George Rs

5 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

They tried, Rotherham wouldn’t sell.  Rotherham wanted to stay in the champ, which they did, and were happy to forgo a fee in the summer for that opportunity.

Oh didn’t know that, fair enough then. Worked out well both of them as well (disregarding rotherham’s campaign this season )

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Just imagine though, if you’d used those limited funds in August rather than January!  That’s always been a big thing for me.  I will never be able to square that off in my head, coupled with “you want a CB, here’s Daniel Ayala”.  Hey ho!

Or as soon as semenyo left HPC “get Ogbenes number now!”

9 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

Even with that there was still a clear expectation of progress. 

At the very most we've stood still. I'd argue we've slightly regressed. The gap to the play offs has got wider. 

I've listed a number if games this season that we were more than capable of getting more points from than we did previously on here. Even with selling Scott we are more than good enough to have beaten QPR x2 for example. 

What I'm disappointed with is we have not got the best out of ourselves this season. We can argue all day about why we didn't but the fact remains we didn't. We have under achieved and no one will be able to convince me otherwise. 

If “no one can convince you otherwise” what’s the point in bringing it up? This forum is used for among many things debate, would be hard to do that if you can’t let opinions change at all. 

I would agree off plain numbers i’d expect us to finish 5 points better, top 10. That’s what i said pre-season before scott’s sale. 

Since then, we’ve sold our best player, not reinvested it. Had a major injury crisis forcing us to name a defence with 1 player in the right position for at least 1 game. A change of manager. An extremely toxic club environment. Having to name the same centre back pairing for what 30 games straight. 

We haven’t exactly been the most fortunate? For the multitude of games we should’ve/could’ve won there’s probably a relatively close number of games we didn’t expect anything from that we won. 

Was it a sensational season? No. But it wasn’t bad either, and considering what’s gone on this campaign that’s not too bad imo. Don’t see a problem with people celebrating our recent upwards trend in results and performance. 

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

Bottom line for me is that if we come out of summer with Williams re-signed, Twine signed permanently & James gone in addition to the other known deals, then I don’t think we’ll have enough if it’s Tommy out and #9 + younger player in. Ideally I’d like to see us do better than Twine in that #10 and get a 9 to augment Tommy as opposed to replace.

Is a very interesting situation , I agree and most, including the club, probably do as well that a #10 and #9 are most important for the summer. 

Sadly wanting someone to augment tommy is just out of the clubs hands now, down to TC. And tbh I would be very disappointed if we bring in two if TC leaves, would harshly limit SPHs opportunity to prove himself at this level which I feel he’s deserved after this campaign. 

Another interesting situation with Twine as well, certainly hasn’t set the place on fire like some thought he would, but has he been given much of an opportunity to do so? As it is, we’ve yet to lose a game he’s started, and whilst his in game play can be a bit physically weak at times, I’d be tempted to sign him based off his set piece ability alone. Not worth £4m but if we could get him for £2-2.5m? I’d go for it personally. 

8 minutes ago, NcnsBcfc said:

I think there is some points to be made here from the club's communications today.

They are obviously priotising POTD for next season. Hence the "South Stand sold out". It won't be sold out, just sold out to anyone buying STs. There will probably be 500+ free seats for the first game of the season for POTD punters.

Secondly, they are only offering a "limited" number of STs for the open sale market.

I think as a club we will be looking to cap ST sales at around 14k or so (not sure about H/T STs around Christmas). This will once again force more people to get memberships or go POTD.

The club has probably recognised that the missing STs and a certain number of the STs that do come are unlikely to spend as much in the shop/concessions as people doing the POTD trip down the gate experience.

It's going to be interesting how this new approach works anyhow.

With them supposedly prioritising POTD, wouldn’t it be safe to assume they are very optimistic about next season? 

If they prioritised potd and next season we just stuck around 12th-18th the entire season the attendance/atmosphere would plummet off a cliff. 

Surely prioritising it this way suggests they have optimism about our actual performance in the league next year? (I could be just reading into this too much) 

Could suggest a multitude of things, their feelings on LM, prepared for the summer window? I don’t really know but is certainly an interesting shift. 

14 minutes ago, Street red said:

Yeah that makes sense but I think they are still down from this season ticket holders as people haven't renewed. 

True but if 12000 have already renewed then the “drop” that we end up with will probably be inconsequential to them. 

