LondonBristolian

In fairness, wages are relative to value to the team and the amount a club'd pay a player very much relates to how big a part they'll play. So the affordability question might not mean this player wants significantly more than we can pay so much as this player would command the salary we'd pay a key player but we think they only be squad players next season. I'd imagine a player like James is one of our top earners and I think he absolutely should be. He's a quality player with premier league experience. Similarly Williams was signed to play a key role under Holden and I'd have thought he'd be on the upper end of our learners. The big question then is "are these players going to want to be paid more than their role in the team?" I feel, for Williams, the answer might be yes. With James, it comes down to where Manning thinks he fits with Bird, Knight and TGH etc. At the moment, I'd certainly say he's showing enough to warrant being paid as a player but, as @And Its Smithsys, the level can suddenly drop with senior players and it is a factor. I'm not so sure it will with James as his style of play isn't reliant on physical prowess but it still has to be considered.

I'd not appreciated we were in the presence of the person whose job it was to make an official ruling on who is and is not a fan. Congratulations on your role. I'd be genuinely interested to know who appointed you and what the selection process was?

Perhaps so but the fact remains that ever a manager as good as Clough did not succeed at every club. Whilst even Manning’s strongest advocates would not put him in that bracket, the reality is that he could go on to have an extremely successful career after Bristol City AND be the wrong appointment here. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Not every manager works at every club. Brian Clough was a disaster at Leeds, Unai Emery has done well in every job except Arsenal, Steve Cotterill is far less popular with Forest and Birmingham fans than us. Neil Warnock did well at Crystal Palace and QPR then badly at Leeds and back at Palace then well at Rotherham and Cardiff. Pearson was great at Leicester than a disaster at Derby. Valentin Ismael got a Barnsley team to the play offs but could not do so with a theoretically stronger West Brom team. Moyes has done well at Preston, Everton and West Ham but struggled at other clubs. Not every manager job is in any sense the same and few managers would succeed at every club.

Both Brian Tinnion and Jon Lansdown made very clear that they were bringing in a new manager to get the best out of the players we had. If Manning does not want the players he inherited - and, to be fair, there is no indication that this is the case - then that de facto makes him the wrong appointment and justifies his sacking irrespective of any other factors. We cannot afford to rebuild the squad every time we appoint a manager and the whole suggestion we do so utterly undermines both the current manager and the Technical Director, whose literal job is to ensure we have continuity through the club irrespective of who the manager is.

That doesn’t in any way imply Edwards would have achieved the same thing had he stayed at Watford though. Not every manager is the right fit at every club. A manager could easily go onto have a successful career elsewhere but it still have been the right decision to sack him where he was.

Totally agree with this. I always felt that, whilst Pearson was the person to halt the club's freefall and rebuild the culture, he might not be the person in charge to kick on from there and I'm not 100% certain that I'd have renewed his contract if it was down to me. (I think I would have done but I'd have assessed at the end of the season). However I deeply disliked the way the club allowed speculation to grow around his position, the lack of respect the club showed for the job he had done in tough circumstances and the way that what was essentially a decision around the club's preference for the style of manager they wanted was justified by trying to publicly undermine the job Pearson had done. I totally get that I'm not going to like every managerial decision the club make but my issue is the lack of honestly and integrity.

In many ways, Scott's injuries have put him in a similar place to a January signing. He didn't have a pre-season at Bournemouth, the pre-season he had at City was massively undermined by two long-term injuries in four months and he has had to adjust into a team mid-season. I'm sure he'd have liked to have had more of an immediate impact but, at the same time, he's faced relatively little adversity in his career so far and this season's experience could give him an opportunity to develop and learn. I think it's very early to be judging him as a Premier League player.

I think for me there's two major frustrations I've got with Leicester, Everton, Forest etc. 1) Clubs defending themselves not on "we didn't break the rules" but "the rules we knew about - and, in most cases, had a vote on - weren't fair in the first place". Premier League clubs vote on the rules for PL finances together and every club had an opportunity to agree or disagree with them. And - whether they agreed or not - every club knew what the rules were. "We didn't know we'd have a bad season" or "we sold that player a bit later as we thought we'd get more of a profit" is basically "we knew what the rules are but decided to chance it" Even if one agrees with the point above regarding West Ham, the point to raise and challenge that is when the rules are being agreed, not after the point you've been caught breaking them. 2) Contingency planning for the possibility of a bad year is what literally every business needs to do. No company in the UK could go to an insolvency proceeding and say "well, we just sort of assumed we wouldn't have a bad year so didn't plan for it". I totally get how Leicester were caught out by the financial impact of being relegated after a number of top eight finishes but that's not an excuse.

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?