LondonBristolian

I'm not going to particularly critical of the Mebude signing. The rationale was sound and loans sometimes work and sometimes don't. I'd be quite surprised if we made the deal permanent based on what we've seen but that's always the gamble.

But don't forget this is what Man City have been working to all season too. Although I do suspect the tall blond Norwegian kid they are fielding up-front is lying about his age.

It seems from this thread like it's going to be fairly unanimous voting in the main men's categories this year. The only player I seriously considered other than Dickie was O'Leary and, whilst Conway's not had a vintage season, he's the only one in that category you can really make a case for.

I'm not so sure on that. He was obviously having a good season on loan at QPR when he joined but he was nonetheless at a parent club that didn't want him and we offered him a permanent move. Since then, he's had spells in and out the team but he has played more games than he's missed and his managers seem to find him positive, happy and settled. I'm sure any striker wants to be first on the team sheet and banging in 20 goals a season but the move to Burnley did not work out for him at all and QPR moved for him on loan a second time rather than signing him permanently. I suspect he doesn't see the move as a disaster.

It's the DoF and first team coach for the rest of the season.

This is what we want. Unfortunately Manning has put himself in a position where he needs to rebuild trust and good will with a lot of us as fans. This weekend is a start. Hopefully the next six games can build on it and leave us feeling positive about next season.

I think the one genuine question mark for me is to what extent Max Bird is being brought in to replace James' role in the team. (For clarity, I've not seen loads of Bird so they could be completely different players but, from what I've read and the little I've seen, I get the impression Bird plays a similarity role for Derby). If there is a genuine belief we're signing a younger player who is a genuine upgrade on James then I can see why the club might not extend the contract given he is a high earner. But that's the only possible argument I can see against given an extension given his value to the team. I don't even see James' age as a major concern - 32 is not that old for a a player who keeps himself in shape and James' game isn't based on lung-bursting athleticism in any case.

New to this site. Don’t go to many games now but have been to many over nearly 50 years. Would love to see city in the top division again but it has to be done without risking the existence of the club. Steve lansdown has given the club a sound footing but why should he spend all his money chasing the premier league. As I say I’m new here, see a lot of negativity to Bristol sport. Why is that? EDIT: Rats. Wrong account!

I wouldn’t say we were the most fickle fans in football but certainly there are some very fickle fans crawling out the woodwork right now claiming that a fourth win in our last fourteen games somehow means the the eight losses in those fourteen no longer matter. If Manning can do well over the next seven then maybe we can start to say the fans judged him to soon but those of us who are not fickle are not going to be swayed by the occasional good performance if we can’t achieve consistency of results.

We shall, of course, see. I think you are right that we will struggle to get as near as much as many of us would hope for Conway given he has one year on his contract and has struggled this season. But, when he does move on - as I suspect he will - we will find out whether he is “very average” or whether our tactics and approach have held him back. I know which of those I think it is but time will tell.

I agree on the arrogance but I think it is true - and even more so - for the entire current top six plus a few other teams in the division like Boro and Sunderland. There is a large bunch of teams with a big section of fans who feel entitled to a place in the Premier League despite - Leicester aside - a long and undistinguished track record of doing absolutely nothing once they are up there.

And in fairness, Ipswich fans told us they were going to do exactly what they’ve done in the summer and most of us - or certainly me, anyway - felt they were being arrogant and deluded. Even with Ashton, I’d probably rather Ipswich made it than the three relegated teams going straight back up. Certainly I’d take an Ipswich promotion over another of the boring yo-yo clubs like West Brom or Norwich.

To be honest, I set this thread up to share a David Brent-esque quote from Mark Ashton in an interview. I never thought for a minute it would last three years and get to 87 pages!

To be honest, I’m currently waiting for someone to show me definitive evidence that Murphy even exists. I’m starting to fear that St Pat’s created an AI player, CGI’d him into some highlights reels and we fell for it hook, line and sinker…

Conway has a year on his contract and is playing for a manager who lacks the tactical flexibility and adaptability to get the best out of him. The club aren’t the ones making the choice here.

Is this the real reason for the Zak Vyner range?

As we discovered under Lee Johnson, “Detailed work on the opposition” is always a nuanced thing. It can be great for bespoke plans to stop a top of the table side but strip you of identity and make you reactive when you do it each week, against everyone. And it gets a bit farcical when you’re so busy reacting to the tactical nuances of the bottom of the table side that you cannot beat them at home. The actual dilemma for Liam and the club at the moment is why the plan is for James not to be renewed and whether it should be re-evaluated in light of his value to the team.

It is a good result and one that should put to bed any lingering worries about relegation. However what it doesn’t do is answer the overriding questions which are: 1) can we win consistently? 2) can we play well consistently? 3) can we produce our results and performances against the top teams in the division and Premier league teams in the cup against so-called “weaker” teams? 4) how do we square the desire to play possession football with the fact we get better results with less possession? 5) was this a genuine new dawn or simply another good performance on TV? I’m happy to credit Manning for the win but, if it fair to give him credit when we do well then it is fair to give him criticism when we play badly. Today’s result makes it very likely Manning will be here next season but he now has seven games to try to get the fans to feel confident with him at the helm. For me, he still has a long way to go.

I agree with your general point but I think it's easy to forget how ubiquitous Moby and Travis were at the time of their headline slots. Travis were all over pretty much every radio station from commercial to alternative and songs from Moby's Play appeared in loads of films, TV shows, adverts etc. I reckon pretty much everyone would have recognised Moby's songs - even if they'd not known who the artist was. Your point about fragmented music is totally bang on. Now that we're in an era where no radio station, music TV show or publication reaches mass audiences in the way they used to, there simply aren't acts who are known to 70% of the population. Even the biggest acts - Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish or Adele for example - are incredibly easy to never hear songs by if you don't go out of your way to listen to them.

I'm relatively indifferent to the actual clothing range - it's a bit surreal but I'm not upset or angry about it. What I find frustrating is how the tone of our comms and social media totally misunderstands where fans are. There's always a bit of a feel good factor after a win and a bit of frustration after a defeat. We've just had one win in six the mood from the fans is pretty toxic. If you want to launch a clothing range based on a player, fine, but it seems pretty damned obvious that you hold off on launching the clothing range until after a win and at a point when the mood has lifted a little. Far too often, our comms team simply don't seem utterly disconnected from the mood of the fans. The timing of this is totally off tonally but that feels a regular occurrence.

Worth flagging that those places are for over-18s only...

My impressions from the game: 1. I'd never watched Toney in the flesh and his off the ball work and pressing was much better than I'd realised. I think he's put himself in pole position to act as second striker 2. I really can't work out what I think of Jarrod Bowen. In some ways, he was the liveliest player first half but I'm not sure he's got the quality ultimately. 3. At times it reminded me of watching Bristol City, albeit with a much faster tempo. Lots of passing but occasionally over-passing leading to a defensive mistake or attacking position squanded. 4. None of the back 4 made a great case for themselves and the lack of depth there is a bit of a worry. 5. Mainoo is being slightly over-talked up as it was his debut but he certainly looked decent.

Great news on Benarous. As an aside, I don't massively follow the U-21s but how are Thomas and Leeson getting on? It feels like both of them have had slightly tricky seasons after getting a bit closer to the first team over the summer but is that a fair assessment?

Do you happen to know where I could find a definition of a search engine?

Not convinced by the slogan. Pretty certain that if my Mum, brother, Aunts and Uncles played against Manchester City, my family would not come out on top...