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[surreyred]

I have been a city supporter since my early teens. I saw my first game around 1972. I now live away from the area, and have a job that requires me to work a lot of evenings and weekends, so i get to see very few games now. This forum is my main contact with what is happening.

My first post is addressed to those who are calling for GJ's head and to invite them to look at the history of the club. The only times we have been truly successful has been when we have had the same manager for more than five minutes (e.g. Alan DICKS). The down turns have have usually been accompanied by constant management changes. Very rarley does changing a manager at a team that is on the slide turn things around in the short term, DOWIE at Crystal Palace is a contradiction of this, but more often than not teams looking at relegation, who sack the manager, still go down.

Looking at the situation from GJ's point of view, he has come from a small club where everyone from the cleaners upwards have to give 100% each day for the club just to survive, never mind puch well above their weight as they are at the moment. My guess is that he has come to us expecting much the same and only needing to change a few players around. What he has found is a club needing major surgery, and a complete mind set change. He has gambled by taking on these problems head on in mid season.

I hope he is able to turn things around and is not beaten into submission by those at the club who would rather have an easy life than hard work and success.

Relegation is never an answer to any clubs problems, but it might be what is required to wake up certain people within the club and force them to face the fact that success is earned and not a right because you happen to be at a "big club".

[havanatopia]

I have been a city supporter since my early teens. I saw my first game around 1972. I now live away from the area, and have a job that requires me to work a lot of evenings and weekends, so i get to see very few games now. This forum is my main contact with what is happening.

My first post is addressed to those who are calling for GJ's head and to invite them to look at the history of the club. The only times we have been truly successful has been when we have had the same manager for more than five minutes (e.g. Alan DICKS). The down turns have have usually been accompanied by constant management changes. Very rarley does changing a manager at a team that is on the slide turn things around in the short term, DOWIE at Crystal Palace is a contradiction of this, but more often than not teams looking at relegation, who sack the manager, still go down.

Looking at the situation from GJ's point of view, he has come from a small club where everyone from the cleaners upwards have to give 100% each day for the club just to survive, never mind puch well above their weight as they are at the moment. My guess is that he has come to us expecting much the same and only needing to change a few players around. What he has found is a club needing major surgery, and a complete mind set change. He has gambled by taking on these problems head on in mid season.

I hope he is able to turn things around and is not beaten into submission by those at the club who would rather have an easy life than hard work and success.

Relegation is never an answer to any clubs problems, but it might be what is required to wake up certain people within the club and force them to face the fact that success is earned and not a right because you happen to be at a "big club".

if its never an answer its not required is it?!!

relegation is most definately NOT the answer just take a look across the city.

[surreyred]

Relegation is not the answer in its self, but it may be the only thing that focres a reorginisation and change of mind set.

I just hope GJ does not have the fight knocked out of him.

[havanatopia]

Relegation is not the answer in its self, but it may be the only thing that focres a reorginisation and change of mind set.

I just hope GJ does not have the fight knocked out of him.

well sadly we already have had the re-organisation with GJ coming in and he is supposed to be mid-stream with his report, i assume.

if anyone has the fight in them i reckon it is someone like GJ. anycase, he is between a rock and a hardplace now; his resume will not look good if he walks or is pushed.

Quite frankly, i see no benefit to the club in these threads coming on here, however predicatable they are, and secondly the man is an experienced seasoned gaffer who i feel sure will bring success. One of the things i feel needs to be asked though is why KM is still around and the only answer i can come up with is his prior association with GJ. I think it is not to the clubs benefit

[Coin-op]

Very good fist post. Hello from another City Fan in the south east. I totally agree with the fact that this club needs continuity and we stand more of a chance of staying up with Gary J. in charge. Very concerned about the lack of commitment from the players though. Did you see the Bolton vs Arsenal game? Tha Bolton players were giving their all and it payed off. They went in for every 50/50 challenge....how often do you see that from our current squad?

[havanatopia]

Very good fist post. Hello from another City Fan in the south east. I totally agree with the fact that this club needs continuity and we stand more of a chance of staying up with Gary J. in charge. Very concerned about the lack of commitment from the players though. Did you see the Bolton vs Arsenal game? Tha Bolton players were giving their all and it payed off. They went in for every 50/50 challenge....how often do you see that from our current squad?

and i rate GJ in the same mould as big Sam so it bodes well because this is NOT his team. But whoever wants to remain part of his plans need to start putting in a performance worthy of the shirt.

[Chappers]

I agree that we need stability, but taking this argument logically, Tins should have been given a few more years. The problem is that leaving the wrong Manager in charge can cause great long-term damage.

[mozo]

I agree that we need stability, but taking this argument logically, Tins should have been given a few more years. The problem is that leaving the wrong Manager in charge can cause great long-term damage.

Yeh, there comes a point when we have to give a manager time to build their own vision at the club, which may mean tolerating some lows and putting up with methods of management that we may not be used to. Every boss is different.

Wilson was given time, and whilst he gradually formed a competitive squad (as he said he would), narrowly missing out on promotion lost him his position here. Since then, you get the feeling we've turned back into what we were in the 90s, a club that goes through managers at an alarming rate (like the lowly Gasheads do).

Patience, they say, is a virtue.

