1. SOD is not a miracle worker! He came in when the writing was almost on the wall anyway. We have the worst squad in the division in my opinion. Both Barnsley and Peterbrough have players I would quite happily take over some of ours at a drop of a hat. Barring a handful of our players, we have a League One squad at best. Take Kilkenny for example, **** in the Championship but I actually think he would be a huge asset to have in League One. 2. The loan market! We need to comply with FFP, especially in League One. SOD clearly didn't have the necessary funds at his disposal. So what did he try and do instead? He tried to change the psychological mind set of the team by trying to convince them they were better than they thought and that we didn't need anyone else. It paid off to an extent until the wheels came off at Wolves and Derby. 3. SOD not criticising the players publicly. When people suggest a manager should be more critical of players and single them out for poor performances I feel like punching my monitor! Why would any manager in his right mind do that!? When was the last time you saw a top manager publicly criticise players? I can think of Mancini but look at Man City - no team spirit and nowhere near a distinctly average united team who have team spirit and a manager who protects them from criticism. 4. Long term goals/ambitions. SOD is here to start a project. The club is forming a future ethos and policy to adopt like Swansea. Success won't be short term and SOD needs time and patience from us fans. I think we have some of the most impatient supporters in the whole of the football league and those 'fans' really piss me off! I don't understand the impatient mentality? We have never been a successful football club, so where does it come from? I also think losing Stead was a turning point for us. He is a natural leader and leads by example with performances and commitment to the cause. Its no coincidence after he got injured our results faded badly. All I ask from my fellow supporters is patience, look at the bigger picture and take those red tinted glasses off when analysing our club.
1. SOD is not a miracle worker! He came in when the writing was almost on the wall anyway. I cannot agree with that. He had plenty of time to turn the situation around. Ward came to us when we were in dire straits - players' heads were down, we were leaking goals for fun, fans on players backs - all the same things you were experiencing. Ward made a few loan signings and instilled a winning mentality, went back to basics i.e. defending as a team and as you can see we achieved safety at a canter. Now we are building on that for an attempt to get out of League 2 next season, whilst you have to start pretty much from scratch. There are other examples - Johnson jnr at Oldham, Sheridan (probably) at Plymouth, Ainsworth at Wycombe. I don't think O'Driscoll's all he's cracked up to be.
S O'D is here for the long term it's the way he works best building from the bottom up if you look at the way he worked at Bournemouth and Doncaster you can see that. He was in a different situation at Forest he had better players to start with and just had to motivate them to play better, look at Forests results after they sacked him until they appointed Billy Big Mouth(Don't like the bloke but he can get results with some clubs)
BB the standard of football is a lot harder than it is in league 2 Wards job was a lot easier than SODs. You all got excited over Mgoo last season the same as you are now with Ward.
No SODS not really lived up to expectation, but at the end of the day this is a long term process with SOD, if he can get his own players in next season, and just start well everyones would change their opinion in him, due to the fickleness of most football fans.
SoD must be given time,we all know what he can do,Bournemouth,Donny, style football was a pleasure to watch under him. He has my full backing,hopefully the rest of our fan base can see and believe in his vision.
In some ways i have to agree with Bluebaldee, 20 games is almost half a season, SoD had us out of the bottom three at one time, then it all went tits up, some were saying on here that Carey was our top defender, how many games has he played under SoD, McIiness didn't sign any central defenders (hands tied) neither did SoD (hands tied) I think the real reason is this club didn't want, or couldn't afford to stay in this league, better to go down and start again, just my opinion.
Two of the last games the u21 team played ended 3-2 against us with Cardiff and Swansea winning them so on one hand even our u21 team hasnt been keeping clean sheets recently (City have loaned a few players out though) but it also shows that we are scoring goals compared to our senior team who let goals in but arent scoring.
So whats your opinion RR, under SoD we were giong to fly up the league, according to you, Carey was our best central defender, according to you, don't you find it rather strange that he doesn't play him, like i said at one time we were out of the bottom three, where did it go wrong after that.
Just out of interest has anyone done a league table of games under SOD? I could be wrong but I would bet we are lower midtable in those 20 or so games. The damage was done before he arrived.
Here is the last 20 mate, not good at all, we are right in the mire, relegation form, SOD ain't done much good under the circumstances, last 15 looks slightly better, 20th position with a 21 points total ... http://www.footstats.co.uk/index.cfm?task=formguide
C'mon shiny, don't be daft - surely you realise it's all relative. If Ward had our squad in the Championship we would have been relegated by March! But he didn't. Because we're in League 2. Each league is equally easy/difficult in relation to the teams that are playing in it. O'Driscoll had a squad of Championship players, which, as AlanDicks said at one point he got out of the bottom three. I genuinely believed (and I stated on here), especially as your home form picked up, that he would get you out of trouble and I was surprised when the wheels fell off. That's why I said that I'm not sure he's all that. I may well be proved wrong. There is a world of difference between McGhoo and Ward and their impact on the club. Ward has made us difficult to beat (unless you're Bradford ), has us organised and knows what the supporters want. All that with 8 senior players in the treatment room.
What I mean BB is the teams in your league (no disrespect) Are terrible, Some of the teams you play are so small and a team like rovers should be challenging the top 6 of league 2. A team like ours should be mid table in the championship. This year has been a odd season in the championship, As was said the other day, A team could be relegated with 60 points!. We were playing the likes of Leeds, Brighton, Wolves, Blackburn, Bolton, Cardiff, Watford etc Who are all bigger and better, In league 2 there shouldn't be many teams better than you. This is why when you had the right manager you got out of trouble, We have the right manager but there are many teams bigger and better than us in this league which is why it was hard for SOD to get us out. I excepted relegation in December, I know its bad to say but it was obvious, Mourinho could of came in and wouldn't of kept us up. I was confident last season we would stay up hence my bet then after being embarrassed by a terrible wolves side at AG our fate in my eyes was relegation. Had the club acted quicker we might of had a chance.
Sorry but I agree with BB, it doesn't matter if they're in league 2, it's hard picking up any team at any division from rock bottom to mid table.
Great thread AM and some very valid points that were well presented regarding our football club and our fall from grace. Lots of home truths were highlighted and a strong hint of the reality of our situation should bring most of us to our senses and believe that a disaster scenario was alive and well at Ashton Gate. Laying the blame at someone's feet is a counter productive issue in the whole scope of what has happened to us over the last few years, but like a lot of other supporters I believe that things should have been so much better. We failed to build on the euphoria after the playoff final to ensure that our future path was in the right direction, and now we all know, based on our financial situation, that good money was thrown after bad time and time again. In my mind there was clearly somebody that made those bad decisions and at this point the culprit really doen's matter anymore because we have to move on with what we have. My hope is that BCFC, and the people that make the decisions on behalf of us, are up to the task that faces them over the next few years because if they haven't learnt from the slowly evolving disaster we have just experienced then someone may as well shut up the shop and turn out the lights. How many seasons have we been hearing positive rhetoric coming from the board and yet here we are plunging to a division that we probably deserve to be in, and yet if you ask most City supporters they would have done anything to change matters if it were within their powers. We are indeed lucky to have a benefactor such as Steve Lansdown but surely he has to take more control over the people in place to resurrect our future otherwise we could fall in to the same trap. Believing in the people of the past got us nowhere, and I truly hope that during the summer break the pieces of the puzzle are put back together in a more organised and rational way so that by the start of the season we can see the rise from the ashes more clearly and believe again.
