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Doug Rougvie would've been out there today - short sleeves, short shorts, short of breath/fitness/ball control - not cowering from a bloody cold doing the rounds. Micky Droy/John Bumstead the same. Clive Walker: not so sure.

Cos all he does is run around. And maybe we can cash in on that, Col

Yeah, laid on the ground on a sheepskin coat with a scantily clad young lady, a fag and a Babysham, whilst reading the Racing Post, as I remember it. Oh, and his E type Jag parked between the Dolman and the Park end. That was football in the 60s/70s for you ...

I wonder what his knees are like nowadays

Merry Christmas, mate. Here's to a Happy one too

Happy Christmas, I note, not Merry. Interesting. The use of "Merry" of course being associated with the lower classes and rowdy Christmases of ye olde Ingurlund and mediaeval mischief and 'ows yer father and all sorts of ribald midwinter carry on. Whereas "Happy" is yer refined upper echelons like yer Royal Family who wanted to set theirselves apart from ye scummy .... well, scum, to be plain. Anyway, moving on .... I always find 'Happy' Christmas somewhat precarious as a goal for a Bristol City supporter and beyond any possibility of control, whereas a 'Merry' one is always within reach (regardless of Chris Martin's this, Bakinson's that, or Nige's jurassic tendency to "set the team up" all wrong .... ). Shakin' Stevens had it right. And Noddy.

You bang on, or You are bang on?

To me, it's one thing Nigel "been there, done it; got the gillet" Pearson criticising his centre back; quite another Lee Johnson doing it. I think most of us would take a certain amount of this from the former, but not the latter? If Atkinson is crumbling inside because of this, then we need to know before next summer.

Ask Blackburn.

It’s a way of looking at .... oh, never mind

Maybe you're right, and I'm wrong. Or vice versa. Or its somewhere in between. The owner doesn't know so we'll never know. What will not drastically alter the fortunes of this club is tinkering with the manager/head coach, in my opinion. If that was the answer you like to think it would've worked by now.

We know he chose them. We also suspect he, and we, don't have much choice. As Mark Ashton might say, we're fishing in small, crappy pools now, unlike before

You think Simpson, Tanner and Atkinson are what he would choose if money were no, or less of an, object?

We - Bristol City FC - have it within us to "tread water," at this level?

I wouldn't disagree with you there. I just think it's ok for someone to have had enough of a manager and say so. It's all just guesswork from the outside, looking in

Agree. We cannot know who might be able, interested, tipped from within the game, affordable or interview well. We can only go by what we see out on the pitch and draw our sketchy conclusions as to who is responsible for a faltering team. It's fair doos to say "someone out" without offering a replacement.

Who was on a 10 year contract other than Clive?

Punters paid peanuts to get in. Don't worry writing the book (Southampton spent the 80s in the 1st division incidentally, on meagre and dwindling crowds, and avoided liquidation as far as I recall. How so?) Bit more research and digging needed, methinks

Southampton v Everton to start with. How did Southampton afford Keegan, Dave Watson and later Shilton and others on crowds no bigger than we got (76 - 80) in a poorer ground than AG and both maintain top class football and avoid financial meltdown? 24000 the crowd for this cup tie. If Richard Latham wasn't quite so nice/"wet" perhaps he might a proper meaty book about this era and what really happened and went wrong. A way more interesting era than the SL dull-fest for two decades. There's a story in this that hasn't really been told.

Very sorry to hear that.

How's your dad?

Trev scored a header - past Jan Moller - in the '79 European Cup final so he had been there a while. Funny how the 80s were bookended by cup ties at Forest. Watching old series of the Big Match, you see what a good player Trevor Francis was, and why he played for England.

"Oh no it isn't!" (Slaps thigh)

I don't quite follow you there, sir. Who told you this?

Lovely. What's his name?