Chairman Mao Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Didn't rate him at all and was clearly wrong. Some of his positional performances in the 15-16 was embarrassing, Fulham at home springs to mind. Someone brought up Luke Freeman. Again, he was fantastic at League 1 and was given plenty of chances in the Championship and was really ineffective for us, I felt like £800k was a fair price to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
City Rocker Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 45 minutes ago, Nogbad the Bad said: If LJ didn't rate him worthy of a place then he's a strangely poor judge of a player imo. I can't believe that was the real reason. If LJ didn't like him (not pals at Yeovil?) then generally it may be reasonable for a newish manager to move a player on for that reason as he assembles his own squad of characters he prefers. But if he has to go don't sell such a promising player, who was very obviously only going to get better, for a paltry 200k! It then looks like he's viewed as a bad egg ( non event Cheltenham incident) the club wanted to dispense with asap when we all know he was not only an exciting player worth his place, but known to be a key positive and popular character in the spirited & harmonious squad assembled by Cotts. Too much of a personality for LJ in the same way as Cotts was for SL perhaps? I've mentioned it before, but I chatted to Luke a few times when I bumped into him around the Harbourside. When, early in LJ's tenure, I asked him about why he was out of the side he told me, and I quote, "the gaffer doesn't seem to like me". At the time I took this to mean Lee didn't rate him, rather than literally disliking him, but who knows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spike Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 1 hour ago, Merrick's Marvels said: Something tells me that if we knew then what we know now about Ayling's ability, the club would have handled the Cheltenham misdemeanour differently. Funny that. Every Right Back since him has been inferior. The thing is he showed the quality and on pitch leadership for us, he really did but he was still seen as replaceable, which had proved to be untrue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamdon Mart Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 7 hours ago, Nogbad the Bad said: If LJ didn't rate him worthy of a place then he's a strangely poor judge of a player imo. I can't believe that was the real reason. If LJ didn't like him (not pals at Yeovil?) then generally it may be reasonable for a newish manager to move a player on for that reason as he assembles his own squad of characters he prefers. But if he has to go don't sell such a promising player, who was very obviously only going to get better, for a paltry 200k! It then looks like he's viewed as a bad egg ( non event Cheltenham incident) the club wanted to dispense with asap when we all know he was not only an exciting player worth his place, but known to be a key positive and popular character in the spirited & harmonious squad assembled by Cotts. Too much of a personality for LJ in the same way as Cotts was for SL perhaps? I worked in the media department at Yeovil when Luke was there, a fantastic lad that deserves every bit of success that he's had. LJ wasn't at Yeovil at the same time as Luke was but obviously Gary was manager when Yeovil won the League One playoffs. Had that ill-fated Championship season when Yeovil were relegated and left the following summer, I think. He's a good lad at heart too, the post about him staying at a presentation for 2-3 hours does not surprise me at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Balls Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Brought in by Cotts and Burt, so never going to be that popular with LJ and MA. If you look who were mainstays for LJ in the first couple of years, almost none of them were brought in under Cotterill. They were either bought by SO’D (Fielding, Flint, Pack) or came through the academy (Bryan, Reid). All of the rest came in under MA. The fact that we sold both Ayling and Freeman for so little is evidence that their faces just didn’t fit under MA and LJ because both have clearly coped at Championship level or in Ayling’s case now in the Premier League. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Popodopolous Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 7 hours ago, Hengrovian said: I worked in the media department at Yeovil when Luke was there, a fantastic lad that deserves every bit of success that he's had. LJ wasn't at Yeovil at the same time as Luke was but obviously Gary was manager when Yeovil won the League One playoffs. Had that ill-fated Championship season when Yeovil were relegated and left the following summer, I think. He's a good lad at heart too, the post about him staying at a presentation for 2-3 hours does not surprise me at all. Just getting there was/would have been a major achievement really- though you might have a better handle on how that was viewed given you were