RedRock

Erm. Is it just me or are things - unusually for OTIB - getting a little hysterical on here? 

Had an excellent game against Soton and decent performances against Premier League opposition in the Cup. So we can’t be that far off. Yes, followed by absolute tripe against two teams fighting for their lives, but some perspective maybe? 

It is indeed frustrating that we have to watch Anis and Harry be given second, third, fourth chances and predictably not taking them. The January transfer window yet again doing nothing to improve us, Tommy’s performance curve flattening out and TGH being anonymous but let’s get to the International Break before we start pressing the panic-manic button.

A win today, point at Ipswich and victories against Swansea and West Brom will do nicely.  
 

Yours Optimistically. 

4 hours ago, cellist said:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/68431928

Heard this interview with Warnock today after Aberdeen had lost at St Johnstone and thought it made an interesting comparison. Fans chanting "you're not fit to wear the shirt and sack the board." Of course the situations are very different - he inherited a team underperforming in the bottom half, we were in a decent position and have a "top six squad"...

He's also very critical of his playing staff. More of their attitude and integrity rather than playing ability or "ability to learn". And silly mistakes - "I don't care if you're Pep Guardiola, if you concede goals like that you're going to lose games". I guess his reputation in the game allows him to do that - and it isn't a sulky, off the cuff, defensive comment. It's a challenge to his players - that's his man management style.

Difference is the honesty and straightforwardness though. "We played well in the two home games, but if we play like that we won't win another game". "I understand the fans, they deserve better". No hiding behind coach-speak, no nonsense comments about 1 bad performance in 20. Hard work on the training ground required.

Not for a moment suggesting we appoint Colin! But why can't we have a manager/some leadership who respect the fans and don't hind behind bullshit, and just tell things how they are?

Obviously we did have that, and that ship has sadly sailed. LM not helping himself when results and performances aren't good. Needs a win on Saturday that's for sure.

Colin could’ve done so much with this Club. 

Hey Ho…. maybe SL could swallow his pride and just let him do our press conferences once in a while. 

The only way we will get promoted out of this Division based, on Lansdown’s approach, is to hit a ‘sweet spot’ with the squad. That will necessitate the existing squad’s decent players all hitting their prime and being consistent, a few Academy starlets breaking through, supplemented by a few ‘first team ready’ incomings who deliver. Can be done.  

Of our ‘units’, the defence is ok. Midfield some way off and attack is desperately lacking. 

So, the Midfield we have added a couple with potential following the Jan window. Hopefully, they’re good enough to step up and perform consistently. If not, we may need an experienced addition there. The attack to be addressed in the Summer with several new first team ready incomings.

Problem is our ability to acquire first team players has been more ‘miss’ than ‘hit’. Whatever the ‘process’ that is employed in identification of suitable talent, assessment of player durability etc it appears flawed. If we think the same approach, with the same ‘talent spotters’ same ‘process’ is going to deliver, pretty confident we’ll be disappointed as success is going to be luck more than judgement.

Personally, just can’t face having to watch any more like Anis, Harry - and becoming increasingly concerned about TGH (who we had on a try before we buy ffs) - with the manager trying and failing to get a performance out of them and attempting justify the talent spotting team’s decisions. Nige sussed them fairly quickly.  As ever though with City, new manager comes along and wastes months coming to the same conclusion. 

So, solutions. Complete overhaul of approach to first team talent spotting. Tell the manager to clear out the not good enough’s (have we not been here before!) and just don’t play them for the sake of the talent spotters credibility. Get the squad blend right, develop PARTNERSHIPS between players. Ditch the Manager textbook, be more observant and react quickly to what is happening on the pitch.

Can already see the next batch of our talent moving on because the Club ain’t developed a squad and playing style that is good enough to push on.
 

Bit like snakes and ladders following City isn’t it? More snakes than ladders though.  

1 minute ago, Simon bristol said:

Its not hard to predict we would get turned over by qpr and sheff weds, cardiff will beat us as well, and we will look decent again against swansea. Chapter 2 of the coaching manual explains how to play against physical battling teams, but liam hasnt got that far yet

To be fair, Chapter 2 has never existed in the Bristol Edition. 
 

As ever City, that’s a real classy January window.

What the hell are we doing buying crocks and not good enoughs AGAIN.

**** ‘we will have a review’ when it’s been patently obvious for years we have major issues with transfers and injuries. Just get people in who know what they’re doing. 

This Club really tests your patience. 

10 hours ago, fgrsimon said:

Yes having lived in Devon for 3 years, no one outside of Torquay has much interest in Torquay! Plymouth v Exeter is a pretty fierce rivalry though.

I think Torquay stayed full-time in National League South which would be insane if true.

I was at Plainmoor for the infamous Torquay v Bristol City game in 83/84. 

 

 

Having lived in South Devon for 35+ years, I think you will find Newton Abbot is very much a Torquay Utd town.  

