The Dolman Pragmatist

23 hours ago, GrahamC said:

It was a truly bonkers time.

Selling Pack & signing both Nagy & Massengo, too.

Absolute absolute shambles.

But at the time, if I remember correctly, we were hugely excited by the signings of Nagy and Massengo, and few seemed heartbroken that Pack was leaving.  Hindsight is a great thing…

I remember Sean O’Driscoll (who for all the stick he used to get was actually a very interesting and able coach) saying something very similar.  He said that however much he prepared players for matches, once the game starts it’s a question of the players making the right decision in the moment.  Of course a coach can make substitutions and tactical changes, and of course these can be hugely influential on a game as we saw on Tuesday night, but it is still down to the players to make the right decisions and then execute them effectively during the game.  

I always look closely at goal difference when thinking about who might be relegated.  It’s interesting that all but one of the teams below us has a goal difference of -11 or worse (Plymouth are -7), with Sheff Wed on -23 and Rotherham on -42.  By contrast our goal difference is -2, actually better than Preston who are only 4 points off the play-offs.  Of our 16 defeats this season, 13 have been by a single goal and the remaining three by two goals.  It shows just how close the margins are.  Before the Ipswich match people were talking about us being hammered, but the truth is that no one has hammered us all season, including two Premiership teams.  That, if nothing else, must give some cause for optimism.

8 minutes ago, Cole Not Gas said:

Some of us actually like rational, sometimes, as opposed to absurd abuse most give the club we support!

Much improved, all City fans happy for 89 mins - not every away game we can say that. Onwards now for Sunday. Keep the faith, keep the support of the club, ease off on the blame and dont get personally vindictive just because we are behind a keyboard. My opinion and I love it

Well said mate.

29 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Thanks….not.  I just typed a long reply to @The Dolman Pragmatist and the thread gets closed whilst it gets cleaned, so I lose my post.

The essence of it was that you look to much at results and league tables, and ignore the context of the situation.

When we beat Brum 3-0 in game 36 of that season we were 13 points off of 6th and 13 points off of 22nd.  Nige basically started the rebuild.  He started working out who he wanted to stay, who he didn’t, who he could get rid of beyond the OOC players.  He experimented.  That was his plan.  The CEO was of course “running towards adversity”!

We had a manager who didn’t give a toss about his own PPG, but one who knew the dangers ahead in 2021-22 season.

But if you want to ignore that, that’s fine.

+++++

 OTIBers don’t need to come onto a thread a try to trash him every chance they get.  Show some f++king respect for a bloke who put this club back on the right track.  We’ve got some snide posters on here.

I have the utmost respect for Pearson and always have had.  I was merely commenting on the statement that ‘he saved us from relegation’, which has little substance.

Unlike you to get so personal, Dave.  This forum really is turning into not a very friendly place.

26 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

It's my opinion that we were going down, hence the sacking. 

Nige came in and got us enough results for us to stay up. Maybe someone else could have got us enough points too, who knows but that sort of view just seems to be done to down play the job Nige did. 

But ultimately it was Nige that kept us up and I find it quite bizarre how people refuse to give him credit for keeping us up. 

I didn't like LJ, im quite happy to give him credit tho for keeping us up and then progressing us. 

With respect, when Holden was sacked we had 39 points from 30 games and were closer to the play offs than the relegation zone.  After he was sacked, we took 12 points from our remaining 16 games (W3 D3 L10), including 0 wins, 3 draws and 7 defeats in our last ten games.

I’m not saying there shouldn’t have been a change of manager, Holden was after all on a poor run of six defeats in all competitions, but the notion that Pearson saved us from relegation is far-fetched in the extreme.  Only 44 points were needed to avoid relegation that season and we already had 39 when Holden was sacked so we actually only needed 5 more points to be safe.   What happened was that our position deteriorated considerably after Holden was sacked, but thankfully not enough to see us relegated.  

7 hours ago, Davefevs said:

It’s easy to make statements, including the words “stark fact” when it is anything but stark facts. It is just your subjective opinion(s).  And you’re entitled to it, but it is anything but fact!

I quite enjoyed his football, I saw results improving.  I saw a squad built in a manner I’ve wanted to see in a while, ie a team!  That is my opinion, not a fact, not a stark fact by any stretch!

Got to say Dave that the poor results under Pearson are very clear facts, and not at all my subjective opinion.  What was it, second lowest percentage of any City manager?  When he was sacked we’d won 3 league matches from 10 this season (30%); I believe that Manning’s record is 9 from 23, so just under 40% win percentage.

As far as I can see almost nothing I’ve said was particularly subjective, but anything not praising Pearson to the hilt seems to be met with a flurry of face palms and other negative emojis.  Oddly enough polarisation was what I was trying to avoid, but it doesn’t seem possible to have any sensible discussion on this site any more, sadly.

30 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

I will never be able to figure out why there is a small but vocal minority of our fan base that have absolutely detested Nigel from day 1. Refuse to give him very little credit for the job he did and even up until the constant day are still making digs about him. 

It's embarrassing that their support for Manning is simply because he is not Nige. 

I can only guess that it's a masculinity thing. 

Good post.  I’d met and talked to Nigel Pearson before he was appointed at City, and have a close friend who is a Leicester City supporter and who absolutely worships Pearson, so I really would have liked to see him succeed.  But the stark fact is that for all Pearson’s good work behind the scenes, the football under him was dull and the results were pretty awful.  I think he was given a good time to turn the results around, but it just wasn’t happening.  I therefore felt that his dismissal was justified when it came - our season was rapidly going nowhere and there was a strong case for a change of regime in order to prepare for 2024/25.

