Scrumpty

After securing a lucrative contract extension, agent Martin has finally gone about his assignment. Gain the Gashead’s trust, then take responsibility for passing his experience onto his fellow strikers. Seems to be going okay atm

On 07/04/2024 at 22:36, Open End Numb Legs said:

Any guesses as to what the bucket is for?

I doubt you're looking for serious answers, but I know exactly what that is. Its the ice bucket that housed the champagne for the 'staying up party' hastily arranged after the Gas won at Wycombe some time ago. For some reason, it didn't get used as intended and has been repurposed as the sh1tter for the executive lounge.

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Depends on whether you’re selling up or selling down to an extent. If Burnley want to keep him, selling down to us becomes their gift imho, not Twine’s…and it will mainly boil down to whether City pay the amount Burnley want.  That’s what happened in January.

City -we would like to sign Twine

Burnley - £5m

BC - how about £2.5m

BU- no, £5m

BC - how about a loan with £2.5m option to buy

BU - no, loan with £5m

Thats pretty much how it went I’m reliably informed.  Twine had no bargaining power.

2 hours ago, KegCity said:

I’ve been told for the last however many years that players hold all the power and that a club can’t stop an unhappy player leaving when I’ve complained about us selling players. What’s changed now?

Keg has a point, but so does Fevs.

Summer will be interesting.

BC - Here’s £2.5m, we know he’s not happy 

BU - We need him now, so it’s still £5m

BC - We get it, but you’ve p1ssed him off and he wants out, so £2.5m it is.

Twine has a big influence on how this plays out. Burnley will need him, but do they want an unhappy player? 
 

So, how much does Twine influence this play? If he still indicates that he wants out, it’ll undermine Burnley’s stance, no matter how long his contract is. Will be interesting to see the outcome. I suspect compromise will be key.

5 minutes ago, TDarwall said:

This may be an area where LM/NP have different approaches. Under Nige, if you got in & played well, you tended to hold the shirt irrespective of a)your age/experience & b) who you replaced. 

Pring has played loads of minutes so it would make sense to me, even if he's fit, to have him on the bench tomorrow & see how HR does against a different type of opponent.

Manning was questioned about this in his presser (how to encourage competition, then manage it). He confessed that its tricky.

If Haydon continues to do well, then perhaps it'll be Pring that has to fight for his place. Its a nice problem to have - certainly better than not having competition.

In a way, I hope that Pring doesn't get back in, as that's likely to mean that Haydon is doing very well and the team is winning. That said, it would be harsh on Pring who's probably been player of the season so far.

As a manager, you don't want anyone who's not first pick to be happy about it. The key though is how they channel their frustrations. In ideal world, they fight for their place, putting 100% into every training session, even if they know they won't be picked. Then, when their chance comes along, they grasp it, as Haydon has done. But he's potentially got a bigger (mental) challenge ahead - I suspect that, when fit, Pring starts. How will Haydon react to that? Hopefully, it will be 'positive frustration'. 

What you don't want as a manager is someone who's not happy and bangs on about it all the time, without doing what they can to resolve it, whilst undermining the team. Then looking for the easy way out. For reference, I'm not saying this is Haydon.

9 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

So , a lad that believes in himself & wants to play consistently , has possibly a questionable attitude according to you & there’s possibly a conspiracy theory in there as well .  

Would you be happier if he’s not bothered if he’s not starting ? 

I answered your question in my original post - there's absolutely nothing wrong with having confidence in one's ability and wanting to play. In fact, its commendable.

I don't have a conspiracy theory, other than its apparent that something wasn't quite right back in October when he was pulled off after 38 minutes for 'tactical' reasons - Pearson confirmed, at the time, that he wasn't injured. I imagine that he wasn't happy with that decision - and I don't blame him. 

The issue I have is with him wanting away in January. I accept that he wants to play games, but he's been here less than 6 months, so it feels premature to me, hence my doubts. I'd rather he stay and fight for his place which, to be fair, he has done.

"I hope it is okay to post this, and I did reach out to Davefevs last night to see if he knew anyone, as he always came across as a really decent gut to me, but he didn't really know anyone."

I know he's let himself go, but this seems a little harsh to me 

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

As I said in a few posts since Forest, I’m really pleased he’s come into the team and shown what he can do.  Pre-season he looked good.

I like his attitude too.

I’m not sold on his attitude. He’s not been here long, but wants out.

Ambition? Maybe.

But as others have suggested, he played, was very poor, got pulled, then mysteriously injured.

For me, there’s something not quite right. But then, he was excellent on Tuesday.

I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt - he’s confident in his ability and felt he was good enough to play. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But…

2 minutes ago, mozo said:

Maybe a bit of a mythbusting interview too when he talks about how he wants City to play, and his flexibility on formations. I think Manningball isn't quite what people think it is.

Agree, Manningball is more mindset than patterns or formations.

In an ideal world, we go two up early doors, then bring on James second half to control the game.

May be getting a little ahead of myself here!

