Steve Watts

1 hour ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

The truth is, he's always been a cosy Lansdown appointment.

Under Pearson, there's no room for cosy any longer. And rightly so.

These two statements contradict each other massively then considering his appointment to Director happened on Nige's watch!

The truth is that none of us know what is on his job description. Since he returned he's helped a hell of a lot of players progress from his careful loan placements.

The truth is also that due to our financial situation we're can't simply pay she loss of money to someone with 20 years experience running an academy. 

9 hours ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

Not sure that Tinnion adds much these days but agree with everything else. Given time, Pearson will have us in better shape than we've been in for decades. After all, he's about the best qualified manager we've ever appointed. 

Curious as to why you think that?  I'd say that the many of the young players have benefitted from the moves he got them as Loans Manager.  Now as Academy Director, he surely has even more responsibility to bring to the table, doesn't he?

Not sure if it will be "Stop paying transfer fees" as opposed to "Sell academy products and reinvest wisely" as a means to refresh the squad.  The key word there of course is "wisely".  We have sold to spend before, but had run out of saleable assets until this season. Unfortunately he who shall not be named just spunked the cash for fun to feed his ego trip.  With Gould at the helm I would hope that we will be far more sensible.

It's a shame that we didn't approach Biff before he left Man City for West Ham.  The emotional pull might just have been enough to tempt him here.  Now that would have been an ambitious signing.

1 hour ago, spudski said:

In theory...but when it's freezing cold and raining heavily, or extremely windy, the chances are, most won't walk any distance. This is the problem...That's British weather in a nutshell. No one these days wants to stand soaking wet and shivering whilst watching a game.

Parking won't make much of a difference in that situation right now as 2/3 of the ground is uncovered anyway.  Obviously covered terraces change that somewhat, but at the moment the club aren't there.  Would be great for them to see some sort of success, for sure.  The cup run showed the potential.

5 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

I’m saying nothing.

There's a reason I changed my wording from "us" to "the fan base" before I pressed "Submit Reply"!!!

32 minutes ago, spudski said:

The plans for new stand, gym, pitch, sports bar etc etc sound great. I understand one stand will be similar in principle to the Carol Embry suite at FGRs, where it will be two tier, top section behind glass. Certainly what's planned looks great for the local community. Open 7 days a week, sports pitch and gym, electric car power points, sports bar, even allotments etc...all will bring extra revenue to the Club.

They are miles off ever being League...however, they are punching big time this season. With games in hand, and a bit of luck they could even make top 2. 

If a miracle ever did happen...the new proposals with housing would make the club land locked so to speak. With really no further room to expand. Very limited. I guess the new park and ride could be utilised for visiting supporters in future if attendances increased.

As with everything these days, parking is the issue. Double yellows on the nearby trading estate. The council doing everything they can to stop street parking. The same happening in near Sodbury. Proposal for is it 750 new homes...yet they want to make Sodbury high st, a car free zone, with no parking. It's full to busting already with local residents cars, and car park generally full each day. 

It's not practical or feasible.

The park and ride will only be a 10 minute walk from the stadium, however, which would help. And most residents will live within 3 miles, so the younger/fitter among the fan base are in walking distance.

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

It would, however, be a fantastic laugh to see Yate beat Rovers in a League 2 or Conference match!

Would be even funnier if it were to happen in a Southern Premier League South match!

Nige did throw him under the bus a little after the Huddersfield match though.  Can't remember the exact quote, but he was speaking about Ayman and said something along the lines of "he had to cover when the left sided defender wasn't doing his job".  It seemed a very pointed comment at the time.  Must've been a press interview as it wasn't on the official site.  He did mention in that interview that the range in individual performances week on week was too wide.

2 minutes ago, Oh Louie louie said:

Matt hewletts nickname was very apt.

Bambi.

Fluffy Slippers was another nickname I seem to recall!

He always had the technical ability, but always seemed like he could do with bulking out massively every pre-season.

How have Matty's Bryant and Hewlett not had a mention yet?!?

3 hours ago, sinenomine said:

Must be struggling for Bristolians if 88 year old Johnny Watkins has made the shortlist.

Would still be more mobile than Chris Brunt ever was for us!

1 hour ago, Harry said:

Whilst I don’t think anyone would advocate smashing this Cov fan about, the point being made is actually a fair one. 
The question really is, when did it become acceptable to wear a rival team’s shirt in the home area of a football ground? 
I accept that we weren’t playing Cov, so essentially the colours were neutral, but it should also be accepted that this is a rival team in our division. 
If I walked into Cov’s ground last week versus Millwall, dressed in a BCFC shirt, I’d be expecting the stewards to refuse me entry. 
Is the fact that this person was allowed entry based on the fact that she was a female? If it was a male, would they have been allowed in? 
As said, I wouldn’t advocate smacking people, but it’s odd that someone is allowed to sport non-BCFC colours in the home section. 

