Bedred31

It was the ‘music to the ears of City owner Steve Lansdown’ quote that struck me. Innovation, cross jurisdictional experience with Saatchi and the military, young minds developing new initiatives. He just can’t let it go, SL.

Just loved the groans of disappointment at Maidstone when they heard they’d got Ipswich away.

Thought Sky’s analysis hit a new low on Monday with Merson’s explanation for Rooney’s failure, viz that ‘they’re not his players’.

Love these- thanks for posting. And good to see that Graham Taylor’s remembered.

My junior Somerset CCC membership was also £10 a season. All the live sport you could want for twenty notes a year.

I was in the ‘schoolboy’s enclosure’! 50p a match or £10 for a season ticket.

Actually, not bad- and Chapman et al sound like they’ve done a bit of homework.

Football’s a results business, though some managers buck this a bit/ for a bit by personality, the new manager bounce and a background of proven success. Interviews like this suggest that LM’s going to be dependent entirely on results and I rather fear for him.

Big six weeks coming up for the Lansdown’s. They absolutely own this and it’s now up to them to back LM in the January window. Never easy in January, to be fair, but a couple of strong prem. loans would send a signal. Preserving the ‘nice little nest egg’ would send another kind of signal.

Surely it’s possible to maintain some sort of retail happy medium. The old shop of the 1970’s was a football nerds wet dream (I know, I dreamed). Every home and away programme, photos of every player in the squad, along with every sort of pen, key ring, mug, badge etc. Yet- absurdly, bizarrely- no kit. You had to go to a small shop in town for that. Now, it’s like a sterile corner of a retail park JD sports, only without the stock. Don’t even sell retro shirts ( a lot of prem clubs do a roaring trade in these). Is it lowest common denominator profit analysis or does the person running really not have a clue?

Any pundit with the ability to include Liam Manning and George Bernard Shaw I’m a single sentence gets my vote.

The older I get, the more I’m convinced that footballers are, at heart, just children. They may say they want to be managed by a cool older brother or someone to enjoy a pint with, but in reality they really want and respond to a solid father figure, someone with experience, stern but kind hearted and fair, someone whose praise is hard to win but the more valuable for that. Like I said, the I’m getting old.

Good point this. We’ve developed a generation of English players who are comfortable receiving the ball, comfortable on the ball, even under pressure, and good at seeing and making short passes. But we have v few capable of getting past opposing players, and the desire to retain possession militates against the long forward ball and risky defence splitting pass. Basically secure possession based secure football, at the expense of adventurous attacking.

Often pleasantly surprised how good stewards can be at away grounds to visiting supporters in need of assistance. Those at Millwall were fantastic with my elderly dad ( who was recovering from an op.) a few years ago. Hope ours are as good.

Cambridge U- ground was pretty poor, but the walk across the water meadow and that little bridge over the stream… Also Aldershot years ago- all the turnstiles were at one end and you could walk all the way around the ground. Most memorable- bizarre: that extraordinary walk to the away end at Vicarage Rd/ Watford.

‘Align’ doing a lot of heavy lifting in this presser.

If this works- and it may- I think it’s fair to say we’ll be very happy and, honestly, a bit surprised. If this doesn’t work- and our history suggests it may well not- I won’t be particularly surprised and, honestly, pretty resigned to disappointment. Such is the reality of the last ten years or so.

Used to really enjoy going to Oxford. ( Except, I think, one game that was abandoned at half time for fog?) Old ground was authentic and atmospheric, although the club was too tight to print tickets so you had to roll up an hour+ in advance to be sure to get in. Now I think it’s another New Den in fields and next to a dual carriageway.

I gather that Mark Watson was inadvertently locked out of his own venue last night. Strangely reassuring that there is another Bristol organisation ( aside from the Gas) where the management is more hapless than City.

Growing up during the 1970’s I recall periodic Points West stories along the lines of ‘clearing out grandads house and found a 1909 programme in a drawer and now it will auction for hundreds as it was United’s first final and some of fans have a lot of money etc’. ( I’m not a programme expert but I think there were several versions and the glossy one goes for big money.) As an aside, my g grandfather also died at Arras- I gather the North Somerset Yeomanry were involved and shelled badly.

My kids catch the wrong train all the time. If the phone/ Trainline says it’s platform 3, then it’s platform 3, even though the station board/announcer and their basic sense of direction tells them that that train is going south ( to London) and not north (to home). I’m on first name terms with some of the ticket guys, as I try to explain over the phone why they don’t have the right ticket for the journey they’re inadvertently taking.

Manning’s playing style can work well in the lower leagues- and catch the attention- but it tends to get found out in the Championship, where teams have players more capable of exploiting the gaps between the three centre backs and behind the wing backs. Cotts experience in 15/16 springs to mind. At the very least, hope this chap has a plan b.

Young, intelligent, articulate, innovative, ‘outside the box’ modern, inexperienced, particularly re the division we’re actually in, may struggle to manage the big personality older pro., will have at least £10m to spend in January, in charge until next autumn , when we hire an older, established, experienced manager in a hasty attempt to balance the books and steady the floundering ship. Aaaand… repeat.

Nor Eustace, according to the same blog. Methinks there was no plan and, insofar as there was a plan, it isn’t going to plan and, moreover, although an ad hoc plan may be under construction, nothing is certain on the planning front. At the end of the day it will be whoever’s available, affordable and willing, which may turn out to be a short and fairly unattractive list.

Define ‘buzz’.