With football team fans throughout all league levels wanting immediate results and success these days, I’m curious to see where Bristol City fans envision our club being in 10 years. When do you think this ‘instant results’ and ‘quick success’ ideology began? When I was growing up in the 90s, I remember Russell Osman being sacked, I don’t ever remember thinking “wow, a new manager, here’s our chance at Bristol City becoming a top of the table contender next season”. I always thought it would take a couple of years to get going. For me, the more ‘instant success’ era began with Mourinho. With Zola being my football idol growing up (and still is), I was an admirer of Chelsea, and I loved the new look and arrogance Mourinho brought to English football. Obviously he was a massive hit right away and in my opinion, thats when I think this, ‘new manager, unprecedented success’ mentality marched into the game. With the amount of money that is in football now, I get it, but I can’t think of anyone who has been allowed to build a dynasty the way people like Clough or Ferguson managed to do. So with all that said, given our very long history of bang average coaches and outright awful managers since Russell Osman (with a few bright seasons under GJ and Cotterill), where do you realistically see our club in ten years?
The sad reality is that our club under the current ownership is that we are a selling club and probably won’t get success on the current track Under Lansdown the stadium and facilities are top class compared to how the ground looked when I first started going in the late 60s But I think he’s happy with being an also ran So in the next 10 years I’d hope for new ownership with a genuine ambition to get the club into the top flight and keep it there Obviously we’ve seen poor ownership come into many clubs like Cardiff and Blackburn which has caused issues with the fan base, so I’d hope to avoid that
I hope the FC, Ashton Gate and the training ground are under new ownership. When do you think this ‘instant results’ and ‘quick success’ ideology began? From the late nineties there was a shift in how football clubs here are owned. This shift brought a differing culture more in line with Europe, where quick turn over of head coaches/Managers was a norm.
Taking the ten years or so, even back to wembglee loss, and the promotion and cup win It has been a road strewn with mines [ booooom !] ! the nasty contriving people of Long Ashton were the first one! The plan set out then was one of a new era for BRISTOL CITY football club [ Bristol in particular ] Stadium and everything that went with it hotel etc etc . became a pipe dream and then it meant restricted gates whilst new stadium appeared from skeleton that was "the old Ashton Gate" loss of income in many forms! Bristol City council was next stumbling block as the " long ashton dream" was transferred to AG... AND NUMEROUS pernickety BCC [ council ] objections delay that side of the enterprise to this day [ ref JL in interview "we are getting there" ] a major loss of income being dragged out. DIFFICULTY... covers most of the decisions, and that was reflected in the "5 pillars" reappraisals from time to time over about the last 7 -8 years. all leading to needing refinancing and cash injections to stay bouyant. SL has a couple knockers on here that try to soften the " he dosent have a clue gets it wrong etc etc" by stating but he he has .............. ! Imagine, we had an owner that didnt pay for our ground improvement [ and hadnt been willing to foot the bill for a LA stadium complex or instead funded the Training ground and the AG refurbishment ] BY taking out loans! to do the work........... the WHOLE COUNTRY business wise suffered at the hands of the Pandemic, I know 2 ventures that had began plans to establish themselves by investment and expansion that suddenly found committed to it they had no or a very limited income stream much like BCFC both still in business but never expanded and owe a lot of money................ so BCFC not unique. A selling club, yep most are!... but the "pillars plan" was not to sell off the cream... it was to bring on and bring in youngsters to our academy have a supply of on going talent ant and sell off the lesser talented to fund bringing in others .. the Covid losses unfortunately was a contributor to that failure [ partial failure ] It is not the last 10 years we need to dwell on it is what happens going forward........ the truth on replacing NP may never be truly known ... but we have a new manager now and the first half v Norwich about to start ..... onwards and upwards!
To be honest, if we are still in the Championship, and are an established top half/10 team, then maybe that is our level, and I’d be quite happy? It’s certainly a better picture than we ever had through the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s.
In 10 years? Bopping around in the Championship dreaming of promotion but never achieving it. Highlights: a couple of heroic cup defeats to top prem sides, gaining some nice complimentary words from top world famous managers who probably had to google us to work out who we were. that’s the happy path. The sad path is us back in League 1 after some dire recruitment
That is the worst case scenario we need to avoid, I would be over the moon with top division football [ prem ] but should we trawl along the bottom of championship then I would not go happy ! Next 10 years heaven forbid we flaunt with top top 6 and become a nearly nearly team I would take that.
I think that NP did a fine job and did as was asked and got rid of a load of players and reduced the wage bill [ any manager we had could have done the same ] I believe there became a parting of the ways somewhere after the start of the season between NP and the heirarchy ... that led to his dismisal .. I think the injuries and lack of players available meant results became difficult. NP 's mindset ? is that he likes to see players burn out on the day but have a rotational ability to rest them, either subbing / on bench / not in match day squad/ time off to recuperate/etc this fell foul of the heirarchy prospects of training hard playing hard and that NP WAS NOT a manager but a coach ... managers tend to delegate! .............so C R A S H ..........................
