Clutton Caveman

On 12/11/2023 at 09:59, candygram for mongo said:

Perhaps the manager/head coach is sending a message to the younger players that he  thinks they haven’t impressed enough to warrant a place on the bench.

Hope he has learn't that Mehmeti is crap and Weimann is a headless chicken 

On 11/11/2023 at 17:15, And Its Smith said:

How many players do we have that can CONSISTENTLY perform well in the final third?  I’d say none 

For me looking at our squad the defence is solid especially when all centre backs are fit.

In midfield we are also pretty good although James can't go on too much longer and Weimann is finished.

Up front is our problem. All of our players are relatively short. Conway and Bell are full of potential but nowhere near the finished article. Conway cannot lead the line and Cornick is chaotic. Things will improve when Wells is back but he also is running short of time at this level.

If the management is serious about improving we need a striker proven at this level in during January.

16 hours ago, Loosey Boy said:

JL certainly seemed to “cool” the requirement for top 6 and/or promotion which was ultimately why he said Nige was sacked.

If this doesn’t go to plan, it’s on JL and BT - Liam on a bit of a hiding to nothing, except for his long contract!

Glad we’ve appointed Nige’s replacement - let’s move on and get going again now, starting on Saturday 

I just hope he cures our long term problem of so little movement off the ball (except for 5 mins after we score)

I would also hope for just a bit more entertainment as the product we have watched for some time has been pretty dull and we seem to almost score by mistake.

I know that Tommy prefers to play up front with a partner and holding the ball to bring others into the game is not his thing, but in recent games where he has found himself in some space one on one, his pace seems to be gone. Could be that he is afraid to pull the hammy again but with pace such a part of his game it is worrying to see the way he is playing at the moment.

16 hours ago, Zuni said:

If Tanner and Naismith are fit to start -

 

                                MOL

          Tanner     Vyner     Dickie     Pring

                TGH      Knight     Naismith

                  Sykes     Weimann     Bell

MOL

          Tanner     Vyner     Dickie     Pring

                TGH      Knight     Naismith

                  Sykes     Cornick     Conway

23 hours ago, cidered abroad said:

Agree with 95% of your post.

GJ was ok with third and fourth division players but as soon those who had played at Championship and above, including internationals, arrived he was sadly lacking. Bullying that level of player is not the way to get best out of them and so it was a slow downhill slide after losing to Hull. If we'd gone up it would have been a very rapid decline!

I think this is a good point. Some coaches excel in League 1 or 2 as the standard there fits with their experience. When you move up a league or 2 the tactics are more advanced, the players are more talented but also more egotistic and the game is far faster.  I think that to some extent Cotts fell into this category.

As much as I truly admire and respect what NP did for us, I always felt that his experience was formed 20 years ago and tactically he was very basic and old fashioned. As such we became very easy to play against particularly at home where we have to make the running.

15 hours ago, bristol red said:

£200m running at say £30m year loss… seems a good investment NOT. Unless they invest a whole lot more and get the football club competitive in the top half premiership 

What club in the Championship would be a good investment by any normal return on investment criteria?

Seems to me that with such a threadbare team we have stayed competitive mainly by pure hard work and effort

The players clearly bought into NP because he consistent, honest and had their backs.

So now he has gone with some of his team. Our board have shown just how clueless, disloyal and weak they are. Those that have stayed have lost their credibility by supporting the owners.

So what exactly will the players be playing for on Saturday.

Their places? Not really as we only have about 14 fit players

The Club? When they consider how such a hard working and straight manager has been treated, I doubt it.

The Crowd? If the focus is on Lansdown out the atmosphere will be pretty toxic.

Not being beaten by the bottom team? They won last week so it could happen again

Our only hope is that they rise above the situation and play for each other out of respect to their sacked coach.

I wonder if Vyner and Pring would sign new contract today?

30 minutes ago, Randy Marsh II said:

**** off Tins. Good footballer, damaging the club with his impact again outside of playing.

Looks as nervous as JL as well. They all know they're in trouble now.

Body language was awful, like he was reading a script with SL stood behand him.

So we get a coach and tell him how he has to play. Good luck with that message

1 hour ago, Gert Mare said:

Wow, just wow! Delusion confirmed directly from the crayon munchers mouth.

They have an idea of the puppets they want to speak to next for the position of “Do as you’re told”.

**** right off!

Typical son of a rich father. Promoted Waaaayyyyyyy beyond his ability

2 hours ago, SecretSam said:

Interesting that it references the importance of Gould, with whom I suspect Pearson had an excellent relationship. He was a massive loss.

I hope SL read this

5 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Just wanted to share some thoughts.

This will undoubtedly be a time when old manager going / new manager coming in will see comments from posters, me included, giving our opinions and there will be debate for and against on both sides.

But…I see this as a small window of opportunity.

+++++

We have had numerous debates over our time back in the Championship from the managers - Cotts to Johnson to Holden to Pearson, to the Finances, FFP, Covid, etc.  We can all defend our opinions with facts, speculation, and just the way we see it.

