Chris Wilder…..

[Super]

35 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

Hold up, news in coming.

A "reliable source " tells me .... 

Ffs. I'm off to bed night all.

[Supersonic Robin]

2 hours ago, Boston Red said:

True, but let us try and look on the bright side.

1. 3 trips to Wembley (First Football League trophy win)

2. 2 trips to the Millenium Stadium (Second Football League trophy win with a record 40,000 fans there. No other club has taken more to the Millenium, because we filled some of Carlisle's allocation)

3. 2 trips to the new Wembley, play off final and third Football League trophy win, still a record.

4. League Cup semis as a third tier side. Clough's Forest. who won two cups, finished 3rd, and got to the FA Cup semis that season, could only beat us with a last minute og equaliser at their place, Walsh hitting the post, extra time, and a very late winner. 

5. Fantastic promotion season of 1989/90 with two great wingers, and 34 goal hero Bob Taylor smashing in hat-tricks on the volley all over the place.

6. Knocking top division Chelsea 3-1 out of the FA Cup. First up on MOTD.

7. Going to Anfield and knocking Liverpool out of the FA Cup, who were 6th at the time. The Kop applaud the City players off.

8. Promotion again in 1997/8, with John Ward, Tinnion, Goater, Murray. Run of 12 wins and a draw in 13.

9. 100 goals plus under Danny Wilson in 2002/3. 11 straight wins the next season. 

10. Promotion again under Gary Johnson in 2006/7, pipping Forest.

11. Nearly making the Premier League 3 times in 2007/8. 1. We were top with ten games to go. 2. If we had beaten Stoke away in game 45, we would have gone up. 3. Play off final.

12. Cruised the 3rd tier double of league and cup under Cotterill in 2014/5. 100 goals and 100 points (almost).

13. Knocked Man U, Mourinho, Pogba, Ibrahimovic out of the league cup 2-1 with a wonder goal and a last minute winner. Second in league on Boxing Day.

14. Another League Cup semi. Guardiola's Man City are the best team in Europe, smashing 6 and 7 every week. We go to their place, go 1-0 up, and only lose to a last minute goal. Next day 7 Premier League call our manager and ask for advice on how to play Man City. In the second leg we are 2-2 with a minute to go, and only lose the tie 5-3 overall. 

15. Some great players to watch over the years. Walsh. Smith. Taylor. Morgan. Jacki. Cole. Barnard. Tinnion. Bell. Goater. Murray. Akinbiyi. Thorpe. Lita. Maynard etc etc etc.

There are a lot of football clubs that have never done all that.  

Not to target you personally OP, but I find this sort of thinking so frustrating (and possibly part of the reason why we've achieved so little). It feels so unambitious. 

Let's be honest, it's an utterly embarrassing list of "successes". Many a team would understandably laugh at us for boasting about any of that.

Loads of teams of our size and smaller have been in the Premier League: Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Wigan, Barnsley, Blackpool, Hull, Ipswich, Burnley, Oldham, Cardiff, Swansea, Charlton, Fulham, Birmingham, Coventry, etc etc

Swansea, Wigan, and Birmingham have even won the FA Cup / League Cup in the last 15 years.

Surely the biggest football club in one of England's biggest cities can expect to achieve more than "we beat a Premier League team in a cup game once". Let's not lower our standards by just being happy with what we've got. Our fans should rightly expect far more achievement than is present on that list. 

[fgrsimon]

1 hour ago, Supersonic Robin said:

Not to target you personally OP, but I find this sort of thinking so frustrating (and possibly part of the reason why we've achieved so little). It feels so unambitious. 

Let's be honest, it's an utterly embarrassing list of "successes". Many a team would understandably laugh at us for boasting about any of that.

Loads of teams of our size and smaller have been in the Premier League: Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Wigan, Barnsley, Blackpool, Hull, Ipswich, Burnley, Oldham, Cardiff, Swansea, Charlton, Fulham, Birmingham, Coventry, etc etc

Swansea, Wigan, and Birmingham have even won the FA Cup / League Cup in the last 15 years.

Surely the biggest football club in one of England's biggest cities can expect to achieve more than "we beat a Premier League team in a cup game once". Let's not lower our standards by just being happy with what we've got. Our fans should rightly expect far more achievement than is present on that list. 

