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That interview he did about reining in Wael's amibtion. Because if it was up to the Chairman, he'd be spending vast amounts on money on these transfers,? Joey Barton sends message to Bristol City as he shoots for the moon with Bristol Rovers - Bristol Live (bristolpost.co.uk)

Sykes was certainly blowing after 35 mins of the first half, and not offering the necessary cover for Vyner at times. I think at half time, there were probably words around managing his runs/exertions better in the second half, as the defensive side of his game was more evident for the second 45 mins.

Speaking to Graham about him at last night's game @Davefevs It's clear watching him, that he's been converted to a CB from another position. The concentration needed to play in that position is immense at times, one mistake; and that could be the game over. Very different to the pressures in other positions on the pitch. Without the grounding over 10+ years of Academy football playing that role, you can easily fall into bad habits when you're a bit tired or not focused. For me though, he is so crucial to the way that we are playing ( god knows what we would do if he got injured, as he has no real preplacement in the team), that like others have said, you have to balance the risk/reward element to his game at the moment. I'm sure I read a review of him from Luton fans when we signed him saying "Great player, but he has a mistake in him". I would be amazed if we didn't see future mistakes from him over the course of the season. He does take unnecessary risks at times, hopefully there will continue to be more pluses than minuses to his game.

Loved that partnership he had with Flint. The perfect CB for Pearson with his determination, and aggression. Just a massive shame it didn't work out. Good luck in the future Nathan.

Classic case of what RG refered to in the Summer as getting "£s on the pitch". Wells has been an excellent player throughout his career. But to be fair we haven't as a team utilised those skills effectively. He will not be short of offers at the end of his contract, and I saw in the second half of the Luton game a willingness to come short/hold onto the ball/much better work rate that I have previously seen from him(wasn't at the game today as on Hols). From a perspective of missing Semenyeo, and Martin only looking half fit; in the new WCW formation, we look to have some fluidity in our forward line again. Well done to the coaching staff on this one, and of course Wells & Conway in particular.

Factor in that it was witnessed by Clint Hill's wife, who is being summonsed to Court (allegedly) to give evidence (as a hostile witness) for the prosecution. That's why Mr Barton & Mr Hill had their lovely parting of the ways

2. Do you mean Coventry away? Can't think of another pen we had last year.

Will miss the Cardiff gane unfortunately Graham. No doubt COD will have the game of his life. But like Paterson the year before, I still feel it was the right decision not to take up his option. Both sides needed to move on from each other.

Working today unfortunately Dave, and then off to Greece for 10 days on Weds (So won't be on the Weds podcast) Big game against Luton on Tuesday now.

Ah...

Probably not an easy concept to sell at the moment. With it's massive operating costs to turnover imbalance; it would have to be a vanity project by someone to take it over. Would be asking a lot for the same person to also be interested in buying Bristol Sport, and all it's various sporting entities. Also what would happen with the Sports village, if various owners were involved of separate pieces of the pie. Surely it would have an effect on it ever making it off the drawing board?

The forest analogy is probably not the best, with regard to keeping NP as manager.

Whilst I agree with a lot of this @Davefevs, his stance on loan players continues to frustrate me. His point about developing the players he has (rather than for other clubs) + loanees standing in the way of academy players only works for me if the actual truth wasn't 12+ players OOC at the end of the season anyhow? There are players that we can get in on loan from the Championship & L1 that I think would either freshen up the first 11, or at least add a level of competition. You very handily broke down the playing budget side of things from SL's interview. But I just get the feeling from RG's comments that we really are up against it financially. The only way this will change in the short term is a sale of one of the 3 (Weimann, Scott, or Semenyeo). I think we all know now that HNM is running his contract down.

Still the longest period of time that the club has been in this division in nearly 60 years. Anybody who was around in the 80's, knows what a difficult time that was with the club. The difference now is all about expectation. NP's era feels a bit like the Millen/McInnes time from 10+ years ago. Where managers were forced to make massive cuts to budgets because of the mistakes of previous regimes. Our budget in this division now must place in or around the bottom half of the division. Once we strip out next season, the class of 2019, things look a bit more structured. Hopefully the new financial regulations coming in will make the Championship a fairer league, and that after this season we're be in a better place financially to take advantage of that. Just need to stay up again for me this year. Desperate to get a couple of results this month to get our season going. It's hard going at the moment, with not a lot of positive news coming from the club.

Sorry Graham. As ever I need to be clearer here. RG insinuated on the 20man RB interview, that the playing budget for season 22-23 would be no less than the playing budget for 21-22 when he was asked. It was just the figures from SL's interview that made me think that the "Playing budget" had dropped lower that 21-22, thus calling into question RG's comments in the above interview. @Davefevs has once again helped by understanding of the differential of playing budget from wages of the football club. It was the wages of the football club that gets bandied around a lot at 200+% of turnover; and that of players. Whereas of course it covers all employees of the football club. Including the analysts on £3.47 per hour.

