The Bard

That's spot on. Foresight from the Bristol City manager. Personally, I think next season will be better as we'll have less dead wood and a much clearer idea of what we're doing from CEO, to manager, coaches, 1st team players and young players. For example, I was impressed by Benarous on Monday. Had a confident look about him. Not over awed and knows what's expected of him. At least one of Conway, Benarous, Bell , Towler etc will properly break into the team next season.

Basically what I said earlier but far more succinct...

Selling a product to a growing market does not make you responsible for its success. It means you did a good job getting a good price. Nothing more, nothing less.

Obviously Dean Holden told him 'when I left they were the worst team in the league' and his drink-addled memory has played tricks on him.

I do fear our Recruitment team is too data led. It is obvious in my eyes that you use data to compare players but not every aspect of the game can be drilled down to data and you need to use your footballing intellect when doing so. It's not baseball or darts or cricket which are repetitive sports that lead themselves to data analysis. Then you have to take into account the different styles of teams. For example, a heavily possession based side will have CBs and CDMs with high pass accuracy as they look to build play, whereas a counter attacking side like us will have lower accuracy as we're looking to play early balls forward. FWIW, if Pack is willing to accept a lower wage, I'd sign him up. 31 with over 300 Championship appearances? That shouldn't stop us trying to find the next Marlon Pack though..

If he us presenting himself as being able to run a club I'd be doubtful. That's a nuts and bo lj ts role which is not his background. He didn't turn the premier league into this global brand. He negotiated deals. If he's advising Lansdown on how to sell the club it would make perfect sense.

So are a load of people stood near me who can barely complete a sentence. The skills you list, what use are they to us? We're an underachieving championship club. He has a high level background in sales basically. Never worked for an actual club.

So replace a tinpot smarmy money orientated bluffer with a premier league proven smarmy money orientated bluffer? What does he actually know? How to get inflated prices for tv deals. How to suck money out of an organisation dripping with it.. Contacts from a few years ago when we're looking to buy Championship free agents and league 1/2 youngsters won't really help in anyway. Exactly.

Can remember us beatng a very good Southampton side who were on their way to a 2nd successive promotion. He more or less ate Lallana alive, who was the best player outside the Premier league at the time. When he played well he was a beast of a player.

This, but I'd guess Pring would be picked over JD in a 4 as he's robust and better in the air. Pearson is a pragmatist and so we're playing a back 3 this season as it suited what he had. I'd like to think he will now recruit to what he wants as he now knows who is here for the long term. Pack would absolutely suit being the screen and he'd help with us keeping the ball too. Interesting how James and William's would then fit in as they're not compatible imo.

He'd be useful sorting out Bristol Sport which is a shambles from what I can see. If Lansdown wants to sell up, he could be involved as a deal maker. Don't want him anywhere near actually running Bristol City though. Need football people for that.

I've renewed because I live so close I don't know what on earth I'd do when there was a game on. Also, I understand that 3 seasons with Pearson in charge of the club will reap rewards and we will become a challenger. We're all focusing on who we sell and buy but the key is the improvement we should see in a lot of players who have been playing their first proper championship football this year. If they can progress into proven Championship players we'll be in a much better position.

Klose was outstanding I thought, even to the decision to take a yellow towards the end of the game. Absolutely necessary and done quickly and efficiently. Cundy will become a very good championship defender IMO. He clearly has the mindset. No lapses in concentration communicating with Klose and Scott well. Watching the 3 of them, I do think selling Kalas isn't the worst idea. Save on wages, use the fee to buy a decent replacement and we have 4 good CBs for when I guess we go to a back 4 next season.

Thanks for the nudge. I just backed Cundy as 1st goalscorer at 84/1...

It was regularly trotted out by experts like, er, Danny Mills..

Repeat of League Cup Final...

Yep. Give me our game vs Peterboro over that game yesterday. Terrible 3 2 game between 2 of the best teams in world football...

How much better would the Semi Finals have been if this game had been at Arsenal or Spurs and the other game at Old Trafford? The crowd at yesterday's semi was below the capacity at Old Trafford, so the argument that you have to have the semis at Wembley so that more people can watch is shown to be a load of bollocks.

He'll be 21 /22 when the World Cup is in Canada..

Matty King played with me on the downs and he's in his 40s now. He was alright but Captain of a championship side is a bit much to ask...

We did the same in 1990 Lew. Didn't back Joe Jordan who had a brilliant team and he left for Hearts (Scottish football was far stronger then). We finished just outside the play offs with his assistant Lumsden in charge. Given Warnock got Notts county promoted that season having finished below us in the 3rd Division the year before, we missed a golden opportunity.

When was MA in unofficially Dave? I know he was officially appointed around November 2015. Was he around to ruin the deals for Lingard, Maguire and Gray?

It's an administrative balls up akin to when we let Liam Rosenoir leave for nothing because we didn't offer him a contract, except in reverse. 6 players with options for an extra year weren't told they weren't wanted which means their extra year automatically kicked in. This is for next year, so implication is that coach will end up with players he doesn't want and probably not have some players he'd like to either keep or sign.

Bears is being driven by the bloke at the top who is in control. The man the Lansdowns trust because they know they know nothing about Rugby and listen to Chris Booy who does know and he told them to appoint Pat Lam. Turn up every now and then to watch and that's about it. There's also a nice salary cap that keeps expenditure in check and more money taken on matchdays as supporters can drink in their seats. It probably makes a profit overall or at least doesn't haemorrhage money. Unlike football, with which SL has been involved for 20 years, and hasn't delegated anywhere near as much control. He thinks he knows the game. He also knows that financially it's insane so he wants to keep financial control but this slipped recently, having let the club be 'cuckoo'ed' by a bluffer. He used to tell him what he wanted to hear though. Not like this Pearson chap who is beginning to remind him of that awful Cotterill that he let Keith appoint.

Perfectly put. It so obvious it's painful.