Mendip City

So we’ve planned and celebrated the 30 year anniversary of a third round win over the worst Liverpool team in generations…. But…. Still no “fitting tribute” to Terry Cooper, as promised at the time of his passing. Tinpot, clueless and classless are the hierarchy running “our” club. 

Hopefully we’re not heading back to the future and collecting number 10’s…. 

10 minutes ago, Bristol Rob said:

Just say, be careful what you wish for.

 

 

 

For balance….. be careful what you wish for! 

Idehen, Taylor-C, Pearson and Kadji despite all being young feel like “blasts from the past” to me. Wonder whether any of them have a future here? 

31 minutes ago, DT The Optimist said:

Lot comments I often read and hear is that Max is not a championship standard keeper.

Do not know how the level is being set but I would rather have Max between the sticks than that clown Man Ure signed for 43 Million Andre Onana.

 Total showman and calamity slmost every game. what would Max be replaced by that would be an upgrade. 
Max is pretty solid, every keeper will make odd mistake 

I think the fact that goalkeeping has changed makes it confusing. Max seems to me a very modern style keeper. Commanding your box and claiming crosses now seems far less important than the ability to play the ball, start moves and be quick about it. 
I like him and never understand all the fuss. Realistically there’s no reason he shouldn’t be our keeper for many years to come. 
I’m happy to go with Shay Given’s view! 

Let’s just be grateful this didn’t happen 6 weeks ago. I’m sure the hierarchy here still believe in him! 

Difference between the united situation and ours is that their new money/people will come in and run football operations. The Glazers have effectively admitted they aren’t experts in this side of things. 
 

At Ashton Gate, I can’t see a scenario where the current owners give up control of football to a minority (or any) investor - so we’d have the same structure and people running football. 
 

Why would anyone invest?

22 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

You could make it a club themed pub and consolidate it within the group, subject to Cost:Benefit analysis, running at a profit etc.

If running at a loss..no commercial point and the cost of redevelopment vs the current outlets may also make it pointless.

They keep talking about a museum…. Why not combine the two!?!?

10 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

Edit - now online, just a tardy media team it appears. I’d still not object to them not doing one and taking extra time on the training pitch though!

Surely more time in press conferences is less time to “mentally overload” the players?  (or whatever his phrase was).

55 minutes ago, Superjack said:

The reason I started truly supporting City. 

Love the bloke. 

He was always my favourite City manager, until the last one. 

How I wish we still had either of them. 

Happy Birthday, Joe!

Why is it the “managers” always do well here compared with “head coaches”? 
More to the point, why do those running the place keep going back to head coaches??

4 hours ago, Sheltons Army said:

And Silvio

The first manager , and one of only a couple or so  , prior to NP who worked on the health of the Club , not just the first team .

We had no schoolboy / youth system when he took over following the crash, and he spent many evenings , and time , to drive a plan and improvement to rectify this , with our first version of an academy.

 

Umm not the first… surely the man before him not only worked on the health of the club but kept it alive and there’s no way Jordan would have come anywhere near Ashton Gate without Terry Cooper being here. 

2 hours ago, NSFF said:

Johnson snr lost 9 out of the first 12 didn’t he ? Its not the current mangers fault it’s all down to the boy and the binman that’s where your anger should be 

He took the job, he knew the expectations…. It’s all their faults.  Manning cannot be excluded. 
We all know it’s not a top end squad. 
We all know Manning isn’t experienced enough…. but he didn’t have to take a job employed by deluded owners or a job above his experience level. They are all to blame. 

1 hour ago, Swede said:

I am seeing Lee Johnson.

With the charisma of SOD 

3 hours ago, TDarwall said:

For something to bounce, it needs to be falling.  We were never falling so never was there going to be a bounce.

Ahhh maybe that’s the Manning plan? Get us into freefall ready to bounce back! 

2 hours ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

They will most likely have a new boss by the weekend so on the back of 2 good results they could also have a new manager bounce. You'd imagine if it's Will Still there will be a buzz around their club. 

I fear we could be on the end of a hammering tbh. 

 

That reminds me… where’s our new manager bounce? I think I missed it. 

