So will City completely balls up another transfer window?

[Maltshoveller]

4 minutes ago, Red Right Hand said:

Or Norwich, Ipswich, Middlesbrough, Hull?

All bigger clubs than us

 

[exAtyeoMax]

1 minute ago, Rednwhiterob said:

We're not near Swansea?

I know we're not but they seem to attract decent players. 

[exAtyeoMax]

1 minute ago, cynic said:

There is no Swansea Tubs.

They lied

[Maltshoveller]

Just now, exAtyeoMax said:

I know we're not but they seem to attract decent players. 

Might have something to do with being in the prem!!

 

[exAtyeoMax]

1 minute ago, Maltshoveller said:

Might have something to do with being in the prem!!

 

It does now, but they weren't always! 

[TheCulturalBomb]

Bradley Dack, see no reason why we can't go and make an offer for him. Rejected us £300k in the summer, and let's face it he is one of the best in league 1 and we should push for him. £9 million is still on Steve Lansdowns coffee table I hope. 

 

A midfielder who can score a goal, what a dream. Only 22 as well. 

[exAtyeoMax]

26 minutes ago, TheCulturalBomb said:

Bradley Dack, see no reason why we can't go and make an offer for him. Rejected us £300k in the summer, and let's face it he is one of the best in league 1 and we should push for him. £9 million is still on Steve Lansdowns coffee table I hope. 

 

A midfielder who can score a goal, what a dream. Only 22 as well. 

That's one hell of a coffee table…

[Andy082005]

50 minutes ago, Rednwhiterob said:

I'm just not sure Bristol has the pull of other locations. For example, if we're competing with QPR for a player offering similar pay, we'll probably lose out as they are London based.

I agree . Very difficult to compete with London clubs....but there have been plenty of clubs over the last ten years, who are geographically worse off then us....yet have still got things right, and over taken us.

Hull, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Bournemouth, Bradford made the Prem at one point. Someone mentioned Swansea....

Geography is not the issue. Bristol Citys issue is....and always has been....that its run by people who don't know how to run a football club. 

Bless Steve Lansdown....I admire him and thank him for everything he does, but when it comes to trying to establish a strong Championship club....he just can't do it 

[leadman]

I think players who are not getting playing time in the prem or any were else for that matter might see a relegation scrap and some playing time a bonus.

after all,  there is nothing like a challenge when your a pro, for some but not all.

[Lrrr]

2 hours ago, Griffin said:

I don't understand this 'Best of League 1' business, we already have the best of League one..

Because all of the leagues best players have to play for the same side.....

[KeepUpLino]

Like someone said earlier, it doesn't matter where you are geographically or how big the ground is if you offer them the right deal players will join..

All about the money I'm afraid, nothing else!!

[hortonred]

22 hours ago, Lord Northski said:

The summer promised so much. "Bristol Sport" talked a good game, but with the exception of JK nothing happened and the close season turned into empty promises and missed opportunities and finds us at the foot of the league. I had so much faith in Cotts and his crew after the 2014 close season that they would repeat their proactive approach to transfers, but they started this new season with egg on their face and are rightly paying the penalty of this omnishambles. Be it the management, be it the board or Bristol Sport, between them they combined to not capitalise on the momentum they had. 

As such, in the eve of another transfer window the pressure is on the club and its self congratutory sharp suited executives to do their job. Sign the players we need and keep us in the Championship. Get to work

It is going to be so much harder to sell the club to possible targets now we reside in the bottom 3. In the summer as out right Champions plus new stadium we had a lot more going for us. I just hope we have done the work already and we can swiftly  sign some players at the start of the window in spite of the increased difficulties. Surely we cannot cock it up again. Come on SL and SC do the business.

[ChippenhamRed]

1 hour ago, Bullbag said:

Hull aren;t a bigger club, never have been.

Never have been?

They've spent most of the last 7 years in the Premier League, average 24k at home, were FA Cup runners up in 2014 and have a squad worth far more than ours.

During that period we have floated between the second and third tier. Please explain how right now they are not a "bigger club" than us.

[Super]

If we do it is certain relegation and every chance we will finish bottom again. This next month off the pitch is almost as important as what happens on it.

[YorkshireSection]

21 hours ago, Robbored said:

It won't be easy to attract "quality" players that's for sure.

City weren't able to attract quality players last summer and our situation is even worse this time around.

