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Mid table obscurity....


Robbored

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12 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

But we didn't, 46 games have passed now and you can't say 'we could have finished in such and such place' because the season is over and we're 12th and we as a club are now in a position of saying 12th can be considered a bad season for us, that to me is a real sign of the progress of this club.

We are traditionally a mid table Championship ( second division ) club, so we have hit par.

The one major difference nowadays is that we currently play negative boring football, whereas in the past we were always an entertaining football team that played attacking football with wingers.

Excuse me if I’m not at all excited about finishing 12th, in a league that has lacked any real quality except for 2-3 sides. A half decent manager with a bit of know how and experience would have got us a play off spot with the players we had at our disposal. 
This season has just been another massive disappointment, and I blame one arrogant now sacked manager.

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19 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

But we didn't, 46 games have passed now and you can't say 'we could have finished in such and such place' because the season is over and we're 12th and we as a club are now in a position of saying 12th can be considered a bad season for us, that to me is a real sign of the progress of this club.

Honestly not sure how anyone can call this season progress 

We've regressed so much that the damage left behind could take a season or two to put right. 

Ultimately the decision to get rid of LJ was taken too late 

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8 minutes ago, Matthew me said:

I believe the investments we've made in the stadium etc were all needed. I don't think it's too.comfortable, I just don't believe we've had enough killer instinct or special moments from a player that can change games. We've been average in every respect.

However, I do get the feeling this is the turning point. First time in a few seasons weve gone backwards and I hope it's the wake up call.

Id have us for a top six assault next season

 

Ok, I’ll back that.

Ready & waiting for a new boss with new ideas to give us a competitive edge.

 

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14 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

And were relegated after it, can't live off where we were a decade ago, 4 seasons ago we only just survived in this league and are now calling a top half finish as failure

I completely get your point but not sure Lansdown will he so philosophical when he thinks about that 10 years (from aged 58 to 68?). He won't will be satisfied with the progress. 

He has put a lot of money and effort into infrastructure in that time. But in the league we're no further on. He'll be disappointed, but still very ambitious, I'm sure.

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It all feels very Much like typical Bristol City at this level. We flatter for a bit then fade away over the season and over the years. 
If I had to stake my (imaginary) fortune on which way we will eventually leave this division... it would be down not up.  Unfortunately. 

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Just now, phantom said:

Honestly not sure how anyone can call this season progress 

We've regressed so much that the damage left behind could take a season or two to put right. 

Ultimately the decision to get rid of LJ was taken too late 

I'm not calling this season progress, I've not mentioned Johnson this is purely the club, from 4 years ago only just surviving to now the club being in a position that 12th can be called failure, that in itself is progress for the club. 

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7 minutes ago, ChippenhamRed said:

Just an incredibly meh end to a very meh season in a very meh year.

Really hope we appoint a good manager to inject a bit of excitement, because right now I have no idea what month it is, when the new season starts, how long we have to make signings and when we can actually go to watch again.

Struggling to get very excited about football at all at the moment.

Otherwise..... everything ok with you mate??

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1 minute ago, mozo said:

I completely get hour point but not sure Lansdown will he so philosophical when he thinks that 10 years (from aged 58 to 68?), will be satisfied with the progress. 

He has put a lot of money and effort into infrastructure in that time. But in the league we're no further on. He'll be disappointed, but still very ambitious, I'm sure.

I think it’s a good thing that the investment into the Bears is now bearing fruit for him. I think he wants us to achieve top flight status as they have.

Without their success, I do believe he might have been getting to the stage where he thinks “oh **** this, ive had enough”.

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4 minutes ago, The Gasbuster said:

I think it’s a good thing that the investment into the Bears is now bearing fruit for him. I think he wants us to achieve top flight status as they have.

Without their success, I do believe he might have been getting to the stage where he thinks “oh **** this, ive had enough”.

Yeah, hopefully he'll get so frustrated that he buys the stadium for £300m and ploughs it all into transfers....

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15 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

I'm not calling this season progress, I've not mentioned Johnson this is purely the club, from 4 years ago only just surviving to now the club being in a position that 12th can be called failure, that in itself is progress for the club. 

Ok, compared to a measured point four years ago as a position in the table we have improved. 

I'm not convinced 12th is anything to get excited about though 

Yes we progressed initially over your time period but compared to more recent times we have gone backwards and that's the mess we are left with now. 

We'll get the usual "these aren't xxx's players" so we're likely to be transitioning and looking for that one sale to balance the books over at least the next season. 

To me it just feels like we've peaked, and didn't press on at the right time and now we've fallen back 

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45 minutes ago, Portland Bill said:

We are traditionally a mid table Championship ( second division ) club, so we have hit par.

The one major difference nowadays is that we currently play negative boring football, whereas in the past we were always an entertaining football team that played attacking football with wingers.

Excuse me if I’m not at all excited about finishing 12th, in a league that has lacked any real quality except for 2-3 sides. A half decent manager with a bit of know how and experience would have got us a play off spot with the players we had at our disposal. 
This season has just been another massive disappointment, and I blame one arrogant now sacked manager.

