The Dolman Pragmatist

This is the problem, isn’t it? Do we trust Pearson to make the signings that we quite obviously need if we are to stay up? You look back to previous transfer windows to give some confidence, but… I really think our future will be hugely affected by what happens this week. If there is no change and the transfer window goes badly then the future doesn’t look bright. If we lose badly at Millwall can the Board really afford to stick with Pearson? We’ll see…

Lot of assumptions there Dave. Do you really think there is no planning for the future??…

Can’t see anything wrong with the bloke. Seems to do a decent job to me.

Well he shouldn’t have said it then.

True, but that doesn’t mean the Lansdown family wasn’t involved. I’m not sure I would rate the appointments of Derek McInnes or Sean O’Driscoll as bad appointments at the time they were made. Both had a lot going for them, but for a variety of reasons didn’t work out. Ditto Nigel Pearson: sound reasons for appointing him, but it doesn’t appear to have worked out. it will be interesting to see how Dean Holden does at Charlton. I always thought there was a potentially very good manager in him…

So the Lansdown family weren’t involved in the appointments of Gary Johnson and Steve Cotterill? As for the teams you think we are better than: today Blackpool got a point at Hull; Rotherham drew at home to Stoke (who beat us last week); Cardiff got a point at home to top side QPR; and Huddersfield won at Preston! We’ve won one of the last nine… I fear it is very difficult to conclude anything but that with Nigel Pearson at the helm we are going down (and sadly I suspect we will finish bottom). At least a change of first team coach would offer us some hope, which is surely better than none. Relegation would be catastrophic for us.

Peterborough went down with 54 points in 2012-13.

True, but one side of a picture is probably better than none at all…

But that’s not necessarily true. Players have families and friends, and so do City staff members. I have an email from someone very closely connected to one of our players sitting in my inbox at the moment, but of course I wouldn’t betray anything I’m told in confidence. However, what I’m told does influence the general way I think and talk about what goes on at City.

Had lunch in London today with a friend who has a Spurs season-ticket. Alex Scott strongly linked with them apparently…

He looked pretty enthusiastic when he scored before the World Cup break…

You don’t motivate people by blowing them out. Poor management.

Check out the interview if you can: about 5.45 on Radio Bristol. The interviewer asked him about Andy King’s performance and Pearson told him he ‘wasn’t asking the right questions’. He then asked about Atkinson and Pearson said that he picked the players he can trust, and his selection today should say it all.

Apparently not. Pearson made it clear he was not in the squad because he ‘didn’t trust him’.

So according to Pearson’s post-match interview, Atkinson wasn’t in the squad because he doesn’t trust him. What the hell is that all about? Before the break he was our best player. It begs the question, what does he trust Andy King to do?

Christ, I’d forgotten about you while the World Cup was on. It’s all coming back to me like a bad dream…

BBC News have just shown a clip (BBC1, about 08.05) of local fans celebrating in the street in Senegal, and more than one is wearing a purple and green Bristol City shirt (the one with the green band across the chest. I couldn’t believe my eyes. What’s that about? Did we get noticed in Senegal when Fam was playing for us?

I make no apologies for saying that Arcade Fire’s ‘We’ is a very fine album.

Blind Eye … Wishbone Ash

I’ve watched the whole documentary which I thought was decent, but I thought the one thing they missed, which was not to do with the football itself, was just how stylish the presentation was, and how the culture of football was changed. The use of Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma gave football an image which encouraged new people to watch the game, and the whole package was very Italian and very stylish. It helped make football acceptable in a new way.

It was offside. Because the keeper came out, there was only one defender back when an Ecuador player made contact.

Almost all religions are repressive and discriminatory in some way, even Christianity. There’s an awful lot of hypocrisy about attitudes to this World Cup. Did anyone question Russia’s human rights record in 2018? Did anyone object to playing against countries which had fascist juntas (Chile, Argentina, Spain) in previous World Cups? Qatar is far from alone in having legal measures hostile to LGBT+, so do we ostracise all Muslim nations? Erm, aren’t England playing Iran in the group stage? I have a lot of issues with Catholicism, but would be severely restricted if I couldn’t visit catholic countries. The whole thing is a can of worms and to see a clear way through it is well nigh impossible.

Boredom … Procol Harum

Ken Aston had previously refereed the infamous ‘Battle of Santiago’ between Chile and Italy in the 1962 World Cup.

If we play like we did today, we won’t score. We need to play like we did today but get better in the final third.