Kid in the Riot

He is OUR manager Will and whatever you or anyone else may have thought about the appointment, he should be supported. Of course he's a mercenary, that's his job, so are all managers and players. Doesn't mean SC isn't doing his best for us and believe me, he is.

 

 

And as much as I like you I cannot allow you to peddle untruths. The thread is not 95% anti SC, here are some more comments:

Sorry Nick, I have been mistaken as others have and was referring to the 13 page thread on the Forest Forum as the "infamous" one on SC.

It's a truly shocking read!

Those comments are still massively outweighed by the dozens of posts slagging him off. I'll let others click on the link and make their own minds up!

I fear he'll be detrimental to this club, Nick, I really do. I don't care how hard he works...

Happy to discuss over a pint soon

Sorry mate but he is OUR manager and you are not correct!

Forest:

http://www.forest.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=24192&start=1

Among the mainly complementary or at least respectful comments I particularly like:

As has already been said, he came in to a difficult situation. He realised he couldn't do it on his own, brought in a good coach and, with a bit of wheeling and dealing got the right bodies in and we stayed up.

Brought in good people - ironically SOD - to work with him. That's a strength and a sign of a good manager.

I like the common sense here:

He came in to keep us in the Championship and achieved just that. Some may argue that Sean O'Driscoll and the addition of Adlene Guedioura helped him achieve that goal, but Cotterill was the manager, the job got done under his tenure and he should have left with his head held high.

And this sums up quite well:

He inherited a mess...a thread bare squad, players with no confidence , injuries worked against him too...guys, the strike force that he had at his disposal is barely making the bench this year

Even the posters who criticise his management mainly recognize the difficult situation at Forest and in the main wish him well, so no, Forest supporters do not despise Cotterill.

You gotta be pulling my plonker old boy!

That thread is 95% anti SC, as I said. There are several Forest fans on there who claim to have questioned watching football AT ALL with SC in charge!

And Im not getting all this OUR manager stuff?! Only cus SL is paying his wage. SC is about as mercenary as managers get - see Notts C and Pompey where he actually helped engineer his move to Forest!

Even if by some unlikely occurrence he had some success here, he'd be off in a shot!

Is anyone actually taking a note of these cock measurements?

Are you volunteering?

Elliott would've had a physical and be cleared for play. Sometimes these things aren't so easy to judge. You might say Cunningham was brought back too soon last season and Shorey thrown in too soon earlier this one.

Can't say much about Barnett but El-Abd is a strange one. My Brighton supporting friend is flabbergasted that he hasn't been the hit of the team - taken the division by storm. Being played out of position hasn't helped, but I'm not sure he even looks sound as a central defender. Perhaps, as may have happened to Fielding, a poor debut has hit his confidence for six.

But to not take a look at W Elliott even ONCE in a live game this season?? No sorry, that's completely irresponsible.

Simply, he's playing our two best CBs as full backs. Playing two CBs together that don't complement each other in the slightest, and playing our best LB as a winger.

He's done it 3 games on the trot and its resulted in 2 shit performances and needs to stop. And drop Barnett please.

I said a significant number - that means of a fanbase, not a forum thread.

 

They are just a small number of fans who didn't like him for whatever reason, just like yourself, so took pleasure to take the opportunity to write scathingly about him. You will always find fans with a grudge to bear against an ex-manager - look at some of the comments GJ gets on here - and these Forest fans don't exactly sound intelligent themselves, do they?

 

As I said 1 or 2 threads on a club forum by strongly opinionated individuals is not indicative of fans' views in general and this very thread is a prime example of how unrepresentative they can be.

 

Either way, Cotteril has been very well liked by fans of some clubs he's managed, and moved on undespised from others, so the views of those Forest fans need to be balanced against that.

C'mon, you know that SC won't be winning a popularity contest at Forest anytime soon - or Pompey for that matter. It's difficult to find any comments on the internet praising SC, in fact most of the positive quotes about SC come from SC himself!

I don't see how GJ is relevant either, his approval rating at City is still very high. His ill-informed dissenters are very much in a minority.

That's just a title Will. He was manager in all but name, he had ultimate responsibility for the playing staff.

