'44 out of 46' Check out who picked the team. 'with somebody competent we would have been promoted automatically' Rob was referring to our L1 promotion. But you're right.
I am one who liked Lee, an honest, hardworking player, good, clean living family guy and now a very useful young manager in his own right, good luck to the bloke, of course this is just my opinion, others are entitled to theirs..
Yeah he made such a big mistake picking him on his way to finishing 2nd in the league and getting us promoted. If he was that bad, are you telling me that we were promoted with only 10 competent men every game?
Same old argument about LJ, but the same old questions not answered. 1.) Why do people say "only treated the way he was because who his dad was..."? I loved his dad, so why would I dislike him for that reason? Wheres the logic in that one? 2.) If he was such a tidy player, why is his dad the ONLY manager to ever have put any stock in him? I started losing faith in GJ when LJ was given a brand new contract making him one of the highest earners, that was outside the realms of sensible to me. Statistically he was poor, and passing to Bradley Orr who seemed to be 10ft away from him every pass does not make you a good passer of the ball. A few assists and the odd goal per season is not good enough for a player who couldn't defend either. Which is why he never made an impact anywhere without his dad. As for the 44 out of 46 games retort, I believe Ryan Bertrand played Left Wing for the first time in his career in the Chelsea Champions League final win (and did horribly) but they still beat the best team in the world at the time. So its not inconceivable that he could make it into a Championship playoff team. We also got there with some fairly below average players, Byfield, Adebola, Nick Carle, and Michael McIndoe. On a more positive spin, I think he will become quite a decent manager and could go onto some achievements just as good as his dads, and the sincerest best of luck to him. Surprised Tinnion hasn't had more Hero mentions, but maybe his spell as manager has dented that status for some?
Risking ridicule from RP in particular, I really can't see Lee J or his dad in the role of a villain. He (Lee) was (in my own opinion of course) an 'ok' championship player, who was an important factor in 'that' team's success. He had a good partnership with Marv, and whilst Carey still had legs we were hard to beat. Remember that at the time we reached the playoff final we had NO standout goalscorer (Byfield with 14 I seem to remember) - in fact, I think that only Orr attracted attention from higher up the football league - and what about Trundle FFS - if anyone deserves ridicule it's him - £2m you're having a laugh! The subject of nepotism has been done to death - maybe there was nepotism and maybe there wasn't - I don't know - and neither does anyone on here I would wager- to be honest I didn't give a flying fk as long as we were in the playoffs or near the top of the league GJ's tactics were justified - and we didn't exactly go from strength to strength when LJ left, so maybe he wasn't the weak link after all. We got to the playoff final with a ZERO goal difference - maybe we overachieved? Lee (J) always tried hard when he put on the shirt and for that I will be grateful. There are some over the years who have not tried and basically grazed their days out (eg Hunt) - those are more worthy of hatred than LJ. For me, LJ will always be a victim of unfair stick. NO, he was NOT a brilliant player - just ok in my book - but in that particular team he fitted in and it seemed to work. I remember some daft tw@t in the Williams stand next to me actually CUSSING when he scored the winner against West Brom on GJs last home game - how can you call yourself a City fan when you are disappointed with a winning goal because of who scored it?!!! I don't have a problem with people thinking him a poor player and criticising his skills (or lack of), but what REALLY winds me up is some of the vile stuff that was hurled at him - he didn't and doesn't deserve that proportion of hatred. No player does. Last season was great and we all enjoyed getting promotion, but lets not forget that GJ (and his son) left us HALF A LEAGUE HIGHER than we ended up last season - and that is despite Lee leaving and a succession of managers coming and going since - we NEVER got back to that position, and yet some people still single out the Johnson's for stick. It's basically been downhill since GJ left - until Cotts turned it round. If it wasn't for Cotts we were looking at L2 playing the Gas.
If you think that McIndoe was only an 'Average' player in our play off final season, then perhaps you should stick to body slamming rhinos. He was head and shoulders our best player that season, and in truth the only player that showed Prem quality, his undoing was he was a complete tool as a person.
'He was head and shoulders our best player that season' Marvin Elliot was head and shoulders our best player. 'maybe there was nepotism and maybe there wasn't' Classic.
I said I don't care as it got us to 3rd in the Championship. I would have if we were struggling. Would you take 3rd if you were offered it today? Basically, how can 4 or so years of struggle and pain be better than a playoff final and 18th in the second tier. Don't take my word for it - look at the league table - maybe it lies???
fMarv was not our best player that season. I took a couple of mates with me to City games regularly that season , one a PNE fans and one Newcastle, and both of them nicknamed Marv " square ball Elliott", and that was 2 neutrals who had no bias. It seems the feeling that Marv was our best player has gathered momentum since the LJ debate raged. Marv was good no doubt, but his best season was 2010-11, after that he faded very badly. Still find it funny how when Marv was the 'Main' man in the middle our from dropped off dramatically to the point we limped into the playoffs, and the following 2 seasons, even worse. As always it's about opinion, and for me MM was by far our best player that year.
