W-S-M Seagull

5 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

Why would anyone want a Bromley postcode on their car ?

Maybe there is a fan of the girl group TLC that lives in Bromley? 

33 minutes ago, italian dave said:

So what? It’s a season ticket.

And at a time when the clubs themselves are making it more likely that fans will be unable to make some games, because they’re going to f around with the kick off days and times at short notice, it’s surely up to an individual whether and when they use the ticket they’ve bought for the season.

I get Phantom’s point about the kids seats - but that’s surely down to the clubs to price tickets appropriately. If they think they can sell them as POTD more often than not, and make more money from that, then don’t price them so low.

Season ticket holders pay a large sum of cash up front, the clubs rely on that: it’s not only early income (I’m paying in March for games that will take place 14 months later) but it’s also certain income. 

You won't like it if we get to the PL cos I can guarantee you that this will be implemented. It has now become very common place in the premier league due to the income clubs are losing from fans not attending. 

In all the decades I've had a season ticket, I don't think I've ever missed more than 2 in a row. 

I think this is more aimed at those who are taking advantage of the cheaper tickets and then not using them. Just like we've seen here. 

I don't see what West Brom have done wrong here? They are offering kids tickets for a quid a game on the condition that if they are not used for 5 games in a row then the ticket will be revoked. What's exactly wrong with that? 

I think as long as a club is willing to offer exemptions for different circumstances then this isn't an issue. 

5 hours ago, italian dave said:

I’m not so sure that this is really a laudable example of great communication!

They’ve had to issue this ‘clarification’ after inserting a new clause into the terms and conditions of their season tickets stating that any season ticket that was unused for 5 consecutive games would be cancelled.

That led to a lot of concern and confusion amongst fans, worried that they’d lose their seats if they had a long holiday, work commitments, were in hospital, or even just chose to miss 5 games for any other reason. Particularly given the likelihood this coming season that like all championship fans they’ll have to manage lots of late re-arrangements to kick off times.

The club initially responded with vague assurances about ‘reaching out’ and about ‘understanding that there are sometimes good reasons’. Neither of which really helped.

So it feels to me like this is more a case of trying to put right some pretty poor communication. And to be honest, even this doesn’t really provide the assurance that I’d want if I was a Baggies season ticket holder - namely that I’ve bought my seat for the whole season, and that it’s up to me when and whether I use it. 

Tbf I think missing 5 home games in a row would be around 2 months of not attending home games. 

5 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Agree @italian dave.

Reminds me of work again.  We had a Project Manager who seemed to run her projects so badly that they had to have extra resource and skills thrown at them to get them back on track.  Then they’d get praise for a wonderful recovery…of a mess that was theirs in the making.

Was the project manager Jon Lansdown? 

8 minutes ago, Sleepy1968 said:

I do hope it's not part of the new range ...

That's the problem here. This will probably end up as a logo on the third shirt or something. 

Absolutely delighted with this. 

On 25/05/2024 at 19:44, MarcusX said:

I paid £500 for the Denmark semi final at Wembley. This was immediately after the Germany game so was a bit of a risk, they had final tickets for £1000.

That was through the UEFA ticket system too so legit tickets not black market. Disgusting that they are that expensive in the first place though it was worth every penny to me - just a shame we couldn't go on to win the final.

I paid about 800 euro for my final ticket. Soon as we scored our 2nd V Germany I went on to the Uefa site and purchased it. I also then put a couple of hundred on England to get to the final so that subsided the cost of the ticket a bit. 

I'd pay that again to watch England in a final at home. Just such a shame the day was ruined by all the idiots that were there. 

I did have a sick feeling in my stomach that I had paid 800 euro to then be sat by people who had got in for free. 

2 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

We'll be weaker without it IMO, lack of James. We'll see..the mood music isn't good.

I'm not especially optimistic right now, PL experience or lack of, not the be all and end all but a bit of a bellwether, an indicator.

I'll caveat it, I don't think we are heading for disaster more that the current direction of travel feels like we will be not moving forward as we perhaps should.

On paper there are positives to take..but are we set to build on the base in the right way is a concern of mine.

For me when I think of PL experience it means having experience at an elite level. Having the knowledge of what it takes to perform at that elite level day in and day out. 

