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Stopped reading after the suggestion that Danny Simpson was on 15k a week. I’m sure the rest of your post was brilliant and I’m missing out.

To some people, all our mistakes and failings on the pitch are STILL the fault of Mark Ashton and Lee Johnson. 'Sir' Nigel can do no wrong; when things go right he's brilliant and when things go wrong it's all down to LJ and MA - REALLY??? Lets look at some of Nigel Pearson's bigger decisions in more detail: He let Pato and Fammy leave on a free, but didn't replace either of them - to 'save wages' apparently. Ok, fair enough - we WERE skint - so what does he do? He goes and signs Simpson - on £15k per week.......... He refused play our most expensive 'assets' (Wells and Palmer) - or his own purchase, Simpson - which is fair enough if he doesn't think they are good enough (apart from Simpson - why sign him if he's ****?), ...... but then at the same time won't allow Wells to go to Cardiff or Swansea - who were both interested on taking him on loan, which would have saved us his wages AND put him in the shop window. Why? Maybe he was scared that he might start playing a tune under a different (better) manager who actually PLAYS him?!! The official line is that Nigel didn't want to let Wells go to a Championship rival. IF Wells had been allowed to go and play in Wales - and gone on to score shedloads - it would have raised his stock and we would have been more likely to be able to offload him. Loans often turn into permanent moves and it could have been good for everyone. We were virtually safe at the time - and Nigel wasn't playing him anyway - so the risk to us was minimal. None of the above makes common sense for a regime supposedly strapped for cash - we can't bleat on and on (blah blah blah) about money wasted by MA and LJ, when he goes and does this. Kalas is another example of bizarre management - he had a GREAT Euro tournament for his country and has been one of our most reliable players for years - but Pearson dropped him from our first 11. Bizarre. This smells of a dressing-room fallout to me - a clash of egos maybe? At a time when we needed all the defensive firepower we could get. At least Weimann is playing well though - thank Christ. ALL the above have been MANAGEMENT decisions by 'sir' Nigel - and bloody poor ones. Nothing to do with LJ or MA - or even SL/JL Nigel Pearson has been a poor manager so far. I'm extremely disappointed. I didn't expect promotion - I expected a period of 'settling down', but I did expect it to be better than this. I can't even describe what Nigel Pearson's 'style' of play is. No I still don't want NP sacked - yet - believe it or not, it IS possible to criticise the manager without wanting him replaced - and besides - it's only worth sacking someone if there is a better replacement available. However, I don't buy any more of this 'he inherited a **** squad' bollocks any more. He did his bit to CREATE the current '****' squad, so if the squad really IS '****' then it's partly of his own making. To be fair to Nigel, it's just some of our FANS who are saying this, not Pearson himself. He needs to do the job he's paid to do - lets not forget that he's being paid more than ANY other manager in the history of our club - EVEN MORE THAN LEE JOHNSON WAS!! Some of his decisions defy logic and he really needs to step up. I'm really beginning to wonder if he is a 'one hit wonder' (with Leicester) - like Wilson was (with Barnsley). I seriously hope NOT - for all our sakes, but he's certainly NOT the messiah.

here you go: Nahki Wells £35,000 Tomáš Kalas £2,000 Kasey Palmer £50,000 Andreas Weimann £1,000 Danny Simpson £35,000 Daniel Bentley £400 Matty James £1000 Joe Williams £40,000 Nathan Baker £7.50 Callum O'Dowda £400 Chris Martin £820 Source: Bristol City 2022 Wages | Player & Team totals (imakethingsup.com)

To be honest we’re hardly a good watch to anyone who’s actually invested in the club, why would any neutral be interested?

Why people are "gutted" or "feel sorry" for Chelski is beyond me. A club who's success has been built on dodgy, laundered money, stolen from the Russian people, by a Putin ally. And whose money has been a significant cause of the sanitisation and excess of the Premier League. No, #### Chelski. I'm glad they are out of Europe. I hope Palace beat them at the weekend and all.

If I were a Derby resident I would be none too happy if my hard earned council tax ( paid out of my net personal income - net after income tax has been deducted and paid) were to be used to pay £20m to the man who oversaw the evasion/non-payment of £25m of tax payments. It’s a sort of ironic hypocrisy.

