chinapig

In which case shouldn't it have been easy to counter them?

Either they were lying or they really believed what they said. Whichever it is they are condemned out of their own mouths as not fit for the roles they fill.

Lansdown and Tinnion made a rod for Liam's back with all the bollox they spouted to justify sacking Nigel. But he will be made accountable if things don't improve. They will carry on happily in their fantasy world without batting an eyelid. It's what they do.

Thanks Dave. It seems to me that this just makes his comments even more egregious since he ought to know better. Especially if he is involved with Plymouth, one of the best run clubs around. Perhaps they ought to be giving him advice instead of vice versa.

I'm repeating myself perhaps but this is just another person who doesn't seem to know that the regs, old and new, were approved by the clubs. The reason some clubs and supporters are panicking now is that they didn't think the rules would ever be applied. The Everton case and the prospect of the independent regulator seems to have concentrated minds. Let them squirm I say!

Typical, all crowding around the ball at once. The under-8s weren't much better mind you.

Correct. We abandoned our youth policy when we were promoted so binned them off. Bad move.

We offered Chesterfield £350k but were turned down.

I love a classy defender more than any other kind of player and they don't come classier than him. Beckenbaur, Moore, Krol, Hansen, Maldini. All heroes of mine in the long lost days of my youth. RIP Der Kaiser.

You can tell Nick Ames isn't a Bristol Sport employee as he didn't feel the need to slag off Nigel or say how great JL and BT are.

From Nick Ames in The Guardian: Liam Manning has been talked about for some time as one of the country’s most promising young managers and the 38-year-old, a former manager of West Ham’s Under-23 side, gave a taste of his style on his return to east London. After a tentative start Bristol City were ambitious, slick and inventive, causing serious problems with their overloads out wide and rotations in the middle. It remains to be seen whether Manning, whose players clearly heeded his half-time call for bravery, can lead the Robins into the top six of a typically madcap second tier in which five points separate sixth spot from 14th, and there is certainly the sense they require more cutting edge. But Tommy Conway’s wonderfully worked equaliser seemed a sign of things to come and if Manning is backed, then perhaps he is the man to turbo-charge a club that routinely falls short of its considerable potential.

Liam has talked about how fit the players are, how together they are and so on. These strengths are down to Nigel and his team but let's face it if Liam was to say that it would not go down well with the hierarchy. If they had any class they would have thanked Nigel and Richard Gould for turning the club around but that would be to admit that they got the club in a mess in the first place. Unfortunately the club is not run by people with that kind of honesty or class.

He's expected to sign a new contract soon. Better get it done before we thrash them in the replay.

Oh no you didn't!

I'm not at all surprised. It seems typical of their woolly thinking if it didn't occur to them that somebody might be both a rugby and a football fan. As we have seen with Tinnion recently it also shows a lack of professional discretion.

It's an insult to our intelligence and when they keep trotting out every week how great the fans are it smacks of insincerity. You'd think by now they'd have realised we are not as gullible as they think. Especially since SL has long made it clear what he thinks of the fans and it isn't that we are great.

For once the word legend is not an exaggeration. I don't expect to see anything more beautiful in football than his 1970 team. It wasn't just about Pele so it's good to see the likes of Gerson and Tostao get a mention. The way Zagallo got them playing was a joy to behold.

Self-interested ***** was the phrase I think. You're right of course but there is also conflict between PL clubs because the big ones want all clubs to put the same fixed amount into the pot whereas the smaller ones want the contribution to be based on each club's revenue. It's hard to see a resolution until the independent regulator is in business.

Check out yesterday's PoF podcast to hear Kieran Maguire quote a senior person at a Championship club about the Premier League. Let's just say it wasn't complimentary!

Well he did say maths wasn't his strong point! It might help him if you showed your workings though Dave. Write on one side of the paper etc....

Richard Gould is a hugely respected sports administrator and has a much higher status than Tinnion. As soon as the ECB were looking for a CEO he was hot favourite especially as his former boss at Surrey CCC is the Chairman. Fortunately we had the benefit of his skills in turning the club around before we lost him but it's no different to Scott leaving for the Premier League. Though we don't need a CEO anyway because Tinnion is growing into the job according to Jon. We'll see in time how well Brian does and whether he is head hunted by a bigger club but he was hardly likely to turn down the Technical Director job in the absence of other offers.

What Everton fans, and indeed fans of other clubs, don't seem to get is that the Premier League is not some separate body it's an association of clubs with 20 members. The PL Executive cannot introduce any regulations without the clubs' approval. In fact the Executive proposed a sliding scale of sanctions but the clubs, including Everton, rejected it. If it had been passed my guess is that they would have had fewer points deducted. What they also don't get is that the Everton case was straightforward (once they belatedly admitted their breach) whereas the Man City case involves 115 more serious charges going back years so is very complex. The submissions in the Everton case reportedly had 30,000 pages. Imagine the amount of documentation in the City case then. Oh, and if they can't meet the timetable (which aims to deal with a breach before the end of the season) they either need better accounting processes, better staff or both.

Barney Ronay makes a very good case with his usual humour. As he says, the enablers of Wayne and their kind are the real problem. This bit made me laugh though: Only last week Steven Gerrard could be heard urging the owners of Al-Ettifaq to finally get their wallets out or risk failing to maximise his own managerial brilliance.

But that is a different matter. I was responding to you saying 'Why does everyone keep thinking we're likely to get top 6?' You'd be hard pressed to find fans who think anything of the sort. Perhaps JL and BT have to believe it is true so they can convince themselves they have made the right decisions. We're not so easily persuaded.

Nobody does. Unless by everyone you mean JL and BT who seem to pretty much alone in their opinion.