Numero Uno

**** me, I never thought we'd concede at 4:15pm on a Thursday..........................

Give the bastard Life.............................

When you put your body on the line for £9K per week like Baker does and end up in hospital then some selfish little turd on over £25K per week who has been producing sod all for months and can't even square a ball into the middle to earn a useful point away from home in what club would that NOT create tension? Unfortunately I think the answer is ONLY BRISTOL CITY............we have far too many softies in the dressing room when it really needed someone to grab the culprit by the neck up against the dressing room wall and fill him in afterwards. It does happen at other clubs, that is fact, and doesn't get reported..........but not at ours, that is also fact, because nobody gives that much of a shit.

Put it another way, would the club going out and watching games be more likely more often than not to get in first than the amateur outfit derided by Agents as having no presence and who have been working off a database on their club laptop? There is no defence for our recruitment set up - it's amateur.

I suppose the question is, in how many games is it, when has Massengo scored from one yard let alone 30? I'm pretty sure he hasn't scored once yet, not ONE single goal in two and a half years, some potential that is - Scott has beat that and so will Benarous over the next few weeks. Even George sodding Tanner has beat that. When has he assisted one goal, let alone sprayed Hollywood passes about? Why is he behind an 18 year old kid in the set piece taking order? Have you ever seen him go past a couple of players and then follow it up with a FINAL BALL? Does he sink a few tackles and stop the opposition playing? Add all that together and I don't see anyone paying us £10m to take the lad off our hands, or even £2m for that matter. He seems to be a "nearly but not quite" player to me. Almost does something great, nearly had a great game blah blah. For clubs to pay £10m for a young midfield player, which is the sort of dosh we would be looking as a return on Massengo given the outlay, there would have to be some evidence that the kid can take a game by the scruff of the neck. With Massengo there are bright bits of play but I'm struggling to see what he actually does in terms of affecting the game. I would rather not say that but I'm struggling to think anything else.

I agree, we’ve got a squad who aren’t worth a light in transfer fees and on recent form that includes the glued to his line goalkeeper.

Who would buy him for the money we would need to sell him for?

Shite goalkeeping though.

They’re all ******* off now??

The crying shame in all this is not only did SL not “see through him” he told the supporters who had seen through him that they had got it all wrong. Truly remarkable. To not acknowledge an error is one thing but to compound it by pretty much saying you were right all along and everyone else is ignorant…….

Only if you're a bit dimp and lack perspective..................

Whilst it gives a good background to the alleged event one guy's word was probably considered too flimsy to charge him with racially aggravated assault..........

I bet it's a sea of purple and lime down Botswana High Street....................

I think the point is that the structure we have (or certainly did have under our last Fraud of a CEO) doesn't help us. Scouting players is about doing the hard yards and sending people to hundreds of games every season, it's not done on spreadsheets. If you aren't out there watching these players you can bet your bottom dollar your rivals will be. I'm sure many scouts will tell you they probably have to watch those hundreds of games to find that one player who they look at and think "with the right coaching there's a player in there". Sometimes you might be unsure and have to watch a player three or four times before deciding either way. On occasion by being out and about and developing contacts you get players recommended to you perhaps by scouts at top clubs who have looked at a player and think "he's just a little bit short of what we need but the kid can certainly play". You don't get random telephone calls with that information, you need people on the scouting circuit networking. That's the nature of the job and always has been yet the previous CEO of the mighty Bristol City FC seemingly thought they could bin all that and recruit from behind a laptop..........

And of those 14 five are no longer at the club and at least two more would be shown the door tomorrow by many supporters!!

Regardless of how often @Harry makes his points the fact is that having no Head of Recruitment and/or Chief Scout is saving pennies in the wrong areas. Extremely short sighted and I'm afraid that is on the hierarchy who allowed Swiss Tony and his "Excel Special" to completely hoodwink them. Put another way would having Danny Simpson in the squad OR both a Head of Recruitment and Chief Scout be a better use of cash because there probably wouldn't be much difference in the wages? If you really wanted to go to town you could say for the wages of Kasey Palmer we could probably hire a whole UK wide recruitment operation!!

I am totally in the same camp as you BUT I do understand people who look at the performances of our players sometimes, like Bakinson's atrocious "effort" yesterday, only days after getting a contract extension, and think "what a bunch of obnoxious, carefree, selfish, largely uncommitted and just simply dislikeable shithouses many of them are". You've got the likes of Baker on one hand who probably gives too much to get a result to the detriment of his own future health and then you look further up the pitch and up pops our "marquee Centre Forward signing" - a stupidly overpaid, absolute stinking shithouse who couldn't even put the team first and execute the most simple of passes yesterday when it counted. I really am hoping that Nige sorts the scumbags in our squad out and there are still way too many of them for my liking but if he is doing that there are very few obvious signs and it seems to be a very slow process. January will literally define our medium term future imo.

That’s not what he meant at all. Plenty on here have played the game and done a job for their Manager at 90% fitness and not only doing it for the Manager but because the shirt means something. He’s obviously talking about players with minor niggles not hamstring tears or twisted ankles. Straightforward enough to understand where he’s coming from.

Bailing us out is different to paying gardening leave and the wages of yet another manager who he is setting up to fail. I suspect he’s had a guts full of paying gardening leave out of his own sky rocket. Whether you agree with that stance is irrelevant imo. I don’t necessarily think the answer is what you think it is but I cannot disagree with you that we are shite, the football is shite and years of not enjoying matches and celebrating “shithousing” as a badge of honour are ruining my love for the game. I was wondering whether I would be in a minority of one but you obviously see it the same?

Palmer is a waster and will hopefully never put our shirt on ever again tbh.

Therein lies the problem of a smug owner. You will get back what you dish out. It’s his club and your money is your money, works both ways.

You can hold him accountable all you like but if Mr Owner isn’t prepared to dip his hand in his pocket he won’t be replaced and that’s that.

I’m starting to wonder how good Massengo is. What does he actually do? When has he scored a goal or created a goal? What passing range has he got? Can he shoot? Does he look after the football? Does he dominate a midfield or even sink a few tackles? Scott has more effect on the game and he’s a kid.

The problem is if you allow people to bugger off you sure as hell will struggle to replace them or get them back. Telling people to **** off is not the answer but the problem we have is nobody running the club has an answer.

That’s probably not a million miles out in reality but from a personal perspective I want to see at least a couple of wasters moved on or at least attempted to be moved on. If Nige is either not afforded that luxury or is not prepared to do that then I have to question why bother?