Coppell to Brighton?

[handbags_harris]

Royalee is too young to actually remember the complete and utter shambles that was Manchester City Football Club in the mid to late 90's

True, they had a very unbalanced squad, one or two good players and the rest were worse than what Tommy Burns signed on transfer deadline.
Most of them left Man C at some stage and never really made a career at any level.
Take for example Rae Ingram. John Foster. Mike Quigley. Gerry Creaney. Martin Phillips. Carl Griffiths.
Then you had the established ones that weren't really any good either, like Steve Lomas.
Basicly they had two decent players, Kinkladze and Rösler.

I don't think Coppell was able to sign a single player while he was manager there.

Basicly I think Royalee doesn't know what he's talking about, as always.

You're telling me Lomas, Edghill, Summerbee, Kinkladze, Kit Symons, Michael Brown, Uwe Rosler and co weren't good enough to mount a reasonable promotion challenge over a decade ago when the standard of the Football League and Premiership were comparatively lower? Give that we managed to finish 4th relying on Doyle with our piss poor midfield, you'd think Brown, Kinkladze and Rosler would be able to do some damage at this level.

Well evidently not given that they finished 14th and 22nd in the 96/97 and 97/98 seasons. No intangibles there Royalee, just plain hard facts.

[Royalee]

Why? Where did we finish at the end of last season, where did we finish in 2003? What state was the playing staff left in when Brendan came in?

So using your logic "Brendan" must be a complete disaster what with us being 17 places below where we finished last season. Makes your hero worship of him a little odd really particularly when you were predicting 1st place finish this season.

If the playing staff were so bad when "Brendan" came in then why the 1st place prediction?

Because I thought that although our players were bad, we'd still be very strong with a few additions. As it is, in the season I stopped going regularly, the players were even worse than I had thought in the first place and were deteriorating. Examples of this are Gunnarsson, Cisse, Kebe, Long and so forth.

[Royalee]

Well evidently not given that they finished 14th and 22nd in the 96/97 and 97/98 seasons. No intangibles there Royalee, just plain hard facts.

They lost several players when they finished 14th, which was why they went down the following season. Joe Royle then had them back in the Premiership two years later and after yo-yoing for a bit they established themselves back in the Prem. Hardly a club on its backside.

[Alan Partridge]

Why? Where did we finish at the end of last season, where did we finish in 2003? What state was the playing staff left in when Brendan came in?

4th and 9th was it?

Regardless, both positions will be highter than this years final placing.

[floyd__streete]

Well evidently not given that they finished 14th and 22nd in the 96/97 and 97/98 seasons. No intangibles there Royalee, just plain hard facts.

They lost several players when they finished 14th, which was why they went down the following season. Joe Royle then had them back in the Premiership two years later and after yo-yoing for a bit they established themselves back in the Prem. Hardly a club on its backside.

Again, Royalee, as much as I enjoy your posts.....you are just plain re-writing history here in order to make Coppell look bad in order to somehow improve Rodgers pretty low stock and you are convincing nobody. I am baffled as to your defensiveness regarding Rodgers and your blind loyalty towards him.

[handbags_harris]

Well evidently not given that they finished 14th and 22nd in the 96/97 and 97/98 seasons. No intangibles there Royalee, just plain hard facts.

They lost several players when they finished 14th, which was why they went down the following season. Joe Royle then had them back in the Premiership two years later and after yo-yoing for a bit they established themselves back in the Prem. Hardly a club on its backside.

Manchester City transfers out 96/97:

Stephen Rishworth - Wrexham - 01 Aug 96
Keith Curle - Wolves - 02 Aug 96
John Sharpe - Exeter City - 16 Aug 96
Niall Quinn - Sunderland - 17 Aug 96
Michael Frontzeck - SC Freiburg - 09 Sep 96
Andy Dibble - Rangers - 11 Mar 97
Steve Lomas - West Ham Utd - 27 Mar 97
Peter Beagrie - Bradford City - 02 Jul 97

From that, they lost Keith Curle before a ball was kicked, and Niall Quinn the day after the season kicked off. It should be noted that Quinn didn't feature in that opening game. They then didn't lose a player of note until transfer deadline day when Steve Lomas left to join West Ham. Hardly a club which lost several players. They finished 14th that season with virtually the squad which took them down from the Premier League, with the addition of £5 million worth of players.