Yeah and you can kind of understand why Rovers supporters are bitter and twisted. In 40 years (or even 130 years) we've achieved the square root of f .all and for most of that time they've been distinctly worse than us.  Bristol is what the 5th biggest city in England and we've won nothing of note between us. It's a shocking indictment of both clubs really and here we are in 2022, us in 18th and them in 19th in our respective leagues.

[Spike]

6 hours ago, old_eastender said:

Pearson got it wrong today, picking King instead of Klose (although we don't know if Klose was really fit enough anyway).

With a goalkeeper in Bents who hardly ever comes off his line to claim balls swung in from corners or wide free kicks, we need a ball winning centre back, an Aden Flint type (no I'm not suggesting we resign him). Kalas will not give us that, Naismith is not really it either, Klose is the best we have. NP gave Bamba a chance but seems that did not work out, so guess he knows it too.

Changing the manager is not going to solve the above. We have to stick with NP.

 

I'm glad people notice that Bents doesn't claim anything, I still think this is a major factor of why we can't defend set pieces. If you know the keeper isn't confident at coming for the ball or puts extra pressure on defenders. I think we'd actually be better off without Bentley if we could get a keeper in who commands his area and defenders. 

[robinforlife2]

Good ole Roy De Alien.  But tbh we could do a lot worse than Roy Keane truth be told, the players wouldn't have been quaking at half time yesterday if he was in charge. I think the hairdryer treatment is very much missing, and its too much no fear or favour now. 

[Simon bristol]

2 hours ago, robinforlife2 said:

Good ole Roy De Alien.  But tbh we could do a lot worse than Roy Keane truth be told, the players wouldn't have been quaking at half time yesterday if he was in charge. I think the hairdryer treatment is very much missing, and its too much no fear or favour now. 

I cant imagine pearson is afraid of letting his feelings known, but thats not enough at this point. We have a defensive right back on the bench that pearson brought in, but we play an attacking midfielder at right back the same time that we have a midfielder playing centre back, and a strong defensive player in pring who is twiddling his thumbs while king is centre back and Dasilva aint going to be winning many headers against a team who then score 3 past us from deliveries into our box. We may not have many fit centre backs, but its asking for trouble.

[Cityboy1954]

15 hours ago, Numero Uno said:

If they didn’t get it after the last accounts they never will. You can’t explain FFP to people who won’t listen.

What possetion and statistics

[Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan]

9 hours ago, fgrsimon said:

Yeah and you can kind of understand why Rovers supporters are bitter and twisted. In 40 years (or even 130 years) we've achieved the square root of f .all and for most of that time they've been distinctly worse than us.  Bristol is what the 5th biggest city in England and we've won nothing of note between us. It's a shocking indictment of both clubs really and here we are in 2022, us in 18th and them in 19th in our respective leagues.

This town ain’t big enough for the both of us.

 

11 hours ago, Supersonic Robin said:

Loads of teams of our size and smaller have been in the Premier League: Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Wigan, Barnsley, Blackpool, Hull, Ipswich, Burnley, Oldham, Cardiff, Swansea, Charlton, Fulham, Birmingham, Coventry, etc etc

Swansea, Wigan, and Birmingham have even won the FA Cup / League Cup in the last 15 years.

It’s shocking when you look at that list. None of us think we have a right to be in the Premier League but excluding 2007/08 we’ve got nowhere near it despite 13 of the last 15 years in the Championship.

[cidered abroad]

12 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

Hold up, news in coming.

A "reliable source " tells me .... 

I'm not religious but if he came, please God's, help us!

Edited October 9, 2022 by cidered abroad

[Davefevs]

10 hours ago, Spike said:

I'm glad people notice that Bents doesn't claim anything, I still think this is a major factor of why we can't defend set pieces. If you know the keeper isn't confident at coming for the ball or puts extra pressure on defenders. I think we'd actually be better off without Bentley if we could get a keeper in who commands his area and defenders. 

So true.

I played with two brilliant keepers.

One was mainly a “stayer”, the other was a “clear out everything”.

As CBs we were fine with both…with the stayer, we knew we’d have to attack almost everything.  With the other we just got out of his way.

