Gert Mare

I remember this well. There was a lot of cheering between the penalties that day. I was only a teenager at the time and loved every minute of it! ?

In my opinion he is not up to this level. For a big chap he doesn’t use his body strength to his advantage. Positionally he is poor, he switches off, ball watches and plays aimless long balls which fail to find a man. He is also flat footed, so once he’s been turned he’s done.

Our fans can be like that. Loads would sack Pearson before he has been given any money to spend. Ludicrous! I’m not surprised Johnson had been sacked though. He is the master of inexplicable results, thinks football is a science and bamboozles everyone with utter tactical nonsense and drivel, thinks possession and passing sideways for 80 minutes is important and gets out a tombola when it comes to substitutions. I give him credit for turning Bobby Reid into a striker but as far as game management was concerned he was totally clueless. People harp on about beating Man United but we were fortunate to have some decent players at the time and it doesn’t take a lot for a team to get fired up to play Man United! We’ve got the right appointment now, talks sense and I believe that if we had had Pearson in charge during that Carabao Cup season we wouldn’t have totally capitulated, we would have gone up. If a team at the top of the league gets thrashed 6-0 then there is something seriously wrong with the way they are being managed. Johnson could do nothing to stop the flow of goals because he hasn’t got a clue when it comes to in-game management. He just stands there like a muppet. Some people need to take off the rose-tinted specs when it comes to Johnson’s reign.

Shame, they had at least another 8-10 games to lose in a row ?

FFS!

Another converted shitter. They have no shame whatsoever…..tramps

Reams and reams of Singing The Blues posts yesterday. They are also creaming themselves at the £38 million debt so expect a few 1982’s to surface in the next few days.

Breakdown of the Sags 40k at Wembley…. 20k were locked out (Obviously) 15k of obsessed Sheeds hoping to see Rovers lose 4.5k neutrals 499 forced to support Rovers by their braindead stuck in the 70’s neanderthal parents. 1 genuine Sag.

One thing I have noticed is keeping our heads up when we fall behind. Before we would effectively give up as soon as we conceded. I don’t see that happening so much now. I think that the players seem to have a little more belief in their ability and there is a definite shift in mentality to a more positive one. Also, our young players are beginning to adapt to the pace of the Championship. Alex Scott has now bagged a few goals and looks like a regular starter. I have seen more solid displays from Cam Pring and Massengo was a game changer against Millwall. There are more hardworking displays overall on the pitch and our players are certainly fitter than they were last season. Players know that they need to be on top of their game or their position is up for grabs. Nobody is a guaranteed starter. Competition for places is now becoming more of a focus than worrying about the opposition. Once Pearson is allowed to spend we should see more competition and an improvement in overall performances (less long ball). There are green shoots for sure and we are doing it with academy players in the team. The turnaround will be slow but it is happening for sure.

I’m with you on this. Theirs is a constant obsession as is their speed to getting on social media about them ‘Singing the blues’ as soon as they win a game and we lose. It’s guaranteed EVERYTIME WITHOUT FAIL. We’d be happy to go up, they’d be happy to finish a single place above City. If they aren’t singing about the City they are shouting ‘Sheed’ead at someone on the pitch. Never ever heard us shout ‘Gashead’ at a former Rovers player who has played against us. They are the supporters who apparently don’t give a shit about us until someone mentions us to them and then they erupt with utter contempt, hatred and jealousy in an instant.

What should have happened is that a gang of lashed up knuckle dragging boneheads should have shouted “A…G…A…G…R…A…G…R…O DYSLEXIC AGGRO” before hurling anything that isn’t screwed down at the disrespectful Yam-Yam, followed up by charging her across Ashton Park fists windmilling, screaming ‘CSF’ whilst a couple of 14 year olds film the air, the ground, a bit of milling around and a copper on a horse before posting it to a ‘We iz a ‘ard firm’ website

And the victim of the year award goes to this poor little Sag…. Did you selectively miss some of the stuff Rovers fans did? Yes, Stevie Wonder…you missed not just some, but ALL of it! And whilst we’re on the subject of you poor little lambs being the victims…..here’s your latest ‘good guys’ deed by some knuckle dragging goon from Kingswood….. Family Club…..yeah, ok ? The ******* gift ?

If he's referring to the final they played against Shrewsbury it was the very first match played at the new Wembley, so it was both cursed and infected at the same time. Also, as Rovers fans like to point out there was probably thousands of obsessed Ted's amongst them hoping to see them lose. The other 3 were from Shrewsbury.

That’s exactly what happened ??

? ? ? Sheed’ead! Sheed’ead! Sheed’ead!

