Bristol City striker Sam Baldock celebrates his leveller alongside new signing Adam El-Abd picture: Jon Kent please log in to view this image Steve Cotterill insists he is not about to repeat the mistakes made by previous Bristol City managers and end up with too many players. Appointed at the start of December, Cotterill has wasted no time in revamping his squad, releasing three players and recruiting another four. Adam El-Abd and Karleigh Osborne have signed long-term deals, Tyrone Barnett has been recruited until the end of the season, Simon Gillett's loan has been extended and more signings are in the pipeline. But Cotterill is adamant he does not want to clutter his squad with players who will not feature regularly while taking up valuable financial resources. Determined to run with a smaller squad than his predecessors, the 49-year-old is not ruling out moving more players on before the transfer window closes at the end of January. He said: "I remember there have been times when Bristol City have had 54 players at any one time in the past. What I don't want to do is bring in players for every day of the week bar Saturday." He added: "I don't need to move players out at this moment in time, but I may do for the good of the players that may depart. That will be to give them an opportunity and a chance rather than them waiting for the scramble to find a club in the summer. It would certainly not be anything personal, it would only ever be done to help people." Asked how much more business he would like to do before the end of the month, Cotterill answered: "Only good business. If I cannot do good business, I don't want to do any." After watching his team draw 2-2 against MK Dons at the weekend, Cotterill revealed the psychological ploy that helped his team come from behind to salvage a point in their fight for League One survival. He could easily have substituted Sam Baldock after he missed three clear-cut goal-scoring opportunities in the first half. But he decided to keep faith with the former West Ham marksman and sought to reassure him during the half time interval. "I spoke to him at half-time and told him that, whatever he did, I was not going to take him off," said Cotterill. "He could have missed another five and I would not have taken him off. "I felt it was what I needed and what I wanted to do. I felt he would get chances and score and he did." Read more: http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/...tory-20466110-detail/story.html#ixzz2qvmLuXrP
Good for him and refreshing to see he is actually planning for the future rather than just talking about it like SOD did
That's unfair. SOD didn't have a future at the club. He was gone before his year was up. The current trend shows that SC won't last a year either.
I feel much more confident about our prospects for the future than at any other time this season. We do seem to have stopped the rot and have lost 2 games in 12. As soon as we can get more points on the board, this will hopefully get us away from the drop zone. We have 2 hard away games now, but after that, several games are winnable. Its also good to see our final fixtures are against close rivals. Hopefully, by that time, they wont be 6 pointers!
It's not unfair at all. SOD will go down as possibly the most unsuccessful manager we'll ever have and was a person who polarised fans views about him. Aside from leading us from the Championship to the brink of L2 with 2 wins in 20 odd games at all levels you wont find too many complimentary remarks about him on here.
Maybe manager isnt his best position. SL described him as an outstanding tactician, and I am sure he was extremely eloquent when discussing those in private. However, it all fell on its arse when the subject came around to motivation. SOD is the kind of coach I would like to see in charge of the kids, or even at the National School of excellence where he can teach the best youngsters how to keep the ball and grind some good habits into them before the motivators arrive to pressure them into getting results.
I found his programme notes quite an interesting read - his post match interviews however were cringeworthy
