cidered abroad

3 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Naismith is still contracted until 2025, that isn't to say transfers  can't happen of course but Free Agent in 2025 as it stands.

He's a decent footballer but now too prone for injuries. And if played as a back line defender, always likely to make a superb pass for the attacker to score. Only one problem; the attacker/scorer will not be playing for Bristol City.

2 minutes ago, formerly known as ivan said:

Think we can all agree Ashton wasn’t ever the issue. How has it gone so right at Ipswich and so wrong for us I wonder…

Could it be due to a couple of blunderers?

51 minutes ago, ciderwithtommy said:

@Harry appreciate the insight and of course it makes sense not to throw someone under the bus to appease the forum! The one bit I am slightly unsure on, is if it was the players who suggested to LM we needed a change, and he listened, does that equate to poor leadership? Or does it lend itself to creating more accountability for the players? I.e. we have problems and if you have the answers, I’m happy to facilitate that. The other option from the player meeting would’ve been “do it my way or leave” - not sure that’s great leadership from someone so new to the group whilst they were struggling for form. 

I would hope that, in an modern era, there would be team talks where everyone can voice and opinion on tactics. Otherwise how does any business move forward?

We have a comparatively young Head Coach with not very much "managing" experience. He has never won promotion or a cup in his career, but we have in the playing staff several very experienced of winning Premier league, promotions and plenty of international caps.

Or should we stick with the "Do as I say you will do on the pitch" philosophy?

1 hour ago, Bristol Oil Services said:

Bournemouth "found a way" to get there, as did Luton. As might Wrexham. Fair means or foul football is all about getting away with what you can get away with, it always has been.

I'm thinking of a bet on Wrexham going from National league to Premier with four successive promotions and yet another minnow overtaking us.

Andy King has brought quality and a great deal of assistance for the young brigade. He's seen better days, but who hasn't when they have played in the top tier, European club matches and 50 international games.

If he is leaving, he has my sincere respect and thanks. And best wishes for a coaching and probably management future.

4 hours ago, chinapig said:

The Sky Group was sold to Comcast some years ago. The Dirty Digger is no longer involved.

Another American company taking our cash out of the country!

only one consolation is that they were founded in Tupelo Mississipp, the birthplace of Elvis Presley.

4 hours ago, DeParis said:

He is a very different player to Twine, and I think he will excel under Manning far more than Warne. Paul Warne sides are very direct, and some Derby fans have been frustrated with this and feel it negates the strengths of Bird. A completely different style of football to Manning.

Whilst Bird isn’t the same player as James they are similar, he seems like an obvious replacement and in my view an upgrade. He is more mobile a better passer and a bigger goal threat - James does have greater experience and nouse though.

i think he will be an excellent signing, and im suprised we managed to get him…. A rotating 4 of Bird Knight Williams and TGH is really good at this level. For all his faults one thing BT has improved is recruitment of players. 

The two divisions are very different for quality and tactics. You infer that Warne has been more direct to get them out of League One but he may well adjust the style in the Championship. The same way as most teams who go from Championship to Premier need to recruit better and more technically players.

8 hours ago, Never to the dark side said:

I think football is still adjusting to the effects of Covid,but its this coming season that does concern me.

With five of the Saturday 3pm Championship games being moved for live television coverage

I can see less season tickets and match day ticket sales be purchased.

I still think that the five live planned games will all be kicking off at 12:30pm on saturday

I might find out a little more when I attend the ITV AGM meeting this coming Thursday

You and plenty of others appear to think that almost everyone has able to watch games on Sky TV.

Well, I've never, not ever will, contribute to the thing called Sky TV owned but the very obnoxious Aussie.

6 hours ago, Southend Blue said:

Back in the summer of 1992 (we had just won the old second division incidentally to become founder members of the new Premier League) Leeds United were Champions of England but for the next nine months couldn't win a single league game away from Elland Road, which in retrospect, makes tonight's capitulation over in London something small fry.       Back in 1970 for good measure they looked well on course to win the League (old first division), F.A. Cup and European Cup, but finished with nothing.     They're no strangers to missing out or letting their own fans down, strange sequence of results etc.

Like said before all things can happen at a business end of a season where stakes are at the highest and teams have the most to gain, and at the same time, the most to lose.     That score from London a few hours ago was great for us of course but We're not promoted yet by any measure.

