How Many Games Is That?

[BITW]

Twice more we throw away the lead and end up losing.

Has to be approaching 20 games since we won? (League)

'Transition' or not that's a ******* disgrace and I would imagine is the worst run in the entire football league!

Surely we're not the only team to semi rebuild this summer?!

It's going to be another very long season, shambolic.

[dilligaf]

Winless in 17 league games I think. Not sure now, I wasn't expecting to have to go this high!

[Kid in the Riot]

No league away win since 8th December 2012 is a pretty mental stat.

[slartibartfast]

NO ,it's EIGHT games without a win! Who gives a flying one about last season.

[Kingswood Robin]

No need to include last seasons results any more. If you want to be shocked, just look at this seasons league table.

I'm fed up with all this transition crap. No more excuses, another 3 goals conceded is just pathetic.

[Esmond Million's Bung]

NO ,it's EIGHT games without a win! Who gives a flying one about last season.

Well I would hope that SOD would give a flying one, because it sort of eats into his already over hyped over all record.

[fka dagest]

Only the SOD apologists still think last season doesn't count. When you form a basis of assessment on someone you take into account their entire service history. I suspect the truth is that SOD has the worst record of any manager we've had in the last decade.

Remember Gary Johnson? He inherited hell of a mess, We went through a transition, but I'm pretty sure he got it sorted within 3 months. Why does it take SOD 9+ months? Were things really that bad when he arrived? I don't think so.

[Maesknoll Red]

NO ,it's EIGHT games without a win! Who gives a flying one about last season.

Plenty of us do. Each of the last three seasons has got progressively worse, the pre season hype and hope has long since gone up in smoke and the general malaise that accompanied the end of last season is once more enveloping AG. Even the most optimistic, happy clappy fans are now being dragged into the pit of despair that is Bristol City and its rapid, toothless slide down the pyramid.

[BITW]

NO ,it's EIGHT games without a win! Who gives a flying one about last season.

Same bloke in charge, half the same team so it is relevant.

[old parkender]

What is this transition spiel anyway? Sod has been here what 9 months? Plenty of time to assess the squad, never made much attempt to stay in the championship, brought his own players in and had a full pre season to implement his preferred method of play on professional footballers, many with experience in higher leagues. It's not like he's asking a load of division 3 cloggers to start playing like Barcelona. Even if you disregard last seasons woeful efforts no league win in eight and letting goals in for fun is unacceptable.

The waffling excuses have to stop and quite simply he must galvanise HIS team to start solidly performing, if he can't then I see no future for Sean at the club.

[fka dagest]

What is this transition spiel anyway? Sod has been here what 9 months? Plenty of time to assess the squad, never made much attempt to stay in the championship, brought his own players in and had a full pre season to implement his preferred method of play on professional footballers, many with experience in higher leagues. It's not like he's asking a load of division 3 cloggers to start playing like Barcelona. Even if you disregard last seasons woeful efforts no league win in eight and letting goals in for fun is unacceptable.

The waffling excuses have to stop and quite simply he must galvanise HIS team to start solidly performing, if he can't then I see no future for Sean at the club.

The only thing missing to describe SOD's project is a proper title. What about The Five Year Plan? Presumably that's when we'll start to head up again after a long spiral down. Of course we could just keep going down and down

[RedM]

You have to take into account last seasons results at they seem to have a bearing on this. We've carried on the losing habit and the relegation gloom, even with a different set of players. To enforce my theory, when promoted into the Championship we almost achieved a further promotion didn't we with a few changes. Win or lose its a habit.

I've seen a lot of stats, matches since our last win etc but how many wins has SoD actually achieved with us, it can't be many? I can't believe he is that bad a manager or that our players are substandard either, so why it isn't working I don't know. Players who have previously worked with seem happy to join up with him again. He has bought in people he likes to work with into the management team.

Maybe we should forget about the long term plan for a while and just get a few ugly wins and points on the board

[Maesknoll Red]

You have to take into account last seasons results at they seem to have a bearing on this. We've carried on the losing habit and the relegation gloom, even with a different set of players. To enforce my theory, when promoted into the Championship we almost achieved a further promotion didn't we with a few changes. Win or lose its a habit.

I've seen a lot of stats, matches since our last win etc but how many wins has SoD actually achieved with us, it can't be many? I can't believe he is that bad a manager or that our players are substandard either, so why it isn't working I don't know. Players who have previously worked with seem happy to join up with him again. He has bought in people he likes to work with into the management team.

Maybe we should forget about the long term plan for a while and just get a few ugly wins and points on the board

Hes been in charge 31 games, won 8, of which three are cup games. 15 losses and 8 draws, not great is it.

League games are 28 played, 5 won, none this season.

The bare stats don't show potential, but its a results based business and unless something changes fairly quickly to see some wins on the board, the pressure of the threat of relegation will start to apply. It may be necessary to loan a couple of experienced heads in to bolster the squad, waiting until January maybe too late, it was last season.............

[RedM]

Ouch, if we carry on in that form...and there is no proof that we won't, or perhaps we might suddenly improve, who knows? We have long term injuries to Kelly and now Pearson, Taylor might be back soon but with such limited playing time over the past couple of years, who knows what he will be like and how long he will be fit to play (he does get lengthy injuries after all). Maybe we do look at loans and quickly, some experience for our youngsters to be guided by.

I'm worried about our keeper, I think SoD is being pigheaded here, he is busting a gut to prove he is right and sticking by him. I do think though he is possibly doing more harm and will ruin him if he isn't careful. Get the defence right and the rest will follow.

[chinapig]

John Maynard Keynes (no relation to Micky) said of economists claiming their pet theory would pay off in the long run that "Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead."

