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Congratulations Luke Ayling

Redland

By Redland
in Football Chat

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Redland

Redland

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Whilst I have mixed feelings about Leeds gaining promotion I am happy for Luke. He was one of my favourite players during his time with us and will be remembered as part of our “double” winning team. Always gave 100% for Bristol City and was a great character in the dressing room. I don’t know why LJ didn’t rate him but I suppose he has had the last laugh.

I will follow his progress in the Premier League with interest.

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Fordy62

Fordy62

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When people bang on about LJ bringing on talent, Ayling and Freeman were the flip side. Sold wholly under value. 

I recall saying that the time that they’d both go on to better things. Shame really as Ayling’s is a position we’ve really struggled with. 

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Kibs

Kibs

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Posted
1 minute ago, Fordy62 said:

When people bang on about LJ bringing on talent, Ayling and Freeman were the flip side. Sold wholly under value. 

I recall saying that the time that they’d both go on to better things. Shame really as Ayling’s is a position we’ve really struggled with. 

I seem to remember quite a few supporters didn’t rate Ayling or Freeman either, they weren’t disappointed to see the back of them and felt we could do better. 
 

 

 

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Sleepy1968

Sleepy1968

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Yeah, well done Luke.

From the outside I think LJ could have done more to persuade Luke to stay with us, and he might have been a bit put out by p1$$gate, but it's been nearly four years and we haven't come close to finding an adaquate replacement.

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Sleepy1968

Sleepy1968

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1 minute ago, Kibs said:

I seem to remember quite a few supporters didn’t rate Ayling or Freeman either, they weren’t disappointed to see the back of them and felt we could do better. 
 

 

 

On the Freeman front in the Championship for us, one concern was that he held on the the ball for too long - what some of us (me included) failed to realise was that he was only doing that through lack of options. Basically let go for nothing (it's not clear if we offered him a new contract before QPR came a courting, but if we did it was never mentioned).

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Nogbad the Bad

Nogbad the Bad

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7 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

Freeman was probably criticised more than any other player in our first season in the championship. 

Ayling got dropped for Matthews who was far better at the time.

Ayling apparently wanted out and it seems Freeman did too. Had to sell them both really.

Not so sure about that - my impression at the time was quite the opposite.

If Ayling and Freeman 'wanted out' then it was because of the way they were treated by LJ.

You couldn't wish to have seen 2 more obviously happy and contented players under Cotterill, and really these 2, as the epitome of obvious young improvers, should have been part of the nucleus of BCFC for years to come.

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Red Exile

Red Exile

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4 minutes ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

Not so sure about that - my impression at the time was quite the opposite.

If Ayling and Freeman 'wanted out' then it was because of the way they were treated by LJ.

You couldn't wish to have seen 2 more obviously happy and contented players under Cotterill, and really these 2, as the epitome of obvious young improvers, should have been part of the nucleus of BCFC for years to come.

Agreed. I propose that history will see the LJ years as ones in which the really excellent Bristol City side that Cotts assembled, with its remarkable spirit, was dismantled and replaced by a jumble of talent that could never be welded into a team. The one flourish of the LJ years was that cup run, which history will see as the last triumph of the side that Cotts had assembled - with Bobby Reid being the LJ contribution.

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Redland

Redland

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1 minute ago, billywedlock said:

He was told by LJ he would never make it as a right back in the championship. So he left. For 200k he recently revealed. 

 I thought £700,000 was rumoured at the time. Whether it was £200 or £700,000 Leeds could clearly see quality and got themselves a bargain.

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2015

2015

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2 minutes ago, Andy082005 said:

He got shafted by the club . What do you expect? 
 

Hung out to dry over the Cheltenham debacle 

Should think more about the fans who supported him whilst he was here and the League 1 campaign.

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irishreds

irishreds

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29 minutes ago, Red Exile said:

Agreed. I propose that history will see the LJ years as ones in which the really excellent Bristol City side that Cotts assembled, with its remarkable spirit, was dismantled and replaced by a jumble of talent that could never be welded into a team. The one flourish of the LJ years was that cup run, which history will see as the last triumph of the side that Cotts had assembled - with Bobby Reid being the LJ contribution.

Cott's should also take the credit for giving Reid the opportunity and persevering with Reid. I remember before a home game our group having quite a heated argument about Reid "Cotts has got it wrong, Reid is too lightweight for the Championship and will never make it, he shouldn't be starting today". I thought Reid was a quality player and just needed the match time. Ok, Johnson should take credit for moving him further up field, but Reid was City Academy player not a LJ/MA signing. I don't see Reid as the LJ contribution, he would have made it in the Championship regardless.  

 

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Major Isewater

Major Isewater

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1 hour ago, Kibs said:

I seem to remember quite a few supporters didn’t rate Ayling or Freeman either, they weren’t disappointed to see the back of them and felt we could do better. 
 

 

 

I was one of those supporters . My opinion was based on their careers with City.

Freeman was not effective in the Championship for us , flattered to deceive .

Bill, was a loose canon when attacking which meant that no one knew what he was going to do with the ball, least of all Bill himself . His defensive positioning was often awful and it was his athleticism that got him out of many a hole ! 
 

They have both continued their development and careers elsewhere and best of luck to them but it’s easy to be wise after the event .

 

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The Bard

The Bard

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46 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

When people bang on about LJ bringing on talent, Ayling and Freeman were the flip side. Sold wholly under value. 