The beauty with both was that they were divisive.  Even the stayer came and took balls when appropriate, but was loud and committed when he did so.

[pillred]

15 hours ago, Boston Red said:

True, but let us try and look on the bright side.

1. 3 trips to Wembley (First Football League trophy win)

2. 2 trips to the Millenium Stadium (Second Football League trophy win with a record 40,000 fans there. No other club has taken more to the Millenium, because we filled some of Carlisle's allocation)

3. 2 trips to the new Wembley, play off final and third Football League trophy win, still a record.

4. League Cup semis as a third tier side. Clough's Forest. who won two cups, finished 3rd, and got to the FA Cup semis that season, could only beat us with a last minute og equaliser at their place, Walsh hitting the post, extra time, and a very late winner. 

5. Fantastic promotion season of 1989/90 with two great wingers, and 34 goal hero Bob Taylor smashing in hat-tricks on the volley all over the place.

6. Knocking top division Chelsea 3-1 out of the FA Cup. First up on MOTD.

7. Going to Anfield and knocking Liverpool out of the FA Cup, who were 6th at the time. The Kop applaud the City players off.

8. Promotion again in 1997/8, with John Ward, Tinnion, Goater, Murray. Run of 12 wins and a draw in 13.

9. 100 goals plus under Danny Wilson in 2002/3. 11 straight wins the next season. 

10. Promotion again under Gary Johnson in 2006/7, pipping Forest.

11. Nearly making the Premier League 3 times in 2007/8. 1. We were top with ten games to go. 2. If we had beaten Stoke away in game 45, we would have gone up. 3. Play off final.

12. Cruised the 3rd tier double of league and cup under Cotterill in 2014/5. 100 goals and 100 points (almost).

13. Knocked Man U, Mourinho, Pogba, Ibrahimovic out of the league cup 2-1 with a wonder goal and a last minute winner. Second in league on Boxing Day.

14. Another League Cup semi. Guardiola's Man City are the best team in Europe, smashing 6 and 7 every week. We go to their place, go 1-0 up, and only lose to a last minute goal. Next day 7 Premier League call our manager and ask for advice on how to play Man City. In the second leg we are 2-2 with a minute to go, and only lose the tie 5-3 overall. 

15. Some great players to watch over the years. Walsh. Smith. Taylor. Morgan. Jacki. Cole. Barnard. Tinnion. Bell. Goater. Murray. Akinbiyi. Thorpe. Lita. Maynard etc etc etc.

There are a lot of football clubs that have never done all that.  

Unfortunately, though our other trip to the Millenium stadium was indeed that bag "o" shite the original poster was alluding to, God almighty we were truly awful that day not sure I have ever left a stadium more disappointed.  

[GrahamC]

Just to bring this back to the OP’s original suggestion, this is fantasy stuff.

It is pretty common knowledge now that after the Barnsley shambles post Holden, that weekend we approached a fair few out of work managers to take over until the end of the season & only 2 were interested.

The other one who was is now managing in the National League (no, not Gary Johnson, Paul Cook), the likes of Marco Silva & Jokanovic who were both approached, weren’t.

If Pearson quits (or we sack him) it won’t be a Wilder or a Dyche, it’ll be a Rob Edwards or Darren Ferguson type or an internal appointment like Jason Euell or Andy King.

[The Gasbuster]

16 hours ago, Boston Red said:

True, but let us try and look on the bright side.

1. 3 trips to Wembley (First Football League trophy win)

2. 2 trips to the Millenium Stadium (Second Football League trophy win with a record 40,000 fans there. No other club has taken more to the Millenium, because we filled some of Carlisle's allocation)

3. 2 trips to the new Wembley, play off final and third Football League trophy win, still a record.

4. League Cup semis as a third tier side. Clough's Forest. who won two cups, finished 3rd, and got to the FA Cup semis that season, could only beat us with a last minute og equaliser at their place, Walsh hitting the post, extra time, and a very late winner. 

5. Fantastic promotion season of 1989/90 with two great wingers, and 34 goal hero Bob Taylor smashing in hat-tricks on the volley all over the place.

6. Knocking top division Chelsea 3-1 out of the FA Cup. First up on MOTD.

7. Going to Anfield and knocking Liverpool out of the FA Cup, who were 6th at the time. The Kop applaud the City players off.

