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Presumably with the incentive to earn a better/longer deal if he follows in the Bell/Conway footsteps this season.

Can’t see why Alex wouldn’t want to wait and see if a bigger club come in. It’s still early days in the window so unless his agent has indicated that nobody else is going to come in then why not wait for a potentially bigger opportunity. Time is on his side !

We went public with £25m being the minimum price so to accept anything less now would not look good. I guess we will see now if anyone else moves for him and what sort of price they are prepared to go to. This could be bubbling for some time and with our purchases done you’d imagine we can afford to sit and wait unless someone reaches our price.

Game has been cancelled !

In Alex’s case I don’t necessarily hold with the theory that his value in a years time if he stays with us (with only one year left on his contract) will drop. He is for us a generational talent who has been named among the best young players in the world. This is not your average Championship player and his value will only increase. The type of clubs who will come in for him will not wait for him to run his contract down to save themselves a few million so I don’t see that being a danger. If he stays another year then he will certainly go, even if we did get promoted, such is his level and it would be a massive fee. From his perspective he can choose to go to a West Ham or Brighton now or wait 12 months and potentially go to a consistently top 6 club. Watching Antoine he may think that playing every week in the Championship rather than sitting on a Premier League bench compared with maybe walking straight into the team at a massive club in 12 months time could be worth the wait.

Job for Nige ? Well someone had to say it.

I think if someone comes in with a £25m offer plus add-ons then we won’t haggle and take it. We could try for an auction and potentially get more if we hang on but I believe the club have a philosophy that if the price is reached they would rather sell and leave time to make further acquisitions. That is my reading between the lines ‘assumption’ from a recent conversation with someone at the club (albeit not a decision maker). A Derby player was also mentioned in the conversation. Of course my assumption could be wrong but it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I did hear that he was the fourth man wanted. I think he would be a good fit. Him and Roberts joining us would not go down well with Derby fans.

Time for a couple more this week before the lull maybe ?

Given the fact that it looks a stronger division then that can also mean that it’s harder for one or two teams to run away with the division which I feel would benefit us. There could be much more evenly spread competition for all top 6 places. I think we are one of the few teams who have a good potential for improvement whilst many who challenged for top 6 this season will have tougher financial restrictions.

So will Dean Smith be out now? Leicester will need an experienced man that can work with vastly reduced resources, much tighter budgets , can rebuild a club and understands the demands of the Championship. Might be an idea to sort Nige out that new contract soon.

For me it’s the first time for a few years where I am actually disappointed that the season is ending. The consistency of performances especially since Christmas , the emergence of Academy players, the feeling of positivity at the Gate and the way so many individual players have improved immeasurably. We now have a ‘Pearson’ team and like others am genuinely excited about next season. We have a reasonable expectation of better to come without feeling the need to add the usual caveat of “but we are Bristol City and it’s the hope that kills us”. I fully expect us to be able get an extra 10-15 points next season as a minimum with an added 4/5 players.

The bench we had yesterday was probably the strongest all season. If we are to challenge next season then we need at least as strong every week even allowing for the inevitable injuries and suspensions. With that depth of squad it will mean that every week there will be good players who don’t even make the bench. As Nigel has already said he expects players to be disappointed but they have to deal with it. The bigger concern is whether OTIB can deal with it.

Nigel is experienced enough to know when a young player has his mind elsewhere as could well be the case for Scott now. What is important is to demonstrate that if you don’t pull your weight then there are no favourites and no excuses if the team is to have serious ambitions of challenging. Scott has been fully on the bus from day one but with his next stop now approaching he is maybe looking to give up his seat to the next man. Nigel has no room for sentiment in his team. If Scott is not first choice now then it’s not about protecting his valuable asset (Scott) so much as saying that passengers don’t get a free ride no matter how much they have done or how good they are. Nigel’s most valuable asset is not Scott so much as the collective team mantra and spirit that he is building and that’s the message for the likes of Conway, Sykes and the other young players coming through.

The seat next to me in the South Stand has been empty all season. I needed an extra seat for my son Saturday but was told South Stand was totally sold out and had to purchase one for the Dolman. I knew it would be empty as were plenty of others so he sat there anyway. It seems to be a club policy to push people into buying seats in the other stands.

The old chestnut of making judgement too early is happening again . His decision making wasn’t always the best yesterday but he still drew men to him as he had in previous games. The difference was that without adequate support from behind and most crucially without Scott there was nobody taking advantage of the space he creates. Semenyo had similar criticisms that became less with the emergence of Pring and Scott. The young lad Omar did well yesterday but the gap that Scott will leave will impact individuals as well as the team shape and Nige will have his work cut out adjusting the balance of the team in the summer.

One article said that going into Administration was being considered as a way to hasten the sale of the club and could happen this week and if done by Thursday would mean a points deduction this season. Presumably admin would reduce the price for the purchaser and clear any points deduction before next season.

Looking like 3 teams facing points deductions this season. Huddersfield if they go into Administration this week ready for takeover could lose 12 points. Wigan having missed a wages payment this month will probably get the 3 points that were suspended previously and Reading 6 points. For the first two it will all but confirm relegation. Any more teams I wonder ?

It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if Scudamore with his experience wasn’t either overseeing plans to encourage potential investment or even actively searching for it. Few would have better contacts around the world or be more respected for his knowledge and experience. His role may even evolve or become more apparent after investment or a takeover. He could be the perfect front man for a consortium. After the ‘Massengo to Chelsea Affair’ I would like to stress that this is purely speculation on my part and nothing more.

Interesting that he said Richard Scudamore is very involved here and I wondered in what capacity or if I had missed something previously about his involvement. It certainly helps the profile of the club I would imagine and maybe he is involved with attracting investors. That would make sense.

9-12 months is average I think but can be longer

Pearson has made it clear that they see something in Cornick that others have not as regards being a central striker so patience will be needed this season. Sykes would have been few peoples first choice a couple of months ago but he has now adapted to our system albeit helped by the formation change. Anis will take time and impressive as he was on occasions I sensed that Cam was a little exposed (and hesitant to make surging runs) by Anis hugging the touch line, although in fairness it did allow a good out-ball from Vyner in particular for a counter attack. We certainly missed the Tanner/Sykes combo from the start but we are a team in transition and now is too early to make judgement on several players.

Had Nigel played this back four earlier then it could have been a disaster and 1 or 2 of them might have been ‘on the bus’ with the fans blessing. Vyner and Pring have massively developed throughout this season and both Tanner and Atkinson really only in recent weeks. They have come together at the right time as each has increased their confidence. Who among us ‘football experts’ would have picked this back 4 pre-season with a straight face. Luck, timing and circumstance may have been a big part of the change of fortune but it couldn't have happened if Nigel had not over time helped them all slowly and carefully build confidence. ‘Patience’ the missing ingredient at Ashton Gate for so many years has finally paid off. We didn’t need a miracle worker we needed a proven manager who would be given the time to see through the plan.

I have to buy over the phone (Ambulant and Carer) and got through after a short wait. I was told I could now purchase online for the first time which is another section of fans that no longer need to phone. I then purchased online within a minute. In the past I have had to wait several days until phone bookings could be made so fair play City for making it easier.

The contrast between our optimism after a mostly successful window can be contrasted with the gloom over at Swansea who failed to bring in any of their targets because of financial constrictions. Those constrictions were the same as we were under prior to the Semenyo deal. We will all miss Semenyo but it really has given us a financial security that has been absent during Nigel’s reign. We really should have enough now to maintain better form over the rest of the season and start to line up summer targets (even without a potential Scott sale). I suspect a good few of our rivals will be casting envious eyes over our situation going forward.