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Exactly @Eddie Hitler Really strange way of funding a new stadium. Both City, and Luton as another good example have secured the other areas of land that can be used through development to fund a new stadium (in City's case the AV and subsequent Sports Village). Why Wael isn't looking to do the Fruit Market proposal himself is indicative of the complete lack of funds he actually has available. If all of this comes to fruition, the Gas will end up with absolutely no fixed assets at all (similar to Coventry's nightmare), and will be beholden to whoever their landlord is. At some stage that landlord will change, and they will find themselves at a huge disadvantage trying to renegotiate new terms. It's got disaster written all over it. Why give up your ownership of your own ground? Why haven't Rovers done a planning application for the Memorial ground themselves for either ground redevelopment or housing. If the housing was granted (like Lansdown' s was for the Sports village) you could always sell the proposal to another developer or do it yourself. Just seems like a really lazy option that they've taken, allied to in financial terms a massive premium being paid to being part of the Fruit Market development (which in essence they are piggybacking on).

Basically the whole funding of this scheme is dependant on the Memorial ground being redeveloped for housing, and all the funds going to Conygar. They will use that to build the Fruit market, as they have no funds either. Cue uproar from residents of Horfield when any major housing development planning application comes in. You only have to look at the fun and games Luton have had with a similar proposal, and they actually own both sets of the land. As it stands the Gas are celebrating a new stadium that has no submitted planning applications or even funding. It's just an agreement to explore the potential together.

I know they played rugby at AG last night, but the pitch is looking somewhat cut up. I get the 22 yard lines, but what are the crosses and worn patches across the middle third? Looks like somebody has left a load of containers on it overnight. A shame, as normally our pitch is one of the best in the division.

With the phrase "hit his limit for the season", I meant like a number of the young players their performance level has dropped off in the last few games. As NP said in his post match after Swansea, the physical and mental demands of the Championship are unrelenting, and take their toll. I like Tanner, and fully support the new contract. But like NP said earlier on in the season, he needs to improve from an attacking perspective (I know RB should excel at defending first). He has said himself, that he is still learning his trade. If we were looking to improve the squad as a whole, do we think Wilson can be a second there? Feels like an area of the pitch where we could do with a bit more experience (I'm not talking about another Danny Simpson either ?)

Whilst Joao is a quality player when fit, isn't he on ridiculous money at Reading? With going OOC, you can see him going overseas to maintain that kind of salary. Ejaria is a strange one. Always looked quality (obviously bought from Liverpool), but had a bust up around the covid times, and unlike Wells( who never had a bust up, but of course had his own views on vaccination) never seemed to get back into the team afterwards. He's either been not in the squad or injured since 8th November, which doesn't exactly scream a progressive signing for me.

Bizarre isn't it, that we are probably going to finish in or around the same points as last season (55), but this campaign feels more than about points. We've reduced the playing budget, managed the transition of a large number of Academy players, shifted players that either don't want to be here, or we can't afford, whilst getting £10+m for a player that could easily have done a Fammy on us. Whilst all of that has been going on, our crowd average has gone over 20k for the first time in a long long time. There are positives, but as a squad it still feels that we are a long way off being around the top 6 places.

@Davefevs what do you feel about the side in the RB position at present as a whole? Tanner seems to be our only real RB, but has probably reached his limit for the season. Otherwise Wilson is a wing back really, Sykes a wide midfielder (who can't cross for toffee), and then we are into the kids, or at times Weimann. If we are to progress, then surely we need potentially more quality in that area, so we once again don't go so lopsided in an attacking sense.

I think what we've seen in the last few games is the mental and physical toll of Championship football taking it's toll on a number of the younger players, and older ones (King for example) who are either in their first full season at this level, or played more games than before. There's quite a few contract decisions to also be made around players that are in the last year of their current contracts. Weimann, Williams, James, Pring, Atkinson (option years on those last two of course), are just some of the players that are OOC. Jury is out for me on new contracts for Weimann and Williams. William's availability has obviously been better this year, but are we looking for better? Weimann seems to be on somewhat downward trajectory after last season's heroics. The summer may be the last time we can achieve any fees for either of them. Not sure we would want to give Matty James a new 3 year contract to be fair, maybe 2 at best ( would be 34 by then). Whilst not wanting to block the pathways of the academy players (where would we be without them this season), we certainly need 4-5 seasoned pro's that are going to take the whole squad forward. It really it about quality rather than quantity for me. I'm not sure some player who's played 200 games in L1 or below ( ie will be around mid twenties, and for some reason has not already been picked up by PL/Champ teams) will be the type of player to improve the squad as a whole. There are players out there for around the £2m mark still ( Morris at Luton, and Flemming at Millwall being 2 good examples). You don't have to pay massive money to get a differential player, but our recruitment as a whole needs to be a hell of a lot better than the last time we had some money to spend.

@Charlie BCFC not quite sure you understood my point The players you have mentioned would all be in the starting 11. My comments were for the players outside of that obvious 11, none of which would fall into the "plenty of Prem experience" category. Very few of them in fact getting any minutes at all in the Prem. Hence why Scott should be viewed as being worthy of a call up to the 26 in my opinion.

