The Humble Realist

I counted on one occasion using the big screen....25 seconds one time...he needs to be careful

I think it was a complete holding appointment until people knew more about how covid would impact finances etc. Dont forget when he was appointed no one had any idea when fans would return etc. In the end it was over 12 months. Was pre vaccines etc. Point is...I think the club thought 'we wont go down' so it's a risk free appointment until we know more. Obviously if he had turned out to be amazing it would have been happy days! Unfortunately...we may well have gone down but then by that point we were 6/7 months further into the pandemic and in came Pearson and ultimately we were fine . What was particularly depressing that season is we had bottom of the league form for the last 42 matches of the season. I think we got 41 points (we won the first 4 I think). This effectively gave us a false league position for about 80% of the season as it turned out. To any neutrals we never looked in too much danger but to the fans we went through bottom of the league football, during a covid lockdown in the winter watching Robin's tv tell us all how great we were. A time I'm happy to forget both in and out of football. All this being said, as people have said Holden was very likeable. Mainly because of his honesty which was so refreshing after LJ. Perhaps he was a bit too honest at times but I'm not sure many managers who had such a poor record would be as liked as holden was. I think we all wish him well.

If you are sad enough to trawl through my posts you'll see plenty of times that I've knocked the club for various things that have been disappointed with in the past e.g. the way they handled the covid refunds. However, credit where credit is due. They made the forum as open as they could last night, promoting it on the offical site and putting it on multiple streaming channels and I think over 30,000 people were watching on youtube at one point. This is a huge improvement on the previous era and i just thought it was good and fair to praise the club in this instance for making last night open, transparent and accessible.

Fantastic write up. Thanks

Yeah I would love to see it scrapped. What powers to the counties actually have to change the window/reduce the number of teams? Or is the thinking that people like gould have been appointed and they will drive the change (on the counties behalf)? I wonder if the exclusive August window coupled with the strauss review has tipped it over the edge.

It's at 12. I know mistakes can be made but its shocking how often these minor but important mistakes are made.

Thanks, a real detailed explanation of something that is obviously very fluid. Good to know that even though its unclear when...between now and the spring things will step by step become a little clearer. I guess we will.know a lot when the accounts are published

A while ago there were a lot of concerns that we (and about half the league) wouldnt make the numbers to comply with FFP. Hopefully there will be an update on our own position as the fans forum this week but what is the timeline for FFP? In particular: When will we know if we havent complied (officially)? When might points deductions or punishments be handed out ? Would points deductions apply for this season? Surely if multiple teams were going to face points deductions the EFL would get on with it for the sake of the competition?

Perhaps migrate the blast into the hundred? Bring in a franchise element e.g. a draft for overseas players ?

I wonder how much 'peril' the mens hundred is in. Not a lot of news since the initial outrage from.counties after strauss review. Be interesting to see what unfolds once Gould is in.

Every now and again Scott Davidson's name pops up. It was before my time but he seems to be remembered positively. Why is this? How did he compare to lansdown (and other owners today)? Appreciate the game was different then but would be interested to hear

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-42350706 Talking of the underground....its going to be built in 5 years time. This just highlights what absolute rubbish the plans were to begin with. Anyone can promise anything 'in ten years time' Rees wont even be mayor at the end of 2024

We have an awful team for delaying the restart. By that I mean little kicks of the ball when a foul is given , little tricks to be in between the player and the ball, picking up the ball so a player cant take a free kick. Every team does it but I hate it..I'd much rather all teams cut it out but no one should pretend we arent as bad as most

Tonight playing in their third kit designed by ed Sheeran despite being at home. No doubt Ashton involved. To be fair they are doing very well in the league

Glad to have him back and available for sure. Hes been missed. Probably his last season here unfortunately.

We lost an uncontested drop ball!

What's the lyrics to the song the fans sing to the tune of one man went to mow?

Isnt the simple answer here that it was just a mistake by the defensive unit and a blooming big one. I think Kalas and Oleary should share the blame with neither being completely innocent or guilty. All season the defence had been littered with mistakes, Naismith, vyner, set pieces. It needs improving. I have no idea how vyner has played every game this season.

This is my point...people talk about Lita like he had scored 15 goals that season. The final was a terrible match which tbh I dont think Lita would have made any difference in as we didnt exactly create a load of chances.

Not sure I've ever seen Pearson be so scathing even though he has been scathing plenty of times. Even had a little pop at the club interviewer for trying to put a positive spin on a question. A big 7 days ahead

Wilson, who I liked, is doing a lot of revisionist history there . We certainly werent unlucky...we blew up. He has to take a lot of the responsibility for that. As for Lita, its revisionist history for fans to say it cost us. Lita was still young. There were no clamour for him to be starting etc at the time. It may have been a fans choice to have him on the bench, he was quick striker for sure but the idea it cost us promotion is for the birds.

Other than an utterly bizarre radio bristol interview on that day the rumour mill was in over drive about Pearson resigning gould has quietly gone about his job and from what I can tell done a good job. So refreshing after the Ashton debacle to have a CEO who does his work quietly but effectively in the background.

At least you're honest enough to own up! Swansea have had quite the journey in the 2000s to be fair.

Were Swansea in league two (going into league one) when we signed trundle? To be honest I dont think trundle was able to cut it in the championship at the time. He didnt score a huge amount of goals....he did score some big ones though! And they were often special.

JET for me. He was playing a different game to everyone else when on form (and a different game in a bad way when off form!). Of course we were in league one so standard was different to the others. Also...who else took a penalty like JET!