GrahamC

@italian dave I agree with 99% of your post, but it’s long so I’m not going to quote it. For me Pearson did make it clear once he got his contract at the end of his first season exactly what he was going to do. He said the squad was too big (it was) it lacked sufficient decent characters (it did) & that significant change would take time because he was hamstrung by the amount of players he could bring in (just 3 came from outside the club in his first summer) due to our poor financial situation, caused by the pandemic & overspending in the recent past. As for Manning, I totally agree, as you rightly said he’s been here a fortnight, he inherits a far better situation than Pearson & is a different type of communicator anyway. I’m certainly not going to criticise an interview carried out by local radio, where the questions might be a bit soft, that’s not on him.

The backlog is currently 18 months, so that doesn’t explain why it was all dealt with so quickly in the first place, does it? You are being incredibly naive if you think this one wasn’t cherry picked for quicker treatment.

Definition of an optimist.

Remember that one, said he was being sold the next day. One of the last shareholder ones that took place there was the one where some stuff still went to a public vote (imagine that!). Remember SL’s face when one vote was lost, after that they all took place during the working week in the daytime & no more public votes…

Yep, a good job they did as well, seeing as Wrexham fans threw objects at the Accrington goalkeeper because they were losing. Accrington operate hand to mouth, Wrexham are bankrolled by Hollywood actors & Disney plus, not difficult to see the difference.

Spot on. The Atyeo was done back in 1994, this is just a smaller, shitter version of that stand. Someone tell them over the river that John Major isn’t Prime Minister now & East 17 have spilt up.

Problem with this argument is we won’t be playing Bradford City. None of us have a clue how Manning will get on, but one game in I’m not sure saying some other bloke has a team that is beating Bradford City tells us anything.

That’s quite a deep & philosophical question. Isn’t it likely though that people going to this know already others who are, but just get a ticket for themself?

It has. I logged on at ten past 10 & it said there were 54 tickets left. Have to say I didn’t understand why you could buy two tickets each for such a small venue, but there you go.

At no point did I say I would get one..

Don’t know if I have the “strongest opinion” but I’ve got one & certainly intend asking a question (like last year), thanks.

What was great was at the full time whistle seeing their tunnel covering bouncing about where it was very obvious even those players not on the pitch like JET & Karleigh Osborne were also fully involved in the altercation that was going on. Proper team spirit. Second highlight was the return game & the camera panning to Cotts when the third went in as he pumped his fist and was clearly saying “effing have that”. Great times.

He’s back! ***.

This is a recent phenomenon & not remotely confined to Ashton Gate. Go to the cricket (not just T20, even a Test) & people are seemingly unable to sit still, forever getting up & buying food & especially drink. Gigs now are constantly punctuated by people filming them rather than actually watching. It isn’t anything to do with the football on offer (good or bad) but what appears to be a cultural issue post pandemic that large numbers of people cannot concentrate & watch something for any significant time. Don’t get it but have realised I’m now in the minority on this. If I was going to spend a significant part of the game in the concourse drinking then I’d go to the pub instead. As for the original point if you had a son who was a decent footballer but City weren’t your team then that makes far more sense.

People said he was excellent v Oxford but certainly seen not much since & definitely one who needs to see the change of manager as a chance to impress.

Not sure it is. Said yesterday not all progress is linear & sometimes it relates to off field matters too. Don’t think any of them will be at City long term & expect at least 2 of these 3 to go next summer.

£700k downpayment on TGH, that’s what passes for investment from SL these days. Up the nest egg.

Suppose you could make an argument Sykes or McCrorie RWB & Pring LWB, don’t think he’d displace him but Roberts looks like a LWB rather than a LB. Presumably it also means two up top which might help TC, too.

2-5 FT.

Planning permission granted by BCC for the stand, capacity of 3414. Imagine my shock.

Good point but my perception would be that Luton were often quite direct, so maybe a mix of passes? No disputing the point that he probably had more options to find, though at the risk of repeating myself in 22/23 we also had Scott who was prepared to take on the playmaker role. Knight is a good player but he’s not that type.

According to Transfermarkt as the central CB of a 3, in a 3-5-2. So absolutely nothing like how we have used him since we switched to a back four in January.

This is our biggest issue. We have Rob Atkinson to return as well. If we can keep those 3 fit we are well served at CB, plus as his been pointed out, despite ongoing noise on here about our goalkeeper we are the second best side defensively in the division. We have options in midfield but at the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, since Scott has left we are short of creativity. Up front we look decent on paper but no one has yet looked like being a consistent scorer, Bell started the season with a flurry but has tailed off. Is Naismith a better option than James? Knight is nailed on to start but how we find a combination there that creates more opportunities yet still keeps us defensively solid is key.

He had a dispute as they didn’t appear to have paid his wages. Joined Granada as a result but very much a back up player there.

I do find some of his comments baffling & as you say he completely contradicts himself here. Not unreasonable to argue that he had very little time to influence the performance (despite Manning claiming in his first press conference the contrary) but was it really a continuation of how we played under Pearson? Not for me. The club putting out social media stuff this week showing the players in the gym is an obvious attempt to highlight the difference from what the chairman claims was a culture of lengthy breaks during internationals. With Knight, Sykes, Conway & Bell all unavailable though it is hard to see how much impact it can have on a side that struggles to score goals. The Championship is tough & the next 3 games look very difficult, by the end of them we should at the very least be able to see what the new head coach is trying to do.