ChippenhamRed

I genuinely question the price of football shirts, not only because it's utterly appalling how much they charge now, but can it really be the most profitable price point for the manufacturers? Imagine if they charged, say, £30. They would still make a tidy profit per shirt, they would sell many many more, and they would retrieve a decent percentage of the market heading straight to DHGate to pick up a fake for less. I guess their market research suggests otherwise, but it doesn't make it any less disgraceful.

I'd take him in a heartbeat. If only to inject some excitement, intrigue and controversy to this absolute borefest of a club.

I see the Lionesses will also be wearing this shirt. I like that. It never made sense to me that they had a different kit.

My brain was adjusting for the filter and making me think it was navy blue, but according to the BBC article it IS purple! A case of over-stylised photography leaving us not able to be sure what it actually looks like.

Lovely kits but the stylised colour filter makes it hard to tell exactly what colour that away one is.

FA Cup finalists, Premier League promotions, Ravanelli, Juninho, Emerson. They might exude dullness and I wouldn’t want to live there, but they’ve seen a lot more excitement in the past few decades than we have.

Well said. Imagine the adrenaline you’d be feeling at that moment as a player. Stupid rule anyway. Why is it even an offence? Who cares if someone takes their shirt off?

Incredible game. Can’t ever remember a penalty shoot out between the two biggest teams in the country, has there been one anyone know? EDIT - Never mind!!!

Definitely worse in absolute terms and have generally been below us in the league. But I would say the potential and expectation is less - from the outside at least. They are probably a bit closer to par than we are given their awful infrastructure, lack of billionaire owner, and the nomadic years. Basically, football in Bristol is just a bit of a shitshow all round.

They did, although Swansea were in the Premier League within six years of their new ground opening. The redevelopment of Ashton Gate was finished 8 years ago…and we’re no closer.

The population of Mansfield is 108k. If as looks likely they make it to League 1 this season, I’d say that trumps anything we’ve achieved in the last 40 years relative to the size of the club. Even just being consistently in League 2 is pretty decent for town half the size of Swindon.

In absolute terms that’s true. But equally I don’t think those clubs have the same potential or expectation for success because they are a lot smaller than us. “Dull” might not be the best word, but I think we are perhaps the most consistently underwhelming. Which is, in itself, pretty dull.

Genuine question - which club has been worse to follow than us of the last 40 years in terms of achievement versus expectation and potential?

And worse than that, Swansea came within a game of dropping out of the League altogether in 2003. I was at their game against Hull at the Vetch in 2003 which they won to stay up (I was at Uni in Swansea at the time). Of course, both clubs have since surpassed our achievements.

Be that as it may, Reading fans have had a much more interesting ride than we’ve had. Two Premier League promotions, a play off final, and an FA Cup semi final at Wembley.

Turning 40 last year really put into perspective just how little City has given me over the years. Four decades of bouncing between the second and third tiers for a club our size is just so depressing. One notable cup run. I look at fans of other clubs and I’m jealous of the journeys they have been on. Swansea made their way through the leagues and played in Europe. Luton have made it all the way from lowly divisions. Huddersfield, Blackpool, Barnsley, Bournemouth and even Swindon have tasted top flight football. Bradford, Portsmouth and Cardiff have all made it to a cup final. Some of these clubs have suffered since, but at least they’ve had genuinely exciting periods. I actually think we must be one of the dullest clubs to support in the entire league. I think you could reasonably say that City fans of my generation have seen the least achievement against potential and expectation of ANY set of fans in the entire country. I’m really fed up with it! Is there any club out there more dull than us when you consider size and potential?

I’m a bit tired of being told “things have been worse” as a defence of our perpetual averageness. Things have also been a lot worse for Luton, Bournemouth, Brentford, Burnley, Ipswich and Coventry. It’s so dull supporting us.

Warnock is available and I’d bite your hand off for a bit of the controversy, excitement and intrigue that would bring. I’m so bored of this club right now. A boring manager isn’t helping.

5 defeats in 6 and we barely deserved to win the one we did. Manning giving us absolutely nothing to get excited about on the pitch, coupled with an utterly uninspiring robotic demeanour. Can only see this ending one way. So let’s get rid now.

The data is the data and no one is trying to “convey” anything. It’s just data that speaks for itself. Your experience in your “large network” does not trump that information - and it is frankly beyond ridiculous that you are still defending the notion that it is no harder to buy a home now than it was in the past.

So you said that 95% of people on benefits are lazy, but your defence is that you subsequently admitted you made it up, so it doesn’t count that you said it. And now you’re saying we’re “offended”. Got it.

Here you go @steviestevieneville. I’d say 20 out of 21 is pretty close to everyone, wouldn’t you? Not sure “I didn’t mean everyone, I just meant 95%” is the greatest defence.

Housing being more expensive today relative to earnings isn’t merely a “narrative”, it is born out in the facts that you are continually ignoring when presented to you. Just because your kids were fortunate enough to buy a house doesn’t make the overall picture any less true - and that overall picture is that house prices have consistently risen well ahead of wages, and therefore priced more and more people out of home ownership. You keep talking about demand but you’re forgetting the other crucial variable - supply. There is a shortage of housing in this country that keeps prices high. We have seen fluctuations around the pandemic and the Truss budget, but the lack of supply has prevented prices falling substantially, and to a more reasonable level.

The cost can be met by not giving a discount to pensioners like my Dad, who currently gets a discount despite owning two mortgage-free houses and a generous final salary pension. But for some reason that doesn’t provoke the same outrage that giving a discount to a disabled person would.

I wasn’t aware there was no discount for the disabled, that’s very disappointing. It says so much about our country that giving a discount based solely on age, to statistically the wealthiest age group in society, is just accepted without question. But the well intentioned idea of trying to balance discounts across the fanbase based on need is met with outrage and lazy tropes about booze and fags. The Daily Mail has a lot to answer for.