ExiledAjax

Nope. IMO The green works as an accent colour, but green shirts don't work.

Not sure about this to be honest. Firstly, Liverpool is far from one of the UK's biggest cities. Leeds is bigger, Glasgow is bigger, I'm pretty sure even Southampton is bigger. Secondly, if home city size is a determining factor then how do you account for the fact that all of these cities have many other teams that are nowhere near the size of the ones you quote. It's perhaps more a case that home city size is a factor that gives a team the potential to be "big", but the more important factor is that they have the ability to capitalise on that potential. For example the Woolwich Arsenal are not a "big" team simply because they are based in London, they're big because long ago they became a franchise and moved from peripheral Woolwich to leafy Highbury, and disrupted Tottenham Hotspur's dominance of that area. They then used their connections to raise investment and became the first big spenders etc. They shrewdly, perhaps even nefariously, capitalised on the potential that their (new) location granted them, but it wasn't simply because of that location that they became "big".

Farke and Rosenior...ok. Personally I think that when you take into account the resources available to him and his experience Farke has just about met expectations. Rosenior has done well granted, so I see no issue there. McKenna will win it comfortably anyway tbh. Of those three players I'd probably go Summerville.

@Fjmcity to save derailing that other thread I'll answer your question here. Basically, I expect that for Bristol City the impact of the IFR will be minimal. We may have extra reporting requirements, and we might need to update or create a few policies - such as a fan consultation policy - but the burden should be low on us. As I said on the other thread though, there are a couple of things that Lansdown, Marshall and Rawcliffe should be aware of, and the need to prove that directors (and other senior people) are competent is one of those.

This is pretty much the only off field metric that's been shown to have a close correlation, maybe even a causal link, to league table position. The others you mention are pretty irrelevant. Transfer budget fluctuates depending on transfer receipts amd FFP/P&S rules, quality of training facility might have a small influence on the quality of player a club attracts, but if it does it's hard to quantify. Attendance/tickets sold is far from causal when it comes to team performance - if anything the link is reversed ie more success = more fans rather than the other way round. It's really just wage budget that matters, and in that regard I think we're normally ranked at around about 10th. One of the highest non-PP teams, but small fry compared to those teams. We're probably going to finish just below 10th this season. So it's going to be just worse than par, maybe a bogey for the season.

A fair summary. But the specific new competency element of the proposed new Directors test will be relevant to our board of two. As will, potentially, any terms of the new Code for Football Governance. As and when that is published I think we will see that changes to our board of directors is necessary in order to comply.

What do you mean? Could you elaborate please?

Good shout for an Ipswich player. They're relative lack of high ranking individuals I think supports McKenna's shout for manager of the season. He's got a team of limited players performing as a spectacular unit.

I think O'Leary's had it pretty easy given the defence in front of him. He's done very well, but I'd not back him for team of the season. Really for goalkeepers I like to look for someone who's worked bloody hard and has outperformed their defence. This season that means someone like Rushworth at Swansea who has saved 71.4% of an astonishing 192 shots on target (second only to the frankly ludicrous 238 that Rotherham's Johansson has faced) that have carried an average xG of 0.31 per shot. Those are ******* impressive numbers and Fbref suggest he's saved Swansea 6 goals this season, the best of any goalkeeper.

Dickie is definitely our only possible candidate for anything this season. He's been a delight, our best CB since Webster for me. I absolutely love a CB who can take the ball forward and ping those defence-splitters into the forwards. Nothing better. That he's also been an ever present in a very effective defensive unit is brilliant.

Ng's inclusion surprised me initially but I though back to our games against Cardiff and recalled that he was pretty influential. Then I checked stats and he's basically the highest-rated RB in the division both in terms of attacking and defending, so fairplay to him. Who would you have over Hladky? Hermansen?

Given we've started taking votes for our end of season awards I wondered who out there was thought of as being up for the wider Divisional awards. I don't watch every team forensically but will suggest a few to get the conversation started. Manager of the season - I think there are two stand out candidates: McKenna and Cifuentes. McKenna has a League 1 squad sitting on 87 points with 18 still to play for. Ipswich have been electric and have kept going until the end of the season and through the full 90 in every game. I expected them to collapse in the winter, and fairly they have not done so. But I think there's a better candidate - Cifuentes. Good lord the miracle he's worked with a trainwreck QPR squad is remarkable. When he took charge on Halloween 2023 they were 23rd with 8 points from their first 14 games. They are now 16th with 46 points. The quick-minded will swiftly note that this means that in the 26 matches Cifuentes has managed, they've gained a stonking 38 points - 1.46ppg. Had the season started on 31 October when Cifuentes took charge, QPR would be 9th. Notable mention to Danny Rohl at Sheff Wed who has overseen almost as good a renaissance (36 points from his 29 games in charge 1.24 ppg), but it's not quite the transformation that Cifuentes has managed. Player of the season - The stats show Szmodics as top scorer with 23 and he's been involved in 41% of Blackburn's goals, Summerville tops both FotMob's and Whoscored's overall ratings and has a respectable 17 goals himself, Dewsbury-Hall has been exceptional for Leicester, and Armstrong has been very productive for Southampton. Jack Clarke at Sunderland has been key to their season, and Sara at Norwich has been fantastic. Further down the division or further back in the formations there's players like Coventry's Sheaf, Davis at Ipswich, Whittaker at Plymouth, and even someone like Chair at QPR could be in the conversation. Young Player of the season - Caveat, I am not about to waste time checking who was 21 on July 1 2023, so this is just players who are currently aged 22 or younger. Also, I refuse to allow a player to win both YPOTY and POTY - so Summerville is in the chat for POTY, and if he gets that then as far as I'm concerned he cannot get YPOTY. They're separate categories for a reason. Anyway, it doesn't look like a vintage year for young players (maybe everyone had a good tilt at the U18 FA Youth Cup). However, Summerville's teammate Rutter is a standout candidate as he's had a spectacular season. Philogene is fun to watch, has a swagger, and has delivered with 8 goals and 6 assists this term. Rowe at Norwich is just 20 and has handed in 12 goals in just shy of 2,000 minutes, which is pretty impressive at that age. I don't know, YPOTY would be one where I'd be interested to hear opinions. For what it's worth, here's whoscored's current team of the season. The omission of Szmodics is probably the most interesting item, but the team is caveated by the fact they stick to a pretty rigid 442.