Firstly… …you are completely entitled to your opinion on NP. There are some very good debates going back and forth. I don’t think there’s any posters on here who think he’s the messiah, there are some that think he’s done well enough to not deserve a “results-based only” criticism. There are some on the NP-negative side that put together well founded arguments as to their view. It is this type of debate that makes OTIB a very good forum. Secondly… Re the numbers, there have been many, many posts over the past few years quoting websites like Sportrac, who promote their salary info as FACT. It’s not not difficult to look behind these figures in terms of other media news, football manager websites, club quotes etc, and see that although some will be in the right ball-park, others are a combo of made-up / guesswork and out of date guesswork too. For info, probably the most trusted ITKer on OTIB said Simpson’s re-signed contract in the summer was basically a coaches wage plus appearance money (or words to that effect). Kid has given us some pretty good insight on player salaries. That’s not to say he’s right, but he has historically had good contacts. Re Weimann, the “story” is that he pretty much halved his wages to get 3 years. Other clubs (Stoke we think) only wanted to give him 2 years. Pearson actually stated words to that effect. Silvio’s explanation re Weimann is a good example of how to debunk the Sportrac stuff. Re Baker, the “story” is he took quite a chunk off his wages and has a more “performance related” deal for his 2 year re-signed contract. He was OOC in reality, tried the market and found out he couldn’t get what he thought he was worth. Pearson backed up the lower wage bit, the other bit about “performance related” is conjecture. But it’s pretty likely he’s no on the £18-20k p.w. he allegedly was on when he moved from Villa, having taken a relegation cut at Villa from a £35k p.w. PL deal. The bits above aren’t me saying “I know” either, just me using what’s been reported / said to poo-Pooh those pesky websites. I’ve not seen their contracts, nor have Sportrac! Its up to you how much you want to take them at face value.

Simpson was paid nowhere near 15k a week. Letting Paterson go wasn't a mistake and Famara didn't want to stay. You're overrating Kalas massively, his performances have declined since Webster left. Obviously been reliable but he's got tremendous holes in his game. There's plenty of valid criticisms of Pearson, just none of those.

The keeper when I first started going as a kid. The thing he used to do with the crossbar when the team ran out towards the East End as I stood behind the net clinging to the railings endeared him to me so, for me, the best.

Nobody is saying you’re a clown for suggesting Pearson should do better. It’s a valid viewpoint. What you’re getting stuck for is the reliance on figures from a site which is clearly (and proven) guessing wages. There is no reason to suggest we’d have signed a 34 year old free agent right back who needed a trial as a top earner. You’re then getting stick for saying that he let Fam go, when it was totally clear he had no intent of staying. You might have a point with should he have let Wells go to Cardiff, but the overall point is lost in your vitriolic logic being based around the Simpson assumption. My suggestion would be to start a new thread, with criticism of Pearson not based around something clearly erroneous. Again, it’s a valid viewpoint but the hinge for this particular argument is too broken.

I am 110% sure that the departing Lee O'Neill drafted this paragraph of his leaving statement: ?

I stopped ready at the point the OP said that NP let Fammy go on a free. Came back to it a bit later to see whether the rest was as bad. Wall to wall twaddle with a transparent agenda.

I guess the logical question is why can't they do that without being captain?

Bristol City Fans - our players are stealing a living, the board haven’t gotta clue Nigel Pearson - some of our players are passive, the club is passive Bristol City Fans - how dare you criticise the players and club ??? ???

Personal view is he must stay. I cant think of anyone out there who would want the job knowing no money to spend and maybe a couple of our best leaving. NP has resingned himself to that.

Just got back from Taunton's win against Yate this evening in front of a crowd of 1,068. The Peacocks are on the verge of promotion to National League South (step 2) for the first time in their history. As fate would have it, their next game is at bitter rivals Tiverton Town this Bank Holiday Monday, where they can all but seal promotion with a win. Always been a feisty fixture and I'd expect at least 500 Taunton will travel down for the game. Will be good for the region if Taunton get promoted as National League South is very South East centric. Good to bump into a few City tonight who were supporting Taunton too !

"Sign this if you want your pay off and a good reference" .

I certainly didn’t get that impression from watching today’s press conference. He seems very much up for the challenge.

Good man Nige

"The aim of the club are still very clear and that is that we want to be a Prem club. We’re a long way from it. We spoke about being a 3-year plan. Maybe I won’t see the realisation of that dream at the end of my tenure but that won't stop me working towards it." From today.