 

 

At Forest he was number 2 and it worked.

 

Here he was number 1 whatever you call it.

 

He may be a coach, but he cannot manage, and part of his role irrespective of title, was to manage.

 

That was probably a failing of the board to think that one through, but when the board is led by somebody with little experience, predictably inevitable.

 

Anyway that's off my agenda, I'm just ****** off with SC being hammered while he is OUR manager.

Well, on that we can agree.

Maybe we should repeat what Forest did and draft SOD in as coach for the last 13 games!

I'm just ****ed off that SC is our manager, and on that I'm sure we'll never agree

Your views on Cotterill are very well known and you've simply repeated them again there, rather than summarising the thoughts of Forest fans.

 

Neither of us know if a significant number of Forest fans share any, let alone all of those views.

Uh oh - someone hasn't seen the infamous thread on the Forest forum when SC joined us! I think you'll find I've summarised the views expressed by 95% of the posts on that thread very succinctly!

And I'd add I know several Forest season ticket holders who said exactly the same.

Exactly, as coach Will. He isn't a manager.

 

A few random quotes from a Forest forum:

 

He should stick to being a coach or No.2.  He'd be amongst the best around in those jobs instead of being a mediocre manager

 

I just think that he was too cerebral for the average footballer .. Lovely bloke but..............

 

That's what you get when your over cautious and your teams are boring as ****      

 

He deserved to get sacked at Forest too. His boring over cautious football had us a single point worse off than this time this season

 

They are talking about O-Driscoll BTW.

Which is why he was Head Coach here Nick and not manager, only our board and many fans don't seem to appreciate the subtle differences...doomed to fail really.

Interestingly there's a fair few quotes on the Forest forum that suggest SC should stick to coaching as well...

Listening to SOD orate was like sipping a fine  wine. La Crema Chardonnay (perhaps 2007 vintage?) would be appropriate.  So what if it's light citrus flavors were accented by hints of red pepper emotion (arm waving). The long and strong finish accented the oak flavors. It definitely lived up to its La Crema cliche, as the flavor of cream shined through. I could almost detect a hint of saffron spiced joviality in his reflections , but certainly the words that I drank were not worth slowing down my reflexes. But that was the beauty of this gifted conversationalist, he was a decent 'glass' to have after work, or with some mild cheese. Small berries with firm acidity. Lively citrus, subtle toasted oak, butterscotch, yellow apple, bright orange. Lovely vibrancy. Not a man for the 'stupid question.'

 

Listening to SC is like necking a warm can of Tenants super, sticking your head in a dustbin and asking your kids to hit it with a cricket bat, in the rain, on a Monday.

Very good. Almost up there with this effort from a Forest fan:

 

Ah Steve Cotterill, the footballing equivalent of a botched prescription. You start off with a small sense of cautious optimism, feeling that brash positivity and quasi streetwise presentation will kick your blocked nose into touch...only to find a week later you've had your left leg amputated and you're shitting out your eyeballs.

I'd say good luck, you know...to make you feel better and all? But there's really no point, you're screwed. He's ******* dreadful.

If you say so Kid - perhaps being a former successful manager of Notts. County, leading them to a storming promotion and being idolised by their fans, didn't help him to get off on the right foot in that respect. 

 

It makes no difference really what a few vocal Forest fans on forums say, if a neutral read OTIB they would think Cotterill is absolutely detested here at BCFC, when of course that isn't the opinion generally held by City fans at all.

As Barrs says, nothing to do with Notts C - it's hardly one of the bigger city football rivalries. Forest/Derby is the biggie in those parts.

He was despised at Forest due to his ridiculous, bullshit post-match interviews, his massive unjustified ego, his "direct" anti-football style of play, his lack of intelligence, persevering with tactics/players that don't work, bringing in physical "can do the dirty" types as opposed to play footballers with ability and nearly taking them down but for the saving grace of SOD coming in as coach.

Think that just about covers it.

SC is absolutely despised by Forest fans, Nogbad.

SOD was very hard to like as a person IMHO. A distant, sniffy, sub-audible droning Midlander with pseudo intellectual pretensions and a habit of getting his excuses in first. Other than on this board, I've yet to meet anyone with a good word to say about him. And that includes casual supporters, diehards and - yes - club employees.

