Gert Mare

20 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

You know, I was wondering whether anyone ever actually claimed that or if I (and everyone else had misremembered). I went back and looked at the interviews and statements from the early days following Pearson's sacking.

Firstly JL's 2 minute "interview" on 31 October 2023.

Then key quote here is at 01:02 "...[we] ultimately made the decision [to sack Pearson] because we think the squad's good enough and I believe in it. If we didn't then why make a change? You'd just see see things through as they are, but the ultimate reason is I think we've got a really good squad here and and we've got a good chance at competing at the right end of the division this season..."

So he doesn't quite say the words "we have a top 6 squad" but that last line in particular near as means the same thing.

Then BT's longer 5 minute "interview" published the same day, 13 October 2023.

You don't have to wait long here. Barton opens with the question "Brian, John Lansdown's talked about the belief that you all have in the quality of this squad how confident are you that these players can compete at the top of the Championship?" Tinnion answers:

"I think everybody in the summer was happy with how we recruited, it's a squad that should be at the top end of the division..."

No debate there I don't think. Clearly says that this squad should be at the top end of the division.

There's then the ITV interview with GM from 3 November 2023.

https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2023-11-03/we-want-promotion-this-year-bristol-city-board-on-sacking-nigel-pearson

The video opens with Marshall saying "We had a three year plan with Nigel and we the objective for us including Nigel was to be at the top end, challenging at the top end of the table..."

He then says at 2:02 "The club is looking for a manager who we believe will get us to the top end of the Championship. We think we've got a great squad of players, a great fanbase, we've got great facilities. It's a puzzle that someone needs to solve and we're looking for someone who believes, and we believe, will get us into the Premier League."

The next question, at 02:29 is "And that [getting to the Premier League] is still the aim, for Bristol City this season, and for seasons moving forwards?"

GM answers "100% it's the aim for this season and we didn't  feel that we were going to get there unless we made a change and that's one of the drivers. We're less than a third of the way through the season and we feel that we're giving the next manager time to come in and make an impact and hopefully have us challenging towards the top end of the table. We believe this squad of players are very capable of doing that."

So he rambles a little bit, and answers it across several questions, but that final line is there for all to see. It's not quite as definite as BT's words but the hierarchy clearly think this squad is "very capable" of challenging "towards the top end".

But they insisted on a small squad and there were injuries to 12 players.

Judge the man against his best 11 fit and playing, not when 50% of his squad is on the treatment table.

The comments about top end is ridiculous when you consider the blindingly obvious constraining factors.

It was nothing less than a diabolical non-football related decision.

12 hours ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

Whole thing sums up the shambles of events of the past month. Now we are ok to tread water and this will no doubt be another three year plan before the next….change wasn’t needed in football management, it was needed up the chain. 

12 hours ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

Nope. Our chairman and tech director believe this squad is top 6, that’s why we made the change now so that’s what we as fans need to hold them to. 

You’re not alone in your feelings towards what has happened in the last few weeks.

The squad was thin and unfortunately blighted by injuries, yet we were still competitive. We also never had a consistent spell of losing matches which was a good sign.

There was me thinking that NP might finally be given some money to show what he could do without his hands being tied and instead I hear rumours that he’s about to be given the bullet?! Shock was an understatement. When the reasons came out for his departure then the feeling was a mixture of ‘deluded / completely lost the plot’. That was it for me, I was done.

Haven’t watched a match since, but as my heart is with the club (not the owners) I’m staying on this forum and watching things unfold.

If Manning isn’t given any money to spend then I don’t think he has a hope in hell, but I think he will be given money to spend as he has been given a 3.5 year contract. Tactics are ok, but you need players to buy in ‘in their heads’. NP had the players bought in. Let’s see what happens.

My stomach is in knots. I feel like it’s only heading one way….straight down the Khazi!

Not like Bristol Sport to treat their ‘customers’ with contempt? 

7 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Depends entirely what is said.

If you are abusive you deserve it.

However I genuinely don’t think they still understand how many think sacking Pearson was a poor decision.

And that nobody agreed we had a top 6 squad! 

I think Liam’s just found that out today.

6 minutes ago, Harry said:

It’s highly relevant. We looked at how he played there and liked it. 
Yes it’s a step up in quality in this division. The players at his disposal at Oxford (the midfield trio at least) are high end League 1 players, nay, even championship level players. 
The key difference here is that the central midfield trio are not high end players in this division. Therefore we will struggle to impose OUR game onto them. 
So Oxford is very relevant, because the manager has been recruited because of his style he played there. But I’m afraid he will have quickly learned today that JL and BT have not built a promotion challenging squad. 
 

