BrizzleRed

I’ll hold my hands up and say, I could see a lot of promise in AS early on, but just had a nagging concern that the promise would come to nothing, due to lacking that vital composure and eye for goal.

Talk about blowing those doubts away!  What stunning progress from Antoine this season and doubt anyone could have predicted the massive leap he’s made in such a short time.  A fantastic achievement and such a richly deserved award.

It’s been a funny old season and although results haven’t been great on the pitch, that’s to be expected anyway.  Our big bonus this season is the amazing crop of young players we now have getting crucial Championship experience and that can only make them better.

Let’s just hope we can get them to choose to further their careers with us and if so, the future looks very bright.
 

2 hours ago, Carey 6 said:

Yeah wasn't great at pressing, but think a lot of that was down to mobility. Still feel like he often put his all in.  Agree to disagree I suppose. 

I agree with Henry that regardless of what went before, it left a bitter taste with me with how Fam took the piss for the last 6 months.

That said, I’d put money on us not shipping so many goals if he was here currently and actually trying.  

Not really what a striker’s for, but we’ve massively missed his presence when helping out the defence and we definitely didn’t see the opposition getting free headers on so many high balls into the box from dead ball situations.

17 minutes ago, Lew-T said:

For a player to have been at a club for 6 years, usually they tend to be cult heroes to the fan base by that time…

But we’re here 6 years later still wondering what we’ve got. That itself is the sad reality of O’Dowda’s time here.

We really need to upgrade and move him on.

I think that’s also the sad reality of us as a club too.  

Take away his effort and energy and he offers us virtually nothing else.  Any hopes we had he could realise any potential he’s supposed to have are long gone.

I wonder how many other Championship clubs would accept that level of mediocrity for 6 years and still give him so many opportunities, with so little return.

Really need to get rid if we’re serious about progressing.

24 minutes ago, Red Exile said:

It's what - 6 years since LJ joined? Of the squad he inherited you could make a case, 6 years later, for all of the following to start in a City side next week:

Ayling, Flint, Korey, Luke Freeman, Marlon, Bobby Reid, Joe Bryan

That's not a bad inheritance is it?! 

As supporters we have been far too tolerant of mediocrity. Cotts approach wasn't and it worked in League One. If he needed to be replaced - and perhaps he did - it needed to be by someone with experience and the same ruthless approach. Not a friend of the family learning on the job.

Interesting to read the Sunderland forums in the context of tolerance of mediocrity. Some might call their attitude 'entitlement' but I'd say that most of the more vitriolic posters are calling out the mediocre and expecting something better - because they know what that looks like. Would be better if there was more of that at Ashton Gate.

….. oh and yes, I agree we are way too tolerent of mediocrity at the Gate, which is most likely why we settle for it far too easily and regularly

The mindset of being satisfied to finish ubove the Sags really isn’t going to see us kick on and definitely won’t encourage a genuine push for the Prem.  Hopefully under NP, we’ll be aiming higher

8 minutes ago, Red Exile said:

It's what - 6 years since LJ joined? Of the squad he inherited you could make a case, 6 years later, for all of the following to start in a City side next week:

Ayling, Flint, Korey, Luke Freeman, Marlon, Bobby Reid, Joe Bryan

That's not a bad inheritance is it?! 

Completely agree RE and even after 6 years they could certainly still do a job and have more than proven their ability.

Our problems certainly weren’t all down to LJ that’s for sure,  but I still can’t fathom how he’s still held in such high regard by some people, with how ordinary his managerial career has actually been.  

I can’t help thinking of the Emporer’s new clothes when I think of LJ!

1 hour ago, SecretSam said:

Didn't we only have something like 19 players when he took over - we were a mess. And saying "Oh, he had the double winning squad" - that's the League 1 double, the gap between L1 and the Championship is huge.

The squad comment is right, tho', yes, we were a mess - but I already acknowledged that this time had come here. And I'm not sure that he was entirely to blame for the squad - he was a young manager, with no experience of managing at this level, and possibly influenced too much by others.

I'm not saying he was a rip-roaring success here, but saying he was useless from day one is just nonsense.

The gap between the League 1 and the Championship is certainly big, but we didn’t just stumble across the line when we were promoted, we absolutely walked it and with quality football too.  It’s not unusual for teams with that momentum to do well when they get up, as GJ proved and with arguably an inferior squad.

As for squad size, yes the numbers were on the low side, but the quality was certainly there and many from that squad are still playing at a higher level.

He had the core of a great squad there, but rather than building on it, it was completely torn apart for no apparent reason (unless SL just decided to cash in) and were mainly replaced with mediocrity.

I don’t think people are claiming he’s useless, but I honestly believe he has a far higher opinion of his own ability than his record would suggest and some fans continue to believe he has more about him than he actually produces

Take out several months when we were flying and playing great football in 2017, I look back at his time at City as some of the least exciting dross I’ve had to endure in well over 50 years of following City.

For me, his time here will live on in my memory as a time of stagnation and massive waste and best wiped out of the memory as soon as possible, with the exception of the cup run.

