Bold and Imaginative.

BRISTOL CITY COMMENT: Decision to appoint Lee Johnson as head coach is bold and imaginative

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NEW PARTNERSHIP: Lee Johnson and Steve Lansdown pictured together at today's game against Charlton.


LEE Johnson's appointment as Bristol City head coach represents a clear change in direction on the part of those responsible for running the club.
An example of the new breed of young, modernistic, innovative football managers that are fast making a name for themselves in the game, Johnson's arrival ushers in a return to City's much-vaunted 'five pillars' of Academy and youth development, recruitment and player identification, financial prudence and control, improved facilities and community engagement.
Of course, the five pillars never fully went away; some just took a back seat during Steve Cotterill's two years in the managerial hot-seat.
If Cotterill was absolutely the right man for the job when he was appointed manager in December 2013, City majority shareholder Steve Lansdown and his board of directors feel there is now a different approach is called for.
Cotterill came into a club on the verge of crisis, teetering on the brink of dropping into League Two, an organisation losing money and support in equal measure.

His whirlwind-like enthusiasm and ability to inspire, allied to an attention to detail bordering on the obsessive, served to engineer an almost immediate transformation in fortunes. Having kept City up, he then oversaw a brilliant recruitment campaign that saw the club sign some of the very best players in League One.

A glorious League One title and Johnstone's Paint Trophy-winning campaign followed and, even though recruitment became an issue and City found difficulty in making the step up to the Championship, the was still a sense of shock when Cotterill was relieved of his duties last month.

Certainly, the decision to replace him with 34-year-old Johnson has come as a bolt from the blue for those City fans who entertained fanciful thoughts of a high-profile appointment.

City have replaced an experienced Championship manager with a head coach whose managerial experience comprises a couple a couple of years in which he has cut his teeth with Oldham Athletic and Barnsley in the third tier.

On the one hand, Johnson's appointment can be seen as bold and imaginative. On the other hand, it can be interpreted as a huge gamble in the short-term.

Judging by the wave of negativity spurned by news that he was holding talks with City officials on Friday morning, Johnson faces an uphill struggle to win over a sceptical fan base.

Lansdown and his board of directors view the former City midfielder as a long-term appointment, a man with the ideas necessary to move the club to the next level.

But there is no denying the risk element in the immediate future. Johnson has forsaken a big day out at Wembley in the final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy with Barnsley for the dubious pleasure of joining a relegation dog-fight.

In short, he needs to hit the ground running. City have 16 games in which to retain their Championship status and judgment will be swift and harsh should the new head coach fail to achieve his short-term brief.

Johnson inherited a similar situation at Oldham when, at the age of 31, he became the Football League's youngest manager two years ago. He engineered a rapid recovery, leading the Latics to a position of safety before establishing them as a mid-table entity the following season.

His relative success on a shoestring budget attracted the notice of Barnsley officials and when they came knocking last season, Johnson jumped at the chance to embrace a new challenge. Once again, fans were prepared to question his appointment, especially when the Tykes made a poor start to the 2015/16 campaign.

Once again, Johnson proved his critics wrong, persuading the Oakwell board of directors to back him in the loan market, after which he inspired a turnaround in fortunes that has seen the Yorkshire club exit the relegation zone, move to within sight of the League One play-off zone and secure a big day out at Wembley.

There will again be doubters and detractors now that he has taken up the challenge of working in the Championship. City fans are asking 'does he have the necessary experience'? and 'is he up to the job'?

In part, such negativity is explained by the six seasons Johnson spent at Ashton Gate as a player, most of them while his father, Gary, was manager. Although he was virtually ever-present in the side that reached the Championship play-off final in 2008, Johnson was never quite able to dissociate himself from the suspicion that he owed his place in the team to nepotism.

Erstwhile perceptions are serving to influence current opinion and, if City fans are less than enamoured with the board's latest choice, their incredulity is perhaps understandable.

Amid the din of public outcry, it must be remembered that a majority of City fans were critical of the decision to appoint Cotterill as Sean O'Driscoll's successor in 2013. Few were prepared to question his credentials when he stood proudly upon the steps of the Lloyds ampitheatre brandishing two trophies and receiving the acclaim of thousands of jubilant City fans last May.

In just the same way, Johnson will stand and fall by results on the field. If he can repeat the transformation in fortunes he engineered at Oldham and Barnsley and keep the Robins in the second tier, his critics will quickly fade away.

In the meantime, City supporters must try and avoid any rush to judgment. Now is the time for the club to demonstrate a united front in the battle against relegation and the new head coach requires the backing of everybody associated with the club.

Should he satisfy his initial brief, there will be good reason to look to a future in a magnificent 27,000 all-seat stadium with genuine optimism.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTO...-Lee-Johnson/story-28684008-detail/story.html

 

Two different view points both extolling the virtues of Lee Johnson ..
http://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/article/welcome-lee-with-open-arms-lansdown-2942912.aspx
http://youbeautifulreds.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/only-supporters-are-loyal.html