Thanks Dave, as ever you are better than me on this. So when he says a salary cap of £18-20m is that for players, or for the wages of the football club? If it just covered the players, I could see various clubs giving players positions within the club; that aren't covered by the salary cap. Or is that what got Saracens into trouble a few years ago? EDIT: As an aside, do you believe that our "playing budget" then is the same size as last year? As per RG's comments on RB.

Always difficult with that 1894 bit. We seem to change that figure every few years to give the club a reason for a celebration. Still got my centenary 1997 glasses at home. Or maybe the 125 years shirt that Jon made in 2020.

I use the app, and it seems to be ok Dave. I think Ian gets a bee in his bonnet, and goes on, and on about feedback and sound quality. I think he forgets that it's a live programme, and people don't want to hear about issues like that. Particularly when it only appeared to be between him and Dave. What new gear do you have Mark?

I've finally got around to listening to the full 16 minute SL interview on RB before the game. He says he's not concerned about FFP? I don't know what that means really. But of note, he now says our wage budget is below £20m Now I'm confused, as RG said that our wage budget this season would be the same as last (approx £25m i'm led to believe). Either way, we are either still making cuts across our wage budgets ( in contrast to the RG interview on RB), or someone is telling porkies somewhere. We were the only club in the 72 last season not to have a loan. If there isn't the finances to fund permanent signings, then surely loans have to be an option? I get the loan fees charged by PL clubs may mean those are unattainable. But I can't believe clubs in the Championship or L1 would be wanting a similar financial arrangement. Rob Hathway has put on our whatsapp group a possible interesting team selection.:- Bentley Tanner, Klose, Atkinson, Dasilva Naismith Wilson, Williams, Scott, Sykes Weimann In the absence of Semenyeo, and after watching Naismith on Sat. I thing it's an interesting formation. Albeit it means dropping Martin (something NP will be loath to do). Certainly looks a lot more solid defensively. @GrahamC and I love your bluntness ?

We had a topic on the forum around Vyner a few months ago. At the time, there was a general consensus that Vyner would be targeted by the opposition as they knew he was a weak link. Sunderland manager reveals the game plan that helped ensure victory over Bristol City - Bristol Live (bristolpost.co.uk) I think AN's words confirm to me, what every manager in the Championship thinks about Vyner in that position. I was amazed when he came back into the side, as after all we all know what will happen eventually. With Cundy moving on, Idehen's problems, Klose not quite being there; coupled with Kalas's late recovery from injury forced us into a corner somewhat with him. But just like the centre midfield conundrum at present, teams have worked us out, and how to get about us. They know that we will start strongly, won't be able to follow it on. A reset at half time, followed by teams following instructions in the second half (we were 24th in second half points last season), cause us to generally fall apart. The bench looked so lightweight on Sat, no replacement for Martin, or Williams (who after his early yellow card pulled out of a number of challenges, and was unable to have any sort of impact second half). The likes of Wells & Conway were unlikely to have an effect against a team sitting back, and denying us space. Indeed Conway got battered within the first 60 seconds of coming on. The differential of course is Semenyeo going foward. His unpredictability, pace & power makes a huge difference. But that alone doesn't make up for the other deficiencies in the defensive side of the team. Hopefully having either or both of the TKs back in the starting line up will make a difference.

And he took penalties as well of course.

Those are the hospitality package seats. So not available for general sale. I think that shows the lack of people picking up those packages that we constantly get emailed about.?

I thought he played Sims very well, when he came on. Was the only CB really to compete physically against him. Definitely a starter instead of Vyner in the next game.

To add to the points made here. When you look at our stats for last season, our first half points per game had us in the top 10; whilst the 2nd half we were 23rd or 24th. In short, teams tend to regroup and suss us out at half time; and then implement the transitions needed in order to stop us playing. The fundamental difference between halves today was in the second half they applied a 4/5 man press on our back three that stopped the passing channels into our midfield. City from 52 to about 80 min (until Sunderland sat back and tried to protect what they had) seized to exist as a coherant team. It was awful to watch. This isn't a new thing (as per my comments above about last season's stats), and we obviously saw it at Hull last week as well. Without the differential of Semenyeo, with his unpredictability, pace & power we are pedestrian in our approach. I lost track today of how many passes there were back to Bentley to just hoof the ball upheld. The worst time for me was around the 80 min mark, where as above Sunderland started to sit back. The lack of drive, urgency & energy in the side was clear to see. To such an extent that both Scott & Weimann were having to drop deep into our own half to pick the ball up in order to drive us forward. Where was Williams or Massengo? They were missing at this stage. Only 2 of the starting 11 where new, and one of those was a L1 player a few months ago, who was playing in a relatively new position (only played there a couple of times for Oxford). Who would have thought we would have seen Vyner again 6 months ago? It's a measure of where we are at the moment unfortunately. We are struggling I'm afraid. Still relatively little productivity from our wing backs; and 3.5 years of seeing JD drag his shots wide of the same post after being out through is getting tedious in the extreme.

Have the disabled sections been increased? Certainly there seem to be new areas at both ends of the Lansdown that would have taken out a number of rows of seating. Maybe our capacity is not 27k anymore?