KegCity

Key word being “might”.

Is that a bad thing? Thought we wanted to make Ashton Gate a tough place for away teams to play?

Exactly. Dominating the championship at age 16. Absolutely unreal and that’s what it takes to get a move to somewhere like Dortmund. Scott going to Wolves/Palace sounds about right to me.

I thought the Bellingham fee was low at the time and has been made to look low by his development since. Scott’s not on the level of that sort of player, but Bellingham is a generational talent. We can charge what we like as we don’t want to sell and Scott’s got a long contract. Either pay the fee or don’t.

Although in this analogy it’s the same builder who oversaw the damage and is now sorting the repairs. FWIW I agree with others that it’s too late to be doing this now, nothings going to change. The damage has been done, we’re in the process of fixing it and Lansdown’s trying to sell up. Don’t see what else can be done.

Surely we’d be better off just keeping him if a club were willing to loan him straight back? Develop him another 6 months at least and get more money for him down the line

Very encouraging, it really is amazing what playing people in their proper positions can do to a side! Hopefully we can build on that now.

I am in no doubt that Pearson is the right person to sort the deeper issues at the club out. He’s made fantastic progress off the pitch and we’re moving in the right direction. I’m not sure he has the answers on the pitch though. I hope he can turn things around and prove me wrong but his decision making regarding team selection and substitutions is baffling at times and I don’t think he has a Plan B when our pump it long to the wide players game plan doesn’t work.

Surely that means the squad has improved then? He’s got rid of deadwood and developed youth team players into key parts of the first team squad.

Looks a very good appointment.

Nail on head.

Hasn’t Pearson said publicly it’s because he won’t be here next season so he has no interest in playing him? Rather than by your estimation his inability to do anything at all right on the football pitch?

That’s not true though is it? There have been countless games where he’s picked the ball up in our half and driven at the opposition before releasing the ball forward. QPR at home last season and Cardiff away last season both stand out although he does it almost every time he’s on the pitch. Hes inconsistent and I wouldn’t want 40 starts from him over a season but almost none of what you’ve said is accurate aside from his shooting. If we see the game differently so be it. He will almost certainly go to a top flight side in Europe and almost certainly develop as a footballer. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t get European football again at some point in his career. Not necessarily going to be a world beater but he’ll play at a higher standard than city in the next few years.

That’s exactly what Massengo does. He is inconsistent but some of the chat about him in this thread and elsewhere is ridiculous. He’ll go somewhere better than City when he leaves and I expect he’ll thrive.

I don’t think it’s binary. He’s done some things very well, although I personally think that not letting the stadium fall apart and investing in the training ground and academy are the minimum you’d expect from a competent owner. Nevertheless, credit where it’s due. We could have had worse. Don’t deny that, we could’ve gone bust or been sold to someone dodgy. I think we could’ve had a lot better though, and I think that if almost anyone else had invested the money that SL has we would be in a better position than we are now. I just think that we have gone round in circles for a long time now, and at some point you have to look past the managers and look at who’s running the club and the decisions they’ve made. I wouldn’t hound Lansdown out of town but if rumoured American investment is coming then I would be all for it. We need fresh ideas and a bigger emphasis on getting results and actually chasing trophies/top 6. Things feel very stale.

Are these all not the bare minimum you’d expect from competent owners? What’s been delivered on the pitch, where it actually counts? We beat Man United and we won some trophies in a league we should never have dropped down to in the first place. We aren’t a tiny little club who should be counting our blessings being in the championship. This attitude from our fan base has to go if we want to do anything successful on the pitch. Bristols a large city and we have a sizeable fan base, with better footballing decisions we could easily be knocking on the door of the top 6 on a regular basis and to have only made one playoff final under Lansdown is an atrocious return on investment. We’ve got three quarters of a good stadium (as do most clubs our size) and we have a good academy (great), is that enough for some people? We’re in a financial mess directly because of Lansdown and we’ve only once had a sniff of Premier League football because of Lansdown’s decisions. Really wish our fan base would stop talking like we’re some minnows who have somehow made it to the championship. We’re a decent sized club, as big as many who have asserted themselves as Premier League clubs in recent years, yet we’re happy to give Lansdown a free ride because he built some new stands and we have a lovely training ground. As if we should actually be having tents for stands and training up the downs because we’re some tiny club. Do we have a god given right to top flight football? No. But we should have come a lot closer than we have under Lansdown given the money he has invested. Undoubtedly things could be a lot worse but if our only ambition is to tread water in the championship long term that is embarrassing, football is about trying to win trophies. I have no interest supporting a club content to make up the numbers and count themselves lucky that they aren’t worse off.

He hasn’t scored a goal so he’s crap, haven’t you heard?

He was the only one of the three that did. Williams and Scott both positioned themselves behind West Brom players meaning they couldn’t receive the ball. It’s either a lack of footballing intelligence or not wanting the ball. Neither are acceptable. We played our best football with Scott and Massengo next to each other in my opinion.

Give us something to cheer about then Nigel.

Financial position etc has no impact on Pearson’s man management, matchday selections or in game decision making. All of which have been poor in recent months.

Bellingham was streets ahead of Scott whilst having much less experience at a younger age. We won’t be getting 30 but 15 would be a fair price in the summer.

Average championship players they are, but we must watch different matches if you think that no manager could get that squad any more than 2 points off the relegation zone. I’m not expecting miracles, top half would be a good finish, but we should not be looking over our shoulders at the relegation zone. Can you identify how we’re trying to play? Any areas of improvement over the course of the season? We’re regressing and Pearson is making increasingly odd decisions in regards to team selection and keeps falling out with players. This isn’t sustainable if we want to stay in the league.

You genuinely think no other manager could get better performances out of that side? The football was atrocious and you can see there’s no confidence in the side. It’s not about transfers it’s about coaching, there’s no organisation at the back and we look clueless going forward. It’s not a lack of quality it’s a lack of coaching.

Got to go. Players look clueless as to what they’re doing and Pearson doesn’t look like he has any idea how to change things. Players hiding behind the opposition to dodge getting the ball. Pathetic. Got one midfielder who passes the ball forward and he’s been exiled to the under 23s for no real reason. No idea why he perseveres with 3-5-2. Been using it for 3 years and been awful for 3 years. Need someone new to come in and bring some new ideas.

Much more marketable. Seems a shame to me though.