Bristol City - Dark Horses?

[Davefevs]

Decent article imho

[brad blit]

I literally looked on Paddy Power earlier to assess our odds, currently 40/1 to win league so you'd be looking at 10s for Top 3 - wouldnt mind looking at odds for promotion

[RedRoss]

7 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Decent article imho

Enjoyed that.. its rare for an article to be written for us that actually understands our recent history.

[Red Army 75]

If Luton can get promoted. Then why not

[elhombrecito]

10 minutes ago, brad blit said:

I literally looked on Paddy Power earlier to assess our odds, currently 40/1 to win league so you'd be looking at 10s for Top 3 - wouldnt mind looking at odds for promotion

[Roe]

Obviously we've no devine right to be challenging any more than any other team in the league but we should certainly be aiming to do so. 

The last couple of seasons have been spent, necessarily, clearing the slate and has seen us essentially give away two players to Coventry and take two of the supposedly better players from Luton.

Anything other than at least top half next season would be hugely disappointing. Personally I think top 8 is the minimum we should be looking at

[pillred]

7 minutes ago, Red Army 75 said:

If Luton can get promoted. Then why not

There have been too many "Lutons" in recent years passing us by, I don't think anyone could describe a city supporter as a glory hunter do you :laugh:?

[Mr Hankey]

I know it's very early days in the window  & a lot can happen ect ect..........but looking at that list of 24 teams, it really doesn't strike me as being a high quality league this season, seems very open & all teams relatively evenly matched.

[ExiledAjax]

Aren't we always cited as dark horses? Feels like an easy label to stick on us without it necessarily needing to be true.

[Simon bristol]

If scott stays and conway stays fit all season (he would be looking at 20 goals) we might be in and around 10th to 6th place. If scott goes i dont see any reason to think we are likely to finish 10 places higher next season? Depends who we can get in though!

[Pezo]

18 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Aren't we always cited as dark horses? Feels like an easy label to stick on us without it necessarily needing to be true.

Without looking I would assume there is a similar article about Millwall.

[bcfc01]

4 minutes ago, Pezo said:

Without looking I would assume there is a similar article about Millwall.

And a dozen others could fall into the same bracket

Edited June 6, 2023 by bcfc01

[77 punk]

i put a bet on last night for city to get promoted, i got 14/1 and put on £20 the first time  i have done this. 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, ExiledAjax said:

Aren't we always cited as dark horses? Feels like an easy label to stick on us without it necessarily needing to be true.

The article reads as if the author has put a bit more thought into it than that!

[Steve Watts]

21 minutes ago, 77 punk said:

i put a bet on last night for city to get promoted, i got 14/1 and put on £20 the first time  i have done this. 

£20 at 14/1?  If my maths is right then that means that come May you'll be down £20!

[Curr Avon]

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Decent article imho

I don't care where we finish next season, as long as it's in the top 6.

[ExiledAjax]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

The article reads as if the author has put a bit more thought into it than that!

Do you reckon?I I'll grant you it's a good summary for anyone not severely au fait with our recent seasons, but I dunno that there was much new in there if you've been following us closely.

You know that I think we've been on an upward trajectory over the past two and a bit seasons, but you also know I think we plateaued a bit last term. I hope we continue to improve but personally I doubt we will be the Luton or Coventry of next season.

"Let Bristol City cook and we might have an early dark horse in next season’s promotion picture." isn't quite a resounding endorsement either. It's more of a fence-sitter where we might equally be a very pale donkey.

Edited June 6, 2023 by ExiledAjax

[Rocking Red Cyril]

Still very still dependant on incoming signings and leavings.

[roddy-d]

4 hours ago, 77 punk said:

i put a bet on last night for city to get promoted, i got 14/1 and put on £20 the first time  i have done this. 

Did the same went with the 40-1 E/W sky bet. 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, ExiledAjax said:

Do you reckon?I I'll grant you it's a good summary for anyone not severely au fait with our recent seasons, but I dunno that there was much new in there if you've been following us closely.

You know that I think we've been on an upward trajectory over the past two and a bit seasons, but you also know I think we plateaued a bit last term. I hope we continue to improve but personally I doubt we will be the Luton or Coventry of next season.

"Let Bristol City cook and we might have an early dark horse in next season’s promotion picture." isn't quite a resounding endorsement either. It's more of a fence-sitter where we might equally be a very pale donkey.

For me, my opinion only, squad depth overcomes the plateau.

(still gonna be a competitive division all things being equal - assume PP clubs aren’t basket cases)

[Wanderingred]

For the first time in a few years, I’m confident we won’t struggle. That’s about as optimistic I can be at the moment until the transfer window shuts. It’s not only about our business, but also our competitors. We’re up against some genuinely huge clubs with massive budgets. If we’re going to compete with them, it’s going to need the sort of shrewd recruitment and management that the likes of Luton and Coventry have displayed. As these teams have shown, it’s definitely possible!

Edited June 6, 2023 by Wanderingred

[W-S-M Seagull]

18 minutes ago, Wanderingred said:

For the first time in a few years, I’m confident we won’t struggle. That’s about as optimistic I can be at the moment until the transfer window shuts. It’s not only about our business, but also our competitors. We’re up against some genuinely huge clubs with massive budgets. If we’re going to compete with them, it’s going to need the sort of shrewd recruitment and management that the likes of Luton and Coventry have displayed. As these teams have shown, it’s definitely possible!

Coventry literally had something like 4 or 5 loan players that have now all departed. Their 3 best players have 12 months left on their contracts. They have to rebuild half their team, I'd not call that shrewd.

