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17 hours ago, Loosey Boy said:

Let’s hope they don’t sack their manager this week and then benefit from new manager “bounce” next Saturday.

I’m sure Nige will get the players right up for the game though…...
 

COYRs

Beat me to it. That’s the only way I can see us not ending this voodoo on Saturday.

It’s a must-win for us. It’ll be these types of games that will go a long way to determining whether or not we stay up IMO, not the AFCB or WBA ones.

1 hour ago, Major Isewater said:

What’s the point in paying a Head of Recruitment when we haven’t got any money to bring anyone in? 
 

Major, we’re paying Simpson and Downing six-figure annual salaries. Freeing up one of those roles much earlier in order to pay a HoR would’ve been a far wiser strategy IMO.

Welcome back, @Harry

20 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

It’s like the England cricket team, you are a far better player when you aren’t playing then when you are..

The posts saying we should play Bell, Benarous, Britton are naive in the extreme.

There is a strong case for Scott to be an important squad player, though his game time will need managing, but this is fanciful stuff.

Spot on, as usual.

Personally, I’d like to Benarous involved because a) he can play wide right and we have nobody fit who can currently play that role, b) his confidence must be high after that hat-trick v Watford. Making a senior debut against a struggling Barnsley side might offer the spark to lift the doom and gloom at the Gate. 

42 minutes ago, PFree said:

This isn’t aimed at the club, it’s Manager, SL or anybody officially connected to our club for that matter, it’s aimed at many of our so called ‘fans’.

I too am disappointed at where we are as a club BUT we all know how we have arrived at this point. Significant numbers this season renewed ST’s knowing full well that we have a small squad lacking general quality. We were always destined to struggle this season and anything above the relegation zone was acceptable come the end - we are where we expected to be, surely?

What really annoys me though is the awful, highly personal vitriol spread by many. Football fans now seem to demand instant success and don’t seem to appreciate players and Managers are doing their best plus that they are people after all! They too feel shit after losses and it hurts them badly too.

Why do people bother posting negative rubbish on a regular basis, all it seeks to do is help people spiral into even more of a negative world. Life is hard enough without continually slagging people and situations off. People underestimate how important confidence is in any worker and that includes footballers, imagine being told by many people on a regular basis you are shit at what you do, and they then wonder why you aren’t performing. Are some not aware some of our players are actually kids?

One window into a three year development journey, all aimed at a much needed rebuild exercise and fans are singing about ex players and that NP is getting sacked in the morning, wtf..?

We go again on Saturday when OUR team needs you, and remember if you keep screaming at people that they are shit, they will quickly believe you, I think with the title ‘supporters’ there’s a clue in the title .

Excellent post . Some people seem to think there’s someone out there who could sprinkle some fairy dust on this rabble and turn us into world beaters, all without spending any cash. The class of 2021/22 are a bottom-six outfit.

Sack NP and we start over again. More cash wasted and we’re a less attractive proposition. The new man wastes time assessing the squad, the backroom staff, the medical team all while we struggle to be competitive. We’d be odds-on to go down.

Stick by NP and we might stay up, offload more of the deadwood in the summer, sign more of the Tanners or Atkinsons and become more competitive next season. They need our support more than ever IMO because one thing we all agree on is relegation is not an option. 

1 hour ago, And Its Smith said:

His players were low on confidence and clearly didn’t believe they could get anything out today. That’s on him though. You call them sows ears but they are better players than they showed today. 

What evidence can you offer to back up that they’re better players than they showed today? Many of them have seen off LJ and Holden already. 

Bentley’s been guilty of making as many costly individual errors as top saves recently

Tanner’s fresh out of L2 (and been a real positive)

Baker’s been knocked out cold

Atkinson’s had the virus and is learning his trade at this level 

Kalas and Dasilva should both be doing better

James is solid if unspectacular 

Massengo is learning his trade, got physically bossed today

Weimann and Martin haven’t been at the races in a while

Wells is starved of service

COD, Vyner, Bakinson, Palmer, Moore — either nowhere near consistent or good enough to make it at this level. 

That looks like a sow’s ear/rabble to me. The legacy of wasting the proceeds from selling the family silver. 

The question should be is SL willing to back any manager ever again after the money squandered under LJ and MA.

No manager worth their salt would be willing to touch us with a 10-foot barge pole if he’s not — because the waste that’s gone before puts us at risk or breaching FFP now. 

One unnamed member of the squad has had the virus. My best guess, despite my own reservations over him not being anywhere near up to the grade at this level, is it might be him.

Win, lose or draw it’s been a rudderless ship under SL’s watch for two decades. But why we’re choosing now to moan about it, after we’ve unsurprisingly been soundly beaten by a side relegated from the PL last season, I don’t know. 

1 hour ago, Wiltshire robin said:

Both getting six figure pay offs according to the post . I thought when Simpson left it was only a matter of time for Downing .

