ScottishRed

2 minutes ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

“Doing badly at Boro...” - when Warnock left Boro they were THREE points from the play offs - with 31 games left to play ... you call that “doing badly” ... - most successful manager ever in our game (promotions) - he knows how to get out of the championship - every manager we’ve had since Steve Coppell doesn’t know how to get promoted from the championship, except our current gaffer - Neil Warnock, a national treasure, a top bloke, an extremely successful football manager, an icon who continually conned gullible, naive and hysterical fans with his media persona ... I’d have him at our club as a Consultant/director of football instantly - Warnock and Pearson - the partnership to strike fear into championship football clubs ...

You are so right. If we really want promotion that would be the dream team.

5 minutes ago, RedRock said:

Brilliant football manager. Some dark arts, but renowned for teams of winners, leaders and fighters. Some culture shift from Ashton’s failed teams of ‘good humans’.

Regrettably, not a manager of a sort that our Owners, or indeed, majority of supporters would have accepted. 

An opportunity lost imo, as I’m sure he would have relished the opportunity to bring this comatose Club to life again. Pretty sure he would have succeeded too. 
 

Hope he has a long and happy retirement, though wouldn’t be surprised for someone to entice him back. 

Wish him all the best. It was an opportunity lost.

1 hour ago, weepywall said:

I think if he had been our manager anytime in the last 10 years or so and had the backing that LJ had we would have had a season in the PL.

Agreed. He is the pantomime ‘villain ‘ but in reality, not only has he had a very good career I have it on good authority he is a decent bloke. That is from my friends back in my home town in Scotland where he has spent a lot of time in the past.

 I have have spent many times watching his teams at AG and their’ professionalism ‘ I do wonder what would have happened with him here.

I cannot remember the season, but Neil was at Cardiff  and LJ  was our HC, and in the pre - match presser his comment stuck with me ‘ Lee talks a good game ‘ ......oh how true.

4 minutes ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

I can’t see LJ coming back to BS3. 

I think he would jump at the chance! 

LJ’s ego would not allow otherwise and the ‘ I was right all along’ quotes would not be long in coming.

It would be a disaster, yes, at times, we played better football but not in his last two seasons and remember he / they spent more money than has ever been spent here.

All of that said, I am pretty sure Nige will go in the summer and it would be no surprise if LJ walks through the door. Be interesting to see how that would go with a zero transfer budget - badly, I suspect, with a return to the #cosyclub.

I am completely uncomfortable with that too.

I doubt it will happen, HMRC have no sympathy towards football, quite the opposite and rightly so.

There are two reasons why this won’t happen,

1. It sets a massively dangerous precedent in all businesses not just football clubs. But as regards football what if a club splashed out a record transfer fee for a player and then didn’t bother paying the tax man their monthly dues!

2. The current very real pressure on government finances makes this a true political hot potato that the public in general, regardless of political allegiances would view in a very bad light.

HMRC are not known for their benevolent nature, it is a non- starter, and rightly so.

14 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

By paying in full, re HMRC would that cover 25% now and the rest on a payment plan?

Im really uncomfortable with using public money to buy the ground, but not paying HMRC.

@Davefevs That is a terrifying prospect but not altogether unlikely. If it were to happen ai don’t think we would have to wait too long for the ‘ I was right along’ insinuations from LJ.

I hope Nige stays but I can see a fallout with SL and JL coming and I suspect Nige would walk of his own violation.

We are in a mess financially in no small part due to LJ ( although not all down to him).

Re-hiring him would be a huge mistake and not go down well but as we have heard before the mantra from SL of it’s my club would come back into play.

4 minutes ago, Sweeneys Penalties said:

doesnt it just. If anyone thought City were skint, take a butchers at their finances. I cant help but conclude that part time players will be the "norm" there at some point

The confusing thing is that the German investment - they now own the club - does not appear to have made any difference. Also, the appointment of Peter Grant, the manager that got Alloa relegated from the same league last season was bizarre in the extreme.

