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Derek McInnes talks of his time at Bristol City


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6 minutes ago, jambodinho said:

Remember playing Watford at home who were blowing everyone away under Zola at the time. McInnes parked the bus (much to the disgust of most of the old codgers in the Dolman around me) and Watford didn’t know what to do. We won 2-0. That’s probably the only time I’ve seen a city manager with a far inferior side to our opponent, tactically outdo his opposite number. You wouldn’t have wanted to watch it every week but it certainly stopped Watford from ripping us a new one. I thought McInnes had something about him after that and was excited about what he could do if he could have time to get rid of the overpaid deadwood. Bugs me when our fans say he was useless. The club and squad was such a mess, he was on a hiding to nothing. 

O’Driscoll was the manager for that game.

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8 minutes ago, jambodinho said:

Remember playing Watford at home who were blowing everyone away under Zola at the time. McInnes parked the bus (much to the disgust of most of the old codgers in the Dolman around me) and Watford didn’t know what to do. We won 2-0. That’s probably the only time I’ve seen a city manager with a far inferior side to our opponent, tactically outdo his opposite number. You wouldn’t have wanted to watch it every week but it certainly stopped Watford from ripping us a new one. I thought McInnes had something about him after that and was excited about what he could do if he could have time to get rid of the overpaid deadwood. Bugs me when our fans say he was useless. The club and squad was such a mess, he was on a hiding to nothing. 

That was the very early part of SODs reign in charge. We played very basic football that night, but won. We actually had a good home record under SOD that season.

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3 minutes ago, bearded_red said:

O’Driscoll was the manager for that game.

 

Just now, 2015 said:

That was the very early part of SODs reign in charge. We played very basic football that night, but won. We actually had a good home record under SOD that season.

Ha. The years of underachieving all blurred into one big haze. ?

Ah well, fair play to SO’D then in that case. 

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5 hours ago, SecretSam said:

A familiar story. We were a bloody mess back then, I think people who criticise him and SOD forget what a state we were in. We're still getting over that mess. You'd think we'd learn...

You would think we would learn, but 20 years or so later and we are still in that situation,, how can that be?

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4 hours ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

As I frequently point out, probably tediously, Wilson was a failure.  Four years and ultimately achieved almost nothing except a destructive player culture which took years to dismantle.  

I would have loved another season of front foot attacking football under DW - he produced the best football at AG for years - and look who replaced him - Mr Dull…….……..:disapointed2se:

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3 minutes ago, Robbored said:

I would have loved another season of front foot attacking football under DW - he produced the best football at AG for years - and look who replaced him - Mr Dull…….……..:disapointed2se:

Two things:

- The front foot attacking football had gone by Wilson’s last season. He saw how Wigan had ground out games the prior year and reverted to that, meaning we scored 58 goals in 46 games, against 79 goals the season before 

- Wilson was replaced by Tinnion. I believe, in your ongoing grudge, you are trying to refer to GJ as “Mr Dull”

Other than that, spot on as ever…

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1 hour ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

Looks like Tyrone Barnett and Mark Little were the main culprits and Fontaine fortunate not to be a 3rd bad injury from another dreadful challenge.

Excerpts from the match report: 

Sam Baldock's second-half brace proved enough in a game short of chances but high on controversy, with Peterborough's Mark Little and Tyrone Barnett both fortunate to escape red cards.

Cole Skuse and Greg Cunningham were stretchered off either side of the interval before Lee Tomlin's penalty in the second of eight added minutes ensured a dramatic finale.

Half-time saw Skuse stretchered down the tunnel with an ankle injury, as McInnes responded by introducing Adomah to open up the game.

Baldock broke the deadlock on 56 minutes thanks in part to a calamitous moment from Peterborough right-back Mark Little, who attempted a back pass from just inside his own half without noticing City's number seven lurking.

Little was visibly distraught, and Liam Fontaine soon became victim to his frustration as the man on the receiving end of a rash lunge near City's left touchline - the Posh defender fortunate to escape with no more than the yellow card branded in his direction.

If Peterborough were previously frustrated, by now they were apoplectic. With refereeing decisions not to the home fans' liking, Tyrone Barnett took matters into his own hands with another ugly tackle again resulting in a yellow card.

It looked bad on first viewing, and with Greg Cunningham grounded for five minutes after the challenge before being stretchered off, McInnes must have been wondering how his side were still facing 11 men.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That entire report only mentions City players past and present.

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45 minutes ago, Tafkarmlf said:

Just a reminder about why Del was sacked 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/21001780

There was so much wrong with the club, but cherry picking the good and glossing over the very horrendous doesn't help. 

