What Jimmy Phillips Thought - Bristol City

Jimmy Phillips spoke to the media following Bolton’s 6-0 defeat away at Bristol City. 

A thoroughly miserable afternoon at Ashton Gate got off to the worst possible start, with the Trotters two goals down inside the opening ten minutes. 

And things went from bad to worse in the second half, as Bolton collapsed and conceded a further four goals. 

Speaking in his post-match press conference Phillips covered the below points. 

On the manner of the performance…
I can only apologise to all of the Bolton fans, from those in the ground to those following from afar. It was an embarrassing performance and the players admitted that in the dressing room after the game. We’ve let the supporters and club down today. The players know that. We didn’t dominate the play at any stage and didn’t work hard enough to close the Bristol City players down. 

On the Bristol City goals…
I don’t think that they had to work too hard for the goals. Conceding after three minutes in an away game set the tone and we were wide open for the second goal. 

On the team selection…
We put Kaiyne Woolery upfront as we felt we needed some pace in the team. It was something that we lacked, particularly with Liam Feeney moving on loan to Ipswich. Kaiyne is still learning the game and at times he did cause the Bristol defenders a couple of problems in the first half, but that was about as good as it got for us. 

On the task ahead…
There’s a lot of work to be done and a big rebuilding process ahead. Maybe today’s result has put into perspective just how big of a rebuild is needed. Our task has now been made far harder by today’s result. It’s damaging to morale and to team spirit. 

On the upcoming international break…
We’ve got a two-week period to properly work with the players now. Even if we had won today, we would have still have been in over the international period because we time to work with the players and get across our ideas. We need to get some structure and organisation into the players and that’s what we’ll be working hard to do.



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After that display I'm astonished he was even capable of coherent thought. And his comments about "rebuilding" and "working with the players" are just plain embarrassing. Structure? Organisation? Jesus wept this guy is shifting deckchairs on the Titanic. Surely he knows not even the most optimistic idiot calling themselves a Bolton Wanderers fan believes he can do anything to improve that shower on the pitch and the only good thing that can be said about this season is that it will soon be over.

lets not be too hard on Jimmy, he's been asked to take over at the clubs lowest ebb for years and he isn't a miracle worker. He can only work with whats left after Lennon ballsed it up and fell out with half of them.

All he is there to do is get them through the remaining games, he won't be full time manager.

Norpig wrote:lets not be too hard on Jimmy, he's been asked to take over at the clubs lowest ebb for years and he isn't a miracle worker. He can only work with whats left after Lennon ballsed it up and fell out with half of them.

All he is there to do is get them through the remaining games, he won't be full time manager.

I'm not getting at Jimmy and apologise if it sounds like I am. In retrospect I should have said he was wasting his breath making any attempt to be positive. It certainly isn't his fault that our players are largely garbage and played like it yesterday. I think he should have settled for "At least the season will be over soon" and left it at that.

Norpig wrote:lets not be too hard on Jimmy, he's been asked to take over at the clubs lowest ebb for years and he isn't a miracle worker. He can only work with whats left after Lennon ballsed it up and fell out with half of them.

All he is there to do is get them through the remaining games, he won't be full time manager.

Really? If Lennon was still in charge and they hadn't off loaded Feeney, guaranteed there's no way this would be a 6-0 drubbing. We'd still have lost, but maybe not lost total respect. The only positive was starting Woolery. He deserved that much at least.

Norpig wrote:lets not be too hard on Jimmy, he's been asked to take over at the clubs lowest ebb for years and he isn't a miracle worker. He can only work with whats left after Lennon ballsed it up and fell out with half of them.

Yes I feel so sorry for the players, how can they ever be expected to perform again after falling out with Lennon?

Lennon made mistakes at Bolton. No doubt about it, but that we've now got fans referring to the current situation in that "mess that Lennon left behind" sort of way is laughable.

I understand that it's been the season from hell and so some blame has to be apportioned but let's get some perspective. With or without Lennon, Bolton Wanderers 2015/2016 is about as messy as it gets.

We're not talking about some guy who had £20m-40m to spend on the team but just brought in utter duds on mega contracts who he then completely alienated along with the forever dwindling fanbase. I think that would constitute leaving the club in a mess, but to give the same label to somebody who arrived at the club at a time when the aim was just to get by on loans and freebies is extremely harsh.

I'm willing to believe we might have lost this match 6-0 under Lennon, even though it's our heaviest defeat by some distance, but I still think some people will be swallowing their words about this squad come May.

Of course Lennon left us in a mess and it was 99% of his own doing in my opinion. He can moan about not getting money and all the rest of the excuses but the reality is we have won 5 games in 50 odd going back to last season

All this crap about we wouldn't have lost 6-0 under Lennon is just that - crap, Lennon had been looking for the exit for months and was forever spouting his excuses about not knowing the situation when he came in. If that's the case more fool him

The squad we have at the moment should be doing much better than it is, i wasn't expecting miracles and a push for the play offs but there is no way they should be bottom of the table with the worst away form in the country and only slightly better home form. The rot set in at the end of last season and as with Coyle it should have been ended sooner.