Makes you wonder what their annual salaries are if that’s true.

It was only a matter of time before the axe fell on them, but I have to question the club signing off those deals on big wages during the middle of a pandemic. 

14 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bristol-city-flashback-rollercoaster-ride-6094759

Dunno if anyone has posted it.

Plus from the same article.

We had some unlucky times- that -2 pts, then the week before Sunderland at home- last minute penalty, then the Birmingham game in April that put our late rally against the drop to bed.

I remember that day well. Am I right in thinking that's the last time we got anything from the Hawthorns, 22 years and 8 months ago?

2 hours ago, JonDolman said:

Yeah true about some of those players being under LJ that are not here now. 

But I disagree that this is a bottom half squad. Performances have been for sure and should be lower than 16th imo as we've had some amazing luck in games we have deserved to lose or not win. People will say how about the last minute goals we conceded, that's not bad luck imo. I think we deserved to concede those goals.

I think the likes of COD, KP, Bakinson, Vyner and to a lesser extent Baker, Weimann and JD have all been part of squads that have "underperformed" for LJ, Holden and seemingly now NP. That's not a coincidence, IMO. I don't think conceding last-minute goals is bad luck either; it's been going on for years and various managers have failed to stop it. Maybe a sports psychologist might get to the bottom of that. 

Individually on ability many of these players would be snapped up by decent championship sides if we were to let them go imo.

Looking at quality of players in all the teams in the championship I don't see why we should be struggling. Not saying we are in a relegation battle, but we are struggling to perform and who knows if we don't start playing better that is certainly a possibility, though even I think that won't happen as long as we don't get too many more injuries.

Really? I think even if we had a fully-fit squad, we'd be a winger or two and a striker short of being a play-off chasing side, and the strength in depth simply isn't there in this current squad. Too many players make individual errors on a consistent basis. To add context, bar the Bournemouth game, I actually think performances have been better than last year. In August, I said survival would be a good result this year. That's still the case now. 

Like I said yesterday, Forest had 1 point in 7 games and were bottom of the table under Hughton. Since sacking him with the exact same players they have won 5, drawn 1, lost 0. They have the same players that Hughton had, I assume they haven't had the chance to sign anyone as the window had shut when Hughton was sacked. It shows what good coaching using a different approach can do. Turning a team that look like they might go down into the top in form side in the division.

Cooper's a good coach, we know that, but he might be benefitting from the new manager bounce factor. Let's see if they keep these results up. Forest also have better footballers than us, IMO. Players that look after the ball better, that manage the game better, that have pace and offer a bit of width. I'm not saying they're world-beaters, but I think Cooper has more to work with there than we've got here. 

It is early to be too harsh on Pearson. It's not all been bad. And we really need Williams and Semenyo back. But I do wonder what approach a different manager would have gone with. For example Mark Robins would have had us playing very differently I'm sure. Not saying sack Pearson, but just using that as an example that the managers approach is the biggest thing which I have not always been impressed with so far about Nige. Really hope he improves things as I do like him. Knowing us we will probably go and get a decent result in our next game and then lose and look awful at home to a struggling Barnsley!

It is too early but we're ahead of where I thought we'd be at this stage and that boils down to individual expectation. Whether it's Robins or Guardiola, I don't think anyone would've got much more out of this current squad. But I recognise we're in transition, it will take time to evolve, we can't keep chopping and changing managers, and even if it doesn't work out with NP, I think he'll leave us in a far better position than when he joined us. 

1 hour ago, VT05763 said:

LJ had to sell his best players and replace them with (mostly) inferior ones.

You're right in that LJ had to sell players, but don't be fooled into thinking he didn't want any of the "mostly (inferior) ones" he did sign. He was the head coach and could've said "no" to Ashton or done the principled thing as resigned if Ashton was buying players without his input. LJ insisted on the signings of Brownhill and Webster, he could've vetoed signing the likes of Diony or Palmer (to name just two) if he really wanted to but he wanted his clubs in the bag. All my opinion, of course.

1 hour ago, JonDolman said:

We were either in the top 6 or just outside the top 6 loads under LJ after that cup run.

In 17/18 we were still in 7th in early April.

In 18/19 we were 6th end of April with one game to go of the season having been top 6 since the end of January.

In 19/20 season we were in or around the playoffs much of the season. We were in 7th after the Fulham game before lockdown.

Okay after lockdown it was atrocious. But for almost the whole of those 3 years we were upper half.

The lowest we had dropped at any time over that period under LJ once a significant amount of games had been played in a season was 13th, and we then went on an unbelievable unbeaten run to get back up to 5th.

Not saying he did a great job, but we were consistently close to being where we wanted to be but couldn't quite make it.

I think we must have had decent players back then for us to be in those positions, and we have decent players now.