Whilst Rico Lewis is going to be some footballer, and was absolutely superb down the gate, that has to be one of the weakest U21 squads for a long time. Outside of an obvious first 11, the rest of the squad depth involves players with barely any game time at all this season.

For me the Vyner story is almost akin to the Bobby Reid one. A player that was on the road to leaving the club, before coming our player of the year. For a player that was so derided by the fanbase (myself included) to rise phoenix from the flames like, to become arguably our most consistent defender is perhaps unheralded in my 45 years of watching City. Fair play to you Zak, something has clicked. The standard catastrophic error(s) that characterizes your gameplay seem to have been cut out, and you are playing with a maturity and confidence that belies everything that went before. I get the feeling even Pearson didn't see this transformation coming.?

Or the motivation of their Billionaire owner to fund it either.... The same Billionaire that Barton has to reign in from spending on Uber transfers for the club ??? Ultimately Wael wants someone else to do all the hard work for him by the looks of it.

Some goal that to be fair to them

Sounds a bit like us with MA. How many followed him to Ipswich in the end? It's taken 2-3 years to effect change at the club. 80% of clubs in this division wouldn't have given NP the time, and he would have gone well before now.

Probably why Idehen is getting a chance with the under 21s again

From my viewpoint up in the gods today, you could see we missed Naismith in the centre. James , and to a lesser extent Williams were excellent, but their collective distribution can still be a bit too slow. Scott has to come and get the ball, turn, and then drive the pace. With Naismith back in the middle, the pace of passing to both wide men increases, alongside releasing Scott a bit more. Great to see Kalas back, and he was solid. But it was obvious that Pring was under instruction to cover for him on the left hand side, and generally played 4-5 yards deeper than he would normally do. We also miss Atkinson's breaks forward, something that Kalas has never been wholly comfortable doing. I suppose the natural replacement on the bench would be Idehen (played ok there against Huddersfield last season for 25 mins). But i'm not sure NP trusts him at the moment, as he's working his way back with the under 21s. I would keep Kalas there, and then have Naismith back into midfield again for the present. King on the bench can be cover in case of emergenct again (like today). The difficulty is if Scott or Williams gets those yellow cards and are out for a couple of games. Then King is the cover for both CM & CB. All fun this isn't it. Roll on the summer had getting those much needed squad replacements in.

I think he's injured isn't he?

I wouldn't be surprised if a load of people have bought the cheap seats in the South stand, then gone and then sat in an empty seat in the Dolman or Lansdown instead. After game has started/about to start, nobody is going to check tickets.

Bizarre highlights from Sky on the game. Missed both of the city chances that hit the woodwork. Instead showed the easy Max save, and the backheel from Cornick to Weimann that came to absolutely nothing. I've had to wait until the official youtube video from the club before seeing Scott's header, and Mehmeti's cross shot again. All a bit weird on Sky's part.

He actually played 5 mins 30 seconds (i always put the stopwatch on ?). Allowing us to have that last wasted free kick. He was fine for last night. Only took 80+ mins for Mclean to get involved.?

Morning @Davefevs I thought generally as a team we looked a bit lethargic last night. A supreme effort against Norwich on Sat seemed to have drained us both physically and mentally. It would be interesting to see how the collective stats dropped off across the board. The effort a number of players (the fullbacks in particular) have put in during this 10 match unbeaten run is impressive, but we weren't able to match those levels of intensity last night. We tried in the first 10 mins, but weren't able to carry on over a longer sustained period. Tanner and Pring were both guilty at times of being more passive than they have been recently, they both look tired for me. Fair play to Wigan, they changed it at HT, and i thought Nyambe at RWB (rather than LB in the first half) was particualry impressive. So was Max Power, and Callum Lang(when he came on). I think Power is OOC in the summer (one to keep an eye on). They are well drilled now, and stayed focused, and didn't get too ambitious, knowing that we are a team that likes to hit on the break. Of all the teams in the bottom 6, they look the best bet to get themselves out of trouble for me. It's a measure of how far we've come as a squad that people are disappointed with a point against a team on the up. Tough game on sat (I will be there on CATS at 6.30?). Will be difficult for a number of the squad to recover effectively with one day less rest. Sunderland will be less direct, with a highly mobile Front 3. Game on?

Blimey Abba have changed musical direction somewhat....?

1 seat available in W7, whilst the parent is in W2 ???. At least they can watch the game in peace.

It's a good place to be in. Hopefully some more of them will get decent league loans next season. Like Josh Low is getting at Walsall, and Towler had at Wimbledon. Non-league loans for some of the under 21s are really on a hiding to nothing. I get it for the 18/19 year olds. But the 20+ year ones need a decent league loan to bridge that gap to the Championship. Still can't quite believe that it was only a couple of months ago, that we thought Bell would benefit from a loan at Cheltenham. ?

64 left according to OS. Not sure how we are going to sell the odd seat in the family section? Who is going to go with their young child, and then make them sit by themselves a number of rows away? Going to be left for some "Parent of the year award winners", who don't care as long as they get to see the match.?