GBF

No point in getting rid of Manning now but we should start looking for a replacement to come in May/June. Big problem is Board not Manager No confidence they will make a good appointment. It’s a frustrating horrible cycle.

I don’t want Manning to build his own squad this summer from what I have seen from him so far. He plays players out of position and our build up play is far too slow and predictable We score most of our goals from transition and IMO the more he coaches the team to keep the ball the less we will score. His in game management is shocking. However that said the team are exactly where I thought we would be before a ball was kicked this season. His results are Ok given the squad and I don’t think Pearson would have got us into the play offs this season anyway. The Big difference is Pearson had earnt the right to be given some funds to spend having sorted out the shit show he inherited He also has a track record of success at this level Manning may be a very good coach in time but has no track record at this level and has failed to improve the teams results with more players available than Pearson IMO we give Manning to next Christmas with the existing squad to prove he can manage/coach at this level but without a significant budget to make changes Unfortunately I don’t have confidence in our Board to appoint a manager capable of getting us into the Top6 and therefore sacking Manning wouldn’t solve the problem

Appreciated the communication. Frustrating that communication only comes when the hierarchy want to deliver a message rather than a monthly or quarterly update that happens irrespective of how things are going. Will always appreciate the investment in the stadium but can’t get over the feeling that the sacking of Pearson means this Club will never play in the Premier League under the Lansdown ownership. That in itself would not be a problem with me if they could be more honest in their communication of what the real objectives of running the Club are. For example if they were to state that they are prepared to support the Club to the extent of a maximum £10m a year deficit in funding and the objective was for the Club was to play an entertaining brand of football with a commitment to investment in the community and using local suppliers wherever possible, I would except that without a problem. I just don’t like the pretence that they are running the Club to be in the Premier League when they never appoint the right people or give them the necessary resources to achieve that objective

Dave Agree with supporting LM and BCFC. However you sound like a Man Utd fan supporting ETH. You know a seriously bad decision has been made but can’t see a way forward. what I would give for us to have trusted and invested in Pearson This is going to take a very long time to repair .

IMy observations to date are as follows 1. He was the most articulate person at the fans forum recently 2. When being interviewed about football and tactics he says a lot of words without saying much of substance 3 He has made some unnecessary team changes such as swapping positions with Bell and Sykes against Southampton Worse still when after 30 mins it was clear that it was not working he failed to correct it and then repeated playing Sykes on the left against Norwich City today. 4 I am not a fan of possession football and can’t think of anything worse than having to watch a Swansea City type game I have concerns that this is his preferred style of play . The second half At Southampton and today against Norwich City was boring to watch with slow, ineffective backwards and sideways passing It also significantly reduces our chances of scoring a goal in transition which is where most our goals have come from in recent seasons Like you I think fantastic football is a very long way off and we will probably never see it.

Unlucky to lose today but our attacking play in 2nd half against Southampton and Norwich City today was non existent. There was never a moment in that second half when I thought City might score. I am really concerned by the way we are playing. Too many safe or poor passes, backwards or sideways without any threat. LM seems to want procession with no idea of what we are going to with the procession and the more procession at slow pace we have the less chance we have of scoring a goal in transition. Very worried by what I have seen of his coaching so far, and hope he can turn it around

So true

Glad the club have organised the event. Bigger venue required or live streaming with opportunity to ask questions.

I really don’t like the fact that the football club doesn’t own its own stadium any more. We are reliant on current and future owners to do the right thing. Before SL sells I would want him to protect the Football Club from the possibility that it could be held to ransom for access or use of its own historical stadium. I think Ken Bates did something along those lines for Chelsea fans when h gave the Chelsea fans voting rights on the use and future development of Stamford Bridge befit he sold the Club

Like the vast majority on here I was absolutely gutted by the decision on Sunday. The only rational that might have justified the decision was if they had already lined up a replacement (eg Southampton sacking Nigel Atkins and replacing with Potch) who they were confident would get us promoted and were willing to back to achieve the goal However I respectfully suggest Jon watches a lot more football if he genuinely thinks we have a squad capable of getting promoted . IMO no one could have done a much better job than NP with the resources that were made available Without knowing what good look like you have no chance of achieving success because you do not know what you are working towards. So for me the two comments “we have a squad that should be competing at the top end of the league” and “we might add further names to the list” confirms that we are in trouble again . Our CEO doesn’t appear to know what good looks like or who he is going to get to do a better job than Nigel.

Wish I was going tomorrow. Best wishes to all that are going and please shout extra loud for me

Generally I think Joe Williams has played well by his standards this season, was good at Millwall and Swansea. However he was well below par at Rotherham and if City want to progress he is not the solution

Welcome back Tommy. Two amazing finishes.

Agree, we really miss him. Hope he can shake off getting injured because from what I have seen so far that is currently the main factor limiting his career potential

Agreeed , well said. Was thinking yesterday if only Conway was fit or Kodja was playing up front with Sykes and Bell and we would have a good chance of play offs Done a fantastic job with the resources available

Yesterday too many players had an off day. I rate both Pring and Tanner yet both were poor . Even without Scott I believe we can play a lot better in midfield. Yesterday was surely as bad as any of our midfielders selected can play. Knaismith in the absence of Scott our most creative passer was unavailable. If however Knight is not a good passer and doesn’t take up positions to facilitate an easy pass for the person on the ball (both skills were not evident yesterday), we need to buy another midfielder who can do that . Personally I thought Zac was exceptional 2nd half and good generally and Dickie good throughout the whole game but with the obvious exception of their goal! Despite most things not being good yesterday we were minutes away from a good result and maybe that means things aren’t as bad as they appea

Agree the most disappointing if not the worst performance was Knight

IMO the last 3 games has been the first time for a long time that I think we are moving in the right direction

Was on OTIB last night reading the reaction to the Coventry game, some questioning board, others management and virtually all questioning the ability of our team. I have seen the bands play and some are good but I don’t believe we promote that part of the match day experience as well as we could. I think we have a great stadium and facilities to watch football and just want us all to make the most of them.

