LondonBristolian

We will never know for sure but I think it is impossible to look back at Cotterill’s sacking as a mistake as, as others have pointed out, we’ve finished higher every season than we were when he left. I also think the tension between him and the board was toxic and I really believe we would have gone down if he had stayed. Obviously the “what if?” of whether we should have backed him the previous summer is a different one. But, even if we had, I think Maguire and either Gray or Gayle would have been ultimately sold for similar fees to we got for Webster and Kodjia and I don’t think they would have stuck around for the two of three years for us to be promotion ready. Being honest, I also saw little in Cotterill’s reign to make me think we were building for the future and I feel we would have ultimately dropped off and faced a rebuilding job. So really I think that, had Cotts stayed in January, we would have gone down and, had he stayed in the summer, we’d pretty much be where we were now. We had brilliant times when he was here but I really don’t regret us sacking him. If I was going to choose my Bristol City “sliding doors” moment of recent seasons, it would not be “what if we had never sacked Cotts” but “what if we had had a better transfer strategy in summer 2019?”

Strange that one of the only two players to really make a mark for England was one of the subs! He may have been a bit younger than the other defenders. Thinking back, I think my memory is that Matt Carbon looked like a really good player that night. Never really happened for him though.

I was at the game. I don't remember much beyond that I misses the goal for some reason!

Fans won't love it but I think it's a sensible business. The only way they're going to get megastars at this point is to pay people way over the odds and, even then, they'd only attract players putting money ahead of ambition. Way better for assemble a team of players with ability, consistency and something to prove at this level AND then sign the big names once you can actually meet the level of ambition they have. I don't like the whole Newcastle takeover but I do think there are being sensible signing the likes of Wood and Trippier rather than paying ridiculous wages for people who'll only be there for the money.

I suspect you've sort of answered your own question. We tried to move him on in the summer without success and it appears he is in limbo until a club comes in for him...

It'll be interesting to see how Soady develops. I'm not suggesting for a minute he is a solution right now - I think he's actually on loan at Paulton, even though he's playing for us - but I'd imagine the club's view of his development would have an impact on how we went about replacing Dasilva, in the sense of whether we want a stop gap for 18 months or someone who can challenge for left back alongside Pring or LWB alongside O'Dowda for the foreseeable future.

If you pushed through other people to find a view, then the people behind you obviously did not have a view. The fact you ensured some other City fans couldn’t see, instead of you, doesn’t change the fact other City fans couldn’t see. There might have been elderly people, people who could not stand without leaning against something or people who have health conditions that make it difficult to push through crowds there but that’s fine. You pushed past them and made sure you were blocking their view rather than them blocking yours. It seems a bit rich to come onto a forum declaring “I’m all right, Jack, so screw everyone else” and then criticise how others have been “conditioned”. If you want to criticise someone’s mentality, perhaps invest in a mirror?

I'm not sure I really feel either particularly deserve our gratitude and respect OR boos. Both are good players and both did well for us. Both moved on because they felt it would benefit their careers and we got good fees for both. I don't begrudge either of them their moves, I don't feel hard done by in terms of us losing them and I bear them no ill whatsoever. But I'm not sure I'm actually grateful to either of them. They put a shift in and I'm not going to knock them. And I appreciate Bryan sitting in the away end at QPR and reimbursing those with his shirt number. But they're now opposition players and that's that. I'm not booing them but we don't owe them anything either.

This is Dave Rennie’s moment to shine. Let’s see how fit we actually are…

Maynard would be gert proud of his babber!

According to his article, 98% of our players and staff have been vaccinated. That would be 1 in 50 players and first team staff. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/dec/20/bristol-city-not-banging-the-table-during-high-uptake-of-covid-vaccine Based off that, I can't see that we can have more than one unvaccinated player. We're obviously speculating on Wells who might actually be vaccinated for all we know but I don't see any reason to surmise that Atkinson is unvaccinated. If COVID is a factor, I think it more likely that the virus is still affecting his energy and fitness levels.

I think experience is quite a complex thing as it's not just how much exposure someone has had to first team situations but also how quickly they learn, and what it is they're learning. I remember a manager - I think Terry Venables - saying something to the effect of "everyone thinks that practice makes perfect but actually practice makes permanent. If someone keeps learning the wrong things, they'll keep doing the wrong things. So you could have a young player who learns quickly, with a manager who teaches them the right things, who after eighteen months in the first team acts and thinks the way you want an "experienced" player to act. Or you could have someone who has played the game for ten years but failed to learn and adapt or learned all the wrong things from all the wrong people. And technically they're "experienced" but they're not going to be offering what you want from experienced players.

