Alessandro

He is like a talentless Chris Sutton, Brian Moore or Micheal Vaughan. The trend to put someone in who is contrary and controversial - I’m sure the pod host knows that and that’s why he’s there. IMO he added nothing else for me today, just comes across as someone who is that dangerous mix of arrogant and ignorant. The ultimate know it all, out of touch, old idiot in the pub. Sorry if that’s too personal. But ultimately there are almost as many posts on this thread about Ian Gay than not….so from a ‘click’ perspective… I watched for the first time out of interest today, I won’t watch again if that Ian is on - but if they do without him I’d tune in personally.

Simply put, Southampton was the anomaly. It was a Pearson-esque style performance, ironically perhaps the kind we might have seen more often under NP if he hadn't been fired and had a fitter squad and a Jan window. It's was a mirage IMO. Even the "cup run" - 1 win in 4 games against weakened premier league opposition. Think we all wanted Manning to help us kick on, but he's giving us very little to shout about.

A few questions for Ian - so you supported NP out because you felt someone could do better and we were inconsistent. But now we’re still inconsistent and in fact doing worse than under Pearson… And it’s now the player’s fault?! And if as you claim, it’s so obvious and simple, been the same for years, why haven’t you said it before? When NP was sacked, for example? And if you think the squad isn’t good enough, whose fault is that? And why hasn’t that been addressed for years? And why don’t you call out those who are and have been in charge of recruitment for years?

Spoken about relegation in another thread - I personally don’t think we’ll actually go down, but I can see us getting sucked down the league to an uncomfortable position - I wouldn’t be surprised to see us within 3/4 points of it at some point, at this rate - which is frankly shocking. But the simple fact we’re even discussing it, we shouldn’t even be having this conversation - and those who defend Manning are now saying “we’ll be safe” is a sad reflection on how much of shit show we’re seeing - from nicely placed when he came in and lots of play off chat - to now: 12 points from play offs. 6 points from relegation zone. And going backwards.

Agreed - we can thank the Lansdowns for much of what they’ve done - but I think to put it politely, Steve Lansdown has passed his “sell by date” with the club. Out of energy, out of ideas and seemingly out of cash. Fun fact - in his 20 years of ownership there have been 18 new premier league teams. That’s 18 teams, without parachute payments, that have gone up to the premier league during Lansdown’s ownership. Almost 1 a year….makes you think….

Not only that but decisions made and a model driven by one of the worse appointments (for the second time in his case) the Lansdowns have made in a long list of bad appointments - overseen by the owners son who is seemingly running it like it’s Football Manager on his PC.

Our last 10 games is bottom 3 form. At the moment yes, we are in that position where we need 2 or 3 more wins to be safe. However, we have a couple of tougher games coming up, lose to Ipswich and then Swansea have the incentive to leap frog us - then it’s two tough ones up next. Vs Leicester and WBA. You could easily see us coming out of that 4 game spell with 1 or 0 points - then the pressure would be huge, the players morale would be low, the dressing room gone and it will not be looking good going into some massive 6 pointers against lower end teams, teams that we continue to struggle against, who will have the incentive of reeling us in with a win. A win changes everything luckily - but I’m still concerned.

When the dust settled on the sacking of NP, the decision to and the manner of it - I think it’s fair most of it admitted, if it’s the step the club needs to kick on, then agree or not - we take it. The reality is Manning had fantastic foundations from which to build on. The rate of decline is the most alarming thing - I think he has, as much as you can with this unbelievably professional squad, lost the dressing room now. You can sense it. We’re bottom 3 in last 10 form, we’re looking over our shoulders 6 points from relegation. It’s back fired big style.

Hate to say it - but I cannot think of one positive from that game today. Not a single one.

Spoke to Cardiff mate - I said we’re hit and miss at moment and he said they’re mostly miss - would be happy with a draw. Really good chance today to get a confidence boosting win and shut the likes of me up for a few days! COYR!!!!

Conway leaving is a bit of a shocker. Consequences of the clubs actions and I strongly believe he will go on to another club where he’ll kick on and have a career that will have us thinking, damn, how did we let him get away. This season we’ve got Mark Ashton flying high with Ipswich (another team overtaking us) Next season it could be Conway firing a rival to promotion from the championship as we watch him sail by. Makes you proud doesn’t it!

This interview is absolutely mental. I’ve given the board a lot of stick recently and talk a lot about same mistakes being made over and over, well here we go again - right now, this is why. New manager brought in to improve and maximise already existing squad basically admits he can’t. Absolutely mental - so what’s the way forward? Last managers two years of building this squad will be ripped up to start again bringing in new players to fit a whole new system under a manager who is ultimately, a massive gamble - even if he gets ‘his players’ can he make a success of it for us at this level? Jury is out, I bloody hope he can, or that will be at least 2 more seasons wasted. Or admit the, misjudgement, and sack the new man - well they’re not going to do that. Mental but so unsurprising and so Bristol City. Buckle up for another rebuild…

I kind of hope we don’t see him till next season, even if he’s fit/getting fitter. Given his problems and our recent run on returning players, absolutely no need to rush him back and he may well benefit from an extended return over the spring/summer.

