A city as big as ours, We should be in the prem with perhaps rovers in the championship or even in the premier league with us. We can't blame it on investment as Lansdown has been great in backing the managers when they want a player, We spent just under 2 million on strikers this year and for once we are actually Very threatening. The defense isn't great, hasn't been since our first season in the championship and yet when you think about it not much has been done about it either. Since being in the championship, Johnson, Millen, Coppell and McInnes have all had the same objective to take us to the next level and for some reason we can't get there....... But why? To me its either the managers have not been good enough or the players, We cant fault our backing or the board? seriously what do they do to effect our game? How far are we away from the promised land and whats it going to take to get there? ( In this thread i am not having a go at McInnes, Just like to make myself clear )
Initial thoughts; Bristol as a whole does not seem to be too worried about sporting success within the city. Apart from 1906-11 and 1976-80 no football team in the top English division yet attendances at both throughout the 50's were as good as anywhere. Gloucestershire CC I think have never won the County Championship and continue to struggle apart from a very purple patch in the late 90's and early 2000's. Bristol Rugby, once a very well respected amateur club failed miserably to grasp the fact that rugby union was going professional while nearby villages (Bath and Gloucester) were fully professional even before it was legal. I'll put some more meat on these statements later after I've cooked dinner.
So far without doubt since the return to the championship GJ remains our most successful manager with the team he came up with. it then went sour, and Millen got us out the mire before Cop Out FOR WHATEVER REASON DID A RUNNER...into the breach popped Millen to rescue us, before losing the plot as manager, and giving way to Mcinnes... ....... The main things that seems to go wrong are:- Injuries to one or 2 key players WE DEPEND ON... Insufficient cover of like for like........ " strange substitutions/tactics/team selection " to varying degrees, all 3 main managers guilty of......... and "that slice of luck" deserting us I think all fans are BEHIND KEEPING A REGULAR TEAM, barring sickness , injury or suspension the team should "pick itself" a loss of form over a few games occasionally needing rectification. We do seem to have rather a lot of midfielders, we lack quality defenders and the 5-6 strikers available are close to being good championship quality.... Current starting team should be from:- Taylor Baldock Davies Woolford Adomah Pearson Skuse McManus Nyatanga Briggs Foster Wilson Carey playing 4-4-2 as injuries reconcile then adjust to suit...always play your strongest team...Woolford Adomah and Anderson ALL on the bench?
Some more random thoughts on Bristol City's failure to become a top league team during the last 60 years, with the exception of the Dicks days 76 to 80. One City chairman in the 1990's said in my presence and with other City fans there also; "We prefer to be at the top end of the Third Division than struggling in the Second Division. Because the smaller clubs in the south really do enjoy their day here as they are coming to play at what they consider to be a big club" In other words "We like being a big fish in a little pond" When City managed by Alan Dicks actually managed to get to the First Division, he was starved of funds to strengthen the team with First Division quality. In the first season he was able to sign Hunter, Cormack, Garland and then Royle the next season. After that for two and a half years a couple of Europeans Meyer and Jantunen, neither of whom were consistent enough for that league. Boardroom bickering continued throughout the four seasons we were up there. Attendance figures were manufactured downwards to save money on policing and stewarding and probably to line a few pockets among the senior admin staff. Dressing room disharmony appeared and became quite public in 1958 when Peter Doherty arrived as manager. That caused our relegation to Third Division in April 1960 and also almost caused us to go bankrupt because gates dropped disastrously in that season. How many times since then has it caused problems at City. I'm convinced that it has been an underlying factor in poor performances / achievement in the last 20 years. Probably during Osman's time, again with John Ward, and almost certainly during Millen's reign. Is it the reason why Coppell went so soon? And during the last twenty years also bad managerial appointments. Osman even if his team did win at Anfield, Ward who allegedly admitted after losing at Ipswich that he did not have a clue how to turn it around after having spent millions on strikers. So the Directors appointed Benny Lennartson and what a disaster that was. Tinnion and Millen proving if it needed proving that making the step up from being one of the lads to the boss, in any industry or commerce is difficult but pretty nigh impossible in the football world. I thought when McInnes came that he would sort out the dressing room and get rid of all the "idiots in the asylum" who nearly got us relegated in the last two seasons. But I am now wondering if it's a malaise that is so deep rooted at Bristol City, that he is finding it difficult to impose himself as he should be. The playing squad is definitely better than the results and his first month here, the last six or seven game at end of last season, plus the first two home games this season prove this beyond any shadow of doubt. And if I'm correct, then this dressing room power battle is stopping the progress of the ex Academy boys like Reid, Edwards, Holloway, James Wilson and did it also lead to Ribeiro being released. He only missed one match in two months last season at S c u nthorpe and now he's almost ever present there. I've followed City for 63 seasons and have a natural pessimism about our club. "Always believe - that if it can be ****ed up, Bristol City will" That pessimism leads me to believe that we'll be in League One next season unless a miracle happens. And remember well; It always takes us at least five years to go back up. Bristol City do not do instant promotions. PS; I do support Derek McInnes and his management team. I do not want them to leave Bristol City and I will never campaign for their removal. I've seen enough of their methods to believe in them.
