The Journalist

I posted this two months ago: He’ll be in League One this time next year without a significant mentality shift IMO. Which, by the way, would be a huge, huge waste of natural ability. Seems we might be getting there?

Remember when one of our fans actually thought the manager who took us closer to the top flight than any other man in the past 40 years did just as good a job as the manager currently boasting one of the worst records of any Bristol City manager in the past 40 years?

Tins doesn’t deserve the inevitable abuse the role would bring. My all-time favourite player and an absolute Bristol City legend still doing great things for the club. I’d rather it stay that way.

I don't get the obsession with even playing two up top, let alone three. There's a good argument for going five across midfield and properly trying to get hold of the middle third of the pitch, something we've not done enough. Something like... Bentley Tanner - Kalas - Atkinson - Dasilva Scott - Massengo - James - Bakinson - Pring Weimann/Wells You're obviously asking Scott to come inside off the right and get involved in the play, and you possibly play Bakinson slightly more advanced given he's one of/if not our best forward-passing midfielders. Not sure how popular it would be though given how defensive that looks. Need to get more control of the ball, though, IMO.

I'm at a complete loss why we haven't really done this more often. Presumably niggles/issues in the background we don't know about?

Yep. Still absolutely winnable from here though.

Which is what we’ve done a few times, just lacking a bit of end product. We’re an average-to-poor Championship team playing another average-to-poor Championship team. The game is panning out that way.

I think we’ve been alright since the goal. Don’t know what more people seriously expect.

His last game in charge - a 5-0 loss at Blackpool - was one of only two Bristol City games I've ever watched that I was absolutely convinced the players threw the towel in collectively. They 100% sacked it in. The last 20 minutes of that game was an absolute disgrace and the players made sure the manager was sacked there and then. Winds me up to think about it now even, because Keith's a genuinely good man and didn't deserve that.

Remember when some people didn’t think Massengo was any good?

Apparently it’s OK as long as you pretend to be someone else.

Delighted for Chris Martin. He’s no world beater but also clearly didn’t deserve the pelters received this week. One ******** even calling him lazy. Ridiculous.

It’s generated automatically via Opta. All the match information (stats, scores, line-ups etc) comes from them.

Wouldn't disagree at all. He was the best player on the pitch at Cardiff. The international break will do him good, but more generally I do wish we weren't so reluctant to hook him after an hour occasionally. I guess that's the lack of forward options for you...

To call Martin lazy/disinterested is incredibly harsh. Slow/immobile? By all means. The guy, at nearly 33, needs a rest instead of us running him into the ground for the second season running.

Having slept on it, this is what’s really irking me with Tyreeq. The bits he keeps falling short on - concentration, awareness, defensive effort - are all absolutely controllable. Players giving 100% but having a bad game/dip in form I can live with, but the above I just really struggle to tolerate - especially when, as a central player, those things are absolutely his job.

He’ll be in League One this time next year without a significant mentality shift IMO. Which, by the way, would be a huge, huge waste of natural ability.

I thought we were OK from the start of the second half until they scored. Completely lost our way after the goal, though, and played into their hands from that point onwards. I think we’ve won/drawn with the same level of performance so far this season.

During my home and away days during the early to mid 2000s, EVERY first-teamer had their own song and when the players ran out pre-match you’d go through the entire XI and get a clap. Mad that now our record signing doesn’t even have a song after three years with us!

As I said in another reply, fans would be broadly happy with 12th but can’t accept the inconsistency that lands you in mid-table (ie losing as often as you win!). Ultimately, the bigger picture here is that at the moment it’s all about slowly building towards something, creating a better culture and togetherness, putting in an infrastructure on and off the pitch, building foundations to push on. And all of the above has to be bigger than just a desperation to win any individual game. It has to be. It was that very desperation that caused Lee’s downfall - he stopped trusting his own beliefs, forgot the bigger picture and, though he talked a good game about identity, in practice sacked it off for short-term success. To give an example now - I don’t think for a second playing four centre-backs at home to Luton would be Nigel’s preference. No way. And I suspect he’s knowingly not picked his “best” team there. But that back four has also just kept a clean sheet off the back of a good display at Cardiff - what message does that send to an entire group if you’re going to just tear it up? Because this isn’t about beating Luton at home - this is about putting us in a position to get promoted in 1/2/3 years. I do understand fans being frustrated with that, when you’re forking out for tickets and travelling miles. It’s not cheap and I forgive anyone for wanting it to happen for us right now. But personally I’m glad the club are no longer thinking like that - because IMO that’s what almost ultimately got us relegated. Sorry, got a bit waffly, but hopefully you understand my point.

Not scrolled any further so apologies if this clashes with other replies but this is exactly it. My impression is the vast majority of fans “say” they would be happy with mid-table - given the context of last season and the state of the squad - but are unable to accept the process of achieving such a finish. Ultimately, coming 12th means losing roughly as many as you win and drawing a fair few too. Sometimes you’ll play well (Swansea home, Cardiff away) and sometimes you won’t (Boro away, Luton home). You’ll have good runs and bad runs. Etc etc. But I think anyone who can’t see overall we’re on the road to recovery (and maybe those who can’t don’t truly realise what a mess we were in in terms of both the squad and our FFP position to fix it) is short sighted and probably brought hang ups from last season into this.

I mean, I guess you need to be careful not to tar everyone with the same brush, but the determination across the board that the problem is us and not him is bizarre. It’s actually frightening. I’ve never heard a nice word said about Ashton from anyone within football who has dealt with him at any point. Ever. His conduct at Watford is well documented - literally in black and white for public consumption - and, while he’s been given due credit for getting good value for outgoing players, as such there’s ALWAYS been a sense of caution around him. Long before the shit really hit the fan. I’m genuinely staggered, then, that any Ipswich fan really thinks we have a vendetta all because he failed to deliver promotion to a division we apparently “believe” we belong in despite never having been there. That any disdain has no real merit. That, as I’ve even read, it is merely born out of a jealously he left us for a mid-table League One club. As Nigel would say... “Are you an ostrich?” And I promised myself I wouldn’t get involved!

I'd definitely agree with those who've said Semenyo would benefit from playing alongside Martin or Wells more than Diedhiou. Incidentally, I actually thought on Saturday we'd have been more dangerous as a team across the whole game if Martin had played the first 60 minutes and was replaced by Diedhiou for the final 30 than it was the other way around.

And probably less so the statements themselves but the sheer arrogance with which they were made. We all have 20/20 vision when looking with hindsight, but it does serve as a good warning to think twice before posting on a public forum. As I said on page four, the number of self-appointed experts at that point was pretty staggering!

Just to be clear, it's not the EFL who've let them off. I suspect the EFL will appeal the decision.