to make improvements where it matters. I’d have backed him to make better use of the cash LJ/Ashton wasted. 

[LondonBristolian]

My major concern at the moment is we are not a lucky team. You get teams that win where they should have drawn and draw where they should have lost. At the moment we are losing (albeit on pens) games we might have scraped through on pens and drawing games we might have won. 

I think there is an extent to which the adage that “you make your own luck” but we really aren’t doing that right now. I’m not panicked but I think we need a flukey result far more than we need a good performance.

[IAmNick]

When I spent all summer recognising the problems at the club and accepting it's going to be a tough season of rebuilding and I expect a lower mid table finish, what I actually meant was he gets about three to five games tops and then the knives are out.

[Red Army 75]

16 minutes ago, RalphMilnesLeftFoot said:

I get this same impression, club interview from the game gave that impression too and he seems to be further distancing himself from things 

Out of interest what are the things NP is distancing himself from 

[Clutton Caveman]

10 hours ago, redsocks said:

This is going to be a long hard season.plenty of ups and downs.staying up might be our limit once again.

Struggling to see where the ups are coming from at this point

[Northern Red]

10 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

My major concern at the moment is we are not a lucky team. You get teams that win where they should have drawn and draw where they should have lost. At the moment we are losing (albeit on pens) games we might have scraped through on pens and drawing games we might have won. 

I think there is an extent to which the adage that “you make your own luck” but we really aren’t doing that right now. I’m not panicked but I think we need a flukey result far more than we need a good performance.

Agreed. Though you could argue that the past 2/3 years have seen us winning several games that we had no right to based on performances and stats. God help us if if this is that evening itself out!

[Banjo Island]

1 minute ago, Clutton Caveman said:

Struggling to see where the ups are coming from at this point

Dont forget we got bas savage on wizz to look forward to its not all doom and gloom

[pongo88]

2 hours ago, MC RISK77 said:

Don’t know about anyone else but I don’t even think Pearson is enjoying it here- is this really a job/project that he wanted? Because he certainly isn’t coming across with any enthusiasm.

Nigel Pearson is a perpetual Mr Grumpy so I’m not worried about his interviews. All that varies is  the degree of grumpiness 

[Red Army 75]

I’m glad NP is pissed off. I wouldn’t expect anything else after conceding back to back last kick of the game goals. 

[Phileas Fogg]

37 minutes ago, Fuber said:

Just to point out, recruitment was Ashton's remit and he had his own 'team'.

I think we may have been completely shafted in the scouting department because of this. Hence Pearson signing old companions.

He iterated before he's a delegator; his specialisation is working with data and performance analysts, i.e. working from the posh seats vs Blackpool, he left recruitment to Walsh. He left performance and player fitness to Rennie. Among others.

Yeah, I know about recruitment hence mentioning that it’s changed.

I was concerned we didn’t appear to have an immediate replacement for Ashton. Not necessarily because I rated him, but because I felt it’s a big void to fill for seemingly someone who’s just an analyst and because Pearson is a delegator.

[bs3]

24 minutes ago, tin said:

I see the predicament we find ourselves in pretty much the same way. 

We had momentum under Cotts and Burt, who built a young and hungry squad that needed to one or two quality additions when we came up. 

That wasn’t good enough for SL so he appointed a friend (LJ), who surfed on that wave for a short while, and put his faith into a charlatan (MA), who sold the family silver and squandered the proceeds without any plan. 

When those wheels came off as they inevitably would, it was clear there was no succession plan for either a manager or in the boardroom. Then the pandemic hits and the purse strings are tightened.

The irony for me is we have an experienced manager who I feel is putting a lot of things right behind the scenes, but has next to no cash available to make improvements where it matters. I’d have backed him to make better use of the cash LJ/Ashton wasted. 

I think you are pretty spot on with your assessment.  
 

[IAmNick]

1 minute ago, RalphMilnesLeftFoot said:

Failure? as a speculation. 

He's not had one worse that we are currently and that hurts anyone and everyone. I thought in the club interview he looked 'defeated' The sort of interview we've seen a million times before especially towards the end of things (note not saying it is) 

My gut is telling me, and it's only that talking, that NP may walk if we continue to be this poor and he's done everything he can. I hope not but at present that's my hunch. 

I'd be very surprised personally if he walked after a handful of games, especially considering his comments in the summer about a multi year rebuild and the like.

Southampton at the bottom of the Champ with a couple of games left, Watford in the PL relegation spaces with time running out - failure there was much more likely and pressure was higher I'd say than a few games into his first season in charge here.

[LondonBristolian]

1 hour ago, RalphMilnesLeftFoot said:

Failure? as a speculation. 

He's not had one worse that we are currently and that hurts anyone and everyone. I thought in the club interview he looked 'defeated' The sort of interview we've seen a million times before especially towards the end of things (note not saying it is) 

My gut is telling me, and it's only that talking, that NP may walk if we continue to be this poor and he's done everything he can. I hope not but at present that's my hunch. 

I'm trying to remember what happened at Derby. I don't know if it was similar. In any case we need a win from somewhere...

[Gumpster1]

Very frustrating at the moment, but I don't think we are far away.

Whole team could be transformed with a pacy striker who plays on the shoulder of the last defender. Maybe a loan from the Prem. Problem is that a slow start will put off potential targets.

Too early to blame Pearson. We failed with the friendly, passionate, inexperienced Holden. Now we are trying a polar opposite in Pearson. Hopefully he can get decent performances out of them.

Wrong to criticise Lansdown, done more for bcfc than any other owner. May have been naive at times and been misled by people like Ashton over the years, but we are lucky to have him.

[Davefevs]

4 hours ago, The Bard said:

Agree.  The very same people who have predicted we'll finish about 16th wet the bed after we draw a game and then lose on penalties with a second XI.

I mean, they predicted we'd have a tough season so stop whining when there are very early signs we're not Top 6 material.

Haha, best post I’ve read today.

1 hour ago, LondonBristolian said:

I'm trying to remember what happened at Derby. I don't know if it was similar. In any case we need a win from somewhere...

Morris interfered.  He had drones checking on what Pearson was doing!

 

Anyone ever see a tennis player interview at a grand slam event, when they’ve just lost….and are expected to be jolly.  It’s hard for them and they try to fake it, but they are professionals with drive and inside they hate losing.

Nige has little facade, he was annoyed last night - is was not a look that he was “defeated”.  I want him to be annoyed, I don’t want sugar coating and excuses, because that’s worse imho.

Eff me, two games, two draws in effect.  Yeah, of course we want to win, we should win last night.  Last night was the epitome of a cup tie where you rest a few (11 in this case), still have enough strength in the rest of the squad, but miss the bit of quality or leadership to get through.  We’ve done it the other way….Crystal Palace, Stoke, Man Utd.  It’s early season, players finding their legs and their technique as well as their team understanding.

The knee jerk is embarrassing imho.

[2015]

My only concern is Nigel Pearson is not getting any luck at the moment. We were minutes away from wins in both games. Annoying.

My main issue is whether Steve Lansdown is backing him, wages an issue or FFP an issue or not, I 100% believe if Lee Johnson was in charge right now Lansdown would have given him some money to use. Maybe i'm looking too deeply but I think there is a power struggle going on at the moment at the club and Pearson lashing out at the Bristol Post is his way of showing who is in charge. 

We really do need Nigel Pearson to succeed at this club otherwise he will be gone and we will be back to square one, with more inexperienced yes men in charge again with no plan on how to change things. I believe Pearson knows what he needs and wants, but will Steve Lansdown truly back him? The jury is out on that one i'm afraid.