But that's neither here nor there. To paraphrase Churchill, they don't have to be nice, they have to right.

As NickJ points out correctly, Sean's record was atrocious and you'd not be able to point anywhere in the leagues to find a manager who survived such a terrible run.

As for the first point: SC wasn't my first choice either, but what does that prove? We don't vote in our managers - thank God - and I doubt, say, Alan Dicks would've been the popular choice.

I'm sick and tired of every thread turning into an SC v SOD civil war. Most posters said last season you couldn't judge SOD on a few months, FFS show some consistency and do the same to Cotterill. The bloke hasn't been here 3 months yet!

Why then, in your response to nibor's post which is 100% about SC, is the first word "SOD"?  

Rodgers had a shaky start, the first 5 games or so, then he got his act together, bought some great players like Sturridge and finished 7th.

 

SOD on the other hand, had a shaky 8 months, bought in some tripe like harewood and shorey and played a big part in our relegation (where I still blame Mciness, but SOD hardly helped)

 

If Rodgers won 3 games in 27 would he still be in the Liverpool job??

Ah yes, the Bristol City managers job and the Liverpool managers job. They are both jobs, and that's where the similarities end.

7th is hardly a great finish for Liverpool, missing out on Europe alltogether. They could've fired Rodgers on the back of that, others have certainly been given their marching orders for a lot less.

He wasn't manager.

Very true. However, according to JL there is no difference between a Head Coach and a Manager. It's just a title according to him and Sean just "preferred" Head Coach.

Ably illustrating our board's fantastic wealth of footballing knowledge there. No wonder SOD failed, SC will fail and we are in freefall.

lets just hope you're right about this one, and somehow staying in the office late somehow leads to success on the pitch.

McInnes was the hardest working manager City have had of late according to SL so the answer to that is probably "it won't"!

So you've said..

 

I think to suggest more than 7 out of 10 were turning up is equally ludicrous.

Ok, running with your theory then. Next question is, how do you know those 3 out of 10 not attending were solely down to the manager? There could obviously be many reasons why people don't attend after purchasing a season ticket.

And the question after that is, how many have returned now SC is in charge taking into consideration that obviously some may have already been disenchanted with his appointment and left already!

I suspect on this occasion he was so furious and disappointed that his mind was firmly on getting into the dressing room quickly and laying into the players.

 

He did though make a made a point of saying, 'we had a great following here today, a great following, and we let them down big time.'

Interesting, but SOD isn't allowed the same excuse I take it?

He was asked about his views of the fans at the Q & A and was full of praise for the fanbase. I suppose you will just come back with "well he would say that" but if SC had said it, it would've been oh so sincere and wonderful!

I said the 2,500 not turning up was a conservative estimate, and I absolutely stand by that.

 

It's not exactly difficult to look around such an empty ground and make such an estimate, whether you agree with it or not.

 

If you were there during SO'D's final games presumably you accept that a very significant amount of STH's were not attending?

I think that to suggest a minimum of 2,500 season ticket holders were not attending due to SOD is laughable. Approx 30% of season ticket holders...na.

He attended these events at least partly out of self interest because it was an opportunity to further justify his thinking, and give him more time when his words and methods were very often not even being reflected in performances, let alone results.

And you know this how exactly??!! Pure speculation once again like your absurd comment that SOD was responsible for 2,500 season ticket holders not turning up! Face it, a manager attending a Q & A at a supporters pub and appearing on a fans' podcast is unprecedented and clearly an attempt to have dialogue with all aspects of the fanbase in a proactive manner.

 

SC made a point of praising the fans and sympathised that they had to witness an abysmal performance - what a blustering buffooon! Or maybe the sort of straightforward comments which most fans would appreciate and could help to build a rapport unless, of course, you've decided from day one you detest him.

 

His words didn't sound anything but genuine to me either - SC simply displayed a basic natural empathy with supporters, something which seemed entirely alien to SO'D.

Er...I seem to remember SOD being scathing of our performances on a couple of occasions, Wycombe springs to mind. So what? SC's charm offensive doesn't seem to be working, does it?

