The emperor is naked

[BigAl&Toby]

Who takes responsibility for yet another inept performance? The man who takes the plaudits and now seems to be the darling of R4 when they want an interview about rugby administration.

Mr L - the man at the top who has seemingly surrounded himself with clones in his very own image - is naked. Like the Emperor he’s not wearing Armani. Not even Marks and ******* Sparks..... he’s naked.

No shots on target for weeks. No fight for weeks. No entertainment for weeks. No idea for weeks. And weeks and ******* weeks......

The last time I felt any real excitement through watching BCFC? Behind the goal watching Korey get the winner and then Bobby scoring from the spot.

Seems like a lifetime ago now and at this moment in time unlikely to be repeated. Where are the likes of “the few” who gave us those thrills? Who have we got now who can do the same?

Meanwhile the Emperor offers us further developments to Planet Lansdown. A lovely basketball court. A superb Expo facility. And an even better retail experience.

That’ll pack them in. Never mind the football is shit. At least we can sit in comfort with a nice pizza in our bellies......

Who remembers another self made man at the top who seemingly had everything? Well polished and well turned out? A retail magnate with a yacht offshore. A real Topman.

Another darling who so many thought so highly of. And yet now it’s all over. For so many. Apart of course from he with the slicked back hair who’s enjoying life on his very own poop deck.

At what point does Mr L develop and show a harder streak? At what point does he ask Mr Ashton WTF he’s doing to earn his far from insubstantial crust. Can Mr Ashton come to my office? There’s a ******* emergency starting to unravel in the ground......

At what point does he say that hiring head coaches who aren’t good enough or are part of the previous problem - Dean and Brian eat al - isn’t the right thing to do?

My guess is he won’t. The Emperor is naked. Stark bollock naked. And as long as the BS3 cash cow can be further developed and his investment portfolio can be diversified and derisked this shambles will continue.

Merry Christmas everyone.....

[Numero Uno]

Forget slagging off Dean. He’s doing his best in difficult circumstances tbh albeit the last two games have been total shite, no hiding behind that.

My question is this.......why has the person who basically owns the toy that is Bristol City FC and says he wants Premiership football never, apart from 60 odd days of Steve Coppell, appointed a Manager with a proven track record of getting teams to the Premiership?

To me that where most of the problem lies if you are criticising Bristol City and it’s staff for both long term and recent performance.

[Bassomylord]

13 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Forget slagging off Dean. He’s doing his best in difficult circumstances tbh albeit the last two games have been total shite, no hiding behind that.

My question is this.......why has the person who basically owns the toy that is Bristol City FC and says he wants Premiership football never, apart from 60 odd days of Steve Coppell, appointed a Manager with a proven track record of getting teams to the Premiership?

To me that where most of the problem lies if you are criticising Bristol City and it’s staff for both long term and recent performance.

Yep. Holden has done ok considering the lack of players.....but we have been in a flawed position and won games we frankly shouldn't have.

Coventry Forest Huddersfield we were dire for large chunks and somehow managed to sneak wins....but we are firmly a mid table side.

 

[Major Isewater]

14 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Forget slagging off Dean. He’s doing his best in difficult circumstances tbh albeit the last two games have been total shite, no hiding behind that.

My question is this.......why has the person who basically owns the toy that is Bristol City FC and says he wants Premiership football never, apart from 60 odd days of Steve Coppell, appointed a Manager with a proven track record of getting teams to the Premiership?

To me that where most of the problem lies if you are criticising Bristol City and it’s staff for both long term and recent performance.

I think we could have Gardiola, Mourinho or any world class manager at the helm but with our injuries even they couldn’t fashion winners out of kids, old blokes and the walking dead.

The kids make up for their inexperience with energy and naivety.

The old pros make up for lack of energy with nous .

The lads who are in their prime have all the qualities however the squad is running on empty.

It is the lack of depth of quality replacements which is doing us now. 

It will be interesting to see if Uncle Steve sanctions one or two quality signings in January.

 We also need to examine why we have so many injuries, it can’t all be down to overplaying.

Dean Holden is doing a good job under very trying conditions. I back him but results talk. He must grind out some wins and soon.

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

19 minutes ago, Bassomylord said:

Yep. Holden has done ok considering the lack of players.....but we have been in a flawed position and won games we frankly shouldn't have.

Coventry Forest Huddersfield we were dire for large chunks and somehow managed to sneak wins....but we are firmly a mid table side.

 

Tbh we outshot Huddersfield, QPR in some respects was perhaps one in which we made our few chances go a long way imo. Semenyo was very bright or had a very bright spell v Huddersfield from memory, we need a bit of that spark back.

We look like we're drifting towards midtable side though, for sure yeah.

[Mr Popodopolous]

16 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

I think we could have Gardiola, Mourinho or any world class manager at the helm but with our injuries even they couldn’t fashion winners out of kids, old blokes and the walking dead.

