ExiledAjax

Something I've just recalled is that Palace have been very active in getting crypto and token tech into football. All done whilst Alexander was CEO. I've no idea if he was personally involved with them signing up to Sorare or with the Palace Socios/Chiliz fan token venture. However, what I will say, from a standpoint of working with this industry for 3 years, is that I want him to keep Bristol City as far away from companies like Sorare and Socios as possible. I'd watch out for this.

Yes! Perhaps this would be more accurate. Nooks and crannies rather than alcoves. Yes.

Are you sure this is the right word, alcoves?

And who really wanted a $1bn MLS franchise in Vegas but settled for the budget option of buying Bournemouth.

They have lovely alcoves in Bruges.

Wout Faes the next to go under the microscope?

It's not really optimism or pessimism though. It's just pointing out that looking at the figures over a range of games shows us that it's the attack that's underperforming rather than the defence. The defence is fine. Not fantastic, and not at the level required to finish high up the table, but it's fine, satisfactory, 5 out of 10, ok, decent, mediocre. It'll get us through. Here's some true optimism. We're going to be fine. We're not getting relegated. Those teams that are going down are already in the bottom 4. The new CEO will bring the wage structure back in line after the final round of big contracts end in the summer. We'll finish in the top ten next season and from there who knows.

You give a fair example of individual games and incidents. However, the post I responded to was discussing broader 10 or 17 game trends. With that in mind I just wanted to point out that although goals scored have dropped, so have goals conceded. You shouldn't discuss one without the other. Individual moments are a different matter really. If looking at likelihoods and overall league performances in the context of a 46 game season, then it's more relevant to look at broad trends. In that regard (looking at the 10 game averages for goals conceded, shots against, shots on target against and xG against) the defence is performing at the best level it has all season.

Goals for might have reduced (because shots and shots on target have reduced) but so have goals conceded. We don't need to fret about the defence at this stage. Using the arbitrary yet popular ten game block measurement system goals for have gone down to 8 in the past ten versus 15 in the preceding 10. We've failed to score in 4 of the last 10 versus 2 in the preceding. xG for has dropped a little, from 1.2 to 1.1. That's really just an indication of how our clinical strikers were managing to outperform our creative ability early on in the season. At our own end we've conceded 10 in 10, against 15 in the preceding 10 matches. We've kept 2 clean sheets, just as we did in the preceding 10 games. xG against has dropped from 1.6 to 1.2. which indicates a big improvement in our ability to stop the shot. So I'm honestly not particularly worried about the defence. What we need is a return to the finishing we saw early in the season. Last night's a great example of that. We missed a couple of very good chances that would they go in would see us leave the Den with 3 points rather than 1. Earlier in the season those go in, and we win. That finishing will come back. We're still just about creating enough.

Cynically. I don't think that would hold a deal up. The EFL could be chivvied along.

3 months is indeed pretty quick for a business sale of £50-100m. Not crazy quick, but 5-6months would be more likely. Ultimately though how fast it would proceed would be down to the risk attitude of the purchaser and how much Lansdown is willing to give in terms of warranties and indemnities. Feeding into that is how many financial or contractual skeletons are in our closet.

Looks good on paper and from chat. Hopefully comes in with an open mind and a desire to engage all parts of the club. I am glad that it's someone from outside of the Club, and seemingly from outside of Lansdown's immediate circle. Gould was an outside voice and has been brilliant in his short time with us. Hopefully this is even better given Alexander is a real football man.

We are in competition with both ourselves and the other teams. Success can and should be measured in both ways. Raw league table success has its place as a measurement, but we must also ask if we are continuously improving, or at least attempting to continuously improve. If we continuously improve ourselves, and do so at a faster rate than our peers, then league table success will come. A continual and consistent drive for improvement is the success I want to see.

Excellent insight, and something I agree with. Steve has appointed his son and his trusted friend to be the directors, plus a CEO who is paid handsomely. There's no other external viewpoint, no independence, and no diversity of thought. SL - for some reason - doesn't seem to seek that out. Gould has brought a little bit of it, but he's been financially limited in what he can implement, and is now sadly leaving us. It's interesting to hear that at HL that challenge, independence, and diversity of thought is exactly what he had, and that you see that as being critical to HL's success.

Yeh, and no one ever mentions Oldham, Bolton, Ipswich, or as many other clubs that have suffered reversals of fortunes. At the end of the day I do think that the Lansdown era should close soon. That family have done wonders for this club, keeping us stable whilst transforming the real estate and infrastructure. But a change is as good as a rest and a refresh is needed. Lansdown is adverse to innovation and new ideas in football. He's become adverse to fan engagement. He's become untrusting. A new owner doesn't guarantee success in any way shape or form, and the structure and funding of any investment would be key.

I'd care.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all. Peace to all men.

Qatar won't have a bloke dressed up as a bird.

Minute's applause on Monday?

Nice that they have mouths as part of their beaks rather than Scrumpy's weirdly separated beak/nose and creepy grin. Anatomical correctness is absolutely key when designing an anthropomorphic human sized bird costume.

Dress what up?

Yep. It's the only time in the last 5 years where we were averaging about 0.5 xG per game. Average xG against? About 1.5. Now even if you "don't trust" xG, you know that's bad. Basically our average expected result was a 1-0 loss. To say we've not improved from there is ridiculous.

Ok. Assuming reduced wages (similar to Weimann's re-signing) then fine.

And as they've not paid the Sala money (as ordered to by CAS) they will be under a transfer embargo in January. I believe they are appealing to the Swiss Federal Court, but until that is settled FIFA will not allow them to register new players.

I do agree that football is different now to how it was 100 years ago. Of course it is, everything else is as well. However I don't believe that should stop us a) trying to stop it degrading further or b) trying to change things. If you believe in the status quo (as it is, because doing nothing will only allow further development towards money and away from fans and tradition) then that is your prerogative. I am going to do what little I can to help change things. Merry Christmas.