Zak Vyner may have experience at this level. But he doesn't have experience of that elite level. He doesn't have experience of being in a promotion battle etc. 

51 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

iirc buying Grealish scuppered their deal for Kane as even they couldn't afford to spend another £100m +, that summer.

With hindsight they should have bought Kane, then saved money on Grealish and Haaland.

But then Grealish was instrumental in them winning the historic treble so

Bizarrely I think Pep allows Doku to play more like Grealish than he allows Grealish to. 

38 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

 

I have to question a lot of the behaviours going on there. 

12 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I’m pretty open-minded on this.  I thought he did a decent job at Derby in dire circumstances.  Brum was on a hiding to nothing in terms of how and when it happened, but he did very badly.

Plymouth is a good structured club, Dewsnip knows him from Everton.

The only real problem for Rooney is are their enough Grannies around?

Devon is basically a retirement home Dave  

With Rooney I think there is a manager in there somewhere and maybe Plymouth could unlock that with them being a stable club.

1 minute ago, TV Tom said:

Because people need to move on, I learnt that when Jordan left in ‘91 !!! 

How do you move on when the likes of Jon and Tinnion are still running the club badly? 

26 minutes ago, Robbored said:

The close season is always the ‘silly season’ - at least to me it is. Lots of pointless posts including what happened last season.

As fans we can’t change the past but that’s not say that the likes of Manning et el won’t have reflected and learnt from last season and make any necessary adjustments in preparation for preseason.

This gibbo person always posts extremely positive stuff about our ownership. 

We would all like to move on from last season. But ultimately when the new season starts were still going to be owned by the same people and still have the likes of Jon and Tinnion effectively running the footballing operations. 

Those people caused a lot of damage in the fanbase last season, so it's not as easy as saying "new season, fresh start"

10 hours ago, gibbo7 said:

the close season is a time to forget what’s happened last season.

Why? 

43 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

A general election was announced yesterday and I know everyone's first thought was "but what does this mean for the Football Governance Bill!?".

Well what I am hearing today is that the Bill is likely not going to be rushed through in what is known as "wash up". Likely not. Tbc later today I believe.

This is good.

The Bill as drafted had problems. It was good in places, probably excellent in a few, but it was defective in quite a few key areas.

As it stands it looks likely to go away and then be reintroduced under the next government. If that government is Labour then we can expect a stronger Bill that grants the IFR stronger powers and better teeth.

Look for mentions of this in manifestos and watch this space as this is developing at pace today.

But the unfortunate thing is that this is now going to be booted into the long grass as it won't be an immediate priority for Labour. 

43 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Unpopular thought, that it’s constrained Pring too.  Remember when he used to get to the byline!

Unpopular thought, Manning favours a control, cautious, try not to lose type of football rather than front foot attacking football.

11 hours ago, Davefevs said:

There is a part of me that would’ve tried to keep both, but for whatever reason, I’m not surprised James isn’t here next season.  We can of course speculate of wages, length of contract, location, playing expectations…on both sides.

But Williams, we want to keep.  We’ve been told we’ve offered him a contract (although retained list said - in discussions with).  We haven’t offered him a contact to ensure we get compo (like we might for a young player), or anything like that, we’ve offered him a contract because LM sees him as part of his squad, in whatever role he deems).

If we lose him now, that’s poor on City’s part.  They’ve allowed contract discussions to roll into a period when other clubs can show interest.

I hope he does sign.

But if he doesn’t, we are either in the realms of looking to replace with another free transfer (narrowing the pool) or going to have to go into the market and pay for a player.

With Bird and Knight we picked them up for good value and importantly with good Championship experience.  Not just good value in terms of fee paid / wages, but future value too.  Knight had a year left, Bird 5 months.

We would need to repeat a Knight type deal as it’s a summer window.  Over to you, Recruitment!

Potentially we could try and get James back if Williams were to not sign a new contract. 

If we are to believe the club then we have a plan for all eventualities so let's wait and see. 

32 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

I suspect what it will actually do is make Conway believe, more than he already does, that he really needs to be playing for a team that creates chances for him and for a team that doesn't use him first and foremost as an auxiliary defender and also for a team that gives him a whole lot more support as a lone striker than the, frankly, mediocre wide attackers and ACMs we currently have.

