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Luke Ayling


Big Red Rich

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Unfortunately unless you fit the Bristol Sport business/corporate image, you have no career here. 

Who cares about football ability if you could offend a man in a suit who sits in a box with a poxy sponsorship detail. 

I was for BS for years, I fought against anyone who had anything bad to say. We're no longer a football club, but a business. The recent summer restructure that cost good people jobs is further evidence of this. It's very sad. 

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So Preston, Warnock and the Sun seem to think Greg Cunningham is the best Left Back outside the Prem.

Bet365 and Leeds state Ayling is.

Harry wanted Joe Bryan, apparently Boro and a prem team did as well.

Perhaps we are very good at producing brilliant left backs, but our coaches don't realise this.

However selling Cunningham (400K) and Ayling (750K) show that for all the good negotiations that Ashton and co have done, they have seriously been left with their pants down there. I know people will jump up with Ashton wasn't around when Cunningham went, but I'm sure I read he was helping us on a non contractual agreement that summer and he and Cotts fell out and Cotts didn't want him here, part of the reason Cotts ended up going.

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7 minutes ago, Clarky89 said:

Unfortunately unless you fit the Bristol Sport business/corporate image, you have no career here. 

Who cares about football ability if you could offend a man in a suit who sits in a box with a poxy sponsorship detail. 

I was for BS for years, I fought against anyone who had anything bad to say. We're no longer a football club, but a business. The recent summer restructure that cost good people jobs is further evidence of this. It's very sad. 

Freeman also on fire at QPR. Our promotion team ripped apart and not strengthened. 

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15 minutes ago, palmerred said:

So Preston, Warnock and the Sun seem to think Greg Cunningham is the best Left Back outside the Prem.

Bet365 and Leeds state Ayling is the best right back outside the PL.

Harry wanted Joe Bryan, apparently Boro and a prem team did as well.

Perhaps we are very good at producing brilliant left backs, but our coaches don't realise this.

However selling Cunningham (400K) and Ayling (750K) show that for all the good negotiations that Ashton and co have done, they have seriously been left with their pants down there. I know people will jump up with Ashton wasn't around when Cunningham went, but I'm sure I read he was helping us on a non contractual agreement that summer and he and Cotts fell out and Cotts didn't want him here, part of the reason Cotts ended up going.

Fixed for you otherwise I agree with what you say!

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Ayling was always good at bringing the ball forward but the way in which we played him for most of his time with us (as the right sided centre back in a 3) meant that when he went AWOL upfield along with the right and left wing back, so we were left with just 2 at the back and open to being torn apart on the break. Forget the exact number of times that we were caught out this way in the first half of the 2015-16 season, but left Flinty cursing and often resulted in us conceding, in large part explaining why we struggled so much. Gung Ho attack as part of the "League 1 Gslaticos" was fine at that level but we got caught out playing the same way at Championship level.

Only when we changed formation after dispensing with Cotterill did we ever play Ayling as a right back. Still got caught out upfield from time to time, but less of a problem with more cover on the right in a 4-4-2 formation. And then we brought in Adam Matthews, who was seen as an upgrade on Ayling. That didn't exactly work out but I don't  blame the club for that one because on paper it was true. Just that Matthews showed his true unprofessional attitude last season once he had a year loan contract and no Euro championships to aim for.

And yes the club / Bristol Sport seemed very unimpressed with the Cheltenham episode, which certainly counted against Ayling.

As for Cunningham, he's a left back and at the time we wanted a left wing back. You can argue that was short sighted but Cunningham wanted game time and Joe Bryan was the man in possession and on fire in League 1. Cunningham probably better defensively, while Bryan is probably better going forward, witness his attempt that crashed against the bar yesterday, which was one of the few moments of any quality.

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28 minutes ago, tinman85 said:

Freeman also on fire at QPR. Our promotion team ripped apart and not strengthened. 

Come on, that is really stretching the point.

Ayling's sale looks a big mistake and as others have said was probably down to the Cheltenham shenanigans as much as anything.

Freeman was average for us at Championship level, out of contract the following summer and I can't recall anyone on here sad to see him go.

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I did not want Ayling to go AT ALL AND REALLY RATED HIM but he was average in some games and was not the player for us he seems to be for Leeds - whether that was formation, coaching or whatever I would not know.

But based on how he played for us I would say Pisano is an upgrade and we have finally got that position correct.

