Barnsley 0 City 2

[Jeff]

Yes he did. Wanted more money after keeping them up, didn't get it and left.

They decided not to renew his contract. He didn't walk out.

They had his replacement Jan Poortvliet lined up before he went.

This is what their chairman said at the time:

"the board have been looking closely at the situation on the playing side of the club whereby we are inevitably going to have to depend to a large extent on the quality of our youngsters in the academy and the reserve team.
Our view on that was we would need to adopt a European-style coaching system comprising head coach, with the objective of linking the academy to the first team.
The board believe this will create opportunities for our younger players, which might not occur within the traditional English management structure."

 

[Jeff]

If you're not prepared to sign a new contract your employer is entitled to start looking elsewhere.

He was on a rolling contract so it wasn't necessary for him to sign a new one.

Could have been done a little better but at the end of the day Pearson made problems for himself.

Pearson wanted to have a proper reserve team again, Mandaric wouldn't let him. That sounds like Mandaric was making problems for Pearson.

 

[gregs_y2k]

They decided not to renew his contract. He didn't walk out.

They had his replacement Jan Poortvliet lined up before he went.

This is what their chairman said at the time:

"the board have been looking closely at the situation on the playing side of the club whereby we are inevitably going to have to depend to a large extent on the quality of our youngsters in the academy and the reserve team.
Our view on that was we would need to adopt a European-style coaching system comprising head coach, with the objective of linking the academy to the first team.
The board believe this will create opportunities for our younger players, which might not occur within the traditional English management structure."

I stand corrected. At the time I had heard that the reason his contract wasn't renewed at Southampton was because they couldn't afford him

 

[gregs_y2k]

He was on a rolling contract so it wasn't necessary for him to sign a new one.



Pearson wanted to have a proper reserve team again, Mandaric wouldn't let him. That sounds like Mandaric was making problems for Pearson.

The club wanted to enter contract negotiations with him though and he continually stalled.

There will always be 2 schools of thought on the Pearson departure. I admired what he did for the club in his two seasons here but I don't think the guy did himself any favours.

 

[Jeff]

I stand corrected. At the time I had heard that the reason his contract wasn't renewed at Southampton was because they couldn't afford him

There were stories that money came into it. Not because NP was asking for too much, but because the replacement was cheaper and the chairman was trying to save money.

But I don't think it was too much of a surprise that they didn't want to keep him, his record there wasn't great. They were 18th when he took over and they finished 20th.

 

[Macky]

There will always be 2 schools of thought on the Pearson departure.

Will there? I've heard more than two theories about his departure, so it would probably be more accurate to say that nobody has a ****ing clue what went on.

I admired what he did for the club in his two seasons here but I don't think the guy did himself any favours.

I'm not really sure what that means or what 'favours' you expect him to have done for himself, but I'm confident that everything that he has ever done has been done with self-interest.
The exact same as every other intelligent human being that has ever lived.

 

[FryattFox]

Will there? I've heard more than two theories about his departure, so it would probably be more accurate to say that nobody has a ****ing clue what went on.

One school of thought being that it was Pearson's fault, and one being that it was Mandaric's fault.

 

[Jeff]

One school of thought being that it was Pearson's fault, and one being that it was Mandaric's fault.

I think it was jas123's fault.

 

[Miles Away]

Back to the match.

My lowly, distant opinion is that Sven has really got the boys playing. 2 cleansheets on the spin, Andy King growing into an exceptional player, quickly dispensing with out of form or substandard players from the starting 11. All of his signings have so far shown themselves to have the required quality.

I find myself looking forward to January a great deal when he can really put his stamp on the squad and hopefully put a few of the also rans out to pasture.

I also imagine our better players must be delighted to have him around.

I'm very optimistic.

 

[Miles Away]

I also really like how he has added pace to the side and I have complete faith in both his tactical decisions and his personnel choices.

I'm a complete blue mongie in regards to Sven.

 

[Macky]

Back to the match.

Shut it you

One school of thought being that it was Pearson's fault, and one being that it was Mandaric's fault.

Well I don't fit into either of those 'schools of thought'

 

[Miles Away]

Well I don't fit into either of those 'schools of thought'

The world has no place for your centrist views Macky you waffling loser. Haven't you been paying attention to American politics? Shades of grey are for p**sies.

 

[Scodger Cubs]

I'm a complete blue mongie in regards to Sven.

No Comment.

A good solid performance today though.