This is no dig at Manning. I actually liked his style of play and I want him to succeed here. But he’s gonna need a number of replacements to do so. 

They’re all ready and waiting in our academy Har!

I saw a lot of similarities between Dicks and Pearson which is why I felt buoyed by the appointment.

Dicks downfall was his unwavering loyalty to his 'boys', but anyone who understands the history is that there was a lot of squabbling in the board room, lots of ego's and costly power struggles.

They do say history repeats itself........

Those who think that creating greater disparity between football clubs is for the good of the game aren't seeing the whole picture.

The day that football truly becomes a closed shop will be the death of the great game.

It's a real shame.

You cannot compare LM with LJ. LM hasn’t started anything yet with this club.

It might take many months to get an understanding of LM and then there will be external factors (like injuries) which could easily skew the external perception of ‘success’.

Whilst stats have some relevance in football, following a defined process can be worked out and counter-acted.

The most important requirements are natural ability (skill, strength, speed, awareness) , speed of thought (decision making), character (psychology / self belief ) and empowerment.

You need to have certain attributes depending on where you are positioned in the team, but as a collective you only have 2 outcomes (score a goal / prevent the opposition fro scoring a goal). Football is a simple game and it doesn’t need to be blinded by science.

Coaching is great, but natural ability is instinctive. We can make average players better, but football geniuses are blessed (they also know it because they are adored which in turn fuels their ego and self belief and they are able to be even more expressive and confident on the field of play). This is why psychology (mindset) is one of the most important things in any sport. When they talk about ‘great man management’ they usually talk about managers whose players have total faith in their gaffer, feel valued and are encouraged to express their ability.

Great players understand their responsibility to still be part of a team and help other team members to score the goal (Goalscorers turned providers etc) Maverick’s tend to be more about doing something impressive for themselves as opposed to being impressive for the benefit of the ‘team’. Sometimes Maverick’s can turn a game on its head, or sometimes they can be seen as a ‘luxury’ and can go missing for parts of a game or a number of games if they’re not feeling the love.

Good players are confident, have ability, are aware not just of the tactics and a plan, but they are aware of opponents intentions and seem one step ahead. They have options, tease the opponent (Cat and Mouse - as LM said), wait for the opponent to show their hand and counteract it quickly.

If LM can do these things and can get the players he needs (not necessarily from the academy) then he’ll be successful. 

Better to be unpredictable in your approach. If you can do that it makes the opposing managers job almost impossible. The match could end up 4-3, but my god it’s edge of the seat entertainment!

LM states he wants to go high press and said that if the opposition goes high press then we’ll just play over it. So what if the opposition play over our high press? That’s what I am interested in understanding. What’s plan B and C LM?

4 hours ago, Meh said:

I did look on here first and cannot see a link to this but if there is one then please merge/delete.

As expected he is rolling back a bit on promotion and based on comments I think we are actually on yet another longer term reset.

Judge for yourselves

Worked it out ages ago. They didn’t want to give money to a manager who took Leicester up and who built the future Premier League champions (5000-1) against.

Smell the coffee? It’s about egos. You can’t instruct someone who has been there and done it to do something completely ‘Your way’ when your track record of success is poor.

It’s not rocket science.

7 hours ago, Spike said:

As I said when Pearson was sacked, if the fans felt it was wrong then they should have said so by not attending and standing up to the board, it would seem that Jon Lansdown was right though, the fans will be there regardless proving that no matter what you want the board will do as they please.
All this appointment has done for me is prove that the board can do whatever they like and the fans will accept it which frustrates me as living in Cardiff I saw this with the Cardiff board too and even when they switched from Blue to red it took them a while to finally act up enough to change the boards mind. I don't dislike this appointment, I do see what they are going for but I still feel they pulled the trigger to regain control of the narrative of what is going on at the club and I still remain thinking that under manning the fans will not be privy to as much information about what is going on unless the board ok it. I am not saying this makes Manning a "yes man", but I do think that it'll have been made clear that the club wants to handle it's PR itself and that he'll be required to stay inline with that regardless of if meaning not disclosing information that the fans may deem important.

I'm still very much angered by the Lansdowns which says a lot when if you search through my posts in the past you'll find me defending them when many were not happy about them at all. I still maintain that Pearson was not let go to create progression within the club, I feel that if that were the case they would have done it at the end of this season as it would have benefitted both ourselves and Oxford not to have made such major changes now, the fans would have been less angered by the situation and Liam would have a better window to make any changes that he wanted. I know there are some issues with the situation being discussed at this point, we many not have got Liam or Pearson may not have wanted to see the season out but I don't think that would be the case.
I stand by my statement that this was about control and ego and it's that control and ego that has come off best and the fans have been proven to be easy to manipulate as so many are now already over Pearson and many who were supporting him are now saying "ah well, he didn't do much anyway" having spun a full 180 based on a few PR moves from the club.

