Kibs

Will obviously get my full support if it’s him, but I do feel sorry for the bloke…..on a hiding to nothing.

If it helps, my Birmingham supporting mate said he’ll make a perfect “Yes man” for the Lansdowns

When will they learn? Nothing they say would fully placate the fan base, but they would get a better response if they just came out and told the truth - no matter how much people disagree with it.

Assuming they had enough fit first team players to field a team of course

Phil Neal once played 417 consecutive games!!! Unbelievable

Is it just horrendous luck? Is it the pitches? Is it the training? Does the high fitness, high intensity pressing system/game we play contribute? And does that style lend itself to such a small squad? And finally, how on earth did teams in the 60s/70s, on those pitches, with their diets etc go through entire seasons using only 14 or 15 players?

I am very much a “Nigel in” advocate (haven’t always been) and that he should have a new contract now……. But some very good points made in this post to add some balance.

Good for him. Well deserved. I always felt he had the ability, but had massive question marks over his mentality and I hope he can build on last season. It’s an interesting one. You would think given the lack of ambition we’ve shown since the sale of Scott, that it might have put him off signing.

Those aren’t the only options. There is a happy medium.

I honestly thought that Pearson and the recruitment team would have a plan A, B, C and D in the event that Scott was sold and a player would be in the door a couple days later. Lack of Goals and creativity was a worry anyway and without Scott, we are very predictable and easy to play against - especially at home. Big couple of weeks ahead, but I’m not confident that Pearson will be well backed by the club.

I think regardless of what NP said, the clubs preference was always to sell in this window. Better that it’s sorted now than on deadline day. What will be interesting is to find out just how well prepared the club were for this in terms of replacements - and we really do need to replace him.

Jeez is that all!? We were 250-1 or more a few weeks ago!

Impossible! And I thought his strength was his pace!!??

Kalas

It’s not the performance that’s the real disappointment, it’s the injuries. Horrendous luck.

And to make matters worse, my lad got SEMENYO printed on his!! ? Appreciate it’s an unusual situation and understand why the club have done it.

A lot of senior players gone this window, with fewer incomings to what was already a small squad. Pearson must have a lot of belief in the academy players who have been in and around the squad recently.

Classic OTIB!

He was very good today, no doubt about it……but I hope Pring continues to nail down the position and is first choice. I think his attributes are better suited to how Pearson wants us to play. Probably best for all if we part ways at the end of the season.

I hope we’ve made it clear to him and his agent that we won’t entertain any offers at the very end of the window which may leave us with no opportunity to get a replacement. If his suitors want him and he wants to go (which I fully understand), i’d be telling them to get it sorted in the next few days or he’s here until the summer.

Fair play to the club for sticking to their guns so long as we don’t have another Massengo situation on our hands in 6 months time. Unlikely I know because he’s more sought after but it’s still a possibility if he gets injured or nobody meets our asking price again in the summer. Im in the trust Gould and Pearson camp on this one.

I’m surprised he’s not even making the bench. You’d think he would be a useful “calm head” to bring on in certain situations. As for the not supporting Josh Low theory, I don’t know whether this is meant more in terms of how he played positionally but he was talking to him throughout and was straight over to him picking him up when he made a mistake.

And if we have authorised it, it would suggest we’re not miles apart in terms of valuations

I know what he brings in an attacking sense but Id like to think we’re not that reliant on one defender to dictate our entire attacking prowess! We need to be far more versatile than that and need to know how to score without him. Teams had started to target him before his injury.

The problem is, relatively dominant performances like that are rather uncommon for City, so to say “keep playing like that and we’ll win far more….” is a bit pointless tbh, because it’s a performance that shows up only a handful of times a season. That’s the reality. Goals have dried up and confidence is starting to drain which is such a big part of it. Id love to be wrong but I think some are kidding themselves if they don’t think we could be amongst those scrambling for safety. The World Cup break can’t come soon enough. We need players back and a reset mentally.