Don’t knock the Internet I’ve just checked the current League Table from the same site Team Pl W D L F A GD Pts Last 6 1 Fulham 40 25 8 7 94 35 59 83 2 Bournemouth 39 21 10 8 62 35 27 73 3 Bristol City 41 19 12 10 92 14 78 69 4 Nottingham Forest 39 19 10 10 61 36 25 67 5 Luton Town 41 18 11 12 59 47 12 65 6 Sheffield United 41 18 11 12 53 41 12 65 7 Blackburn Rovers 41 17 12 12 52 42 10 63 8 Middlesbrough 40 18 8 14 52 42 10 62 9 Millwall 41 16 13 12 45 40 5 61 10 Coventry City 41 16 11 14 54 51 3 59 11 Queens Park Rangers 41 17 8 16 55 53 2 59 12 West Bromwich Albion 41 15 12 14 45 40 5 57 13 Preston North End 41 14 15 12 43 46 -3 57 14 Barnsley 40 16 9 15 48 53 -5 57 15 Stoke City 41 15 10 16 53 47 6 55 16 Blackpool 40 14 11 15 44 47 -3 53 17 Peterborough United 40 14 7 19 47 61 -14 49 18 Birmingham City 41 11 12 18 43 60 -17 45 19 Huddersfield Town 41 12 9 20 52 73 -21 45 20 Hull City 41 12 8 21 34 45 -11 44 21 Reading * 41 12 7 22 48 77 -29 37 22 Swansea 40 6 11 23 30 59 -29 29 23 Derby County * 41 12 13 16 40 47 -7 28 24 Cardiff City (R) 41 0 8 33 34 82 -48 08 Im looking forward to the run in , and it shows what a great job Nigel Pearson is doing

‘He let Fammy go on a free’ ’He signed Simpson on £15k a week’ ???????? At that point it was pointless reading on ........Lets make things up and make a new thread

So that’s £80m then?!

If a Tory Council buy Pride Park for £20m and give the money to MM and not HMRC then there should, imo, be a public outcry. I would hope that some of the respected (non Tory) Newspapers in this country run with the story.

You’ve made this all sound much more sinister than it really was. The “off field reasons” you’ve mentioned with regard to him leaving Leicester were about the actions of his son ... there was no insinuation that Nigel had done anything wrong. And the ‘suspension and internal investigation’ at Derby was simply because he had a row with the club’s owner (Mel Morris) when the owner started using drones to observe Nigel’s training sessions. I’d expect any manager worth his salt to object to being ‘observed’ in that way. So, despite the way you worded your summaries of his departures from Leicester and Derby, I don’t believe Nigel did anything wrong on both occasions ...

@HomerRed In those days, the keepers were only allowed to wear four colours. GREEN; which was the standard because only one side in the League wore green shirts - Plymouth Argyle. RED / BLUE / WHITE; White was never seen until Peter Shilton wore it for Leicester City in the early 1970's. So when any side wearing RED played against Argyle, the only one used was BLUE Also in those far off times, in FA Cup matches, both sides, in the case of a colour clash, had to change shirt colours. Many teams used white shirts as their second colour, so clubs tossed a coin to be able to use white shirts. The losers had to find another colour. In the 1950's it happened three times with City. 1954 at home to Rotherham and Accrington Stanley 1958, away and the reply at home. For those games City wore Rovers Blue/White Quarters. In 1959 against Blackpool home and replay away aginst Blackpool, a set of kit from Cardiff City Nobody got uptight about City wearing blue shirts. City's change colours were normally White but in the early 1950's they used BLUE as first change for League games. Both City and Rovers had reserve teams in the Football Combination and the Western League. Rovers Western League side wore RED and White quarters. I never saw their First or Combination teams play so don't know if they wore white as a change or the red/white quarters. Here endeth the Prehistoric history lesson!

I refer to my post on the opening page of this thread back in August, which I stand by 100%:

Oh how I wish for the days I could attend the Sky AGM's

Yes and again I like the fact that he isn’t focusing on the short term ‘me, me, me’. He sees his role is to improve the club for the longer term - even if the ultimate achievement comes after his time, he will have played his part in that success. It is no surprise that a lot of Leicester fans recognise his role before their Premier league win and give him a lot of credit.

There is always a way to disprove things. The easy way here is Weimann. As seen above, for 2022 per that site he is on £18k p/w. We know as fact we renegotiated his contract in summer 2021 as the option was at a higher level, and we did a three year deal on lower money. So logic confirms he was on more than £18k per week in 2020 etc. Helpfully, Salarysport also gives the figures they’ve used for prior years. For Andi… https://salarysport.com/football/player/andreas-weimann/ Yes, their salary for him in 2020 is the same as in 2022. Leading to the indisputable conclusion, they are totally guessing and have no idea who is paid what.

Blimey, no wonder no-one wants Palmer ?

Well done to Glos CCC for changing BATSMEN on their scoreboard to BATTER. I know from personal experience the amount of females now in the game impaired to previous generations and it is great to see. Any inclusive amendment like this is incredibly welcome

With all due respect to and empathy with Derby's fans, I think this would be my preferred outcome. Derby would still exist, but in another form - think Rangers or Wimbledon - but, more importantly, the main cause of the problem, Mel Morris, would be left with the white elephant that is Pride Park Stadium, and still in hock to MSD.

Agree with this BS4. I don't think NP's reputation has dipped. I think his reputation precedes him in that Owners / Chairman are wary of him. On the lines of, he could do a good job but do I want to employ someone that will challenge and push back and make things uncomfortable at times? The above scenario seems to have become a reality for SL & Co and they should've known what NP is and can be. With this in mind, they should now bite the bullet and support him with what he wants as long as what he wants is within the clubs means and timescales. A caveat to the 'timescales' this has to be sensible from both SL and NP.

