JP Hampton

41 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Meet you under the clock on the centre.

Ssshhhhh!

Before the goal I wouldn’t have worried if we lost, just simply because we played so well. That’s what we’ve wanted to see. The performance is all. 

Please please tell me we’ve learnt something today. I’ve always said we’ve got some really good players and that’s how to use them. 
 Well done everyone today, Mehmeti and O’Leary excellent. 

Think we’ve played some of our best football for a while. Knight having a great game and more what we say from him early on. It’s what we do and how we respond if go down a goal. 
 However looking like we could definitely get something from this so far. 
 

Sound obvious but if we want to win more games we’ve got to approach each game this way. 

11 minutes ago, Swede said:

Yes it is a worry. We have got some good players but come the end of the season they will be binned off as too old and expensive to be replaced by younger versions without the nous. If King, Williams & James go at the end of the season as is likely they are effectively being replaced by Stokes, Murphy and Bird. These are great prospects in their own right but you'll all see today the true value of James and Williams in that midfield if they start.

There's an inescapable feeling that the lack of experience at head coach level coupled with the perceived ignorance at management level is leading to a meltdown and relegation next season.

That’s the real concern these are the leaders, the experienced players. The ones who keep their heads (well maybe not Joe ) and lead, when things go wrong. Or like Joe will often do shake off the shackles and start fighting. 

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

It worries me greatly that he's going to be allowed to rip this squad up and build his own team, which he pretty much said in the press conference.

That’s exactly my concern. We’ve definitely got some really good players, but once they’re gone, they’re gone.   

8 minutes ago, Ashton Yate said:

If anyone is not going today and isn't able to sell their tickets, so seats are going empty, would appreciate a shout as I've got tickets but in Lower Dolman and the rain is not going to do us any favours there! If there are any unused seats elsewhere with better protection from the rain we will happily keep the seats warm for you! Thanks.

Ok. If no one takes ours you can have them and yes they’re out of the rain. 

15 minutes ago, KendrickDNB said:

Got one adult in south stand available would have to meet me at ground 12 ish

He’ll be wearing a Mac and a pink carnation. ‍

37 minutes ago, CityFarAndWide said:

Traveled down to be let down last minute. Looking for a ticket preferly south or dolman. Have a Bristol sport if easier to transfer and happy to pay in whatever way. DM. 

Do you want to DM me. I have two. Would prefer to sell together. 

11 minutes ago, Roe said:

Just absolutely nothing of substance from Manning yet again, despite some good questions being thrown his way.

That question was great and a perfect opportunity for him to explain his thinking even just a little bit but his response was just so empty.

He even turned it into a "well there are plenty of times I've made great subs" completely missing the point of the question.  It's that self-defensiveness and arrogance that people really don't like.

To say that he's not bothered about looking back at the West Brom game because it was a long time ago, only to then reference multiple other games that were much longer ago sums it up.

Totally agree. He actually said “well that’sa long time ago” but then actually ended up saying how much time he spends analysing games. As you say perfect opportunity lost, and unfortunately whether real or not, adds to fans concerns over substitutions and  not changing tactics where needed. 
 

 I think fans do need to hear, what would be different next time and that’s not what he’s giving us. 

One thing I thought was better from Richard Hoskins, was his questions were a bit more probing. For example about substitutions, which Liam didn’t really answer because “it’s in the past” but think RH got that right. 

Two in the Southstand still available. Two for the price of one. 

£30 for both. 

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Hey, get Keith Dawe back in for a few weeks.  Get a recruitment company in like MRKT.  Or get lucky (perhaps Pharell Williams can help).  I don’t care how.

Hahaha….you mean like Manning?  That is going well isn’t it.  You don’t have to bring an entourage in, nor change style.  Just appoint someone better.  Michael Duff (imho) would be a better fit for the current squad, and I’m sure he’d be happy to take on the staff that remain in the short term.

Do we have stability under Manning?  We are going backwards.  Oh, that’s ok, we are going backwards smoothly.  Arghhhhhh!!!

Well, at times this season, Nigel Pearson had us 7th / 8th!

Sometimes you have to bite the bullet.  Why does change have to be negative?  For me, the bigger risk is keeping Manning.

It’s the “oh be careful what you wish for” brigade that gets me. You could say that about any change or decision to change, in any and anyone’s walk of life, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done. 

1 hour ago, ashton_fan said:

I think Nige's health was an issue in so much as he wasn't feeling great and probably said some things he would have normally kept to himself when he was ok, and as a result his relationship with the owners was broken.

Of course it was an issue, but the poster said it was the main issue and I don’t agree. 
 

 I think the relationship was doomed when he said words to the effect of “ that’s no way to run a club” that was before any public knowledge of ill health. 

3 hours ago, reddogkev said:

fwiw, I still believe that Pearson was released mainly due to his health situation, but the club agreed to keep this out of the media due to respecting his privacy wishes.  I've heard that from quite a few people and it stacks up with the fact NP isn't straight back into management, and probably won't be for a while longer. 

Don’t want to jump on you for this and I’m sure you have your reasons for believing this and have heard people say as much, but I think it’s very obvious that was not the issue. 
 NP wasn’t private about his health issues, it was mentioned often and he was open about it. If that was really the reason why not do what they did with Mowbray and have Flemming caretake. 
 No, we all saw what happened and it doesn’t take a genius to see what unfolded.     They didn’t like NP, he was too hot to handle, he’s done what he was asked to do and they wanted him gone.  