 

21 hours ago, Robbored said:

 

Cotterill won't want players who - in his opinion- won't strengthen the current squad and I for one won't criticise him, or any manager for adopting that position.

i

He said this in the summer though then went onto sign the likes of Fredericks? Cox, unfit and over weight, Bennet, Robinson and to a degree Moore, then there's Hammer who IMHO improved and will go on to be a top level championship keeper, not to knock FF but he's tiny.

Ive got little faith that for whatever reason SC can't bring in the 4/5 players we need to stay up.

I'm not convinced that two of our first team squad won't be pulled away from us, God help us.

[BS4 on Tour...]

2 hours ago, Slave to the rhythm said:

I believe he is on about £10k per week more at Burnley than he would have got with us.

Here we go again - people saying we can't compete on wages when Steve Lansdown said publicly that wages were never the problem with either Gray or Gayle, The Bristol Post even reported we offered Gray more than Burnley and Spudski posted on here that a football agent he knows told him we offered Gray a bigger salary than Burnley....so how do you know he's on £10k more per week than we offered him?

 

[samo II]

25 minutes ago, Super said:

If we do it is certain relegation and every chance we will finish bottom again. This next month off the pitch is almost as important as what happens on it.

Agreed.

I'm not usually one pushing/hoping for a busy January window, but we missed our shot this summer, and as I don't think it would be smart to delay anything until the summer either (because I do not think the current squad will keep us us), then we might as well break out the chequebook and make up for the momentum we lost, before we undo all of the good work from last year.

Have a worrying feeling that if we do drag our heels, not only will the likes of Rotherham, Charlton and MK Dons steal a march on us, but we might also disillusion the few members of the team who might be assets at this level if we do stay up.

Most important transfer window in years; let's hope we don't mess it up.

[ChippenhamRed]

13 minutes ago, YorkshireSection said:

 

He said this in the summer though then went onto sign the likes of Fredericks? Cox, unfit and over weight, Bennet, Robinson and to a degree Moore, then there's Hammer who IMHO improved and will go on to be a top level championship keeper, not to knock FF but he's tiny.

Ive got little faith that for whatever reason SC can't bring in the 4/5 players we need to stay up.

I'm not convinced that two of our first team squad won't be pulled away from us, God help us.

I can't see anyone in our squad leaving, on the basis that no one is worth an amount of money that we couldn't afford to turn down.

Even if someone offered over the odds for Kodjia - say £10m - we would likely be relegated without him, which would cost the club far more than that in the long term.

We know there is an unspent transfer kitty of many millions, so there is absolutely no pressure to sell anyone.

[Red-Robbo]

TBH whether it's "ballsed up" or not will be something none of us can assess until February. 

The manager will know it's key to his survival here, so hopefully lessons have been learned. 

[JoeAman08]

It's a tough one this transfer window. I want us to do all we can to stay up but I don't want it to financially screw us doing it. I'd rather us keep our squad and get relegated but be in a good position to go back up than to risk it and still maybe go down and be limited in the summer. Obviously we would lose a couple in the summer if relegated but could get a tidy profit from them. 

I would rather us take a chance on lower league or foreign that would be ok with League 1 next season and hopefully be better than what we have and keep us up. For example, Bradley Dack. I'd rather us buy him in January and him come down with us than buy a journeyman. So we could hope Dack is better for this level than Freeman has been and if not we will have an excellent player for next season. 

[ChippenhamRed]

12 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

It's a tough one this transfer window. I want us to do all we can to stay up but I don't want it to financially screw us doing it. I'd rather us keep our squad and get relegated but be in a good position to go back up than to risk it and still maybe go down and be limited in the summer. Obviously we would lose a couple in the summer if relegated but could get a tidy profit from them. 

I would rather us take a chance on lower league or foreign that would be ok with League 1 next season and hopefully be better than what we have and keep us up. For example, Bradley Dack. I'd rather us buy him in January and him come down with us than buy a journeyman. So we could hope Dack is better for this level than Freeman has been and if not we will have an excellent player for next season. 

Personally I think if we were to go down we would lose more than a couple.

Smith, Ayling and Kodjia would all be gone. Freeman likely to go - not popular on here at the moment, but frequently praised by opposition supporters. Bryan if he rediscovers his form. Wilbraham likely to retire next year either way. If we were to make them permanent, Baker and Bennett would go. Others not mentioned may also go for various reasons - not sure who's out of contract for example.

