After our all to brief stay in the old 1st Division from 1976-1980 I've constantly moaned that a city of our size, fan base, billionaire owner etc should not only be a permanent member of the elite league, but should be a top half side pushing for honours. But I've thought about this a lot and have now recalibrated my expectations downwards. After the Covid issues, regular changes of Manager, the 5 Pillars of Nonsense etc, and the poor decisions at the top of the club as to how it's run and the lack of ambition shown over the last 15 years or so, I truly think we are where we deserve to be, and I can't see it changing anytime soon. At the start of this season the likes of Blackpool for instance would have happily settled for survival. But they, and others such as Luton have flourished while we stagnate, and while we have players that don't seem to care, we have also surrendered 23 points (so I'm told) from winning positions etc. The clubs that have the parachute payments will continue to do well when they get relegated from the Prem, and there are just too many good teams above us is the way I see it. I genuinely want Nige to do well and right all the wrongs, but I just can't see it happening under him, or anyone else. Despite the beauty of the city itself, we're always considered a backwater and unglamorous club when trying to attract better players, and maybe that's also true. Depressing isn't it ?
You've hit the nail, we are a medium/ small club, I think with the stadium rebuild, all the hype of the MA/LJ period, a lot of us imagined we were on the way up, we never could achieve the necessary and now we are going through the harsh, adjustment period of contraction, hard pill to swallow but that is fact. We are broke, we have little reserves, we are just part of Bristol Sports, we don't even own the football stadium, we just share it, the quicker we all realise the downturn we are suffering from the quicker we can deal with it and start to improve. Anyway we can always dream.
I know I sound like a broken record having said it so many times before, but we had our best ever chance since 1976 back in 2008 and we blew it by not investing in quality players, (or even loanees), to get us over the line when we were top of the league in the February.
'we have also surrendered 23 points (so I'm told) from winning positions etc....' That was the case when we played Fulham. The count will be higher now. There are a few unavoidable truths that we all need to bear in mind; 1. We won't make the Prem with the current group of players. Some people brand them as 'rubbish', others disagree, but they are NOT going to take us to the promised land. 2. We can't go spending money on new players until we shift some out to make way for them. Palmer and Wells are the obvious examples now that Simpson has (thankfully) gone. However, people need to bear in mind that decent players cost money - lots of it - and there is no guarantee that Nigel (or anyone else) will be able to get a tune from them if they DO arrive - look at how many strikers in particular we have 'de-skilled' as soon as they pull on the shirt. 3. EVERY club in this league, plus the Prem and leagues 1 and 2 will be scouring the market for untapped talent. EVERYONE wants to find a cheap wonderkid to fulfil their dreams. Be in absolutely no doubt that a kid with talent would rather sit on the bench at Burnley or Watford than come to us. We will be feeding from the scraps that struggling Prem sides throw away - and we will be fighting other Championship sides for them too. Anyone seen the film The Platform? Football is similar in many ways: (423) The Platform | Main Trailer | Netflix - YouTube 4. Pearson MAY NOT BE THE ANSWER. He did well for Leicester its true, and Watford before they sacked him, but remember that Phil Brown did well for Hull, Houghton for Brighton and Danny Wilson did well for Barnsley. NP made a (good) name for himself for his Leicester work, but that might turn out to be a 'one-off'. Don't pin your hopes on him spending wisely either - he brought in Simpson when money was very tight - so we might end up with an expensive squad of Simpsons.
1) Agreed 2) True, but as I put in another post last week, no one at Championship level is going to want the likes of Wells and teams in L1 or L2 won't be able to afford his wages, so it's a potential stalemate. 3) Agreed again. Football, now more than ever is just about money. 4) As the saying goes, you can't polish a turd. Given that Nige has brought in a few kids this season, they've generally done pretty well under the circumstances. Our lack of concentration in the last 5-10 minutes of games is one key area that he HAS to improve us in and very soon. He doesn't pull any punches and it wouldn't surprise me if Nige tells the Lansdowns where to stick their job if they start trotting out the 'we've under delivered' crap again, and few will blame him if he does. And then the saga will start all over again.
, god I hope not. That really is depressing, a team full of Simpson quality players, doesn’t even bare thinking about.
I think we all imagined we were on the way up, and as i have said many times life is straight line it is as it is / was. No amount of only If's .... will change it, we will never know what the path may have had in store for us had Covid never come along ...... [ which basically is the point it did all start ... Brownhill leaving apart .. that was the final point of degradation .. [covid ] What can be said? Hey Nige what a fantastic season you have just had ... brought in Simpson, CF, plus a couple players that have spent more match time off the the pitch than on it, had a dogged attitude of encouragement, that is, make a mistake then sorry you are replaced or sent out on loan, Oh amazingly tried round pegs in square holes, did because of injuries get to play the youth. Had some of the most unlucky runs of results in the past 10 years, managed to keep us above the relegation zone, benefitting from teams playing worse than us ...just ... and having points deducted, internal wranglings to get your own backroom staff saw 2 coach's leave [ forced out ] ... and with just 6 games to go we managed to ........... get 12 points.... managed to get 7 points.... managed to avoid relegation ...... Yea it will be hard to say nothing about under achieving ...............
To be quite frank he called them out not long ago.He knows what a **** show has been going on -hence for me it's so refreshing for our manager to speak as he sees it-not like the others saying yes sir-no sir.
I'm suggesting that the Lansdowns are still as removed from actual football reality as per the previous comment from Lansdown Junior, which Nige, rightly in my opinion, took exception to and called him out on which didn't go down well. Good work says I !!!! Tell them the home truths that have been needed to be aired for 15 years or more. And yes I agree that we've been fortunate to have the likes of Derby and Reading deducted a shed load of points between them, otherwise we could well be a couple of places lower in the table or even in the bottom 3 had Barnsley not had such a disastrous start to the season. Peterborough were going to get relegated as soon as they got promoted. The whole culture at City has been partly developed and wholly overseen by the owner, and for me, that is where the buck stops.
I have to say RR, why his contract was extended to this year I’ll never know, personally I don’t think he should have come here at all. Not one of NP’s best decisions.
I liken our situation as to where we wouldn't even mind being a bridesmaid rather than the bride once in a while but regrettably we seem to be the distant relative that gets left off the invitation list just because of who we are. The commitment was back in that year when we did have a chance of going to the reception but someone decided that we probably wouldn't like it anyway so we declined the invitation by not buying new clothes. I can remember asking myself why the hell we didn't go for it by getting ready in the transfer window and the subsequent years have proven that it was all a mirage hidden behind closed doors masked in mysterious decisions. The plain truth is we will never get to where our owner says he wants us to be, and it's all down to him I'm afraid. Our future is bound by our owner so I expect exactly the same from him for the time I have left never to see any glory which makes me think supporting Bristol City is a waste of time and energy. What a shame but angelic hit it firmly on the head.
I agree, we’ll still support them though won’t we? , if all we were interested in was supporting a successful team we wouldn’t support City in the first place.
