Red Exile

...a guess - Dave Barton said 'these are the questions that need to be answered'.... ...answers came there none I'm afraid. Who on earth thinks we have a squad to match that of the top clubs in this league? To think that that man runs an institution I care deeply about! It's embarrassing.

No but GJ owed him everything for the opportunity. I met them together at events on several occasions, they seemed friends.

Good thread! I started late 60s and I'd agree with others that Joe Jordan's was a gutting departure - seemed that we were set up to thrive and if we had done it would have been a good time to do so. The departure of Alan Dicks felt inevitable, after a brilliant innings. Of the others I felt the greatest sorrow at TC, at GJ and at Cotts because in each case it really felt the need of an era in the club's history and because they had put effort into building a really good relationship with all of us. Good times. I was a far more distant follower in the later 90s - young kids - came back in the Wilson days and got the whole family along for GJ. I hugely fell out of love with the Lansdown's running of the club in the Millen/McInnes/SOD era. Never recovered my faith in them. I was very vocal on here about Millen - had a different user name then - and there were plenty of Lansdown loyalists around then to shout down any critique, perhaps the same folk who lined up behind LJ as he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory time after time. Millen was right up there with Tinnion and Holden - totally incompatible with any ambition to build and progress. Incomprehensible. Hoping that things will different this time, not hugely optimistic that they will! Nigel Pearson's departure feels different to all of those. Both a good man shown the door after a lot of painfully hard work and a depressing expression of what our football club has become. The sooner Lansdown goes the better.

Indeed. I’m not at all sure that I buy the current ownership or that it will end well…but it is certainly entertaining! My in-laws aren’t fearful. More inclined to gently taunt me for our crapness!

But we’re owned by a faceless family living in tax exile. The head of which has had 20 years, achieved almost nothing of footballing note and has clearly lost interest. We’re hostages to a huge ego. Let go! …to be honest I really don’t care what the fearful Lansdown loyalists think any more. You’ve had your way and will doubtless continue to have it until the moment Steve finally sells up. Enjoy the mediocrity!

20 years on even the most loyal of Lansdown loyalists must recognise that at some point SL will sell up. We don’t have to know who the buyer will be to hope that they might have a bit more ambition. The club I know best other than us is Hull. My in-laws club. Always a bit of a roller coaster there but boy has it been an entertaining ride for them since that day in May 15 years ago. Spells in the Prem, relegation and promotion and the cup final. They’re on their third owner and going again. And that’s in Hull - not Bristol. And us? - struggling to compete once again. It’s a tedious rinse and repeat. Time for a change.

After 20 plus years I think we know quite a lot about the way Steve Lansdown works. And can make an educated guess that what comes next is unlikely to be part of a coherent strategy that builds solid foundations for a push up the league. Let's not have 'hounded out' - if he sells up now he will go with a modicum of dignity - thus far the crowd has never turned on him or the boy.

Me too, for the same reasons. I am however enjoying the OTIB gallows humour - as the gloom settles it's brightening a rather depressing evening.

The very best of luck and health to you Nigel. Your integrity and decency shone through. Pity you have to ply your trade in an industry full of folk lacking either quality. Take a break, get well, enjoy life. You'll be very welcome back at Ashton gate when the clowns have departed.

What to say? Bitter disappointment. The Lansdowns finally appoint a proper football man to the job, get him to do all the dirty work - his reward? Flogging the family silver and getting the boot. I can't be arsed to get sucked into another 'Steve's fragile ego' psychodrama. We've been having them for 20 years. Will be watching from afar for a while. Good luck everybody!

I'll be spending a lot more time in Italy!

I watched a bit of the racing this afternoon. Struck me that you never hear of race horse owners complaining that the sport is too expensive. It's expensive, end of. If you don't want to spend the money you get out. People buy race horses because they like racing. That costs - like it costs to run a F1 team, or a racing yacht. You don't hear people complaining about the price. For me there is no argument that we should feel grateful to, sorry for, or understanding of, Steve Lansdown's frustration at his investment or 'losses'. It's his hobby. Football is an expensive hobby. He's not daft. He must have known what he was taking on. If it's no longer of interest the sooner he sells up the better. If his legacy is going to be bricks and mortar it's a shame he didn't invest in something useful like a hospital. But he didn't. He bought our football club.

In fairness to @ChippenhamRed I'm not sure that's how football support works is it? We're all stuck with City. I'm a season ticket holder and on most of the occasions I've been able to get the the Gate in recent years I'd happily have settled for 'dull' over 'frustrated as hell'.

Exactly this. It feels to me that we heading back to the Millen/McInnes/SOD era where, for all that individual players were fan favourites, and for all that many posters on here felt we should be doing better, the reality was that we simply didn't have a squad to compete at the highest level of the Championship - and ultimately didn't have a squad to keep us out of the bottom 3! You can't will these things. No side that gets in the play-offs this season is going to be relying on unproven youngsters to turn matches around. We can debate what constitutes 'young' but we can all look back on accomplished City sides of the past and note that bringing players off the bench to make their professional debuts, or to try and score their first professional goals, is not usually what got them to the top. It's not about effort, or what we'd like to happen - it's about quality.

Thing is - the only thing that anyone could argue was top 6 about Bristol City is the management who, whatever their critics might say, have at least been there and done it. Steve Lansdown hasn't invested in the current playing squad at a level that screams top 6 - we all know that. Unless he does so we'll be soldiering on with Max and a lad on the bench who's barely played a match...which is better than some on the bench today who have never done so.

Call it what you like. It's a squad game - 8 of ours were youngsters - 2 made their debuts today - we're bringing on Yeboah to save the day week in week out. Sam Bell passes for an old hand.

We may as well be if we're going to send out a bunch of kids in one of the toughest leagues in the world.

Credit to our lot that we were in the game for so long.

We don't look awful. Doing quite well considering the line up. They don't look much better. But same old story, careless in possession, final ball missing. Dispiriting mid table mush I'm afraid.

Watched the second half. Played well I thought. Impressed with Cornick and Gardner-Hickman. Yeboah enthusiastic but still learning...can't expect him to be a match winner at this stage. Squad obviously lacking depth at a time when injuries bite. Needs that Scott money to be invested.

Selling to progress I get - but that means replacing the players sold with something better - better individuals or a better, broader, deeper, squad. It doesn't seem to me that the Alex Scott sale has resulted in that. But who knows what the plan is - the silence from the top is deafening. I've put in many decades - and fast losing patience.

I guess that would depend on 'the understanding of what resources he would have available' - which I imagine at the time included a striker and a midfielder we've sold for millions more than has subsequently been invested in the squad. What I mean is that stating an objective and then failing to give the person responsible for delivery the tools to do the job seems a pretty daft way of deciding whether to renew their contract. But far from the daftest thing about Steve Lansdown's time running the show.

This is the bit I struggle with. Looking objectively at City's current squad who would reckon it one of the top 6 in the Championship? Its all very well for the club to state year after year that our target is the play-offs, but you don't achieve that by selling your best players and not replacing them. Pearson is making bricks with straw, it seems to me that play-offs or the boot is a near impossible brief with the resources he has.

I genuinely admire your optimism. I wish I had it. For me Steve Lansdown's ownership has been characterised - on the playing side of the club - by foundations built of sand. Of course it may be different this time...if it happens, which I'm rather hoping it won't.

I agree with you but I'm pretty sure that for the sake of my sanity I'd be encouraged by my family and friends to take a step away.... (is that laughter or tears?) Btw the appointments of Tinnion, Millen and Holden were decisions every bit as baffling to me...possibly more so.