I know that I've grown into a Meldrewesque, curmudgeonly and cynical old twat but, watching grown men chanting '(stick any name in) give us a wave' is the most stomach churning and vomit inducing load of garbage that I've ever seen in a football stadium.
He's a League 1 manager who bought League 1 players (when we were in the Championship). I don't think he knows anything different than this league. If we get promoted he has to go.
Hearing grown men singing Marching On Together has that effect on me. But give us a wave is right up there as well.
I still think last season was totally unavoidable. This season isn’t counting towards my view of him. He was brought in to be a Championship manager and to be competitive in the division above, I’m not going to suddenly say the sun shines out his arse because we are top of the division below. If we get promoted in May, it will simply be “congratulations, we are now exactly where we were two years ago”. It’s from that moment on I’ll be scrutinising. That being said, I like his approach this season, the team feels more united and I don’t feel as resentful towards McCann as I did. The team are doing well, the youth are coming through and it’s all very positive.
The jump from L1 to championship is becoming as wide as champ to premier league. Without serious squad investment it's one hell of a steep gradient.
If he does it this is the company of City legends he keeps, our 6 managers who have won promotion for us from this level, 3 of them as Champions, some very good mere 'League 1 managers' here. 1932-33 Haydn Green, Champions 1948-49 Raich Carter, Champions 1958-59 Bob Brocklebank, 2nd 1965-66 Cliff Britain, Champions 1984-85 Brian Horton, 3rd 2004-05 Peter Taylor, 2nd 2020-21 Grant McCann?
In two years I've yet to hear him apologise. The club have recruited well , we have seeming great strength in depth and perhaps as importantly a great camararderie. Looking at the standard of football in this division, anything other than automatic promotion would be abject failure. So with what he has at his disposal we should be where we are. I still think we are 60% of the team we could be. As St says, in the event of promotion we would be back where were and then you have to decide is he the man to consolidate in that league.
Superb start to the season and long may it continue. Don’t do predictions but in football what usually happens is when the **** hits the fan the fans want change but so long as the manager keeps getting the right kind of results his job won’t come under scrutiny and the past will soon be forgotten.
I think he's lucky to be in a job, but he did well at the start of last season and has done well this year with the squad buying into his way of playing. There was mitigation for last seasons collapse and perhaps there was even more to that than is publicly known but felt his inexperience and intransigence showed when the **** hit the fan. Doesn't mean I dont think he won't improve as a head coach with experience, and clearly has talent, and of course I'll get behind him this season. He's getting the most from his squad, developing some young players in the process and long may it continue.
When he gets us to 13th in the Championship (which is where he found us) then he's par. Until then he's underachieving and has taken us backwards.
Fair enough, a good season so far but a long way to go. I guess Wigan had a bigger clear out. This squad is built for a promotion push with players giving their best, that's all you can ask for. I reckon they'll do it. Last season had too many big hitters who thought they were better than they were and just went through the motions. This manager has a lot more to do for me before I can write last season off even if he wasn't totally responsible for the downfall.
He texted me yesterday, something along the lines of 'thanks for your continued support, we're top of the tree but miserable ****s are calling for my head, blah blah blah'.
I got a similar voice mail on the lines of 'Have you read some of the comments from those miserable ****s on Not 606 ?', and an email.
After the second half of last season when his teams looked to have been given time off and any sort of football knowledge surgically removed I could not believe he was invited to 'lead' them again this campaign. I must admit that I was so annoyed I could not get up enough enthusiasm to watch. I was almost relieved spectators were not allowed. But recently I started taking more interest in City's results and watched the game on Tuesday night. I was amazed to see good football, team spirit but most of all players eager to close down Ipswich and tackle unlike last year.