I think after 22 years away from the highest level I would have wanted the team to accomplish the promotion objective by their own continued merits and performance rather than be dependant on other teams scores but fans our end are so eager to make it back and after years and years of abject failure and hideous non-progress many if not all would simply take what they can get to aid the team over the finish line.

There is absolutely no guarantee the team will still finish top two, Hull City need points almost as much as ourselves while Coventry have endured such a horrid last week they'll want to give the fans there something back with games remaining.      Huddersfield at home on the final weekend sounds like a party atmosphere and a win for the taking but what with all's at stake for us, it'll be nothing short of nerves and we're going to have to earn it if three points on the day means a way back to the Premier League.      

Leicester now promoted is all very well and good for them at least, but a week or two back thought they'd blown it and could well have ended up in the play-off games.      We can still finish 1st and them 2nd but we were runners-up in League One last season when really deserved to be champions so it's a similar scenario but in a higher league.     First or Second gets a promotion, many fans here won't care too much with runners-up position, they've been (we have) away from the top league for so long we just a return back and the automatic places will provide it.

Back last August if you had offered the position we're in with games remaining, just about everyone at Portman Road would have chomped off an arm to accept it.     But as again there's still work to do and right now, nothing has been decided and it's going to take further hard work, belief and commitment to complete the job or see this dream or objective really set in stone.  

First time I saw City play Rotherham was in 1952/3 in an FA Cup match.

Both sides had to change colours due to red clash. City lost the toss for white and ended up wearing the Gas blue and white quarters.

We lost, 1-3 Rotherham being a Second Division team while we were Third (South).

We got our revenge in 1957 when we beat them 4-1 in the Third Round.

1 minute ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Have the club released anything formally yet?

But you are one of the City fans with a quirk for anything numerical!

24 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

To be fair, and I know you’re not saying it wasn’t publicised, it was on Twitter and the OS.

 

That is ok if one has or uses X which I don't. Was it on club website in another method?

20 minutes ago, Simon bristol said:

Sounds sensible to me, in the old days we would spend millions on players then never play them, bringing him in for not a lot to have a look at him seems like a good idea compared to what happened with engvall, szomdics et al.

What do you mean by "the old days"? If you mean LJ time here then yes.

Apart from that shambles, I don't remember any time from 1950 onwards that we spent lot's of money on transfer fees and didn't play them.

Some like Hugh McImoyle who were not very good here but we sold him on and got John Galley as his replacement. He did quite well here!

7 hours ago, DaveInSA said:

There was an interesting LinkedIn post I came across the other day, which I will summarise as : DATA is making the world more boring.

They cited several examples, but a couple stood out. In the NBA, nearly ALL of the teams play the same way, points are scored from very specific areas of the court and it’s become dull and predictable as a result. The second was the music industry, within a given genre (pop, country etc) the diversity of music has decreased, there is less innovation and music is working to a “formula”.

What does this mean for football. Well, probably something similar isn’t it? Football is becoming dull. I’m sure that there is a multitude of reasons why, but definitely a cause will be the statistics around “most likely methods to score from” - I think that is called xG for or something.

What I’ve seen with my eyes is something completely alien to me at times. It’s structured. Ponderous. Boring. My enjoyment of football comes from chaos, a lack of structure and being able to thrive in the midst of all of this. I like passion. I like both teams going at it.

I like rugby more than football now as a spectacle. 

Agree with you and I confirm that modern football at the top levels, has become rather boring.

So you consider that rugby is more of a spectacle.

Well I have an ST for Bears and they generally try to play a running, passing game. Others like Quins are similar but the two most successful sides of the last decade, Saracens and Exeter have achieved titles and cups with a dull kicking and scrummaging version of rugby.

Bayer Leverkusen, the Leicester City or Blackburn Rovers of Germany Bundesliga. A small club getting a League title against all the giants and possibly unlikely to ever get so close again?

13 hours ago, Kid in the Riot said:

It's ridiculous to expect a player to know for certain whether they are in an offside position, or not, period.

For clarity, where would you draw the line? 

Firstly, I believe that if there is any doubt about the decision, by linesman or VAR, the decision should favour the attacking side. It is, after all, a game that is played to score more goals than the opponents.

Secondly, I would only make a decision, draw the line, with only one part of the body is taken into consideration. The feet! 

VAR seems to me a very negative thing for attacking football and an encouragement for sides to be more negative in approach.

Another suggestion would be that offside, which was introduced in the very early days of football, should be dispensed with now. Defenders would then not be able to move forward to deliberately play an opponent offside. And the entertainment value of a match may be increased with more goals.