In other words, the core of the side would likely be destroyed.

[samo II]

10 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

It's a tough one this transfer window. I want us to do all we can to stay up but I don't want it to financially screw us doing it. I'd rather us keep our squad and get relegated but be in a good position to go back up than to risk it and still maybe go down and be limited in the summer. Obviously we would lose a couple in the summer if relegated but could get a tidy profit from them. 

I would rather us take a chance on lower league or foreign that would be ok with League 1 next season and hopefully be better than what we have and keep us up. For example, Bradley Dack. I'd rather us buy him in January and him come down with us than buy a journeyman. So we could hope Dack is better for this level than Freeman has been and if not we will have an excellent player for next season. 

Though I do understand the logic of what you suggest, I really cannot support the notion that planning for relegation is in anyway wise - people seem to forget how destructive that was to the club, and how especially just now, it would be a significant backward step.

In any case; saying to players that we're looking to bring you in in order to prepare for getting back here in 18 months time is going to get us nowhere; why would a player like Dack leave a promotion chasing team on League One where he is first choice, settled and well regarded I order to come here under the circumstances?  I think both he and his club would be crazy to sell; would be like us getting rid of Bryan this time last year to Wigan.

We need to be buying players who actively bolster this team I order for it to fight relegation.  Obviously would be great if they have potential beyond that, but I'm not interested in buying from the future at this juncture - we need fighters for a fight, not investments for the future (unless they are both).

Wade Elliot was, in my eyes, the best signing SC has made - without question.  And not for his (significant) influence last year, but for dragging a squad with some talented but underperforming players up to the level where they produced what was near promotion form back in the 13-14 season.

If we're planning for failure, we will fail.  Success is staying in this division; we go down, we have to start all over again, and it won't be pretty.

[Major Isewater]

3 hours ago, Andy082005 said:

I've never understood why people say we suffer geographically? Suffer how?

 

London based foreign players have a choice of airports with regular flights back home, a good chance of having other people from their culture in the vicinity and a huge choice of commodities that no other city in the UK has .

Add to that ,the choice of clubs , don't quite make it at Arsenal , there's always Fulham , not quite good enough for Fulham  there's always Charlton etc  you won't even have to change your kids school or move home if you change club .

It would be cruel to make the comparison with our beloved but neglected backwater that is Bristol .

[TheCulturalBomb]

The Japanese international goalkeeer Kawashima who is free agent signed for Dundee United this week, I mean seriously? Could we have not got him, current keeper for Japan goes to Dundee..

[JoeAman08]

7 minutes ago, samo II said:

Though I do understand the logic of what you suggest, I really cannot support the notion that planning for relegation is in anyway wise - people seem to forget how destructive that was to the club, and how especially just now, it would be a significant backward step.

In any case; saying to players that we're looking to bring you in in order to prepare for getting back here in 18 months time is going to get us nowhere; why would a player like Dack leave a promotion chasing team on League One where he is first choice, settled and well regarded I order to come here under the circumstances?  I think both he and his club would be crazy to sell; would be like us getting rid of Bryan this time last year to Wigan.

We need to be buying players who actively bolster this team I order for it to fight relegation.  Obviously would be great if they have potential beyond that, but I'm not interested in buying from the future at this juncture - we need fighters for a fight, not investments for the future (unless they are both).

Wade Elliot was, in my eyes, the best signing SC has made - without question.  And not for his (significant) influence last year, but for dragging a squad with some talented but underperforming players up to the level where they produced what was near promotion form back in the 13-14 season.

If we're planning for failure, we will fail.  Success is staying in this division; we go down, we have to start all over again, and it won't be pretty.

It's hard for me to explain my thoughts with my hangover. I don't want to prepare for relegation. I would just rather us not take a bunch of huge risks financially for the sake of staying up. I would rather us take a chance on a Dack(he is an example only I realize he won't be available as Gillingham look a good bet for promotion). Maybe Hourihan from Barnsley is a better example. I'd rather go for these and hope they can improve us this year because let's face it, it's a gamble whether the step can be made. Hourihan could be a better option at this level than Freeman. If he isn't then we know we've got a good L1 player. 

