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Have a read excellent piece on Bristol City

Discussion in 'Bristol City' started by Red Robin, Feb 2, 2021.

  1. Red Robin

    Red Robin Well-Known Member

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    Fantastic read I nicked of Twitter by Jack Perry

    Bristol City FC, why the general discontent?

    There has been an undeniable, general discontent within the Bristol City fanbase for some while now. From the outside, this may seem very pathetic; especially from the viewpoint of a Bristol Rovers fan for example. Saturday the 30th of November 2013 was a dark day for Bristol City. A 1-0 loss to Preston North End, slipped the club to 23rd in League One, the closest the club had been to division 4 football since 1984. Contrast this to Thursday the 21st of January where the club is perched in 9th place in the Championship, 6 points off the play-offs with a game in hand; the question has to be seriously asked, how and to the same extent why are Bristol City fans so disgruntled?


    I can pinpoint, almost to the second, where I believe Fans started to become disappointed, discontent and disgruntled with Bristol City. Saturday the 30th of December 2017 9:52 PM, Barry Douglas whips a ball to the back post and Ryan Bennett is there to nod home. Whilst this gives a date and time, there are other large contributing factors that have led, and continue to lead to the vexation of the Bristol city fanbase. I have highlighted 6 key main areas, as to where I believe things have started, and to the same extent continue, to go wrong at the club:


    1)Ashton Gate stadium and matchday performances


    The first reason is quite frankly unquantifiable. Within this 2609-day period, Ashton Gate Stadium has been completely renovated. The stadium looked and felt on its last legs with wooden seats in the Williams stand and seats lacking any backs in the Eastend. Since then, 3 of the 4 stands have had serious renovation. Creating a “World Class sporting and conference facility”, with a capacity of 27,000. However, since this renovation Bristol City have often felt without an identity whilst playing at Ashton Gate. Since January 1st, 2018 Bristol City have won just 24 league games at Ashton Gate out of a possible 68. Averaging a win every 2.8 games, 46.5 days or 35% of the time. Every month and a half Bristol City fans get to experience a win at Ashton gate. This is quite frankly not good enough. Recent home form under new head coach Dean Holden has slightly improved. With a win percentage of 50%. However, still compared with the top teams; this is nowhere near acceptable. Fulham, whom were promoted via the playoffs in 2019/20 had a home record of 15 wins out of 23. Every 1.5 games, or in 65.25% of the time. Bristol City are still quite some way off of this.


    Statistics on goals scored make for grim reading too. Scoring 3 or more goals just 9 times out of a possible 68. Averaging once every 7.5 games or just 15% of the time. Fulham scored 3 or more goals in 5 games last season alone. Averaging once every 4.6 games. Bristol City are still a considerable margin behind the “Fulham’s” of the championship who I am using as a benchmark for the ‘success’ and ‘competitiveness’ we’ve been promised. Bristol City have scored just 86 goals at Ashton gate in that 68-game timeframe. Averaging 1.2 a game. Again, last season, Fulham scored 40 goals in 23 matches, an average of 1.73 a game. Over half a goal per game difference. The on-pitch performances at Ashton Gate have been dismal for over 3 years now; and something needs to be seriously addressed about it.


    2) Bristol Sport


    If you interview the vast majority of the Bristol city fanbase, they will have at least a few negative things to say about Bristol Sport, whilst the concept is ideal – creating a world-class sporting hub in Bristol – the ambition, as of yet, has not been realised when looking at it from a solely Bristol City perspective. It often feels as though the Bristol Bears get the better treatment: with them fighting at the top of the Rugby Premiership, and recently having won the equivalent of the Europa League. Something that, at the moment, couldn’t feel further away as a Bristol City fan. The constant bombardment of Phone calls and emails from the club trying to upsell tickets and merchandise has left a rather bitter taste in the heart of the clubs fanbase, who are left feeling angry and disgruntled that their hardworking cash is being taken away to watch, at best, mediocre football. I recently ran a poll on Twitter, where 72% of fans felt as though Bristol Sport cared only about their wallet.


