Lee Johnson gives honest assessment of Bristol City's 2016/17 season so far. Lee Johnson reckons if his players were still at school, they would be heading for detention! Asked to deliver his half-season report, City's head coach offered an honest assessment of the progress made by his young team in the Championship this season. And following a depressing sequence of six defeats, during which the Robins have slipped to 16th place in the table, he admitted his players must do better during the second half of the campaign. "The way things are going at the moment, the players are heading for a detention after school," admitted the 35-year-old head coach. But Johnson believes disappointed City supporters ought to look at the bigger picture when assessing progress during the first half of the campaign. He said: "We're certainly doing better than this time last year. I don't see us losing games 4-0 and we're not scrambling to fight our way out of the bottom three. "If you look at all of the games, both in the league and cup, then we've won as many as we've lost. I see it as a spiral, in which progress is forward with the occasional blip. "We're experiencing a blip right now, but overall I still see a very well run football club heading in the right direction. "I understand the need for results in the short-term, but this is a long-term project and we are learning in flight as it were. I'm confident that the future is bright." http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/watch-...-city-s-2016/story-30013957-detail/story.html
I an going to resist personal criticism, although I am not far from it but that is the worst 1/2 season summary I have ever read and to be told we ought to look at the bigger picture with everything else going on is a nonsense. In my opinion LJ you should get 6 of the best to ease our needs. (get it)
Apart from that Mrs Lincoln how was the show? Give me a break if he thinks that will inspire anybody.
Lacklustre,I get the impression he thinks he is doing a strirling job Does he think he is untouchable,SL has said your in the job for the long term. The thing is when the fans turn there is only one way you going and that is out. I don't think he realises the clock is ticking, 270 more minutes of football, and three losses, and you have to go.
But will he RR? I have a feeling that someone has totally lost the plot and due to their actions will stick to their guns because humble pie is not on their menu. I just can't see SL saying sorry lads but I screwed up royally and now I'm going out to find the best manager possible to achieve mine, and your, dreams and thank you for your undying support. Yeah right.
SL won't take the decision without his hand being forced, and that will only come from continued losses and fans/media pressure. He's too vain/big headed to admit his mistakes and lack of football knowledge/understanding when making big decisions, but funnily enough it's a recurring theme with most managers he has employed. The exception seems to be Steve Cotterill who was brought in by Keith Dawe.
I don't read anything of serious value into these statements to be honest, and mostly only read them when someone posts them on here. They are not worth analysing for any clues as to what has gone wrong, or what LJs plans are to turn things around. Whatever you think of Lee, he is certainly not stupid or deluded. He will know that recent results are not good enough - even if there are occasional flashes of brilliance at times, at the end of the day a valiant or unlucky defeat is still a defeat, and every defeat we suffer brings us closer to the dreaded trapdoor. I also believe that you can only put one or two defeats down to bad luck - more than that and something is fundamentally wrong. Steve Lansdowne will know this - He isn't stupid either. I really want this Lee Johnson 'experiment' to work - just as I really wanted the Sean O'Driscoll, Keith Millen, Derek McInnes and Steve Cotterill projects all to work. A lot has been made of our promotion season under SCs tenure being one of the 'best ever'. It was certainly good and I will be forever grateful for Steve Cotterill for making it happen, but honestly lets get it into perspective; it was only the Mickey Mouse cup and getting promoted from the 3rd tier into the second tier - where in my view we should have been all along anyway. This Championship is our real 'day job' and its bloody tough. Lee will know that if results don't improve soon then he will be out. It's a results business and we are not coming up with the goods. Contrary to Redprintt's delusion, I am NOT and never have been a great advocate of LJ as a manager. I was seriously underwhelmed by his appointment and to be honest he has not shown anything (Fulham away game aside perhaps) to convince me otherwise. However, I always try and support our manager as far as possible, whoever he is and I am also not a fan of chopping and changing the manager as soon as there is a bad run of results. I would guess he has the January window and about 4 more games left to turn it around, to avoid our season turning into another proper relegation battle and SL taking action. As I said before, I can't see LJ being allowed to take us down. However, if I'm wrong and he IS allowed to take us down I will seriously realign my opinions of Steve Lansdown and Bristol Sport as a whole.
