chinapig

Yep, the Lansdowns like having their egos stroked. Nigel was never going to follow his predecessors and say how wonderful they are on a weekly basis.

I took some time to parse that first sentence with its double negative and I think it means he was reinforcing what they already know! I don't have a problem with jargon as most jobs have that but I do have a problem with lack of clarity. But let's face it most football managers aren't very articulate public communicators so I'll ignore the word salad in the hope that he communicates more clearly with the players.

Yes, his first season there, when he was constantly bigging himself up, was a failure. My sense is that the owners reined him in so he was less involved in football matters and certainly doing less of the self love. In our case Steve let him run riot with dire consequences. Though Steve will never admit that of course.

Furthermore you have to have a plan to deal with counterattacks. Coaches who prioritise control e.g. Guardiola do this. Manning is no doubt familiar with the jargon "rest defence" where the first priority is to set yourself up to handle any counterattack. It's not enough to say we are vulnerable to counterattacks and leave it at that. Though as you say you need to have players who can implement the plan.

I'm certainly not going to judge Manning so early in his tenure. But I do have a nagging concern that he is one of those modern coaches who does what he thinks are funky things that show how sophisticated he is. It might help if he explained his rationale for some apparently odd decisions. Time will tell no doubt.

Perhaps but that doesn't apply to Gardner-Hickman today. If nothing else it doesn't give a player an incentive to play well if he is likely to be dropped anyway.

Nigel was clear that if you play well you keep your place. That no longer seems to apply.

More than 2 days and @Monkehwould have been de-conditioned though.

I see Will Still is on their shortlist. There again so is Kieran McKenna, hardly a realistic target. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/dec/05/reims-will-still-on-sunderlands-shortlist-to-replace-tony-mowbray-as-manager

'When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty Jon Lansdown said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

Jonathan Liew has written a good piece on this using us as an example of the considerable downside. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/dec/05/womens-football-must-be-wary-of-following-mens-game-into-financial-cesspit The WSL is surely going to end up like the PL, which I doubt will be good news for us.

If he truly knows what we are about as a club he wouldn't touch us with a bargepole.

Looks like getting the excuses in early: 'nothing to with me guv, the last guy left behind a poor mindset and culture'. Sorry Liam but you signed up to the proposition that we were going to play aggressive front foot football and had a top end squad. There was no mention of the need for a culture change. If you have now decided that you were sold a false prospectus take it up with the hierarchy and don't blame it on the players. Motivating players is hard, demotivating them is easy.

It seems to me that sometimes modern coaches do something they think is funky because they believe it shows how sophisticated they are. Quite what Manning thought playing Sykes ludicrously out of position would achieve defeats me. Sometimes you have to play people out of position as a necessity but that wasn't the case today. I hope it's a one off.

Well, JL says the players were de-conditioned but LM was impressed with how fit they are. Personally I'm not inclined to argue with Jon's expertise in all things football so Liam obviously doesn't know what he is talking about.

Reportedly he will be given control of the football operation in return for a 25% stake. Whether that gives him any incentive to buy out the Glazers is open to question. Though, typically of the Glazers, a deal that was supposed to be imminent weeks ago is now dragging on. It seems pretty clear that the Glazers don't want to sell 100% of their shares unless they get a ridiculous offer - up to £10b has been mooted.

But Steve apparently thinks that we can raise £25m a year from selling a never ending supply of academy gems so we can compete in the Championship.

Always apply the Paxman 'why is this lying barsteward lying to me?' approach. It was always obvious that the nest egg was being kept for the next man. The last thing they wanted was to let Nigel spend a bit of money because the risk was that he might succeed. They couldn't have that could they?

Is that the great Tom Finney to John's left?

The PL have responded to Andy Burnham's claim of an abuse of process. They're right of course to point out that they were entitled to propose a sanction and their rationale for it but that the commission were entitled to reject it. This does not amount to changing the rules on the fly since the PL does not have fixed tariffs because the clubs, including Everton, didn't want them. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/29/premier-league-denies-burnhams-claim-of-abuse-of-process-in-everton-case

But we are at the limit of our wage budget, or so Nigel was told it seems, so surely we can't sign any players? If they're going to lie they could at least be consistent.

Perhaps we will suddenly be told that we are not at the limit of our wage budget after all. Though maybe not, it's not as if the club would lie to us. Would they?

Unfortunately Nectar points don't count as revenue for FFP purposes. In any event if we signed a player with Nectar points how on earth would we amortize the cost?

So by your logic if we lose the next two games he would be a failure? If we had lost his first two games I wouldn't be writing him off as it's far too soon to judge him a success or a failure.

So the club talks about sustainability then sends Scott to shop at Sainsbury's? Why aren't we using Aldi or Lidl so we can build up a shopping nest egg? Someone should be sacked for this disgrace. Though not the person actually responsible obviously.