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Post by theduke on Feb 10, 2021 4:10:14 GMT
It is genuinely astounding that a club in our league position post-Ipswich decided that that was the right moment to completely change the identity of the club from an honest group of battlers, with one or two stars, who punched above their weight to some kind of wannabe post-Premier League 2 finishing school. Enter GarnerBall. We unceremoniously told all the senior players to sling their hooks and happily carved up an entire squad.
All of this from a position of strength back in 2019. I know some supporters felt we were in a false position under Coughlan and, to some extent we were, but the facts are that over the twelve months of his tenure his results placed us second in the table.
Since the club decided post-Graham to reinvent ourselves under Garner as a stepping stone for younger talent we've won 8 league games in 43. It has been an absolute catastrophe.
And look at where we are now. After turning our backs on the unfashionable approach, we're now back to trying to grind out results through regular league one long-ball football, but with a bunch of players recruited for an entirely different project.
Look at the absolute state of us now. We didn't even bother to recruit a target man because we were more concerned with finding a youngster more suited to the tiki-taka stuff around the box. We have ZERO presence in either penalty box, our attacking players flatter to deceive, and our entire midfield is indistinguishable from one another.
This club is its own worst enemy at times. How can Wael get so much right off the pitch but be so clueless with overseeing the playing side of things?
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Post by kampucheagas on Feb 10, 2021 7:31:03 GMT
Good job we aren’t there to see it!
The worst team we never saw.
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Post by Topper Gas on Feb 10, 2021 8:06:17 GMT
Perhaps Weal/Starnes just got taken in by Garner's - I can make Rovers the next Peterborough - type nonsense, problem is having fallen for that and giving him control of the summer's signings there now seems no way back.
I wonder if we even had an eye on next season's proposed L2 budget when trying to sign a striker, so couldn't just offer him an L1 contract for this and also next season?
If we do get relegated hopefully Starnes retires and we get another CEO who can take the whole club forward.
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Post by lympstonegas on Feb 10, 2021 8:09:42 GMT
Wouldn’t Wael say Evolution and not Revolution but allowed Garner to go right against the ethos he set up to reorganise the club from top to bottom. Had Garner removed one player at a time from that winning team we might actually be looking at the championship now and not League 2
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Post by WeAreTheGas on Feb 10, 2021 8:24:30 GMT
Pretty much every footballing decision that’s been made at the club since GC left has gone badly.
None more so than letting a rookie manager start this season with 13 EFL goals between his entire strikeforce - having had the longest summer window in history to build a new attack.
P*ss poor planning.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2021 8:25:12 GMT
It is genuinely astounding that a club in our league position post-Ipswich decided that that was the right moment to completely change the identity of the club from an honest group of battlers, with one or two stars, who punched above their weight to some kind of wannabe post-Premier League 2 finishing school. Enter GarnerBall. We unceremoniously told all the senior players to sling their hooks and happily carved up an entire squad. All of this from a position of strength back in 2019. I know some supporters felt we were in a false position under Coughlan and, to some extent we were, but the facts are that over the twelve months of his tenure his results placed us second in the table. Since the club decided post-Graham to reinvent ourselves under Garner as a stepping stone for younger talent we've won 8 league games in 43. It has been an absolute catastrophe. And look at where we are now. After turning our backs on the unfashionable approach, we're now back to trying to grind out results through regular league one long-ball football, but with a bunch of players recruited for an entirely different project. Look at the absolute state of us now. We didn't even bother to recruit a target man because we were more concerned with finding a youngster more suited to the tiki-taka stuff around the box. We have ZERO presence in either penalty box, our attacking players flatter to deceive, and our entire midfield is indistinguishable from one another. This club is its own worst enemy at times. How can Wael get so much right off the pitch but be so clueless with overseeing the playing side of things? Excellent post. |
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Post by gasandelectricity on Feb 10, 2021 8:29:38 GMT
Thing is. The club didn’t have a chance to implement Garner ball when they took over originally as DC was flying. Nor when DC left as GC took over and went about saving us with ‘sh**’ football.
So when GC upped sticks, there was the chance to do so.
My problem is two fold. We’re trying to be Peterborough on the cheap - we’re buying in premier league academy cast offs instead of players proving themselves at a lower level and the players lack the nouse and experience of league football and don’t have the commitment as they’ve been wrapped in cotton wall.
