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Got a bit of a slope there haven't they. Looks like one of those wonderful Junior football pitches of old.

I'm at a loss as to what they are actually calling "An Academy"? They have a development team up until the age of 18 and then seem with the odd exception to drop them. There is no under 21 team at the club at all. Their development team normally uses the excellent facilities at SGS to train, alongside the SGS Academy teams run by David Hockaday that are full of players that have been released from Rovers alongside and other league clubs, plus Academies like BIC. Until Rover's actually spend some money and energy to developing their young players, they are always going to be in this cycle of 15 in, 15 out every season with no 3-5 plan around player development. Just like their crazy history of Stadium development, they appear knee jerk and non-consistent in any sort of approach that will bring sustainable long term player growth to the club.

Just speaking to a gas ST colleague. The temporary stand that they put up behind the goal, was to give away fans seats as well as disabled facilities, or else they would be fined by the league. The problem is now, that they've taken it down (as of yesterday) as it's getting in the way of the new stand. I have no idea if they plan to put it up/take it down before and after every home game to avoid getting fined, or if they're just going to take the EFL fine and have to accept it. Given that the planning meeting isn't for another month anyhow, this is absolute chaos of the highest order there. Also, the new stand will block half the away standing area as well (Like Bolton's old ground, back in the day)... Honestly couldn't make it up.

Mangotsfield - The Bristol Rovers History Group. (weebly.com) This one was even worse "Homing in on a new Stadium". What shows up is the Journalists over the years never challenge how this things are going to work. Just like now, they seem to be there to report what the club wants them to report.

When you start going through all the failed proposals over 50 years, I can't think of another football club whose new stadium plans have been such abject failures. The recurring theme is always "How is this going to be paid for?" The plans seem to range from "Sports Grants" to "Other Investors". At least with Ashton Vale, there was a coherent plan of selling AG, building homes on ground that we owned, plus the remainder coming from SL. None of these Rovers' plans even mention at any stage funding, let alone a business plan. They are all just pie in the sky.

ICI Severnside - The Bristol Rovers History Group. (weebly.com) Ah yes, the recurring theme of someone else doing them over.... Like my teenage son's, it's always someone else's fault....

Blimey had completely forgotten about the whole Severnside site. What were the reasons for it not going ahead in the end?

@petehinton Do you know Steve Arney from NSRTC then?

To be fair to Sykes, at times I've looked at him and thought He's definitely a L1 player. But he's really kicked on in the last 9 months. A number of goals in the second half of last season, allied to a reasonably strong start to this one (culminating in a goal and assist last weekend). Not bad for a free transfer from L1 at all and of course he's got himself into the ROI squad as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see him offered a new contract at the end of this season, as he's not going to be on the much money coming from our feeder club in L1. ?

I think Jon was supposed to do it, but he's a bit busy at the moment....?

Woken up to this news this morning and it's bought a smile to my face. A long standing gas ST colleague told me all about the 800k +add ons deal for JCH over a week ago, so I can only presume the whole delay was over JCH's terms. Whatever is the reason, it's another example (alongside the whole summer stand fiasco) of the complete amateur set up they have running there. Why you couldn't arrange negotiations/medical to take place in Portsmouth is beyond me. But no, they rely on him having to getva taxi from Portsmouth to their training ground. Just pay the money for it to be done privately elsewhere, tinpot doesn't do justice to it all. Oh, and as for Wael to be face timing Dmac all the time, that once again smacks of a guy who just doesn't have a clue how these things work.

I get you there, but I can't see us progressing through with the whole Sports Village development whilst at the same time selling what is in the essence the crown jewel. I can though see the Lansdown's looking for a way out after the development is completed as the final part of their "legacy".

