My view on this past week...

Right lads, without scouring every post to make sure what I'm about to say hasn't been said already, and it doesn't matter if it has because this is my view. So here goes.

Last week, I posted on how I thought the postponement of the Leicester game would have an adverse effect on the team. Well, 1 point form what should have been an 6, I think sums up everything. It interupted the purple patch we were in and now a loss to Plymouth and the travesty that was yesterday afternoon ensued and we're at were we're at.

Yesterday, I travelled to the game with Forever Blue, Blue Chegs and New Blue. When I checked my wallet before entering the ground I noticed that as well as my ticket for the game, I had my tickets for January 8th's showing in the New Theatre of Robin Hood. I've had to check today to make sure I didn't hand in the wrong ticket because what went on yesterday was sheer pantomime. How can a team with ambitions for promotion go from 4-0 up at half time to 4-4 at the end of the game. Newcastle, West Brom, those teasm would ahve killed off the game from the position we were in. But not us.

Is it down to the players, or the manager. Let me tell you. It galled me to hear our fickle mob cheering DJ's name as we were winning. For those lucky few on this board who know me personally and for those who followed "the other" message board, you'll know my position on Jones. DON'T LIIKE HIM. He has no bottle, no fight and no ambition. If you want to stay in this division, DJ is the man. If you want to push on, he is not. And it has spread like wildfire to the players.

As Annis has said on here (and as I was witness to his conversation with Peter Ridsdale yesterday), the players should have been made to face us, come over to us and give us a bit of respect for giving up our bank holiday monday, our families and what not to follow them, en masse, on a 4 hour trip. The fact that it was only Anthony Gerrard who came over half way and meekly applauded the travelling fans, says it all. The players follow their manager - No bottle. We seem to come unstuck against lower placed teams for one reason. They have fight. They have Passion. We don't. We're technically one of the better teasm in the division, but if we had the bottle to match the Plymouths and Peterboroughs, we'd walk away with this division. But we don't.

It's the same as last year. The last four games. No bottle. To put it simply, the players don't care about this club. You might get a couple of good performances from Joe because he wants to put himself in the shop window, but he's playing for himself not the club. Jay Bothroyd is ther most annoying player since Josh Low, gifted but half the time can't give a rats arse about the team. For fucks sake Jay, you're 6'2", 6'3", 14 stone-odd and you go down easier than a cheap prostitute. Sort it out son. Rossco - doesn't care, Rae may as well not be there (I only noticed him yesterday when he gave the ball away in the second half for Peterboroughs 3rd goal). Hudson - how DJ thought he would be better than Pursey god only knows. At least Pursey cared for the club. Hudson is a non entity. How he is our claub captain I don't know. Maybe it's because he fits into DJ's preferred player category - Players with no spine. Maybe DJ doesn't like to be challenged in the dressing room that I believe he's already lost.

Anyway. It is simply not good enough. Speaking to a few fans yesterday at half time, they certainly weren't certain of a victory and that says it all. I'd like to see Ridsdale grow a set and get rid of his old chum DJ (or are the holiday villas in Florida too tempting Pete?). It needs to be done now. Before the January transfer window so the new guy in (Darren Ferguson, would be, at the moment, my favourite) can make changes to the team to push us on. If PR does not act now, I can see this being another season wasted, rather than letting another, fresher man take us to the footballing promised land.

Then again, that's just my view!!

I like your style Mr Davies, spot on as far as i am concerned, personally i always thought jones was a good manager but after the crumble of last year he should have walked, every fan thinks they can manage a team, but the centre of midfield is where the game is won and lost, Jones has not sorted this out and every game is 4 4 2 no f*cking plan B, Young Fergie would be my choice he will not be on the market for long, watch Preston make there move.

Excellent as always Mr D.

