Article: Outspent and Shrinking | Football, Bristol City

An open and honest piece there Wize. I think you`ll sell Maynard and every penny gained will be made available for transfer funds the only problem there is will the board trust the currnet manager with the cash?

 

We're currently stuck around waiting for the final approval to start building our new stadium, and I'd be shocked if SL didn't rush ahead with the development at breakneck speed just to get things underway.

As a realist, I really do think that the stadium plan is nothing more than a ploy to get some top-quality real estate on Lansdown's portfolio, and once our club has a great stadium with business links and the facilities to make it anywhere in English football a big-money buyout is far more likely to happen. It's a huge risk, and I'm sure SL is happy to do this as he loves the club, but I don't believe for one minute that his part in the running of the club has been solely a labour of love. He wants that big payout.

In the same vein we have at least eight players (last time I checked) who are on their last year of contract with us. We also have David James who could go on to become a coach at the club should he wish to stay in the area, further lowering his wage costs. At the end of this year the squad will naturally become smaller and we'll finally have the power to start growing again.

I think Rovers have done a good job rebuilding their team, but in the same way we've rebuilt if you add too many lower league players you'll become more like a lower-league team. They're in that stage where they can rebuild, whereas with Bristol City I feel that this season is as good as a write-off from the start, with the real growth set to happen next season when we can finally shift as much dead wood as possible.

Additionally, if Maynard signs and nets another 20 goals this season I'd be shocked if a Premier League team didn't make a move. With the Maynard money in the bank and plenty more resources to rebuild I think next season could define us as a team.

As someone who was involved as a student with the UWE development I did suggest that a football stadium be built on the land as UWE wants to become a university known for sporting excellence, and to align themselves with Rover's is a fantastic deal for the university. To be honest, I'm surprised that it happened as UWE is a ****hole, although they're usually keen to blow money on anything that won't directly help the students, like a new library, a new Computer Science department or the million other improvements the university could use.

In the short term, yes. The UWE stadium deal is good for Bristol as much as it is good for Rovers. However, courage doesn't always win games and to get to their previous position they'll need to work hard and build from there.

I shouldn't say it as a City fan, but I do hope that Rover's do well and if I had my way both Rovers and City would both be national forces so that sport in this area isn't so dire.

The best we can do is to put our faith in the current batch of players, and in Millen as a manager. He's done wonders with the limited resources at his disposal and if we survive this season then I'll be happy.

 

There are 2 ways of looking at our situation as we stand today

1) We stick with and accept being a boring, predictable team with a witless manager who will undoubtedly be in the bottom 6 at the end of this season, but we will survive and we'll be closer to getting the new stadium...............or

2) We should be appointing the right people right now, and that includes a new manager (and assistant) and a group of players who will see us build towards the stadium being built and an assault on getting top flight football back to Bristol.

No prizes for guessing what I think we should be doing !

I also don't agree that Millen has done wonders.

 

Once again, if we're going to get rid of Millen who should we appoint in his place? Name any available manager that can take a team with no resources and a mid-table team and make something more of them? Even managers like Chris Hughton started with a Championship winning team. I doubt even Jose Mourinho could win us the Championship with our current lot.

 

I'm not sure that changing the manager will automatically make things better - I suspect that Charlton fans wish they did not encourage Curbishley to leave - look how that ended up.
£11m loses are not sustainable, and we have to ship people out before getting too many in.
Some of you may say this lacks ambition, but given our financial situation, mid-table obscurity is not a bad thing in a very competiitve league

 

I'm "happy" to stay where we are at present, and even that may be a struggle. We have to stay in this division, we get relegate and I can't see us storming league one. I've had to put up with so many years of mediocrity and hope that we can consolidate and move forward after this season. I don't think that KM is the right man for the job but I think we may well have to put up with him for quite some while. So will have to get behind him and the team (for the time being). As for the new Stadium and SL's intentions, only time will tell.

 

It seems your typical football mob ignore the trend that changing your manager doesnt make you better very often.

Would you take the relitive safety of the club under Johnson now you know what happens after? If I could take you back two years and showed you what came of rocking a steady ship would you still sack him?

What if the next bloke is worse than Millen?

I think we all need to calm down and accept that the club is coming out of a real state of flux, a large number of our previous managers signings will be out of contract next summer and dumped and we will be able to let our then manager bring in players he wants.

This season will decide if Millen will be the man to repopulate the squad next summer, but I see him as the night watchmen for the minute, a change of boss now could see us spiral in to a worse state, give him the chance to show he could be the man to lead us to glory in time, but be aware that this is going to be a hard year.

Those among you that think sacking Millen, selling Maynard, and therowing cash in to the side would see us become promotion challangers are looking at it from a best case scenario without thinking about the potential other side of the coin.

Better the devil you know.

 

Know what you're saying Lummie but think you have a selective memory problem with Johnson, in the end he went nuts, even coming to blows with players towards the end.