I can’t remember how many we had last year but guessing it was 14-15k total. 

I can’t see more the a 1-1.5k drop happening from this point. And there’s a lot of reasons not to get a season ticket atm other than unhappiness with the club. Financial reasons, waryness of the new tv schedule etc.

Assume losing 1000 season tickets would just be written off mostly due to those two things and the Lansdowns won’t worry themselves. 

Haven’t ever watched this podcast before but it’s just come up on my twitter. Their guest for this week will be Nige!

Pretty sure it’ll be his first interview since leaving in the autumn (correct me if i’m wrong).Will be very interesting to hear what he has to say! 

Edit: Didn’t see the other topic on this already my bad, mods please delete

Will be very sad to see James go as he’s been the backbone of our side the past couple of years, but If i had to pick between the two I would go with Williams as well. 

Looking like the player we thought we signed, if not better as of late. 

Really interesting one, taking into account the injuries and our relatively small squad in the first place can we expect much more? 1.3-1.4 points per game  is probably just behind playoff pace and we’ve had obvious chances to pick up more which we’ve squandered. 

I know people like to bring up the “top 6 squad comments” and the board should be held accountable for making them but i don’t think that should be hung over LMs head. For his first season at this level, on just a points basis I actually think that’s quite good, disregarding the actual football being played which will be more subjective. 

At this stage I feel he’s earnt the opportunity to show what he can do after a full pre season and some of his own signings. With Naismith, Atkinson, Benarous, Bell, Bird and stokes plus a couple of real quality signings i’m quietly optimistic about next season. In saying that we will undoubtedly finish 11th . 

Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he’s not ours by the end of next summer. Tidy tidy player, can see the difference brightons academy has made in him, very good technicals. 

Edit: Picked up on a free (compensation) as well, some brilliant business. Although there have been a couple of misses, Kane wilson/Cornick potentially etc, our recruitment the past couple of years has been brilliant imo. 

At a small cost compared to most as well. 

Brilliant save tbf 

2 hours ago, phantom said:

You should see the graphics he has on his movement - it is epic

Underrated box to box movement 

12 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Funnily enough Niges last game against Cardiff came into my head as I was leaving the stadium today. In that game he had the “testicular fortitude” to play Joseph James and also bring on Jamie Knight Lebel for a debut. The rejigs needed were necessary that day, and he had the courage to involve people who hadn’t been anywhere near the first team.

This is where I think I have more of a problem than you with today, while fully acknowledging it’s better to play a “youngster” if they have experience next to them. But we had a natural defender who’s been good enough to be on the bench for 25 odd games (so more experience than Nige had available) and chose not to use him - instead doing multiple positional moves which stifled how we played - and weren’t needed.

Injuries or not, there was a tactical decision made - and it was the wrong one (and that isn’t benefit of hindsight).

If I’m Jamie Knight-Lebel, and I have no idea if he would have played well or not, I’m spitting bloody feathers tonight and wondering if it’s worth it. The decisions made today have likely disillusioned the only academy player (that wasn’t involved regularly before) who has got anywhere near the first team consistently under Liam. It was a really, really bad call on so many levels - injuries or not.

I would’ve liked JKL to get more game time this season as well don’t get me wrong.

But there’s an obvious difference between the cardiff game in october and today. One we lost 2-0 and the other we drew 1-1. 

Obviously there are various other factors, on paper Cardiff probably have a better team, Huddersfield have a lot more to play for etc. But to call it the wrong decision in comparison to a game where we lost doesn’t make any sense to me? 

5 minutes ago, Gazred said:

You can want that but I don't think it's unfair to say that to expect Bristol City FC at this level to provide that is both unrealistic and somewhat naive.

Especially when you consider the amount of money this squad has cost us. Of course it isn’t a pin point indicator but the purchase value of our squad is something like 16/17th in the league. 

To expect good performance every single week in one of the hardest leagues in europe, without being one of the top spenders is just silly imo. For a Leicester fan it’s understandable, not for us. 

As the saying goes, a sign of a good team is when they pick up points even when they aren’t playing well. Had a very good last few games, off the mark today and without a recognised CB yet still getting points is a plus imo, just have to make sure those performances are a rarity. 

