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I just think that, yes, we have improved "technically and tactically," but that we're still missing some thing, not quite sure what, it might be one truly great player (a Maradona '86, or a Zidane '98 say) or a canniness or whatever it is the Italians have, along with technique and tactics.

Very true. But we were undone in last year's final by the crafty Italians and those canny old three bastards at the back, we got no-one like them three.

Maybe that's why they produce the sort of talent we don’t? Because you have to survive and come through all that argie-bargy. Whereas all our children now emerge from organised, coached, safe practice on smooth all weather pitches

Poor from Leo. People say he’s better than Maradona, not at the World Cup he's not been.

If there'd been VAR in 1986 I'm not sure Fifa would've spotted/looked at/given everything that might've been given that year ....

Really? Not Sky TV a couple of years later? I'd say Gazza's tears and England getting to the semis and coming back heroes and Gazza with his tits oot on top the bus turnt England at summer tournaments into a big event here. I know a few people (well, our old mum and her friend) who saw Pavarotti in 1990 on the telly and then went to see, er, Pavarotti and his two pals singing in London, but they weren’t tempted down AG.

Newsnight, just now: an anonymous Iranian woman protester asks that England fans boo the national anthem of the murderous Iranian regime on Monday. I think we might just manage that.

I think it's a cost of living/inflation thing but I keep seeing Aldi Weimann when I see his name. Maybe it's because we've got him for half what we were initially paying him. It's not heating or eating for me (eating, every time), so much as Asda or Andi

"It makes you wonder, it makes you prowed To play for England, and hear the crow-ed As we're marching on towards victory ...... This time, we'll get it right (repeat until fade/Harry Maguire is replaced)"

"We're on our way, we are Ron's twenty two Hear the roar, of the red, white and .... er, the red and white: This time, more than any other time, this time We're gonna find a way, find a way to get away This time, getting it all together ..... " Love that one. What number did it get to @British Steel?

Brighton had larger crowds and turnover than us, but Brentford, Huddersfield and Luton all made the play-offs with less, or at least no more. Preston and Millwall have matched or out-performed us with less. Now we struggle to match Rotherham. It's not how much we do or don't have, it's what the people making the big calls here do or don't do with what we have here. We're just poor at making the most of what we actually have at our disposal. If you put Steve Lansdown at Brighton, and Tony Bloom came here, I don't fancy Brighton much, and I don’t see them where they are now.

We need to get away from "size" being something deterministic, or more important than it is; it's not irrelevant, it's possibly more important than in years gone by but when you look at Brentford in the Prem, Luton in the Championship and say Bradford still ailing in L2, you come back to people and the choices and the decisions they make (with the cards dealt to them). The Titanic was bloody massive, but the people running - literally - the ship were lacking. Sheffield Wednesday are big but not big enough to withstand people running their club making poor decisions. Sometimes, smaller clubs can outwit bigger disorganised ones by being cuter and leaner and smarter, on and off the field. In over 100 years we have managed this twice. It's not too much to ask that we do so again, not when others of similar stature manage to do so.

How was your friends' evening, mate - did they get parked up ok?

The bricks and mortar (steel and concrete) are ok, set up for success, all we need now is, are, er, the people.

SL stays and we are ..... Bristol City. Rock and a hard place

It was three years of struggle, mate. And one year finishing 13th. A lot of losing and drawing, and not scoring enough. And disappointing crowds, that moaned too much. Loads of scrapping though ....

Difficult place to go, Chippenham mind. From Lincoln.

I miss Deano. Where is he now?

Football lads: don't do that (coke) do this:

Yeah, me. I have. Jimmy Sirrel did this years ago, when we went 4-2-4 from 4-4-2, and something about Forbes Phillipson-Masters not running (very fast).

Pretty much what Nige said he wants us to be.

Why don't the club put away fans in the upper Lansdown, so we can have City fans behind both goals and improve the atmosphere?

Yes, that's my point: it's a number of factors. Increasing violence being one of them. And apathy around here too, that can be factored in. When we got to the top the club expected old fans to come back, and new ones to be made, but that mix of 1970s factors contributed to that not happening, with these people. I reckon. The first programme I picked up was Man City Feb '78, and of 46 lines on AD's page, 38 are about dart throwing and the potential closing of the ground and playing at a neutral venue, and the consequences of that. AD wanted us to "grass" on whoever was chucking darts. We perhaps forget now what an issue it was, 45 years ago. Or maybe the club went on about it too much? Interestingly, we're 14th in the table at that point, and 15th in the attendances table. Getting more than Wolves, Boro, Ipswich and Norwich. Not too shabby. And we hadn't played Liverpool or Manchester United by that point. If I had to pick one crowd deterring factor from that era it wouldn't be your economics or violence, it would be that we were a bit disappointing and struggled for three of the four seasons.

Really? Not: "When you gonna get yer cheque book out?"

This could be a shite appointment, to be fair/add some balance to this thread.