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Lee Tomlin - A Statement of Intent

Fat Cigar

By Fat Cigar
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Fat Cigar

Fat Cigar

Posted
Posted

We finally did it!!!

Can’t quite believe it. Am delighted to have been proven completely wrong on this. Said a couple of times on here that I seriously doubted this was going to happen.  I initially thought it’d get done and dusted a couple of weeks after the season had ended. But the longer this dragged on, the less likely I thought it would happen. Either Tomlin would get fed up and walk away, or another side would come in for him and seal the deal within days. Am still puzzled as to why no one else did make a bid.  

So, what does this all mean? Firstly, it’s a huge boost for the club. It’s the best vote of confidence we could have got. The revamped stadium, the signings, a young and exciting squad and academy, this club is doing all the right things.  Tomlin joining sends out a massive statement of intent. It will work wonders for future recruits, maybe not necessarily in this transfer window, but in ones to come. Whilst this was our ‘marquee signing’,  I actually think Gary O’ Neil will prove to be our shrewdest signing this summer.

Without wanting to sound trite (too late…), this was a signing for the fans. We all desperately wanted it, some resorted to tweeting the poor guy every few minutes (I’m sure he loved it), we’ve spent hours/days/weeks speculating. I have never spent so much time thinking about one man before! I kid you not, this has messed with my sleep the last few days. Last night was my first decent sleep in over a week.

What was funny was that throughout all of this, it was Tomlin’s tweets that proved to be the most instructive and revealing. He said in his interview yesterday that he probably shouldn’t have tweeted certain things. Yep. I expect the club have already had a word with him about his tweeting.  The tweet (which he soon deleted) where he’d said that his agent was happy with our offer only for us to go back on it was so deflating. Who knows how true that was. The thing about our Lee is he’s an honest sort of guy, so it probably was. He came across well in his interview yesterday and he clearly loves the club, which is always nice to hear. Can you imagine the roar when his name is announced on our opening match?!

A word for the much maligned Andy Stockhausen. His couple of articles, soon after the night of the revealing tweets, were reassuring and very welcome. To be told that despite everything that had been tweeted, the deal was very much on, was something I needed to hear.

Remember last month when Mark Ashton said that something special was happening at Bristol City? I think he might be on to something.

Finally, only a three year contract???  After everything we’ve been through, he should have signed a 30 year contract!

Mods, I’m sure you’re now going to move this into the main Lee Tomlin thread, but thought we needed a separate, reflective, piece!

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phantom

phantom

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Posted
47 minutes ago, Fat Cigar said:

Mods, I’m sure you’re now going to move this into the main Lee Tomlin thread, but thought we needed a separate, reflective, piece!

Yeah agree with you

(BTW assume you wrote this out somewhere else first looking at the font?)

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daored

daored

Posted
Posted
37 minutes ago, Fat Cigar said:

We finally did it!!!

 

Can’t quite believe it. Am delighted to have been proven completely wrong on this. Said a couple of times on here that I seriously doubted this was going to happen.  I initially thought it’d get done and dusted a couple of weeks after the season had ended. But the longer this dragged on, the less likely I thought it would happen. Either Tomlin would get fed up and walk away, or another side would come in for him and seal the deal within days. Am still puzzled as to why no one else did make a bid.  

 

So, what does this all mean? Firstly, it’s a huge boost for the club. It’s the best vote of confidence we could have got. The revamped stadium, the signings, a young and exciting squad and academy, this club is doing all the right things.  Tomlin joining sends out a massive statement of intent. It will work wonders for future recruits, maybe not necessarily in this transfer window, but in ones to come. Whilst this was our ‘marquee signing’,  I actually think Gary O’ Neil will prove to be our shrewdest signing this summer.

 

Without wanting to sound trite (too late…), this was a signing for the fans. We all desperately wanted it, some resorted to tweeting the poor guy every few minutes (I’m sure he loved it), we’ve spent hours/days/weeks speculating. I have never spent so much time thinking about one man before! I kid you not, this has messed with my sleep the last few days. Last night was my first decent sleep in over a week.

 

What was funny was that throughout all of this, it was Tomlin’s tweets that proved to be the most instructive and revealing. He said in his interview yesterday that he probably shouldn’t have tweeted certain things. Yep. I expect the club have already had a word with him about his tweeting.  The tweet (which he soon deleted) where he’d said that his agent was happy with our offer only for us to go back on it was so deflating. Who knows how true that was. The thing about our Lee is he’s an honest sort of guy, so it probably was. He came across well in his interview yesterday and he clearly loves the club, which is always nice to hear. Can you imagine the roar when his name is announced on our opening match?!