My thoughts on DJ are something like this;

Speaking personally, I take league position, somehing defendants of DJ use, at this stage with a pinch of salt. It's all about being in touch and progressing as a team, something I felt we were doing last season even though we were mid table for large parts, early on at least. What I form my opinion on is numerous things, preedominantly what I see on the field of course, but other factors such as momentum, spirit, expectation, attitude and so forth. What I have seen this season is a team capable of playing some excellent football, but probably the most spineless players I've had the misfortune to watch in a City shirt. I'm far from alone in holding that view. There is no attitude, no good attitude anyway, desire, commitment or application, yet plenty of pathetic primadonna behaviour that would embarass a 13 year old girl, let alone alleged grown men on £10-20k a week.

While I feel Jones has done an exceptional job for us, it is clear the level of mistakes that have been made since the summer, indeed last season, continue to manifest themselves. Not addressing midfield and an alternative to Bothroyd were heinous errors for me, potentially even more so given that Jones has all but called Bothroyd scum of the earth in public. Teams also unquestionably mirror their managers personality after a while, no better illustrated than Fergie and United. Love them or loath them, the latter for me, you have to appreciate their tenacity and attitude, something Jones' sides lack even the most miniscule dosage of.

Ultimately, for some to harp on about we are 4th in the table is of little substance to me. So notoriously tight is this league, a poor run can see you plummet in no time at all. Just as notorious as the tightness of this league is our inconsistency and "ability" to go on good or bad runs en masse. Such a run would leave us in midtable or even the bottom half in as little as 6 games, so it cuts little ice for me I'm afraid. Whereas it seems many are happy to be reactionary and judge on league position alone rather than forming an informed opinion, or perhaps just failing to explain themselves well enough, Im quite happy to say that I do not think Jones should go, mainly because we can't afford it anyway, but he can have no complaints about being under severe pressure.

In truth, if we could afford to, I would certainly look at available alternatives and then make a decision, but to suggest Jones is untouchable given the plentiful mistakes he has made in more recent times (expectation has been reasonably heightened in the last 18 months or so imo, beforehand he fought an uphill battle and is perhaps a victim of his own success, but its a cut throat industry with no room for sentiment)is utter folly. He has spent big money this season, made claims of his greatest ever side (and midfield) and had time to mould this squad not just in temrs of players, but, most importantly for me, to implement his ethos within the club. I make no apologies for coming back to the word I have used about City all season to sum that ethos up. Spineless.

Like I said, the chanting of "Davey Jones barmy army" at 4-0 was almost vomit inducing. Then again, it goes some length to sum of the fickle nature of not only our fans (who are possibly the most changeable in football) but football fans in general. Let us not forget, most of DJ's worshippers yesterday were probably baying for his blood after Boxing Day. 45 minutes of football and their singing his praises. Make your minds up.

Then again, as much as that annoyed me, it is not us, the fans, fault for our recent capitulation. It lies firmly with DJ and his gutless players.

I set my stall out at the start of the season and I said then, and I still stick by my view today, that DJ is not the right man to push this football club forward. He seems, as I've said in previous posts on this MB, almost retired. I mean, after one shock defeat this season, he sent the players to Ffos Las racecourse while he played golf. Not exactly inspiring you on to promotion is it lads. And for those who say we we're 4th - yes, we are - we were leading the league at points last year, and were third with 4 games left and where did that get us?? Oh yes, he also took us to an FA Cup final. How did we get on in that??

And as for his players, I believe none of them have any respect for DJ. I honestly believe he has lost the dressing room. I've even heard certain rumours in the last few days which goes some way to affirm my views. It seems anyone who stands up to Jones ends up out on their ear (Pursey, Thommo, Parry). So now, we have a bunch of pathetic, spititless, overpaid prima donnas playing for us. People who fit into, what I percieve to be DJ's plan of not upsetting the apple cart. I tell you what, I know he seems like a bit of a nuisance, but Craig Bellamy - what I wouldn't give for someone with his desire and hunger.

