The Swan and Cemetery

Personally think it is working out, but players like HC find it very difficult to win over lots of our fans (and maybe fans in general) as don’t offer either obviously tough tackling or delicious skills on the ball - with limited focus on the actual outcomes. Don’t think it’s been quite what HC would be hoping for yet, but plenty of green shoots and not the horror show some (not you) seem to think. And to your overall point, totally agree, NP needs to make signings that will improve the squad with the finances he’s got, he can’t only sign people who will definitively replace a first team regular. Whatever we think of Max, difficult to disagree that he needs more competition, that doesn’t mean we need someone who’ll displace him immediately.

Think it’s a bit more even across the pitch than that, albeit we’ve got more options up front, so overall strengthening probably does need numbers in the back 7. 13th best goals for and 14th best goals against, plus 9 fewer goals scored than last season and 21 fewer conceded, indicates that we’ve made progress defensively, but agree always more that can be done. Think we’re pretty profligate going forward in the final third in terms of converting decent possession into decent chances. Don’t think that’s likely to result in lots more attacking arrivals, but an area it would be good to improve to mount a serious challenge. Personally think we’re marginally closer to a free scoring Boro approach than a tight at the back Luton approach… but either would be great!

Whilst I won’t be moaning, am hoping that being one of the first teams that could say “Championship for sure 23/24” to targets/their representatives, will allow us to get business done reasonably early (rumours hint this maybe the case?). And then we can get the squad up to speed on how we’re going to play with a longer pre season together than most. Given we won’t be shipping in superstars (however much we get for AS), a more Luton-esque/whole greater than the sum of the parts approach relies more heavily on everyone understanding each other/the system. After all, gotta be some benefits to being mid-table non entities.

Think the only way it happens is as part of the deal and therefore a significantly lower fee for us, clearly no way a Prem club are going to let us have him back just for being nice chaps. We would need to decide the value of Alex for another season vs what we could do with the extra money. Whilst think it’s unlikely, need to keep in mind that he’s contracted and so we do have some agency/control over the deal and how it’s constructed, needs three parties to be comfortable with it, not just two (insert weak joke re bank holiday weekend hedonism). By the way, not sure if you think it will or won’t happen, given you’ve set yourself a reasonably straightforward challenge if it does…?!?

Yesterday was always going to be tricky, nothing to play for (and whatever people think about professional footballers always being up for it, the difference between our game and some of the others critical for promotion/relegation was stark in terms of atmosphere/intensity). Add to that it was against comfortably the best team in this league and Alex knows he’s going and lots of indicators that a deal is already done. So him not producing a barnstorming performance can’t be that surprising (or disappointing). Next season does look tough, but we’ve enough evidence that money/quality on paper often isn’t enough, could see some of the Prem stalwarts coming done struggling to cope. So a final clean up of the squad from pre NP days, together with the Alex money spent wisely and think we can mount a challenge. Key will be getting consistently good results against the average/poorer teams, something we’ve not managed for a while (since 75/76?!?) - we don’t need to destroy Everton home and away to push for the playoffs (but would be fun if we did).

Pleased for them, always thought some similarities with us including almost all their history in 2nd and 3rd tiers. Decent support in a bit of a footballing backwater and a less entitled vibe that we get from the supporters of lots of the other teams in the Championship. Hope they get the job done at Port Vale to win the league (and stop MAITFC from winning it).

Don’t think it would be sentimental, it would be for knocking (say) £10m off the fee on the basis he wouldn’t be ready for the buying club (so would need to be a Man C etc, not a Brighton or Villa). Loan backs maybe rare, but loans aren’t, so whilst don’t think it’s likely (or necessarily a great option), do think it’s possible.

Think where he went on loan would need to be part of the deal - lower fee and loaned back to us. No reason for a club to pay top whack and then loan him back to us, there’d be more attractive options as you say.

Agree re Alex’s views being critical and think that combined with our finances meaning we can make some choices, inc Alex being worth much more for a promotion push season than any plausible targets with the money for selling him, might make a loan back an option, with the top end club knowing they’ve secured him for 24/25 onwards aged 20/21. So everyone gets a good outcome, but with some compromises - for us a lower fee.

Insert the word ‘rugby’ and fair enough, but “rich footballing history”?!?

Not convinced a loan back is utterly implausible. Not the most likely outcome, but could see a scenario where: - He’s unlikely to get in the first team/match day squad next season (the biggest clubs) - We decide having him for a promotion push is worth a significant amount of money given a) his quality and b) what’s likely to be available to us in the market - unlikely that a £25m or 2 x £10m who’d improve us, would find us attractive and also likely to mess up the team/wages ethos and structure NP has embedded. And endless cheaper players also feels against what NP is about. Admittedly SL might just fancy having some cash back in his bank account, but hopefully he’s in thrall of the Prem dream again, particularly as the other 4 Bristol Sport teams are all in their respective top flights. - AS thinks first team football with us for another season and a chance at promotion (maybe we’d need to lay out to him how we expect to spend this summer), but a move to a big club rather than middling/lower Prem is right for him, given he’ll only be 20/ turning 21 at the start of the 24/25 season - We get (say) £15m rather than £25m and AS stays. Accept it’s not a high likelihood, but not entirely unrealistic. Maybe more likely are one of (full fee for City in all cases): - just below the biggest clubs, where relegation is low risk, but he could be quickly in the match day squad (eg Brighton or Villa) - middle to lower (eg Burnley or Bournemouth) has a great season in a largely struggling side and then moves to one of the big 5 or 6 for a mega fee - one of the big 5 or 6 and loaned to a Burnley or Bournemouth