Just now, Son of Fred said:

Privately wishing he'd stayed put I'd wager...

I’ll bet!  
He could easily damage his career. He’s jumped around a fair bit already. 

17 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I really hoped he wouldn’t either.  Foster what Nige built, get your feet under the table.  Evaluate what you have.

And worse still he’s damaged us defensively…. he inherited a solid side defensively… call me old fashioned but isn’t that still the starting point of building a good team? 

9 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

The good stuff we saw today was when we thought "**** Manning ball, let's go back to how we previously played" 

Exactly. Massive challenge for manning. Can he adapt his philosophy to meet this squad’s ability/strengths?  
I don’t understand why, having inherited a squad not struggling, he chose to immediately completely  change the style of play rather than evolve it over a period of time. 
 

Oh hang on Brian and Jon told him to. 

2 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

It’s an interesting point. One of my best mates is an Ipswich fan but based Bicester way so has watched Dons a fair bit and says there was huge difference with and post Twine. But he also says Manning needs time. The basic fact of that if he loses Twine and even with time it turns to ratshit the likelihood is his coaching isn’t that good so time makes no difference.

I’ve got an awful feeling he’s a bluffer. 

Me too. Got a really bad feeling. 
From his post-match interview he looks startled and like he doesn’t want to be here. Bitten off more than he can chew? 

18 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Not getting at you. But Manning has precisely no history of getting results over a longer term. His best results actually came instantly at MK Dons after taking over Russell Martin’s side in August. Given time, and the chance to build his own squad, they ended up in the relegation zone (acknowledging they lost Twine but a good coach absorbs that loss without that tailspin),

There is no “fact of the matter” that Manning won’t get instant results but will on long term. In fact, on the limited history the inverse is actually true and I wish people would stop stating proveably incorrect statements as fact,

Agree with all that.

On the MK Dons point, I’ve heard lots of people (not you) say he was unlucky to lose his best players and that shouldn’t really count against him… which I understand to an extent but we’re Bristol City, Bournemouth’s feeder club. He’ll have his best players sold here… so another reason he’s not a great fit for us. 

3 minutes ago, spudski said:

First interview where he sounds and looks like someone a bit broken. It's starting to get to him imo. 

Hopefully it turns around...but body language, tone and general demeanour speaks volumes. 

He’s becoming an horrific combination of Lee/SOD. 

16 minutes ago, Jerseybean said:

Manning would’ve learned a great deal more about his squad from that game. I anticipate he would agree with many on this forum, who, long before his appointment recognized we are a mid-championship team at best, lacking the quality and depth needed to compete at the top end of the table. Despite the comments from JL, BT and GM when NP was sacked.

In particular, we are lacking creativity in midfield (as many said at the time Scott was sold) and it continues to be a concern as to where the goals are going to come from.

We are a hard-working, spirited and enthusiastic squad, but that is simply not enough to be a top end championship contender.

Manning isn’t  to blame for any of this but has been framed by those who recruited him as an upgrade who will play the City way.

 

 

 

He is to blame, they all are.
He bought into the idea we were under performing… the remit was to improve us. He must have believed it was possible otherwise why take the job? 
If he’s only realised we’re mid-table squad after arriving then he’s done a very poor job of researching us. 
Brought in to take us forward. 
So far he’s taken us backwards and softened us up - how many goals are we conceding now? 

15 minutes ago, Andrew_V1 said:

Don’t worry tins will pipe back up on twitter when we hit the prem…

 

Good job we’ve got a top end squad. I don’t want to go too long without hearing from him. 

6 minutes ago, Keepers Ball said:

I've an idea.

Get Crayon Boy to have a meeting with the squad. Convince them they are a top 6 side. 

I'm sure he'd give it a go because the Pr*t is determined to convince the supporters.

I think they’re having too much time off….

By the way, where is JL?  Thought we were going to see improved communication? Not heard anything from him, Tinnion or anyone senior. 

2 minutes ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

Back in the day If BCFC had to choose between VHS and Betamax - we'd have been Betamax all day long.

Before experimenting with a young up and coming video disc….