BTRFTG

20 minutes ago, slartibartfast said:

Up to a couple of years ago (pre-covid) Nigal did the 92, including all the new ones.

A few of our acquaintances had the shirt last season Slarti but not, of course, seeing City play. Many years back I got fairly close counting only City visits (courtesy of the golden period of relegations,) but gave up what with the replacement and majorly remodelled grounds, not to mention the ins and outs of the league.

29 minutes ago, spudski said:

This is what LJ is quoted as saying about Massengo, his attributes, and how he was going to use him.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/revealed-bristol-city-signed-han-3178030

 

Signed a 'box to box' player then (like the rest of his midfielders) transformed him into a poor man's Ray Wilkins, crab-like sideways and backwards. Ruined the kids career.

6 minutes ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

I have racked my brains, but I am completely stumped.

The Bloke From Knowle, who went on leave at Xmas and seemingly never returned.

2 minutes ago, Shuffle said:

 Do you honestly believe that discussions offers haven’t been made to those we want to keep as I don’t. 

Whilst I think you are correct to remind Liam Rosenior and the great Bristolian postage stamp crisis.....

6 minutes ago, brady bunch said:

Probably going to end up as a loan out, followed by a a big write off in the books at the end of the contract

'No-interest' does not speak volumes other than your own unsubstantiated assumption. Were I advising HNM and in the present market, I'd likely make it known around footballing circles that unless I really thought his future lay with City, to perform to the best of his abilities when given the opportunity but not sign any contract extension. Use performance to boost any potential signing on fee and contract offer from wherever that may arise. If he performs and City want him (why would they change their minds other than they don't actually want him but are attempting to preserve their own financial intetest,) they'd still offer him a new deal at season end. So little risk player side.

As for write off (sic) there is none. At contract expiry all players 'costs' will have been depreciated to nil, as will have been dictated the day they first signed their contract.

23 minutes ago, billywedlock said:

You get what you pay for....

Almost that the player wants his cake and eat it . 

Given City's overpriced carousel of crap these past years that clearly isn't the case. Cost & value share no dependency. Never did, never will.

I also find it amusing when fans project their own flawed logic onto players. Like cost and value football and contracts share no dependency. When a player signs a contract all one hopes is they perform until that contract expires. City have been stuffed to the gunnels with non-performers on long contracts they're unable to shift (no rounds of applause for the AG8 please), so length to contract expiry is a woeful indicator as to performance and commitment. Why should a player feel obligated to perform anything other than that stated within their contract? If you employed a builder to construct an extension on your gaff would you berate them were they not to hang around after delivering as much simply because you might want them also to look at your roof? Seems to me HNM wants to fulfill his contract. What's wrong with that?

Haven't listened to the interview but if the suggestion is Nige views HNM as only a 'squad player' on the basis his contract expires at the end of the season, then that's disgraceful. HNM, like all players, should be given the opportunity to show what they can do. Just because the likes of CoD, KP & TBFK gave up long before exiting doesn't imply HNM would act similarly. If anything, the kid has always put a shift in when given the chance.

It works both ways. If by some fluke City were promoted at the end of the season, would they stand by those players that had delivered success simply because they had time left on their contracts? Like hell would they.

Sad news indeed. Stoney, his red fedora, his jokes and anecdotes have been permanent fixtures around Ashton Gate since I was a kid.

That he was a 'character' is without question.

5 hours ago, Oh Louie louie said:

Can recall vince hilaires name cropping up in a song too.

Not HMHB, rather The Beloved's 'Hello'.

On 22/07/2022 at 03:48, Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan said:

Robert Del Naja (3D) is definitely a City fan, he even mentions BCFC in the album notes in Blue Lines along with Napoli.

Not to mention the repeated 'Come On You Reds' sample in Unfinished Sympathy.....

If you ever wish to know how not to construct au unbiased survey, this is about as fine an example as you might ever find. It demonstrates why football fans attempting to run/influence football clubs isn't necessarily a good idea.

Pretty much all its questions are meaningless. They're constructed against assumptions and constraints not stated. Where time limited, they wholly ignore pre-requisite factors that negate the question posed. Other questions solicit opinion against premise(s) the stated conclusion for which is not logically derived. Ditto 'comparison questions' which highlight a single factor not wholly influencing the outcome referenced.

Why be concerned? The problem with this is the SC&T will use survey responses to justify the clear position they've already adopted, claiming them to reflect 'the fans' views when in reality they are nothing of the sort, they'll be skewed answers to skewed questions.

34 minutes ago, MSN Red said:

Robin Friday - The greatest footballer you never saw

'...doing The Elephant.....' Once read, never forgotten

1 hour ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

I really enjoyed David Peace’s book about Bill Shankly ‘Red or Dead’, but it’s not for the faint hearted.  I’d suggest having a look at it in a bookshop to check whether you think it’s for you, as it is a mind-boggling book, incredibly repetitive, but quite hypnotic if you can get into it.  You’ve been warned!

That's the brilliance of Peace's writing (both football & non-football.) His rhythmic repetition as an accentuating device is mesmeric. It's personifies all adulation or hatred held. It recalls the form of Stewart Lee's comedy, how to take a single line or premise and turn it into an half hour routine yet remain funny throughout.