5 minutes ago, Sweeneys Penalties said:

Always a City fan first and foremost. I have an "allegiance" with a couple of other clubs purely based on how I've been treated as an individual at those clubs. For this reason Dunfermline is my favourite club in Scotland. 

Good to hear that @Sweeneys Penalties. My home town team Dunfermline went to my first game there when I was 5. I have lived around Bristol for much longer than my place of birth, but still follow the fortunes of the Pars.

Looking very much like relegation for them this season.

47 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Surely if a bidder materialises they may well avoid the worst but start next season on - 15?

Of course attempts to impose a haircut on football creditors would constitute a significant problem, if Mel Morris steps up and pays a chunk then that reduces the size of the bid needed to pay the rest making - 15 less likely? Probably.

Still struggle to see why HMRC should take a haircut given rising inflation, every penny counting post Covid etc. Restructure with the appropriate interest rate different issue.

Don’t think HMRC will be playing ball in anyway, nor should they.

It opens the door to so many businesses to follow the same route and simply not pay their taxes.

HMRC have been on football’s case for many years and they will not be conceding any ground on this in my opinion.

3 minutes ago, maxjak said:

Quatar is a pheckin disgrace of a country.............the fact that it was awarded the World Cup, displays just how corrupt an organisation FIFA truly is .  I just hope that footballers representing their various countries take the opportunity to highlight to the World,  the repressive  medieval politics that reside there.   They must make use of their privileged platform to shine a light on Quater's appalling human rights issues, and draconian LGBT laws.  Hopefully some players will draw attention to these  disgraceful elements when interviewed, and use the World media to highlight just how inappropriate it is to allow Quatar to sportwash  football's greatest competition?    I am hoping all England's players wear black armbands, as a tribute to the thousands of exploited foreign workers who have died while constructing the stadia  in which this joke of a tournament will be played out in ?   But I am not holding my breath.     

No fella, I am not holding my breath either. In reality, in the world we currently live in, all Football Federations should take a stance and say ‘ we will not play in Quatar ‘ , clearly there is  zero chance of that , ££££, are the marker and the driver.

Again, not holding any hope of this, but it would be excellent if some star players from individual countries refused  to go - imagine the impact if, for example, Harry Kane, said no, I am not going, could just maybe, be a domino effect. Love to see it, won’t happen.

To use the much touted phrase, the game has gone. 

Highest paid leader of a trade union in the world - utterly disgusting.

5 hours ago, LondonBristolian said:

This is a brilliant post.

The one thing I'd add is that - whilst I agree people weren't 'work dodgers' under Holden, I do think there are long-standing problems in the character of the squad. I don't think they are necessarily on any individual player but I do think that we've lacked leaders and strong characters at the club for a while. The likes of Weimann, Bentley and Kalas come across as very good professionals, and I'm not knocking their attitude or work ethic, but I don't really see anyone in the club who picks the team up when things are going against us and drags performances over the line. 

Maybe James can do that and we'll see more of it from here out, and I wonder if Williams has got it in him when he's fit, but I think we've got a tendency to lose heart when things are going against us and I think that partly comes down to a lack of senior leaders. Players don't need to be workshy for the attitude in the team to not quite be right. 

We lack ‘ strong characters and leaders at the club’ - absolutely. And the reason for that is those are not qualities that MA and LJ wanted.

Ultimately, they both knew that characters of that nature would, in the end, expose them, and that was not a risk they were prepared to take.

5 minutes ago, Rocking Red Cyril said:

Could be LJ manager with DH coach 

Maybe 

Not a chance. Why would LJ leave Sunderland unless he was pushed, which is possible but not right now.

As for DH, assistant manager at Stoke could be working in the EPL next season.

Would be hugely surprised if either would want to work for Swiss Tony again in any case.

Until they sort out the parachute payments this is simply tinkering around the edges.

FFP, or whatever they call it now, is simply a mechanism to ensure that the clubs that benefit from massive TV payouts remain in the EPL, although now and again they may need to spend a season in the Championship.

Think about this, SL could wake up tomorrow and decide to give Nigel £100m to spend next month, he can afford to,  but is not allowed to - not saying that he would, but that is wrong.