1 minute ago, redkev said:

I hope twine does start , horses for courses , firstly James & Williams put in one hell of a shift Tuesday also both are not as creative as twine and if qpr sit in ( like we all think they will but we could be totally wrong ) we will need twine’s creativity. 

I agree, QPR will sit tight, we’ll need guile to break through. Twine’s more likely to provide that. However, Williams is on top of his game offensively, as well as defensively.

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

I'm seeing confirmation bias from you. 

You are indeed. Hopefully, I’m not fooling myself!

18 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Confident and articulate, yes….repetitive / “samey”, yes too.

As relationships build both ways between head-coach and press, we are getting more insight from him.

+++++

I said in his early interviews that he was downloading stuff on his favourite subject - his style / behaviours / principles, and therefore was on autopilot to an extent.

What we are now seeing is more challenging Qs, Qs about what has happened and why, and to be fair to him, he doesn’t miss a beat in his answers.  You replied “smart” above…undoubtedly so.  But also able to articulate it, he is genuine, he ain’t a coaching manual “bluffer” is he?

+++++

I still want to hear from “Hoggy” though.

Perception, again.

Negative perception = repetitive, samey 

Positive perception = consistent, focused 

I’m seeing ‘positive reinforcement’, establishing repeatable behaviour patterns.

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

I think in his short time here he has understood that whilst he may remove his emotions our team performs best when it plays to the emotions of the crowd. 

I think he's started to learn the power of a collective spirit. And to be fair to him he's never really managed a team that has had such a big and passionate fan base. 

Nah. There was far too much talk about behaviours and principles. He's now dropped all that talk. 

Perhaps he had a plan. Set out my behavioural principles so start with, move on once they’re understood.

This guy is smart.

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

A huge difference from when he first joined. 

He seems to have adapted which I like. Less of all that behaviour stuff. 

Sorry, have to disagree. I thought he was confident and articulate from day one. Perhaps the biggest change is perception.

56 minutes ago, BS3City said:

How can Wael of Fortune claim the stand was "planned financed and sorted before"?

Has he already forgotten the absolute farce surrounding the planning application last summer? Also, is it now "sorted"? I highly doubt it (judging by pictures I saw of cows roaming freely in the concourse ).

Habitual liars...

He lost me at the word ‘planned’, didn’t need to read on, obviously fictional.

To paraphrase Alf’s note…

Hey guys, we’re building houses on our training ground and, the best bit, we’re raising season ticket prices so you’ll be paying for them.
 

Gert lush innit.
 

Cheers me babbies, Alf 

33 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Pretty sure Liverpool is a city/region in its own right. Same as Bristol and most other large cities. Bristol isn't technically "in" any county.

Bristol has technically been in a county for a mere 650 years!

1 hour ago, WessexPest said:

I seldom see it mentioned but I feel a fair bit of rivalry with the Greens; they dislike both Bristol clubs a fair bit and it could be quite an Away day on Easter Monday.

Agree with @The Gasbuster re Blackburn. I’d say Preston are arguably a bigger club with a more prestigious history. Where would another BRFC be if it wasn’t for Jack Walker’s money 30 years ago? Their crowds are absolutely abysmal.

Disagree with you both re Blackburn, who have both more titles and FA Cups than PNE. PNE have never played in the Prem, let alone won it. I know they’re most recent title was money assisted, but you could argue that case for the majority of Prem titles tbf.

17 minutes ago, Tinmans Love Child said:

On that penalty save didn't Basso say after the game something like 'I asked God which way, he said right, I said thank you' or something like that or have I made it up?  I used to love the crowd copying the point to the skies behind him, great relationship between player and fans

I don’t remember the one from Henderson, but clearly recall the crucial one from Ben Watson (tipped onto the post). 

The crowd was interesting too 18,842 - we’ve come a long way since them (in some aspects)

I had Willie Gnonto once, cleared up with cream though.

Willy Boly though, different story

2 minutes ago, Leveller said:

Yet when the news emerged that Manchester United were signing him, the reaction was universal disbelief and laughter. We thought they’d signed the wrong chap. So clearly, despite his obvious flair, he didn’t do that well for us overall.

He had his moments (debut goal and York away), but in-between he was fuseless

14 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but are you getting the name mixed up with Billy Menmuir? He came to City with Gerry Gow and the Ritchie brothers and was apparently better than all of them, but got homesick and went back to Scotland. 

I'd suggest the 'better than all of them' bit was a bit of an exaggeration, baring in mind he achieved next to nothing after returning home, whereas Tom & Gerry went on to achieve legendary status.

12 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but are you getting the name mixed up with Billy Menmuir? He came to City with Gerry Gow and the Ritchie brothers and was apparently better than all of them, but got homesick and went back to Scotland. 

As opposed to Jock Manure, which is a description we could apply to just about every other Scot we've signed since (Mr Murray being the exception)

59 minutes ago, Sir Colby-Tit said:

After the collapse of the Fruit Market stadium, Rovers have announced exciting new plans for the Dried Fruit Arena.

They're just waiting for the developer to provide some dates for construction.

I call bullshit, they will never get planning persimmon