Supersonic Robin

Or Slough? ?

Looks like a reasonably smart signing to give us a bit of depth/cover out wide and in attacking midfield. Good age, low cost, potential to improve, Seems fairly low risk and sensible.

Yeah, wouldn't disagree that they've been a more successful club than us in recent years. I still don't think they're really a "bigger" club than us, though I seem to be in a minority with that! Genuinely surprised that so many people think otherwise though - I didn't think my initial statement was particularly controversial! ? This is more in line with my thinking. Frustrating that so many clubs fall into that category, unfortunately.

Wow, seems I'm in a minority on this one then! ?

Personally don't think he'd see much in it in terms of club size. Obviously they trump us on recent success, but we're probably superior in terms of stadium, fanbase etc. There's lots of fairly obvious reasons why a player may choose Watford over us at the moment, but I don't imagine one of them being the thought "I'd much rather play for a bigger club like Watford instead of playing for Bristol City".

Do you really consider Watford to be a bigger club than us? More successful in recent years, yes, but bigger? (Appreciate they're in a far better position to sign players than us regardless of how big/small they are, so just arguing on a technicality here really)

Yepp, I've been wondering this. When Oxford fans say "he has a bad attitude" does that actually mean "He won't sign a new contract"?

I remember seeing an interview with Mourinho where he made some interesting points around this. He essentially stated that the key piece of business his Porto side did in going from Europa League winners to Champions League winners was to simply hold onto their best players.

Does anyone know roughly what percentage of active EFL managers actually have a promotion on their CV? Or equally, the age at which the average manager wins his first promotion? or the frequency with which the average manager wins promotion? (e.g. once in every 15 seasons). I recall people quite frequently using the "no promotions as a manager" stick to beat LJ in the past and always felt like this might be a little harsh given how few years he'd been in management.

Agree - though I would replace the word "motivational" with "practical". I think it's a variety of practical skills that he lacked when with us. (I also think that the concept of "motivation" is extremely overhyped when it comes to the job of a football manager). Hopefully he will improve the practical elements of his management with time and experience. I'd quite like things to work out well for him.

That selection of centre backs gets incredibly young and inexperienced very quickly. For financial reasons, it does make sense to try and sell Kalas if possible (or extend his contract on a lower wage). However, if we sell Kalas then I certainly think we'd need to sign a replacement as a priority (regardless of loans for Idehen/Towler).

Yepp, this is my principle concern too - I want the division to be as easy as possible for us. I agree that L1 wise, that probably means hoping that Wycombe are promoted. In terms of relegation from the Premier League, I have no idea. I suppose they're all likely to be significantly better than us (especially with parachute payments), so in some ways it doesn't matter quite so much. Promotion from the Championship is the interest one. IMO, if we're wanting the division to be at its easiest for City longer term, there's an argument for wanting to limit the number of teams receiving parachute payments. For example, a Sheffield United promotion would mean one less parachute payment team to compete against. Conversely, a Forest promotion would mean removing a non parachute payment club from the division (as well as likely adding another club into the Premier League/Championship Para Payment cycle). My thinking is the complete opposite. Not only do I want an "easier" league as it means we're more likely to win games, I also want a league in which we're one of the bigger clubs. With every "big club" that enters the Championship, we essentially fall down the pecking order one place. Our relative spending power becomes slightly worse, as does our relative ability to attract players. Equally, with every season that a club like Sunderland or Sheffield Wednesday spends in L1, they becoming a little bit "smaller" and relative to them we become a little bit "bigger".

I think it's more that Pearson realises that Kalas poses a financial problem, as oppose to not rating him as a footballer.

Completely agree with this. I still cringe when I hear someone say "Proven 20 goal per season striker". Wells had never scored 20 at this level before (and had often failed to get anywhere near 20). This isn't a criticism of Wells, it's a criticism of the idea that you can even buy a "Proven 20 goal per season striker". You can't. Such players are only realistic targets for Premier League teams, or those teams yo-yoing between the Premier League and Championship. As you say, we paid very big money for a 30 year old striker on the basis that he was in good form and was a well known name. We didn't appear to consider how well he'd fit into our set-up, whether he'd address the issues the team was having at the time, whether his market value would fall etc. I also wonder whether it was: A) a signing of convenience, since we were already working with Burnley on a deal for Brownhill B) a "big name" signing to simply make the fans happy, given that Brownhill was leaving Also agree with this. Wells has conducted himself well since he arrived, and has come across as a good professional. I think he's been a bit unlucky with the state of the club he joined. Under LJ/Holden, he was often either playing out of position on the wing, or playing up front for the least creative side in the division. It was always going to be tough for him in those circumstances. All in all, a major cock-up from the club. No thought. No plan. Instead making decisions like a 10 year old playing Football Manager.

Excellent achievement and couldn't have happened to a more deserving player. As we all know, his hard work and professionalism is second to none, but hopefully this achievement also helps Andi get a bit more recognition for his ability beyond being hard working. Though this season has seen a notable increase in his goal return, I think the underlying traits of a good striker have been there for quite a while. For example, the intelligence of his movement is excellent, and he's always seemed a relatively decent finisher when playing up front. Despite what some of our fans may claim, there's a lot more too him than simply running (or "flapping") around ?

This isn't at all surprising in fairness. Before the season started I predicted that we'd be one of the most "boring" teams in the league this season - nowhere near the top 6, and just about good enough to avoid any sort of relegation battle excitement. Regardless of how good/bad we may be to watch, you can see why Sky wouldn't bother selecting us much this season.

You say that, but I certainly doubt those clubs would swap their last 25 years of ownership for ours. Would Birmingham exchange their 2011 League Cup win for our "accountable English ownership" and corresponding mediocrity? Are Coventry looking at us with jealousy right now, wishing that they were run as well as we are? I can't imagine there are many Championship clubs who, in the grand scheme of things, wish they were more like Bristol City......

Yepp, as brilliant as we looked in L1, Cotterill's record as a Championship manager isn't especially good. I think this is actually the bigger negative change that occurred - the restructuring of the club that saw our recruitment team damaged, and other key roles taken up by Ashton's mates.

Should Pearson request that the ref stops the game so that he can deliver a 20 minute training session before continuing with the match? Choosing to criticise the manager for "just standing on the touchline" during the game is just strange. There are many problems at our club right now - how animated our manager is during the match isn't in the top 100. Ironically, when Pearson sat in the stand to actively try to get an alternative view of the match, he was heavily criticised for that too.

Always found this a strange criticism of managers. Realistically, what's he supposed to do other than "stand on the touchline"? Run onto the pitch and join in?

Yepp, that's the biggest frustration for me. The club as a whole is in a dreadful state. Unfortunately, I don't see this being resolved quickly. We spent years getting into this mess, and it'll likely take us years to get out of it - regardless of who the manager is.

Sheffield United

Hartlepool Huddersfield Reading (a common shortening of Adolf) Crystal Palace

A couple of very dubious ones: Sheffield Wednesday (as in Wednesday Addams) Preston North End (as in North West, son of Kanye West)

Yepp, Pring has made good progress this season, but I think he sometimes gets swept up in the Scott/Semenyo/Massengo hype inaccurately. He's not really on the same level as the other 3, and is a fair bit older too. I don't think he will attract anywhere near the same interest or the same fee in summer.