Capman

I tend to agree although fan pressure will eventually have to have an effect. Steve is clearly a bright bloke and overall I have been supportive of his time at City. He will not want his legacy tarnished now and I am afraid that looks increasingly likely. If I were to be advising him I would say, use Jon’s ‘other interests’ as a reason to restructure. Leave him on the board but bring in a new chairman who can try to reunite the club with some more sensible rhetoric and create a management structure to deliver premier league football. Any decent chairman will respect the position of the owners, so they do not need to fear an independent. But someone needs to be able to tell hard truths to the manager, the senior staff, the board and the squad. Unfortunately I do not see Jon having the right skill set to do that.

I am afraid that the current leadership at the club (not just Manning) will squander the war chest created while Pearson and Gould were here. I would not give them that chance. But JL would have to go and that’s not likely. So I expect another opportunity for advancement at the club to be lost.

I know some don’t like this being repeated but it needs to be said. The fact they were dishonest about why Pearson was leaving has piled huge pressure on the new manager and the squad. JL needs to face reality and take personal accountability for the mess the club is in. He is solely and personally responsible and in my view the club will struggle as long as he stays as Chairman of the board. Time for him to do the honourable thing and step down.

Nonsense, the board were looking for an excuse to sack Pearson for months.

Problem is if Manning goes who is going to want the job under a clearly dysfunctional board with no vision for the club? An experienced manager will look at the way Cotts and Pearson were treated and say no thanks, so we will be left with another mini Johnson or Manning.

Sorry to be boring but it’s exactly what I mean when I say the culture of the club is rotten to the core. When you lie, the lies just continue to pile up and they distort everything. Firing Pearson was not a football decision, it was personal. But because JL did not have the balls to tell the truth, we got all the top 6 squad and Manning is great stuff to cover the real reason. That has set the new manager up to fail and even put pressure on the squad who are perceived to be ‘failing’ because they are not that standard. The situation does not change for me until JL steps down. He created this mess personally, and should have the guts to take responsibility.

Has he not been told this is a top 6 squad?

I am sorry, but the club is going backwards. The board need to take responsibility for the mess they have made this season.

The board need to go. No point in just replacing Manning, the culture of the club is rotten to the core.

Because he fell out with the board. Why else would it be? Given the situation he inherited and the constraints he was under it’s hard to argue his record was poor.

Think you should change the title to the board. Problem is in the boardroom not the just the dugout.

Let’s be honest. Sacking Pearson was nothing to do with football. So the comparison is pretty meaningless.

Agreed the problem at City is in the boardroom, not the dugout. At some point Manning will just become another victim of it.

True, the question is why have they suddenly ‘made the grade’ in the last couple of years. Something has enabled them to significantly reduce the issues they were having before and turned them into first team regulars. The track record is pretty clear that the previous regime had that management and coaching skill. It is a genuine question if that remains or if it has been lost in the transition. I actually think Pearson’s man management skills were demonstrated just as well in dealing with the older players. His willingness not to play those who he thought had ‘let the side down’ particularly springs to mind. His focussed determination to make sure players understood what was expected should be a model for any manager. I am not sure the new regime has that and it will make the path for any player to move from the academy to the first team significantly more difficult.

For me the question is not so much about belief but the skill needed to manage people. Manning is unfortunate because he permanently gets compared to a very experienced and successful predecessor. For me Pearson’s clarity and judgement are some of his most important qualities. I think the way he managed players (young and old) was exceptional. He appeared to ‘know’ when new talent needed time on the field, and when they needed time on the bench. He could judge when to give praise and when to criticise. He also understood what young players needed in terms of experience and support on the pitch. It would have been very easy for Pearson to lose patience with Vyner, Pring and Max. But he picked the right moment to back them and I suspect that is a large factor in their ultimate transition. It’s early days yet to judge Manning, but so far I don’t see the clarity of thought needed to do the same on a regular basis. Hopefully it will be shown over time that he does have the skill.

