Mallorcan Red

17 hours ago, Maltese Beast said:

Yes it's me. Marina Gardens Gzira. And yes Bristol City through and through S24 Row 30 seat 17. If you know you know. 

Chapeau, Sir that is a very decent van conversion and really made us laugh when we saw it. We were visiting our daughter who works on one of those mega-yachts you parked next to and it stopped us in our tracks. 

Literally 100% Robins

2 hours ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Is that Spinola Bay?

No its Gardens Marina in Gzira.

Come on then, own up?  In Malta on holiday?  Or the owner of one of these massive superyachts?

either way, LOVE the number plate!!

Moved to Bristol in 1999. Started supporting the City in 2001.

Now I'm exiled in Mallorca, forced to drink sangria, Mahou, San Miguel or Estrella and watch the live City matches in the local UK sports bar...

only joking, none of that foreign p***, this place has Thatchers Gold on draught and in cans!! God bless Martin Thatcher!!

8 hours ago, Superjack said:

And what exactly do you expect me to do?

Arrange the finance to buy the club and then put your/someone elses finance where your mouth / keyboard is.

Another indirect beneficiary of our owners, arguably the most successful. His Dad Adam, the owner of Pure Scooters, ultimately made his 'big' money via the success of Hargreaves Lansdown.

Well done Lando!

22 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

 

EFL very much go in bigger on deductions and sanctions.

Birmingham..£9m 3 Year Overspend, 7 pts for overspend, 3 for rising losses, 1 back for cooperation.

Derby- Well who knows in the end, they failed 3 Periods and the Settlement was 9 Points with a further 3 suspended.

Reading- Overspend was at a level whereby the EFL could go for 12 but Settlement was 6 and 6 suspended pending adherence to a Business Plan which they failed in Spring 2023. Think £18-19m in 2 years the overspend.

Sheffield Wednesday- Got -12 for an £18-19m 3 Year Overspend but halved on Appeal as they botched Stadium sale timing wise.

These clubs also got Embargoes, Business Plans or both in addition to the League pushing for points.

EFL stricter 100%. Albeit clubs voted this in.

yeah I am agreeing. Lansdown and co - and all the rest - have a true poisoned chalice in owning an EFL club in these crazy times. There is another thread about gambling in football being a negative force but the biggest gamblers are the club owners themselves. €350,000,000 and counting in our case.

11 hours ago, Kodjias Wrist said:

Always said this, although really what is it they actually do wrong? Had this discussion numerous times and the following comes out. Feel free to add.

Is it interference from Tinnion and Lansdown

Is it continuously hiring the wrong man or men for the club?

Is it just because we had our chance under GJ and missed it? Huddersfield, Blackpool had their lucky days. 

Are we not forward thinking enough as a club? Does Lansdown try to emulate others too often? See Brighton, Brentford and Luton. 

Do we overcomplicate the vision? The pillars was a nonsense structure and the no players over 26 or whatever it was. 

Is it the culture ? Not really sure what the culture is like within the club but having a little backstabber like tinnion can’t help.
 

Are we seen as a stepping stone? By the time we get a squad together to compete we lose our best players.

3 words.

Financial Fair Play. 

EFL (e.g., Bristol City): FFP regulations in the EFL primarily aim to prevent clubs from accruing excessive losses through overspending on player wages and transfer fees relative to their revenues. Clubs like Bristol City, which might not have the same level of commercial revenue as Premier League clubs, find these regulations particularly constraining. They are limited in how much they can spend based on their income, which is generally lower than that of Premier League clubs. The regulations are meant to encourage sustainability but can also restrict ambitious investments aimed at promotion.

EPL (e.g., Bournemouth): In the Premier League, FFP rules are more focused on the scale of losses clubs can legally post over a three-year period. While Premier League clubs generally have higher revenues, especially from broadcasting rights, the stakes are also higher, and the penalties for FFP violations can include hefty fines or points deductions. Clubs like Bournemouth, which operate on relatively modest budgets compared to giants like Manchester United or Liverpool, need to balance ambition with financial prudence to avoid sanctions. Because Bournemouth haven't got 3 years of even being in the EPL (that they have reported on) they are not being scrutinised - yet. However expect a lot more sales/players out to happen over the summer/next season once they are forced to balance their books for FFP.