    When on-field success is necessarily coming to fruition, ‘The Bristol Sport Franchise’ could at least be understanding of the fans' complaints. Rather than ignore them, in pursuit of better of greater revenue. I fear for the longevity of Bristol Sport, not because of profit margins – but because of increasing negativity towards the brand itself. I believe a more customer-friendly approach could be implemented; to repair broken bridges and have everyone pushing in the same direction.



    3) Extremely Poor communication


    The lack of communication is best summed up like this, if a supporter followed only the online website and club social media pages; they’d be none the wiser that Gustav Engvall left the club in June 2018 to join Belgian Super League outfit Mechelen, and that club legend Jamie McCallister had been relieved of his coaching duties in August 2020. These are just two of the main blunders the club have made in recently living memory when it comes to poor communication. Another notable, and unforgettable example of poor communication – not only externally, but internally – was the departure of club captain and fan favourite Korey Smith. Who was left to announce his own departure on Instagram, before the club finally wrote a swift statement and brushed it under the carpet. It is simply not good enough.

    For too long supporters have been left in the dark. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the club were all too silent on refunds for season tickets. Being the last club to announce any sort of deal for fans in the championship. Even when they did release information on what their plans going forward were, they were very snobbish, with the option of a refund crammed far away in the small print of the information. This left an even more sour taste in the mouths of city fans. No better sentence could sum up my thoughts on this than from Bristol City’s own website “After reflecting on our communications from Friday I can see that in our focus to get all of the information out to Season Card holders we were missing a key component – love”.

    There was a 36-day period between the sacking of Lee Johnson and the hiring of Dean Holden. Not once was a club statement released addressing why a head coach had not yet been named. The only form of acknowledgment from any high-ranking employee was a series of goading tweets from club chairman Jon Lansdown. Another – shock – example of the club being completely unaware of the general mood surrounding the club.



    The appointment of Dean Holden was also a rather significantly large disappointment to the majority of the Bristol City fanbase. Whilst there is absolutely nothing personal against Holden, who in fact seems to be adored as a man by the city faithful, the appointment was extremely underwhelming. Especially when the likes of Chris Hughton and Paul Cook were free in the market. The appointment further reinforced what was already believed to be the case at City. “A job for the boys” and little to no ambition of anything other than championship mediocrity.


    4) Social media activity


    This point is more open to interpretation rather than definitive, however the clubs social media pages and certain high-ranking figureheads within the club *cough, cough Jon Lansdown* are down-right embarrassing when it comes to social media. One notable example is last year, when head of communication Dave Barton asked Lee Johnson “Is this better than…. Uh (Whispers) sex” during a live post-match interview. It screams out of their depth and quite honestly makes the club an embarrassment to follow on any kind of social media platform. In addition to this, the club antagonizes fans on a daily basis on social media, reply to football twitter “Ratio” tweets, etc. God forbid you even put your opinion of the club into the replies. You’ll be blocked quicker than you can say “a long and rigorous process”. Jon Lansdown's use of social media is also controversial in my opinion, during the extremely frustrating period in which the club appointed new head coach Dean Holden; he teased the fans on numerous occasions. Even when fans were all getting very irate and frustrated with the situation.


    The ability of top-level employees of both Bristol City and Bristol Sport to be unable to read the general mood surrounding the club is quite astonishing in all seriousness.



    5) Mark Ashton


    Where do we start with Mark Ashton…


    It’s like whack-a-mole, if that mole only popped his head out when his ego needed a little stroking because the club just about scraped past League One Portsmouth in the FA Cup. I seriously do wonder if the man sleeps with his eyes open some-times?


    Whilst you could argue a few points here and there regarding his negotiation skills and professionalism, it is undeniable that he gets under the skin of the majority of Bristol City fans. A drinking game that is often enjoyable to play whilst listening to Ashton is, catchphrase bingo. Drink every time you hear a catchphrase said to death by him. In my last game I was sat there shotting Sambuca at 3AM crying after Ashton had said “Rigorous process” and “Top human being” for the 8th time in a 43 second twitter interview. In all seriousness though, the man has got to be questioned upon several fronts.


