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@Davefevs from the Lansdown, Naismith was badly hobbling, struggling with his calf after the game (I'm guessing that's why he was subbed, rather than the less mobile James). Alongside Conway, and Weimann; I would have a query over him for Saturday. For what it's worth, I thought second half the back 4 actually played well, and the additional man in midfield (we were playing 541 at one stage with Wells up top) allowed us to get a grip of the midfield; and push Swansea backwards. That led to their defenders often panicking in their clearances (in particular the Wells chance). I wouldn't be adverse to playing that 2nd half formation again against Birmingham, as I feel against a 3 at the back, Birmingham (who have lost their last 3) would push Chong, Deeney, and either Bacuna or Jutkiewitz, if he plays up against our 3. The battle in the game will be won or lost in midfield again, as two teams in poor form will quickly turn into a physical battle.

Is that them basically saying they're not willing to pay for full time handymen/electricians, or even to engage proper companies if they are needed? All of this goes against somewhat the image of the Chairman as a billionaire owner.... How can they afford to build a new stadium, if there're not willing to pay for the maintenance of a the current one?

The same people (Sahara football) that came up with this in September ? Exclusive: Antoine Semenyo to stay at Bristol City after Bournemouth £10M bid turned down • Sahara Football I'll take this with a proverbial pinch of salt I think.

Christ he was awful wasn't he? Got to be in my top 10 (if not top 5) all time worst defenders at the club.

Proctor was at Sunderland, wasn't he?

Made me chuckle about Ian, bless him. I would never say anything on the podcast without knowing my facts/figures. I know what you mean about a successful cross, and how to measure it. I suppose the impression I have got this season is that JD doesn't have the ability/pace to get past his full back; and when he found himself in space his crossing was generally woeful ( normally overhit). Pring has been a better upgrade, although I kind of liked him as a LCB as well. On the right hand side, Sykes started off ok. But again in the general his crossing was poor. From memory the crosses at the Rotherham game were from Wells, Conway, and Scott. The first two from the left hand channels. I think Conway was the assister for Weimann at Boro, Wells for Conway against Swansea. Semenyeo for Wells against WBA Other than the Pring assist against Stoke, and the one for the OG against Millwall (5 mins after replacing JD there); we seem to get very little, if any productivity from the WB positions. Certainly playing Weimann there has reduced his overall contributions to games.

Is it not the case that we as a club have to pay out loyalty bonuses, when players leave at the end of their contracts? Or that a thing of old? I also remember that sometimes say a 4 year contract had incremental rises over the course of the contract on a yearly basis. So the final year of the contract would often be it's most expensive to the club. Both of these might explain why the overall wages amount went up, and the number of players contracted didn't. Just a thought anyhow.....?

Barton absolutely hates both him, and Wycombe ( that interview JB gave to Radio Bristol after the game on Sat still makes me laugh ? )

As I said on the FBC Podcast @Davefevs I would love to see what our crossing success rate is for the season, we must be in the bottom 3 at least for the division? I think Pring has the most assists now with 2, one for JD, and possibly a couple of others from Sykes; and maybe Weimann in that role. For me, playing wing backs has been muted by NP as both the best way forward defensively, and offensively. It's fair to say that from my viewpoint it's failing on both parts. But there is a stubbornness to change which is both alarming, and depressing in equal measure. How often over the last 3 months in particular have we broken on both wings for it only to end on an overhit cross, or one not getting past the first defender? In the 2nd half against WBA we abandoned the midfield altogether, and just hit long balls over the top for the forwards to run into the channels. In what way is that effectively using the wingback system? We didn't actually change the formation until the last quarter of the game, and by then we had Bell playing in the position that Weimann should have been moved to as soon as the formation stopped being effective. Semenyeo has been poor for a number of months ( numerous explanations of course). But I fail to see the rationale of him not coming on until the 80th minute, 5 minutes after we concede the 2nd goal. That is just petulant management, as Semenyeo was up and stripped off just before the 2ng goal, just to be sent back to the bench by NP. He is our one real differential up front, and if you were looking for a player to run the channels, and win those battles with the WBA full backs then it would be him. The whole of the 2nd half seemed like NP was making points that he's his own man, won't bay to any perceived criticism. Would Atkinson have come on at all, if King hadn't got injured; I'm not so sure. Surely if you're not scoring the goals, then you have to go back to not conceding as a first fall back. The Einstein quote of " Madness is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result" comes to mind at the moment.

