Dont think you are convincing anybody but yourself. We were absolutely dire for over 2 months. What I want to know is why it went on so long. Answers on a postcard to NP cos he dont know either.
What he said - anyone that thinks a record of 3 wins in 17 games is 'satisfactory' needs their bumps massaged - and don't give me this 'averaging over the season' rubbish, good managers (and players) maximise advantages and don't slip back into mediocrity (or worse!) from there or at the least know how to snap out of that malaise far earlier than we did ... that's what wins titles and golden boots...
Let me know when you find someone that's said this. Not sure why you have to keep us use sarcasm to belittle my posts and downright changing the meaning of my words to suit your argument. You're actually going off topic a bit here since we were talking about Nugent and Wood not the manager (or do you hold him responsible for their form too?). I've discussed the 11 game blip enough now, the only thing I have to add is that there's only so much motivating a manager can do because it's up to the players. Do you not hold them responsible in anyway? Or are you just going to blame Pearson because he's an easy target? Let's get rid of the manager, bring in another, only give him 18 months, when we're not promoted, sack him, bring in another manager, ad nauseam. I do miss being smashed 3-0 by Millwall.
Firstly, I'll apologise, because I did mix up your using the word 'satisfactory' in regard to Nugent as a general view of the season - so unreserved apology on that. However on the basis of that error - I wasn't being sacrcastic - I was serious. That said - a spell of one goal in seventeen games for a striker isn't satisfactory really, is it? - however many you've scored before that. Do I hold NP responsible for the form of the strikers? - in a team context you have to, to some extent - because form is affected by motivation and the collectiveness of a team. Not asking you to agree - but see this: "The failings of this squad, both on the day and throughout the season, have been widely (and correctly) judged as collective and systematic ones rather than the fault of individuals." I found the whole article from the Foxes Trust interesting - particularly the summary in the last few paragraphs - Ive been castigated on here for saying that I'm not convinced that NP can manage at the top level (because I've sen no evidence that he can) - the article is certainly more damning than my criticism has been. http://foxestrust.co.uk/2386/demons-return-to-end-citys-season You say you miss being smashed 3-0 by Millwall - how about 5-1 at Forest? It's all to easy to pluck individual statistics to support a particular view.
3 failed seasons? 1 season getting use out of L1 as champions, 1/2 season being treating like **** by Milan and leaving, 1/2 season sorting out Sousa's and Sven's mess and 1 season a penalty kick away from the playoffs. Am not saying he did brilliant but he has done alright and put us in good stead for next season. Frankly I think he has been our best manager since Micky Adams and if he does go I will give at least half a crap.
Think that's the problem Barwell - the older heads amongst us recall: Gillies O'Farrell Bloomfield Wallace Mine Little (with reservations!) O'Neil I was too young for Gillies, but Bloomfield, Milne and O'Neil in particular all built teams that were wonderful viewing ...
But is that because we've had a load of crap managers or because we have been too impatient? We certainly have had some ****, no doubt, particularly when we were struggling financially. But the turnover of managers (some with big reputations) since Mandaric came in has been unacceptable. I don't think it's a coincidence that we've under-performed almost every year in that time.
Interesting - what's your view on Holloway? - his record since leaving us is better than Nigels - two play-off finals since with one of them culminating in a Wembley victory and promotion.
The author of that needs putting on suicide watch! I know it was horrible but he's acting like we've been relegated or gone out of business. Why are we likely to lose key players? We haven't lost any since the Thais came in (unless you include Bamba, which personally I don't) so why should we this time? We'll lose players that are surplus to requirements... good! So we should. His criticism of Keane is very harsh too. St. Ledger is hardly Tony Adams. There's absolutely no evidence that we'd have fared better with him over Keane. Again, hindsight is 20/20. As BigFox said, hardly three failed seasons is it? Has he included our League One championship? Or the half season he had last year in which there was a God awful mess to clean up? Either way, it's inaccurate. Preparation for next season will be onerous... It appears that Pearson has been preparing for FFP since he arrived, bringing in young players on reasonable wages and shipping out those that aren't. But let's remember, we are one of the best supported clubs in this division, therefore bringing in more revenue than most. It'll be the smaller clubs that have money that will be hardest hit, clubs like Wigan and QPR (although I'm not sure how parachute payments fit into FFP), because they won't be able to spend their fortunes until they start bringing in more money. I agree with the quote you used in terms of it been a collective failure, ie not the fault of one man (which would also include Pearson). There have been too many errors and too many players not performing on the day this season but the annoying thing is it's never the same players that lets us down! Partially I put this down to the age of some of the players and their lack of experience at the level. Particularly it's because one or two players have not lived up to their abilities (Marshall, Wood, Nugent and even Knockaert in spells). This is as frustrating for Pearson as anyone - he thinks he's got the squad just right, then someone else decided to have a crisis of confidence on him. It's not helped that our small squad as meant that when this happens, there's not enough options to bring in. We can thank Sven for that, as I should imagine that Pearson, preparing for FFP, can only bring in so many while Sven's reject are still feeding on our club. Regarding your points, no, I don't think a spell of one goal in seventeen games for a striker is satisfactory. I've said so many times. I think 16 for a season for a centre-forward is. I don't want to get into at that motivation business again. If players on the money they are on playing for a club that has a great chance of promotion to the Premier League can't motivate themselves then I'm damn sure no-one else can. Besides, there's a difference between a player that is unmotivated and a player that has lost self-belief. I haven't seen too many unmotivated performances this season, but I have seen a fair bit of the latter. Perhaps we should sack the club's sport psychologist? The 5-1 Forest game, correct me if I'm wrong, was not all that long after we got promoted from League One was it? Didn't we go one to beat them 3-0 at home later that season? Patience pays off. Last season (and the season before) Sven spend millions and after a full year in charge and all that spending, we lost 3-0 at home to Millwall. We haven't lost any matches by three goals this season, home or away, and spend a lot less.
He's done well, you can't deny it. The cynic in me would say he profited from Grayson's fine work at Blackpool, barely managed to get in the play-offs, took advantage of two of the biggest bottler clubs in play-off history, took Blackpool straight back down, failed to get what was pretty much still the Prem side promoted, then jumped ship to an already promising looking Palace side when Blackpool were stuttering. But in reality, this record speaks for itself. Maybe if we'd appointed him at the beginning of the 2008 season instead of Allen, well, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have gone down at least. It was the chopping and changing that did us that season. Also, remember he signed some decent players for us that helped get us promoted from League One. If you're comparing him to Pearson, well he's been around longer and is more experienced. Even so, their records aren't that dissimilar (both have one automatic promotion, but Holloway does have three relegations compared to Nige's none), Holloway just seems to get luckier in the play-off lottery.
Didn't hollowhead go abroad somewhere and 'revisit' the way he coached/managed when he took us down? Can remember reading something about it in an interview with one of the tabloids.
Since Top came in not 1 player has left the club that the manager wanted to stay The thing is Marshall, James, Drinkwater, De Laet, Schlupp, Knockaert and Wood are all very young and in their first proper seasons. They will all come back stronger next season
King and Kasper (for a keeper) aren't exactly close to retirement age either. The future is certainly promising.
