Jiffie, You've had the advanced guard from R&W. 1For and Loath's will tar you for life. Just a word in your ear Jiffie, Junior is untouchable on here.
I am not making a case for SC, he was rightly sacked in the end, my point is the disrespect shown to him by some, a guy with 5 promotions and the reason that LJ is in charge of a championship club. I agree with the above statement but here's the thing. Many football managers have an ego the size of Texas, especially after the sort of success he had after taking over, firstly (and generally forgotten) he took us from 23rd to 12th place and then the best season in my 64 years following BCFC. I think that he probably thought that he was untouchable and clearly he wasn't and to be fair to him I haven't heard him bitch about what happened. GJ his ego came out in spades after his promotion in 2007, by paying over mil for a proven 20 goal a season striker in Lee Trundle and then deconstructing every single part of what made him such a deadly striker and turning him into a striker who averaged 4 goals a season in his 2 years with us. In the end most managers will not change what was once a winning formula for them, their egos will not allow it and it is that ego that normally becomes a managers undoing As for substitutions LJ has previous for late substitutions and previous for his usual tactic of taking off our normally best chance of creating a goal in Eliasson and or Palmer.
Cotts is a brilliant manager to win League 1. He did it with us in style and I will always love him for that. I’m GENUINELY surprised that no league 1 club has snapped him up. in the Championship - the Forest fans called him a ‘one trick pony’ and they were right. I didn’t see this as a Johnson v Cotts thread. I have my own opinions on the Johnsons and whilst mostly positive they are not criticism free.
I suppose I added the Johnson v Cotts element, because I perceived that some fans seem to think that BCFC started post LJ and that everything that we are is down to him, he had a good start. I just want to add two more comments and that is, a lot of managers have one trick for instance LJ is at his 3rd club and his management has been punctuated with the roller coaster of long winning unbeaten runs and just as long runs without wins, that is something else he needs to shed to get us to where we all want to be. I know it might not seem so, but as I keep saying I want all BCFC managers, I don't care about their antecedents, I just believe we need to make that extra push and for me the cut off is one more season after this one.
Have a look again at page 1 of this thread. 'Present encumbant' was mentioned and the name Johnson, Junior and father, was also specifically mentioned. OK?
Ok I've skimmed it. Can't see it. Lucky I'm not in the military. I'll look again - closely. But for Jiffies sake I'll explain; The Johnsons have polarised our support. If you say anything positive about either of them you are a 'happy clappy' and basically you are branded as a blind supporter of anything LJ does. Likewise on the other hand, if you criticise LJ or his dad, you are a 'hater' and anything you say will be branded with that label. Neither camp see through this. It's not possible (apparently) to sometimes support LJ and at other times criticise. You then betray your allegiance. As you read and post on here you will work out who subscribes to which camp. It's still a lot less toxic than OTIB on here though....
I partly agree with some of your comments, however, I personally don't think he's had such an easy ride as many make out...Every season, he forms what seems to be a decent squad, which should be enhanced for the following season...but the problem occurs when he ends up selling his best players to the premiership, in a sense having to start again....bringing in new players (usually not better) and hoping they will gel instantly.. There maybe fans out there wanting someone new...what I will say is, be careful what you wish for and apart from some on here hoping Warnock Zimmer frames his self over to Ashton Gate, I don't really see who's out there guaranteeing to do a better job..
You didn't need to explain, I get it I always have and I am with you totally with this one. GJ had his SC moments of success and then ego got the better of him and he had to go just like SC. LJ is different, I don't think he has an ego like the 2 above, he can be eloquent (not always but can be). He has modernised this club beyond belief, training, player well being and use of technology. it's obvious that he knows what he wants and when it works it's great but equally when it doesn't work it is really bad. His 3 full seasons (if you count this season) are so predictable you can mark it on your calendar. August to the end of December, we are great right in the mix and we are consistent, January to April we are pants totally inconsistent, usually exacerbated by a poor January window not building on the hard work of the first 5 months of the season to hopefully push to at least the play offs and then we end well and finish short of where we want to be.
Nobody can guarantee anything. But sometimes you need to get off of the carousel and have some new ideas. Nobody is saying that he's had an easy ride, I certainly haven't, but he walked into a job that had all of the building blocks, I get about the sale of the best players, but that was the model that SL, LJ and Ashton decided on, it's not as if this was a shock and for me that is one of the overriding successes of his reign as manager. And lets be honest Kelly couldn't shift DaSilva and the last 4 months of last season and IMHO DaSilva is better probably the best left back in the championship and the offer for Webster was far too much to ignore, he is not overly popular with Brighton fans who think we mugged them off, the emergence of Taylor Moore will soften that blow next season. Brownhill was different we needed a striker and Burnley had one and they wanted Brownhill.
It's all a bit irelevent what model SL & Co had decided on....it's disruptive to lose key players at the time when building a team to progress...It normally means the players you get in to replace those players aren't as good, otherwise the bigger clubs would be nabbing them too.. I remember Charlton, back in the day wanting Curbs off the carousel...look what happened to them.....I really don't see what the panic is to replace LJ..IMO he's doing a fine job and like you said, he's modernised everything about our club......don't forget, he's young, not frightened of changing things around (Cotts downfall IMO) and has BCFC in his heart....If it's not broke, don't fix it.....
I am not saying replace him, I am saying that I would give him one more season. One thing that is undeniable, this season in general the quality of football has been very poor, far too many games where we either have zero shots on target, one, two or three if we are lucky.
I agree, but not sure if LJ was trying to grind results out rather than just trying to play the entertaining stuff..to achieve top 6.. but I do agree most of the football this season hasn't been great.. It's been another weird and again unpredictable championship, with many teams finding the odd bit of form and then a hiccup, even Leeds & West Brom have had unexpected results...in a way, makes the championship exciting!
I have already marked my calendar up for next season, start to the end of December 'GREAT', January to April 'WTF'.
So long as it's not, start to the end of December WTF January to April WTF...........= Relegation battle!!
I agree, Cotts in L1 and the Championship is like Warnock in the Championship and the Premiership, fantastic in one, and rubbish in the other. Some players are just L1 level, and so are some managers, and for me, Cotts is L1. That doesn't diminish what he did for us, as it was a truly fantastic season which was the springboard to the Championship.
Effort is great, but ultimately the job of a striker is to score goals, and I feel Fammy is lacking badly in this area. His first touch is abysmal, I think he was a poor signing at £5.3 m or whatever it was we paid. Our fans seem to like a 'trier' upfront, who can't score, i.e. Jon Stead, Lee Miller etc, me, I'd prefer a 20+ goal a season player who doesn't even come into his own half and is accused of being lazy.
Not true for me, I have criticised LJ when he has gotten things wrong and praised him when he has done good things. My perspective is, some on here wouldn't acknowledge LJ if he did get us to the Premier League. There are some on here who go missing when the league form is going well and don't offer any praise, yet as soon as we lose 2 or 3 on the bounce, they back on here like a shot with their Johnson out banners.
Spot on with this. Even more strange that he hasn’t gone to one of the ‘bigger’ League 1 clubs like Coventry for example