Speaking of hunger, at one point during the second half yesterday, I noted to both Annis and Vince Alm about a Whittingham cross that Bothroyd failed to get on the end of. It made me remember Steven Gerrards headed goal on against Wolves on boxing day, when he had to make up 10 yards and beat two defenders to get on the end of the cross to score. Yes, there is a more than vast gulf between the two players talent, but the difference in their will to win, their, as I've mentioned before, their hunger is bigger still. Bothroyd lacks the desire. How he has aspirations to play at the top level I'll never know as he should be concentrating on getting the job done at Championship level first.

And I'm not just picking out Bothroyd. Ledley seemed to be having a 45 minute last hurrah to put himself in the shop window. After the second half, you would be embarrassed to put him in Oxfam's front window. Apologies to Oxfam. For anybody who thinks he cares for his hometown club insane. He doesn't.

Mark Hudson. I'll leave that one right there. I can only feel sorry for the way a good servant like Darren Purse was booted out in favour of Captain Invisable.

The list goes on. I could spend all day on here slagging off the players, but guess what? It won'y change anything. The two people who can change things are Jones (change his spineless players) and Ridsdale (change his spineless manager). I'd like to see one, if not both happen, but I can't see it. Jones won't act because, let's face it, he's never wrong and Ridsdale won't act because if the Malaysian takeover is to happen, he doesn't want to upset the stability of the club.

In anycase, the players still pick up thousands of pounds of week, Jones still takes home an absurd amount of money for the job he's done and the only ones who will really suffer is us. The people who care the most. The fans.

Right lads, without scouring every post to make sure what I'm about to say hasn't been said already, and it doesn't matter if it has because this is my view. So here goes.

Last week, I posted on how I thought the postponement of the Leicester game would have an adverse effect on the team. Well, 1 point form what should have been an 6, I think sums up everything. It interupted the purple patch we were in and now a loss to Plymouth and the travesty that was yesterday afternoon ensued and we're at were we're at.

Yesterday, I travelled to the game with Forever Blue, Blue Chegs and New Blue. When I checked my wallet before entering the ground I noticed that as well as my ticket for the game, I had my tickets for January 8th's showing in the New Theatre of Robin Hood. I've had to check today to make sure I didn't hand in the wrong ticket because what went on yesterday was sheer pantomime. How can a team with ambitions for promotion go from 4-0 up at half time to 4-4 at the end of the game. Newcastle, West Brom, those teasm would ahve killed off the game from the position we were in. But not us.

Is it down to the players, or the manager. Let me tell you. It galled me to hear our fickle mob cheering DJ's name as we were winning. For those lucky few on this board who know me personally and for those who followed "the other" message board, you'll know my position on Jones. DON'T LIIKE HIM. He has no bottle, no fight and no ambition. If you want to stay in this division, DJ is the man. If you want to push on, he is not. And it has spread like wildfire to the players.

As Annis has said on here (and as I was witness to his conversation with Peter Ridsdale yesterday), the players should have been made to face us, come over to us and give us a bit of respect for giving up our bank holiday monday, our families and what not to follow them, en masse, on a 4 hour trip. The fact that it was only Anthony Gerrard who came over half way and meekly applauded the travelling fans, says it all. The players follow their manager - No bottle. We seem to come unstuck against lower placed teams for one reason. They have fight. They have Passion. We don't. We're technically one of the better teasm in the division, but if we had the bottle to match the Plymouths and Peterboroughs, we'd walk away with this division. But we don't.

It's the same as last year. The last four games. No bottle. To put it simply, the players don't care about this club. You might get a couple of good performances from Joe because he wants to put himself in the shop window, but he's playing for himself not the club. Jay Bothroyd is ther most annoying player since Josh Low, gifted but half the time can't give a rats arse about the team. For fucks sake Jay, you're 6'2", 6'3", 14 stone-odd and you go down easier than a cheap prostitute. Sort it out son. Rossco - doesn't care, Rae may as well not be there (I only noticed him yesterday when he gave the ball away in the second half for Peterboroughs 3rd goal). Hudson - how DJ thought he would be better than Pursey god only knows. At least Pursey cared for the club. Hudson is a non entity. How he is our claub captain I don't know. Maybe it's because he fits into DJ's preferred player category - Players with no spine. Maybe DJ doesn't like to be challenged in the dressing room that I believe he's already lost.

