Did Steve Lansdown Get It Right And The Fans / Board Get It Wrong?

[bcfcnick]

It was reported at the time that Steve Lansdown favoured appointing Mark Robbins. Apparently he was impressed with him as a person when he had a brief but productive spell as a player at City.

The majority of fans including myself wanted to see Derek Mcinnes appointed. There is little doubt that Colin Sexstone did as well. The board also put a lot of emphasis on the research and extensive due diligence they did in choosing the right candidate.

I expect SL wanted to give the board the freedom to appoint their candidate as he had already emphasised he felt it was healthy for him to take a step away the from day to day running of the Club. There's no doubt that SL has made a few poor personnel judgement calls but I suspect his instinct in going for Mark Robbins for this appointment would have turned out to be inspired. Steve gets a lot of stick for various appointments but maybe to attach blame for this one is unfair.

Ultimately it will be his decision on whether to stick with DM or look for a new inspirational appointment. SL for reasons of caution and decency is not a sacking owner. He was reluctant to sack BT and deoicted it as BT throwing in the towel and he had little choice with GJ. So I think SM is pretty safe for this season and, if it comes to it, at least until Christmas in League 1 next year.

Derek has had ample time, budget and out of contract situations to enable him to mould a team that can achieve a upper mid-table position. The amount of space and respect given to Derby made us look like a ill-prepared conference team in the FA cup playing a much higher league team trying to cause an upset and nick a result by playing route one football. Perhaps our central midfield and defence deserved to be by-passed with hopeful punts aimed at Taylor from Heaton but if that's the case then the manager must take the blame for failing to strengthen. Hopefully things can be turned round but if a manager sees his defence concede a tonne of goals for nearly half the season yet doesn't instruct them to close down on the opposition then that doesn't inspire much hope for me. He'll stay for the season so I hope that I turn out to be wrong.

[bs3]

I was against DM getting the job . DM was not the fans choice as some people would have you believe.

[pride of the west]

Whos to say robins wouldnt have taken us down and cocked things right up?

[BS15_RED]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="pride of the west" data-cid="1682683" data-time="1355688360"><p>

Whos to say robins wouldnt have taken us down and cocked things right up?</p></blockquote>

Nothing, although the job he did at Barnsley, and appears to be doing at Coventry would suggest that he would of done a decent job here.

[Alex_BCFC]

I was in favour in Robins but was in a minority. I was still OK with the McInnes appointment though.

Looks like he is doing a decent job at Coventry so far and did well at Barnsley and Rotherham I thought.

[Welcome To The Jungle]

I was in favour of DMC.

[City fan 1982]

i wanted o driscoll., however im backing del, has his faults like any boss including fergie !! look at the gas 5 managers in the space of a couple of years and now look where they are . if we sack del and get someone else in , and the new boss gets us promoted ,del could have done the same job without the cost of sacking backroom staff etc

[slartibartfast]

Er... Cov are a L1 side !

[hippy273]

Even though Dave Jones never applied i still think we should have approached him, i suspect Sheffield Wednesday will pull away full steam ahead come the January transfer window.

[CiderArmyy]

I was in massive favour of Del, and was in awe in the things he said when he first came to the club. like alot of people..

But with Mark robins in charge IMO we would reach positions like 15-18th each season with a mild push for midtable.. Oh how i'd take that now

[Fuber]

Wouldve been O'Driscoll for me, due to the way donny simply played against us in the 5-2 trouncing under GJ i think? Not Sure, but he showed that with the right style of football and a very limited budget (the only major signing being Billy Sharp for £1m) was one of the key factors for me at the time, and wasnt too sure with DMC, due to the factor that it was the SPL, simple as really... And before people say the best Managers are scottish, yes this is primarily true, but how many failures have their been? McGhee for one...

[Alex_BCFC]

Er... Cov are a L1 side !

Not sure what your point is? He took over about 15 games ago and Coventry are in a huge mess off the field.

[Bowie]

Robins or McInnes - both we're the cheap option. Neither were with an substantial Championsip experience, if anything we went for the LEAST experience.

