Wanderingred

I’m hoping that Antoine doesn’t score today. Nothing against the lad, but I’d rather not have to read two pages of “Antoine scores for Bournemouth” whilst I’m trying to follow our game. ?

I think that’s pretty realistic. 5 wins, 6 draws and 7 losses.

We really impressed them with some of the football we played against them in the League Cup semi final. I remember them saying we looked better than a few of the bottom half Premier League teams they’d played. We aren’t as good as we were then but I hope we can still give a good account of ourselves.

Don’t we have about 13k season ticket holders? Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t do that, unless we are going to offer an away allocation of about 500!

Whilst we entertain Man City, they will be preparing for a trip to Forest Green. #mindthegap

PROS Some of the best players in the world will be playing af Ashton Gate. Guaranteed sell out crowd and ££££. Good publicity A great learning curve for our players to face a team of that quality. CONS Not particularly winnable. Potential distraction from the league. Hangers on and day trippers will be scrounging for tickets. Can’t really complain overall.

Then we can enter our academy side into the Papa John’s Trophy and stuff the blue few. ?

As I highlighted above, it’s not that we shouldn’t sell, just that we should have done better with the process of reinvestment, given the money it’s brought us. We have a fantastic academy. If our recruitment is shrewd and done by the right people then there’s no reason why we couldn’t become like Brentford.

Fifth round. We’d got past Swindon (a division higher at the time) and Chelsea, only to get knocked out by Cambridge.

We’re going to draw Stoke away aren’t we… ?

Looks like Liverpool are heading out!

I didn’t mention Pearson’s name though, I used the passive voice alluding to the “constant” that I think you’re referring to! It definitely wasn’t meant as a dig at him. Anyway as you say, let’s see what he can do in the summer.

I would make Brighton favourites against Liverpool. They smashed them 3-0 in the league two weeks ago and are above them in the table. They could even be dark horses to win the cup, given their record against the top sides. I definitely fancy Stevenage to win at Stoke as well.

Wrong and out of order? Aren’t you overreacting a little bit? I’ve expressed a footballing opinion, not insulted or hurt anyone. I totally get your point that we shouldn’t assume that NP is going to make the same mistakes of the previous regime, I was just summarizing how things have been so far, that despite producing amazing talent like Kelly, Reid and Bryan, we haven’t progressed at all on the pitch and the business model has yet to really take off. I accept that things COULD change now that Nigel will finally have some money to spend, but it’s frustrating to look at all those wasted opportunities. Imagine where we could be if we’d recruited well, or perhaps even encouraged one of the above to stay? Maybe we can look to the future with a bit more optimism.

You can’t fault what the academy is doing for us, but it’s frustrating how we’ve been unable to capitalise on the talent that we produce. For me, the role of an academy should be to produce young players who either benefit the team long term, or net us a substantial profit which we then use to strengthen the team appropriately. It’s a good business model, but the cycle seems to be something like this: 1) Young player breaks through into the first team after a few mixed loan spells. 2) Young player is snapped up by Bournemouth, Burnley or whoever after just one good season for us, stopping us from building a team around them long term. 3) The money we get from said young player is either wasted on poor recruitment or used to cover our losses. Rinse and repeat. At the moment it seems that the likes of Fulham and Bournemouth benefit more from our academy than we do. It’s hard to get excited about the likes of Scott, Pring and Brll when we know that as soon as they are ready, they’ll be playing for one of the above teams and the money gained won’t be used wisely.

Our last 5th round appearance was actually against Sheffield United two seasons ago. It might be forgotten by many since nobody attended. It was the behind closed doors Covid season. We’d beaten Portsmouth then Millwall to get to the 5th round but we lost 1-0 at Bramall Lane.

I was one of the unfortunate souls who watched the horror show against Lincoln, so I’m hesitant to say Stevenage or Fleetwood… We’d probably find a way to slip up. What might work well would be home to somebody like Southampton or Leicester, struggling top flight sides, low on confidence that would not relish a trip to Ashton Gate. I hope we don’t draw a big team. It’s about time we finally made a quarter final in my lifetime.

90+4 and 90+8! Bet there were some limbs there!

The most complete performance since we won at Blackburn back in September. We followed that up by being garbage for 3 months, so I’m not getting my hopes up, but thanks City (and Morecambe) for giving us the perfect afternoon!

@Deluded Sag How you doing mate? ???

3-0 on your big day out…. Bit of an embarrassing chant towards a fanbase that regularly visit the likes of Old Trafford and Anfield…. ?

I look forward to seeing Scott and Bell in a Bournemouth/Burnley/Crystal Palace shirt next season.

Not surprised he turned that down, imagine the despair of moving from Roma to Bournemouth. ?

Our main chance of winning is if West Brom decide that they would rather concentrate on promotion and don’t take today seriously. I’ve a feeling that we’ll be really up for it today, but that won’t be enough if they also bring their A game.

Well said, and to think they were shaking their buckets trying to keep their miserable little club alive just a couple of decades ago. I’ve also got zero respect for them and their cheating antics but likewise wouldn’t wish any ill on Antoine himself. Hopefully they get relegated and he can sign for a genuine bigger club.