Mr Chappers

Forbes did a job in the 4th division, so not in the same category. Julian Watts on the other hand….

Where do we go? Whoever is manager has to sell assets, sort out finances, recruit wisely, play and encourage the youngsters, and hopefully stay in the Championship. Then rebuild in a financially sustainable way.

All part of the City experience, seen it a few times, spend big, spend badly, pay the price a year or two later.

34 minutes ago, CiderJar said:

I agree with this, but the point deductions have no bearing on anything as things stand. Hull, Reading, Barnsley and Peterborough would all still be below us. 

Agree, but it has given us a cushion, taking pressure off the squad. 

Seem to remember OTIB demanding Hughton be appointed saviour and rubbishing Cooper. Forest fans might disagree with that

No magic formula, just right man, right time, right coaches.

Has to be judged according to League, resources etc. Pearson inherited a mess, and has done well keeping us up (With help from point deductions). Personally, I rated Holden, undone by injuries and fan demands for a ‘big name’. 

I’m totally indifferent to Pearson and don’t care whether he stays or goes. Low expectations for next season, just hope that a few younger players develop well, as we have, potentially, a decent squad in about 2/3 years.

No idea why they think Bristol Sport would pay. The roads are nothing to do with them, and why would they want to make customers lives more difficult? Seems they don’t want you using bus, car, train, Metrobus… What DO they want people to use?

6 hours ago, RedM said:

I thought it was one of our better performances on the whole. It was an enjoyable match but even when we scored early you knew that wasn’t going to be the score for long. The longer the match went on in the first half I thought we almost matched them, but as I said I was never very confident. They seemed to have corner after corner but we held them. If we could have got to HT still in front their belief might have drained, but they never looked like a team that lacked in confidence.

They certainly dominated us in the second half. I wouldn’t have subbed off Cundy when we did personally. I thought Martin worked hard and Nakhi did some clever stuff at times but not really on the same wavelength as some of the players around him. Alex Scott again looked a shadow of what he has previously been. Jay put in a few decent crosses. Weimann looked to deep again. 

Bournemouth had tall, quick players and the game was played at pace which was enjoyable. It looks like they will get promoted along with Fulham and the Premiership will again have two sets of the most forced, plastic, fans back. 

Our fans. The majority fully well behaved but again it’s the idiots who let us down. After a full pat down search, bag search and being wanded we got in. I heard of a lone female had to even have her boots checked. But there were blokes by me who were openly drinking thatchers gold from cans they got in, how the hell?

Two objects were thrown on the pitch, a water bottle and before that a plastic glass of cider. There was also a flare when we score but it was let off in the middle of the crowd fairly low down which badly affected a lot of less able people.

Quite a lot of ‘lads’ arrived late, they couldn’t or didn’t go up the back of the stand where they usually gather. Instead they stood on the steps and stayed down the front. They spent most of the time goading the Bournmouth players if they came near ( it was almost touching distance from the pitch) and then they turned on the few Stewards who were trying to get them to stop and find seats. Soon the Stewards gave up and the fans just stayed at this low level. Lots of our less able fans had chosen to sit pitchside and they of course couldn’t see a thing, a few scuffles then broke out bweeen our fans. At HT I saw a few of our fans trying to ask the stewards to move the fans away. I think the feeling was it was ‘safer’ to let them stay there than insist they move. Many of us thinking probably the Stewards aren’t paid enough to want to get involved, Agency staff etc. If there had been a serious incident they all looked like they would have ran a mile and can’t blame them against a load of drunken, and/or coked up aggressive idiots.

 

Spot on. At some point the EFL need to consider safety in away areas, standing in areas designed for seating is far less safe than standing in areas designed for that purpose. I’ve seen quite a few older people bundled over after a goal has been scored, and at some point, somebody will get seriously hurt.

Simple solution is safe standing areas, but that’s probably too easy, and football authorities seem blinkered towards all seater stadia, then ignoring the fact that most away supporters are standing. 

Good report as ever. Bournemouth May have plastic fans, but objects on the pitch (again) and bundling over an older lady in ‘celebration’ are hardly things to be proud of. Someone is going to get seriously hurt soon.