'would you still sack him?' - Most definitely.

As did Posh - they've had promotion since and stuck SEVEN past a team we lost 3-0 2 weeks ago.
Not sure if he's setting the world alight at Northampton either.

'Better the devil you know' - Certainly not Gary Johnson.

 

I was always a fan of Johnson, but ultimately he is also responsible for the sheer number of players we have on our books, and our behaviour in the transfer market over the past few years has shown that we've been desperately trying to get rid of players from the wage bill. Millen won't progress until he relieves the club from its wage bill, although it can be argued that with our financial backing this shouldn't be the issue it currently is.

 

Once again, I HUGELY disagree with you Ender - with the addition of 2 good defenders, this squad is good enough to make the play-offs WITH THE RIGHT ORGANISATION AND MANAGER AT THE HELM.

The reason why Gary was so successful was because he gathered a squad of very decent players (for league 1) but, more importantly, he picked players that fitted with his motto which as some may remember from his office was something along the lines of

"to motivate players, you have to have players capable of being motivated"

It wasn't that exactly but it was something similar. This was HIS MANTRA and for 3 years, the players bought into it hook, line and sinker and were prepared to run through a brick wall for the manager.

Gary's problem was that as we signed better quality players, the likes of Lambert and Sno for example, were players with enough quality that they could actually play well without needing to be motivated to do so. This clash of philosophy was what did for Gary in the end as he reached his limit in league one and the NPC found him out - the new players must have thought "what the hell was that about" which automatically loses respect...

There are however similar managers who operate at a higher level - look at Paul Lambert for instance. I saw what he was doing very early at Norwich and I made many comments about getting him here whilst they were still mid table in league one. Anyone who saw Norwich in the televised game at Leeds at the beginning of his reign in league one 3 seasons ago was left in little doubt as to where Norwich were going under his guidance.

I think that he will experience the same thing that Gary did with the squad he has but, the difference is that he is in the prem however I really think that Norwich will stick with him whatever happens...

There are other similar characters about, for instance look at how successful Nigel Atkins at Scunny/Southampton, Owen Coyle at Burnley are. They are MAN MANAGERS and I am firmly convinced that if we put one of these in charge of this club (a man manager), we can push for top 6 with the addition of 2 defenders.

I understand that SL was hoping that KM might turn out to be the same but to date, I see little evidence of it. I am still reserving judgement but we can't hang around too much longer if this season is not to be written off by November (again)...

 

Under GJ when we got promoted from L1 we had not only the momentum of a successful side, but we also had growing media interest with Trundle/Liz whatever her name is, plus Byfield and Jamelia and we were getting very decent gates. Both of the relationships went the way of GJ's career, and our progress effectively came to a halt in January 2008 when we failed to get the right players in to get promotion when we were in pole position. Until that point, we'd also had a team that didn't know how to lose.

Loads of decent managers were available when GJ left as I've said before.

Lummie - quite agree that changing manager doesn't always work, but can you really see Silly Milly being capable of taking us in the right direction, attracting good players and building up another head of steam, because I honestly can't.

 

I need to put my hands up to something guys, I have been playing Saturday football for the last season and have only taken in about 10 games in total under Millen, plus a few on the telly.

I cant honestly say if Millens style is awful, but I look at the situation and the results and I say he is keeping our head above water.

He knows what he needs, but he cant get them, he is stuck with an oversized wage bill and no transfer funds, I dont think we will get a man that will get us up with what we have. I dont think an extra CB will change that.

I put GJ down as a manager that lost the dressing room, and if he would have seen out the season culd have cleared out his trouble makers and rebuilt with the players he trusts then knowing who was the boss. We pulled the rug out on him when things started going wrong, and he left the club a hundred times better than when he found it.

My point being that over two years since GJ was future endevoured are we any better off?

 

In fairness to Silly Milly he has signed off the transfers of Stead, Pitman, Kilkenny, as well as bringing in Culker on loan. I would say he has proved very capable of picking a player and seeing it through.

He needs to be able to offer them better terms than our rivals though.

 

'and if he would have seen out the season' -
we would have been relegated.
So he wouldn't have
'left the club a hundred times better than when he found it' -
we'd have been back where we started, in League 1.

'My point being that over two years since GJ'
was sacked, he's been sacked again at Posh (who were then promoted) and is not setting the world on fire at Northampton.

Sorry Lummie, he did well to get us up but then after the 'bounce' factor waned he was found wanting.
Please don't start me on why the dressing room turned, the crazy 4 right footed CM, playing a Champions League player wide left to accommodate you know who, dropping Harts for you know who, coming to blows with players,Wembley - Marv at RB to accommodate........ do you want me to go on?

ps - And we're still paying £6k a week for that extended contract GJ gave you know who a few months before SL sacked him.
Criminal.