Ronald Reng's - A life too short

Ghostwritten - Ossie, King of Stamford 

Stan Bowles (though ghostwritten) - Stan The Man

Paolo Hewitt - The greatest footballer you never saw

Kevin Beattie - The Beat

Pete Davies - All Played Out

For Fiction , the utterly brilliant David Peace's The Damned United

On 12/07/2022 at 22:07, ScottishRed said:

Falkirk 1 - 0 Hibernian 

For those who don’t follow Scottish football, Falkirk are in the third tier.

Not a pre-season friendly, proper competitive game.

His post match interview cropped up on a social media feed (not sure why?)

Don't worry if you didn't catch it, you've seen it dozens of times before:

We deserved to win 

I'm disappointed

We were well prepared, great game-plan, not my fault, players need to look at themselves

3 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

£60 k, when that was a lot !

Using inflation as a measure that'd be around £1.15m these days.

Or, if one considers the record transfer at the time was Nish @ £200k, Spiring would be worth 0.3x the present UK record fee today - £30m!

41 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

Gordon Spiring 1938-39 with 4 appearances.

Son Peter Spiring 1969-73.

 

Wow, I never knew Spiring's old man played for City, though did know his son played county cricket.

For you 'yung uns' who think the top flight ruining young kids careers is a post Premier invention, Spiring was a very talented and tricky winger, England youth, great end product who went to Liverpool for decent dosh but who never played for them.

3 hours ago, northsomersetred said:

Plymouth has almost 3x the population of Wakefield

Using your argument London has fewer than 10k residents and if you believe that there truly is no hope.......

Of greater significance would be the prospect of UEFA removing infrastructure costs from FFP. Now I'm unsure how any proposed 'Gas' deal is to be funded but there would be a significant risk premium should the deal be design and lease, as opposed to design and build. Who'd bet The Gas might still be trading in 20 years let alone covering the costs of building a new stadium? Should The Gas, through their own investment and grants available, fund part of the capital cost of the build, then unlike now this might no longer be available to ignore in terms of FFP.

Even if it is straight lease it's likely leasehold costs over the term will be so substantial as to, from an accounting perspective, make this a virtual freehold. One presumes for FFP purposes this would allow The Gas to show a huge profit first year when the asset first hits the books but depreciation and lease costs combined would then prove a massive encumbrance year on year thereafter from an annual trading perspective.

I forget the match but for some reason I was sitting lower Williams (rare event) near the Open End when Baird got clattered right in front of us. He didn't move and looked in pain. My colleague accused him of feigning and being soft.

Buster F trundled on, fiddled around with a sponge for a few moments then pulled Baird into a sitting position, slapped him hard a couple of times on the back encouraging him to get up. Baird played on though visibly struggled.

Later that evening Baird went to A&E coughing blood and struggling for breath, two broken ribs having punctured his lung.

I'm not sure how good a cyclist he was....

54 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I know going back some years when Bolton were first getting into trouble and placed under embargo, the limit for new signings was £600k p.a. (£12k p.w) which seemed a lot to me.

Last year we heard Reading were restricted to £8.5k p.w.  Mr P will confirm if I got that wrong.

But that is Champ, not sure if Lg1 restrictions are the same or not.

Until we read the lower level details it’s very hard to know whether they’ve gained an advantage or not.

I thought if it was they gained £x advantage over the others then this was discounted at such rate such as a nominal value was assumed against transfers or period of time. Never sure how parity was supposedly endured. 

8 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Off and running….

or maybe not.

Surely they won’t get their opportunity to register a player wrong!!

Free transfer but goes back to a point I made previously is I thought there were levelling up measures against clubs who have gained an advantage over peers by entering administration. Anybody know how these are calculated as I fear they're made up on the fly?

7 hours ago, exAtyeoMax said:

How much did they pay for the stadium?

£22m

28 minutes ago, Tinmans Love Child said:

If that’s the case then they will change/tweak the rule to make it work I’m sure.  Although AI can learn what ever the rule is and reproduce what a human can for much more complicated things than the offside rule so might not be a blocker anyway, who knows, I’d rather they never introduced it personally, I’m enjoyed the debate and the acceptance that sometimes you get decisions and sometimes you don’t!

If fans still are unable to comprehend it's a LAW and NOT a 'rule' (sic) and the differences therein, what hope AI?

They'd be better off doing as in hockey and scrapping Law 11 altogether. In hockey the predicted impact on styles of play didn't materialise. I think they're going to trial in the Dutch 2nd tier soon.

8 hours ago, Tinmans Love Child said:

Black and white decisions like offside should and will be instantly picked up using AI technology

Save Law 11 isn't 'black and white', that's why we have pigs ear debates each and every week. Recall, it's not an offence to be in an offside position, so try writing the algorithm to resolve as and when it does become an offence.

Guaranteed first game we'll see play halted quickly (because VAR flagged it,) only for pundits to highlight that although the player was in an offside position he wasn't committing an offence.

Here's a thought. Before starting the farce,  use the technology to analyse decades of many of the greatest and most memorable goals in football, and see them scratched off.