The other problem is the man we asked to assemble it was the Mickey Mouse of managers. Then we gave him the summer to recruit the side for the year ahead despite the fact he had already proven himself hopeless. Probably saved himself off a solitary win against Sunderland right before lockdown which was more about solidarity with TC (one of the stalwarts he then proceeded to cast off when he should have been considering elevating him to the coaching staff on a playing basis)
Then we hired a manager of the same mindset, and failed to back him in our sole chance to correct this sh** show (apparently - from what we can see)
Some will say we tried in the window. Did we? Every other club managed to bring in players to bolster in Jan. We just covered injuries.
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Post by Dirt Dogg on Feb 10, 2021 8:30:39 GMT
It’s depressing, I said at the time I don’t care what sort of football we play as long as we win. Give me that over Garner’s 60% possession without a meaningful chance on goal any day!
We’ve got even worse under PT.
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Post by chewbacca on Feb 10, 2021 8:56:29 GMT
It's almost funny how poorly the football side of the club is run, no leadership, no direction, just vibes. Absolute nonsense regarding the "Bristol Rovers DNA" and a ridiculous recruitment policy was rewarded with a job promotion. I can't say I'm overly surprised, it seemed pretty clear to me from the point of takeover there wasn't much knowledge of football administration and frankly the footballing decisions that the club has had to make have backed that up. If we don't sack Tisdale we are relegated, but if you go through three managers in a season you'll probably get relegated.
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Post by Topper Gas on Feb 10, 2021 9:11:29 GMT
It's almost funny how poorly the football side of the club is run, no leadership, no direction, just vibes. Absolute nonsense regarding the "Bristol Rovers DNA" and a ridiculous recruitment policy was rewarded with a job promotion. I can't say I'm overly surprised, it seemed pretty clear to me from the point of takeover there wasn't much knowledge of football administration and frankly the footballing decisions that the club has had to make have backed that up. If we don't sack Tisdale we are relegated, but if you go through three managers in a season you'll probably get relegated. Perhaps that's what you get with an absence foreign owner and a CEO winding down to retirement? What I don't get is after booting out GC win at all costs type football, we went for Garner ball, then booted that our and went for Tisdale boring football, where's the Rovers DNA?? |
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Post by Antonio Fargas on Feb 10, 2021 9:15:42 GMT
It is genuinely astounding that a club in our league position post-Ipswich decided that that was the right moment to completely change the identity of the club from an honest group of battlers, with one or two stars, who punched above their weight to some kind of wannabe post-Premier League 2 finishing school. Enter GarnerBall. We unceremoniously told all the senior players to sling their hooks and happily carved up an entire squad. All of this from a position of strength back in 2019. I know some supporters felt we were in a false position under Coughlan and, to some extent we were, but the facts are that over the twelve months of his tenure his results placed us second in the table. Since the club decided post-Graham to reinvent ourselves under Garner as a stepping stone for younger talent we've won 8 league games in 43. It has been an absolute catastrophe. And look at where we are now. After turning our backs on the unfashionable approach, we're now back to trying to grind out results through regular league one long-ball football, but with a bunch of players recruited for an entirely different project. Look at the absolute state of us now. We didn't even bother to recruit a target man because we were more concerned with finding a youngster more suited to the tiki-taka stuff around the box. We have ZERO presence in either penalty box, our attacking players flatter to deceive, and our entire midfield is indistinguishable from one another. This club is its own worst enemy at times. How can Wael get so much right off the pitch but be so clueless with overseeing the playing side of things? If you go back and read, for example, the Southend (H) thread from Dec 2019, and that's just the first one I looked at, I'm sure there are plenty more, it's just wall to wall whining. The idea (and I'm not saying you are doing this, but it's part of the answer to your question) that that was some sort of halcyon era where we all agreed on the direction we were heading and we were all buying into and enjoying the football (and thus astounding that we changed direction), and people were turning up to watch, is way off. And, the usual suspects who did very little apart from whine at how things were going, then, are, extraordinarily, or not, if you think about it, many of the people who are whining through this. And they're the same ones who whine through everything. So when you say the club is its own worst enemy, it's as true to say the fans are their own worst enemy, also. I genuinely think it would be helpful if we, as a fanbase, generally, didn't act like a 6 year old kid having a tantrum constantly. It would at least bring down the background noise a tad, and perhaps be slightly less distracting. I know that's a naive thing to ask of football fans, but there you go. So when you say it's genuinely astounding that a club should choose that moment to try to change its identity, it's also genuinely astounding that the fanbase, generally, were not particularly interested in that direction, which you imply was clearly appreciated and ideal. Also, if you buy into the idea that GC's team were not going to go up, which is a reasonable