Its probably not coming out the way i want it to. I'm not against a veteran signing on a bigger wage. I just don't want us to make 2 or 3 of them, hurting us in the long run. For example, I would be fine with signing Kermongant on a large wage for us but I wouldn't want him, Kevin Nolan and Moxey all on big wages. I'd rather do Kermogant, Hourihan and maybe a young L1/2 keeper to challenge frank. Just an example, not rumours or anything. I hope we can find a balance that could improve us and if it fails at least we are set up for L1. 

[Major Isewater]

2 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

It's hard for me to explain my thoughts with my hangover. I don't want to prepare for relegation. I would just rather us not take a bunch of huge risks financially for the sake of staying up. I would rather us take a chance on a Dack(he is an example only I realize he won't be available as Gillingham look a good bet for promotion). Maybe Hourihan from Barnsley is a better example. I'd rather go for these and hope they can improve us this year because let's face it, it's a gamble whether the step can be made. Hourihan could be a better option at this level than Freeman. If he isn't then we know we've got a good L1 player. 

Its probably not coming out the way i want it to. I'm not against a veteran signing on a bigger wage. I just don't want us to make 2 or 3 of them, hurting us in the long run. For example, I would be fine with signing Kermongant on a large wage for us but I wouldn't want him, Kevin Nolan and Moxey all on big wages. I'd rather do Kermogant, Hourihan and maybe a young L1/2 keeper to challenge frank. Just an example, not rumours or anything. I hope we can find a balance that could improve us and if it fails at least we are set up for L1. 

I don't think we'd have too much to worry about with contracts if we went down , i'm pretty sure that newcomers would negotiate release clauses in the event of relegation .

[ChippenhamRed]

16 minutes ago, TheCulturalBomb said:

The Japanese international goalkeeer Kawashima who is free agent signed for Dundee United this week, I mean seriously? Could we have not got him, current keeper for Japan goes to Dundee..

Being an international has absolutely no guarantee of quality whatsoever, particularly for a country such as Japan.

If Frank was Japanese he would probably be in their national squad.

[Major Isewater]

3 minutes ago, ChippenhamRed said:

Being an international has absolutely no guarantee of quality whatsoever, particularly for a country such as Japan.

If Frank was Japanese he would probably be in their national squad.

and not playing for us !

[samo II]

2 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

I don't think we'd have too much to worry about with contracts if we went down , i'm pretty sure that newcomers would negotiate release clauses in the event of relegation .

Sure, but that is part of the problem in getting in recruits with the future in mind.

Realise @JoeAman08 wasn't suggesting what I maybe thought, but I do feel that maybe an experienced trio of recruits across the midfield, frontline and defence would give us a significant edge, and allow us to get back to smart recruitment of primarily young players in the summer.

Someone like Kergomount up top, maybe Neil Danns in the midfield, and a goalkeeper capable of liftoff the rest of the defence, or even a centre back to slot in and lead would be something that could significantly improve us, plus any other player like the Irish lad from Barnsley, in order to improve competition.

I just think the time is now to maybe invest in a few 30+ 'old heads' as we are so thin on the ground they surely won't break us wage-wise, and might just get us over that line and keep us up - and is a fine line, but only if we buck up.

[Major Isewater]

56 minutes ago, samo II said:

Sure, but that is part of the problem in getting in recruits with the future in mind.

Realise @JoeAman08 wasn't suggesting what I maybe thought, but I do feel that maybe an experienced trio of recruits across the midfield, frontline and defence would give us a significant edge, and allow us to get back to smart recruitment of primarily young players in the summer.

Someone like Kergomount up top, maybe Neil Danns in the midfield, and a goalkeeper capable of liftoff the rest of the defence, or even a centre back to slot in and lead would be something that could significantly improve us, plus any other player like the Irish lad from Barnsley, in order to improve competition.

I just think the time is now to maybe invest in a few 30+ 'old heads' as we are so thin on the ground they surely won't break us wage-wise, and might just get us over that line and keep us up - and is a fine line, but only if we buck up.

Agree with you Samo regarding 'old heads ' , Neil Danns is a good shout ,apparently Kermorgant is a done deal ( after Cott's comments in the summer ! ) and there must surely be a good goalie out there looking for a challenge .

The flaw in relegation clauses is evidently the new players have nothing to lose if we go down so may be they are less motivated than the others in the squad . The problem is how do we bring them in otherwise ?