Dunc

45 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

I think  a perfect rule change would be to allow the team with the advantage to be allowed to take the free kick as soon as they like. No need for the other team to be ready (even though they should be) or fussy refereeing waiting til everyone is ready so that he can blow his whistle. It's a free kick stop the ball where the offence occurred and carry on. If you take it before a defender has retreated 10 yards and it hits him tough.

Absolutely this. I hate that they took away yellow cards for players blocking free kicks. Slows the game down and rewards fouling. Fast and more creative game is in everyone's interests, unless you're called Big Sam.

When I was a youngster our coach taught us to run harder when the ball was out of play or for a free kick. Get it back in play as quickly as you can as lots of players switch off. 

Good luck KP. Given game time in a system and with players that play to his strengths (possession based team with strikers who play on the shoulder) he may well do quite well. With quality movement he can pick a pass for sure. Don't know if that is Cov, but it can't be a less good fit than us. Even if he has a good first season I've got my doubts he'll be successful at this level long term. Glad he got the move and glad to have him off the wage bill here. As far as I know he never made a fuss at all when here though, even when out the squad. Best wishes from me

My mum grew up in Boston and I had grandparents just down the road from the stadium. Different world is Boston. Makes East Anglia look like a roaring metropolis of modernity. With the lack of local action in general I could see why small towns like this managed to get into the league as probably had a good % of the town going, but nowadays with Sky etc. can also see why going to a cold windy shed in Boston on a Saturday afternoon doesn't pull in the punters.

21 hours ago, Davefevs said:

What do we reckon then?

Atkinson and King out, James too (surely he won’t be risked)

Is Williams ready?  I don’t think he will risk him starting.

I think we will start with the eleven than ended on Saturday:

                        O’Leary 

          Vyner | Kalas | Pring

Dasilva | Scott | Massengo | O’Dowda 

                    Weimann (c)

               Martin | Semenyo

Subs: Bentley, Cundy, Williams, Palmer, Benarous, Wells, Conway

Only ones not picked, Bell and Simpson.

Not too many permutations available!

 

Seems sensible. Sorry if I've missed it as been too busy to follow much the last couple of weeks but what's the views on Max vs Bents in goal? Only watched the highlights of the last game, and the second goal we conceded is exactly what I think the difference is between the two... i.e. Bents saves it 

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I don’t think we will get them.  I think it is more of Tanner and Atkinson types, brought forward from the summer plan.  It will give them 6 months to embed, unlike Tanner and Atkinson who’ve been thrown in immediately.  Okay more expectation of Atkinson than Tanner, but in Tanner’s case, it shows you can pluck someone from Lg2 that is capable of playing this level.  In the past “one for the future” was rarely seen for a good while (if at all).

Much prefer the new "one for the future but thrown in straight away approach". I hope the days of us spending millions on 'potential' for players that barely get a sniff in the first team (e.g. Szmodics, Engvall, Eisa) are over. Cheap young rough diamonds to train up OK. But if we're spending a sizeable wedge they should be better than what we have, or at least able to quickly compete for the shirt at this level. Atkinson and Tanner exactly the sort of signings we should be making imho.

1 hour ago, Bobby Bollax said:

The best ‘ luxury ‘ player I’ve seen - Glen Hoddle 

You've got a few years head start on me. I tend to think of 'luxury' players being creative #10s to don't do the hard yards to keep defensive shape, but unlock defences. Ronaldinho, Totti, Le Tiss, Okocha at the top end or Trundle and JET a little closer to home.

I'm of the view that very few teams can set up in a way to carry that sort of player nowadays, exciting as they are! 

36 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

SL would be a great owner if he “bought-in” the right football expertise!

My question to you was a little different Dave. You're one of the posters on here I enjoy reading the most and have a massive amount of respect for. It was a genuinely open question about what proportion of clubs do you think meet your two criteria? And is that a realistic aim for us in a post-SL world? I'm pessimistic about our prospects (or maybe optimistic on the SL side), but you're far more educated than me on the topic I'm sure.

48 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

As good an owner as he may have been, if you think Srivaddhanaprabha gained the franchise to run all Thai duty-free shops without extensive jiggery-pokery (to say the least) then you don't know how businesses operate in Thailand.

Couldn't agree more. Won't be many billionaires about that haven't been involved in jiggery-pokery... and in that benevolent billionaires club, there won't be many that want to invest into BCFC and are great at running football clubs.

That's why if our fans think we're going to get much better than SL, they might want to think about adjusting their expectations. 

10 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Personally i don’t care who the investors are, where they come from, as long as:

1. The money is not “crooked”

2. They make good football decisions, whatever they may be.

How many owners are there in England's top two leagues that meet those (extremely sensible) criteria? Not being funny - would genuinely be fascinated in your perspective Dave. 

Srivaddhanaprabha at Leicester obviously comes to mind. Levy at Spurs (though their fans might challenge #2). Fenway Group seem decent enough. Gibson at Boro (question #2). West Ham extracted an extremely good deal from the Olympic stadium. Norwich seem pretty well run. 

If the taxman came calling at Brentford or Brighton owners' businesses suspect there'd be some challenges. 

And yet on the KITR's thread from yesterday it seems most folks want new (almost certainly foreign) investment and ownership over SL's Bristolian cash. Expect more 'commercialism' in whatever comes next... not that I won't be putting my hat in the ring for two tickets to Vegas 

Lot of pessimism on this thread. Maybe it's life as a football, and certainly a Bristol City fan. If all things were equal with salary caps and reverse order player drafts (like the American system) then over time there's a 25% of a successful season (play-offs 6/24). An excellent season (promotion) is 12.5%. However we know that all things aren't equal. And that's at Championship level where we're still a relatively small fish, and the top 6 are dominated by either bigger clubs, clubs that have benefitted from parachute payments, or clubs that are willing to bend the rules, trading off potential short-term success for long-term benefit.