I recall saying that the time that they’d both go on to better things. Shame really as Ayling’s is a position we’ve really struggled with. 

The mass of signings over the last 5 years haven't improved us whilst our wage bill has spiralled.  Looking back it boils my piss how individuals within the club undermined our highly successful manager.  We clearly had the potential to do what Sheffield United have subsequently done. They knew better, wanting consolidation (another word for mediocrity) and the means by which they could remove the manager to get their preferred man in. 

If we kept that manager and team together and bought wisely we would have been challenging in the 2nd season.  We struggled because the players were adjusting to the better standard and our way of playing needed tweaking as we were too open.  He had earned the right to be backed, but the cowards took the opportunity to sack him (by text obviously).

Since then we have simply flattered to deceive and slowly sold off that team, most of whom are now established Championship players at clubs above is in the league...

 

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Bristol Oil Services

Bristol Oil Services

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38 minutes ago, 2015 said:

Me. Doesn't seem like he has any respect for us as a Club to not even discuss us then go OTT when scoring against us in February.

You are too needy, mate. Too fragile. Too melty. Too flaky. Too concerned with what others are thinking about us. Too in need of smoke being blown up one of your passageways - so to speak/as a football fan - which, in a time of a respiratory pandemic crisis mask wearing stay at home lockdown behind closed doors situation I don't think is advisable.

Stay off twitter and try reading a book....

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Kibs

Kibs

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12 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

They have both continued their development and careers elsewhere and best of luck to them but it’s easy to be wise after the event .

 

Of course everyone has different opinions when it comes to players but I have to disagree in this case, I thought it was easy to be wise “before” the event ?

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LondonBristolian

LondonBristolian

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17 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

Thing is though we did have a pretty decent bunch of players but we were awful under Cotts.

No doubt we needed some more..but we did add Baker, Liam Moore, Bennett and Robinson. Wasn't there another one too? Can't remember who.

He played Robinson in behind Wilbs and Kodjia!?

And he kept with 352. We were so bad at the back that it's amazing he didn't try and make us more solid with changing to some kind of 451 or even 541.

We were going down and that was with decent players added to a decent squad.

Pemberton first thing he did was go with Kodjia up top on his own and make us more solid. That was always his best role, he never needed Wilbs alongside him who was not really good enough to be playing every game by that point.

I don't know whether Cotts could have succeeded with more backing, but he might have had the same problems. We already had good players. A top Championship striker defences could not cope with. 

Once we added Baker surely him and Flint with Korey, Pack, Bennett, Freeman. Ayling and Bryan. Or even Williams left back and Bryan left midfield. We had some talent there and we were being thrashed every week!

 

Indeed. We were brilliant under Cotts in League One but our tactics were based on overwhelming the opposition on the basis we were much better technically than they were. In the Championship those tactics did not work and we did not adapt at all. That first half of that first season back up, Korey Smith and Kodjia were the only players in the team that even remotely resembled Championship level footballers and beyond that, players that went onto do well for us or elsewhere were playing utterly abjectly and getting dominated week in week out.

People get misty-eyed over Cotts because of how well he did in our promotion season - and with good reason because the football we played was the best I have ever seen a Bristol City team play - but we were tactically inept and destined for relegation with him at the helm and, at this level, he failed to get the best out of players like Ayling and Freeman (and also Flint, Bryan, Pack etc) every bit as much as Johnson did. I think it's probably the case that Ayling would have stayed had the Cheltenham incident happened but I'm not convinced he would have hit the same heights with us. He wasn't suited to how we were playing and wasn't showing enough to justify adapting the style of play to suit him, even if we'd had the personnel to do so. My memory is the vast majority of posters on here wanted us to get Matthews in on a permanent and start with him ahead of Ayling at the time and I do feel there are a lot of people being wise after the event. 

It's a shame he seems so bitter toward the club now but I think the Leeds move was the best thing that could have happened for him. 

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Major Isewater

Major Isewater

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1 hour ago, LondonBristolian said:

Indeed. We were brilliant under Cotts in League One but our tactics were based on overwhelming the opposition on the basis we were much better technically than they were. In the Championship those tactics did not work and we did not adapt at all. That first half of that first season back up, Korey Smith and Kodjia were the only players in the team that even remotely resembled Championship level footballers and beyond that, players that went onto do well for us or elsewhere were playing utterly abjectly and getting dominated week in week out.

People get misty-eyed over Cotts because of how well he did in our promotion season - and with good reason because the football we played was the best I have ever seen a Bristol City team play - but we were tactically inept and destined for relegation with him at the helm and, at this level, he failed to get the best out of players like Ayling and Freeman (and also Flint, Bryan, Pack etc) every bit as much as Johnson did. I think it's probably the case that Ayling would have stayed had the Cheltenham incident happened but I'm not convinced he would have hit the same heights with us. He wasn't suited to how we were playing and wasn't showing enough to justify adapting the style of play to suit him, even if we'd had the personnel to do so. My memory is the vast majority of posters on here wanted us to get Matthews in on a permanent and start with him ahead of Ayling at the time and I do feel there are a lot of people being wise after the event. 

It's a shame he seems so bitter toward the club now but I think the Leeds move was the best thing that could have happened for him. 

There are parallels with the brilliant Farkes at Norwich who refuses to adjust their way of playing at a higher level and the consequence is they will be playing pretty, open football back in the Championship next season. 
 

 

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