Remember the heady days of the play-off semifinals against Palace and then the Wembley loss by one goal? According to a source close to Bristol City that I met the next season who told me of a major dressing room incident leading up to the Wembley final that could have started the rot. He said that unless the issues created in the dressing room were not dealt with immediately it would lead to a mutiny of sorts, and when I think back now I believe his dire predictions have come back to haunt us. Lots of people on this forum have commented on inside bickering and the problems it creates and if you take a serious look at our current situation then I think it is very clear where the problem has occurred. We heard a lot of posts on how Gary Johnson had lost the dressing room which is something no manager should say because that should be where he rules the roost, but clearly not. After Gary Johnson was correctly shown the door the situation arose where the internal squabbles could have been addressed by hiring a new manager who actually knew how to handle the problem and send the troublemakers packing immediately, but instead we gave the job to Keith Millen who had history with the dressing room - a massive mistake. Then the Steve Coppell debacle and, the more I think about it, I believe he saw a situation that was beyond repair and headed down the road in very quick order, so back to Keith Millen on a long term contract - an even worse mistake, if not a disaster. Eventually the road to find a new manager took us north of the border and Derek McInnes took on the almost impossible task that was made harder by the lousy decisions made in the previous years by our benefactor and his charges. That leads us up to what happened yesterday, and if like me you believe Prem in his protestations that Derek was set up then you may start to realise where I'm going with this thread. My point, and source of my anger, is that the opportunity arose when Gary Johnson was released to change our fortunes by hiring a good manager that almost certainly would have cost a lot more than Steve Lansdown was prepared to pay. Someone who would have weeded out all the dross that took us down the path to nowhere whilst prepared to suck the club dry and undermine the various poor managers that came aboard. The phrase "cheap option" comes to mind immediately and if the "right option" had been used instead then the mess we're currently experiencing probably would never have arisen. Almost everything that surrounds Bristol City today is like a poisoned chalice and our lack of a sound business plan since Wembley has led to our downfall. The lessons were not learnt when they needed to be analysed and acted upon and still haven't. The cost of hiring the right manager far outstrips the losses incurred by the poor ones that have come to Bristol City's shores and contributed, in their own unique ways, to our downfall because they didn't sort out the bad influences within our club. I KNOW WHO I BLAME, HOW ABOUT YOU?
'Our demise started' AT 'Wembley with bad decisions' Junior for Orr and Elliot moved back to RB lost us the game. Just like dropping Hartley for Junior. Just like playing Sno LW to play Junior. GJ was the master of his/our downfall continually selecting Junior - the dressing room new better - rightly or wrongly they stopped playing. Junior was on Radio Bristol yesterday lunchtime saying how good the spirit and ability of Orr,McCombe etc - he didn't mention the real stand out players Marvin and Basso. Why ? Because Marv literally carried him - Marv's never recovered. Because Father fell out with Basso. It was pathetic how far up Junior's rear end Twentyman went. To cap it all Junior thinks Kelly's a good player - He might be in a Pub league - Time will tell.
Morning RP. I think if you remember, Orr had his nose and cheekbone smashed in at Wembley so couldn't have played on. McCombe became ill so we were already short of options. Anyway, to our current mess, and any new manager will need to sort out the defence as his first job. This is way overdue and we won't turn this sorry apology of a club around when we allow the opposition a free run at goal. I bet teams can't wait to play us. We have been a joke since Orr left and only Caulker saved us last year.
The defence is obviously important but more important is sorting out the the factions in the dressing room otherwise we will just have a repeat of what happened when DM arrived which was that they all united and played as a team and played to their full ability resulting in our good initial run. Then, when DM had sorted out in his own mind who he liked and who he didn't and selected accordingly (cue Tinkerman jokes), that's when the trouble started again.... As the saying goes, with a squad our size, "you can't please all the people, all the time" but frankly, whoever the new manager is, his first job is to save his own skin by making some quick decisions NOW about those out of contract in the summer and let them go immediately or, they will **** him just a capably as they have the last incumbant...
Spot on Mike, what I've been saying for years. Come on Redprintt, we ain't still gonna fall out about the Johnsons are we???? Slightly better days than we have now that's for sure.... I saw on Twitter that LJ only has good things to say about our club and IMO deserves a bit of respect from the fans. Always gave 100%, more than I can say for the crock of **** we have now! As to the falling out in the dressing room stuff.....I think you'll find most clubs has the same problem, this is where you need a good captain and manager to keep it under control..(nothing wrong with passion) By the way IMO the biggest downfall of GJ was signing Adebola...................it changed the way we played, I'm not saying he was a bad player, but IMO just wrong for our style at the time.
