Davefevs

Sorry - language Timothy! ?

Imho Nige likes his work-life balance and at his age and with recent health issues, I reckon he’s prepared to give as much of the next 3 years to creating a strong position at City as possible, but with the objective of stepping back as soon as he can integrate the right people to make him less necessary. I might be wrong, just how I see it. Wouldn’t it be great for example if he saw the ability in Alex Ball to be the long term successor. Ok, that might be a million miles off target, but a nice thought if nothing else.

Heard today he’s injured ??????

So you sell the ground to get around FFP, but wanna include it again for zilch. Eff off Derby County!

Many expected us to be bottom 6 at the start of the season. Could do with keeping the gap as large as possible to 22nd though! I still say middle eight.

Players like Owers playing for Bath tonight too, so unavailable. I’m sure Benarous, Bell, Janneh we’re part of first team training too.

This will get taken as fact…..but I reckon we could spend increase costs by £20m (combo of fees, wages etc) in January. I project we are inside FFP by that amount, but as soon as 18/19s profit drops out of the reporting cycle we are stuffed! Hence we are being careful now.

Nope. Bell and Challis in charge. Been really impressed with him the first few times I’ve seen him….thought he had a tough afternoon first half (didn’t really watch second half). Soady frustrates me….does some really nice things, then stupid things. George Thomas (24) full Welsh international, over 100 EFL apps (22 Champ, 79 Lg1). Sam Field (23), 20 PL apps, almost 50 Champ. Think he cost £1m!

Good post. Think there are two things going on. 1. Reshaping of the football club 2. Sorting out on the pitch stuff The two are linked. If you divorce them for the purpose of this debate….I think he’s doing a good job with 1., but I’ve been disappointed with 2. However, 2. Is hamstrung to some extent by 1. Thats not making excuses….think it’s the reality of how big a mess we were left in. A squad without any identity. The simple and costly thing to do in theory would’ve been to try and retain all the OOC players, and then try to work out how to get the best out of them. Some will argue that’s what he was doing March to May, but with injuries and downing of tools he was pi$$ing in the wind in some respects. I suspect with the joy of hindsight he might’ve made some different decisions. However decisions had to be made on those players, some will have made those decisions for him, e.g. Walsh and Diedhiou who wouldn’t sign a new deal anyway. He’s cut £10-12m of costs out of the club over the summer. He deserves some credit for that….but it counts for nothing on the pitch during 90 mins on a Saturday / Tuesday. Your example below is why I ultimately see Nige relinquishing the control he currently has and handing the data to day football stuff to a younger man, as Nige slips fully into Consultant / Mentor / Sporting Director type role.

J.K.Rowling’s least successful title in the Harry Potter series!

Don’t be silly m. You know full well who he is from an otib point of view.

Jon. Very fair assessment. Think we are suffering from chopping and changing. We played more “football” in the opening 6-7 games than we have in the last 4-5. We were generally solid too. Until Luton we’d not conceded more than 11 shots in a game. We looked like a team, a bit dour but a team. We now look like individuals. Start by going back to a back 4…and everything then stems from that. I don’t think Atkinson suits being “spare” in a three. Baker doesn’t suit being the outside CB either.

I so agree. There are very few of the 60+ LJ/MA signings that I thought were bad players on paper (of the ones I knew anything about), but several where I might’ve questioned a) how they’d fit in to the current or future planned playing system, or b) where they’d get minutes with 2/3 players in front of them.

@shahanshahani hear the City men’s team are coming in full-kit….that’s a fright for any City supporter!

He’s started 4 games (6 subs) - 544 minutes - fyi. I’m not sure superlatives like “excellent” signing quite fit. Both Coventry and Luton are benefitting from a cohesive plan over several seasons….Luton punctuated by Jones to Stoke, but he’s now back, carrying on. I agree, I don’t think their squads are much different to ours….but as above they have a clear plan, a footballing identity (arghhhhh). Re coaching and tactics, some areas to improve undoubtedly, but quite possibly a result of a poorly built squad, manifesting over 2/3 seasons and there not being ONE system that really suits the personnel. I do think he needs to pick one and stick to it, and accept that sometimes it’s gonna look like he’s got it wrong, but with the upside that at least it will become more cohesive through regularity. Just replied to the Bristol Live tweet.

Do you remember the cartoon - Baba Papa?

That’s good to know.

I said yesterday that I think Nige might’ve been impressed with Alex whilst Simmo was having his health issues, and maybe he’s sought to shuffle things around. Perhaps he thought with their u19/u20 success, one of Keith or Simmo might’ve fancied (been persuaded???) to swap roles and take on the kids. With Fleming also coming in, you wonder whether Nige sees a different dynamic being needed. All speculative on my part.

£50m….does that mean the new owner taking on the debts….or does it mean a cut price stadium sell??? ?

The myth is that they are data driven. The have a top class data capability undoubtedly, but what is often missed is their extensive physical scouting network. Are you suggesting Harry is an average fan. Just by his posts on here, even you can see he’s not that. I’ll let Harry defend himself though. Another poster, an “average fan” forged a great opposition scouting role for himself in the pro game, working for an ex-England manager at club level. Just because you don’t have the skill set, doesn’t mean others don’t. Don’t judge everyone by your own level.

Think it was PL hatricks at OT.

Martin O’Connor had a long playing career with the likes of Birmingham, Walsall, other clubs around the Midlands. Allan Gemmill appears to have been a scout at Crystal Palace….I’d not heard of him tbh. Fraser Franks played for Wimbledon, Newport and Luton amongst others.

We aren’t talking about letting your average fan scout for you though, we are talking about the ones who show an aptitude for it, perhaps doing their PFSA qualifications to show willing etc.

Dunno, but he’s been 1st team opposition analyst for Rotherham and Millwall, currently at Cardiff.