Clutton Caveman

On 18/12/2021 at 17:26, JonDolman said:

He has been very poor last 2 games. Seemed like first half he was conserving his energy as he then seemed to sprint a lot more 2nd half. 

If our game is getting balls into the box, and there were quite a few great balls in at 3-1 down, then Martin is not going to make it to a lot of those crosses as he has poor acceleration so can't get in positions to score.

On a good day I think he is very good. But recently he hasn't done what he's good at.

Not only slow in speed but also speed of thought. Every goes into slow motion when the ball comes to him

On 05/12/2021 at 08:36, CliftonCliff said:

Thoughts? OK, my thoughts are that you are either (a) pissed, (b) on the wind up, (c) irredeemably stupid, (d) all of the above. Complete bollocks.

One of the few that tries to pass the ball with pace into midfield or diagonal

On 02/12/2021 at 14:31, P'head Red said:

Can't believe how many people in the thread don't rate him. One of the best (and youngest!) In the team

I would like to see him playing in a winning team with lots of off the ball movement. So far he has only played in a struggling team

15 hours ago, Redandproud said:

As expected,no ambition to compete with the top six ,rather stay in the Championship,and just take our money, ie Season tkt , I Remember Steve Lansdowns words when we got promoted  to the Championship,(SC days) I will get this team to the Premier League in 5yrs, YEH RIGHT,

I struggle to understand this reaction. We are bleeding money, SL has to write a huge cheque each year. We have some of our highest paid players not making the squad and you want him to pour more money in?

NP has been given the job to balance the books. We have little chance of offloading our dead wood even for nothing because nobody will match their salary. They will not clear our books for 2 to 3 years.

I am not sure that SL will be so impressed by the signings made under NP to risk another chunk of money.

I think we are faced with a period of, survive in the Championship (I think Reading and Derby will not be the last to get points deductions). Bring on the youngsters wait until the expensive mistakes are gone. By that time you would hope that our post Ashton management team will have put together a recruitment proposition strong enough to tempt SL to open the wallet again.

I think many Championship clubs will be taking the same approach. Unless wages fall to a realistic level and clubs start to live within their means, I think the championship will be the grave yard of many formerly big clubs.

It cannot go on as it is.

On 11/12/2021 at 17:50, RedM said:

I always thought to get Kalas and Jay we had to take KP45 too, a job lot.

Wow 2 duds to get 1 good player

17 hours ago, Port Said Red said:

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/bristol-city/transferrekorde/verein/698

According to transfer market.........

 

When you check this link out, it is really depressing and a real example of what a royal waste of Steve's money we have made. I wonder how many you would deem as successful from this list. 

14 hours ago, frenchred said:

What must it be like to have a decisive government and not be led by a bungling, lying buffoon 

They were really decisive when it came to securing vaccines weren't they??. When we were 75% double jabbed they were just about getting going and that why they are suffering now. Also when their fantastic  government decided to spread doubt over the Astro Zeneca vaccine to deflect from their failure to secure supplies fear spread leading to poor uptake rates, which they still suffer from today.

Sorry but you got this one very wrong

16 hours ago, RedRoss said:

Watching the team you support does come with the ups and downs emotionally. We've not only had crap results but the way we play is not great currently and hasn't been for a very long time. We can only hope for determination and grit and not much else apart from academy youngsters getting a chance as of right now as a positive. That being said to enjoy the ups you do have to ensure the downside of football.

Problem is the downs don't normally last this long

12 hours ago, REDOXO said:

Yes annoying isn’t it. But to be frank we are so crap he’s bound to lack a bit of confidence. 

Basically we have a team of young and lightweight youngsters trying to play a game plan that suits physically imposing players. No wonder those with a bit of ability lack confidence

The youngsters are so fearless, taking the ball under pressure, keeping it and if no decent pass on draw a foul. Nothing like a couple of good kids performing to warm the crowd up. Looking forward to the "one of our own" song

7 hours ago, marmite said:

We've played this way for a few years now. The difference now is that ALL teams know this and pressure us in the last 20 minutes.  Eleven back for a corner against us, no quick outlet, no pace, constant back passes. We are sitting ducks.

11 back for a corner, we get hemmed in for ages with no out ball, they surround our box.

1 fast bloke left up (who is probably not much use for defending) requires them to leave 2 players back with him and we can at least contest the clearance often getting at least a throw in in their half. 

I will never understand 11 back in our box

4 hours ago, dunsteral said:

In Nigel Pearson's presser yesterday he was quite vehemant that come january he "will get rid of the players who dont want to be here"

Who is he referring to   any ideas?

One thing that always occurs to me when a manager (all of them not just pearson) is under pressure for poor results they accuse players

of not carrying out the managers instructions and that is why they lost. They never accept that if the players do carry out the managers

instructions but they lose anyway it may be because his instructions are the wrong ones anyway.