    Firstly, On Wednesday 20th January 2021 in a 2-0 loss on Sky Sports too Norwich City, why did Ashton tell Sky match day commentators more information on transfers than Dean Holden and the fanbase? It came as a great shock not only to the fans but Holden himself when it was revealed that the policy going forward was to release Famara Diedhiou rather than sell him and that apparently the club have a loan deal on the horizon. Another revelation that made Holden flustered in his post-match grilling from Bristol Live reporter Gregor MacGregor.



    Secondly, why does he need to have 100% of the power, 100% of the time? Only a little research will indicate Ashton left his last footballing post with Oxford United, due to an inability to work alongside other club and board members who wanted an ounce of authority. Recently an Article (https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...on-the-departure-of-mark-ashton-from-watford/) on Ashton was dug up from the archives: outlining the discontent of certain Watford stakeholders towards him. 13 years later and sadly, not much has changed. He still appears to be an egotistical CEO, who is hell-bent on money and power; only money and power.



    Sadly it is difficult to partition Johnson additions from Ashton additions, however 4 notable examples are; Adam Webster, Bobby Reid, Sam Szmodics, and Han Noah Massengo. Adam Webster was a signing that Lee Johnson desired. He would “Only sell Aden Flint if the club signs Adam Webster” which they did, and as you all know the rest is history. A superb LJ signing. I am adding Bobby Reid into the pot as LJ practically turned him into a new addition to the club (for free too). So far 2 class Lee Johnson acquisitions. However, Szmodics and Massengo were two Ashton signings, both of whom, as of yet, haven’t worked out. Szmodics left the club in the summer of 2020 whilst Massnego is finding minutes almost impossible to come by currently, sat on the bench. Whilst there are obviously more signings than this: a clear pattern emerges. Ashton does not have a tremendous track record of signing players that vastly improve the football club.


    A common theme appears throughout the largest transfers out of Bristol City in the past 3 years. Ashton didn’t bring them in – but Johnson either did or further nurtured them through his tenure. Webster, Kelly, Brownhill, Pack, Flint, Bryan, and Reid. All 7 can be in no way attributed to Ashton; which begs the question again, what is he actually doing?


    Then came along Ashtons January 2021 transfer debacle. After 11 first team injuries were sustained during the first half of the season; January was the opportunity to reinforce the playing squad – even if it was with short term stop gaps whilst the club nursed injured players to full fitness. Coming into the final week of the transfer window all 4 left-sided full-backs were injured, Ashton completely failed to bring in a full back for the club, offering French youngster Han-Noah Massengo on a loan switch with Birmingham City for Left back Kristian Pedersen. It screamed of a lack of hindsight and a panicked decision last minute to address an issue all fans had seen for months.

    To further add fuel to the January fire, Ashton went on BBC Radio Bristol in mid-January to try and build a line of communication. Since this radio appearance very little has suggested that what he said is the actual truth – with many mysteries surrounding the contract status of Famara Diedhiou and Liam Walsh. In this interview he also referred to the club as “Bristol” rather than ‘Bristol City’.


    6) Transfers


    Every transfer window since January 2018 we hear “We’re very happy with our transfer business, we’ve improved the playing squad and believe we have the ability to push on and challenge this season”. Rubbish. The quite frankly dismal transfer windows began in January 2018. The club came into January in 3rd place. Coming off the back of Beating Manchester United. The squad needed reinforcements; players were starting to show fatigue. High quality players were required in the short term to maintain the excellent form we’d already showed. Who did the club sign? A youngster by the name of Liam Walsh, who had less than 5 senior appearances in Professional football, Lois Diony – who I can only assume was signed based on the fact he had a gold card on Fifa and Ryan Kent, an unknown youngster who had just come off the back of a very disappointing loan spell in Germany with Freiburg. Who had also scored just 4 goals in 67 professional matches when the club loaned him in from Liverpool. The lack of reinforcements meant Bristol City’s hope of a first return to top division football since 1980 fizzled out quite spectacularly, finishing in 11th place.


    Then the mass exodus began. Joe Bryan, Aden Flint and Bobby Reid were the first notable players who were sold on. In later seasons Josh Brownhill, Adam Webster, Marlon Pack, Lloyd Kelly and Niclas Eliasson were all sold too. Whilst supporters have constantly seen the clubs best players let go; the line “we need to become a self-sustaining club” is rammed down our throats. Whilst we understand that modern day football is a very hard business to flourish in, we’ve seen little to no progression in the last 3 years to suggest the club is actually going anywhere. We’ve infact spectacularly regressed since the first half of the 2017/18 season. For a club aiming for the top. On-field performances and success suggest this is anything but the case.