However it is clear to me (at least) that we enter a period where we:

• don’t really have any manager “baggage”, no divide from posters who were fanboys of one but not the other.  It feels like a “decks cleared” time.
• no financial issues, FFP at least!  We don’t know the owners funding aspirations / restrictions though.

So we can treat the new manager on merit, although slightly hindered initially by:

• a small squad
• injuries

We will have to wait until January to see if he is allowed to recruit.  At that point we will know whether the budget was just for the old manager or not.  But we can judge new manager accordingly, ie is he hamstrung by budget or not.

Re injuries, a slight tangent, most managers come in and first thing they say is they had to get the players fit.  Well, City are one of the hardest running teams in the division, so that excuse is not valid.  Availability is different.

Ultimately the foundations have been laid.  The new manager has the opportunity to build on them.

I suggest we wait and see who we get and judge them on what they do with Bristol City.

 

Based on previous experience I would be surprised if we have a new manager by January. After the first few genuine candidates say thanks but no thanks, 6 weeks of silence and being told this an important decision so we should be patient and then he will probably appoint Flemming or Tinnion.

31 minutes ago, Meh said:

Personally I have long considered Brian Tinnion a brown noser but the problem is you call him out on X and you get all the “you’re a legend Tins” brigade all over you.

Great player but shit manager who should be out of football matters once a player gets promoted to the first team squad training.

I am sure his worshippers will be all over this - ready, steady, go

Doing a pretty good jobs with the kids though. I suspect this is his level.

46 minutes ago, FNQ said:

Exactly this… the board think the current squad should be good enough for promotion so let’s see who the have in mind to come in now and better lead / inspire the players.. as a minimum it ought to be someone has who has at least been a proven number 2 at an established PL club or someone who has already earned credibility by taking a team up to the prem. We know it won’t be though, it’ll be the best for the less they can get..

The crazy thing is.... for all of our anger and disgust, if 8 weeks from now we have a new manager and are winning with a more entertaining brand of football, all of this will be forgotten but nobody will say "the ownership got it right" This is not a forecast but more of an observation of the fickle nature of football supporters.

1 hour ago, Fjmcity said:

Appreciate this thread as long as it stays within the boundaries of your title!

as with everything the truth always lies somewhere in the middle and people have to understand that you will never fully know the truth at each end of the spectrum to truly know that middle part

things we know

1. lansdown silence has been poor, to be MIA and only break cover to sack him feels wrong although find me a football club where the upper management is front and centre and you show me a badly run football club

2. Nige is combative - this is well known and at the end of the day this is a business. No matter how disgruntled you are you mouth off publicly against your boss, it’s not ending well. Chances are Pearson knew the situation, but was impatient and concerned for his own employment so went to the press.

3. David Rennie going too. Did the board have concerns on player management from treatment room to management which could have contributed to the injury crisis?

4. Pearson has done a good job with what he’s been given. But aren’t there still other clubs doing more on less? There is no real footballing culture at city, we are determined and dig in but my god, ask yourself - why does every goal we score feel like a forcep delivery of a 15ib baby? Couldn’t someone else maybe do better?

5. Scott money - clubs need to run sustainably, last time we spaffed transfer money we ended up in this position where we have to retain the Scott/semenyo money. Granted that was through letting Ashton loose with the finances and that is on the lansdowns but wouldn’t you rather they learnt from that?

6. this forum presents a microcosm of our fan base, maybe many who identify with nige and feel him hard done by. But don’t think for a moment he is thinking of us, it’s a job. Where was the support for him before? I go home and away and can’t remember hearing a chant for him. This is because he is functional, there is no impetus behind the team because we don’t play in a way that offers that. We are established championship, not underdogs and we need a little more football to believe in and get excited by.

Im curious to see what happens next, what I fear is the lansdowns have got themselves in a position where they can no longer do right for doing wrong and could be hounded out and it will be out of the frying pan into the fire..

 

 

I don't think they need any hounding. If they could get a decent bid for the mess that is Bristol Sport they would sail off to Guernsey and Bermuda with a huge sense of relief and a big smile on their face

4 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

Just been playing on https://www.buildlineup.com/ trying to see how I would play at Cardiff.
TBH I would not start Weimann after Wednesday, but I'm not sure it's the game for Yeboahs first start and I like Cornicks impact as a sub, so he's in by default. 
We are really light in MF, that means a kid starts or a bit of a juggle. I'd put TGH back to RB, Andi RMF and push Sykes inside.
For the least amount of disruption I'd risk Idehen starting. We don't have another LB if the rumours about Roberts are true , so it at least leaves Pring in his natural role. 
I didn't think TC looked great the other night, but if he's ok to start maybe he just needs minutes. 
So here we are.

Conway cannot play in that position. Must be Cornick up front with Conway in for Bell

15 hours ago, Shuffle said:

He started superbly so clearly there is a talented player in there. However, he does make wrong decisions by either taking a touch too many and losing the ball or not picking the right pass. How can he go from the player we saw at Sunderland away to now as wish I knew ? That said how do you play a player back into form if you don’t play him.  His confidence must be broken as seems Pearson prefers anyone over him currently.  Currently looking like a £1m wasted & cannot see how it changes for him here as Pearson not having him.