Unable to watch or listen to radio but very pleased with a point at Carrow Road which is not one of our best hunting grounds.

2 hours ago, TV Tom said:

Was a wonderful night, we lost the last game of the season at home to Notts County at AG a few days later

The defeat by Notts County was 100% because the team hadn't been sober all week after the Pompey match!

8 hours ago, OliOTIB said:

Finally pulled the trigger after much deliberation - only kidding, reason I thought about not doing it was thanks to the dodgy stick arriving today

Couldnt do much without City, saved my life before, its all I think about during the week, meeting up with old friends to the half time (0%) Thatchers. 
Trust the process Do we fck, we just love the game.

Been privileged enough to do all but 3 away games this year, and every single home game. All I can say is, Thank you grandad, for introducing me to the game we love and thank  you uncle for introducing me to the drink we love.

Never gets old, Cider heads until we die.

 

I blame my Welsh Dad. When I was six, he took me to Eastville, we went home at half time after sliding down the Muller Road end mud bank, Bristol Rugby, City, Cardiff City and Wales v Scotland Rugby. Then in summer, cricket at Nevil Road and Weston SM for Somerset v Glamorgan.

I soon realised that with all three sports, I'd never be alone anywhere in our country and later the same anywhere on this planet. The match might be crap but always someone to talk to.

52 minutes ago, Nuno Gomes said:

Loftus Road!!!!  Who makes this up?  Marginally better that Kenilworth Road and full of prawn sandwich eaters.

 

https://www.888sport.com/blog/football/championship/ranking-best-stadiums-in-the-championship

 

Clearly a QPR supporter so probably prefers dilapidated, out of date grounds rather than modern stadia with good views of all the playing area and plenty of legroom in the seats.

8 hours ago, pillred said:

Ooh! Let me see, The Land of Donkey Rides, fish and chips, and lots of people from the Midlands on holiday?

Birmingham Super Mare!

2 hours ago, Numero Uno said:

It's an uncomfortable truth that what he will have ended up losing annually, once he sells the club, as a percentage of his overall wealth will very likely be similar in many cases to the percentage of their wealth that most fans put into the club in the form of season tickets, merchandising and the like every season. Some of our fans on minimum wage will be putting in (not investing) a far greater percentage of their "wealth".

I don't know about tax breaks but I do know that owning a football club as a billionaire will lead you to meet people and open doors to pursue other interests in your life that are not necessarily quantifiable in simple money terms. I also know that Steve's money will be working very well for him so if he pumps £15m of his own dosh into the club this year he will almost certainly be spending money that is effectively "Investment gain".

It's not about being ungrateful, it's just recognising that a local billionaire has CHOSEN to do something with his money that HE WANTED TO DO, WASN'T FORCED TO DO and ultimately will cost him around the same, in proportion terms, as any hobby that people on this board pursue. The main difference is that in the pursuit of my hobby I'm not able to turn round and say "it's mine"................

As I've said before, if I had Steve's investment nous and was a billionaire, I would 100% be happy to buy the thing off him and waste a couple of hundred million doing something I would love doing.......I don't though. I'm sure quite a few on here would do the same.

I would do likewise. Often dreamt of winning a £million on the lottery and thinking I would give half of it to City to get some players to take us back where we should belong.

2 hours ago, Robbored said:

I heard that a certain Mr Dyson is interested in either buying or heavily investing in Bristol City.

Probably just wild speculation and rumour tho……..

 

I assume he couldn't have anything to do with the Bears as he funds them down the A4.

1 hour ago, Sir Geoff said:

54 years for me and I can honestly say this is the dullest football I have ever witnessed in all that time.

Couldn't agree more. The quality has varied from the dream results coming true in the First Division to a team of mid teenage boys at the bottom of Division Four. In 1982, I did something that Lansdown never has or never will do. I spent the £90 of cash in my savings bank account on shares to keep City in business. And so did around 2,000 others.

I have little respect now for SL as over 25 years he has spent peanuts on City, City Women and Bristol Rugby. When he completely clears his bank account as I did, I'll grant him some respect. He is taking the piss out of us supporters. Not funding the playing staff to give us a better chance of top quality football.

And employing a head coach who is trying to do the impossible; to play the same style and quality as the Man City's, Real Madrid's with Second and Third Division quality playing staff. They're doing their very best but the style of play that Manning is trying to produce is way beyond our players ability. So send Manning back to Man City where he can coach their thirteen year olds!