Mendip City

20 minutes ago, TheSpaniard said:

Never a top 6 squad - but we do have a decent manager despite what the Pearsonites say.

Do you have any evidence of that? 
 

Don't tell me, give it time, 3 or 4 transfer windows, maybe a relegation (where he’ll be nice and experienced). Then we’ll eventually get back to where we were 6 weeks ago!

I’m fed up with trainee managers, sorry head coaches, at Ashton Gate. We’ve tried them plenty of times and not one has achieved anything. 

3 hours ago, Frank p said:

When city sacked Pearson

Could be

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

I stood up for a corner at the game the other day (because others in front of me where stood up so I couldn't see) the amount of abuse I got hurled at me from those behind me was insane. 

Whilst that wasn't acceptable the point I'm trying to make is that the fans at Ashton Gate have an anger that is bubbling away under the surface and its ready to come out and a run of bad results will see it come out.

 

It’s really changed a bit recently. I find us apathetic by and large. Willing to take almost any old rubbish on the chin. 
Hard to see where it goes from here, in the old days it would have been “sack the board” chanted behind the grand stand after the game.  Not really an option now! 
If it turns poisonous, the Lansdowns may be encouraged to get a move on with any sale.  They’ve talked about it for ages which has coincided with a real stagnation on the field. 

19 minutes ago, BCFC31 said:

I agree I'm sick of all the crap coming from the club so far this season just looks like another complete waste. I fully expect and am demanding of a win on Saturday personally if we lose or even draw imo it's unacceptable! When does this club start having that winning mentality if we aren't able to beat the sides below us in the division then honestly what is the point what is the aim.

Less than 3 points (in total) from these next two games and I dread to think what the atmosphere will be like at Ashton Gate. 

7 minutes ago, BCFC31 said:

I'd imagine what BT and JL say to manning and what they say infront of the media are 2 very different things 

But that’s that point. LM has bought into whatever they have said. If you felt the squad was mid table at best (as I do) would you take a job where your boss has told the world the squad is much better than that? 
LM is surely not that naive? Is he?? 
Whatever anyone thinks JL and BT’s cowardly way of sacking NP (blaming results) has set an expectation on them and their new man. 
Ashton Gate is going to be an angry place in the New year if we’re playing dead rubbers and not challenging at the right end of the table. 

13 minutes ago, Swede said:

I am less inclined to listen to his interviews probably because Nige told it as it is. LM has his buzz words and they are already starting to grate & given the way the club got "their" man in he is hardly likely to say anything controversial. Its the thought of yet another Bristol City re start or reboot that I am finding to be less enthusiastic about. Give it another ten years and we will still be a win one, draw one & lose one mid table Championship team, in fact there could quite well come a time when 23 of the Championship teams have experienced the Premier League, all apart from Bristol City, who have sacked their manager in favour of yet another new direction.

Spot on!!!!!

By the way listening to LM, to me, is exactly the same as listening to LJ…. All the buzz words. Only difference is that Lee had a bit of charisma/personality about him. This guy is robotic by comparison. 

1 hour ago, GrahamC said:

Problem is we were lied to (“top six squad & top ten budget”) & that isn’t on Liam Manning.

I’m not that enthused myself & would certainly argue Cifuentes is having an impact quicker, but think 10 games is a better yardstick than 4.

With respect, I think it is on Manning… Surely he read the press release after NP’s sacking? Surely, at interview, he asked about it and what the expectations are?? 
We have to assume he’s completely bought into the JL / BT thinking/project (top end squad now etc).
If he isn’t bought in, he’s a fool and will fall foul of the hierarchy. 
If he didn’t get clear direction of the objectives at interview then he’s a fool. 
I don’t believe he’s a fool. I do think he’s jumped at a job up the pyramid and I also wonder whether he’ll regret it and regret leaving Oxford so early. Massive gamble on his part coming to a club that’s not achieved more than this in 40+ years and with significantly restricted resources/commitment from on high. 

8 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Imagine being allowed just £7.5m to use in transfer fees over 5 windows, whilst reducing the wage bill by at least a third, and then being told you’ve only made some “okay” signings.  At worst, there’s 1 loan fee (TGH) to add to that sum.

Isn’t Knight a good signing? Isn’t TGH a good signing? Isn’t Dickie a good signing?  Isn’t Atkinson a good signing?  Isn’t James a good signing?  Isn’t Tanner a good signing?

In Dickie and Knight’s case, they are fantastic signings.  Especially when you look at their fees (£700k and £1.75m) and their ages.  One at the start of his peak years, the other nowhere near his peak, with so much upside.

And don’t forget, recruitment is a team effort…they aren’t really Nige’s signings.  They do highlight improved recruitment.  Personally I put that down to having a recruitment strategy based around a clear player profile…something that Nige (and RG) put the donkey work into.

