Bristol R*vers dustbin thread

[ExiledAjax]

10 minutes ago, City oz said:

"we do not need to win today" Hmmmmm

What would change if we lose or draw today?

[GrahamC]

It is well written (you’d expect nothing less with Winter) & Barton tries to make a case for his behaviour (he’s had plenty of practice) but it’s weird he comes from a “broken home” but that it was his Dad coming round when he had suicidal thoughts..

The stuff with Wael & Gorringe is nauseating shit, anyone who thinks South Bristol isn’t the working class part of the city isn’t from here (neither of them are).

The people’s club, family club, huge away support stuff is their myth they love to cling to.

Barton isn’t so “working class” that he won’t employ extortionately paid lawyers to keep him out of jail, either.

No mention here either of a Chief Scout once charged with the murder of a policeman or an assistant manager currently charged with making homophobic comments to the opposition & with a previous offence of betting on matches he played in.

Proper “family club” behaviour.

Edited January 14, 2023 by GrahamC

[Vespa Red]

Couple of things that shine out of that interview and the subsequent comments:

1) Barton was embarrassed by the domestic abuse allegation, not ashamed and he shaded over the crux of what happened.  The fact that his wife was scared enough to ring the police should have made a man as "reflective" (as Barton claims to be) to consider the impact his actions had.  But, due to his ego, he still cannot admit this.

2) the whole left wing/right wing argument.  I guess that's a helpful narrative in todays climate (depending on your audience) but I remember Bulldog (NF paper) being openly sold outside the Tote End back in the early 80s.  There's also the middle class embracing of football which has attracted a wide audience in North Bristol where the middle class demographic is bigger than in South.  Fits the post -Brexit broad brush (lazy) explanation of modern politics ("working class people from South of the River voted leave, Bishopston voted remain.  More chablis Jacintha?")

 

[Olé]

59 minutes ago, firstdivision said:

“If you look at the city, we are the people’s club of Bristol

Might need to notify the people about this because more than twice as many of them keep accidentally going to Bristol City games

[firstdivision]

30 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

To be fair, and as expected from Henry Winter, it’s a really good piece. Yes, Barton comes across as an idiot at times but also a self aware idiot, and Winters clearly highlighted his bad side as opposed to being a puff piece.

I think reducing the piece to a couple of rubbish quotes probably isn’t the call here. It’s good writing and well worth reading.

Well, a couple of things, Silvio. How about, 'thank you for taking the time to post the whole article so I can read it and make up my own mind about what's in it', which you've been able to do. I also invited readers to look at JB's comments and make their own mind up.

I highlighted those comments from the Gas 'top brass' because a few words can say a lot about an organisation's mindset (for me, a bizarre take on how they see themselves vis-a-vis us). It's called the power of words. It's why ads don't last for an hour. And that's why HW chose to include them. Do you think they were the only things they said to him. Of course not. They stood out to him as well. As they stood out to me. 

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by firstdivision
typo

[City oz]

5 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

What would change if we lose or draw today?

Possibly dropping into the bottom 3 is something beyond belief. Bottom 3 positions are hard to get out of. City supporters that turn up week in and week out at BS3 and the ones that continually travel away deserve more than a team in the bottom 3.

It will always be a COYRedssssss from me and I will be listening in from OZ tonight at 10.00pm for kick off.

[GrahamC]

1 minute ago, Olé said:

Might need to notify the people about this because more than twice as many of them keep accidentally going to Bristol City games

But not the right “type” of people, Rob.

Clearly our ground is full of middle class non Bristolians who are glory hunters.

Hardly any of our support is apparently from the poorest part of Bristol (South Bristol) & does working class jobs like roofers, plasterers, we are just surrounded by Pinot Grigio drinking Guardian types.

The Three Lions & The Miners Arms is absolutely rammed with them on match day.

[ExiledAjax]

1 minute ago, City oz said:

Possibly dropping into the bottom 3 is something beyond belief.

Very unlikely to happen today, regardless of results.

1 minute ago, City oz said:

Bottom 3 positions are hard to get out of.