The upshot is that TV money has ruined the game both in this country and elsewhere.

45 minutes ago, petehinton said:

states pretty early into this that it was his call to sack him...even more power than he had here. Scary stuff.

He forgot to thank the Lansdowns for their support........IIRC that used to be in sentence  two

Just now, brad blit said:

Sorry don’t see the love in. 
He had a decent first half (but most of the team did), but lost times of the amount of times he misplaced simple passes, couldn’t control the ball, and dosnt use his obvious physical attributes to his advantage. Weak in the tackle, and often just leaves a leg out. Would be first name off team sheet once players return 

Can’t argue with much of that. He reminds me of JET albeit in a completely different position. Just to be clear I loved JET but he frustrated me as he had so so much talent but did not always use it. I fear Tyreeq may be the same. 

Certainly with JET I was never sure how important football was to him, lots of other interests. 

1 minute ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

Jon Lansdown?

Jon who?

Just now, tin said:

LJ or Appleton would be my guess. I feel for Ipswich with that helmet at the helm.

Appleton is a very good shout, there is of course the possibility that he might invent a new role in football CEO and Head Coach

5 minutes ago, daored said:

Ipswich fan on 606 suggested Lampard!! 

Heard that too , gave me a good laugh cooking tea!

29 minutes ago, DolmanGaz said:

I have a few Everton supporting fans, and have to agree, the anger and moaning is ridiculous. It must be rubbish being in the Prem each year, safe from relegation but in no danger of winning a cup of qualifying for Europe, but FFS, they have it better than a lot of football fans!

Not sure they are safe from relegation. Highly unlikely, but with no money to spend after burning £400m there could be a problem.

On R5L last night they had a guy on who runs a popular Everton You Tube channel. He reckons that the club are in utterly disarray and really fears for this season - I will assume that he knows more about their situation than we do.

2 hours ago, Alessandro said:

For me, the top level structure of the club absolutely needs looking at.

Under MA he was seemingly board member, chief exec, head of operations, DOF, head of recruitment etc etc all rolled into one.

Little seems to have changed, we have a small board of directors (5?) and two of them JL and SL do so remotely and in JL's case, what does he do?

Every other comparable club to us, Brentford, Brighton, Burnley, Norwich etc, that we aspire to be like, have larger boards with a broader ranges of commercial skills in addition to people in important day to day positions such as head of operations, DOF's and head of recruitment etc.

I feel we are at least 3 appointments light in senior managerial positions at the club and it only adds fuel to the fire that SL likes to run a 'dictatorship' and with MA, he very much got hoodwinked, before he took advantage to his own "personal gain" before jumping ship before the realities of his performance set in.

Could not agree more. My hope, and it could be in vain, is that SL has said to Nigel, you are totally in charge of the football side of the ‘business’ you have 3 years and X budget get us promoted.

Because ultimately, I believe SL would love to be the owner of an EPL club - even if it is only for 1 season - but, remember his background, there is no way that he is going to break rules to get there and nor should he.

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I agree, if in the scenario that we were to get relegated (i don’t think we will) then I think SL will pull the plug, or Nige might even decide to go himself.  SL then has a decision about how to structure the club.  I think he’d rather get the club sold before that happens, so it becomes someone else’s problem.

The structure should be being put into place now.  You could argue with Nige’s recent health that “Sporting Director” should be in place now, understand how he works with Nige, what the gaps / needs are, so that he can execute those changes with Nige, or how he might plan it with someone else.

Classic reactive Bristol City shining through.

I think that is fair. My feeling is that NP has total control of the football side and, is currently, much more than simply the first team manager. 

I suspect that Nigel will look to appoint a DoF in due course, which may be himself once he has other fundamentals in place.

55 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Glad he’s got himself fixed up, best of luck to him.

Top bloke who was excellent in the promotion season & did ok at Championship level, plus of course his wonderful stuff with St Peter’s Hospice.

Agree entirely. But not the time for sentimental returns. 

I think Bentley will want to move on come the summer but unless it was silly money January is not the time.

He would need to be replaced as Max scares the life out of me !