Supersonic Robin

I do appreciate why many Ipswich fans are rather reluctant to listen to our point of view. Everyone gets excited by new signings, and most of us (myself included) were impressed with some of Ashton's work before the truth of the situation ultimately became apparent. Having said that, there does seem to be a bit of naivety among some Ipswich fans on their forum.... If he was a brilliant CEO and we were just bitter about losing him, would there not be more positive wishes to him from our fans? Would the negativity from our end perhaps be a bit less consistent? Would his departure have still won Champagne Moment of the Year? Similarly, if Ashton had done so well here, would his next step not be to something slightly grander than Ipswich? No disrespect to Ipswich Town, but MA has of course taken a step down into L1. Perhaps the move is driven by the salary they're offering him - if so, do you think he justifies that salary? I've seen some Ipswich supporters claim that we "unfairly blame him for our poor recruitment and injuries". Have they looked into why that is? If you fire the previous recruitment team and say "**** it, I'll do it myself", does the responsibility not then fall on you? Have they looked into the many dubious staff appointments MA has made here and elsewhere? If you apply a little bit of thought to it, the idea that we're simply jealous of MA leaving falls apart pretty quickly. Who knows, it may all work out for him there, but Ipswich fans would be wise to at least listen our warning rather than attempt to drown it out with jibes.

Think I recall hearing someone (Pearson? Rennie?) saying that James is effectively a "young thirty" as he's played so few games over the last few years. Could have a few more years in him than we might expect, too.

We knew Boro away was likely to be a tough game. Regardless of result, I was really hoping that we'd at least be competitive today. Those who watched the full game, did we compete? Or was it another easy/simple game for our opposition?

Sorry, to clarify - you were told what exactly? That TK has handed in a transfer request? Or that we are relatively open to selling him?

Have there been rumours that Kalas has asked to leave? I don't recall seeing/hearing that

Agree we're not in a position to thrive. But are we in a position to survive and finish lower midtable? Absolutely. I imagine the vast majority of those clubs mentioned (including Blackpool) would happily snap up a large chunk of our first XI were it possible for them to do so. Looking at the Blackpool comment the other way around - how many of Blackpool's team would we take in our "first XI"? I can't say I'd be keen on very many at all. I understand your general frustrations, but I just think you're being a little melodramatic in some of your comments mate. IMO, we're a slightly below average squad, performing notably below our ability level. That, for me, is possibly the biggest frustration about our current predicament.

Not a glowing review of our squad! Surely this is a wind up mate? Most of those statements are, with respect, ludicrous. You really think that our squad, man-for-man, is one of the 3 poorest in the division? Poorer than Derby, Blackpool, Peterborough, Hull, Huddersfield, Preston, Coventry, Birmingham etc?

I wouldn't worry too much about the shots on target....the chances were there and that's what matters. Okay, Weimann, King etc didn't hit the target from 8 yards out, but it's the fact that we're creating shooting opportunities in dangerous areas that's important. I guess it depends on your definition of "good", but we were comfortably the better team IMO. How often has that been the case in the last 18 months? For me, Saturday was a clear improvement on most of last season (at least performance wise). I personally don't agree that "any top half team would have destroyed us", and in the same way that Blackpool could have scored sooner, we could have been 2 or 3 ahead.

Do you think you might be being a tad harsh on our squad? By no means are we world beaters, but man-for-man our squad should be (somewhat comfortably) good enough to survive relegation IMO. And of course, the team we put out tonight should be capable of beating FGR. I think the idea that our squad is simply dreadful and that results like tonight are to be expected are inaccurate. A potential XI of: Bentley Vyner Kalas Atkinson Dasilva James Williams Semenyo Palmer Weimann Wells ...should be nowhere near the relegation zone this season based purely on individual ability. For me the issues are more "team based" than "ability based". Fitness, patterns of play, defensive shape, set pieces, communication, confidence etc.

The momentum is my main worry right now. The last thing this group of players needed was 2 bitterly disappointing results to start the season. Summer was a great chance for a mental reset and I felt like we'd achieved it 70 mins into the Blackpool game! Now I'm concerned that the last week could have caused any confidence built up in the squad to dissipate. I'm not too worried about this season as a whole (relegation is unlikely IMO), but boy could this squad do with a confidence boost.

