Steve Lansdown……..

[Mr Popodopolous]

23 minutes ago, Pezo said:

There is a certain amount of credit that is due to SL for the infrastructure but correct me if I'm wrong - the money spent on those things is all debt, it wasn't a gift. My challenge is that he has been at the club 25 years - I would expect that most clubs need to do some updates to there infrastructure every 25 years.

Weren't these just things that needed doing? Weren't they things that probably should have been done earlier in his tenure?

So what has he actually done other than what he should have done (bare minimum) funded with a line of cheap credit?

It depends. Probably earlier yes but remember we put in for Ashton Vale in late 2007, plans begun then. How far earlier do you want to go. However there is an argument that we should have gone earlier sure.

I looked at multiple years accounts earlier.

The stadium rebuild was initially funded with a Bank Loan. Overdraft too, SL made a personal guarantee up to about £4.5m and AGL made an unlimited guarantee.

In I believe 2018-19 or 2019-20, this Bank Loan was repaid, paid off and replaced with the Secured Loan from Pula.

This loan has security over everything but his debt to equity conversions, well for each £1 converted that would be £1 less that the club/Bristol City Holdings owes him but that isn't to say it has disappeared or has been waived, more like could be included in any sale price- however how much of that is up to SL really. Or what he seems to be commercially viable.

[Superjack]

I'm just tired.

Tired of giving forty years of my emotional investment to this football club to get very little glory in return.

But mostly, tired of the bullshit that our 'beloved benefactor' spouts to keep us onside.

And particularly, tired of the best manager we have had in those forty years being ignored and disrespected by the very people that he has deflected flak from.

And tired of him being put in the firing line of said flak by the people that deserve it most. 

Just sell up please, Mr. Lansdown.

 

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

I'll let others analyse it but I'll post the relevant change that I mentioned earlier.

[TV Tom]

6 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Why?

If SL sells us to a “shit owner” it really reflects that he’s either a) not done his due diligence or b) doesn’t care as long as it gets sold.

Most owners are “shit” according to their own fans with the obvious odd exception, we’d be very very lucky to get a new owner because of their love and best intentions for our club

[exAtyeoMax]

9 hours ago, red panda said:

What an unpleasant, ungrateful post.  Whatever the actual amount SL loses (I firmly believe it will be a very large number indeed, and SO WHAT if you think he should have put in even more), he will have left us with a fantastic stadium and an established Championship club.  I've seen far too many poor matches at crappy grounds in the third and fourth tiers not to be grateful for that.  Yes some things haven't worked out, but there is no magic formula for appointing successful managers, effective CEOs, great players that other clubs somehow don't want (and who want to come here), etc.

Personally I've invested precisely ZERO in the club.  I've paid for many many admission tickets, in return for which I've been able to watch games.  Some have been magical and some have been dire, but you know the range of possibilities when buying the ticket.  I've also paid for and received other City-related products.  But these are payments for goods/services, not investments

Why is it unpleasant? It’s just stating the facts, isn’t it? The bottom line is SL is a businessman, he hasn’t donated it. 

[exAtyeoMax]

9 hours ago, TV Tom said:

You honestly believe that he will make any sort of profit from the club? When you are as wealthy as he is money is practically an irrelevance, just out of interest (and I’m fed up with asking this question on this forum with no reply) what is the alternative to SL?

How can anyone answer that? The only person who can tell you that is SL.

I thought I had answered a similar question a couple of days ago? I could be wrong…

[JAWS]

8 hours ago, Superjack said:

I'm just tired.

Tired of giving forty years of my emotional investment to this football club to get very little glory in return.

But mostly, tired of the bullshit that our 'beloved benefactor' spouts to keep us onside.

And particularly, tired of the best manager we have had in those forty years being ignored and disrespected by the very people that he has deflected flak from.

And tired of him being put in the firing line of said flak by the people that deserve it most. 

Just sell up please, Mr. Lansdown.

