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‘The football club excelling at everything except football ‘


Sheltons Army

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Just now, OddBallJim said:

Good article by GMG. 
 

Can’t believe I’ve woken up this morning and nothing has changed. 
 

Firmly expecting another difficult couple of weeks.

If you take this point as LJ’s tenure, I’d say we’re about 15% of the way through Holden’s tenure. 

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It really did make me laugh when the main commentator wanted Tinnion to elaborate on some game or other that City had beat Watford while Tinnion was playing and he just grunted back in his direction. While ‘I didn’t see this coming’ was a very odd thing to say, I thought Tins did as good a job as he could in that situation yesterday.

Think the TV would have gone out the window if I had to suffer listening to Gilmartin telling me how brilliantly City were getting thrashed.

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They've got to make matches an enjoyable experience again. The commercial side of things, great, and all necessary in modern day football. As far as the football goes, they've completely taken their eyes off the ball. When my 10 year old (football mad) son tells me he doesn't want to watch the matches any more, and I feel the same, stats on season ticket sales and training ground videos just don't cut it.  

As this situation has gone on for so long now, instead of a wall of silence, I'd like to see a statement acknowledging how poor the football has been and a commitment to do something about it. 

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9 minutes ago, Kingswood Robin said:

They've got to make matches an enjoyable experience again. The commercial side of things, great, and all necessary in modern day football. As far as the football goes, they've completely taken their eyes off the ball. When my 10 year old (football mad) son tells me he doesn't want to watch the matches any more, and I feel the same, stats on season ticket sales and training ground videos just don't cut it.  

As this situation has gone on for so long now, instead of a wall of silence, I'd like to see a statement acknowledging how poor the football has been and a commitment to do something about it. 

It's quite funny that the one thing everyone bar literally half a dozen people can all agree on, whatever side of the fence they are on in terms of supporting/hating Holden, Ashton and the Lansdowns is that the football we play is absolutely shite, filthy, bad enough at times to make you want to throw up. It is that bad and literally everyone but the most very one eyed of posters agrees.

How can the people at the top of the club not see it? I would question whether the Owner has watched more than 10 minutes of any game this season.

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1 hour ago, steviestevieneville said:

Why weren’t they looking at left backs on loan from a prem club as soon as they knew dasilva was out for months back in , when was it , November ? 
yes we had  Pring but who’s to say he’s good enough yet . ******* shambles 

The whole succession planning is awful.

The loan system doesn’t help, and I have sympathy with a succession of injuries, but as you say, the advance notice was there.

I’m more interested why Vince Harper wasn’t called up?  The actual LWB in the u23s!!!  Nothing against Towler either.

If budget was an issue, then I question Lansbury over a loan LB.

I think it’s fair to say the football side has lost the plot.

As much as Gregor and Geoff interviewed MA well, Geoff’s next opportunity can be much more hard-hitting, as he’s got a post-window debacle playing out, showing that MA got it wrong:

  • no LWB
  • Fam’s firm
  • results
  • performances
  • financial results 

Next time he’s on I’m gonna make sure Geoff is furnished with a lot of info.

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3 hours ago, Sheltons Army said:

This is a piece by Gregor Mc

I thought it was a good , well written view / piece  , by somebody who is pretty close eyes to what goes on , but without the anger that many of us fans feel


Thought I’d post it for those that otherwise may miss it

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Bristol City verdict: The football club excelling at everything except football 

Bristol City's ambition burns bright. But that red glow you see is not the sun on the horizon but the reverse lights after the current team crash from Championship defeat to defeat. The direction of travel is not so much south west. Just south.

Everywhere the team goes or whenever they play host they impress. Whether it's food donations from the Robins Foundation, the club's imminent plans for moving into state of the art training facilities, to their top-class stadium, hospitality and concert programmes and burgeoning sports quarter plans.

The work of the academy is regarded as top notch and there is talent constantly being pushed into the senior side (we'll come onto this more in a second) attracting attention elsewhere. Both the CEO and media teams have won industry best-in-class awards of late.

