BrizzleRed

Good to hear matey and certainly hoping he can do the business. I think much of the negativity stems from our recent poll on here prior to the Pearson sacking, when 95% of the votes were for wanting Nige to stay. So more pro NP, rather than anti Manning.

I’ll never forget the comment that ‘you’d be surprised at the calibre of applicants we’ve had’, before deliberating for 6 weeks and then appointing Dean Holden By Bristol City standards, although not greatly exciting, this is hopefully a far better appointment than that. Would obviously have much preferred to have kept Nige, but sadly we don’t have any say in that and just have to pay our money, sit down and shut up!!! Let’s hope for some improvement when Lansdown eventually pisses off.

Not a bad shout there and I’ve long believed that’s how Mark Ashton lasted so long. Kept telling Lansdown he’d keep picking him up loads of gems who could later be sold on for massive profits. Instead of that, we were left with loads of deadwood who rarely, if ever played. We found we then couldn’t sell them, so they helped bleed the club dry with wages, ran down their contracts and then left on a free.

Can’t see any contradiction tbh. Yes, the Lansdowns did hire NP, whether by good luck, or good judgement. They then show that his appointment was probably by good luck, as they then proceed to **** it all up by sacking him for actually doing the job he was hired to do. That shows how inept they are at running a football club and that’s got nothing to do with what supporters say

Think they’ve got us pretty well sussed, looking at that. About time this club pulls its collective finger out and stops being a beige, dull, underperforming club with big potential, which is never realised. We’ve been waiting long enough!!!

It’s the Bristol City way. In all honesty, under Lansdown, what you’ve just described is probably the closest thing this club has to an identity!

Haha. Yes, you’re good for the moment, but we’re getting uncomfortably close to a half century wait now. I’m certainly starting to question whether it will happen within my lifetime, which is a pretty depressing thought.

Yep, definitely. There’s supporting your club and there’s allowing yourself to be taken for mugs. I think a sizeable percentage of our fanbase have allowed themselves to be conned into the latter group!

The ‘joys’ of following City infortunately. We’ve git a ridiculously patient and tolerant fanbase and the owners totally take that for granted.

Can I be the first to say FFS!!!!!

Fair play and could well be right, but it just feels different to me this time. It’s a fair point about the difference between the general support and the people on this board though. I think forum members are more interested and generally better informed on what’s happening within the club, whilst some supporters only care about what’s happening on the pitch and take no further interest in the club in general. Be interesting to see how it pans out.

I reckon this will be a great opportunity for the new head coach. This is probably as close to as a free pass they’ll ever get, as if we get to the point that the shit really hits the fan, I think it’ll be the Lansdowns that it’ll all land on.

They certainly have and I’m confident that their totally unrealistic expections will actually come back and bite them in the arse, rather than the new coaching team!

Cheers and now see what you’re getting at and points well put Yes, the relationship was clearly breaking down between NP and the Lansdowns and there was only one way that was going to end, though I’d have preferred to see the departure of the Lansdowns tbh I honestly believe if Nige had been given even a modest percentage of Scott’s transfer fee, we could have seen a marked improvement in our attacking style, as he was obviously well aware of what we needed. We really have been crippled by injuries too, which clearly haven’t helped. Whoever comes in will certainly have a very solid base to build on for sure, but we definitely need to add some creativity and that won’t come cheap.

In normal situations I’d agree, but I think we’ll see the Lansdowns takiing the full wrath of the fans if this all goes tits up, due to their actions last week.

Amen to that CC and feeling exactly the same. The big issue for me is, whoever we appoint, we still have the same puppet masters at the top, so I just don’t see any reason for optimism.

Tbh, the comments I’ve seen are that they’ll be judging the board and owners by results in the coming months, not the HC and their team. This seems perfectly reasonable, as they’re the ones who binned Nige and his team. Very gradual improvement year on year, considering the shitshow he inherited seems like a great performance to me. Just staying in the Championship whilst all the upheaval was going on was no mean feat. It isn’t just about league position though and he’s transformed the work ethic and culture at the club and made us into a professional outfit at long last. If you’re happy to see all that being potentially ripped up then that’s up to you, but there are many who are looking far beyond just league position and at the bigger picture.

Probably because he’s a deluded asshole! If it does turn out to be Manning, let’s hope we strike lucky and he turns out to be a great fit. If that’s the case, that would suggest to me a massively lucky punt, rather than a master stroke by crayon boy.

Absolutely Mr Pop and I suspect many of us are thinking the same thing regarding the reasons for the timing of this sacking. I’ve also got a feeling that we’re going to find ourselves in a similar divided position as we had about LJ. Any upturn in form due to returning players will probably be seized on by people who were not particularly keen on NP, or still supporting the actions of the Lansdowns as vindication for the sacking. Hopefully this won’t signal a new line in conflict

Who’s got a problem with the new coach having fitter players, I certainly haven’t! The whole point I’m making is, Pearson would also have enjoyed those same benefits, but wasn’t given that opportunity. Don’t forget, this was supposed to be his first proper season with his own squad, but it’s been ravaged by injuries. We’ll now probably be heading into the unknown again, with the new HC inheriting someone else’s squad, so would you bet against yet another rebuild looming??

Yes, we’ve gerally been pretty underwhelming at home and I’d hoped for better. The whole point is, we were a total mess when Pearson arrived and I just see him as being pragmatic. I think he looked at the pecentages and played a style that gave him the best chace of a result with the type of players he had available. If you don’t have, or can’t afford players with silky skills and flair, then you just have to work with what you have. That’s why I suspect he wanted to build round Alex Scott and why he was clearly pissed off when he was sold, particularly as he was then refused the chance to try and buy a replacement. I don’t believe the football would have stayed like this if NP hadn’t been deprived of do many of his squad through injury and been rewarded with some financial backing, after all the savings made under his tenure. Whatever happens, I certainly won’t be overlooking the possibility that any improvements brought about by players returning from injury over the coming weeks could equally have brought an upturn in results and performances under NP.

What, like the improvement that’s likely as all our injured players start returning? Do you also think those same players returning could have improved the position for Nige too??

Another easy option is around 10 mins walk from Paddington down to Lancaster Gate, to get straight onto the Central Line, so you could miss out the Elizabeth line and Bond St change completely.

I already am mate! Although we weren’t exactly pulling up trees, there was genuine, steady progress and at long last, we seemed to be moving in the right direction.. He clearly knew what he wanted to do and had the knowledge and experience to carry it through and given the time and backing, I reckon he’d have achieved it. While he was here, I had every confidence that we had someone with the finger on the pulse of the club and also truly understood our fanbase and communicated brilliantly and honestly. To me, he felt almost like a fans’ representative, who was trying to convince those clueless idiots running the club on what needed to be done. All I can see now are those same two ‘idiots’ slapping each other on the back for actually managing to dump him, rather than seeing it as another sad example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Only a personal view, but it seems like the genuine hope and optimism I felt while he was here has been cruelly snatched away again by those two Lansdown clowns and we’re back to square one again.

He wasn’t frantically stabbing said croissant with his fork, screaming ‘no way could I work for that crayon pushing tosspot’ by any chance???