I am worried by rumours about LM and our own Batman & Robin ( Dopey (JL ) & (Sleepy (BT) x2) but we must believe!!!
Next season will be the same as every championship season. Parachute money will, again, ruin any hope of a fair and level playing field. No doubt City will bring in a few players and, for some, hope will spring eternal. In reality we're wasting our time.
I think our first dozen games next season will be a test. I can see if we don't get the players required and we get off to a decent start Liam might be tempted elsewhere.
We need to improve the away performances and cut out the batterings we took at Blackburn, Derby and Portsmouth The trouble is that any finish below 6th next season would feel like failure Whether we deserved to be in the Playoffs or not, we’ve now set a very high bar for ourselves
with the very high standard of the top 3 +30 pts above 5th 14/ 20+ above 4th you have to wonder if certain teams decided that to get promoted might not be in their interest??? as the standard of their team has shown to be very very lacking. CITY HAS A SQUAD THAT CAN COMPETE with other [ above ] average teams as do around 6 others hence the in out swapping in the top 6th position throughout the season. my "games" thread showed the 6th place team only ever needing 70 points but by a week by week it showed a run of 1 team getting to fifth then dropping down, thus leaving 6th position on same average points as team in 6th climbs for a week or 2 then drops down.................... we thought there was a gap between top 3 [ 4 ] it isnt it is a GULF!
Noticed Wilder having a few words of congratulations to Knight after the game.....or did he ask for his agents phone number. I have to mention McCrorie's efforts these last few weeks. He's not blessed with immense skill, but his fight/belief/attitude is second to none. When Vyner (who played well) lost Moore for the goal McCrorie did his level best to make up the ground and challenge Moore, for me it just epitomises everything about McCrorie.
Think you find Knight-McCrorie-will be offered deals elsewhere be very surprised if they are here next season.
McCrorie is very willing but I’m not sure he’s got the quality to go any higher up the pyramid right now, Knight may be different but feel he needs to add goals and assists before he’s a target for higher clubs.
Possibly just paper talk…. We’ll see. It’ll be interesting to see the make up of the squad at the beginning of next season
He does seem to be having a bit of a dig at the powers to be, we all know how that normally ends. However it may just be his way of persuading them to give him as much as possible, we’ll see.
It seems that we go through the same old discussions every season in regards to what we will be next campaign and much as we would like to be involved in the choices that is left to supposedly more talented members of staff. Last summer ended up as a debacle and I am totally shocked that whoever was responsible is still employed by Bristol City after bringing in new players that were not close to Championship ready, including one who may never wear our shirt again. Why do we continue to hire players that are not up to snuff and then allow them to stick around, like Massengo, doing nothing to improve us? I too believe Manning may leave along with several players that have been decent for us which could leave us struggling to put a side together that can achieve what we did this time out. How many years is it now that we have been demanding a better quality goalie, scoring power up front and a decent mid-fielder or two without any of those issues even coming close to being sorted? When you have waited 17 years to make the play-offs again it hurts to see we broke a record for goals against in a play-off which frankly, despite all the accolades, was an embarrassment in itself. I truly can't see Lansdown (whichever one) splashing the cash and after the total waste of money last summer I don't expect him to change his strategy any time soon. Teams can only progress if they have commitment to the task and I really think that is where we have failed regularly throughout the last 15 or so years. Having said all that I am interested to see where we lay our chips this summer but we need to do way better in everything we do if we want to get back to the post-season matches next campaign. Mediocrity and apathy combined with being unable to hear the buzz of the supporters wanting more, which they got this season but with a proviso that we could have and should have put up more of a fight to prove their worth.
the whole situation cries out for clarity and honesty from above,manning has proved he can manage at this level and in doing that kept his side of the deal, now the question is do we back him further and if so to what extent, now if we dont i am pretty sure there are a few clubs out there that can afford to and are willing to take that gamble , your call mr landsdown
The problem is and I have watched city from a nipper to having STs for 20+ years consecutive. We have always had owners with small growth syndrome. Hence Bristol City have never really made a mark in the top flight. For me it is time for SL to sell and let someone or a company take city to the next level. Sadly I don’t see us doing that under the current owners. Yes we have a fantastic stadium but we need a fantastic team to fill it. I do wonder why SL won’t let it go clearly has no ambition to want to take the football club forward.
Be careful what you wish for, the gas thought their owner would take them to the promised land and look how that turned out!!
Why would you build a first class stadium alongside annual promises of wanting to be a Premiership club and then bring in players that will never get you there. The overall club structure has someone in the mix (pick who you want to fill the void) who holds us back just when we seem to be getting close to a settled proficient squad to take us to next season. I would expect a fairly large cull at Ashton Gate this summer, but I would not be surprised to see way too many of the players being retained despite their individual shortcomings. The problem with a major axing is that you now have to fill in the blanks and that's where we generally fall apart and bring in bodies rather than talent that has good history. Sorry Max but I don't think you have shown yet that the number one spot is yours for the asking because you need to get better to deserve that esteemed position.
The thing with Max, is he’s proficient and relatively inexpensive, as you rightly say there are others that need moving on and need replacing and we already have a small squad, therefore I think any money we have would be more wisely spent on improving the size and quality of the squad, whilst bringing in genuine competition for Max rather than the cost of a replacement.