The kids make up for their inexperience with energy and naivety.

The old pros make up for lack of energy with nous .

The lads who are in their prime have all the qualities however the squad is running on empty.

It is the lack of depth of quality replacements which is doing us now. 

It will be interesting to see if Uncle Steve sanctions one or two quality signings in January.

 We also need to examine why we have so many injuries, it can’t all be down to overplaying.

Dean Holden is doing a good job under very trying conditions. I back him but results talk. He must grind out some wins and soon.

 

We had 4 players with an average age of 32 tonight.

Mariappa, Rowe, Wells and Martin. 34, 32, 30 and 32 respectively.

Problem is, two strikers 30 and above, a CB 34 vs a side who will sit in and a 32 year old wing back..the dynamism in key positions is not there!

You need at least one, maybe two true ball carriers in a back 3, and wingbacks need to be really dynamic.

However I do think we're running on empty atm, agreed.

[Oh Louie louie]

The pizzas not bad to be fair.

[archie andrews]

4 minutes ago, Oh Louie louie said:

The pizzas not bad to be fair.

Can i have a clarks pie please.... 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, BigAl&Toby said:

Who takes responsibility for yet another inept performance? The man who takes the plaudits and now seems to be the darling of R4 when they want an interview about rugby administration.

Mr L - the man at the top who has seemingly surrounded himself with clones in his very own image - is naked. Like the Emperor he’s not wearing Armani. Not even Marks and ******* Sparks..... he’s naked.

No shots on target for weeks. No fight for weeks. No entertainment for weeks. No idea for weeks. And weeks and ******* weeks......

The last time I felt any real excitement through watching BCFC? Behind the goal watching Korey get the winner and then Bobby scoring from the spot.

Seems like a lifetime ago now and at this moment in time unlikely to be repeated. Where are the likes of “the few” who gave us those thrills? Who have we got now who can do the same?

Meanwhile the Emperor offers us further developments to Planet Lansdown. A lovely basketball court. A superb Expo facility. And an even better retail experience.

That’ll pack them in. Never mind the football is shit. At least we can sit in comfort with a nice pizza in our bellies......

Who remembers another self made man at the top who seemingly had everything? Well polished and well turned out? A retail magnate with a yacht offshore. A real Topman.

Another darling who so many thought so highly of. And yet now it’s all over. For so many. Apart of course from he with the slicked back hair who’s enjoying life on his very own poop deck.

At what point does Mr L develop and show a harder streak? At what point does he ask Mr Ashton WTF he’s doing to earn his far from insubstantial crust. Can Mr Ashton come to my office? There’s a ******* emergency starting to unravel in the ground......

At what point does he say that hiring head coaches who aren’t good enough or are part of the previous problem - Dean and Brian eat al - isn’t the right thing to do?

My guess is he won’t. The Emperor is naked. Stark bollock naked. And as long as the BS3 cash cow can be further developed and his investment portfolio can be diversified and derisked this shambles will continue.

Merry Christmas everyone.....

100% agree,  nothings going to change anytime soon, but stand by for a few promises at season ticket sell time.

[Oh Louie louie]

I wouldnt eat a clarks pie naked, but i think i could a pizza.

 

[Oh Louie louie]

Theres a bloke who used to go in the try again, and they used to have one of those hot pie things on the bar.

He introduced me to a clarkes pie sandwich, sounds basic to make i know, not as easy as you might think.

They key, is to microwave the pie, its more mushy then when baked, goes with the bread better.

[Marina's Rolls Royce]

This is the first Christmas that I'm thinking of having Rib of Beef instead of Turkey.

It's not guaranteed though because I love bread Source and those little crispy pigs in blankets which doesn't really go with beef.

I might even go for roast goose but they're jolly expensive and not much meat.

[Marina's Rolls Royce]

BREAD S-A-U-C-E

why can't we ever say S-A-U-C-E  - is OTIB the Source of this silly anomaly? 

[ashton_fan]

The problem is not the managers/coaches, it's that whenever we have top players in the squad they have to be sold for us to balance the books which leaves us with a large squad of average Championship players who are expected to challenge for promotion when in reality they are a mid-table side. I think losing Brownhill was the last straw, it certainly did for LJ. It is clear now that he was a lower-Prem player (as was Adam Webster) and I remember LJ saying the top sides had 3 or 4 of those in their squad, we've got none now. How many of our players would get into one of the top Championship sides (eg Bournemouth, Norwich) on a regular basis? I can only think of 2 or 3 Bentley, Kalas and possibly Baker although the last 2 are injury-prone. The vast majority eg O'Dowda, Pato, Diedhiou, Hunt etc are decent Championship players but not up to that level.

