CliftonCliff

So Cardiff fans will be a bit disappointed, then? Shame, couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.

1 minute ago, cidercity1987 said:

Never a pen 

Tough on James, but you can also see why the decision was given. Can be argued both ways. 50:50

Just now, Numero Uno said:

Yeah, the one we didn’t sign.

I actually think Adam’s played quite well.

1 minute ago, And Its Smith said:

Hungary got a player called Nagy who looks good 

I think he’s had a very good game.

5 minutes ago, Malago said:

Seemed to me those were adult boos.  Didn’t have the shrill tone you hear from children 

Either way, not great is it? Adults setting an example for a future generation? 

I’ve done a bit of traveling, but never visited Hungary. Doesn’t exactly make you want to go, does it?

8 minutes ago, Malago said:

Disjointed thus far from England 

Tight game.

Very conspicuous lack of pressing from Hungary when England have possession at the back. An early indication as to the type of game we can expect?

2 minutes ago, Bristol Oil Services said:

You are not alone, Cliff. We are here with you

Good man.

Thanks guys. Nice to know I’m not alone.

Yes, Bellingham, in particular, will be interesting.

Logged in and was surprised to see nobody has started a thread. Somebody out there must be watching. Anybody...?

Anyone with close ties to Hun Sen deserves to be regarded with extreme suspicion. The man presides over an odious, repressive and profoundly corrupt regime. The title 'Prime Minister' is misleading. He is effectively a dictator. When I travelled in Cambodia, I stayed briefly in the capital, Phnom Penh. On the second day, a small gathering of workers from the textile industry staged a peaceful protest against poor pay and conditions, as compared with those of similar workers in neighbouring Vietnam. Several of the protesters were unceremoniously gunned down by the PM's personal guards. As far as I know, nobody was ever brought to justice for these summary executions.

It will be interesting to see how the EFL reacts to the news that BCFC have (allegedly) failed to disclose that Wang is a significant shareholder with close association to the Cambodian regime. If past performance is anything to go by, they'll procrastinate in deafening silence for months on end and then do absolutely bugger all. I know nothing at all about Wang, other than what I've just read above, but judging from the company he keeps, having him on your register of shareholders is not a good look. 

8 minutes ago, BigTone said:

For that kind of money I'd rather stay in bed 

Maybe. Depends who with...

26 minutes ago, Mendip City said:

No wonder Warnock was never considered… can you imagine the home truths! 
 

I think, as a business, we’re now worryingly a combination of a family business and invited members-only club.  

I remember. back in the day, coining a phrase about exactly this culture, when GL was manager, his brother was chief scout and his son was a player. I said that the time that the mentality was that of a corner shop proprietor. Now we have something that resembles a slightly larger enterprise - perhaps a small department store, say - a mostly absent proprietor and his son at the helm. Nothing much has changed, fundamentally, has it?

29 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

But he’s not the head of the metropolitan police, which is a huge organisation, he’s the manager of a football club, and when it comes to events on the field, his job is to prepare and persuade 18 footballers to give 100%.  And patently that hasn’t been happening.  I’m sorry, but in any other walk of life, the manager would take responsibility for under-performance by their staff, but all Pearson does is blame his players and make strange comments about their ‘personality’.  I don’t buy that.  If he can’t get the players to do what he wants them to do then he has failed as a manager.

He’s had over a year now, and far from seeing any improvement, yesterday we witnessed an abject, humiliating performance against a ten-man bottom side.  And what does Pearson do?  Blames the players of course.  Has he ever taken any responsibility?  And don’t give me that stuff about football being worse under O’Driscoll and McInnes: this, for me, is the worst season I can remember - and I’ve been supporting City a long time, just a series of unrelentingly depressing matches.  No wonder people are not renewing season tickets.  This season has been close to torture at times.

I would have been very happy for Pearson to have been successful, but this is a results game and the one thing he has demonstrated is an inability to motivate his players to produce results.  I can see no reason to believe that next season will be any better if he stays.

You’ve chosen to quote me,  but I don’t really know why, because we’re actually talking about different issues.

About Pearson himself, I neither strongly agree nor disagree. I, along with many others, am talking about organisational failings that were evident ten years before he was appointed and will likely still be evident in another ten years’ time, by which stage Pearson’s tenure might, for all we know, be a largely forgotten historical blip.