All of that aside I do like the appointment of Manning, I can understand that they want a coach rather than a manager as they now feel the club is controllable within their hands, this I'm not so sure about but I guess we'll see, either way it doesn't matter as the fans have turned around and moved on already so the best we can hope for is that Manning does hit the ground running. I know a lot of our fans don't like to hear negative opinions so I'm sure there will be a good bunch of facepalm or crying face emotes on this post and you know what, have at it because I do feel like a lot of our fans lack the conviction of standing up to the board and would happily sell out whomever it takes to get to the Prem which is probably why they deserve the Lansdowns, because they'd do that to the fans too.

Yep, with you on this. Each to their own though. Unless you stand up to it you enable it to continue. It’s difficult to split feelings for the club from the owners so many fans choose to let it go.

I’m out until they are out. Wish Liam all the best and hope they let him have some money to spend. I just can’t support the current regime though. 

Harry and Lou-Lou are left answering all those phones ringing off the hook

We dust ourselves down

If you can’t be in possession then be in position 

Box Entries

The Cage

I usually have to change tactics 4 or 5 times during a game

He DID say he likes a blend of youth and experience and he also said that you need to look at the Academy first….for experience?

Be prepared for a lot of “In terms of” during interviews.

Good luck Liam. You’ve taken on a massive challenge with unrealistic expectations. 

If you can turn water into wine you’ll have my utmost respect.

Brave, Brave man.

16 hours ago, cityexile said:

Head of Recruitment: @Harry

Finance Director: @Mr Popodopolous

Technical Director: @Davefevs

Head of Comms @phantom

Manager.: Nigel. Sodding. Pearson.

Great shout!

I’d have @Kid in the Riot in there so we can stay in touch with the mood of our fan base.

I’d also have @Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan involved to simply cut the Sags to absolute shreds about anything they do.

1 hour ago, Numero Uno said:

You'll get stick for this post from a few Bristol Sport Fanboys and whilst I will be continuing to attend I do understand a lot of the points you make tbf. Spot on about the Bristol Sport monstrosity. What really does my head in at the moment is the thought that the appointment of a relatively inexperienced manager means the ******* snake running our football operation now gets to stick his snout further and further into the trough.

I don’t really care to be honest. I’m past caring. Everyone is entitled to their opinions which I respect. Just saying how I see it.

Only time will show the true effects of the decision that was made to part way with Nigel Pearson and if there is some element of truth in what KITR says about the health concerns then it should at least have been handled with more dignity.

1 hour ago, RedJim said:

Exactly what I'm thinking. I'm not sure I'll attend another game at the Gate this season, I've had it with Steve Lansdown FC.

I appreciate those that who will choose to carry on despite the changes as I stated. You can still be a passionate fan of Bristol City FC regardless of your own personal opinions. I’ve just decided for myself that I’m not going to invest in the Lansdown project and I’ll continue to dream of the day when the football club (and only the football club) can untangle itself from this mess.

Might be waiting a long time but hey-ho it is what it is.

I still think it was a serious mistake to sack NP.

It certainly was a grave one for me in supporting the club whilst the Lansdown’s remain at the helm.

1 hour ago, Spud21 said:

If your new employer has just paid somewhere around 0.5/1 million pounds to get you through the door I'd argue you are in a massively strong position to tell the people who are employing you exactly what you want.

The man is in a position where we absolutely have to sell the club to him as there are no signs he's not going to carry on doing what he's doing at Oxford and if he did there would be far bigger fish lurking for him than us. 

I think if we are telling him there are areas where he cannot have any control that he is not happy with he is in a more than healthy enough position to say thanks but no thanks. 

Do you believe that the Lansdown’s would tell any prospective manager the truth about their role at the club? 

Apparently Nigel was sacked because the under 23’s weren’t in the top 6, but probably could have been following games against Sheff Wed and QPR?

53 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

But I suspect Tinnion thinks, and has persuaded Guernsey to believe, that it doesn't matter if we keep selling - because there will always be another young un ready to roll off the academy production line into the first team.

And thus the owner's pipedream of self-sustainability comes to fruition. All the while Tinnion pouring soothing balm into the owner's ear, telling him exactly what he wants to hear. Not a single dissenting voice or a critical eye cast over the governance of our club.

Deluded. It's like the two of them plus Junior live in some sort of fuckw1t bubble.

 

Spot on. Totally deluded.

No offence to Manning or anyone accepting the widely accepted poison challenge of becoming the new ‘Head Pelham Puppet’ at Ashton Gate, but nobody with any serious ambition in management is going to want to work under this noddy setup.

