Davefevs

Eff me, foot like a traction engine!

Elijah Morrison (16), part of this year’s intake…already getting minutes at LWB in the u21s, starting a couple. A few people at the club very excited about him, Tins especially. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bristol-city-u21-player-ratings-7770551

Kadji I’m guessing. 3/5 letters correct…but like playing hangman!

I don’t see why not. @Lrrrany reason why he can’t. It’s not like he signed after a given date or anything like that.

@Alessandroall very fair (probably all correct too!) responses. ??? I think my issues with Morrell and Moore (brought in, not academy) was that they got sent out on loan, replaced by loanees themselves, who then didn’t get played either. Why not just keep them around? My biggest gripe was Hinds. I’d have let him carry on “riding the wave”, playing here and there (if only off the bench), training every day with Reid…and see what happened.

Unless you’re a Luton fan, he’s a very dis-likeable (is that a word?) bloke. Plays the victim. That won’t wash in the PL. Will be interesting to see how he does. Credit for what he has done at Luton though.

Can have 9 subs too. u21 game at 1pm…that’ll be our first insight. A reasonable chance Massengo makes the 20 you’d think?

Away side get a free Camping holiday

I think what we need to be clear about is that the Academy do a v.good job in the main of developing players in their early years. It’s largely irrelevant who was first team manager when a youngster joins at 8 for example. When they get around 18/19 (some earlier, some later) that’s when they have have to 1) show what they can do and 2) need to be given a chance. The link between Nige, Tins and Academy is really strong. We heard Tins (at the fans forum) say about the almost daily conversations re which players are needed to join in first team training. Some stay, some are asked by name for future sessions. It’s not all about the appearance in the first team, it’s the progression from u21s into first team training initially. I never thought Benarous was anywhere near getting on the pitch last season, but he spends a couple of months with the first team training group, and when he gets his chance (not Barnsley sub!!) he is able to take it. That’s what’s looking good at the mo’, that bond…and the opportunity. I still go back to my “one loan too many?” article I wrote for the BP, and thought that we took too long to give players a chance.

The new one, or the houses where the old one was!

Yep, Cotts took Kelly to Portugal with him pre-season 2015, think he was still 16. I watched him at Ironmould Lane in the Community game and he looked better than Derrick Williams!

Pelling was relieved of his duties shortly after, so either he was the scapegoat for JL, or it was him! ??? It was gonna be an unbalanced wage structure anyway with promotion. If we’d have got Gray and Maguire on 4 year deals for example I don’t think a combined £6m (£1.5m p.a.) would’ve been too bad.

There are 4 spaces in the club’s car park still going on the OS. At £20 it’s daylight robbery, but it’s an option.

….and not play them either! ??? Playing Devil’s advocate…I guess it makes no difference what has happened to a player afterwards, lack of opportunity at the right time might be the reason they didn’t prosper here. As for examples… i think he could’ve used Joe Morrell more, it could’ve been the making of him playing with Pack or Smith or Brownhill to give one a rest. Zak Vyner too. Played 30-odd games in the Champ for Rotherham then got sent to Aberdeen. Yes, not a huge amount of capable players, but we also spent money bringing in “Academy” age players to fill the gap, Hinds, Bakinson, Moore, J.Smith. Moore did get a go in fairness, but only after a good few loans. I’ve not included Pring or Nurse as they weren’t really under consideration at that point. But maybe they could’ve been fast-tracked in the right environment.

Yes. John Pelling. The story is Cotts / Burt had agreed a fee and wages for both Gray and Maguire, something like £4m / £14k and £2m / £10k (it’s a long time ago now). They went off on holiday, expecting Pelling to complete the deals. But Pelling thought he could do a better deal and tried to negotiate down. Brentford said, we’ll tout him around then, Burnley got interested. Hull said if you want to play silly buggers it’s now £4m. Cotts was fuming, City tried to compete with Burnley, but the price was now £6m, Gray wanted £18k and he chose Burnley. There was a video where he looked really choked up / angry…might’ve been after the Yeovil friendly. Maguire could not be resurrected. Whilst trying to keep the fire burning with Brentford / Gray, we tried to get Gayle from Palace. It looked as if a £6m fee (rising to £9m) was acceptable to Palace, but Gayle never had any intention of coming here. I don’t believe we were ever trying to sign both, we had Kodjia already.

Soft spot for the Terras, used to spend pretty much every holiday in Weymouth.

Because you’re a misfit!

Think that would constitute a good crowd, seeing we have sold over 20k for Watford, and the traffic around Bristol for an evening match.

Worth a read!

A good few West Country teams still in the hat: 2. FGR 16. Chippenham 30. Exeter 31. Torquay (or Derby) 32. OFFTN

Moore picked up a hernia injury early on here, tried to play through it, but needed an op. For me, Robinson should’ve played off of Kodjia more often, alternating minutes with Wilbraham. He was sharp. Cox seemed to be a loan to point a message at the board. Bennett and Baker were good. Hamer had crisp-packet hands but was brilliant v Boro (a).

Good recall. ??????

Beat me to it

We signed the following in the summer of 2015: Kodjia - £3m(ish) Fredericks (short-lived) - £250k in / out Hamer - loan Baker - loan L.Moore - loan Robinson - loan Cox - loan Bennett - loan (after Fredericks left) We missed out on Gray and Maguire (Gayle never wanted to come here, even though we tried).