15 minutes ago, SecretSam said:

'Defacing' would mean that the original would be still there, but then written on/marked, etc.

What Nike did was recolour the same flag shape. A shape of flag that is used by a number of countries. That's not defacing it, it's recolouring it. Defacing it would have been to write "England were poor against Brazil" across the flag.

#PedanticRantOver 

I was saying that the number of people who hate England (across the world) is pretty big. I mean, our history is a little...checkered...

Whose isn’t? 

Can’t attend the match tomorrow unfortunately, so we’ve got two seats in the South Stand for anyone with a BS account. DM for details. 

6 hours ago, SecretSam said:

That's a big, big market...

I think you’ve just got the nail on the head, as to why some people are taking offence. 

22 minutes ago, Tim Monaghan said:

No point, Brother. Sick of having arguments with keyboard warriors on here, so take or leave the comment buddy, and make of it what you like. 

Wow, simply a genuine question. Sounds like if you’re sick of it, it might be good to take your own advice. 

On 22/03/2024 at 12:49, Tim Monaghan said:

St George wasn't even English

And Andrew wasn’t Scottish and Patrick wasn’t born in Ireland and it’s the same for many other Countries too, what’s your point?

FWIW my take on it is this, I probably wouldn’t have batted an eyelid about this, just wouldn’t seem to be worth caring about, but I think I understand why people do care.
 

  Ten or more years ago people wouldn’t really have been that bothered with a few exceptions. I think the problem now is that people are seeing changes happen in this Country, which genuinely makes them feel they have little control over things, things which used to be just plain common sense are now being challenged and changed. 

 There’s been incredible changes to institutions in this country, a Police Force who are supposed to be Policing by Consent and who are not supposed to show any affiliation to any particular side, can now be seen doing just that. I could go on. 
 It’s telling that it’sNike that people are getting up in arms about, because to many they represent unwanted change, many Companies have become political and I believe that’s what people oppose. If you like it’s another straw on the camels back of unwanted change. For want of a better word they’re actually getting “triggered” by what to others may be a seemingly small thing, but it’s really, just another straw. 
 

 It’s strange that in a climate where identity politics is the rallying call of companies like Nike, that they’d see no problem in taking what some people consider part of their identity, (which is common the world over, a flag) and change it. 
 

On 22/03/2024 at 09:37, SecretSam said:

Don't you think those people you think are being "included" (who are they, BTW?) might also be proud to be English?

 On that premise then every flag of every nation, should be changing to include all those who consider themselves of that Country, but aren’t in fact a native or are a different colour. 

  I don’t understand why a flag is “exclusive” as opposed to “inclusive”? Otherwise you have to apply that at all nations’ flags don’t you?

On 22/03/2024 at 09:32, ChippenhamRed said:

Nothing to do with “inclusion”. Just an artistic version to align with the design and colour palette on the shirt.

Linking it to “inclusion” is just your own projection.

Tbf “inclusive “ was Nike’s word not RobboRed’s so clearly not RR’s own projection. 

4 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

I think for me it’s more what’s said and less of how he says it. 
 

I’m not as worked up as some on the “emotion” piece or even things I take the piss out of like “cat and mouse” and “biggest bit” - my broader concern is that in these (both club and presser), he’s indicated a few things which are contrary to what we’re seeing - the playing well 19 games out of 20, him not being able to impact games (he doesn’t but he is able).

If you move away from the buzzword bullshit bingo and into what substance there is, there are red flags everywhere- he believes what he’s doing is right and going well in spite of all contrary evidence.

I agree the chat GPT stuff doesn’t help. But for me what helps less is what is behind that - and for me that’s (ahem) “the biggest bit”

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

That’s me too…it’s what he says in relation to what he’s seeing versus what I’m seeing (and you too by the seems of it).  Nige wasn’t much beyond monotone either, but what he said was insightful, and imho resonated with what I was seeing on the pitch.  Manning appears to be watching a slightly different game, somewhat through rose-tinted specs.  I think he struggles with levelling off what a good performance is, and then what level of performance is needed to win games.  Saying “we’ve been in every game” or stuff like that, is a bit misleading.  We are playing a low-scoring sport.  Leeds (h) was a game where we were in it, purely because they only scored once, but that doesn’t level out to mean it was a good performance.  I know he said we weren’t “at it” that game, just using it to make a general point.

   I’m with you. We all know that his interview style and/or his personality emotion etc would have no bearing whatsoever, if we were winning games or that what he said seemed justifiable and provable. 
   I accept we’re not managers but seeing as we have, our team playing in this way week after week and listen to his account of each game basically being a carbon copy of the game before it really starts to get frustrating. 

  I think possibly his lack of insight into his own role in how they play, is the thing that really gets me along with his seeming inability to make effective changes in game time.  Yes, players need to be accountable, but if was all down to players we wouldn’t really need coaches/managers. 

  And if we’re talking about honesty and bravery, you could certainly see that in NPs interviews, even if he was a bit tetchy at times. 
 

On 25/03/2024 at 17:13, Davefevs said:

These were my notes, similar to Silvio.

For me, and of course I’ve now made my mind up, so some bias - he’s holding these players back.  When they play to his game plan we are dog-shit, when we let them do what they’re good at, we are a reasonable outfit.

Yes and I LM is realising why NP gave up trying to got them into round holes but instead played to their strengths. 
 

 There will exceptions but generally when we’ve played better, it’s because we’ve not played LM’s style of football.