Olé

Yeah there were a few idiots there last night and if it helps that wasn't my first away match. Some of the absolute bollocks they came out with was embarrassing. First time on the beers.

“How many have we sold for Southampton” followed by “and what would you like us to do Liam?” was an absolutely sensational question. What would you like us to do? Seriously? Just a wild guess but I don’t think he needs you to keep it tight at the back or track the runners. It’s 2000 away fans, jesus wept, what do you think he wants you to do? And why are you even asking? He must think we’re all very weird.

I've been contemplating this for a week or two. The last train to London is even earlier, 10pm, I reckon the walk is doable in 15 minutes at pace, but as you say with the extended injury time it's almost a lottery. There are shuttle buses supposedly but can't find any details of how quickly they leave after the game.

Taking account of the opposition, today was the worst football we’ve played in 18 months and respectfully, I have been at every single one of the matches, freezing cold Tuesday nights in Huddersfield and all. Birmingham and Reading away last season run it close but both were better teams than QPR who even objectively are one of the worst Championship teams I’ve ever seen and had absolutely nothing about them. The game was there for us on a plate, QPR looked like a team waiting to lose again and yet we ‘suddenly’ managed to look confused and scared and that is solely as a result of the change the club decided to make. Of course it is “far too early” to judge Manning, but if the owners choose to press the reset button mid season then it is never too early to judge that decision and on the basis of yesterday it is an act of self-sabotage.

Has now replied. It's in Portuguese so I am paraphrasing and he is being unusually terse/snappy for someone who contacted me (!?) but it sounds like a wild goose chase as he has said he doesn't know anything either. He was simply looking for someone who can give him a perspective on salary and importance of the Bristol job because his "office" was contacted on Friday from England for background information on the Famalicao trainer in order to write a story and they have no other information but he has been asked to assess the likely English club it might be related to for their own story. He has since said something condescending/sarcastic to me about the fact Famalicao is part owned by Atletico Madrid (which I already know) which I think was to imply that my short profile of City isn't especially exciting to him and probably not where he thinks this manager will be going. Anyhow he's gone silent again. As it happens the coach at Famalicao (João Pedro Sousa) is Marco Silva's old assistant so there is an angle here, but this guy is just joining dots and clearly there is no specific link to us, just to a job in England. Alternatively someone in the UK has got bored and wasting his time. Edit: profile here for people who want to go down the rabbit hole https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Pedro_Sousa

This is really weird, I haven’t seen the tweet referred to (and the other poster is correct he wants to replace PdC as President of FC Porto he is not going back into management) but I woke up this morning to a DM on Twitter from a Portuguese football account I follow wanting to put what appears to be a journalist in touch with me to ask questions about “Bristol”. It’s all a bit cryptic as in his initial message he says he is following up a story from England and asking about the salary of the Bristol trainer job. He hasn’t replied for an hour though so I don’t know what it’s about. I’m still Pearson in so I don’t care.

And reads OTIB

Not really adding anything here but if anyone has it I will pay good money to see Jon Lansdown's application form.

Hello mate. Yes Lee Johnson's record after international breaks at one time was P17 W1 D6 L10. Funny it didn't seem to matter to the Lansdown's then. But it definitely the reason now, 100%, that's me fully convinced.

I'm in

This, a million times this. This is the very definition of leadership and something those who are terrible leaders or over promoted (sons?) always misunderstand - thinking they need to do the complete opposite to hide their insecurity and to keep everyone else at arms length from decision making rather than create shared responsibility and leadership through delegation. It has been so obvious from the way he speaks and acts Pearson is a master of this with both his staff and his players. I have found it fascinating to hear how he articulated the environment he wants because it is so foreign to the owner and leadership of our club and how it has been run for decades, including under the LJ era that the owner so adored. They are all inexperienced bluffers who are terrified of being shown up by real leadership and experience and create an environment where strong personalities are something to be scared of and to be avoided. We only want amateur yes men that keep the owner and his son feeling unexposed and able to lead. This is why Nigel Pearson has been such a breath of fresh air as even with mixed results and in difficult circumstances you could see the club was finally maturing and getting to be a place where leading by example mattered and standards reflected that. And so the Lansdowns threw it all away again and consigned us to years more of wishy-washy make it up as we go along, rather than hear some home truths and trusting the experience of somebody who for once knows what developing a football club is all about. This is why it is so exhausting, painful and depressing this week - and why I have zero appetite or for any more years under this owner.

