A year ago today, a brash, ignorant, egotistical man took over our club whilst we languished 23rd in the league.. A year on, the rest is history..
His first game was against a non league side in the Cup, a year on this week we are playing another one. Incredible year!
Every day I thank the Lord that he came our way, hats off to him and long may it continue.............
Me too. Imagine if the stubborn fans got their way and we kept SOD.... We'd be mid table in league 2 now!
I was But not only was I underwhelmed, I was also very angry with the Board for appointing SC without waiting for applications from elesewhere and thinking that this had all of the hallmarks of yet another major failing of due diligence and common sense. Like the piece by the Exiled Robin I was also wrong in every respect. This past year has been Roy Of The Rovers stuff, the atmosphere is great and the football at times has been breathtaking.
I was and I wasn't..... I was just glad to see SOD gone and when Cotterills name first appeared it felt like a lazy decision and I thought, yeah he might keep us up but was worried about this season, but then ROD posted a video where he gave one of his players a bollocking during an interview because he was doing something stupid in the background or something and I thought, this guy is the complete opposite to SOD, maybe he might get this lot going in the right direction because we most certainly had the players, just not the manager, now thankfully we have both. Another thing I was worried about with Cotts was who he was going to buy but he has probably been the best manager I've seen in the market. El-Abd aside (who to be fair was a great signing on paper) everyone he has signed has been magnificent. Little, Ayling, Freeman, Elliott, Smith, Agard, Wilbraham... That's basically a list of our best players! I/We were wrong to doubt him but what an appointment, lets hope this time next year we are still singing his praises rather than "Cotterills not good enough for the championship..."
I was very neutral and sitting on the fence when he joined us and bloody glad we got rid of SOD, thank god for Cotterill and all he has achieved..
Me. He has clearly performed a minor miracle in the twelve months and much of this must be due to his personality in the dressing room. He had one big bonus waiting for him in that the number of high salary non performing members of the playing staff was significantly lower than it was when SOD arrived. But he still had to organise us into a team/squad that did not have a losing mentality, one that would pull together at all times. The recruitment on loan of Wade Elliott was extremely significant. His summer recruitment has proved to be spectacular - Smith, Ayling, Freeman, Wilbraham, Agard. Very significant that all except Wilbs and Wade are under 24. He has moulded defenders already brought in by SOD, into a pretty mean bunch; Flint, Williams, Fielding. Just one less than successful signing but there isn't a good manager in history who has not fallen flat from time to time (SAF with Ralph Milne?) I genuinely believe that the player recruitment has been aided and abetted by Keith Burt making him a very unsung hero during this recovery year. I have been convinced since end of July, that City will go up as champions and at present see little to change my mind. There are half a dozen other clubs who can be considered as genuine top six contenders and finishing in the top two can be a bit of a lottery. Three of the teams have accrued more than 2 points per game, City Swindon and MK and the top two will be those that to continue to exceed this for the remaining five months. A tall order but with our squad and the January recruits, we should be good enough to finish top of the tree!
I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Cotterill's signings have been brilliant (I'll willingly forgive him ElAbd). He's also 'sussed' Wagstaff - We now play with 11. Cotterill's positivity is fantastic - The bloke hasn't put a foot wrong.
Wasn't his first game against Telford who we have on Sunday? The guy has done an incredible job so far. Edit: Think it might have been Tamworth or something..
hands up, its a fair cop, at the time I was disappointed it felt like a sideways move, but its starting to feel like the stars were aligned that day, pray he stays to see the job through, because at last it feels like theres a plan in place, rather than stumbling about in the darkness.
....Hmmmmm....not sure we can dub him "The Messiah" yet. He's done a grand job for us to date, that's for sure but Messiah status would be consecutive promotions. Not counting that out of course....GJ almost did it. Got to admit, I was completely underwhelmed when he was appointed and the humble pie is almost suffocating. If he could brush up on his interviews, he's do so much better in my book!
I too was underwhelmed by his appointment. However, it soon became apparent that he really meant business - even by the way he speaks to the press. I don't share RPs dislike of Wagstaff, but I am happy with SCs selections to-date which tend to leave him on the bench. Flint in particular has come on leaps and bounds under Cotts. We are only half way there however - if we end up mid table, or even in the playoffs we will see a very different type of post on here.
I too was underwhelmed by his appointment. I to thought it was yet another cheap bit of business done by the board, which if we're honest, had been with every manager since SC. (Coppell) But hands up, I was wrong and I'm happy to admit it.. Sometimes a personality just fits the job and I believe Steve Cotterill fits us perfectly. I love his enthusiasm and I like the way he sets out his team, I also like the brand of football that he is trying to achieve at the gate.......All good so far, I really hope with all the good work that has been done in this last year, we get the just rewards for the effort.....Promotion!
