Red-Robbo

I said at the time, most of those staying were staying to boo.

Agreed. Just have a different way of looking at things. And I agree that it's a gamble, a leap-in-the-dark appointing a new man. For me, reaching the point where I lost faith in Nigel Pearson is a bit like the time in a marriage where you finally are honest to yourself and say "this isn't working". You can stay and be unhappy, or you can face the dangerous uncertainty of being single again. Plus, there are lots of long-term commitments and financial implications to consider. It is tough to abandon something you once so supported. But the tide has turned for me and once you make that leap you can't fall back in love with Pearson* no matter whether he romances you with a sexy away win somewhere. The scales fall from your eyes and you see the bullshit, the arrogance and unpleasantness of some of his behaviour and statements. One of the few joys about being a City fan is no matter how poorly we perform there is the ugly runt down the road being massively more embarrassing than we are. Under Pearson I'm not sure we will still be minding the gap, nor even am I sure a L1 Pearson side would beat the Gas. A truly horrifying prospect. * not literally, obvs

I run a business and both it and my personal household are run on a sound financial basis. BUT my eyes glaze over when I see balance sheets - I have people do that stuff for me and give me the jargon-free summaries - so I tend to skip over posts about club finances on here. So, can someone give me a quick reminder: Does a club's manager salary count towards FFP? Would a club's manager severance pay/compo count towards it?

Well, they achieved success by changing manager - and we might as well. Because some of the decisions Pearson is making recently are as bad as Steve Bruce's.

If he plays like yesterday much longer, he would struggle to get in a top 6 conference side. Let's hope the real Alex Scott returns pronto.

Look, let's be honest, the majority of us were happy when Pearson was appointed here and thought the board had at last got something right. I'm not sure we can beat them with the stick of Pearson's failure He just has turned out to be the Derby, Hull, Southampton, Watford, OH Leuven Nigel Pearson rather than the Leicester City one. It has become apparent that his Leicester success was as a result of a special set of circumstances that cannot be replicated here. Up against the odds, he casts around for all manner of peculiar solutions. He talks tough, but his side's crumble. As we as fans didn't necessarily expect this to be the case, I'm not blaming the Lansdown family for a failure to have a crystal ball either.

The more I reflect on it, the more disrespectful Pearson's comments are. Lansdown (and TV money) may pay most of his salary, and gate receipts only a minority, but it's fans who ARE the club, we're why the club exists. The fact he can continue into his 60th year earning more than an oncology surgeon in order to do a job of getting men to play a game in a way that should be entertaining to the general public, is because of fans. You might be annoyed with them; who hasn't done a job where you're not irritated by some of your customers? But you don't show it.

Our midfield basically didn't exist yesterday. Yet here, at the club, we had a player who has the pace and the footwork to carry the ball into their final third and we don't use him because of an extended sulk over his decision regarding his future. HNM has no end product and is often a headless chicken, but he can take the ball upfield time and time again and if a pass isn't found, a free-kick is often won, because he's tough to get off the ball without fouling. If Han was played and strolled about aimlessly a la Fam because he had lost interest in the club, then we might understand Pearson's decision. But we've no evidence of that, the player has spoken of his desire to play, and with January a few days away, he'd want to put himself in the shop window and attract interest. Let's face it, with hopeless Scott and Williams' performances, if ever a game was screaming to bring Massengo on it was yesterday. But we chose not to have him in the matchday squad because he "isn't part of the future". Andy King isn't part of the on-pitch future either, so where's the logic there?

This is it. It isn't a reaction to that loss. It isn't even a reaction to our precarious situation. It's a reaction to peculiar managerial decisions, that even Pearson's staunchest defenders cannot explain. Weimann as RWB; King as CB; facing a big, strong, physical side and waiting until we were 0-2 down to bring on our strongest, most robust attacker. The cutting your own nose off decisions regarding HNM. The disparaging of the loan system, used to great effect by other Championship managers. And why restart a side that had failed against a mediocre Stoke against a burgeoning WBA? They say the definition of madness is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results. And TBH considering the way confidence has ebbed away from players who've been solid earlier in the season, I don't think Pearson's uncompromising manner is picking up morale in the squad. Players don't like losing games, but they looked unhappy throughout yesterday. Pearson talks a great talk about 'building a long-term project' here, but I've seen no evidence that he is doing that. I see evidence that what he's building, thanks to his idiosyncrasies and stubbornness, is a long-term mess. He's cut financial losses, I'll grant him that and that alone, but perhaps the CEO change was more critical there. His mojo is lost and was last seen nearly a decade ago in the East Midlands.