Isn't the main point here that neither the Owner, Chairman or CEO have given an interview in the pre-season at any stage to either the club's PR department or the local press. NP is having to do his obligatory press rounds answering questions which are not for him to be answering. He's saying to all and sundry that he isn't the person to be asking these questions of. Cue in any reasonable organisation, the powers at be recognising that fact and doing something about the lack of communication over the apparent change in the club's direction since NP discussed the Plan A (with Scott), Plan B (without Scott) recruitment plans over the summer. For me, it's not really about the results, it's the fact that budgets post Scott have obviously changed. Ok, well if that's the case and the club has to deal with supporter's expectations then just do an interview and let NP get on with managing the 1st team. I'm a DOF of a non league club with 4 men's teams in County and district football. I say to all of my managers that if a player wants paying more money, has issues, or there is anything that needs doing with regard to the side other than playing than those league and cup games then let me deal with it. I'm the public face of the club, as is the Chairman on all forms of Social Media. At the moment, we just come across as a rudderless ship ploughing through the stormy waters of Championship football. There seems to be no 3 or 5 year plan, or even a future direction as NP enters the final year of his three year plan. What is the club's vision for next season, can anyone actually answer that? This has gone on for years now of course, but for the first time in NP's tenure he's got rid of the expensive gambles of 2019 and has generated through selling our 2 best players a substantial amount of money, now what? Over to the club and the Lansdowns on this one. We are only a few further injuries away from being up the proverbial in my opinion. I think the club as a whole does need to explain the position to the fanbase and at the same time show their support for NP. Silence is not really an option anymore.

Yep, a great "nest egg" being built to spend on the "right players" when they become available. Not quite sure who will be choosing these "right players" though of course?

I don't believe in coincidences and I'm sure until recently at least it was reported that 80% of the away team goals were scored in front of their own fans in the Atyeo stand. We can criticise LJ all we want, but he recognised the issue. Lee Johnson asks Bristol City to reconsider where away fans sit at Ashton Gate - Bristol Live (bristolpost.co.uk)

I wonder if Rovers have enquired as to his availability?

I actually think the capacity if AG is now somewhere around 26,400. A number of seats have been taken out of stands to allow for the new disabled Supporter's areas. The Man City attendance was 25,700. I think that was probably due to them having around 3700-3800 in the Atyeo. As @CyderInACanand @Graham c can testify it's been a major bug bear of mine for years giving the whole Atyeo to.away fans. But I can't really see a way around it unfortunately. To segregate the stand, would mean separate turnstiles, internals and additional stewarding costs in the stand during the game. We would never financially make it worthwhile. I'd rather stick them up in the gods, Upper Lansdown way (like we are at Sunderland. But that's the family area and that would once again need a load of money spent to make it safe (Lansdown stand not designed for that in any way). All a bit of a mess at the moment. @Harry and @Kid in the Riot have posted on another topic our home record since the stadium redevelopment. I'm sure the way we manage this situation has had a major.impact on our results over that period.

@Davefevs, yes still got the 4 STs in E32. Trying to go to as many away games as possible, but i've now taken on the DOF role at Clevedon Utd as well, which takes up some of my weekends when not at AG. @Sir Geoff I've never said the Millwall performance was poor. It was a well executed defensive performance caped by a 94th min winner from our only shot on target. Using the now patented and (indeed only way of scoring a league goal this season ) Cornick long hopeful throw into the box and hope for the best. If that's the way we're going to set up away from home, there are of course benefits to that approach. Our strengths are still as a team on the fast break and the home team are more likely to come onto us. The problem is we seem to be adapting this away strategy to our home performances now. Where the away team are just sitting back, denying us the space behind and waiting for us to make a mistake (as Birmingham did in the run to the 1st goal with Vyner, and 2nd with Naismith) @GrahamC After 30 years, you know I'm not going to be an Ian Gay who will take stats and try to make them fit an agenda. But if we are going to be a possession based team (basically because other teams are happy for us to have the ball, knowing there is zero creativity at the moment) then we have to learn to be more effective with it. As a team one of our strengths is on the fast break. I think we were about 4th in the division for effective fast breaks last season. What we are missing is the Scott tempo that assisted our assisters. The pace is slow and tepid at present whilst still trying to do the same thing we did last season without the personnel to do it (some gone, some injured of course). Second half of the season, teams cottoned onto us and we haven't adapted. The away losses at Swansea, Cardiff, Luton, Sheffield Utd (I hear you on the last two) were poor performances. But let's not forget the Huddersfield, Reading games. Blackpool where before our only goal from outside the box last season, we weren't great. The last game of the season at QPR (that I went to) was a bit of a banker. QPR had given up, they stayed up, but just wanted the season to end. Still supporting NP, but we are stuck in bit of a rut at the moment. Let's see where we are after 10 games of course. I hope we're able to get going again as a team, because at the moment we're treading water.

