downendcity

Along the same lines as a comment Dennis Skinner made in Parliament a few weeks back. "Half the tory members opposite are crooks", he said. He was asked to withdraw the comment. "OK, half the tory members opposite are not crooks"

Since Ashton Vale was announced, and with the impact of financial fair play rules I've always felt that, as far as our stadium is concerned, doing nothing would never be an option. Ashton Vale would have given the best chance of putting in place all the facilities that would enable the club to maximise income both on match day and also on non-match days - hotels, conference facilities etc. I don't think that AV is necessarily dead in the water, but suspect that SL realises that to get it will take a long game, so in the meantime the only alternative is to make the most of AG through redevelopment. Ok it might not give us a hotel and conference facilities, but we can get better spectator facilities and some corporate boxes in place and while we are in league 1 will we really miss a 30,000 capacity? At the time AV was announced we could conceivably have been a season from the prem. Realistically, and with the new football philosophy, player recruitment and bringing through young players we are at least 5-7 years from a shot at the prem - baring something quite remarkable so will we need the ability to increase the capacity of AG if, during that time other stadium options materialise - either AV resurfacing or your idea of SL having a trick up his sleeve.

Can I come too? Oooohhhhhhhhhhh maaaatron!

The Reds are going up and down!

Would have been nice to get some sort of result to keep our run going but I never reallistically expected anything from the trip to Blackburn, so am not disappointed. We can do nothing about our rivals results, apart from when they play us, and I reckon it's those games, against the other teams at the bottom, that will define our season.

That long ago?

unless we are 3 down in the last minute.

I know that sometimes supporting City can be a pain in the ar5e, but that is just too much.

Piles playing up Fordy?

Sorry Tom, your behind Aizoon's hedgehog in the predictions pecking order.

Enough of that Chalky. We don't want to tempt fate.

On the question of selection dilemmas, would you have Rachel Riley up front or at the back?

She'd look even better on eiderdown

Am I getting as bit ahead of myself if I start the match thread for the Yeovil game on Aug 31st?

Remember all those drab 1-0 wins under Gary Johnson, about which so many complained? . Could do with some of those now.

How long have you got, Bucksred?

Anyone who believed that Leroy would stay once we signed Marcus Stewart doesn't understand football. The only question was where he would go and for how much and now we know the answer. If you read the statment about the stand it makes a bit more sense - "we don''t quite have the finance in place" means we shortly will have when we sell Leroy. Bristol City is a business and Leroy is an asset. He will have agents telling him how to maximise his value, and sadly in that equation loyalty to the club will come lower than we would like. The club has to protect it's asset the best way possible. and I am sure they feel we will get more now than waiting for his value to run down with his contract. He's ambitious, and is looking to further his career and earnings, and in both cases feel's his ambitions will be best served elsewhere, whatever we might feel at the moment. Sell him, get the money, organise the players we do have and make sure we got out of this division without delay. that's the one way we can keep our best players and attract better ones.