Two useless* ex-Barnsley managers in the same city. What a time to be alive. *Though Heckingbottom is like Klopp compared to the other chump.
I love sentiment. Hecky did well to get us promoted but I doubt he will manage at the level johnson has for the past 3 seasons again.
Never really got why JOhnson got so much flak, he built a successful squad and left to manage his home town team but gets some proper stick from reds fans.
Amazing how we went from rock bottom in Div 1 to within touching distance of the playoffs with such chumps in charge. Cos it's so easy to be successful if you're a coach/manager. Anyone can do it.
Troff, can I just ask what it is about him that as a reds fan you don’t like ? I see him as a very capable manager who coached us to the play off final and one of the best days I’ve had as a red. Not wanting an argument just interested in your point of view
I wonder then who deserves the credit for the wonderful time given to us when we won 2 Wembley finals and looked more than competitive in the league we now prop up. Perhaps the players organised themselves, or Patrick picked the team. Or we were just lucky.
Never got stick from me. He was always a Bristol man (no sexual entendre meant). Hecky did a great job taking over. The only time Hecky p1ssed me off was when he he left for Leeds. Playing the "one of our own" card left me feeling a bit hoodwinked. I've long moved on from that. There are more important issues in life to worry about.
He was stubborn in approach and our upturn in fortunes December onwards can be argued came about when Pat Cryne pretty much made him play Hammill having signed him. I never warmed to him, though he does have some ability as a manager. He was and remains very streaky. After taking us as low as we’ve been in my time as a fan, bottom of the third tier (being in the bottom division pre-dates me), he did go on a decent run of wins before leaving. He didn’t get us to the playoff final though. He got us to the JPT final. Heckingbottom deserves more credit for the promotion than he sometimes gets, he had several injuries in defence to deal with and changed several things whilst keeping the team winning.
Loved both Hecky and Daniel. Two great coaches for us and provided some of my best memories in supporting the Reds over 40 years.
I could never take to Kieth Hill, from the day he arrived I disliked him as our head coach. Gave me the impression he didn't want to be here and couldn't wait to leave
Heckingbottom was a fresh face whom the players listened to for a while. An analogy is with Duncan Ferguson: an ex-player who knows the place and can have some short-term success, but nothing more than that. As for Johnson? He lost eight League One games in a row and a cup match to Alt-Fvcking-Rin-Fvcking-Cham. His constant tinkering got him a short burst of success, and happily he left the club before more tinkering inevitably set us off on another catastrophic losing streak. Both of them are useless. Heckingbottom has done nothing since leaving us, unless you count his joyous dragging down the Championship of Leeds - he should have had a knighthood for that. Johnson is still streaky. Five wins in a row, and then four points out of 27. Nine points out of nine, then two wins in 10, and on it goes (those are illustrative of the the kind of runs he goes on, not precise examples). He never learns. We'd have done no worse with Lee Johnson's father in charge than either of them.
Nothing in your post explains how, with two such useless managers, we managed to do what we did. One of the best years (plus a bit more) in our history just seemed to happen, despite the input of those two coaches. Not because of their input. Who gives a toss about what they've done elsewhere? Do you want to judge Stendel as a coach on his new stint at Hearts? Anyway, LJ has done well at Bristol. They are 7th at the mo. If you check the EFL net spend league they are 17th over the last 5 years. So he's not blown a fortune either. Credit needs to be given where its due.