In essence, owners like Lansdown take on considerable financial risks under FFP regulations because their ability to invest in their clubs is restrained by the need to maintain financial health relative to earnings, making it a challenging balancing act between ambition and compliance.

2 hours ago, Oh Louie louie said:

Yes a gentleman in betfred was given a crude piece off paper, no envelope saying he needed to bring his bank statement and passport in after winning three k on golf, he pointed out to the staff that Thier behaviour was as far from being indiscrete as you can get, if you were me he said would you trust you with personal details?

https://www.bettingoffers.uk/articles/identity-checks/

"The UKGC has stated that it plans to set limits on customers based on the information provided to the casino or bookie. This implies that, at some point, the companies will need to ask their customers more questions to determine whether or not they are gambling safely. These questions have already started to roll out. They are based on a number of factors, but they are used to determine if gambling is causing any harm, either financially or mentally, to the customer in question. This helps to identify problem gamblers. Examples include: Financial indicators to assess whether people are gambling beyond their means. This will likely look at the amount of money they earn and then compare it to what they are spending"

"Identify checks are here to stay, so the best bit of advice that we can give is learn to accept it and be prepared with all the information that you think might be needed, remembering that this is for the best – short term pain for long term gain."

Look up the term “house edge”. 
 

Everyone signing up to any gambling site should be required to watch a course on this concept. 

2 minutes ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

I’ve not felt this positive for years. 

I am not a particular fan of the concept of a "strong end of season to carry over in to the next one"

Between now and Aug/Sept: 

We will sell some players
We will buy some players
Some players will get injured 
Some of our young players will mature well (Tommy?), others won't (Sam?). Those that do will probably be sold.
Others will buy/sell players and suffer injuries too
Managers will come and go, either hired or fired.

So the green shoots thing doesn't really do it for me.

Yeah we had them with NP (and his 32% win ratio - compared to LM 33%) but then we sold them all to Bournemouth. 

This 

1 minute ago, phantom said:

Looks like someone has emptied a bin on the pitch now 

this match is quite literally Rubbish

2 hours ago, Cowshed said:

 The PFC is minuscule, and can be thought of as a like a bucket in its mechanics, and putting things into the the bucket leads to overflow, and being distracted from that primary focus - Performance on a football pitch. 

Considering how many players you see with superstitions as they walk onto a pitch or trying to keep their pre-match preparations as constant and familiar as they can, surely these weekly deviations get in the way of 100% focus needed for peak performance?

Can we just stop with the irrelevant commercial circus surrounding each matchday?

For example

- Messing around with the kit; 

- Back slapping on being progressive with the choice of ball/flags/armbands;

- The endless commemorations/x th minute silences/clapping.

and just all FOCUS on getting the Bristol City starting and ending 11 players to score more goals than the opposition each matchday?

Too much to ask?

/rant

12 hours ago, MattWSM said:

Can we bring back "oh basso"

YES!!

"Always believe, we always belieeeve,

Remember Basso, we always believe"

followed by

"oh Basso, oh Bassoooo"

except vs Huddersfield, where he is goalie coach. 

best goalie, best saves, best motivational talks.

Jesus saves, but Basso tipped them over the bar

2 hours ago, Robbored said:

I get that the ht ‘entertainment’  is funded byThatchers but it’s become dull and predictable and Downsy painfully tries to make it amusing - I can see why fans thinks that’s he’s absolutely hopeless.

The club should doing something different at ht - assuming that they aren’t contracted to Thatchers.

It is part of the sponsor deal. So yes it will be contracted.

1 hour ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

 

Just to reiterate what I have before but the minimum allocation rules need factoring in and b) Eleemnt if future proofing too. Last time I looked..

A) 2k or 10% of capacity minimum to visiting sides, whichever is the lower.

B) If we ever get promoted that becomes 3k or 10%, again pick the lowest.

C) FA Cup, up to 15% or near as dammit seems to be the benchmark.

So then i guess it would be the lower/upper* tier of any redeveloped Atyeo, with home and away fans using differing entrances 

I have often thought that getting the Atyeo back for home fans would be great, and allowing a thin strip at the end of either the Dolman or up in the gods of the Lansdown for away fans would work best. But now with the open concourse under 3 sides of the ground, I guess that cannot work.