 

 

Well said Super. Couldn't have said it better myself. Sell up you egotistical condescending tw*t 

[frenchred]

17 hours ago, Ego said:

I despair, we have a Bristolian owner who has invested at least £ 250million pounds in the club with no return and not the slightest chance of selling for remotely anything like that but is constantly criticised. Apparently he is an absent owner, would his critics prefer the owner to live in the US or the Middle East? I’m a long time season ticket holder who is disappointed by our present position and could possibly complain about his selection of managers but otherwise very grateful. His critics should support the Rovers as that’s where we would be without him!

Omg here's another

[frenchred]

11 hours ago, red panda said:

What an unpleasant, ungrateful post.  Whatever the actual amount SL loses (I firmly believe it will be a very large number indeed, and SO WHAT if you think he should have put in even more), he will have left us with a fantastic stadium and an established Championship club.  I've seen far too many poor matches at crappy grounds in the third and fourth tiers not to be grateful for that.  Yes some things haven't worked out, but there is no magic formula for appointing successful managers, effective CEOs, great players that other clubs somehow don't want (and who want to come here), etc.

Personally I've invested precisely ZERO in the club.  I've paid for many many admission tickets, in return for which I've been able to watch games.  Some have been magical and some have been dire, but you know the range of possibilities when buying the ticket.  I've also paid for and received other City-related products.  But these are payments for goods/services, not investments

And another deciple 

[JAWS]

His lack of support for Pearson is disgusting 

[JAWS]

Just now, frenchred said:

And another deciple 

Yep. Deluded. Can't see through the fraud after over 20 years of rinse & repeat! 

[Alessandro]

I’ll sneak this post in on the back of a win….

But is SL potentially playing a blinder here?

(Takeovers aside for now…) Hear me out.

He’s spoken about a ‘nest egg’ and given the squad time to ‘develop’

Interestingly since City started down the path of developing way to success, I was thinking this is the first time in 5 plus years we actually have the potential that a core of our young squad hit their peak performance windows simultaneously:

Pring, Vyner, Dickie, McCrorie, Roberts, Tanner, Atkinson, Knight, Sykes, Bell, Conway, Mehmeti all on good long contracts, all heading to that window at the same time.

It feels like this season is at least one season too early for several of them (especially with injuries) - so what I’m getting at is, perhaps the club have recognised we’re still working our way up the development ladder and additional spending this season may have been wasted. We have enough quality to stay up, give the current squad chance to get games and don’t block minutes for the next group coming through for now. Save spending till next summer or summer after with more of the above players hitting their prime peak, any new academy products making their mark and 3 or 4 real quality additions in the spaces left by the older members of the squad and go for it then.

Patience doesn’t tend to go hand and hand in football, but keep this squad together and developing, losing only one or two to big money prem moves (notice we don’t lose our best players to Championship rivals anymore) and we’re in one hell of a position in the coming years IMO.

For the first time, you can see shoots of the plan working - reasons to be positive. Or perhaps I’m just a deluded disciple - answers on a postcard.

[Numero Uno]

12 hours ago, red panda said:

Personally I've invested precisely ZERO in the club. 

That statement right there tells me a lot about your passion for football, understanding of football support and the importance you place on the relationship between a football club and it's community. Those comments are exactly what the modern football club investor/owner wants to hear.........................on the subject of investment some on here and/or their families did follow your definition of investment in this football club in 1982 long before Steve had an interest in football and which enabled there to be a football club for Steve to buy and proclaim as "his"...........

The bit that some of you really cannot get your head round is that it is possible to be absolutely grateful for Steve's financial support, you can recognise his genorosity when he funds the losses and you can also understand completely that he didn't have to invest the money (albeit it is important to recognise he CHOSE to under no duress) whilst, at the same time, casting a critical eye over his decision making on the playing side and financial elements of the club (the ground and training ground developments speak for themselves in the eyes of all but a tiny minority).

