And finishes top half of the championship or better being as most of those 65 signings were sh!t according to some.. I suppose the other question that needs answers is did LJ request all those signings and did he request to lose his best players when we were challenging for promotion? And in fairness to Nige, he’s said many times that he doesn’t want to sign players for the sake of.
I have a lot of sympathy with that question, it seems recently we've had a bit of de ja vous with Nige over the same principle.
The love for Cotts on here is interesting.. what’s he done since leaving us? Couldn’t even hold down the job at little Shrewsbury!! But hey let’s not belittle our messiah!!!
The only comparison that’s important IMO is what he achieves for Bristol City FC..This season is key for Nige..
He will end up as one of those journeyman managers who do the lower leagues and go from job to job, like Karl Robinson, Michael Appleton, Derek Adams, John Coleman etc.
Still on a shoestring budget-just imagine if Nige had the job when LJ got it reckon we would have been in the prem.
Oldham, Barnsley, Bristol City, Sunderland, Hibernian, Fleetwood, he is building up quite a history..
Nige has always insinuated that it’s not about the funds or players he is desperately wanting to sign. He likes to work with what he has and add only to improve (correct by the way) so imo he’s a manager that needs time and patience to build.. The requirements coming from SL & fans at the time of LJs reign was to have success as quickly as possible, even though SL was willing that our best players were sold on!! You keep harking on as an excuse about the shoestring budget, but that’s how NP likes to work.. This season, “no excuses” to finishing in a decent (top 10 minimum) position. Even though if we don’t you and RP will be looking for them!!
check out the opposition and be rewarded with the context .. it was predicted on the day he went the next 3 games would result in a positive upsurge! another 3 points this week then ............. Hearts/ Rangers / Celtic/ [ average to bottom ] v Ross Kilmarnock and Dundee again.
I will always respect Cotts for setting us free from the shackles of L1 in such style I will always respect LJ for turning things around when we were heading straight back to the 3rd tier - and cementing us as an established Championship side Nige is work in progress - but I REALLY hope he can take us a stage further. So far so good - not brilliant, but I accept the financial constraints when he took office. Now it's over to him (and SL) to show what they can do.
Manager - Steve Cotterill Cheltenham Town Football League Third Division play-offs: 2002[98] Football Conference: 1998–99[98] FA Trophy: 1997–98[99] Notts County Football League Two: 2009–10[100] Bristol City Football League One: 2014–15[101] Football League Trophy: 2014–15[54] Individual Championship Manager of the Month: October 2006[102] League One Manager of the Month: September 2014,[62] March 2015[63] December 2020[103] Football League One Manager of the Year: 2014–15[61] League Two Manager of the Month: March 2010,[102] April 2010[102] Football Conference Manager of the Year: 1997–98,[9]1998–99[9] Honorary Fellowship (University of Gloucestershire): 2000[104] Manager Special Achievement of the Year Award: 2014–15[105] Manager - Lee Johnson Sunderland EFL Trophy: 2020–21[67] Individual EFL Championship Manager of the Month: September 2017[41] Football League One Manager of the Month: January 2016,[68] August 2021,[69] December 2021[70] 2 lower league managers history..
Nothing about LJ maintaining our status in the championship for four seasons then? Which is not on Cotts record!!
He wanted a no9 but did not get one in this window-If that had happened I think we could be further up the league. It was crazy not to bring one in when Tommy was injured first game against Preston.
18/17/11/8/12 - 4.5 years final positions, he did keep us in the Championship you are correct, our gain after all the efforts, investments, signings, complete ownership support was just 5 places progress, split fan base and a massive £38.4m debt.
But while he was there and at the start of this season, they were losing to the likes of Motherwell, St Mirren, and Livingston in the Scots Premiership, and to an Andorran team in the Europa League qualifiers, all of which, when combined, ultimately got him sacked.
As everyone keeps pointing out, what managers achieve before and after managing us I don’t give a hoot, it’s what they do for us I care about. Without him we we’re heading for L2, in a short period of time we’d win promotions to the championship with the highest points total we’ve ever achieved and won the Mickey Mouse cup the same year. I still don’t think he was given a fair crack of the whip in the championship as he fell out with SL.