34 minutes ago, SecretSam said:

I'm baffled by two things: the decision by Sunderland (they're THIRD), and the (continued) hatred for LJ on here.

Yes, things went wrong towards the end, but was that all down to him? We had some tremendous results and let's not forget, we were in a real mess when he took over.

It was the right time to let him go from AG, but this decision by Sunderland is nuts.

Were we really??  Granted, Cotts threw his toys out of the pram when he felt he wasn’t being backed and results took a dive, but there was a very good, if small squad there.

Do you honestly believe that double winning squad LJ inherited was more of a mess than the bloated squad of overpaid misfits and dross he left us with and we’re still trying to clear out?

32 minutes ago, One Team said:

Their forum is quite a read. 

Lots of “enough was enough” type comments. 

Enough of what? One point off promotion, two points off the title? 

If they were outside the play offs or way off automatic and they had that defeat they perhaps I’d see the point. 

I’m not much of a LJ fan but it seems very harsh. 

I think they were a few points clear at the top not long ago and check out the numbers of games in hand some of the teams below have. 

Quite a few on their forum were remarking on the record of his teams imploding towards the sharp end of the season, so maybe that was on their board’s mind too.  We’re very well acquainted with his record on that score!.

8 minutes ago, chinapig said:

My point is he needed a mentor when he joined us not a bad influence like Ashton. An experienced Director of Football might have been ideal. The die is now cast so it's too late to change him now.

Ok got you

Yes see what you mean and it may have helped guide him onto a different path in his more formative managerial years I guess.  It also depends how much guidance he’d be prepared to take, or maybe he honestly believes his way is the right way, so who knows?  

As you say, he’s leaving it late to change now, so I think he’ll need some success pretty soon, or his stock will be on a real downward trajectory.

5 hours ago, chinapig said:

Yes, the combination of him and Ashton was the problem. I posted elsewhere that things might have turned out differently if he had had an experienced mentor with a deep knowledge of the game as opposed to being led by a CEO who believes he is a football expert.

Maybe so about a mentor, but how long does he have to be in the game without having someone watching over and guiding him?

I actually went over and read the Johnson thread on a Sunderland forum yesterday and guess what?  It was almost as if someone had lifted a thread from here from a couple of years ago.

According to them, he’s a bluffer, can’t stop tinkering with the starting 11 and tactics and the only time they get some consistency is when they are wracked with injuries and he’s forced to keep a settled side.  Once players are fit again, he reverts to tinkering and it turns to shit again.  He also gets lambasted for unfathomable substitutions and filling the team with diminutive, lightweight players with a total lack of battling instincts.

According to them, they can’t stand his post match interviews because of his waffle and never taking the blame for bad results and reckon he’s got a massive ego, but no record of success to back it up and seems incapable of motivating and lifting players when it really matters.  

Granted, they seem a pretty entitled lot, but I’ve got to say those criticisms sound exactly like our experiences when he was here tbh.

Those are just some of the criticisms, but he hasn’t got Mark Ashton there to share the blame with now, so what’s his excuse this time?  He just seems to have taken what he’s learned so far in his managerial career and is rinsing and repeating and unsurprisingly, getting much the same results. 

I agree he was desperate to do well with/for City, but the longer this pattern of streakyness goes on with him, the more it looks like he may never see any real success in management and should maybe stick to coaching, though even that could be debatable too!

I think this thread is getting a little too close to home.  

I’m really beginning to wonder if our biggest chance of having a claim to fame is by getting a shade of beige named after us.

Let’s be honest, that’s one thing this club is massively well qualified for, whether we like it or not!

2 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

The important thing is the support on match day which has been fantastic given our circumstances. It is a fact that the vast majority of the biggest moaners on here don’t go to matches and it’s utterly bizarre.

Probably why they spout shit half of the time, as they aren’t at the games to really see what’s going on and to read the mood of the fans who are actually there.  

There’s certainly a really positive vibe in the area where I sit in the SS that’s been missing for a very long time, so there are plenty happy with the direction we’re moving.

2 hours ago, Numero Uno said:

It’s strange that yet again the people who don’t think it’s good enough are conspicuous by their absence since yesterday lunch time. What a terrible way to support a football club ie only show up to bellyache.

Yep, you’re so right, but it’s no surprise as they’re nothing but predictable.  They’ll be surfacing again the next time we lose, that’s for sure.

The funny thing is, I thought we may have lost that division in the fanbase when LJ went, but it seems like it’s just transferred to NP instead, which I certainly didn’t anticipate.

58 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

In 6/7 months we have progressed from a team of players that most fans detested to a side that gives a sh8t and is leaving everything out on the pitch. Green shoots indeed.

Not good enough progress for some on here, but feels great to have some pride in our players again.

The green shoots are developing very nicely and we’re making decent progress as far as I’m concerned.

Well done lads and Nige and is brilliant to see a team out there playing with guts and pride again. 

41 minutes ago, Tafkarmlf said:

I'm adding to the discussion.

I'm sorry that it doesn't reach your expectations. However toxic positivity is a thing and can be used in context with the quoted speech from NP. 

