The Journalist

The funny thing is the truth is it'll be the exact opposite of this - it'll be someone pretty senior who put that in for 'a laugh' as a placeholder and forgot to change it.

Don't disagree with your point, Alan, but not sure you've actually looked at what's happened here. Shock. Burnley took four points in seven games before Sean Dyche was sacked and have taken 11 points from seven games since. They've already won as many games under Mike Jackson as they had in the five months previous under Dyche. They were going down without the change. And Frank Lampard, who has undoubtedly overseen an upturn in Everton's results, was only appointed four weeks before Jesse Marsch at Leeds. Still, don't let facts get in the way.

Gutted about this. I think he’s often gone under the radar a bit because of how good Alex Scott has been, but I think the pair of them are streets ahead of the other young players.

What’s genuinely interesting is the vote at the bottom - more than 10,000 people, a decent sample size, and an absolute overwhelming majority think it should be introduced.

Really? I thought part of City's problem in the last 10 minutes was they suddenly started pumping the ball long and went against everything they stand for. They couldn't have looked less threatening during the second half of extra time. Their heads went completely and collectively - from manager through to players.

I think there's a real player in Pring (and I think Nigel does too) but he simply has to get fitter and more durable IMO. The season definitely caught up with him and the more tired you are the worse your decision making gets. We absolutely saw this with him at times. Career-defining summer coming up for him.

Fair comment - I guess to bring that 12-monthly cycle forward you're going to take a bit of a hit on older stock. I wonder how much in the way of current shirts etc they're still shifting?! Even with reductions they're still expensive and just feel a waste of money to me by this point, off the back of an unmemorable season that's about to finish.

I can never get my head around teams not bringing a new shirt out before the final home game of the season. Sell more for the summer, gives an impression of better value for money because it has a longer shelf life and you're more likely to get further sales around Christmas given little'uns would feel due another new shirt having had their last one six months ago. What am I missing?! (Worth saying the vast majority of clubs are like us on this, so I accept I may actually be missing something because I'm not a commercial expert...)

Genuinely excited. Love a chip.

I want to see this second AW goal.

100% a straight red card because if the goalkeeper doesn’t illegally kick the ball away it’s a goal. Actually incredibly good refereeing to make quite a common sense decision from a very unusual scenario.

The only Bristol City game I commentated on all season. They say timing is everything.

Not sure anyone's missed the point. Teams have been deducted points because they signed players they couldn't afford, spent beyond their means and tried to gain - and as Wycombe would argue did gain - a competitive advantage. In essence, without a points deduction the league table also wouldn't reflect where we actually are because two clubs cheated in an attempt to get in front of us. The other thing to add - as others have already pointed out - is that we wouldn't necessarily have drifted along in the manner we have done for weeks because we'd have been under a lot more pressure. And results and performances do back that point of view up to an extent - we've not been this shit all season, it's just a classic case of the hard work being done and the players being too spineless and unprofessional to maintain standards with nothing to play for. Just my two cents, anyway.

Who said that?! Not being facetious, genuine question.

This has made my day if nothing else.

"I never understand why grown men think it's a good idea to wear a football shirt"

This is why I don’t want Pearson sacked while we’re safe from relegation regardless of how we’re performing. The club structure has been and is in such a mess that we really do need a manager, at this point, with both the experience and confidence to challenge the owner/board to make the necessary behind-the-scenes changes to ensure sustainable long-term success. Pearson WILL do this, even if there’s a better coach out there to get a bit more out of the players. Pearson’s job spans far beyond what happens on the pitch and is why - and I know @Davefevs shares this view - even though I don’t necessarily think he’s the manager to move us towards the Premier League I believe he’s the the right man to set us on the right course.

Might be my imagination but he's always looked better after an international break/a spell out of the side (which hasn't happened often!). When he came back in after being dropped earlier in the year he looked much more physically up to it, more powerful in both his hold up play and his running the channels. Either way, when used properly he's a good player with lots to offer. It's not really his fault we often haven't used him properly.

I really like Han-Noah. Always gives everything, tenacious, enthusiastic, clearly really gifted in terms of technical ability… … Yet consistently makes some really poor decisions in his own defensive third and contributes next to nothing in the attacking third in terms of goals and assists. Still only 20 with bucket loads of room for development, yet has also played nearly 100 first-team games! I think he has a really big decision to make in terms of what next in his career. And, if he doesn’t stay, it’s really hard to call what sort of level he’ll be playing this time next year.

On that theme, I was actually going to edit my original post to say just that - to downplay the PR impact isn't to say I supported his signing. Like you, I didn't like it at all. Anyone who didn't want him here was well within their rights to be unhappy about it.

There are players in our current squad who were worse signings than Simpson (I struggle to look past Kasey Palmer for that accolade when you consider the eye-watering sums of money involved for a player who wasn't even good on loan)! In terms of negative PR, I think people over-egg this point slightly. Bristol City are a very small bubble - the ripples weren't even felt that strongly across the local media, let alone further afield. Most football fans probably wouldn't even know Danny Simpson was at Bristol City, frankly.

Not ploughed through all four pages but anyone saying we've been "saved" by other teams receiving points deductions needs to give their head a wobble. Those teams were deducted points because they cheated. They cheated in signing substantially better players than they could afford. They've been deducted points to counter the competitive advantage they gained/tried to gain by signing those players.

Agreed - I thought in the early part of the season James looked like exactly what we've needed since Pack left. Needs to get properly fit, clearly, but he's a proper all-rounder.

Maybe they were funding Danny Simpson's vast wages ala 32Red and Wayne Rooney and it's all just got a bit much for both parties.

His seat was in Gary Johnson’s office. Denied it was him though.