Ps the Leicester game had so much cross over too

https://www.11v11.com/matches/bristol-city-v-leicester-city-12-january-2013-300184/

 

I'm glad someone else remembers how dire that spell was.  One interview where he talks about how he liked City but the evil board stymied him and suddenly there is a mass donning of the old rose-tinted lenses.

I had high hopes for McInnes, but his tenure illustrates the gap between English and Scottish football in the 21st Century. Players who looked decent north of the border proved unworthy of the task facing them here. Due to the Caledonian nature of much of this recruitment, I'm not sure all the blame can be offloaded onto Mark Ashton. Richard Foster, Stephen Pearson, Stephen McManus, Sean Davis, Mark Wilson, Brendan Moloney, Brian Howard, Matthew Briggs, Neil Danns, Jody 'party organiser' Morris, Matthew Bates. Not names to conjure with in 2012.

Yes, he inherited a mess, but virtually every incoming manager does. Most get the job because the bloke or blokes before them have failed.  

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1 hour ago, Offside said:

McInnes had a tough job at City, with the club being in a mess, but he signed some truly awful players too - the likes of Foster, Wilson and Bates. That relegation season started well, as has been mentioned in other posts, but by the time of that Leicester game (was it a 4-0 defeat? It was horrendous, anyway) it felt like Del’s time was up and the crowd had started to turn against him. 

You're right. But ask yourself why he had to resort to signing such players.  

It was because the club's infrastructure was a joke. He had little to no meaningful support around him.

I'm pretty sure Foster, Wilson and Bates weren't his, or anyone's, idea of the best defenders out there.

The 3 suits in charge at that time were Lansdown, Ashton and Sexstone - a catastrophic combination of ego and incompetence.

With no meaningful recruitment structure in place, no-one with any football knowledge or expertise on the board, or even in the building, just penpushers and bullshitters, what chance did McInnes have?

Sadly, precious little.  

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19 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

You're right. But ask yourself why he had to resort to signing such players.  

It was because the club's infrastructure was a joke. He had little to no meaningful support around him.

I'm pretty sure Foster, Wilson and Bates weren't his, or anyone's, idea of the best defenders out there.

The 3 suits in charge at that time were Lansdown, Ashton and Sexstone - a catastrophic combination of ego and incompetence.

With no meaningful recruitment structure in place, no-one with any football knowledge or expertise on the board, or even in the building, just penpushers and bullshitters, what chance did McInnes have?

Sadly, precious little.  

 

Sexstone stepped down during the McInnes managership and Mark Ashton, although he worked with the club (and others), he wasn't an employee at this stage, so therefore cannot be said to be "in charge". 

I'm afraid to say many of the transfers were McInnes's idea; players he was familiar with. 

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32 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

Sexstone stepped down during the McInnes managership and Mark Ashton, although he worked with the club (and others), he wasn't an employee at this stage, so therefore cannot be said to be "in charge". 

I'm afraid to say many of the transfers were McInnes's idea; players he was familiar with. 

OK semantics aside, I'm not sure he was helped whatsoever by how the club was set-up and run at the time though

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

Semantics aside, McInnes was manager at a time when the likes of Ashton and Sexstone were also involved.

At a time when the club sacked it's only professional scout and didn't replace him (because they wanted to "try something different" to quote Jonboy) and had no other fit for purpose recruitment structure in place at all.  

No wonder the manager resorted to signing players he was "familiar with". What else was he supposed to do?

So I'm sticking with the club set-up was a joke and McInnes had no chance. 

 

But the set up was different when SOD came in - and still didn't achieve results. 

The scouting was poor, but that lead McInnes to suggest the likes of Foster, Wilson and McManus: who had all played at prominent clubs in the SPL. 

And you cannot blame "the suits" for the poor coaching or poor decisions, like trying to play Foster in midfield. "Del" has to hold his hands up there. 

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1 hour ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

I'm glad someone else remembers how dire that spell was.  One interview where he talks about how he liked City but the evil board stymied him and suddenly there is a mass donning of the old rose-tinted lenses.

I had high hopes for McInnes, but his tenure illustrates the gap between English and Scottish football in the 21st Century. Players who looked decent north of the border proved unworthy of the task facing them here. Due to the Caledonian nature of much of this recruitment, I'm not sure all the blame can be offloaded onto Mark Ashton. Richard Foster, Stephen Pearson, Stephen McManus, Sean Davis, Mark Wilson, Brendan Moloney, Brian Howard, Matthew Briggs, Neil Danns, Jody 'party organiser' Morris, Matthew Bates. Not names to conjure with in 2012.

