Interesting Read - Pressley Speaks (2 Viewers)

Shake_and_McPake

Facebook User
Don't most teams have the youth teamers working and doing things like ball boy, cleaning other players boots etc?

Of course they do, but when delusion kicks in they don't. How anyone can defend this egomaniac is beyond me, can't even beat Worcester. Pathetic.

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sp...s/steven-pressley-would-kept-coventry-8714280

Dropped us into the relegation zone for a laugh, would of saved us! Yeah right!
 

Hobo

Well-Known Member
THIS

as much as i liked PS and his vision he just did not get the job done. and he cannot blame it all on sisu

I haven't heard anything where he blamed SISU in fairness to him.
 

NorthernWisdom

Well-Known Member
How to defend him?

Well, he was cursed that his best spell, when the team was the most exciting in recent years, came when no bugger was about to see them.

And it's easy to forget the chaos and carnage of that time, and really, by rights, that season should have seen us relegated. That we're still in this division can well be attributed to Pressley for galvanising an us v the world mentality when the club was ripped away.

The latest SCG meeting gives an indication things are not well with the club, and the best we can hope for is the odd blip until and unless the club itself stabilises. In that respect, the Northampton season was Pressley's positive blip.

He also was indeed brave enough to introduce youngsters to the first team, and not many managers are.

Sure, he's not perfect - the inconsistencies in banishing players then calling them back would not make for good discipline, the somewhat bizarre choice to go uber-defensive after a great attacking seaon the year before, and the us v them seemingly extending to a squad where if you weren't with him, you were against him can all be held against him.

But... the club is a mess, and no manager will be able to sort that mess out long-term by themselves, without a lot of goodwill from fans to give time.

So, as with most managers, flawed in places. But there's no doubting he worked hard, was genuine in his desire to succeed, wasn't just picking up a pay cheque like many seem to. I hope he takes on board what he learned with us and goes on to success elsewhere.
 

Hobo

Well-Known Member

cmoncity

New Member
Look i liked sp he cared and thats what every city fan wants of there players /staff.i think with a experienced number 2 he would have done alot better, but he obviously lost the dressing room with rants etc all learning curve for him and im sure he will at some point prove to be a good manager.Ferguson rated him enough to recommend him to us and didnt most of the squad say he was one of the hardest working managers they had ever seen. He had to sell the best players we had so inevitabilty is we are going to be poorer for it.He failed in his goals lets see how tm fairs in his! I for one think he could be the man we have needed at the helm for a long time#PUSB
 
J

Jack Griffin

Guest
Crazy isn't it, 2 years ago SP was the messiah, now he is a busted flush.

Well I don't rate him as a manager, he has yet to prove himself.
 

skybluetony176

Well-Known Member
SP had a difficult job to do in extraordinary and ever changing circumstances and for a good period of time he did that well and the good results were flowing playing some of the best football that the club had played in decades. I'm not convinced that he was responsible for identifying signings, more a case of being told here's your choices who do you want from this bunch. He certainly didn't have the freedom TM has clearly needed to negotiate before signing up full time.

Having said that he had become part of the problem and it was the right time for him to go. Only problem I see is that the bigger parts of the problem are still here.

Personally I hold no malice towards SP and wish him all the best in whatever it is he does next.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Don't most teams have the youth teamers working and doing things like ball boy, cleaning other players boots etc?

I can imagine it being 'beneath' them these days. You've got kids under 16 turning up with agents, wouldn't be surprised if that kind of thing wasn't allowed anymore.

So either everyone does it and its a non story or its not the done thing anymore and is an example of SP's lack of man management.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
I can imagine it being 'beneath' them these days. You've got kids under 16 turning up with agents, wouldn't be surprised if that kind of thing wasn't allowed anymore.

So either everyone does it and its a non story or its not the done thing anymore and is an example of SP's lack of man management.

As he seemed to cross paths with the league it clearly isn't.

So by enforcing it Presley made it an inferior work environment for the youth players. What he did in his youth team days is not relevant. Generations ago children worked in mines - it shows the so called "forward thinker" to actually be a prehistoric throwback.
 

SkyBlue_Bear83

Well-Known Member
SP had a difficult job to do in extraordinary and ever changing circumstances and for a good period of time he did that well and the good results were flowing playing some of the best football that the club had played in decades. I'm not convinced that he was responsible for identifying signings, more a case of being told here's your choices who do you want from this bunch. He certainly didn't have the freedom TM has clearly needed to negotiate before signing up full time.

Having said that he had become part of the problem and it was the right time for him to go. Only problem I see is that the bigger parts of the problem are still here.

Personally I hold no malice towards SP and wish him all the best in whatever it is he does next.
I think your right about Pressley being given a pool of target and being told pick from that lot, although I think part of the problem was Pressleys lack of knowledge and contacts in the english game as well as lack of a scouting network meant often he failed to draw up a short list of his own targets and thus this is why he was being told here is your shortlist pick from it. I think he would have been given the same freedom Mowbray was promised if he'd been able to draw up a short list of targets he wanted.
 

skybluetony176

Well-Known Member
I can imagine it being 'beneath' them these days. You've got kids under 16 turning up with agents, wouldn't be surprised if that kind of thing wasn't allowed anymore.

So either everyone does it and its a non story or its not the done thing anymore and is an example of SP's lack of man management.

