Some Questions From Last Week

It seemed a hell of a four days (Thurs to Sun) looking on from Lanzarote. Day 1: Get to Wembley. Day 2: Get L1 MOM and POM. Day 3: Lose our manager with seemingly very little resistance from the Board. Day 4: Brush off his departure with another solid victory and another clean sheet. I posted at length about Lee Johnson and our situation last month, thinking I'd finally got my head around our recent form and progress. But it blew my mind that any manager would walk out on a club with a Wembley appearance pending. Okay, Bristol have the money to offer him (10M business v 5M business and all that). But how much better would a Wembley victory (and we are favourites) and a potential playoff charge look on his CV, and would he have had even better offers in the Summer?

I find myself wondering (acknowledging discussions I've had here with Grandfathertyke) whether relations were very good between Lee and the club, given the apparent lack of interest in retaining him? That in turn raises a question about just who we credit for the turnaround in performance? Did he give up the 4-5-1 nonsense only reluctantly? Did he have much (any?) say in the recruitment of Hammill, Long, White and Brownhill? And have Bristol really got what they think they've got? And if his ideas take time to take a hold at Ashton Gate (as they seem to have done at Oakwell - if they were his ideas) where will his stock be if the Robins end up in League One?

Interesting times.