You can sack or appoint who you like: it won’t make a great deal of difference to the long-term trajectory of the club as a whole, unless there is meaningful change in the overall structure and ethos. It couldn’t be any more obvious.

24 minutes ago, Kibs said:

 I just think this squad has a bit more talent than is given credit for and could have accrued quite a few more points. 

And Pearson agrees with you, as do I. He stated quite explicitly yesterday that it is not a question of players’ abilities, but of the culture of the club, both on and off the pitch, which is also what many of us are arguing - and have been doing so for years.

It is an incredibly difficult task to change the ingrained culture of any organisation. Ask those at the top of the Metropolitan Police. Only a strong personality like Pearson, who is not afraid to speak truth to power, has any chance of turning it around.

As for the strategy the club is supposed to be founded on, there have been plenty of sound principles that it would be hard to disagree with. It’s the implementation that has been woeful. The explanation for that is to be found in the Boardroom, as again, many OTIB members have pointed out over and over.

In another thread yesterday, someone said (quite rightly and for the umpteenth time) “the problem lies at the very top”, and I responded by pointing out the blindingly obvious - that this is a much more profoundly difficult problem to fix than a need for change in the manager’s office or the dressing room. It would require that those at the very top recognise that the problem is at the very top. With apologies for repeating myself, it’s about as likely as Putin resigning because he massively miscalculated over Ukraine.

Don’t hold your breath.

1 minute ago, BCFC Grim said:

We'd be relegated if it wasn't for deductions. Pearsons done a pretty poor job but I'm done calling for the managers head. The problem is right at the top 

Correct. As has been pointed out countless times on multiple threads. And because it’s at the very top, it’s a lot harder to rectify than it would be, if what were required was a managerial change or new player signings. It would need the very top to recognise that the problem is the very top, which is about as likely as Putin resigning because he made a major miscalculation over Ukraine. Don’t expect a resolution any time soon.

7 minutes ago, tin said:

Good post. This is also the elephant in the room for me, too. It’s not like a transfer window is stopping SL from hiring a sporting director, head of recruitment etc. That appointment could’ve been made at any time and should’ve been done last summer, but still nothing.

A reoccurring theme with SL, which is also a major blind spot, is that he tends to put all his eggs in one basket as he did it with Ashton. I struggle to recall a manager having to carry the weight Pearson has on his shoulders. We have no structure off the pitch and with finances as tight as they are, we need to get every signing right this summer and ideally in as early as possible. 

Absolutely. Despite our obvious deficiencies on the pitch, I am, and have been for as long as I can remember, less concerned about the occupants of the dressing room or the manager’s office than I am about the boardroom. We simply don’t have the right balance of senior executives, with appropriate knowledge and expertise in the football industry, to steer us consistently in the right direction. There is a massive leadership vacuum, which makes the club appear directionless and rudderless, and it’s dangerous.

1 hour ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

They aren't equivalents. One is the attacker, one the aggressor. It isn't a war that just 'broke out'. It's an unjustifiable invasion. 

One is like wearing a Swastika in the 1930s, the other like wearing a Star of David in the 1930s. 

Well said. Vital distinction.

19 hours ago, The Batman said:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/dec/13/arsenal-distance-themselves-from-mesut-ozil-comments-china-uighur-people

Albeit back in 2019, arsenal threw ozil under the bus when he got political with the genocide in China of the uigher Muslims. Their own words from the statement "does not involve itself in politics". 

Then again they need money from Chinese markets so course they'd stay silent on it. OK for them now to get involved with Ukraine because they don't have financial backlash from it as much. 

This is why I don't like it. Just one example anyway. Best stay clear but maybe I'm wrong. 

No, you’re not wrong, and your points about Newcastle and other clubs are relevant and valid, but it’s beyond fixing now and has been so for a very long time. The roots of the problem lie in the foreign ownership of English clubs. That, and the abject failure of the game’s governing bodies to take a principled stand on such issues.

It was an open secret when RA took over Chelsea that he was a crook and that the club was being funded with dirty money. Since then, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that your nationality, politics, legality and integrity don’t matter for the purposes of the “fit and proper person” test, as long as you brandish enough cash. 