I'd say 4 sides but 5th or below...this felt quite attainable. Or should have been!

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37 minutes ago, The Gasbuster said:

I think it’s a good thing that the investment into the Bears is now bearing fruit for him. I think he wants us to achieve top flight status as they have.

Without their success, I do believe he might have been getting to the stage where he thinks “oh **** this, ive had enough”.

If he read this forum he'd probably think  “oh **** this, ive had enough”.

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The big concern for me is we've taken 10 points from our last 14 games, which is relegation form. Six of those points came against fairly woeful Hull and Middlesbrough sides, both of whom were at the wrong end of the table. 

If we start next season in a similar vein, the new man in charge could find himself presiding over a relegation dogfight if we're not careful. 

Hopefully my pessimism is misplaced but we will clearly need to buck our ideas up between now and the start of 2020-21. 

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3 minutes ago, North London Red said:

The big concern for me is we've taken 10 points from our last 14 games, which is relegation form. Six of those points came against fairly woeful Hull and Middlesbrough sides, both of whom were at the wrong end of the table. 

If we start next season in a similar vein, the new man in charge could find himself presiding over a relegation dogfight if we're not careful. 

Hopefully my pessimism is misplaced but we will clearly need to buck our ideas up between now and the start of 2020-21. 

That's not pessimistic. Form is fact.

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1 minute ago, North London Red said:

The big concern for me is we've taken 10 points from our last 14 games, which is relegation form. Six of those points came against fairly woeful Hull and Middlesbrough sides, both of whom were at the wrong end of the table. 

If we start next season in a similar vein, the new man in charge could find himself presiding over a relegation dogfight if we're not careful. 

Hopefully my pessimism is misplaced but we will clearly need to buck our ideas up between now and the start of 2020-21. 

Totally true. We lost 13 games in the last 23 of this season, that's 1 less defeat than the whole of the previous season, relegation form for sure

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3 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

We were but this feels more sustainable, owing to the infrastructure, youth ,squad age profile etc.

Yeah I think I kind of qualified that in my subsequent post (possibly!), but conclude that despite that, Lansdown will surely be frustrated to be now in his late 60s and we're back to mid-table.

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1 hour ago, RedRock said:

Finished bottom of my mini-league of Brentford, Preston and us. 

What I really didn’t anticipate was the likes of Millwall, Blackburn finishing above us.

Not just a wasted season, we’ve gone backwards and created a monster of a squad.

Poor, very poor. 

That said, we were going nowhere fast, so the upside is the long overdue clear out has begun. Fresh start but we ain’t got long to undertake, what needs to be a massive rebuild, if we are going to be competitive at the right end of the league.

Unless, we’ve got someone like Moyes lined-up or another top grade Manager who knows the Championship, knows how to win and gel a squad who is currently in employment and wanted to see the Season out, then we ain’t got off to the speedy start required. That doesn’t bode well. 

We will see tomorrow whether the delay in a managerial appointment is down to this reason.

 

Yes, a huge and constant churn of players really helps to build something reasonable!! Ours is a joke.

Leeds. 

Finish 13th 2017/18.

Squad contains Peacock-Farrell, Ayling, Jansson, Cooper, Berardi, Alioski, Phillips, Saiz, Dallas, Klich, Forshaw, Hernandez, Roberts and Roofe.

Finish 3rd, somewhat transformed with squad containing all of the above. 

A year on, all with varying levels of importance still has:

Ayling, Cooper, Berardi, Alioski, Dallas, Phillips, Klich, Forshaw, Hernandez and Roberts. 

Look at them this season.

Yes, let's rip it up and start again!

Think we're more likely to go backwards or nowhere fast if we go your route tbh.  

Probably not enough 'big' players, in midfield especially? Constant churn in playing staff doesn't usually bring about success tbh.

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1 hour ago, YGBjammy said:

7 points off the playoffs sounds a bit better than 12th.

As others have said, disappointed with top half shows how far we've come in the latest few years. We also get to go into next season with a new manager from the start, with the most talented squad (in theory) we've had in ages. I think finishing mid table perhaps means we can go under the radar a bit now, which probably suits us?

Going under the radar is hardly going to make us look like a team with ambition and will go against us if a new player has a choice between us and a team that has been in the public eye.

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1 hour ago, YGBjammy said:

7 points off the playoffs sounds a bit better than 12th.

As others have said, disappointed with top half shows how far we've come in the latest few years. We also get to go into next season with a new manager from the start, with the most talented squad (in theory) we've had in ages. I think finishing mid table perhaps means we can go under the radar a bit now, which probably suits us?

The one positive for me is that under a caretaker manager, who’s had little time to work with an inherited squad we’ve returned 8 points from 5 games, but importantly, showed that a single system can bring improvements, players not look lost.

Now add in a proper appointment (not dissing Dean, I think he’s done decently), with a tweaked and freshly motivated squad, and there’s no reason to think better results can’t be achieved.

That’s where I have hope.

34 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

I'm not saying finishing 12th is good or exciting etc its the fact its now considered failure is the marker

I get what you’re saying.

