stfrancisofbenali

Of course there are other realistic options out there (although not sure Vieira is actually realistic!) and no-one knows if they will be better than O'Neil. My original point (perhaps worded clumsily) was that a lot of the names being suggested by the fanbase (Lampard, Rodgers etc) aren't realistic and that dismissing O'Neil out of hand because of his Pompey links when he might well be the best man for job at the moment is idiotic. I think there is a big risk in appointing him but if he steadies the ship and gets us climbing the table, the Pompey links will be forgotten quickly.

I'd strongly go for Vieira if there is even the slightest chance of tempting him.

I note that you're still avoiding naming anyone which rather proves the point that this isn't an exact science and is fraught with indecision because no candidate is perfect at our level.

Who? I guarantee they will all be a gamble. I'm not saying O'Neil is The Messiah but neither are any of the names that have been linked because we're not in a position to attract top, experienced managers.

Who do you expect, Zinedine Zidane? Our fanbase seem to have a completely unrealistic view of the position we are in and who we can attract. If O'Neil gets the job, we to need grow up and remember he played for nine clubs in his career and only one of the them was Pompey.

Gary O'Neil was interviewed yesterday and he thought his presentation 'went very well.'

When you're at such a low ebb, you need little staging posts to turn things around and last night is a very small step forwards. It's not going to happen instantaneously so a scrappy away win with two good goals and a backs against the wall attitude is a move in the right direction.

Unless that player is D Downs.

You could delete the app in a fit of pique.

The game has got too clever by half. Prioritising the recruitment of potential to make profit on future sales, when to get out of this division you need a spine of experience is naive in the extreme. Couple that with a promising but inexperienced kid in the dugout and it was only going to go one way. We need a hardened old pro in charge but I worry that this approach and his request to sign a 30+ striker and CB in January won't be cool enough for Sports Republic.

Not entirely his fault of course but it couldn’t carry on. No experiments, no gambles please. A manager with proven Championship pedigree please. Gary O’Neil or Liam Rosenior.

No excuse. I blame the parents. Get the lad to grow a pair and dig in for the long haul. Or would you prefer to take him to Highbury/Anfield?

We need to harness his infectious personality and positivity.

He's 100% right. Whether you're Still in or Still out, you've got to respect this approach.

And the board refused to open the purse strings so he buggered off to Goodison. That was our chance to 'do a Leicester.'

I was using him as an example of a big, gnarly, Championship-hardened target man for others to work off rather than suggesting he was our dream signing! We don't have that player and (with other experienced signings) it would have made an enormous difference in terms of leadership on the pitch and in the dressing room.

Signing players with potential rather than experience is a risky strategy, made all the more risky by appointing a young manager with potential rather than experience. It's this double whammy which is costing us dear. I've no doubt that WS is on an extremely steep learning curve and will become a better and stronger manager for this experience but unfortunately we are having to endure it in the here and now. Three very experienced Championship signings (Viktor Johannsen, Connor Coady, Ollie McBurnie types) would have made Still's life so much easier and it is the board who are entirely responsible for not predicting that he would need this on-pitch support.

Criticising Will Still for not having enough experience is a bit like criticising a 9 year old for not having any O-Levels. It’s not his fault that we have taken a gamble on him at such a young age and he was always going to take much longer than older managers to find his feet. The mistake of SR is appointing a promising and inexperienced manager at the same time as recruiting potential over experience in the squad.

Ralph was never backed financially and did a remarkable job with limited resources. Imagine if he’d had the transfer kitty that Jones was inexplicably given. Things could have been very different.

It’s the idiotic fanbase who did for Ralph in 2022 and led to the doomloop of Selles, Jones, Selles, Martin, Juric and Still. I said at the time be careful what you wish for and here we now find ourselves staring League One square in the face. We have to take some responsibility ourselves in thinking the grass is always greener. It isn’t!

The lack of resilience in our squad is astounding. For me that comes with recruiting two or three ugly, older, experienced players who don’t mind getting a bit gobby so that the younger ‘talent’ can learn from them. EG: Connor Cody, Viktor Johannsen, Ollie McBurnie types. We have spectacularly failed in the balance of the squad assuming that recruiting potential will be enough.

Why did we concede possession for their goals? Because they pressed us high and knew that we would shit ourselves. Their game plan worked and with limited resources, they were far more streetwise, despite the fact we dominated possession. If you can’t see that, you don’t understand football.

They played very well with what they had and absolutely schooled us.

7 mins of injury time on Saturday, zero ambition to go and win the game. 26 mins of normal time left tonight, zero ambition to really dig in and fight our way back into the game. A tactical lesson from Bristol City who were so much smarter than us.

This is why I didn’t understand all the positivity on Saturday after drawing 0-0 at home against a poor side. Good sides find a way to nick that 1-0. We’re not a good side as tonight is proving. Bristol City have so much more fight and positivity.