Coppello

Fun fact, he’s scored more goals against Bristol City than any other Manchester City player in history. I’m sure that’s an accolade he’ll cherish when he’s retired!

Pre-match from which game? I'd be quite interested in hearing this.

No problem. In all honesty I have no idea. When he took the consultancy role at Wycombe I assumed it was part of semi-retirement so I was quite surprised to see him appointed at City. Football is quite a close community so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was approached following a recommendation.

Fair point but sadly it's a business. Also, are you telling me you didn't enjoy the high quality football and the fantastic players we paid handsomely which resulted in the losses? ?

Personally I don't think the prices are that unreasonable. It's the biggest fixture since the last time we played them and the club would be silly not to cash in given the losses we've incurred in recent years.

Haha, thanks for noticing! Over the last year or so, I've found myself getting a bit 'footballed out' so have taken a bit of time out from the forum.

I know Phil professionally and his role at Palace was very different to position he is taking on here. At Palace, he wasn't a traditional CEO as Steve Parish as Chairmen and Dougie Freedman as Sporting Director were more responsible for the football operations and dealing with transfers etc. In the earlier years of his long spell at the club he had more of an impact whilst towards the end of his tenure it was primarily commercial and almost an ambassadorial position. He was a member of the FA Council and sat on the FA's Professional Game Board. He is (perhaps thankfully) very different from Ashton and, like Richard Gould, won't want the spotlight. He is more old school in the way he works and how he wants the team around him to function. He has excellent connections within the game and is very well respected by others who are high up in the game. Phil is good with the fans, very amiable and will have no problem in stopping for a chat. It will be interesting to see how he operates here having full control of the footballing side of things, something he hasn't done for quite a while but I do feel he is well placed to run a club which is trying to live within its means.

I wasn't at the game today or did not watch it so just caught up with the highlights on Sky Sports. Can anyone at the game tell me why both teams change their kits for a brief period in the second half? https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/12546361/bristol-city-2-1-middlesbrough The Sky Sports highlights are often shocking and seem to miss out goals on a regular basis.

Which interview with NP are you referring to? I saw the official club interview on Twitter and was a bit disappointed that he didn't lay into the referee a bit more!

I can't read the name Keith Millen without shuddering since the OSIB interview @Shtanley and @petehinton. The camera angle from the videoclips you uploaded to twitter still scares me. I'm still not sure if I'm watching a fake sheikh stitch up or he thinks he's on webcam to a hot single girl who is available in his area.

Without sounding dramatic, I think that's one of the worst games of Championship football I've been to; not just from City but from Millwall too. It felt like neither team were ever going to score from open play and there was a real lack of urgency and quality from both sides. I took a couple of mates with me who are neutrals and I feel bad asking £28 for the tickets. Our midfield move the ball far too slowly and Martin was ponderous up front. I think we really missed Massengo tonight who seems to be the only player who can really move us up the pitch quickly. The only positive moment of the evening was Afobe clapping the City fans and putting his hand on his heart. What I'd do to have him back in the side!

If you do not collect from Ashton Gate, they put your tickets on a coach and it will then be available for collection at The Den. I'm also London based and have to collect my tickets for the Millwall game. Hopefully it won't be like the QPR game - the coach carrying the tickets was stuck in traffic and they were not available for collection 30 minutes before kick-off. The poor bloke in the QPR box office had to phone to City representative carrying the tickets on the coach to confirm the ID and seat number of all of the people in the queue and then had to reprint them!

I've just bought three tickets and noticed that there's still 1300 left. We usually take a decent following to the London games (even midweek) so hopefully there will be a few more sold over the next week. As a side note, I was just looking at the Millwall squad and noticed that Fielding was let go at the end of the season. It's not too surprising given his time in London, the injuries and the comments on OSIB but I hope he can find a club soon. He's a good bloke and would be a decent signing for a League One side.

In the latest instalment of nepotism by Mark Ashton, he’s appointed his son Jacob as First Team Recruitment Analyst at Ipswich. Not a bad contact to have that’s for sure!

As I was arriving at the ground today and hadn’t read the team sheet, I saw Matt Parsons coming out to chat to Tanner’s family. He asked them (and there was about 10 of them) how they were feeling and they said ‘nervous’ but you could tell they were all buzzing. They were all beaming from ear to ear Onto his performance, I think he was a bit scared to make a mistake and it was a very risk averse performance and didn’t really push on too much. He had a couple of nice touches and made a fantastic last ditch tackle towards the end of the game to keep it 1-1. There’s no doubt a lot more to come from him but it was a steady debut for a player who wasn’t expecting to play just yet.

I'm not sure. I think he's been very unlucky not to get more game time at Chelsea. He scored 15 Premier League goals in his first full season at Chelsea (2019/20) and scored 6 last season without getting much of an opportunity. His goals per 90 of 0.52 was better than Giroud (0.48) and Werner (0.21) and was therefore the best in the squad. If you think a Championship striker who has scored 20 league goals now goes for £20m (see Maupay/Watkins/Benrahma), £30 million is probably fair.

I’m surprised this thread is quiet. I would’ve expected @TomF to have had a Hundred opening party this evening.

Having a quick look at the statement that Driift released this afternoon, I get the impression they weren't making any money out of it and were using it to boost their profile. Yeah, they ****** up massively by using them. I can see Glastonbury haemorrhaging a lot of cash from this event at a time when their funds must be pretty depleted.

Paid to watch it and planned my evening around it. It was such a shambles and sacked it off after about an hour and a half of refreshing. The company who provided the streaming service seemed to be very new as they started the evening with very few followers and ended up with several thousands plus about 10k of abusive messages!

He would be an excellent fit for Palace who like to play on the counter attack and have a good recent history of exciting wide players. The opportunity to learn from the likes of Zaha and Eze should not be sniffed at, particularly as players of a similar mould. Palace fans love raw, 'street' footballers and local lads. He grew up in relatively close proximity to Selhurst so I'm sure it will be attractive for him. From our perspective, we're going through a rebuild with many players leaving the club with their contracts expiring. We shouldn't be selling a player who is developing into a key part of our squad for measly sum. He's got a lot to learn and is far from the finished product but he's one of the few entertaining players we have. The fees talked about are not enough for us to guarantee we can replace him with any quality.

He's got 15 goals and 7 assists in 41 appearances this season from midfield. What we could've done with even 50% of those stats this season!

Nothing sums our side up better than 30 stone Akinfenwa dancing around our whole defence only to be kept out by a great save by Bentley. It’s absolutely pathetic.

I bought a Wahoo Kickr core for £700 which sounds like a lot but couldn’t recommend it more highly. I think it’s considered mid range and I believe there’s slightly cheaper ways of doing it but you don’t always get all of the interactive features like the gradient changing as you’re climbing.

I know that there was a cyclist earlier in this thread who was shot down but does anyone else balance the running with cycling? I've recently got a turbo trainer and signed up to Zwift. It definitely makes winter trainer a lot more enjoyable and competitive.

It my reminds of this Ricky Gervais sketch: