Maldini

Rumour has it that Bajic will get 45 mins.*

Which means his chant can finally be used,

It's a kind of Bajic, to the tune of it's kind of magic. 

*I've just started this rumour 

14 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Aye, that’s fine.  I can only go on what I know…and in this case it’s nothing.  Not that I doubt you, I just can’t jump on a bandwagon.

Tea

The Binman trying to get you on side, Dave? I'm surprised you didn't ask him what happened with Pearson. Any interesting things you can share form your meeting?

2 minutes ago, BigTone said:

With all the tips on here @Maldini will need 5 weeks rather than 5 days.

If only! 

6 hours ago, The turtle said:

Torre de Belém.... The face of Portuguese history

(Check out the monestery walking distance away from the torre, and if you're into football stadiums belenenses just behind.

IMPORTANT

Pastéis de Belém = in the cafe named as such; incredible and cheap (This is the only place that can be the true name- everywhere else you're having DE NATA

Bairrio alto at night is worth a visit - a real Portuguese experience (be warned you have to go up up and up) and not everywhere there accepts card as payment, be sure to ask.

The view of the bridge at sunset at the river end of Praça do Comércio is incredible 

Most of lisboa is actually pretty new since 1755 earthquake, for a taste of history ... Check out lisbon cathedral and alfama distract as it's the historic part of the city.

Close by - Castelo de S. Jorge. It's highly recommend. - sadly I couldn't go there, as my 2am night out turned into 7.30am (welcome to lisboa) so that morning was out.

 

.........

Finally 

Check out pink street in the early evening - then leave. Do not drink there. Worth a view, feel disappointed, then leave (then return in the late late hours if so wish)

Hero! Much appreciated, Turtle!

We did Porto a few years ago. Cant comment on trips outside the city but would recommend a port tasting tour, and this football club near the main bridge is a great viewpoint for a beer https://maps.app.goo.gl/LV2e8hRmgqcU8AKh6,

Also second @petehinton advice to do a walking tour. We always do a free one (you do tip the guide) and ask for recommendations. 

Loved the tiles on the front of buildings as well. Came back wanting to do ours!

14 hours ago, petehinton said:

Had 3 days in Porto & 4 days in Lisbon last month, very jealous! Here’s my list I put together of where we wanted to try before. 
 

Neighbourhood, Musa, Dois Carvos, and Bonjardim would be my ‘really try and go’ picks. 
 

Try and do a walking tour too. We do them everywhere we go now, and it’s easily the best way to see the best parts of the city no matter where you are. 

Amazing, thank you Pete!

14 minutes ago, Pickle Rick said:

We enjoyed the Time Out market. So much food to pick from and you get live music too.

Also you should experience their trams. You can get one that more or less does a tour, but make sure you’re on the first stop as it can get busy.

If you want to diversify it from the city, get the train from Cais Do Sodre (in Lisbon) and head toward Cascais. You will find so many beaches and areas you can hop off and enjoy. The train runs right along the beachfront for most of the 40 min journey.

Estoril is on this line and has a snazzy casino. Apparently it inspired Ian Flemming’s James Bond and Casino Royale.

I went and watched Sporting Lisbon on one of my visits. It was quite an experience when they sang You’ll Never Walk Alone in Portuguese!

Top man! Thanks Pickle!

Heading off to Lisbon on the 21st for 5 days. 

Any suggestions for must see sites, bars etc.

Hoping to watch Sporting v Vitoria.

Cheers

Liam Mannings Boring Army

Djuric.

1 hour ago, Kid in the Riot said:

I think some probably underestimate just how much he (and friends) are involved in the day-to-day running of the club. And have been for 10+ years.

He's certainly not doing it against his own will. 

At the same time I'm sure he doesn't want to be front and centre as he pretty much is now (along with Tinnion).

And this has long been the dilemma of the Lansdowns. How to retain absolute control without it appearing so...hence the constant chopping and changing in strategy and personnel. 

They want someone like Nige with his experience and guile, but also someone malleable they can control like Manning.

And the circus continues to circle... round and round we go. 