He is just too predictable. He always has to come inside onto his right foot and all defenders know that

4 hours ago, spudski said:

... I've noticed something that's crept into our game and it was really noticeable yesterday against a side who did it well. 

Being able to control a ball, with composure, and make angles to receive the ball at the right pace. 

We seem in our eagerness to play fast football on the transition to forget the basics. 

Passes are hit in hope rather than precision with correct pace. 

Often the first touch is like a trampoline and needs a second to control. Or there is no control and it's ' passed ' again into an area, in the hope it will be won again. 

There is a complete lack of composure...everything seems rushed. 

When we play well...we move into space to create angles and time to compose and pick a pass. We aren't doing that so often now. 

It's so rushed. And so many times players are cutting off a pass to themselves by standing in a straight line with an opponent in between. No angle or space. 

Ipswich did those basics very well. They weren't outstanding tactically, they simply did the basics well. 

 

For me there were a few big differences between us and Ipswich last night.

a) they had 2 central midfielders with real football intelligence and they ran the game. In his pomp, James could do the same but now he has to pace himself.

b) when they broke, the rest of the team busted a gut to get up and give great passing options. When we broke too often our player had no decent passing options so either lost the ball or had to go backwards.

c) When an Ipswich player was in received the ball he almost always had 3 decent passing options. Apart from when we have our tails up like having just scored, our movement off the ball is poor and has been for a long time. As such we frequently have to go back or hit it long

d) Ipswich had a centre forward who could hold the ball up and bring others into the game. As much as I like Conway this is not his game. He is too small and needs a centre forward to play off.

Having said all that, our shear effort and great mentality meant that we were always in this game and with a little luck (which we probably used up against Coventry) we could have nicked a draw.

With a fully fit squad and our determination, we could be a shout for top six but back in the real world where players do get injured we will do well to finish in the top half.

Imagine what NP could do with a squad and budget that LJ had.

13 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Even then a takeover can move swiftly or it can really drag, ie actually that money and control becoming real due to EFL regs, maybe FCA regs in some cases, etc.

I think the press normally gets an early sniff and love to print rumours. As there is zero in the press my feeling is that the door is open but there are no customers.

16 hours ago, BigTone said:

Too hard to remember the words

One Nigel Pearson. Everyone knows it and would join in. Its essential what ever we sing is loud, so no clever little numbers please

13 hours ago, Pezo said:

Cornick didn't come on until the 66th minute - I would say the atmosphere was better after he came on.

What are these old fashioned songs that more can join in? The Cornick song is to the tune of "I'm into something good" - it came out in 1964, how old are you looking for? I agree the problem is not enough people are joining in. We have about 50 people singing regularly and we need like 2k.

 

They don't join in because we know the tune but not the words.  If you want 2000 singing sing simple songs that everybody know

I was amazed that Coventry fans made the game feel like home game with virtually no response from either the South Stand or the end of the Dolman. Granted the game started badly but surely that's when the team need support the most. It felt flat from pre-match until approx 75 minutes.

I think it would be great if we dropped the clever little tunes like the song for Cornick and got some simple old fashioned songs going that more can join in with.

As it is AG is far from an intimidating place to play and feels more like radio 2 on a Wednesday afternoon.

22 hours ago, joe jordans teeth said:

If they let this man leave then we deserve everything we get 

I think that Wednesday night is the perfect chance to send a message to the owners and create a massive show of support for NP.

Lets have some great and simple chants and keep them going all through the game.

Some decent banners would be good too

4 minutes ago, View from the Dolman said:

Bristol Sport wouldn't "still" own the stadium since Bristol Sport doesn't currently own the stadium.

Sorry I stand corrected

On 03/09/2023 at 11:37, Kid in the Riot said:

I don't agree with this. Even if Nige was on a 3 year contract now, the cost for a new owner to pay him off would be a drop in the ocean compared to the £80m - £100m it will cost to buy the club. 

I don't think it's reluctance on Nige's part either; how can it be with no contract offer on the table? 

I really wonder how you would go about marketing BCFC to potential buyers. Firstly the deal is complex due to the Bristol Sport situation. If BCFC was separated I guess Bristol Sport would still own the stadium and we would effectively ground share with Bears. Most owners like to own the ground because it gives them fixed costs, additional income and an asset to use to secure finance.

So lets review, on the plus side: a mid table Championship team with a very good academy, excellent training facilities, reasonably young team on fair wages good fan base with potential to grow. On the negative side, very complex structure to unravel. Hasn't made a profit for ever and relies on selling best young players to stay on the right side of FFP, no CEO in place, pricing probably does not reflect the product on offer and is based more on its potential.

For me the biggest negatives are the complexity of Bristol Sport and an owner who seems happy to wait whilst the club ticks over.