Bridgy 81
Well-known Exeweb poster
Although I have no particular affinity for them I’ve been interested following Bournemouth’s results this season.
They won their first league match, then got hammered in their next three, shipping 16 goals without reply against Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool.
That led to Scott Parker publicly bemoaning the club’s lack of investment and competitiveness, swiftly followed by his inevitable sacking.
Gary O’Neil (First Team Coach) was put in charge on a caretaker basis and in his first five league games Bournemouth have been unbeaten winning two and drawing three.
So now they’re 8th in the table, one place outside of European qualification.
I’m not drawing any comparisons between the similarity of Bournemouth and City being relatively under funded clubs in their respective leagues, nor that we’re both being led by interim (internal) Managers primarily because ours left in very different circumstances and whilst we were doing well.
But O’Neill took over when the transfer window had already closed so has to work with what he’s got, like our new boss will.
I know when you’re in a temporary position which opponents you have to face during your tenure is the luck of the draw but it’s interesting to see how some coaches seem able to get such a different response from the same group of players.
Or maybe it comes down in this case to Parker making naïve comments in the immediate aftermath of three hammerings when he was embarrassed as his professional pride was bruised when what he should have been doing was looking at his team’s forthcoming fixtures and keeping quiet?
They won their first league match, then got hammered in their next three, shipping 16 goals without reply against Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool.
That led to Scott Parker publicly bemoaning the club’s lack of investment and competitiveness, swiftly followed by his inevitable sacking.
Gary O’Neil (First Team Coach) was put in charge on a caretaker basis and in his first five league games Bournemouth have been unbeaten winning two and drawing three.
So now they’re 8th in the table, one place outside of European qualification.
I’m not drawing any comparisons between the similarity of Bournemouth and City being relatively under funded clubs in their respective leagues, nor that we’re both being led by interim (internal) Managers primarily because ours left in very different circumstances and whilst we were doing well.
But O’Neill took over when the transfer window had already closed so has to work with what he’s got, like our new boss will.
I know when you’re in a temporary position which opponents you have to face during your tenure is the luck of the draw but it’s interesting to see how some coaches seem able to get such a different response from the same group of players.
Or maybe it comes down in this case to Parker making naïve comments in the immediate aftermath of three hammerings when he was embarrassed as his professional pride was bruised when what he should have been doing was looking at his team’s forthcoming fixtures and keeping quiet?
)