8. Promotion again in 1997/8, with John Ward, Tinnion, Goater, Murray. Run of 12 wins and a draw in 13.

9. 100 goals plus under Danny Wilson in 2002/3. 11 straight wins the next season. 

10. Promotion again under Gary Johnson in 2006/7, pipping Forest.

11. Nearly making the Premier League 3 times in 2007/8. 1. We were top with ten games to go. 2. If we had beaten Stoke away in game 45, we would have gone up. 3. Play off final.

12. Cruised the 3rd tier double of league and cup under Cotterill in 2014/5. 100 goals and 100 points (almost).

13. Knocked Man U, Mourinho, Pogba, Ibrahimovic out of the league cup 2-1 with a wonder goal and a last minute winner. Second in league on Boxing Day.

14. Another League Cup semi. Guardiola's Man City are the best team in Europe, smashing 6 and 7 every week. We go to their place, go 1-0 up, and only lose to a last minute goal. Next day 7 Premier League call our manager and ask for advice on how to play Man City. In the second leg we are 2-2 with a minute to go, and only lose the tie 5-3 overall. 

15. Some great players to watch over the years. Walsh. Smith. Taylor. Morgan. Jacki. Cole. Barnard. Tinnion. Bell. Goater. Murray. Akinbiyi. Thorpe. Lita. Maynard etc etc etc.

There are a lot of football clubs that have never done all that.  

Some valid points.

However, the one major issue remains.

We have been waiting 42 years for a return to the top flight. Bristol is England's seventh biggest City, and "should" have a top flight side.

Towns with populations  of less than 100,000 people manage it quite frequently, why the hell can't we manage it for one season at least ?

Just watch Bolton Wanderers, a "Town" club, get back to the P.L. before we even make it for the first time. And they are a club that was facing extinction just a few years ago. 

[Numero Uno]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

So true.

I played with two brilliant keepers.

One was mainly a “stayer”, the other was a “clear out everything”.

As CBs we were fine with both…with the stayer, we knew we’d have to attack almost everything.  With the other we just got out of his way.

The beauty with both was that they were divisive.  Even the stayer came and took balls when appropriate, but was loud and committed when he did so.

That is they key. The Coventry keeper generally “stayed” the other night unless the ball was within a few yards of him but that was ok because their back line defended accordingly.

It’s also easy to adjust when you have a clean the lot out keeper, you don’t go back to your 6 yard box very often looking to head balls.

The problem with Bentley is he sometimes “half comes” then stops which is a total disaster zone for both him and the back four and often when he does come he punches balls he should be catching or flaps. As a defender that is a nightmare.

More often than not if you concede 2-3 goals in a game from set piece crosses you are asking your keeper afterwards if he could have done a bit more to help.

[Davefevs]

5 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

That is they key. The Coventry keeper generally “stayed” the other night unless the ball was within a few yards of him but that was ok because their back line defended accordingly.

It’s also easy to adjust when you have a clean the lot out keeper, you don’t go back to your 6 yard box very often looking to head balls.

The problem with Bentley is he sometimes “half comes” then stops which is a total disaster zone for both him and the back four and often when he does come he punches balls he should be catching or flaps. As a defender that is a nightmare.

More often than not if you concede 2-3 goals in a game from set piece crosses you are asking your keeper afterwards if he could have done a bit more to help.

Exactly.

For info, the “stayer” was the best technical keeper I played with.  His handling was exemplary, he was great with the ball at his feet (used to take pens), and was a great communicator.

The “clear everyone out” was big, brave (had a chin like Desperate Dan), wasn’t quite as good with his feet…but was a great communicator.

Both passed on so much info.

Edited October 9, 2022 by Davefevs

[Numero Uno]

1 hour ago, GrahamC said:

Just to bring this back to the OP’s original suggestion, this is fantasy stuff.

It is pretty common knowledge now that after the Barnsley shambles post Holden, that weekend we approached a fair few out of work managers to take over until the end of the season & only 2 were interested.

The other one who was is now managing in the National League (no, not Gary Johnson, Paul Cook), the likes of Marco Silva & Jokanovic who were both approached, weren’t.

