Ian M

1 hour ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

I was a little surprised to hear this too

However having watched it back if you listen very carefully JL very quietly mentions that AG is part of Bristol Citu holdings. 

My recollection is that he handed it over to "Group CEO" Gavin Marshall to explain better but when Gavin was not really answering the question asked, JL questioned "it's under Bristol City Holdings right?".

I don't know whether he was being subservient to the group CEO in his tone or whether I am more sure of our corporate structure more than our chairman is. To be honest I'm not sure which I'd prefer it to be.

Just now, Malago said:

You’d be difficult employee if your employer went out of their way to undermine you at every turn.

I agree. I’m just calling the situation for what it is (in my eyes).

The answer I liked the most from Liam all evening was his answer to a question about loans.

He spoke of creating depth charts for each position (why don’t we have these already?) and if we see we have a good prospect in the Academy that might be ready in 2 years, that might be a prime opportunity for a loan so as not to block a pathway.

When he says he’s obsessive, I believe him and despite having the lesser title of “Head Coach” I think he can still continue what Nige started and have an influence / improve our overall football operations.

32 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. But it’s late and I might not be that sharp!

Top 6 was never the expectation for this squad.

Comfortable mid-table, pushing top half is.

I think it’s clear the Lansdowns had a personality clash with Nigel.

If you have a difficult employee and he isn’t exceeding expectations, why keep them?

So, for Nige, the target was promotion.

For Liam, it isn’t. (That’s not to say he won’t try or achieve it)

It was only in the immediate aftermath of Nige being removed that they spoke of challenging “at the top end” of the table, every interview situation since, starting from the Friday after, they have talked about progression instead, no hard targets.

3 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

I haven’t listened to it yet but I’m glad that to many he doesn’t sound like a fraud from the beginning. Unlike some others. 
 

If he can get something on Wednesday many will have to at least give him half a chance to get us close to top six with a squad JL has told us and him should be there. 

That was only the target for Nige to be allowed to continue in role. Every chance since then they have dialled back expectations.

Whether it was the more relaxed setting or the comparison with those alongside him on the top table, I thought he displayed a quality that hadn’t been at the forefront to this point, charisma.

As good as someone can be from a technical aspect, personal skills are also key in a leader and I feel more confident in him than I did already before tonight.

3 hours ago, Sir Geoff said:

Or..if the crowd hadn't got on his back a couple of minutes earlier for going backwards, yet again. Nothing to do NP.

I was wondering at the time if the players had worked out they could create a little space in that pocket that TGH received the ball as Knight had had similar time and space a couple of minutes earlier in near enough the same spot.

11 minutes ago, pillred said:

I suppose you would get a good view from 39,000 feet :laugh:.

Not with my eye-sight.

5 hours ago, Northern Red said:

A proper threat from set pieces too, not had that for a while.

Actually, only Cardiff and Millwall better our 7 goals from set pieces this season.

Unfortunately, only Sheffield Wednesday have fewer open play goals than our 9.

12 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

First Vyner steal I remember first half was on the edge of 18 (think it’s on the Sky highlights as first item) so I’d have to disagree there. What I think it does do - if we’re going to play this way (and I agree with @The turtle on another thread that I think it may not be accepted based on the clubs DNA) is bring Max further into focus. His distribution remained poor today - notably one where there was an easy Tanner ball but he played a dodgy ball to Dickie, and the “floaty” distribution remained. If we’re playing it around more and out from the back then his weakest suit becomes all the more apparent and I wouldn’t be shocked to see Beadle about in January.

You do raise a very important question though - if Manning did expect the higher press to happen, the players didn’t follow instructions. That may be again because they’re being asked to do something that (as yet) they’re not comfy with.

 

Wasn't that more a case of Zak's touch being heavy when intercepting rather than overplaying?

Anis grew in confidence the longer he was on today. Hopefully Manning is the man to get him firing as he has the raw ingredients to be a superstar for us.

1 minute ago, Midred said:

Is the option to buy a fixed price or is he getting more expensive? 

Price is agreed already.

3 hours ago, downendcity said:

Because he's not the person that we, or more importantly SL, appointed.

It's no different with player signings. We sign player x and then we get a load of posts saying how bad player x and that we should have signed player y, who is performing better for someone else. That is, of course, until we eventually sign player y, who then morphs into player x once he's here!

Manning's had one game in charge , and that after what, only 2 days with the players? I am convinced that some on here secretly want us to crash and burn under Manning, if only to prove and justify their argument about SL and NP's sacking, although they would of course deny such an accusation, as "no City fan ever wants the team to lose". 

I've said before, that had Manning been appointed by Millwall or another championship rival ( I've read independent comments that Manning was being closely followed by a number of decent championship clubs), all those knocking him would probably be posting that he's just the sort of young, forward thinking manager that we should be appointing, but because he's SL's appointment, and SL is the man who sacked NP then.................

 

Speaking as one of the "SL was wrong to sack NP" posters, can I just say that of all the candidates we could have thereafter appointed, Manning was my number 1 pick. 

