Another managerial casualty today in Bristol City's Derek McInnes. I just wanted to say how happy I am that we got MM and TC well before everyone else started to make changes. Many think it was left too late to sack PJ but looking back now it seems that it was perfect timing to have been bottom of the table when we were and started the merry go round spinning. Many other teams are hitting the panic button with less than half the season to go whilst we are going from strength to strength with a management team who not only know what they're doing on the pitch but are building a team for next season and beyond. On top of that, Mick is well respected throughout the game and is attracting decent players. Many of them state the chance to work with Mick was too good to turn down. Just look at what McGoldrick had to say about him - "I’m here because I rate Mick McCarthy as a manager and when someone like him, with his experience of the Premiership and international football, offers you a chance how can you not take it?" “He’s a great manager and for him to want a player like me made it an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. Mick has shown real faith in me and apart from watching me himself, he had a lot of reports on me and how I was doing on loan at Coventry.” (taken from twtd)
Hardly perfect timing. We could have had MM last May. Instead we had six more months of utter misery under PJ just to support the aspiration of being a club that âgave managers a chanceâ. Loyalty is only a virtue if you afford it to a deserving individual. Otherwise itâs just plain dumb. How much better off would we be had we have made this change in the summer.
I think we would've been better off this season no doubt if Mick would've signed but I doubt he would've signed for us in the summer, I'm pretty sure he would've had the same troubles in the transfer market as Jewell because of our hardline policy. And that is probably part of the reason why I don't think Mick would've come here. I think it would've been a little harsh to sack Jewell in May given we'd had a decent second part of the season and it did look like with the players we were targeting we were finally going in the right direction, unfortunately we didn't sign enough!! There's no doubt I'm sure though that Mick would've been approached by many of the clubs who have changed their manager recently, although whether he'd gone there is a different matter as many have owners I'm not sure he would want to work with and others IMO don't have as much potential as we do. I think also Bristol is a big big job (not in a good way) as their finances are out of control!! I do genuinely think yes some of the players we have signed want to work under Mick but being cynical here it's what the majority of players say when they come to the club, even some of the last players coming in were saying that about Jewell!!
Pretty sure that MM said one of the main reasons he signed for us was because we gave our managers a chance. If we had sacked PJ earlier we might not have got into such a mess, but it might have also meant we lost out to MM.
Have to agree that I don't think we would've got Mick in the summer. It was perfect timing because we pressed the button on Jewell and got MM's services secured well before other clubs were thinking of making the change. It took us to be bottom to make the change and because it was so early in the season we got first dibs on the then available managers. I bet you there are a lot of chairmen out there looking at us right now and wishing they have what we do. OK so it seems like we wasted a few months of THIS season, but if things didn't pan out the way they did we wouldn't be where we are now. We have a bright looking future under Mick and Terry and I for one am happy that they are here.
If Mick wanted to come when we were rock bottom in mid-November and a national joke why wouldn’t he have come in the summer? If ME/Cleggy had the sense to get rid in the summer then they would have had to adopt a more flexible view of the budget to get the man they wanted. And even with the dribblingly complacent leeway they gave to PJ until even ME/Cleggy couldn’t stand it any longer they could have got rid earlier in the season. We might be hovering around the playoffs if a proper manager even had an extra month, never mind since pre-season. We moved before the traditional managerial merry-go-round but we could have moved earlier if we had people in charge that recognised that multi-goal defeats and pathetic capitulation after pathetic capitulation weren’t signs of a manager about to “turn it around” if we only gave him more time, but were actually multi-goal defeats and pathetic capitulation after pathetic capitulation.
So this season is another wasted, it was nevertheless good timing to do what we did when we did and end up with the manager we have. Whether or not he would have joined us before then is up for speculation but you can't deny that it all worked out for the best in the end (well maybe you can if you use words that would confuse the average poster into thinking that)
The stats speak for themselves! MM has averaged 1.71 points a game so far: (24 / 14 = 1.71), if he'd been here from game 1 this season, by those calculations we'd have 46 points or there abouts (1.71 x 27 = 46.17). So, if we'd maintained that form from the beginning of the season, that would amount to last place in the play-offs (Watford currently sit in the last play-off spot with 43 points). Paul Jewell had 13 games and managed 7 points before MM took the helm. This would be an average points per game of 0.53 (7 / 13 = 0.53), times that by our 27 games played so far, would have given us 14.31 points AKA âRock Bottomâ as Bristol currently hold that acclaim with 22 points.
I saw this on TWTD earlier so some good copying and pasting going on there But like you say the stats speak for themselves and although we're on a bit of a wave currently we can only hope that it continues as I seem to remember once PJ joined we had a similar(ish) bounce but this time round it appears we have a recruitment policy to go alongside some improving performances On a side note, Brizzle appointing O'Driscoll is a very good move for them, He's a manager I've always rated and I'm sure given the right amount of time and resources he could do a job for any team in this division. Hopefully after we beat them in a couple of weeks
I couldn't be arsed to type them out so the good old cut & paste came in handy! Yes there was a bounce when Jewell first came in but we were not in as bad a situation as when Mick took over in October!
I do think that Mick will do a better job here than Jewell (it's not difficult in terms of league position), however there are certainly parrallels between the 2 when they first came here but in different ways. Both turned our season around for the better and both brought what we needed to the club. I remember everyone was saying how refreshing it was to have a more positive manager around the place and the dark cloud of Keane had been moved, we were more organised, playing better football and had managed to bring some players with quality, which Keane had grumbled about he hadn't managed to get in. Pretty similar situation to what Mick has done with the exception of getting us back to basics which is what was needed and now getting in players we need in certain positions which Jewell failed to do. I'm hearing very similar things to when Jewell first took over, how he was better tactically and motivating players etc, so there's a word of slight caution there, although I do think Mick will be far more successful here than Jewell. Yes I see O'Driscoll has been appointed, was surprised that he went there tbh, would've though he'd have chosen Barnsley or Blackpool over Bristol as Bristol is a big job, they've got some decent players upfront but also alot of average players and their wage bill needs seriously looking at they remind me a bit of us when Keane left!! Very good manager though, has a very similar managerial style to Burley IMO, would've loved to see him here as I think he'd be a good fit for the club!!
I'm hearing very similar things to when Jewell first took over, how he was better tactically and motivating players etc, so there's a word of slight caution there, although I do think Mick will be far more successful here than Jewell. Difference is though the first instance was talking about the comparison between Keane and PJ. Jewell was supposed to be a step up from the dark lords days. The second instance is the comparison between Mick and PJ. Now if we said Paul was better than Roy, and now people are saying Mick is better than PJ then we have really come forward since Keanes days (or something like that, I've only just woken up )