I understand why we have to sell our best players, in a way we are trapped by FFP and are always going to be struggling to beat the parachute teams. It's not impossible for us to go up, we nearly did it once with GJ and Sheffield Utd did it (although they've been found out this time) but it's a long-shot and to keep on changing the coaching staff will only make things worse.  

[steveybadger]

5 minutes ago, ashton_fan said:

The problem is not the managers/coaches, it's that whenever we have top players in the squad they have to be sold for us to balance the books which leaves us with a large squad of average Championship players who are expected to challenge for promotion when in reality they are a mid-table side. I think losing Brownhill was the last straw, it certainly did for LJ. It is clear now that he was a lower-Prem player (as was Adam Webster) and I remember LJ saying the top sides had 3 or 4 of those in their squad, we've got none now. How many of our players would get into one of the top Championship sides (eg Bournemouth, Norwich) on a regular basis? I can only think of 2 or 3 Bentley, Kalas and possibly Baker although the last 2 are injury-prone. The vast majority eg O'Dowda, Pato, Diedhiou, Hunt etc are decent Championship players but not up to that level.

I understand why we have to sell our best players, in a way we are trapped by FFP and are always going to be struggling to beat the parachute teams. It's not impossible for us to go up, we nearly did it once with GJ and Sheffield Utd did it (although they've been found out this time) but it's a long-shot and to keep on changing the coaching staff will only make things worse.  

The financial issue we have, in a nutshell.

[Robbored]

27 minutes ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

This is the first Christmas that I'm thinking of having Rib of Beef instead of Turkey.

It's not guaranteed though because I love bread Source and those little crispy pigs in blankets which doesn't really go with beef.

I might even go for roast goose but they're jolly expensive and not much meat.

And amazingly greasy. 

Years ago at work a relative of one of our patients brought in a prepared goose because it was our patients favourite Xmas bird. 

It only just fitted in the oven, took hours to cook and the baking tray it was in was full of goose fat.....When we all tucked in to Xmas dinner and goose fat dribbled down our chins..........

That was the las and only time I ever ate goose. I don’t recommend it.

[LoyalRed]

Bring back LJ please 

[The dastardly red]

10 minutes ago, Robbored said:

And amazingly greasy. 

Years ago at work a relative of one of our patients brought in a prepared goose because it was our patients favourite Xmas bird. 

It only just fitted in the oven, took hours to cook and the baking tray it was in was full of goose fat.....When we all tucked in to Xmas dinner and goose fat dribbled down our chins..........

That was the las and only time I ever ate goose. I don’t recommend it.

You're quite right, goose does give off a lot of fat/grease when cooked. It's a shame as it does taste very nice in my opinion but it's not pleasant dealing with all that grease. In the past I've wrapped the meat in kitchen roll once it's been sliced to absorb the fat. 

[Major Isewater]

1 hour ago, The dastardly red said:

You're quite right, goose does give off a lot of fat/grease when cooked. It's a shame as it does taste very nice in my opinion but it's not pleasant dealing with all that grease. In the past I've wrapped the meat in kitchen roll once it's been sliced to absorb the fat. 

You can’t beat a good goose.

 

[Marina's Rolls Royce]

1 hour ago, Robbored said:

And amazingly greasy. 

Years ago at work a relative of one of our patients brought in a prepared goose because it was our patients favourite Xmas bird. 

It only just fitted in the oven, took hours to cook and the baking tray it was in was full of goose fat.....When we all tucked in to Xmas dinner and goose fat dribbled down our chins..........

That was the las and only time I ever ate goose. I don’t recommend it.

Yes- good point. 

 

I think, on reflection, it's gotta be a Turkey with all the predictable trimmings - just like the OP  

[Sheltons Army]

2 hours ago, LoyalRed said:

Bring back LJ please 

They said a goose , not a turkey

[marmite]

4 hours ago, Major Isewater said:

I think we could have Gardiola, Mourinho or any world class manager at the helm but with our injuries even they couldn’t fashion winners out of kids, old blokes and the walking dead.

The kids make up for their inexperience with energy and naivety.

The old pros make up for lack of energy with nous .

The lads who are in their prime have all the qualities however the squad is running on empty.

It is the lack of depth of quality replacements which is doing us now. 

It will be interesting to see if Uncle Steve sanctions one or two quality signings in January.

 We also need to examine why we have so many injuries, it can’t all be down to overplaying.

Dean Holden is doing a good job under very trying conditions. I back him but results talk. He must grind out some wins and soon.

 

I can accept not winning Major but I cannot accept not trying. I don't accept the excuses that the team is tired or that we play every 3 days or that we have a lot of injuries. Every team in the league is going through what we are going through but few are as negative as us. All teams play twice a week and all teams have injuries. I hear excuses about players not being available but who on the injured list is going to come in and make us better? We sign good players and train instinctive play out of them. Wells is a good striker but he wont score many for us because of our dour style. All our players shirk responsability and play the safe backwards or sideways pass. We have all seen the ball go back to Bentley from OUR corners and free kicks. Its the style of play and lack of adventure that gets me down, and that can only come from the coaching and management. I think Gardiola or Mourinho or even Warnock could get more out of these players. Its the tactics and style that is wrong.

