Beckford Bust Up

[gregs_y2k]

Pearson has shown that he will work with players he falls out with - Sean St Ledger is a prime example of this, he was transfer listed at one point, but he obviously got stuck in, showed the right attitude and since he came back into the side he's been great and both player and manager have moved past the issue. Mills will have been afforded the same chance, but it appears he hasn't taken it.

We don't know the St. Ledger bucked his ideas up and grafted in training do we? This is just an assumption. The truth is Bamba went away to African Cup of Nations and therefore we had less cover at the back, he may have been included because Pearson had no other choice and it was then that St. Ledger started performing better, even though we are still far from water tight. Anything that went on in training or between the two during that time is pure speculation. Pearson may still be planning to ship him out. Now Mills is out of the frame so we still aren't exactly blessed with defensive cover and Pearson may be sticking with St. Ledger as he sees them as the lesser of two evils. Again this is all speculation but could be just as true as your assertion.

What e do know is that Pearson has a habit of clashing with players egos, which suggests he has a rather inflated ego himself. It's fine if you are managing a successful team and you are performing well. When you're not it can be, and often is, your downfall.

 

[The Old Fox]

I respectfully disagree with a lot of this. Now, everybody is going to have their own opinion on leadership and it appears ours are at odds a wee bit. (I'm not going to explain this well).

I think senior members of staff should have an opinion and would much rather have a few talented, if difficult, staff than a collection of steady professionals. If you were a manager of, say, a development team would you want a collection of reliable, but limited coders, or would you want one or two wild cards that have more talent and ability? Personally, I'd choose the wild cards and rely on my ability to manage to get the best out of them. When you rely on steady professionals you raise your floor, but you also lower your ceiling.

In my opinion leadership isn't about getting people to do as they are told, it's about goals. I know that in order to be successful I'm going to have to squeeze every little bit of inspiration and productivity out of my staff, I can't afford to sideline highly paid resources.

Simply put "I have this group of players, in order to achieve promotion I have to get the best out of all of them, so I've got to find a way to get my MOST TALENTED players, playing."

Also, I don't have the info on Beckford and this could all be bollocks, I'm just entering into a larger conversation about leadership style.

You're wrong: but only in so far as you said that you weren't going to explain well. You have expressed my views far more eruditely than I would/have.

 

[DesertFox]

I don't get how this current Beckford thing is even linked to PEARSON'S perceived problem with handling big name players. It was fairly obvious that as soon as he arrived, PEARSON identified Beckford as an "arm round the shoulder" type player, and has stuck with him and cajoled him into by far his best performances of the season. Hasn't he scored the vast majority of his goals since PEARSON arrived?

So... Beckford did something on the pitch that made his manager, his fellow players and a lot of fans quite angry. The manager calmly expressed his annoyance in the post match interview and said it would be dealt with internally. Beyond that, we have no idea what has happened behind the scenes, so I don't see how criticism of PEARSON can be in any way justified from what we know of this incident.

Someone please explain to me, how does all this translate into PEARSON having a problem with handling star players? By all means cite the Mills episode, but I'd suggest that those who are looking for any stick to beat PEARSON over the head with would do better to choose their sticks more carefully. The SSL situation was clearly dealt with successfully, and if anything it seems that PEARSON has thus far handled Beckford, a notoriously difficult character, quite well.

But what would I know? I live in America and these days I only ever see this soccerball stuff on the internet.

 

[gregs_y2k]

I don't get how this current Beckford thing is even linked to PEARSON'S perceived problem with handling big name players. It was fairly obvious that as soon as he arrived, PEARSON identified Beckford as an "arm round the shoulder" type player, and has stuck with him and cajoled him into by far his best performances of the season. Hasn't he scored the vast majority of his goals since PEARSON arrived?

So... Beckford did something on the pitch that made his manager, his fellow players and a lot of fans quite angry. The manager calmly expressed his annoyance in the post match interview and said it would be dealt with internally. Beyond that, we have no idea what has happened behind the scenes, so I don't see how criticism of PEARSON can be in any way justified from what we know of this incident.

Someone please explain to me, how does all this translate into PEARSON having a problem with handling star players? By all means cite the Mills episode, but I'd suggest that those who are looking for any stick to beat PEARSON over the head with would do better to choose their sticks more carefully. The SSL situation was clearly dealt with successfully, and if anything it seems that PEARSON has thus far handled Beckford, a notoriously difficult character, quite well.

