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He was in the Weston junior teams, but was studying at SGS playing in their Academy teams. He was spotted in a pre season game and signed from there. The majority of the college players also dual reg with a number of local teams as well. https://www.sgscol.ac.uk/academies/football

Brandon Bak was signed from the SGS Academy coached by David Hockaday. Same place we got Semenyo from (he only did a few days before everyone could se his potential). Decent standard of football played by the Elite Academy sides there, they go up against all the local Under 18 sides (Plymouth, Newport, Cheltenham) and often come away with a decent result.

A BBC article akin to "Bristol underground system to be explored". Once again this is all nonsense isn't it. Just look at the chaotic approach to the Portishead new train line. They get a quote, delay, delay, delay; then say costs have risen so much, that it's no longer affordable.

Went to WSM tonight against Bath, I've been a few times as its only down the road from Clevedon. 1100 there, which is down a bit due to the weather and mid week game. At the Torquay game (they bought 800) the crowd was around 2500+. It's a nice ground, only £3 for kids (£12 adults). Big terrace behind the goal which gets packed for certain games.I must say I enjoy it anyhow. Jose in goal for Bath was solid and RA is too good for this level really (i saw him put in a solid display at Cheltenham pre season with the first team squad). Dale Grubb (ex city from years ago) was missing tonight and he normally makes them tick. A big jump up from Southern Prem, but fair play they are making a go of it. Plans to modernise the stadium and improve the stands as well. Certainly the catchment area there to continue to get crowds in the 2-3k mark for certain games and a decent bar that walks out to the pitchside. Certainly a better option for our young players than constant under 21 games that's for sure.

So we won't lose any of the 4 games then? 2 wins and 2 draws is the only way to get 8 points...

Views on linesmen@Graham c

I think the point I'm trying to make @Sheltons Army is that i believe that JL and BT actually thought we had a squad capable of making the top 6. The fact that we weren't doing that, is one of their justifications (rightly or wrongly) for sacking Pearson. Manning no doubt will have opened their eyes to the limitations of the current squad and the need to bring in new players (as you've said the signings of Murphy and Stokes show some planning for the future already). @Davefevs have you noticed that the agent Phil Korklin (@philkorklin on Twitter/X) is the agent for both Twine and Stokes. He seems to also be the agent of a number of lower league players who are making an impact. His client list is certainly one to watch.

We can't, that's the market price at the moment. The point is that we haven't spent that sort of money since Wells? (Stand to be corrected if wrong) Certainly Holden and Pearson weren't able (for a multitude) of reasons to spend that sort of money. Indeed Pearson was told the wage budget was fully but we seem to have found some new money for Murphy and Stokes (500k) and the remainder of Twine's salary that wasn't covered by Weimann's WBA loan. And the perm signing of TGH being bought forward. Certainly a bit of a different mantra coming from the board at the moment about money becoming available.

I agree that the hierarchy are trying to recreate a Bristol City Mckenna. In much the same way Millwall, Swansea and Plymouth are as well (young coaches, seen as progressive in their thinking). I'm betting that JL et al had no real idea of what they were getting, and what its going to cost to implement the changes he wants to make (the Ajaz bid of £2.5m shows they are willing to entertain it at least)

But that's exactly what I've said. He has had to be pragmatic and adapt to the players he has at his disposal. Now.with Twine in, there will be further adaptation around utilisation of set pieces in a way in which we didn't really utilise them before. I'm pretty sure Twine won't be here next season, so yet another change will be needed next season. My point is we can't go back to the current status quo in the way we play as it's evidently not being productive enough in either goals or points. So a new rationale to the way the team plays will in my opinion be have to be struck. Manning will have a view over what he wants, call it his "vision". Much the same as every other new manager. The sticking point will be whether the chairman and owner release some of the "nest egg" in order for it to be funded. I do sense in our movements in the window so far a sea change coming in the summer.

As well as giving out hundreds of free tickets to local colleges in order to fill the new stand.

