Ron W

Sacking LJ was the right decision at the time with the run we had been on, the rhetoric from him about how we would fly out of the blocks and then what transpired at Blackburn. It wasn't solely based on that one game and the fact he has remained as streaky as ever since leaving us doesn't do anything to suggest we missed a trick.

On the black-and-white scale he's probably as grey a manager as we've had. There were highs, real highs, but not GJ-esque enough to paper over the lows at either end of his stint. He wasn't a terrible manager for us by any means but neither was he anywhere near one of our best. But he managed to reach that mediocrity by having some of the best, and the worst, runs of recent times. He's a really curious case and that's been the same at Sunderland and Hibs, watching from a distance.

Geoff is one of those amazing quirks of local radio. Outside of Bristol (and Liverpool, obviously) not too many people will have heard of him, but inside our area he's a household name and could really have gone onto bigger things.

That in itself creates bigger pressure - for sport on national stations, there's always an alternative. If you don't like Radio Five, listen to TalkSport (heaven forbid). In Bristol, it's really RB or nothing. So you have to be good or you'll know about it. And the fact City and Rovers are equally as sad to see him go even with his past allegiances says everything.

On 09/05/2023 at 10:07, Tomo said:

It's now been amended.... Bristol Live churn out so much content on a daily basis, usually 4 Bristol City articles per day, so the odd typo is bound to happen as I doubt every article is proof-read like it was back in the day.... 

Sub-editors are a bit of a pipe dream these days at places like Reach, yeah.

It's been obvious local papers should charge for content for years, but they've been too scared at the hit to ad revenues. It would have affected page views, but it was easily the least-worst option.

Instead they've forced their journalism pool into a death by a thousand cuts instead, leaving them without any journalists, and no-one wanting to advertise anyway. Oh, and now they've started charging for content.

The people running these groups are often internal hires who have come up through sales/advertising - make of that what you will.

I remember Jamie Mac getting absolute pelters on here.

Got quite publicly dropped from a position where he'd ruled the roost for years for a player we signed from Woking, and his career dipped so much he ended up playing for Rovers. Can understand him being unhappy about it, even though GJ quite clearly made the right call.

6 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

I think what you have to look at is the nature of the experience and cost. When I started going in the 80s it was standing and piss soaked terraces. It’s now a good, family experience in a pleasant stadium and kids tickets are less than a fiver a game on season tickets. When my son was mascot a few years back my parents in law came - they were expecting something a bit more ramshackle but enjoyed the overall experience hugely.

It’s now a day which people enjoy. And once you enjoy the day you come more and more frequently.

Compare and contrast to Rovers and you get the idea. I’d be adamant we’re picking up a vast majority of new as opposed to legacy fans

I'm not an SL apologist but if this is his legacy over Premier League football, it's not a bad one to have.

3 hours ago, One Team said:

Pretty decent interview. Not as plain speaking as Gould but nowhere near Ashton; although I did get a bit of sick in my mouth when he said “we need to sweat the asset”. 

The fact he's rejected interview requests up until now to stay in the background seemed about as un-MA as could possibly be imaginable (especially as we've been playing quite well for much of that time).

Interesting line on still having a couple of "legacy players" from previous regimes, which didn't sound particularly complimentary. The first two that spring to mind are Han-Noah and Taylor Moore, but also possibly Tomas Kalas?

I hope Chappers gets it, he would be fantastic.

As for white British men kicking up a stink when their TV channels aren't full of white British men - we all like what we know and feels familiar to us but at least try and accept that not everyone is going to see it like that, and that they're not wrong.

A phased introduction would ease some of the nerves I'd have over SL going. He's far from perfect and made plenty of mistakes over two decades but in the grand scheme of things the way he is allows us to take for granted having someone who will back the club to the hilt financially, always have its bests interest at heart and isn't about to unleash some skeletons from his closet.

There's been enough examples of that not happening around the EFL/PL in recent years to be very clear that the grass isn't always greener.

21 hours ago, BCFC11 said:

Taken from the Plymouth thread

 

In their defence, it doesn't show the 7,000 fans who got locked out. Always seems to happen to them.

3 hours ago, Henry said:

Did he introduce you to the rest of the BBC staff as ‘Ron Walker, my guest, your guest’?

I think he was too busy getting ready for the travel!

Sad to see Yabbo go with the rest - totally unique character. And Geoff is an absolute master of his art.
Let me go and shadow him a couple of times as a young impressionable teenager and was always so generous with his time and expertise. Top man.

15 hours ago, GrahamC said:

So, couple of things;

It was actually his second start.

At the start of the season many highlighted that our squad only contained 2 players aged in the sweet spot of 26-30, one of them was Kalas, who was injured then & is again now, the other was Bentley, who doesn’t play for us anymore. So Cornick is 28 next month, he’s hardly on the way down at that age, is he?

Last season Cornick scored 13 in a side that finished in the playoff positions, earning 20 more points than we did.

