Bristol Oil Services

How was lunch?

I dunno. If Topper'd been running our recruitment summer '15, then Cotts'd've signed 'arry McGuire, Konchesky, Fredericks, Andre Gray, Dwayne wotsit, Kodj, Bakes, Tommy Tomlin, probably a couple more, and we'd've swept all before us and stormed to 100 points, and still be in the Prem now having a laugh at all the dopey EFL clubs dotting their ffp "eyes" and crossing their ffp "teas" (like Bournemouth and a few others)

He's no Danny McGrain, George Tanner. Not sure what Pep could do with the Cornick/Tanner right hand side. Maybe the new kiddie will liven things up there

He said he'll leave it there, Dave, he wants you to have the last word on this, look

Never knew Glos had an open top bus in '77, heady days in May '77 for City/Glos fans. Never knew one of Belle & Sebastian started life as a Glos fan, neither. Wonder who's next?

I like the sound of that kinda deal, mate. Way we're going with all these academy kids we're bringing through jt'll be Nige's Stay & Play (£2.50 get a free coffee)

I remember fans singing his name, the season he left (and was struggling), think it was the Ipswich game when he finally scored a (cracking) goal. They were singing his name before he scored. I remember that his stepover worked in L1 but not the Championship. I don't remember Luke acknowledging this (support), perhaps he was unaware. Neither do I remember him saying anything when he left. Bit of a cold fish, was my impression.

We've fine tooth comb-ed most things on here - the owner, his boy, the manager, the previous manager/s, the CEO before the previous one, the players, the recruitment, the kit, the crowd, the atmosphere, the ffp, the "High" Performance Centre, the parking, the ticketing, the club shop, the concourse- but not so much whoever drills the lads Mon - Thursday up Failand (assuming Nige mostly leaves that to his staff). Are we good enough as far as training ground coaching goes?

That's a 5:0 drubbing home and away now for Lee, v Villa. Did he stick his centre back up top at 0:2?

When Cotts was fired, Keith Dawe was quoted on the club website: "I brought Steve Cotterill into Bristol City just over two years ago because I thought he could keep us up ..... "

Aye, and if we are moving toward a "possession" game, players not making themselves available for a pass is going to be a bit of a problem. I would imagine Nige might forgive them many things but not lack of effort or courage.

Don’t have Apple TV Dave, sadly, would love to see that documentary. My favourite era is mid-Beatles before they went hippy-beardie.

What Bristol City needed, we now can say WTBoH, was Lansdown and Hargreaves, like the Beatles needed Lennon (Hargreaves: he is The Walrus, ker ker ker-ching) and McCartney (Lansdown: Frog Chorus). Or Steve needed Pete here, I think we can safely say.

Mark Little

Increasingly, top flight clubs are expanding their grounds and capacities. I think you've read this idea - that Prem clubs don't need ticket sales so aren't bothered about expansion - on here so often, as have I, and taken it on board. Meanwhile, despite the wisdom of Otib, clubs at the top are either actually expanding, or looking into it. I think Leicester announced plans to go up to 40,000 seats but might well have pressed pause on this for now. Newcastle are looking at going up to 65,000, and have bought land behind one end of St James' Park. Liverpool are adding more seats currently. Tottenham have recently increased their capacity, Man City want to, have mentioned it. West Ham binned their atmospheric but cramped old ground for 60,000 seats. Even Everton are doing exactly this, adding capacity. Forest have applied to rebuild their old main stand, increasing capacity. Palace have sought permission to go up to 34,000. Wolves have announced plans to go to 50,000. Sheffield Utd to 40k, they have been granted permission. Chelsea have bought a bit of land adjoining Stamford Bridge. Everyone's at it, or thinking about it. Or just done it. Even bloody Bournemouth want to. Ashton Gate's 27,000 (in reality, 26,000) will be a bit Luton/Bournemouth should we miraculously ever find ourselves there. While we're flat-lining in the Championship, there's no need. Should we ever be in the Prem for longer than a year or two, and want to stay, what we have now might not be enough.

T.G.H. Total Control Racing. There's a song in there (somewhere) [that we'll never sing]

We always need 5-6 more players, that's the bloody problem.

Where might you say a little bit more?

We spent 40 minutes of the second half of a home game on the back foot, clinging on, our goal living a bit of a charmed life, against dour/solid midtable opposition. The "portents" were not encouraging. The entertainment was poor. The crowd was funereal, until a few boos at the end. The first half was bottom half L1 in terms of quality, from both sides. Some people want to see a bit of "action."

You favour a fudge?

Don't just focus on outcomes, keep an eye on performance. At home. And listen to the crowd (the funereal silence during the games, the reaction at the final whistle). Crowd has booed at first 2 home league games. 2 × poor (consecutive) home performances + another sale of best player = ......

Is this a "whoosh" ?

My point is, the clubs that haven't made it are smaller than us, with fewer resources, including Preston and Millwall. There's only one club left in the country that has 20,000 plus seats and 20,000 plus crowds that has failed to reach the top in the last 30 years, and that isn't Preston or Millwall. Every club that can pull 20,000 has played in the Prem, with one exception. And many that cannot pull or house 20,000 have done so.

Yeah, bang on mate. Let's list them: 1. Bristol Rovers 2. Fleetwood 3. Morecombe 4. Forest bleedin Green Rovers 5. Rotherham 6. Shrewsbury 7. Barrow 8. MK Dons 9. Crawley 10. Mansfield Town 11. Newport County 12. Harrogate blinkin Town 13. Are you cottoning on to this now, mate? The only clubs that haven't made it to the top division in the last 30 years are smaller than us, much smaller. Including Plymouth (16,000 on Saturday. Not very big).

1. Cornick's 2. Off 3. You 4. Useless 5 ****** ?