Why do think it's "ridiculous"? Maybe SL will allow some of the "nest egg" to be used? He has a vision of how he wants to play and this team in my opinion isn't able to implement it, in a way that improves our creativity and goal scoring. We're not going to get into the playoffs unless we do something different. A good defence is only good for midtable, if you're not scoring goals at the other end of the pitch. Naismith will be coming into the last year of his contract, will be 32 next month and unlike Matty James seems to have serious calf issues that mean his availability is not great (only 22 games last season). I like him as a player, but would he get into our defence or midfield at present or even improve us in that area? The two signings of Murphy and Stokes demonstrate an acknowledgement that we need creativity up the pitch and it's not coming through from the Academy as it stands. Naismith will be a decent earner who will be 33 Feb next year, with no new contract coming. If that's the case, I can't see him as part of our future plans. The other names you've mentioned are either new signings this season, or players that have signed contract extensions. They will be part of the revamp. Jury still out on Mehmeti. He may still come good and I'm glad he's getting another opportunity as I think NP had made his mind up (Manning said it was virtually agreed that he was going on loan to Oxford in this window if NP was still there). But he needs to improve next season. Really hard for him as he was only in non league a few years ago, nobody said being a Championship footballer was easy of course.

Thanks Dave, I think like Joe Edwards at Millwall, there's been some pragmatism here He obviously has a vision of how he wants to play, but the reality is he doesn't have the players in order to do it. My only fear with the Twine situation is that we end up like we did with Eliasson , where he was doubled (sometimes trebled teamed) and we had no other options. I'm looking forward to seeing Atkinson back. I think him and Dickie at set pieces will be a real force with Twine's delivery.

This season does have a feeling of petering out at 8 or so games to go doesn't it? With us finishing anywhere between 9th to 15th. ie absolutely no progression yet again, with a £22m loss from last season and who knows this one (of course we have the Scott money)? With that in mind, the appointment of Manning is ambitious. Up until that point we had stagnated in the division, without the ability to really make positive change. I'm forever thankful to NP, that unlike previous occasions we haven't dropped into L1, in order for that "Revolution" to take place.

I think it's 9 debit payments from June. So March is the last one. So we luckily have April and May off. I have 2 x adult and 2 x U19 (used to be under 12s). So the total outlay for me this season in E32 was £1420. A hefty cost, particularly as we do a load of the away games as well. I think we do need to look at those £50 kids tickets in the South Stand now for me. They are effectively free as they get a shirt, so those kids only turn up for 50% of the games, hence the spaces. The attendance includes them of course, but financially it's a disaster as a give away seat. Having a stand that is a quarter empty each game as young kids only going to a third of the games is unsustainable. It forces pay on the days to go Dolman and lower Lansdown. Hence why we have low levels of pay as you go for the higher priced stands. We have a designated family stand at that lower price (upper lansdown). If we do under 12 tickets in South Stand , they will have to cost more in my eyes. On a par with the Dolman at £99. That would encourage more of the kids to go to more games as well. Just my opinion of course, but sensible pricing across the 3 stands and there's no reason now why we can't be at capacity most weeks (can't do anything about the away fans of course).

Don't get me wrong, I like Tommy and he is starting to get better and better at nicking the ball off the last man. But as it stands he won't sign the contract offers and unless there is major movement on one side or another or even both, he won't be here next season. We're not going to make the same mistake again that we made with Fammy. If a player has a worth and won't sign, he needs to go.

Whilst it's great that the sale of Scott has afforded us some scope. We still don't have a huge amount to spend on players and of course our wage budgets are lower than a few years ago out of necessity. For me the signing of Twine demonstrates short term mentality up until the summer. There's no doubt in my mind that we would be paying £5m for him (or thereabouts). We need short term creativity in the team, but I was worried after Saturday that we are trying to make him the focal point of our attacks. It was almost like watching an U12 team, with the coach shouting out "get it to Scott", as if he was the best player on the pitch. I'm sure in my mind that Twine won't be here next season, so how that takes us forward as a club in the medium term is a mystery. All for having a player in that makes other players better around him, but we are literally letting him do everything in the team at the moment (quite rightly on the set pieces as he was superb). Unlike Pearson's evolution, maybe we are on the cusp of Manning's " Summer Revolution" and not willing to either over pay in this Jan window, or get players in that are either your 3rd or 4th choice for the sake of it.