You can disagree should you want  however it's all a bit and the band played on on the Titanic for my liking at the moment. 

A hammering against Cardiff and we're definitely in GJ style sacking territory. 

I'm hoping for a win for us as hopefully will galvanise us after getting tonked by Fulham. 

Others may think differently. 

Thanks

In your dreams maybe, but there’s no comparison with where we were when GJ was sacked.  

If you really believe otherwise, your blinkered agenda against Pearson is just getting ridiculous.

2 hours ago, cityfan1958 said:

 

 

What a band, now I can happily listen to them all day!  Awesome!!!

22 minutes ago, grifty said:

He should have, but what the post I edited came across was that it was the poor 99.9% of people who were not being racist were the ones affected because they couldn't watch their football match, not the guy actually being racially abused, so edited it to show the issue is the guy getting racially abused, not whether a football match can continue.

Ok, see where you were coming from, but still seems a massive over-reaction to actually abandon the game because of it.

I just hope they don’t start abandoning games when match officials get abused, because we’ll struggle to get a match completed.

12 minutes ago, grifty said:

I've amended your post to match what has happened.

The world has gone mad that racism is so prevalent in modern society and yet accepted or brushed under the carpet by so many.

You can amend the post all you like, the point still stands.  

Why wasn’t the moron just dragged out by the stewards and handed over to the police for the law to do its job and let the match continue?

48 minutes ago, VT05763 said:

Stopping the NHS getting overwhelmed. It will have to be done  and no guarantees on antibodies and future variants.

Totally depends on how many get hospitalised with this variant.  It’s not hard to imagine the public response if they lock down and there isn’t a big rise in hospitalisations after all and it turns out to have been unecessary..

A big call, that’s for sure.

17 minutes ago, VT05763 said:

Carrying antibodies for this variant !

Unless 85% of the world is vaccinated giving us herd immunity then these variants will keep appearing and often evade vaccines and antibodies from before.

Fully vaccinating our little Island will not protect us from further variants unless we close all borders permanently.

Sadly looks like we are heading for at least a month lock down in January.

Carrying antibodies for one variant is surely going to at least help reduce the effects of future variants, especially in combination with vaccines.

Locking down again now definitely won’t help get the rest of the world vaccinated, so I’m really struggling to see how that’ll help our current situation.

22 minutes ago, VT05763 said:

Need 85% (minimum) of the World vaccinated for herd immunity to work.

Lockdowns will be essential until this is done. Penny needs to drop soon.

At the rate this is multiplying, most people in the UK will be carrying antbodies within the next couple of months anyway, if predictions sre to be believed  The main hope surely has to be that people are vaxinated and the effects of the virus is lessened.  

Given the delay between you getting infected, becoming contageous and then producing a positve test, there must be tens of thousands who are already carrying and contageous, who are out there spreading and don’t even know they’re infected yet.

What’s the point in locking down yet again for a couple of weeks, only to go out and get clobbered by it anyway, when the restrictions ars lifted again?

3 minutes ago, Show Me The Money! said:

There is just going to be a lot more fear around not getting covid over Xmas. Pressure from other family members maybe not interested in the football not wanting there planned Christmases ruined by having to isolate.

If it wasn’t for those kinds of things you’d see a lot more people just go and not care about the risks so much

Exactly!  
I also wonder how many people who might contract covid and balls up Christmas, will look back and think it ‘ah well, it was still worth it to go to a football match’.

It’s not a fear of covid stopping me going today, it’s the fear of possibility of ruining Christmas for the rest of my family.

4 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

I just don't really understand why that squad was in the relegation zone come January. Compared to the current poor squad that is keeping us well clear of relegation there is no comparison 

It’s nuts, as we were often playing well in games, but getting picked off with a sucker punch.  

I think the fact SC believed he didn’t get properly backed in the summer window had a lot to do with it and the taem spirit seemed to suffer.  Heads seemed to drop very easily when we conceded and that wasn’t the case the previous season.

I know the Championship was a big step-up in quality, but really thought we had the quality of players who could rise to it.

5 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

If you lockdown hard and put the right support packages into place (rather that shitly-conceived stuff they introduced), follow your own rules, then you bring compliance and trust….and nobody’s business goes up the swanny.

But not this scheming bunch of grifters. Always on the make for them and their mates.

Could be the case Dave, but I think there would be far too many who’d rebel against any lockdown now for it to be effective anyway.

6 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

Certainly one of the best sides in L1 in memory. Maybe not the final points tally as they drifted off once promotion was guaranteed but that squad should have done so more in the Champ the following season

There was some real abilty in that side and imho, that team had more individual abilty than GJ’s team of grafters who made the Play Off Final.

It was a really solid foundation to build on, but we blew it and proceeded to dismantle all that had been created under SC.

The momentum built, along with the. stadium rebuild, should have been the springboard to a real push for the Prem.  Sadly we let that slip through our fingers and any momentum we had is now long gone, as we’re all very well aware.

Still, that’s how we roll here, so no big surprise!