enough view, then you have a reasonable judgement call as to the future of the club. And, remember, without getting into all the funding conspiracy theories, which don't make any sense to my mind, GC chose to leave, more or less out of the blue). It didn;t work, of course, but it's easy to find things astounding with the benefit of hindsight. It's astounding (with the benefit of hindsight), for example, that so many of the whiners on here were critical of us signing JCH. And yet, all the people who whined about that are just continuing whining about everything (including selling him, you couldn't make it up), without thinking for a moment, look how wrong I was, maybe I should just shut up for five seconds. And if PT keeps us up, and moves us forward next season, they will find something else to whine about, and forget their previous whining in their enthusiasm to whine about the next thing. So, essentially, the noise around GC's tenure was mostly negative, and people weren't flocking to see us, so you can understand, I would think, why the board might think that a change of direction was called for. The fact we got it wrong is not massively astounding, imo. Also, I think the idea that we didn't bother to try to recruit a target man is factually wrong. (Not ITK, though). |
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Post by LJG on Feb 10, 2021 11:57:03 GMT
It is genuinely astounding that a club in our league position post-Ipswich decided that that was the right moment to completely change the identity of the club from an honest group of battlers, with one or two stars, who punched above their weight to some kind of wannabe post-Premier League 2 finishing school. Enter GarnerBall. We unceremoniously told all the senior players to sling their hooks and happily carved up an entire squad. All of this from a position of strength back in 2019. I know some supporters felt we were in a false position under Coughlan and, to some extent we were, but the facts are that over the twelve months of his tenure his results placed us second in the table. Since the club decided post-Graham to reinvent ourselves under Garner as a stepping stone for younger talent we've won 8 league games in 43. It has been an absolute catastrophe. And look at where we are now. After turning our backs on the unfashionable approach, we're now back to trying to grind out results through regular league one long-ball football, but with a bunch of players recruited for an entirely different project. Look at the absolute state of us now. We didn't even bother to recruit a target man because we were more concerned with finding a youngster more suited to the tiki-taka stuff around the box. We have ZERO presence in either penalty box, our attacking players flatter to deceive, and our entire midfield is indistinguishable from one another. This club is its own worst enemy at times. How can Wael get so much right off the pitch but be so clueless with overseeing the playing side of things? If you go back and read, for example, the Southend (H) thread from Dec 2019, and that's just the first one I looked at, I'm sure there are plenty more, it's just wall to wall whining. The idea (and I'm not saying you are doing this, but it's part of the answer to your question) that that was some sort of halcyon era where we all agreed on the direction we were heading and we were all buying into and enjoying the football (and thus astounding that we changed direction), and people were turning up to watch, is way off. And, the usual suspects who did very little apart from whine at how things were going, then, are, extraordinarily, or not, if you think about it, many of the people who are whining through this. And they're the same ones who whine through everything. So when you say the club is its own worst enemy, it's as true to say the fans are their own worst enemy, also. I genuinely think it would be helpful if we, as a fanbase, generally, didn't act like a 6 year old kid having a tantrum constantly. It would at least bring down the background noise a tad, and perhaps be slightly less distracting. I know that's a naive thing to ask of football fans, but there you go. So when you say it's genuinely astounding that a club should choose that moment to try to change its identity, it's also genuinely astounding that the fanbase, generally, were not particularly interested in that direction, which you imply was clearly appreciated and ideal. Also, if you buy into the idea that GC's team were not going to go up, which is a reasonable enough view, then you have a reasonable judgement call as to the future of the club. And, remember, without getting into all the funding conspiracy theories, which don't make any sense to my mind, GC chose to leave, more or less out of the blue). It didn;t work, of course, but it's easy to find things astounding with the benefit of hindsight. It's astounding (with the benefit of hindsight), for example, that so many of the whiners on here were critical of us signing JCH. And yet, all the people who whined about that are just continuing whining about everything (including selling him, you couldn't make it up), without thinking for a moment, look how wrong I was, maybe I should just shut up for five seconds. And if PT keeps us up, and moves us forward next season, they will find something else to whine about, and forget their previous whining in their enthusiasm to whine about the next thing. So, essentially, the noise around GC's tenure was mostly negative, and people weren't flocking to see us, so you can understand, I would think, why the board might think that a change of direction was called for. The fact we got it wrong is not massively astounding, imo. Also, I think the idea that we didn't bother to try to recruit a target man is factually wrong. (Not ITK, though). As I said on another thread - we're even at the point where the radio Bristol commentators should be sacked according to some. Internally we've gone through everyone from the President who pays for us to exist all the way down to the match day announcer and a female physio ... all things that are "embarrassing" according to the timbre of many on this forum. |
