1. Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!

Pearson and Tinnion Rip Up Promotion Blueprint

Discussion in 'Bristol City' started by wizered, Feb 2, 2023.

  1. wizered

    wizered Ol' Mucker
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2011
    Messages:
    33,405
    Likes Received:
    5,983
    Pearson and Tinnion rip up promotion blueprint as Bristol City show ambition of a different kind
    Just two players remain in the Bristol City first-team from the summer window of 2019, which was supposed to transform the Robins from being a play-off consideration to genuine contenders

    There is a fine line in football between ambition and recklessness. The Premier League era, and in particular the Abramovich-driven age of the super club in English football has permeated through the pyramid and, as much as we probably don’t like to admit it, conditioned us all to believe that ambition = spending.

    An owner cannot look himself in the mirror, nor face his fanbase, without putting his hand in his pocket to spend extravagant amounts of transfer fees and wages that allow supporters either to puff their chests out, feel a sense of reassurance that it somehow equates to the club's custodians caring, or simply for something to be proud about on social media.

    But, as we should all surely know by now, money, and the spending of it, doesn’t always buy you love, or success on the football pitch. In fact, when it goes wrong, it can do the complete opposite.

    Each case and example needs to be judged on its own merit but in very simple terms, the idea of Todd Boehly lavishing £290m in a single transfer window is framed as a sign of ambition from the American. Which, I guess, on one hand can’t be debated because the money has been spent, and some people just like that sort of stuff.

    But as unpalatable as it seems, it could prove a masterstroke and Chelsea’s success has been safeguarded for nearly a decade. However, it wouldn’t take much - as history has shown us due to the uncertainties of football and footballers - for it to be a move of such rank stupidity and recklessness, those eight-year contracts and the bloated mess their squad now appears, could be a burden well into the 2030s.

    Staying with the simple thought-process, at the other end of the scale, is Brighton & Hove Albion investing £8m in two largely unknown teenage midfielders from Sweden and Argentina while they are sixth in the Premier League, amid a season in which a number of clubs of considerably greater resources are vastly under-performing, somehow a lack of ambition?

    Well, no, of course not. Because we should all be familiar with the absolutely outrageously prolific scouting operation they have in Sussex and the constant progress it’s enabled the club to make (plus, of course, they managed to retain Moises Caicedo).

    Three-and-a-half years ago, Bristol City ended the 2018/19 season with their best league position in the pyramid for more than 10 years: eighth, four points outside the top six and of the seven teams ahead of them in the standings, five had been recent beneficiaries of parachute payments.

    On the one hand, it was a successful season. But the perception was also of a missed opportunity - the carousel-like situation in goal, a lack of an established Championship goalscorer and the Robins held back byLee Johnson’s safety-first tactics. These, and others, were some of the arguments - of varying credibility and legitimacy - thrown the way of that team.

    Internally, some of that was recognised, of course, but there was a feeling - as evidenced by the table - that they weren’t that far away, and with the right upgrades in the right areas, the 2019/20 season could lead to further improvement.

    “If you stand still in this game, you get left behind” was a familiar mantra delivered by CEO Mark Ashton, Johnson at times, and Steve Lansdown around those summer months as City signed 11 new first-team players, spent around £15m in transfer fees, including a new club record, also while recouping more than £30m through the sales of Lloyd Kelly - at the time a promising squad player who was still probably 6-12 months away from being a consistent starter, at least in Johnson’s mind - and Adam Webster, whowas as important a playerin the squad as can possibly be conceived.

    But with the Tomas Kalas and Jay Dasilva converted into permanent City players, a new No1 in Dan Bentley, two very exciting midfielders from the continent in Adam Nagy and Han-Noah Massengo to replace Marlon Pack, a raw but exciting EFL prospect in Sammie Szmodics plus the loan arrival of Benik Afobe, there weren’t too many dissenting voices, once that dreadful opening day defeat to Leeds United was behind them.

    That cost of that expenditure - plus the January arrivals of Nahki Wells and Markus Henriksen and Filip Benkovic on loan - bloated the wage bill to a new record £33.5m, although at the time, only the 13th largest in the Championship. Any idea of the Lansdowns not showing ambition in the rawest sense of the word when applied in a football context, was quite simply nonsense. Those people still, of course, existed. And probably now very much engage in the told-you-so arguments around City’s desperate financial situation over the last 18 months.

    However, with the exception of the Webster sale - and the inability to replace him was as catastrophic a move as any made that summer - Ashton and Johnson could not say they weren’t backed in the market. And that was unquestionably realised, as the bar was now raised. Instead of tip-toeing around the p-word, from a very early stage, Johnson was laying out the requirements on the team and himself.

