ORANGE500

17 minutes ago, Simon bristol said:

We will play them twice next season but thats about the extent of our rivalry with Burnley, they will be top 6 all season, we will be lucky to be in the top half at any point.

We'll be in the top half all season

39 minutes ago, Glen hump said:

They’ll be challenging for promotion we won’t 

I wouldn't be so sure about that, I don't crave premier league football for Bristol City in fact I hate it too much money too many foreign players makes it an International league just based in England but I think City could  have a very good season and will surprise a lot of people not least a section of their own fan base and make a  challenge for at least a play off place.

21 hours ago, RollsRoyce said:

Ipswich save the day 

Ipswich have won the prize of being at the bottom of the league  all next season with more than  a few heavy defeats along the way.signing over priced overpaid mostly foreign players and sacking their manager(currently a hero) around christmas time or perhaps even before.Very cynical view I acknowledge but very true all the same probably why I've never craved premier league football for Bristol City as some of the fans obviously do.

21 hours ago, RollsRoyce said:

Ipswich save the day 

Ipswich have won the prize of being at the bottom of the league  all next season with more than  a few heavy defeats along the way.signing over priced overpaid mostly foreign players and sacking their manager(currently a hero) around christmas time or perhaps even before.Very cynical view I acknowledge but very true all the same probably why I've never craved premier league football for Bristol City as some of the fans obviously do.

1 hour ago, petehinton said:

I absolutely loved Marv. But he was incredible for a season (if that?). What a season it was mind, but for consistency and longevity it has to be Matty for me. 

For those of us with longer memories Gary Shelton was better than both of them so  was the now much lambasted(unjustified imo) Brian Tinnion.

6 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

Yes and I hope we are. 

But a manager saying nice things about another manager.
Rotherham , just got a lesson , so could be saving face by saying we were good.
Norwich , saying nice things and bigging us up as they were expected to win.
Because , hope this doesn't shock people on here, Managers sometimes have agendas .
Then again, they may just be being nice . What do you think the Stoke manager will be saying about our chances ?

I'm judging this game, this game as a possible theme and the season. 

Do you think that Manning started his team talk with " This is a meaningless game lads" ? 
Then Half time;
" yeah we are getting our arses slapped, but it means nothing"?

It wasn't just a bad performance, it was clueless and lacking any organisation . ***
If I wasn't being rational I would have said something like.

That was a ******* shit show Manning is a *** and deserves the ******* sack the ******* ******.

But I didn't, I said , for me the Jury is out , having questioned his decisions. 

 

*** and I know that a large part of today is down to the players too 

Don't care mate this result means nothing and needs no analysing I saw enough more than enough in the games against Leicester and Norwich to know this guy could be successful and have  city challenging at the top of this division. And opposition managers have no obligation to praise another opponent the fact is City played very well against Norwich and their manager was acknowledging that  fact and had noted previous performances not least Leicester.

14 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

I hope Manning learns from that. 
How many times does Sykes have to struggle down the left ?
One change today means we have a fairly balanced team . McCrorie , Tanner and Dickie as CBs and Roberts to WB. At least then Sykes is on his right side.

Here's one , Night-Lebel plays in a meaningless game and we keep the same shape and we have 2 real WB's ?

Why not give Morrison a few minutes when the game is lost ?

Obviously he players have a lot to answer for, but it starts with Manning. 

At one stage, we were losing and getting caught on the break , yet the Commentator mentioned we had 10 players in the attacking third . This wasn't chasing an equaliser in the last few minutes , that is farcical . 

Stoke have picked up lately , but that City performance was so disjointed and lacking leadership we were lucky to only concede 4. No one closing the ball and letting them get shots off as they pleased , no wonder they racked up 20 attempts if no one was closing down. 

There were some lovely moments , let down at the end. The offside goal would have been one of the best of the season. We didn't seem to treat this as a game, this was so undisciplined it was almost like a celebrity game .

Pring was a big miss today , or maybe it was just a genuine WB , there was so much space for them to play in. Roberts is a good footballer , him and Pring have linked well , but he gets carried away at times. Bombing on today with a stand in LWB was reckless . Dickie was a bit off, though he had little support at times. 

It's good that the result meant nothing .The set up of the team , the lack of leadership to try and sort the mess and the gung ho attitude ( on and off the pitch) however, is worrying. 

Why not make changes at half time, send a message ?
No we have to wait until nearly 60 minutes, it's the law. 
When we play well ,we look like we can do something , but those games come with too many shit shows inbetween , for us to make a real challenge next year , not unless there are changes at the top. If not in a new head coach , which is never going to happen ( and for anyone getting their panties in a bunch I'm not suggesting it either) , then it has to be a change in thinking. 
Manning has tried juggling loads of players to keep his favourites in and now he's played someone in his worst position to keep 4 of a back 5 in place. His fear of playing Academy players is worrying , what's the point in having an academy or signing young players ? 

