The Dago Poof Is Doing Well

ElmetFox said:
Sometimes when threads like this come up there are players whose names I do not recognise. Most here I know, many of whom featured the following season when we got to the playoffs. And Conrad Logan was in goal. Nuge played for Portsmouth, another familiar name.

But who on earth was Abi ?
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Yuki Abe, our oriental favourite before he changed his name to Okazaki
 
Sohofox said:
One of a list of our managers I'd like to kick in the bollocks.
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In his favour, he tried to bring a brand of football to us, our (very) limited squad couldn't comprehend.

Much like Dalton is a very underrated Bond. The world wasn't ready back then for a gritty down to earth 007, our squad wasn't ready for what he wanted to implement.
 
Was watching a piece on youtube about the demise of East German footie since the reunification and a face came up who I recognised.
It was (guess spelling) Steffen Freund... now he was a player. Was he a Sven signing?
 
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Didn't get the concept of do what your players are capable of, not what you'd like them to be capable of....tosser
 
Oadlad said:
Was watching a piece on youtube about the demise of East German footie since the reunification and a face came up who I recognised.
It was (guess spelling) Steffen Freund... now he was a player. Was he a Sven signing?
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Pretty sure Freund was one of the 75,000 players Micky Adams brought in for the 2003/4 Prem season. His most notable achievement that season was being strangled by wee Duncan Ferguson.
 
b75, I think the concept is that you challenge them to play in a more current style hoping they have the ability to adapt.
It was Claudio who, despite the success of the title decided to introduce what we now recognise if the club was to succeed in the future.
He found that the title winners were not able, or willing to adapt and relegation loomed (it is a tough ask to persuade league winners that they have it wrong). Puel took over the mantle and made a start but his communication skills were poor {language/personality). Also, the new tippy tappy possession style jarred with our more physical type of game in England.
Nevertheless he made a decent start and fortunately we have BR to carry on the process.
Our league positions suggest the word tosser is not apt...
Personally I loved the exciting way we won the title compared with the risk free way the game has gone now, but then I'm old fashioned...
 
I think it was more the case that in 2016/7 season Premier League teams began to suss us out and worked out how to deal with Vardy etc. And also the loss of N'golo was crucial.
We did better in Europe that season than we did domestically because the European teams hadn't met us before and hadn't worked us out.
And it was Craig Shakespeare that saved us from the drop. We were in the bottom 3 when Claudio got the sack weren't we?
If Claudio had stayed we would have gone down.
 
Yes we probably would have gone down as I said. Whatever the apparent sense of the switch being introduced, relegation can never be part of it for the owners.
I have heard this 'worked us out' claim several times.
But by the halfway stage all teams had played us so that theory suggests we would have declined from there but we scored ten more points in the second half of that season. Your view of the Euro games though seems sound.
I think that when CR took over he was surprised by our (to him) unsophisticated ways. Despite his reputation as a tinkerer he had the nous to
change very little, simply reverting to a back four he was familiar with and realising Kante's best position. Don't forget, our revival had started in April under NP..
I left out your dago and CS who I now recognise as a tactical dinosaur and among the last vestiges of the English way.
 
What? Nothing to do with the man who signed him?
And who signed another player who arguably was a crucial part of our seven wins in the last nine in April '15, Robert Huth.
My admiration for EC is total but he was here for seven months before the escape and when we were in freefall.
 
Yes and he led a meeting of the players in the changing room at Belvoir Drive to decide how to play the last 10 games - leaving NFP and the other coaching staff out on the training pitch alone wondering where all the players were.
The rest is history.
 
Sohofox said:
Yes and he led a meeting of the players in the changing room at Belvoir Drive to decide how to play the last 10 games - leaving NFP and the other coaching staff out on the training pitch alone wondering where all the players were.
The rest is history.
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Soho. Is this story actually true ? As a fan of Esteban and no fan of NFP I could believe that it IS true, but it looks to me like an example of the big lie theory. While on the subject of legends, do you know why Ken Leek was dropped for the 1961 Cup Final ?
 
Ken Leek before my time. I only started supporting City in 1966.
I heard the Cambiasso story from a few people (some on here) who have good connections with folk at the Club.
 
...and the signings of Morgan, Vardy, Mahrez, Ulloa, Drinks, James and Kante which looks to me like the basis of a winning team.
Still history needs rewriting for some reason...
On Leek, 'they' say (like the EC conspiracy) that Ken liked a drink so it became a classic tale of dropping your best man and chucking your best chance of winning a trophy. Reminds me of another discipline issue in much more recent times...
 
Oadlad, I get what you’re saying in regards to the PDS team but they just weren’t capable....we had a back four that were traditional defenders and were not up to what he wanted...the art of a manager is work with what you have, assess their capabilities and recruit players who can fit your style if those you have don’t....
 
ElmetFox said:
Soho. Is this story actually true ? As a fan of Esteban and no fan of NFP I could believe that it IS true, but it looks to me like an example of the big lie theory. While on the subject of legends, do you know why Ken Leek was dropped for the 1961 Cup Final ?
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Wasn't this actually confirmed by either NFP or one of his staff?

Pretty sure the Mockery ran the story about Cambiasso 🎶HE'S MAGIC YOU KNOOOOOW 🎶 Locking the first team in the changing room at Belvior Drive while NFP and the coaches stood around wandering what was going on because they didn't come out for training on time.
 
Can't disagree with that but it does not say much for professionals at that level who are seemingly bemused by being asked to adopt a new way of playing. Which is to say new to them because it betrays a lack of interest in their chosen way of earning a living in an age which it's easy to see what is happening over the channel. Typical Engish isolationalism?
 
Oadlad said:
Was watching a piece on youtube about the demise of East German footie since the reunification and a face came up who I recognised.
It was (guess spelling) Steffen Freund... now he was a player. Was he a Sven signing?
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He was the villain of La Manga
 
Oadlad said:
Can't disagree with that but it does not say much for professionals at that level who are seemingly bemused by being asked to adopt a new way of playing. Which is to say new to them because it betrays a lack of interest in their chosen way of earning a living in an age which it's easy to see what is happening over the channel. Typical Engish isolationalism?
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True to some degree, although it should be said that a manager also has to acknowledge there’s a point where the players he’s trying to educate in that way of playing becomes a waste of time, because they’re incapable.
 
courtslcfc said:
In his favour, he tried to bring a brand of football to us, our (very) limited squad couldn't comprehend.

Much like Dalton is a very underrated Bond. The world wasn't ready back then for a gritty down to earth 007, our squad wasn't ready for what he wanted to implement.
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I seem to recall he didn’t believe in stamina training and only permitted training with the ball. Consequently the squad were criminally unfit and were blown after half an hour
 
I’m pretty sure those fine fellows at The Fox interviewed someone since who confirmed the meeting did take place. I can’t recall who though, Nugent maybe?
 
DagenhamFox said:
I’m pretty sure those fine fellows at The Fox interviewed someone since who confirmed the meeting did take place. I can’t recall who though, Nugent maybe?
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i think there's been a few player interviews that have confirmed it (most recently danny simpson in May's edition), but the kevin phillips interview also detailed it and he was on the coaching side at that point.
 
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Yes, it was confirmed and described by Nuge in the April 2017 Fox and repeated in the Can't Buy That Feeling book.
He said it was the time the senior players rallied the troops for one last push to avoid relegation. Having been in union activity for years I'm guessing it was about feeling more able to talk freely without management being present. He also reveals that a change of shape with two up front was effective.
 
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