Baba Yaga

2 hours ago, B1ackbird said:

I thought Peter Lim's money almost guaranteed them a place in the championship, perhaps he's not backing them as much now...

I think smaller clubs like Wycombe, Burton, Yeovil etc have done it in the last 10 years without massively overspending so it's not impossible, but none of them were big enough to stay up beyond a couple of seasons. It will be a really tough ask for Salford while League 1 has this many big clubs and for every little club that makes it to the champ there are many more who lose momentum and fall down the leagues again. If I was Lim I would be very worried about Valencia being in the relegation zone in Spain at the moment.  Guessing his experience at Valencia might also put him off backing Salford more than he is now.

54 minutes ago, B1ackbird said:

The Disney+ series is quite good, but haven't we seen this a couple of years ago with Salford City?

Their inevitable rise seems to have slowed down recently....

Looks like they are losing around £3-4m a year going from the last few seasons, apparently money from directors can count as turnover under ffp in leagues 1/2 and the ex-man u players are probably all very wealthy but they should have got paid something for selling Thomas-Asante to WBA at least.

I see them as a smaller club with money like Forest Green and it took them 5 seasons and 2 play off losses before getting out of League 2, looks like Salford are in with a shout of the play offs and this is their 3rd League 2 season. I can't see Salford getting past the glass ceiling in League 1 when you start competing with the likes of Ipswich, Wednesday, Bolton etc. With Wrexham though I definitely think they could one day compete in the championship at least (and with their high profile sponsors would be interesting to see where they would stack up financially against other champ sides), would laugh if they somehow missed promotion this season though having their owners already being given the freedom of Wrexham after beating Notts.

7 minutes ago, Super said:

Not sure The Chelsea owner saying they will win 3-0 tonight is a good move! Probably done Carlo's team talk

Nobody likes an arrogant American, and depending on tonight's result possibly a deluded one too, feel bad for him as he probably didn't have time to think and just gave an off the cuff remark but I can't see their fans being very forgiving towards him if they get embarrassed tonight.

3 hours ago, RoystonFoote'snephew said:

I wouldn't be sure. They are much more willing to make non-refundable miscellaneous payments to assist with the decision making. There are many political reasons to keep the Turkish delighted. 

To be fair Turkey have built lots of new stadiums in the last 10 years or so and haven't hosted a major tournament before. It wouldn't be a walkover to go up against them in a fair bidding process, especially when 4 nations with 1 stadium each are trying to get in.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_football_stadiums_in_Turkey

To be honest I see most of the clubs mentioned as average sized league 1 clubs that have got 5-6k crowds playing City at some point in the last 20 years.

Technically not relegated out the league so probably doesn't count but Wimbledon got bigger crowds than all the clubs mentioned so far in the premier league era and a better trophy than Luton/Oxford in 80s.

22 hours ago, 2015 said:

After listening to Radio Bristol for the lasy few years post match I would have to say most Yeovil managers.

Darren Way, Darren Sarll, Mark Cooper. That's why they are on their way to the 6th tier.

Listening to Mark Cooper on the way home the other week I think he was asked why do you think you're staying up and he said 'because I have to', not the most convincing answer.  And looking very bad for them now.

Also got to agree with the Scott Parker shout, has 2 promotions on his cv but he had 2 of the best teams in the league with parachute money and maybe harshly I am just not convinced by the way he speaks. A good chance he flops at a club like City.

Forest (tough run in very likely they go), Southampton (4pts to make up probably too much), Wolves (last place too close to call really and could be any of about 6 teams).

Just a side point as well Everton paid 20 mill plus add ons to Burnley for Dwight McNeil in the summer. I know lots of money has been pissed away over the years but that deal seemed quite generous and its interesting that it happened soon after all this other stuff.