I believe Abe will become a good player - he linked well with naughton and....vassell.

Gallagher played alright. Nothing special

Cunnigham played quite well..better than the other man city youth product we've had. If we signed him and kyle in January that would be fantastic.

Waggy played quite well holding the ball up as usual.

I though wellens plate quite well wounding nice tackles an through balls

Let's just hope we carry on this run!

 

[Macky]

The world has no place for your centrist views Macky you waffling loser.

Centrist?!?! The real blame lies with Filbert Fox and his duplicitous affairs with both Milan and Nigel. He's such a shit stirrer.

Haven't you been paying attention to American politics?

Yes. They're all teabagging each other. Just like Milan and Nigel were both doing with Filbert

I though wellens plate quite well wounding nice tackles an through balls

Wellens was wounding people with plates? Lovely stuff.

 

[Scodger Cubs]

Centrist?!?! The real blame lies with Filbert Fox and his duplicitous affairs with both Milan and Nigel. He's such a shit stirrer.



Yes. They're all teabagging each other. Just like Milan and Nigel were both doing with Filbert



Wellens was wounding people with plates? Lovely stuff.

Plates + wounding + alcohol = orgasmic pleasure...you're missing out macky...

 

[Macky]

Plates + wounding + alcohol = orgasmic pleasure...you're missing out macky...

Oh no I'm not, and I have the scars to prove it

 

[Chrysalis]

Up to 17th in table (shame it's not more, but closing the gap with top half).

First successive league wins of the season

4 wins out of 6, 13 points from 18 since Sousa.

Pro sousa boys still think he should have stayed?

 

[Steven]

abe, king wellens gallagher, dyer, davies, vitor, naughton are the 8 that are feeling like the core to the side for me. it's the last 20% that will be decisive. the way jason roberts played today, if we could have convinced him to take the leicester shilling we'd have been well away.
southampton take 5m for lambert and lallana you reckon?

Very probably but who would be foolish enough to offer that sort of money?

 

[drummindefender]

I want Blue Maniacs opinion. Or is he stuck in Aberdeen on his way home?

 

[Han]

Back to the match, again!

Our matches seem to be playing out in the same way each week. As with the Preston game, we dominated the first half and could/should have scored more than once. The second half was a little slower and we allowed Barnsley to attack us (tiredness?). Fortunately, Barnsley were garbage and were unable to break us down properly.

We started with what looked like 4-4-2 - Vassell up top with Waghorn and Abe on the right. It didn't last long though, Vassell moved to the right and Abe to centre mid with Wellens when we went to 4-5-1/4-3-3.

Against better teams i think we might be seeing a few nil-nils. I say this because Abe and Wellens were both playing deep to protect the defence.

Overall it worked well on this occasion. We played some great football and tore them apart time and time again. The midfield were particularly impressive.

Weale - little to do but he will be happy to go a week without any drama.

Naughton - very good at getting forward to compliment the attack but also pretty good defensively.

Cunningham - not quite the player than Naughton is. He has plenty of energy going forward but he was very unaware in defence one or two times and Wellens had to rescue him. Must do better IMO.

Davies - Solid as a rock and very quick. He grew into the game and won everything once he got going.

Vitor - Confidence oozes out of him. He looks like the perfect partner for Davies.

Wellens - Best game for a while. He passed really well and won lots of free kick as usual.

Abe - again, his best game for us so far. He combined well with the rest of the midfield and looked nothing like the lost sheep from a few weeks ago. It looks like he's turning into a very good player.

Gallagher - touches of class as usual but he also worked hard today. Looks as if he's been given instructions not to shoot so often. He passed once or twice when he'd usually shoot.

King - great effort. he was up and down all game. Every time the ball was on either wing, he was in the box waiting for the cross. Clever positioning and always after the ball.

Vassell - I don't think he was as useless as some say. Every time he got on the ball he was eager to do something. Clearly lacks sharpness and should hopefully come good for us.

Waghorn - Good energy, worked hard all game. It is always hard work as the lone striker when you are his size.

Subs

Dyer - Scared them a few times with his running and might have grabbed a goal towards the end.

Howard - Also could have scored. he had a couple of half chances. He was just what we needed towards the end as Waghorn ran out of steam.

Moussa - Didn't have much to do but ran the clock down well.


One fear I have is that 3 of the back 4 are playing below their standard and we may struggle to keep hold of them and then replace them with sufficient quality.