Maybe in a minority of one, but didn’t think yesterday’s miss was that horrific, more that it was unlikely given where he was. The ball came across at pace with plenty of players there or thereabouts, including their keeper. Lots of strikers would have failed to get a clean strike, but given that close to the goal, ricochets very likely to go in the net and his went over the bar. So unlucky more than desperately poor for me. Overall I like him. Think he gives more support defensively than others who’ve played that role. Also think he picks up good positions in the final third which is a weakness of ours - attacks often petering out as forward players make the same runs etc. And whilst I get the Steve Jones-esque lack of Rolls Royce purring maybe means he doesn’t always look the part, pretty sure opponents find it difficult to play against. Overall a decent start and although he may not be de facto better than others, given a very small squad, think he’s strengthened it and given NP options.

Great stuff, even in a small league, only one to go up is always tricky. Not so sure about the gap either, as think we’re stronger these days and the middle to lower end of the Super League isn’t a drastically different standard, from what I’ve seen. If we want to be beating Man U/Chelsea etc week in, week out, clearly that’s a different level, but not too much more needed to be able to consolidate in my view. Key investment over the summer is going to need to be the pitch, as we’ve now got 3 teams in the highest league (despite their great season, suspect the Flyers will prefer to continue playing indoors) plus City men. That’s bound to mean more games where a higher capacity needed than available at the HPC. Really hope we don’t send the women off to (eg) Yeovil or similar to get more capacity, the Gate is the place to be. Or maybe SL will buy out Manor Farm and develop The Creek into the second stadium Bristol deserves…

Rumours of Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada being en route to bring some CHiPs pizazz to Rochdale’s fortunes are still to be confirmed.

And compared to an awful lot of our strikers over the years, making the run to get to have the chance in that position was a refreshing change.

For me it’s less that we should be binning Max off, more that we need to ensure decent quality back up/competition for him and both the keepers behind him are entirely unproven at Championship level. So more about depth of squad improvement, than urgent need to improve the first team keeper.

Surprised me on another thread when folk were indicating Vyner would be the priority to replace. We’re poor at converting good quality possession into good quality chances in attack and keeper isn’t a strength. That said, much prefer Max to DB, who in my view made lots of Harlem Globetrotters-esque saves whilst (or as a result of) being pretty poor at most basics of goalkeeping (commanding area, communicating with defence, distribution etc).

In fairness to Oxford, a League Cup win isn’t insignificant, but would definitely put others above them, Notts County if picking one. Not relegated, but Bury’s 2 x FA Cup wins (and reasonably recent existence vs Wanderers, Royal Engineers etc) maybe deserving of a mention in a broader ‘no longer in the league’ category, albeit I’m biased.

Plus some (certainly me) wouldn’t agree that he’s had multiple poor performances. There’s a difference between getting up to speed/okay performances as he does that, vs knocking in double hat tricks every game. Ie it’s more that critics won’t get off the scape goat’s back until they perform like Messi, than non critics suggesting he did perform like Messi.

Looked to me like someone shaking off someone who’d laid hands on them, not sure there was much in it beyond Robertson whinging and drawing attention to it. A few more yellows/reds for dissent and getting in officials faces and hopefully this (Robertson et al) behaviour would stop.

Very good point. He’s got >150 Championship games under his belt, as he comes into the prime of his career. From what we’ve seen so far, he probably wouldn’t be the best player in a top 6 side, but think plausible he could be in a top 6 side. Sometimes has hints of a very good player when bringing the ball out and has largely eliminated the big mistakes. Within reason I’d be looking to negotiate him onto a longer term deal asap.

This season: With (28 games): 1.36 points per game Without (12 games): 1.16 points per game So approx 9 points extra over a full season (if the only difference was MJ playing vs not playing, which obviously it won’t be, but probably does support a view that he’s reasonably critical).

There is.

Personally would go with Scott if most talented player, but not player of the season, a decent number of games where he’s lacked impact in my view. But still a great season, so close run with Pring, Vyner and James for me. Overall I’d go Bob Taylor.

It’s the snide little attempts at humour (would suggest OTIB correspondents don’t book a full season at the Edinburgh Fringe hoping to scoop a Perrier award) about our own player that really grate. No probs commenting on what he needs to improve, but he wasn’t close to being the worst yesterday and was decent at the weekend. Whenever we play poorly, the only thing worse is the nonsense spouted on here (that said, in fairness, Twitter aficionados and Radio Bristol callers are even worse, but OTIB sets a pretty difficult standard, meaning they have to be overcome by a weird mania to be even more appalling).