I have noticed our club is a lot like the England national team in its trends of doing what other people have done, and hope we have the same success. But like the England national team, we get nowhere! England seem to want to play a brand of football that doesn't suit them. "Lets all play the Spain way, and start teaching our youth squads this is how football should be played". While that is a brilliant sentiment, and I'd happily see our nations youth dominate in 10 years with the style Spain currently do. But the sad thing is, it will be too late by then. Times will have changed, as they so quickly do in football and there will be ANOTHER way to dominate the game. We are quite similar at Bristol City with our managerial selection over the last couple of years and it hasn't worked out. We have seen how well some managers do at other clubs, and have followed that misguided trend. I remember Iain Dowie being a prolific young manager, and at the time remember a lot of city fans saying thats what we needed. A young manager with fresh ideas of the game, who has strong ties to the club, therefore we gave the job to someone totally inexperienced and totally incapable of managing and coaching a team with fresh impetus. We went with Brian Tinnion, a legend for me and one of my favourite players when I was a kid, but not manager material. GJ was the only real difference, a manager working his way up through the ranks and deservedly given the job and didn't he do well for the first few years. He is the exception. As then we went with Coppell, much like Danny Wilson, someone with a great history, but clearly sliding down a slippery slope and someone who has definitely already seen the best of his managing days already. Next Mr Keith Millen, another superb servant to the club, and no doubt a brilliant coach, but NOT a manager. We saw what Brian McDermot was doing at Reading and thought, wow, this is what we need, give it to Keef! Another mistake. Now we have Derek McInness, someone I will support as I do think he has talent, but I am still unsure of his credentials. "Well look what he has done with St Johnstone!!! He comes from the same stock as Owen Coyle, he must be good". Look at Owen Coyle now, a failed Prem manager, and a failing Championship manager. I would dearly love to give DM the time, but I think that time is now being borrowed, and its the first time in about 5 years I can remember desperately wanting to stick with the manager until it is completely untenable. As much as I loved GJ and Millen, they lost my support as things were never going to get better. I don't see that with DM, I see good things but they need to start happening in November, otherwise its the chopping block. I was dearly hoping things would improve after Sexstone had gone, by I think we have more inept people in our boardroom than we do in our defence! But we need new ideas, fresh outlooks, and not follow what other clubs have done assuming it will work for us. We need people that think outside the box throughout the club, and DM alone can't do it, he is a start, but its the tip of the iceberg, we need new innovators in the changing room, on the pitch, and most importantly in the boardroom, otherwise this club will never grow! COYR
Am i the only one that thinks the board have concentrated so much on the new stadium and the money to be made from it they have taken there eye of the football team that at this rate wont have enough support to fill one end of the stadium let alone sell it out as they hope???
It's a possibility, maybe Lansdown is so eager to get the stadium he has put people in charge of the club that he think can get the ball rolling on the building of it, rather than football people who know how a club should be run for successful footballing growth. More money should be put into securing the services of elite managing directors, and luring them from already successful prem clubs. Offer them heavy cash and not to lacklustre players.
Mangement is an awful lot about force of personality, having a clear vision about what you want to achieve and also, what you are prepared to do to achieve it. So long as ALL of the team are on the same page and support each other, I would let DM get on with it and we will find our way out of this. BCFC's season has gone in spurts since GJ's time and this was no different last year, gloom doom and impending disaster followed by a run to get out of it. What I had hoped for with DM was CONSISTANCY (not the current sort) which has always been our problem and he needs more time in this respect and just a little bit more support in the form of that ball playing, attacking midfielder which will go a long way towards achieving this
It has been my opinion that we follow a team that has difficulty understanding how success is achieved and as ibodyslam says it is somewhat like following our national squad. Looking on the brighter side of life we could end up like a Portsmouth or Darlington being taken over by people who not only don't understand the game but have no commitment to England other than they own a football team there. Obviously we live in a different world today and that has seriously affected the way in which clubs are run and it's down solely to the club directors to get things right in their selection of the key personnel under their direction. Frankly I think City have a lousy track record in that department and until that key issue is sorted we have little or no chance of improving our lot in life. I was never a fan of Sexstone for whatever reason but I have seen little improvement in our status since his departure and am not holding my breath for the future based on our current form. Hello Ashton Gate! Is there anyone in there who can sort this unacceptable mess out soon please!