For me the Jury is still out. 

Next test is recruitment , we need to get it done early. Then we can start to see what we have. 

I think it will be a long summer. 

 

The Rotherham and Norwich managers whose knowledge of football might just be on a par with yours take a very different view and said City could be one to watch next season. Perhaps you could have taken a more rational view on this afternoons game and concluded it was completely meaningless and indeed means nothing, 

3 minutes ago, Ska Junkie said:

That was crap but all credit to Stoke, too fast, too direct and we couldn't live with them.

Great turn out from our lot, including bananas, nuns, Mario and Luigi, Ali G, some blokes dressed in suits and Harry Cornick masks and a dinosaur.

Aat least Birmingham went down eh!

Who cares a completely meaningless game don't read anything into it.

38 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

I thought he showed what we could have yesterday,. Not just from him but from that genuine No.10. Conway was much more involved , his runs were spotted nice and early and the link up was good. I know it was "only" Rotherham , but it was really promising.
The problem for me is that I think we will lose them both.
f we could get Twine early enough, it might convince TC to stay ( with a decent new deal obviously ) . I doubt he's enjoyed much of the recent football , he has been starved of chances for a while, but maybe the Club can convince him of the chance of a top 6 push with him at the front and with the chance of good regular service ?  His reputation would grow and he could get that big move he probably wants.
A stretch I know. 
Twine signed a four-year deal in June 2022 , Burnley paid £4m , they will be in the Championship next year. 
That for me does not add up to them taking a cut price £2m or whatever. 

Tommy has also missed a number of chances this season I view him as a decent enough Championship striker but will never score 20 plus goals a season. The club has stated many times they are looking to bring in a No 9 in the summer so if he stays I don't think he will be first choice up front anyway. wish him well if he leaves but won't be overly disappointed .

3 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

We'd won just 3 games in 14 in the league, lost against 2 of the bottom three and put in a drab performance at home against our biggest rivals in the division. On top of which, the "3 straight wins" you talk about is a misremembrance on your part - we won 2 in a row and the league game before that was arguably our worst performance of the season against an admittedly excellent Leeds side.

FA Cup and the 2 game steak aside, our form from late December to early March was utterly atrocious over a 2 and a half month spell. Manning has done a great job of turning it round but there was nothing knee-jerk or unjustified about criticising Manning for our league performances from 29 December to 16 March and I can promise you I'm not going to apologise or feel embarrassed about thinking a manager who was showing relegation form in the league over a third of the season had to answer questions about his future in the role.

For a long time, we weren't good enough under Manning. He's turned it round but it'd be nonsensical to rewrite history. 

Not trying to rewrite history, yes there were some poor performances but there were also some good ones too that were conveniently  overlooked. wanting a manager out after just 3 of 4 months is just plain ridiculous in my opinion whether I backed the previous incumbent or not.

17 minutes ago, Lew-T said:

Yes I think that’s right. But to be fair, we have played Leicester and Norwich in that run in and outplayed both of them.

 

Steady on you sound way too positive you must find a negative somewhere.

20 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

Back in early March, I said that what'd give me confidence in Manning for next season would be 16 points from the last 9 games. It seemed unlikely at the time - this was just after West Brom away and I thought Manning's time in charge was pretty much over bar the shouting - but we've got 15 from the last 8 and would hit that 16 if we get avoid defeat at Stoke. 

Manning has, to his credit, turned it around. As you say, we've got to carry that momentum into next season but I'm a lot more confident and upbeat now than I thought I'd be at this point. 

 

Why exactly did you think after the West Brom game his time was over? he'd only been at the club for about 3 months. Prior to that poor sequence of results over 5 or 6 games were  2 impressive performances against Premier league Nottingham Forest and 3 straight wins culminating in a very good performance against Southampton. The overreaction to those few games from mid February to mid March was totally unjustified and a little ridiculous as most football fans should know managers need time. The slices of humble pie might  be quite sizeable.

18 minutes ago, BS3_RED said:

Are you for real you melt.

Derby boy who came through the academy and Derby are a bigger club than us.

What have I said that's anti City?

 

 

 

City sign a player and you suggest the player would want to cancel the deal to play for another club, no melt(to use your term) not remotely  anti city at all is it. I watched the clip and thought looks like a good player for next season but you had to view it negatively just sums up your attitude towards the club as I said go away and do something else you won't be missed.

1 hour ago, BS3_RED said:

I was thinking the same. 

I wouldn't be surprised if somehow the deal get cancelled. 