It seems to me that players these days have to play to the managers instructions and are not allowed to express themselves for fear of

getting a bollocking because they dont do what the managers tell them to.

Surely there has to be some room for flair or expression but it seems like ther isn,t.

 

It seems to me that when managers start to talk a bout players as they, instead of we, and start to air their dirty washing in public to distract from the real problems, they don't last long.

You lost me as soon as I saw Simpson

10 hours ago, zippycar said:

 

I also wonder that if Mr Hargreaves had been a football man, would we be where we are today?

There are always at least two in every partnership and anyone at Hargreaves Lansdown will tell you who was the boss and the driver and who knew that there was no upside to owning a football club.
 

I think Mr Lansdown is a good man. The industry where he made is money is a cesspit full of speculators, fast buck start ups and regulators who try to force folks to buy products they don't need. This industry does not make anything, and thrives in good or bad times insulated by the fact they play with other peoples money and take a cut. 

I think this environment is so different to that of say a manufacturing or even a retail business.  40 years of experience there hardly prepares you for life in a different world.

The FS industry is full of people like Mr Ashton and so the panic bells that would have rung for most did not ring for Mr Lansdown.

I think his poor judgement of slick fast talking people like Ashton and LJ is his weakness and one that is unlikely to be overcome.

I think that in many ways Steve has been great for us bringing stability, a great stadium a better chance to be financially viable.  However I think his people blind spot and lack of engagement with the football world will now hold us back.

I would hope that a deal could come along, perhaps based on a staged buy out where the  Lansdowns get their money back.

On the face of it, based on the size of the city, the potential fan base, the fact that the stadium has multiple income streams including the Bears, we would have to be at least as attractive as the likes of Swansea, Bournemouth, Derby, Cardiff Forest or Middlesbrough or for that matter based on potential Brentford or Watford. People will say that we are not a big enough club but few of the above listed have spent too much time in the top flight is the last 10 years.

So many thanks SL, you have been great but lets hope somebody with the ability to employ the right type of management and players will come along and rescue us from mediocracy .... on the other hand we could get a new owner like Mel Morris .....

10 hours ago, Magger1 said:

Bristol city need to do something as fans are saying f..k the pre game drink as there is no seating or tables or shelves to put beers and food on 

Don't think we need seats but some shelves to put your beer whilst attacking the pie would be good

On 03/11/2021 at 16:33, 1960maaan said:

With Cotts, that team was pretty much done over a summer. That takes any worry about losing players out of the equation . 
As for "couldn't wait to break up the team" slight exaggeration I'd say. Building aa teal over time is difficult, if you find a gem ,how do you hold onto them. Kodjia , Villa called he wanted to go. You have little choice, other than to say no and have an unhappy player. For others, it's the managers right to move players out to get "his" players in. The problem came when we didn't manage to make a challenge, the likes of Reid & Bryan offered Prem football, again they want to go. Webster, proved too good too quickly so agin we couldn't keep him when offered Premiership football. 

Totally agree about wasting the money. The combination of Ashton , Johnson and Lansdown's open cheque book was an absolute car crash which culminated in having to offload 14 players that were OOC last summer. 

The only way I see us building a team is with the likes of Atkinson & Tanner. Look like decent players, not quite good enough for teams to want to nick them yet. Add a couple more each window, then some final quality in the summer before we storm the league, easy 

I think we will go nowhere until we get a real football man involved at the highest level. SL is a great benefactor but is not strong on selecting good people to work with. His son clearly has no interest and for me NP lacks the fire in his belly either due to illness or basically coming out of retirement and wishing he had not. For me it would be great if we appointed a Chairman who was very well connected and respected in football and could bring us some long overdue credibility. This is basically a part time roll and so would suit an elder statesman not quite ready to retire. 

11 hours ago, GrahamC said:

It is almost a fortnight until we play again so I’m hoping we will have more clarity on Pearson’s situation by then.

He is apparently taking this week off & so next week is key.

However if Fleming is then in charge for the 2 upcoming home games I do hope he does it “his way” rather than deferring to someone who is not well enough to be there in person.

CF has been with us long enough to have seen enough of the players & has a reasonable CV as a coach, I genuinely don’t know how he will get on, but he should back himself to make the calls, such as how we set up & substitutions.

NP must be fully in charge or fully resting. To have Fleming in charge but doing NP's bidding will be a disaster

22 hours ago, Kolsch said:

He was one of the few players who was still trying to take it to Coventry in the second half. Him and HNM were actually trying to take them to the sword but the forwards and midfield just will not move or try and get down the channel to offer.