But hey Dave Jones, O'Driscoll why employ someone who knows what they are doing at this level.

SL and CS have made a number of duff management appointments but can also point to Gary Johnson, Coppell was a good appointment and the right one, but we know how that ended and hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Now we have Lansdown Jr utterly inexperienced in life, football and business, who is playing real life football manager with daddies money and making things even worse.

[old_eastender]

It was reported at the time that Steve Lansdown favoured appointing Mark Robbins. Apparently he was impressed with him as a person when he had a brief but productive spell as a player at City.

The majority of fans including myself wanted to see Derek Mcinnes appointed. There is little doubt that Colin Sexstone did as well. The board also put a lot of emphasis on the research and extensive due diligence they did in choosing the right candidate.

I expect SL wanted to give the board the freedom to appoint their candidate as he had already emphasised he felt it was healthy for him to take a step away the from day to day running of the Club. There's no doubt that SL has made a few poor personnel judgement calls but I suspect his instinct in going for Mark Robbins for this appointment would have turned out to be inspired. Steve gets a lot of stick for various appointments but maybe to attach blame for this one is unfair.

Ultimately it will be his decision on whether to stick with DM or look for a new inspirational appointment. SL for reasons of caution and decency is not a sacking owner. He was reluctant to sack BT and deoicted it as BT throwing in the towel and he had little choice with GJ. So I think SM is pretty safe for this season and, if it comes to it, at least until Christmas in League 1 next year.

Derek has had ample time, budget and out of contract situations to enable him to mould a team that can achieve a upper mid-table position. The amount of space and respect given to Derby made us look like a ill-prepared conference team in the FA cup playing a much higher league team trying to cause an upset and nick a result by playing route one football. Perhaps our central midfield and defence deserved to be by-passed with hopeful punts aimed at Taylor from Heaton but if that's the case then the manager must take the blame for failing to strengthen. Hopefully things can be turned round but if a manager sees his defence concede a tonne of goals for nearly half the season yet doesn't instruct them to close down on the opposition then that doesn't inspire much hope for me. He'll stay for the season so I hope that I turn out to be wrong.

Excellent and thought provoking post... and for the record I wanted Del not Robbins too... but sadly think history will show this to be a bad choice.

[Ciderstreet]

I wanted to continental Dennis berkamp for me

[Kingswood Robin]

Not all of us wanted McInnes.

Some of us were left scratching our heads and thinking who the hell is this bloke. I still am.

50% approval rating! Have you all been going to the games? I question whether some of the football is even professional standard. We couldn't even sort out throw-ins yesterday. I don't care how many managers we've had, this can't continue, he's got to go. The board has to put it's hand up and admit it's got it wrong again.

[Mendip City]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Kingswood Robin" data-cid="1682812" data-time="1355700594"><p>

Not all of us wanted McInnes.<br />

<br />

Some of us were left scratching our heads and thinking who the hell is this bloke. I still am.<br />

<br />

50% approval rating! Have you all been going to the games? I question whether some of the football is even professional standard. We couldn't even sort out throw-ins yesterday. I don't care how many managers we've had, this can't continue, he's got to go. The board has to put it's hand up and admit it's got it wrong again. </p></blockquote>

Well said

[CiderArmyy]

I was definatly an `in` man and was extremely excited when he came down here. The only worry was he'd make us Bristol McCity and bring too many scotch players down.

I should of seen through it.

[REDOXO]

I was against DM getting the job . DM was not the fans choice as some people would have you believe.

I am afraid DM was the majority fans choice by a long way! However if you asked a single one of them I dont think they would know why...I certainly dont!!!

I am sure he was a rock star interview an had Sir Alex in waiting written all over him, but we now know St J, were the Dog N Duck in disguise and clearly the bloke is clueless.....We have & SEVEN CB's and none of them any good and we leak goals for fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I stated on another thread his remit was keep us in this league and this remit did not end in May....I bought squad players was McAnus' comment when reffering to Anderson Morris et al....What bollox its not as if Morris was close....Bikey kept us up and we brought in Anderson/Morris among other 'NON STARTERS' what do people want at this stage!! Even the McInness clapers know its up by Jan 1.......FO DM while we still have a chance! Millen got sacked for a better record than You!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Eddie Hitler]

I wanted Robins but didn't think he was any kind of wonder appointment. As CiderArmy said he most likely would have given us mid-table obscurity for a few years which would have suited me fine after the chaos.

