ATRUEREDBLUE

I think the club must break the cycle and try to bring in more quality. Trying to go for promotion with a top half squad (not a top 6 squad) and/or hoping that LM will do something special to make up the gap just doesn’t feel like a calculated risk to go for promotion - it feels like a hopeful shot at trying to go up. Don’t be surprised if we are in the same position next season and if this strategy goes wrong we will end up going in the opposite direction - there are enough competitive teams to suck you into the bottom half.

Apologies if this was too long for you all - see Executive Summary requested Executive Summary 1. Love the Forever Bristol City Podcast - but are they becoming too accepting of the clubs current strategy? 2. The Clubs current strategy is very unlikely to give us a chance to get promoted - relying on developing young players, selling them to balance the books with little remaining to purchase the quality we need is unlikely to give us the opportunity to challenge unless we are lucky and can retain those players for long enough (if indeed we develop them in the first place - Scott and Semenyo won't be easy to repeat) and/or our manager/head coach turns out to be exceptional and capable of getting us into the running with lower quality on paper than our rivals. It feels like this approach is unlikely to bring success. 3. It feels like the club and SL's appetite for risk is pretty low. Less risk - less reward. In the context of SL's overall wealth it feels like the risk we need to take is not that great. Further, the current approach does not seem to be capable of bringing the ownership succession that SL wants either. 4. SL has been a great custodian of the club but as a wealthy owner he has underperformed on the pitch. I think this is because he has tried to get to the top tier relying on 2nd tier expertise. 5. Why not pay for the best football executive leadership he can get - give them responsibility (with incentives) to develop a plan to get us out of the championship in 3 years. Assess their plan and the associated financial risk and make a decision. This may or may not lead to a change of head coach depending on what the new football executive leadership advise. 6. SL can at that point decide to go with the new strategy or not. If he does not we will continue as is. If he decides to go for the new strategy we will have 3 years to make it happen. If SL goes for it, he can then say that he tried everything. If it works the fans will be happy, SL's succession options will go through the roof and his legacy will be protected. If it does not work SL can then say he tried everything and his legacy is less likely to be affected. 7. It feels like we all have a shared objective but are not doing the right things to make it happen. If that's the case let's not settle for that. Lets keep challenging the club to do more otherwise we will never get out of our current position and if we are not careful we could start to go backwards.

Congratulations to the guys at Forever Bristol City - what a great podcast with input from supporters who know the game and Bristol City in particular. As things have evolved this season and the FBC cast have been chewing over the issues I have become increasingly depressed. We all know that we are in a mid-table mediocre tumble dryer of a position - and it seems to me that the strategy of the club has very little chance of breaking this cycle and if anything this could be as good as it gets. The thing that concerns me is that the FBC team appear to have become more accepting (in a slightly brow beaten kind of way) of the clubs position on this and it has been interesting to see Ian in particular who over a period of time seems to have moved closer to the clubs stance - perhaps this reflects his increasingly closer position to people who are close to the club if indeed that is the case - is Ian a poacher turned gamekeeper? I am sure Ian would say he is just being realistic. The reality is that we will need to be very lucky and have all the stars aligned in our favour to get promoted if we continue with the stated approach of relying on the academy to develop players who we can sell to help us balance the books leaving little left to buy the quality of players we need. This policy involves us not being able to consolidate and build team performances in an upward trajectory because our use of such players in their prime will only be for one or two seasons at best before we sell and we still can’t buy the players we really need- the policy either requires us to hit the jackpot with these special players (if indeed we develop players of the quality of Scott or Semenyo which is less likely than likely) so that they are in the club for long enough to give the team a chance to move upwards (which again is less likely than likely) or the manager we have chosen needs to turn out to be something special and starts to show that he can make a silk purse out of a sows ear (a slightly unfair analogy but I wanted to make the point). Unless I am missing the point this strategy is very limited and risk averse. To get promoted this way looks unlikely unless we get a dose of good luck with the two issues referred to above. The reality is that the club must accept that it needs to take more risk to give us a better chance of going up. If a billionaire can’t take a risk then who can? We all know that we need two or possibly 3 quality players to move our squad from its current level to the next level and give us a better chance - this means an investment of circa 15 million but as Ian says, this ain’t gonna happen! If that’s the case, I think City fans need to adjust their ambitions and hope of going up and for the likes of Ian DP and myself we may not see premier league football in our lifetime. The problem I have with all of this is two fold (1) it seems to me that this strategy is less likely to achieve SL’s stated objective of selling the club - if we don’t go up how is the clubs value/potential going to change from what it appears to be now in the eyes of prospective investors (there have been no takers as things stand) - it is important to acknowledge that SL has done a great job in building the off pitch infrastructure but he still owns the value in this so in many respects and on the contrary his spending is not all lost - if he wants to sell out in the best way possible he needs to do more and review his approach to risk and I am not talking about excessive or catastrophic risk. (2) As an outsider (and I stand to be corrected) my view is that SL has been successful in financial services, made a lot of money and spent a proportion of that money in developing the infrastructure at Bristol City but he has underperformed as a wealthy owner on the pitch. My sense is that he has been a little naive and slightly parochial in his approach to the football performance side of the business. I felt from the beginning that Mark Ashtons midland sales patter was hollow and I think SL gave him trust too early. I don’t feel that SL has recruited premier league standard people to deliver for him on the football side and this in my view is continuing. SL has done great things for the club and this must be recognised but it would be a shame for his legacy not to go that extra step. Conclusion - I would like to see SL acknowledge this and take steps to bring in top tier football executives - he could do this (buy the best) give them responsibility for developing a new 3year football strategy with incentives to get results (they may or may not decide that LM is the man for the head coach job) and with responsibility to inform SL what he should realistically do to improve the squad to make City a promotion chasing club but working within sensible financial parameters (15 or so million not 50 million). SL could then say that he did everything he could to achieve what we all want. If it worked we would all be happy, the ownership succession plan would be more straightforward SL would get a return and his legacy would be protected in perpetuity. If it didn’t work at least SL could say he did everything. If he does not address his appetite for risk and continues with the current plan I sense that we will maintain our position or even go backwards and this would tarnish SLs legacy which would be unfair - he does deserve a statue. So, let’s stop trying to get to the top tier with 2nd tier people and a risk averse strategy - let’s start talking about taking a carefully planned risk to move forward - let’s show some guts and ambition and please FBC keep challenging the club and don’t give up!

