Disastrous Season - Really?????!!!

I may be in the minority here, but I really don't get why this season has been perceived as being SO utterly terrible that die-hard, well respected regular dedicated lifelong fans have seen fit to throw in the towel!
I totally respect the decisions of those people by the way - its their choice - I just don't get it myself.
Really, has it been that bad?
Yes, there have been bad times - the longest run of defeats in our history was bad, letting go of a healthy lead on more than one occasion is bad, plus that 5-0 thumping at Preston was sickening - and I have suffered those hits along with everyone else. I was also calling for LJ to be replaced after the Cardiff home game.
But......
Over the years things have been MUCH worse for us City fans, surely? Definitely for me:
Relegation under Benny in 1999/2000 was far worse - after romping back up to the second tier under John Ward, but we were comprehensively dicked week in week out and were sent unceremoniously back to div 3 as whipping boys of the league. Although we didn't break any records, I bet we lost more games then than we did this season - I can't find the stats so I can't prove it.
The 'nothing' years between 2000 and 2007 were pretty dire to be honest, apart from a couple of flirts with the playoffs. It was DIV 3 FFS!!! - that's got to be worse than this?
We had our one 'golden' year under GJ, plus the following year wasn't too bad in hindsight - although it felt terrible because our expectations had been fuelled by the previous seasons 'glory' (we finished 10th), but since then we have endured some god-awful dire crap and our championship seasons since have all been relegation scraps.
In between GJ and Steve Cottrell we had some piss-poor managers too - the Coppout debacle, McInnes who turned down a £7m offer for Maynard - yet we lost him anyway to West Ham for less than £3m, relegation under the utterly DIRE SoD - all those were REAL bad seasons.
I enjoyed the 2014/15 season and will always be grateful to Cotts for giving us that - but it only got us back to the Championship - which we should not have left in the first place.
Some people think that Cotts should have had better financial backing and we should have stuck with him. Those people are forgetting (or ignoring) that SL authorised funds for our ridiculous failed £11m+ bids for Andre Gray and Dwight Gayle, plus a £2m bid for Bradley Dack. They are also forgetting that SC presided over a piss-poor run of just 4 wins in 28 games which left us firmly adrift in the relegation mire (I think we only entered the bottom 3 for 3 weeks this season). It wasn't only the results under Cotts, but the seeming indifference to them which pissed me off - Cotts stubbornly refused to change his formation, when 3-5-2 was clearly not working, then he would deploy his subs at the 89th minute when chasing the game. Bizarre incompetence for someone who masterminded our return to Div 2 so brilliantly the season before. It was right that he went.
Then there is LJ.
I didn't want him in the first place and I certainly wanted him gone when we were on the terrible run in the mid-season, but he didn't go and we recovered and survived. In the end we could even have lost to Brighton and still survived - meaning we are STILL IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP next season, after seeing a record crowd, with everything to play for once again. As for the money being spent; after you take into account the money that came INTO the club - particularly from the Kodjia and Bolasie sale, we actually made a PROFIT on transfers this season!
I have shared people's frustration with the board and LJ, but really; has the spin and ****e coming out of the board room been any worse/different this season than it has been before? I don't think so - look at the Coppout incident - or SoD and the '5 pillars' - or Maynard, or those strange offers for the strikers I mentioned above - or those rumours about an offer for a Hull defender - even the building of the new stadium and the formation of Bristol Sport - there is always something dubious being said or going on behind the scenes at our club, so sticking with LJ when he should have gone, or firing Pembs are just more of the same stuff which has been happening for decades at BS3.
Some people may call this post 'Happy Clappy' (or maybe something worse!) but I assure you I am neither happy nor clapping - I am simply comparing this season to seasons in the past and (to me anyway) compared to some of those it hasn't been as much of a disaster as some are saying it has been.
For me this season has been perhaps a stark reminder of where my own expectations should be set. I predicted we would be top 10, so by that measure this season has been a disappointment yes, but certainly not a disaster - ask a Blackburn, Wigan or Rotherham fan what a disastrous season looks like!!

Thanks for reading.

 

Nothing comes close to the 10 or so months under O'Driscoll... those were indeed dark days. 25 games without a win wasn't it? Struggling at the bottom of league 1. Deary me.

 

For me, a lot of the issues are because of what comes out of Lansdowns gob.

He talks like we are a Premiership team at times and bigs it up with how we'll be there soon, and challenging for a place in Europe etc etc. Then he counters that with totally contradictory statements saying that we wont splash the cash and such like. Well I'm able to tell him with a reasonable amount of certainty, that no matter how many Transfer Windows he bestows upon the luckiest Manager (to still have a job) in England, that we wont ever make it as things stand.

He has had countless opportunities to search for and employ Managers and/or Coaches who have the necessary credentials but has, predictably, chosen the cheap option.

I simply don't see us making any real headway other than either being a struggling Championship, or possibly a top 6 L1 club under Waldorf & Statler.

 

there is always something dubious being said or going on behind the scenes at our club,

Yes this is the worst season I have witnessed in my forty five years of watching BCFC. It has never been emphasised more that BCFC is not a club. The epitome of that is the head coach being in his role, his wastage of resources no other Manager/Coach was granted, being rewarded with an extended contract for failure for no other reason than he is a mate of the Lansdowns.

Mr Johnson is a nice enough bloke, but his tenure is comedy.