Therefore they are also hard to drop into. For us to drop into the bottom 3 one of the current bottom 3 must get out of it. If you worry that once in the bottom 3, we would be unable to get out, then logically you should be equally unconcerned that we will drop into it.

[steviestevieneville]

9 hours ago, london_Cider_red said:

First time posting a city piece, normally just do it as a hobby and delete it. Thanks so much if you read and hope you guys enjoy it or it at least starts a good debate!

Feedback is welcome  

 

No wins in five or unbeaten in three? The reign of Pearson shows there is spin to everything. His hands have been tied financially, he knew this going in. The squad to work with was known and has been changed over three windows. With two years under his belt has Pearson given city any reason to believe better times are ahead?

It looks increasingly likely the upcoming second anniversary celebrations for Nigel will be in the shadows of the black cloud above his head. His tenure of City has been rocky from the get go. Fans generally afforded him the first six months due to inheriting an expensive and dreadfully underperforming squad. Happy with staying up the previous go round, minds focused nervously forward and a feel of optimism began to grow for the 21/22 season.

Now midway through the 22/23 season, one and a half years  into Pearson’s 5 year plan, city are sitting in the same position,19^th, as after Pearson’s first six months in charge. With a relegation fight looming it is hard to find many areas of improvement since he first took the helm. A case can be made for the football being better, it would have been a challenge to get worse. The few bright sparks over Pearson’s tenure are no doubt the emergence of youth breaking down the first team door. Conway, Semenyo and ‘star boy’ Scott have given City fans joy the past two years and earned Pearson commendation for showing faith in them. An argument can be made that he didn’t have much choice in the matter however, they have repaid the trust tenfold.

A second area of improvement, a mixture of on and off field effects, is the shedding of the wage bill and along with it players considered dead wood. How much praise can be heaped on Pearson for this is debatable, it was well-known before Pearson took charge the wage bill was too high and players would need to leave or sign drastically reduced wages. An argument can be made the financial side has largely been down to the level headed stewardship of Gould (congratulations are in order sir) with Pearson left to determine and inform the board of who he does and does not want in the squad.

The previous point leads us to another question, Persons roll within the club. He has made it very clear he is not a coach, stating multiple times that he does not get to involved with the training side, as shown by the near army of coaching staff he has brought on board. So what does he do? Pearson is open about not being involved in coaching and being as limited as possible in transfers and negotiations. His track record of being more than willing to throw players under the bus and making fallings out obvious to even the most oblivious suggests he is not a fan of man management either, often forcing him to play players out of position. This leads us to believe tactically (you would hope this would be true at least), he has final say however, in loosing situations the lack of a credible plan B has often frustrated fans. Long balls upfront are often the preferred method of attack, despite not having a target man or even a striker over 6 foot on the pitch. Formation changes tend to happen as much as a unicorn sighting, one such sighting in the last game against Swansea worked beautifully and many are hoping to see this more often… time will tell. Ultimately city’s tactics seem very ridged and predictable, two things you can get away with if you are winning games but to sit 19^th doesn’t cover them in glory… sorry Nige.

Bringing in 9 players so far Persons transfer activity has caused debate. Some say he has done the best with what he has and others question the money spent on wages. Bringing in Simpson and now Klose and Martins contract extensions, to sit and watch the matches from home surely isn’t the best use of strapped funds. Of all of his business only James and Atkinson play regular first team football, with Naismith regularly injured and tanner on the fringes of the first team. Injuries and player fallings out has further caused debate about lack of willingness to dip into the loan market. It is generally accepted city are unlikely to be able to afford anyone better than we have, but with mounting injuries, likely January exits and players being used as speed bumps for Pearson’s bus, loans would seem like a logical solution to a temporary problem. Taking the impeccable job Tinnion has done for city, working with the equivalent of pennies in football terms, imagine what he could find in premiership academies. Alas it seems this will not come to fruition as the word of Pearson is still firmly in the no loans box. This ideology made sense at the start of the season with a fully fit squad and nearly every place in the team being fought for but the decision to stick with it in the current situation screams of stubbornness more than sense.

