I disagree. But hey ho.............................most demanded top 6 when LJ was in charge....even with crap players!!
Not the first season, He didn’t then have the aftermath of a pandemic to deal with and had money to bring in his own players, sadly not the scenario now. Edit His brief was to improve year on year. NP’s at present is survival, it’ll shift providing he achieves it, I imagine it’ll be much the same yearly improvement, depending on money available with a view to promotion. That IMO is becoming less likely unless there is some change in parachute payments.
Can't use the pandemic as an excuse.............everyone in the same boat......we were not an exception.. I agree, regarding bringing in his own players......
The pandemic meant he had to ship out practically a whole squad of so called senior players, or at least experienced players, start from scratch and have no money to spend. In comparison previously LJ took over a decent squad that had run away with League 1 the previous year and had money to spend to improve. I used the pandemic in direct comparison to that not to other teams now. Edit For balance on another thread I already explained re NP. I expected us to be lacking quality but wellorganised and difficult to break down. I’m not disappointed by our points tally, but I am by our lack of organisation and cohesion. NP has so far disappointed me in his inability to get the best out of the players, both individually, and collectively, if I’m honest.
Hardly a whole squad of senior players that was shipped out.....the main core of the decent players are still here.
This is more or less how I feel - disappointed. I wasn’t foolish enough to expect us to romp the league, but, perhaps naively I expected us to be harder to beat. My logic behind that expectation was that we achieved successive top half finishes just outside the playoffs with most of those crap players under LJ, so a ‘better’ proven manager should at least be able to match that ‘achievement’.
Playing devils advocate a bit the players on the whole were LJ players, NP hasn’t had an opportunity to bring in his own. I’m hopeful when he can things will change. IMO the biggest issue was Ashton, not LJ. Nige & co have to move the club forward which is going to take time, he’ll only be afforded the necessary time if he’s relatively successful in the short term as well. So fingers crossed because as a club we can’t really afford for him to fail.
NP,s own words were he could see [and had met ] a decent squad with most of the attributes he wanted! lost his first 2 games then beat BRUM & drew with BBurn most were saying messiah had arrived before 2 pts against lowly teams from 27! Everyone was in the same boat, fixtures coming thick and fast ... Rotherham had a back log ... hit hardest by covid cases ... it was a fairly level playing field but not smooth. NP in his interviews seems to be unsure, searching for the words without being angry or arrogant, but has a giveaway when covering over true feelings and about to give an answer that "glosses over" something he really needs to say! His short bursts of " temper/frustration/attitude/ [even] arrogance" being suppressed! Short of ridding himself of another 6 or 7 players and rebuilding the squad ... one could say his assessment of players is not top drawer! [ initial comments of first month! ] to date he is in fourth spot of 4 in starting a season ... from scratch!
I don’t buy that, he’s hardly going to say the players are **** we’ve got no chance is he? , obviously he’s got to talk them up.
There were funds available, NP said it himself, particularly for a striker. NP said he wouldn't bring anyone in that didn't improve what we had (King & Simpson don't support that), so he must have been happy with what he saw from last season with CM, NW and AS. Even Danny Gabbidon commented on it during the SKy coverage v Brum in midweek, saying it was clearly a mistake. It's not lost on me that all the anti Lj er's are the ones making endless excuses for why 2 manager since him have made us comfortably worse.
Gabbidon knew the state of our finances did he ? , don’t be daft of course he didn’t . He was making a general point about us needing a striker, we all know that, I think we’ll regret it too, but we don’t know how much he had and how much it would have cost to bring someone in. The last thing we need is a points deduction for overspending against FFP. So within our budget if the calibre we could buy wasn’t high enough what’s the point. That’s what got us in this mess in the first place buying players for the sake of it.
Forget LJ, let Sunderland fans worry about him now. The fact is LJ and Ashton maxed out our spending. Subsequent managers have had to deal with the fallout, I’m disappointed with Nige as a feel he should be working far better with the players available, but you can’t argue he’s not restrained by lack of funding. I know COVID hasn’t helped but we’d be struggling without it. We had a bloated squad of overpaid players.
