2008 Dele Adebola Recruitment Mistake

[Genghis Khan's pants]

I always wondered what if we'd got Ebanks-Blake?

[Oh Louie louie]

Id play him now over two of our forwards, Carey once said he was the hardest opponent he ever had to mark. 

[bcfcredandwhite]

19 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

We made a fairly common mistake, a slightly lazy one judging by that report.

"We have a big striker, so let's hit it long." It happens so often in football, even of the big striker has other strings to their bow.

*If we had Zlatan in his prime under say LJ more than GJ, we still probably would at times default hit it long as he is big. Sure his touch and control better than many so perhaps it works better than a lot of cases, but it would still have been a great waste.

*I'm probably exaggerating slightly to make a point but I wonder how many we've done that with down the years.

I respectfully disagree. 
I know LJ divides opinion, but one thing I don’t think we can accuse his management style of being is long ball. His team did lots of things wrong, but hoofing the ball forward was not one of his teams bad points. 
In fact (and I’m expecting to be shot down here), some of the football under LJ was superb - especially the cup run and the games against Man U and Man C. 
There was dross too, but those games made me proud to be a City fan. 

[MarcusX]

10 minutes ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

I respectfully disagree. 
I know LJ divides opinion, but one thing I don’t think we can accuse his management style of being is long ball. His team did lots of things wrong, but hoofing the ball forward was not one of his teams bad points. 
In fact (and I’m expecting to be shot down here), some of the football under LJ was superb - especially the cup run and the games against Man U and Man C. 
There was dross too, but those games made me proud to be a City fan. 

Those Manchester club games were brilliant. We tried to go toe to toe with them and play football

[Mr Popodopolous]

15 minutes ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

I respectfully disagree. 
I know LJ divides opinion, but one thing I don’t think we can accuse his management style of being is long ball. His team did lots of things wrong, but hoofing the ball forward was not one of his teams bad points. 
In fact (and I’m expecting to be shot down here), some of the football under LJ was superb - especially the cup run and the games against Man U and Man C. 
There was dross too, but those games made me proud to be a City fan. 

Yeah perhaps unfair, was just a flippant comment.

Diedhiou was a big striker we sought to shoehorn in though, at the expense of our overall cohesion at times.

Edited January 6 by Mr Popodopolous

[bcfcredandwhite]

25 minutes ago, MarcusX said:

Those Manchester club games were brilliant. We tried to go toe to toe with them and play football

I watched the Man U game highlights over and over. That was as perfect a performance as I’ve ever seen from ANY City side. 
I was at the top of the Lansdown stand with Mrs R&W  watching it and lost my voice with the shouting. 
After the game we went back to the V-Shed buzzing and we were amazed when the staff asked us to leave - we had no idea it was 4am!!!!!

…… and the roof has just blown off Ashton Gate…..

What a night that was  

 

[bcfcredandwhite]

Here it is again - I NEVER get tired of watching this… 

It brings a tear to my eye even now - such an amazing night. Even my Swindon mates who watched it in the pub said how well we played. 

Apologies for distracting the thread…..

[Mr Popodopolous]

I suppose I would offer q small counter with, some of that outstanding football came without a big striker, ie Diedhiou was injured.

He certainly had his uses at 10-15 a season, taking a physical slog in varied away games but he often wasn't conducive to the more technical side or how we used him too.

[eardun]

On 05/01/2025 at 13:42, Spoonbed said:

Dare I say it, but LJ getting injured was the biggest “factor” in the demise of our 2008 season imho

Entirely agree. I still maintain that we would have gone up automatically were it not for LJ’s injury.