When billionaires make statements along the lines of "it's my money, my club" they automatically put themselves up for scrutiny........and to be honest I think that, as the billionaire benefactor overseeing a circa 130 year old sporting institution in Bristol (it really is bigger than HIM but I wouldn't expect you to understand the significance based on your seemingly customer focused views) that is also funded to a much tinier degree by tens of thousands of working class punters, Steve has to put his big boy pants on and accept that scrutiny when he makes such a comment.........and I'm sure he does to be fair.

[red panda]

9 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

That statement right there tells me a lot about your passion for football, understanding of football support and the importance you place on the relationship between a football club and it's community. Those comments are exactly what the modern football club investor/owner wants to hear.........................on the subject of investment some on here and/or their families did follow your definition of investment in this football club in 1982 long before Steve had an interest in football and which enabled there to be a football club for Steve to buy and proclaim as "his"...........

The bit that some of you really cannot get your head round is that it is possible to be absolutely grateful for Steve's financial support, you can recognise his genorosity when he funds the losses and you can also understand completely that he didn't have to invest the money (albeit it is important to recognise he CHOSE to under no duress) whilst, at the same time, casting a critical eye over his decision making on the playing side and financial elements of the club (the ground and training ground developments speak for themselves in the eyes of all but a tiny minority).

When billionaires make statements along the lines of "it's my money, my club" they automatically put themselves up for scrutiny........and to be honest I think that, as the billionaire benefactor overseeing a circa 130 year old sporting institution in Bristol (it really is bigger than HIM but I wouldn't expect you to understand the significance based on your seemingly customer focused views) that is also funded to a much tinier degree by tens of thousands of working class punters, Steve has to put his big boy pants on and accept that scrutiny when he makes such a comment.........and I'm sure he does to be fair.

You could not be more wrong.  The statement tells you absolutely nothing about my passion for football, etc.  You know absolutely nothing about me, how long I've supported the club, the many many miles I've travelled to see them play, etc.  Though there was a clue as my post mentioned watching many games at crappy grounds in the third and fourth tiers.

All the statement tells you is that I know the definition of "investment" (and, just to remind you, I was responding to KITR's bizarre comments about how "tiny" SL's investment is).  Just because I use correct terminology doesn't mean I'm not passionate.

[Red Exile]

26 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

For the first time, you can see shoots of the plan working - reasons to be positive. Or perhaps I’m just a deluded disciple - answers on a postcard.

Excellent post, and I'm certainly not a 'disciple'.

The missing bit for me is communication. If that is the strategy let's hear someone at the top shout about it...very happy for them to take the credit when it pays dividends. All along in the Lansdown years the missing piece has seemed to me to be taking the fan base on the journey. With very rare exceptions - think Cotts and the recruitment in the summer of 2014 - when there has been a tale spun - think '5 pillars' or Mark Ashton's offerings - there have been too many gaps in the narrative, gaps that can easily be filled by speculation and conspiracy theory.

I know that OTIB can descend into daftness at times but the people I know in the real world who post on here are all thoughtful, intelligent and well respected in their professional lives. Having worked in the media all my life I don't think any of this is all that hard to deliver, but it requires engagement with supporters beyond amusing social media posts and post match interviews, engagement which treats them like intelligent stakeholders with a contribution to make.

 

[Davefevs]

4 hours ago, TV Tom said:

Most owners are “shit” according to their own fans with the obvious odd exception, we’d be very very lucky to get a new owner because of their love and best intentions for our club

Does SL love this club?  His son does, it’s Jon that dragged his dad into taking him.

So the next owner, if we get them, doesn’t have to love the club.

Best intentions?  We will have to see.  As long as it’s not tearing the club apart, selling the ground and leaving us in the lurch, then I’m sure most owners are about delivering promotions for the financial benefits it brings.

29 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

I’ll sneak this post in on the back of a win….

But is SL potentially playing a blinder here?