Can you expand on the first paragraph about day to day running and his mates being involved? Appreciate you may not be able too.

Pretty sure his fitness issues were all due to poor treatment.

He was immense. Never seemed to lose a header. Such a shame. In my gutted they didn't work out XI.

Binman is back wooo

1 hour ago, glynriley said:

A wonderful player (some might say a legend), highly thought of as the leader of the academy, producing a steady stream of good young players coming through into the first team. All going well, and you had the respect of the fans.

Then you and the Chairman, it would seem, have cooked up an idea to rid the club of all the experience, Alexander, Pearson & Fleming, to employ an "on the grass manager" with no experience of the level.

You've lost all your credibility with a large number of fans, and gone from "Tins" to "Sid" and "The Snake". You've tarnished your legacy, and from what I gather, have now closed your twitter account. Hardly owning the decision is it?

For your, and all our sakes, I hope Manning can make a success of the job, or you will forever be remembered for this last act of skulduggery.

Et Tu Brian.

So fed up of reading these “Sid”, “Snake” and “Crayola/crayon boy” names for Tinnion and Lansdown.

The correct names are Binman, sacking of Pearson. And Pantsdown. I mean it in the following definition not in any weird sexy underwear mishap - to be caught with your pants down means to be caught unawares in a situation to which you are completely unable to respond, react, etc. This expression means much the same as being a “deer in the headlights” except that the situation of the person caught with their pants down is highly embarrassing or potentially damaging, etc.
 

I wonder if Pantsdown genuinely thinks hes up to the task, and has the skills, qualities and experience to lead with the Binman, as Pinky to his Brain. 

2 hours ago, Harry said:

4 words. 
Conor Hourihane. 
Solomon Wheatley. 

Can you expand on this please @Harry?

Hi Jerry, 

What date is the forum this year?

Cheers 

3 hours ago, petehinton said:

Holden & Andy Rolls put a huge, career defining dent in the lads future with the way they managed his first few injuries sadly.   

Can you expand on that?

On 27/09/2023 at 07:26, GrahamC said:

Bit of a tangent but surprised no one has highlighted that young Nelson is on the bench for the first team but doesn’t ever play for the 21s.

He’s not injured but I was told there is a specific reason for this.

With Zak now injured & Weimann back far more logical to me to have Knight-Lebel on the bench instead as defensive cover but Nige clearly has his own reasons.

Can you reveal the specific reason? 

Apologies if I've missed this but what is our actual recruitment/scouting set up at the moment? Think I read a post that the head is someone who hasn't scouted before? Any idea how many scouts we have? How does that compare with the average for a champ side?

Also, why were the club interested then dropped the fans scouting group Harry is involved with?

13 minutes ago, CyderInACan said:

Loved Da Baron’s work. There was a textbook example by my old gaff on Palmyra and he once did a huge piece along the walkway on Gaol Ferry Bridge. Not to mention the classic “Lewis the Bad Off Baron” when he really was at the peak of his powers. 

BS3 legend 

What’s the story on Lewis Da Baron? Remember seeing his name everywhere back in the day. Who was he? Why did he stop?

Awesome! Thank you @PHILINFRANCE, @Kid in the Riot, @cidercity1987, @Red-Robbo, @Port Said Red and @Selred!

Really looking forward to finally getting away and checking out these suggestions!

The forum  The posters 

Thinking of checking out a game in Budapest on the 19th of March. Ferencváros, Újpest and MTK Budapest all playing at home that day I think. Problem is its my partners birthday that day.....she'll love it I'm sure!

21 hours ago, Maltshoveller said:

When in Vienna 

IF you have time take the train across the border to Bratislava 

takes less than an hour 

Thanks @Maltshoveller will add that to the list!

Hi,

My partner and I are off to these three cities in March. 3 days Prague, 3 Vienna and 4 Budapest. Any recommendations, must see, must avoid? 

Thanks in advance! COYR

From an article by Steve Madeley of The Athletic,

Success at McDiarmid Park brought McInnes a chance to return to England as manager of Bristol City in October 2011.