Oh no "we budgeted assuming we'd finish in the top 8, but failed to do so" shouldn't mitigate failure of FFP. Every team should be budgeting for every eventuality really, even the mega-rich teams at the top should have an a) get into the champs league, and b) don't budget.

Ie. "We assumed we'd get into Europe in some form or other". It's the underlying issue of income being so tied to sporting achievement in the previous season. If the football industry distributed at least some of its riches equitably or based on things other than league position, you'd not have clubs making this kind of risky assumption.

Well done to the young guys, sounds like they put on a decent display. Oh well, time to focus on the league now.

I'm quite surprised that this thread isn't getting more engagement. This is the pinnacle of our season. Our appearance in the semi-finals of the U18 FA Youth Cup is the apotheosis of 20+ years of investment and planning from the Lansdowns. This is what everyone at the club has sacrificed everything for this season. This showdown, this festival of football, it's what it's all about. Win this and we're in with a chance of hosting the final and capturing the attention of literally three football journalists. I simply cannot wait to be vaguely aware of what's possibly happening on Pitch 14 of the Etihad Campus and will absolutely have this on in the background when I do the boy's bedtime tonight, and when I'm washing up after supper, and when I'm out for a run.

24. He was 23 at the start of the season. The "young squad" that Brian thinks we have is really not as young as you might think.

Very good piece. It's really hard. I am, right now as I type, editing suggested amendments to the Bill that will (hopefully) bolster "the regulator’s most important power...to impose an agreement between the Premier League and the EFL on revenue distribution in the event of a negotiating deadlock." I've got meetings this week where we are trying to give the IFR proactive powers, and also trying to make sure that anything plan the EFL puts forward or agrees to benefits L1 and L2 as well as just Leeds, Southampton, and the other big teams in the Champ. But it's bloody tough, and there's behemoths in front of us.

POTY is Dickie and it's not even close. YPOTY is Conway by default. Champagne? Well I went with "The introduction of the Football Governance Bill in March 2024, and it's intended objective requiring club officials to satisfy a test of their "competency". The champagne is on ice for the moment but this will hopefully, in time, lead to competent directors being in charge of Bristol City." Fingers crossed.

Not only did they spend millions on private law firms and barristers, but they have an in-house legal team - ie full time club employees - of about 15 people. That's a small law firm in itself. The next biggest in-house legal team that I know is Man Utd who have 8 I think it is. Honestly most clubs have one or two, many (including Bristol City) have 0.

It's mad that one team is going to get >90 points and not go up automatically.

Yes, I omitted the xG from my post as tbh I didn't fancy having the "xG is nonsense" conversation. But, as you've brought it up. He's doing exactly as well as can be expected given the specific amount of work he's being asked to do. This is largely why I say the defence is helping him be good. That defence is what means he has faced the second lowest post shot xG. That defence is keeping his workload light and low. In my opinion that is allowing him the room to breath. He's facing shots that are easy to save - and he's saving quite a lot of them (74.2% of them in fact). It's a fair criticism that he's not over-achieving but I think it is harsh to complain that he's doing what he needs to do. He's not doing anything remarkable - but he's not being asked to do anything remarkable. Essentially, if the keeper is as good as his defence is, and that defence is itself quite good, and he isn't notably letting it down - which the numbers show he isn't - then he's a good enough keeper for that team. Right? I think we're both just saying the same thing and nodding agreement at each other aren't we!? It does a get a bit mind-bending quite quickly but ultimately I'm happy with him being No.1 this season and next, and I don't think we need a new No.1 goalkeeper...the No.2 goalkeeper is a different conversation of course.

It depends a little on how you define "one of the best". For me I'd say it means he's in the top 6 in enough stats/areas to be in that conversation. I'd say as well that I say he looks like one of the best, because the defence in front of him improves him. I don't necessarily mean that he is, objectively, one of the top keepers in this division. Anyway, Max is: 3rd best save% this season. 4th for overall number of saves. 6th best for goals conceded. 7th best for stopping crosses. Top 10 for most stats relevant to being a sweeper. Top 6 for one or two. He's not up there for every stat, and not all stats indicate whether a goalkeeper in isolation is good/bad, but yeh he's putting in top 6/top 10 numbers in multiple categories. https://fbref.com/en/comps/10/keepersadv/Championship-Stats

He's always been good enough. This season a decent screen in front of him is allowing him the space to breath and demonstrate his ability. That helping him post the kind of numbers that make him look like one of the best in the league. It's nuanced but my reading of it is that he's good, but the defence helps him to be really good. Almost as though football is a team game. My opinion is also that having CBs who are confident on the ball - Dickie in particular - help him with the recycle and the out. I've always said we don't need to upgrade the goalkeeper to finish in the top 6 and it's great that he's currently demonstrating that.

They're ok. They've got a little bit better in recent times. We still get the odd slip up like Forest away, but they're better.