 

Any position outside the playoffs I fear LJ, would have had the same criticism. Worst season?? Not for me.. Blimey we're Bristol City, I'm used to failure with all the promises.. nothing new is it?
Compared to many managers we've had in the past I'm reasonably happy with him in charge. Intelligent, passionate, seems willing to learn and for someone that's only been a manager for a few years and in one of the toughest leagues in the world, I think the criticism he gets is way off the mark..
From a realistic happy clapper!!

 

Unlike some on here who predicted automatic promotion or a top 6 finish this season, my prediction was that we'd finish about half way.
So in that respect we have underachieved and we should have done a lot better.

Seeing clubs above us with less money/resources/infrastructure such as Brentford and Barnsley also says it all. Money is no guarantee in football and we all know that, but you cant sustain a team on a shoestring these days either.

 

Mr Johnsons spiel is simple coach speak. It could have been cut and pasted off some of the courses I have done myself.

I read one of his powerpoints full of bomb alleys, exit points, 6 second frenzies ... It the sort of thing I have written for eleven year olds. But here is the thing with all the players at his disposal he could not adhere to his own ideas. As one poster on here charmingly describes similar it was all bollocks.

 

You could say look at the teams below us, the likes of QPR, Birmingham, Florest and Blackburn.. who would have put them down there??

 

Something I have learnt from my many years in various aspects of football is this.

The team with the best players and manager will nearly always win the league they are playing in, its a very simple lesson and repeats itself right down through the pyramid even down to Bristol Manor Farm who won the Toostation Prem this year and will continue to repeat itself for years to come!

We don't have the best players and we certainly don't have the best manager..

And don't say.. Europe this, Prem football that, then 3 months later start complaining about how difficult it is to compete with all these big high spenders with parachute payments!

 

Problem is who are the best players and manager for this division, often we don't know until the end of the season.. can't really compare amateur to professional..

 

Don't need to compare.. as I said its a really easy lesson that filters through all standards of football from the Prem to the Bristol & District league.

You can kid yourself that this season has been better than others if you like, I cant agree, and again I say it.. You cant accuse me of not giving it every chance!

 

Bristol City are not renowned for having good seasons. I give every season a chance!! Think it's a normal fans optimism at the start of every campaign! Wouldn't accuse of anything Banksy!! I'm sure the discussion if LJ is the manager to take us forward won't end until he's either sacked for not taking us to champions league or another struggle in the championship!!!

 

Spot on, and I think we all know that we don't have the absolute best manager in the league, though to achieve that for a club our size is relatively difficult. I'm interested to see if you agree though, because I'd argue given our budget differences, our transfer policy last summer is the correct way to go about building one of the best squads.

 

In my book, we've managed to struggle in the championship before without LJ so it's no worse than all those occasions.
However, we have also been relegated on previous occasions - none of them under LJ, so this season was better than those.
I don't see LJ as saviour - far from it - I see him as clearing up a mess which he himself had a big hand in making (along with SL). However, I am pleased he DID clear it up in the end.

 

I just read some of the guff that Lansdown spouted about his lack of understanding of what it takes to compete in the Rugby Premiership and I asked myself as to where I had heard that before and I remembered that it is virtually the same as another sporting venture in which he is involved. And who said he wasn't using corporate waffle behind that smug grin?

 

This is just a small example of why they are slowly wearing me down as a club.

12pm KO on Sunday.. as most of you know I had a season in a corporate box this year and the experience wasn't the best to be honest. it certainly wasn't worth the money.

Anyhow this is how the mindset works at the club. the box serves us food at approx 10.30 am,, what would most guests like? some sort of breakfast items you would think, we get for example, lemon chicken and lentils, salads boiled potatoes gravy etc. its ok just inappropriate, I suppose. most boxes say to them "just do a breakfast" that would be fine.

So after a few attempts at asking them, that is what they did on Sunday, great they are listening!

However, you cant have any tea or coffee until half time!

Its not a big thing but its just multiples of 'half arsed' all the time and its throughout the club.

The 'you have to buy your season ticket now' scenario pisses me off as well.. they should sell ST's at the END of the season, not 3/4 of the way through, but they are taking advantage of 'fans' mentality knowing that groups etc are scared to death to lose 'their seat'..

 

I would agree Rob that we are now probably approaching things in more or less the correct manner. its just we don't seem to learn any lessons on the way. First its not enough kids and energy in the side its too many older 'journeyman' players picking up big wages, then its too many kids and not enough experience.. then its no leaders in the squad.. lets get some older players in..

Its an ongoing groundhog day and theres no one to say.. "hang on a moment, haven't we been here before"

I have had some experience of a psychobabble clipboard football manager in local football this year and Lee Johnson comes out of the same mould, impressive power points, on point tactics on a blackboard in the changing room, not a ****ing clue what to do when its falling apart on the pitch! There was a reason we kept losing leads against side we should have beaten last year, you only had to look at the manager who looked lost! Imagine what the players thought.

My prediction is the squad will be moulded in the image of our manager and we will be out muscled out of games next season, until he will have to find a balance.

Reactive not pro active as they say in 'business speak'..

 

Our highest finish in six seasons so a long way from a disastrous season. Just need a long winter break introduced so we only play in the Autumn and Spring

 

We began well and ended well

The middle section was hard to take - all those losses in a row

However there have been far worse seasons

Look this is what it is to be a Bristol City fan - isn't it?