BUTOR

I’ve just watched the full presser. After the hysteria on this thread I expected something far worse than what I saw. Pearson was jovial, much more so than usual, and reiterated time and time again that he is willing and ready to work within the parameters that have been set. And within those parameters he “absolutely” believes the ambitions set pre season haven’t shifted an inch. Focus on what was actually said and it was a fairly positive interview. This forum has been an unhinged read for days now. Again I quote Nige from the latest presser that a couple of poor results can tend to send people on an ‘emotional rollercoaster’ and I feel that’s what’s happened here. If we’d won a couple more, even if some of the results had happened in a different pattern, there would nothing close to the levels of paranoia seen on here recently. I also feel a lot of this noise is related to past events, pent up frustration over a number of years, rather than the actual situation at hand today. I understand that, but focus on the reality of now and it’s nowhere near a crisis. We have important players out injured which is emphasising the situation tenfold.

Three people have said the timing is ‘interesting’ but haven’t elaborated as to how. Unravel into what?

In fairness, the implementation of the five pillars are the reason we didn’t get relegated during the latest mess. *some of the five pillars I should say.

I saw a rugby game in there last year and loved it. It’s so outdated compared to the rest of the ground internally it’s like walking into a Bristol City time machine. Great nostalgia trip.

Absolutely agree. I travel a lot and speak to fans up and down the country, the amount of horror stories regarding owners is striking. Those who travel with City away regularly I’m sure will have had the same experiences. From the Championship to the amateur leagues there are supporters everywhere who have had their clubs torn to pieces. We as a fan base are not used to being owned by someone who may not have the best interests of BCFC at heart. The very fact we can say that of our owner (despite errors of judgement) makes us the envy of hundreds of football clubs in this country and beyond. When the time comes I don’t think many are ready for the change it will bring. We are not talking about a couple of new January signings here who will ‘freshen things up’ (a quote I’ve seen regarding new ownership), we are talking about a seismic change of order and everything Bristol City has been for a long old while - for better or worse - will cease to be again. I just pray to god it works out.

At the same time it is to the absolute credit of our current owner that not just any interested party has been allowed to go beyond just interest. How many owners in the EFL could you say the same of?

I always thought Watkins got a bad rap here, he popped up with goals when he played. But like Cornick just unglamorous.

Much more like the City we all expected to see this season. Chill out everyone we are going to be just fine.

So just write off a whole season three games in? Far, far too early for this talk.

The only theory I buy when it comes to this because there is undoubtedly form there.

Has he not already had at least two very good opportunities to deem NP as ‘failed’? 1. The half season before he was appointed permanently, where we showed no real signs of improvement. 2. The poor and inconsistent run last season which culminated in a fiercely toxic atmosphere, Pearson out chants and 95% of social media completely turning on the manager. If he is impatiently waiting for Nige’s head and doesn’t really like NP why on earth didn’t he fire him after that?

I’m sorry, I don’t really get your point. We’ve been told over a long period of time that we are adopting a cautious and sustainable approach which will not include a large budget in windows and scattergun spending sprees. As Nige explained today, it’s wrong to think of ‘budget’ strictly as transfer fees. Caution is obviously going to be applied everywhere and it’s always been safe to assume that will extend to wages, otherwise it isn’t caution.

Plus we’ve had complete clarity about this strategy for about two years now. It’s not like we’ve been told as soon as we sell a player for decent money we go back to scattergun spending sprees. Nige in the Hull presser seemed as happy as he always has been to adhere. He’s said in the past challenging may not be possible with this system and he’s fully aware of that but he believes it’s the right way to sustain a football club. I don’t understand where these ideas of a tetchy relationship between board and Pearson are coming from besides reputations. Fans talk about being fearful of throwing away our good work recently, so understand the severity of where we’ve come from, but in the same breath demand stretched funds. It all seems so dramatic and typical of our fan base after a poor performance. The conspiracies come out, everything goes so existential. It’s not like we’re exclusively in the free agent market either, yesterday we spent just shy of a million on a loan.

100%. I love shit referees sometimes. They get the atmosphere going. Nothing better than charging down the stairs of the Dolman with your fellow supporters through pure indignant rage and camply throwing an arm out whilst bellowing profanities. 100% it raises the noise.