But the club is simply not impressing where it matters most: on the pitch.

Every year the mission is to go up or at the least be 'competitive' as Mark Ashton explained recently. The club is now failing on that account and it doesn't take a backroom team of analysts to work that out.

If this writer is being harsh given that Manchester United were beaten not so long ago, then put down the cider and wake up to 2021. We're four years on from that point. The club has wasted those talents that forged those heady nights and the current squad looks way off the pace.

Saturday's capitulation, the worst for a decade, will at least see BS3 gilded cages rattled and hard questions asked. Jon Lansdown gave up tweeting about Bristol City some time ago but after a fourth league defeat in a row, but a ninth in the last 12 games, there will at least be some discussion behind the scenes.

City's relegation form for the last three and a half months (only Birmingham and Wycombe have taken fewer points than City since 1 December) demands it. Alarm bells will ring around super hub Ashton Gate after this one and a vaccination for incompetence needs be sought, after the defending reduced a club legend to swearing 'f****** hell' on live broadcast.

By some twisted quirk, the Robins are still just one point off seventh position. But to acknowledge that is to dismiss the ineptitude of recent matches and a side that is in freefall. It was just one shot on target by the end of Saturday's one-sided contest, making it nine in total in the last five games, less than two per match. Savior them, Bristol City fans, as you're liable to have to wait around an hour of drab match action to see another.

Indeed, given that City recorded an Expected Goals total of 0.02 of a goal at Carrow Road against Norwich City, this was a comparative feast of attacking football as Han-Noah Massengo shot low at Daniel Bachmann in goal eight minutes from the end to finally warm the Austrian's hands on a chilly day.

It certainly was an attacking display of splendour going the other way up the pitch though, as City were once again outclassed. Ismaela Sarr was the star turn, but Ken Sema and Joao Pedro can have thoroughly enjoyed this one too.No-one comes out of Saturday's trip east well for the visitors, despite the Robins heading to parachute-payment enhanced opposition and a side who had a full week to prepare. City by contrast looked like they'd had a full hour.

Watford were backslapping to the tune of John Barnes and Nigel Callaghan on the wings following this game, as the home side recorded their biggest margin of victory in a league game since 1982, when Eye of the Tiger by Survivor was top of the charts and Graham Taylor in thrall at Vicarage Road.

But there was little fight on show from the Robins. Survival was gone after just half an hour of play, being three down. And to think that some critics have lambasted Mark Ashton for never solely helping the Hertfordshire club to achieve anything...

Questions will be asked of Holden, Ashton, the board and the strategy going forward, and so they should be.

This was men against boys stuff. Quite literally with 18-year-old Ryley Towler looking a good talent but why on earth would you put him on the left against arguably the best winger in the entire division, courted by Manchester United and Liverpool? For his second league game ever. Having not played that position ever before in a league game. And likely no team ever, bar last Wednesday.

Perhaps if Alfie Mawson had been behind the academy graduate it may have been worth the risk, but an untested young talent thrust into the senior side because of injuries and not on ability was a recipe for disaster.

Taylor Moore had a regrettable afternoon and the fact that he was on for a hat-trick of own goals and not mentioned by the head coach after the game tells its own story (Lee Johnson would have publicly rebuked; Holden takes the flak now).

As for the head coach, he looked shell-shocked in his post-match press conference. We don't suggest that there will be a replacement as the message from the club has been that this is an extraordinary season and Holden has not yet had a fair crack of the whip.

There are other reasons for the drop-off in form of late too: poor recruitment, a threadbare squad ravaged by injury and more, while the club seem happy to bumble along until pressed to actually do something.

For City, things could rapidly deteriorate in the next games ahead with some difficult fixtures to come at home against Reading and away to Middlesbrough and Swansea City, with confidence having taken an almighty Harry Wilson-like stamp to the mid-drift. Things change very quickly in football and further humiliating scorelines may force a quick rethink.

Mark Ashton explained ahead of the season that "challenging for promotion is definitely the aim". "It's definitely more than achievable," he added.