It seems a point aggravating city fans the most, this is definitely mine, is the lack of accountability shown. Pre and Post-match press conferences have become almost predictable. Players not performing? I’m not in charge of training them. Players not on the pitch or even in the team? They need to work harder. Players playing out of position? I have to work with what I’ve got. Lack of fight shown on the pitch and players looking defeated? The mentality hasn’t changed since I got here. Poor performances and falling down the table? We are where we are. All said with a wry chuckle and almost half a smile on his face,  nothing, it seems, is ever down to Pearson. This brings us to the question if none of this is down to Pearson what is he actually doing?

All in all there is little evidence of the improvement needed, less belief every game of city being a promotion contender or even just a solid mid table team in the near future. In fact with the recent run of form many fans have both eyes firmly fixed over their shoulders, preparing for an ugly fight to the end of the season.

 

         

Stopped reading after he’s not a man manager 

[Silvio Dante]

16 minutes ago, firstdivision said:

Well, a couple of things, Silvio. How about, 'thank you for taking the time to post the whole article so I can read it and make up my own mind about what's in it', which you've been able to do. I also invited readers to look at JB's comments and make their own mind up.

I highlighted those comments from the Gas 'top brass' because a few words can say a lot about an organisation's mindset (for me, a bizarre take on how they see themselves vis-a-vis us). It's called the power of words. It's why ads don't last for an hour. And that's why HW chose to include them. Do you think they were the only things they said to him. Of course not. They stood out to him as well. As they stood out to me. 

 

Jesus mate calm down. If you’d notice I’d actually “thanked” you via the reaction for posting the full article about an hour ago. But if it’s that important to you thank you thank you thank you.

it’s clearly not just Joey who’s a touch insecure.

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

What would change if we lose or draw today?

It would be 1 win in 13 for a start; of course relegation wont be decided today or for a long time yet but we are going to need a win soon and today at home would be good a time as any as we face 3rd placed Blackburn next Sat.

 

 

[Bristol Rob]

1 hour ago, ExiledAjax said:

 

This Boca Juniors comment reminded me of this, as my understanding of Buenos Aires is that Boca are the left-wing, working class club and River Plate are the wealthier, generally more conservative, right-wing club. Or at least that's the perception. Therefore if the Gas are Boca, are we not River Plate?

South Of The River Plate.

[Top Robin]

9 hours ago, london_Cider_red said:

First time posting a city piece, normally just do it as a hobby and delete it. Thanks so much if you read and hope you guys enjoy it or it at least starts a good debate!

Feedback is welcome  

 

No wins in five or unbeaten in three? The reign of Pearson shows there is spin to everything. His hands have been tied financially, he knew this going in. The squad to work with was known and has been changed over three windows. With two years under his belt has Pearson given city any reason to believe better times are ahead?

It looks increasingly likely the upcoming second anniversary celebrations for Nigel will be in the shadows of the black cloud above his head. His tenure of City has been rocky from the get go. Fans generally afforded him the first six months due to inheriting an expensive and dreadfully underperforming squad. Happy with staying up the previous go round, minds focused nervously forward and a feel of optimism began to grow for the 21/22 season.

Now midway through the 22/23 season, one and a half years  into Pearson’s 5 year plan, city are sitting in the same position,19^th, as after Pearson’s first six months in charge. With a relegation fight looming it is hard to find many areas of improvement since he first took the helm. A case can be made for the football being better, it would have been a challenge to get worse. The few bright sparks over Pearson’s tenure are no doubt the emergence of youth breaking down the first team door. Conway, Semenyo and ‘star boy’ Scott have given City fans joy the past two years and earned Pearson commendation for showing faith in them. An argument can be made that he didn’t have much choice in the matter however, they have repaid the trust tenfold.

