BRISTOL CITY: Manager's job is NOT up for discussion insists Robins owner Steve Lansdown. By a_stockhausen | BRISTOL City owner Steve Lansdown says the manager's position at Ashton Gate is not up for discussion. The billionaire businessman admits he would like to see the Robins doing better in the Championship this season, but disagrees with fans who feel manager Steve Cotterill's time at the club has run its course. Responding to questions posed by the BBC prior to yesterday's home game against Queens Park Rangers, Lansdown said fans were entitled to an opinion before insisting the manager had the support of himself and the board. Although a minority of fans feel a return of four wins in 22 games warrants a change at the top, the vast majority of those cheered Cotterill and his players off the pitch at the end of Saturday's 1-1 draw in an emotional show of support. Lansdown said: "He (Cotterill) is the man at the helm taking us forward. I'm not discussing the manager's position. The club develops and moves forward and Steve has done a great job. "When you look back at what he has achieved with us so far, his record speaks for itself. People are entitled to their opinion, but the manager at this football club gets the full support of me, of the board and, hopefully, of the supporters too. "I have not seen a team go out here at Ashton Gate or anywhere else I've been this season and not given everything for the cause. "We're not in a great position in the league, but we are not adrift like Aston Villa in the Premiership and there are plenty of positive things to be thinking about and looking forward to. I don't have those negative thoughts." Asked to comment on City's transfer business during last summer's window, Lansdown refused to criticise the management for failure to bring in more players with Championship experience. The failure to sign a proven goal-scorer and a central midfielder to replace to replace the retired Wade Elliott have left City's squad depleted in certain key areas this season and Lansdown is promising to fund new arrivals in January. Recalling last summer's transfer activity, he said: "I'm not going to criticise the management. We spoke to an awful lot of players and put in a lot of hard graft to try and get the players we felt we needed. Maybe we made the mistake of going much time trying to go for players (who didn't want to come to Bristol City) or we could have looked at players from a different level. Maybe we should have been focussing our attention there a bit more."Meanwhile, Lansdown reiterated his support for a recruitment policy that primarily targets players aged 24 or under, whose market value is going to improve. He added: "We have a policy here to invest in our Academy and sign players under 24 who are going to improve in value. "We want people who want to come and play here and who we can afford. We have to develop and grow into this division – we are not going to take it by storm. We have fought hard to get here and now we want to stay here. "We are in a state of evolution at the moment and we are getting towards the point where we have an infrastructure that helps us compete at this level."
Apparently during his interview yesterday SL stated that he has not yet seen a list of prospects or new possible signings for January, it's a worry that with just 10 days to go until the window opens the owner of our club has no idea who we are looking at to sign and we wonder why we cocked up pre - season. Bloody madness..
Wiz - I heard the interview - he said that he only gets involved right at the end of the process The scouting system identifies players - then Cotts watches them - then they go to SL for the money (he expects to be given the list this week) He said that Gayle/Gray was not about wages but more about where they wanted to play (they offered Gayle what he is on now) He also said that centre mid was the priority as Wade had not been replaced - also mentioned back-up keeper and a goalscorer Got the impression we may be looking overseas (France / Spain)
We know how this will go down as the same thing happens every year. Although the club has a collective of thousands of arm chair managers, generally we as a group have a fair idea of where we need to strengthen so there can be no doubt that our manager does too. However instead of acting swiftly and decisively to get the player(s) we want so that the reinforcements can play an active and influential part in our FIVE championship games in January, we all know that we will try and negotiate in a sellers market and this will go down to the wire and on the 31st January, we will end up with a mediocre signing or 2 that no one really thinks will make much difference at all. Hope I am proved wrong but every indication is not....
Would like to think that this puts to bed the rumours by one or two (mainly one) that Cotts is about to walk or get sacked etc and they don't get on. Plus Simon that was my take it on that the list is still being compiled and will be with the board soon.
Goalkeeper Bentley Southend Midfielder Dack at the Gills Striker Matt Smith Fulham Im sure we can afford them,All three would improve us at a sensible price.
Pretty much on you with this, by now there should be at least 6 players on the horizon 2 for each position, they played a waiting game in the summer and lost out ....
That's a shame - I was hoping we would go for Pepe Guardiola - I heard he was after a new challenge and has some good player contacts.....
Simple survival is the absolute bare minimum requirement - I must admit that, coming into this season, I hoped we would have carried enough swagger from last season to be comfortably mid-table with a faint hope of reaching the playoffs, but it has to be said that the summer transfer window was largely a failure (not forgetting Kodjia), which was patched up with some decent-ish loan signings, and didn't give us the required foundation. I do have sympathy for the board and SC with regards to bringing people in over the summer (or lack of) - the pursuit of Gray and Gayle for the figures quoted shows to me that there wasn't a fear to pay big money if they felt the targets were right. Our last experience in the Championship shows that there's little to be gained from signing too many players on too much money (Nicky Hunt anyone?). Perhaps having a greater list of potential signings could have made a difference however. The winter transfer window isn't typically one that offers much in the way of value - that is unless there's anyone out there with a contract running down that's making their team consider cashing in. I'm also not usually a big fan of loan signings, but giving game time to a player on the outskirts of a Premiership side ahead of his contract running out could give us an edge in signing them permanently once that happens. Having a very quick scan, trying to get Nick Powell in might be a good idea (I'd imagine even he knows that he's essentially failed at Man Utd), and possibly Darron Gibson also. I'm also surprised that Kevin Nolan hasn't been snapped up since being released - a good chance he wants to wind down his career and join a club in/near London so he doesn't have to move, but it's not out of the question.
Trouble is with a player of Nolans age is how long it might take him to get match fit. I think a fit Kevin Nolan could be a great asset for us btw.
He would have been an even better prospect back in the summer but then again we were swimming in our usual backwater looking at something else.