No back-tracking for me, it will be here, quotable, probably by MRR, whenever anyone chooses to in the future

The problem with pigeon-holing people is there are vastly different opinions within each group you (general you, not you you downendcity) create. It's why I pay no heed to people accusing us of being a fickle bunch, we often are not, it's just different people being vocal at different times depending on circumstances.

7 minutes ago, Robbored said:

Joking apart - what does gbt actually mean?

No idea.

GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer though.

FA Cup: Barnsley expelled for fielding ineligible player in first-round replay - BBC Sport

Easy for the FA to kick Barnsley out for breaking this rule. 

I note they weren't so keen to act vs West Ham.

39 minutes ago, Genghis Khan's pants said:

Wow - 17pts from 10 games and a very respectable 3rd in their group - yes, 2 wins against Liechtenstein helps but anyone know any reason for such a "good" campaign (I seem to remember them getting the odd draw or even win over the years but nothing like this time round)

I made the same observation, finishing ahead of Iceland and Bosnia. Seems they are no longer the automatic whipping boys they once were.

2 hours ago, YorksRed said:

And referring to football as an “industry”.

.....and whoever thought winning "matches" was too ambiguous and decided to introduce "games of football" to the football manager's lexicon.

4 hours ago, wendyredredrobin said:

As someone who is not easily impressed, I thought Rico Lewis had a great debut and at 19 he can only get better.  I've not seen him before but if that performance is indicative of what he can do, then he looks like a future England no. 1 LB to me.

What further impressed me was that he didn't seem phased by the ridiculous penalty decision given against him either and just carried on impressing. He didn't put a foot wrong all night and his decision making was excellent.

I can only imagine what he will look like in a couple of years with a little more experience, confidence and physical strength.

It's a pity the same could not be said for the rest of the team who looked tactically inept.

But other than all that, what else does he even do? Unconvinced

4 hours ago, cotswoldred2 said:

Best thing is lie low for a few weeks...things move fast on here , memories are short.

I dunno, I saw someone refer to @Marina's Rolls Royce as the "Matt Smith is Awful" guy last week 

Does that take us off the bottom of the group now?

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

In the studio tonight and BBCRB are soliciting questions. Unclear if fans will get the opportunity to ask in person, or if Liam will walk out in disbelief after Tony Wilkins gets through.

 

Am I the only one who thinks he bears more than a passing resemblance to Neil Patrick Harris?

1 hour ago, Robbored said:

The writing was one the wall long before Nige was actually sacked. I bumped into Jon Lansdown a few weeks ago in a cafe in Nailsea and I mentioned that Nige ought to given a new contract as imo he was doing a good job. 

JLs reactive body language told me immediately that Nige’s days were numbered but he clearly didn’t want to talk about it. 

There was obviously something going on behind the scenes that we fans wouldn’t be aware of probably going back to last season - a clash of personalities seems likely ……….

I really wonder what the Lansdowns expect when City’s better players are sold and very little, if any of that revenue is ploughed back into the squad. Add to that the incapacitating injuries to key players and yet they still want to be a force in the Championship.

Everyone knows that the winter window is not the time to do business but possibly Manning might want to bring an Oxford player or two - it’ll be interesting to see if he gets licence to do that or maybe ‘advised’ to wait to the summer window.

 

 

 

Suddenly the sacking of Pearson makes more sense. As a regular reader of OTIB, Jon immediately thought "if Robbored thinks we need to keep Nige then we'd better get rid ASAP!"

1 hour ago, maxjak said:

 

 

Sorry, but what you failed to mention,  is that if you are a season ticket holder and you do not turn up for a home match, you and your entire extended family are summarily executed.

Cutting their heads off to spite their face?

1 hour ago, chinapig said:

According to Transfermarkt Al-Nassr's stadium has a capacity of 26,000 and their average attendance in 23/24 is 20,033. In which case I assume we are among the most popular clubs in the world as well.

In which case I hereby withdraw all criticism of the club hierarchy.

If they played in UEFA competitions they’d have to adhere to FFP regulations. That includes sponsorship deals rated at market rate. So good luck squaring off Ronaldo’s £173m a year wages on crowds of 20k.

1 minute ago, bcfc01 said:

Yep.

Inevitable.

Whilst I won’t think this was fair on Nige, I don’t plan to give the club shit for it as having made the decision to switch and lacking players to adapt to the desired style, it would be insane not to back him in January! 

I fully expect the board to back Manning in January, sorry I do of course mean “bring forward Summer business”, if nothing else to try and prove themselves right with the change of hierarchy.

With that in mind I think the central midfield is the area that potentially limits us the most from what @Harry described as how Manning has had his previous teams playing, I’ll call it Manningball. This area also sees a few contracts expiring in the Summer I believe, so would also make sense in a “bringing forward Summer business” point of view.

That would also give us the remainder of the season to see how the rest of the positions adjust to Manningball once we have midfielders able to cope with that style and can potentially provide clarity to our actual Summer business.

I am thinking a CM and a CAM, possibly a second CM too if they don’t feel they have any midfielders within the club able to fulfil the CM roles.