Red Exile

Riddled with contradictions for me. I mean which is it:

'we've got to bide our time' - 'we can't compete with the parachute payments' - 'if we can sell players for £25m every year we're building that nest egg up to be able to compete in the longer term' 

all of which suggests its a long haul, steady building

or: 

Luton went up with 'far less talent than we've got in our squad' - 'with the squad of players we've got we've got a great chance of competing at the top end of the table - maybe we'll strike lucky - that's the way we've got to look at it' - 'we've got the makings of a promotion winning side if we can get that little bit of luck and that consistency'

which suggests over to you Pearson, if we don't go up its your fault.

Good to hear something from him I guess but hardly inspirational!

11 minutes ago, The Coach said:

Lee Johnson was a failed experiment. 10 years in football management with a Johnstones paint trophy to his name. Doesn’t look great does it.

This - in a nutshell. But you'll get nowhere arguing with those who bought into him.

I think @Silvio Dante hits the nail on the head.

7 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Is this still going? I thought we’d settled it a couple of weeks ago. By no means great player, by no means great manager, by no means shit player and by no means shit manager. With people at the extremes too entrenched to change their viewpoint.

Still, something good has to come of the extension of this thread and I propose it’s that you all follow this:

https://x.com/brentorjohnson?s=11&t=oNPHaJCf-XZnPFOJQiVJjg

I note that 'Lee David Brent Johnson' remains his name on Wikipedia.

The passion of the LJ glee club was barely comprehensible when he was still here - when it was, I guess, conceivable that he'd turn out to be the messiah they wanted him to be. It's completely inexplicable now. I liked him as a player. Couldn't understand why he got the manager job, the wrong man at the wrong time - the only possible explanation was his closeness to the Lansdowns. He failed to deliver what we were told was his objective. He's never won a promotion with any side. Couldn't get Sunderland out of League One! He will lurk as a presence on this forum because his tenure was so consequential - blew our chances of promotion for a generation, and soured the relationship with the owner through the latter's obsession with being proved right in appointing him in the first place. 

2 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Mid-low table champ. 

...if we're lucky!

3 hours ago, GrahamC said:

I’m not a fan of doing swap deals when you are the minor party, as we clearly are here, but I wouldn’t have been too disappointed if we had included James Hill (Matty’s son) in the Scott deal as it would have given us a more experienced CB cover option than the 2 lads who are currently on the bench until Rob Atkinson is back, enabled us to have used Naismith in midfield if necessary & added a player who has the potential to increase in value.

Doesn’t seem likely though.

My hunch is we will add a more experienced goalkeeper & a young midfielder to the squad & that will be it.

Still think too that we would like to shift a couple of players who are out of favour like Sam Pearson, Idehen & Bajic on permanently if we could.

I think you're right Graham. I don't think Steve Lansdown's Bristol City are going to make any marquee signings any time soon. 

Good luck to him. Credit to Tins and NP for giving him the breaks. Will follow his career with interest. Fairly confident that for all their glee this evening his glory days won't be in front of the sparse crowds at Bournemouth!

So making signings like this, intelligent thoughtful footballers, is presumably what Pearson means by building ' a culture'. Which is what I understand Pearson to mean when he talks about his role as a 'manager'.

Just now, LondonBristolian said:

I had a look at when Semenyo left and we didn't give a quote at all so, if there is anything to read into, it's not why the other three did not give a quote but why Lansdown did. To be honest, I'd only really be expecting the manager to quote on new arrivals. Once a player's out the door, it's not really the manager's focus any more. 

I'd say that its SL wanting to remind the world that he owns the club - this is a high profile moment and he gets his name associated with it. Nice to know he's still around, not heard much from him for a while.

32 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

....just always feels like it is next season. 

The story of the Lansdown years in a nutshell! 

I think the sale of Alex Scott is wholly understandable. Exciting to see so many young players come through. Whilst it's a shame to see him go I can see that giving talent the chance to move on is part of the attraction of the City set up. I'm hoping that with an experienced PL CEO and manager in place City will invest wisely and that the years of feast or famine and SL's personal 'project' appointments are behind us. Time will of course tell, but the next couple of weeks will give an indication.