 

A word for the much maligned Andy Stockhausen. His couple of articles, soon after the night of the revealing tweets, were reassuring and very welcome. To be told that despite everything that had been tweeted, the deal was very much on, was something I needed to hear.

 

Remember last month when Mark Ashton said that something special was happening at Bristol City? I think he might be on to something.

 

Finally, only a three year contract???  After everything we’ve been through, he should have signed a 30 year contract!

 

Mods, I’m sure you’re now going to move this into the main Lee Tomlin thread, but thought we needed a separate, reflective, piece!

 

 

 

Mentioned elsewhere, he's got that bit of magic that you need to break down teams at this level which prior to his signing we lacked. What can't be ignored is the goal return of JK following Tomlin's arrival. 

It's a strong sign, firstly to the current squad that we're looking to compete next year and secondly to players we may be in contact with as a statement of intent. The Tomlin and O'Neil signings are good solid signings for us. 

Wouldn't be surprised if we now start to see new signings follow in the near future

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Robbored

Robbored

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The OP is spot on. Tomlins signing will hopefully shut up those who were whinging and complaining about the apparent lack of transfer activity and accusing the club of being ultra tight with the money. 

I don't think the timing of the confirmation of Tomlins signing was by chance either. All the senior guys at AG would have been well aware of the fans angst and by getting Tomlin over the line that will reduce the criticism of their strategy.

I expect other signings to be announced over the next couple of weeks.

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RaspberryRed

RaspberryRed

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Posted

Maybe it was done and dusted a while back in terms of the basic agreement of him wanting to come here. ;)

Then factor in the his sell on clause from Middlesbrough to Bournemouth. Our kickback from Middlesbrough for AA helping them achieve promotion, then the minefield of Agents, legal people and it becomes a whole different ballgame with a protracted period of talks between three clubs with two of those being Premier league clubs further muddying the water

 

We will never know the ins and outs of it but this was never a case of us courting Tomlin, agreeing a fee with Bournemouth and signing on the dotted line

 

Personally I think he was as good as a City player prior to him jetting off to get married. I also think further proof of this was the way he was suddenly reined in on twitter when things were becoming frustrating

All purely conjecture of course

A more concise answer is yes a MASSIVE statement of intent. As was Gary O'Neill which has gone a lot more under the radar due to the fact we didn't have him on loan and he is not a flare player. He is though the consummate professional with bags of experience, a calm head and our very young squad will learn massively from both on and off of the pitch.

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downendcity

downendcity

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2 hours ago, Robbored said:

The OP is spot on. Tomlins signing will hopefully shut up those who were whinging and complaining about the apparent lack of transfer activity and accusing the club of being ultra tight with the 

Ever the optimist as ever RR?

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Robbored

Robbored

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Posted
13 minutes ago, downendcity said:

Ever the optimist as ever RR?

Based largely on the changes at senior or level within the AG structure. Shame it took SL so long to realise that you can't run a FC with people with no experience in the football business.

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Fat Cigar

Fat Cigar

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Just seen some clips from his interview at Failand in which he says that his agent had advised him to wait until a bigger club came in for him, possibly a few weeks down the line. He said he didn’t want to and always wanted to come here. Can we love this guy more?? We really are very very lucky.

And, the barrage of tweets declaring our love for him (not from me, I'm far too cool for that) did help in convincing him to come back. 

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Fat Cigar

Fat Cigar

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3 hours ago, Major Isewater said:

Why can't we ask ' Why ' ? 

I draft longer posts in to an email at work and then copy and paste. Means OTIB isn't always open! I should say, I don't of course send said email, although I did almost once send a long rant about our finishing to someone quite senior. 

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ashton_fan

ashton_fan

Posted
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It's a great signing but we still haven't bought any defenders, if we can get Matthews and Baker (or similar) I'll be happy. It's just I can remember other seasons where we spent all our money on strikers (eg 1999, Akinbiyi, Thorpe and Anderson) and then got relegated because we leaked so many goals (our main defensive signing was Dyche for not much who was awful).