[1960maaan]

Injuries, obviously have a massive effect on the team/squad and how/what Holden wants to do.  That is true. What is also true, the players that have come in should be pulling up trees trying to make sure they stay in the team as & when other players get fit. When Chris Wilder was told his team put in a good shift, he said that is the bare minimum they should expect, not sure we saw that last night. Pulling out of challenges, leaving things to others and that's before you look at how poor the passing was, how badly we looked after the ball, how little we did for the man in possession. 
TBF I thought Millwall were decent, set up well, game plan was simple and they were organised. Let us pass along the back 4 as much as we wanted, but as soon as we moved over Hal way they cut off lines and closed us down, and they were stronger and won 95% of 50/50 and 2nd ball.
There is something wrong in the squad, possibly leadership , but we have experienced Pros, International players in the squad it really shouldn't be an issue.
Last night was as low as I've felt for some time, probably a relegation fight, but late on in one when you can see no light at the end of it.  All we can do is wait and hope players come back soon, thing is if all of them returned to training Jan 1 it would be another 2/3 weeks before any of them would be risked. We are Looking nearer Feb. So we will have enough time to make a challenge, IF (big if) we can stay in touch. There are some good players in the squad, Holden & Co need to quickly find a way to get a tune out of them before we fall too far behind.

[Mike Hunt-Hertz]

2 hours ago, Major Isewater said:

You can’t beat a good goose.

 

They don't give a gobble.

[REDOXO]

It was garbage all over the field. And I mean that in a once in a millennium kind of way. Unfortunately we had it twice in four days.

At Rotherham Edwards came on for about four minutes and was our best player.

at this point we have a treatment room full of players and A bare bones 11 that pretty much picks itself given the latest injury and a sending off  

If we are ever going to see how our kids are doing now is the time to chuck a couple in. 

 

[BigTone]

6 hours ago, Robbored said:

And amazingly greasy. 

Years ago at work a relative of one of our patients brought in a prepared goose because it was our patients favourite Xmas bird. 

It only just fitted in the oven, took hours to cook and the baking tray it was in was full of goose fat.....When we all tucked in to Xmas dinner and goose fat dribbled down our chins..........

That was the las and only time I ever ate goose. I don’t recommend it.

Me neither. Not a lover of Turkey either (except for a holiday) so I am creating beef wellingtons for dins with stir fried prawns as a starter.

[BigAl&Toby]

I didn’t mean this post to necessarily be all about recent performances. More about the one thing that to me has been a constant for an increasing number of alarming seasons.

Seasons that at times appear to promise so much but then fail to deliver.

We get titbits offered that include star signings. Or names who might manage or coach. Sometimes we get a brief glimpse of what might be. And then we come back to earth with a massive bump.

it’s not about injuries, signings or stats. It’s simply about that consistent constant. To me Mr L has too many plates to spin. I’d love to see him focus on one and plough everything into BCFC. 

Forget rugby. Forget basketball. Forget ******* powerboats. Forget pop concerts. Forget Expos. Put all your eggs in the BCFC basket and focus. Focus on one thing and do it well rather than mess and meddle with everything else.

Who knows? Perhaps Santa will be coming down Dean’s chimney with a sackful of players who can deliver and achieve.

One things for certain. What we currently have ain’t going to get us to the promised land. Ever. Stevie Wonder could see that. If Stevie L or his besuited goon can’t, or won’t, then I for one will continue to question what it really is that our “investor” truly wants. 

[cidered abroad]

8 hours ago, Bassomylord said:

Yep. Holden has done ok considering the lack of players.....but we have been in a flawed position and won games we frankly shouldn't have.

Coventry Forest Huddersfield we were dire for large chunks and somehow managed to sneak wins....but we are firmly a mid table side.

 

That good? I think not.

[Oh Louie louie]

Anybody, been in lou marcaris chip shop?

Made the parkway chippy, look like the ivy.

 

[RedRock]

We have an extremely average, and fortunately as its turned out, bloated squad.

I suspect the number of minutes played this season/in the last month of the players we had on the pitch last night compared to Millwall was lower. Of the two, we should have been the fresher. 

There is no excuse. They were all past/present first team squad players. A number are clearly not good enough. Some have not been good enough for seasons, others need to be loaned out to see if they can improve. 

I don’t blame Holden entirely for the car crash that was the last two performances. This has been building for many a season. Weak mentally and physically with a collection of individuals who see little future in their career  at Bristol City, either because they were sold a false vision or they realise they’re just not good enough.