Pearson

[Sheltons Army]

3 hours ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

We went bankrupt in 1982!  How much worse could things have got?!  We are a transformed club now, even if mistakes have been made along the way.

Transformed ?

Im no accountant but I’d suggest we’d have ‘gone bankrupt’ on numerous occasions in the last 20 years or so if SL hadn’t at least funded (Bailed us out) his ridiculous decisions and poor judgements 

[Sheltons Army]

2 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Wasn’t it Ian Gay who said this though?

Yes

Apparently it’s a straight swap for a new head coach

Some bloke in Greece I understand 

[REDOXO]

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

His source is 70% reliable….another made up stat.

Whenever a player is linked, he will always say “my source is telling me we are in for them”.  I’ve never heard him once say “my source tells me it’s bullshit”….much easier to pretend to be ITK by piggybacking on a rumour.

I bet it can be a bit chippy when you are in a room with him! 

[TV Tom]

4 hours ago, Robbored said:

He nearly got sacked at Man Utd but Mark Robins scored the goal that saved his job.

So he never got sacked ?

[CodeRed]

4 minutes ago, harrys said:

So he never got sacked ?

Not by Man U !!

He was sacked by St Mirren (he took the club to a tribunal for wrongful dismissal but lost)

[Robbored]

49 minutes ago, harrys said:

So he never got sacked ?

I’m not sure tbh. I’d have to look it up but I can’t  be arsed.

[Davefevs]

4 hours ago, Sheltons Army said:

Yes

Apparently it’s a straight swap for a new head coach

Some bloke in Greece I understand 

So a compensation payout on both sides of the transaction.  That’ll help the finances.

His choice is to ignore facts and push his agenda. Why isn’t he pushing Valerian Ismael like he was 12 months ago?  

[fgrsimon]

7 hours ago, Denbury Red said:

Regarding NP’s comments on refereeing you have to admit we don’t seem to get many of the 50/50 decisions - or even 60/40.

The penalty at Hull was a joke

The penalty yesterday was one that VAR probably wouldn’t over turn if it had been given, and wouldn’t have given it if it hadn't been awarded by the ref.

The sending off yesterday was as clear as day - the Wigan guy kicked out, and, made contact with JW - there is only one outcome the Rules say should happen - that’s a Red Card - absolutely no explanation as to why it wasn’t!

 

It's a kind of stupid thing but we as a club should be kicking up more of a fuss about the ludicrous penalty record we currently have. I know NP is somewhat limited as to what he can say post-match but imagine if a Neil Warnock club had this record of one penalty in a year/season, fewest in the top 4 leagues or whatever it is. He would be in the media kicking up a fuss about it every time he had a chance, putting the pressure on the refs/FA, making sure they were aware of the fact before each game, and "we are watching you" as it were. but for the penalties conceded and not given at Hull and the one yesterday had been given, we'd probably have 6 points in the bag.

Of course being City, no doubt when we do eventually get a penalty it'll be skied into Row Z! I don't even know who our penalty taker would be, Weimann I guess, taking over from Wells, who I think take the one we did get in recent memory?

[2015]

It's a real difficult one really as quite clearly we are struggling in the transfer department due to balancing the books and towing FFP rules. Do I think though that another Manager could get the best of this side? Possibly, do I think that another decent Manager would want to come to us knowing the financial contraints? Probably not.

It's all good comparing to LJ but LJ is partly the reason why we are in this FFP mess by spending all the buck's Lansdown had on average players. Pearson would love that money right now, but he can't. 

A formation change is necessary imo and dropping Martin for a few games would make a difference to the side. I can't ever see this team doing well in a 352 as it is.

[Supersonic Robin]

6 minutes ago, fgrsimon said:

1. It's a kind of stupid thing but we as a club should be kicking up more of a fuss about the ludicrous penalty record we currently have. I know NP is somewhat limited as to what he can say post-match but imagine if a Neil Warnock club had this record of one penalty in a year/season, fewest in the top 4 leagues or whatever it is. He would be in the media kicking up a fuss about it every time he had a chance, putting the pressure on the refs/FA, making sure they were aware of the fact before each game, and "we are watching you" as it were. but for the penalties conceded and not given at Hull and the one yesterday had been given, we'd probably have 6 points in the bag.

2. Of course being City, no doubt when we do eventually get a penalty it'll be skied into Row Z! I don't even know who our penalty taker would be, Weimann I guess, taking over from Wells, who I think take the one we did get in recent memory?