Lansdown has ultimately failed in what he set out to achieve on the pitch. Maybe his methods haven't worked. Maybe he's stubborn. Maybe he's misadvised. Maybe he's shown poor judgement. But he's a Bristolian who genuinely cares about the club and the city. He's invested significant sums of his own cash into building something sustainable and a lasting legacy after he's gone in terms of club infrastructure. I loved the old east end as a kid and I too have romantic memories of those days, but times move on, and Ashton Gate is somewhere I enjoy and am proud to take my wife and kid, or anyone visiting from out of town.

Perhaps the value of the club will cover Lansdown's investment, but it's very much to be seen and it's a risk he's personally taken. He isn't doing what he's doing for financial gain, but because he genuinely cares. I'd much rather take that than your pick of Chinese, American, Middle Eastern, Russian money with owners who are essentially motivated by financial gain. 

Yes Lansdown has flaws, but we'd be in a far worse place without him, and may well find ourselves in a worse place in future. If he sells to a responsible owner who can take the club forward further, then indeed we owe him thanks for that, rather than necessarily selling to the highest bidder. If we end up in as safe hands as Steve in future I'll consider us lucky.

It seems I'm in the significant minority... but it's still a massive THANK YOU to Steve Lansdown from me!

45 minutes ago, CyderInACan said:

Maybe treading on forbidden lawns here, but is Bentley part of the problem rather than the solution? 

No... imho from a playing and leadership perspective I think he's fantastic. Can we afford to pay those kinds of wages? If that's the question it's a question for Mr Lansdown, but it appears the direction of travel is towards cheaper players 

10 minutes ago, Dolman_Stand said:

At this moment in time that "problem" would be nice to have!

At the moment Lansdown can't know which way to turn, he won't be able to or probably doesn't even want "sack" Pearson but can't let this drift on and on...who knows when NP will be back and even if it is within the next month this situation may well happen again this season.

One option would be Colin till end of the season but given we wouldn't have a long term commitment with him are the players really going to buy into his way of management (given there performances to date I doubt Pep could get them going), also who signs the players in January? What if NP / NW can't agree on the recruitment process, who does SL back?

The other option would be to bring in Shakespeare as his trusted right hand man until NP is back but if we go down it's another compensation we need to pay.

Absolute fucksmuddle of a situation that from where I'm sat is likely to end up in some kind of legal dispute, my gut feel is the club is hoping NP makes the decision for them but time will be running out in a week or so. I would imagine there are all kinds of conversations going on at the moment behind the scenes about which way to go hence RG's holding interview tonight.

Run out of likes but spot on analysis in my view. I don't envy anyone involved. Not an easy solution.

Given the current situation I'm not sure what people were expecting to hear that would make them happy. Unless the club is decisive and either says "we're moving on from Nige whatever the legal / cost implications", or "we're staying with him long term, whatever the coaching implications", it's sensible to be non-committal, see who else is available / how Nige's health holds up. Reading between the lines I think Nige is done and they're looking to sort an alternative to be announced over the next week or two.

3 minutes ago, Mendip City said:

I really wonder whether someone like Warnock has knocked us back. 

Does seem they were planning to announce more than they did. It may seem a little fantasy land, but if Nige has long Covid and off for the medium term, Colin to cover isn't totally outrageous 

4 minutes ago, Mendip City said:

In my opinion…. He’s gone. 

The cynic in me says this interview was arranged with the expectation of something far more concrete to say…. has someone turned us down??? (Apologies for the speculation overdrive). 
 

Literally the only firm statement is “no” to Shakespeare…. Surely short-term Shakespeare would be sensible if you expected Pearson back? 

That's how I read it. The emphatic no to Shakespeare strange given the obvious fit if you were planning around Nige staying. I assume they're planning for the alternative and looking at other candidates. Pity Wilder just went to Boro. I want Nige to continue (if he's fit and healthy enough to do so) but I wouldn't bet on it now

Excellent post Spudski. The answer for me... those fleeting moments of unadulterated joy. Korey against United. Joey Bryan hitting top bin against Swindon, those Palace play off games - in recent times. Are those moments worth the time, money and emotional distress? Hard to answer, but most of us keep going 

Good decision from the ref. Definite pull back. Would have been easy not to give that

and his latest instalment... no time to pie 

perhaps Dr No Movement is appropriate too. 

Live and let pie 

Anyone got a link that works for us overseas folks? Sky doesn’t sadly 

Loved him as a player. Seems a bit of a turnip though. Saw a clip only this morning of him questioning why a defender let Phil Foden shoot with his right and didn't show him onto his left foot. Micah Richards had to point out that Foden is left footed

12 minutes ago, daored said:

Worry will be if a club makes a silly bid in next couple of days 

Crazy considering almost every single one of us would have sent him on loan to league one. Now we're worrying about a 10m+ bid! 

Just touched down at Heathrow after a couple of days work in Copenhagen. Taxi waiting to take me to my nearest Bristolian friend's place in Putney. I've got my usual happiness hedge on United but as ever it's a pleasure to lose money and watch city get a result. COYR

I agree and that fluidity for the most part comes from the engine room that Pack and Smith have become, and the ability of Ayling in particular and Williams to a slightly lesser extent, to bring the ball forward and look confident on the ball. How many centre halves at this level could have played the pass Williams did with the outside of his foot, to start the move for the 2nd goal?

Williams gave a couple of sloppy ones away though in dangerous areas. Flinty was quality on the ball yesterday and Ayling is absolutely different class. There won't be many better ball playing defenders in the championship.