Genuinely feel for their supporters as they are amongst the most passionate about their Club as any fans I’ve met. Hope they can find a way back to regain Football League status sooner rather than later. 
 

Yes, a really odd day. Sat in the old grandstand in the seating nearest to the Open End which was a first for me. Bizarrely, a chap a few rows away just stood up early on in the match and nutted a lad full in the face who had criticised a passage of play. The crack of breaking his nose reverberated around the stand. Awful. 

Rumour I heard was it wasn’t just Millwall who had turned out from London to bolster Charlton’s support for the match. 
 

Funny how things stick with you, even though most of the time I have no idea even what day it is

 

A sad day for SW football. 

Think Gary Johnson stayed in post because they couldn’t afford to sack him. Clearly, we saw peak GJ. He’s sounded a broken man in recent interviews. Best for him and his health to walk away now. Cheers Gary and thanks for our journey. 

3 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

Its bizarre. It was often said by the club what Luton have done and we wanted to emulate that and you could see that was what we was doing. Even signed two of their players. 

And then like you say we then switched from that to wanting to be like Ipswich. 

You know when you're drunk with your mates and you end up doing silly things that sound great at the time like going on ebay and buying something ridiculous like 10 jetskis without engines? I can only assume that's what happened here. 

The only way we will be successful is if we stumble upon success like we did under Gary Johnson. 

Those running the club just do not have the ability to stick to the plan and therefore we just constantly jump from plan to plan. 

The flaw in the reasoning about emulating Ipswich is that a lot of their recent success is built upon investment and momentum. I'm not sure that's a robust plan to follow. 

Luton didn't become a premier league team by ripping up their plan and deciding to follow another plan. They got there by sticking to their plan. 

No manager in the world is going to be able to turn Harry Cornick into Messi which is what we hope to do with this mee plan, but following the Luton sort of method, you can get Harry Cornick outperforming his ability. 

All last season I said that Sheffield Utd, Coventry and Luton to an extent should not have been challenging. Sheffield Utd were not very good at all. But all 3 of those clubs had that belief and resilience to grind out results with squad's of players that shouldn't have been in the top 6 on paper (maybe Sheffield Utd aside) 

That's how a club like ours gets out of this division without parachute payments. Not by playing pretty football that we can't do anyways 

 

Agree, flip-flopping around like we’ve done with our approach will mean ‘luck’ will have a major role in any success.

I come back to what I’ve always thought the Club - the old chestnut - we just do not invest sufficiently in a recruitment ‘team’ at first team player level. We should have a comprehensive network of scouts watching matches. For all the analysts sat behind computers, you can’t beat experienced and knowledgable football people in the field who have a proven track record of identifying first team ready talent. 

I’m sure Cornick and Mehmeti blew a fuse in our analysts computers but …. on the grass… nah.  

Seems to me that we’re transitioning from a ‘traditional’ build a squad that has strength through unity with the sum bigger than parts approach with a direct, pragmatic style of play (Pearson), to a ‘modern’ possession/tactically/technically based, robotic approach (Manning). 

Question is which style is a non-parachute Club such as Bristol City most likely to succeed with? 

My view is that you need higher quality players to make a success of the possession approach. 

Looking at last Season, Burnley possession-based had parachute payments and more quality players, Luton and Sheff Utd did not have parachute payments and played a more direct game. 

Interesting that Tins and Jon, I think, looked at Ipswich at AG and thought we could go down the possession-based route without having the luxury of parachute payments. 

My gut instinct - partly because I think our ‘hit’ rate on quality first team signings is so poor - Cornick and Annis ffs. - is we’d be best employing a Pearson-style approach. However, I’m not closed to thinking the Manning-style can succeed. It was a massive change in approach, a complete reset and will take time and a lot fewer **** ups on transfers. So, Tins and Manning over to you. 
 

Going for yet another ‘reset’ does feed the frustration when things don’t go right. So I understand the anger when we put in a limp-wristed performance like that witnessed against QPR. 

10 hours ago, headhunter said:

But that's the whole bloody point. I set up FBC in June 2020 in the middle of lockdown because we couldn't do that!

The fact that now over 1000 people listen per episode and since we've gone on You Tube a similar number watch our "faces for radio" panel, shows there is a market for our output.

 

 

...and it achieves that objective and is bloody great. 

If it doesn't rock your boat, then fine. Sod off, you don't have to listen to it. Set your own rival project up and see how it fares. 

I, for one, am appreciative of the time, energy and commiment these lads put in and it seems I'm not alone. 

Well, I think the podcast is top drawer myself. Love the mix of personalities and differing opinions.

Lummydaze, if they were all the same sort of characters expressing the same views it would be as dull as Match of the Day.

