This was posted a few years ago in the Times, thought I'd post it here to see your views. ( apologize if you've seen it before ) “I needed simplicity after Bristol City, which was an absolute ... I can’t say it,” he says. “After Bristol I just needed to strip everything right back, and do the job the way any football manager is supposed to do his job. “Bristol City had fought relegation for three or four seasons prior to me. I kept the club up in 2012 and, looking back now, that was when I was in my strongest position there. At the end of that season I should have been kicking and screaming to finally get things done properly at that club. “We had players haemorrhaging money at Ashton Gate, earning 14k or 15k a week which the club couldn’t afford. But I wasn’t convinced the club wanted to deal with the situation. I had four different managers’ signings in the dressing room. It was incredible. “I remember one of my first days at training; all these players parked their cars and came over the hill towards me in their red training gear. There was maybe 40 or 50 of them — it was like watching Zulus coming towards me. I had to try to ship loads of them out on loan and get the squad down to an acceptable level. “We managed to keep the club up in 2012, having been way adrift when I arrived there. The board had said, ‘if we go down with Derek McInnes, we’ll come back with Derek McInnes’. I had regiments of players I had to move on, but these guys had nowhere to go. Bristol City was Utopia to them — they were on great money. The club was vastly over-paying its players by thousands of pounds per week. “Everything at Bristol was a mess, including some of the posturing for power in the boardroom. That’s why I said, at Aberdeen, I just needed simplicity. I needed to get back to doing what a football manager does. “Bristol City taught me one key lesson — when things are going your way, and you are hot, then insist there and then on getting things done. Because it can all change so quickly. You go from a king to a clown.” I wonder if Coppell, SOD and Cotts would have said similar ?
I was a big fan of McInnes who I still regard as a proper football manager, as he is proving now. I didn't see this article first time around and it just goes to show why he and other managers failed so miserably.
The proof is in the pudding as they say, and probably with a helping dose of what's really going on down at Ashton Gate. I have been thinking along the same lines for many years and my thoughts seem close to the unacceptable facts. Go figure!
Can't say I rated him much and to say he's proving it now....why? Has to be one of the worst leagues in Europe...I still believe he was at the time, way out of his depth and was not what we needed at the time....(this could prove to be the same for LJ, but I really hope not)
You do realise you have now contradicted yourself with this? You are constantly saying we need reinforcements etc but this is exactly what the club is trying to avoid by only signing under 24's with selling on possibilities. If they rushed out paid over the odds on fees or wages we would be back to what this issue McInnes is exactly talking about. It's not just FFP it was a combination of bad management spending technically what the club could not afford is exactly why we find these changes now.
I know everyone here hates him but to be fair, it was SoD who ultimately got us out of the financial side of this mess.
It was pretty clear from your "Scottish pub team" swipe that you never rated him, even before he arrived at AG. Well he is joint top of the Scottish pub league at the moment, threatening to turn over the all conquering Celtic which on a budget that is probably way under ours never mind Celtic's, is a pretty impressive achievement. Like many of the playing personnel who also came here, he was successful before and after his spell at the club so, what does that tell you. Your attitude to other nations is reminiscent of the old insular colonial days.
Makes sense this - but now we are operating with a much smaller squad on lower salaries and the board get a kicking for not spending enough! The only way to appease the fans is success on the pitch, otherwise they'll come up with any reason to criticise.
That's not quite correct. The board deserve 'a kicking' because they are totally incompetent at running a football club and are not fit for purpose.
Here is another quote on the same subject - Quote Mark Wilson believes the upturn in the fortunes of Aberdeen is all down to Derek McInnes, who suffered as the manager of Bristol City because the club “was a shambles”. Wilson is as qualified as any to assess McInnes’s qualities. The defender made his debut at Dundee United a dozen years ago and a year later was joined in the side by McInnes, the then vastly experience midfielder, immediately installed as captain. The pair went their separate ways in 2006, Wilson to Celtic in a £500,000 transfer and McInnes joining Millwall under Nigel Spackman’s management, but they were reunited at Bristol City two years ago as the club battled with relegation issues and McInnes was sacrificed. Subsequent murmurings from Ashton Gate suggest they were too hasty in showing their young coach the door, especially as his talents have come to the fore at Aberdeen, currently sitting in second place in the Scottish Premiership and having won the Scottish League Cup two weeks ago. Dundee United will today attempt to halt Aberdeen’s run of nine wins and a draw from their last 11 games as Wilson admits he is unsurprised at the impact McInnes has made since moving to Pittodrie a year ago. “At Bristol City, he was at the wrong club at the wrong time,” he said. “They were a shambles. I don’t know if he’s come out and said it, but everyone who was at the club then knew it was. “His training was brilliant but I don’t think he was given the backing he needed. He had to make a lot of cuts and was sacked far too early. But he’s come back to Scotland, gone to Aberdeen and made a huge difference.”
it matters not what the league, there are at least 6 clubs north of the border worthy of being in the prem or bouncing between the 2. At St johnstone and Aberdeen he has done very well. even in the national league where GJ is top of the pile, they can only work with the budget... never read the original reports but it does confirm what most of us have sussed previously the club HAS BEEN / is still in a bit of a mess. I said prior to going into league 1 maybe it was a cooling off period a period to consolidate . we did but over did it .. bit like driving a car for the first times always over steering or under steering ...at city they are a bit like that woman , had a tv series made in her honour, who took her test about 30 times and spent half her life trying to pass the test ... your comment is your true feeling and the "I believe" ... a softener or fall back excuse planted in readiness .... Example I said I did not agree with SC BEING MADE MANAGER BUT GAVE HIM A CHANCE , his rating gradually rose till the 95% belief with reservations at the start of this season ... he replicated Florest efforts, although I believe language, bad press and negativity also led to his instant demise ... he just lost it .. but in public..
I wasn't contradicting some of the facts but just a general concern on how he felt the club was run. As you rightly say the over abundance of high paid players took us down a path that we all know we can't take now, and young players may be the way to go based on financial restrictions. Difficult call for Lee to make over the next while.
Sod took the brunt,i bet you could sit down for the night and he have your eyes popping out of your head with what he could tell you.
Prem It's me who calls it a Scottish Pub League, not 1For. Celtic have by far the largest budget, however they are still poor and I wonder how their fans stay interested winning every week against such pathetic opposition. But Prem, don't tell 1For - it was the only league where poor old Junior could briefly get a game before his sacking. Rooney is a superstar up there, as was Rory bloody Fallon. Players go up there because the standard is so bad they're able to get a contract and end their career.
So are you saying that the Scottish league is a good league? Sorry is it only Scotland of the home nations that's not in the Euros this year? There maybe a clue why that is. And no it wasn't me that calls it a pub league, although I have seen better pub teams To your point "that I never rated him", this is of course not true. He managed St Johnstone at the time, a club that was 6th in a very poor league....Like LJ, I wasn't confident in his ability at the time to get us out of the mess we were in. at least LJ does have a little knowledge of what Bristol City is all about. It's nothing to do with attitude Prem, it's my opinion which is worth the same as yours!
You are having a laugh aren't you? 6 clubs? There's only ever been 2 and the pair of them would struggle making the championship..