Re first point, this is not something you can "control" other than by not selecting those players which is why I am unable to really argue with what happened as DM just kept on picking one player in particular... Re 2nd point, I think we all agree on that one. We signed him right on the deadline and were very well placed. We all expected the arrival of the equivalent of a performance car but instead, we got a family saloon i.e. slow but steady and IMO, GJ lost his nerve when he considered that his cosy little "family" of players would mostly be replaced by good players who wouldn't buy into his "work hard and not a lot else" philosophy. We probably would have come straight back down but we would have been £60m better off and with better players...
I disagree but only slightly The root of our issues started when we bought donkeys in that seasons January transfer window (Adebola/Carle) when we were top 2 in the league, and when we needed quality to get us up We could and should have been playing in the Prem for at least one season, but we ****ed it up by buying crap....
Carle was a nasty piece of work and we were lucky to offload him to Palace for a profit. Where is he now - I don't know and don't care.
If we had more players like LJ now, we would not be in our current position, he gave his all for the City, not like some of the players we have at the moment...so once & for all, keep your, very wrong opinions of him to yourself!!
'Having a go at me Redprintt...you naughty little boy. Watch Del prove you doubters wrong...I have every faith in him !!' - BJA 7/12/12. 'Mr clueless has done it....take that you none believers' 'Good old Delboy.....I believe in you mate' - BJA 8/12/12. 'once & for all, keep your, very wrong opinions of him to yourself' BJA - As Mr Mannering would say - You Stupid Boy.
Bloody hell did I say that Red....Ho I'am a stupid boy....your still wrong about LJ though me old cocker!! Bring on Mr O'Driscoll......please!....if it is to be him, don't let me be wrong again, LOL.
I was agnostic about Delboy at first, but when he kept us up and, equally importantly got us scoring goals, I had high hopes for this season. Now I just hope for survival. Whoever is in charge.
My two bobs worth on this is simple the one obvious blinding player that stands out in the whole sorry fiasco of the last few years has been Liam Fontaine, according to 'people in the know' he is very good on the training ground and talks a good game, especially in pointing out faults in others play that caused him to make mistakes, to the extent that several managers thought he wasn't the piss poor player he has seemed to me to be for several years. All I can say is he must be a completely different player in training matches, perhaps it's just a difference in speed of thought he has more time to think on the training ground as the match pace is somewhat slower but when it comes to match days he just can't think fast enough but the problem has been there for years and various managers have tried to fix it by surrounding it with patches but they have left the hole in place. That was one of GJ's failings he got fixated on how to get the best out of this premiership player in the defence not realising that the same premiership player was the problem, and that seems to have gone on through successive managers. Yes GJ had his faults he believed that all players would buy into his hard work brings rewards belief, many don't they just want an easy life a stroll round the pitch and a big pay packet. Mainly in midfield Noble, Hartley, Sno and Carle spring to mind all on their days could be wonderful but the days were too few and far between, The two players who bought into it were Elliott and LJ neither had the skills of the previous 4 but made up for it in honest endevour, I know some are going to say Elliott made LJ look better than he was but I would also say that Elliott played better with LJ than any of the others possably because between them they made one class midfielder and they would both work for each other. The falling out with Basso seemed to boil down to timing he was talking about a new contract and that was why Weale was allowed to leave and the day after Weale left he announced he wouldn't sign an extended contract I think that GJ saw that as disloyal to him and disrespectful to the club and to be fair to GJ I would say he was right that Basso wasn't the best Keeper in Brasil, and if not for his legendary standing with the fans at the Gate wouldn't have been missed as much after all as a free agent his carear really took off didn't it (NOT). For the future I have wanted S O'D since GJ left because in many ways they are similar they get the best out of not so great players but S O'D has more experience of dealing with BTC's than GJ had and knows much better how to deal with inflated ego's so I for one hope the Daily Mirror is right and his appointment will be announced at lunchtime.
Ancient history I know, but the biggest mistake GJ made (apart from playing Elliot at right back in the final) was NOT bringing in a couple of goalscorers on loan in Febuary which might have made a difference when we were 2 points clear with 6 to go. His reason ? He disliked loaning players because of dressing room unrest and the unpredictable nature of loanees. He learned from this mistake, but by then it was too late.
Not sure if was a mistake as such to play Marv at full back at Wembley.......his hand was forced due to Bradders having his cheek and eye socket broken 15 mins before. It was obviously felt that Marv back there was the best option he had at the time. Ah well, all history now..........onwards and upwards!