1. Agree with the sentiment, though not sure what meaningful action we could realistically take - maybe your general idea of awareness/pressure with the FA would be the way to go. It does feel like it's going from bad luck to just being utterly ridiculous at this point.

2. I believe Martin is our penalty taker (took 2 in pre season and 1 vs Reading last season?).

[ZiderMeUp]

On 13/08/2022 at 17:38, petehinton said:

Conway and Scott would be nowhere near the squad under another manager. Turned Scott and Semenyo into £15m+ players, that will get us out of the deep shit that Holden, LJ & Ashton left us in.
 

Been ahead in every single game this season. I’ll start worrying if that stops happening and we start conceding goals that aren’t individual errors, in no way linked to coaching, or shit penalties/deflected goals. 

Sunderland 2nd goal sums us up under Pearson.  Vyner got the blame and yes he does get best easy but we are so open.  
 

should be making teams play around us not through us.  Vyner is left one v one right infront of our goal.  No protection from midfield, no sign of rwb and where has Naismith wandered off to.  When we loose the ball we need to be compact.  We are so easy to attack against.  We are a very poorly coached side defensively.  So so poor.  I actually thought that is something he would address when he took over.  Make us hard to beat but not very pretty.

 

so far he has made us easy to beat and so so open.  
 

our squad is set for 3-5-2 we need to appoint a coach who likes and had previous success with it.  Pearson openly admits he doesn’t like playing this way.

 

yes he has had to deal with difficult circumstances but so have half the championship.  

[Supersonic Robin]

I always find myself coming back to the same point on Pearson - people forget just how bad it was before Pearson took over.

 

At the end of Holden's reign we were atrocious. We were getting battered most weeks. We were struggling to even have a couple of shots on target in games. Almost every underlying statistic suggested we were the worst side in the league, and it had been that way for months. IMO Pearson inherited the worst performing side in the Championship. Add in our severe financial issues and you quickly realise that the Bristol City manager's job was an incredibly challenging one - probably fair to say it was a bit of a poisoned chalice. 

 

Put simply, I think Pearson's remit for the first season or so was the following; Address the huge financial issues and improve the dreadful club culture, whilst keeping the club away from any real danger of relegation. So far, Pearson has been fairly successful in doing that.

 

That's not to say Pearson is immune from criticism. He hasn't got it all right:

- Simpson was a very poor signing (though a very cheap mistake in fairness).

- We continue to look weak defensively.

- It's incredibly frustrating to watch us throw away SO MANY games from winning positions.

- Results wise, the start to this season has been disappointing. 1 point from Hull, Sunderland, and Wigan is abysmal (though we have also had some awful luck).

 

I think this season will play a part in determining the longer team extent of Pearson's remit. Is Pearson here to ultimately get us into the play offs, or is he here to resolve the massive issues at the club and get us pointing in the right direction, before passing on to somebody else? If it is to be the former, then we probably need to see a bit more progress on the pitch this season. That certainly doesn't mean a top 6 push this season, but it probably does mean doing a bit more than just avoiding a relegation battle. If it is to be the latter, that's okay - to turn the club around whilst keeping us in the Championship is no mean feat, and NP deserves some credit just for taking on such a challenging and unglamorous job.

 

What if Pearson can't even meet the latter objective of keeping us in the division? Well at this point in time, I'm fairly confident he can. I don't think we'll be one of the 3 worst teams in the league this year. No need to panic after just 3 games.

 

 

[ZiderMeUp]

On 13/08/2022 at 18:49, Davefevs said:

(Piggybacking on you Q…but to all City fans on here, not you per se)

A manager who was happy to take on a shit-fest of a situation, have players leave OOC with little to no money to reinvest.

There’s your answer.

He deserves loads of time imho.  He’s rebuilding a club for the club…not himself.  People should be a bit more grateful.

The CEO pissed off, remember that, courting a set of owners for another team…don’t forget that.

We are competitive under Pearson, it’s hard work getting points in the Champ.  We are fighting an unknown transfer window, hoping to be in-tact when it ends.

Get behind him, be grateful we finished in the Championship last season, rather than going down…that’s the history of Bristol City, get into Champ for a few seasons then wallow as a 3rd tier club too big to be in it, but who takes several seasons to get back up.

We are so entitled.  We can’t wait to blame a player, we can’t wait to blame the manager.  Have a word with yourself.  

So is the above lansdowns fault? Poor decesion making at the top of the club throughout the years?