A second area of improvement, a mixture of on and off field effects, is the shedding of the wage bill and along with it players considered dead wood. How much praise can be heaped on Pearson for this is debatable, it was well-known before Pearson took charge the wage bill was too high and players would need to leave or sign drastically reduced wages. An argument can be made the financial side has largely been down to the level headed stewardship of Gould (congratulations are in order sir) with Pearson left to determine and inform the board of who he does and does not want in the squad.

The previous point leads us to another question, Persons roll within the club. He has made it very clear he is not a coach, stating multiple times that he does not get to involved with the training side, as shown by the near army of coaching staff he has brought on board. So what does he do? Pearson is open about not being involved in coaching and being as limited as possible in transfers and negotiations. His track record of being more than willing to throw players under the bus and making fallings out obvious to even the most oblivious suggests he is not a fan of man management either, often forcing him to play players out of position. This leads us to believe tactically (you would hope this would be true at least), he has final say however, in loosing situations the lack of a credible plan B has often frustrated fans. Long balls upfront are often the preferred method of attack, despite not having a target man or even a striker over 6 foot on the pitch. Formation changes tend to happen as much as a unicorn sighting, one such sighting in the last game against Swansea worked beautifully and many are hoping to see this more often… time will tell. Ultimately city’s tactics seem very ridged and predictable, two things you can get away with if you are winning games but to sit 19^th doesn’t cover them in glory… sorry Nige.

Bringing in 9 players so far Persons transfer activity has caused debate. Some say he has done the best with what he has and others question the money spent on wages. Bringing in Simpson and now Klose and Martins contract extensions, to sit and watch the matches from home surely isn’t the best use of strapped funds. Of all of his business only James and Atkinson play regular first team football, with Naismith regularly injured and tanner on the fringes of the first team. Injuries and player fallings out has further caused debate about lack of willingness to dip into the loan market. It is generally accepted city are unlikely to be able to afford anyone better than we have, but with mounting injuries, likely January exits and players being used as speed bumps for Pearson’s bus, loans would seem like a logical solution to a temporary problem. Taking the impeccable job Tinnion has done for city, working with the equivalent of pennies in football terms, imagine what he could find in premiership academies. Alas it seems this will not come to fruition as the word of Pearson is still firmly in the no loans box. This ideology made sense at the start of the season with a fully fit squad and nearly every place in the team being fought for but the decision to stick with it in the current situation screams of stubbornness more than sense.

It seems a point aggravating city fans the most, this is definitely mine, is the lack of accountability shown. Pre and Post-match press conferences have become almost predictable. Players not performing? I’m not in charge of training them. Players not on the pitch or even in the team? They need to work harder. Players playing out of position? I have to work with what I’ve got. Lack of fight shown on the pitch and players looking defeated? The mentality hasn’t changed since I got here. Poor performances and falling down the table? We are where we are. All said with a wry chuckle and almost half a smile on his face,  nothing, it seems, is ever down to Pearson. This brings us to the question if none of this is down to Pearson what is he actually doing?

All in all there is little evidence of the improvement needed, less belief every game of city being a promotion contender or even just a solid mid table team in the near future. In fact with the recent run of form many fans have both eyes firmly fixed over their shoulders, preparing for an ugly fight to the end of the season.

 

         

A very accurate summary of Pearson's tenure with us so far.

[ExiledAjax]

1 minute ago, gl2 said:

It would be 1 win in 13 for a start; of course relegation wont be decided today or for a long time yet but we are going to need a win soon and today at home would be good a time as any as we face 3rd placed Blackburn next Sat.

Completely agree. But all of this (bar it currently being 1 win in 12) is as true now as it will be at 5pm if we don't win.

I agree we need a win at some point (we probably need 6 in these last 20 games), but we don't necessarily need one today.

[Port Said Red]

I think the stuff about depression goes some way to explain some of Barton's more bizarre comments after games. He can't bring himself to admit it when they are beaten by better teams, or especially if they are tactically inferior, he has to maintain the idea that he is the best there is at his job.

[sticks 1969]

Mind the gap

[italian dave]

38 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

What would change if we lose or draw today?

Our proximity to the bottom three.

The number of points we’ll need from remaining games to stay up.

Confidence levels.