Manchester City transfers out 97/98:

Chris Beech - Cardiff City - 03 Aug 97
Jim Bentley - Telford Utd - 31 Oct 97
Nicky Summerbee - Sunderland - 14 Nov 97
Alan Kernaghan - St Johnstone - 25 Dec 97
Jason van Blerk - West Brom - 12 Mar 98
John Foster - Carlisle Utd - 26 Mar 98
Georgi Kinkladze - Ajax - 15 May 98
Brian McGlinchey - Port Vale - 03 Jun 98

Similar story to the previous season, they finished 22nd and went down with a similar squad that went down from the Premier League, with the addition of a further £6 million worth of players.

[Royalee]

Sorry, I should have phrased that better. I meant they lost several players once they had finished 14th - Summerbee, Kinkladze and Van Blerk being key players.

[handbags_harris]

Sorry, I should have phrased that better. I meant they lost several players once they had finished 14th - Summerbee, Kinkladze and Van Blerk being key players.

Summerbee I can accept as a key player. Kinkladze didn't leave until after the 97/98 season had finished (see previous post), and Jason van Blerk? He played 19 games in 7 months!! Hardly a mainstay!!

[Vision]

Why? Where did we finish at the end of last season, where did we finish in 2003? What state was the playing staff left in when Brendan came in?

So using your logic "Brendan" must be a complete disaster what with us being 17 places below where we finished last season. Makes your hero worship of him a little odd really particularly when you were predicting 1st place finish this season.

If the playing staff were so bad when "Brendan" came in then why the 1st place prediction?

Because I thought that although our players were bad, we'd still be very strong with a few additions. As it is, in the season I stopped going regularly, the players were even worse than I had thought in the first place and were deteriorating. Examples of this are Gunnarsson, Cisse, Kebe, Long and so forth.

So basically you're saying that Gunnarsson, Cisse, Kebe and Long were better players for Coppell than "Brendan".

[Royalee]

No - Gunnarsson's aged, Kebe's always been shit, Long's suffered for not being blooded and loaned out when he was young when Coppell had the chance and Cisse's not good enough. All are Coppell players.

[Vision]

No - Gunnarsson's aged, Kebe's always been shit, Long's suffered for not being blooded and loaned out when he was young when Coppell had the chance and Cisse's not good enough. All are Coppell players.

All those players are part of the squad which you predicted under Rodgers would finish top.

Gunnarsson's just a year older, whether you like it or not Kebe and Cisse were key parts of the side which halfway through the season were favourites for promotion, whilst in the final 3rd of the season Long showed he could score at this level. They were all better players under Coppell than they've shown so far under Rodgers. Surely if Rodgers was so much better than Coppell then at the very least he could get them playing at a level on a par with their best form of last season?

Even if all of the above were not true you were still predicting a 1st place finish based on what "Brendan" could do with the squad he had. Yet perversely now you use how poor that squad was to indicate that Coppell made no progress with Reading at all.

Like you I think given time Rodgers will prove to be a good appointment. Trouble is given the virtues you were extolling on him from day 1 and the start we've made he's making your initial arguments (and current defence of him ) look as accurate as your predictions for who would finish top last season.

[The whole year inn]

Coppell is top of Hull's list to replace Brown, according to the ever reliable Sunday Mirror

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Coppell is possibly the most bizarre example of a manager suddenly being overtaken by pressure - within 33 days of taking over.

He arrived at Maine Road with high hopes, but suddenly found himself unable to cope with life at Manchester City.



Coppell quit City

Coppell said at the time: "I'm not ashamed to admit that I have suffered for some time from huge pressure I have imposed upon myself, and since my appointment this has completely overwhelmed me to such an extent that I cannot function in the job the way I would like to.

"As this situation is affecting my well-being, I have asked Francis Lee to relieve me of my obligation to manage the club on medical advice.

"I am therefore resigning for personal reasons. I'm extremely embarrassed by the situation and I would like to apologise first and foremost to Francis Lee and his board, who have done everything in their power to help me."


So what is wrong with being honest?

Clough lasted a similar time at Leeds, was he a poor manager too, Dalglish walked on L'Pool due to pressure, big deal, loads do.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

No one knows what really happened at City.

Be surprised if he went Brighton. Missed out on the Saints job cause he wanted too much money (he was on a huge amount even last yr after the parking crew put him in such a strong posisition even though he never intended to leave).