I think the most difficult thing today for me was the substitions. You're chasing the game at 1-0, but don't make any non-injury subs until the 71st min. We then took off Weimann at RWB, rather than putting him up top alongside Wells & Conway. Tanner came on at RCB, and we moved the CB (Naismith) to CM, with Sykes covering at RWB (where he has been ineffective for the last quarter of the season). NP has Semenyeo stripped off, and warming up. He then sends him back to the naughty step, and neglects to bring any forward replacements on until we are 2-0 down (even then it took 5 mins to effect the substitutions). Bell then took up the position that i would have expected Weimann to play in (he's some way short of Champ level, but good luck in L1). All completely laughable in my eyes, and had little or no discernable positive effect on the game. Awful, just awful game management. And so it all continues.....

I agree to a point @Davefevs. But we came out once again completely flat, after having the best of the last 5 mins of the 1st half. Within the first 5 mins, we had abandoned the plans that had had some effect in the first half, and started hitting the ball long to both our wing backs. It was absolute madness, and completely played into WBA's hands. They just sat back on their lead, and couldn't believe we had suddenly become so inept. There was no plan b, and the only non injury sub that we made wasn't until the 71st minute when we took off our player of the season from last year. To see Bell up front, and Weimann on the bench, rather than pushed up behind the front two by the Sykes/tanner substitution was bizarre in the extreme. I know Semenyeo is on the naughty step after refusing to play for the under 21s, but only to bring him on after the second goal was bascially belligerent point making by NP.

All a bit disorganised that we haven't announced his replacement really. Are we looking on Tinnion stepping up re: transfers, and us trying to blag it through until the end of the season without a CEO? Certainly with a non-existant Chairman, and no other board members of note. We do appear somewhat rudderless again at the moment after Gould had done a really good job of steadying the ship. As a fanbase we need someone at the club (other than NP) to come out and tell us what the plan is for next month, or even how we are planning on arresting this, what feels terminal slide downwards.

I thought Yokuslu was very very good for WBA today in the centre. Bossed all three of out CMs in the first half, to the extent that we tried missing out the midfield all together in the 2nd half, and attempting to hit the channels. I think i saw Scott today dip out of 3/4 challenges that I would normally have expected him to go for. I hope thats not an indication of a potential move next month on the horizion, and the need to avoid any potential injury? Not one of our central midfielders today though broke through their lines in any form of transition. The 30 mins of the second half up until their second goal were the dullest i can recall this season

Every Gashead I know would love to play us in the cup. Why, because they haven't played us in the league for 22 years now. There is absolutely no upside to playing them in the cup for us. They would treat it as their cup final, whereas we would collectively just be paranoid about losing to them, and further fuelling their "We're coming to get you" mantra nonsense. Can you imagine the utter s### that we would have to listen to coming from Barton in the run up to the game. Followed no doubt by a pumped up Rovers team probably taking out every City player going, to prove to their manager that they were "Up for it". It would be Ian Alexander x 11 out there, complete carnage. Not to mention, a nightmare situation outside the ground, before, during; and after the game. When we had to play them in the league, it was of course a necessity to play them twice over the course of a season. I would be very, very careful what we wish for here.

Yep, hardly as if we have options at WBs to replace them with, have we? I would give the front 4 (Wells, Conway, Semeneyo, Weimann) a go as well. 9 goals in 11 games is probably the reason why we've stuttered a bit as a team results wise. Give them the opportunity (particularly in Semenyeo's case) to kick start the scoring again. I'm guessing Naismith, and Kalas are still out (judging by NP's comments), so no players returning from injury really who will need minutes.

I think the phrase that was used at the time was "clubs in the bag". Certainly, we seemed to be collecting players under MA/LJ in order to carry on the perceived second-hand dealer conveyor belt approach towards buying and selling players. In the process we build up a large squad, that really didn't improve us much as a team. Then when the market crashed, followed by covid, we had to have proverbial fire sales of fringe players that were nowhere near good enough. Impacting on our balance sheet in such a substantial way that 3 years later we are still dealing with the aftereffects. Looking back at those days now, the direct transfer of Webster for Flint seemed to be the only well thought out one that would improve the squad. The others were as the above saying were just "clubs in the bag". We really should have gone for quality over quantity with the transfer money bought into the club. But that would have gone against the transfer policy that MA used to in his own way bring perceived "sustainability" to the club as a whole. It really was a pack of cards, and one that was doomed to failure over time, when the cupboards were bare. Ho hum, roll on the summer, and let the rebuild continue........

