Johnny Musicworks

I already revised my pre-season prediction (8th-12th) down a couple of places but impossible to predict now as I believe (and hope) it will be a different manager by the end of October.

Well Swansea away was Tinnion’s Waterloo. Could history repeat itself  

It sounds like we have some great training sessions listening to Manning. It’s just a shame we can’t leave him to do some coaching at the HPC and get a proper manager in on a Match day. He looked out of his depth when he arrived and has done nothing to convince me otherwise since.

On 03/09/2024 at 18:32, Never to the dark side said:

Five Bristol City players who can/have played for Ireland

Max O Leary in the squad

Luke McNally under 19's

Jason Knight in the squad

Mark Sykes five appearances

Sinclair Armstrong one appearance

Adam Murphy when he completes his pre-season

We have gone for revolution instead of evolution. Taking leaders like James,King and Weimann and all that experience away so quickly was always likely to bring short term problems. Probably from Mannings perspective they were all Pearsons men and more likely to question tactics and selection. He has now got a few more of his own lieutenants in to help him but the basic problem remains. His inability to work under pressure which was exposed last season and already several times this.

IMO 10 games, 20 games whatever will not make the difference. He has had plenty of time to show that he has adapted to the Championship but is continually getting out-thought by opposition managers. For me it’s just a question of when and not if the hierarchy will realise that. It will probably not be anytime soon because with the squad we now have we should be able to maintain our bang average mid-table position with occasional wins. There are some poor sides in this division now who lack our resources although some of them have managers like Warne who will be really looking forward to coming up against Manning. Admittedly it’s early days yet and as always it hurts after such an abject performance. Who knows we could be riding the wave again in a few weeks. We can but hope. It’s what we do. 

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

The paradox there for me is what you’re saying is the coach has been provided the tools to get top six, but you believe the coaches “weakness” means he doesn’t get the best out of those tools (and he may or may not). So your expectations are actually a top six push, but you’re indicating the coach may not be able to achieve that

So, broader question is should the expectation not be the same whomever is the coach? 

Not at all. As far as having the tools we could use the analogy that we now have a fully equipped good quality tool kit whereas Nige had to make do with what was left in the tool cupboard by previous  occupants. However give that tool kit to an experienced tradesman rather than a newly qualified tradesman who has read all the books and you are likely to get contrasting results both in quality and in the time taken to get the job done.

Football coaches get little time to achieve results  so if you spend top dollar on your tools then why not invest in a coach that has a record of achievement in this division. To not do so is I believe a recipe for failure and a lesson that our owners have continually failed to learn. 

My expectation has gone from 10th-14th up to 8th-10th. The team has been strengthened but top 6 IMO will be out of reach for a coach who struggles with in-game management. 

Entertaining game again and a tremendous first half where our midfield dominated with fast-paced movement. For me the jury is out on Mannings in-game management with our second-half’s highlighting where he gets out-manoeuvred.

As with the cup game their half-time team talk clearly worked better and they did get more of the game without really threatening until we lost Dickie. The substitutions totally disrupted our fluent style. We are now playing much more attractive football with some good upgrades on players. If we could do some further trading this week with any of Anis, Naismith, Wells and Cornick we could challenge for the play-offs assuming Manning learns from his mistakes.

Keeping fringe players happy is one of the hardest parts of management when things are going well TGH, Cornick and Naismith would probably all fall into that category. Trading  players like this and freshening up the squad is likely to happen again in January if things do go well. It’s quite possible our trading this summer is ahead of schedule so even the likes of Wells, Bell (if fit) and Roberts could be moved on. Roberts in particular I feel would not be happy to wait for long unless a good offer comes in for Pring.

TGH was clearly going to be a bit-part player for us and unlikely to get regular game time. A move to Birmingham would give him regular games. He looked a decent fit in an average side when he arrived but Twine and Earthy arriving have quickly made him surplus to requirements now. Good move all round. 