Go away and do something else supporting city is not for you

1 minute ago, sticks 1969 said:

Things are starting to look promising 

have a great weekend from captain obvious 

Several good performances against the better sides in the division has gone unnoticed by some but most of us can see very encouraging signs under this manager and with the likely additions in the summer particularly up front next season could and probably will be spent in and around the top 6.

5 hours ago, Sir Geoff said:

Yet again we only started playing after going behind. Yes kept going... for the last 10 minutes to salvage a point against a team that will be relegated.

Well done lads, you never gave up.

Yet again? the first goal conceded in 5 games so haven't started playing after going  behind too much of late have they.

22 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

This is all well and good, but what if he has had a look, and decided that none are Championship standard, and maybe never will be? Just a thought. Maybe Scott, Semenyo, Conway and Bell were the last  of that generation. 

Some people it seems have continuously got to find new sticks  in which to beat the ownership and Liam Manning with.Would never consider that just perhaps this group has been thoroughly assessed and at present very few if any are of the required standard. Who but those with the same tired agenda could possibly think if City had a brilliant player in the academy he wouldn't be fast tracked  into the first team of course he would..

6 hours ago, LondonBristolian said:

Conway has a year on his contract and is playing for a manager who lacks the tactical flexibility and adaptability to get the best out of him. The club aren’t the ones making the choice here.

75 games in the championship 17 goals( quite a few penalties included) under 2 different managers would suggest that he is exactly what he looks very average. I expect the forward line and also the midfield will look somewhat different in August and won't include Tommy Conway, I would sell for as much as possible which ids probably a couple of million at best.

7 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I don’t watch them religiously like I used to, but my gut feel is that we aren’t as good as many suggest.  We have a few very good players, but so do most of the other best 6-8 international sides.

Can we go deep into a tournament?  Yes

Can we win it?  Much less likely.  We are likely to hit a better team than us the further we go.

Are we progressing better in tournaments under Southgate than we have in the past?  Absolutely.  For some that means they think we should win.

Fifa rankings, us and the other top teams.

There are a couple in that list I might fancy us against, but most I’d say we are no better than equal to, some worse than.  

 

I have to disagree with you  that the teams in the list above all have some very good players the standard of international teams has never been lower for instance Italy once had the quality of Baggio and Vieri up front and the Dutch Van Basten and Bergkamp kind of sums it up really .

It's very difficult to accurately assess just how good Southgate's England really are, the qualifiers have become a formality due to the poor quality of opposition you could imagine England book the tournament HQ as soon as the draw for the groups has been concluded.And the very favourable routes to the latter stages in 2018 and the subsequent Euro's has perhaps led to an over estimation of this current group and some now expect England should be winning every game against any opposition when in reality they probably aren't any better than previous eras or maybe not even as good.However most of the traditionally strong nations in  Europe and indeed the world i.e Germany Holland even Brazil  are at their lowest ebb so maybe football will come home this summer but in my opinion it won't be because it's the best England team ever rather a lack of good sides in the tournament.

1 minute ago, IAmNick said:

Probably, because that's exactly why it's hard to feel optimistic at the moment - it's so unpredictable and rare when we'll put in a good performance

I agree it's inconsistent and unpredictable but good performances aren't that rare, the last 6 games have included Southampton and Ipswich a performance that merited at least 1 point and probably all 3. it's nowhere near as bad as you would think based on the views of  OTIB members who just want to find a way to be negative about the club and certain personnel.

7 minutes ago, Offside said:

It’s difficult to feel optimistic about City at the moment. If we avoid defeat it’ll be a bonus. But hopefully the travelling fans will be rewarded with a decent performance and result. COYR

Wouldn't be surprised to learn that you said the exact same thing prior to the Southampton game too

1 minute ago, Jose said:

I said after the first half at West Ham if you want to picky. Nothing I said was negative you if want to get upset about it. 
 

Do you think we lack quality? I think that’s clear to see. Not surprising when you sell your two best players in the previous two windows and not replaced them. 

You said every week not me don't get upset

2 minutes ago, Jose said:

They are awful. If we don’t win this only got ourselves to blame. As always endeavour there just lacking quality. Feel like a parrot as I say it every week. 
Have a feeling fitness will play a part which I think we will come out on top because of. 

Did you say it in the games against Watford and West Ham ?

Just now, Curr Avon said:

Brilliant save from Ward-Prowse.

2 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Very much second best, their technique & movement is far superior.

The maligned Max O’Leary has kept us in it.

I would imagine their wage bill is also far superior to Bristol City's as well  so not really surprising they have better players is it.

6 minutes ago, Alan Dicks said:

I fail to see where the creativity is in this selection.

Mehmeti. Knight , Pring when going forward