Davefevs

It has made a loss last 2 years (at least)!

Ta, wasn’t having a go at your opinion…I said that specifically. I was debating the message in the Protestor’s poster, and it’s ambiguity towards what they are really protesting about.

Blige!

Did any Hope re-appear in the second half though?

Excellent post Neil ?????? comments below….agree with so much of it. Firstly, just want to be clear, I’m very worried about our league position, and take nothing for granted re staying in this division. But I do think we have (as it stands today) enough to stay up. I’d be very disappointed if we went down against my view of the quality of teams around / below us. As I said to @Marina's Rolls Roycein a post over Xmas, if all things being equal to today, Nige took us down, I’d see him as failing and that my belief in him misguided irrespective of what he may have “sorted” off the pitch. My view is that although we are under considerable constraints, the squad (again, all things being equal) should be able to be managed by Nige to safety. I hope that makes sense. I could go on about various scenarios that could change my expectations, but that is futile at this stage. As it stands, all things being equal (I keep saying that, apologies) we have a group of players, no FFP points deduction, no necessity to sell to avoid points deduction, etc. Therefore sitting 19th at the mo on 29 points from 26 games, there is no reason for me to think that we should slip to a point where after 46 games we are in the bottom three and relegated Ok, pre-amble over. Leadership - yep, where is it? The only people showing any at this point is Nige and Tins. I don’t think a CEO changeover is any reason for neither RG or PA to be communicating with us. This isn’t just about being in a transfer window where Tins (as TD) is forefront, and Nige being recipient / involved in the process…and both are communicating clearly on this aspect. It’s about direction of the club, further communicating the transfer window objectives etc. The Chairman continues to do eff-all that is visible to the fans. So I couldn’t agree with you more. Results Business - yes we are, or maybe we should call it a “points business”. Wins are three times as useful as draws, and we do need some, but I’m also very much in the “every point is a good point earned” and two away draws are very important to keeping us ticking over, as is a new-found ability to concede first and get a “result”. Until Coventry and Swansea, we’d only gained one point all season having gone behind. I know a Swansea was cup, so no points, but I will be watching this going forward, as it does give some hope we are battling away…and in our position, battling rather than going under is very important. I don’t worry about things like “our younger players haven’t been in a relegation scrap before”. Let’s judge them on their performances, I trust that their ability will drive the outcomes. The correlation to what we’ve spent does indeed show how badly mismanaged we’ve been, and to me explains why we are where we currently are. Evidence perhaps of the psyche of the modern day professional footballer that when presented with a contract nearing a decision point, that either requires being told they are no longer required or that a paycut is required, that getting optimal performance levels out of them (generalisation admittedly), it seems that we have to accept sub-optimal instead. There will be those who strive to “play through it”, but going back to the ill-judged “we’ll get our value on the pitch” comment we saw not only Diedhiou (who was offered a deal) but all the others performance levels decline. We don’t have a big enough squad / enough quality to overcome accommodating that…so that makes the task harder, when trying to compete. Next couple of games - I’ll take each one in turn and reflect accordingly. Sorry, that’s the boring answer, as is “no game is easy”. To hear Nige Whittle saying he expects 4 specific wins out of next 8, and 4 specific losses, therefore we must get 12 points from those four specific games is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard in a while. Might we not win all 4 but get points elsewhere? The graphic below shows the Championship rarely works like that. You know I don’t like predicting points gained from next x games, because each game is individual, but that had me swearing WTAF at my phone last night. Here what he was saying would / must happen. Relegation - I think it would set us back massively. Although how the new FFP rules get implemented might help us as we’d be one of the bigger clubs. But Lg1 is a tough division. I can’t say much more than that, apart from I’d rather the rebuild carried on in our current division. Early business - Nige can want what he likes. It’s said with complete clarity (and more in aspiration than anything) that we need to sell to recruit. Getting someone out of the door is very hard. There is a possibility that we might reverse that, get someone in and then accept more of a deal (e.g. pay a bit more of a wage contribution) later on to move someone on. We will have to wait and see. I honestly don’t think we are sleep walking, I don’t like the term per se, because I think everyone that matters on the football side is very aware of the situation, but… …we can’t force players out, and we can’t bust FFP and get a points deduction. There is a view that a change of manager resolves it all. It may. It may not. My own view is that I think it’s a bigger risk than letting Nige carry on. Happy for others to disagree. Over-Dramatic - not at all, just expressing your worry, and articulating it well. If I sat here unworried, I’d be wearing blinkers and a sheep-skin nose and too! ???

