Where it went wrong for Holden as City boss
SWEEPING into Ashton Gate in new shoes and a smart new suit to match the club hierarchy sat beside him, Dean Holden was supposed to be the start of something fresh after the mundane football which came at the end of Lee Johnson’s tenure.
CEO Mark Ashton and chairman Jon Lansdown said they were confident they had found the right man after a six-week search. It was the man who had been sat right next to Johnson.
Fast forward five months and the football, which briefly sparkled in September and October had all fizzled out. Half the squad lies on the treatment table and the Robins are back to square one. Given the sheer audacity to take six weeks and then appoint one of the assistant head coaches last summer, Holden’s time might feel like a botched experiment. Preserve company culture, promote from within and minimise losses at a time when revenues have been wiped out.
‘Deano’ said the right things and, appropriately, he exemplified those outstanding human qualities which saw him gain the job in the first place.
When this writer was furloughed early last year Holden wrote to myself to offer reassurance and confidence I would be back writing on City again in the near future. A classy touch and the like of which endeared him across the Bristol City squad, as players backed him on social media to get the top job in the summer.
Perhaps that inward pull was noticed by the board and they chanced their arm in appointing an inexperienced coach, whose lack of experience in the top job was offset by two England coaches arriving to work with him.
However, slowly things conspired against the Mancunian who charmed many and who won many City fans over with his early Three Lions pub visit, a promise not to mug off the fans, and by a clear vision for how to progress on the pitch by using 3-5-2 and two No 8-style attacking midfielders behind a front two.
But things conspired against Holden. Some 20 injuries were amassed across the campaign, including key players such as midfielders Liam Walsh, Joe Williams, Andi Weimann and central defender Nathan Baker.
Holden was not one for publicly accusing the players as the previous manager had done, and never once did he ‘throw any of his players under a bus’ regarding his comments to the media. He was stoic and towed the party line, despite the board deciding not to add a left-back in the January transfer window.
A few grumbles over a lack of tactical preparation and little work on team shape were made but Holden held a happy camp, though it was divided between the tent at Failand which contained the rehabbing players and those able to train and play.
The captain, Tomas Kalas, even joked at one point that he would not know if a player had returned from injury as there were so many names on the whiteboard of injured players that you could not tell if one had been removed.
Alas, the video messages before games were not impacting as much as the heavy pitches and hamstring strains were, and after 41 games Holden paid the price, leaving both Bristol league clubs without managers at the same time.
THE FINAL BLOW READING waltzing to a 2-0 victory at Ashton Gate was the final straw for City’s hierarchy. The Robins were soundly beaten and we knew Holden’s time was up.
Steve Lansdown had given a radio interview before the fixture asking City to provide a response from Saturday’s drubbing at Watford. There simply was none.
Following that impassioned update from Lansdown, who wanted an instant turnaround in fortunes, the pressure was really cranked up. Reading were back in town and looking to inflict a first league double over the Robins since 2016-17. But Veljko Paunovic’s side didn’t need to leave second gear as they strolled to victory with five shots on target to City’s one, leading to a tenth loss in 13 Championship matches, and six losses in succession across all competitions.
The visitors from Berkshire swept into a two-goal lead with a quick fire double of two goals in 180 seconds just before the break. To get to that point they had to withstand an early barrage of physical challenges as the home side tried to leave their mark, but to no success.
Reading were in control and looked the more likely to add to their score as the game wore on with Bayern Munich-linked Omar Richards showing City what a good left-back looks like.
At the final whistle the atmosphere was positively funereal as the music was quickly wound down.The media waited and waited for Holden to appear. He never came.
Holden promoted youth with a flourish and was unfortunate to have never had the fans in attendance at any games while he was in charge, a prompt tier change back in December thwarting those hopes of an attendance at Ashton Gate for a game or two at least.
Too much tinkering, a lack of consistent game-plan and an inability to settle on a favoured XI cost him in the longer term.
HOLDEN IN NUMBERS
IN 41 matches in the Ashton Gate hot-seat, Holden managed 18 wins, five draws, and 18 losses. Forty-seven goals were scored by the Robins and 51 conceded, though at the time of the sacking the club had let in 10 since they last struck.