[glynriley]

1 minute ago, ZiderMeUp said:

So is the above lansdowns fault? Poor decesion making at the top of the club throughout the years?

Yes

[Davefevs]

2 hours ago, Supersonic Robin said:

I always find myself coming back to the same point on Pearson - people forget just how bad it was before Pearson took over.

 

At the end of Holden's reign we were atrocious. We were getting battered most weeks. We were struggling to even have a couple of shots on target in games. Almost every underlying statistic suggested we were the worst side in the league, and it had been that way for months. IMO Pearson inherited the worst performing side in the Championship. Add in our severe financial issues and you quickly realise that the Bristol City manager's job was an incredibly challenging one - probably fair to say it was a bit of a poisoned chalice. 

 

Put simply, I think Pearson's remit for the first season or so was the following; Address the huge financial issues and improve the dreadful club culture, whilst keeping the club away from any real danger of relegation. So far, Pearson has been fairly successful in doing that.

 

That's not to say Pearson is immune from criticism. He hasn't got it all right:

- Simpson was a very poor signing (though a very cheap mistake in fairness).

- We continue to look weak defensively.

- It's incredibly frustrating to watch us throw away SO MANY games from winning positions.

- Results wise, the start to this season has been disappointing. 1 point from Hull, Sunderland, and Wigan is abysmal (though we have also had some awful luck).

 

I think this season will play a part in determining the longer team extent of Pearson's remit. Is Pearson here to ultimately get us into the play offs, or is he here to resolve the massive issues at the club and get us pointing in the right direction, before passing on to somebody else? If it is to be the former, then we probably need to see a bit more progress on the pitch this season. That certainly doesn't mean a top 6 push this season, but it probably does mean doing a bit more than just avoiding a relegation battle. If it is to be the latter, that's okay - to turn the club around whilst keeping us in the Championship is no mean feat, and NP deserves some credit just for taking on such a challenging and unglamorous job.

 

What if Pearson can't even meet the latter objective of keeping us in the division? Well at this point in time, I'm fairly confident he can. I don't think we'll be one of the 3 worst teams in the league this year. No need to panic after just 3 games.

 

 

Great post, very balanced.

2 hours ago, ZiderMeUp said:

So is the above lansdowns fault? Poor decesion making at the top of the club throughout the years?

Ultimately, yes…SL and JL (Maggie might get away with this one!).

[NcnsBcfc]

4 hours ago, Supersonic Robin said:

1. Agree with the sentiment, though not sure what meaningful action we could realistically take - maybe your general idea of awareness/pressure with the FA would be the way to go. It does feel like it's going from bad luck to just being utterly ridiculous at this point.

2. I believe Martin is our penalty taker (took 2 in pre season and 1 vs Reading last season?).

2. Do you mean Coventry away? Can't think of another pen we had last year.

[The Constant Rabbit]

I think if we get a younger replacement for Martin - anyone who can run out a full game tbh - and have a solid 4 at the back and 4 across the middle, then a heck of a lot of issues will go way.

 

When the midfield crumble, the team crumbles.

 

NP cannot expect the opposition to have an extra player in the middle for most of the game and not for us to come off second best.

 

If we need loans - so be it

 

4-4-2  - ditch the wingbacks.

 

I know NP has recruited for  3-5-2  but he has to admitted we don't have the mids to cope.

 

If we can't get 3 champ quality loans in 1 striker, 2 mids), then NP will have to switch tactics.

 

Where are these players? I don't know - it's to be hoped the club have a list of potential late loanees

 

Long hard year if we stick with Martin and 3-5-2

 

[Yoyo2345]

9 hours ago, 2015 said:

It's a real difficult one really as quite clearly we are struggling in the transfer department due to balancing the books and towing FFP rules. Do I think though that another Manager could get the best of this side? Possibly, do I think that another decent Manager would want to come to us knowing the financial contraints? Probably not.

It's all good comparing to LJ but LJ is partly the reason why we are in this FFP mess by spending all the buck's Lansdown had on average players. Pearson would love that money right now, but he can't. 

A formation change is necessary imo and dropping Martin for a few games would make a difference to the side. I can't ever see this team doing well in a 352 as it is.