Thanks, it's a regular thing. One of the staff that does it in the photo left the club 36 hours later.

It's an absolutely exceptional analysis that deserves to be the defining write up of the current ownership. It's so perfectly written and so exceptionally damning (without ever being unfair or nasty) that I don't think there is another paragraph to be written to their story. It's time for them to go, they're all out of reboots and flip flopping on strategy to suit their egos. We have heard it all before, and it's such a herculean effort for you to have capture in one piece the various prior shades of the emperors new clothes and the uncertainty it creates for us all going forward.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12996039/nigel-pearson-sacked-by-bristol-city-results-far-from-only-issue-behind-veteran-bosses-departure Absolutely sensational stuff for the owner and boy wonder who have spent so much of their time to trying to manage our media positioning, now getting their arses handed to them by the national media.

Again, I could post this in any number of threads at the moment as it's not specific to Rennie or Euell, but I have absolutely no idea what Lansdown wants anymore. If he desperately wanted a head coach in a structure that offers stability and succession surely having so many qualified people around Pearson including a highly rated coach like Euell is the perfect platform for that. It's not clear if Euell was also binned off or was offered a role and stuck two fingers up out of loyalty to Pearson (would make some sense), but either way for Lansdown to clearly want a change but preside over such ham-fisted mismanagement of the transition to whatever it is he actually wants, beggars belief. You can't have stability and succession if you take such clumsy, classless and pre-meditated decisions, and you won't develop good young coaches if you keep torpedoing the first sign of a culture of leadership from the top of your footballing staff that is successfully relaying priceless experience into your leaders of the future (I would include King in that too). Put together with statements about how he wants to run the club, Lansdown no longer strikes me as a rational owner with any agenda besides for his own indulgence. As such, it's not simply the case (as I've seen written elsewhere) of fans starting to ask questions. It's far far beyond that. For me it's now urgent that the club is sold and we move on from his fantasy and delusion before the next 3 year reset, and sensible fans must do everything in their power to agitate for this. This isn't simply out of deference to NP, but recognising something much more rotten is at play if you consider SL's inconsistency, invisibility and slightly sinister priorities in his decision making over the past 7 years. The ineptness of now falling out with and losing an experienced CEO and then an experienced manager within five weeks is just the bottom of the barrel.

He and Orme (and Euell at times) were visibly also very active in the work Matt Parsons organises at away games to deliver excess food to homeless shelters - and Rennie was clearly more to the squad than just the medical guy. Again very visible in videos how much he helped build the culture with NP where staff put an arm around and take an interest in players and do so with a smile on their face. As people with no prior affiliation to Bristol let alone our club, Pearson and Rennie bought into everything about BCFC and the area and what it means to represent us and act with class and integrity in building a positive culture. This could be posted in any one of countless threads but the contrast and juxtaposition with the total absence of class from the Lansdown family in handling this is quite jarring.

Millwall fans absolutely despised him and the football he played. I would hear it in the pub week in and week out. Please god no.

Christ there have been some dire times at this club in the 30 years I have been watching (appreciate others have done so for much longer and through much tougher i.e. early eighties) but at least in my time I don't recall a moment I have ever felt more disillusioned or detached from the club than hearing this news. We knew it might be coming but part of me didn't want to believe the Lansdown's would be so ridiculous. This is not a footballing decision however they dress this up. We've been competitive in all of the games we've played this season and anyone who spends any amount of time watching can see what is developing. I'm one of those people who finds it quite awkward to be outright dismissive of SL given the investment he has made in the club, but at this point he is no better than all the other lunatics or overseas owners. This is a scandalous decision which appears to be at odds with the vast majority of supporters - in which case he clearly no longer cares about who he represents, so perhaps it's time to sell up and move on.