I was perfectly happy with McInnes being appointed though; I didn't regard it as a big mistake.

[TBW]

I wanted Mourinho.

[Robin Reliant]

I wanted to continental Dennis berkamp for me

Dennis still doesn't fly, so he'd have been no good once we got into Europe. Er......

[Chappers]

Close call but i preferred Robins, seems to focus on fitness and organisation, and with a squad of limited talent, those qualities are important.

[fgrsimon]

The key decider should have been Mark Robin's experience at keeping Barnsley in the Championship on a limited budget.

Unfortunately it seems that the deciding factor was Derek's charisma which if I'm honest about it, was why I thought he was the best choice.

[bcfcnick]

I guess with hindsight the board (and fans like me) in terms of looking at the wrong tick boxes such as ... scotish manager (must be good), reasonable success in a Scotish league, good interviewee etc etc.

Derek does talk well ... notice his current spin on the likes of Jody Morris being needed as a back-up squad player compared to his comment when he signed :- "Jody has excellent experience as well as superb fitness levels and I know he is capable of performing well in the Championship on a regular basis." There are too many poor judgement issues like this for my liking and I fear that Derek's gift of the gab and spin may help extend his time here when a change would be for the best.

Some managers just fit well with a club and I think Steve Lansdown's hunch was right and Mark Robbins would have been a very good choice. Colin Sexstone and the board seemed to approach it like a corporate headhunt but in football maybe a hunch or gut feeling has just a good a chance if not better of success than the tick box approach.

[bcfcnick]

It's a bit of a mystery what makes a good football manager - charisma can play a part with the likes of Cloughy and Mourhinio but Liverpool had the boot room tradition with successful managers like Fagan and Paisely who were far from great talkers or charismatic personalities. Some seem to get success from the sheer force of their personality - Holloway and Warnock being examples and others such as Sean O'driscoll are quiet types with decent coaching ability. A lot of it comes down to luck or being brave with appointments - Swindon with di Canio is one example whilst others have decided to appoint the physio and had great success.

[poland_red]

I don't think del has been given 'ample time' as you put it. He was appointed when, in mid-october last year to a team staring at relegation. he saved us from that. He's then had one close season - that's not a huge amount of time to turn a team of losers into a high mid-table outfit. He's been in charge for 14 months or so and half the fans on here want him out. That's not the most patient, long term vision.

[Pete1975Legend]

Dave Jones should of got the job DMc and robins shouldn't even of entered the fray.

Jones had proven pedigree at this level but we went cheap and now we are seeing the fallout

[LondonBristolian]

I'll admit that I favoured McInnes once the final set of candidates was rumoured but, even at the time, I never really understood the level of opposition to Robins - there seemed to be lots of people who thought he'd be a disaster and I couldn't really see why.

That said, we just don't know what would have happened last season with a different manager. Maybe if we'd appointed Robins or Jones or whoever we'd be much further up the table by now or maybe we'd be in League One. We just don't know.

[Frank Reynolds]

Anybody scratching their heads asking who Derek McInnes is, has absolutely no idea about football.

Any manager can fail at a club they're not suited to. Fergie at St. Mirren, Benitez at Inter, Hodgson at Liverpool etc. etc.

I think Dave Jones would have been a step back into the dark ages, and I think his career from now will show that. O'Driscoll would have been a good appointment, but the fans who expect 'hand grenades' everytime a pass is misplaced would have been upset.

I was for McInnes appointment, and I'll continue to support him. I think that the man can have a successful career, despite his inauspicious start with us. Many people have positive things to say about him, and if he can tweak a few things (like loyalty to an out of form captain, say!) then I think he'll be great.