I'll try and keep it short then Kid.

 

SO'D had no interest, imo, in forming a rapport with the fans - 3 examples given in my post above, although you have interpreted one differently.

It's not a different interpretation - you are wrong, as he was not expected to attend any of those 3 events I mentioned. Why else would he of attended these events in his own time if it wasn't to build up a rapport with fans?

 

He did though have a strong self interest in taking opportunities - as outlined by you above - to attempt to justify his failing methods with rhetoric, which increasigly fell on deaf ears with many.

Which is exactly what SC is doing, although his rhetoric appears to be falling on deaf ears in record time.

If a manager has some interest in wanting to form a rapport with the fans:

 

Don't criticise them to the extent that long serving fans like ciderup are so insulted by his comments that they state they will no longer attend while he's in charge.

 

Don't publicly indicate it is the fault of the fans that he feels unable to pick long time underperforming players like Fontaine and Kilkenny when it was clearly their own shortcomings and incompetence over a very long period which led to them being unpickable.

 

When asked by a reporter why you repeatedly fail to acknowledge the fans when approaching the tunnel after a game don't sound completely baffled at the question and answer, 'Why should I'? or words to that effect.

 

It is expected that all City managers attend Q&A's, if they are arranged, and also take the squad on the odd school visit, of which I recall only one being publicised under SO'D.

 

His 'elaborate programme notes', though welcome in many respects, were only necessary because the team constantly failed to mirror his fine words by performances on the pitch, and the detailed explanations meant very little while the team he put out to represent his beliefs in how the game should be played so often failed to reflect his words and continued to play so poorly.

 

It doesn't hurt a manager to genuinely praise loyal fans where appropriate, to acknowledge applause when leaving the field, and to make the occasional positive comment in interviews to give the the fans hope, and help to lift the spirits around a clearly depressed club. In fact you'd think they were basics for anyone wanting to develop any sort of rapport with the fans, and doing the opposite indicates no interest, or even understanding, of the potential benefits to the well being of the club of forming such a relationship.

 

His 'support your local club' mantra was laudible but unfortunately not encouraged by his negative comments and persona, as well as the awful football and results, which made turning up to support BCFC an increasingly unenjoyable chore for many, and by the time he departed the fans were very visibly detached from him, his vision, and the club, and were staying away in their droves.

Your rhetoric is considerably more boring and dull than SOD ever was!

SOD went to a Q & A for The Exiled Robin and for the ST AND did an interview for The Bountyhunter - he was not "expected" to attend any of these, so you're wrong on that one.

It was also SODs idea to arrange that game at Ashton & Backwell, a COMMUNITY game and he also sorted the school visit after the little girl wrote to him directly about her grandad being ill.

He worked as a community officer for Bournemouth...

He wasn't criticizing the fans for Kilkenny and Fontaine...it was simply the truth, they could not play at AG and that was ultimately due to their failings as you suggest.

"Support your local club" - still there on a sign loud and proud outside AG...someone obviously thought it was a nice sentiment.

2-1/3-1 Sheff U.

Ha.

Sub contractor to Mitie who run the facilities

Speak to people in the estates office

Diggers waiting to go in

Yep, true.

your normally spot on with this stuff tbf KITR.... i know that Rovers chair/board are indeed very confident... this is the first time you seem to have posted a feeling it may go the way of Sainsburys rather than TRASH...

 

The interesting stuff starts then .... like how the blooming heck its being funded !! a interesting change of wording from Nick Higgs last week... he did a Q & A pre game last week and stated the UWE stadium would be debt free.....(ie not adding to club debt).. previiously the statement was that the building of UWE Stadium would leave the club debt free.... big difference in those 2 things!!

Absolutely no doubt that the cost of the build has escalated since when it was first proposed during the economic downturn. Building costs are higher now than a few years ago, indeed there is a national shortage of some construction materials.

They were also confident there wouldn't be a JR lodged but there was................

That was Higgs chatting shite, privately they were panicing. Now they don't seem to be, on the contrary they're ready to roll come April.

I seem to recall we were confident many times about JR's and appeals..

Very true,  but this comes from a source that knows more about these things than you and I....we'll see