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BRISTOL86

BRISTOL86

Posted
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8 minutes ago, Fat Cigar said:

I draft longer posts in to an email at work and then copy and paste. Means OTIB isn't always open! I should say, I don't of course send said email, although I did almost once send a long rant about our finishing to someone quite senior. 

Feel your pain. I routinely used to use business documents on my screen to disguise what I was actually writing/doing.

I was once in the middle of a presentation to around 20 people when I realised the slide contained tripsdvisor reviews of a hotel I was thinking of staying in. 

Quickly moved on to the next slide...!

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Lanterne Rouge

Lanterne Rouge

Posted
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16 minutes ago, Fat Cigar said:

Just seen some clips from his interview at Failand in which he says that his agent had advised him to wait until a bigger club came in for him, possibly a few weeks down the line. He said he didn’t want to and always wanted to come here. Can we love this guy more?? We really are very very lucky.

And, the barrage of tweets declaring our love for him (not from me, I'm far too cool for that) did help in convincing him to come back. 

That`s the feeling I`ve had all along TBH. Unless he was going to get a truly spectacular offer from Spurs or someone he was never going to be interested in any other clubs. He is a player who needs to be appreciated and he knows that will happen here.

Bit of an object lesson for his agent though - I bet that knocked him for six.:clap:

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Olé

Olé

Posted
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27 minutes ago, Fat Cigar said:

Just seen some clips from his interview at Failand in which he says that his agent had advised him to wait until a bigger club came in for him, possibly a few weeks down the line. He said he didn’t want to and always wanted to come here.

Where's this video? 

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Robbored

Robbored

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11 minutes ago, Red Right Hand said:

He is a player who needs to be appreciated and he knows that will happen here.

Indeed it will - as long as he produces the goods.

That said, Im optimistic that he won't turn out to be another Tony Dinning.

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Lanterne Rouge

Lanterne Rouge

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7 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

His agent won't mind his percentage of being knocked for 6.....about 0.6 :P

Don`t suppose he will but footballer in `want`s to play for club he prefers rather than one that will throw the most money at him` shocker! This could be the end of the world as we know it (I feel fine).

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Davefevs

Davefevs

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6 minutes ago, Red Right Hand said:

Don`t suppose he will but footballer in `want`s to play for club he prefers rather than one that will throw the most money at him` shocker! This could be the end of the world as we know it (I feel fine).

Refreshing stance from Tomlin.

So glad we harassed him with love all summer on Twitter.  Nathan Baker us next on the list it seems.  Poor Bakes!

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cidered abroad

cidered abroad

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3 hours ago, RaspberryRed said:

Maybe it was done and dusted a while back in terms of the basic agreement of him wanting to come here. ;)

Then factor in the his sell on clause from Middlesbrough to Bournemouth. Our kickback from Middlesbrough for AA helping them achieve promotion, then the minefield of Agents, legal people and it becomes a whole different ballgame with a protracted period of talks between three clubs with two of those being Premier league clubs further muddying the water

 

We will never know the ins and outs of it but this was never a case of us courting Tomlin, agreeing a fee with Bournemouth and signing on the dotted line

 

Personally I think he was as good as a City player prior to him jetting off to get married. I also think further proof of this was the way he was suddenly reined in on twitter when things were becoming frustrating

All purely conjecture of course

A more concise answer is yes a MASSIVE statement of intent. As was Gary O'Neill which has gone a lot more under the radar due to the fact we didn't have him on loan and he is not a flare player. He is though the consummate professional with bags of experience, a calm head and our very young squad will learn massively from both on and off of the pitch.

Thank God he's not a flare player. We don't want him self combusting, do we?

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Jack Dawe

Jack Dawe

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1 hour ago, Fat Cigar said:

I draft longer posts in to an email at work and then copy and paste. Means OTIB isn't always open! I should say, I don't of course send said email, although I did almost once send a long rant about our finishing to someone quite senior. 

Someone quite "senior"? Robbored??

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Red Skin

Red Skin

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7 hours ago, Fat Cigar said:

I draft longer posts in to an email at work and then copy and paste. Means OTIB isn't always open! I should say, I don't of course send said email, although I did almost once send a long rant about our finishing to someone quite senior. 

Wilbs?

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Sniper

Sniper

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7 minutes ago, CyderInACan said:

A misconception also very common on here. 

Absolutely! The thing is I wouldn't know Keith Dawe if I bumped into him.

Maybe they keep him in the dungeon under the ground:laugh:

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