To this day one of the most defining moments of the club since we got back to the Championship was an SL interview with Radio Bristol when in doing what he thought was attempting to draw fire away from LJ, he clumsily bigged up the fact that he would actually have calls with LJ on the Friday night before a game and on the Sunday after to debrief, as (his words - or at least something along these lines) a means for LJ to have someone to discuss his plans with. At the time I thought it was very very odd and was quite surprised more wasn't made of it, I'd love to find the transcript again. It's why the appointment of Dean Holden was completely predictable and is why Nigel Pearson has always had a limited lifespan at Ashton Gate and he knows it (hence the constant comments about whether or not he is the one to finish the job or someone else will do so). NP knows very very well what SL wants from a manager - sorry Head Coach. Pearson has done everything this club has badly needed - shed the bloated squad of indulged signings and average squad players, brought though youth, and created a tight unit and culture that we haven't had since the last promotion side. I also think he's created a sense of leadership and accountability that now runs through the footballing operation (whether explicitly or just by exposure to his standards). None of that is as important as the access that SL is missing.

Marvin Elliott did it once at AG with two quick goals but forget who against. Was after SOD left.

Kodjia in the 6-0 at home to Bolton

If ever there was a football match in need of a cameo from Cristiano Ronaldo it was this absolutely dreadful game of Championship football - easily City's worst performance of the season. Struggling Rotherham had pace and press and that was all it took to control a poor game against disjointed visitors, the hosts dominating without having any quality to go ahead for a forgettable 80 minutes. With CR7 unwilling to swap Saudi Arabia for the billions on offer in Rotherham, it fell to 21 year old City sub Tommy Conway - fresh off months out with injury - to decide it was his time to go full Ronaldo, exuding confidence as he first ran from deep in the left channel before a textbook cutback and inch perfect curl top corner, then scoring a second (96th minute) winner with an outrageous backheel. With both "winners" coming right in front of City's small, strike-depleted away section, for both the youngster headed to his crowd with trademark Ronaldo hand waving, spin, and general agitation at a lack of respect - emotion after injury but the sort of self belief and arrogance that only two stunning goals can produce and appropriate swagger for a fixture he injected much needed class into. Much was made before kick off that It would be hard to reach the New York Stadium due to train strikes and that Sky TV's somewhat tactical choice to televise two less favoured sides would deplete the crowd. On a cooling Autumn night just short of 10,000 converged on a deceptively small ground. The visitors, somehow, had a few hundred, and bookies had Nigel Pearson's men as clear favourites. The game was anything but. City barely put up a fight in the first half - admittedly their hosts pressed and favoured quick touches - but it was all one way traffic. Joe Williams was a particular weakness, conceding an early free kick on the edge of the box which Cohen Bramall fired over. Next his reckless backward pass in midfield sent Andre Green clear but his shot was also wildly off target. City have been in every one of their matches this season, but inexplicably the one sided pattern of this fixture continued with visitors giving the ball away cheaply either by going long or getting caught in possession, while Rotherham looked on top, midway through the first half Mark Sykes over complicated on halfway and gave it away, the Millers in with pace to flash it across the face of goal. City's first chance of the half came midway through - a rare break saw