Thought the back 3 all did very well today against tough opponents. Well worth persisting with him whilst we are looking at lowering the wage bill. Raw, but improving with every game.

Shows how weak the Austrian squad is, bang average player just having a lucky streak. Nothing to see here, if your club is thinking of a bid, don’t bother…..

If you think logically, next summer his value is £0.00. We are not in a good financial position, so (hopefully) won’t be offering high wages, therefore logic says that if we get an acceptable offer, he will be sold, bringing in money, but more importantly, reducing the wage bill. Unless there is a bidding war, we will not be in a strong bargaining position.

12 hours ago, Waconda said:

£5 - £10m more realistic. IMO.

I would say a modest up front fee with add ons. He may be promising with high energy, but error prone, gives the ball away far too often, one assist, no goals. The market is far from buoyant right now, except for top talent.

Wow, £10-£20m for Massengo. That’s a bit of a stretch to say the least.

1 hour ago, Wiltshire robin said:

I hope he can make it a success, thought it was a great appointment at the time but we’re so much in the I honestly don’t see how he can have the resources to make it a success. Unfortunately it seems that he can’t win and he’s the one who’s gonna end up taking the blame from supporters instead of those at the top who let us get in this mess .

Success next season should be judged as avoiding relegation.

15 hours ago, Pezo said:

More like:

Year One - Survive - (done)

Year Two - More cuts and somehow still survive. (Pipe dream)

Year Three - improve. (Probably in league 1)

That’s my reading of the situation too, think next season could be very sticky.

I can think of Klose as a signing, replacement for Baker. Who is the other one? Or do you mean Atkinson?

18 hours ago, Daniro said:

Got to agree with all this.

 

James and Massengo were very poor indeed.   I don't see the point of James at all and HNM was muscled off the ball whenever he got near it and he keeps giving the ball away.   Weimann hardly got a touch and scuffed it when he did.

Cundy and Atkinson are big question marks for me at this level.  Barnsley are not a good team and they ran us ragged whenever they felt like it.

Cundy has started just two games at this level. Both were playing Non League football only a few years ago, so may need time to adjust. Doesn’t help that the midfield offer zero protection, and we often have little in the way of full backs.

Maybe because the ‘Groupthink’ on here became a bandwagon, with no consideration of alternatives. There’s also the issue that the squad was very poor, there were financial limitations for signings, and the players that we did sign have been underwhelming. I’m still very undecided, he’s kept a very poor squad up, but looking at the lack of success of the old guard of managers, once we finally stabilise (At least another year), we may well need a change to move forward.

Let it succeed, then most Countries can boycott the Qatar World Cup, which will be no great loss

12 hours ago, Sleepy1968 said:

FIFA showing their true colours. I suppose it was asking a bit much expecting that they'd do the right thing first time around. Shame on UEFA for backing this position. Time to bin them both off.

Could really screw up the Qatar World Cup. You never know, teams might boycott it if any sort of Russian presence allowed. A fitting end to a tournament that should never have been staged there.

Although Putin removed, Russia withdraws from Ukraine, normal service resumed, would be a much better option.

Always happy to see an ex Bath City player doing well. Saw him playing for Cambridge last season and he looked a lower division player at best. However, he has clearly been working hard, and whilst it’s far too early to assess him at this level, early signs are promising.

Cheers Rob, the beer was a lot better than City today. 

7 hours ago, INCRED said:

Blimey, let’s sell the Crown Jewels and more and leave the cupboard bare!!

Wells & Palmer need to be off loaded this summer, Vyner, Odowda & Taylor Moore paid off/released 

HNM is the only one who I can see leaving and is a player who is difficult to fit into a NP style 

Scott & Semenyo are must keeps 

I think NP will bring in a RB, CB and wide player minimum and another midfielder 

 

Easy really, offload players of limited value with high wages, and keep 2 players who could earn much larger salaries elsewhere. What could possibly go wrong?

1 hour ago, REDOXO said:

Yes careful now. You are not allowed to talk in such a way about  HNM here! Luckily Pearson has stated as much about the boys game. Nevertheless he does have substantial value IMO, the question would be is it enough to not have to sell Scott and Semenyo?

Not sure in the current market, I can see it being a low fee with add ons. You have to be realistic, especially with one year of contract left.