I'm watching this match live on ESPN+ and I will disinfect my fingers, throw away my TV and wash my mouth out with bleach after saying this but fair flay to the blue few, they are bringing it to Norwich in this 1st half and look like the home team. 

Fully expecting (and hoping) Norwich to turn the screw as the game goes on and the difference in fitness levels / squad depth starts to show we see a hatful for the Canaries.

City 0-1 Swindon. 

9th Sept 2000

The first match I attended since I moved to the city for work, prior to which I had grown up with Division 1 (old money) . I laughed all though it at how bad it was. Walked out at the end and narrowly missed a random swung punch from a drunken annoyed fan, which ended up hitting his mate and mayhem ensued.

The most hilarious thing is 24 years later am still addicted to the endless rotation of the usual mediocrity. We buy and sell players, managers come and go, the owner is abused/lauded, we win some, lose some, draw some. And always still end up in the middle of Division 2 at the end of the season.   

And long may it continue....  

Thanks for the great and positive write up. It's so good to watch such positive play and clearly this squad is finally living up to it's original potential. 

What do we think about the potential for the rest of LM's job other than the game management and tactical aspect?  ie dealing with January / Summer transfers in and out as well as injuries / players wanting more game minutes all inside a club which is losing around £1 million per home game played (equivalent to handing out a £50 note to each fan sitting in AG each time we play). TGH needs to stay, Williams needs to stay fit, Tommy & Sam need to mature a bit more plus we still need to squeeze as many veteran minutes as we can from Nahki, Andi and Andy for these next 24 games.

Anyway I am looking forward to finding out - IF we can keep playing the way we are playing and get the results to get us promoted before the other teams suss us and our systems out. 4 points out of Birmingham and Millwall and we will be heading into the business end of the season with high playoff hopes for sure. Although after 25 years of following the City I know we are masters of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory ...

COYR

Time to get rid of actual human refs. It's half done anyway, now we have VAR. This is a cut/paste from something I read that I wasn't supposed to (admittedly from someone discussing US MLS not UEFA)

Aerial Surveillance:

Drones with high-resolution cameras and sophisticated AI algorithms would be deployed to provide a bird's-eye view of the entire field. These drones would be capable of tracking the ball's trajectory, detecting offside positions, and identifying any incidents that could affect the game's outcome.

AI-powered image analysis would enable the drones to detect and interpret complex game situations, such as fouls, handballs, and goal-line decisions. This would eliminate the need for human officials to make split-second judgments in challenging situations.

Boundary Monitoring:

Embedded sensors around the perimeter of the field would detect when the ball crosses the goal line or goes out of play. This would eliminate the need for linesmen to flag offside or out of bounds plays, ensuring more accurate decisions.

These sensors would also be used to track the movement of players, enabling the AI system to identify offside positions and ensure that all players are following the rules.

Injury Detection and Assistance:

Contact sensors embedded in players' shin guards or other body parts would detect when a player suffers a significant impact or collision. This would trigger an alert to the AI system, which would immediately halt the game and signal for medical assistance.

The AI system could also communicate with the players through wearable devices, providing real-time feedback on their health and fitness status. This could help to prevent injuries and ensure player safety.

Data Integration and Decision-Making:

A central AI system would receive data from all the sensors and cameras on the field, as well as from other sources such as referee communication devices and player tracking systems.

This system would analyse the data in real-time, using AI algorithms to identify and classify game events, detect fouls or rule violations, and determine the appropriate outcome for each situation.

The AI system would communicate its decisions to the on-field players through electronic displays located around the stadium, eliminating the need for human officials to intervene.

Then after this I guess its just onto robots playing the game itself. 

5 minutes ago, joe jordans teeth said:

Problem is it was pure luck,had it been a proper touch it would of been a goal but we will take it 

Goalkeeping is 90% luck, but the harder you train the luckier you get. 

9 minutes ago, sephjnr said:

"Bristol City are as midtable as it gets" - Ryan Dilks, Second Tier

Looks nice but GD doesnt lie come the end of the season. We need a few more GF without any GA!