Williams ball in half cleared and Matty James outside the box smashing it back past the far corner. Up at the other end Green somehow put it wide from a yard out from Jordan Hugill's flick on. And then City's best chance of the half, off Harry Cornick's long throw on the right, Sam Bell appeared to be hauled down far post. Pearson's men looked uncomfortable and a shadow of the team this season. On 35 yet another City loose touch gave it back on the halfway and Rotherham broke down the left and nearly squeezed a header in at the near post with the hosts camped around the City box. Another quick break from the left saw Bramall wide open and his early ball into the middle was nutted over by Fred Onyedinma. The away side had not got to grips with the flow of the match and offered little against an obviously poor side - so after the break it was simply a case of contain and then build. That finally happened before the hour when Rob Dickie picked out Bell in space wide left whose cross into he box was met by Cornick with the goal ahead of him but also with the same stretching, wild glance as Onyedinma. City still didn't look fluid but were starting to build. On 66 Sykes robbed his opponent on halfway and picked out Bell on the left who slipped it inside for Cornick in the box whose shot was blocked - Bell's follow up bundled away. With Nahki Wells and Andi Weimann on for Sykes and Cornick it was still the hosts playing with purpose albeit Williams 25 yard effort curled into the keepers hands. By now two poor sides had run out of ideas (City possibly never had any) and the hosts had resorted to timewasting sensing that an indulgent referee would help speed them to an absolute minimum of a 0-0 conclusion. More fool them. Conway and Andy King for Williams and Jason Knight was a decisive twist with ten minutes left and of course it was Conway who went full Ronaldo. Crashing through the time wasting fag-end of the match, Conway picked up the ball 35 yards out on the left and with his first touch drove at a defender, skipped inside onto his right foot and slammed an unerring shot at the far corner, lasering past defenders and the helpless keeper into the only place that it could go. KABOOM. City only had a few hundred but this was late pandemonium. It didn't last. City were awful all night and in no time Rotherham won a right wing corner and predictably the visitors were all over the place, even a Millers compete miskick from the initial clearance took two of Pearson's men out of it, last gasp sub Hayden Roberts beaten for Arvin Appiah to get to the byline and cut back for Tyler Blackett steaming in centre of the box to drive home a leveller. That should have been that as a dominant Rotherham flirted between time wasting and all out attack for the deserved winner. Albeit Taylor Gardner-Hickman did wriggle clear on the right to cross for Weimann to loop a first time header at the top corner that the keeper held in injury time. Scorer Blackett went down and Rotherham players massed on the touchline to delay the final minutes. The decision proved fatal. Down to 10 men and with time added to time added on, an awful City had one chance left and on 96 a smart ball from Gardner-Hickman put King in space on the left and he squared it to the near post where Conway casually shrugged off a marker to steer a sublime backheel into the same corner as his screamer before strutting off with the same Ronaldo energy. With less than 10,000 in attendance and an unlikely choice for Sky Main Event, this had been an abysmal advertisement for EFL and Championship football - with City the worst of an already poor encounter. That Conway came off the bench after long absence and produced the box office, superstar finish is a reflection of not only how poor City were but how bright a future the Scot has ahead of him. O'Leary 7 Gardner-Hickman 6 Pring 5 Dickie 7 Naismith 6 James 6 Williams 5 Knight 6 Sykes 6 Bell 5 Cornick 5 Weimann 6 Wells 5 Conway 10 King 6 Roberts 5