Ah, you beat me to it.

Louie - it is about the way the club is being run, in so much as they haven’t sacked Pearson. Last night’s SOTC someone tweeted (paraphrased) - we are 9 days into the window, we haven’t signed anyone, there’s no ambition, how can you expect fans to turn up if the club has no ambition. it really shows an ignorance of the situation doesn’t it.

That’s what frustrates me. I totally get why people are a) worried b) don’t think Nige is the right man, etc, etc, but when they present there arguments they don’t even mention the other side of the argument. If someone said “I’m really worried, the longer term results trends is poor, I think Nige should go, but I do appreciate the last few results have been better, the team have showed a bit of fight”, I can get my head around that so much more. On Sound of the City last night, there were a few things mentioned that two of the callers recognised as being reasons why we are struggling, but then completely ignored when giving their view. Or saying they expected 0 points from Burnley / Norwich, but then selectively picking a run of games v points that included those two games. Of course we need points. No game is must-win, certainly not with 20 games to go. Yes, I’d like to beat Birmingham on Saturday, but if we beat Blackburn instead (no guarantees we get anything at all mind you), does it matter that much? We probably need 50 points to stay up, that’s 21 points from 20 games. Yep, there are some opponents where it’s more advantageous to win than lose, to push them back, but it’s about accumulating those points however and whenever we can.

It ought to be a great signing for Lg1. His record in the Champ is 5 goals in 11 (+11 subs) in 1069 minutes. I like his movement, awareness, etc. my only question at this level is why he’s spent so many games on the bench. At Lg1 level for Sunderland last season 10 goals in 15 (+5 subs) in 1243 mins and suffered with hamstring injuries. Was on my summer list, had we lost a striker. Is 24 (25 in April) so a bit of a late developer. Ought to be the difference Ipswich need in getting top two…unfortunately.

No, it’s this Saturday v Brum.

Yes

Reading up on some PFCC (Professional Football Compensation Committee) cases, those cases have used a first team appearance rather than League appearance condition in the main, but it’s not 100% the case, nor would I assume Monaco / City agreed the competition type either.

league games - 73 starts / 26 sub https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/han-noah-massengo/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/536508/verein/698

Moore, Vyner and Kalas v Norwich (h) when Nahki missed a penalty was probably the worst back-three defensive performance I’ve seen at this level. We actually played alright that day, but not those three. It still gives me nightmares.

I don’t think we should dismiss how much Martin did for him last year by taking the more physical defender off of him and allow him to concentrate on outmuscling the weaker defender(s). He’s taking the brunt of a lot of the physical stuff this season.

“Difference maker” Re golf, Ballesteros said he could be scratch left handed from 150 yards in.

Julian Dicks too.

Ooooh, maybe!

I wonder what summer signing Freddie Ladapo thinks, let alone Ahadme…or last summer’s forward signings or Kayden Jackson for that matter? He is more of a magpie than LJ. I get John-Jules is injured. Their wage bill must be huge! Squad morale of those not included will probably be crap too. Yep, we all love a signing, but as above, very few fans look at what elements of the squad are impacted by new signings.

That was gonna be my next point…how would you tell from a bank / card statement that the line saying “Bristol City MOTO” or whatever related to this game….other than the price I guess??.

He slipped / lost his footing as he went to push off. Not that I cared.

Not being a shouter myself (apart from at referees!!) I hadn’t quite appreciated this until yesterday. It made a marked difference when at h-t, Dolman Block A got filled with a group of fans ready to take on Swansea, vocally at least.

Think Nige summed it up, “a lot of this is generated by agents”.

Because a deal is a deal and means someone gets a cut somewhere.

I believe Massengo has recently (as in the weekend) signed up to a new agency.