In other words, not Bristol City under Liam Manning and the attacking players at his disposal.

Promises of signing Scott Twine to improve that won't cut it.

So the odds have to be that he's off.

Not to the Prem and I can't see a top end Champ team thinking he's the starting no.9 to win them promotion either.

Which - when you're trying to push your way into Joe Jordan's or Kenny Dalglish's Scotland shirt (the very thought) - leaves you choosing between Celtic and Rangers.

Playing for either of those, Tommy can fill his boots with goals and the Daily Record (that's a newspaper, young people) will be full of stories about Taunton Tommy, the English country bumpkin, riding to the rescue of Rob Roy, Rab C Nisbet et al and Steve Clarke won't be able to ignore him.

Playing as centre forward for either of those clubs is like shooting fish in a barrel for a living.

Even as a sub getting regular minutes and some goals, he'd be better off than playing Manningball for another year.

The question we all have to ask is - If you were Tommy Conway and you had offers on the table from elsewhere (which he obviously has, given we've been offering him a new contract for about 18 months without reply), why would you stay at City.

Compared, for instance, to going to Scotland for a pay rise and shooting fish in a barrel for a living.

So it's Cheerio Tommy, all the best!

Yes. In every managerial appointment there will always be winners and losers. Mehmeti for example benefited from the managerial change. 

Tommy unfortunately does not suit what Manning wants from a striker. To be fair to Tommy he has worked hard to do what Manning has asked him to do. He didn't join up with the training camp so he could have that time on the grass here with Manning. 

Why our head coach tried to change the way Tommy plays I do not know. 

Tommy can't score if he's not given the chances. Even with the addition of Twine in our team, things didn't improve much for Tommy. 

Under Manning I don't think Tommy could have done anymore than he has done to earn a place at the Euros. 

Scotland may not qualify for another tournament in Tommys career. This could have been his only chance to play at a major tournament and due to all of the above he's missed out. Considering Tommy is incredibly driven I suspect he's gonna be quite annoyed to have missed out as I believe he thinks he is good enough to have gone. 

If Tommy is here next season, it's not because he's signed a new contract, because in my opinion he wont. It will be because he will be seeing his contract out. 

16 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

You’d assume one to be cut would be one of the four keepers so it’s really just he needs to be ahead of one other player.

Gordon is 41 and only played 7 matches since 2022. 

13 minutes ago, gibbo7 said:

So in your opinion what has gone well over the last 20 years?

Do you know the 1st thing Pep Guardiola will be doing once this season finishes after winning a historic 4 premier leagues in a row and potentially 2 doubles in a row? He'll be immediately trying to find ways to do even better next season. 

I use this example because your question is typical of the culture within the club, which is very much along the lines of things are now better than it once was so people should be happy with that and then constantly focusing on that. 

Some things are now better, yea cool, well done for that. Time to move on now and strive to do even better and have the hunger to push us forward. 

1 hour ago, gibbo7 said:

Those who are picking and digging at this clearly look for anything and everything to have a moan.

Get behind the club, the Lansdown’s, Tinnion, the squad and give them a platform of support to lean on and we may achieve.

Have you considered that people calling out how the club is run, is supporting the club? Because they want the best for the club? 

Sitting there and just clapping hands isn't the only way to support a football club!

47 minutes ago, SecretSam said:

No, he didn't - and that's the point. He wanted a different sort of player brought in. But transfers were outside his control.

Chelsea still spent 400 million this season which blows apart the theory that spending money = success. 

2 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

I think that the person he was quote tweeting (who didn’t even tag Tinnion - so he actively sought this engagement out) was expressing nervousness that Williams may go to Preston, and Tinnion advised him not to spread faeces over his walls at this stage. Wise words, no doubt, but again, why the heck would someone who is senior at a multi million pound company seek that interaction?

Yes. 

I have no problem with Tinnion using his own platform to say "Sit tight, discussions with Joe are still ongoing" or indeed even replying to a more appropriate tweet. I encourage that sort of engagement. 

But to seek out and engage with a comment which speaks about faeces is not something a technical director should be doing.