Cov got to the final based on momentum and luck. We all know momentum and can take you a very long way in football but it's only a short term thing. 

I actually think Coventry will struggle down near the bottom next season due to the departures and a play off hang over and fans expectations. 

[And Its Smith]

I still say if we want top six we need a better striker goal scoring depth.  We only have Conway really.  Wells doesn’t score enough. 

[W-S-M Seagull]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

For me, my opinion only, squad depth overcomes the plateau.

(still gonna be a competitive division all things being equal - assume PP clubs aren’t basket cases)

Putting aside that I think the division may be stronger next season, we finished just 3 wins off of the play offs. If we would have had McCrorie and Dickie last season then I think it's reasonable to believe we'd have finished much closer to them, if not in them and that's what excites me for this coming season.

[Wanderingred]

8 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

Coventry literally had something like 4 or 5 loan players that have now all departed. Their 3 best players have 12 months left on their contracts. They have to rebuild half their team, I'd not call that shrewd.

Cov got to the final based on momentum and luck. We all know momentum and can take you a very long way in football but it's only a short term thing. 

I actually think Coventry will struggle down near the bottom next season due to the departures and a play off hang over and fans expectations. 

I think you might be right with your last paragraph. I’d expect Millwall to struggle too after their horrific end of season collapse. Psychologically that will be huge. Both will be bottom third imho.

I think it’s a bit unfair to say that Coventry finished sixth after 46 games just because of momentum and luck though. Mark Robins is clearly an excellent manager and they have a really talented player in that Gyokeres. You may not call all the loan signings shrewd management but if just one of those penalty kicks had gone slightly differently, it would have taken them to the Premier League and everybody would be talking about how we need to be emulating them.

[Davefevs]

17 minutes ago, Wanderingred said:

I think you might be right with your last paragraph. I’d expect Millwall to struggle too after their horrific end of season collapse. Psychologically that will be huge. Both will be bottom third imho.

I think it’s a bit unfair to say that Coventry finished sixth after 46 games just because of momentum and luck though. Mark Robins is clearly an excellent manager and they have a really talented player in that Gyokeres. You may not call all the loan signings shrewd management but if just one of those penalty kicks had gone slightly differently, it would have taken them to the Premier League and everybody would be talking about how we need to be emulating them.

Being pedantic, if a penalty goes the other way, then you can argue it’s Luton / Rob Edwards who’ve not been shrewd, as Horvath, Drameh and Nkambe go back to their respective PL clubs.

Re City…two signings in, two big’uns in, gives optimism that we will be better prepared than last season.  But a long way to go in this window both for us and the other 23 clubs.

Really intriguing to see how the 3 relegated teams handle the summer, but also:

Boro - Ramsey, Steffen, Archer, Mowatt and Giles down and the two other playoff teams (Cov and Sunderland) do

Hull - under Rosenior, think he might move them further in the right direction

Stoke - because of big spending rumours that I can’t see happening 

I could probably go on and mention every club.

I quite enjoy this part of the close season.

 

[Charlie BCFC]

4 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Being pedantic, if a penalty goes the other way, then you can argue it’s Luton / Rob Edwards who’ve not been shrewd, as Horvath, Drameh and Nkambe go back to their respective PL clubs.

Re City…two signings in, two big’uns in, gives optimism that we will be better prepared than last season.  But a long way to go in this window both for us and the other 23 clubs.

Really intriguing to see how the 3 relegated teams handle the summer, but also:

Boro - Ramsey, Steffen, Archer, Mowatt and Giles down and the two other playoff teams (Cov and Sunderland) do

Hull - under Rosenior, think he might move them further in the right direction

Stoke - because of big spending rumours that I can’t see happening 

I could probably go on and mention every club.

I quite enjoy this part of the close season.

 

Intrigued with Coventry as I suspect they will look very different next season and Sunderland are linked with some intriguing players. Guess Cardiff with that new manager could be interesting and Ipswich with how they will attack the league 

[Wanderingred]

I would expect Ipswich to spend big and really go for it, to try and capitalize on their momentum. It will be interesting to see how that works out with Ashton pulling the strings.

[Vespa Red]

5 hours ago, Wanderingred said:

I would expect Ipswich to spend big and really go for it, to try and capitalize on their momentum. It will be interesting to see how that works out with Ashton pulling the strings.

Will Ashton have learnt his lesson or is he a one-trick pony?  

I bet he currently feels vindicated at Ipswich by getting them promoted and a lot of their players will still be contracted into next season at least.  Will be an interesting one.

[Steve Watts]

11 hours ago, ExiledAjax said:

Do you reckon?I I'll grant you it's a good summary for anyone not severely au fait with our recent seasons, but I dunno that there was much new in there if you've been following us closely.

You know that I think we've been on an upward trajectory over the past two and a bit seasons, but you also know I think we plateaued a bit last term. I hope we continue to improve but personally I doubt we will be the Luton or Coventry of next season.

"Let Bristol City cook and we might have an early dark horse in next season’s promotion picture." isn't quite a resounding endorsement either. It's more of a fence-sitter where we might equally be a very pale donkey.

I personally think this is a really harsh assessment of a season that saw the emergence of Cam Pring, Tommy Conway, Sam Bell, Zak Vyner, George Tanner and Max O'Leary, all into Championship level players, whilst continuing to increase the value of quite probably the most talented player this club has ever produced, and massively reducing our wage bill.  

Progress has different perspectives and league position is not the only marker for this.  I in no way see last season as a plateau.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Steve Watts