City Chat: Coppell to be confirmed as new boss today (From Gazette Series)

Bristol City fans’ panel by Will Collins

10:50am Thursday 22nd April 2010 in Sport

CITY slumped to a disappointing 3-0 defeat at Scunthorpe United on Saturday in what was supposed to be Keith Millen’s last game in charge in his caretaker manager role.

It was announced on Monday morning that Millen would in fact remain in charge of first team affairs until the end of the season but Steve Coppell is set to be announced as City’s new manager today.

Initially rumours surfaced suggesting that both chairman Steve Lansdown and Coppell had been displeased with the premature announcement of the prospective appointment and this had let to some sort of breakdown in communication between the two. However, as the week has gone on there have been suggestions that one of Coppell’s representatives has been a victim of the UK’s flying ban following the eruption of the volcano in Iceland.

A bizarre a reason you’ll ever hear for the delay in appointing a football manager but a plausible one nevertheless as you’d imagine Coppell would need a trusted representative present in order to finalise the detailing of a contract.

I assume that for the last two games of the season Coppell will be present to view from the stands and cast his eye over the current playing squad before deciding which players he wants to keep and who to move on when he takes over in May. If he gets to watch the DVD from the Scunthorpe game then his initial concern will probably be the defence. Individual errors from Bradley Orr and Christian Ribeiro capped off another game in which we were defensively at sea.

If City beat Derby on Saturday then it would take us beyond the 61 points we achieved last season which is quite hard to believe considering the turbulent season that we have endured what with some heavy home defeats and a change of manager.

Coppell will have a sound base on which to build on and it is hoped he can replicate his success at Crystal Palace and Reading.

Do you agree with Will’s views? Is Steve Coppell the right man for Bristol City? Have your say below.