This post is absolute bolloxio.....I want this poster to tell me who the average signings were LJ purchased....not loaned, purchased.....just a reminder it was Ashton who did the negotiating of transfers not LJ

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Yoyo2345

[2015]

28 minutes ago, Yoyo2345 said:

This post is absolute bolloxio.....I want this poster to tell me who the average signings were LJ purchased....not loaned, purchased.....just a reminder it was Ashton who did the negotiating of transfers not LJ

 

Adam Matthews, Hörður Magnússon, Callum O'Dowda, Jens Hegeler, Matty Taylor, Gustav Engvall, Ivan Lucic, Taylor Moore, Fabian Giefer, Bailey Wright all in his first full season for starters. 

Then you have Mo Eisa, Kasey Palmer, Hakeeb Adelakun, Sammie Szmodics all paid on big money who barely did anything for us who want for pretty much nothing. 

Both LJ AND Ashton spent the lot and are the reason we are in this FFP mess in the first place they both collectively shoulder that blame. The money was spent on crap because the highest we got was 8th - which still aint good enough

[Son of Fred]

2 hours ago, The Constant Rabbit said:

and have a solid 4 at the back

Which we currently have available..

Nigel chooses to stay as a three.

2 hours ago, The Constant Rabbit said:

-4-2  - ditch the wingbacks.

 

See above.

Would make us harder to play through.

 

 

[Taylor10]

12 minutes ago, 2015 said:

Adam Matthews, Hörður Magnússon, Callum O'Dowda, Jens Hegeler, Matty Taylor, Gustav Engvall, Ivan Lucic, Taylor Moore, Fabian Giefer, Bailey Wright all in his first full season for starters. 

Then you have Mo Eisa, Kasey Palmer, Hakeeb Adelakun, Sammie Szmodics all paid on big money who barely did anything for us who want for pretty much nothing. 

Both LJ AND Ashton spent the lot and are the reason we are in this FFP mess in the first place they both collectively shoulder that blame. The money was spent on crap because the highest we got was 8th - which still aint good enough

Djuric, Watkins, Ekstrand, Pisano, Henriksen, I would now include DaSilva. Might be easier to say what signings were a success?

[2015]

4 minutes ago, Taylor10 said:

Djuric, Watkins, Ekstrand, Pisano, Henriksen, I would now include DaSilva. Might be easier to say what signings were a success?

I'll be kind and say Brownhill, Diedhiou (which we overspent on imo), Paterson (arguably), Webster. 

No wonder Lansdown came out in 18/19 on a fans forum and said he expects play offs after the amount of wasted money that was spent in that era.

8th with lots of money spent and 17th on frees under Pearson, yet people are blaming Pearson for it all

[Taylor10]

5 minutes ago, 2015 said:

I'll be kind and say Brownhill, Diedhiou (which we overspent on imo), Paterson (arguably), Webster. 

No wonder Lansdown came out in 18/19 on a fans forum and said he expects play offs after the amount of wasted money that was spent in that era.

8th with lots of money spent and 17th on frees under Pearson, yet people are blaming Pearson for it all

Yes agree with the above. Kalas I would say has also been a good signing. Bentley I would also say has been a success, although over rated by some on here he’s a steady champ keeper no more, but overall a success for us. Can’t really think of any others? 
 

I know the argument has been done over and over but this quite simply isn’t Pearson’s mess. However it’s up to him to try resolve.

[headhunter]

4 hours ago, The Constant Rabbit said:

I think if we get a younger replacement for Martin - anyone who can run out a full game tbh - and have a solid 4 at the back and 4 across the middle, then a heck of a lot of issues will go way.

 

When the midfield crumble, the team crumbles.

 

NP cannot expect the opposition to have an extra player in the middle for most of the game and not for us to come off second best.

 

If we need loans - so be it

 

4-4-2  - ditch the wingbacks.

 

I know NP has recruited for  3-5-2  but he has to admitted we don't have the mids to cope.

 

If we can't get 3 champ quality loans in 1 striker, 2 mids), then NP will have to switch tactics.

 

Where are these players? I don't know - it's to be hoped the club have a list of potential late loanees

 

Long hard year if we stick with Martin and 3-5-2

 

100% agree with everything you've written in this post.

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

11 hours ago, Supersonic Robin said:

I always find myself coming back to the same point on Pearson - people forget just how bad it was before Pearson took over.

 

At the end of Holden's reign we were atrocious. We were getting battered most weeks. We were struggling to even have a couple of shots on target in games. Almost every underlying statistic suggested we were the worst side in the league, and it had been that way for months. IMO Pearson inherited the worst performing side in the Championship. Add in our severe financial issues and you quickly realise that the Bristol City manager's job was an incredibly challenging one - probably fair to say it was a bit of a poisoned chalice. 