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Post by chewbacca on Feb 10, 2021 12:03:21 GMT
It is genuinely astounding that a club in our league position post-Ipswich decided that that was the right moment to completely change the identity of the club from an honest group of battlers, with one or two stars, who punched above their weight to some kind of wannabe post-Premier League 2 finishing school. Enter GarnerBall. We unceremoniously told all the senior players to sling their hooks and happily carved up an entire squad. All of this from a position of strength back in 2019. I know some supporters felt we were in a false position under Coughlan and, to some extent we were, but the facts are that over the twelve months of his tenure his results placed us second in the table. Since the club decided post-Graham to reinvent ourselves under Garner as a stepping stone for younger talent we've won 8 league games in 43. It has been an absolute catastrophe. And look at where we are now. After turning our backs on the unfashionable approach, we're now back to trying to grind out results through regular league one long-ball football, but with a bunch of players recruited for an entirely different project. Look at the absolute state of us now. We didn't even bother to recruit a target man because we were more concerned with finding a youngster more suited to the tiki-taka stuff around the box. We have ZERO presence in either penalty box, our attacking players flatter to deceive, and our entire midfield is indistinguishable from one another. This club is its own worst enemy at times. How can Wael get so much right off the pitch but be so clueless with overseeing the playing side of things? If you go back and read, for example, the Southend (H) thread from Dec 2019, and that's just the first one I looked at, I'm sure there are plenty more, it's just wall to wall whining. The idea (and I'm not saying you are doing this, but it's part of the answer to your question) that that was some sort of halcyon era where we all agreed on the direction we were heading and we were all buying into and enjoying the football (and thus astounding that we changed direction), and people were turning up to watch, is way off. And, the usual suspects who did very little apart from whine at how things were going, then, are, extraordinarily, or not, if you think about it, many of the people who are whining through this. And they're the same ones who whine through everything. So when you say the club is its own worst enemy, it's as true to say the fans are their own worst enemy, also. I genuinely think it would be helpful if we, as a fanbase, generally, didn't act like a 6 year old kid having a tantrum constantly. It would at least bring down the background noise a tad, and perhaps be slightly less distracting. I know that's a naive thing to ask of football fans, but there you go. So when you say it's genuinely astounding that a club should choose that moment to try to change its identity, it's also genuinely astounding that the fanbase, generally, were not particularly interested in that direction, which you imply was clearly appreciated and ideal. Also, if you buy into the idea that GC's team were not going to go up, which is a reasonable enough view, then you have a reasonable judgement call as to the future of the club. And, remember, without getting into all the funding conspiracy theories, which don't make any sense to my mind, GC chose to leave, more or less out of the blue). It didn;t work, of course, but it's easy to find things astounding with the benefit of hindsight. It's astounding (with the benefit of hindsight), for example, that so many of the whiners on here were critical of us signing JCH. And yet, all the people who whined about that are just continuing whining about everything (including selling him, you couldn't make it up), without thinking for a moment, look how wrong I was, maybe I should just shut up for five seconds. And if PT keeps us up, and moves us forward next season, they will find something else to whine about, and forget their previous whining in their enthusiasm to whine about the next thing. So, essentially, the noise around GC's tenure was mostly negative, and people weren't flocking to see us, so you can understand, I would think, why the board might think that a change of direction was called for. The fact we got it wrong is not massively astounding, imo.Also, I think the idea that we didn't bother to try to recruit a target man is factually wrong. (Not ITK, though). While I largely agree with your post, the issue I have with the board is not the initial appointment of Garner but the doubling down by giving him the summer. In an alternative universe he was rightly binned off after the frankly embarrassing defeat to Southend in March and we have given another manager the chance to rebuild over the summer. Instead we stuck with the former Head of Boys PE, St David's College, South London and have got ourselves into this utter mess. |
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Post by Okebournegas on Feb 10, 2021 12:49:14 GMT
It’s not been the same since DC and his squad and back room staff were dismantled , I still maintain and I always will , that DC would have prevented relegation and even if he couldn’t , would of stuck by him for bringing the club from the depths of hell !! , History repeating itself now , just like when we got rid of Trollope after his success, we got rid of him and got through managers until our eventual fall from grace
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Post by carlts2020 on Feb 10, 2021 12:53:42 GMT