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The whole club needs a major injection of positivity and a “can do” mindset if we’re not to keep slipping back. 
statement of intent from the board, manager, style of play. 
everything about us is cautious at the moment. If we’re serious about promotion we need to talk about it, insist on it. 
This years stared ambition was to “aim for top 6”.... I.e. do a little bit better.... hardly ambitious, positive thinking. 

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5 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

The one positive for me is that under a caretaker manager, who’s had little time to work with an inherited squad we’ve returned 8 points from 5 games, but importantly, showed that a single system can bring improvements, players not look lost.

Now add in a proper appointment (not dissing Dean, I think he’s done decently), with a tweaked and freshly motivated squad, and there’s no reason to think better results can’t be achieved.

That’s where I have hope.

I get what you’re saying.

That settled formation, style, mindset is the key. A confident manager will do this, knowing his own mind and not swayed by results and the opposition. 
It will also reduce squad size and waste as we’ll not need so many “clubs in bag”. 

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Such a wasted opportunity. That Swansea made the playoffs with just 70 points highlights it.

I want to be optimistic that a new head coach can do so much more with our current group of players than LJ managed this season. However the longer we go without an appointment, the more concerned I get about who is going to be brought in, and that he won’t get all of the close season to prepare properly.

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55 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Yes, a huge and constant churn of players really helps to build something reasonable!! Ours is a joke.

Leeds. 

Finish 13th 2017/18.

Squad contains Peacock-Farrell, Ayling, Jansson, Cooper, Berardi, Alioski, Phillips, Saiz, Dallas, Klich, Forshaw, Hernandez, Roberts and Roofe.

Finish 3rd, somewhat transformed with squad containing all of the above. 

A year on, all with varying levels of importance still has:

Ayling, Cooper, Berardi, Alioski, Dallas, Phillips, Klich, Forshaw, Hernandez and Roberts. 

Look at them this season.

Yes, let's rip it up and start again!

Think we're more likely to go backwards or nowhere fast if we go your route tbh.  

Probably not enough 'big' players, in midfield especially? Constant churn in playing staff doesn't usually bring about success tbh.

Important not to underestimate the scale of the challenge. 

Midfield. Total rebuild. Korey off. CoD never started. Pato consistently inconsistent. Palmer luxury. Elliason off. Nagy & Hano lightweights. 

Defence. Pedro off, Hunt not top 6 quality. New full back. Williams likely off. Benko off. New centre-back.

Attack. Taylor off. Fammy & Afobe likely off. New forward.

 

Now we have got loads of these ‘up and comings’, who traditionally never make it... the likes of Semenyo ain’t ready by a long chalk, one of Morrell and Walsh might break through ( one of whom should have come back in January). Vyner and Moore may now be ok for a squad places. No idea on the likes of Smith et al.. but unlikely to be near the first eleven one suspects.

Top it all off we've no established identity, shape, pattern of play, partnerships plus lack leaders and winners.

We really, really shouldn’t be in this position. We should be looking to add just a couple of quality additions. I agree a major churn is far from ideal. Pity we’ve wasted two seasons and built such a rudderless, weak squad. 

 

 

If we can do a Leeds and finish third next season without a major squad revamp it will be a near miracle imo.

I truly hope you’re correct though and we get a quality manager in who can transform the players we have in our squad. 

 

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I've been off OTIB for several weeks now as detox from another failed year, but with the season in the books I felt it was time to speak up about things without fear of casting negativity on "ongoing" players efforts. Now those efforts are complete, I was about to sum up my less than charitable feelings for the players and the club after today, but I see @Robbored has summarised it quite nicely.

What a sad reflection of a season, that we more than almost any other club - bar our opponents and the likes of Reading - are left as complete also rans and after-thoughts at the business end of the season. All these clubs battling for their lives or producing stirring run ins, and yet again we fold cheaply. Lee Johnson rightly paid with his job, but at Ashton Gate our players also get off far too lightly.

I wouldn't mind mid-table obscurity - it's a fairly positive and safe place for us in the historic natural order - but with a match-day squad that we'd spent over £30m on, including a £9m central defender, £15m of signings from Chelsea, and a first ever January transfer window promotion gamble on one of the divisions top scorers, the return from these players is an embarrassing underachievement.

Dismissing LJ has conveniently absorbed much of the pent up frustration among fans, but the squad as a whole have a lot of questions to answer about largely uncompetitive form since December - and they likely get away with it again, given only the slightest dip in goodwill. We tend to quickly forgive and hero worship our players more easily than rival clubs whose passion and stature we claim to share. 

For once we need to send a message to the players - good or bad - that their "work" simply isn't good enough. That demands out and out leadership - something this club hasn't had since Cotterill. Players need to be motivated and disciplined. Paul Cook has Wigan players running through walls for him, and he's far from the only one. Like many, he'd be appalled at what our £30m's worth gets away with.

So over to MA & SL. Do we bring in that leadership? Do we cease to be the soft touch that falters each year? Stating the obvious but the proof will be in their actions, and on prior form I'm not optimistic. Ashton and co are threatened by the idea of an empowered, bloody-minded leader. They'll try another creative appointment and in a year we'll watch again as every other club fights to the very end but us.

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