LJ was sacked in July 2020 just before the end of the 2019-20 season. Since then we have shed, or re-financed (Wells) our big earners from that era (apart from Weimann I believe?) plus we've sold Semenyo and Scott for BIG money. Bristol City has now had 3 complete seasons to recover 'credit' with FFP and get our finances in order. Nige should have a clean financial sheet now to do business with. Whatever our views were on the LJ era - particularly the finances - we can't keep pleading poverty and blaming LJ/Ashton for ever. We're now into the 4th season without them.
What I meant was that despite the relatively huge sums of money we've got for the likes of Scott and Semenyo and and getting rid of the bigger wages of Kalas, we've basically bought the level of player that will hopefully only see us survive. We won't be troubling the top 6 with the squad we have, and it will be an achievement and a half to even trouble the top half of the table. I'm sure fans might have expected us to be more competitive and be able to buy a couple of proven Championship players given the funds that have come in.
Not necessarily agreeing but having to accept it-Nige still has his hands tied behind his back and the funds generated have not gone back into the pot.
Same old excuses RR, he’s been buying players and you’ve been excited by them, often saying how well we will do with Nige at the helm.. I’m not sure even if he had an open cheque book he would know what to do with it, the signings he’s made since he’s been here have not exactly set the world alight.. He’s had time to assemble a team that should be all singing from the same hymn sheet with the players we have..
We were told we didn’t need to sale Semenyo or Scott, but we did, we know Scott at least was sold without NP’s input. To say they’re NP’s choices is a bit disingenuous, I’m sure he’d have preferred to keep them, I’m also sure having sold them he would’ve preferred to use more of the money generated. You say he’d have agreed to stick to the wage ceiling, how do you know he did, what choice would he have had if he didn’t ?. Like I said I believe he’s been hung out to dry.
We have willing runners, we have grafters.at present we don’t have enough quality, they may develop into quality, but at the level we’re buying from they won’t be championship quality straight away, the problem is as soon as they are we sell them. Only to start the process again. You can’t blame NP for that. Bottom line in the last year we’ve sold £35m worth of player, and our best striker is injured for months. What do you expect?
You are still not getting it are you? The funds we received from both AS’s has gone into paying the deficit of the accounts. We have money for signing players what we don’t have is funds to pay wages as Nige and SL along with either Gould or Alexander set to prevent us spiralling out of control again. Nige would have been part of those talks and all agreed on a ceiling. The issue we have is both AS’s were not on the higher earnings in the club so to replace them on their wages is the issue. I would have expected both being coming from youth on £3-5k a week.
Hard work and having a team of 11 grafters can only achieve so much. If that's survival then so be it. But unless you can blend quality and skill with a few grafters for an engine room, then you'll only ever be making up the numbers and be able to go so far, and for me, that's all we're doing at the moment. The only exception I can think of in recent years is Luton Town.
Didn’t need to sell them? Neither was signing a new contract and both would have left for free then. And if you believe that Nige didn’t know about Scott going then you are daft. They set a limit of £25 million and it would not have been concluded during 90 minutes v Oxford.
Financially I meant we didn’t need to sell them we were told, therefore being that we did, and generated £35m in the process why are we now in the position of buying L1 hopefuls?. As I said we’ve sold £35m worth of players, and not replaced them, and our best striker is injured for months and we are told there’s no room for anymore, What do you expect, top 10? , if NP manages that he’s a miracle worker. We have money but aren’t willing to spend it. it wasn’t that long ago we were told there’s plan A if Scott stays, and plan B if he doesn’t . It seems plan B has been scrapped. I fear Come Jan we’re likely going to have a choice, use some of it , or get relegated .
He also has Aldi expectations compared to the previous regime, Nige, as far as I'm aware hasn't been told top 6 or you're out.
He was the here 4 years, obviously that wasn’t he case else he’d have gone before, my understanding was the need to improve year on year. What are the expectations for NP this year? , I thought it was top 10, that’s not much less than was expected of LJ. If he manages that with this squad, mostly cast offs and L1 hopefuls he deserves a medal.
But SL said funds generated from sales would be given back to the manager to improve his squad. Clearly not happening. If wages are the supposed issue why was there a offer for Kalas on the table not taken up. I would have no issue wells-weimann-williams-vyner being sold. That would free up wages big time.