Can see him going Hull to be honest. Perfect replacement for Brown, no pressure on him after Hull's shite start, no money to spend in Jan and a shit load of money if he keeps em up...

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Copps took the wage cut as wel last season, and only stayed on the one year deal, if all he wanted was money then he would have gone for two years and held JM to ransom.

SC said he wanted a break, and he is still taking one, he has had a few months out, and is now looking at the possibility of returning to football.

Any sensible man would take time and weigh up possible options, I believe he is doing just that, there is the perfect job for SC in the new year, he does not need to just take whatever comes up.

Ipswich, Norwich, Pompey, any might tempt him.

Just seen this on BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 345041.stm

[exileinleeds]

Gus Poyet just signed as the new Brighton manager.

[Wimb]

Dillon said yesterday that SSC had itchy feet, so it's a fair bet he'll be back soon.

I can't quite understand all of the Royalee bashing on here... though he's a bit naive if he predicted 1st under BR

But in fairness to the guy I agree with a lot about what he says about SSC. Whilst Coppell was without question a fantastic manager who took us to heights we've never been too before, he really didn't do THAT much to get us there, and then failed spectacularly when we DID get there.

Coppell was fortunate to take over a club in a sound financial state, with a decent backroom team and a young hungry squad. Alan Pardew deserves a massive chunk of credit for the success the club had and that's a point ignored by many people here. Pardew brought the likes of Shorey, USA, Harper whilst also leaving very solid Championship players like Hughes, Williams, Forster, Murty etc for Coppell to work with and build for the future.

However, Coppell did bring in key players like Sidwell, Kitson, Sonko, SHunt, Ingi, Doyler who would take us over the finishing line and onto the next level, whilst also strengthening the coaching staff etc. The key problem was that from the summer of 2005 Coppell didn't buy a single player that would leave a positive lasting legacy with the team. Seol, Doobs, Cisse, Fae, Marek, have all underperformed or wilted quickly and its THAT legacy which is haunting the club now. If you were being picky you could say the likes of Kebe, NHunt, Cisse, Marek and Stretch all COULD go on to be important parts, but so far have either missed large chunks of time through injury or have been poor in comparison to who came before.

For this reason Coppell does deserve scorn and critisism because he didn't hit his targets and his moves backfired to the extent that the club had to firesale this summer and leave the club in a worse state then when he arrived. Compare the squads on the day SSC arrived to the day BR took over and I think it speaks for itself (oh and don't bother to include Doyle, Bikey or Shunt because they WERE GOING like it or not)

Does the above mean Coppell is 100% to blame or is a bad manager? feck no, but it does mean he oxf*rd up for 2 seasons and deserves flack, the same way TB1+2 got stick because they too underperformed. Coppell can't live on 1 championship and 1 very good Premiership season, he has also got to be remembered for a relegation, fecking up a playoff bid, and then last years failure to be promoted despite being in a fantastic position to do so.

As for BR, well whats the point judging him now? he's been here for less then 6 months and has had about 10 games with what he considers 'his squad' Will he be a success? god only knows but there are reasons to be optimistic and pessimistic so far.

[Thaumagurist*]

Wimb, I hate to say it, but Pardew bought Sidwell, not Coppell!

Oh and we didn't exactly have a firesale this summer, our players most certainly didn't go very cheaply.

[Wimb]

Wimb, I hate to say it, but Pardew bought Sidwell, not Coppell!

Oh and we didn't exactly have a firesale this summer, our players most certainly didn't go very cheaply.

Opps my mistake ... I meant that Coppell bought Sidwell on loan at Brentford honest

I meant firesale in so much as getting rid of anyone on wages as quickly as possible. We lost Lita, Doobs, USA, Murty, Hunt, Doyle, Bikey, Harper, Rosie thats 9 first teamers in less then 4 months.

[Thaumagurist*]

Wimb, I hate to say it, but Pardew bought Sidwell, not Coppell!

Oh and we didn't exactly have a firesale this summer, our players most certainly didn't go very cheaply.

Opps my mistake ... I meant that Coppell bought Sidwell on loan at Brentford honest

I meant firesale in so much as getting rid of anyone on wages as quickly as possible. We lost Lita, Doobs, USA, Murty, Hunt, Doyle, Bikey, Harper, Rosie thats 9 first teamers in less then 4 months.

We released Lita, Duberry, USA and Murty, rather than sold them. Harper and Rosenior are only on loan and may (but improbable) return.