Almost down to the wire now and the start of the new season is very close at hand, so what are your opinions as to what might happen. The player roster has changed somewhat but yet we still have some of the excess from previous seasons that let us down and got us in this mess. Are we anywhere close to meeting the restrictions of the FFP and if not how much further must we go to ensure that wages don't outstrip the revenues. It looks like some other players might be moved out this week and would that mean that we could be signing new players and who could they be? I haven't been too impressed by our pre-season results but they generally don't mean too much in the overall scheme of things do they? We must also consider that our new competitors have also been doing their best to meet the rigours of the approaching season and I wonder if we have done any better than the usual suspects. The last thing I want to do is to get on a negative vibe without seeing the evidence of our rebuild come to fruition but I think that we may have a bigger struggle on our hands then many of us believe to be the case. It would be right to think that failure this season can not be an option because the long term knock on would be devastating, so at the present time we just sit back and hope that SOD has the footballing nuance to finally get it right after so many seasons of mediocrity and lack of commitment from most everything concerned with Bristol City. Good luck everyone and I may be off this site for a while because it is looking positive that we are moving to Vancouver Island soon. Hope my positivity rubs off on Ashton Gate.
Bristol City 2013/2014 season League 1 Promotion 2nd round of the Capital Cup 3rd round of the FA Cup QF of the JPT
This Australia thing has really got you on a high Shiny - will we have to call you Bruce when you move?
Top 6 finish, but not automatic promotion Knocked out of every cup in the first round. SInce when do we have a run in the FA or League cup and the Tin Pot Trophy is exactly that
Getting a decent side together now, question is how many more leave and can come in and how long it will take time to gel- For that reason, I can see a slow start, fans getting frustrated but after about 10 games, a good level of improvement, getting up into the top half of the table and eventually challenging in or around the play offs. As far as cups are conerned, in the last few years we have been clueless and that type of bad run has to stop sooner or later. How far we go does depend on who we get but isnt it about time we pulled a big one out of the hat? I think SOD will stay for at least a couple of seasons, I do not see any pressure being put on him whilst the side develops and hopefully this will be good for the long term-
I thought we'd be mid-table, but to be honest after the pre-season we've had I'm worried that it could be a bad season for us. A part of me thinks we'll be around 12-18th in the table come Christmas, and that after a run of several losses we'll end up sacking SOD and hiring either a relative unknown or putting Brian Tinnion back in the hot seat, repeating the cycle. We'll then hear about how the wage budget is too high, how we've exhausted the transfer budget and we'll go from there.
I can see some fans being flustrated and yes Sean will be stubborn he will want to get the team playing keepball football before expansive football because he believes in getting the basics right first something our club has not done for many a long year. Those of us with long enough memories can remember how long it took Alan Dicks to get it right at BS3 and how close he came to getting the sack before he built the side that took us up. I hope it does not take Sean as long to change the team as it took Alan but at least once things start changing we have an owner who will support him in whatever he needs to move to the next level.
I remember, but to put it in context, let's not forget that AD was running a Championship team, not a third division outfit that SOD has created today. Therefore the expectation is higher and the results are expected much quicker.
Why do we keep saying it took AD years to produce a team, then want managers sacked when things don't right for us. The clamour to get McInnes sacked just after a year shows that we are not the most patient of fans, true he lost the plot with tinkering all the time but I'm just using him as an example. We need to let SoD have at least 2 full years (unless he threatens to take us down this season that is) to build a team. As long as I can see an improvement on the pitch then I'm happy. All this bollocks about bad players like Fontaine who was almost sold for a million being our problem. If SoD is the manager a few shout about like he should have a G not a S in his name, why can't he get players like Fontaine to return to his best? I do wonder how long it will take some, who claimed we were in good hands early last season and we were dark horses for the play offs, to start calling for his head.
Things have changed a lot in football since the days of Alan Dicks. The media and money situations were nothing like they are today and aside from Jimmy Hill and the minimal wage, player power was almost unheard of. Even for a modest club like City the sheer amount of money it now takes to assemble and pay a squad of players, a backroom team, stadium staff and upkeep, transport, caterers and a thousand other expenses, then rightly people expect a quicker return on their money than they would have 40 years ago. SOD has been around and presumably is no fool, so he will know that expectations are high for a club of this size in a league this low.
For some reason there was a massive level of expectation when Alan Dicks took over I think because he came from Coventry with Jimmy Hills massive endorsement but I seem to remember he struggled for the first 4 years an for at least 2 or perhaps 3 of them we were flirting with relegation. Just looked up the league positions season 1.19th season 2.16th season 3.14th season 4.19th season 5...8th season 6...5th season 7.16th season 8...5th season 9...2nd season10.18th season11.17th season12.13th season13.20th this was the year I left Bristol. We drew the first game against Leeds Utd 2-2, Lost the second against Coventry away not sure of the score as I missed that game, then our first win of the season 2-0 away to Aston Villa, I left after the 4th match of the season a 2-0 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers which took us to 6th place, just found an old diary, don't know why but I thought it was Sunderland but they were not in the top division in those days. I actually thought it was going to be a good season for us we had improved a little each year 18th 17th 13th so we were hoping for a top ten finish.
I think we'll see a midtable finish, with a significantly improved performance in cup competitions. This season is all about the rebuild, and the fickle nature of a vocal few can not be allowed to derail that
Somewhere between 4th and 10th - a year of re-building (good start made with the signings). SoD has made hints about playing without fear and keeping the ball - think we may see some better football. Cups (including JPT or whatever it's called now) will be treated seriously as they generate revenue - important for FPP etc.
The season before we got to the old first division was a relegation battle as I remember, as we finished in the bottom 6 Not that much has changed, its stil a thin dividing line between success and failure, and very often the difference is in attention to detail. Both Cloughy and Sir Matt used to insist on players arriving at grounds in their club suits, as did Revie and Shanks. Attention to detail and instilling a sense of pride and self-worth in the players, like they are somewhere that others would like to be, not in a cage being pelted with rotten eggs I think we will get up via the play-offs after a rough old start. I think we will get dumped out of the Carling (or whatever) Cup but have a run to the 5th round of the FA Cup. Its about time. I think the fans will be calling for SOD's head by October, but he will pull it round and surprise us all (I am a natural optimist) There ya go RP - more pearls all over ya face
I noticed that in Rugby if your not playing you wear your full club jacket and tie, footballers always seem to be in their casuals or training kit.