When you overlay this context on top of Academy progression and gradual improvement, Nige deserves more respect than what he was given.

And nobody on here calls him the messiah, it’s just a lazy way of avoiding the debate with those who judge him on the all-round job he did.

Great post. 
Taking NP out of it slightly, one of my biggest frustrations is the inevitable amount of ripping up of this good work we will see.
You can bet your life the squad will be bigger soon… no doubt not increased by players better than we have but by squad fillers. In turn, there will be fewer opportunities for young players (which has already started, where’s Yeboah gone? Not filling the bench with kids but choosing to leave spaces…. Strange). 

8 hours ago, GrahamC said:

You omitted Sykes, we haven’t made a better free transfer signing than him since Bradley Orr in my opinion.

I say that as a huge admirer of Wilbs but he was (incredibly) effective one level down from the Championship & was nowhere near the long term signing Mark Sykes is.

Agree about Sykes but presumably you meant “long term signing…. for Bournemouth”???

5 hours ago, Garland-sweden said:

Sacking NP was more then stupid as someone wrote. Was optimistic, with some luck we had the chance for top six. Today, think we will be lower table. Manning got to feel this is not right, feel sorry for him, its not his fault. Nige had built something with the players and fans. 

I’ve a feeling Liam could be our Liz Truss….  Has he done 40 odd days yet???

I’ll pop out and get a lettuce later

23 hours ago, The Journalist said:

I expected top 12 and hoped for top 10 before the start of the season. That remains the case under Liam Manning.

But, to use Mark Ashton’s phrase, let’s be really clear… we must still hold the board to account over the sacking of Nigel Pearson and the expectations they put on this season subsequently.

We cannot let them off the hook just because we think they’re being unrealistic. One of our most experienced and popular managers in recent memory lost his job on that basis, so we’re told, and frankly the Lansdowns get away with enough as it is (the “my club” comment, the disappearing acts, the swathes of inexplicable redundancies of excellent staff, the crest changes etc etc).

I’m not letting it go!

Agree with all of that but I’d add that we hold the board AND Liam Manning to account. He’s bought into it, believes it… otherwise why take the job. We need to hold them all to account when the inevitable “rebuild”, “mentality”, “fitness”, “3 window” stuff starts getting spouted. This is a top end squad or so we’re told… a comfortable top half finish will be easily achieved, surely????

I’m not letting it  go either! 

8 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Taking them from relegation zone championship to prem promotion in the same season, then keeping them up in the prem the following? Can’t see it one bit. He’s in so much credit. Still got a decent buffer to the relegation zone too. They’d be mad to sack him. 

Popular with the fans, done a good job,  it would be as mad as when Birmingham sacked Eustace or Sunderland sacked Mowbray. There’s another example…..  struggling to think who

The question misses the target for me NP’s team was doing whatever it was doing…. Would probably have finished better than last year and somewhere in mid-table. 
 

That was not good enough, rubbish even - or so we are told. 
This is a top-end Championship squad, JL says do, LM believes it (or why take on the job?) and presumably so does JL’s voice of football BT. 
I’m expecting a decent run of results now and charge towards the play-offs. If not JL, BT and LM deserve all the criticism they get. 

2 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

Yes would have been a better fit for us than Manning, although I think he would prefer a Northern club

Agree with all that. 
But he isn’t young and up and coming and easy to manipulate so doesn’t fit the (latest) mould. 

16 minutes ago, IAmNick said:

The one time people do want some garish tat with badly drawn robins on it and we don't do it, you couldn't make it up

And the one above appears to be a generic design with Bristol City written on it…… a template! 

I found myself on the list. 
what’s the plan??? Are we buying SL out???

22 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

As one who bought £90 of shares, my total savings then, I just wanted to save the club. A year or two later when Cooper got us back in third tier, I did wonder how long it would take to get back to the First Division.

When Jordan got us back to Second, I honestly thought that we'd give it a good go to go back. But he left and it's drifted along for the last thirty years.

Now at 80 years, it probably won't happen for me as it is so obvious that the Lansdown reign is more interested in building money making property developments than getting top league football to Bristol. 

I’ve given that a like…. It deserves much more. 
I’m a bit younger but also bought shares… it was OUR club back then. 

28 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Ah yes, the angle I’ve never understood in anything to do with life of “things used to be awful so we aren’t allowed to be unhappy about anything ever again”

Yes, and I have wonder what those people who saved the club would have said if you’d told them the club would plod between the second and third level of football for the next 40 years with no tangible success…. 