If Manning or whoever else comes in their yardstick won’t be a winning streak when people return from the treatment table, but whether or not they can put half of the academy in the top 6 with 12 key players out injured. They’ve said it themselves, it’s a sackable offence.

This football club is so interwoven with the Bristol Sport monstrosity that has been created by these clowns that we are struggling to find a serious investor.

We’re totally entrenched by these wallies and it’s such a shame watching fans reluctantly sucking it up, accepting we are where we are and supporting whichever ‘puppet’ accepts their career ending move.

Torn between the passion for YOUR club and the total shit show that has ruined it.

I admire your passion to let things go for the sake of the team, but I just can’t let this one go myself.

Thanks for the cash and the investment, but in order to reach the Premier League you need a blend of youth and experience and there has to be a balance. Never seen a side full of kids from the Championship reach the Premier League and don’t expect to see it in my lifetime with this club.

Oh, and P.S. Stop sending me emails about watching the ******* Flyers. 

Once these muppets are gone I’ll come back. The only way to get rid is to vote with your feet and not simply roll over for a belly tickle and an insulting pat on the head.

Prepare for a totally underwhelming appointment

Having watch Brian Tinnon's video several times I have come to the following conclusions: -

1) "What is best / we want AS A FOOTBALL CLUB" = What Steve and Jon want

2) All teams will play the same way and young players will move up to the 1st team when required.

3) Spending money on players isn't sustainable - SL has invested in the academy and infrastructure (rather than spend vast amounts continuously in the transfer market and expects to see the return on that investment). Therefore, the academy is where the new "Head Coach" will be told to get new players from as they will have been trained to slot straight into Championship level football and understand their job

4) The new "Head Coach" will be expected to do exactly as they are told by SL / JL. They will need to be involved in training, play attacking football, utilise whatever resources they are "told" to utilise, without question, or face dismissal.

5) The new "Head Coach" will have to accept opinions from others who hold high positions within the club regarding team selection. Any inference as to who should and shouldn't be playing should actually be taken as a "firm directive".

6) Regardless of injuries, financial constraints, experience of regular Championship football, level of development, age etc. the team MUST be challenging in the top six or the "Head Coach" will be scapegoated for failure and dismissed.

7) The "Head Coach" must not have a strong personality or consider any instruction by the board to imply as "advisory" or they will be dismissed.

8). Supporters, sorry, CUSTOMERS must get behind whatever decisions the club makes as SL/JL are OWNERS, not CUSTODIANS of the Bristol Sport Group of which Bristol City FC is just one entity and tenant of a multi-purpose event stadium.

9) SL/JL or any other member of the club will not just front a response every time some of the customers may feel upset about any club decision.

10). As Brian Tinnion stated (and has been said many times before). This will be about sustainability, not a bottomless pit of cash, it's where we are, it's where we are going in the future, so shut the **** up and live with it!

23 minutes ago, CiderJar said:

There is no way this can be allowed to drift to page 2. Their situation will always be funnier than ours.

They shot themselves in both feet and we laughed at them………..then we proceeded to shoot ourselves in the head.

I think I’ve seen enough now, especially with Tinnion’s interview posted earlier.

We’re basically a club that will be run with the academy providing players to the first team and as soon as an offer comes in for those players they will be sold.

No big investments in the market, just kids.

The new coach won’t be able to question those above at all and will be sacked if the kids aren’t in the top 6.

I’m now officially done until the Lansdown’s are gone. Just a bunch of complete head’s gone’s!

So from what I understand Tinnion says….

”The next Puppet (Head Coach) has got to develop this team into the way the Lansdown’s want without questioning them at all. And then you’ll see a lot of young players coming through the academy into the team because we’re not prepared to spend any money in the transfer market when we’ve invested in the academy instead to make this club sustainable. And the coach has got to do exactly as they are dictated to by the Lansdown’s. TOUGH! That’s what the Lansdown’s are doing and if you don’t like it as fans you can **** off because we don’t care what you want. 
The next puppet (Head Coach) will do exactly as they are told and will be scapegoated if promotion isn’t achieved despite having no input of their own. Shut up and do as you are told or you’ll be sacked. Oh, and you’ll get sacked anyway when this cuckoo idea fails”

Lots of lip licking and rigid body language. The actions tell more of a story than the words. 

Wow, just wow! Delusion confirmed directly from the crayon munchers mouth.

They have an idea of the puppets they want to speak to next for the position of “Do as you’re told”.

**** right off!

1 hour ago, Mike Hunt-Hertz said:

The Holden debacle was the final straw for me.

That was nearly it for me too and then they went and appointed Nigel Pearson and it felt like they were going to finally make a good decision for the club.