Yes, he inherited a mess, but virtually every incoming manager does. Most get the job because the bloke or blokes before them have failed.  

Both SOD signings.

I liked Del, but he did sign some crap. Baldock, Heaton and Cunningham probably the exceptions.

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7 hours ago, glynriley said:

I wonder if SL listens to DMc and NP interviews, will he have a bit of Whitesnake running through his head…

Here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known

?

He considered it for a second then played Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright 

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4 hours ago, Offside said:

McInnes had a tough job at City, with the club being in a mess, but he signed some truly awful players too - the likes of Foster, Wilson and Bates. That relegation season started well, as has been mentioned in other posts, but by the time of that Leicester game (was it a 4-0 defeat? It was horrendous, anyway) it felt like Del’s time was up and the crowd had started to turn against him. 

Absolutely this, McInnes certainly came to us at a poor time, “the 3 managers in 4 years” though is a bit of poetic licence, the first of those 3 (GJ) was in charge for nearly 5 years, the latter (Millen) got 15 months, so only Coppell’s bizarre 2 game reign in the middle skews this.

He also signed a lot of absolute shite from Scotland, Richard Foster, Mark Wilson, Jody Morris & inexplicably added both Sam Baldock & Steven Davies when we already had Stead & Pitman on our books but had no decent central defenders.

He wasn’t helped by what was going on but was equally culpable & hasn’t exactly set the world on fire since leaving us.

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5 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

I'm glad someone else remembers how dire that spell was.  One interview where he talks about how he liked City but the evil board stymied him and suddenly there is a mass donning of the old rose-tinted lenses.

I had high hopes for McInnes, but his tenure illustrates the gap between English and Scottish football in the 21st Century. Players who looked decent north of the border proved unworthy of the task facing them here. Due to the Caledonian nature of much of this recruitment, I'm not sure all the blame can be offloaded onto Mark Ashton. Richard Foster, Stephen Pearson, Stephen McManus, Sean Davis, Mark Wilson, Brendan Moloney, Brian Howard, Matthew Briggs, Neil Danns, Jody 'party organiser' Morris, Matthew Bates. Not names to conjure with in 2012.

Yes, he inherited a mess, but virtually every incoming manager does. Most get the job because the bloke or blokes before them have failed.  

Harsh on Neil Danns, he was good for us and it`s a shame we couldn`t have kept him. The rest were dross though.

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2 hours ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

Harsh on Neil Danns, he was good for us and it`s a shame we couldn`t have kept him. The rest were dross though.

 

I sort of hesitated before adding his name to the role call of dross and in retrospect, I probably should have left him off it.  15 league clubs and 4 non-league clubs tells its own story though and there is something going on there. 

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I thought he was the real deal just as I now think Pearson is.  Think Pearson the more experienced and tough character, however, who will be forthright with SL.

The problem is that SL could revert to type and foul everything up once again.

Believe in Nige!

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Everyone remembers things differently but I’m surprised how positively McInnes is remembered - and especially to the point of being one of our most talented managers. 

No doubt the club was a financial and logistical mess back then, he’s spot on, and he did have a difficult hand to work with.

But look at the guys he brought in… Stephen Pearson, Richard Foster, not only limited footballers but not great for dressing room unity either.

Add to that going 11 league games without a win, with a bad squad but not one bad enough for those results. And then dropping Tom Heaton because he’d run out of other ideas during that time, which ended up lowering the morale even further, and you start to think he’s got to take some responsibility along the line. 
 

We were a shambles of a club, but he has to take some responsibility for that.

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17 hours ago, Offside said:

McInnes had a tough job at City, with the club being in a mess, but he signed some truly awful players too - the likes of Foster, Wilson and Bates. That relegation season started well, as has been mentioned in other posts, but by the time of that Leicester game (was it a 4-0 defeat? It was horrendous, anyway) it felt like Del’s time was up and the crowd had started to turn against him. 

Exactly. The love in for Mcinnes because he said some nice things about City is a bit much.

He signed some utter dross for us that were never going to be good enough. Just compounded the bloated squad, which imo didn't start to be corrected until SOD.

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His hand was forced in some respect because of the finances (sounds familiar), but as others have pointed out he himself signed some absolute dross.

If you were SL and were watching him sign the likes of Pearson, Bates,  Foster, and Morris, why would you trust him with even more money? It's not as if these were cheap players that looked great and worked hard, and I'd be thinking "If I've given you a limited pot of £x and that's what you do with it, then there ain't a hope in hells chance that you're getting more!"

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