I think people are being very disingenuous with regard to Nige, he explained very early to us all, he had severe cash restraints to abide by, he wanted to sign 5 new players to add to his squad, he desperately needed a sriker, possible candidates were named, we are overburdened by a wage bill inherited from previous regimes and he had to be modest in his approach, things won't happen in the timeframe he wanted and he and the Lansdowns understood it was an unusual widow, he laid all of this out in this article dated 12/06/21. Apart from the fact has has been hit with Covid twice, he has been honest, factual and things have happened much as he outlined, he didn't have the funding for a much needed striker he desired, he accepted and new the conditions that prevailed, he had to attempt to stiffen up our defence and midfield which has led us to our current difficulties, he is struggling but it is to his credit the medical, fitness, coaching and other internal backroom staff difficulties appear to have been remedied, now it's critical that on field performances are dramatically improved, if we can hold on until the January window we can all watch developments and our confidence may or may not improve, best to wait and see not crucify the manager and team in the mean time. Bullet points only ~ * Nigel Pearson wants to sign five players this summer and admits the financial uncertainty in football in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic * Pearson has specified five positions he wants to bring in: two centre-backs, two central midfielders and a striker * "That's the reality of it but if I get five players that I want in, I'll be happy. The bottom line is, we will operate with a smaller squad this year * "I think we're very blessed in the goalkeeper position. I'd like two centre-backs, I'd like two centre midfielders and I'd like somebody to stick the ball in the back of the net ... that's five player * Rotherham striker Michael Smith, Blackpool forward Jerry Yates and AFC Wimbledon frontman Joe Pigot * City are having to be modest in their targets given the lack of money for both transfer fees and wages, and Pearson admits the wage bill has to be reduced further, even in the wake of so many departures. * "Let's be honest, we need to bring our wage bill down. I'm not going to hide from that .The industry needs to look at the baseline parameters. * I also realise things aren't going to happen in the timeframe I want." * "I spoke to Jon (Lansdown) today. Quite an informal chat. Both of our observations are along the line of, how unusual this window is going to be. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/bristol-city-nigel-pearson-transfers-5521149
Again, this is simply untrue. Yes LJ/MA spent a lot, but only because LJ/MA sold a lot, I don't recall LJ/MA laying out a massive fee for any player(s) before someone was sold to finance it? The figures below show that our net spend was positive. Therefore, it begs the question, what has SL done with all that money, some £41m in excess sales vs purchases? I would agree that the recruitment over the last 2 seasons has not been good enough to allow us to sell big, not that we could have anyway due to COVID. Jan Transfer Window Season 2019/20 in addition to the above figures
The 2 seasons before that show £1m in profit, so, LJ/MA recouped £42m more than they spent between Aug 2016 and Jan 2020. Where is it??
LJ's full band of angels, all of his recruits Josh Brownhill Gary O’Neil Lee Tomlin Diego De Girolamo Hordur Magnusson Jack Challis Kodi Lyons-Foster Shabazz Omofe Denis Begovic Callum O’Dowda Ivan Lucic Taylor Moore Jamie Paterson Peter Odemwingie Gustav Engvall Joel Ekstrand Adam Matthews Tammy Abraham Fabian Giefer David Cotterill Milan Djuric Jens Hegeler Bailey Wright Matty Taylor Tin Plavotic Eros Pisano Freddie Hinds Famara Diedhiou Nathan Baker Niclas Eliasson Luke Steele Tyreeq Bakinso Rory Holden Antoine Semenyo Jonathan Leko Cauley Woodrow Ryan Kent Lois Diony Liam Walsh Marley Watkins Adam Webster Hakeeb Adelakun Andreas Weimann Jack Hunt Mo Eisa Niki Maenpaa Jay Dasilva Tomas Kalas Rodri Kasey Palmer Stefan Marinovic Daniel Bentley Louis Britton Robbie Cundy Rene Gilmartin Tommy Rowe Sammie Szmodics Han-Noah Massengo Adam Nagy Ashley Williams Rodri Pedro Pereira Benik Afobe https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/every-bristol-city-signing-made-3776658
Seeing as this is thread taken from OTIB. This is also from there. Dean Holden P36, W16, L17 PPG 1.42. Nigel Pearson P32, W7, L18, PPG 0.875
Just printed it up as it was laid out in the full article on the 12/06/21, there is no denial from me where he went.
I posted the income/outgoing from the LJ era before from Transfermarkt. It shows a healthy profit. I thought that it would settle the argument but of course it didn’t. People pointed to sales that were Cotts’s signings and wages. I argued that if sales of previous managers players couldn’t be considered then we also have to count in the value of CURRENT players who LJ signed. Sadly that fell on deaf ears too. Sometimes even facts aren’t enough….. The real reason we haven’t spent is Covid. Not LJ Not Ashton.