I don't imagine for one second that Tinman would a) be offered the position b) accept it. What happened during Tinman's tenure was sad and almost destroyed his legendary status at this club. At the time there was a culture amongst the players of messing about and boozing. At the time the players realised (as they do today) that they hold the power. I heard a story that right at the beginning Tinman told the lads that he wanted to be known as the boss or gaffer and the players made a point of calling him Tin's instead. It was never going to work. In this day and age I hear a lot of people saying that the iron fist approach and hair dryer treatment doesn't work, but it does to some degree and is still needed because there has to be a level of respect from the players towards the manager and without it, if you chose to simply stroke egos instead, the players will feel that they can take their foot of off the gas if they 'fancy it' without any serious repercussions. Long may Tinman continue in the role that he current does as he truly loves the club and his passion can only be positive for the youngsters coming through.

Because Warnock won't hold back and there would be no sugar coating and nowhere to hide.

Conway is also a good shout for that position I'd agree.

In an ideal world and where everybody is fit I would go for this:- Bentley Tanner Kalas Atkinson Pring O'Dowda James Williams Semenyo Weimann Wells 4-4-1-1 with jumpers for goalposts. If I wanted to change up to pack out the midfield I would sub Tanner for Massengo or Scott and drop him in behind Weimann. I might be tempted to swap Pring for Baker, but I think Pring has the engine to manage in a back 3 and is far less likely to over commit and give away needless free-kicks or penalties like Baker or the flat-footed Vyner (even though Pring seems to be subbed quite a bit by the current management). Up top I would utilise Wells and ensure that we played the ball on the deck into feet, not hoof it up into the sky looking for a Martin (notice his absence?) flick on. If Wells is struggling as the game wears on I would introduce young Louis Britton for his first senior game of the season. Defenders won't like a youngster coming on to ruffle it up physically with them (as Britton does) with his natural instinct of being in the right place and his ariel threat also adding another dimension to our forward plays. We need to make use of the width because we are far too narrow and direct in our style (i.e lump the ball forward). My instruction to Bentley would be to stop hoofing it long all of the time. Try to play out from the back as we are going to need our wide men (Semenyo / O'Dowda to work the touchlines and stretch the opposition defenders, allowing for the incredibly fit Weimann to operate inside and enabling Wells to get off the shoulder of the defence to bear down on goal which is what he does best.