(Takeovers aside for now…) Hear me out.

He’s spoken about a ‘nest egg’ and given the squad time to ‘develop’

Interestingly since City started down the path of developing way to success, I was thinking this is the first time in 5 plus years we actually have the potential that a core of our young squad hit their peak performance windows simultaneously:

Pring, Vyner, Dickie, McCrorie, Roberts, Tanner, Atkinson, Knight, Sykes, Bell, Conway, Mehmeti all on good long contracts, all heading to that window at the same time.

It feels like this season is at least one season too early for several of them (especially with injuries) - so what I’m getting at is, perhaps the club have recognised we’re still working our way up the development ladder and additional spending this season may have been wasted. We have enough quality to stay up, give the current squad chance to get games and don’t block minutes for the next group coming through for now. Save spending till next summer or summer after with more of the above players hitting their prime peak, any new academy products making their mark and 3 or 4 real quality additions in the spaces left by the older members of the squad and go for it then.

Patience doesn’t tend to go hand and hand in football, but keep this squad together and developing, losing only one or two to big money prem moves (notice we don’t lose our best players to Championship rivals anymore) and we’re in one hell of a position in the coming years IMO.

For the first time, you can see shoots of the plan working - reasons to be positive. Or perhaps I’m just a deluded disciple - answers on a postcard.

I suggested something along these lines last week, although i wasn’t as complimentary.  Win, win for SL.  Don’t allow sufficient investment in the squad - we know it’s lacking one or two, that could easily be resolved without using much at all of the Scott money - and if Nige fails, sack him and bring in someone who won’t upset you with home truths.  If Nige does well, then you can say the squad was good enough anyway.

The issue is the squad is paper thin.  Nige is desperate to not get any more injuries over the period between Andi coming back (after the break) and Tommy (and Ayman) hopefully back after the next break.

Imho SL has made in unnecessarily hard for Nige.

Nige’s track record is to not have bloated squad, so we know Nige wasn’t gonna blow money.  It would be one or two players that follow the model from the summer, maybe more of a project at CB.

12 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

That statement right there tells me a lot about your passion for football, understanding of football support and the importance you place on the relationship between a football club and it's community. Those comments are exactly what the modern football club investor/owner wants to hear.........................on the subject of investment some on here and/or their families did follow your definition of investment in this football club in 1982 long before Steve had an interest in football and which enabled there to be a football club for Steve to buy and proclaim as "his"...........

The bit that some of you really cannot get your head round is that it is possible to be absolutely grateful for Steve's financial support, you can recognise his genorosity when he funds the losses and you can also understand completely that he didn't have to invest the money (albeit it is important to recognise he CHOSE to under no duress) whilst, at the same time, casting a critical eye over his decision making on the playing side and financial elements of the club (the ground and training ground developments speak for themselves in the eyes of all but a tiny minority).

When billionaires make statements along the lines of "it's my money, my club" they automatically put themselves up for scrutiny........and to be honest I think that, as the billionaire benefactor overseeing a circa 130 year old sporting institution in Bristol (it really is bigger than HIM but I wouldn't expect you to understand the significance based on your seemingly customer focused views) that is also funded to a much tinier degree by tens of thousands of working class punters, Steve has to put his big boy pants on and accept that scrutiny when he makes such a comment.........and I'm sure he does to be fair.

Great post.

I think some of my posts are more “angry” at those on here who post that we should be grateful, than “anger” at SL himself.

”be careful what you wish for”?  Bollocks to that, I just want honesty and transparency.

[Bristol Oil Services]

19 hours ago, Ego said:

I despair, we have a Bristolian owner who has invested at least £ 250million pounds in the club with no return and not the slightest chance of selling for remotely anything like that but is constantly criticised. Apparently he is an absent owner, would his critics prefer the owner to live in the US or the Middle East? I’m a long time season ticket holder who is disappointed by our present position and could possibly complain about his selection of managers but otherwise very grateful. His critics should support the Rovers as that’s where we would be without him!

