DaveInSA

I’m looking forward to the game being postponed at half time due to a frozen pitch

This is the bigger picture concern for me. Our senior pros in the heart of the midfield are OOC in the summer; James; King; Williams, Weimann. The core of the team will then be under 24 years old. Who has the experience to drag us up the table? If, and it's a massive IF, they get this recruitment right, they will have done massively well. By the way, i'm not saying that TGH and Knight aren't the quality we need. just that they lack experience.

If Twine was valued at £5million. And we sold Scott for £25million. That means that Twine has 20% of Scott's talent. In which case, it's a no from me And back to the thread...maybe, we have a plan. Lets have a looksee at what a creative number 10 can do in our current constrained squad. do we create more? do we score more? have we tightened up at the back? are we winning more games? do the defence have an "out-ball" instead of passing it to each other? etc etc.... Then, perhaps we would understand a bit more about where we are (mid-table championship) to where we want to be (top 6-8 championship). And we could all get a bit more real about the GAP and how we need to fill it. And maybe we don't have a plan. Which in my simple brain means a relegation scrap next season. because we've been here before.

I’m always a bit meh about loans becoming permanent deals. fingers burnt so many times. The player you think you’re buying turns out to be a duffer. lets hope he grows into a magician.

That bold bit is laughable. He has no credentials to be a CEO. None. He doesn’t have many credentials to be Tecknickal directo TBF.

I think your 3-4 seasons is ambitious. Next season we will be in a relegation dog fight. In what no doubt will be (according to some posters on here) the toughest championship ever.

Watford 1-4 Bristol City Call me old fashioned, but I would have taken a 1-1 draw and then three 1-0 wins (very simplistic I know) Defensively we have gone backwards under Manning. Teams hit us with a simple routine after our “front foot possession based attacking football” gets us NOWHERE. Offensively we’ve struggled all season. I’m judging manning on league performances and position only at the end of Jan. But. 2 things need to happen and soon. Manning needs to up his game. Lansdown needs to leave.

A new owner

But we know they won’t. At all. We need desperately a proper football structure with proper qualified football people. Been saying it for years. We aren’t going to get it with Steve. So we’ll bob along in mid table until, until we get into a relegation scrap. Fire the coach. Get relegated anyway and then we go again with a big rebuild in tier 3. There’s just no need for it. We just don’t have a sound plan. And it’s unforgivable and so disappointing because Steve is a smart man (allegedly). And dumb and dumber keep bullshitting us at every turn. Maybe, just maybe Manning is a amongst all the . But we’ll be so so lucky for this to pan out. If indeed he sees out his contract. In the mean time. I’ll go to my 3/4 games a season and be sad that it’s a little bit more bad than good.

I don’t know if you’ve been following BCFC as long as me (41 years). But it’s what we do. consistently inconsistent. Ends up being bang average. Mostly. except in those rare tier 3 seasons where we absolutely turn every team over.

Oh @Shtanley how I miss OSIB, which was my favourite and my best BCFC pod. That Ian Gay really grinds my gears. He is 100% right all of the time. The he realises he's wrong (actually a good thing to change an opinion now and again) and then he's 100% right again - a total U turn. Bit like the Tories. That makes it an unlistenable pod for me - he ruins it. As for 3PIAP I enjoy that more. I get the points raised about links with the club, but who wouldn't want to listen to Tommy? I do think they shied away from asking the obvious - when are you signing your contract Tommy question mind

Clearly they have never been to Ashton “library” Gate though.

Have I missed something? Or has the dark art of defending been banished? The humble 0-0 or 1-0 seems a rarity. I have no facts on this but just a feeling about it. If you don’t have to quality players in the team, conceding none gives you a chance of at least a point. in 2016/17 Huddersfield won 11 games 1-0. I think Pearson knew we didn’t have many goals in us. Hence an approach to hit teams on the break and be rock solid at the back. I wonder if this is the best strategy to get out of the Championship without the parachute payments? I guess we’ll never know.

How would you keep them AND meet FFP - it's a massive risk and probably not achievable e.g. Say Alex was on £15000 per week. And he earns £60000 a week at Bmuth. That's an additional amount of £2.3M a YEAR. you've then blown the wage structure and will have a lot of unhappy players. and also if you're not promoted blown FFP. and at the same time you'll most likely be relegated the following season.

I was reminiscing about the Premier league over lunch. I don't watch much of it and when the amazon had games last week I excitedly tuned in to watch Arsenal against West Ham. Which, in my opinion was one of the dullest games I've ever seen. You could have played for three days and Arsenal wouldn't have scored. I was bored to tears. So much so that I put together some IKEA furniture at the same time. That was my opinion at any rate. Then I went looking for some analysis of the game, and found this : https://www.cannonstats.com/p/arsenal-vs-west-ham-delayed-reaction These stats presented a game that I thought I didn't watch Sometimes it just doesn't come off. Arsenal played well (at least statistically - ignoring the lack of goals). And West Ham just nicked the game.

:laugh:. Circus of a club - hope they go down. And I have zero time for Wayne Rooney. A total underachiever at big tournaments as a player. And his antics at WC 2010 I will never forget.

Ok here’s what will happen. Steve will unbox the nest egg over the next three windows. We’ll buy 8-10 players. We will sell our best players. We will still be in mid table. But playing a different brand of football with an increased playing squad. Manning will be fired in December 2025. Along with Tinnion. and then we will start again. With no real plan or continuity.

Teams can and do play well every game. Bristol City at this level don’t.

any cons?

they are so bad. and they've dragged us down to their level. i've seen this so many times in my city career.

they are so shaky at the back and we lack composure with the final ball

We should win this one too. I have a little bit of a dislike for the inferior and blue BCFC. I’ll go for 2-1 to the red BCFC.

Perhaps Lackey wasn’t the entirely correct term. I hold the hierarchy of this club in utter disdain. I’m not negative - they’re just not competent. I’m not relishing a downturn, au contrere, just a realist in a very competitive division. If Manning can keep the levels then great. But fine margins and all that.

Oh do behave. on the one hand, of course it’s a new era. With Jon and Tinnion running the show with Manning as their lackey. And on the other you’ll be the first (well maybe second after Andy 80002052456472907462) on here when results dip (as they will) to spout off “Manning out”. It’s about a bit of balance and perspective surely? We’re still a mid table squad. And it’s still too early to say if Manning is going to be a success or not. And we’ve had solid results in the last 3 games, which we just as easily could have got fewer points from.

I don’t watch much footy. But I have the Amazon. Scott has been class in this game. What a player. Normally I don’t give two hoots for ex players. By Alex is different.