When I was a kid City were in the top flight. It was exciting to follow Bristol City at that time. I took it for granted. We nearly died in 1982. I couldn't comprehend what that would have felt like if City were no more? We trudged along just happy to have a club to support and it felt like everyone was in it together, fans, players, management, the directors that had saved the club. There was spirit. Then we got better under TC and although we played in the bottom 2 divisions it felt exciting to watch. We went to Wembley for the first time in our history and swept Bolton Wanderers aside and we were in dreamland. It felt like we were on the way back, it felt like the old First Division days, we could dream again. A couple of times we nearly got out of the 3rd Division but just couldn't manage it until Joe Jordan took over from TC, we brought in quite a few signings and some unknown Leeds striker called Bob Taylor for £250,000. Then we kicked on and went up into the 2nd Division and started really well. We were dreaming again and with Joe Jordan we were building momentum. Then, because of Joe's ambition to become Scotland manager he surprisingly bailed out on us whilst we were in the ascendancy to become manager of Heart of Midlothian, the momentum died and went into reverse as we slipped back into the 3rd Division. Unlike a lot of clubs who come down and mount a challenge to go straight back up we immediately reverted to being a 3rd Division mid table team until John Ward took over and took us back up. We had momentum again. Then the board thought it would be a good idea to push John out of the way and get some foreign footballing brains (Benny Lennartson) in to make us better. It backfired. Ward wasn't happy and left and the momentum went in reverse again and eventually we ended up back in the 3rd Division (League One). We sank to a new all time low when we were rock bottom of League One and brought in Gary Johnson. After an initial rubbish start and some strange signings we slowly got better and got into the Championship without having to go into the play-offs. Momentum again! We can dream again! Then we have an amazing start to life in the Championship and stay top (yes, TOP) for a long period, during which time Sky Sports do their best to try and ignore our progress by hardly giving us a mention and by not even sending their reporters to our ground. They continue to talk about Norwich, Stoke, QPR etc. The ignorance was so blatant that City fans eventually phoned in to question how you could avoid talking about a team that was top of the league. It just went to prove how insignificant Bristol City are outside of Bristol. As the finishing line to the promised land came within sight we choked (as we always do) and fell away into the play-offs....ahhh, the playoffs! If anything sums up Bristol City as a football club it has to be the play-offs. One minute we are amazing and one step away from promotion and then, when the big day comes, we completely roll over to display our soft underbellies for a tickle and it's game over with fans scratching their heads as to why we never turned up for the big occasion? We have got to be up there with the worst play-off failure records of all time? So, we get within 90 minutes of the promised land and the momentum takes a drastic turn again. We find ourselves fighting for our lives in the Championship. After a number of close scrapes we inevitably slip back into League One and fail to challenge for immediate promotion. We slip and slide and then we bring in Steve Cotterill and take League One by storm. A complete turnaround, exciting football, league and cup double, 6-0 for promotion, 8-2 against Walsall. We are dreaming again! Then, instead of backing Steve Cotterill we have 'pillars' and a completely uninspiring and useless summer transfer period in which we make 2 ridiculous last minute £9 Million bids for Andre Grey who says 'no' and Dwight Gayle who say's that he has 'never even heard of Bristol City'. City end up finding life a struggle in the Championship. Steve Cotterill, clearly annoyed that he wasn't backed, ends up stating his anger during the post match press conferences and then he is dismissed in a strange way. Then in comes GJ Junior....LJ, apparently seen as the youngest bright spark in management who is going to take us to where we want to be and who is backed to the hilt financially. At the same time we have some real academy talent on the up. Joe Bryan has become both solid and influential and LJ decides to play Bobby Reid as a striker which proves to be a master stroke. Momentum builds and we look like having a team worthy of competing for a return to the promised land for the first time since 1980. We have an amazing run to the semi-finals of the League Cup and we sit top of the pile in the Championship. Then during a match against Wolves we inexplicably capitulate and the wheels completely come off. We sell, sell, sell and the replacements are indifferent or injury prone. We start playing around with the ball across the back line without any intention of trying to break teams down, concede possession and lose games. LJ's post match interviews bamboozle everyone with complete waffle and we keep losing, week after week. Then LJ begrudgingly (by the board) is relieved of his duties and we wait (what seems like and eternity) to discover that his exciting replacement is none other than his current number 2. Alarm bells are ringing loudly. Little money is invested and at the very last minute we land a loan signing in the form of Benik Afobe. Benik starts well and we get off to a surprisingly good start under Dean Holden. Then disaster strikes and Afobe is out for the rest of the season. Having spent next to nothing over the summer our lack of strength in depth is completely exposed. Holden is eventually pushed out of the door and the club finally get in a real name as manager. The squad is riddled with injuries and the rest aren't up to Championship level, but as with any new manager coming in we get one or two results needed to keep us in the Championship before reverting to type and losing week in week out. The summer sees us offload some players who are OOC, but worryingly there seems to be any real investment in the playing side with NP having to bring in some of his old trusty Leicester players. There is a bit of investment in an up and coming central defender from League One, but there is also dipping into the academy for hungry youngsters with a bit of talent. The season starts with a mostly fully fit squad buoyed by the resigning of Andi Weimann and Nathan Baker, but after a few nip and tuck games a couple of knocks to key players expose our complete lack of strength in depth and the team revert to type. Some players decide that they are too good to have to put in a defensive shift, others battle in vein chasing shadows and some decide not to stay on their feet and instead bring players down giving away penalties in games we simply cannot afford to concede in. NP is unable to polish the turd and the supporters turn, even though NP clearly stated at the beginning of the season that there is massive changes required and due to the impact of covid financially and FFP that there was going to be no quick fix. The pot is dry. The academy and the facilities to make City a sustainable club have received heavy investment and the results are expected to come from that route, it has to. City cannot compete with bigger clubs. It's a fact. It's boom or bust with City. It always has been. There is no middle ground when it comes to the club I support. In some ways that is where the addiction lies. It's like looking at a burning flame and then trying to touch it only to get burnt. I now accept that my dream of seeing my team in the top flight is more distant than it has ever been, and with unsustainable rising costs and footballers who now live in a completely different world of egos and entitlement I fear that the dream moves further away. Yet, I get what the board is trying to do and their intentions of simply having a club that can keep going is realistic and right. It may not be exciting and it might be painful a lot of the time, but the club can carry on trying to keep its head above water. You would have to throw ludicrous amounts of money at Bristol City in order to challenge for promotion to the Premier League. It's doomed to failure. Good players see Bristol City as a stagnant graveyard club, the media aren't interested....they even confuse us with Rovers. If we are going to get anywhere we have to do it ourselves and produce our own. The clear out of the current crop of disinterested players or players who are failing to make the grade will happen, but it won't be immediate and a change of management won't change it. This is Bristol 'Boom or Bust' City. It will get better again, but then the wheels will come off in true Bristol City fashion......it's inevitable, it always does. Up and down the Robins.

And Big Dave’s brother Dave.