Norpig wrote:
The squad we have at the moment should be doing much better than it is, i wasn't expecting miracles and a push for the play offs but there is no way they should be bottom of the table with the worst away form in the country and only slightly better home form.

It's the easiest thing in the world to say "we shouldn't be where we are with this squad". And obviously people keep saying it because it puts Lennon in a bad light, I just wonder how many people actually wholeheartedly believe it. All season we've been in a hopeless bargaining position when it comes to selling players, yet have you noticed many bidding wars going on?

I believe it Doffy thats why i took the trouble to write it above. Lennon deserves to be seen in a bad light but as i've said on here before he will come out smelling of roses because he can blame the club and the situation and get away with it, with no mention of his actual coaching and managing ability which in my eyes has been poor.

You only have to look at Warnock at Rotherham to see what can happen when you put someone in charge who can actually coach players and get the best out of what he has.

The sign of a good coach is someone who can work with what they have and do a good job

Norpig wrote:
You only have to look at Warnock at Rotherham to see what can happen when you put someone in charge who can actually coach players and get the best out of what he has.

I think this sums up what we're up against. Somebody walks into a club, takes them on a great run and automatically that makes them "someone who can actually coach players and get the best out of them" and all the rest of it. I wonder what Leeds fans would make of that claim, and half the clubs he's managed.

it doesn't matter about his past clubs, he's dong a great job now, clutching at straws now i think Doffy. Warnock has a proven track record at most of his clubs unlike Lennon who managed a team in Scotland with little or no resistance to them winning the title.

Don't get me wrong, i was pleased when Lennon took over but he just wasn't upto it. I'm sure he'll move on and put it behind him and do well elsewhere but he did a poor job for us whatever the circumstances

Norpig wrote:it doesn't matter about his past clubs, he's dong a great job now

I think that says it all.

"He's doing a great job now."

So basically if somebody had offered him to you when he was being hounded out of Leeds or Bury or Oldham etc, you'd have said "fuck no".

And if somebody had said to you 12 months ago, "Lennon was just lucky at Celtic and he's a shit manager" you'd have said "well he's doing a great job now that's all that matters".

Either way, how can you possibly make a direct comparison between the two CVs? Lennon's had two jobs, both in the sort of circumstances where it's difficult to make a fair judgement. Warnock's worked at about 15 different clubs, rich and poor, big and small. It's like comparing apples and oranges.

to be fair i would have taken Warnock a hundred times over Lennon, you may not like that but it's my opinion.

Norpig wrote:to be fair i would have taken Warnock a hundred times over Lennon, you may not like that but it's my opinion.

I wouldn't have. Don't forgt Lennon also performed wonders in Europe, including beating Barclona which seems beyond any English team that tries it. 

I respect Warnock but think he's very much a 'yesterday's man' when it comes to management. I suspect he'll have a decent half-season or so with Rotherham then fall away. But at least they've got some money to play with however little it might be to give him a chance at doing something useful. Lennon never got that. I don't doubt there are plenty of people who belive he didn't go soon enough but my feeling is he was never given the chance to do things his way and never got to recruit the players he actually wanted. He was asked to work with both hands tied behind his back, most notably when Ameobi offered to play for FREE and the League said no because of the incredible severity of the embargo we're under. 

It's easy to heap all the blame on the manager when we lose and he certainly bears some responsibility but I feel that giving his all or even most of the blame for this is grossly unfair. I wish him well wherever he may go and I suspect he will be a success when he gets a new job with a club that actually has some money. Whomever the board appoint here is going to struggle because it doesn't look like they'll have any resources to strengthen with in the forseeable future.

I'll be amazed if Warnock achieves anything significant at Leeds.

What with him currently being employed to manage Rotherham and that........

You'd better edit that quick before Whittam calls you a bellend again, Pete.

Breadman wrote:I'll be amazed if Warnock achieves anything significant at Leeds.

What with him currently being employed to manage Rotherham and that........

You know what? My brain is so far out of my head today.Oh dear, Whittam and the gang are gonna have a field day with this.

LPP i can see your point but why does it need money to be a good manager?

Norpig wrote:LPP i can see your point but why does it need money to be a good manager?

Norpig, look at our players. They're plain not good enough. Without money we can't replace them for ones who are. We can't afford to release the high earning dross either. Basically if the base was strong, ie we had a solid core of good players (ie half a dozen) we could probably build around them quite cheaply but we don't. 

This business of "this squad should be doing better" is fallacious at best. The evidence shows it shouldn't because it isn't and hasn't done for years. Dougie was saved from the drop by loanees not by the players we have now and Neil couldn't even do that thanks to the embargo. That is why we are where we are. It's nowt to do with managerial ability. Jesus would have a tough time getting the shower we have to perform well week in week out. We're going down because (in my opinion) the January and Loan windows were slammed shut before they started for us. Just look at the last two seasons prior to this and you'll see what I mean.

some of these players have played in the Prem LPP, Wheater, Moxey and Mavies to name a few, the vast majority of the rest have played at Championship level before.

I agree the situation with finances and the takeover has been a test but do you really think the players even gave that a second thought? Only when the wages were delayed i bet, up until then they wouldn't care.

Both Freedman and Lennon should have done better with the resources they had.