I would put Pring centrally, Roberts LB and utilise Naismith in midfield but apart from that I completely agree. This level of meltdown should come out when it’s really warranted. I know we’re all beaten down at the prospect of another lower mid table boring season but I’ve never known such negativity this early into a campaign. From now to Christmas we will find out whether the Pearson era has legs to run, we will have our answers re reinforcements in the next week. In that sense there’s more certainty than there has been for a while, the expectations are set, we know where we’re aiming. Let’s just get behind the team see how it plays out.

I relish the evening games when we aren’t doing so well, 12k will show up and we get one of the best atmospheres of the season.

“They’re my players and they’ll get my absolute support because I know, and we know internally, what the situation is”

I don’t want to be overly negative but let’s be honest here, is there a team with worse home support in the league in terms of noise? Cardiff maybe at a push? That has never been us so it begs the question what on earth has happened?

We’ve spent money. I’m not supporting the strategy or promoting its merits but whether we like it or not this is the new reality. We won’t be spending anything like we have in the past regardless of who we sell. It’s sustainability above everything else. And on the whole we have had complete clarity about that so my question is why the outrage now? Mostly fans have been supportive of the noises coming out of the club regarding transfer strategy. Is it the Scott sale that has shifted things? Or is it simply reactionary negativity after a poor performance?

Have we not been told for the past two and a bit years that this is the new reality at BCFC? Why the surprise/outrage now? Pearson has regularly reiterated on a number of occasions ‘those days are gone’ in regards to splashing the cash on marquee names and bringing in players with big wage demands. He has also been quoted as saying that promotion this way ‘might not be possible’, but he has always backed the idea of sustainability. It has consistently appeared that, despite some healthy confrontation, the board and Pearson have seen eye to eye on the overall strategy to this point. If something has changed recently, as I have seen many suggesting today, then why? I don’t believe it has. I don’t believe things are as frosty as is being made out. NP himself has talked of challenging as a minimum this season. There is a new reality at Bristol City, and if you have listened to anything coming out of the club the last two and a half seasons I fail to see how you would be surprised by that.

I don’t believe SL has it in for Pearson, he’s had ample opportunity to get rid of him before. He also had very good reason not to appoint him permanently in the first place. I believe, with injuries taken into account, he’ll be given time to get to at least a natural conclusion and hopefully some sort of backing to enable a creative signing in the next week. We are not leaking for fun. We look better at the back than we have done for many seasons first goal aside. Clearly more is needed from an attacking point of view and, of course, the club need to stare the fact in the face that we’ve lost an outstanding creative footballer. Scott was often the outlet that prevented such blunt performances. There is no like for like replacement but the clear hole he has left needs to be dealt with immediately. Besides that, whilst games are as finely balanced as the first three have been we can begin turning them in our favour as the season goes on. If we haven’t began to do so by Christmas or more games are going against us than is reasonable we will have to look at management, but I think it would be such a shame to cut this project short before we really know how its going to turn out. A new manager won’t simply be a case of picking up on Pearson’s foundations and kicking on, it doesn’t work like that, not least with this club’s record of appointments. In the meantime, this level of reactionary negativity feels a little pointless.

I must admit this whole thread is making me laugh somewhat after the below was a game I attended in Gdańsk, Poland recently, where they were firing hundreds of flares at the roof for about 10 minutes whilst the rest of the stadium applauded and sang along ? imagine the reaction on here

Great to hear. Is this a result of the donation push towards the back of last season? Thanks for the ongoing efforts. My only hope is that it’s not related to recent farewells but supportive of the squad we’ll be getting behind this season!

Listened to an AJ interview with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart in the week out of curiosity as seemed a completely bizarre meeting of minds. Would recommend it if you can stand those two for an hour. Probably the biggest insight into AJ as a bloke I’ve heard. They end up asking questions most boxing media folk wouldn’t. Seems thoroughly decent, injects basically the majority of his wealth into underprivileged communities and people. That won’t make headlines in the same way some of his mistakes do. Always seemed like Fury can get away with murder but AJ can’t put a foot wrong or he is scrutinised beyond sanity. Booing last night in round 3 (3 ffs) was case in point. Understand it historically as AJ was always seen as the commercial industry man and Fury the man of the people but in reality it’s the other way around. Really want him to get a proper legacy defining win and Wilder would be that. Closer fight than people think, don’t forget some of the C-class fighters Wilder has lost rounds to in the past. Just maybe if AJ can get on top for a couple of rounds he won’t let Wilder off the hook. Here’s hoping.

Evening, Anyone got a decent stream on the go? Cheers