Evening @Davefevs No I don't see him moving from playing a lone striker. The thing that struck me on Saturday was that we only made 3 subs, because in all honesty, there was no sub that could improve us whilst still keeping the same formation (never going to risk it at 1-1). Something has to change though, strip out the Hull, Boro and Watford(a) games and that's 21 goals in 25 league games. Quite frankly that's appalling and I've very thankful that our defence has been as good as it has (in general) this season. The changes Manning made at Oxford last Summer were radical, with a large turnover of players. Maybe he's planning something similar for us. I can't see any of the OOC players staying and surely others like Naismith, Cornick, Wells or even possibly Mehmeti will either be replaced or shipped out on loan. Max is an adequate keeper, but his distribution either has to improve for us to progress, or likewise we need someone better. We are a solid championship team (based on our defence of course). But in the last 3-4 seasons our lack of goals have stopped us from getting into those precious playoff spots. Standing still isn't an option. We are still losing money hand over fist and need to sell players once again just to stay within FFP. We can't just keep treading water in this division. We obviously haven't got massive scope to spend, but we have to change the dynamic of the team somehow. In essence, can I see Conway firing the goals to get us into the playoffs. No I can't unfortunately.

Apologies for mucking up the order, but you get my drift. A large number of young players there having far better seasons and looking real prospects for the future. From that list do we really think Conway stands out? He's not a differential forward like Semenyo. He won't sign the two contracts offered to him (source Tinnion at Senior reds). Sentimentality over our academy products is of course a good thing, but I really can't see him commanding anything more than £5-6m in the summer in my honest opinion.

I like Conway @Davefevs but the point I make on the podcast is that he's scored 6 goals this season in the league, 3 of them pens. The 2 at Rotherham and 1 at Huddersfield are his only outfield goals and we need more from him in the position he is playing at the moment. I get part of that is the service he is getting and no doubt Manning will be looking to address this over the summer with some hopefully bold decisions over the squad and recruitment. I listed at the end of the podcast other strikers in the Championship that arguably would fall into the same category as Conway. This is the list of top scorers in the division ( Conway joint 34th !)

@headhunter Bit harsh on taking that question "Are we better off without Conway" out of context .... Makes me look like a complete muppet...

@Davefevs to all questions that you don't know about City, just refer the posters to Ian Gay. I think he has an answer for just about anything to do with City at the moment on Social Media.

For me, this is a decent loan in. We are struggling to score or even create. Twine might not be the answer, but he will certainly give us some more options. When I think back to Tomlin coming in on loan, there was mixed reactions of course. I know the period after he signed didn't go well, but during the loan period he gave us that little spark/quality that was needed and ultimately it was a highly successful loan. We obviously wanted to probably sign him on a permanent, but this seems to me the best option available to us at this time. Fair play we made something happen, even if it's not the full package that we wanted. Another striker to give us some options up front and then hopefully we'll get going again as a team. There's bound to be a whole heap of changes in the summer as Manning starts to bring in the players that he wants, until then, let's just try and score more goals in the remaining 19 league games and at least make the football consistently more engaging.

Was absolutely fantastic against us at AG last season in the cup. That goal he scored, on the run, without stopping, to curl into the goal from 25 yards. Absolutely fantastic technique. You can only admire the talent, after you've been able to see them live. Watching on TV cuts out so much of their off the ball work.

I wonder what sort of team they will put out on Wednesday? It was about 7 changes in the first game i think, but I'm guessing the league is the priority over the cup. An away tie to Liverpool doesn't carry the same glamour when you've done it in the league a number of times recently.