Agree the result was frustrating, but look at the performance. It was the first time in forever that we've created multiple good chances and have deserved to win a game. Shame to drop the points, but a clear improvement on last season IMO. (and I'll certainly agree that Blackpool are the worst team we've played in the Championship this season ?)

We're just so Bristol City.....

How long until the "Start Janneh up front vs Middlesbrough - he's the best striker at the club!" posts start? ?

Is this the latest version of 'higher or lower'?

I thought we looked significantly better against Blackpool than we did for the last few months of Holden's reign

My concern for Williams is outweighing my enthusiasm for the goal ?

Just had a quick skim through the most recent pages of the matchday thread on the Blackpool forum. Comments include: "I thought City were poor. They were gifted a soft goal. We started the brightest and finished the brightest. If we’d have had a full strength team today we’d have beaten them." "In fairness you could say we had more opportunities i think most bristol fans will be thankful for the point." It's interesting how differently each teams' fans see the game! I felt we were quite comfortably (and clearly!) the better team today. Weirdly, I don't seem to recall our fans looking jubilant and relieved to have claimed a point at full time!

Agree his price may have fallen relative to what we paid (though perhaps not by too much).

It does seem that Nagy has struggled to adapt to England (both on and off the pitch). A few good performance for us, but the majority of his appearances have been very "meh". I'm not too worried about losing his contributions. He's not a bad player, and I don't think it's due to lack of effort or commitment - it just hasn't worked out. Central midfield probably is the one position in which we can sell without needing to buy a replacement. Hence, any money from a Nagy sale may be redirected elsewhere (to a striker or winger?). Not sure what kind of fee that might be - his price will likely have risen following the euros, and may now fall again if it's publicly known that he's asked to leave ?

Thought our general standard of play was notably better than last season (not a huge challenge!). Shame we didn't convert the chances we made in the first half, but it's encouraging that we we're actually making some good chances. I thought we looked quite comfortable for large parts of the game. Really disappointing that we weren't able to see it out and offered Blackpool a number of opportunities towards the end. Very much feels like a game we should have won - I really wasn't impressed with Blackpool. 2 points dropped.

I admit I haven't actually been in the Atyeo for almost 10 years, so it's hard for me to comment on just how worn out it may be. I get the impression that there are a fair few stands in the Championship that are notably more old and nasty. Perhaps we would replace the seats, but even that seems unlikely given that it's used as the away end. Aesthetics probably falls quite a way down the list of priorities right now. My thinking would be that the Atyeo is the next stand to be rebuilt/redeveloped at a time when we want a notable increase in capacity (e.g. to 30k). Until then I imagine we'd be unlikely to bother with any significant developments, such as filling in the corners.

Ah, okay. So why is it that City can include AG profits towards FFP, but not the rest of the sporting quarter? My understanding (which may be wrong) is that the football club and AG are now 2 separate businesses?

My guess would be it's not gonna happen until we're playing/have played premier league football. There's not much point in expanding/redeveloping the Atyeo unless we're increasing the stadium capacity to around 30k. And there's not much point in increasing the stadium capacity to around 30k unless we're pretty consistent in being a top end Championship/bottom end Premier League club. Especially as it seems to be a real pain trying to buy the houses behind the Atyeo. Maybe in a few years time the effects of the sporting quarter and Pearson's swanky football will have increased attendances enough to justify it though ?

Exciting stuff! Am I right in thinking the football club will be able to report the profits from the sporting quarter (inc. Basketball etc) as our own, and therefore increase our FFP threshold? Or does it not quite work like that?

I rate Semenyo. He's a great athlete - quick, strong, and powerful. He's very direct and dangerous with the ball at his feet. I think he's probably better in front of goal than many would give him credit for (any attacking player would have struggled for goals in our team this season). Given his age and the amount of potential he has, £3m - £5m seems like a pretty low fee. The big problem is that it's hard (for me at least) to know where the market is right now following COVID. What does £5m buy you right now? Is £5m this summer the equivalent of £10m in previous years? Frankly, I have no idea - but that makes it so difficult to get an understanding of what a "good fee" might be