"We" as such did not. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas was not offered a new contact by the Manager. The Why's? For a club like Bristol Cit y a Jay Emmanuel-Thomas is expensive. Even when in form Mr Cotterill would omit him from the starting XI. His best position was playing off the front and there City had other options e.g Freeman. So Mr Cotterill chose to not to offer Jay another contract. Opinions are opinions. I personally would have kept him, and played him every week, but when he left there was no great chagrin, fans were happy with the less skillful status quo.
Talented without doubt. Scores goals for fun. Unlocks defences with ease. But only when he is in the mood. He can go a whole 90 minutes and you would not know he was on the pitch. Unfortunately, he is an expensive luxury at this time for a club like us. QPR, with their obscene parachute cash windfall, can afford to pay him a good salary for what will be a few moments of glory out of 46 league games.
One of the most expensive players on our books,worth the admission fee alone when on song,sadly that did not happen enough. fantastic skill,and can change a game.
Echo all of the above. A consistently performing JET with the talent he has would have been an England regular for many years but sadly his reputation follows him from club to club. If he was playing 100% of games for QPR it would be the same.
The laziest penalty-taking style in football! Loved him - and said we should have held onto him. Wouldn't swop him for Kodija though
England class when on song and in the mood. Other occasions you wouldn't know he was on the pitch- ability to change a game though- Thought he was great personally, but an expensive luxury for a club like ours
Typical of so many players today with the ideology that he will play his best only when he wants. Luxury only in his own mind.
its difficult to fault him to be quite honest hes quite lethal up front?? Hes doing welll up front. Far more effective dropping off than being up top which to be frank he looked v poor at for City. Scored more goals and had more assists per minutes on the pitch than anybody. Scored a brilliant individual goal last season v Crewe and was dropped for the next game summed it up that he would never be a Cotterill player no matter what he did.
His workrate on the eye initially gives cause for concern, he comes across as lazy but I think its just his languid style. I grew to like him and agree with others he was a game changer and could just simply do things others couldn't, he's a marmite player and you either accept what he does bring for what he doesn't or you go down a different road, as I said my opinion changed, but for a manager who is berating others for their workrate its a more difficult choice. I would have kept him.
We all love a skilful player be it Jacky J, Rodney M or Gazza but they are luxuries in some teams. I think it was Paul Jewel who summed him up perfectly by "one week you play like a world beater and the next a panel beater. I believe we got rid of him too early but clearly our manager had plans to sign other Championship better quality strikers and chose not to renew his contract. Unfortunately that did not happen. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Its the way he had to play. dont want him chasing round he had to play in spaces playing around the edges to be effective. Lot don't get that.
Like others said, on song I can't think of a better player too watch down here now for years. But sometimes he just didn't seem interested, call it his style etc. As to letting him go, if he reduced his wages I would of snapped him up straightaway. But rumours are that Ipswich was paying for part of his salary whilst with us and he wouldn't come into the wage structure to be offered a contract. Over the time his good times probably out weighed the bad performances. And I would expect him to get the same reception that Matt Smith got the other week when he returns. But if you are liking him that much, how about letting us have Austin for a few months in return please?
