Joey's in hot water again oh dear !!!

I like the "they'd have had to kill me to get Aaron Collins out of the building" line!

If our supposed rich owners had any ambition of championship promotion this season they'd have kept Collins and got JCH over the line August 2023.

What facts are being ignored?

The facts that I remember is that this was around the time Azza stopped playing with a smile on his face.

Club was toxic as soon as DC left possibly even before then.

DC had lost his patience with certain individuals at the club based on interviews at the time he left. Dont think it was Wael but the day to day management.

GC came in, kept us up with a small squad that ran through walls for him. He got us to 3rd in the league then weird sh** started happening. Look at the Liam Scales thread for a reminder of what went down behind the scenes. Then he left us for a club in the league below after supporters hounded him down every match despite us continually winning. It seems there was also disharmony with Widdrington behind the scenes. Whilst I completely believe the family argument I don’t think us as supporters nor the management behind the scenes helped the situation.

Since then we had Garner who cleared the decks of anyone who cared and had any ability and replaced them with journeymen and dross from academies who would give us anyone they wanted off the books. Tisdale couldn’t get a tune out of them and then we were left with Barton.

I can genuinely believe JB with what he says about Starnes and Widdrington. This chap suggests Garner was alright and Tisdale as well which ruins his credibility and he is also tarred by association with Widdrington who allowed the two aforementioned on his watch and forced out Coughlan.

He might be a good scout and Widdrington might be doing a job at Conference level but we’ve seen how they performed at l1 level. It wasn’t good enough. It’s not right the way he got rid of him with keepy ups and the club shouldn’t have allowed that but in getting rid of him I don’t think he necessarily did anything wrong. There should be no jobs for the boys at rovers and people need to earn their place.

I’m glad they’re all gone - Barton included. A few more to go before MT and GF can start pushing their agenda on the club and transform us for next season. We’ve been a mess for a good part of half a decade and we need to give them a chance to do what they need to do. This is the dark part of the tunnel, the end is in sight.

In my head I seemed to remember his drop off in form came after he missed out on the international call-up he was heavily linked with and then subsequently slated by Barton and stripped of captaincy.

But this article backs up your assertion that his goals had dried up by that point already.

"Collins missed out on Wales selection just a few hours before the encounter with Wycombe [14th March 2023], in a season in which he’s scored 15 league goals and added 11 assists, but has just one strike in his last eight appearances, hitting a lean spell at the wrong time."

he chucked in the bristol thing because he knows it triggers people down here and he does get bites out of it.

I don't think we touched 3rd place until the infamous Ipswich(a) victory; after which he immediately announced he was leaving!!

What a way to kill the buzz

But he was a rather unlikeable character tho and I think a few things he said rubbed fans up the wrong way (remember his dismissive comments re: Chris Lines' milestone achievement etc?).. but phew can argue with the results he ground out.

Big shoes to fill taking over from a fan favourite (and widely regarded now to be a club legend) in DC.  Almost entirely opposing characters from the outside looking in.

Who totally capitulated and dragged us to bottom of the table whilst blaming everyone but himself.

Earn your place by doing keepy-uppies in front of everyone?

In the article (which is still up BTW) Jamie concedes that it was highly likely he would be replaced.  Nobody would have complained or been surprised if he had just been thanked for his efforts and had his contract terminated.  But for a young lad to be humiliated in front of players/staff like that is what has caused the outrage.

"At that point though, as a change in management always brings, Hedges knew there was a risk of being replaced by someone Barton wanted to appoint himself. However, he would have never expected to see his time at the club end in the way that it did.

"I know there was a big battle for power at the time where Joey wanted to have control of everything," he adds. "I think he wanted to have control of everything while Tommy was still at the club in his position. He felt like he would be a block to getting what he wanted, I think.

"So without any real foundation or meaning, in my opinion, he had it out for Tommy at the start and because I was Tommy’s man, he had it out for me for no real reason. Anything I would have said or done would have been redundant because he had it out from the get-go, in my opinion, that I was not going to be required."

It seems like Barton was angry and wanted to dish it out on someone he knew couldn't or wouldn't dish it back.. playground bully tactics.

Similar tactics to ones he is deploying right now on twitter (orchestrating pile-ons to critics based on their appearance).

The March Post article was when JB went public with his comments.

I wouldn't have thought those comments were the first time that Azza had heard negative stuff from JB.

My memory was that Azza was playing well up to Christmas that year and then the whole team fell apart.

Have to admit I don’t mind us being called Bristol as it ignores the irrevelent across the City.

Loads are staying away. I’m sure I remember dead rubbers at the end of last season being sell outs - might be wrong(?). Fair enough if you wish to believe the big gaps on terraces and spare seats being solely down to the new stand - we’ll see what ST sales look like in the summer as that’s probably the best barometer of fan apathy.