What a difference he has made Not just to results here, But on some of those who´re paid To lift their game a gear, I was critical of Russ In his centre-back role, Deeming him easy to suss And poor to fill the hole, But alongside Bassong S He´s really looked the part, So now I have to confess At CB he should start, That might say more about Seb And if that is the case, Good we untangled the web To bring him back to base, Neither do I recognise Whittaker as the man, Much involved in our demise In matches before Jan, Even that poor cameo In midfield, Neil used, To keep faith with him, to show He wasn´t the accused, Olsson, on the other side Has a new lease of life, No more ´along for the ride´ He´s now sharp as a knife, Johnson, from being a sort Of midfield labourer, Nowadays, if he´s not caught Will score a goal to savour, Tettey too, has grown in size And stature since Neil came, His positioning is wise To tighten up our game, But to me, the greatest boon Is having strikers score, Not just once in a blue moon But in a real downpour, In that respect, it´s so good To see Grabban again, And Jerome, back in the mood When near the opponent´s pen, Hooper too, has found his feet And also found the net, Three there to turn up the heat And cause keepers regret, Added to those I have named Are the rest of our choir, Also equally inflamed With Neil´s burning desire, So if I was of a blue Persuasion this Sunday, I´d be wary of a few Goals going in my way. OTBC
I detect an air of confidence RBF that you are normally somewhat careful of showing. I am hoping that your faith is well founded and that we will be three points the richer come 4 on Sunday. We could be third by then! - note of caution we could also be 7th!
Your detective qualities are as good as ever INSPECTOR THURNBY, of late, I have been feeling more confident, and especially these last two results and performances have encouraged me no end. Just feel that we have the necessary belief and momentum to pull it off this weekend, although we know it will be tough......
...and to be perfectly honest, I´d be a lot more concerned about the one following, against Wigan - after the Lord Mayor´s Show and all that, and up against Malky
We discussed previously that we would be happy with a point at Watford but that we were very wary of the trip to Ewood Park and here we are a week later 6 points better off. The rollercoaster that is the East Anglian Derby is certainly in full swing and a defeat is something that we cannot really contemplate (nor truly expect this time around). Your cautionary note therefore about the following game is spot on but I do not believe for one minute that AN will allow that to happen. I would honestly now be a tad disapponted if we dropped any points in these two games and I hope that these words do not come back to haunt me!!
No, I´m absolutely sure that Mr. Neil will do everything in his power to prevent any relaxation in the Wigan game, but for me, that´s still the one where we´re more likely to drop points, if we do drop any. Everyone´s up for this Sunday without him needing to do anything, and especially if we can come out triumphant, there will automatically be a feeling of anticlimax for Wednesday.
Well RBF - what more can be said about our new manager?? (not forgetting Frank McAvoy - aka the 'Scottish Mitchell Brothers')
His a quality manager, you can tell he makes everyone at the club more confident then the previous regime, he also has a plan B and a plan C, no one dimensional game plan.
You've got to just love the man. Today's quote - “That is one thing we have to guard against now,” he said. “I won’t allow the players to get complacent. We have worked too hard and too long and the last thing we are going to expect now in this situation is that we can just turn up and win. With 12 games to go we can’t take our foot off the gas. Every team and every game is difficult, as we saw with other results in this league, and we will approach Wigan as the biggest game of the season and work even harder than we did against Ipswich.”
Interesting post on the PinkUn message board - http://services.pinkun.com/forums/pinkun/cs/forums/3226865/ShowPost.aspx
Thanks for that link JR. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that Neil Adams did a good job and definitely did it to the best of his ability. No, he isn't and almost certainly won't ever be a great manager, but he kept us in touch with the top of the league when it could all have gone completely tits up and he produced some good moments. His appointment was far from a disaster. It wasn't great, but it was definitely not a catastrophe.
I don´t think anyone has ever doubted that Adams did the best he could Rob, but he should never have taken his managerial apprenticeship with us. Give him a couple of years down in League 2 or 1, and I don´t doubt that he could be a decent enough manager in time, but unfortunately time was the one thing we didn´t really have.
The Problem for Adams was keeping the defence tight enough (And the clash between him and Bassong), and maybe being a bit too nice and matey with the players. He still got us some great results, kept us on the tails of the top 6 and managed the Premier League hangover pretty well. I think it was just all a bit too much for him in the end. It's a shame, but Alex Neil has come into a squad that was almost there, it just needed an outside view to get that final 5-10% out of the players. He also just seems to instinctively know the best way to play against different opposition. Long may his rein continue!
When NA was replaced by AN, we were still well ahead of our two fellow relagatees. ( if there is no such word there should be). Which means he managed our relegation much better than the myriad of persons engaged by those two teams. Which, in my book, makes him far from a failure. NA is still very much a City legend in my book.
NA had a far superior starting point than either of our fellow relegationees though. He's been shown up for what he was since AN arrived. Not his fault and his heart was in the right place but he wasn't adequate for the role of manager.
Sadly Supers, your analysis is spot-on in my view. I would have loved NA to have cut it (and indeed BG all those years ago) but sentimentality counts for nothing and we should possibly not have ventured down either of those paths as it only bruised previously wonderful reputations.