I appreciate that it may not be a popular view but the cup being out of the way does allow us to get a good view on where we are as a club. The board have made big claims for our squad and our aspirations. We have about a third of the season left and that is plenty of time for us to see where we are. My fear is that we are going to be buttered up for another 'we need to rebuild' there is a 'three year plan' and the rest of the standard cliches which are used to excuse the failure to deliver up to now. Go on JL and the board, prove me wrong! Genuinely, I hope you can do it.

It’s pretty simple for me. The owners act as if they are more important than the club. That situation cannot continue. JL has no experience and no viable plan to get the club into the PL and needs to step down or be removed. Having the occasional good cup run is not good enough. The club needs to unite behind a plan to gain promotion and unfortunately the sacking of NP has made that impossible. Now the board must fall on their swords for the greater good of the club.

What the season shows me is that the club has a lack of ambition and no strategy to deliver premier league football. We shift priorities and my assumption is that happens because the personal ego of a few at the top is more important (to them) than the success of the club. Promotion from the championship is hard. It requires spending time building the right team (off and on the pitch). The current ownership seem incapable of creating the environment needed to do that. So the club is likely to have the odd good cup run but languish below the target most supporters want. Unless we happen to get very, very lucky.

I suspect it comes from a lack of strategy and ambition on the pitch. That’s a view those who spend their hard earned cash on the pitch are entitled to express. However much others try to shout them down. Last night was great but actually it just highlights the problem for me. The first, second and third priority of the club should be premiership football. Yet we seem expected to consider a ‘good cup run’ every few years as reward enough. It is hugely depressing that the Bristol City memories talked about are Tinnion against Liverpool or Don Gillies against Leeds from decades ago. On what they claim to be their top objective the current regime has failed. Supporters are entitled to point that out.

The culture of the club is rotten to the core. The thing is that the board seem oblivious to the fact that this kind of thing matters on the pitch. There are players who like and respect Nige, players he has encouraged and bought through. They will see how he has been treated and, however much they say it doesn’t, it will impact the way they think about BCFC. It tests their commitment to the club in a way which is beyond unnecessary. Staff will see it and it will change the way they do their job. They won’t want to take risks or challenge the club for fear they will be ‘cancelled’ and supporters will see it and they will fall out of love with the club. It’s childish, stupid and damaging but unfortunately it’s not a surprise.

I agree with the observation about a choppy structure and too many cooks. I would be really interested to know how the budget (if any) for the January transfer window is being set for example. I wonder if the ambition for premier league football is going to be crowded out in the thoughts of some decision makers by the need of the board to be seen to invest in the squad, the new manager and JL’s comments about a ‘top six squad’. One priority might well drive very different decisions to the other. There can be a big difference between the short term need to be popular and building something which delivers long term excellence.

The championship is probably the most difficult league in the world to be promoted from. In the last 40 years that difficulty has only increased. To achieve it, you need focus and a culture of excellence in everything you do. From top to bottom the club needs everyone pulling in the same direction and aligned around a strategy for success. Put simply I don’t think the Lansdown’s have built that culture. The culture at the top is secretive and defensive and that culture probably means staff feel undermined at all levels. It increasingly looks like people get jobs based on their ability to do what JL and the board want not based on their ability to deliver the goal of premier league football. Of course eventually the club may get incredibly lucky and the random nature of what they do might get the outcome we want. But that would be more luck than anything else. Based on that assessment, my personal view is that the Lansdown’s have three choices, 1) Continue to follow the approach which has failed for decades 2) Change the board to one which has the skill and experience to build the right culture and run a successful football club 3) Sell up and go I would take 2 or 3 but the fiasco of Pearson’s exit has moved the dial for me personally and my preference would now be 3.

If you can think of a similar shorthand for the board have no idea what they are doing and need to go feel free to tell me what it is. The failure of City to challenge and move forward, our total lack of ambition and our lack of a plan is boring. But supporters need to be united in challenging it. Week in, week out. Because up to now the owners are simply not listening. I am not prepared to criticise Manning, the malaise at our club is down to others.

Why? It is surely perfectly reasonable to hold the club to account for its position. I wonder why there are some ‘supporters’ who are content to accept mediocrity at the club?

Top 6 squad anyone?