Red Exile

I'm afraid that after 20 years it's time people woke up and STARTED blaming SL. It's his decisions. SL has been one of the least accomplished billionaire owners in British football history! LJ and MA were his trusted men...the current debacle is down to the three of them.

I'd say, on the basis of having chatted with the man a number of times, that he cares... ....about his reputation, and the way in which his association with Bristol City (or these days Bristol Rugby) might enhance it... ....but not like we care. I care about Bristol City because anyone who knows me knows that supporting City is part of my identity and has been most of my life...and I'm pushing 60. Bristol City doesn't mean the same thing to Steve Lansdown.

I tell you what I wish for - 20 more years of tedious mediocrity! But in admirably sanitised surroundings.

It's pathetic. Depressingly predictable. I can quite clearly recall what it was like watching us fall through the divisions in the early 80s and I honestly think this is worse. There were excuses then. The guilty men fled the scene and left good people to pick up the mess, which they did, and we all felt good about what they were doing. Recently the club has been run by people who give the impression that they care very little for the playing side, or for the supporters who pay to watch it, other than as a vehicle for advancing their own interests. The buck stops at the top I'm afraid, and for that reason I'm of the opinion that nothing will be done any time soon. I predict a relegation and a tedious rebuild - but over many years. There will be no Cotts and Keith Burt appointment since - as we should recall - they weren't appointed by the man running the show today.

Agreed -'Bristol Sport' is his 'legacy'...without it he'd never be heard of again, which I suspect he wouldn't like. But maybe I'm wrong.

I'll let @Fordy62 explain himself but for me the club started falling apart when it was obvious that LJ wasn't up to getting promotion no matter how many players he was given, and SL refused to see it because LJ was his golden boy. It was clear LJ wasn't up to it long before he was shown the door. We live with the legacy of that.

I've suffered enough this afternoon without you raising the hope that Lansdown will finally be off!

I think the problem is that we don't have a board...we have an 'owner'. And where has he been this season? Deafening silence.

100% this! A source of greatly unwanted frustration week in and week out.

If it helps - and not much does after that!...You're not alone.

I think the point is more his track record over 20 years...which doesn't exactly inspire confidence when it comes to managerial appointments!

What a farce!

Can’t see that I’ve made anything up. But have it your way - LJ was very persuasive and he is forced to grin and bear sitting in a stand with his name emblazoned on it. Poor chap! Hey - we’re all frustrated City fans. Personally I’ve had enough.

hmm...another very generous poster. Look...he wanted to be the star-maker with Lee Johnson. It didn't work out. If he was convinced by LJ's patter, well...what can I say?! What was needed with a manager with a demonstrable track record. How many people doubted that the stand would be named after him? It was 'board' decision? - give me a break - who exactly is or was the 'board'? SL, his son, and his mates. There is no 'board'. But fine if that's your take on matters.

To be honest I think whether one more signing might or might not have made a difference makes for a good discussion but - to my mind - misses the point. Lee Johnson should never have been the man to succeed Cotts, any more than Tinnion was the man to replace Danny Wilson, or Millen to (after the Coppell debacle) replace GJ...what was needed in 2015/16 was the appointment of an experienced manager with a track record of achieving success at Championship level. Any number of folk on here questioned all of those appointments, and that of Mark Ashton, we live with the consequences. EDIT: I have reached the conclusion that I can barely be arsed to care any more...it's rinse and repeat...again.

I take your point, which is a good one. But I mention Burnley because I recall a discussion on here years ago about their structure. I'd met their Chairman and one of their directors at an event. Humble, down to earth, wealthy but very much first among equals, a bunch of local businessmen with a love of the club, all supporting and challenging each other. The contrast with SL's City could not have been greater. Their approach seemed sustainable not in the financial sense but in the sense of involving the local community. It wasn't open to the accusation, however unfair, that it was all a bit of an ego trip. And as it happens it was far more successful. They were, also as it happens, passionate football people. I don't believe that SL is a football person...or, frankly, even much of a City fan in the sense that most of us are.

You're being very generous in your assessments of Lansdown. I mean, it's great we haven't gone bust, but.... Had anyone walking away from Wembley in 2008 been told that for all Lansdown's cash 13 years later we'd have had a relegation and not been back I think they'd have been horrified! I've met SL several times. Decent enough chap. His critics don't, though, have to earn the right to criticise by offering an alternative strategy. We are not remotely privy to what goes on at the top of the club. It's a firmly closed shop. Lansdown has taken little advice, and that he's taken has clearly been poor. Other clubs have been better run and as a consequence more successful. If you want a prime example I give you Burnley, a club with a leadership structure - at the time they went up and managed to stay up - a world away from anything SL would tolerate. They had, would you believe it, a Board of Directors!

I think this is it. What an opportunity we had. And then Lee Johnson was such an ego trip of an appointment...'I'll show them...' There will of course be many who say that it's all very well to criticise with the benefit of hindsight, but it's been possible to take a cold hard look at Steve Lansdown's tenure for years. He gets a very easy ride, expectations are so low. Even when he himself raises them with his Prem talk people let him off. His money blinds. If I wanted to admire great contemporary architecture I wouldn't beat a path to Ashton Gate, nice though the stand he named after himself might be. If I wanted to be entertained by a football team I wouldn't waste a lot of time at Ashton Gate either. It's been dire for most of the past 20 years.

My in-laws are Hull fans. They've seen some of the greatest moments in their club's history in the years we've been failing to get back to the Championship play-offs. I take your point but in all honesty I can't imagine they'd swap that for what we've been watching.

I agree - and goodness knows we've been in worse places than this in the past. The joy of this season would be seeing some young stars of the future emerge...and avoiding relegation. However, I find it harder to get excited about the Lansdown 'rebuilds'...each appears to be followed by a squandering of the opportunities and back to square one. The last rebuild - under SOD and Cotts put us in a great position. SL threw it away. The temptation to 'look away' gets greater each time it happens.

What strikes me is how many of the players in that side are currently playing in the Championship - Flint, Joe Bryan, Korey, Marlon, Patterson, Bobby - you could make an argument for each and every one of them walking into our side right now, four years later.

There's always so much emotion in a criticism of Steve Lansdown's stewardship. I appreciate why. But surely his biggest supporters can accept that his tenure has been disappointing? We might be in the second tier, the ground may have been upgraded and we may occasionally have been shown glimpses of something exciting on the pitch...but I struggle to recall the last time I walked away from Ashton Gate excited by our performance. It's a frustrating misery watching City play, and has been for several seasons. And as for his 20 years...it was ridiculous that we couldn't get out of the third tier until GJ came along...'trust me on Tinnion.' It was equally ridiculous that we couldn't capitalise on the position GJ got us into...Coppell, Keith Millen? Cotts and Keith Burt having done a brilliant job the appointment of LJ was an indulgence on Lansdown's part, a gamble that didn't work for all his investment...Mark Ashton?...Holden might be the most inexplicable decision of the lot. As he occasionally reminds us it's his club, he's had 20 years...and we're currently watching kids and journeymen.

I respect - indeed enjoy! - your posts... My question here is how long is a 'quick fix'? Steve Lansdown has promised the earth - and had it in his grasp. He's let it slip. When I watched the side trudge off the pitch at the end of our last home game in the top flight I'd yet to leave school. I'm on the verge of retirement.

Yep...got to be honest though, I don't give a darn about either the training ground or the stadium. The seats we sit in in the Dolman are precisely the same seats we say in under GJ...alot of water has passed under the bridge. We've got a nicer view I guess. The football side of the club has - relative to others clubs - gone backwards. That's what I trek upon and down the motorway for.