    Conclusion

    This short piece obviously cannot convey every nook and cranny of Bristol city, but has aimed to highlight the key areas in which I believe fans of the club are starting to get frustrated with. By addressing each one of these areas the club could begin to feel like a happier place to be, with fans not dreading every Saturday at 15:00.

    How do I feel about the club? I think I share the feeling of most supporters; I just want a club to support that I can be proud of, who play entertaining football and are 100% transparent with the fanbase 100% of the time. I would like the club to become less like an industrial business powerhouse and become more of a family once again. Whilst we cannot repeat the troubles between , we cannot afford to stay where we have from . Especially with the ever-growing Premiership TV rights deals. The gap will continue to increase from the premiership too the championship, and if we have serious ambition of becoming a mid-table premiership side like we’ve been promised. The last 3 years need to be addressed and changed.
     
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  2. invermeremike

    invermeremike Well-Known Member

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    Over a period of many years I have often posted my thoughts on the apparent divisions within our club and if this article is anywhere near the truth then my thoughts have been reinforced immensely. Reading between the lines it would seem that our biggest enemy is Ashton and until such time as he is shown the door we have little chance of becoming better and even if he get's the push we still have to deal with the person who hired him. Steve Lansdown owns the club and seeing as the entity that is Bristol City was his base for the foundation that has become Bristol Sports it makes me ask why we get the least of his attention. You can have all the communication you want but unless it is truthful and up to date it's about as useless as a hat rack to a moose and beyond that other issues continue to resurface on an all too regular basis to be acceptable.

    I regret to say that any hope I had of seeing real success from my team in my lifetime is fast disappearing down the toilet and unless the power behind the club wakes up to the reality that is known by most of us I don't expect to witness a transformation in the near future. Is it any wonder that our transfer dealings were the same underwhelming fiasco as in previous years given the annual apathy in the back halls of Ashton Gate? Promises made can be taken with a pinch of salt and perhaps the other footballing world out there has finally recognized how pathetic we are in the field of producing a potential contender and that's the main reason we will never attract a manager, and players, that have been there and done that.
     
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  3. Jiffie

    Jiffie Well-Known Member

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    Very interesting, fact based, true and very sad, a litany of mistakes and missed opportunities and poor treatment of the beating heart of the club, it's fanbase.

    The breakdown of our home form is embarrassing, how have we managed to maintain such good crowds under those circumstances?

    And worst of all it has taken a gashead to put it all into words.
     
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  4. Red Alert

    Red Alert Well-Known Member

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    The quite frankly dismal transfer windows began in January 2018. The club came into January in 3rd place. Coming off the back of Beating Manchester United. The squad needed reinforcements; players were starting to show fatigue. High quality players were required in the short term to maintain the excellent form we’d already showed. Who did the club sign? A youngster by the name of Liam Walsh, who had less than 5 senior appearances in Professional football, Lois Diony – who I can only assume was signed based on the fact he had a gold card on Fifa and Ryan Kent, an unknown youngster who had just come off the back of a very disappointing loan spell in Germany with Freiburg. Who had also scored just 4 goals in 67 professional matches when the club loaned him in from Liverpool. The lack of reinforcements meant Bristol City’s hope of a first return to top division football since 1980 fizzled out quite spectacularly, finishing in 11th place.

    Bang on.
     
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  5. invermeremike

    invermeremike Well-Known Member

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    Things aren't really changing are they? I know crowds will eventually return and the management better be aware that sitting in your comfortable living watching the continuing rubbish put on display won't exactly motivate those armchair critics to pay good money to sit outside. Season ticket sales may fall off the cliff unless someone down at Ashton Gate finally wakes up to the public pulse that demands value for money, especially when they realize that club are treating them like idiots who will show up no matter what's on the menu. If ever there was the perfect time to ring the changes then this is it because the punters will demand more emphasis on success, and to hell with the ongoing boring status quo, if City want them to return to the seats.
     