Jon Lansdown expected a promotion challenge too. "I believe we had a squad last year that should have been challenging for the top six and I think going into next year, there's no reason to think that we can't be in that bracket again. We want to be at the right end of the table challenging for promotion," he said.

What do you say now, chaps?

Here’s a good well written piece. And the best way to reward the journalist who wrote it is to steal his work and stick it on a forum rather than linking people to it for free. 
 

You should delete your post and replace with a link. 

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14 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

The whole succession planning is awful.

The loan system doesn’t help, and I have sympathy with a succession of injuries, but as you say, the advance notice was there.

I’m more interested why Vince Harper wasn’t called up?  The actual LWB in the u23s!!!  Nothing against Towler either.

If budget was an issue, then I question Lansbury over a loan LB.

I think it’s fair to say the football side has lost the plot.

As much as Gregor and Geoff interviewed MA well, Geoff’s next opportunity can be much more hard-hitting, as he’s got a post-window debacle playing out, showing that MA got it wrong:

  • no LWB
  • Fam’s firm
  • results
  • performances
  • financial results 

Next time he’s on I’m gonna make sure Geoff is furnished with a lot of info.

Good, get the  recruitment stats into him and hopefully geoff won’t let him off the hook, he normally doesn’t. I hope he’s sacked before that happens but I won’t hold my breath . 

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24 minutes ago, the1stknowle said:

Here’s a good well written piece. And the best way to reward the journalist who wrote it is to steal his work and stick it on a forum rather than linking people to it for free. 
 

You should delete your post and replace with a link. 

‘Steal his work’?  What on Earth are you on about! GmcG is fully credited in the opening line. Get a grip! 

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The title of this thread says it all really for me. 

Not just for City, but pro football in general. Perhaps we've become a club who, at present, are a good example of what happens when the business becomes more important than the football. And City have likely managed this conflict better than many, many clubs I suspect, well certainly in the long term. But it's not a high bar, and there's plenty of ways to cook an egg. 

And it's all a little bit of history repeating, the same mistakes on a predictable cycle. Its almost as if as a club, we're not interested in learning. To paraphrase Brian Tinnion circa October 2005 "I wanted a Director of Football, but the chairman didn't agree".

I remember receiving a Spitting Image annual for Xmas, late 80s. There was a satirical cartoon, a Roy of the Ro*ers parody charting the future of Fulchester or Melchester or whoever. The final frame was a bunch of fans, in team colours with scarves and rattles watching & cheering as their football club's share price fluctuates.

Stuck with me for over 30 years that. Guess I found it strangely  prophetic.

 

(ps: I am an idealistic, even a dinosaur! But unashamedly so.)

 

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48 minutes ago, the1stknowle said:

Here’s a good well written piece. And the best way to reward the journalist who wrote it is to steal his work and stick it on a forum rather than linking people to it for free. 
 

You should delete your post and replace with a link. 

Thankyou for your input

‘Steal his work’ ???    you  *****

Firstly Einstein , I made it quite clear I was merely posting an article by Gregor


And it probably by passed your twisted limited thought process but I took the trouble to cut and paste it as many wont,  or don’t like going on the Bristol Live Website with the ads attack - So I thought it may help some

 

In conclusion - you appear to be a bit of a twisted , miserable ***** with some form of agenda - Do one

 

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1 hour ago, Numero Uno said:

It's quite funny that the one thing everyone bar literally half a dozen people can all agree on, whatever side of the fence they are on in terms of supporting/hating Holden, Ashton and the Lansdowns is that the football we play is absolutely shite, filthy, bad enough at times to make you want to throw up. It is that bad and literally everyone but the most very one eyed of posters agrees.

How can the people at the top of the club not see it? I would question whether the Owner has watched more than 10 minutes of any game this season.

What narks me is when they trot out this "Covid has made this an extraordinary season" and "we need to batten down the hatches and just get through it" line.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but is Covid just restricted to the Bristol area - I thought it was nationwide.

