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Has started writing a column for Wales Online.
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Re: Sean Morrison
Isn't it under the new Wales Premium articles?Originally posted by the other bob wilson View Post
Walesonline has a feckin cheek.
Its abysmal and now you have to pay to access articles. No doubt the recycled hardest rugby player articles will be free .... with multiple ads. -
Re: Sean Morrison
Sorry Bob, but no fecking way am I paying WOL a penny.Originally posted by the other bob wilson View PostComment
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Re: Sean Morrison
I clicked on the link and could read it without payingComment
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Re: Sean Morrison
Taken from: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/...-city-33243516
Brian Barry-Murphy has blown me away this season. Cardiff City have a real gem of a manager on their hands and the way he has this Bluebirds side playing is bringing me so much joy.
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No matter what has been thrown at him, he seems to have an answer for everything. He never complains, he prepares the team to within an inch of its life and it's no coincidence it all seems to have clicked into place.
When I was playing at Cardiff, and even after I retired, we fell in to this unhealthy cycle of managers we never seemed able to get out of.
We would have an OK start, then a poor run, the manager would get sacked, a caretaker would come in or we would completely change tack. There was no continuity.
Cardiff City announce first January signing as he vows to push for starting spot
Barry-Murphy says player is 'in his face every day' as star reveals brains behind Cardiff City operation
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That's why, in a slightly perverse way of thinking, relegation was a bit of a blessing. I think if we are in the Championship, Brian isn't the manager. We don't even have a conversation about Brian.
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Being relegated allowed us to take a little bit more of a risk and appoint someone in Brian who, while clearly having an excellent coaching background leading the Manchester City academy setup, was relatively inexperienced in first-team management.
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I found him extremely impressive when I spoke with him. I've also spoken to players in the camp and the way they talk about Brian, his staff and in particular the training fills me with huge confidence.
The intensity with which they train is off the scales and the work that goes in to preparing each player, tactically and technically, sounds really impressive. His demands on the players and himself are very high.
I've been in situations where maybe I was carrying a little niggle and I maybe went through the motions in training. From speaking to people at the club, that simply isn't an option under Brian and his team.
He has Cardiff flying at the top of the table — four points clear of second and six points off third — and I genuinely don't see that changing before the end of the season.
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The problem for Cardiff is, with Brian doing so well, I can see other clubs wanting to come in for him.
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It depends on what your model is as a club and what the owners are willing to do. Do they put Brian on a big contract to keep him for as long as possible? Because let's be realistic, there are going to be suitors, clubs are going to come knocking.
He's got a good squad at Cardiff, but clubs will be watching the amazing work Brian is doing with that squad. He's made them even better than a lot of people thought they were going to be. If other clubs are watching that, they are going to be very interested.
And they won't just be interested in Brian. When you've got 17, 18, 19-year-old players performing well for a side at the top of the league, you're going to have some big clubs lurking.
So, what is Cardiff City's stance as an ownership and a board? Are they going to be a selling club? Or are we going to lock down these players and the manager and set our stall out for the longer term to get back into the Championship – and potentially the Premier League?
Because I genuinely think Cardiff will go up as champions. They are just flying. The 'next-man-in' approach that we've seen — when players get injured but the transition to his replacement is seamless — has made me very confident looking ahead to this second half of the season.
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Just look at Rubin Colwill, for example, I was really worried when Rubin got injured. He was a talisman at the start of the season and was tearing up the league. But since his injury, Cardiff have only tightened their grip at the top of the table and that fills me with huge belief in this group and what's to come in the next few months – and hopefully years.
Before a ball was kicked, my heart was telling me Cardiff would finish top two, but I knew that with the squad we have, if we could just get the right guy in, we could go up as champions.
To go on the runs we have – we don't look like losing two on the bounce. If the team lose, they show a real strength in mentality to bounce back immediately.
It actually feels eerily similar to the promotion season I was involved in when we went up to the Premier League in 2018. It just felt like once you got that little bit of adversity, the squad and the staff just have that mentality to respond immediately. You forget about the bad results immediately and pick up points again.
