We all know that we are where we are through a combination of errors, mis-management and poor decisions but that is history now... Those in charge at the club are taking a battering with some justification although I do not agree with ALL of the critism HOWEVER the one thing that some people on this board seem to forget is that the series of decisions that led us here, has cost our owner £43m (I think) so far and if anyone feels they want to reimburse him and can do better, feel free to carry on... Cue accusations of the club being SL's play thing and how he taken it away from the fans and ruined it, etc, etc. I don't know SL but I DO know someone who worked for him personally and if you are prepared to accept third hand info, it is very clear that he is a proper City fan whose aim is for the club to succeed. Clearly things didn't go to plan but the harsh reality of the situation is that if the club is to achieve what we all want, which is success and the ultimate goal, that we need his investment as AG cannot sustain the wages of top quality (or clearly even average) Championship footballers, never mind Premier League, puzzlingly, this is still not accepted by some. Anyway the point of this thread is not to defend the club, the recent rows over the kit, the pre season tour and the stadium redevelopment just go to show that they still have work to do on the PR front however most of you will have been in business and therefore already know that you will never achieve diddly squat if you try and run anything by committee. Someone always has to make a final decision and if there is one 100% certainty in life, it is that there will always be those who don't agree with any choice... So lets' not re-hash the past ad infinitum and look forward to July when things will finally start happening...
To be brutally honest Prem I don't think there is a single poster on this site that didn't know that we were living beyond our means and that crunch time was fast approaching, and here it is in all it's glory. Huge mistakes were made at every level of Bristol City and that is what led us down to League One and most, if not all, of the rancour exhibited on Not606 has been based on the inability of our club to get anything right. Nothing has changed and until the error of our ways has been righted to the satisfaction of the supporters then you must expect that kind of anger to show it's face on this site. Regrettably we can't turn back the clock and have to live in the moment that we have created for ourselves and I am in total agreement with your comments, however to expect the negativity to disappear all together is a bit of wishful thinking. You must surely realise that until the new commitment to success reveals itself in a visible format then dissatisfaction will continue to rear it's head on this site. Like most others there is nothing more that I wish for than for Bristol City to rise again and show the footballing world that we are a force to be reckoned with - amen and hallelujah!
So what will you be doing to organise positive support of the team? Posting on and critisising others telling them they are not green isn't it, coating the players off isn't it either. Me? Not sure. One way of creating positive support of the team is for the club to sharpen up its act off the pitch. Get people on board and so far the vision, the pillars isn't it.
I think he means the Vision video and the stuff about the five pilars needs to be more than a nice video and words before he believes the club is changing just being a bit sceptical I think, I hope the changes we have seen ie S O'D and Pemberton and the introduction of Burt as DoF show the club is trying to change and perhaps we need to give them a little leeway. However I do think they should be giving a little more information to the supporters about what is going on at Ashton Gate such as who are these two keepers coming on trial if it is decided why not tell us?
I agree a lot with 3 Lions, to put it simply, I think he is saying, the club should listen and be influenced by the fans culture more and not vice a versa, commercial decisions on structure and design are made, implemented then the fans are asked for imput in the latter stages, that is not democracy, in my opinion..
Yet again I failed to win the Lotto so I don't have the money to influence the City board but I'll keep trying.
Pretty simple stuff really mate. I will probably again involve myself in a fans project ( don't know what it is mind) in future in some way. Some of these things do create a positive feel but the club themselves and fans can do more. This vision and pillars already looks like the emporers new clothes. It is just words already. The negative crap as one puts it doesn't have to be negative it could also be looked upon as constructive. If you are going to criticise have something ready to back it up with, fans often have there.
It's understandable to see so much negativity. We're relegated after several poor seasons. We have one of the richest owners in the country, yet we're counting the pennies. The board came out mere weeks ago with promises, regarding transparency and a vision, and they're already breaking them. We've been waiting for ages to move into a brand-new stadium, and it now looks like it's not happening after so many years of pain. The fans see the same problems the squad has had for the best part of half a decade, and we literally cannot get rid of some players. We set up a stupid pre-season tour for Botswana, and we couldn't even get that right so next season we'll have another stupid pre-season tour... That being said, the season is over and we're scrambling to find things to talk about at the moment. All we have is the negativity. Once the pre-season tour starts up, and we've seen a few more signings come through the door the fans will feel far more optimistic about our changes. For the first time in a while we're in a league that matches our current level, and for once we can probably expect a successful campaign.
Have to agree with Prem. Two signings, academy status 2, those are positives, and a club that does consult with it's fans, maybe not as much as most would like, but a lot more than many clubs, so I think we are now going in the right direction. As for the ground, I'm sure SL would have been happy to be installed in Ashton Vale at present, but couldn't have foreseen the problems/objections/nimbi's etc. and a strange decision re town/village green. Hey I'm normally a pessimist (40+ years supporting City hasn't helped) but am feeling positive about next season. OK so my rose colours glasses may get broken and trampled into the dirt, but until that happens I'm staying positive.
The point made by most posters on this thread appears to be that they are more than willing to get behind the club but only when they prove to the supporters that they mean business and prove it in a meaningful manner. As yet that definitely has not been done and the errors over the last 4 years has come back to haunt the management in a bad way. I really believe that most of us are extremely skeptical about anything coming out of Ashton Gate because we've heard it all before and look where that has taken us. The promises and commitment voiced from the boardroom has fallen flat which leads me to believe that like myself the current press releases carry very little hope and only when we see the results in the early part of next season will we come back completely to the positive side of the fence. Not one of us wants the club to fail otherwise we wouldn't be Bristol City supporters and when the future looks as if it is brightening up then we will be there, and let's hope that this time we can get things right and move onwards and upwards.
Maybe you would like to define what you mean by "move on"? End of last season I can recall yourself being critical of players. Was that not negative crap to othets? Fans meanwhile tried to galvanise support. Some of the best supported, and most vibrant clubs in the world are ran by what you would consider to be commitees.
I totally accept that I was one of those coating off the players last year, no doubt about it. But there again, it was a period of extreme angst and vexation for pretty much everyone due to last years frustrations and there were few who didn't have their 4 pence worth on the subject.. What I am saying is that SoD is trying to change the age, the shape, the complete mentality of the team and the club is massively revamping the accademy (or whatever it is called) So, for all the current faltering, I do believe that the board want to change and improve their relationship with the fans but this is where I said they need some help as I genuinely feel that they don't quite know how. So far, all I have seen are reactions to the commentary on this board and no doubt, similar on OTIB, etc. The club needs to take even bigger steps to liaise with us and the fans parliament is perhaps the best way to do this however the only way for this to work properly and be effective is for us to accept that the parliament does represent us and our views but the most frequent comment I see on here is "who are these people", who gave the feedback on the shirts, the stadium, etc I am happy enough to give kudos to anyone who is prepared to put the time and effort into representing us but I feel that to be truely effective, the parliament needs much more visibility so people can relate to the members. A bit of work on this subject would reap big dividends and meanwhile, there is little point in micro analysing and bashing every single thing the club does. Instead, it might a good idea to adopt the maxim my old boss used to say to me in my early career which was don't just bring me the problem, bring me the solution as well. This was a massive learning curve for me and taught me to solve problems on my own which means I still have a job when quite a few of my former colleagues don't...