In this context the game is, to put it bluntly, corrupt, and in that respect it is a microcosm of the country as a whole, in that it is simply one example of the way government has stood by and looked the other way while allowing  billions in criminally acquired wealth to flow into the UK. The tragedy in Ukraine has highlighted it once again and we’re seeing a lot of hypocritical posturing by by the class of people who are responsible for this state of affairs, who would have quite happily continued to ignore it in other circumstances.

2 minutes ago, O'Garlandinho said:

Disagree, no agenda but both were awful. SOD gave us some brief hope at the start of 2013. 

You have to take account of the circumstances under which he was operating. It was actually a situation not altogether unlike the one now confronting NP, in fact. 

The occupants of the boardroom had once again steered us into a position whereby they were obliged to place him under extremely tight constraints. (You know, usual scenario: recent history of appallingly incompetent player recruitment; bloated squad full of overpaid mediocrity; blind panic about the state of the club’s finances, etc.)

SOD implemented their instructions to the letter and spent next to nothing, though he still managed to bring in one or two astute signings. The team struggled (surprise, surprise), the same incumbents in the boardroom collectively soiled themselves at the looming prospect of L2, SOD was predictably sacked and SC was appointed with the scope to sign pretty much whoever he wanted.

SOD was quietly responsible for starting a rebuild and putting in place a number of measures that contributed to subsequent success, for which he is only rarely given any credit.

Hence my reference to the convenient and frequently inaccurate rewriting of history. Happens all the time on this forum. Never let the facts get in the way of a keenly held antipathy towards a former manager,

3 hours ago, GrahamC said:

I don’t think Millen was anywhere as near as bad in BS3 as many on here clearly do

There’s a lot of convenient and lazy re-writing of history that goes on to suit agendas on OTIB, and Millen is far from being alone in suffering from that. SOD is another, and there are more besides.

3 hours ago, downendcity said:

Obviously frustrated that yet another very late goal has cost us.

However, not that long ago, and for much of the season, we have conceded late goals because we have been under pretty incessant pressure and hanging on for dear life.

While I didn't see last night’s game, it sounds like after a poor first half we came back strongly and were on top through the second half and were punished for going for the win. With so many young players in the team and if we are on top, is this something we perhaps have to accept can happen, as youngsters will not be so strong on game management and their natural inclination will be to go for it, rather than doing what is needed to hold on to a point?

Also, it’s often said that the best form of defence is attack. How many times have we been punished because we gradually drop ever deeper when trying t hold on in a game, only to attract ever more pressure with the almost inevitable result. While a mistake can happen ( as last night) I would prefer us to keep the opposition pinned deep in their own half in the latter part of games.

Absolutely on the money. Well said, that man. 

There has clearly been some flack aimed at HNM on this thread that I’ve missed and can’t be arsed to backtrack to, so apologies for any repetition of comments already made by others, but one observation about the lad, FWIW.

I love the energy that he brings to the side and the tempo at which he likes to play. The one (very occasional) drawback is that his desire to do everything at 100mph can sometimes lead to hastily executed passes and mistakes. If there is one thing lacking in his game, it is - arguably - composure. The injection of intensity, he excels at: what he may need to learn is when to slow the game down, rather than speed it up. I would see it positively and as a developmental issue. He is still very young and very talented. I see no reason why that quality cannot be coached into him. He’s what? Twenty? He’s well ahead of the curve compared to many at his age, but he can hardly be expected to be the complete midfielder at this stage in his career. As always on OTIB,  some are quick to condemn.

Just now, Hxj said:

Thought I was going mad!

Me too. relieved to hear I'm not the only one.

2 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Broadly as written on the teamsheet. And can I just repeat how glad I am that we name our team in position order again. I hated those days under LJ when it came out in squad number order.

Yes, and for once the BBC have it about right. (Some of their guesses at our formation have been startlingly inaccurate. I half expect them to have Massengo in goal and Dasilva at centre forward.)  

Back four. Diamond with HNM at the base, AW the apex and Scott & Benarous right and left, respectively. Antoine and Martin up top.

Should be fun... 

Third goal, game over. Millwall been watching City's first team defending set pieces...