And are we not having the same numbers of promotions and relegations as usual. Didn't think this season was just a series of meaningless friendlies...

No, it's an excuse, Covid has affected football, but it has affected everyone. It's a level playing field. Other clubs are still going for it and with the appointment of Holden and our half-hearted recruitment we've signalled that we aren't.

The club urgently needs, as the man says, a "vaccination against incompetence".

When you have a failing manager with a failing team and a failing club executive above them, the good players will want to leave and no decent prospects will want to join us. 

We need a shake-up ASAP. Not when we're the bottom club next season. If Holden's still here in August would anyone bet against relegation?

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Gregor has shown in the past that he isn’t scared to call the club out on occasion and that’s healthy. Eg the Joe Williams unhappy with his treatment article. The club can’t have it all their way and only expect fluffy pro BCFC content. That’s what the club channels are for. 
As much a Gregor probably takes a risk in writing a damning article about the club, the club also can’t afford to alienate the local press, especially at a time of friction when the fans aren’t going to be on the clubs side. 
I think it’s a good piece and speaks for a lot of supporters. 

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Are we excelling off it?

Almost everything around the club stinks, even pre covid. We have a clueless, narcissistic owner who is a tax dodger, a CEO who is the slimiest man in football, a fanbase that is entitled and cowardly, and a team that is unrelatable and poor.

The club needs a re-think from bottom to top, because nothing good will come from the top.

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45 minutes ago, Sheltons Army said:

Thankyou for your input

‘Steal his work’ ???    you  *****

Firstly Einstein , I made it quite clear I was merely posting an article by Gregor


And it probably by passed your twisted limited thought process but I took the trouble to cut and paste it as many wont,  or don’t like going on the Bristol Live Website with the ads attack - So I thought it may help some

 

In conclusion - you appear to be a bit of a twisted , miserable ***** with some form of agenda - Do one

 

You had a choice. You could have done the right thing and deleted your copy and paste of someone else's work.

Or you could have been an internet blowhard, lost your cool and vomited some meaningless words from your keyboard.

You made your choice. 

Your copy and paste sure did help some. Just not the person who wrote it. But at least you saved the people from the ads. In conclusion, you're a good guy. I see that now.

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1 minute ago, the1stknowle said:

You had a choice. You could have done the right thing and deleted your copy and paste of someone else's work.

Or you could have been an internet blowhard, lost your cool and vomited some meaningless words from your keyboard.

You made your choice. 

Your copy and paste sure did help some. Just not the person who wrote it. But at least you saved the people from the ads. In conclusion, you're a good guy. I see that now.

Warped 

That’s the polite version

????

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1 hour ago, lenred said:

‘Steal his work’?  What on Earth are you on about! GmcG is fully credited in the opening line. Get a grip! 

It's not about the crediting. If I download Jurassic Park and show it to a bunch of people, it's still theft, even if I carefully explain to them that Steven Spielberg made the movie and not me. 

If yours is a good faith question, then let me know and I can link you to lots of stuff about how bad copy and pasting is for journalism and why work should be read on the platform that pays the journalist to write it. 

But if you just want to tell me 'it's not theft' because the Bristol Post is free or 'it's hardly like he burgled his house', then we can leave it there. 

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Just now, the1stknowle said:

It's not about the crediting. If I download Jurassic Park and show it to a bunch of people, it's still theft, even if I carefully explain to them that Steven Spielberg made the movie and not me. 

If yours is a good faith question, then let me know and I can link you to lots of stuff about how bad copy and pasting is for journalism and why work should be read on the platform that pays the journalist to write it. 

But if you just want to tell me 'it's not theft' because the Bristol Post is free or 'it's hardly like he burgled his house', then we can leave it there. 

Are you a failed journalist or just a prize ? 


Id suggest you contact the Mods here , Avon & Somerset Police , and The Home Office immediately

??

 

In the meantime I’m writing a long apology and a large cheque to send to Gregor 

?

 

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35 minutes ago, Welcome To The Jungle said:

Are we excelling off it?