inside the club at the time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daored Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 16 hours ago, Engvall’s Splinter said: Goes to show how valuable a good manager is and how they can extract more from players/improve them. I’d rather we spent a few bob on a manager for a change rather than throwing millions at players. Absolutely correct, the improvement in players under Bielsa is incredible. Copper, Ayling, Bamford none of those three would’ve considered as top flight players. Phillips is an England international, you could also add Dallas to the list as well. Bielsa has proven you don’t need to spend , spend but coaching and working on the training pitch you can get the players drilled to play a system. Yet we continue to follow our own path of the same mistakes again and again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazooka Joe Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 Luke is not Ayling; he's thriving. However, we, Bristol City FC, are ailing. Big time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AppyDAZE Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 4-0 down, 47 minutes. Gotta love watching Leeds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexukhc Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 1 minute ago, AppyDAZE said: 4-0 down, 47 minutes. Gotta love watching Leeds. No comment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AppyDAZE Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 Hang on, 4-2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobintheRed Red Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 On 13/02/2021 at 15:21, Chairman Mao said: Didn't rate him at all and was clearly wrong. Some of his positional performances in the 15-16 was embarrassing, Fulham at home springs to mind. Someone brought up Luke Freeman. Again, he was fantastic at League 1 and was given plenty of chances in the Championship and was really ineffective for us, I felt like £800k was a fair price to be honest. Well those two would piss in this team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tin Soldier Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 On 13/02/2021 at 13:33, Davefevs said: I really rated Ayling. Think there’s a point when you’re selling a player deemed “not auto first choice” and another club, a better club from the same league want to buy him, that you should at least ask the question “is this the right thing to do, why do they want him?”. Remember several posters saying he wouldn’t get a game at Leeds. He did, and some. Top player down the City. He used to cover some BIG yards for us in 90 minutes. He also now has one of the best head coaches in the world in Bilsa, who has coached/improved him to a high standard. The Cheltenham races saga could have been handled better IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyC Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 41 minutes ago, GasDestroyer said: Top player down the City. He used to cover some BIG yards for us in 90 minutes. He also now has one of the best head coaches in the world in Bilsa, who has coached/improved him to a high standard. The Cheltenham races saga could have been handled better IMO. Always gave 100% and covered more ground than this squad put together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamdon Mart Posted February 15, 2021 Report Share Posted February 15, 2021 On 14/02/2021 at 05:14, Mr Popodopolous said: Just getting there was/would have been a major achievement really- though you might have a better handle on how that was viewed given you were inside the club at the time? This is probably going a little off topic but FWIW... I left the club the season before we reached the Championship (I was still volunteering as a commentator for visually impaired fans) so I missed all the celebrations etc, though it was great to go to Wembley as a supporter with my children. The season up there was crazy, we were so much smaller than any other team yet we fought and battled and in the end, went down by just seven points. We threw away 30 points from winning positions which narks me to this day, guess that shows naivety. Would have been nice to have a second season but alas not. Have some great memories of beating Watford 3-0 at Vicarage Road (Sorry!), drawing 1-1 at Leicester City who levelled with a 90th minute goal, beating Forest at home but eight wins in eight months is rarely going to be enough. Once relegation was confirmed, the break up of the team was inevitable. Luke joined City and several of the others, having tasted Championship football, weren't keen on staying and trying to repeat the promotion season which is fair enough. I think our board could have, and should have, invested more into the club to try to stay up, we didn't go down with a pathetic points tally but it's all ifs, buts and maybes now. Especially languishing as we do in the bottom six of the National League now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hartleysbeard Posted February 15, 2021 Report Share Posted February 15, 2021 On 13/02/2021 at 12:15, oldstandrobin said: Sorry to be pedantic, its Luke Ayling !!! ailing /ˈeɪlɪŋ/ adjective in poor health. "I went to see my ailing mother" Sorry to be pedantic, but it’s ‘it’s’ not its. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Popodopolous Posted February 15, 2021 Report Share Posted February 15, 2021 On 14/02/2021 at 07:24, daored said: Absolutely correct, the improvement in players under Bielsa is incredible. Copper, Ayling, Bamford none of those three would’ve considered as top flight players. Phillips is an England international, you could also add Dallas to the list as well. Bielsa has proven you don’t need to spend , spend but coaching and working on the training pitch you can get the players drilled to play a system. Yet we continue to follow our own path of the same mistakes again and again. Would Klich have been considered a PL player in 2018? Questionable, yet there he is. Agree top class coaching can really take sides on. I'd add Wilder at Sheffield United to that list too albeit 2nd season Syndrome etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPAZZA Posted February 15, 2021 Report Share Posted February 15, 2021 I always take the piss out of my mates how much we paid for him. A measure of how good he is.....he will be one of the LAST positions we strengthen over the next 2 seasons. The guy is brilliant, when he actually gets to play RB our attack is so balanced, his defending is improving all the time, I can’t wait until he finally plays alongside the two CBs that we’ve bought but haven’t played yet. An absolute shambles of a sale, I honestly could not believe we signed him and for pennies, as soon as the transfer went through I was group messaging taking the piss. After Cheltenham maybe that was apt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slacker Posted February 15, 2021 Report Share Posted February 15, 2021 3 hours ago, SPAZZA said: I always take the piss out of my mates how much we paid for him. A measure of how good he is.....he will be one of the LAST positions we strengthen over the next 2 seasons. The guy is brilliant, when he actually gets to play RB our attack is so balanced, his defending is improving all the time, I can’t wait until he finally plays alongside the two CBs that we’ve bought but haven’t played yet. An absolute shambles of a sale, I honestly could not believe we signed him and for pennies, as soon as the transfer went through I was group messaging taking the piss. After Cheltenham maybe that was apt. Thanks for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slacker Posted February 17, 2021 Report Share Posted February 17, 2021 On 15/02/2021 at 18:16, SPAZZA said: I always take the piss out of my mates how much we paid for him. A measure of how good he is.....he will be one of the LAST positions we strengthen over the next 2 seasons. The guy is brilliant, when he actually gets to play RB our attack is so balanced, his defending is improving all the time, I can’t wait until he finally plays alongside the two CBs that we’ve bought but haven’t played yet. An absolute shambles of a sale, I honestly could not believe we signed him and for pennies, as soon as the transfer went through I was group messaging taking the piss. After Cheltenham maybe that was apt. I reckon you owe us one.How about,give us your manager and we will call it quits? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoyalRed Posted February 17, 2021 Report Share Posted February 17, 2021 On 13/02/2021 at 13:54, Fordy62 said: Ayling 200k Freeman 800k Two names that often get missed from the ‘net transfer spend’ argument. I wonder why. Yes both worth over 5 million each now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fordy62 Posted February 17, 2021 Report Share Posted February 17, 2021 Just now, LoyalRed said: Yes both worth over 5 million each now I think you’ll find Ayling would be about 4x that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPAZZA Posted February 17, 2021 Report Share Posted February 17, 2021 3 hours ago, Slacker said: I reckon you owe us one.How about,give us your manager and we will call it quits? I suspect even if Bielsa was open to it Lansdown wouldn’t see the value in paying for him...... That will forever be your problem unfortunately. 3 hours ago, Fordy62 said: I think you’ll find Ayling would be about 4x that! To buy him now would easily be North of £15m, however he is invaluable to us. He is everything you want in a player, committed, amazing connection with the fans / club, improving all the time (which is all you can ever ask), an infectious personality. 99.99% of us fans know we will get smashed at times, we appreciate we have players from a lower league playing good football, but the fact they were in the championship means consistency will be wanting at times in the PL. Just build with 3 new signings next year and if Bielsa stays I genuinely think we’ll be top 8 next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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