cidered abroad

Is it a rental in the accepted sense (like renting a house) or the costs that we would have incurred that are now done by Bristol Sport - former employees of City now employed by Bristol Sport to maintain stadium, ticket sales etc. I assume that EFL FFP rules will not allow a club to avoid these costs?

I believe that you are incorrect about City paying rent to play at Ashton Gate. Before the advent of "Bristol Sport", City were the only club using the stadium. Thus all the ancillary services like stadium/pitch maintenance, ticket sales, refreshments, stewarding etc, were done by employees of BCFC. But now all these functions are carried out by employees of Bristol Sport. Bristol City FC make a contribution to cover their share of these costs. As do Bristol Bears and probably Flyers basketball. So we almost certainly, pay less for this than we would have if we were still the only team using the stadium. And because of the significant increase in income from sales, City are benefitting much more than they did. Income from hospitality is considerably more than it was before the stadium rebuild. So to claim a negative that we pay rent to play at our stadium is incorrect. I also suspect that because FFP for EFL Clubs and Rugby Salary Cap rules are so different, that we get a significant, larger share of share of hospitality income than Bears. The fact that the stadium is owned by Bristol City Holdings, a non trading company set up by Des Williams board after the 1982 fiasco, to ensure that never again would there be a risk of losing it via bankruptcy, I know that SL is the major shareholder in all things City, Bears, Flyers and any others so he "owns" the stadium but it is still separate from any other company that uses the stadium. PS. If any if the financial wizards on this Forum believe that the above fact are wrong, I'm very happy to be corrected

What a complete plonker we have as a chairman!

As you say @IAmNick we've not had a settled team at all, apart from the front three since Semenyo returned from injury. As for defending, I have an opinion that our major problem is that we have neither a centre half nor central midfielder who are "Organisers". In fact if you think back ten to fifteen years, we haven't had such a person in the back line since Louis Carey and only two or three in midfield with Marvin Elliott, Wade Elliott and Brownhill. Don't get me wrong, we've had dominant defenders like Flint and Kallas but both are " Doers" not leaders. And decent midfielders but again no leaders. Recent signings are young ones with potential. But does anyone know what Massengo will do when he gets the ball? Not criticism, just how I see him. He's still only young and will improve We still have four or five in the squad who are sucking the life out of us with an annual total pay package of around £5 million. Until we can sort that out, we'll continue to struggle to find consistency with the number of young ones doing their best and making costly mistakes.

Factually correct but you may not be taking into consideration that Matty James and Andy King were also recruited to be leaders in the dressing room. The team spirit has been a significant improvement on the two previous years.

City took around five thousand to MK in Cotterill's promotion season. I know, because I have as there.

YES . TWO BOOKABLE OFFENCES. GOOD REFEREEING.

Change of original date? (Due to Wales v Scotland on Saturday afternoon?)

Albert Adomah is a complete person. Works hard for the club he is representing yet with a smile and personality that could not be dented even if he scored the winning goal against one's own team.

Appeared that he bottled the challenge for a ball that, to me, seemed comfortably to be his ball. I assume that is why Fleming pulled him off or was it yet another injury?

@ScottishRed There is little that one can say to anyone who's child dies before parents and or grandparents. Thank you for your thoughts and how your son would have reacted. The same way as the majority of decent people. But st wishes to you and your family.

I have that Cardiff programme and a Sheffield U. I'll look them out. House a bit chaotic with DIY.

My father also saw both Wedlock and Atyeo. As Dad grew up in the Rhondda, son of a father born in Claverham, he only saw the former when visiting his uncle (his father's brother) who lived on Coronation Road. He said it was very difficult to compare them at different positions and era's

A real privilege to have seen his first and last games and a few hundred in between. To have travelled on trains with the team, when he was always willing to talk with us, never refusing autographs for anyone. And after he had retired, always approachable before and after matches in the car park. A Legend is not enough to describe him. On a train back from Cardiff after a 1-0 win, a current England player, he admitted in front if his teammates that he had a stinker in the previous home game when we lost 1-4 to Sheffield United. That's how big a character he was.

