Phileas Fogg

Their main KPIs seem to be whether "fever pitch" can win the "football content awards". That's all fine, but it seems to be at the expense of getting the basics right rather than in addition to.

I've met him before and he is a really nice guy. He's incredibly laid back though so I can see that not really impressing Pearson.

It would be really interesting to see if any foreign teams bid for him, given the uptick in success for young English players going abroad over the last few seasons.

I think this is a straw man argument really. From what I can see, people questioning this are doing so politely and the point is obviously far more nuanced than ‘the women have achieved more than our relatively unsuccessful men’s team but I don’t want them included’

I do think that the women’s team is over represented in social media posts etc. I completely understand the reasoning, the official social media pages have a wide reach and it’s free marketing. Obviously the club want to all the various iterations of Bristol City under one banner. Personally though, I feel it comes across as slightly insincere and a bit of a ‘right on’ box ticking exercise. It’s obvious there won’t be anywhere near the same level of interest in that sort of content (at the moment) as there would be in first team content or even the development sides. I think those who don’t seem as invested, or invested at all, in the fortunes of the WFC aren’t necessarily being ignorant or sexist.. but perhaps they too feel it’s a bit over imposed relative to the interest in the WFC. Same situation here where I think it’s legitimate to question whether achievements of the two teams should be recognised in the same award. This post isn’t intended to cause offence by the way, and I’m very open to considering other points of view, but this is my thoughts on the issue.

Exactly. I think Marsch is the manager Lee Johnson thinks he is.

Agreed Because Leeds was clearly not the right sort of club for him. He had enormous shoes to fill given how popular Bielsa was, and is more of a ‘project’ manager. I have no doubt were he given time, he’d have done well at Leeds. They’re a massive club and fans wanted a faster improvement than he was able to offer. Their stats were pretty good and improving. I think his stock has fallen in recent years. He’s probably viewed as one of the old school managers who is past his best and wouldn’t be a trendy appointment for a club with such a focus on stats like Southampton are. We can see the visible improvements he’s made here, but most wouldn’t consider the wider context and simply look at our league performance under him.

And it’s a valid question to ask I think. Despite the support it’s starting to gain, women’s football is still relatively small in profile compared to the men’s game. This hall of fame initiative is great, but it seems to imply the achievements of the WFC inductees are of equal significance to Bristol City to the men’s inductees. With the best will in the world, that’s simply not the case yet IMO because of the relative profile of the women’s team.

I find this quite an unexciting way to view things, the same as all the "enjoy him whilst he's here" stuff about Scott. If you're being pragmatic about it, playoffs would probably be unlikely. But we're playing well, have momentum and gaining confidence - nothing wrong with looking up the table instead of down and enjoying the ride.

I actually enjoy players and managers who are a bit more colourful, even if I disagree with what they’re saying. Would rather hear an entertaining yet controversial interview then the usual drawstring “we go again” cliches you usually hear.

I really like Marsch. He's a very good man and interesting to listen to. Was always going to be a tough act to follow to live up to Bielsa who was so enigmatic and popular. I think Marsch is a "project" type manager who needs a longer period of time to implement his coaching and ideas on a team. He won't get that at most clubs in the Prem, perhaps with the exception of Brentford or Brighton, and certainly not at Leeds.

I actually think it would've been really interesting to see what Lee Johnson could've done with this crop of young players. Make no mistake, I'd much MUCH rather it was Pearson managing them.. but I think it didn't suit Johnson to have all that money to spend combined with Ashton's presence. I've always thought Johnson had a really good eye for a player (Brownhill, Bobby Reid position change, Webster etc) and perhaps he would've actually done better with less money. The combination of Johnson and Ashton didn't work at all long term. Ironically, I think Johnson would've done a lot better with someone like Pearson in the Ashton role/DOF!

Haha - enjoy your holiday whilst it's here !