It's my must-listen nowadays for post-match analysis. Ian reminds me of Roy Keene. Well-chaired and Tom is a great addition. If only the team could provide such high level entertainment and intelligence on a consistent basis!

1 hour ago, TV Tom said:

A posted this on a previous thread, an interesting read:

Martin was born in Brighton, East Sussex, to parents Dean and Kerry.^[2] He has two older brothers, Jamie and David, and a younger brother, Pepe, while his parents also fostered. His father was a taxi driver who subjected Martin's mother to domestic abuse and had spent periods of time in prison. His father's gambling addiction saw the family lose their house in Hollingbury, moving to Hollingdean.  Prior to signing with Wycombe he was cleaning pub toilets in the mornings prior to school, then working in Spar in the evenings.^[4]

Martin established a charitable foundation in his hometown of Brighton, initially set up as a football academy, named the Russell Martin Foundation.^[5] The charity aims to use "the power of football to help change people's lives" by providing access to football, education, and health courses in the local community.^[5]

Martin has been a vegan since 2014, initially for health reasons as he sought to manage issues with ulcerative colitis.^[6] He is also a part-owner of Erpingham House, the largest vegan restaurant in the UK.^[7] In a 2018 interview, he stated that he had joined the Green Party of England and Wales.^[7] He is also a proponent of Buddhism.

Interesting. 

Admirable he has achieved so much from a troubled start. 

Had to visit Exeter City’s Club Shop today to get a Kidderminster Harriers shirt printed up for a mate who has got cancer.

Lummydaze. It was like going back in time to the Beryl-era Club Shop! Proper Aladdin’s Cave. Well stocked, good range, quality products and, to top of off, 5-star customer service. 

Was chatting for some time to a couple of their staff. They are with Adidas, but have their via relationship with the supplier through a secondary Company, Pro-Direct (Newton Abbot). Claim never to have supply or quality issues.

A fan-owned Club who seem to have got their merchandising spot-on. Hmmm. 

12 hours ago, Tony Tootle said:

Any idea who the foreign female interviewer was at the end of the match with Bell and James? She sounded Italian. Don’t think I’ve seen her on any EFL games before.

The actual questions were decent. Just a bit of a strong accent which made her difficult to follow. 

Not seen her, but from the reaction of the players/managers a bit of a looker I suspect. Belly…calm down mate. Reckon if she interviewed him after every match he’d be the league’s top scorer. 

15 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

Rob Dickie foot perfect.

Again.

What an absolute steal he is.

Agree, but also Tanner - who many saw as just a temporary infill - immense. Again. He’s making that position his own. Hats off to the guy.

What I really, really enjoyed tonight was our challenges.

So long we’ve been powder-puff. Physically and mentally weak.

How many of the 50/50’s did we win tonight! Virtually all of them.

Lovely jubbly. Now, get rid of our other albatross - inconsistency - and we just might become a real threat in this division.

Simply superb. Back four immense, as was the midfield. 

A brilliant performance and delight to watch (but who else thought we were going to chuck  it away with a couple of minutes to play and 3-1 up?)
 

Well done all. Is this the ‘new’ Bristol City?
 

Decent.

Our passing quality, movement, strength in the tackle and team shape/positioning has improved beyond recognition over the last few weeks.

Buying into this, even if - at the moment - it isn’t the most scintillating entertainment. Just need a bit more quality in the final third. 

7 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

I didn’t bother watching tonight. Just for a laugh will someone sum up Mehmeti’s performance in fifteen words or less please?

……….…….…..…..

Erm .……..

Cam Pring has the patience of a saint. 

Grim. Totally outclassed. 

Cam and Max the only one’s to emerge with credit. Both immense. 
 

Forget that. Management, coaches and players need to learn, adapt and move on. Bottomed out there, the only way is up.

So we pay £2.5 million for a player we could get for free in the Summer? Take the risks of injury, loss of form etc.

Am I missing something? His agent wouldn’t take off £2.5 million from his players wage demands to compensate. 

Bonkers. 

So, basically, it seems we go with what we had at the start of the window. Ideal. Top 6 here we come, whereas I thought we were going to push the boat out on transfers to clinch one of the auto places. 

Not just any old Ford Escort club cars…. he was given a white XR3i !!!!

Envious or what.

2 minutes ago, Loosey Boy said:

Two weeks is a lot better than I was expecting - that’s good news on the scheme of things

That’s a ‘Bristol City’ two weeks. 

So, probably the last we see of him. Hopefully, we had a clause to return. 

Anyhow, time for the squad minus Twine and any other first team squad additions to prove JL and Tins right. Top 6 here we come. 
 

Women vs Girls. 

We don’t look very good, not even very fit. The West Ham player for their goal could have written their autobiography, cooked lunch and would have still had the time to have placed their shot without being challenged.

Perhaps, we’re lulling West Ham into a sense of false security and will come out like lions in the second half. 

Predict 4-1 City