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  6. Supcon72

    Supcon72 Well-Known Member

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    Echoes of 2008/09, we didn’t strengthen in January then either, and it cost us. SL just doesn’t learn. I have often wondered if he really does want
    Premiership football and all that comes with it?
     
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  7. Angelicnumber16

    Angelicnumber16 Well-Known Member

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    Good piece, reinforcing most peoples opinions that frankly, the club is badly run and badly managed from a football perspective, and the FC have lost their identity and have been badly diluted since Bristol Sport came along.
     
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  8. Cliftonville

    Cliftonville Well-Known Member

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    Some measure football solely by results. The team got more points = Success. Context like resources and even the Managers own words are deemed irrelevant. The team got more points = Success.

    Bristol City have scored just 86 goals at Ashton gate in that 68-game timeframe. Averaging 1.2 a game.

    That is Bristol City's busy bees and front foot football.
     
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  9. Jiffie

    Jiffie Well-Known Member

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    You have called it correct, because of our constant inconsistency it would be far easier to swallow if the product on show was more palatable, but it is shocking lacking in tempo, excitement, creativity, goalmouth action, tactics and too often effort. We are slow, predictable and weak in midfield, tonight if we do manage to get close to Brentford's penalty area, watch it go backwards as we run out of ideas and quite often at the feet of Bentley.

    We have have persevered far too long with the likes of Diedhiou, Paterson, ODowda, Hunt and maybe now Nagy, I believe that we have better in our academy than Massengo, Rowe and Mariappa are way past their best and Baker is far too injury prone, we need to move on with a new direction and build on the great spine of Bentley, Kalas, Vyner, try to sign Mawson. Sign two young athletic right wing backs. And build an organised midfield capable of feeding our strikers properly, with at least one new striker to replace Diedhiou.
     
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  10. Red Robin

    Red Robin Well-Known Member

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    Jiffi you talk to much sense about this football club-We really do need to question what SL really wants-Wonderful stadiums and fancy surroundings we like-but the most important thing for us football fans is what happens on the pitch.

    Three years of poor football is not what the fans expect. Football is the first priority.
     
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  11. bcfcredandwhite

    bcfcredandwhite Well-Known Member

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    Good article and more or less sums up my own sentiments.
    It's frustrating (understatement) to see how lethargic we have been towards really pushing for promotion.

    This statement might seem like a direct contradiction to my comments in Angelic's 'Crossroads' thread, but please let me clarify: I simply don't trust the current current senior management team to deliver the Premiership to us, therefore I'm satisfied with the Championship for now - because I think that's the best we can achieve under the current setup.
    From what I've seen of Ashton and JL, we'd probably invest huge sums of money in 'duds' as our 'promotion push', only to collapse spectacularly back into league 1.
    Without trying to redirect the thread, this also sums up my feelings about LJ in all this; he was not the main villain in this pantomime all along, but he was the 'fall guy' in face in front of the cameras after every game trying to justify things with his, admittedly annoying, buzzwords - anyone who has ever been a 'middle manager' (like I am currently) knows that in your role you are given a 'spiel' by the board and then you go and sell - or enforce it to your employees - whether or not you believe in, or agree with it yourself. Yes, he made mistakes (who doesn't?) and rightly had to take the blame for some of his selections and formations - and ultimately in the end looked lost and was rightly sacked, but I think that some people believed that he was the reason for our stagnation and genuinely thought things would improve once he was out of the way. I didn't.
    Now that it's clear that things have NOT improved (apart from the cheesy buzzwords in interviews). Results, performances, lack of communication from the club - they're all the same, and especially following our impotent behaviour in the January window, we should concentrate on where the rotten apple really lies.
    It's important to remember our reliance on Steve Lansdown and his £billions though. If he gets fed up with us and walks away, we'd be stuffed financially. It's Steve Lansdown who appointed Ashton and his son Jon (nepotism anyone?), so any criticism of them is an indirect swipe at SL himself. These powerful people have big ego's that don't respond well to criticism. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve criticism; of course he does - ultimately as owner the buck stops with him - it's just that we need him more than he needs us fans and our expensive football club.
    In the meantime, whilst we wait for Steve Lansdown to slowly (hopefully) see the light, recognise what's wrong and take action to resolve it, I'm satisfied with staying in the Championship.
     