It would be more a reflection of the FA's lack of management than SP's I would say. If true it's a ridiculous situation to let happen in the first place and a lost tradition of a football apprenticeship. The likes of Shearer and Beckham did it, it could go some way as to why the England team is full of premadonna's.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
It would be more a reflection of the FA's lack of management than SP's I would say. If true it's a ridiculous situation to let happen in the first place and a lost tradition of a football apprenticeship. The likes of Shearer and Beckham did it, it could go some way as to why the England team is full of premadonna's.

Agree with that but if SP was the only one forcing kids to do that kind of thing these days its not going to go down well. Can imagine agents advising to avoid the club due to the manager.
 

skybluetony176

Well-Known Member
I think your right about Pressley being given a pool of target and being told pick from that lot, although I think part of the problem was Pressleys lack of knowledge and contacts in the english game as well as lack of a scouting network meant often he failed to draw up a short list of his own targets and thus this is why he was being told here is your shortlist pick from it. I think he would have been given the same freedom Mowbray was promised if he'd been able to draw up a short list of targets he wanted.

It's more than that though. TM clearly signed on the understanding that he gained freedom of the budget. Something you can only assume from that that previous manager's didn't have the luxury of. So if we didn't have a proper scouting system was that down to SP or the person who had control of the budget?
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
It's more than that though. TM clearly signed on the understanding that he gained freedom of the budget. Something you can only assume from that that previous manager's didn't have the luxury of. So if we didn't have a proper scouting system was that down to SP or the person who had control of the budget?

I can't believe mark Robins let Waggot select players for him once he was actually ensconced in the role.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
How many players actually came and went during MR's time with us?

Can't say. Loads of initial loans I think. Clarke and Moussa. Adams? Don't know.
 

pusbccfc

Well-Known Member
Pressley will always be remembered by me for that night last September. He was as delighted as all of us to be back at the Ricoh. In the end, he fell a little short. Still don't think we would have gone down.
 

ccfclinney

Well-Known Member
Harsh to slag pressley off.. He had lost the plot at the end of his reign but you can not fault his loyalty and if he put his foot down with the board would prob be in a decent position.. Mowbray came in and demanded a lot of changes I.e training ground etc scoring system which obviously wasn't being budgeted before which isn't Presley's fault. Mowbray defiantly wouldn't have managed us at shitfields when there getting other job offers and deal with point deductions etc.. But he was right to be sacks in the end. Made some decent signings in Pennington and Samuel for sure though also mcgoldrick obrien Reda all good players so can't slag him off to much.
 

Tonylinc

Well-Known Member
Harsh to slag pressley off.. He had lost the plot at the end of his reign but you can not fault his loyalty and if he put his foot down with the board would prob be in a decent position.. Mowbray came in and demanded a lot of changes I.e training ground etc scoring system which obviously wasn't being budgeted before which isn't Presley's fault. Mowbray defiantly wouldn't have managed us at shitfields when there getting other job offers and deal with point deductions etc.. But he was right to be sacks in the end. Made some decent signings in Pennington and Samuel for sure though also mcgoldrick obrien Reda all good players so can't slag him off to much.
Was McGoldrick not a MR signing?
 

SkyBlue_Bear83

Well-Known Member
It's more than that though. TM clearly signed on the understanding that he gained freedom of the budget. Something you can only assume from that that previous manager's didn't have the luxury of. So if we didn't have a proper scouting system was that down to SP or the person who had control of the budget?

Maybe Pressley didn't have full control of the entire club budget but imo he for sure had full control of the playing budget and transfers imo, if he had been able to come up with a suitable shortlist of players I'm 100% sure the club would have pursued them. He was unable to do so for certain positions for reasons I mentioned so he had to pick from players offered to him by Waggott.

The scouting system is something that should stay in place from manager to manager, its not really his fault it wasn't in place. He struggled without it as Pressley didn't have a long list of contacts from the English game he could call upon the way Mowbray does.
 

NorthernWisdom

Well-Known Member
Worth noting that if we do badly, the currently good things of Mowbray controlling the budget will become a bad thing, as some sections of fans will have a go at him not buying a striker, but painting some ridiculous motivational graffiti on the walls...
 

Gint11

Well-Known Member
I like SP, lovely guy, played for us and his ideas and strategies at times were well intended and well placed. The job of running are club though is a different kettle and needs an older wiser head to run it. His time will come. He clearly got desperate for players and didn't work out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

cloughie

Well-Known Member
Talked the talk but in reality he was an absolute useless man manager. He needs to either look at himself or continue to talk shit
 

phildownunder

Well-Known Member
I felt a lot of sympathy for him for much of his time with us given the conditions he had to work under and I thought that he was doing a decent job in the circumstances in the first half of his tenure.

However I felt that the "bomb squad" was a very bad way to treat the players concerned. IMO nobody deserves to be treated like that, and I also felt that it was a big mistake to let Carl Baker go when he did (assuming it was his decision).

Overall I think the club was right to sack him when they did as his overall recruitment record hadn`t been good esp his scatter gun approach with strikers. He seemed to have run out of ideas as the season got towards the pointy end and I believe it needed a new face in charge to shake things up a bit and get a bit more out of the team.

Having said all that I think he was a good honest bloke who did his best and may have learned some lessons which will stand him in good stead in the future, and I wish him all the best.
 

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