I'm glad to added the first part of that sentence as, for context, LJ had the likes of Reid, Bryan, Brownhill and Webster to call upon at various times. He also spent the most in a failed bid to get us over the line. What's left is largely his squad and they're nowhere near decent or consistent enough to challenge in the top half, IMO. Looking at the signings of Atkinson and Tanner, I'd rather NP had the amounts of cash that LJ/MA burnt through, but we are where we are.  

1 hour ago, GrahamC said:

Let’s be honest, you would have to be mad to expect us to get anything but I wonder if tomorrow might see Nige reach the end of his patience with certain players?

Williams is out, I’ve no idea if there is any possibility of either King or Semenyo being back & Vyner appears completely out of favour, but as the consensus is Palmer, O’Dowda & Bakinson are the ones he’s referring to when he talks about passengers, could Janneh, Bell or Sam Pearson make the bench?

Williams, King and Semenyo are all out tomorrow. Wiliams and Semenyo are meant to be two weeks away, King will be out for longer than that. 

I agree with Pearson that KP, COD and TB are passengers; Vyner's not up to it at this level for me. I'd like to see Benarous given a decent run-out. 

Great anecdote but what surprised me was Dicks saying “10 or 12 years ago, I offered my services to the club again but was politely declined”. Reading between the lines, does anyone else think that he threw his hat in to succeed either GJ or Coppell? 

4 hours ago, phantom said:

They are the same company

Sorry to be pedantic but they’re not. Bristol Live is part of Reach (formerly Trinity Mirror), the Mail belongs to DMG. Two different publishers. 

1 hour ago, Dredd said:

He’s made this comment a few times now, but I don’t see any players left out

Because we have no strength in depth whatsoever, and that's on the previous regime. If we had a fully-fit squad to choose from, I'd say we're probably a pacy winger away from having a top-half-of-the-table starting XI. Beyond that, there's no quality at all. The signings NP has made have improved us, IMO. 

11 minutes ago, Shuffle said:

Now I’m as equally frustrated on here as the next person but how the hell can Pearson legislate for Baker and Bents soft hands and a missed handball. Forest had no shots on target until pen in 2nd half and if we hold on for a 1-0 then Pearson would be lauded as a tactical genius as game plan worked. 
 

Fine margins & whilst gutted as it’s déjà vu after Blackpool &Luton some of the reaction on here is way OTT. The biggest mistake was not getting a striker in on loan in last window as zero options from bench or to rotate. I can direct some anger towards that !

 

Nail on the head.

Nobody can legislate for Scott missing an open goal before he scored, Wells hitting the post when he should've scored, and the ref ignoring a stonewall penalty either. Forest came here last night towards the top of the form table and on another night, we could've beaten them comprehensively. 

2 minutes ago, bs22 red said:

Thought Wells was one of the better players on show tonight 

He was, but I’m looking at the bigger picture in terms of what he’s done in his time here. Not singling him out at all, hence the “possibly Wells”. Has he returned ROI? No, although there are mitigating circumstances. 

So far in the league this year (four, all at home):

• Lavery (Blackpool 90+3)

• Hylton (Luton 90+1)

• Taylor (Forest 90+1, 90+2)

When will the penny drop that many of the players we have simply aren’t up to the job. We’ve signed Atkinson and Tanner, the types we need to go for. But for every one of those we’re hamstrung by the likes of COD, Bakinson, Vyner, Moore, Palmer and possibly Wells who simply aren’t adding anything in any scenario. It’s infuriating and it will take time to sort. 

The home form is abysmal, no getting away from it, but I’m on board with a three-year project to rebuild the club from the rabble left by Mark Ashton and nobody should be under any illusions as to the mess he’s left. 

The signings of Atkinson and Tanner give me hope that more of those types will follow. Maybe not this year as I firmly expect a bottom-six struggle, but certainly the deeper we move into the project. 

The bottom line is how much time people are willing to give it, but in my experience nothing lasts for ever and this home form has to turn at some point soon (I always thought Barnsley was more likely than a rejuvenated Forest). 

Tanner is exactly the type of player Nige wants to us to have — young, hungry, potential for growth, versatile. Great signing, and I hope we make more signings like him (eg Prem schooled, released, desire, resale if we don’t match his growth etc).

Bakinson should be nowhere near the starting XI, IMO, and surely Massengo is only in contention to start if he was fit enough to be on the bench on Saturday? As he wasn't, I think it might be a big risk to throw him straight in to start.

Pring's a better option wide left, not at LB.  

2 minutes ago, Red said:

No it's the home game against forest is where it is going to start. With the manager pitch side.

Let’s hope so, but I don’t think Forest will be down there under Cooper at the end of the season. Barnsley will be. Forest and Barnsley both offer more hope of a home win than Bournemouth, mind.

This wretched home record was never going to end today. It’ll be the home games against the likes of Barnsley that we need to win.