Lot of waffle again. Fans, some of them do look at bigger pictures, at present we do not know who the XI is, and see a team which is doing the opposite to growing into the Managers ideas. The match v Wolves was shambolic. Continue in this that vein and thrashing are in the post. Time to prove fans wrong.My concern would be "are you good enough" to be spending more money. BCFC have very limited resources and mistakes take seasons to rectify. Financially BCFC are only stable because of Mr Lansdown and Lee Johnson/ Mr Ashton are in effect spending Mr Lansdowns own money. That is no sustainable model for a football club.
R&W It's funny how you deride SC's achievement of promotion from L1. Tell me, exactly what did Junior achieve in L1 to warrant a position at a Championship club ? Compared to Junior, I would take SC back like a shot.
To address your first statement; I don't think I 'derided' SCs achievement - I said it was good. I merely pointed out that we shouldn't have been in Div 3 in the first place. Never mind, there is a possibility we may be there again soon, so we have the possibility of 'enjoying' another Div 3 to Div 2 promotion campaign in the near future..... To answer your question; Nothing. I didn't want his appointment - again, you seem to be suggesting that I am in love with the guy or something - I'm not - and my patience is fast running out (with LJ, not you, RP). However, I wouldn't want SC back either - he proved he wasn't up to the Championship tactically (if our current form doesn't change very soon, then LJ will be judged likewise). It was proven by the fact that Pemberton turned things around immediately after SC was sacked - before LJ was appointed or SL got his cheque book out. Now, I WOULD give Pembs a go though - although rumour has it that he ruled himself out last time.......
Good common sense from you R&B. Echos most of what my thoughts are. Reprintt, as to having SC back like a shot, I'm confused....Would have been relegated had he stayed and I don't see 1000s of jobs being lined up for him at present.. As R&B says, it was a Micky Mouse cup, (which LJ took Barnsley to the following season) and a poor League 1 we came up from. It was good achievement, but I too would like to put it in perspective! I do agree LJ does needs results, but i think if you're going to sack a manager, it would be done before the Jan window and not after, so I can see that he will be here a bit longer than some might expect.
This is interesting Onefor and something I have pondered over - If we get rid of LJ BEFORE the January window then we'll have to do it straight after the Ipswich game and we'll never know if his 'last piece' of the puzzle was there for the taking. A replacement would have to work fast - and where would that leave Mark Ashton and Pembs? However, if we wait until AFTER the window and things don't improve then a new manager would have to work with someone else's squad, which is a 'get out of jail free' card for him if we get relegated - also LJ could argue that he wasn't given enough time to fix things. I don't have the answer to this one.
I am sure Lee knows things are not good enough - it's not rocket science after all. I don't think he is being complacent either - that recent contract extension protects Bristol Sport more than Lee himself, in that if he turns things around then we will have to be paid handsomely if another club comes in to poach him (somewhat unlikely at the moment!!). LJ won't want to be labelled as a failure and I'm sure he is doing all he can to fix things - the big question is; will he succeed in turning things around before the axe falls? You give him 3 games. I gave him 4, I think Angelic gave him 5. The brick harbour wall is looming for him and he knows he will have to turn the ship around or there will be a crash.....
Is there anyone at Ashton Gate who can't see the writing on the wall, and it makes me wonder what the hell they talk about when they show up for work each day. Please tell me they don't discuss Corrie (who would), or do they?
All the money we spent in the summer, then the mad money from Kodija and Bolasie and I'm concerned SL will allow Junior to waste it all. Still, SL will say it's his money - 'I can waste it on who I want'. Ps - R&B Forgive dear old 1For.
I think that's a fear for a lot of us Redprintt and it would be considered a major backward step if we wasted the money from some good business. I will confess, at the time, I thought we had done some good work in the summer but now it seems a distant memory, and to allow someone who hasn't used some of the players he signed back then to go in to an overinflated market in January scares me to death. It will be an interesting few weeks coming up on many fronts especially in the managerial stakes and by default our transfer window business. What will transpire is anybody's guess and the outcomes will go a long way to determining the club's longer term future. I hope sensible heads prevail and we can stop this annual quicksand issue.