Seems to me many on this forum are trying to find any reason to criticise the club again - this place is as poison if not more than last season. It is August FFS !!

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57 minutes ago, Clarky89 said:

Unfortunately unless you fit the Bristol Sport business/corporate image, you have no career here. 

Who cares about football ability if you could offend a man in a suit who sits in a box with a poxy sponsorship detail. 

I was for BS for years, I fought against anyone who had anything bad to say. We're no longer a football club, but a business. The recent summer restructure that cost good people jobs is further evidence of this. It's very sad. 

Every football club in the league is a 'business' and has been for a long long time. There's nothing remotely unique about us.

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26 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Come on, that is really stretching the point.

Ayling's sale looks a big mistake and as others have said was probably down to the Cheltenham shenanigans as much as anything.

Freeman was average for us at Championship level, out of contract the following summer and I can't recall anyone on here sad to see him go.

Count me as 1. 

I was sad to see Freeman leave and commented on here at the time that our creativity dried up immediately after his departure. His goals and assists weren't there, which many judged him on, but he was involved in most good things we did / created. I was sorry to see him go. 

Likewise I always rated Ayling. I can never understand the reasoning behind offloading these two very talented footballers - particularly if we were looking to build a team of players 'comfortable' on the ball. 

Matthews, Little, Pisano are not upgrades on Ayling as a right back. 

Paterson, O'Dowda, Brownhill are not upgrades on Freeman as a winger. 

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1 hour ago, palmerred said:

So Preston, Warnock and the Sun seem to think Greg Cunningham is the best Left Back outside the Prem.

Bet365 and Leeds state Ayling is.

Harry wanted Joe Bryan, apparently Boro and a prem team did as well.

Perhaps we are very good at producing brilliant left backs, but our coaches don't realise this.

However selling Cunningham (400K) and Ayling (750K) show that for all the good negotiations that Ashton and co have done, they have seriously been left with their pants down there. I know people will jump up with Ashton wasn't around when Cunningham went, but I'm sure I read he was helping us on a non contractual agreement that summer and he and Cotts fell out and Cotts didn't want him here, part of the reason Cotts ended up going.

Cunningham went for free. Him and Cotterill hated each other. 

Just need to look at how much he celebrated when he scored against us to tell you all you need to know on that. 

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35 minutes ago, Spoons said:

At the time I was more than happy to get rid of Luke ayling and have him replaced by Adam Matthews.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Yep. Would be easy to bemoan letting him go but I completely agree with you. I wasn't up in arms at all about him going, wasn't happy but certainly wasn't gutted by any stretch as I felt the club had the opportunity to upgrade on him. 

Fair play to LA for performing so well for LUFC. He's obviously getting the tools to enable him to perform up there that he didn't get here for whatever reason. Or maybe the move has just matured him and as a result he's playing better.  Whatever, here's hoping we have a good sell on clause! 

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44 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Come on, that is really stretching the point.

Ayling's sale looks a big mistake and as others have said was probably down to the Cheltenham shenanigans as much as anything.

Freeman was average for us at Championship level, out of contract the following summer and I can't recall anyone on here sad to see him go.

I was sad to see Freeman go. Like a lot of players here, I just don't feel they've had a fair chance under LJ - that's not to say they haven't had a fair chance to play with LJ as head coach - just I think some players aren't getting the chance to flourish under LJ's tenure owing to his tactics. 

Legal troubles not withstanding I'd have liked to have seen Tomlin under another manager, just as I'd have liked to have seen Ayling, Freeman, Gary O'Neil and many others. These are all players we know have proper quality, but we haven't really seen it under LJ. He's the common denominator, but sadly it appears that SL has backed the wrong horse. 

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2 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Never knew that, why was that?

 

General personality clash. It happens. If you look back at what Cotts said when Cunningham left, he was extremely sterned face and didn't have much good to say about him. 

Cunningham went ******* nuts when he scored against us. And pretty much every Preston player surrounded him after the game. 

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I liked Ayling, thought he was good, and said to my Leeds' supporting friend at the time that they had made a good signing.

I'd like to have received more for him but cannot claim that I was desperately unhappy with his being sold as he wasn't brilliant defensively.  Good on him for getting the "best outside the premiership" appelation.

Similarly Freeman is performing well at QPR but for whatever reason his style of play had ceased working here.

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