    And before this sparksthe usual flurry of rocks thrown the way of the erstwhile CEOand head coach, they were, after all, simply following a brief - to get promoted. Granted, there were mistakes on the micro level made - many of them, as it turns out - but the overall concept of what they were doing was perceived wisdom at the time.

    Imagine the outrage if, in the summer of 2019 and the status City enjoyed at the time as an upwardly mobile and progressive Championship club, Ashton turned around and told the fanbase the wage bill needed to be reigned in, Kalas and Dasilva were too expensive, and they needed to integrate a greater volume of academy players. Bedminster Asdas would have sold out of bedsheets.

    Case in point, once Afobe suffered his ACL injury, the immediate course of action was to look for a free transfer - and another wage on the books - than try and cover the loss internally. That was just how things were being done at the time. It seems totally alien now.

    As we know after the usual ebb and flow, elation and frustration of a football season - heightened and complicated by a global pandemic - City fell short, quite significantly so, six places and seven points, which ultimately cost Johnson his job.

    Covid-19 unquestionably plays a part in this story and is, in many ways, the underlying influence because, in normal circumstances, that summer City may well have been able to sell Famara Diedhiou and Niclas Eliasson, who were on expiring contracts, for significant money - they had turned down a bid far in excess of the £2.3m the Swede went to Nimes for, six months earlier - regrouped and gone again.

    But that lack of financial flexibilityhamstrung Dean Holden’s abilityto do business beyond buying Joe Williams. City’s transfer work was modest but still the wage bill rose as they tried to build on the foundations of the previous 12 months. And, as we know, they fell short, quite significantly so, and it cost Holden his job.

    It probably wasn’t quite realised at that moment in time, at least not to the full extent, but with Covid still an uncertain beast and its impact on football still not properly known, the moment when Holden sat in solitude in the dugout at Ashton Gate, wishing to speak to his father, knowing his fate was sealed, was the brutal end point of an era (if you want to call it that).

    The ramifications have since been huge, and have been detailed many times, but essentially City found themselves burdened by a wage bill they couldn’t afford due to a financial model that had collapsed as the transfer market outside the Premier League disintegrated. And, due to the contracts given in 2019 - which, we should reinforce, nobody was really complaining about at the time - that situation wasn’t going to change any time soon. City had to navigate themselves through what would be very choppy financial waters for the next two years.

    It’s no coincidence therefore, that this most recent transfer window has felt like a bit of a fresh start. There’s no doubt it’s been building, as high-earners have been shed, often at a cost, while the work ofnow-former CEO Richard Gouldand Nigel Pearson have increasingly pinpointed this coming summer as the true fork in the road in terms of the financial reset, but heading into the final 18 games of a season in which they are far from safe, something about the club feels lighter and less anchored by the recent past.

    Of those signed in the summer window of 2019, only Kalas and Dasilva remain, and the latter would be a Coventry City player by nowif AFC Wimbledon had playedwith a straighter bat than the one they deployed on deadline day. Having reduced the wage bill by £5m for the accounts ending 2021/22, the saving for 2022/23 should display an even more stark decline.

    But, crucially… well, hopefully… the squad should be in a better place; assuming, of course, City preserve their Championship status which, I think we can all agree on, looks a more than probable prospect based on recent performances and the quality of those below them.

    The idea of ambition is now a very different one. The odd shout of, “Lansdown put your hand in your pocket” is still there, amid bafflement at the sale of Antoine Semenyo on an expiring contract being some kind of raising of a white flag that will only lead to League One. The counter-punch to that of Anis Mehmeti looks a pretty strong one.

    Clearly, and reassuringly, there is a plan in place, driven by Pearson and now plotted by technical director Brian Tinnion who has been instrumental in providing the bedrock of academy talent that has enabled City to change course. Without that supply chain of players to cover gaps in the squad, on what are mostly minimal salaries to the players they have replaced, it’s frightening to envisage where the club would be. Well, maybe that’s a bit hyperbolic because the answer is very much in the division below.

    It’s not been a great watch at times, and the prospect of relegation has been a lingering fear, but for all the doom-mongering that has existed at times, they’ve only been in the bottom three for the space of eight days under Pearson, and that was August 13-21 with the current season only four games old.

    We, ourselves included, were a bit hoodwinked by the concept of sustainability when it was regularly spoken pre-pandemic. As has transpired, albeit through unprecedented and unforeseeable circumstances, the idea of selling your best players every summer and a benevolent owner converting debt into shares to cover various shortfalls isn’t really that sustainable.

    Sustainable is: moving a second-choice left-back on a significant wage, and trying to sign one of the brightest young full-backs outside of the Championship as his replacement. Okay, it didn’t work out that way but you can see the process at work.