But what would I know? I live in America and these days I only ever see this soccerball stuff on the internet.

A lot of the fans at the game said it was nothing. The majority of disgruntled fans are those that listened to the radio commentary.

 

[Real Sharapova]

A lot of the fans at the game said it was nothing.

Quite. I was there and didn't really notice it to be honest. I think a mountain is being made out of a molehill here. As Dessie says, as far as we can tell Pearson has been trying to get the best out of Beckford, and to a reasonable extent has been successful in that.

 

[Matt_B]

We should let the players decide who they want as manager; it's called the Chelsea approach.

 

[Matt_B]

I don't get how this current Beckford thing is even linked to PEARSON'S perceived problem with handling big name players. It was fairly obvious that as soon as he arrived, PEARSON identified Beckford as an "arm round the shoulder" type player, and has stuck with him and cajoled him into by far his best performances of the season. Hasn't he scored the vast majority of his goals since PEARSON arrived?

So... Beckford did something on the pitch that made his manager, his fellow players and a lot of fans quite angry. The manager calmly expressed his annoyance in the post match interview and said it would be dealt with internally. Beyond that, we have no idea what has happened behind the scenes, so I don't see how criticism of PEARSON can be in any way justified from what we know of this incident.

Someone please explain to me, how does all this translate into PEARSON having a problem with handling star players? By all means cite the Mills episode, but I'd suggest that those who are looking for any stick to beat PEARSON over the head with would do better to choose their sticks more carefully. The SSL situation was clearly dealt with successfully, and if anything it seems that PEARSON has thus far handled Beckford, a notoriously difficult character, quite well.

But what would I know? I live in America and these days I only ever see this soccerball stuff on the internet.

Oh **** off, there's no place for that drivel here sonny Jim.

 

[indierich06]

I respectfully disagree with a lot of this. Now, everybody is going to have their own opinion on leadership and it appears ours are at odds a wee bit. (I'm not going to explain this well).

I think senior members of staff should have an opinion and would much rather have a few talented, if difficult, staff than a collection of steady professionals. If you were a manager of, say, a development team would you want a collection of reliable, but limited coders, or would you want one or two wild cards that have more talent and ability? Personally, I'd choose the wild cards and rely on my ability to manage to get the best out of them. When you rely on steady professionals you raise your floor, but you also lower your ceiling.

In my opinion leadership isn't about getting people to do as they are told, it's about goals. I know that in order to be successful I'm going to have to squeeze every little bit of inspiration and productivity out of my staff, I can't afford to sideline highly paid resources.

Simply put "I have this group of players, in order to achieve promotion I have to get the best out of all of them, so I've got to find a way to get my MOST TALENTED players, playing."

Also, I don't have the info on Beckford and this could all be bollocks, I'm just entering into a larger conversation about leadership style.

I just wrote a masssssssive reply then my browser crashed.

To sum up what I was going to put, your points are all well and good, and I would agree with them, but Beckford and Mills are not demonstratably better than any other players in the squad. There's nothing in their past performances or records as players to suggest they should be outstanding at this level.

So if you spend time on these players and attach importance to them and feed their clearly over inflated egos, then surely you risk alienating the rest of the squad and creating divisions? How would David Nugent feel if he thought his manager felt Beckford was a better player than him, when he's performed betetr and more consistently throughout the season? How would the rest of the central defenders feel about Pearson giving special treatment to Mills, the player who has been sent off multiple times and shown very little in terms of quality during his time here? I doubt they'd be happy.

Mills and Beckford aren't the Rooney or Ronaldo of this club, at best they're on par with the rest of the squad, in reality they've performed worse than the rest of the squad.

EDIT: Wow, that was still quite long.

 

[gregs_y2k]

I just wrote a masssssssive reply then my browser crashed.

To sum up what I was going to put, your points are all well and good, and I would agree with them, but Beckford and Mills are not demonstratably better than any other players in the squad. There's nothing in their past performances or records as players to suggest they should be outstanding at this level.