Has to be Weimann as vocal & certainly leads by example

Got Leicester to the Premier League, successful spells at Southampton and Hull. But since then he went to Derby which was a disaster for him, tried his luck in Belgium and got sacked, and so far struggling at BCFC. You also need to remember that if his reputation was still on the up there is no way he would've come to us, he would have better options, but the reality is he doesn't because his stock has fallen.

We make it so easy for the opposition at home. Been discussed so many times before. Away fans having the whole of the Atyeo doesn’t help mentioned by both Cotterill and Johnson when in charge. The fans who like to create an atmosphere shoved in the corner of the South Stand. The East End was always about creating a noise and getting behind the team.

Im, not going to read all of that but I agree

I’m guessing you’re adding mind reading to your huge lists of skills and accomplishments. I was merely pointing out the facts. Something I thought you were very keen on. If you read @Davefevs posts (the evidence suggests you obsess over them) then you will know he has talked about thirds all season. Your trolling is becoming increasingly tiresome and so I will join the growing group who have decided to put you on ignore.

At least this means that we haven’t been messed round as much with changes of day/time.

I’d prefer Andy James.

This. Add their fans into the equation and it was a fantastic result last night.

You shouldn’t need to wear an armband to do it anyway though, if you did would say more about the person to me

Head of DCC was up in Preston and met the EFL for around 3 hours today. CK dialled in on Zoom. Although nothing official is announced it strongly feels like there is am agreement between DCC/CK in place. CK is also in Derby tomorrow for a day of meetings with various parties including MPs. I'm still highly dubious that CK will follow through on completing a deal but I'm cautiously optimistic that the stadium stumbling block is being removed by DCC; albeit in a less than satisfactory way. I'm concerned about what the HMRC will say when it comes down to it - all the noises from local media is thay they're onboard with the 'plan' - but given that's from Quantuma briefings it makes me suspect the opposite! Though beggars can't be choosers I was always in the MA camp. However CKs twitter Q+As have been remarkably refreshing and if he does complete I think it'll be an interesting journey. Odds are he won't complete....but it really takes a strange individual to do all the things he has done/is doing.

I don't know if Gibbo was the best keeper that has played for City in my years of watching, but without a doubt my favourite. He seemed short for a keeper even back then,but was fearless and as a kid i was shocked when he was beaten. Had a real affinity with the supporters, we ****** loved him.

I really enjoy the 23s games as just there to see who is coming through and having a stab at who or will nor make it. The team today 100% wanted to win but it’s certainly not the end of the world they didn’t and just nice to watch a game without the pressures and frustration you experience with first team. What I’ve learnt is not to judge players too quickly as everyone has good and bad days and some then start to develop consistency. Casing point is Josh Owers who I felt was way of the pace first couple of times I saw him but every time I see him recently he uses the ball well and gets about the pitch & reads game well. Great to see young ones getting profile on Robins TV and as others have said we tend to field a younger side than most. That said, only thing I would say is that every team I’ve seen seem to be physically bigger than us across the pitch. Physicality can come at different times for players but Idenhen/Wood apart our sides all look very slight and small. Think some people have become fixated on result rather than purpose of the development squad. Let’s just enjoy the coverage as long overdue profile and we have some gems.

I guess you can flip this on it’s head and say who wasn’t in the side on Saturday: (regardless of my opinions on each player here’s a few) Hunt / Pereira Baker / Benkovic Brownhill (the single biggest loss imho - a true premier league player) / Smith (second half of the season) Eliasson / Paterson Diedhiou ….and that side finished 12th. After that season, there’s been little / no squad investment, but until the summer when Pearson cleared £12m of cost, the cost of the squad remained. Back then it was a big squad which allowed Lee to tinker. I think the decline had begun. Covid sped it up / exposed it. It’s far from ideal. I just hope we can manufacture an improvement to the squad over the summer window by whatever means. I’m resigning myself to losing players I don’t want to leave…the young ones. Keeping them takes balls because it might mean sacrificing the likes of Kalas or Bentley, unless you can tie them down for another few years. The re-contracting of players is so important to cost control, in a deflated transfer market. You really want players who have longevity, i.e. players who grow with you, that you re-contract (it’s financially efficient too), or sell for big fees…not ones you hold onto because no other bugger wants them, certainly not at their wage level, e.g. Palmer. We most certainly can’t let Kalas and Bentley walk for free next summer. We need to hold our nerve and see how the summer pans out.

I think if he had been our manager anytime in the last 10 years or so and had the backing that LJ had we would have had a season in the PL.

He’s having 6 eyes removed from his arm.