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Signs that City are on the up


Major Isewater

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Steve Lansdown stated that his ambition was to put pride into sport in Bristol and particularly the football club . I think the last ten years have seen BCFC’s profile rise. Here are just a few random reasons why we are no longer considered to be a joke club.

We have takers for our loan players even at Championship level.

We have a squad packed with internationals .

We are serious contenders for a play off place and have been all season.

Let’s have yours .

 

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I don't think, outside of being the first club to go Div 1 to Div 4 in successive seasons with Wolves later copying us, that we were a joke club.

That said: 

The redeveloped Ashton Gate.

It is hard to overestimate quite how much a top stadium serves to benefit a club. It looks absolutely iconic in photographs and massively impresses fans of other clubs and potential signings as well as existing players and fans.

Nothing makes a club look worse than a ropey stadium. I remember a winter evening away game at Brighton's literally crumbling Goldstone Ground.

They could have had the whole England team out there in their blue and white stripes and the chant would still have been "shit club, shit ground".

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33 minutes ago, Eddie Hitler said:

I don't think, outside of being the first club to go Div 1 to Div 4 in successive seasons with Wolves later copying us, that we were a joke club.

That said: 

The redeveloped Ashton Gate.

It is hard to overestimate quite how much a top stadium serves to benefit a club. It looks absolutely iconic in photographs and massively impresses fans of other clubs and potential signings as well as existing players and fans.

Nothing makes a club look worse than a ropey stadium. I remember a winter evening away game at Brighton's literally crumbling Goldstone Ground.

They could have had the whole England team out there in their blue and white stripes and the chant would still have been "shit club, shit ground".

Would that have been City's last game there just before it was knocked down, a 2-0 win with a Martin Kuhl brace?

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1 hour ago, Major Isewater said:

Steve Lansdown stated that his ambition was to put pride into sport in Bristol and particularly the football club . I think the last ten years have seen BCFC’s profile rise. Here are just a few random reasons why we are no longer considered to be a joke club.

We have takers for our loan players even at Championship level.

We have a squad packed with internationals .

We are serious contenders for a play off place and have been all season.

Let’s have yours .

 

 We have the core of a good team, the biggest hurdle this club has is belief. Nothing will change until we change the losing mentality.

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1 hour ago, M.D said:

Would that have been City's last game there just before it was knocked down, a 2-0 win with a Martin Kuhl brace?

No, it must have survived another year after that. I think David Seal scored one.

goes off to check

It can only be the 2-0 win there on 27 Feb 1996 so your memory is better than mine.

Maybe Seal made the assist then; I couldn't find the goal scorers.

 

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1 hour ago, CyderInACan said:

I think - as with the Bears - that the new training felicity will be a game changer in due course. 

Not long ago City were an easy touch for a nice retirement payday, not so much anymore. 

I haven’t looked to see how that’s getting on. Anybody know when the training facility is due to finish? 
 

Most likely delayed because of what’s going on the minute.

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6 minutes ago, Eddie Hitler said:

Yep, construction sites have been back to normal for a good few weeks now.

Although no builders , construction workers can get any materials , so most sat around twiddling their thumbs earning bugger all ....... would of been better of staying furloughed 

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1 minute ago, bengalcub said:

Although no builders , construction workers can get any materials , so most sat around twiddling their thumbs earning bugger all ....... would of been better of staying furloughed 

Some saw it coming so where possible ordered as much as possible before they had to stop so had it stockpiled for themselves, seems what the place over the road from me has done at any rate. So a large scale project like the training ground where they knew what they'd need could well have done similar.

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11 minutes ago, bengalcub said:

Although no builders , construction workers can get any materials , so most sat around twiddling their thumbs earning bugger all ....... would of been better of staying furloughed 

The development sites I have knowledge of - about ten - are up and running.  These are well funded operations so probably did build up the stores in advance.

These are also all build contracts, as opposed to Persimmon or whoever building them themselves for sale, so they have a guaranteed profit margin and therefore will be keen to avoid delays.

They can probably also outbid those on tighter margins for materials.

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3 hours ago, Major Isewater said:

Steve Lansdown stated that his ambition was to put pride into sport in Bristol and particularly the football club . I think the last ten years have seen BCFC’s profile rise. Here are just a few random reasons why we are no longer considered to be a joke club.

