#this is not a ted hate account btw i just don't think he was good for jamie as a player

[tartt9]

for a large majority of jamie's life, his managers fell under two categories: bad and pep.

in this blog's canon, he got his call up to city's senior side under pelligrini, who i'll be the first to admit i don't know a TON about personally, but he's a manager who moves clubs every 2-3 years so that tells me enough about his coaching style to say that jamie never felt secure or comfortable under him especially coming in as a junior. jamie as a rookie was bullied by the older men in the club for his talent according to phil so i'm running with that and saying that that was all happening under pelligrini (or whatever lassoverse person was at city before pep, there's no mention of city before pep so i'm assuming it adheres to real life staff).

then pep comes in and switches up the wholeeee atmosphere at the club. he's not a manager who would allow bullying of any sort in his dressing room, which is part of the reason that im convinced jamie got his senior call up before pep came. anyways pep is known for being this very affectionate, very loving, very emotional coach - he's everything james denigrated in a man and everything jamie was taught he wasn't allowed to be, but here's a shining example of the fact that he can be emotional and affectionate and still be successful in football so he started to really grow into the premier league under pep's management!

pep constantly rotates his starting xi, he cares deeply for his young players and wants to make sure they shine, will constantly lather praise upon them when he's asked, will wrap his players in hugs after matches. pep has no room for an ego in his dressing room and he will sit players who think they're better than the environment he creates. having pep to support him while he's coming up and growing into these massive, premier league sized boots is something so important for who jamie is as a player and a man.

not to mention he's also a tactical genius and has now won the treble twice (the only manager to ever do that in european football). plus. this is him as a player (that has nothing to do with jamie's experience with him but i think jamie learned a lot from him both about football and as a player, plus as a man. i think a lot of his personality comes from pep). and when jamie was sent on loan it was with a promise from pep that if jamie could develop a little bit more he'd earn his spot in the XI more frequently, he could start for city instead of just being a second teamer. so he goes. (i also think pep knew about jamie's whole thing about roy but that's not the point rn)

pep does not like george cartrick. sending jamie on loan to richmond was probably something he didn't exactly want to do but he knew it was best for jamie as a player. the handshake between cartrick and pep after richmond lost to city 9-0 at the etihad while jamie sat in the vip section bc he couldn't play against his parent club was probably SOOOO passive aggressive. like. this level of passive aggression

and cartrick's a shit manager who cares more about slinging slurs and proving his own masculinity than about managing a successful team, richmond's canonically mediocre pre-s1 and i think that has to do with cartrick not caring if not using the James Tartt Method of "you're failing so you're xyz a little bitch zyx". so from jamie to go from pep to that was probably just. awful for his mental health. he was being driven to the point of insanity due to incompetent coaching, and not to mention he had mannion whispering into his ear about the fact that he could become a star at richmond akin to messi and ronaldo and all those people

and then ted comes and jamie's under his fourth manager in five years and he now knows it's a coin toss but he starts off skeptical bc he's an american. we see jamie lifting weights pre-press conference but as soon as ted starts talking and it cuts back to the gym jamie's actually listening to ted and giving him a chance. but ted keeps proving his own incompetence as a manager and jamie trusts him less and less as he comes up with these mediocre plays and doesn't seem to care when they lose and they fall more and more towards the bottom of the table and jamie knows relegation is a real fear and he wants to do everything in his power to keep richmond from that not just to impress his dad but to impress pep so he keeps fighting and we find out that he's scored 11 goals during his loan (which is in the top 20 of most goals scored all SEASON in 2019-20, not even counting the goals jamie may have scored upon his return to city) so like. obviously jamie cares about richmond, he cares about the club, he wants to see them succeed. and ted's just fucking them all up. that drives jamie more and more towards a full fledged breakdown because no matter how hard he tries he's not the manager, he's not a captain, he feels like he's the only one actually trying for the sake of this team bc at that point roy definitely isn't (even if jamie's being a prick about it the whole time)

and jamie doesn't like ted when he first shows up, but he STILL goes to the sacrifice show and tell, he still TRIES (like sure it's with a nudge from keeley but he still could've just... not gone) and he gets sent back to city anyway. and that starts to solidify ted with the cartrick class of managers he's had. and then ted sees james literally abusing him, jamie looks to him with a look in his eyes that's like. please help me. and ted walks away. and that's that. jamie's firmly of the belief that he's had pep, and then he's had shit managers.

and he wants to thrive at city because pep is a Good Manager and a Good Man. but. james gets to him too much and he has to leave the one Man In A Position Of Authority he's ever trusted just to keep himself safe from a full fledged breakdown bc of his dad (even if going on lust was his full fledged breakdown, his cry for help that no one seemed to hear)

so he goes back to ted bc ted's the only manager who'd agree to have him after lust, and he tries so hard, but it's pretty obvious that beard/nate/roy are the reasons the club's even running a little bit successfully, and it takes jamie (with peace and love) to elevate the club back to the prem

he likes ted as a man, but he's not entirely sure he's a good manager, even after s3. ted's obviously good with the players, with the environment he brings to the club, but he barely knows the offside rule in the finale which.... with peace and love.... it is not that hard to learn

we don't canonically know what roy's like as a manager, but seeing him interact with isaac, seeing him coach... i'd like to think he falls more under the 'pep' category than the 'bad' category but... we don't know ! we don't know <3