Obviously the covid losses excuse is flimsy to put it kindly but reading the below bit from the article does this present a problem for the Premier league? If the prem already advised Burnley that Everton complied then are they not liable and does this give Everton a defence? I guess the Premier league didn't want relegation questions to linger in pre season but now does it make it harder/more messy to prosecute Everton with points deductions?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65068357

"Last year, rivals Leeds and Burnley wrote to the Premier League asking for Everton's accounts to be independently investigated, although they later dropped their threat of legal action.

The two clubs had been advised Everton complied with profit and sustainability rules after meeting with the Premier League."

At the time it looked to me like Nakhi Wells goal away to West Brom had gone straight in, if I had never watched it back then that would have been my champagne moment.

Just now, Super said:

Very odd timing you would think with an international break coming up they would have waited until after the game on Sunday.

Their last 10 games after the international break couldn't be much kinder. Lots of pts to be had here...

Leicester H, Leeds A, Southampton A, Everton H, Wolves A, West Ham H, Spurs A, Bournemouth H, Fulham A, Forest H

I would be interested to know what the players think about this because I can see this unsettling them if they still wanted him, presumably their fans are not very happy either. 

Looking at their record no wins in 11 premier league games (5D 6L), however 9/11 of the games were against top 8 clubs and the other 2 were away against Chelsea (10th) and Villa (11th). And they're playing Arsenal this weekend too so very bizarre run of fixtures. Unless some stuff happening internally then I think its a little harsh.

Think I was one of those who criticised the euros going up to 24 teams but to be honest I did end up enjoying lots of the last tournament. Looking back there were some really good games in the last 16 so in theory a last 32 with the rest of the world included should be similar quality. It definitely makes the qualifying process less exciting for a club like England though. One thing I think is a negative is that it makes it harder for nations to host tournaments by themselves because of the increased number of games, but I would rather that than 3 team groups which I think would have been a disaster.

From the point of view of the people who matter at fifa I suppose the 2 options were to either keep the gravy train running by expanding the tournament or to continue picking host nations who give the best backhanders, and after the political pressure from the previous bids they decided to expand the tournament.  

I have my doubts that Wigan brought at least 320 to Ashton Gate the other week and same with Preston I don't think they brought anything close to 464 earlier in season (although that one was rearranged).

2 hours ago, Super said:

A class act in and out of the ring.

Definitely has a very likeable personality, he makes me laugh here anyway. Interesting negotiation strategy from his camp and if they succeed in getting the fight on shorter notice it is probably their best chance of levelling the playing field. The smart thing is for Fury to delay but it's now going to cost him some support as people turn on him a little, guessing Usyk will play on that if the fight is at a later date but his preference will be for the April date and hope to catch Fury not at his sharpest.

If I am being positive I like the colours chosen, for me green is much better than the navy blue that previous shirts have had. Also liking the washed out yellow look, not quite Norwich in disguise anymore and has been used before in history.

However like everyone else has mentioned the badge.  Don't want to automatically blame JL but if it was him then it comes across that he either doesn't ask anyone for feedback or is surrounded by yes men. In my view that Robin logo was unnecessary on previous kits so disappointed it features on the front this time around, for me the logo doesn't look good and makes shirt worse not better overall. Other than that it's a decent shirt.

22 minutes ago, Son of Fred said:

Would've started Weiman centre forward....

I would be feeling a bit hard done by if I was Weimann at the moment not getting a look in at CF (when Wells is rested), but I guess the rules are clear from NP that you have to perform when called upon and even though Bell has been quiet last few games he has still more recently done that. Anyway I don't really mind who performs so long as a good result today.

4 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

Before-the-war attendances were massive at lots of grounds. Under circumstances you'd never be able to get folk in nowadays. I was talking about post-war attendances. It was almost like a different sport pre-1939.  Charlton got 75K and Huddersfield 67K.  Now, their stadium holds 24,000. 

But just to make clear:

• Things I haven't said:
   

Man City have small attendances

Bristol City have large attendances

Bristol City attendances have been higher than Man City (at least in my lifetime)

All Man City fans are dicks. We mostly seem to have good encounters with them

I'm sure they are all happy for fans love-in with them here... 