    It’s also creating a culture whereby academy players can make the step into the first-team environment and produce the best of their ability in such an atmosphere. It’s taken for granted but many young players can be crushed under the weight of pressure or simply because, at some clubs, it’s an unpleasant atmosphere that doesn’t support those making the first steps in their career.

    Some invariably get through, but a healthy dressing room mentality enables it. Having figures like Andy King at the club (check how many under-21 players making their debut reference him in interviews) create such a bridge and allow the much-vaunted pathway to prosper in practice as well as theory.

    Of course, circumstance has dictated a lot of this but a manager a few miles away in the city said recently that football is the survival of the most adaptable, more so than the fittest (or most financial flushed), and the Robins look to have successfully pivoted to a new path, one that feels a little less reckless but still carries a sense of ambition.
    Pearson and Tinnion rip up promotion blueprint as Bristol City show ambition of a different kind - Bristol Live (bristolpost.co.uk)
     
    #1
  2. wizered

    wizered Ol' Mucker
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2011
    Messages:
    33,405
    Likes Received:
    5,983
    That article and our recent journey reminds me of the rise and fall od reginal perrin, first of all was the MA/LJ period who's brief from SL was simple "Get Promotion" and we all know their circumstamces, up, up and away , follwed by DH and the pandemic, £38.4m debt, not of his making, in came NP, 2 years plus of scraping the barrel to make end meet but we are still a Championship outfit and things are now more stable, 8 of the players at a recent game were academy products on minimal salaries, we have only 2 left of the highly paid on expiring contracts of MA/LJ days, we have a new CEO, an established manager leading our recovery, an academy director providing quality players and a planned recovery programme for all to see.

    Relegation is still a possibility but as the article finished by saying " The Robins look to have successfully pivoted to a new path, one that feels a little less reckless but still carries a sense of ambition."

    So we must keep the faith.
     
    #2
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2023
    Redprintt and Angelicnumber16 like this.
  3. invermeremike

    invermeremike Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2011
    Messages:
    9,405
    Likes Received:
    1,502
    Here we go again on a promised regeneration of Bristol City, but if you look back at themes like the 5 pillars approach and various other statements of intent you will notice that none of them got us to where we are supposed to be. In retrospect I believe that this commitment has a lot more oomph to it as the basis of our previous attempts have been far of the mark and spending/wages went ballistic. Sensibility should work, and much though I don't like to admit it that must be down to Nigel and his footballing nous. We need to get our financial house in order before we can really move forward and that hasn't been the case under previous stewardships. The first order of the day is to stay up here and do the big business in the summer, which hopefully gets us up and running from the start of the season towards a more successful campaign next time out.
     
    #3
  4. wings-of-a-crow

    wings-of-a-crow Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2012
    Messages:
    2,250
    Likes Received:
    614
    if we had a point for all the different plans etc that com from within the club, we would be top three for sure.
     
    #4
  5. Supcon72

    Supcon72 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2012
    Messages:
    8,311
    Likes Received:
    2,611
    It’s all well and good ripping out the ‘old guard’ as long as it means progress. In terms of league position and challenging for the play-offs, we are miles away from where we were in 2018-20.
    I acknowledge the financial ineptitude of the deals done by the previous CEO have had an impact on progress, but the next 12 months, we have to see huge progress
     
    #5
  6. realred1952

    realred1952 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 3, 2020
    Messages:
    7,614
    Likes Received:
    782
    COULD BE AROUND JUST £2M
     
    #6
  7. Redprintt

    Redprintt Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2011
    Messages:
    6,761
    Likes Received:
    3,436
    Don't you think Pearson had any choice ?
    Paying silly money to players from a previous era in today's climate was a road to disaster.
    In almost impossible circumstances I think NP deserves credit for turning the BCFC Liner around.
     
    #7
  8. AshtonRed

    AshtonRed Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2017
    Messages:
    8,784
    Likes Received:
    3,246
    I agree, we’ve been lucky that our academy lads have stepped up so well, if they hadn’t we’d really be in the mire, full credit to Nige for giving them the chance, Tins and the academy for bringing them on, and obviously the players themselves. The HPC has also had a major hand in this, allowing the young lads to train with the first team has been massive imo
     
    #8
    Supcon72 and Redprintt like this.
  9. realred1952

    realred1952 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 3, 2020
    Messages:
    7,614
    Likes Received:
    782
    COME ON dont under sell it ...... we would be in the prem in the top 8
     
    #9
  10. realred1952

    realred1952 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 3, 2020
    Messages:
    7,614
    Likes Received:
    782
    this is one of the points "financially I am putting forward with contracts" there seems to be a we dont want to spoil the apple cart by paying them a reflective wage" After a season in the first team squad no player should be on less than £4k! some of the squad are on just £x hundred! ... fine if in under 21's enough to buy your first house / a decent car ! but playing better than a back up player on £6+k is not really on!
     
