SydneyCity

It’s all about the feet for me. Max is better at playing it out with his feet but also stays on his feet too long when dealing with certain shots. Bents would have flung himself at that second goal and saved it. Tough decision to make but Max is playing well and, to be honest, I’ve enjoyed watching the football more since he’s been playing. Max for me, which is surprising as I’ve always been a big supporter of Bents and his ability.

In keeping with the reference to Aussie Rules in the original post, a Collingwood player is currently applying to wear prescription protective sunglasses as a result of six major eye injuries that left him legally blind for a while. He's tried them in training and says they work but the league has to sign it off.

Re-read my post and realised it isn't clear. I was using it as an example of how RG got to the "We're losing at least $30m on transfers alone" statement ie: It's reported Watford did bid $8m for Massengo pre-Covid impact but we turned it down. Announcing we're skint encouraged a series of undervalue bids for Massengo, we then used the difference between pre and post covid bids to extrapolate that we've lost at least $30m in transfers.

I’m certainly not qualified to talk at a finance level so this is likely over simplistic (and quite possibly stupid)… but is this a realistic explanation / example: 1. Watford bid $8m for Massengo 2. We turn it down as it’s not enough 3. Massengo plays more, still young, gets better and his theoretical value increases 4. Covid massively impacts club. 5. Club announces early that we’re “in trouble” 6. Offers come flooding in for Massengo but because “we’re skint” they’re in the $2m region. 7. Club “proves” that we’ve lost at least $6m (technically more as we felt $8m was undervalued) 8. Repeat process for all saleable player assets (or use Massengo loss percentage as baseline decrease for all player values)

Having just read the article, I think this may be a tactical interview to push for short and long term amendments/reforms. City didn’t need to release their accounts before any other club, or give this interview, but they did. Early and “honest” seems to be a calculated strategy.

Similar but not the same… I saw an interview with Carragher where he was talking about when he was growing up in Liverpool. He was explaining how nobody there really liked the Spice Boy era team as - despite being good - they didn’t reflect the attitude of the city. Got me thinking what attitude or attributes a team would need to be an accurate representation of Bristol?

LJ throws players under the bus, Pearson throws them off it. I know which I prefer.

It was never my intention to suggest Holden bad, Pearson good when I said “work dodgers”. In my opinion it pre-dates Holden’s time as manager and was club wide. As is often the case, @Davefevs has summed up the situation fantastically. Personally, I have no real agenda but do believe Ashton is to blame for most of the issues we’ve had, Holden was the wrong appointment and Pearson is a very strong candidate to get everything back on track for the club… as suggested by Ben Foster’s comments.

Was there not a story about Marley Watkins literally hiding in a physio room rather than train? Admittedly this was technically under Pearson when he first came in but that, to me, is the sign of long standing attitude problem at the club.

What I liked about the Ben Foster story is it sounds like he creates an environment where there’s nowhere to hide. He clearly sets the expectations for everyone and looks you in the eye when he says it so there’s no mistaking what he means. I can’t help but feel there have been a few work dodgers in the club over the past few years and NP certainly seems to be addressing that.

There may well be a bit of this but I'd say there's also a healthy dose of those high earners not performing for quite some time. I would hope higher earners have higher expectations placed against them.

I read an article a little while ago regarding All Black legend Richie McCaw. He was famous for getting away with things that others would be penalised for. The article interviews a referee who talks about Richie being great at knowing exactly how to talk to a ref and understand how far he could push their personal interpretation of the rules to get the decisions and outcomes he wanted. Interestingly, the ref being interviewed went on to explain that many top class referees do an in-depth analysis of teams and players before each game which leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy where the infringements awarded for and against are along the pre-conceived conclusions of the in-depth analysis that the ref performed prior to the game. I’m fully aware it’s a different sport but I’d expect there to be a lot of similarities with football.

Ay-Man Do be do doo doo Do doo be doo doo Doo do be de doo doo - be do Ay-Man To the He-Man theme tune:

In 2018, I was back in Bristol for the first time in a long time. There were no home games on but I wanted to go down to see the new Ashton Gate and get some souvenirs for me and the family. I’d read on here for years how bad the shop was but, to be honest, I thought that was just a bunch of people complaining for the sake of it. Anyway… There was no kids stuff in stock, adults were XXL only and somehow there was a 35 minute queue at 10:30am on a Tuesday morning, even though there were only three customers (including myself) in the shop. It was only stubbornness and some misguided loyalty, that led me to persevere in buying a mini football with the badge on it and a sticker. When I got to the front to pay I asked the guy behind the counter if there were any more sizes in the clothing, or kids kits, and he replied: “I don’t know”, then just stood there. I apologise to all those I doubted when they were describing the club shop as terrible. I am now one of you. Don’t even get me started on the club’s international postage rates…

Being the best player at Derby is like being the tallest midget in the room.

One of the beautiful things about football is that anyone, anywhere in the world - regardless of money - could play an almost identical game. The more technology like this that enters the game, the bigger the gap grows between the elites and grass roots IMO.

Complete guesswork on my part but I can imagine a scenario where Curtis played the “Ireland international” motivational card. Just piecing together a couple of things I’ve heard/read recently from them both and jumping to my own conclusions.

In Australia and it was unauthorised. Fired up the VPN and tried about 10 different other countries, from Argentina to Vietnam. None of them worked. Found an illegal US stream with no sound (probably a good thing).

I thought their puns were carp.

I started watching City at AG in 88 and for some reason the player/debut that always stuck in my head was the goalkeeper, Wayne Brown. This thread prompted me to Google it and I can say with certainty that I remembered it all wrong. In my head I was a kid and he was absolutely amazing. In reality, it was 1994, he was only a few months older than me me and his debut was his one and only game. I knew he didn’t play much, but based on how I remember him playing, he definitely deserved more time on the pitch.

And Hebrew is “hello brother” in New Zealander.

Kick-off is 2am over here but I always stay up and watch the game. Last night my toddler woke up around midnight with a fever and a tummy bug. He proceeded to wet two beds and shit all down my arm. I missed the game and spent the night sleeping on the wooden floor. It sounds like I still had a more enjoyable time

I often felt that one of LJs biggest failings was trying to emulate the big manager’s style of play. He never seemed to realise that they were able to play that way because their squads were at the absolute pinnacle of footballing intelligence, fitness and skill.

I hope you’re not a superstitious fan. Doing that every home game doesn’t sound like much fun.