If Pearson quits (or we sack him) it won’t be a Wilder or a Dyche, it’ll be a Rob Edwards or Darren Ferguson type or an internal appointment like Jason Euell or Andy King.

If Pearson goes this season our FFP position almost certainly dictates it will be an internal appointment. We get the same tactics, methods etc. but with a less experienced Manager and no money to spend to make up for the experience gap. Something for the fans who want a new Manager every time we have a bad run to reflect on.

[Mr Popodopolous]

1 minute ago, Numero Uno said:

If Pearson goes this season our FFP position almost certainly dictates it will be an internal appointment. We get the same tactics, methods etc. but with a less experienced Manager and no money to spend to make up for the experience gap. Something for the fans who want a new Manager every time we have a bad run to reflect on.

Another FFP angle is, if we were to sack him assuming we are just about compliant, could the payoff even with an internal appointment tip us into points deduction territory?

Otoh I read that Martin has a bottom 6 budget but Swansea have flown up the League...may regress to the mean of course.

[Davefevs]

1 minute ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Another FFP angle is, if we were to sack him assuming we are just about compliant, could the payoff even with an internal appointment tip us into points deduction territory?

Otoh I read that Martin has a bottom 6 budget but Swansea have flown up the League...may regress to the mean of course.

Digressing slightly I was listening to Dean Holden on TS2 the other morning.  They were talking about sackings and one if the radio presenters said “it’s alright he’ll get a 3 year pay-off if he goes”, to which Dean replied “a lot of manager contracts have a 12 month termination payout regardless of contract length”.

Funnily enough when Cotts came in I heard he got a a 3 year deal with a year pay-off.

[Numero Uno]

2 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Another FFP angle is, if we were to sack him assuming we are just about compliant, could the payoff even with an internal appointment tip us into points deduction territory?

Otoh I read that Martin has a bottom 6 budget but Swansea have flown up the League...may regress to the mean of course.

Imagine that, Curtis Fleming in charge, Jason Euell doing both the assistant and coaching roles, no money to spend and as the final kick in the bollocks 2-3 of the points we have already earned deducted. Let’s hope Steve can control his anger and disappointment over yesterday’s shit show better than some on here……

[Mr Popodopolous]

3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Digressing slightly I was listening to Dean Holden on TS2 the other morning.  They were talking about sackings and one if the radio presenters said “it’s alright he’ll get a 3 year pay-off if he goes”, to which Dean replied “a lot of manager contracts have a 12 month termination payout regardless of contract length”.

Funnily enough when Cotts came in I heard he got a a 3 year deal with a year pay-off.

Thanks that is interesting. Guess clubs are getting smarter in this area.

Seem to recall time was when Abramovich first went to Chelsea, of course and probably got some years after. Hire manager, fire manager- contract of course paid up in full.

[Mr Popodopolous]

17 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Imagine that, Curtis Fleming in charge, Jason Euell doing both the assistant and coaching roles, no money to spend and as the final kick in the bollocks 2-3 of the points we have already earned deducted. Let’s hope Steve can control his anger and disappointment over yesterday’s shit show better than some on here……

It's by no means a guarantee but surely a downside risk of some kind.

Agreed. Definitely not NP out, we have to stay the course really...he alongside Gould inherited a hell of a mess which we are still working through/suffering from. We won't go down with him in charge IMO.

Edited October 9, 2022 by Mr Popodopolous

[aa_bcfc]

18 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Some might look at what Matty James brings when fit.

I’m not really sure what James brings as a midfielder. Tough tackler no, creating chances no, killer passes no, scoring goals no. Perhaps he brings qualities I cannot see such as a calm head and organisation which can be important.

Problem is whatever it is he brings injuries and missing games never seems far away. 

[Supersonic Robin]

It's incredible how dramatic our fanbase can be at times.

We win a few games and the forum is full of comments about us "looking likely to challenge for top 6". 

Now we lose a few games and I'm reading comments about us "praying there are 3 worse teams this season".

Okay, yeah, the performance against Birmingham was diabolical, but why are we now assuming that's going to be our average performance standard for the remaining 33 games? IMO we've already shown that we have enough ability for our fate to be firmly in our own hands.

