Big Mick on TalkSPORT

Didn't wiseman have to move over to the centre as it was his full back position Stones took originally cos Wiseman was injured.

 

Centre backs, Ian Evans....

 

Was only joking ….. mebbe

 

From what I remember , Stones wasn’t played regularly as he was very young but it was obvious that he was to be sold so perhaps he was being protected a bit.

It seemed fairly obvious that he would end up as a CB but, as said previously , he never played in the middle for us.

Not sure about your Wiseman query though

 

Think I’m qualified to reply to the Cardiff part of this.

MM tightened things up when he first arrived on a temporary basis and we managed to get a few wins. He was hastily given a contract towards the end of that season and then it just got worse and worse.

The “football” we were playing under him was diabolical with our half-decent midfield completely bypassed. In fact, turns out they were under directions from him when they had the ball to pass it back to one of our centre half’s for them to then launch it forward. We even passed directly back to our keeper from kick-offs for him to repeat the ball-bashing. That was the extent of his tactics!

There’s no doubt in my mind that he was trying to get himself sacked and get his hands on the contract pay-off, probably thinking he’d walk straight into another job. This spell culminated in a home game against West Brom where he chose (for the first time I’d ever seen in 50+ years of watching and playing football) a defence made up of 5, yes 5, centre half’s. Our only fit centre half’s btw, because if we had 7 I think he’d have played 7. West Brom scored after 4 minutes so his game plan, as if he had one lol, went out of the window. They went on to win 4-0 and we persisted with the hoofing forward which their defence lapped up. We didn’t trouble them at all at any point in the game - and he said he was pleased with the performance!

A couple of days later we played Reading at home and, apparently stung by the criticism, he went to a back four and we produced our best performance of the season. We completely dominated the game but lost 1-0 to their only shot of the game in one of their only attacks. Typical when you were in our position.

We then went into the derby game against Swansea down at theirs. We were quite optimistic under the stands after our last performance, beer was flowing and it was bouncing - and then the team news texts came in with 5 centre half’s again. The atmosphere died - as did our side. There was no coming back for him after that and, thankfully, he was sacked that day.

Just behind Alan Durban as the worst manager I’ve ever seen at the City and I’m not surprised he’s not involved in football any more. Trust me, whatever your good memories of him are, you’re better off without him in charge.

And if you’re looking in Mick, I’d be more than happy to provide a reference for you.

 

Aye, youre definitely in a great position to comment on him! Perhaps I was sounding too harsh or perhaps people just don't like talking down to a club legend, but his recent years in management has been incredibly poor. As I say, personally I just think his style of football is outdated. Its alot more than just putting an extra body in defense to try and shut up shop. There's a million managers these days vying for his position so you have to constantly adapt, change and tinker. Mick just hasn't done that, so whilst an initial shake up can work, back to basics as the cliche is, usually will not work longer term.

 

Was uncle Mick wearing his dinosaur costume ehh ?, which fits him perfectly by the way lol.