So if you spend time on these players and attach importance to them and feed their clearly over inflated egos, then surely you risk alienating the rest of the squad and creating divisions? How would David Nugent feel if he thought his manager felt Beckford was a better player than him, when he's performed betetr and more consistently throughout the season? How would the rest of the central defenders feel about Pearson giving special treatment to Mills, the player who has been sent off multiple times and shown very little in terms of quality during his time here? I doubt they'd be happy.

Mills and Beckford aren't the Rooney or Ronaldo of this club, at best they're on par with the rest of the squad, in reality they've performed worse than the rest of the squad.

EDIT: Wow, that was still quite long.

while it may have taken Beckford time to settle, I think he is now an integral part of our attack. He has set up and created opportunities for Nugent to score and as a result their partnership has blossomed. To break that up just for the sake of a trivial disagreement is beyond ridiculous. I think Beckford's attitude has been fairly commendable since Christmas, when he's scored he's been very quick to heap credit on his team mates when they have played a large hand in creating the chance. I think a lot of people have it in for him and it's sad that so many of our fans are happy to see him get pushed out the door even if our attack will be much lighter going into next season without him.

No one seems to remember that according to Radio Leicester Nugent should have been sent off in the second half at the weekend.

 

[londonfox]

But what would I know? I live in America and these days I only ever see this soccerball stuff on the internet.

Exactly ... so SHUT UP!

Beckford and Mills are not demonstratably better than any other players in the squad.

Beckford is

No different to Ferguson and he's done OK.

Yeah but even in the Great Sir Alex's case when it came to certain players who showed very obvious and very public disobedience, Scholes refusing to play, Cantona's karate kick, Rooneys transfer request, he backed down. Now before anyone suggests otherwise I am not comparing any of these players to Beckford, Mills or SSL, I'm just pointing it out.

 

[Leigh]

I'm starting to feel like the world has gone mad. Have Pearson and Beckford had a bust up? Probably not. Has Beckford significantly improved since Pearson arrived? Yes. Is one player more important that the whole squad/team morale? No. Does Pearson have a problem dealing with players? No. Not for me anyway, I can't think of one incident with a player and Pearson where I think Pearson did the wrong thing. Is Pearson quite a private manager who keeps things close to his chest and in-house thus causing people to speculate wildly? Apparently so.

(I'm aware this looks like I'm conducting an interview with myself but I'm afraid I must have cracked as well)

 

[gregs_y2k]

I can't think of one incident with a player and Pearson where I think Pearson did the wrong thing.

I can think of a few. Failing to effectively develop and overlook Max Gradel being the most costly of these.

 

[Biffa Bacon]

Nigel getting a reputation as a difficult boss could mean we have to pay over the odds for players to persuade them that signing for city is a good idea, who wants to sign a contract and then be frozen out because the manager has decided you aren't his type of player. Players talk to their mates to find out about potential clubs and I can think of quite a few players who won't be that positive about our club at the moment.

 

[Leesoh]

That's if things haven't been blown out of proportion, of course.

Which I suspect they have...

 

[Uncle Connolly]

Or maybe it shows the character of certain big name signings, wouldn't bother me in the slightest if we bombed both Mills and Beckford out of the club. No individual is ever bigger than the club.

Very true.

The highly paid and glorified footballer's attitudes should be seriously questioned.

 

[Cate Fox]

A lot of the fans at the game said it was nothing. The majority of disgruntled fans are those that listened to the radio commentary.

And there lies the problem.

 

[Matt_B]

I can think of a few. Failing to effectively develop and overlook Max Gradel being the most costly of these.

 

[homer]

Someone please explain to me, how does all this translate into PEARSON having a problem with handling star players?

It doesn't

It's all a load of hysterical twaddle from a collection of squealing, screeching drama queens



The season is over for us. All that is left is to find the right person(s) to blame

 

[Matt_B]

It doesn't

It's all a load of hysterical twaddle from a collection of squealing, screeching drama queens



The season is over for us. All that is left is to find the right person(s) to blame

I'm looking forward to the summer madness even less than normal, right now.

 

[Biffa Bacon]

It doesn't

It's all a load of hysterical twaddle from a collection of squealing, screeching drama queens



The season is over for us. All that is left is to find the right person(s) to blame

Most important skills in any organisation are the ability to find a scapegoat for anything that goes wrong and to look like anything that goes right is down to you.