GrahamC

If you consider that Massengo seems virtually certain to move on, Kalas’ future seems to be 50/50 & Bajic & the club need to have a conversation about exactly what’s happening there, should all those 3 go then that’s probable, even before we get to Scott’s situation.

He’s 35 next season, so my guess is he has been offered longer by them than by Plymouth. He’s from this part of the world (Chepstow) so makes sense, plus he’s going to find League One a darn sight easier than the Championship these days.

He was a brilliant actor. Always remember him in Porridge, where like everyone else in the cast he was superb. Someone says to him “never judge a book by its cover” to which he replied “I do, I can’t read”.

They do need to sell, but Ruben Neves would probably cover that on his own. Lopetegui said in his recent conversation with their board that he accepts the FFP situation is difficult so wants to sign “young, Championship players” fairly obvious who he has in mind.

Spent about that on the Kyiv lad in January & he’s rarely featured.. Pretty sure they spent circa £50m in total during the January window. I don’t see him ending up there, still think he’s destined for Wolves myself but all guesswork at present.

I think if Kalas does sign back on & Hayden Roberts joins as expected that’s probably it for defenders. We’d have Tanner, McCrorie, Vyner, Dickie, Kalas, Naismith, Pring & Roberts, plus Atkinson to return after his ACL injury at some point & the lesser spotted Kane Wilson. Looks enough for any eventuality to me & then the focus would presumably be on replacing Massengo & awaiting the outcome of whether Scott stays or goes.

Just 34 of those were in the Prem, has to be him.

Stuart Taylor, I guess.

If anyone thinks this is either new or we haven’t taken advantage of this in the past, in our L1 promotion season GJ loaned in a lad called Sean Thomas to do this job, then when Basso was injured late in the season we could bring in John Ruddy as a result.

They said it would be a “trouble flashpoint” & they “didn’t have the resources” to man it. Seemed nonsense to me but I was told then (this is many years ago) they would block any attempt to build one.

The inhibitor to the train station at Ashton Gate isn’t BCC, whatever anyone thinks of the Mayor he has often said he wants one there & has repeated this only last week. I attended a meeting a fair few years ago about this very topic when in my previous job & Avon & Somerset police were definitely the ones who were blocking it then.

Looking at Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich & Plymouth coming up, plus Leeds, Leicester & Southampton all coming down, I can only see that record being broken next season. Bizarrely Luton getting promoted also helps this, as whatever we think of them their ground is League Two standard. Wigan, Reading & Blackpool are 3 small clubs comparatively, too.

Spot on. I watched the goals again from our win at Stoke last night, Mehmeti’s winner comes from a simple Wells pass, so it is his assist. Wells actually gets the ball after brilliant play by Weimann who intercepts it, runs forward evading a challenge & then plays a superb pass through the legs of a Stoke defender to Wells. No assist for that.

Vyner is 26, Dickie is 27. Age is therefore completely irrelevant here, we have no idea what is going on behind the scenes, but to suggest this is like bringing in a Timm Klose type is very odd.

It was undoubtedly exciting to see City in Europe but like the JPT before the final the crowds for this competition were awful. Our 2 home games against teams we had never heard of, like Cosenza only had about 4000 there & having missed Pisa, I went to Cremonese, which was played on a work day December afternoon in front of about 500. There just wasn’t the interest, especially in Italy, to keep it going, whether there was any violence or not. Second tier football (Germany aside) is really poorly supported in Europe, we are the only country that has a league where even the third tier can have a Derby or Portsmouth sized club, so no one else would be up for this.

You think that’s mad, the following year Notts County won it, they beat Ascoli 2-1 Devon White (!) scored the winner & Oliver Bierhoff was playing for Ascoli.

Also the case that we got 7 points from 9 in those 3 games & he was then out injured for the next 11, so highly likely he’d have had a decent run there otherwise.

We have never been as well served in that department as we currently are with this bloke. Nige said in one of his early interviews he was a “friend”, he’s never said that about any other employee. We are incredibly lucky to have him, he’s a top in his field of expertise level appointment. We have had some incredibly amateur people in that role over the years (ask Sean Dyche), but definitely no longer.

WTF was he thinking? He swapped him for Andy May, a decent Championship midfielder for a bomb scare central defender who played like he had his boots on the wrong feet. When he got sacked Snith was bleating about not being backed, well if you’re going to sign shite like that (& Brian effing Mitchell) what do you expect? Osman got plenty of flak but the defenders he brought in, Shail, Munro at least could bloody defend.

Atkinson won’t be available before November, Kalas hasn’t signed a new deal, plus I doubt very much that Wilson will start next season with us. We have Tanner, McCrorie, Vyner, Dickie, Naismith & Pring as definitely for next season, that’s at least one light.

They are, having lost both Milner & Oxlade-Chamberlain.

100%, plus his commitment to the cause after his move in January got pulled at the last minute. It isn’t only about on pitch contribution, it’s how you react to team mates, support staff & management. Obvious there have been some Pearson has fired out, think he just wanted to clarify here Jay wasn’t one like that. Always remember an interesting comment he made about Adam Nagy where he said he appreciated his honesty & willingness to lose out financially in order to go. Not always as obvious as it might well appear.

We don’t but they’ll know, there will be a deadline & the moves for 3 defenders if Roberts signs this week suggests he’s off.

Said right back all along & sticking to it, where Scotland see him too.

Certainly suggests Kalas is off & possibly no O’Brien. Did well at Derby.