I agree with your last paragraph. But something keeps nagging me in that he is a quality international centre back who we should treasure, yet his lack of leadership is a significant factor in the way that we are unable to clear crosses from our six yard area. Plus the fact that neither keeper appears comfortable in coming even to the edge of that six yard line. Additionally we have a midfield that are now seeming better at creating attacking moves than providing shelter for our back line. I hope Pearson has a clear vision of who and what he needs to solve it because I don't have a clue.

That was my only visit to Bloomfield Road. Cheesley was struggling with a knee problem and if I remember correctly, he was subbed. In the following August in the game with Stoke came the injury that finished his career and I've always wondered if the original cause was earlier than most realise. Not a happy hunting ground for City.

Unless the player is determined to jump at the first offer of a Premier club, we should do our absolute best to hold on to the crop of young one's. Pearson is probably advising or wanting to stay here in the first team in the toughest second tier league in the world. They will improve quicker in our side rather than playing under 23 at a Premier club or being loaned out to another Championship club. If they stay, improve significantly in a year or 18 months, we will get much higher offers and they will be nearly ready to go straight into a Premier club first team squad with a fatter weekly pay cheque. And we could be taking them to the promised land anyway!

Don't want to spoil an excellent thread but I consider that McInnes also began the recovery by dumping long serving players who were running the club and giving Joe Bryan his debut within a short time of arriving at City.

O'Dowda! He has promised so much but never delivers. Hits crosses wildly and so rarely accurate and his attempts at shots are feeble to say the least. Yesterday's wild shot over the bar is a typical example.

And I can just about receive a dodgy commentary, consistency wise, living in Burnham on Sea. Why was the Gas match on channel 719, the only way one can receive a radio commentary apart from paying BCTV for a stram that is about three minutes behind time. Radio Bristol? Awful coverage of their region's largest club by a country mile.

The fact that it has taken him twelve months to arrive at this level of performance, emphasises how bad we were a year ago. Every footballer makes mistakes. The teams that makes the fewest are usually in the top three or four. I'm looking forward to next season

We are all very disappointed but we should all consider that twelve months ago, we would have been hammered away to Preston. The green shoots of a revival are now very visible. We are playing as a team and even though individual errors occur, each of the current squad of "Old Men" and Bristol City Babes are beginning to look like a football team again. As someone posted a day or so ago, this could be the first time in living memory that we have rebuilt WITHOUT a visit to the Third Division! PS. Welcome to both centre halves making their City debuts.

@Jerseybean Edit the spelling of Finley in the "Preston" paragraph Probably an auto spelling change.

I am surprised that so many City fans have criticised the recruitment of more experienced but older players. Do they genuinely believe that it was stupid? Compare City to any organisation or middle to large company in any branch of industry. The ages range from very young to approaching retirement because the young ones are there to learn from their elders. Occasionally the young ones will replace the seniors because even though they have less experience, they have better ability. Gerry Gow and now Alex Scott are prime examples of this. Initially they will make more mistakes than the elders but so long as they learn from those mistakes, they will, in a year or two, be way ahead of them. Thus, this season, so long as we do not implode and get relegated, has given so many City young ones, the chance of quicker progression than under any manager since AD. We will see the true benefits in the coming months and years.

I hadn't thought of it that way but well said to remind everyone. Usually Division Three but also Division 4 with TC. Assuming, and nobody is 100% sure yet, that we stay in the Championship, this year will be the first that is similar to the building of a squad in the Alan Dicks days from 1970/71/72. Those years followed the three years of scraping enough points to stay up. At the end of this season, if all goes well, we'll have had three more years of "scraping by" and we should be able to look forward and a bit higher than 17th in the Championship