They say you learn more in defeat than victory and that was never truer than in Nigel Pearson’s highly anticipated return to Leicester. Facing the clear Championship favourites, a side loaded with Premier League talent and inarguably top flight in all but status, City’s manager got his game plan spot on, sitting in resolutely to frustrate the hosts football for an hour and fashioning brief spells of threat that might have created a smash and grab headline. Losing instead to a penalty kick was no disgrace and confirmed that the competitive visitors are in safe hands. Spilling out of the terraced streets around the ground, travelling fans converged on one corner of the King Power Stadium under blue skies and against a sea of blue replica shirts weaving excitedly towards their turnstiles ahead of kick off. In the eleven years since City’s last trip to the stadium the Foxes have won the Premier League and FA Cup and played in the Champions League - and with street sellers hawking scarves and flags, the venue resembled every bit of the top flight Match of the Day style location montage - a rarity for Bristol City supporters. Yet it was that small Westcountry corner of the stadium that laid down a clear marker from the start - 3,400 fans determined to be the 12th man with a continuous, lung busting cacophony of noise. Pearson’s men responded in kind, almost always on the back foot but running tirelessly to close down passing lanes, and in full backs Cam Pring and George Tanner endlessly dealing with Foxes wingers Stephy Mavididi and Abdul Fatawu. It took Wilfred Ndidi’s needless tumble over Kal Naismith’s outstretched boot and Jamie Vardy’s penalty to separate the teams. In truth it was largely one way traffic in the first half although City shielded their box well and Max O’Leary was rarely threatened. Winger Fatawu sent a spinning volley from outside the box just wide from a corner, and the on-loan Sporting Lisbon star also forced City’s keeper to parry with a dipping shot on the run. Defender Callum Doyle also saw two headers easily dealt with, and in response the deep lying visitors struggled, Nahki Wells unable to hold up the ball, and in particular midfielder Joe Williams guilty of some poor decision making and careless passes. But remarkably the first half closed with Pearson’s men suddenly threatening an unlikely opener. Winning a series of free kicks on the break on both flanks offered a welcome respite and a chance to get bodies forward. On the stroke of half time from one such set piece Mark Sykes brilliantly threaded Williams in behind on the right and his low driven cross seemed destined for Wells or Sam Bell to turn home with Leicester unable to scramble it clear of the six yard box, but without a shooting angle, Pring laid it back for Naismith whose lashed shot was blocked. With the sun still shining down on the King Power Stadium and its heavily watered playing surface, City were out first for the second half and still clearly committed to their task. On the run Vardy was edged out by Rob Dicke trying to flash a near post header across the face of goal after Ndidi got in behind, and Tanner did brilliantly to prevent Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s follow up. Next the wingers combined for Mavididi to blaze over from the left, before O’Leary produced a sensational stop of Dewsbury-Hall’s point blank header from Fatawu on the other wing. The Foxes brand of football is about releasing their electric wingers quickly into space behind on both flanks and City had to be at their very best to track the relentless attacking football. A clever dummy by Ndidi gave Fatawu another chance from the right and again he combined with his opposite number Mavididi, lifting it across to the far post where the left winger had just keeper to beat, O’Leary spreading himself quickly to block the shot. Some have questioned City’s home grown keeper but twice in as many minutes he kept the visitors in the fixture. And just as in the crazy final minutes of the first half, City had a chance to turn the game on its head against the run of play. Pearson threw on three arguably attacking substitutions at the hour mark - Taylor Gardner-Hickman, Andi Weimann and 17 year old Ephraim Yeboah - and almost immediately the young striker might have put City in front. Twice Wells drew a defender to give Yeboah room outside him in the box from the right. First the youngster chose a square return ball that was just behind Wells, at the second of asking his driven shot was well blocked. With the raucous away corner roaring their ever louder approval, it was perhaps ironic that the moment the game seemed to finally open up for the stubborn away side was also the period that decided it. Leicester built patiently and Ricardo Pereira threaded Ndidi into the box. City had bodies covering but Ndidi turned Naismith twice, spotting the defenders planted standing foot he took the easy option to tumble over for an obvious penalty. Vardy stepped up and despite a crescendo of abuse from the away end, sent his spot kick unerringly into the top corner. Harry Cornick replaced Wells up top for City who by now were pressing Leicester relentlessly around the Foxes own box hoping to recover something from the fixture. Knight seized on a desperate half clearance to flash a fierce rising shot just over with the goal gaping, Knight turned provider but his heavy ball inside to Weimann was miscued high and wide, before the impressive Gardner-Hickman went on a mazy run before combining with Pring whose curling shot forced a save but left Weimann clear beyond the far post to see a drilled shot blocked. Short on possession throughout, City were nothing if not energetic and committed and in these final moments there was still always the possibility of finding an unlikely leveller in front of their massed ranks of expectant fans - even as the match headed into injury time. Amazingly the noisy visiting supporters were still in it right until the very end, Yeboah winning a free kick right on the edge of the Foxes box deep into time added on, but with everyone holding their breath, Gardner-Hickman’s free kick through the wall was straight into the keeper’s grateful hands. And that was it - City may have lost the match but in running the league leading promotion favourites so close on their own ground, will take away only positives for the rest of the campaign. Exhausted players lapped up the deserved positive reaction at full time from the travelling support, and manager Pearson - a hero to so many around the stadium - enjoyed warm applause from all four corners of the ground. He executed an effective game plan in difficult circumstances and surely now is overdue the recognition of a new contract from his own employers. O’Leary 9 Tanner 8 Pring 8 Dickie 8 Naismith 8 James 7 Williams 5 Knight 7 Sykes 6 Bell 5 Wells 6 Gardner-Hickman 7 Weimann 6 Yeboah 6 Cornick 6 Mehmeti 5

Not sure I understand the point. Affects me badly on both days. There were easily half a dozen or more fixtures last season that were rendered excessively costly or more complicated by strikes and both of these will be now too.