What surprises me most is that there are those who either ignore Pearson’s dreadful record in terms of results; who make excuses for it; or who believe he could have turned it around.

Manning seems to me to have been a very reasonable shout for a new head coach, and needs to be given time to build something that might actually be competitive next season.  In football you move on, and we’ve moved on from Pearson.

I was at school with a boy with the surname Tew.  His nickname was ‘Munch’.  His younger brother was known as ‘Nibble’.

17 hours ago, Robbored said:

Sobers was the one that I never saw play and why he’s not on my list.

 

I was fortunate as a child to see the West Indies play Glamorgan in Cardiff.  Glamorgan where building the side that would go on to win the county championship (including the left arm fast bowler Jeff Jones) but the West Indies played almost their full test team - Sobers, Hunters, Butcher, Gibbs, Hall & Griffiths, Murray, etc.  I’ll never forget the sight of Wes Hall starting his run on the boundary rope and thundering in…

19 hours ago, Robbored said:

It’s an interesting debate as to who was/is the best all rounder in the last 60+years. There are several candidates, Richard Hadlee, Ian Botham, Freddy Flintoff, Jaques Kaliss, Ben Stokes, Kapil Dev, Colin de Grandhomme.

For me it would be Ian Botham.

Stats don’t come into it for me - mine is based on pure entertainment value.

In that case Mike Proctor wins hands down, and I watched him for several seasons as a Gloucestershire member.  I think he was the only cricketer I’ve ever watched who could make you believe that he could hit any ball for six, or take a hat-trick in any over.  I also saw him and Barry Richards play at Shirehampton when they were schoolboys, and remember several windows in the golf course clubhouse over the road being broken that night.

On 20/02/2024 at 08:54, Robbored said:

Brilliant tho Proctor was I’m sure if he were still around that he’d agree that he wasn’t at the same level as Botham, Kalas,Flintoff and Stokes.

I’ll challenge you on that one.  I think he was as good as any of them.  Certainly better that Flintoff (by some distance) and Kallis (I assume that’s who you mean), probably Stokes and at least on a par with Botham.  Gary Sobers still the best all-rounder of my lifetime though.

14 hours ago, Glen hump said:

Pretty sure that was the game where Scott Mintos family got abused and threatened, was a nasty atmosphere that day.

If I remember correctly, we put the ball out because of an injury to a Charlton player and Minto didn’t throw it back, and then laughed about it.

22 minutes ago, italian dave said:

Making Plans for Nigel……XTC

He’s gone … Grateful Dead

33 minutes ago, Abraham Romanovich said:

Saw them at Knebworth in 1976 not a bad line up.

 

Ah, Knebworth.  I was at the first one in 1974: Tim Buckley (Jeff’s father), the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Van Morrison, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Doobie Brothers, the Allman Brothers.  Happy days.

12 hours ago, Back of the Dolman said:

I agree with you, but there’s plenty on here who think differently.

For me he’s got no pace, can’t beat a man, his final ball is poor and his awareness for his defensive duties is lacking.

Not championship standard 

I’m not sure.  I agree he doesn’t seem to be able to beat his man, but I think he does have pace and he does seem to make things happen.  I suspect that defences don’t like playing against him, and he can be a clever player (look at the assist against Southampton).  I understand the reservations about him, but I do think he offers possibilities.  I certainly think he’s worth persevering with for now.

9 hours ago, italian dave said:

Just a follow on from a comment on the 1974 heritage thread. Songs from the ‘70s, that will mark both our team from that time, and our performance today.

My three for starters

Won’t Get Fooled Again

Dazed and Confused

Anything by Mud.

Dazed and confused was 60s too (written in the 60s, originally played in the uk by the Yardbirds).

8 minutes ago, Supersonic Robin said:

Wow. 

So after a 2 brief substitute appearances we've decided Mebude is the best young player in Europe, and then U-turned to decide that he's dreadful and should be nowhere near the team.

Classic OTIB 

Sorry, but he was absolutely shocking out there today, and you can only comment on what is before your eyes.  Mebude was right in front of me in the Dolman today and what I saw was a player having a horrifically bad time.  Hardly surprising that people are reflecting what they saw.  He was dreadful.

2 hours ago, Mike Hunt-Hertz said:

I Walked Away...Bobby Paris

The Cat Came Back … Tom Waits

4 hours ago, italian dave said:

Love Walks In……Van Halen. 

Trucking’ … Grateful Dead

Liverpool 1977, no question.

On 04/01/2024 at 23:43, PHILINFRANCE said:

 

Both Arsenal and Liverpool can't afford an FA Cup replay.

Why can't they say 'Neither Arsenal and Liverpool can afford an FA Cup replay.'

‘Neither Arsenal NOR Liverpool…’

Why on earth are people still banging on about this?  We won.  If Manning had done something different at half time we might not have done, who knows?  We’ve been on a poor run, but three points at Middlesbrough is a real tonic.  COYR.

15 minutes ago, Gimme Shelton said:

And quite apt when Ayling is playing!

He was great for us.  As a result, won’t hear a word against him.

2 hours ago, Eco said:

Tony Thorpe?

Fulham?