Red-Robbo

Everything has to be agreed with Nige, but letting Fleming try to cope alone for an unknown amount of time is not an option. Nigel, as a pragmatist, will see that.

Sounds like they are fiddling and fretting while Rome burns. Still if Lansdown worries about how much money he loses on the club now, wait till he sees how many people attend matches and buy merchandise, when the club is in L1. It sounds like the club admin are in deep denial about how deeply in decline the team is. How likely relegation is. Things cannot simply drift on because those in charge don't know what to do.

Add to the coaching team or allow NP to step back for, say, six months, and appoint a temporary manager. As a CEO you are paid to solve problems. Deal with difficult decisions. In a word "manage".

No. But find someone who bloody can. Unless your idea is to let Fleming continue on his todd indefinitely. That option doesn't seem to be working, does it?

I really hope someone is thinking about temporary measures! Not so long ago we had an a manager, an assistant and two coaches. Now we effectively only have one of those men - and the team is all over the shop. It calls for action .

It isn't my job to do the software development, but if a critical member of my team falls ill and it jeopardises a project, it IS my job to find a work around. The club seems to be simply crossing their fingers and hoping NP is back soon.

See my last comment. There is a problem. What are the club going to do about it? Long Covid symptoms can incapacitate people for many months. I know someone who has been off work since January with it. Had to close his carpentry business.

What we need therefore is for Gould to come up with some answers as to how we will manage during this uncertain time. Having Curtis Fleming effectively manage by himself doesn't seem a good look given the way the team is flatlining.

How disappointing. No news, no answers to how we might improve: just vague platitudes.

Beeb did the same with someone I knew who was recovering from liver cancer. So much for their caring employer schtick. By contrast, ITV stood by my mate for 6 years during his cancer battle. Gave him light duties. Paid him in full even when he was off following a chemo-related cardiac arrest. When he died, the head of ITV News even came to the funeral. Full marks them!

I think in the long-run that absolutely is right. The speculation is only on Warnock in a firefighting role until the end of the season. I mean, he's 73: you aren't going to offer him a three-year-contract, even if he wanted one.

Harsh!

I was of the opinion that if we stayed up, we waited and saw how he evolved the club to (hopefully) be able to compete in seasons to come. But if he's ill, it explains why he is underperforming as a manager. In those cicumstances its right to say goodbye.

If he is really suffering healthwise, he won't be able to coach the side well or be as effective as a manager. It's for his and our benefit he steps back from that role. It's a bit gutting and will be one of the great "what might have beens" if he is off, but if health is impacting his ability to do the job, then he's making the right move. I hope rest and the relaxation of not being within the shitstorm of BCFC helps him feel better.

I guess it's in the blood. My father went all his life. His brothers went. I believe both grandfathers attended. As my great-grandfathers all worked in South Liberty pit, it's quite likely they watched City - or one of its ancestor clubs - too. When I moved away from home at 18 and away from the West Country there was a brief teenaged rebellion over growing up in a football-obsessed household and I didn't watch a game for several years. But I still checked the scores via the Sunday papers. It's just part of who I am and where I'm from. I could stop being a ST holder, but I'd not stop caring.

I've seen some dreadful attempts to get the ball out-of-play and away from our danger zone where we've literally kicked the ball out in our half. The resultant throw-in allows opponents to bring men up, get organised and puts us under more pressure than if the ball had stayed in play. And because they don't do the whole towel-dry the ball, then stand searching for options thing, it only wastes about 10 seconds of time. At least try to leather it into touch as far upfield as possible, or if nothing is going on, out for a goal kick. That probably wastes a good 2 minutes. Basic stuff!

Too bloody right! And at the end of matches, when we're on our uppers, where is the bloke who can pick the ball up outside our box and dribble it up to one of their corner flags? We put 11 men in the box, use guys who have little defensive qualities but are quick, merely as pawns to (hopefully) block shots in.

Almost without fail it is these late goals that are the real horses arse of defending by us. We aren't a great side and other teams are going to score against us. Some of those goals have been well-worked moves and bits of individual brilliance that you almost have to applaud as a City fan. But the late goals are the real, jaw-droppers: the WTF!!! moments. The "how the hell did we not stop that?" moments. This is why I think we are weak always, but diabolical at the end of the match. There has to be some psychology seriously wrong there. Multiple players simply stop doing their jobs.

It's true that we panic whenever the ball reaches our final third, but it's much more acute in the 75th minute onwards. The team theme song seems to switch at that point to "let's hang on, to what we've got!" but - as we know - this is a hiding to nothing. The one time any opponent will throw everything including the kitchen sink at us is at the death. You cannot just sit back and hope they'll always miss. This shrinking back seems to happen every home game and now the vast majority of away games as well. I find it hard to believe that our predominantly young side is exhausted in the last fifth of the game. I just think it's fear, combined with poor subs and a lack of players who can keep the ball on their feet for more than 0.5 seconds. We might not be able to rapidly do anything about that last point, but we can about the first two. If we have decent spells at other times, we can have decent spells at the end. [Oh and @Peter O Hanraha-hanrahanis partly right. It's 7 extra points we'd get: Blackpool (w); Luton (w); Forest (w); Coventry (d) minus our late goal at QPR]

If the ref had blown for f/t on the 89th minute, City would have 10 more points, sit in the play-off zone and still potentially be in the League Cup. It now is such a routine occurrence, the tame capitulation in or on the verge of extra time that it must be more than mere coincidence and more than just "the players are poor". It's happening so frequently, it's almost as if the players expect it and are paralyzed with fear as the end of the match approaches. We simply never compete then. Even some of our rare wins were achieved due to opponents missing sitters at the end of the match while we do our usual backs-to-the-wall terrified defence, with no sort of outlet to even get the ball 50% down our half, let alone threaten the opposition goal. When was the last time we were the team turning the screw in the final minutes? Not once this season to my memory. Although we played poorly, let's face it most of us would have been happy with a point on the road against a decent Coventry side. It would have stilled the nerves. But this conceding late goals thing has got to be psychological. It is what newspapers used to call a hoodoo. For this reason I think Pearson and Fleming, both admirable chaps in lots of ways, need more help if they are to stay here.

I have reached a point where I wouldn't care if Pearson departs. I have lost faith in his judgement and think he may not be the manager he was either because of age/illness or because he doesn't have the right coaching team around him. He still talks the talk, but he isn't walking the walk and some things really can be laid at his door - not Lansdown, not previous employees, not bad luck. He does need to bring better players in, but he isn't getting the best out of those he has. HOWEVER, I doubt Pearson will leave and in those circumstances I think we need to make the best of things with some backroom expertise brought in and Nigel already focusing on who he wants to bring in for January, perhaps using loans for once. If James and, in particular, Williams are fit after the break, we may arrest the run of losses. We still won't be much good, but we might at least have a midfield not bypassed by anyone with attacking intent. My worries are that Williams might return from this latest set back, not the player he could be. We've seen it before - players nervous they will re-injure themselves, who are not as committed as they were before.

Jumpers for goalposts, isn't it? Wasn't it? Marvellous.

TBH it's what he does and he has done similar elsewhere He isn't a master tactician. He isn't a master recruiter. But he does instil an "us v everyone" sense of togetherness, bonds the team and grinds out results.

It's what we need. Bring in a bloke with a foot like a traction engine and get us playing liquid football. 'Cuz at the moment we've got football pie all over our faces.

Blimey, no wonder we're so slow and disorganised. When they talk about getting injured players back on grass, I thought they meant turf!