No return? Where else could he have inserted his son as Chairman? He couldn't (or possibly wouldn't) have put his son at that level in Hargreaves Lansdown, Pete wouldn't have it.

If I was worth £1 bill I would spend £200 mill trying to make my lad happy.

[BrizzleRed]

36 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

I’ll sneak this post in on the back of a win….

But is SL potentially playing a blinder here?

(Takeovers aside for now…) Hear me out.

He’s spoken about a ‘nest egg’ and given the squad time to ‘develop’

Interestingly since City started down the path of developing way to success, I was thinking this is the first time in 5 plus years we actually have the potential that a core of our young squad hit their peak performance windows simultaneously:

Pring, Vyner, Dickie, McCrorie, Roberts, Tanner, Atkinson, Knight, Sykes, Bell, Conway, Mehmeti all on good long contracts, all heading to that window at the same time.

It feels like this season is at least one season too early for several of them (especially with injuries) - so what I’m getting at is, perhaps the club have recognised we’re still working our way up the development ladder and additional spending this season may have been wasted. We have enough quality to stay up, give the current squad chance to get games and don’t block minutes for the next group coming through for now. Save spending till next summer or summer after with more of the above players hitting their prime peak, any new academy products making their mark and 3 or 4 real quality additions in the spaces left by the older members of the squad and go for it then.

Patience doesn’t tend to go hand and hand in football, but keep this squad together and developing, losing only one or two to big money prem moves (notice we don’t lose our best players to Championship rivals anymore) and we’re in one hell of a position in the coming years IMO.

For the first time, you can see shoots of the plan working - reasons to be positive. Or perhaps I’m just a deluded disciple - answers on a postcard.

Nice idea, but I fear it’s far more likely any of the young ones who develop this season will go the same way as the previous young stars and get added to the ‘nest egg’!

I’d really love to be wrong though

[cidered abroad]

29 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

I’ll sneak this post in on the back of a win….

But is SL potentially playing a blinder here?

(Takeovers aside for now…) Hear me out.

He’s spoken about a ‘nest egg’ and given the squad time to ‘develop’

Interestingly since City started down the path of developing way to success, I was thinking this is the first time in 5 plus years we actually have the potential that a core of our young squad hit their peak performance windows simultaneously:

Pring, Vyner, Dickie, McCrorie, Roberts, Tanner, Atkinson, Knight, Sykes, Bell, Conway, Mehmeti all on good long contracts, all heading to that window at the same time.

It feels like this season is at least one season too early for several of them (especially with injuries) - so what I’m getting at is, perhaps the club have recognised we’re still working our way up the development ladder and additional spending this season may have been wasted. We have enough quality to stay up, give the current squad chance to get games and don’t block minutes for the next group coming through for now. Save spending till next summer or summer after with more of the above players hitting their prime peak, any new academy products making their mark and 3 or 4 real quality additions in the spaces left by the older members of the squad and go for it then.

Patience doesn’t tend to go hand and hand in football, but keep this squad together and developing, losing only one or two to big money prem moves (notice we don’t lose our best players to Championship rivals anymore) and we’re in one hell of a position in the coming years IMO.

For the first time, you can see shoots of the plan working - reasons to be positive. Or perhaps I’m just a deluded disciple - answers on a postcard.

Good post. While I agree that we should do reasonably well this season with a possibility of a play off slot at the end, a few injuries like Conway and Belarus have suffered, could send us in a hurry to the unwanted end of the league table. A bit too risky?

As for SL money invested/lent to buy players and more importantly, stadium rebuild.

If I had 1.8 billion £'s in my back pocket, that means that his family would not starve for the next ten lifetimes, I would not even consider it as a loan with cash repaid when he demands it. The £250 million or thereabouts, spent on City, Bears and the minor things like basketball, would be a gift to the citizens of Bristol and surrounding areas. I put my spare cash of £80 into City shares in 1982 so why would a drop in the ocean matter for a multi millionaire?