You’re explaining it fine Davefevs  I feel the same that keeping him with us this season would benefit us and him more, even if it’s cameos now and again. It just feels that we are in danger of returning to old ways that cost us dear before. It’s a difficult balance, great to have a strong bench but will we have to sacrifice a lot of the pathway development. It’s been a great window for recruiting but we could have saved money by handling both the Conway and the Twine situations more effectively and professionally. Sadly the lack of a decent CEO is proving costly. 

30 minutes ago, bcfc01 said:

What success is that ? Developing and selling ? And staying as a mid table team ?

If the club are serious about top 6 then we need players that can get us there now. We can wait for Stokes to get to that level by developing in a decent league. If he goes out at L1 level, he'll come back a better and more experienced player and Earthy can go back to West Ham having developed in the Championship and contributed here. All round win.

Not sure whats not to like with Stokes going out on loan in L1.

 

Because next year when Earthy goes and presuming we are closer to challenging at the top end of the table the question will be “do we use Stokes who at best has league one experience or do we spend the money from selling Fally on a proven player at a higher level and put Stokes out on another loan.”

Rinse and repeat as we go back to stockpiling young players on loans elsewhere whilst loaning in Premier league youngsters blocking the pathway. 

A week ago he was being talked about as a first team squad player but getting Earthy in on loan and then Twine seems to have changed that. Poor lad must be gutted and sending him out on loan again so he can come back in 12 months  time and be in the same position as he was a week ago must be somewhat disheartening. Personally I would keep him around until January as he can cover 8 and 10 in case of our usual injury problems and would rather send Benarous out on loan as he needs match fitness after so long out. Cornick must be likely to go and is Wells going to be happy with a bit part role going forward I wonder. 

I have both my own season ticket and my foster son’s in my Apple wallet. Mine was showing but had not updated so I turned notifications off and then on again. It then updated for next Saturday but the other one was not visible at all. I then went back to the email and downloaded his again which appeared and then disappeared immediately. After another failed attempt to add it I found it in expired passes and clicked on un-hide. Both now okay.

1 minute ago, Johnny Musicworks said:

Interesting stats so I presume the Sky match stats are largely inaccurate as they give him 8 shots in 2 games not 3. Quite a difference !

Sorry my bad  I missed that it didn’t include the last 2 games whereas I was reading them as being for the last 2 games

22 minutes ago, spudski said:

Here's his stats, not including last two games. 

Grim reading.

https://footystats.org/players/albania/anis-mehmeti

Interesting stats so I presume the Sky match stats are largely inaccurate as they give him 8 shots in 2 games not 3. Quite a difference !

Reminds me in some ways of Semenyo who also came into professional football relatively late. Compared to someone like Earthy who has had a proper football education through an Academy he can be wasteful. He is clearly trying to impress,  his work rate is excellent but he is still playing catch up with doing some of the simple basics. He must have been devastated missing out on the euros after making a few appearances for Albania and this is a big year for him to make his mark with us and his national team. As others have said he is almost trying too hard and needs to relax a little which confidence from playing regularly could bring.

54 minutes ago, BigTone said:

Fair play and total respect to you for fostering a Turkish lad.  To subject the poor lad to a City game is also admirable.

Well I converted 2 Albanian lads to Robins (pre Mehmeti) we just need a Turkish player now

I would prefer Roberts on the left, Anis on the right in a four with Knight and Bird and Armstrong and Fally up front. Both Twine and Earthy could struggle against the physicality of Millwall and we rarely seem to cope with that

16 minutes ago, The Bard said:

why would you need to secure your loan against assets that you already own directly or via companies?

What if those companies are sold ? Doesn’t it then guarantee that the new owners have to repay him or isn’t that how it works. I will admit I’m not great on the financial stuff

I haven’t been so excited since we were thinking about how to fit Palmer, Szmodics and Paterson into the same team. 

Piercy saying it’s £5 million mostly upfront.

Just like waiting for a bus !

37 minutes ago, Redrascal2 said:

What I cannot understand is why Manning would let them take corners in the first place. 

Probably to get both as far away from the box as possible as neither ever likely to score and thinking that with short corners they may be able to get at least one successful pass to a red shirt.