Despite the success of our first season in the championship, which quite frankly was acheived only as other contenders fell at the same time as us, City have fallen of the radar in all aspects. The new stadium debacle seems to go on forever, and if we continue in the current vein it won't be needed because we will be ground sharing with Rovers in theirs! Our inabilty to attract the right manager and new players sums up a situation that we dare not mention and that is that we can no longer compete at this level. Not competing is plainly obvious right now, but just look back over the last few seasons and tell me that it has been better. I believe that the Coppell saga was more involved than we will ever know because since then our fill-in manager has done very little, if anything, to build a better team. Look at the quality players that joined our competitors during the summer and ask yourselves why we were not in contention. Perhaps if we had a leadership capable of being innovative and forward thinking to attract decent players on permanent contracts to AG we might stand a chance. The NM situation is a great example of poor decision making because we all know he wants better football (that alone should give you all a clue as to the respect KM gets). I have no idea what he has been offered but surely a 3 year contract with a get out at certain stages if someone comes for him would fit the bill. I continue to see total apathy from all our leaders and I don't think we have the financial ability to sign anyone. Should the decline in results and attendances continue at this alarming rate I have a sneaking suspicion that we could end up in serious problems with the league and you all know what I mean. Take a serious look at all that's happening, or not happening, at Ashton Gate and you may come to the same conclusions as myself. I really hope I'm wrong.
The problem is Mike that we lost £11m last year - don't think that's a sign of apathy on SL's part?? Simple economics, we have to ship some out before getting too many in. The team (and I conceed possibly team manangement) do need an overhaul, but we have to live within our means, in a league where many other clubs have serious cash
If I am correct several million of our debt is due to the new stadium legal fees, I actually think this new stadium has caused us to be in the situation we are in now! our board for the last 2 or so years have concentrated on the new stadium and have let the football club side of the business fall behind.
Right on the money but my point is that unless the issues are handled soon our bottom line will just get worse. SL has always said that the team has to be self sufficient without him dipping in to his own pocket to finance new players etc, but I see us as being a long way from that scenario. You are absolutely correct in saying that we need to get rid of some of the driftwood but it's down to the current management for bringing these so called better players in the first place. Quite honestly I don't know that I have the answers to solve our problems but it needs to be addressed soon otherwise the situation will only get worse. Like most other supporters I want to see something positive from our management, a thing that has been sadly lacking for some time. The supporters will only react positively when they see an attempt to rectify our current situation, a thing that hasn't happened in quite a while.
