Silvio Dante

One of the other things here is the sheer bloody arrogance of Bristol Sport when it was questioned that they might have got it wrong. It’s symptomatic of the organisation but they pretty much outright trolled people who questioned them. Whoever booked this shitshow and got it so wrong has probably cost the organisation money (and therefore possibly impacted finances to the football club) All because Jon saw the Fyrefest documentary and thought it was a guidebook as opposed to a warning

Yeah I think you’re right. I think it’s totally different circumstances to what we have here at the moment - the closest parallel would be if Max broke an arm (key as no cover) and Pring or Dickie (POTY contenders) got injuries but even then I don’t think it would fit the Bowen/Grosicki impact

I’m not partaking until they introduce “Dolman mode” camera where a bloke shouts “FORWARD” over the commentary repeatedly and then you can’t see anything for the last five minutes of each half as people shuffle past the camera to leave.

Wasn’t it the case that in that particular season Jarrod Bowen was carrying a poor Hull side and after they sold him to West Ham form fell off a cliff? Not great stats either way but I don’t think we’re in the shape of if we lose one body from the current squad it’d impact us in any where near a similar way Indeed. As prior I’m more concerned with next season, and have already said I’d look at LMs position in the summer before committing a load of funds to a rebuild which we seem to be in, but I don’t think it’s unfair to say if we are in the highly unlikely event of a relegation battle in late April things would have gone catastrophically wrong and the only logical conclusion should be both the manager and Tecknikal Director leaving.

I’m going to (again) make the observation that in his managerial career to date, Liam has not brought through one player from an academy to become even a sporadic starter. Not one. If you find his Oxford appointment interview he says exactly the same thing as he said at his appointment here about using the academy/looking to it first. In total fairness, it may well have been the case that the players in Oxfords and MKs academies weren’t up to scratch. But considering the youth coaching background, it is a real oddity over three seasons of management overall.

To be fair, I was joking! I think what you outline is the most likely set of scenarios.

You never know, we still might do!

To return to a prior point, and now even more pertinent with the indication from Tinnions interview that he may not be here next season, my only logical explanation outside of short term for Twine signing was that it may unlock more goals for Tommy, and what we spent on Twine we may recoup via increase sale price attained for TC. Otherwise, as has been said, it was a thoroughly baffling signing.

It’s another strand of the common theme here isn’t it? Adaptability. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that LM hasn’t adapted his preferred methods of playing to fit the squad, and I also don’t think it’s unfair to say that he’s struggled to adapt to changes in game. It is a theory as you rightly say, but what we do know about LM is that he’s really systematic, planning, data driven as opposed to instinctive. People in the former group do tend to struggle more with adapting to the preferences of different personality types, so it wouldn’t be a theory without merit.

There is, but what I think has to be remembered is that people in the family section won’t always be in the family section. If I take my example, my kids are 12 and 15 and they wouldn’t want to be in there. Could I have brought them into the family section at 5 and 8? Yes, but I’d be in a position now of wanting to sit elsewhere - and would have given up seats I liked and had for years in order to move to the family section! Longtime readers will know that I know a fair bit about the Junior Reds. Back in those days, the old Dolman Block G was the junior reds section - you’d often see parents drop kids off at the club room pre match and the kids would watch from Block G while the parents watched from elsewhere and collected from the club room at the end of the game. A lot of it was done on good faith as opposed to the committee members being formally responsible for childcare, but the system worked pretty well. I wonder if there is something that could be done on a similar basis to avoid the “lost seat” problem outlined

The money bet is next season. There is no chance in hell we are going down this year. But if we continue this trajectory of form, it takes a massive turnaround for us to do anything next year. Make no mistake - we are in trouble for 24/25 as we stand

I can see the logic in this. I was just talking to my wife today how the experience my kids get of watching the 6th best league in the world in a fantastic stadium pisses in a lot of ways on my experience of competing with Mansfield and Gillingham in the old third division while stood on a piss soaked east end. But. But. Is this it? Is this what I stood at fellows park with West Midlands police blocking my view for? Is this what I drove through multiple accidents and arrived when 3-0 down at Gigg Lane for? Is this what I walked through the shitty streets of Burslem for? Football, as life, is about progress. We’re all built that way - to do better. This is what I went through all those things for. But now I’m there - I want more. So should the club. I don’t want piss in my pockets. But I do want ambition.