Whilst I get that we are only 3 points off relegation, there are only 4 points covering 11 teams (13th down to 23rd). We are not alone in being in this position. It's a crazy league this season. Who would have expected West Brom, Middlesborough, Hull (after the money they spent), Huddersfield (after last season) all to be below us. It's going to be a rollercoaster of a season for a lot of teams. 2 Wins, and you're looking at the playoffs, 3 losses; and you're hovering next to the relegation spots. Am I happy, not really. After our start to the season, I hoped for more consistency in the team, and less of this win 1, lose 2 situations. However, with the injuries, retirements, and illnesses that have decimated our defensive ranks; to only have conceded 3 goals in the last 3 games is an achievement in my eyes. Unfortunately, that's coincided with us only scoring 9 in the last 11. Setting aside yesterday's alamoesque performance at Boro. The home games against Swansea, and Sheff Utd could easily have given us another 5 points. Which would have put us 2 points off the playoffs. It's really small margins in the Championship of course of our 9 losses, only 2 (Birmingham, and Reading) have been by more than 1 goal. In a number of those games, we had chances to win them, but individual mistakes by players have cost us. For me this is indicative of the squad as a whole at the moment. We need experienced heads on the pitch at this level in all positions, but due to a multitude of reasons (whether financial, or injuries) we have a collection of teams primarily (70%) made up of academy players. On the FBC podcast, I spoke of the fact that that club had got itself into a massive hole, that in essence was only going to be rectified by sales of key players, or holding out for the Summer of 2023 mass exodus of players that a) we can no longer really afford, and b) have been underperforming/inconsistent in the context of their wages. These players have had a huge influence on our ability to reshape the squad, and get on top of the FFP considerations. The summer of 2019 continues to haunt us 3 years later. We've chosen not to sell our key players at the present (I still don't believe there was ever a decent offer for HNM). That might change in Jan of course. But we will move on, adjust; and hopefully stay in a division that looking at the possible sides coming down from the Prem; and the sides coming up from L1 will only get tougher next season. One area of contention for me has been our reluctance to use the loan market though. Adding to the chaos of playing 10 players in the RB/RWB position last season. We are still weak in those areas for me. I think Sykes & JD have contributed about 2 assists between them in the 20 games; allied to defensively also not being great (an understatement there perhaps). Hopefully as a parting gift RG will convince NP to utilise this area, as I feel slogging the same players in certain key areas in the hope that they will suddenly improve is a somewhat unrealistic prospect. I still think we are in the mix to finish mid table when everything is aligned. If we were in Huddersfield's position, I may be more worried. Yesterday was a good example of a game that we didn't play well in of course but managed to get a draw out of it. Countless examples over the last 18 months of that not happening, when it needed to, so happy for small mercies there. Still 26 games to go, let's not panic yet, on some kneejerk change the manager mantra. From my perspective, it would be a high-risk strategy, with huge potential risks. A parallel for me would be the Ward/Lennartson decision in 1999/00, and we all remember how that panned out. Let's see where we are in mid Jan. Hopefully by then we will be back at full strength, and if we are in the relegation zone, a new manager (if needed) would have a couple of weeks to organise/get loans in potentially to have a potential positive change. Well it's never dull being a City fan is it? Apart from perhaps the Pulis era ?.

Something probably to do with being pregnant again with his child, and probably thinking he would get sent to jail "allegedly "?

He is one of the worst shooting football players i have seen, continuously dragging the ball past the keeper's left hand post. His two goals for Bristol City, have been a miss hit cross against Stoke, and a 2 yard tap in. For me, I would be looking to improve in the LWB position in the summer, and he's definitely not playing well enough to justify a new contract as one of our higher paid players.

Whilst he didn't exhbit his usual blast of speed to break through thr opposition lines, i thought him & Pearson did get through a hell of a lot of work in the midfield. Including nearly an assist for the Wells chance. When NP came out in his interview, and said he had bern unwell last week as well, it made sense that he probably had to conserve what energy he had for.the defensive side of his game yesterday. Says a lot that NP trusts a half fit 19 year old over a number of other midfield options in my eyes.

He's certainly an upgrade distribution wise on Bents though in my eyes. Hits the players with a much better accuracy, alongside not having that annoying back spin to every ball thay Bents seems to kick. This causes the kick to hang in the area a lot longer, and be significantly less effective

When the FBC podcast crew were given a tour of the HPC recently by Scott Murray; also in our party was Tom & Steve Richie. Whilst marvelling at the facilities, Tom also told me about his contract negotiations at the end of the season were always with AD. He said that he would go into AD's office, and AD would ask him how well he felt he had played over the course of the season; and whether he felt that he deserved a pay rise? AD would then say something along the lines of "There's an extra tenner on your weekly pay packet for you". Tom Richie didn't know whether that was a good or bad rise, and just accepted that that was the status quo of the time. I'm sure that AD was well aware of what the player's wages were, and would advise the board accordingly on length of contracts as well.

75-79 wasn't too bad. Went a bit wonky for a few years afterwards unfortunately ?

I swear it's aged me at least 5 years, rather than 20 months. I keep having to say to my kids "don't worry, it won't always be like this. Next season will be better" ???

Apologies you are quite right. God it feels a long time ago now; doesn't it?