I do take very mild issue with one phrase in your post (highlighted above).  I maintain that the serious problems that Holden encountered and which did for him in the end were relatively short-lived, and critically came after the injury to Tommy Rowe.   That’s not to say that the underlying problems didn’t exist - of course they did - but I do think that Holden was making quite a reasonable shot at it but was totally undermined by the ridiculous injury situation.

[RedRock]

Agree with the Martin reference, but still puzzled why Britton was allowed to go without having a similar-type replacement to slot in.

Britton may not have had a long term future with the Club, but he was cheap, committed and the most comparable to Martin we had on the books. A 10-15 minute cameo at the end of games, if Pearson is totally wedded to a big guy upfront, could have taken the pressure off a flogged-to-death, and increasingly ineffective in the latter stages of matches, Martin.

My real fear this Season though is that the OOC players will follow the Fammy/CoD path of disappearing from January onwards. Potentially, that’s the established spine of the team going awol. 

Pearson, seemingly critical of the Club having allowed this situation (erm ..all had 2 years plus left on contracts when he arrived so does he not share some responsibility?), is trying to build a new spine but I suspect if our OOCs employ the awol tactic, squad depth is going to be shallow beyond belief in the latter part of this season, given our inability to bring in new players due to FFP. 

We really need to get points on the board now as it ain’t going to get any easier! For the first time, in the post-match Wigan interview Pearson, I detected he felt we are very much up against it. Early days indeed, but we need this team engine to start running smoothly and cohesively very soon.

[GrahamC]

13 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

I do take very mild issue with one phrase in your post (highlighted above).  I maintain that the serious problems that Holden encountered and which did for him in the end were relatively short-lived, and critically came after the injury to Tommy Rowe.   That’s not to say that the underlying problems didn’t exist - of course they did - but I do think that Holden was making quite a reasonable shot at it but was totally undermined by the ridiculous injury situation.

I liked Tommy Rowe & he was a very unusual signing in the Ashton era, a free transfer, presumably on very low wages & sensible short term addition who we certainly got value out of.

Isn’t a bit of a stretch though to claim that Holden’s plans were scuppered by the loss of a 31 year old Doncaster free transfer?

The 6 games prior to Holden getting sacked (all losses) were as bad as it could get, we didn’t score in the last 4 of them & as has been said, we barely had a shot or a corner.

It actually got even worse for the Barnsley game that Simpson & Downing were in charge, Simpson & Kalas’ interviews afterwards were truly remarkable, both effectively admitting we were beaten before we went on to the pitch.

I am not saying for a minute Pearson has got everything right, if he had his time again he certainly wouldn’t have bothered to give Danny Simpson another year, but this, alongside the need to make huge financial cuts is the job that he walked into.

Incidentally I was told we made contact with 5 or 6 potential managers post Barnsley & him & Paul Cook (now managing in non league after a tough time at Ipswich) were the only 2 prepared to take it on.

[DaveF]

21 minutes ago, RedRock said:

Agree with the Martin reference, but still puzzled why Britton was allowed to go without having a similar-type replacement to slot in.

Britton may not have had a long term future with the Club, but he was cheap, committed and the most comparable to Martin we had on the books. A 10-15 minute cameo at the end of games, if Pearson is totally wedded to a big guy upfront, could have taken the pressure off a flogged-to-death, and increasingly ineffective in the latter stages of matches, Martin.

My real fear this Season though is that the OOC players will follow the Fammy/CoD path of disappearing from January onwards. Potentially, that’s the established spine of the team going awol. 

Pearson, seemingly critical of the Club having allowed this situation (erm ..all had 2 years plus left on contracts when he arrived so does he not share some responsibility?), is trying to build a new spine but I suspect if our OOCs employ the awol tactic, squad depth is going to be shallow beyond belief in the latter part of this season, given our inability to bring in new players due to FFP. 

We really need to get points on the board now as it ain’t going to get any easier! For the first time, in the post-match Wigan interview Pearson, I detected he felt we are very much up against it. Early days indeed, but we need this team engine to start running smoothly and cohesively very soon.

He can't even get a start for a 2nd division side in Ireland at the moment, the only similarity he has to Martin is that they're both quite tall...