Home form is back to being the real monkey on our back that it was a couple of years ago.

There’s four! 

Don’t get me wrong, I get what you’re saying - and of course we won’t ‘need’ points from any individual game until next April.

But it’s still a massive game for us: it will answer the “glass half full/empty” question that @london_Cider_red poses around no wins in five or unbeaten in three. It’s against a team struggling like us. And it’s potentially the easier of two successive home games that we really do need something from. 

[Port Said Red]

Sorry,am I missing something? Why has the last two pages been added to the Bristol Rovers thread?

[City Rocker]

42 minutes ago, Vespa Red said:

2) the whole left wing/right wing argument.  I guess that's a helpful narrative in todays climate (depending on your audience) but I remember Bulldog (NF paper) being openly sold outside the Tote End back in the early 80s.  

 

Indeed. Meanwhile the Socialist Worker was on sale at City games, and the East End regularly did the "Maggie Out!" chant. 

Perhaps this needs pointing out to the misguided Manc fella!

[Lanterne Rouge]

3 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

Sorry,am I missing something? Why has the last two pages been added to the Bristol Rovers thread?

Puzzled me too.

[italian dave]

23 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

Stopped reading after he’s not a man manager 

A shame, because you missed half of an interesting and challenging piece. You may not agree with it, I don’t agree with it all, some of it puts two sides of the same story, but that’s what discussion is about.

Plus….that’s not actually what s/he said anyway. 

[Lanterne Rouge]

7 minutes ago, sticks 1969 said:

Mind the gap

Ah. The mythical `packed out Eastville`.

[cidered abroad]

7 minutes ago, sticks 1969 said:

Mind the gap

Where are the thousands who follow them?

Perhaps it was a Football Combination game (Reserves)

[italian dave]

7 minutes ago, City Rocker said:

Indeed. Meanwhile the Socialist Worker was on sale at City games, and the East End regularly did the "Maggie Out!" chant. 

Perhaps this needs pointing out to the misguided Manc fella!

And always supportive of the miners, with that “Cole not Gas” chant. 

[The Gasbuster]

13 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

Sorry,am I missing something? Why has the last two pages been added to the Bristol Rovers thread?

Yep, no mention of the assheads for 2 pages.

W.T.F. ?

[pongo88]

 Smell-O-Vision was a system that released odor during the projection of a film so that the audience could "smell" what was happening during the film. If only we could have it with this picture to get the awful pong of the gas works drifting across the ground. 

[Port Said Red]

29 minutes ago, sticks 1969 said:

Mind the gap

I was actually thinking I could have taken a similar picture from the back of the old Open End in the 80's.

[Port Said Red]

14 minutes ago, The Gasbuster said:

Yep, no mention of the assheads for 2 pages.

W.T.F. ?

Perhaps the @Moderators could work their magic and give @london_Cider_redhis own thread?

[ExiledAjax]

37 minutes ago, italian dave said:

Our proximity to the bottom three.

Correct. Depending on other results. If we draw and the bottom three lose then we will actually be 4 points clear rather than 3.

The number of points we’ll need from remaining games to stay up.

True, but again the extent to which this is true depends on other results as well.

Confidence levels.

An intangible thing that may or may not change.

Home form is back to being the real monkey on our back that it was a couple of years ago.

If we allow it to.

There’s four! 

Don’t get me wrong, I get what you’re saying - and of course we won’t ‘need’ points from any individual game until next April.

But it’s still a massive game for us: it will answer the “glass half full/empty” question that @london_Cider_red poses around no wins in five or unbeaten in three. It’s against a team struggling like us. And it’s potentially the easier of two successive home games that we really do need something from. 

Blackburn have lost almost as many as they have won. Away from home they've won 5 and lost 8. It's a game where we could very much get points.

Answers above. I'm glass half full.

Edited January 14, 2023 by ExiledAjax

[Somerset_redss]

5 generations of families eh?

 

Well, my old man, said "be a Rovers fan"....I disagreed and called him some rude words

Edited January 14, 2023 by Somerset_redss
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