    #10

  11. realred1952

    realred1952 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 3, 2020
    Messages:
    7,614
    Likes Received:
    782
    When you have a business model that starts to work it is the way forward ... problem is when something like covid comes along you are suddenly left up a creek without a paddle!
    It is actually no ones fault, least of all LJ/MA/DH/ the coach's.
    Blame must be apportioned to NP [ and latterly a bit of credit ] for the depth of our demise. He had a bad a** attitude in his first season and a bit! wanted his own way and got it cutting the wage bill but bringing in a couple of players that totalled £30k a week! Got rid of a couple of very very good coach's and brought in yet another mate. Poor results [ and most on here stated his management/ tactics were wrong ] and a attitude of hypocrisy had a poor effect on the team?! .... like play well and you are in... some did and didnt get to play! Jury is out on whether he had a mini breakdown .. but did seem to come back with a different although slight better attitude.
    Now if we look at past results [ 2023 especially ] what is it down to? Well today my little Friday group of BCFC supporters all older and less nimble than me one said " it is amazing how the team has improved beyond recognition since "TINMAN GOT PROMOTED!" .... and with that I concur and leave it like that!
     
    #11
  12. Redprintt

    Redprintt Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2011
    Messages:
    6,761
    Likes Received:
    3,436
    'When you have a business model that starts to work it is the way forward ...'

    Obviously Lansdown disagreed.
     
    #12
    Angelicnumber16 and RedorDead like this.
  13. oneforthebristolcity

    oneforthebristolcity Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2011
    Messages:
    8,360
    Likes Received:
    2,788
    Like I’ve said before, I think Nige’s management skills of the club is very good.. organisation of the club etc.. it’s his tactics & coaching etc that’s questionable for me..
    I have to admit, on the field I think we are getting there although I’ve been saying that for quite a few years. Missing the odd bit of quality into turning us into a really good side..
    we’ve had the clear out now so will see where that takes us.. the academy has been a blessing..
     
    #13
  14. bcfcredandwhite

    bcfcredandwhite Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 1, 2011
    Messages:
    9,515
    Likes Received:
    4,519
    I am ok overall with Nige - there have been some 'wobbles' but I've never (yet) got to the stage where I've wanted him gone. He's building his own side and we'll see where we are at the end of the season.
    As 1for and others have said though - thank God (and Tins) for the academy!!!
     
    #14
  15. AshtonRed

    AshtonRed Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2017
    Messages:
    8,784
    Likes Received:
    3,246
    Agree with all of that, well put. The only thing I differ on is after he kept playing King CD I did think his time maybe up, he’s turned it around a bit since, since we changed to 4-3-3 really, I’m glad because I like Nige and given time I think he may well succeed.
     
    #15
    Supcon72 and Redprintt like this.
  16. wizered

    wizered Ol' Mucker
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2011
    Messages:
    33,405
    Likes Received:
    5,983
    <laugh> RR is going to get worried, we all like Nige.
     
    #16
    bcfcredandwhite and Supcon72 like this.
  17. AshtonRed

    AshtonRed Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2017
    Messages:
    8,784
    Likes Received:
    3,246
    <laugh>He’ll be jealous
     
    #17
    oneforthebristolcity likes this.
  18. realred1952

    realred1952 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 3, 2020
    Messages:
    7,614
    Likes Received:
    782
    how do you come to that conclusion, it was like a train hitting the buffers when civid came along .. no crowds games abandoned [ postponed ] Billion / biillions of £s were lost to clubs not in the prem through a near 2 season loss of income exasperated by lack of Transfer money ... SL had no control over the sudden loss of income!
     
    #18
  19. wizered

    wizered Ol' Mucker
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2011
    Messages:
    33,405
    Likes Received:
    5,983
    #19
  20. Supcon72

    Supcon72 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2012
    Messages:
    8,311
    Likes Received:
    2,611
    He couldn't have disagreed that much, he allowed the former policy to happen, and bankrolled it, because it WAS working, look at our Net Spend on transfer fees from 2017-2020!! The fact is, it was working pre-COVID, albeit as an exceptionally high risk strategy if something unplanned occurred, in this case COVID - but could have been relegation. Hard to blame anyone for not seeing COVID coming in fairness. As a result we have had to cut our cloth, and NP has done a very good job in trimming the costs, and deserves praise, but has only done a fair to reasonable job with our performances. Now we have big money come in again, we have to find a model that takes the good points from the pre-COVID model, and eliminate the bad points.
     
    #20
    oneforthebristolcity likes this.

Share This Page