[surreyred]

I agree that we need stability, but taking this argument logically, Tins should have been given a few more years. The problem is that leaving the wrong Manager in charge can cause great long-term damage.

Maybe if TINS had been given the experienced assistant that he says he had asked for it might still be here.

[mikep]

Welcome to the forum surreyred.

You also live in the soccer wilderness called Surrey. Not a single Premiership, Championship. League 1 or 2 team to watch. The best we get is Conference and Ryman teams. Remind me where did Basso and Savage come from?

Tins should never have been offered the post of Manager in the first place. It is very difficult to be mates with people one day and their boss the next. I don't think giving him an experienced assistant would have worked either. If the assistant was that experienced he should have been given the manager role and Tins should have been the assistant.

[Guest redphilc]

I am willing to give GJ time and that means waiting until January to sign some tough tackling midfielders and a pacey striker who can finish. Wingers not so important at the moment as we just need to be able to shut teams out and score the odd goal. Tough tackling players is what we need.

One of the things I have been dissapointed with since GJ's arrival is that he hasn't brought any of his own back room staff to the club. How much support does he have behind closed doors from Walshy, Flipflop, Millen and John Clayton?

This whole grenade thing may have worked better if everyone was singing from the same hymn book. I think he has been let down by certain backroom staff and that is one of the things I would like him to address.

Support is waining and the only way he will convince the City faithful is by winning games. He will not last much longer if he doesn't whether I think he is the right man or not.

I think a win is an absolute must Tuesday night but with this squad of players? I just can't see it after having seen first hand their attitude last Monday night.

Prove me wrong Gary and get this team winning games again.......

[surreyred]

I am willing to give GJ time and that means waiting until January to sign some tough tackling midfielders and a pacey striker who can finish. Wingers not so important at the moment as we just need to be able to shut teams out and score the odd goal. Tough tackling players is what we need.

One of the things I have been dissapointed with since GJ's arrival is that he hasn't brought any of his own back room staff to the club. How much support does he have behind closed doors from Walshy, Flipflop, Millen and John Clayton?

This whole grenade thing may have worked better if everyone was singing from the same hymn book. I think he has been let down by certain backroom staff and that is one of the things I would like him to address.

Support is waining and the only way he will convince the City faithful is by winning games. He will not last much longer if he doesn't whether I think he is the right man or not.

I think a win is an absolute must Tuesday night but with this squad of players? I just can't see it after having seen first hand their attitude last Monday night.

Prove me wrong Gary and get this team winning games again.......

From the outside it is hard to judge what support he is getting from the rest of the training staff. Maybe some of them are not supporting him as much as they should. I would expect if GJ felt he was not being supported by his staff they would be seeking employment elsewhere fairly soon.

I do support GJ but i do not see him as perfect.

What concerns me that even if we loose Tuesday he should not be sacked. We cannot change managers every five minutes and expect to go anywhere. We have to nail our colours to someone and trust them to turn it around.

I do think it would help if GJ were to say in public what his plan for the club is. Most would be happier if we could see the direction he was intending to take us. I.e. Is he planning a team of lesser but committed players, that would be greater than its parts.

[SimplyRed]

I think what a lot of detractors are saying is that, much as we'd like to give him time, he doesn't have any.

In my opinion it is far more important to the club to avoid relegation than to give a new manager a free rein to completely overhaul the club and take us down to the basement in the process.

Johnson, for me, has shown that he can't do 'quick fixes' which is what is needed right now.

I don't care who the manager is or his reputation before he came here - if he can't get us off the bottom of the league before May then he's no good to us.

Let's leave all the planning and the upheaval till May when we're safe - right now we need points - in whatever shape or form we can get them.

[i remember dickie rooks]

Over the past, numerous, seasons, we have failed to achieve promotion with good quality players. During most of these seasons we have had play-off finals/semi-finals, LDV runs etc to boost the finances. Unfortunately, the past couple of seasons have not produced any revenue generating runs, whilst the players seem to become complacent. Result = mediocrity with increasing debt.

If I was the chairman I would look at a different approach. Let's accept that we are in the third division and change the club around to become one that will get out of this division by the only way other teams manage. i.e. hard graft and teamwork.

Cut the outgoings to match the revenue, create a hard working nucleus of players suited to playing at MK Dons etc. on a cold Tuesday night, sell the players who don't want to knuckle down (or stay sober) and sell the players who can play in the Championship with good service, but struggle at our level. This does mean selling players who potentially are our 'best' on paper and replacing them with workhorses.

Not pretty, but may be financially our only option and team wise, our only hope of getting out of this division.

The trick is then to improve the side in the Championship to stay there.

This could be the route that SL/GJ are going down.

This was a post put on the board last week. I don't think that GJ was brought in as a short term fix to save us from relegation, but to try and alter the club around and adapt to the level of football and finances that we are in. During the transitional phase, when 'good' players are leaving and 'poorer' players coming in, then we will be in trouble. Until the transformation is complete we cannot tell if it will work. Risky, yes, but something needed to be done as the previous way of getting in flair players on top wages hasn't worked.

BTW, managers are usually sacked when the crowd chants their disapproval e.g. 'Wilson Out' 'Pulis Out' etc. Might be the reason why Alan Dicks stayed so long