Davefevs

I thought he hadn't set the levels of early season before Preston as it happens. I think what we've seen (ignoring age) is very typical of a player in his first season at this level. Many players burst onto the scene and then plateau as the demands of the Championship, its quality of opponent, the demands off staying sharp through training when fixtures come thick and fast, etc. So I'm not surprised at all. Plus the re-emergence of Jay Dasilva. I like Pring too, although I think his better displays (on balance) were as LM, rather than LB / LWB. Assuming he's not on the naughty step, then he should kick on again with a good pre-season.

He started the 3 after that? ??

Sorry, boss!

Pring wasn’t in the 18 on Monday either. Might be nothing sinister….first season might’ve caught up with him.

Carry on Cam-Pring not “on the buses”.

Yeah, Straight swap of Benarous for Dasilva I’d guess (Williams for Massengo too).

Tanner in travelling squad

I made that same point earlier.

Seen Ebiowei a couple of times (highlights)….likes a dive. With shit ref Thomas Bramhall in charge today would not surprise me to see Derby get a “sympathy” penalty.

Tinnion cross from memory???

Yeah, I don’t think he’s a bad player either, capable of lots of good stuff….passes the ball well, but I think like several players, concentration / consistency is an issue, maybe a bit of naivety that an opponent might “want it” more and be prepared to “cheat” to get the ball. I don’t go down the line of “he’s Lg1 at best” type stuff. He’s played almost 50 times at this level, and at times has looked perfectly capable. I think his best spell was alongside Ashley Williams, where I thought he really was coming on nicely. It just might be time to move on. Sounds like he feels the same way. If he does, I wish him all the best.

I think power will shift / has shifted a bit though. You are right though, there will be more OOC players. I just want City to be very deliberate with players we pay a fee for.

Could Plange’s omission be a case of Palace asking for him not to play now your relegation has been confirmed, e.g. no point risking injury?

So Mr Gould, we are deducting your club 4 points because you broke FFP. Had you held back the PAYE and NI and VAT you wouldn’t have broken FFP. Unlucky. Not gonna wash is it.

Yeah, although he did mention it a few weeks ago….seems to be “I want power and pace” to sit alongside the right ability level, and then go from there. Feels very much like we are heading 4312 / 5212 (3412). If you put those two “systems” on a piece of paper you could argue that the “DM” in the 4312 and the “Central CB” in the 5212 are the differentiator. I’m not saying it is anywhere near as simplistic as swapping one player for another, but might we be starting to understand the thinking behind those matches where Joe Williams played as a “front sweeper”, i.e. was it a back 4 or back 5, were the full-backs really wing-backs, etc? I guess it boils down to not getting too fixated on formations and player positions, especially when we see lots of mixed opinions on playing Sam Bell at “right-back”. We’ve seen the good footballers in our squad show their adaptability. There was little (no?) moaning about Ayman Benarous coming on on Monday at LWB, whereas he’d been thrown under the bus when played there previously. Just goes to show how a result influences people’s mindset!

You of course may be right, probably are right. I hope that Bristol City try to work to a model that the only players we allow to go OOC are: - players we signed for £0 in the first place - players we signed for small fees that were: signed late in their career, I.e. there was never any expectation of getting a fee in future, or signed so long ago, we’ve more than got our money’s worth (subjective) and have spread the amortisation over several contract extensions (this could apply to larger fees - e.g. Rob Atkinson is still here in 2032 having played with distinction over 10 years) Its a set of aspirations / guidelines that should at least be part of the case for whether to sign a player or not. Letty Matty Taylor (£350k) go for free / OOC is very different to Famara Diedhiou (£5.3m). I don’t ever want to see someone repeat what happened to Diedhiou.

@Mr Popodopolous

Yep, costs ought to be well under control for season 23/24. If we can get through 22/23 with some momentum building, then that season might see the first “attempt” at top 6. I liked his interview yesterday (I generally do though). Bit more insight to what might fuel his recruitment thinking….and I don’t think it will see Pack signing (famous last words!).

Funny you mention Hargreaves….he’s kinda who I want Massengo to evolve into.

Yes, knee injury.

Yep, that final sentence is the killer. As per “rumours”, both Palmer and Wells had offers in January, but loans only….and neither wanted a short term loan. The other option is a loan for their (full) final year with someone picking up a good slug of their wages. Its what we did with Bailey Wright and Matty Taylor. Its not ideal, but it’s not the worst tasting shit-sandwich (not that I’d know!)

The big question imho for the likes of Palmer and Wells (and probably Kalas too) is do you sacrifice some of next season’s wage to get a deal beyond next summer, because next summer you will be on £0 p.w. On the flipside what is the incentive to the player too. Lets just assume: Wells £25k p.w - 32 in June - might someone offer him enough over a 2 or 3 (2+1???) year deal to make it worthwhile him moving on. In pure maths would he take £15k p.w for 2 years? He might for regular football, he might if City paid the residual £10k p.w for the rest of his contract. We might do that if we can get a fee for him. If someone wants him enough to offer him a couple of years they might pay a fee for him. The other option is City renegotiate his current deal down to a lower wage. We saw a similar(ish) scenario with Weimann. There are financial benefits to us smoothing his amortisation out over a longer period. Palmer £20k p.w - 26 in November - he really is at a crossroads. I can’t imagine anyone is going to offer him more than £10k p.w…so he’s effectively sat on 2 years wages. He just needs to decide what he wants out of football. Because a year stagnating at City will mean next summer, he’s gonna struggle to get anything decent. He will end up with offers like JET (comparing situation not players). So if he really wants to keep his career going at a good level, he needs to bite the bullet. Kalas £25k p.w - 29 in May - probably the player with a sellable quality. Might not get £25k p.w but certainly good enough to get something decent, and the club get a good fee for him. Either that, or he re-contracts here and smoothing his amortisation plus hopefully a reduced wage helps City’s finances. I’m not worried what really happens with Kalas, we either sell or extend.

Yep, I think the OP is not really qualifying the use of the word “most”. Most , being more than half, will still be here. He also said there won’t be a major overhaul, so we aren’t gonna see a dozen leave for example.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/may/28/premierleague.championship

Do you think Cadden could step up? There’s some things I really like about him, but whether he can have the same impact at Champ level I’m just not sure. He’s on my long list anyway, as he’d certainly be attainable.