I have to admit that I think it was the right decision to sack Cotterill but bad timing. It should have been done in December. Now we have to try and get a manager before we can sign any players. This could take a week or so. Which then leaves the new guy with absolutely no time to get any players in and yet again we'll be relying on the loan window. I loved Cotterill, still do. He gave me the best season being a city fan which is some ask after the efforts of Gary J. However this season has been diabolical. 4 wins in 28 games, 1 win in the last 11.... it doesn't matter what you've done you can't keep a job under that form. Then what made it even worse was him coming out and saying "It's nigh on impossible for me to sign players"... You can't be saying that, if it's true it means its 1 of 2 reasons, 1) You're going for unrealistic options. 2) Players don't want to play for that manager. Now then.... this next appointment has to be so perfect that it leaves a lot of pressure on the board. We don't want no Sean O'Driscoll who has never cut it at this level with a decent club, we don't want no Derek McInnes who doesn't know the league and is inexperienced. We need a top top name. No matter what the cost. For once paying over the odds is needed. If the board are serious of being a premier league club then they need a premier league manager, someone who knows how to get out of this league, not somebody who knows how to just stay up, as that's not good enough. We need a Moyes/Pearson type of manager. Some will say we'd never get them and they'd probably be right, but if we don't ask we don't get. What the board need to remember is that these bigger name managers will attract bigger name players. The likes of Gayle/Gray would have jumoed at the chance to play in a team managed by Moyes. I don't want to hear the moneys not there. If City had their way we would have spent 11.5 million on Maguire and Gray in the summer. Both of those bids were accepted, meaning that the money was definitely there. So Lansdown and co. Show us just how serious you are about appointing someone who meets your "premier league" ambitions and pay the money that will most certainly be needed. You can't do it on the cheap. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
As I've said elsewhere Shiny, why would someone of their "managerial" calibre want to come here at the mo? Unless they're in need of a bob or two, which, I'm pretty sure, isn't the case.
Absolutely agree about the bad timing - who is going to come to a club with no manager Oh - and the Board had no plan on who to replace him
They are managers without a job. If that isn't enough of a reason to at least speak to us then they don't deserve a job anywhere.
Agree with Shiny - right decision but wrong timing. I think the Board showed sufficient support in terms of funds being available and sticking with their man to see if things turned around and we shouldn't all jump down their throat for that. I suspect that SC didn't have the pulling power or wow factor to land some of the transfer targets and that's a problem. I still can't fathom how we let the squad get so small though. That's simply stupid. Going to be an interesting week. Hopefully the boys show some fight against Boro as some form of apology to the man who backed them to the hilt.....
David Moyes, from Everton, Manchester United, Real Sociedad to Bristol City , doesn't sound right, not even a chance he would come here anyway, don't know why people bother mentioning his name...
He may want to come here for nostalgic reasons - like coming back to his roots - where he used to play as a young player!!
You can see why he's being mentioned; he's explicitly said he wouldn't mind coming back here to manage one day. This was long, long before his Manchester United days mind, so I think that is out of the window. I'd love to see it though. He clearly still has an interest in City, he was at the away game against Walsall last season.
I'm with you all the way shiny on this one. The decision to fire Steve Cotterill was correct but the timing was lousy yet again. If you don't have confidence in your manager then what is the point of declaring he has your full support only a month or so before you wield the axe? The messages coming from the mouths at Ashton Gate boggle the mind most of the time and your comment about finally hiring a well seasoned manager is well received, but will SL listen? I, like many others, wasn't expecting a block buster season this time around but what has transpired sickens my Bristol City heart to the core and it would appear that we don't have anyone at our club who are capable or interested in giving us the transplant we need. How many more years do we have to endure this nonsense of listening to the platitudes, coming supposedly from the top of the food chain, and the inevitability of the failure to come? The smell of rat has been wafting from our boardroom for many years and unless they wake up this time and not only hire the best manager available, at whatever cost, but someone who is going to tell the footballing world that he and Bristol City are open for business again. Our reputation on all things football has taken a beating, and the refusal of players to join us for whatever excuse they can come up with has damaged the outside impression of who we are, but more importantly of who we purportedly want to be. If we want to be better than we are, and who doesn't, the time has arrived for Bristol City to put up or shut up and the only way to achieve that aim is to show the beleaguered supporters that you also have their interests at heart. The heart of the team is on the pitch but the lifeblood that keeps it pumping is us and the rest who hand over their money week in and week out to back their team in whatever way they can. Please take this into account Mr Lansdown when you finally employ the right manager to achieve your goals and our dreams because anything less than this won't fit the bill.
It is possible that I am doing him a disservice (in which case I apologise) but the more I think about it, the more I think the failure to attract players was down to SC not wanting to upset the lads by paying a newcomer more than they are on. If we were prepared to pay £6/7/8/9m for a player it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that they are probably going to be earning more money than players from what is basically a League One squad (albeit successful) so I can't for one second believe that we would make an offer without being prepared to pay the wages so, who was in charge of this bit. Sure, there would have those who wouldn't have fancied it regardless but not all... I have been scratching my head on this one for a while and I am simply unable to come up with any other explanation....
As i said on a different thread, the timing is rubbish, if he had to go, they should of given the new man december to see what he had, and what he needed to turn it around, then leaving him the January window to get in these new faces. But now it depends how long they take to get a new man, and i can see the interview when we are relegated now " i had no time when i came in to assess the team, get new blood in and turn it around" blah blah blah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "now its about getting ready for L!, and rebuilding"
Not sure about the timing of SC's dismissal as wrong. This year City's performances have been OK -tight against Reading and creditable display against West Brom. .......I'll come back to that. In fact this season which started so badly has produced some timely decent performances where we seemed to have learned our lesson from previous matches..v Middlesborough, Nottingham Forest, Cardiff, Brighton, Ipswich, Huddersfield.......and then just when the green shoots have started to appear we have reverted to type- conceeding last minute goals, bringing on substitues too late to have any impact, not having the ability to change the game plan, and everything has gone down the pan. What really was the most concerning aspect was than against Burnley and Derby once went 2 goals down, there was no way we were going to get back into the game. Not sure how many shots on goal, never mind on target we had over the last ten matches during the second half- I guess it was less than 1 per match. During the earlier part of the season until November, most other championship fans forums have said that Bristol City are much better than their league positions suggest. In the last two months that has not been said at all. So coming back to the results in 2016 v Reading and West Brom. Then came Preston to Ashton Gate- and in a first half where City recorded 0 shots on goal, and the commentator politely called it not very interesting, a second half where all the problems that have plagued us all season emerged...... I found that the most depressing and most pessimistic of the whole season and the timing of SC dismissal on Thursday totally appropriate. However supporting Bristol City from Alan Dicks era, Steve Cotterill's reign has produced one of the best and most memorable and successful seasons 2014-15 ever for me. It is that not, the present predicament I will remember.
