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6 years since we gave Cotts the Bullet


WolfOfWestStreet

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4 hours ago, WolfOfWestStreet said:

On the day of OTIBs 25th Anniversary (congratulations) there is another Anniversary on the same day and that is 6 years since we sacked Steve Cotterill. 

I had a Facebook memory and I went on something of a rant about it. I was pretty upset about the decision. 

I am well aware this debate has been done to ad nauseam (insert Alan Partidge Latin joke) but thinking about it today I cannot see how we have progressed since that day.

Worse team, no money, poor football, bottom end of the division. IMO the platform given from that great team was completely wasted.

I'm not saying he was the one, but I look back at that time as a supporter with immense fondness that has not been replicated (bar Man U/Man C) since. 

Thanks Steve ??

We were in the bottom 3 and destined for relegation, since then we've stayed in the championship, it's progress, just not much

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8 minutes ago, Lew-T said:

It was Walsall. 
 

Last game of the season I think.

Yes it was. It was the repeat of the JPT Final at Wembley, and Flint scored in both iirc.

The interesting thing is that Dean Smith as Walsall manager has gone on to much more managerial success and profile than Steve Cotterill since May 2015.

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Just now, Dr Balls said:

Yes it was. It was the repeat of the JPT Final at Wembley, and Flint scored in both iirc.

The interesting thing is that Dean Smith as Walsall manager has gone on to much more managerial success and profile than Steve Cotterill since May 2015.

They were a decent team, we were just too good for everyone that year,

A season we are unlikely to see for a very long time

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1 hour ago, Robbored said:

Unfortunately true………….:sad26:

The journey to play off final was spectacular tho - who can forget the semi final against Hartlepool and Roberts winning goal?  The greatest “buzz” ever!

But in the final against Brighton we were shit.

Edited by Shelton’s Love Gravy
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1 hour ago, Robbored said:

Unfortunately true………….:sad26:

The journey to play off final was spectacular tho - who can forget the semi final against Hartlepool and Roberts winning goal?  The greatest “buzz” ever!

Weren’t we pretty crap most of that game?

Bit like the Arsenal 3-2 Man Utd cup final in the late 70s.  Was a shit game for 87 minutes!

???

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1 hour ago, Major Isewater said:

I think Cott’s stubbornness was a positive when we were winning in the third division and borderline madness when we got promoted. 

Don’t disagree as such, I think my point is the Johnson ‘progress’ almost boiled down to a 4 month flash in the pan. The following seasons were boom and bust to be polite. If Cotterill would have stayed would have been much different? It’s a real unknown for me.

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12 hours ago, CodeRed said:

One of 3 big moments when the direction of the club stalled - instead of progressing - IMO.

1. Not turning up for the Brighton P/O final.

2. Not strengthening in the January window during the Gary Johnson P/O final season.

3. Being too quick to fire Cotts, basically because MA had convinced SL that he was the answer. Cotts didn't help himself after the summer transfer window problems.....but if no MA in the background then Cotts gets more time (like LJ and Nige who have both enjoyed SL's support in hard times) and money  IMV. 

 

 

The history of City is a long list of big moments when the club got it wrong. Just a couple of examples:

Not strengthening the team after promotion from Division 3 in the the 60s resulting in City just missing out on promotion to Division 1 by 3 points

Giving players 10 contracts in Division 1 in the 70s instead of properly strengthening the team 

11 hours ago, Robbored said:

I go to AG to be entertained and DW produced the most attractive football seen at AG in the last 30 years. GJ nor SC got anywhere close to matching it.

 

Gary Johnson and Steve Cotterill had teams that achieved promotion. Danny Wilson’s teams didn’t. IIRC, Cotterill’s team scored 96 goals and gained 99 points. Wow, what a boring season! 

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1 minute ago, pongo88 said:

The history of City is a long list of big moments when the club got it wrong. Just a couple of examples:

Not strengthening the team after promotion from Division 3 in the the 60s resulting in City just missing out on promotion to Division 1 by 3 points

Giving players 10 contracts in Division 1 in the 70s instead of properly strengthening the team 

Gary Johnson and Steve Cotterill had teams that achieved promotion. Danny Wilson’s teams didn’t. IIRC, Cotterill’s team scored 96 goals and gained 99 points. Wow, what a boring season! 

I never said it was boring pogo - under GJ it was tho……..…….:sleeping:

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1 hour ago, Robbored said:

I never said it was boring pogo - under GJ it was tho……..…….:sleeping:

GJ play off season was my favourite since the old First Division days - closely followed by SC in L1. GJ built a side with spirit and that season I felt like they had a chance against anyone. How could anyone find that boring?

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11 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Weren’t we pretty crap most of that game?

Bit like the Arsenal 3-2 Man Utd cup final in the late 70s.  Was a shit game for 87 minutes!

???

Awful.

Went a goal down & were on our way out until Goodfellow’s goal 3 minutes from time.

There is no point arguing with this poster though, he is going to bang on with his deluded view that a serial failure who allowed a shocking drinking culture is somehow Pep.

Even if you acknowledge GJ’s football could be attritional you cannot dispute he took us further than anyone has since AD.

His view on the Cotterill era simply denies the facts, 99 points, 96 goals (far more than in any season under Danny & his collection of pissheads).

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3 minutes ago, robin_unreliant said:

GJ play off season was my favourite since the old First Division days - closely followed by SC in L1. GJ built a side with spirit and that season I felt like they had a chance against anyone. How could anyone find that boring?

I found it incredibly boring and City had results that were incredibly fortunate. I remember Millen saying after one particular game ‘how did we win that?’

One paced, pedestrian and :sleeping: to watch. The best matches that season we’re to two semi’s against Palace.

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We will never know for sure but I think it is impossible to look back at Cotterill’s sacking as a mistake as, as others have pointed out, we’ve finished higher every season than we were when he left. I also think the tension between him and the board was toxic and I really believe we would have gone down if he had stayed.

Obviously the “what if?” of whether we should have backed him the previous summer is a different one. But, even if we had, I think Maguire and either Gray or Gayle would have been ultimately sold for similar fees to we got for Webster and Kodjia and I don’t think they would have stuck around for the two of three years for us to be promotion ready. Being honest, I also saw little in Cotterill’s reign to make me think we were building for the future and I feel we would have ultimately dropped off and faced a rebuilding job.

So really I think that, had Cotts stayed in January, we would have gone down and, had he stayed in the summer, we’d pretty much be where we were now.

We had brilliant times when he was here but I really don’t regret us sacking him.

If I was going to choose my Bristol City “sliding doors” moment of recent seasons, it would not be “what if we had never sacked Cotts” but “what if we had had a better transfer strategy in summer 2019?”

Edited by LondonBristolian
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34 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

I also saw little in Cotterill’s reign to make me think we were building for the future and I feel we would have ultimately dropped off and faced a rebuilding job.

I find that view amazing.

Ayling, Smith, Freeman, Bryan, Kodjia, to name four, where expert recruitment (with Keith Burt and with SOD too) and a clear strategy re younger players, coupled with the odd senior player….showed we were building for the future.

Dont forget first choice summer transfers of Andre Gray, was just 24….not Nahki Wells at 29.  Harry Maguire was 22, as was Ryan Fredericks and Liam Moore (loan).  Whether you believe Pelling’s reverse-gazumpmg is immaterial, the players we were after were the right types to grow with us.

I can only see that as a building for the future strategy.

He didn’t even get the January window to save himself / us.

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