Anyway. It is simply not good enough. Speaking to a few fans yesterday at half time, they certainly weren't certain of a victory and that says it all. I'd like to see Ridsdale grow a set and get rid of his old chum DJ (or are the holiday villas in Florida too tempting Pete?). It needs to be done now. Before the January transfer window so the new guy in (Darren Ferguson, would be, at the moment, my favourite) can make changes to the team to push us on. If PR does not act now, I can see this being another season wasted, rather than letting another, fresher man take us to the footballing promised land.

Then again, that's just my view!!

excellent reading thats why i like this mb, with people like you posting,tnt,steve davies, tony williams and of course baz etc

Right lads, without scouring every post to make sure what I'm about to say hasn't been said already, and it doesn't matter if it has because this is my view. So here goes.

Last week, I posted on how I thought the postponement of the Leicester game would have an adverse effect on the team. Well, 1 point form what should have been an 6, I think sums up everything. It interupted the purple patch we were in and now a loss to Plymouth and the travesty that was yesterday afternoon ensued and we're at were we're at.

Yesterday, I travelled to the game with Forever Blue, Blue Chegs and New Blue. When I checked my wallet before entering the ground I noticed that as well as my ticket for the game, I had my tickets for January 8th's showing in the New Theatre of Robin Hood. I've had to check today to make sure I didn't hand in the wrong ticket because what went on yesterday was sheer pantomime. How can a team with ambitions for promotion go from 4-0 up at half time to 4-4 at the end of the game. Newcastle, West Brom, those teasm would ahve killed off the game from the position we were in. But not us.

Is it down to the players, or the manager. Let me tell you. It galled me to hear our fickle mob cheering DJ's name as we were winning. For those lucky few on this board who know me personally and for those who followed "the other" message board, you'll know my position on Jones. DON'T LIIKE HIM. He has no bottle, no fight and no ambition. If you want to stay in this division, DJ is the man. If you want to push on, he is not. And it has spread like wildfire to the players.

As Annis has said on here (and as I was witness to his conversation with Peter Ridsdale yesterday), the players should have been made to face us, come over to us and give us a bit of respect for giving up our bank holiday monday, our families and what not to follow them, en masse, on a 4 hour trip. The fact that it was only Anthony Gerrard who came over half way and meekly applauded the travelling fans, says it all. The players follow their manager - No bottle. We seem to come unstuck against lower placed teams for one reason. They have fight. They have Passion. We don't. We're technically one of the better teasm in the division, but if we had the bottle to match the Plymouths and Peterboroughs, we'd walk away with this division. But we don't.

It's the same as last year. The last four games. No bottle. To put it simply, the players don't care about this club. You might get a couple of good performances from Joe because he wants to put himself in the shop window, but he's playing for himself not the club. Jay Bothroyd is ther most annoying player since Josh Low, gifted but half the time can't give a rats arse about the team. For fucks sake Jay, you're 6'2", 6'3", 14 stone-odd and you go down easier than a cheap prostitute. Sort it out son. Rossco - doesn't care, Rae may as well not be there (I only noticed him yesterday when he gave the ball away in the second half for Peterboroughs 3rd goal). Hudson - how DJ thought he would be better than Pursey god only knows. At least Pursey cared for the club. Hudson is a non entity. How he is our claub captain I don't know. Maybe it's because he fits into DJ's preferred player category - Players with no spine. Maybe DJ doesn't like to be challenged in the dressing room that I believe he's already lost.