I think the thing for me, is that absolutely as you state we have "sacrificed" creatively for solidtivity. Defensively we are better (although the debate on Max will rumble of course). The issue with this sacrifice is it relys on your strikers being clinical when they get their 1/2 chances per game. In our case at the moment, we have a main number 9 (due to injury) who hasn't scored from open play in 23 games. Yesterday we played Bell there and I think we can all agree that was a hiding to nothing. To then bring on Yeboah later, is a complete hiding to nothing really. The loss of McCrorie is massively overlooked as well. I think whether at RB or CM. He was seem as a dynamic player who could get us driving forward. As you say only a small sample of games so far, but the issues of last season don't seem to have been addressed so far. Probably a good time for 2 away games, with teams that will hopefully come at us, rather than be "disrupters".

@Davefevs unlike the sage Ian Gay, I wasn't advocating 4-5 transfers. It's evolution rather than revolution for me. However that is now 42 league goals in 41 league games (40 last season, 2 this). It's quite clear now than the system we are playing is constrainly us creatively. You only have to look at the "maverick" Mehmeti when he came in the Jan window. Raw, yes; but he had an unpredictably to his play that could be a differential for us. In much the same way Semenyo had when he was on his game. The first half away at Sunderland he was superb, at other times less so. Now for whatever reason (confidence, coaching?) that "unpredictability " seems to have been as I say constrained to fit into a structure. How many goals did we score from outside the box last year (in my mind only Weimann's at home to blackpool). We are extremely predicable as an attacking force (look to break quickly, and spread it wide). However without anyone on the centre to force the tempo, this is happening too slowly and allowing teams to get back in numbers. The full backs aren't pushing on like last year and we are stuck in a bit of a rut. I get what @GrahamC says, we are only 3 league games into the season. But this had been coming for a while (4 goals in last 8 away games last season) and as the goals per game ratio mentioned above, we not evolving our attacking options, merely rotating personnel in the same plan. I still believe in NP, but something isn't right behind the scenes. Nothing from the board as a whole about supporting the manager with funds (on the basis that he might say he doesn't need them). His interview yesterday and in the week was almost "I want to get new players in, but I'm constrained". At the same time SL is saying the money is "useful for the future". There are a number of mixed messages out there. Maybe the chairman can make an appearance and clarify the club's thinking ??

Not sure if the transfers will define our season, more a question of how we redefine our tactics (particularly at home) moving forward. Certainly I don’t see the need to play both Williams and James in a double pivot at home. Maybe that element is better suited to away games when the home team is more likely to come onto us. Hopefully Weimann is back soon and the management team feel that Naismith is capable of more mins (obviously managing his return). We need that spark/creativity in the middle of the park For me, Cornick is probably in at the moment for his long throws (led to both league goals of course). I can see no other reason why he is starting ahead of Sykes otherwise. NP made reference to the full backs. Pring hasn't started the season the way he ended last one (for whatever reason) and Tanner is a perfectly capable defensive RB, but for both of then when it's not happening in midfield we need something more from them both. Pring has it (although not shown it this season yet), Tanner I'm not so sure. As for transfers in the forward department. If we are saying that a 17 year old who only signed his first pro contract a couple of weeks ago is an answer off the bench, then we really are struggling. Where is Francois here? Body language/words from NP taking about "contraints" is a worry. As is the way Plan A & Plan B seemed to have merged rather than being two distinct strategies. If there wasn't an issue, why are we looking at a L1 midfielder who can't get into their team at the moment. Can't see how that sort of transfer falls into the "better than what we have mantra" that NP likes to quote.

We won't score without that Cornick long throw though...?

Announced the signing of Vale "exclusively" on his own subscriber account. How that is not misconduct by the manager is beyond me. But of course, the powers at be there will put up with all his nonsense.

The only thing missing from Barton's tweet there is:- "But you can listen to my views on tomorrow's game anytime on my subscriber only account" He's basically not talking to the Post as it makes him no money.

Fingers crossed for his Investment training he doesn't enrol with the Michael McIndoe school...?