A number of fair criticisms s to my original post To summarise my thoughts. I only want to enhance our clubs revenue not reduce it. Given the football we are currently playing I don’t think many people will be looking to buy tickets at £30+ to watch City at present This should only be a short term offering to stimulate more interest until the football on the pitch is back on track. I suggested until the end of season but maybe a shorter period would do the trick . I don’t have access to how well the promotional offer for the Barnsley game went but there were still plenty of empty seats so it could be wishful thinking that reducing prices for the rest of the season would lead to higher attendances and a greater revenue I just want to see some positive leadership from our Club to rekindle the belief that we may one day be good again and acknowledgement that the current offering is below the standards they intended or are aiming for . We don’t have to be a premiership club to play entreating football at home As many have already said on OTIB some of my favourite me memories of watching us were under Terry Cooper

Good point. But my point is I don’t really know You can make assumptions based on what COVID may have done to our finances but I am not aware of statements the Club have made as to where we stand . How can you evaluate the last transfer window until you know the constraints the manager was working to?

Not my intention but when you reduce prices you need a greater % increase in volume to compensate

This club is in dire need of some positive leadership The fan base is very close to switching off and withdrawing support. It is not hard to understand the fans frustration 1. The board have failed to deliver on the expectations that they set themselves when sacking Lee Johnson 2The football served up at Ashton Gate in the last 2 years is some on the most unenjoyable/ unwatchable I have seen in over 40 years of supporting the club 3 Everyone is disillusioned with the state of play and looking to blame someone for the mess we are in 4 The Board have failed to communicate clearly the financial impact of the COVID pandemic on our finances and combining this will financial fair play the constraints which have been placed on NP and his ability to reshape our playing squad 5 Our playing squad in inadequate for the stated objectives of the Club ( to get into the play offs) and in truth this squad would struggle to achieve that in League 1 I am of the opinion that the following things need to happen to get a positive vibe back into supporting our club 1. The Board to put out a statement clarifying where we are financially and thereby justifying the lack of investment in the playing squad this season 2. The Board to apologise for the current lack of quality in the football being played and as gesture in acknowledging that it has fallen well below its intended standard to reduce all ticket prices to a flat fee of £10 per person irrespective of age for all remaining matches this season 3 To compensate season tickets that renew for next season before a specified date with a reduction in price of £100 per adult on the price they paid this season as a reward for sticking with the club during this period To review price on non adult season tickets that renew but rather than money off perhaps get a free First team Home shirt 4 The supports trust/ Club to make a real effort to improve the non football bit of the match day experience to entice as many of us as possible attend matches, get behind the team, and maintain the fan base at a time when the football being played is hard to watch Could we a) Immediately reduce purchase price of all drinks consumed at the ground on match days to being the lowest available locally eg Pint for £4 Soft drink £1 Let’s get people into our stadium spending money and creating an atmosphere b) Could we see if we could get well known local bands or bands that play popular music well to play on the concourse to raise money for local charities could we promote the bands that are playing in the pre match build up c) Could the Sports Bar and allTVs in the ground have the sound on when playing the early kick off premiership game on a Saturday d) Would it be possible to organise a Q&A session inside the concourse of the stadium with a former club player or manager each week pre kick off in the way this is often done in corporate areas of the ground We could start off with anyone of the Ashton Gate Eight and again could collect for charity If this was done at 12 30 on 3pm kick offs for 30/45 minutes you may get up to a 1000 people turning up earlier to hear them speak whilst sharing drinks with their friends e) If we are not selling out offer 500/1000 tickets per match to a different local school to distribute each match f) Let’s get people into the grounds concourse for 12.30 on a Saturday where there are things to do , see and hear a former City player, listen to music, watch the live premier game and eat food and buy drinks served by the Club In return us fans need to: 1) Get behind the team and the Club and recognise that sometimes your club/ team isn’t as good and you want it to be but it will only get better if we are all pulling together 2) Turn up as much as possible and ideally take friends to matches assuming the Club offer cheap tickets 3) Loudly support the team and help make it a harder place for opposition teams to play

Good post

Difficult call. We are where I thought we would be with this squad, either in the bottom 3 or just above it. What I was hoping to see this season were some signs we were moving in the right direction. I look back at who we released and bar Paterson and Fam would have let them all go. I don’t understand why we signed Simpson or King because they continued a trend of signing players that neither improved the side in the short term or added any value longer term. More worryingly it made me question whether things were going to improve moving forward. I assumed Baker was resigned to enable Kalas to be sold but then a deal didn’t materialise You then look at how the team is set up as a cohesive unit and whether the existing players are improving and I am struggling to see any evidence that we are any better now than we were under Holden . We are neither better in possession of the ball or in defending without the ball. This is extremely damning on the coaching set up given the low bar set last year. Key question is who is to blame for transfer policy/activity and coaching set up. The longer NP is in charge the more the finger will be pointed at him. I would like to see NP backed as much as possible in the next transfer window but at the same time am extremely concerned by the lack of evidenced progress on the pitch to date