[Davefevs]

1 minute ago, Red Exile said:

Excellent post, and I'm certainly not a 'disciple'.

The missing bit for me is communication. If that is the strategy let's hear someone at the top shout about it...very happy for them to take the credit when it pays dividends. All along in the Lansdown years the missing piece has seemed to me to be taking the fan base on the journey. With very rare exceptions - think Cotts and the recruitment in the summer of 2014 - when there has been a tale spun - think '5 pillars' or Mark Ashton's offerings - there have been too many gaps in the narrative, gaps that can easily be filled by speculation and conspiracy theory.

I know that OTIB can descend into daftness at times but the people I know in the real world who post on here are all thoughtful, intelligent and well respected in their professional lives. Having worked in the media all my life I don't think any of this is all that hard to deliver, but it requires engagement with supporters beyond amusing social media posts and post match interviews, engagement which treats them like intelligent stakeholders with a contribution to make.

 

Great post.  Middle para is spot on.  There appears to have been a change in strategy and nobody seems to be aware, Nige included!

[Alessandro]

32 minutes ago, Red Exile said:

Excellent post, and I'm certainly not a 'disciple'.

The missing bit for me is communication. If that is the strategy let's hear someone at the top shout about it...very happy for them to take the credit when it pays dividends. All along in the Lansdown years the missing piece has seemed to me to be taking the fan base on the journey. With very rare exceptions - think Cotts and the recruitment in the summer of 2014 - when there has been a tale spun - think '5 pillars' or Mark Ashton's offerings - there have been too many gaps in the narrative, gaps that can easily be filled by speculation and conspiracy theory.

I know that OTIB can descend into daftness at times but the people I know in the real world who post on here are all thoughtful, intelligent and well respected in their professional lives. Having worked in the media all my life I don't think any of this is all that hard to deliver, but it requires engagement with supporters beyond amusing social media posts and post match interviews, engagement which treats them like intelligent stakeholders with a contribution to make.

 

 

29 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Great post.  Middle para is spot on.  There appears to have been a change in strategy and nobody seems to be aware, Nige included!

I admit this is where my argument falls down - communication. It’s so poor. And as you say Red Exile, pretty disrespectful at times.

But reading between the lines, as I said in my original post, quotes like those along the lines of these that he’s made:

”if we want premier league football we need a cash investment from outside”

”building a nest egg”

”letting this squad develop”

So the official line is always going to be “we’re going for the play offs” isn’t it, because the club need to sell season tickets and create some hope in the fan base, business wise. Annoying as that is.

But reading between the lines, the private policy could be one of building up to the point where we can have a go, rather than buying our way, which failed under LJ.

Again, I admit it’s hopeful speculation, but it kind of makes sense when you look at the squad - but as you say Dave, when NP comes out and says some of the things he says it does contradict what I’ve outlined. 
 

I do agree we’re a few more injuries away from danger, but that’s the downside of NP wanting a smaller squad than before I suppose. I thought we’d get more in though, obviously we got TGH in, I suspect we tried and failed for another - but I still think we have decent cover in most areas and a lot of versatile players. With 2 weeks now, hopefully a chance to see some others getting a chance to get closer to fitness too.
 

Do we know how far off Tommy, Andi and Rob are for example, because they’d make a huge difference to the depth?

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Alessandro

[exAtyeoMax]

1 hour ago, Alessandro said:

I’ll sneak this post in on the back of a win….

But is SL potentially playing a blinder here?

(Takeovers aside for now…) Hear me out.

He’s spoken about a ‘nest egg’ and given the squad time to ‘develop’

Interestingly since City started down the path of developing way to success, I was thinking this is the first time in 5 plus years we actually have the potential that a core of our young squad hit their peak performance windows simultaneously:

Pring, Vyner, Dickie, McCrorie, Roberts, Tanner, Atkinson, Knight, Sykes, Bell, Conway, Mehmeti all on good long contracts, all heading to that window at the same time.