Edited August 15, 2022 by DaveF

[Bristol Oil Services]

5 hours ago, The Constant Rabbit said:

I think if we get a younger replacement for Martin - anyone who can run out a full game tbh - and have a solid 4 at the back and 4 across the middle, then a heck of a lot of issues will go way.

 

When the midfield crumble, the team crumbles.

 

NP cannot expect the opposition to have an extra player in the middle for most of the game and not for us to come off second best.

 

If we need loans - so be it

 

4-4-2  - ditch the wingbacks.

 

I know NP has recruited for  3-5-2  but he has to admitted we don't have the mids to cope.

 

If we can't get 3 champ quality loans in 1 striker, 2 mids), then NP will have to switch tactics.

 

Where are these players? I don't know - it's to be hoped the club have a list of potential late loanees

 

Long hard year if we stick with Martin and 3-5-2

 

All that will happen then is that the opposition will "set up" differently against us and exploit the weaknesses that come with 4-4-2 and posters on here and students of the game will suggest 3-5-2 as the way to overcome our difficulties. Probably. 

Problem appears to be too many Championship sides have a few too many better players than we have. Until Kalas and Semenyo return, we can hope.

[JoeAman08]

13 hours ago, 2015 said:

It's a real difficult one really as quite clearly we are struggling in the transfer department due to balancing the books and towing FFP rules. Do I think though that another Manager could get the best of this side? Possibly, do I think that another decent Manager would want to come to us knowing the financial contraints? Probably not.

It's all good comparing to LJ but LJ is partly the reason why we are in this FFP mess by spending all the buck's Lansdown had on average players. Pearson would love that money right now, but he can't. 

A formation change is necessary imo and dropping Martin for a few games would make a difference to the side. I can't ever see this team doing well in a 352 as it is.

That is probably the best way to put it. Pearson probably not getting the most from the side. However, sacking him constrains us more and whoever comes in is a year away(probably more?) from a clean slate. I have said before, his contract aligns with our toughest season. Next season will be much harder to survive imo. Can we retain any of the ooc(kalas, bentley, dasilva) Scott and Semenyo even more likely to be gone by this time next tear. Still a big loss on the 3 year ffp cycle(correct?) Weimann a year older which may or may not mean anything in his last year. A big reason why I am disappointed with the start this season. 

12 hours ago, Supersonic Robin said:

I always find myself coming back to the same point on Pearson - people forget just how bad it was before Pearson took over.

 

At the end of Holden's reign we were atrocious. We were getting battered most weeks. We were struggling to even have a couple of shots on target in games. Almost every underlying statistic suggested we were the worst side in the league, and it had been that way for months. IMO Pearson inherited the worst performing side in the Championship. Add in our severe financial issues and you quickly realise that the Bristol City manager's job was an incredibly challenging one - probably fair to say it was a bit of a poisoned chalice. 

 

Put simply, I think Pearson's remit for the first season or so was the following; Address the huge financial issues and improve the dreadful club culture, whilst keeping the club away from any real danger of relegation. So far, Pearson has been fairly successful in doing that.

 

That's not to say Pearson is immune from criticism. He hasn't got it all right:

- Simpson was a very poor signing (though a very cheap mistake in fairness).

- We continue to look weak defensively.

- It's incredibly frustrating to watch us throw away SO MANY games from winning positions.

- Results wise, the start to this season has been disappointing. 1 point from Hull, Sunderland, and Wigan is abysmal (though we have also had some awful luck).

 

I think this season will play a part in determining the longer team extent of Pearson's remit. Is Pearson here to ultimately get us into the play offs, or is he here to resolve the massive issues at the club and get us pointing in the right direction, before passing on to somebody else? If it is to be the former, then we probably need to see a bit more progress on the pitch this season. That certainly doesn't mean a top 6 push this season, but it probably does mean doing a bit more than just avoiding a relegation battle. If it is to be the latter, that's okay - to turn the club around whilst keeping us in the Championship is no mean feat, and NP deserves some credit just for taking on such a challenging and unglamorous job.

 

What if Pearson can't even meet the latter objective of keeping us in the division? Well at this point in time, I'm fairly confident he can. I don't think we'll be one of the 3 worst teams in the league this year. No need to panic after just 3 games.

 

 

Think I half give my opinion on your post above. I will say Saturday only 1 shot on target. 9 the previous 2. So roughly 3 per game in the league. It is better than Holden attacking wise but Semenyo being fit second half of last season papered over a lot of cracks. Defensively I am less convinced it is definitely better. I remember a decent start with Holden then injuries killing the campaign