LJ won't be going anywhere, more worrying is his comment today about it being a difficult summer for transfers. He went on to say some won't like the difficult decisions he has to make. It will be interesting if any of his signings will leave let alone any profit arising from these sales. After all the numerous signings in his tenure I can't think of many that will bring a profit.
Looking around the top flight the two outstanding candidates for me would be Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche. They have both succeeded at smaller clubs where the budget's are tight and because of their seeming lack of glamour still put together fairly competitive squads where there are no superstars with big egos. Bristol City bring in bigger crowds and have a better stadium and so you would think we surely should be capable of achieving something similar to those clubs I mentioned. As far as comparing us to other clubs I am sure most of us have envy for similarly outfitted clubs that have been there, done that, and thrived. We appear to focus more on what we could achieve without actually doing it and the time for idle chat about how good we are going to be has run out for me and I think this season, although slightly better in some departments, has pointed to either our lack of footballing nous or worse still lack of commitment and dedication to the supposed goals. The possibility of a new manager for next season is food for thought but I really can't see us making a move in that area because I truly think that Lee has been treated like some Greek god. Even in the event of Lansdown making that move the replacement would be hard to find and, unless we can find a diamond in the rough that doesn't want to bankrupt us, I still think the land of promises will continue to rule. It will be interesting to see the end of season antics and tweets that will befall us some time soon, so stay tuned. P.S. Redprintt. How much do you think we could get for Diedhou?
Eddie Howe untried manager that done ok with Bournemouth but not really with Burnley. Bournemouth also broke ffp and was fined 12 million. Sean Dyche went from Watford onto Burnley (after Howe) to a club who was in the Prem 4 years prior and was shrewd in their parachute money not spending it on billy big bollocks from abroad. It also wouldn’t surprise me barring our attendance this season, Burnley had higher attendances than us whilst in the championship. Yes he was an instant success with them, but sometimes you get that some fit some don’t. You’ve named two managers out of loads that have failed. LJ has had a bad run and needs to address that trend, but maybe he might, maybe he won’t with us. But he’s keen to learn and hopefully we do see the benefit of his friendship with Pep and other managers. Just look at RR dream manager now managing a second division Belgium team. And SOD who’s dropped off the map last working two years ago. So please tell us what is it you want? Do you want an upcoming manager (hopefully we’ve got one) or do you just want anyone because you said so?
Seems to me SL has decided up and coming is the way forward , Lee is obviously his preferred choice , previous link with City , SL taken him under his wing so to speak ,etc . Continuing the theme though should LJ need to be replaced , either because he does well & is poached by a PL club , or completely messes up and we get rid I still think SL will go for another up & coming manager/ coach. Purely on achievement so far with very little outlay , and showing loyalty and turning down a move to a much bigger club , there's really one stand out candidate , however on the downside his achievements have been with a load of horse punching my pikeys. Maybe SL will promote from with in Maybe Macca?
A manager that can win more than 4 games inhalf a season,A manager that speaks the truth. I will only bring players in that improve us he said.What players is he speaking about. Sorry I have no faith whatsoever in him and his signings,tactics,etc. We only required mid table form to gain a playoff spot and he could not even do that.
RR, you do realise that this season we’ve lost only 3 more league games so far compared to your hero Warnock don’t you? Just need to work on the draws and then it will be sorted, as we’ve even lost less games than Middlesbrough and Sheff Utd this season.
smh - you've had stability under a very wealthy owner for years now. Unfortunately such supportive custodianship will only take you so far - it'll take more than that. If you mean stability of management and players then that's very much more difficult to achieve. The mix has got to be right. Can Johnson provide that stability? From what I've seen of him he looks very "technically" orientated, but given the tools, can he build and inspire a squad of players to take you out of this division? You're still not out of the playoffs just yet though it looks a long shot now. This closed season will be very interesting. Whether he stays through choice or leaves through choice will tell you far more than a thousand media quotes.
5 managers between 2010 and 2013. Semi-stability under SC but the club was still very much in transition. We absolutely have not had 'stability' - maybe it's been stable compared to some other clubs, but that says more about the state of football than our state of stability.
I was referring to ownership/financial stability, not managership stability. There are few clubs below the Premier league who are bankrolled to the same extent by a very wealthy owner - that's obviously not been enough achieve stability on the pitch. It takes more than just money to bring that sort of success, and it seems you are still seeking it.
I’m struggling to understand why comment on stability of the owner?? It is plainly obvious that SMHBCFC was talking about manager situation. The clue is in the title of the thread.
4 years almost to the day prior to the Man Utd victory we were losing 2-1 at home to Rotherham and falling to the bottom of League One. We are now getting to major cup semi-finals and challenging for a play off place for promotion to the Premier League. I would consider that a success
However take the second half of the season and take that into next year we would be bottom three.Progression in player recruitment has been extremely poor.
Rubbish, look at the current form tables and we would be mid table. Obviously the second half of the season hasn't been as the good as the first half but some people do exaggerate
Pretty obvious ROD if you read what I've written and not what you want to it to mean. The stability of a club comes from the top - an area that you have covered in spades. There are plenty of clubs that change hands for peanuts because the owners can't wait to get out. The last time I looked, you could buy Sunderland for £1 - you don't have that problem. Moving on from there, the stable owner and his manager relationship is a priority and something that needs to be right. Decision making from the top will govern your future. This is all about that. Retain Johnson and support him in the longer term hoping it will come right is an option - and maybe the right one, but only time will tell - and how much time?
Still not sure what your point is. Top clubs in the Championship right now: Wolves - taken over recently Cardiff - ownership anything but stable Fulham - taken over 4/5 years ago Aston Villa - recently taken over The next two are Middlesbrough and Millwall who have had stable owners but I'm not really sure what the point is.
Hi Rob - you've just really answered your own question. Yes, the clubs you mention have got relatively new owners - in the case of Wolves and Villa, brand new owners who have got rid of Paul Lambert and Di Matteo, and installed their own. Fulham have also had a turn around since Kit Symons was replaced with Slav. As for Cardiff, we are far from unstable though you might want to believe it. A decision was taken by the owner on good advice to bring in Warnock. Now he's not everyone's cup of tea as we've seen from this forum, but we're in second spot and 18 points ahead of you at the sharp end of the season and that's directly through his appointment. It looks as though Johnson flatters to deceive and has now twice squandered very promising mid term table positions. The other 2 clubs you mention have established owners who are not inordinately wealthy - certainly nothing like Xia, Fosun, Lansdown and Tan. Steve Gibson is committed to his club at Middlesbrough and has had success through his stewardship of the club. Millwall owner John Berylson is a bit of an enigma. He seems to have an ethos about the club that is quite rare - for a yank he really cares but with relatively very little money. If you have stability of fully committed ownership and wealth like yourselves, then that should give you the platform to make the right footballing decisions as to how to take the club forward. Other struggling clubs in this division don't all have that advantage - that's the point.