Almost everything around the club stinks, even pre covid. We have a clueless, narcissistic owner who is a tax dodger, a CEO who is the slimiest man in football, a fanbase that is entitled and cowardly, and a team that is unrelatable and poor.

The club needs a re-think from bottom to top, because nothing good will come from the top.

Got to be careful what you wish for, owning football clubs these days is a money-backed affair, you clearly don't like Lansdown, but would you rather some shady Far Eastern / Middle East syndicate owner with no ties to the area and no knowledge of the the history of the club and its place in the community, and even less clarity on the source of the backing?

Are you saying that the stadium stinks, the training ground and the clear if often misplaced use of transfer funds?

I'm as pissed off as everyone else with the current form and some of the decisions made with regard to management recruitment, but wanting wholesale change is asking for trouble, all the successful teams in the upper echelons of football and I'd go from L1 to the Prem mostly have stability behind the scenes. The chaotic ones might shine for a while and then fall away - take Wigan, Bolton and Portsmouth for examples.

As much as I like Holden, I think his time is up, and we certainly need to look closely at our recruitment and medical teams. That close look will only come from an outside managerial appointment, changing the owner is only asking for trouble.

 

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26 minutes ago, Sheltons Army said:

Are you a failed journalist or just a prize ? 


Id suggest you contact the Mods here , Avon & Somerset Police , and The Home Office immediately

??

 

In the meantime I’m writing a long apology and a large cheque to send to Gregor 

?

 

I am a failed journalist - not enough emojis in my articles apparently so they let me go. I kept writing really angry diabtribes where I'd totally lose my temper. Passionately felt they were, railing against injustice; viscerally written from the heart. And my editor always wanted me to put a little laughing face emoji at the end of every article. She told me, 'if you do that, people will think you're a really good bloke because you will fool them into thinking that you're not really furious, you were just having a laugh all along. Even though, from the words that you've written, it might seem that you are really, really angry.'

It was sound advice, but just wasn't for me. Sad face.

I don't want to ruin your Sunday and keep you online while you write another four posts about how I'm a stupid failure and you're mega clever and a big time success. I think everyone can see that with the sick burns you've given me in your last few posts. 

But I will just say that if you put as much effort into doing the right thing as you do into doubling down when you're wrong, maybe the world would be a slightly better place.

Or just keep doing what you're doing. Who knows - maybe if you infringe enough copyright, then you can make all newspaper journalists failed journalists like me. Save people from the ads, save people from the journalism. 

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2 hours ago, the1stknowle said:

Here’s a good well written piece. And the best way to reward the journalist who wrote it is to steal his work and stick it on a forum rather than linking people to it for free. 
 

You should delete your post and replace with a link. 

Seriously? Frankly he’s done us all a favour so we don’t have to ensure e pain of the BEP website.

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7 minutes ago, the1stknowle said:

I am a failed journalist - not enough emojis in my articles apparently so they let me go. I kept writing really angry diabtribes where I'd totally lose my temper. Passionately felt they were, railing against injustice; viscerally written from the heart. And my editor always wanted me to put a little laughing face emoji at the end of every article. She told me, 'if you do that, people will think you're a really good bloke because you will fool them into thinking that you're not really furious, you were just having a laugh all along. Even though, from the words that you've written, it might seem that you are really, really angry.'

It was sound advice, but just wasn't for me. Sad face.

I don't want to ruin your Sunday and keep you online while you write another four posts about how I'm a stupid failure and you're mega clever and a big time success. I think everyone can see that with the sick burns you've given me in your last few posts. 

But I will just say that if you put as much effort into doing the right thing as you do into doubling down when you're wrong, maybe the world would be a slightly better place.

Or just keep doing what you're doing. Who knows - maybe if you infringe enough copyright, then you can make all newspaper journalists failed journalists like me. Save people from the ads, save people from the journalism. 

You seem to be on your own here with your incongruous outrage.

Thanks for posting Gregor's excellent article @Sheltons Army

Many would have missed it and (on the whole :whistle2:) it's led to a very interesting thread.

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