Hang on, last month you were moaning about people having freedom of choice stripped away with entry to the ground and now you're trying to say what people should or shouldn't be allowed to wear?  If it's a neutral team, then why should it cause any problems? Bizzarre....

It's almost as if we don't see United, Chelsea, Arsenal etc shirts in the ground every home game.

8 minutes ago, real_bristol said:

I’ve not seen us play with that kind of passion and desire for a long, long time. Credit must go to the coaching for that. Play like that for the rest of the season and we will be ok. QPR deserved nothing, my only criticism would be defending on the corner that led to the winner. But it was blatant hand-ball in the play that led up to it. To play like we did with 10 men, against 12, I’m not disappointed and will not go into melt down. Players can hold their head high and go again. We’ve had a glimpse of what we can do without Martin and I like it. 
 

My only concern is that we are running out of games that we can just write-off. But that shouldn’t over-shadow today’s performance, in which players gave it all. That’s all we ask for. 
 

Up the ****ing City.

Never a handball.  It struck his elbow, from behind, and it was in a perfectly natural position.  I'd have gone mad if that had been given against us.  Weimann completely stopping to appeal rather than hacking it clear was frankly astounding.

8 minutes ago, Super said:

Not defending him he was terrible but he got the sending off and their pen correct. The rest he was shocking!

Yep.  Woeful throughout but got those two right, and the "handball" in the build up to the winner right as well.  Never a handball and you'd expect someone of Weimann's experience to play to the whistle rather than stop, appeal and let them waltz past him.

1 minute ago, Midlands Robin said:

Yeah, both correct and both in QPR's favour. Scott gets taken down in their penalty area 10 minutes before and in exactly the same challenge that he gave the penalty against Pring for and he waves play on.

QPR were allowed to hammer into challenges all over the pitch with almost no response from the Ref. 

Awful officiating. 

The only difference between their pen and ours is that if he'd given us the pen he'd have had to have sent the bloke off.  He utterly bottled it.  Some shocking indiscipline from some very senior pros on our side tonight though.

28 minutes ago, Rossi the Robin said:

Pretty good stream 

Last week v Hull buffered for a few seconds when we were 1-0 down and came back and the score was showing 1-1 - was like magic 

Wish I'd known about this last season.... I'd have used that instead of Robins TV and hoped for buffering from kick off until full time!

I can't be the only one who clicked this topic with a feeling of dread about the contents!

Can we please add a little more context to the headings than just a name when they're of a certain vintage?!?  My heart cannae take it! 

14 hours ago, James54De said:

Other governments you thick ****

Give it up, James.  If you argue with an idiot they'll eventually just bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.  

1 hour ago, IAmNick said:

  

It's not at all. Cancer is a great example of an awful disease that kills people - but rarely is what actually kills them.

Take a cancer of the digestive system. It stops you absorbing food, so you die of malnutrition (or weakness due to it).

Liver cancer can and will screw up the chemical balance in your body.

If you get shot and as a result have a heart attack and die, did being shot kill you?

If you get covid, develop pnuemonia, are greatly weakened and die of infection did covid kill you?

As I said, it's not as simple as you're making out.

The problem is you're looking for a very simple answer to an extremely complex question - which says a lot about how you view this whole thing.

Right now, I think in a couple of months we should have a much clearer picture the impact Omicron will have so that seems like a sensible amount of time to review things. That could then be to continue restrictions, step them up, or remove them.

Like I said, I don't enjoy the restrictions at all. I really don't - but I do understand why they're there.

This is spot on and a much better example than the one I was going to use. That was going to be AIDS. The most famous AIDS victim is undoubtedly Freddie Mercury. Ask 100 people what he died from and a very high percentage would say AIDS. And they'd be wrong as it was in fact pneumonia. The virus had just robbed his body of the ability to fight it. Just like with cancer as in your example. And covid as well.

It makes me laugh with the hit by a bus argument, because it's still possible that covid had a hand in the death as the mythical person hit by a bus may not have been strong enough to fight the injuries compared to someone who hadn't had the virus. The fact that it hinders the body's defence system when fighting any illness or injury is extremely valid, but is just conveniently ignored because Doctor Vicky Pollard of Facebook University said it is irrelevant!

The only real thing we need to accept is that certain people you can talk to until you're blue in the face. They don't want to be convinced and will not be convinced under any circumstances.

2 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

Fevs nailed it by saying that the coach should have a plan. Johnson was like the bloke in Little Britain, I want that one. We had Szmodics, he'd had a good pre season the LJ said "I want that one" and I really believe it was just because Swansea showed interest. It worked at times, and when we had Afobe & Weimann it looked really promising . OK, we lost Afobe, but you find a replacement and if you can't you change focus. Not sure we did either. It comes down to focus, I would have kept KP in, played runners and given him movement ahead of him and I honestly think he'd shine. That said, I don't think he's helped himself. We was given praise for asking to play for the U23's, then wandered around looking like he thought he was above it all.
I have no doubt he is a very good player, but needs a team to suit his attributes . We ain't that team. His vision and passing is wasted with us, very little movement and very little control of the ball. We need workmen who will put in a shift, at one time I thought he was doing it, but obviously Pearson doesn't agree.

