So many mistakes in last few years have ensured City are a club going nowhere (or down) at present. SL ; what a great chairman and very generous with his money but questionable personnel-wise. Brought two out of the dressing room to manage with no experience and failed to see Coppell was shot away! Suggest he stays out of the way while the board appoint this one. D James; Why did we need a vastly overpaid ex England keeper for an average CCC side? No better now than Gerken! And his presence lost us an extremely promising Stephen Henderson. Selling policy; When somebody offers you £6.5 million for a striker who however good he is, is out of contract at end of this season, appears to have little intention to sign a new one and will go for nothing then, you need your head examining. Even in January the best fee will be not more than half of £6.5. Coppells signings; Why has SL not paid up their contacts and shunted them out? Not fair to leave Millen to sort out that one! Millen's coaching record; A former defender yet while he's been coach and manager, we haven't been able to defend at all. So what for the future? We need to get all our young players like jackson, Ribeiro, Edwards, Ball and Reid breathing fire on those in the first team and not bringing in loan players from the Prem to delay the progress of OUR ACADEMY. A manager who is HUNGRY for success and with some experience at a good level. Dave Jones; very experienced but hungry? And a bit old fashioned? Mark Robins; Rotherham and Barnsley but where did he go with either? McInnes; Led WBA to promotion as a player and SPL is not the mickey mouse league many in England think it is. This guy appears to have a good style, able to MAN MANAGE and Young enough to be hungry for success. In the frame for other jobs - did not get them but was he overlooked or perhaps he did not feel they were right for him! John Hughes; Another Scot who is still hungry enough to do a useful job for us. Sean O'Driscoll. Still young enough and with a very good record at Bournemouth and Doncaster. Proved he can provide attractive football without shed loads of money to help him. For me therefore, between McInnes and O'Driscoll. But whoever comes in has to keep us in CCC otherwise, will SL withdraw even more and we certainly won't need a new stadium for another 10 year stint in Division Three.
Without discussing all the club business,what your saying about the managers job is;Someone who is young and ambitious,which is spot on,but the second part is the really important part ,the survival.So the conundrum for the board is twist and go for a youngster,but if your relegated lose all your fans,or go for some one tried and tested,and play safe.So it's your money and your job on the line ,what do you do?
Go bold, Jones is no guarantee of success... Re Maynard, unless a Prem club comes in, I have been saying for several months now that I believe he will stay and sign IF we get the right manager in. After all, its nice here, he's settled and he's just had a kid... I mean frankly, would you have signed with Keith in charge....??!! Some people just don't seem able to see this
POB,I'm sure we would all like to boldly go for the young option,and like most of the lads on this forum will follow City through thick and thin,but there will be alot of casual fans who as soon as we lose a couple of games be calling for heads.This really is a massive decision.
Thanks for the comments so far. The last time that City replaced a very tried, experienced and totally trusted manager and took on a complete unknown was in 1967. And for the first 4 seasons at least, it was one long continuous battle against relegation from Div Two. But the board stuck with him and Alan Dicks finally got us to the promised land. I want to say choose McInnes as he appears to be a similar choice but with four hard years at St Johnstone to back up his CV. All any of us know about the list of potentials is based on what we see on TV or read about in the press/internet. So based on that alone, I don't want D Jones; is he a closet teacup thrower? S O'Driscoll I know absolutely nothing about but hasn't he recently taken Donny to the bottom of the league before being replaced? M Robins; again what did he achieve in South Yorkshire that sets him apart from many others. So for me it's McInnes but if the board do feel he is the right one, then they have to insist that he uses our Academy youngsters wherever possible rather than 20 year olds from the Prem. If he thinks they are not good enough, then the Board and SL as major shareholder have to cough up for the two or three that we need in defence to stop leaking goals for fun. And also as mentioned in my first post, to pay up the contracts of the deadwood that are not worth a place even in our Reserve team. If by playing our youngsters to get experience, McInnes feels that he can guarantee a very quick return to CCC if the dreaded drop happens, then I'll support that. But experience of over 60 years supporting City tells me that we don't bounce back when we get relegated! Many others do but not my beloved City. "Always Believe" said Senhor Basso. But in my lifetime, you could add "that if any club can mess up, it's Bristol City" On Easter Monday 1960 in the depths of a relegation battle at 1-1 with two minutes to go, Big John scored. Final Result; City 2 Huddersfield 3. 50 years on now, does it sound very familiar? Leeds away and Reading at home this season!