It feels like this season is at least one season too early for several of them (especially with injuries) - so what I’m getting at is, perhaps the club have recognised we’re still working our way up the development ladder and additional spending this season may have been wasted. We have enough quality to stay up, give the current squad chance to get games and don’t block minutes for the next group coming through for now. Save spending till next summer or summer after with more of the above players hitting their prime peak, any new academy products making their mark and 3 or 4 real quality additions in the spaces left by the older members of the squad and go for it then.

Patience doesn’t tend to go hand and hand in football, but keep this squad together and developing, losing only one or two to big money prem moves (notice we don’t lose our best players to Championship rivals anymore) and we’re in one hell of a position in the coming years IMO.

For the first time, you can see shoots of the plan working - reasons to be positive. Or perhaps I’m just a deluded disciple - answers on a postcard.

That was my thinking pre-season, that's possibly why I was so positive about this season (some was taking the piss but hey ho). Then SL seemed to revert to type and talk about player trading again. Could just be his way of talking but the lack of reinforcements and not backing Nige seems really short-sighted and almost blinkered.

[exAtyeoMax]

26 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

 

I admit this is where my argument falls down - communication. It’s so poor. And as you say Red Exile, pretty disrespectful at times.

But reading between the lines, as I said in my original post, quotes like those along the lines of these that he’s made:

”if we want premier league football we need a cash investment from outside”

”building a nest egg”

”letting this squad develop”

So the official line is always going to be “we’re going for the play offs” isn’t it, because the club need to sell season tickets and create some hope in the fan base, business wise. Annoying as that is.

But reading between the lines, the private policy could be one of building up to the point where we can have a go, rather than buying our way, which failed under LJ.

Again, I admit it’s hopeful speculation, but it kind of makes sense when you look at the squad - but as you say Dave, when NP comes out and says some of the things he says it does contradict what I’ve outlined. 
 

I do agree we’re a few more injuries away from danger, but that’s the downside of NP wanting a smaller squad than before I suppose. I thought we’d get more in though, obviously we got TGH in, I suspect we tried and failed for another - but I still think we have decent cover in most areas and a lot of versatile players. With 2 weeks now, hopefully a chance to see some others getting a chance to get closer to fitness too.
 

Do we know how far off Tommy, Andi and Rob are for example, because they’d make a huge difference to the depth?

 

I did get the feeling that the club were waiting to see if they could off load other players such as Cam and Zak for large sums, even up to the last day of transfers. Nige made a point of ridiculing previous windows when players were sold at the last minute in his interview last week… that doesn't scream sensible planning to me. 

[BarnzFM]

Not sure why this is so divisive - it’s possible to be appreciative of SL in some aspects but also have some criticisms about the way he managed the playing football side 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Alessandro said:

Do we know how far off Tommy, Andi and Rob are for example, because they’d make a huge difference to the depth?

Andi will be back after the break

Tommy and Ayman in October, assume after the next break

Rob November, although might take a while to be really ready

Ross new year

The dates were from Nige.

[Bris Red]

3 hours ago, Alessandro said:

I’ll sneak this post in on the back of a win….

But is SL potentially playing a blinder here?

(Takeovers aside for now…) Hear me out.

He’s spoken about a ‘nest egg’ and given the squad time to ‘develop’

Interestingly since City started down the path of developing way to success, I was thinking this is the first time in 5 plus years we actually have the potential that a core of our young squad hit their peak performance windows simultaneously:

Pring, Vyner, Dickie, McCrorie, Roberts, Tanner, Atkinson, Knight, Sykes, Bell, Conway, Mehmeti all on good long contracts, all heading to that window at the same time.