It was a spell that ended with the sack 15 months later and one which appears to have harmed his chances of future employment south of the border. It was a period, though, in which he kept the club in the Championship against the odds in his first season and one which he still looks on in a positive light.

“They were bottom of the league when I went there and hadn’t won a home game all season,” McInnes says. “They were well adrift of second-bottom and had had four managers in five years prior to me.

“I genuinely think I did some of my best work as a manager at Bristol City, especially in that first year when we managed to stay up. After that, I felt the club could maybe have supported me more to get rid of some players.

“We had four different managers’ players in the dressing room and the club should probably have helped me make way for the players I was looking to bring in, but we were hemorrhaging money as a club and the squad was too big.

“A lot of players were on very good contracts and it wasn’t really in their interest to leave. I was disappointed that I wasn’t really able to put my own stamp on it but by having so many players in the building, we weren’t able to get as much done as we wanted to.

“I still felt we would have stayed in the division but unfortunately, I lost my job in January.

“What we did was introduce a lot of younger players. Bobby Reid (now Bobby De Cordova-Reid) and Joe Bryan made their debuts as 16-year-olds. We brought Yannick Bolasie in from the reserve team and gave him an opportunity to play and the club sold him to Crystal Palace.

“There was a feeling that the club needed to go down in order to come back up and maybe I was a casualty of that process.”

3 hours ago, dazza247 said:

I'm not sure there were any amazing revelations that came out of the fans forum. It was good for the club to arrange it and they want to make it clear that they are hoping to be transparent and open to communication with any issues that supporters have. All speakers were well trained in responding to questions so didn't say anything too controversial or revealing. 

 

Main points that I can remember:

1. No plans to move away fans from the atyeo as our fans won't want to pay to sit in the place with the worst facilities. Mark Kelly mentioned that they had Harlequins supporters in the Upper Lansdown for a Bristol match and they actually generated more noise. Also issues with segregating concourse etc if away fans moved. 

2. Dan Bentley gave a really interesting answer about social media comments and the affect it can have on players and how social media companies need to do more about it. He personally is thick skinned and doesn't pay attention to views of those he doesn't respect/keyboard warriors. Also mentioned that people won't understand the demands of championship football. 

When asked about his own future, he has ambitions to play at the top level, hopefully with us. He has two children and has an affinity with the area. Said you'll have to ask the club about plans for him.  He came across well during the q and a. Used to play up front as a kid and would love to be a striker and get the glory but obviously stuck with goalkeeping when scouted by Arsenal rather than a career in amateur football up front.

3. Weimann wasn't really asked any direct questions and was a little shier. His favourite away game as a City player was obviously Sheff United. Bentley referenced some decent recent away wins at Cardiff and QPR. Weimann is Alex Scott's taxi driver so hoping that he makes it big and remembers him in the future!

4. Both players spoke about how good the team spirit is this year and how they're all working hard to get it right. Home form not discussed/not a big issue in the changing room. Everyone keen to put it right for the fans. As senior players Weimann and Bentley would address any issues with players not working hard enough but Nigel has got them all doing this as an absolute minimum. Apparently we've out run every team this season demonstrating how fit we are. Matching the work ethic of the opposition and hopefully surpassing them is the absolute minimum expected by Pearson. Weimann felt we didn't get pre season right last year as there was only a 2 week break and it was probably felt they'd already be fit enough.

5. They wanted to put on record how grateful they are for fan support home and the extra commitment from those that go away. 

 

6. Curtis Fleming came across well with a good sense of humour. He only spoke to Nigel once a year or so prior to his appointment as assistant manager. Impressed with the facilities at Ashton Gate/high performance centre. 

7. Regarding January transfers it depends where we are in the league but suggested we'd be continuing to look for cheaper options (eg free transfers). 

8. Richard Gould spoke about how parachute payments make the league unfair but that the premier League are never going to vote against it. 

 

If there's anything else that comes back to me of great importance I'll share! Also folks from Three Peaps in a podcast were definitely there so imagine they'll mention bits in future podcasts.

 

You got your Mcinnes fans forum notes anywhere? Would be interested to see them!