If your house is on fire you don't sit down and work out a plan for putting the fire out in 5 years time, or worse, how you are going to rebuild it having decided to let it burn to the ground. Yet that seems to have been club policy ever since SOD was appointed. Ignore the flames, sit back and and wait patiently in the hope that the fire will put itself out if only you have faith.

That metaphor got a bit strained didn't it?

[chinapig]

I'm worried about our keeper, I think SoD is being pigheaded here, he is busting a gut to prove he is right and sticking by him. I do think though he is possibly doing more harm and will ruin him if he isn't careful. Get the defence right and the rest will follow.

He's a football manager, they do not like to admit they are wrong and certainly not being told they are. SOD does not suffer fools gladly but comes across as regarding everybody but himself as a fool. Fair enough if you are a Ferguson or a Mourinho perhaps, less so for a 3rd division manager.

Most of them will carry on doing the same things over and over regardless of the outcome and will delude themselves till the cows come home. The fact that in footballing terms SOD comes across as a towering intellectual may just mean he has more clever ways of convincing himself, and others, he is right whatever the results.

[EnclosureSurge]

John Maynard Keynes (no relation to Micky) said of economists claiming their pet theory would pay off in the long run that "Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead."

If your house is on fire you don't sit down and work out a plan for putting the fire out in 5 years time, or worse, how you are going to rebuild it having decided to let it burn to the ground. Yet that seems to have been club policy ever since SOD was appointed. Ignore the flames, sit back and and wait patiently in the hope that the fire will put itself out if only you have faith.

That metaphor got a bit strained didn't it?

I love people (like me) who start chatting to themselves by the end of the post.

I like your use of metaphorical language, china, but I don't think it's the right one: a burning house suggests immediate action, panic, no time to lose.

There are still 100+ points to play for (yes, I hate it when people use inane stats/cliches like that, too).

Transition could easily take a whole calendar year, who's to say that is too long? We could still be farting around in the bottom 4 or so come December and SoD - if we stuck with him - could easily turn it round then/it could turn itself round then (admittedly that looks tricky now, but it has happened. Don't ask me where or when but it has, we all know it has).

We could then have a half decent run and finish 12th/14th and that would be perfectly respectable because, for me, there was no hype before this season began, there was no thought of promotion or even tickling the play-offs.

This manager hasn't suddenly become cr*p overnight, it's not as easy and simplistic as getting professionals to just learn how he wants them to play/think.

Haven't some of us taken 9, 12, 15 months to feel really comfortable in a new job, a new city, a new environment. Especially if it is one of our first jobs or we are inexperienced.

Just because they are footballers doesn't mean they learn any more quickly - or slowly for that matter - than any of us in our careers/fields of work/industry.

And when we start a new job, we rarely have to work together in a team of eleven revolving from a squad of twenty or so, under the scrutiny of everybody and susceptible to whiplash comments when things go wrong. Or right.

We have played really well in many games this season (that's not enough, I know) and the wins will arrive.

Ok, if he messes up, he'll get sacked in the long run.

But why don't we keep getting behind him and the lads who are trying in the mean-time?

Can that hurt or help?

[Maesknoll Red]

I think large majority are behind him, but its understandable that concerns are voiced about our current position, we have very fresh memories of last season and how it can be impossible to get out of being entrenched at the bottom. A couple of bad refereeing decisions, a couple of injuries to key players and it can all suddenly add up, when you are trying to turn around a habit of losing or even a drawing habit.

I think we are a long way from it yet (in footballingterms) but there will come a time if the results don't improve, when the leeway he's being given, starts to swing the other way. Hopefully that scenario won't happen and the results will come, but none of us know for sure.

[chinapig]

I love people (like me) who start chatting to themselves by the end of the post.

I like your use of metaphorical language, china, but I don't think it's the right one: a burning house suggests immediate action, panic, no time to lose.

There are still 100+ points to play for (yes, I hate it when people use inane stats/cliches like that, too).

Transition could easily take a whole calendar year, who's to say that is too long? We could still be farting around in the bottom 4 or so come December and SoD - if we stuck with him - could easily turn it round then/it could turn itself round then (admittedly that looks tricky now, but it has happened. Don't ask me where or when but it has, we all know it has).

We could then have a half decent run and finish 12th/14th and that would be perfectly respectable because, for me, there was no hype before this season began, there was no thought of promotion or even tickling the play-offs.

This manager hasn't suddenly become cr*p overnight, it's not as easy and simplistic as getting professionals to just learn how he wants them to play/think.

Haven't some of us taken 9, 12, 15 months to feel really comfortable in a new job, a new city, a new environment. Especially if it is one of our first jobs or we are inexperienced.

Just because they are footballers doesn't mean they learn any more quickly - or slowly for that matter - than any of us in our careers/fields of work/industry.

And when we start a new job, we rarely have to work together in a team of eleven revolving from a squad of twenty or so, under the scrutiny of everybody and susceptible to whiplash comments when things go wrong. Or right.

We have played really well in many games this season (that's not enough, I know) and the wins will arrive.

Ok, if he messes up, he'll get sacked in the long run.

But why don't we keep getting behind him and the lads who are trying in the mean-time?

Can that hurt or help?

Thanks, great response, whether I agree with you is neither here nor there. I do fear that "still 100 points to play for" is a touch of in-the-long-term-ism though! It's a position I might take if I could see any signs of improvement in our defensive record. That particular house has been on fire for years now and 3 successive firemen seem to have had no idea how to put it out, regardless of the personnel in the team. I don't see anything SOD has said or done (other than the usual managerial cliches about working on it in training and it will all come good in the end that Millen was fond of) that suggests he has found the answer yet. I would love to be convinced but so far the facts speak for themselves.

And the burning house metaphor is now so strained it has snapped.