 

My issue was you said 'any time in their history' whilst also complaining about them lacking nuance and 'being wrong'.

There is no love towards Man City from me, nobody wants a situation where clubs come to Ashton Gate win 3-0 and get a pat on the back for doing so. But now the dust has settled I have no issues calling it how I see it.

2 minutes ago, 2015 said:

Too many people cannot separate the hierarchy of the club from its fans. The fans of a club will ALWAYS be the heart and soul of it, that's why I do not judge Man City based on who owns them. Their fans are a good bunch and majority have been there for years supporting them. The fans never asked for the club to be run by 'Abu Dhabi FC' but are not going to turn down success are they yet some on here sit here like we are morally superior, we are not. Every single club would be extremely happy to have what Man City have had in the last 15 years.

I went to one of their home games earlier in the season and the atmosphere wasn't good (was also funny to me listening to them complaining about being rubbish at certain moments even though they ended up winning comfortably). Like most clubs I think they are much better away from home apart from maybe a few games a season, I was impressed with the noise their away fans made the other night, at least being 'Abu Dhabi FC' hasn't spoiled them in that way. Agree with you about not acting morally superior about something you can't help, I have always thought the perspective of ffp cheats on this forum would be much different if we didn't have the benefit of SL's money for so long, incredibly easy in our position to get righteous but it would change quickly in a different situation I think.   

On 01/03/2023 at 14:31, Red-Robbo said:

 

*sigh* this is all in response to Man City fans claiming we never get 20,000. 

There's no nuance there. They are wrong and typically prem fan Big Bollocks attitude. Man City are a very well supported club, but since they've become Abu Dhabi FC they've had more fans than at any time in their history. 

To be fair to them Man City held the english record home attendance for 82 years which was over 84,000 for a game in 1934. If we are looking to be nuanced then the last part of your comment doesn't ring true either.

Sit back in certain moments then hit them on the counter, worked quite well against Norwich the other week.  Really excited for the build up now (and of course my scarf :laugh:), the players deserve a big occasion like this for going unbeaten for so long, hope they enjoy the occasion playing against some of the worlds best (even if they are chasing shadows for lots of the game).

Hoping they stay unbeaten tomorrow or the new kit will be blamed. In principle I don't really like pinstripes but think they have done quite a good job on the design, I think it looks better than the Bristol Sport one a few years back. Liking the sound of a yellow and green away kit too.

Personally I think it's better to have a smaller brand where you have more freedom on the designs, makes sense for JL too if it's true he likes quite a bit of input on designs, and I guess if we are one of O'Neills biggest customers then in theory we should get a bit more respect than what was given by Hummel. Interesting how we have gone this way mid season and Coventry have signed up for longer with Hummel, things seem more laid back at that club might explain Kasey Palmer seems to be settling ok up there. 

53 minutes ago, Barrs Court Red said:

No, we certainly beat them under GJ. 

Last minute Steve Brooker winner, top of the championship with 5 games to go, shame we haven't been that close since.

Think it was the forest game last season when he looked like a fantastic find from the lower leagues, thought we had something special then and very surprised to see he soon get hooked in 1st half and then drop off the radar for like a year. Not massively surprised that now it's 442 again that he hasn't taken long to get his place back and long may it continue. Great performance although maybe I would give motm to Pring today but only just, the attack versus west brom was superb but also credit to the club for getting a defence from the lower leagues and the academy playing as well as they did today.

Just now, italian dave said:

Not sure that is the most unreasonable bit. You remember to charge your phone before setting off. A bit like you remember to pick up your paper/card ticket before you set off now. 

It's unreasonable to assume that all people's phones chargers/charging ports work correctly at all time on matchday and then put on their website that they aren't offering an alternative if things go wrong (whether exaggerated or not). Hypothetically if I lost my bcfc match ticket that I bought online would I not be able to go to the ticket office and give them a few details about myself and possibly get my ticket reprinted anyway?