The Bus is Back in the Car Park

[Dr Balls]

2 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

We didn’t even interview this German chap. 

About the only club at this level not appointing a German Head Coach…!

[Major Isewater]

Just now, Dr Balls said:

About the only club at this level not appointing a German Head Coach…!

We might have done but didn’t want to mention it. 
 

[Spud21]

18 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

If you’re talking generally, I tend to agree, hence my stance on another thread about asking OTIBers to try to post in a nice way, debate the topic, not the poster in essence.

But if you’re aiming stuff at me, I’d like to know on what basis?

Oh god no, I am not aiming stuff at you specifically, i was quoting you as you are saying that you feel that the "Nige supporters" support of him is being blown out of proportion, to which to an extent I agree, however most of the lazy insults that I am seeing are coming the other way. 

I am speaking more generally and pointing out that while in terms of the balance of numbers I do agree with you that most people who are "Nige supporters" are reasonable and some are throwing around lazy insults, but the converse is also true and most of the "Nige detractors" are being sensible and don't deserve the lazy insults being thrown at them.

The truth as usual probably lies somewhere in the middle, Nige did for me a bloody good job here, but there are perfectly legitimate criticisms of the football and the results thst can be made, without being one of Jon Lansdowns many it seems accounts. 

 

[italian dave]

32 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

So is Manning being given a “free pass” to be worse than the man he replaced, who was supposedly failing because those with the power to sack him decided that he couldn’t achieve “this season’s aim”?

Either the aim is promotion this season or it isn’t. And if it isn’t then, the reason for getting rid of Pearson was false, while it also suggests a major lack of ambition. And it doesn’t make Bristol Sport a more inviting option to buy, as the only way to make the finances better is making it to the Premier League, even if it’s only for one season, because of the nature of the parachute payments.

You can’t have it both ways. There is no such thing as Schrodinger’s promotion!

Clearly Manning shouldn’t and won’t have a ‘free pass’ in terms of taking the club forward on the pitch. But I do think he should have a ‘free pass’ from constant comparison with his predecessor. 

Firstly because he’s a different person in a different situation, here to do a different job from that predecessor. And secondly because - as is very evident from much of the discussion on here over the years - that comparison can be made to suit whatever you want it to! X is better than Y because his teams play better football. Ah, yes, but Y got us further up the table than X. Maybe but X had to deal with Z. But Y was better at bringing youngsters through. And so it goes on…all a bit futile!

There’s lots of posters it’s lots of different views on here, but I’m not sure there’s anyone who believes that the reason for getting rid of Pearson was solely about football and our standing in the league. Of course every club’s aim is promotion, but on the whole City’s managers have been given realistic goals and expectations - hence their relatively long tenures. But when they don’t hit them we act just as quickly as the next club. I think LJ was a case in point: his objectives were to improve our position year on year, but that last season was the ‘top 6 or you’re out’ one.

The problem is that we don’t know what the real reason, or reasons, were. And so you have JL and BT, (not) supported by some crap comms team, floundering around, trying to come up with convincing reasons, and not succeeding.

My view (for which I claim no especial insight!) was that the real reasons were around NPs health, and/or around the relationships at a senior level.

The other proposition I’ve heard more recently, which isn’t unconvincing, is that the Ipswich game brought to a head concerns about coaching (Ipswich, PP free etc, being so much better coached than us). And that Manning had been very much on our radar as a potential NR replacement long term, and we got worried that we might lose him elsewhere is we hung on too long. So we got spooked into making the change quickly.

I don’t know, none of us do, but there was clearly more to it - I think almost everyone would agree. Which, of course, makes it even more futile judging Manning against it! 

[Davefevs]

43 minutes ago, Spud21 said:

Oh god no, I am not aiming stuff at you specifically, i was quoting you as you are saying that you feel that the "Nige supporters" support of him is being blown out of proportion, to which to an extent I agree, however most of the lazy insults that I am seeing are coming the other way. 

I am speaking more generally and pointing out that while in terms of the balance of numbers I do agree with you that most people who are "Nige supporters" are reasonable and some are throwing around lazy insults, but the converse is also true and most of the "Nige detractors" are being sensible and don't deserve the lazy insults being thrown at them.

The truth as usual probably lies somewhere in the middle, Nige did for me a bloody good job here, but there are perfectly legitimate criticisms of the football and the results thst can be made, without being one of Jon Lansdowns many it seems accounts. 

 

Ta, yep happening both ways, agreed….and you can have one view on one thing that doesn’t mean you have to be the opposite on another view.

(I thought I’d written something shitty which wasn’t my intention, so thanks for confirming)