Alessandro

12 hours ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

Because he has befriended Tinnion no doubt! 

12 hours ago, REDOXO said:

I think it maybe the other way and BT may be making his lips move

If these rumours are true - you can see why Tinnion went for him - big enough ego to stroke and he’ll toe the line to keep ‘ITK’.

However, Brian, it’s turning into another bad appointment for you mate - he’s not as talented as you hoped and is crumbling under pressure!

19 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I’m on Wednesday morning (after Ipswich).  I wish I’d been on this morning.  Especially having my name called out “on air” re my position that I’d sack Manning.  I’d like to have explained myself.  Not that I’m not comfortable with my reasons.

I’m on SOTC tomorrow evening, I’ve no idea what questions will be thrown at me, or what opportunity I’ll get to expand my reasons.

Yes noticed that - low blow considering you’re not there to defend.

Maybe I’ll have a listen on Wednesday

4 hours ago, Natchfever said:

Genuine question, why is this *** tolerated?

Is there a view that he is good for viewing figures?

3 hours ago, steviestevieneville said:

Why isn’t that idiot shut down . Why is he even tolerated on the podcast. He chats complete bollocks but thinks he’s the sage. He’s a know nothing now it all . Why encourage it 

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.

6 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Condensed Version:

We need new ownership 

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

7 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

I see a lot of argument about what BT/JL stated when firing NP and employing LM. 

What clips and press cuttings are out there? 

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.

22 minutes ago, Bat Fastard said:

I do "get it". I just don't agree with the suppositions that are involved in what appears to be a bit of a witch hunt.

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.

3 hours ago, Harry said:

I’m not sure on that to be honest. 
Have another look at Dave’s injury data on page 1. 
 

Let’s take out the Cardiff game as it’s absolutely acknowledged that we were screwed in that game. 
If we take NP’s other 13 games he’s had :

Midfield : 11 of 13 games where he had James, Williams, Knight, TGH & King all available. 
 

Front 3 : 11 of 13 games where he had Wells, Cornick, Bell, Sykes, Mehmeti, plus Yeboah (who he was using). Add Weimann too for 7 of those 13 games. 
 

Left back : He had Pring & Roberts available for all games. 
 

Centre backs : Yes this was a problem area. He only had Vyner, Dickie & Naismith for 4 of those 13 games. 
So we were down to 2 fit CB’s for the majority of NP’s games. 
However - LM has only had 2 fit CB’s for every single one of his games. 
 

Right back : the only area where we technically didn’t have proper cover, however, TGH has played there plenty so there was always an option. 
 

The rotation options were definitely there for every position expect CB. Which is the same for LM. 
 

I think we’re getting a bit carried away by the ‘availability and rotation’ argument. Yes, the Cardiff game was horrendous for us, but in the other 13 games NP presided over there were rotation options in every position. 
 

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)

2 minutes ago, Sheltons Army said:

Wow

 

 

La Di la Di la Di la 

Pay peanuts....get

16 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

To quote Liam “That’s the biggest bit isn’t it”?

What @Cowshed accurately describes is the process of a rebuild. (And for gods sake nobody respond with “top six squad” etc etc). 
 

In the process of a rebuild - if utopia is your only aim - then things can go wrong. Often. And in a lot of ways this is just another angle on what’s already been said about Liam - can he adapt his approach to stop those things going wrong until he reaches somewhere near utopia in all the sectors you identify.

Eg you replace Williams with Bird - you move a touch more towards ball retention, but it’s not the model Cowshed suggests. How do you play then?

You then replace Conway with a different type of front man - more physical - but it’s still not utopia. How do you play then?

You replace Mehmeti with someone with more nouse and game awareness - it’s another step. How do you play then?

(NB at any point this is not a mass change, but a tweak - going from A-B as opposed to the whole alphabet)

From the way Liam wants to play we are probably 2-3 seasons as I said from seeing results. What he has to do is not rip up the base and he has to be able to play at each stage. So if he thinks he has 40% of what he needs now - that’s fine. Play as close as you can to your principles in a way that utilises that 40% in the best way. If the summer gets you to 60% - great, tweak again. But you’re never getting to 100% so you always need to compromise.

In a nutshell, I think that’s what we saw with Nige. The annoyance is that I think we’d tipped over the 50% mark in the way he wanted us to play and from there it’s generally an upswing. We’ve reset though - we are where we are.

I’d repeat - there is a bit of a misconception over people’s misgivings around Liam. They are around adaptability, in game management etc - in short what happens when the plan doesn’t work or you can’t implement it as opposed to anything else. And getting from where he is to his utopia is pretty much just another strand to that - but if he can’t manage those transition periods - irrespective of what we can see the intent is, he won’t be here long.

36 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Thanks @Cowshed for kicking this off.

The question (not expecting an answer) is how quickly do you transition the changes required.  And when you can’t do a quick AND perfect transition, how do you implement your compromises?

And from my convo with Rennie this was exactly how Nige approached it.  What’s the objective…how do we achieve (the strategy).  Recognising he couldn’t go “big bang day one” nor “linear” over a period, identify those obstacles to that and build a plan for how to get there?

• fitness
• culture
• recruitment profiling
• player development (not just academy)

I won’t go into detail, but we never got to playing Nige’s ideal way.  It was a set of compromises.  But it was evolving.

For some, that just took too long.  Fine.

For some, it never even got going.  Fine.

We now watch someone else’s take on delivering (JL, BT and LM).  They’ve been given a very solid foundation.

 

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

2 hours ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

It's the only thing on the menu at the moment- I never said I'm "happy" these are your made up words to support your agenda. I said "I'm relatively ok". 

As for saying I'm uncomfortable being challenged- I think we both know that's your bs. I never hide, go missing  or back down if I believe something unlike some- it's the best bit of otib. This is an anonymous forum so there's no walk of shame although clearly some see it as a alternative reality popularity contest. For me it's fun.

 

Please explain in as much detail as possible how City get promotion this season or next or the one after? Because this is something I can't clearly see but you obviously can otherwise you wouldn't be making the statements you do. And it's not about what City shouldn't be doing - it's about what they should. Explain.

 

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.