I'm happy to say I've never wanted him out. (That's not to say I'm never wrong, I stuck with Johnson when in hindsight it was clear the rot had set in!) I've met him whilst he's been manager and it was absolutely clear he had a great long term vision. That included a scenario where we lost one or both of Scott and Semenyo. I jokingly told him not to let the pair of them leave, to which he replied "if they leave, we'll replace them and the level up the team". This was a last season, and that seems to have finally come to fruition now as Mehmeti looks a brilliant talent and adding Cornick will prove very shrewd I think. Assuming both have ultimately been funded by Semenyo - overall the squad does look stronger. I trust him to do the same with Scott if/when he leaves for big money in the summer. He may have come to us at exactly the right time - he needed to have a degree of autonomy that he wouldn't have had under Ashton. I doubt he'd have joined if Ashton was still here. It's clear he has a strong working relationship with Gould and Tinnion. I think actually, at this stage of his managerial career, he may enjoy the challenge of it. He's spent a fair amount of time at clubs with big resources for their relative level (namely Leicester in the Championship) and this represents a totally different kind of challenge. I bet he's relishing all the success he's enjoying with our academy.

I totally agree, and this isn't a criticism of you - but I really dislike the negative "enjoy him whilst he's here" mentality that pops up on this forum every single time a player of ours looks to have potential and ability outweighing our current standing. Every City fan knows AS is certain to play at a higher standard than the Championship and that it's likely he'll get snapped up by someone else fairly soon. I just think it's a bit of a small time mentality for it to be said every single time he plays well. Apologies if this feels like a dig at you, because it's not - just a forum bug bear of mine!

I suspect it's partly down to the timings of this month. We had a busy transfer deadline day, spent the following day getting content/interviews with the new players and then Thursday for focus on the weekend's game. They wouldn't want to put too much content out at once, especially in areas which are likely very popular uploads. I suspect we might get something early next week once the game is out of the way and people have the "bandwidth" for new content.

Exactly - isn't this pretty much exactly what Pearson did with Marley Watkins? (and the rest!)

Thank you, will take a read of that. Erik ten Haag has done an awful lot in a short space of time to shift the culture at United. Removing Ronaldo was symbolic and an important factor in this. As I mentioned earlier, I think Greenwood is a bit too good to end up in the Turkish or Greek league. I'm sure there will be one team in a major European league that'll take him on.. Different situation, but I remember there being talk of Adam Johnson playing in France post release. A situation like this will be viewed differently outside of our country I'd have thought.

Don't think this is true. A good barometer for latent support is Wembley attendance. We'd sell out a Wembley allocation and so would Rovers now they're back in L1. Both clubs have an enormous catchment area, inclusive of Bristol, South Glos, Somerset, Wiltshire, North Dorset and London (given the amount of people that have moved there). I know so many people that support one of the Bristol clubs as a second team for example. The flip side to this is our support is mainly present only within this catchment area. Clubs who have been historically successful but not always in the Prem (ie Leeds, Forest, Derby, Sheffield Wednesday) have wider spread of support around the country in addition to just their catchment area. This is shown in our away attendance, we travel really well to games as far north as Birmingham and as far east as London, but pretty badly north/further east of that. The clubs I've mentioned will tend to travel well everywhere, and that's helped by wider national spread of support. I digress a bit, but I think we absolutely have the fan base to sustain the Prem. Until we get there though, lots of them will support without actually attending or see us as a second side. I actually like this situation. I look at Brentford; regardless what they do - they will have a ceiling in terms of club size and support simply down to the sheer quantity of well supported London clubs. We're in a fairly unique situation in that our catchment area is massive without having experienced sustained Premier League football.

I wonder how ten Hag will handle it. He showed with Ronaldo that he's not scared to get rid of players if it's for the greater good. I suspect he may feel it's not worth the backlash to keep Greenwood.

It’s an interesting situation because unlike Adam Johnson, an Everton player or Lee Hughes for example - he’s still very early in his career and was seen as having world class potential. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him end up in Spain or Italy if he is going to go abroad as he’s too good for the Turkish or Greek league.

Agreed. It's a bit of a lazy comparison, but players will resonate with the role Pearson played in identifying and developing the likes of Vardy and Mahrez. The core of that Leicester title winning team were Pearson's players and he did a lot to install a winning culture there.

I suspect Mehmeti, Weimann and Williams will be starters when fit and/or acclimatised to the level, especially now Semenyo has left and we look to have moved to 4-3-3.

@petehinton Hi Pete, I saw you mention on another thread that the next crop coming through the academy are our most exciting ever.. Would you be able to point out a few to keep an eye on?

I'd have thought so. Will be interesting to see if we announce in less than a minute's time.. or wait until their game finishes.