Once the momentum is with you, it's really hard to stop and that's what I'm seeing from Cardiff at the moment. Football's a strange old sport, but the way we are going at the minute, I can't see the top of the table changing. Brian won't allow them to slip up.
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'Super impressive Bagan now looks a proper player'
I've worked with some of those players, Joel Bagan, Rubin, Isaak Davies. I trained with Joel Colwill and Ollie Tanner. I have played with these players, watched them first hand, and I've seen them not get the coaching they needed as young players.
Once Brian was appointed, with his background and ability to improve young players, working with the likes of Cole Palmer at Manchester City, he knows how to turn good players into great players. I think you could see that in the first two months of the season.
Joel Bagan has just been fantastic this year. He now looks like a bloke, for want of a better phrase.
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Every time I've seen Joel this year I've been so impressed. I know this sounds stupid, but even the way he just stands on the pitch now. The way he moves. He just seems like he has this confidence and actually looks like a leader. He looks like a player on the pitch you would turn to for guidance or leadership.
Joel is a quiet, lovely lad who works hard. I always saw the potential in him as a player, but as a young player you want someone to come in, coach you, put your arm around you, help you through games and training and improve you. I don't think these young lads have had much of that.
That loan move to SV Zulte Waregem in Belgium helped him a lot. Going on loan turns you from a boy to a man. I remember feeling like that when I went to Southend United as an 18-year-old, moving away from the comforts you've got, learn to cook, clean and live on your own away from family and friends.
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He's come back from that loan a different player. A proper player. I've been super impressed with him, he's been absolutely wonderful this year.
He has grown into the player everyone wanted him to grow into. The same can maybe be said for Rubin, too.
Maybe some people thought they were going a bit stagnant under the older regime and they weren't progressing as quickly as they wanted to. They weren't solid members of the team.
But from the start of this season, I look at these guys as such huge cogs in the Cardiff City machine. I am just so impressed with them and the younger players from the academy who people knew very little about, they've done incredibly well.
For the first time in some years, it's a joy to watch them all.Comment
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Re: Sean Morrison
I love the optimism but christ are we inflating BBM.
He’s made plenty of errors himself, and we should be challenging with the squad we have.Comment
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Re: Sean Morrison
I don’t think we are, and regarding errors there can’t be too many and surely that’s part of the learning curveOriginally posted by WJ99mobile View Post
Look at the football and compare it over the dross served up over the last few years, BBM is light years ahead of anyone we’ve had in charge since Warnock left
The football is more exciting, young players coming through and becoming first team regulars, other players who looked like they would be moving on as they’d underperformed or just didn’t look good enough have become fan’s favourites
Wintle could possibly be player of the season this year, who would have thought that in the summer?
Bagan was constantly overlooked by previous coaches and is now one of the first names on the team sheet
Chambers looks a real asset as Captain and Fish is a different player to last season
Without going through the rest, I would say rather than inflate him, this board should make sure that they don’t underestimate and value him
With the job he’s done he will be in demand, and it’s about time we as a club started to build something with a long term plan rather than the knee jerk short term approach that has continually happened and failed imhoComment
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Re: Sean Morrison
Same here, i wouldn’t have started the thread if I’d had a paywall message when I clicked on the News Now link to the story.Originally posted by RichardM View PostComment
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Re: Sean Morrison
Strange that having experienced so many poor managers in recent years that people struggle to realise it when we get someone in who’s doing a good job.Originally posted by olderblue View PostComment
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Re: Sean Morrison
Sean Morrisons column does appear to under their new premium articles which is really poor. Their site is terrible with all the ads anywhere.Originally posted by the other bob wilson View PostComment
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Re: Sean Morrison
Is anyone struggling to see that BBM is doing a good job? I don’t think so. Some people seem to believe his achievements are being somewhat exaggerated, but that doesn’t equate to saying he isn’t doing a good job.Originally posted by the other bob wilson View Post
Thing is, everything gets exaggerated these days. It’s how the media works now and it’s also how a large percentage of football fans behave.Comment
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Re: Sean Morrison
That Premium thing has got to be a joke, there is nothing worth reading ever anyway, all they talk about is LR zammit, traffic problems on m4, other x rugby players and endless misery stories about someone who tragically died.Originally posted by Hilts View PostComment
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