 

At full strength defensively I think we have good players but we really need to improve tactically in off the ball situations (particularly the midfield and forwards) and also make far more intelligent forward runs. We must be so easy to defend against.

Strange our manager was a centre back. You would think at least area we would be OK. Oh I forgot NP doesn't coach does he.

On 06/11/2021 at 17:08, CotswoldRed said:

Pearson has had nearly a year and his team can't pass or retain possession for much more than 3-4 seconds, normally. 

That is enough for me. 

They called it the high performance centre so delivery drivers would never confuse it with Ashton Gate. 

Hate to say it but I think we have to go down, ditch most of the squad and coaching staff and start again

Frankly I would rather watch our kids with a couple of decent tryers playing under a positive coach in League 1 than being bored to death week after week in the Championship.

14 hours ago, Aaron-Bcfc said:

I seriously doubt it as the players have given up again. Maybe they’d pick up for a game or 3 just as they did when Johnson and Holden were both sacked, but it would only take a minor bit of misfortune for this pathetic group to completely down their tools yet again, which would be inevitable. Getting King and Williams back will be a help but that’s just wishful thinking.
 

It staggers me that a significant group of our professionals are unwilling to put in 100% on the pitch or even try to look bothered. They are again completely content with sleepwalking into league one, after being fortunate enough for it not happening last season. That combined with the most fragile mental state in the league is a recipe for complete disaster and we are already well on that path. It’s not a good squad by any means but it’s not bottom 3 material, yet I am now completely convinced that’s where we are headed.

3:1 odds on Skybet yesterday for us to be relegated. I think that's pretty good value

On 07/11/2021 at 01:36, Selred said:

I’m in 2 minds.

Firstly no one out there excites me and makes me think they can turn this around.

Secondly I think we are going backwards under Pearson. We seem less organised, less drilled, in all areas of the pitch. At the start of the season I saw improvements on last season, however now I’m not. I don’t see what we are doing in training sessions to be honest, do we even train together?

Do I think Pearson is the right man? Each week less so, probably to be honest I’m more against him than pro right now. 
 

Do I know who is / should be the alternative? No. 

I just don't see the passion and commitment from NG. I think he was basically retired when this opportunity came along and was too good to turn down. He has had a long time to work with group and we not gone forward. He says, he doesn't coach and it seems he does not much like being pitch side or talking to the press. So that leaves tactics and motivation. No real NP stamp here. 

Clearly he seems to have some health problems and I have sympathy for that. The current position is full of pressure and even fully fit would be a challenge, if energy levels are down it must seem very hard indeed.

I don't think that NP is a quiter, so he will probably try to soldier on.

Question is: is that right for the club??

17 hours ago, Hampshire reds said:

i have taken alot of stick on here about wanting a new manager. I know they wont replace him anytime soon. He does not fill me with any hope he will turn this run of bad results around. he never shows any enthusiasm for the job at his press conference 3k fans going to Coventry on sat i prey me and all city fans have something to cheer. if not i fear the support will turn. 

I think he see's himself more like a director of football leaving things like coaching and sitting on the bench during games to others. Lets face it what does he have to lose? If he stays and we go down he still gets paid and he says he is suffering from a squad assembled by others. If he gets sacked he gets paid out.

Unlike oldies like McCarthy and Colin, he seems to have lost his passion and this is just a nice little interlude on the way into full retirement.

1 minute ago, VT05763 said:

Sounds like we will be going all out to stop the haemorrhaging of chances and goals this Saturday.

We already create next to nothing so is this the correct strategy ?

Should we going down the "risk reward" path instead ?

Certainly feel we are caught in between the two at the moment - looking like conceding every opposition attack ( at least a shot on target, if not a goal) and feeding off second/third ball "scraps" up front.

We could well play a legit 5 at the back and go full blown Wimbledon I suppose.

Wimbledon had 4 or 5 monsters to win the high ball and aggression all over the pitch to win the second balls. We have neither unfortunately.

21 hours ago, Selred said:

Seeing as minorities have been discriminated for decades, what do you suggest is done?

I don't think you fix discrimination against one group by discriminating against another.

If we are all supposed to be equal, then some should not be more equal than others and where there is a choice for any sort of role or position it should be based on the persons suitability for that role with no other caveats.

3 minutes ago, JamesBCFC said:

You did say something though.

You made a thinly veiled slight at those who aren't pro discrimination. 

I am not pro discrimination. In fact quite the opposite. I don't like it when the most suitable candidate for any position is discriminated against because they do not belong to a particular cultural, ethnic or gender group. My son is applying for 1 year placement for his year in industry and was told by his advisor (who incidentally is female and from India) " with large public organisations, because you come from a white middle class background you will be at the bottom of the list and as such you should concentrate on medium and small privately owned businesses."

Howz that for discrimination?