The reality is that Nigel has to work within a very tight budget and yesterday we were missing Baker, Williams, James, Atkinson and King. We cannot afford to be without some of those players because their replacements aren’t as good. We need to win the midfield battles to win the game and yesterday even against 10 men we were chasing shadows. Lots of endeavour but we never put our foot on the ball and tried to slow the tempo, especially after regaining the lead from conceding an awful penalty. There was absolutely no need to push the attacker, no need. The remonstrating afterwards was equally as embarrassing. Our strikers (whoever they are) have to feed off of scraps. Our only creative outlet yesterday, surprisingly, was Callum O’Dowda who has been heavily criticised in recent times. Down the other side we have no creative threat whatsoever which is why Andy Weimann has to drift wide. We cannot afford to have injuries with this squad, but yet again we are seeing our most technically gifted players spending time on the treatment table. We seem to be cursed. What I don’t understand is why we have a young striker in the U23’s banging goals in for fun who apparently isn’t fit enough to get in the box, and yet those that are apparently fit enough aren’t in the box week in week out? Get Britton in FFS, or at least get the kid on the bench. If we sacked Pearson it would solve nothing. As someone mentioned before you can sack the polisher but you can’t sack the turd. We need players gone who either can’t be bothered or who lack in the quality required to compete in the Championship week in week out. The clear out will take time because until we move some of these players off of the wage bill we cannot bring others in. This mess was created by Johnson and Ashton. Holden was the fall guy and Pearson is expected to work miracles. He can’t, no-one can. The club cannot continue to haemorrhage money every week. We all knew the mess that Nigel Pearson has inherited and yet still many act surprised and call for his head. The squad simply isn’t good enough. We have to accept that and be realistic that these players are under contract and will have to go when they are ready to go. We really need to get the recruitment right longer term and that is where we are desperate for the right sort of investment and talent spotting.

Yes, we lost last night and the manner in which we lost was disappointing. However, it has been clear for a long time now (pre-pearson) that we have made a lot of poor recruitment decisions and have failed to replace what we have lost adequately in terms of ability. On paper we have a mid/lower end of Championship team and the results that we have been getting reflect where we are. What has changed under the Nigel Pearson tenure is that our general fitness has improved and we are at least able to compete to a degree in games. Under Dean Holden we were getting totally outplayed and over-run. Quite a number of our failings this season has been as a result of individual errors. That's football. This league is one of the toughest in the world and give or take a few clubs with parachute payments any team can beat any other and it is very tight. It is clear that as a club we are losing money and need to operate within the boundaries of FFP. We have a number of high earners with experience and ability, but have we really seen a return on our investments? No. Is there any managers out there who can get more out of those players than Nigel Pearson? I don't think so. It really boils down to an individuals mentality. Unfortunately that cannot be changed. Even the best managers in the world cannot change mindsets today. Why? Because players are protected no matter what and unlike Managers if they don't perform they aren't going to get sacked. They continue to be paid well and see out their time before moving on. The bottom line at this club is that the majority of players at this club are simply not good enough to compete at this level. Some are too young and inexperienced and need time to improve, some will never improve to the standard required, and some have the ability but really couldn't give a toss about Bristol City. We are hardly a club steeped in history. We are a stepping stone, a feeder club, a yo-yo club, a club never seriously considered as Premier League promotion contenders by anyone who doesn't support Bristol City. We lack creativity full stop. No amount of fitness training or coaching is going to make the players we have any more creative. That is down to natural ability and a lot of our players just simply do not possess that ability. Go ahead, sack Nigel Pearson and get someone else in, but expect the same results from the same players. There is no magic wand that can be waved. Nigel was given a 3 year contract to rebuild and that is going to take a long time. It could also mean relegation (let's hope not), but realistically the job that Nigel has on his hands is massive. Expect to see the big earners departing in the near future and expect more kids and journeymen because it is coming. In order to have a financially viable football club to support this is what will need to happen. It is going to get a lot worse before it gets better and you can moan all you want about Nigel Pearson, but he is working with what he has at his disposal and you cannot polish a turd. Football nowadays is unfathomable. Every time a team loses the fans start calling for the managers head. Well, there are 92 teams in the football league and it is impossible for them all to win every game every week. Get real. Eventually we will get it right and with a bit of luck we might be fortunate enough to compete at the top end of the Championship, but this isn't happening anytime soon with or without Nigel Pearson in charge. P.S Play Louis Britton FFS!

Yeah, Harrogate are massively upset that they lost their cup final. Still, I'm sure they told the Gasheads how loved they are and that they will now be Harrogate's '2nd team' from now on. As long as they agree to hate 'da shit' I'm sure they will get another chance at their second cup final of the season when they visit the Horfield Nou Camp.

Gappy 21st. 21 years without finishing a single place above City. Ah, the sheer joy…..