Anyway. It is simply not good enough. Speaking to a few fans yesterday at half time, they certainly weren't certain of a victory and that says it all. I'd like to see Ridsdale grow a set and get rid of his old chum DJ (or are the holiday villas in Florida too tempting Pete?). It needs to be done now. Before the January transfer window so the new guy in (Darren Ferguson, would be, at the moment, my favourite) can make changes to the team to push us on. If PR does not act now, I can see this being another season wasted, rather than letting another, fresher man take us to the footballing promised land.

Then again, that's just my view!!

Superb post Greg and thats your Opinion and youve stuck by it.

Right lads, without scouring every post to make sure what I'm about to say hasn't been said already, and it doesn't matter if it has because this is my view. So here goes.

Last week, I posted on how I thought the postponement of the Leicester game would have an adverse effect on the team. Well, 1 point form what should have been an 6, I think sums up everything. It interupted the purple patch we were in and now a loss to Plymouth and the travesty that was yesterday afternoon ensued and we're at were we're at.

Yesterday, I travelled to the game with Forever Blue, Blue Chegs and New Blue. When I checked my wallet before entering the ground I noticed that as well as my ticket for the game, I had my tickets for January 8th's showing in the New Theatre of Robin Hood. I've had to check today to make sure I didn't hand in the wrong ticket because what went on yesterday was sheer pantomime. How can a team with ambitions for promotion go from 4-0 up at half time to 4-4 at the end of the game. Newcastle, West Brom, those teasm would ahve killed off the game from the position we were in. But not us.

Is it down to the players, or the manager. Let me tell you. It galled me to hear our fickle mob cheering DJ's name as we were winning. For those lucky few on this board who know me personally and for those who followed "the other" message board, you'll know my position on Jones. DON'T LIIKE HIM. He has no bottle, no fight and no ambition. If you want to stay in this division, DJ is the man. If you want to push on, he is not. And it has spread like wildfire to the players.

As Annis has said on here (and as I was witness to his conversation with Peter Ridsdale yesterday), the players should have been made to face us, come over to us and give us a bit of respect for giving up our bank holiday monday, our families and what not to follow them, en masse, on a 4 hour trip. The fact that it was only Anthony Gerrard who came over half way and meekly applauded the travelling fans, says it all. The players follow their manager - No bottle. We seem to come unstuck against lower placed teams for one reason. They have fight. They have Passion. We don't. We're technically one of the better teasm in the division, but if we had the bottle to match the Plymouths and Peterboroughs, we'd walk away with this division. But we don't.

It's the same as last year. The last four games. No bottle. To put it simply, the players don't care about this club. You might get a couple of good performances from Joe because he wants to put himself in the shop window, but he's playing for himself not the club. Jay Bothroyd is ther most annoying player since Josh Low, gifted but half the time can't give a rats arse about the team. For fucks sake Jay, you're 6'2", 6'3", 14 stone-odd and you go down easier than a cheap prostitute. Sort it out son. Rossco - doesn't care, Rae may as well not be there (I only noticed him yesterday when he gave the ball away in the second half for Peterboroughs 3rd goal). Hudson - how DJ thought he would be better than Pursey god only knows. At least Pursey cared for the club. Hudson is a non entity. How he is our claub captain I don't know. Maybe it's because he fits into DJ's preferred player category - Players with no spine. Maybe DJ doesn't like to be challenged in the dressing room that I believe he's already lost.

Anyway. It is simply not good enough. Speaking to a few fans yesterday at half time, they certainly weren't certain of a victory and that says it all. I'd like to see Ridsdale grow a set and get rid of his old chum DJ (or are the holiday villas in Florida too tempting Pete?). It needs to be done now. Before the January transfer window so the new guy in (Darren Ferguson, would be, at the moment, my favourite) can make changes to the team to push us on. If PR does not act now, I can see this being another season wasted, rather than letting another, fresher man take us to the footballing promised land.

Then again, that's just my view!!