Excellent stuff! Enjoying listening to this.

Decent point against a side that looked very secure in possession and strong at the back. Would have been nice to hold on for the 3 points. There is, however, a strong sense of seen it all before when we let sides equalise after 86 minutes. We seemed to lack control for long periods. Pluses - Knight looks sharp, Dickie confident, Zak as good as he was at his best last season, we have plenty of pace and fitness to bring off the bench. Would be more reassuring if we could nurse possession a little more, not always looking for the worldie pass. After that performance I'll take a point.

For what it’s worth the TV - sound and vision - is currently working fine in Italy. 

1 hour ago, thatcham red said:

Not sure is the honest answer.

I used to organise them in pubs at away games for many years. The football club did one at Preston back in the Mark Ashton era, but it seems that these have stopped. Much of the content is pushed out digitally these days and although quite insightful around the playing side of things, not so much interaction on these other off field issues.

Jerry does a top job working many hours over and above. If he doesn't answer a question it is simply because there isn't one to give. It will be lost in the malaise of decision-making between Bristol Sport and the football club. The group structure is complicated and confuses things. It really does.

I recall those Q&As with some affection - they were appreciated. Crewe for example, SL looking awkward on a pub stage being asked a raft of questions - some very pertinent, some very daft - by the travelling support. The point was less what was said - can't remember anything of note - more that the billionaire who owned our club was in the same slightly grotty beery room as the people who travel all over the country, the people we are told in every post-match interview are of such great value to the players and staff. Face to face with 'the fans' as real human beings as opposed to some nameless block. In the interim - and the Crewe meeting I recall was nearly 9 years ago - the boss class at City have got ever more distant and the comms, however slick it might aspire to be, seems to lack authenticity. 

Enjoyed that. Some good performances. Impressed with Knight. 

Robins TV good for Tins insights. 

Well I rather liked LJ as a player, I agree that he was a key player in that play-off side. It is, however, unfortunate for LJ's reputation that the overwhelming number of his appearances were in teams picked by his Dad. That said his Dad knew a thing or two about how to build a team, a serial winner.

But I can't believe that posters I respect on here are favourably comparing LJ as a manager to Nigel Pearson...one has won literally nothing but the Papa Johns - zero promotions in 500 matches in charge, the other - in barely a hundred more games - has achieved quite a bit. The circumstances of their tenures at City could scarcely be more different. Pearson has been brought in to clear up a mess, rebuild, and has started by laying foundations. SL bet the house on LJ, showering gifts in increasingly desperate efforts to prove that his protege was the next big thing, all in vain. Still, LJ is, as many have said, the past and gradually disappearing - like his managerial career. Pearson is the present - the future looks brighter, bring on August 5th!

1 minute ago, italian dave said:

I’m not getting into the debate about his time here because that would just make my point!

But I still find it hard to believe that after three years, two managers, a complete change of squad and a pandemic - and he still generates three of our top 7 discussions this evening. I’d call that obsessive! 

haha - you have a point...but then again maybe there's not much else to write about this evening!

Unless speculation over the likely traumas of digital ticketing, the shade of blue, the size of the collar or the shape of the robin take one's fancy...

4 minutes ago, italian dave said:

There’s certainly no denying how obsessed with LJ some City fans are.

No fewer than three of the top 7 threads on our football forum at the moment are talking about a manager who left us more than three years ago.

I wouldn't say it was an obsession, but rather the satisfaction that comes with being able to say 'told you'.  More seriously - in modern times he was a hugely consequential Bristol City manager, given the keys to the kingdom, always a divisive appointment, wasn't up to the job but was given what seemed like an age to prove himself, squandered the opportunity, left us in a mess.

41 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Lost 2-1 today to an Andorran side in the preliminary round of the Europa Conference league.