We paid £300k for him, he’s an experienced Championship squad player with an excellent availability record, who doesn’t look as though he’s as fit as we’d like, but with 9 games left that is far more likely to be addressed pre season.

If he still looks unfit in October & we haven’t seen much from him by then I’d understand this but there does seem a rush by a fair few to write him off.

Great post. You don't score 11 in a season that finished 10 months ago and suddenly lose all talent.

Looking forward to this. Hope we take some good numbers... Nine points off them if we win. Never say never. COYR.

10 hours ago, Magger1 said:

We all now the squad is paper thin but that team picked to start today maybe with wells instead of bell was classed as FIT now that team should have been good enough to have beaten a very poor Cardiff city side , now if it’s a metal emotionally fatigue thing then there’s something wrong with our recovery set up which I doubt there is TODAY may have been after the Lord Mayors show syndrome but that’s down to management team to get the side ready but I still say heads not on it and a very lacklustre show all be it Williams injury messed our shape up . Onwards and upwards and let’s hope the mental emotions of losing 3 points to a poor side don’t weight to heavy for Huddersfield game 

Jeez, far better teams than ours get mentally/physically burnt out at times. It happens. How have you avoided coming to terms with disappointment following City this long?

31 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Is this League only, League and Cup or? I know Burnley won 10 on the bounce in the League alone I thought.

I'm being a bit picky tbh, 10 unbeaten is excellent and a clear sign that we are still heading in the right direction..

Yeah in the league, I think that’s 7 for us now on that front. Blades and Burnley were miles ahead but only one now.

After Sheff Utd lost last night, we’re now on the second-longest unbeaten run in the Championship.

And if Watford could hold onto a late lead, it’d be the longest.

29 minutes ago, Percy Pig said:

Whatever happened to initiative and self development? 

Well that's all people have to rely on in a lot of industries these days. I completely disagree that it's gone out the window, quite the opposite. You hear of old-school mentors, leading by example and showing you the ropes, that doesn't happen much any more, certainly not in journalism. The profession is much worse for it.

Also - I'd be shocked if a manager of a club at this level replied personally to emails from journalists.

19 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

However nervous or inexperienced you are (& we’ve suffered listening to Jordan Jones for at least a year now) there’s no excuse for this.

All fair comment but on this line, I sort of agree and don't, from experience of getting a clipped ear when starting out. Without watching our pressers regularly I don't know much about those two guys to say whether they'll get better or not, but when you are a trainee journo you really don't have a clue what you're doing. You can train for a lot of things but interviewing experienced managers isn't really one of them.

You'd also hope the bar for Nigel snapping back at a fan would be quite a lot higher than for a journalist!

20 minutes ago, ontariored said:

Makes me doubt the hiring process for a presenter. Surely during the interview for a presenter's job they would get asked "you have 5 minutes to demonstrate to me that you have an intimate knowledge of football and a further 20 minutes that you know everything about Bristol City." There must be equal accountability with the hiring manager/ interviewer otherwise sack them.

For the amount of money junior reporters are on these days, you're not getting a huge number of Pat Murphys through the door.

Journalists are the butt of a lot of jokes and I get it, it's natural, everyone does, including other journalists.

Some of the Qs towards the end of that press conference are pretty poor, as well. Especially coming straight after Rich Forrester (I think?) who always asks his questions with a bit of style, and you can tell Nigel has some time for him.

Watching it at home on YouTube, it looks like a piece of piss. But it really isn't and never has been. And it's worse in 2023 when young journos have barely any guidance because of more senior cut-backs, are thrust straight in at the deep end in front of managers who have made the best feel like shit at times. My first real shot of manager interviews was on work experience questioning SOD, and Jesus that was a steep learning curve. Very glad there weren't cameras there to record him snapping back at me.

This isn't to excuse what is sadly a dying industry at a local level, like I said some of the stuff Nigel and other managers are asked is bland or just not thought through. But I can also guarantee to the people who think they'd be just as confident with a mic in their hand, up against a seasoned manager like Nige, as they are on OTIB - in most cases, you really wouldn't.

1 minute ago, Port Said Red said:

I don't think the announcement has anything to do with when it was done, but if we did a photoshoot with him in a number 9 shirt before telling people Martin had left  it would look a bit off

 

Ah yes, true. But in terms of being a factor in the announcement being so late, the lack of football Martin's been getting recently that could've been announced any time.

2 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

Clearing the shirt number could actually be a relevant factor in the lateness of any announcement.

You'd hope it hasn't taken until the final hour of the transfer window to move on Chris Martin just to free up his number!

16 minutes ago, Rossi the Robin said:

Thought Wells was kept very quiet today, offered very little - not a criticism, just thought Blackburn did a job on him 

Thought Nakhi was his normal busy self - but Blackburn weren’t often cut open so he did a lot of his good work further back.

10 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Well I think it’s incredibly naive to think every employee in every industry turns up every day and gives 100%, never takes a sicky, doesn’t take a long lunch, etc, etc.

There are people in plenty of professions stealing a wage too though Dave. Just head over to Westminster!