General Zod Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 When asked about his young England team Gareth Southgate said “although our team will be better in two years with more life experience, maybe the cards on injuries and things won’t fall as kindly and we won’t get this opportunity again. This got me thinking about Bristol City’s calamitous end to the season and Mark Ashton’s much referred to comment of “we are not specifically targeting promotion this season” There seems to be a realisation with England that whilst presented earlier than planned, no matter how things end this is an unbelievable opportunity to make history. With Bristol City I don’t think our achievements in the first half of the season and the opportunity presented to us were acknowledged in the same way. This unbelievable opportunity to make our own history was too early in the ‘plan’. Personally I was left feeling the powers to be believe promotion opportunities will be a regular occurrence and we can pick the one that’s right for us. in life you play the hands your dealt when you get them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Musicworks Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 17 minutes ago, General Zod said: When asked about his young England team Gareth Southgate said “although our team will be better in two years with more life experience, maybe the cards on injuries and things won’t fall as kindly and we won’t get this opportunity again. This got me thinking about Bristol City’s calamitous end to the season and Mark Ashton’s much referred to comment of “we are not specifically targeting promotion this season” There seems to be a realisation with England that whilst presented earlier than planned, no matter how things end this is an unbelievable opportunity to make history. With Bristol City I don’t think our achievements in the first half of the season and the opportunity presented to us were acknowledged in the same way. This unbelievable opportunity to make our own history was too early in the ‘plan’. Personally I was left feeling the powers to be believe promotion opportunities will be a regular occurrence and we can pick the one that’s right for us. in life you play the hands your dealt when you get them. The cards that we were dealt included the most serious amount of injuries experienced in many years, and a successful but distracting and draining cup-run. I would imagine that our stats team were able to predict a tougher new year and the risk of pushing too hard without a considerably stronger and fitter squad. By Christmas it was catching up with us and the management undoubtedly knew that. Panic-buying overpriced and overpayed replacements in January may have helped but it was always likely that we would be unable to maintain the momentum we had earlier, especially with our high-pressing game. Teams that over-perform in the first half of the season tend to get found wanting over the whole season. As Swindon found out a few seasons ago nothing is won in November I don’t think a January quick-fix would have sorted it. Last season saw a progression but IMO the only opportunity missed was to do a Villa and mess up the next few years. Our recruiting in January was poor but we were basically just not strong enough without a major overhaul to compete consistently at the top end of the division. Hopefully this season we will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobBobSuperBob Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 Chatting to my neighbour last night (Mid 20s and big football fan) who was saying that we are building a good side and have a good chance in 4 yrs time As I said to him , I stood in Turin thinking ‘Oh well , we will be back in 4yrs’ Had to actually wait 28 years so B********X to what we might or might not do in 4 years - We will probably never have a better chance Take it Grab it Go for it NOW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marina's Rolls Royce Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 Any similarities between last season for BCFC and the current England team about to play a world cup semi final are entirely coincidental Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gasbuster Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 19 minutes ago, BobBobSuperBob said: Chatting to my neighbour last night (Mid 20s and big football fan) who was saying that we are building a good side and have a good chance in 4 yrs time As I said to him , I stood in Turin thinking ‘Oh well , we will be back in 4yrs’ Had to actually wait 28 years so B********X to what we might or might not do in 4 years - We will probably never have a better chance Take it Grab it Go for it NOW With you on this one, Bob. The result of course was that we didn't even qualify for the tournament four years later ! (1994) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chappers Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 A tournament of 7 games in a month v a season of 46 plus cup games. Totally different scenarios Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobBobSuperBob Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 Just now, The Gasbuster said: With you on this one, Bob. The result of course was that we didn't even qualify for the tournament four years later ! (1994) Great point Says it all When the door opens - March through it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS4 on Tour... Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 1 hour ago, Johnny Musicworks said: The cards that we were dealt included the most serious amount of injuries experienced in many years, and a successful but distracting and draining cup-run.... You make some good points but I’ve never got this ‘draining cup-run’ thing to which many have alluded...... we had ONE cup game throughout the whole of November & December combined - one cup game in eight weeks...not too draining... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downendcity Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 17 minutes ago, The Gasbuster said: With you on this one, Bob. The result of course was that we didn't even qualify for the tournament four years later ! (1994) ..because we got rid of the manager ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobBobSuperBob Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 Follow your spirit, and upon this charge Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeAman08 Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 5 minutes ago, BS4 on Tour... said: You make some good points but I’ve never got this ‘draining cup-run’ thing to which many have alluded...... we had ONE cup game throughout the whole of November & December combined - one cup game in eight weeks...not too draining... December and January are busy months though and we added 3 very physically draining midweek fixtures to them. That is where the injuries played a massive part imo. When fit we had limited options to work with. Yes we could have played more youth along the way but hard to fault it as we were playing so well even into January if you count the cup games. There was reason to believe even into February we could/would make the playoff. Anyway, I think those fixtures really killed us off a bit. Physically and mentally draining just to play at that level. Not to mention we had a lot of high profile league fixtures in those months too. 14 fixtures in two months with Boro, Sheff U, Villa, Boro and Derby all top half clubs with 4 prem teams in there too in the cups. 9/14 tough matches. In the other 5 we took 10 of 15 points. There is an element of take advantage of chances when they come but those 2 months were as testing as they can get and scraped through but just didn’t have enough left for the last 4 months. Transfers didn’t help for sure but hopefully we have learned from that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Zod Posted July 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 2 hours ago, Johnny Musicworks said: The cards that we were dealt included the most serious amount of injuries experienced in many years, and a successful but distracting and draining cup-run. I would imagine that our stats team were able to predict a tougher new year and the risk of pushing too hard without a considerably stronger and fitter squad I still say promotion opportunity doesn’t present itself too often. We all knew about the injuries and the cup run but failed to do anything about it. For me there was no acknowledgement of what a great position we found ourselves in, a desire to capitalise on it from those holding the purse strings and a nod that sometimes it’s worth a slight deviation from a ‘plan’. Who knows where Bristol City will be in two years, how strong and injury free the squad will be and who knows how strong the Championship will get. We were comfortably in the playoffs and to quote Southgate, maybe “the cards won’t fall as kindly and we won’t get the opportunity again” - at least for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleepy1968 Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 1 hour ago, BobBobSuperBob said: Great point Says it all When the door opens - March through it Unless it's below you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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