It feels like this season is at least one season too early for several of them (especially with injuries) - so what I’m getting at is, perhaps the club have recognised we’re still working our way up the development ladder and additional spending this season may have been wasted. We have enough quality to stay up, give the current squad chance to get games and don’t block minutes for the next group coming through for now. Save spending till next summer or summer after with more of the above players hitting their prime peak, any new academy products making their mark and 3 or 4 real quality additions in the spaces left by the older members of the squad and go for it then.

Patience doesn’t tend to go hand and hand in football, but keep this squad together and developing, losing only one or two to big money prem moves (notice we don’t lose our best players to Championship rivals anymore) and we’re in one hell of a position in the coming years IMO.

For the first time, you can see shoots of the plan working - reasons to be positive. Or perhaps I’m just a deluded disciple - answers on a postcard.

Not a bad post and i suppose you cannot rule anything out, of course it goes against the general grain of ‘Lansdown out’ and ‘Lansdown hasn’t got a clue what he is doing’ which i will hold my hands up and admit that i have been one of the more vocal ones on here with that opinion.

However like you said maybe there is a greater plan at work here. I sincerely hope that is the case to be honest and maybe the board and Lansdown have finally got a sustainable plan in place that could bear fruit in a few seasons.. we shall see.

Edited September 3, 2023 by Bris Red

[Bris Red]

1 hour ago, BarnzFM said:

Not sure why this is so divisive - it’s possible to be appreciative of SL in some aspects but also have some criticisms about the way he managed the playing football side 

Agreed. You’d hope that every single one of us wants what is best for the football club, it doesn’t have to be a personal vendetta against SL or be blindly supportive of his regime without seeing the clear faults and mistakes he has made over the last 25 years..

[Alessandro]

35 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Andi will be back after the break

Tommy and Ayman in October, assume after the next break

Rob November, although might take a while to be really ready

Ross new year

The dates were from Nige.

Thanks Dave - that’s fairly positive news.

Ayman another to add to my list - possibly who SL referred to as the player we have within the club to replace Alex Scott.

Let’s hope he has a big impact as the season goes on.

[cidered abroad]

44 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Andi will be back after the break

Tommy and Ayman in October, assume after the next break

Rob November, although might take a while to be really ready

Ross new year

The dates were from Nige.

That's good news but if (IF) we get another two or three before early October, then that drastically alters the situation.

[RedRock]

Just looking at the images of the development plans for the ‘Sporting Quarter’ in the Post and comparing it to the photograph of Rovers new ‘stand’. Puts things into perspective a bit .

Will Steve ‘bail out’ when his Bristol Sport vision is on the edge of fruition? Possibly not. For all the references to money spent, a lot of that is likely to be recouped via the sale of the development land. No doubts he will make an ultimate loss on his Bristol Sport idea but that may not be as massive as it currently appears on paper. Doubt whether he would have engaged in the very profitable local land dealings if it wasn’t for his involvement at The Gate. So there are ‘trade-offs’ to his funding of City in the business sense.

One suspects the negotiations are very complex with the added element, I suspect, of Steve wanting to keep a role in the Bristol Sport empire. It could well be he will keep a controlling interest in everything bar the football. 

How this all pans out is going to be very interesting. At worst we are going to be the core element of a sporting stadium complex that is by far the best in the SW Region, up within the top 20 in the Country, with a Championship Football Club becalmed in mid-table with a bit of an uncertain future. At best, we have great sporting facilities and a new owner of a football club who has vision, energy and football-investment nouse to take us on to the promised land. As  alluded to in a previous post, who Steve engages as the new owner/investor is going to be critical in terms of his legacy, at least for us.

I think when Steve came in he said he was fed up with Bristol sport generally being treated as a laughing stock by sports fans elsewhere around the Country. We are at a critical stage of transition. With the right moves, we could just make it to the big stage. 

 

Mind you, still puzzled why we didn’t add a couple more players to the squad as - while I’m fully behind the ‘small squad’ concept - we are wafer thin. A couple more injuries and/or suspensions could spell disaster.