Cider, I have to comment on that - signing the squad that got us promoted on lucrative 11 year, inflation proof contracts (with inflation running at 15-25% PER YEAR), probably hampered the clubs ability to make signings. Don't forget that all of those who you named above were coming to the end of their playing careers when they joined us so we probably got them RELATIVELY cheap with the "amended" attendances covering the signing on fees... As for now, whilst the City have had their ups and downs over the years whatever level we were at, we always had players who were mostly committed to the club and tried to play FOOTBALL to the best of their ability (whatever that was) up to GJ's appointment. I strongly disagree about him being the best manager at this club for many a year. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful that he got us out of League One however this act in itself directly contributed to the current malaise that we are in. This is because GJ made no secret that his main attribute was to get ok players to over perform and we saw this to good effect for a while but ok players cannot sustain a rasied level for more than a finite period of time and the beginning of the decline started as soon as the performance levels began to drop off. There is a saying that you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear" but goodness knows, we tried flogging the dead horse in the form of the squad for some considerable time, results went downhill and the harder they tried, the worse it got. We got some better quality players in but I can imagine that playing with in their eyes, "lesser grade" players and having a manager who promoted what must have been loony ideas to them could not have made for a good atmosphere and the dressing room must have been hell. Many people won't have it, but it is my firm opinion that without Nicky's quality and goals, we probably would have gone down a few years ago... Now we have DM at the helm and he is rebuilding the club from the bottom up and despite the current run, we have some better quality players and a very respectable strike force but the problem which started with GJ who did not have anyone in midfield who would take responsibility and make things happen, continues to this day. Under GJ and his successor, this led to the defence by-passing midfield, strikers eventually not even bothering to make runs as the only ball they got was a 60 yard punt and the midfield/wingers not crossing as they knew that the strikers and fellow midfielders wouldn't be in the box... In short, it was probably about as disfunctional football-wise as it could possibly get. Unfortunately midfield generals do not come cheap and as some have already said, you can't replace all of the team in one go so DM has clearly gone with the "we score more than you" principle however we desperately need to shake off the disfunctional hangover eminating from the remnants of the previous squad who will essentially revert to type as soon as things are not going so well and bring the rest down with them. Sounds horrible but the clear out of the old "scared" thought processes must be complete to re-shape the group mentality. We must break out of the instinct of our players to;- 1). stand back and let the opposition pass their way through us - we must learn to challenge (sensibly) 2). abdicate responsibility by getting rid of the ball - someone must take charge and get forward from midfield with the ball rather than just relying on the winger(s) to do it 3). get in a position to cross and then check back inside. Playing the ball early will encourage our strikers and midfielders to attack the ball/box rather than wait to see what happens (Marv being the notable exception to this) Fear of making mistakes is a big part of what debilitates some of our squad. We cannot afford to have "scared" footballers as the opposition will focus on this and take advantage. I've watched our youngsters a few times and although I haven't seen enough of them to say how good they are, they played a different (good) brand of football from the first team last time I saw them and most importantly, it was a brand without fear. The old squad has reached it's sell by date and frankly, I would like to see our good youngsters given a chance to develop...
Good post Premiership and a lot of good sense. I totally agree with the comments about giving our youngsters a chance. Get Joe Edwards back from Yeovil and he can play the midfield holding role and I for one can't wait to see Bobbie Reid starting a game. Joe Bryan on the left midfield would give us a more defensive edge that side, but he's quick enough to attack as well. And if James Wilson does not start this coming Saturday if he is fit, we'll all know there is something amiss at City. Just a further comment on the AD era. He did not put anyone on to an 8 or 11 year contract until the summer of 1979 after Collier left for Coventry as the first ever to move under freedom of contract with the fee decided by tribunal. If I remember correctly it was £325,000. AD's alleged response was "He's the last to leave this club without my permission" and promptly persuaded the board to agree to all the long contracts. Hunter also left in the summer of 79, Cormack only played four times and even Garland only 10 games without a goal. So we were back to the promotion squad plus Royle and a few really poor free transfer signings. so in 4 seasons "up there" we spent literally nothing on transfer fees. Hence our demise wasn't a surprise.
