Red Exile

4 minutes ago, old_eastender said:

Nop, Millwall been the better side 2nd half. 

Comfortably - which is a surprise. This is such a classic City performance - played well for a few games, fringes of the play-off - suddenly lose all form.

Still time though.

This is chaotic - very poor. More or less inviting them to score.

Same old, same old. 

It's obviously asking too much for us to be consistently good...which is a great shame!

This really isn't very exciting! Changes needed...and seemingly coming.

13 minutes ago, fisherrich said:

Plenty on here defended LJ at the time.

Yep. Next Pep or something wasn't he?

Anyway - thank goodness that's in the past. The Landsown failure wasn't so much appointing him, it was stubbornly digging in behind him when it was obvious it wasn't working.  Bet the house on the chap...turned out LJ was a dud. 

If he's a decent coach, as many have suggested, he should take a coaching job.

Frenetic. Busy bees doesn't do us justice. Fascinating to watch. We look the more likely but there's no time to sit back and reflect.

48 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

I've had to (mostly) stop running and do other activities instead due to a back issue but I'd strongly recommend doing Parkrun to anyone. I still do it as an occasional treat. 

Same here - once ran marathons. The younger family members run Parkruns every week. I'm starting back again. Will give it a go. Signed up to this for a bit of motivation.

Absolute quality away performance - they looked awful - or rather we made them look awful. Manning winning me over!

2 minutes ago, maxjak said:

Of course he hasn't given it away?  Why shouldn't he want it back..............I would?   I am certain with his business acumen, he could have invested in other projects, for a much larger return, and a lot less hassle?

Which of course begs the question why he bothers. He bothers because it flatters his ego when things go well. Unfortunately he gets grumpy and hides when they don't. But that's what he's spent his money on. It's not really reasonable to expect it back. I'm not going to get any of my entrance fees back!

I've met him several times, indeed bought him a drink. Perfectly nice chap but by no stretch of the imagination could his 20 years be considered a footballing success. 

In a word: Ambition

(in a sporting context 'ambition' meaning winning things, challenging, being the best you can be - not more bricks and mortar and jobs for the boys - not knitting a suffocating blanket of mediocrity that smothers, depriving anyone else of a chance to grab the reins and go for it)

5 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Burnley and their rise is hard to fathom really. I remember then being bottom third League One in my first season in the late 1990s when we were struggling at this level..unlike some of those you list they didn't have a wealthy owner or wealthy fan owner. (Denim Bournemouth...why would a Russian investor invest in League One strugglers anyway)..then obviously Bloom was a Brighton fan, likewise Brentford and Benham. Bloom managed to get their infrastructure in place quite early.

Burnley I'm struggling to place how they did it, what magic formula they had for that crucial first promotion in 2009 or did it just click. A commercial powerhouse they aren't, dunno whether their owners late 2000s were wild spenders..

I met their Chairman and one or two of the directors around 15 years ago - the time they went up for the first time. Sound local business folk and a proper board. The contrast with the nepotistic set up at the Gate couldn't have been greater. The Chair had, as I recall, made his money from greetings cards? They ran a tight business and appointed good football folk to manage that side of the club. It's a place with real ambition, as any Burnley fan will tell you. Of course they've since sold up. No idea what it is like now.

1 minute ago, johnheadbcfc said:

I suppose teams like Bury and notts County would be grateful of how the clubs ran.

Blimey - that's setting the bar pretty low! I'm sure we can all remember times when we've pitied followers of Bournemouth & Burnley (almost going out of the league), Brentford (going bust - collections tins outside the ground), Brighton (no ground), as for Luton!!!

Finishing mid-table and losing £20m a year doesn't light my fire but is is, I agree, better than going bust.

9 minutes ago, johnheadbcfc said:

Have we really had it that bad as Bristol city fans though?

Well it does of course depend on what you mean by 'had it that bad'...personally I'd say that waiting 40 years for a return to the top flight was pretty frustrating.

I'm not bothered by a JL email...but the suffocating blanket of mediocrity the Lansdowns have thrown over our club isn't something to be particularly grateful for. 

Had a Hull in-law call at half time. Didn't bother to respond...and won't now.

But get in! Haha!!

7 hours ago, Kid in the Riot said:

 

Yeah, I can't see that eurostar tickets are on sale yet? Maybe next week or two.

What I've done is book the Eurostar to Brussels separately. You can book the Eurostar through til August. The Brussels station is confusingly called both Midi in French and South/Zuid - but it's the same place. You change in Brussels for the German trains. Then you have to make a separate booking to get on a German train. There are direct trains to Frankfurt. The tickets for the day of the Denmark game go on sale on Christmas Eve according to the German railways website. At the risk of turning into NTTDS for the morning these are useful websites:

https://www.seat61.com

https://int.bahn.de/en/

1 hour ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Fair enough.

It's actually "only" 5.5 hours on the train from London to Frankfurt, so may just do that. 

We've got no tickets but we're taking the train to Cologne and then travelling around Germany by train, which is comfortable and reliable and a good way to see the country. We did the same back in 2006, but had tickets to England v Paraguay in Frankfurt that year.

The German railway tickets for next June have just gone on sale this week. Decent discounts if you book early. The pricey bit is the return Eurostar to Brussels - change there for Cologne. The Man in Seat 61 website has all the details.

Clearly hasn't yet fallen far enough to find his level.

1 minute ago, devoncider said:

I have an adult ST in the SS, and get to 50-75% of home games. Usually miss out on those on midweek evenings (and today), because I work in London and live in Hampshire. Is that a good enough reason?

 

For the record I have also done 4 away games so far this season, 5th will be West Ham, but as I sometimes can't make the Gate, does that make me less of a fan?

You're doing better than me in most seasons. I can't make evening matches and I can't think I've made anything like 50% of home matches in recent years. I've always seen investment in a ST as a gift to the club, and a chance to secure a ticket to a good cup match - it's certainly not value for money for me, and there's no shortage of seats around the ground.

22 minutes ago, Midred said:

Lambrusco? 

Not THAT affordable!

There's a bottle of Italy's most affordable fizz chilling.

Excellent defensive display. Bit disturbing that we had so little possession in the second half - and what on earth was Cornick thinking?! But if Max has his doubters - and he does on here - that was a top class display from him. Impressed again by TGH.

TGH a fine player. Needs to start regularly. So positive.

Under the cosh here. Need to calm it down.

Well this is unexpected! Great stuff. Really clicking.

Watching in Italy. Working fine for me.