Realistically i think Manning has done enough to deserve the summer. That doesn’t mean i think he will suddenly shoot us into playoffs next year, I still think we will finish somewhere between 10-16th. But I see 0 point in changing manager at this time. Give the man a chance and let’s see what happens.

Don’t share the view of some that we should be really worried for next season. But it is Bristol City after all

1 minute ago, westonred said:

Outplayed by a very unlucky bottom 3 team team, we didnt deserve a thing. We just cant seem to play against the lower teams. Before anyone says how about Blackburn we were gifted 4 goals in that one

Didn’t realise we lost to plymouth and swansea. 

10 points against the bottom 10 in our last 4 games against them. Not exactly terrible mate. 

There are serious faults in LMs game but he has quite clearly learnt from the streak post southampton. 

Should’ve brought Mehmeti on much earlier. Love or hate his decison making he makes things happen, consistently. 

Twine had a much better second half i thought but still not worth the £4m that Burnley want. 

Probably deserved a draw that game. Poor performance from us but tbf didn’t drop heads when we went 1-0 down and got the point. Coming into the game with 0 cbs i’d take that and it continues an our unbeaten streak. 

But that kind of performances coming back still leaves me very iffy on Manning.

Just now, Davefevs said:

I hope Terriers go down, and then I would be all over Rudoni, forget Twine.

Was thinking the same! Would be much cheaper as well. 

Just now, old_eastender said:

Take Williams off, drop Knight back to centre midfield, Twine to no. 10 role, Mehmeti on to give them something to think about.

Would take off Twine personally, far to weak for the championship, or at least in this game. 

Lost the ball 3 or 4 times so far when pressured. 

Seems we’ve kicked off for the second half a bit early! 

38 minutes ago, Lorenzos Only Goal said:

If you assume the starting position is terrible (we did have a short-term injury crisis), you need to give the new manager some time. Still, in this instance, his position was almost immediately better than his predecessor, and most fans were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in not tarring him with any responsibility for the nature of Pearson's exit.  That said, he had an indifferent run, combined with a decent cup run, followed by some horrible form for 14 games and this current uptick, combined with a very iffy/pointless expenditure of money on Mabude.  I'm very nervous about giving him a budget and a preseason, allowing him to shape the squad; after the Cardiff game, I would have fired his ass if I'm honest, that said if he stays, I'll judge his impact after the first ten games of next season, as with no pressure its hard to tell what the current mindset of the players is.

Would you let Jon know I would like a free season ticket for my Nephew cheers ? 

Don’t understand these no pressure comments? 

Before the last 6 games, we were on a 4 game losing streak and half this forum thought we were sliding into a relegation battle + we’re relentlessly complaining we couldn’t beat a side below us. 

For all his faults LM follows that up with 13/16 points and beats 3 teams below us. Most of the wins in varying setups as well, showing a tactical flexibility many said he didn’t have. 

I’m all for calling someone out when they’ve done something wrong/can’t do something but you have to be able to say fair enough when they do it right. 

A lot of LMs flaws have been quite soundly answered recently, one of the only ones remaining is consistency which has hounded every city manager since 14/15. 

No matter the starting position a new manager will need time, a little more when it’s their first time at this level. Should that have been a reason for the board not to hire LM? Probably. But we did get him so that’s pointless. And why on earth would he need the benefit of the doubt regarding Pearsons exit? Nothing to do with him. I was as furious as most about NPs exit but it has no relevance to LMs tenure. 

Every transfer window sees misses, from Lois Diony to Kane wilson. The key is whether they are exceptions or expectations. 

Just now, IAmNick said:

Yep, agreed - the first two goals came from the chipped ball up the wing/into the channels we saw a lot earlier in the season (and imo were doing too often in fact), which we then basically stopped entirely. We're mixing it up a bit more and all the better for it.

Clearly been worked on as well. Passes for the first and last goals were both spot on. 

Suprised Haydon Roberts isn’t part Brazilian, silky footballer.

Williams x Knight doing something for me, combative, mobile and composed when regaining possession. 

Brilliant goal off the bench for Mehmeti. 

Brace for each of our strikers and another clean sheet. Couldn’t ask for more! 

P.S. Nice little cameo for JKL, didn’t have much to do but didn’t do anything wrong either, good for him. 

TC and Williams the stand out so far. Decent performance but mistakes from blackburn costing them. should be 3-0. 

James Tavernier