I’d just ask “Why do you come here? And why-aye-hay do you hang around?” (I’m so sorry. I-aye-aye-aye-aye oh)

As you know, wrong band! With that reference - down down, you bring me down. Your face, it has no place in this conversation…

As Tinnion said to Liam Manning as he performed a backward pass Oh I say… (NB - I am a total Smiths anorak. This thread could be catnip to me. Just warning!)

Yep, it definitely plays to less time. I remember in the 80s signing Tony Caldwell and Steve Johnson - they were Bolton and Wigan’s main men respectively, how could it go wrong? But it did. If that was today we’d be all over videos of them at their current team, stats etc. And again, not saying that’s a bad thing but there is naturally less time outside of the fanbase eyes. Ive missed one game either on tv or live this season - the Forest one. So I’ve seen all bar one of LMs games. That means I can see patterns, positives, plans, good, bad etc far earlier than I would. Does that mean that I might conclude earlier than prior years? Almost certainly. But I think in any walk of life it’s better to know early than to know late. Summary for me is that the modern world does increase pressure. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing though as it allows issues to be addressed quicker

Dont call me Silvano!!! I don’t know if you’ve read Fever Pitch but there’s a great passage in there where Nick Hornby articulates how much simpler things were when he was younger (and remember this was the 90s it was written). Players signed for Arsenal must have been good or they wouldn’t have signed them, and why would the England manager not pick the best team - clearly they were the best players! As time goes on Nick got to see more football and formed more opinions. So his logic fell apart. And it wasn’t a good feeling. My point is that Nick began to develop opinions quicker the more football he consumed, and the easier it was to consume it. And the parallel here is that if you go back even 2 years, there wasnt the same access to all games, people watching on VPN etc. it’s not necessarily a social media thing, it’s an availability thing - people see more, and right now many people would have only seen 7 LM games 5 years ago as opposed to the full amount. So, I think the increased scrutiny is a function of increased information. And that’s probably a good thing, handled properly.

It probably just shows how dense Tinnion is. To think that a suitable conduit to get messages out to the fanbase is Ian Bloody Gay would only be more dumb if he’d opted to pass information to Tony Wilkins. Of course, Ian loves it and circle jerks back to Tinnion what a great job he’s doing and how everyone is supportive, because Ian’s so enamoured with his ITK status he can’t do anything else.

A part of me thinks it’s a deliberate strategy to “push” Liam front and centre. No problem with that early days but three months in it does seem a bit odd. Because Liam is very formulaic, even the same messages delivered through a slightly different voice/interpretation could really help. Or as a minimum couldn’t hurt.

They couldn’t leave him that way.

We did play 3-4–2-1. Tanner-Vyner-Dickie McCrorie-James-Williams-Pring Knight-Conway Wells I can see how it might have been viewed as a 5-2-2-1 or 4-3-2-1 as McCrorie and Pring were pushed to varying extents but I can’t figure out how we could have been seen to play 4231. For a start, who were the 3?!?

It’s one of the reasons why I wouldn’t mind hearing from Hogg. I heard him do the media when Manning was leaving Oxford and he came over quite well. I don’t think Liam is a natural at the media game (which isn’t inherently a bad thing) and reverts to buzzwords or missteps in how he says things which naturally can come across badly - we’ve had the “emotion” example recently and this is another one. It’s almost like he’s trying too hard to be “bland” and find the book phrase he needs. If he’s not great at it, maybe take that pressure off him on odd occasions?

Yep. It’s definitely a pattern.

To give a slightly off base comparison, there’s a bit of Mehmeti that reminds me of Eliasson. There is something there but the game awareness is so far away that the positives you do get are outweighed by the team impact. (I often quote that NE made loads of tackles but that was because his positioning was bad to start with). NE was a better player than AM, but even after years, the aspect that caused concern didn’t improve. I was just relooking through the signing thread for Anis, and it was undoubtedly viewed as a positive signing. @Harry and @Kid in the Riot who both know their onions had watched him, rated him and were really excited by the signing. I’d be interested to hear their views as to where he sits in respect of expectations, what he’s not doing here that he was at Wycombe and what the way forward is for him. That might be as simple as he’s not this level, or we’re just the wrong club/wrong system.

Fixed that for you, and on the revised version, agreed.