Was he a Johnson signing though? There were plenty of people on here calling for the club to sign him. Seemed to me like it was an Ashton signing designed to get showered with adulation and stroke the ego.

35 minutes ago, BigAl&Toby said:

And there was me thinking that Steve, Jon and Ashton knew what they were doing……..

You thought Ashton knew what he was doing?!?

12 minutes ago, alexukhc said:

What you on about he played today…

Is it just me that sees this as a "they all look the same to me" style of comment?!?

I think he'll end up flitting between the championship and league one. I think he'd boss many league one teams in the way JET did. That would see him secure a move to the championship where he'll again flatter to deceive and find himself back in league one where he'd boss many...... Etc etc ad infinitum.

1 hour ago, Harry said:

Funny how no one has mentioned New World Order or Great Reset except for you and Robbo. 
 

I was simply responding to a point in a post.... 

2 hours ago, big p said:

Ballanced approach, He said people with differing views are batshit crazy.. Course it is

Absolutely not what I said. I said the New World Order/Great Reset conspiracy theorists are Batshit crazy. And that is a view I will stand by. That's not a different opinion, it's grounded in utter falsehoods and proven to be so. But you feel free to twist words however you like, I won't lose sleep over it.

I wholeheartedly disagree with people saying he should be banned from the stadium for life.  That doesn't go far enough as a punishment.  He should slapped with a season ticket and be forced to watch City like the rest of us!  That'll learn him, innit?!?

2 hours ago, Eddie Hitler said:

Yet with Covid vaccines people are still becoming very ill and in some cases dying and there is no specific strain protection ascribed to any of them despite there being just five strains in nearly two years: alpha, beta, gamma, delta and then bizarrely omicron rather than epsilon.

There has been an Epsilon variant.  And an Eta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu and Zeta. The reason they're not well known is because they are all classed as VBM's (Variants being monitored), save Lambda and Mu, which are or have been VOI's (Variants of interest) or VUI's (Varients under investigation).  Delta and Omicron are VOC's (variants of concern), hence the increase in measures to combat them.  It's really not bizarre and is very easy to find out the answers,

1 hour ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

If you read it, that story acknowledges that viral loads can be similar during infection, but in vaccinated people the high viral load phase WILL BE SHORTER. Therefore, on average, vaccinated people will have lower viral loads than unvaccinated ones. This is the entire reason d'etre of these restrictions. Why else do you think they are being brought in?  As part of some sinister New World Order conspiracy?

It isn't an opinion piece and it contains more links than to "two researchers". It's the most recent research on the subject.

 

These people are batshit crazy, aren't they?  Them and their great reset!  *shudder*

1 hour ago, big p said:

If people are worried then I would they suggest they limit the time spent in crowded areas. For the rest of us, let us live our lives restriction free. Its pretty simple really, isn't it?

 

Alot of people are very happy that the government controls every aspect of their lives, that's fair enough.

But I'm not and I won't.  Thankfully there are lots of people who are already and starting to think this way.

Whilst the number is growing, it is thankfully still a tiny minority overall.  Thankfully the gross majority are doing the right and sensible thing.

39 minutes ago, bbew said:

The consequences of having or not having restrictions could be debated forever.  All most people who questioned them wanted however was a cost benefit analysis. 

We now know an estimated 740,000 possible cancer cases have been missed.  Many of these because since lockdown there have been 36 million fewer doctors consultations.  So may have been scared to get checked out as they didn't want to risk catching covid or being a burden on the NHS. 

 

No we don't.  The report is somewhere between 250,000 and 740,000 since March 2020.  Yes, the number is still staggering even at the lower end of the scale, but still important to note that these are not 250,000 actual cancer cases, but 250,000 plus cases where people didn't or weren't able to see a doctor for consultation. Again, it is very high, but it should be seen as a lesson to be learned moving forward.  The tragedy would be in those sorts of figures being repeated over the next 18 months because it would show that we've not done enough to address the problem after acknowledging that there is one.

2 hours ago, Bristol Rob said:

Only put it here as it's a football matter, not a political one.

 

Yeah, apologies, I hadn't appreciated that the vaccine passport was going to impact on outdoor events. I still stand by my stance that I don't have any problem with it myself. 

1 minute ago, Bristol Rob said:

Sounds like it's only a few hours away from being introduced.

I know we had a thread on this at the start of the rollout of jabs and views were mixed, but seeing as it's being widely reported that it'll be announced today, what are the thoughts now?

Maybe move it to the politics forum.

I don't have a problem with the passports myself, but understand how some would.