There was the famous Millwall season in 1995-1996. They were top of the table in early December with 34 points from 21 games and then got 18 points from their last 21 and dropped into the relegation zone on the last day. I think our form in the second half of the season will be relatively similar to the first - maybe a bit better or worse depending on injuries. I don't think we're about to go come world beaters but reckon we can keep up an average of 1.2 points a game and finish on around 55 points.

I agree with this. I think the other two factors are that Pearson obviously feels that Atkinson's obviously not yet done enough to force his way back int the first team and Vyner had to move right back to cover Tanner. But ultimately we need to find out if Towler is ready at some point or other. In the past we've tended to never quite give youngsters ago and then obviously they never quite break through. Scott, Benarous and Towler are going to be inconsistent this season but I think giving them a chance now will reap rewards in a couple of years time and be far better than being where we got to with Joe Morrell where was 23 years old and we still had no idea if he was ever going to be good enough. In Morrell's case I think it became a self-fulfilling prophecy and Championship football a couple of years earlier might have been the difference between him making it as this level and him being where he at the moment.

Only basing this on the highlight but it looked like he and Johnstone were sent off for grappling with each other. I'm not sure either threw a punch so might still be a one game...

I think it very easy to assess player performances as individuals whereas really it is often more about how they fit into the team. Weimann runs constantly and, in a team that responds to his movement, he is very effective whereas in a team as static as we are at our worst, he looks like a headless chicken because nothing he does is being supported - either in terms of balls in to him or the movement of other players. We really missed Weimann last season and he has definitely been key for us this season but there's still a massive difference in performance between games like today when players respond to his movement and some other performances this season where he's not really been supported by the players around him. What we've really lacked in the last three years is a system and a team of players that complement each other. And that's been as true up-front as it has been elsewhere. I think Semenyo and James returning improves our options and gives us a chance to find a team that works as a unit and I think Weimann benefits from that as much as anyone.

Maybe but I do think the fact we now have some pace going forward is making a huge difference. Not without his faults but I really think we need him at the moment.

We’ve not scored a hat trick since Alan Walsh?!?!?!?

I think the more important thing is to understand what players bring to the team and how to replace them. If you look at Brentford, they have continually sold their best players but immediately replaced them with players who don’t just have potential but seamlessly slot into the team. Selling players is not an issue if you have a clear system, style and list of potential replacements. It only becomes an issue when you don’t know how to replace the players and totally change your style as a result.

I think the other major thing with Atkinson and Tanner is that they are players who play in positions we really need who play in a way that reflects how Pearson wants to play. There is still no guarantee that they will work out but there is more of a chance than the scattershot approach under Ashton and Johnson. So many of our previous signings - Eliasson, Nagy, Diedhiou, Szmodics, Palmer and Wells being examples - didn’t seem to fit any sort of recruitment strategy as well and, regardless of quality, were set up to fail because they just did not fit how we wanted to play. We’ve still got the legacy of those days, such as three strikers who don’t really fit together in any combination, but it feels we are moving the right way forwards.

Merry Christmas everyone and I hope anyone whose circumstances make it tough to have a merry Christmas this year get through the day as well as possible.

This is a brilliant post. The one thing I'd add is that - whilst I agree people weren't 'work dodgers' under Holden, I do think there are long-standing problems in the character of the squad. I don't think they are necessarily on any individual player but I do think that we've lacked leaders and strong characters at the club for a while. The likes of Weimann, Bentley and Kalas come across as very good professionals, and I'm not knocking their attitude or work ethic, but I don't really see anyone in the club who picks the team up when things are going against us and drags performances over the line. Maybe James can do that and we'll see more of it from here out, and I wonder if Williams has got it in him when he's fit, but I think we've got a tendency to lose heart when things are going against us and I think that partly comes down to a lack of senior leaders. Players don't need to be workshy for the attitude in the team to not quite be right.

Weimann's undoubtedly one of our key players and we struggle to replicate this running when he is not in the team. He also gets shunted around the team quite a bit. He played as a number 10, as a forward, as a right winger and as a central midfielder at different points this season. He's best off in a forward role where there is someone who can play balls for him to run He can frustrate at times. He's struggled at times when he's been picked for three games in eight days as energy is so key to his game and the way he plays can make him look a bit of a headless chicken when the team is not playing well. But last season (when he missed several months with injury) really underlined how vital he is for us.

It will be interesting to see. A week ago I would have said it was for a loan higher up the ladder but I now wonder if he is going to be in first-team contention. Pearson seems to lack confidence in some centre-backs and the Baker rumours are a bit of a concern.

I think the problem with selling Weimann would be that the first thing we'd need to do with the money would be to replace Weimann. Could we actually do that for less than we'd get for him?