[Superjack]

9 minutes ago, Supersonic Robin said:

It's incredible how dramatic our fanbase can be at times.

We win a few games and the forum is full of comments about us "looking likely to challenge for top 6". 

Now we lose a few games and I'm reading comments about us "praying there are 3 worse teams this season".

Okay, yeah, the performance against Birmingham was diabolical, but why are we now assuming that's going to be our average performance standard for the remaining 33 games? IMO we've already shown that we have enough ability for our fate to be firmly in our own hands.

Bang on.

Hence my 'Mid table' post 

[Spike]

3 hours ago, Supersonic Robin said:

It's incredible how dramatic our fanbase can be at times.

We win a few games and the forum is full of comments about us "looking likely to challenge for top 6". 

Now we lose a few games and I'm reading comments about us "praying there are 3 worse teams this season".

Okay, yeah, the performance against Birmingham was diabolical, but why are we now assuming that's going to be our average performance standard for the remaining 33 games? IMO we've already shown that we have enough ability for our fate to be firmly in our own hands.

See I've always thought we never looked like a team who could challenge and I've aired on the side of caution. With our good run I was starting to hope that all of our players were finally on board but based on Pearsons post game comments I'm now more inclined to think the issue is still there. 

I personally think the lingering contract situations is going to have an impact, I mean where would your drive to perform for us come from if you figure that so many players will be out of contact at the end of the season that you're either going to be stuck in yet a further needed rebuild or you're one of those players who is running down their contract hoping that someone is interested enough to sign you. 

I think Pearson is probably doing everything he can but the players he wants to keep are unwilling to sign and the others are probably frustrated that they haven't had talks or they didn't go well. 

As much as we see on the pitch I have to believe that the off the field stuff is having just as much, if not more, affect on the teams mentality. 

[Major Isewater]

4 hours ago, Spike said:

See I've always thought we never looked like a team who could challenge and I've aired on the side of caution. With our good run I was starting to hope that all of our players were finally on board but based on Pearsons post game comments I'm now more inclined to think the issue is still there. 

I personally think the lingering contract situations is going to have an impact, I mean where would your drive to perform for us come from if you figure that so many players will be out of contact at the end of the season that you're either going to be stuck in yet a further needed rebuild or you're one of those players who is running down their contract hoping that someone is interested enough to sign you. 

I think Pearson is probably doing everything he can but the players he wants to keep are unwilling to sign and the others are probably frustrated that they haven't had talks or they didn't go well. 

As much as we see on the pitch I have to believe that the off the field stuff is having just as much, if not more, affect on the teams mentality. 

You may have a point but surely a player from a successful club/ team is going to get more suitors and therefore a better deal . It’s in their interest to stand out. No one is doing themselves any favours with recent performances,

Edited October 10, 2022 by Major Isewater

[exAtyeoMax]

19 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Just to bring this back to the OP’s original suggestion, this is fantasy stuff.

It is pretty common knowledge now that after the Barnsley shambles post Holden, that weekend we approached a fair few out of work managers to take over until the end of the season & only 2 were interested.

The other one who was is now managing in the National League (no, not Gary Johnson, Paul Cook), the likes of Marco Silva & Jokanovic who were both approached, weren’t.

If Pearson quits (or we sack him) it won’t be a Wilder or a Dyche, it’ll be a Rob Edwards or Darren Ferguson type or an internal appointment like Jason Euell or Andy King.

Do you think that Mark Ashton was still here would put people off? 
The setup has changed since then

[GrahamC]

1 hour ago, exAtyeoMax said:

Do you think that Mark Ashton was still here would put people off? 
The setup has changed since then

No, it is to do with how we are perceived in football.

Look at our manager history.

[SecretSam]

On 08/10/2022 at 18:50, robinforlife2 said:

None of that has been achieved with Pearson at the helm ...... 4 of your points with a Johnson at the helm. Oh what I would give for a proper manager right now .....

You mean someone who left us with zero youth players, a bunch of time-expired has beens in the squad, no vision and horrid football? Ladies and gentlemen, Mr G J, who went on to such great things...oh

[exAtyeoMax]

15 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

No, it is to do with how we are perceived in football.

Look at our manager history.

Yes but the club has changed dramatically in the last 10 years?