Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Ponder Johnson’s replacement
team allows the club to plan effectively so that should a coach leave there’s a seamless transition in terms of the playing squad and academy.
But it takes a certain type of coach to function in those surroundings without complaint, and there are many at Championship level who would not; those that crave total control and to be responsible for the upkeep of all aspects of the club. Or, at least, the one they care about.
Having a strong working relationship with Ashton is absolute paramount. A well-connected and wellrespected individual throughout football, he will have encountered managers he naturally bonds with and those he does not. That indicates that Johnson’s successor will be another version of him – a manager on the younger end of the spectrum who has built something similar at a smaller club or who has particularly interesting ideas on the game.
Then again, are the reasons why Johnson was dismissed, having flown the flag for the Bristol Sport model for so long, now indicating a change in approach from Steve and Jon Lansdown and Ashton?
Yes, players have been sold but sizeable transfer fees have been invested, transfer records broken, the wage bill escalated for City only to become a guaranteed top-ten side. While the former coach did fit the model, did he need to do more than just that?
There is considerable expectation now. Of which Johnson is responsible for, but when he took over the only obligation was for survival, now the internal desires are of much greater ambition. The bar has been raised significantly.
Is there recognition from within that to make that leap, they have to try something different? And what they thought would work, didn’t; that Johnson was the test case and they may have to look back to more traditional methods, to press on.
Is there a will from within for some Championship promotion knowhow and that patience surrounding progress can only last so long without continuing tangible improvement?
If that is the case, Bristol City could face a situation where the very foundations they have built this club on may have to be altered to accommodate a different direction to get them to the Premier League.
Will considerations have to be made to a “name” manager who wants greater control over transfers? Who will complain when he doesn’t get his way with budgets and surrounding sales? Who may not buy into the “pathway” from academy to first team (although, admittedly, an area Johnson often fell down in; but again was that because of the growth in expectation)? Were these not the very issues that eventually led to Steve Cotterill’s departure and then the recognition that a Johnson-type head coach was required?
This is a pivotal moment and appointment, not just in the history of Bristol City, but in the very ideals that have guided the Robins in much of the last decade and which the Lansdowns have built their ownership of the club on.
In the minds of many supporters, the next appointment should be about getting the most obvious candidate to get City into the Premier League – the best manager available. But it’s far more complicated and nuanced than that, and the “best” part is abstract and subjective.
Yes, an impressive CV will come into it, and could well be a determining factor between two candidates who make similar impressions, but it’s also about who the best man is for Bristol City and the concept of the club in 2020.
The intriguing part is that with Johnson’s departure, it’s not completely clear right now exactly what that is and whoever takes over will either tell us, or test it.
City play away to Neil Warnock’s Middlesbrough in the Championship this afternoon (3pm).
SISTERS Becky and Ellie Downie returned from last year’s World Gymnastics Championships with medals around their necks, but say their smiles hid a history of bullying and mental abuse that blighted their rise to the top of the sport, writes Mark Staniforth.
Becky, 28, and 20-year-old Ellie, who are both members of the GB elite squad and considered strong medal favourites for the Tokyo Olympics, said they decided to speak out after witnessing the “brave” testimonies of an increasing number of contemporaries.
Earlier this week, it emerged that another member of the Rio 2016 Olympic team was still awaiting a response over eight months after lodging a complaint that included allegations relating to bullying and threatening behaviour by coaching staff.
In a joint statement released via their respective social media channels, the pair said they had experienced a litany of historic bullying and abuse, including a focus on weight which Ellie Downie said had “left deep scars which will never be healed”.
The pair, pictured, said: “We certainly didn’t realise how wrong it was at the time. It’s taken years and years to understand and come to terms with it.
“While exact experiences vary, we both recognise the environment of fear and mental abuse those before us have described so bravely. For too long, the health and well-being of young girls has been of secondary importance to a dated, cruel, and – we’d argue – often ineffective culture within women’s gymnastics training.”
Becky Downie described how she had been “trained to the point of physical breakdown” on many occasions in her career, adding: “Only in recent years I’ve understood properly the mental impact that’s had upon me.”
She added: “As recently as 2018, and given I was by this point a very senior athlete, I attempted to speak up at a national camp about what I considered was an unsafe approach to my training.
“I was just shot down, called ‘mentally weak’, and told the injury pain levels I was experiencing were in my head.
“Just 12 days later, at the European Championships, my ankle broke down yet again; a direct consequence of the unsafe training I (had) attempted to bring up less than a fortnight earlier.”
British Gymnastics has initiated an independent review and insisted: “We are determined to get to the bottom of these issues.”