Orbital

That looks hastily cobbled together. It also looks like a nervous man forced to try to justify a terrible decision. He’d get a lot more kudos if he just came out and said that they’d had their difficulties behind the scenes and the working relationship couldn’t go on rather than spout all that bollocks. No one believes him so it just makes it worse. 

33 minutes ago, kelbcfc said:

I think as a protest we should still go into the stadium. But stay in the con course till 3.10 then all enter the stands 

I used to live in Madrid and was an avid fan of Rayo Vallecano while there; their fans are not shy about having a protest. When the Spanish tv started influencing the match schedule to ridiculous levels they weren’t having it. Five minutes after kick off in a subsequent fixture there was a mass exodus till half time with a banner unfurled on the terrace. A walk out sends a strong signal. 

I very rarely post on here, but have to add my utter disgust for this decision. What an absolute farce. The worst decision in Lansdown’s tenure by a country mile. Shame on the decision makers involved in this.

There’s been a deafening silence with regard to the release of the new second strip. A number of people are holding on to see what it looks like before purchasing their top for the season, or arranging their child’s season ticket shirt. Could the club give an indication when it is going to be released?

1 hour ago, handsofclay said:

Paul Allen played for us. Clive Allen had part of a pre-season with us and played in an away friendly game I am sure it was against a league club. I think he might even have scored, but he decided to quit the game as he was no longer fit enough.

A few years later I think he was on Sky Sports when Bristol City were mentioned and Clive Allen chipped in by saying that he played his last game for Bristol City (albeit that it was a pre-season friendly).

Coincidentally, Clive Allen made his first league appearance as a sub against Bristol City at Ashton Gate where he was marked by Norman Hunter 

I went. It was either Cheltenham Town or Gloucester City. My memory is pretty shoddy.

I had a schoolboy trial for City on the same day as Charles and Diana’s wedding at West Town Lane. They narrowed down a decision on taking on one more kid out of two of us. One was me, the other was a lad called Wayne (I think) Tainton. Turned out he was Trevor’s son. He got in and I missed out. 

1 hour ago, TBW said:

Harsh on Atkinson

True, but we now have some depth to our defensive options and they can’t all play.

If we keep Kalas, I would play him ahead of Atkinson. In a four, you could take out Dasilva and play: Wilson, Kalas, Klose, Naysmith.
 

If you change to a back three, you could push Wilson and Dasilva on as wingbacks (arguably more suitable to their skills) and play: Kalas, Klose and Naysmith.

Tough on Atkinson, but it is healthy competition for places. If Kalas goes then he is next in line, for me.

This is not likely to be the numbers they get, but given our signings so far (including Wilson, hopefully) and that Nige has insinuated that he would favour a back four, then this would be the team, for me.

1 Bentley

2 Wilson  4 Klose  5 Naismith  3 Dasilva

6 James  8 Williams

7 Weimann 10 Scott 11 Semenyo

9 Martin

10 hours ago, The Bard said:

Do wonder about some people and their understanding of what decides a transfer fee.  
 

He has 1 year plus a 1 year option that we have exercised or will exercise.  We are therefore in no hurry to sell.  The idea that we will accept £8 million in that scenario is laughable.  We paid that for our centre half!

If he goes for under £20 million I will be really disappointed in the club.   If he has a decent season he will fetch £15 million.  A good season a lot more.  You can't coach a lot of what he has but you can coach him to use what he has more effectively which a side like West Ham will probably do.....

As a comparison: Emmanuel Dennis is being sought by Brentford, who value him around the £20 million mark. He scored 12 Premier League goals and bagged a further 6 assists. 
 

This would suggest that Semenyo would be more realistically priced around the £15 million plus add ons mark to me.

5 hours ago, Selred said:

Currently in Logrono, the Rioja region. Was in Bilbao then San Sebastián the past few days, on a bit of a Northern Spain tour. 
 

Main tips:

Get an Uber from the airport, half the price of taxis. 

You can walk around Bilbao easily. No need for Taxis/Tram where there. We walked from old town to the stadium to have a look, would love to see a game there!

The delicacy is Pintxos. They are like Basque tapas. A great place to start is Plaza Barria in the Old Town. A fabulous square which lots of Pintxos bars, my favourite were Zaharra (amazing chorizo rolls), Iturriza Taberna (great fish Pintxos), and Victor Montes. Another great place to eat is Erribera Merkatua, one of Europe’s largest undercover markets and had great stalls.

It’s SO cheap! Wine was €1.80 a glass on average (and they don’t measure), Beers €2.20 for 2/3rd glass. Pintxos were €1-2 euro. 

If you want somewhere to stay, Pension Ama in the old town was great. Super cheap, amazing location. 

Things to see: Guggenheim. Go up the Funicular for great views. I want to go back and do an art bike ride around. 

Finally if you have time go to San Sebastián. Coach was £16 there, and took about an hour and half. The food is better, marginally more expensive Pinxtos (talking €0.2-0.5 per Pintxos more), the wine is as cheap, and the beach is excellent. 
 

Would recommend 2 nights in Bilbao, 2-3 nights in San Seb. We’ve now gone to the Wine Region to make it a bit longer but overall great trip!

You must check out Haro if you are able. The epicentre of wine! Cune, Ramon Bilbao and Lopez de Heredia are highlights.

They are superbly supported, Bilbao. I used to live in Madrid and followed Rayo Vallecano. About 11 years ago, on the day they played each other at the Theresa Rivera in Vallecas, me and the lads were having a few beers when literally thousands of Bilbao supporters descended on the area. This is unheard of normally as away support isn’t usually small over there. We started to worry that things were going to get very tasy, but it was all apparently arranged. The Rayo boys and the Bilbao lads all proceeded to going on a beer, spliff and pyro march around the area in solidarity over their left wing views and their joint hatred of the fascists: Real Madrid. An unforgettable day of football, before and after.

Anyone over forty should have little reason to congratulate them. They can shove their dubious promotion up their wife abusing manager’s poop schute.

Just because Cardiff have been our chief adversaries for a generation, it doesn’t make it ok to dish out platitudes to that mob. F‘kem.

1 hour ago, The Bard said:

My champagne moment was Weimann's hat trick v Millwall.  

I put that too, Nick.

Weimann, Scott and the Weimann hattrick.

As good as it is to have broader exposure for the womens’ game nowadays, the unfortunate truth is that very few voters will know any of the lady players, rendering it guesswork, if voting at all in those sections.

3 minutes ago, EmissionImpossible said:

Yep. Generally it will be one or two having a sneaky fag in the toilets and quite rightly they are told to pack it in. But when people are destroying a place, I certainly wouldn’t get involved if I was a steward.

They can be in contact with the police though. Then things might have become a bit more challenging for those idiots.

3 minutes ago, TRL said:

no he wasn't they read out the score cards he was ahead on 2 of the 3

Indeed, but those cards were generous. I thought it was pretty even up to that point, possibly with Klitchsko shading it due to those middle rounds,