2 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

It’s an interesting point but I think a tad unfair. The majority of moves were under the umbrella of the “City Group” so I kind of view those as moving intra organisation. I do, however, subscribe to the view that Oxford probably deserved more from him, and also that spell - brief as it was - warranting a job at a higher level is in itself odd. Against that, Oxford would have jettisoned him quickly if he failed and as I understand it he asked for mutual clauses for that reason (might need those here…!)

Whenever, though, I hear of a coach who was highly rated and young who bounced around for ambition I’m always minded of Michael Appleton. And that’s not a good thing!

Good points re City Group. 
 

You don’t need to look as far as Michael Appleton…. our very own up and coming coach LJ being a serial bouncer! 

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

I've had concerns about his integrity Dave if I'm honest. 

He jumped ship from Lommel as soon as MK dons came knocking. Oxford then gave him a chance after what happened at MK. Oxford invested heavily in the squad he wanted. As soon as we then came knocking he buggered off. 

And now he's kinda having digs at our previous manager. 

I’m surprised this isn’t getting mentioned more. He’s jumped around a lot. 
In his head it’ll be ambition but unless he’s successful here he’s going to look a bit patchy. Massive gamble to “kick on” with a permanent mid table club that’s spent 40 years in the middle two divisions…. 

4 hours ago, robin_unreliant said:

But according to JL what we needed to 'kick on' was a coach who worked on the grass to organise our Top 6 squad, not a manager. Apparently Tins can do the rest. Deluded unfortunately. 

I think we didn’t have enough time off over the international break…. 

1 hour ago, The Coach said:

That’s been my response for some time. But we all know he’s going nowhere unless things are real bad.

If we’re doing worse than when he took over and we’re playing a series of dead rubbers the atmosphere will be poisonous towards JL and SL. They’ll hate that and do the honourable thing…. sack their latest golden boy.  
 

I feel for Manning a little…. Only a little. It’s a stupid decision to jump from high-flying Oxford (so soon into his time there) on the bluff and bluster of JL to join a club that’s been trapped in the second or third level off English football for 40 years.  

8 minutes ago, The Coach said:

My concern is not this season but the next. We will most likely end up lower end/mid table again this season thanks to NP and team. But going into next season under Manning and team is a huge concern.

No need to worry, he’s been brought in to improve things with a play off quality squad.  
If things aren’t better he’ll be gone. Surely? 

6 minutes ago, italian dave said:

I think he’ll believe that he can bring success to the club, but I suppose that I just don’t think he’ll in any way consider that in the context of the previous manager. My guess would be that he’ll know more than any of us do about the real reasons behind NPs departure - as you say, something other than results.

I don’t see him as being “Lansdown’s boy” any more than, say, NP was when he was appointed. They’ve both been appointed by Lansdown, they’ve both been given objectives - I suspect quite different ones! They both signed up to those objectives. 

I’m not sure I’d agree that no previous manager has had clear top end objectives. I think LJ had a very explicit ‘top 6 or you’re out’ objective that last season. Who knows what objectives Manning has this season. I agree with you that the messaging around NPs departure was clumsy - but we all know that too! I’d be very surprised if he had as explicit an objective as LJ above.

Essentially, I think that top half will see him OK, bottom half and he’ll be under pressure. For this season and maybe next. But - and it’s a big if - that’s if it’s still Steve making the big calls and not Jon. I think Steve has generally had realistic expectations - Jon, who knows. And Steve does seem to be backing off a bit now, doesn’t he? 

I think we’re agreed on most things. Certainly the clumsy departure of NP which, in turn, has heaped pressure on LM. All the stuff JL said about top end, top six, the budget etc and the assertion we’re underperforming with what we’ve got…. It can’t be unsaid. It’s nonsense of course, mid to upper-mid table would be respectable for this squad. 
Your point about power shifting from Steve to Jon is interesting - Steve always loyal and sometimes too loyal. Jon…. Trigger happy? 
Lucky old Pat Lam that Steve is still close to the rugby team!!!

16 minutes ago, italian dave said:

I doubt very much whether he ever considered whether he’s more or less “capable of that….than Nige”.

And at the time he discussed it and agreed to take the job he self evidently was more capable, given that Nige was no longer managing City. 

So still can’t see how this is in any sense Manning v Nige, and I worry that the more it gets framed this way the more divisive it becomes and that’s simply bad for the club. 

I take your point but you’re effectively saying that he’s taken the job not believing he can do better than the previous man and that the job became available for reasons other than the previous manager wasn’t doing well enough….

We all know Nige was sacked for reasons other than results…. But that’s the message given and how Manning and his “top end championship squad” has  to be assessed. He’s the Lansdown’s boy. He believes what they’ve spun him, believes the project…..  or he should have told them to stick it. I’ve never in 40+ years known a manager have such a clear objective “top end”.  Let’s see…. But if we’re not top end, those of us who “got” where Nige was taking things will, rightly, be angry.