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BigTone

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Posts posted by BigTone

  2. Forever Bristol City Debate

    in Football Chat

    Posted · Edited by BigTone

    On 03/04/2024 at 20:30, ATRUEREDBLUE said:

    Congratulations to the guys at Forever Bristol City - what a great podcast with input from supporters who know the game and Bristol City in particular. As things have evolved this season and the FBC cast have been chewing over the issues I have become increasingly depressed. We all know that we are in a mid-table mediocre tumble dryer of a position - and it seems to me that the strategy of the club has very little chance of breaking this cycle and if anything this could be as good as it gets.  The thing that concerns me is that the FBC team appear to have become more accepting (in a slightly brow beaten kind of way) of the clubs position on this and it has been interesting to see Ian in particular who over a period of time seems to have moved closer to the clubs stance - perhaps this reflects his increasingly closer position to people who are close to the club if indeed that is the case - is Ian a poacher turned gamekeeper? I am sure Ian would say he is just being realistic. The reality is that we will need to be very lucky and have all the stars aligned in our favour to get promoted if we continue with the stated approach of relying on the academy to develop players who we can sell to help us balance the books leaving little left to buy the quality of players we need. This policy involves us not being able to consolidate and build team performances in an upward trajectory because our use of such players in their prime will only be for one or two seasons at best before we sell and we still can’t buy the players we really need-  the policy either requires us to hit the jackpot with these special players (if indeed we develop players of the quality of Scott or Semenyo which is less likely than likely) so that they are in the club for long enough to give the team a chance to move upwards (which again is less likely than likely) or the manager we have chosen needs to turn out to be something special and starts to show that he can make a silk purse out of a sows ear (a slightly unfair analogy but I wanted to make the point). Unless I am missing the point this strategy is very limited and risk averse. To get promoted this way looks unlikely unless we get a dose of good luck with the two issues referred to above. The reality is that the club must accept that it needs to take more risk to give us a better chance of going up. If a billionaire can’t take a risk then who can? We all know that we need two or possibly 3 quality players to move our squad from its current level to the next level and give us a better chance - this means an investment of circa 15 million but as Ian says, this ain’t gonna happen! If that’s the case, I think City fans need to adjust their ambitions and hope of going up and for the likes of Ian DP and myself we may not see premier league football in our lifetime. The problem I have with all of this is two fold (1) it seems to me that this strategy is less likely to achieve SL’s stated objective of selling the club - if we don’t go up how is the clubs value/potential going to change from what it appears to be now in the eyes of prospective investors (there have been no takers as things stand) - it is important to acknowledge that SL has done a great job in building the off pitch infrastructure but he still owns the value in this so in many respects and on the contrary his spending is not all lost - if he wants to sell out in the best way possible he needs to do more and review his approach to risk and I am not talking about excessive or catastrophic risk. 
    (2) As an outsider (and I stand to be corrected) my view is that SL has been successful in financial services, made a lot of money and spent a proportion of that money in developing the infrastructure at Bristol City but he has underperformed as a wealthy owner on the pitch. My sense is that he has been a little naive and slightly parochial in his approach to the football performance side of the business. I felt from the beginning that Mark Ashtons midland sales patter was hollow and I think SL gave him trust too early. I don’t feel that SL has recruited premier league standard people to deliver for him on the football side and this in my view is continuing. SL has done great things for the club and this must be recognised but it would be a shame for his legacy not to go that extra step.

    Conclusion - I  would like to see SL acknowledge this and take steps to bring in top tier football executives - he could do this (buy the best) give them responsibility for developing a new 3year football strategy with incentives to get results (they may or may not decide that LM is the man for the head coach job) and with responsibility to inform SL what he should realistically do to improve the squad to make City a promotion chasing club but working within sensible financial parameters (15 or so million not 50 million). SL could then say that he did everything he could to achieve what we all want. If it worked we would all be happy, the ownership succession plan would be more straightforward SL would get a return and his legacy would be protected in perpetuity. If it didn’t work at least SL could say he did everything. If he does not address his appetite for risk and continues with the current plan I sense that we will maintain our position or even go backwards and this would tarnish SLs legacy which would be unfair - he does deserve a statue.  So, let’s  stop trying to get to the top tier with 2nd tier people and a risk averse strategy - let’s start talking about taking a carefully planned risk to move forward - let’s show some guts and ambition and please FBC keep challenging the club and don’t give up!

     

    Condensed Version

     If a billionaire can’t take a risk then who can?

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
    • Facepalm 1

  4. Enjoy rest of season

    in Football Chat

    Posted

    15 hours ago, Robbored said:

    Definitely not at the same time! One of his girlfriends ditched him and within a couple of days my girlfriend dumped me. 
    Then I start seeing his previous girlfriend and he started seeing the one who ditched me! Things like that happened fairly regularly when you’re a teenager.

    I'm impressed that you can remember back 75 years Val 

    • Haha 1

  12. Barbecue

    in General Chat

    Posted · Edited by BigTone

    37 minutes ago, Barrs Court Red said:

    So….moved house in Nov and with no outdoor cooking space the beast and the Kettle over wintered in the garage. 
     

    This lady’s and gentlemen turned out to be a mistake.  A thick carpet of mold awaited me as I opened them.  This was the worst I’ve ever seen it, so bad not even burning it off worked first time round - so I’m having to season the smoker for a 2nd time today, and hopefully now they’re back outdoors this won’t happen again. 
     

    I have plans for this year, and those plans are sausage.  I’ve got all the bits to make my own hot links now, they’ll go nicely with smoked brisket.  
     

    Fish might be a struggle this year.  I used to go in the fantastic fishmongers in Kingswood, but that’s now an hours trip each way , and I don’t think there’s one near by.  While Sardines are still king of the grill (especially as a starter) that place also sold Swordfish steaks which are perfect for grilling. 

    OMG, I love Swordfish.  I'm hungry now.

    • Like 2

  13. Manning in

    in Football Chat

    Posted

    1 minute ago, BCFC31 said:

    We just need a much bigger sample size before we all start jizzing our selves silly over a win... personally it annoys me when people pivot there options based on one  result its been piss poor for a while and that is what the club and manning is rightly being judged on not this one win let's not be fickle please for me jon tinion and manning have much to prove its over to them.

    Give them all a 10 year contract 

    • Haha 1

  16. Leicester City at home match thread

    in The Havanatopia Match Day Archive

    Posted

    2 hours ago, reddogkev said:

    fwiw, I still believe that Pearson was released mainly due to his health situation, but the club agreed to keep this out of the media due to respecting his privacy wishes.  I've heard that from quite a few people and it stacks up with the fact NP isn't straight back into management, and probably won't be for a while longer. 

    That is certainly my take on it also

    • Like 1
    • Facepalm 5

  21. Pet hates OTIB room 101

    in General Chat

    Posted

    27 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

    As a footnote to my toilet sign photo , I actually crossed a very embarrassed lady in the gent’s toilet at the establishment. :blush:

    Just thought of another , Americans who ask to use your ‘bathroom’ when they want a wee. 


    When I am in a person’s house I don’t ask if I can use their toilet. I rather politely ask if I can ‘wash my hands’. Often French people tell me I can wash my hands in the kitchen sink. Strange people the French. 

    Yes, but they appreciate you have washed the dishes at the same time

    • Haha 1
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