We have takers for our loan players even at Championship level.

We have a squad packed with internationals .

We are serious contenders for a play off place and have been all season.

Let’s have yours .

 

Are you not being a bit optimistic? We still promise so much and achieve so little.

New stadium, wealthy owner, attendances up considerably in the past five years but on the pitch where it matters, we do not seem to be able to seriously trouble the other promotion candidates.

Now everyone can tell me I'm a miserable sod but are most of us fed up with watching so many overtake us when the chips are down? We do not appear to want it enough.

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4 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

Are you not being a bit optimistic? We still promise so much and achieve so little.

New stadium, wealthy owner, attendances up considerably in the past five years but on the pitch where it matters, we do not seem to be able to seriously trouble the other promotion candidates.

Now everyone can tell me I'm a miserable sod but are most of us fed up with watching so many overtake us when the chips are down? We do not appear to want it enough.

We don't have the parachute payments of some of our rivals, and whilst we have seen teams without them get promoted, they do appear to distort results in their season post relegation, even if they might not immediately challenge for a top flight return.

The fact that we are in the mix and (I hope) when the fixtures come out, we are looking to see who might be better than us, rather than hoping there are 3 or 4 teams worse than us says progress to me.

Still a lot of work to do, but signs are, we are going in the right direction.

Just hope that as time goes on - and assuming we continue in the buy cheaper/young players and send them out for development strategy model progresses we don't find ourselves where I fear we'll be next season, with about 12 championship ready central midfield players and people still wondering who is the most limited liability at right back!

Reasons to be optimistic.

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10 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

Are you not being a bit optimistic? We still promise so much and achieve so little.

New stadium, wealthy owner, attendances up considerably in the past five years but on the pitch where it matters, we do not seem to be able to seriously trouble the other promotion candidates.

Now everyone can tell me I'm a miserable sod but are most of us fed up with watching so many overtake us when the chips are down? We do not appear to want it enough.

I'd say our strategy has been to have a budget that gives us a likely chance of finishing between 6th and 12th which then means getting lucky one season which will probably will. We are also bumping up against the rolling three year FFP rule as it is with decent player sales required to prevent our being fined.

You can certainly accuse that of being a safety first approach but with what has happened the last few months has pushed it into a possibly great strategy.

A lot of owners have stretched themselves too far and will be releasing and selling huge chunks of their squads simply to stay solvent.

And when everyone else is moving backwards all you need to do is stay where you are to succeed.

We may go up this season, though I seriously doubt it, but next season looks like the golden opportunity.

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I think the content on twitter, you tube etc has really raised the profile of the club. 

Goal gifs on Twitter and a mic'd up coaching session from LJ on YouTube are two examples where we've been innovative and it's raised our profile. 

Ashton and LJ have also done more radio interviews and such that have put us on the radar more I think. As others have mentioned, LJ being notably innovative in his methods and the resultant sales of players to premier league clubs has helped this, as a couple examples

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6 hours ago, RUSSEL85 said:

Not lost a game for months, I’m encouraged by City’s form. I’m wondering if our bigger squad and quality on the bench with an extra substitute allowed will benefit us this season.

Made I laugh mate. "Not lost a game or conceded a goal for months!"

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Just walking around the outside of the ground, through the fans’ village and the the concourse  is a wonderful pre match experience. I know some prefer the atmosphere of the old ground but we’ve moved on to another level 

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11 hours ago, cidered abroad said:

Are you not being a bit optimistic? We still promise so much and achieve so little.

New stadium, wealthy owner, attendances up considerably in the past five years but on the pitch where it matters, we do not seem to be able to seriously trouble the other promotion candidates.

Now everyone can tell me I'm a miserable sod but are most of us fed up with watching so many overtake us when the chips are down? We do not appear to want it enough.

I can’t argue with that.

On the face of it we are Premiership ‘ready’ apart from on the pitch. In normal times LJ would be under huge pressure if we had not been in the PL by now, but these are nothing like normal times.

If we don’t make the play - offs there are loads of excuses available and he will use them, make no mistake.

If , and it’s a big If, normal service is resumed next season, it’s promotion or bust for LJ.

We have a fantastic squad, we should be doing better.

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