Personally, I don't boo. But I'll defend people who do. At the end of the game, the booing shows people are very dissatisfied with the whole situation. Take it in tandem with the We Want Pearson Out, it is clear the manager is the main target of the displeasure. At the same time, some players WERE crap and I'm certainly not going to applaud them. Pearson didn't tell Alex Scott to go out and be pushed off the ball easier than a schoolgirl; Pearson didn't tell Naismith to dither on the ball and get dispossessed for fun; Pearson didn't tell Vyner to watch the ball and not the man and get made to look foolish; Pearson didn't tell O'Leary to be rooted to his line with an attacker c;lean through - or wander out of his area when a shot from distance might've been expected. Players have to take responsibility. They aren't untalented, but they can do better. That said, West Brom are a talented team who grievously underperformed under Steve Bruce and are now approaching where people expected them to be this season. Their second was a goal-of-the-week contender. Losing to them isn't entirely a shock. It's just another home loss coming on the back of other, less-forgivable defeats and we looked awful, which, as you say, wasn't helped by the manager's bizarre decisions. We had six minutes of extra time, but it didn't look like we'd score if we;d had six hours. Fans pay good money and are supporters long-term, not just pros who move between clubs for money. It's our emotional investment. It's our history. Despite what they say, it's OUR club - not Pearson's or the players or Lansdown's. It's our right to boo if we feel it's appropriate.

They're professional footballers in their early 20s, not 9-year-olds at a school sports day. If they do not expect booing to ensue after a crap performance, when the team is plunging downwards fast, then they don't know football culture very well. Like any player, you have to suck it up, and let it inspire you to work harder and play better. Prove people wrong.

I realise that the stadium announcer, half-time fare, general acoustics, non-existent WiFi and poor choice of music is only a distraction from the paucity of coherence shown on the pitch, BUT the fact we get someone better suited to be a Butlin's Red Coat blethering on the mic, adds just more misery and embarassment to visits to AG for me. He's probably a cracking bloke, but I don't think this is the right gig for him and I think the entire way HT's are handled needs to be rethought. What happened to the latest scores? As the only way you can get WiFi is to look at your phone during the match, they'd be informative, and we're getting to the stage in the season where it may be crucial to know what the rest of the strugglers are doing.

I actually think most were cheering because Atko came on (as most of us thought he should've started) rather than cheering an injury. It's not the first time a substitution has been cheered.

We're weak. Weedy. Powder puff. That isn't just in defence, but when it is in defence, you have big problems.

Thanks Dave. It seems a downhill trudge for me. Will we be relegated this season under Pearson? Maybe not (although of course it is a possibility) but there are probably three worse sides than us in the division. But if he stays, I have - alas - no confidence that he will improve us next window, or next summer, or - in fact - ever. We have talent here. We should be doing better.

I wouldn't absolve him. He was caught so flat-footed that he failed to catch a player who was parallel to him and who had to receive and control a pass then run with the ball.

Actually thought James wasn't terrible today. Not great, but saved our bacon on occasion and played forward the great pass that set up Conway's first attempt. Scott though was awful. Weak, and poor on the ball. Williams was crap against Stoke and simply didn't deserve to start. He looks a shadow of the player he was before his injury.

Based on a lot more than one match. Based on the overall trajectory of 90+ games, squad members brought in (and apparently "not trusted") plus watching mistake after mistake. Arguably, the Stoke loss was worse. West Brom were on a winning streak and are (now) well-managed. Stoke are much weaker and less consistent. And if the reservation is "Lansdown can't pick winners", well, Lansdown, picked Pearson. So, plus ca change.

Today,I finally lost patience. I think the Pearson experiment has run its course. He is too stubborn. Too inflexible. Too egotistical. Poor judgement. Poor motivation skills - why are we nearly always worse second half? Stupidly ignoring the loan option unlike other managers. His so-called commonsense and honesty is no more than a blame everyone else strategy, combined with a number of clichés. Different clichés to LJ's, but pretty meaningless clichés nonetheless. Maybe he's lost it with age, or Long Covid, or maybe his past successes were achieved with the help of coaches no longer available to him. Nigel faces a lot of constraints; inherited a car-crash of a club. But he's not the only Championship manager poorly resourced. He didn't inherit the worst squad by any means. He is at a club starting to develop some real young talent. City aren't the only club with fairly useless owners. Yet others do better. Others might do better here. He's had long enough. We aren't improving. Time to go. It's a roll of the dice. We might get worse. But I honestly think under Pearson we won't get better. We'll play better games than today.But I don't think we'll improve long-term. And we haven't got much further to fall before we are in the third tier morass again.

I'm not sober. But you know what, ANY City fan is a friend of mine. So, all of you enjoy tomorrow and the whole Festive Season. Especially just after 5 on Boxing Day. Here's for you:

Nice his mum popped over to do his hair before the interview as well....

Yeah, only Nige and the coaching team will know how ready they might be for the big jump to competitive Championship football. Even more than outfield players, it can be a big jump for a young keeper to make that transition. It can be a lonely place between the sticks: Nowhere to hide.

Am I mad to think Bentley might be offered a new deal on a reduced salary, to give O'Leary some decent competition/injury cover? As Kalas is widely reported as the highest-paid player, it wouldn't surprise me if it's him among those we're saying goodbye to, especially if NP has his eye on some likely replacement who'll be cheaper and without injury question marks.

We should instantly resign from the league and start a super-league playing 45-minute games.

I blame Mark Ashton.