Football / Fan's View
It’s a results game; Cotterill’s were rubbish
The big news is that Steve Cotterill has been sacked. “Such sad news”, I am reading from Gasheads on social networks. “He was doing such a great job.”
Well, from a Rovers point of view, he was, but I would urge my fellow blue and white comrades not to dwell for too long on what is happening south of the river. Some things are more important.
Like signing Rory Gaffney for an “undisclosed” sum, which is code for an arm and a leg.
The signing of Gaffney has been inevitable since he was loaned to Rovers in the first place. The Cambridge manager doesn’t fancy him (in the footballing sense) and the player knows that.
So, if the manager of one club doesn’t fancy you, but the manager of another club – a far bigger club, too – does, the decision is not that tough. Yet again, Darrell Clarke plays a blinder.
For Cotterill, name any other manager in the league. Football is a results-based business and Cotterill’s results were rubbish. You can have as much sympathy as you like with the man – and I have precisely none – but that’s just the way it is.
Ask any of the managers who have been through the revolving door at the Memorial Stadium, until chairman Nick Higgs finally got one appointment right. Well, he had to eventually.
But in extracting the Michael out of Mr Higgs, let’s give the man due credit. He said, right at the outset, that if Rovers were challenging by the time the transfer window arrived, he would back the manager in the transfer market.
He has been as good as his word. And here’s another golden rule in football: the time to strengthen the team is when the team is already strong.
Yes, strengthen the team when the team is already strong because strengthening a team that is past its best or on the slide means you are already firefighting. Instead of building on what’s working, you are trying to improve what’s getting worse.
My advice to Gasheads is simple. Enjoy City’s woeful position in the Championship, have a good laugh at Cotterill’s sacking and once you have got that out of your system concentrate on the one team that really matters to you, Bristol Rovers.
There is a golden opportunity for the Rovers to get themselves back to League One where they belong and that should be the only thing that matters. Enjoy City’s failure, by all means, but never let it forget how good it is to see Rovers succeed. Schadenfreude is rarely a good look.
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