Glad he’s on the score sheet already - hope to see him back with us all the better for the loan

Disagree - I sense no entitlement of promotion. Has anyone said that, other than the club? You can talk about what did they actually say….well they actually said a lot and frankly one is always entitled to read between the lines - if in a position of comms that BT and JL are in they leave the option for people to read between the lines, then frankly they deserve what they get. They said the aim is promotion. They said the squad is underachieving. They said the squad is a good as it’s been in JL’s time here. They said NP is gone because we had a better chance with someone else of promotion. So I believe fans are absolutely right to hold those statements to account - and it is my personal opinion and belief of the vast majority of other city fans 2 things: 1) NP is gone, fine - we would have accepted a ‘mutual’ parting of ways statement or similar when he left - something respectful from the club - but they threw him and Rennie under the bus and rubbished parts the huge work they did (RG included) in getting us out of the mess SL go us in to. 2) They could have said any number of things without mentioning promotion - no one expects promotion, but we do expect their new man to back up their claims (otherwise what was the point?!) and have us trending upwards, not into relegation form. Top 10 would have been great, Top 8 fantastic and top 6 we’d all be delighted, just challenging and losing in the play offs frankly. If you want to talk about entitlement, talk to Brian “see you in the premier league” Tinnion and Jon “ambition to be promoted” Lansdown - and ask them why they’re entitled to make those statements without being held to account?

Plenty been posted many times: “We all wanted Nigel to achieve our ambition to be promoted but, with our recent results, feel that now is the time to make a change to give the club the best possible chance of success.” - JL ‘We want to get promoted this year' - Bristol City board on decision to sack Nigel Pearson - from Gavin Marshall https://www.bcfc.co.uk/video/interviews/jon-lansdown-talks-about-coaching-change/ Takes JL 30 seconds to mention premier league and best squad we’ve had here in my time - to name a few quick quotes.

Admirable defence of Tinnion, somewhat against the tide, which might tell you something… Personally I’ve always liked him, but does that mean I appoint him CEO? Absolutely not. The manner in which he has found himself in this position, absolutely stinks - jobs for the boys of the highest order. Does that matter? Well, no, not if he is a brilliant communicator, experienced leader, top negotiator, experienced in business or accountancy, or a former top level player or manager - he is none of these. Not one. What he’s shown himself good at is working with young talent - that’s where he should be IMO, i’d very gladly have him fronting the academy, scouting players and fighting their cause. But he can’t do that anymore because he’s buying players that block the pathway (Twine anybody) to save his own bacon. When I watch him talk in his role, I cringe. It’s awful. The poor guy is out of his depth again (dejavu) and again this will end in failure - will the Lansdown’s ever learn? I’m sorry “nice guy” isn’t the one fronting the club, negotiating our transfers and building the blue print for promotion. The reality is he is a strawman for the Lansdowns who’ve proved themselves incapable over 20 years of getting it right. I might going early on this, but there we go - I said when we appointed Holden it will set us back years - Tinnion in this role will set us back more - he will be fired or demoted long before we ever see the premier league and any replacement will need sometime to put it right. And that’s on the Lansdowns more so than it is on Tinnion.

You’re conviently missing out the squad depth though with this like for like argument. At a quick glance NP fielded 6, 6 and 7 academy players in his last 3 games vs Manning 1,2 and 2 in his last 3. The squad depth Manning has had at his disposal has been greater than that which Pearson had in the run up to the dip which saw us drop from 8th and him getting the sack, hence last 3 being appropriate sample.

Manning has had injuries to contend with yes - but the rate at which he’s been able to rotate the first 11 and the depth of his bench has been on another level to that which Pearson could have (he couldn’t)

Pay peanuts....get

For me you've both kind of touched on something here which isn't spoken about enough - that it's fine having an objective and a plan, but for success (in this case promotion) this has to be balanced with a target/limit/aim time wise IMO. I have no sense the club have a realistic time target that they're willing to stick to, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years whatever, pick based on academy prospects and budgets then stick to it. It's always have a go for 2 years then try something else for 2 years.... Especially when it comes to recruitment - fine recruit to a type but it needs to 'culminate'...i.e plan seasons ahead to a point where your best youngsters are blooming around the same few seasons, you do everything to keep hold of them, then recruit to fill in the blanks - under Gould and Pearson, I got more of a sense and faith that they understood that and could push for it. Under BT it's all recruiting to 'type' but what for? At the moment the club seems to care more about and talk much more about the cycle of producing and selling individual players rather than developing a successful squad. SL was so happy to talk about the great deal of selling Scott but forgot we needed to replace him... There has to be an 'end point' - even if it adjusts slightly or is missed - or we're stuck going round in circles.

EDIT-below

My BS? OK well you're the one who has immediately looked to deflect me asking you opinion as a point scoring exercise and you keep talking about forum popularity - you come across in your posts as rather sensitive to being challenged. All I did was ask you a question. It's OK to be wrong. That's the point of the forum, right. Last para - Ah that old chestnut,"if it's so easy why don't you do it"...I'm not paid £100k's plus a year to provide anyone with answers, if you want answers to that ask Jon Lansdown and Tinnion etc, that's what they are paid to do. So no, i'm not going to give you some detailed plan on promotion, because I don't have to - BUT despite that, what I do know is, it exists, and many many many clubs overtaking us have shown that - it's just that 20 years show Lansdown still doesn't and can never learn from his mistakes. Every year is another team he says we should emulate...Brentford, Brighton, Luton, Ipswich...the list goes on, the record stuck. So as long as they want our money and talk about promotion, that is reason enough for me to question the club and it's operations (without having to tell them what to do) until we are the club people look to emulate.

I’m no scholar on the history of the culture wars so bow to your better judgement - but I’d certainly argue it’s the right’s favourite political tool…

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