The solution for Bristol City is clear 1. The Club must be transparent, speak things as they are, and produce a plan to deal with what, the majority, of supporters can see. This means being honest about the Club’s weaknesses and failures on the pitch over many years (not being in the promotion frame in the same way that Cardiff, Swansea, Burnley, Norwich, Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Luton and others have been over many years) and putting forward a plan to address this. It also includes the Club being realistic, about the current playing squad and the risk that the club has taken in appointing LM as head coach (a good young coach with no relevant track record). In many ways LM has been put into a very difficult position (as far as expectations against resources is concerned and taking into account the competitiveness of the Championship) and this should be acknowledged by the Club. 2. The supporter base should reach out to SL and the Lansdown family to communicate its appreciation for what the Lansdown’s have done for the club and the City of Bristol over the years (particularly in relation to the stadium and training facility) but at the same time should communicate that they believe that SL needs to obtain better help and guidance (in relation to both football and executive leadership at the club) and should make it a priority to obtain this. 3. It would be for SL to acknowledge this support but also admit to the main failure that we have all witnessed during his tenure at the club – that of the lack of achievement on the pitch. It would help for SL to talk to supporters about this and to consider embracing their request that he should use some of his resources to find the best football and executive leadership possible (better than the personnel who have been appointed in the past and the current senior team), who can take responsibility for the strategy going forward. If we are aiming for the Premier League we need a Premier League standard Board and Leadership. SL has achieved massive things at the Club but it would show huge strength to admit and address the key failure of his tenure - that of under achieving on the pitch notwithstanding his financial status and input. To be honest, it feels as though the clubs approach to its main challenge (that of getting to the Premier League) has been parochial, second rate and a bit local - in some ways this mirrors the way many people within football view our Club - we are unfashionable and they don't see us as Premier League. This is something we must change because Bristol is a Premier League City and deserves a Premier League Club. Places like Swansea, Norwich, Burnley, Huddersfield and Bournemouth cannot hold a candle to Bristol. 4. The new football and executive leadership would be tasked with (a) developing a robust succession plan for SL and the Lansdown family and (b) assessing what the club needs both in relation to playing squad and football management and coaching to mount a realistic challenge for the play-offs and promotion. 5. This approach would gain the respect of the supporters (it would give transparency and would propose a solution to the current situation which supporters are becoming increasingly despondent about) and would protect the deserved legacy of SL and the Lansdown family at the same time.

The solution for Bristol City is clear 1. The Club must be transparent, speak things as they are, and produce a plan to deal with what, the majority, of supporters can see. This means being honest about the Club’s weaknesses and failures on the pitch over many years (not being in the promotion frame in the same way that Cardiff, Swansea, Burnley, Norwich, Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Luton and others have been over many years) and putting forward a plan to address this. It also includes the Club being realistic, about the current playing squad and the risk that the club has taken in appointing LM as head coach (a good young coach with no relevant track record). In many ways LM has been put into a very difficult position (as far as expectations against resources is concerned and taking into account the competitiveness of the Championship) and this should be acknowledged by the Club. 2. The supporter base should reach out to SL and the Lansdown family to communicate its appreciation for what the Lansdown’s have done for the club and the City of Bristol over the years (particularly in relation to the stadium and training facility) but at the same time should communicate that they believe that SL needs to obtain better help and guidance (in relation to both football and executive leadership at the club) and should make it a priority to obtain this. 3. It would be for SL to acknowledge this support but also admit to the main failure that we have all witnessed during his tenure at the club – that of the lack of achievement on the pitch. It would help for SL to talk to supporters about this and to consider embracing their request that he should use some of his resources to find the best football and executive leadership possible (better than the personnel who have been appointed in the past and the current senior team), who can take responsibility for the strategy going forward. If we are aiming for the Premier League we need a Premier League standard Board and Leadership. SL has achieved massive things at the Club but it would show huge strength to admit and address the key failure of his tenure - that of under achieving on the pitch notwithstanding his financial status and input. To be honest, it feels as though the clubs approach to its main challenge (that of getting to the Premier League) has been parochial, second rate and a bit local - in some ways this mirrors the way many people within football view our Club - we are unfashionable and they don't see us as Premier League. This is something we must change because Bristol is a Premier League City and deserves a Premier League Club. Places like Swansea, Norwich, Burnley, Huddersfield and Bournemouth cannot hold a candle to Bristol. 4. The new football and executive leadership would be tasked with (a) developing a robust succession plan for SL and the Lansdown family and (b) assessing what the club needs both in relation to playing squad and football management and coaching to mount a realistic challenge for the play-offs and promotion. 5. This approach would gain the respect of the supporters (it would give transparency and would propose a solution to the current situation which supporters are becoming increasing despondent about) and would protect the deserved legacy of SL and the Lansdown family at the same time.