If you go back and read, for example, the Southend (H) thread from Dec 2019, and that's just the first one I looked at, I'm sure there are plenty more, it's just wall to wall whining. The idea (and I'm not saying you are doing this, but it's part of the answer to your question) that that was some sort of halcyon era where we all agreed on the direction we were heading and we were all buying into and enjoying the football (and thus astounding that we changed direction), and people were turning up to watch, is way off. And, the usual suspects who did very little apart from whine at how things were going, then, are, extraordinarily, or not, if you think about it, many of the people who are whining through this. And they're the same ones who whine through everything. So when you say the club is its own worst enemy, it's as true to say the fans are their own worst enemy, also. I genuinely think it would be helpful if we, as a fanbase, generally, didn't act like a 6 year old kid having a tantrum constantly. It would at least bring down the background noise a tad, and perhaps be slightly less distracting. I know that's a naive thing to ask of football fans, but there you go. So when you say it's genuinely astounding that a club should choose that moment to try to change its identity, it's also genuinely astounding that the fanbase, generally, were not particularly interested in that direction, which you imply was clearly appreciated and ideal. Also, if you buy into the idea that GC's team were not going to go up, which is a reasonable enough view, then you have a reasonable judgement call as to the future of the club. And, remember, without getting into all the funding conspiracy theories, which don't make any sense to my mind, GC chose to leave, more or less out of the blue). It didn;t work, of course, but it's easy to find things astounding with the benefit of hindsight. It's astounding (with the benefit of hindsight), for example, that so many of the whiners on here were critical of us signing JCH. And yet, all the people who whined about that are just continuing whining about everything (including selling him, you couldn't make it up), without thinking for a moment, look how wrong I was, maybe I should just shut up for five seconds. And if PT keeps us up, and moves us forward next season, they will find something else to whine about, and forget their previous whining in their enthusiasm to whine about the next thing. So, essentially, the noise around GC's tenure was mostly negative, and people weren't flocking to see us, so you can understand, I would think, why the board might think that a change of direction was called for. The fact we got it wrong is not massively astounding, imo.Also, I think the idea that we didn't bother to try to recruit a target man is factually wrong. (Not ITK, though). While I largely agree with your post, the issue I have with the board is not the initial appointment of Garner but the doubling down by giving him the summer. In an alternative universe he was rightly binned off after the frankly embarrassing defeat to Southend in March and we have given another manager the chance to rebuild over the summer. Instead we stuck with the former Head of Boys PE, St David's College, South London and have got ourselves into this utter mess. Hahaha might have missed some chunks of his CV out there. Assistant Manager - ATK Assistant Head Coach - West Bromwich Albion Assistant Head Coach - Crystal Palace First Team Coach - Crystal Palace But oh yeah 15 / 20 years ago he worked at a school as well as palace youth team 🤣 |
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Post by chewbacca on Feb 10, 2021 12:55:07 GMT
While I largely agree with your post, the issue I have with the board is not the initial appointment of Garner but the doubling down by giving him the summer. In an alternative universe he was rightly binned off after the frankly embarrassing defeat to Southend in March and we have given another manager the chance to rebuild over the summer. Instead we stuck with the former Head of Boys PE, St David's College, South London and have got ourselves into this utter mess. Hahaha might have missed some chunks of his CV out there. Assistant Manager - ATK Assistant Head Coach - West Bromwich Albion Assistant Head Coach - Crystal Palace First Team Coach - Crystal Palace But oh yeah 15 / 20 years ago he worked at a school as well as palace youth team 🤣 Hey if Coughlan is going to repeatedly called a PE Teacher we may as well call an actual PE Teacher a PE Teacher. Hope you're well, Ben. |
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Post by Gas-Ed on Feb 10, 2021 12:59:14 GMT
It’s not been the same since DC and his squad and back room staff were dismantled , I still maintain and I always will , that DC would have prevented relegation and even if he couldn’t , would of stuck by him for bringing the club from the depths of hell !! , History repeating itself now , just like when we got rid of Trollope after his success, we got rid of him and got through managers until our eventual fall from grace I’ve said before that this period reminds me of the early 2010s. No direction at all. |
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Post by carlts2020 on Feb 10, 2021 13:01:45 GMT
Hahaha might have missed some chunks of his CV out there. Assistant Manager - ATK Assistant Head Coach - West Bromwich Albion Assistant Head Coach - Crystal Palace First Team Coach - Crystal Palace But oh yeah 15 / 20 years ago he worked at a school as well as palace youth team 🤣 Hey if Coughlan is going to repeatedly called a PE Teacher we may as well call an actual PE Teacher a PE Teacher. Hope you're well, Ben. Neither are PE teachers. Both are professional coaches and managers. |
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Post by carlts2020 on Feb 10, 2021 13:03:23 GMT
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Post by gregsy on Feb 10, 2021 13:08:01 GMT
Too much changed too quickly.... And now tisdale is struggling to pick up the pieces of a charity shop jigsaw puzzle....
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