Firstly I can never recall a side from Andorra winning any game in Europe & secondly their subs included Jojo Wollacott (who will get his chance soon based on the error made by their keeper) & Jamie McAllister’s son.

I watched it. Small ground - one stand - had the air of a preseason match. Hibs had been training in Spain. Maybe we're spoiled but the quality was nothing like what we see in the the preseason highlights, players struggling to pick a pass. The main Hibs threat was coming from their continually used right back's long throw. You'd never have known that one of the managers was one of the up and coming coaching geniuses - and if you were told you'd never have guessed he was managing Hibs!

He's been sussed though - from their forum: 'will still be grinning from ear to ear giving his post match interviews where he will blame everything and everybody other than himself.'  

Hibs 2 down. Dire football against a side playing at a ground with one stand. Can't pick a pass, main tactic a long throw from the right back, the height of sophistication from the coaching genius - their forum has him sussed: 'its shocking that a charlatan like Lee Johnson is still manager'...'will LJ give an explanation or just a load of slavering s+/*.'

me too - all of someone else's details. Chap in Stockwood in my case too.

Currently in Wellington and in the ground ready for Spain v Costa Rica. Expecting it to be a mismatch but who knows…

36 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

 

Not being critical of LJ, because he almost got us into the playoffs, we certainly held playoff places for parts of the three seasons once we’d found our feet at this level.

If we ignore the first 10 games of a season where the table is still forming:

• 17/18 - 19 game weeks in the top 6
• 18/19 - 17
• 19/20 - 10

Maybe that lack of know-how was the missing ingredient.

I was very critical of LJ, but equally of the man who appointed him. The lack of know-how was surely the missing ingredient. Correct me if I'm wrong but whatever other qualities LJ might have as a coach I don't recall him ever getting a side promoted...in, what, almost 500 matches as manager? Seems a remarkable act of faith to ask/expect someone with that track record to deliver on one of the harder tasks in world football. He's perhaps found his level in Scotland where Hibs will never be expected to win the title, will never be relegated, and as one of the big 5 clubs currently lie 5th.

As to the OP - excellent thread - highly entertaining contributions. Personally I'm enjoying City being a competitive Championship side led by someone who knows what they are doing and with a track record of achieving the goals they've presumably been set.

1 minute ago, GrahamC said:

I haven’t done so yet but despite him being clearly selective about certain decisions (MA especially, LJ to an extent) do you think it is possibly that as you approach your latter years you do become more reflective?

I think the fact that he was being interviewed by Geoff on a day when one of the big themes of the programme was that Geoff's time at Radio Bristol was ending made both of them reflective. The end of an era. I got the impression that SL appreciates his time is almost up as the sole owner of Bristol City. The bulk of it has certainly now passed. Time is against him to get to 'the promised land' - as he puts it. He must surely reflect that for all his investment he's blown his chance more than once. 

20 minutes ago, Frenchay Red said:

I noticed that and thought it was pretty poor of him. He seemed to take great delight in the celebrations at the time at achieving the double, in what was a fantastic season.

In fairness to him - and I'm not always the fairest - he'd been led down that particular memory lane by Geoff. But I think it does say something about what he sees as the glory years of his time at City - the GJ era. Objectively getting to the Championship play-offs with GJs side was more of an achievement that that double, but I think more importantly it tells us that part of what SL enjoyed was the personal glory - GJ was SL's man - the credit was all SL's - which it certainly wasn't under Cotts. We live with the consequences of decisions made in the months after that 2015 success - the reckless discarding of something that had real promise.

Just listened to the interview. I'm a bit of a Lansdown sceptic and at times he talks it's as though he hasn't been the one making all the big decisions for the past couple of decades...I guess that's how he lives with some of his howlers! But he came across as having an enduring passion for the club, more so than he's sometimes expressed in the past, spoke well about the future and investment...and he spoke better of Nigel Pearson than I'd imagined from comments on here. Pearson is precisely the type of football character he's needed alongside him all along. Good if he's finally recognising that, and can embrace it. In that lies hope for the future.