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  12. Angelicnumber16

    Angelicnumber16 Well-Known Member

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    I simply don't trust the current current senior management team to deliver the Premiership to us

    Agreed, and as I've been saying for a while I can see no real appetite from the owner to really push on.
     
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  13. Redprintt

    Redprintt Well-Known Member

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    How many more times ?

    Without trying to redirect the thread, I thought LJ wrote it. <whistle>
     
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  14. Jiffie

    Jiffie Well-Known Member

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    I agree with most of what you say, however I take issue with the defence of LJ (although I do understand fully the 'middle manager' reference).

    You are correct that LJ was not the main villain and neither is Holden, however they knew exactly what they were taking on when they took the job on and still took the job and when you do that you can have zero complaint about it's obvious eventual outcome and I must also point out LJ and Holden are wholly responsible for the ultimate inferior product that we have to endure.
     
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  15. bcfcredandwhite

    bcfcredandwhite Well-Known Member

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    <laugh>
    5 lines about LJ in my post and 10 about everything else!!!!
    The original article referred to LJ and so I felt it was valid to refer to that section in addition to the rest of it <cheers>
     
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  16. bcfcredandwhite

    bcfcredandwhite Well-Known Member

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    ...... they knew exactly what they were taking on when they took the job on ...........
    They absolutely did. You're 100% correct.
     
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  17. Supcon72

    Supcon72 Well-Known Member

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    I don’t necessarily agree with this view when LJ joined, it was a different mandate then, sort out the Steve Coterill failings at Championship level, and keep us up. That is different to today. You could argue, probably rightly that he would have know this at contract extension time, but we all now in our current roles, if an employer changes your contract, you have 2 choices, sign it, or leave. Definitely Holden knew, which is why many on here, myself included, feel he was given the job. Poor Bugger!!
     
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  18. bcfcredandwhite

    bcfcredandwhite Well-Known Member

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    This is probably true too Supcon, but EVERY aspiring football manager knows that as soon as you take the reins you're on your own as far as the fans are concerned. It becomes a poisoned chalice most of the time - not many football managers graze their days out comfortably without getting sacked a few times during their career. When you accept the job of manager, you accept that you live or die by the results - regardless of the restraints that the likes of Mark Ashton puts you under - and Bristol City already had a history of keeping their managers on a tight leash - LJ will have known that probably more than anyone. He would also have known that Ashton and co would be more than happy for him to take the blame for everything - it's part of the modern day manager's role to take the 5h1t.
     
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  19. Jiffie

    Jiffie Well-Known Member

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    So you are saying the only goal he was given was keep us up?, I am pretty sure that the long since tumbled 5 pillars were settling in their newly laid foundations, when he signed on the dotted line. People keep telling me how bright LJ is and he is, he knew exactly what he was getting into. He improved many facets behind the scenes at the club and for half a season had us playing some sparkling football, football that was getting us noticed by pundits etc. and then January came and we were in 3rd place and it came to pass that our signings in that window were pathetic and verily we couldn't beat an egg from then to the end of the season and then the football became generally pap especially at home and also generally our January windows became the annual turning of wine into piss water.

    If he didn't know then he certainly did when he signed the contract extension, bearing in mind by then a majority wanted him gone. I suspect he couldn't believe his luck and would signed his soul to the devil in blood, actually him and Holden probably did if we cast Ashton in the devil role.

    As a club we are going nowhere fast, I would like to think that we are the latest equivalent of Preston over a period of quite a few years, but we ain't that good, unless things change, this is the standard that we will churn out year in year out, there or thereabouts until January but unattractive, low scoring and crap at home.

    The sad thing for me is that I don't think that our woes were or are ever that difficult to sort, even for next season, if DaSilva is fit and Pring is up to the mark, bring in 2 young athletic right backs, if Williams is part of the missing link in midfield alongside maybe Lansbury, then another striker, we have a strong spine to our team.
     
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  20. bcfcredandwhite

    bcfcredandwhite Well-Known Member

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    ...our January windows became the annual turning of wine into piss water.

    <laugh> I love this - so true! !<laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh>
     
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