How wise were Bristol City to sell Jonathan Kodjia to Aston Villa? By a_stockhausen Their opinion no doubt influenced by a recent downturn in fortunes, some Bristol City fans are beginning to question the wisdom of the club's decision to sell Jonathan Kodjia. City's top-scorer last season, the Ivory Coast international was sold to Championship rivals Aston Villa shortly before the August 31 transfer deadline. There was general dismay among the Ashton Gate faithful at the time, although few were prepared to argue against accepting a Championship-record fee of £15m for a player that cost £3.1m when he joined the Robins from Angers 13 months earlier. Certainly, Kodjia was not missed as loan signing Tammy Abraham hit the ground running and City won six of their opening 11 games to establish themselves among the early-season play-off contenders. Recruited from Chelsea, Abraham took the English second tier by storm, scoring 11 times in 14 appearances to render erstwhile fans' favourite Kodjia a distant memory. But events since then have served to alter perceptions. Abraham's supply of goals has dried up, Kodjia has begun to find the back of the net regularly for upwardly-mobile Villa and City have slipped out of play-off contention and dropped to 13th in the table following three consecutive defeats in which they have scored just once. Kodjia's goal in Saturday's 3-1 win over Cardiff took his tally for the season to seven and helped the Villans move above City in the table. By comparison, Abraham has found the back of the net once in eight outings and, having been fifth in early October, the Robins are now down to 13th, two positions beneath Villa. A majority of City fans continue to argue that Villa's bid for Kodjia was too good to turn down. Certainly, it represented fantastic business, enabling City to recoup at a stroke much of the capital outlay they had lavished on bringing Lee Tomlin, Hordur Magnusson, Gustav Engvall, Callum O'Dowda, Adam Matthews and Abraham to Ashton Gate. His head turned by transfer speculation, Kodjia left City with little choice but to cash in, effectively refusing to play in an EFL Cup tie at Scunthorpe in August. City's chief problem is that they have yet to adequately replace the French-born striker, becoming increasingly dependent for goal upon 19-year-old Championship rookie Abraham. Now that results are going against the Robins and the goals have dried up – City have scored five times in their previous seven Championship outings – it seems Kodjia is being missed. And despite the overwhelming financial case for selling him to Villa, some are questioning whether the decision was indeed the right one in the long-term. We want to know what you think. Do City fans believe the club was right to sell their top-scorer or was it, with the benefit of hindsight, a mistake to let Kodjia go. http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/how-wi...-aston-villa/story-29940434-detail/story.html
Our 2 main problematic areas which are causing us all concerns is a lack of strikers and a right back. It is obvious that big money and pound notes were offered and greed ruled the day both when Kodjia and Ayling were sold.We are now scuttling around to replace these players, we have slipped down the league, we have lost 6, drawn 1 and won 1 of our last 8 games or 4 points gained and 20 points lost out of a total of 24 and that is shameful. It is the total lack of experience and planning both on and off of the playing field that has led to this comedy of errors and is the fault of our dynamic duo Mr Ashton and Lee Johnson. The only response we have had to date is clever cliches, sorrowful excuses, players being lambasted in public and the weak promise that permission has been granted to spend millions in January and we may have to suffer the same indignities for the next 2 transfer windows. It's simply not good enough, somebody needs a size 12 right up the rear to rectify the situation and get us back on course, post haste..
To be be quite frank Kodjia needed to go,he refused to play at Scunny good riddance. But the replacement scenario quite frankly has been a joke. We are relying on a 19 year old, or a 37 year old too score our goals,personally think city have been lucky young Tammy banged a few in early doors,but teams have taken him out of the game,with no others contributing goals we are up the creek without the paddles. January quality will not want to come again, as we could be in the bottom five or six sides once again,and players will not want to come. Worrying times i'm afraid.
I don't mind anybody going for what ever reason but we should have had a replacement lined up before his release, lack of planning, bad management in anybodies language and we achieved that twice..
Kodjia had to go, refusing to play etc wasn't ever going to help. Still cant help that he is the kind of player that scores and then goes missing. Time will tell. The need to replace is hitting hard now. We got lucky with Tammy early on, but a lack of service coupled with greater opposition awareness of him has nullified it. Wilbs does a great job, but at 37 it is too much to ask of him to do it regularly. Right back and striker needed yes- One win and a draw in 8 games is pretty poor in any situation. (and the one win was probably fortunate)
'Our 2 main problematic areas' - We have 1 problem. Do we trust him to spend the Kodija money in January ? The Swede hasn't started, O'Dowda won't if Freeman's fit, and Matthews has strangely fallen out of favour (GJ anyone ?). It's absolutely critical we win this w/e.
Yeah because its really easy to get players signed up and join the might of Bristol City. Some people need a reality check. He was sold in the final stages of the window, and only because we got an offer we couldn't refuse. If you believe (and I know lots of people don't) the sounds coming from Ashton Gate we did try and get replacement(s) over the line but they couldn't be completed in time
Spot on. He had to go as otherwise he would have brooded. I doubt that Ashton & LJ did nothing to replace him but with little time to play with, it would have been a disaster to just waste the money. Roll on January . ...
That article is uneven. It does not point out that: (A) City are consistently loss making (B) Have large debts (C) Have loans to repay The sale of the named players does not erase the above.
I gave up on the evening post at the start of the season .. especially the links given on here ...used to tie me down with adverts and slowed my computer down to the point, when I could, delete the page and /or reboot as for what we think? go and make mud pies under the suspension bridge for an hour 10 mins before high tide!
I am hearing the same things in general that we have been saying for years about the way the club is run, but it is just a business in the long run. It appeared to me that Kodjia was going down a similar path to a certain NM and it was time for him to go and that's fine with me. Were we all expecting the profit to be invested in players to take us up to the Premier League this season which I think was a bridge too far. I have come to the magic point in my life where I believe Bristol City are a football club that are there just to make up the numbers, and without them others would fill the void, so my excitement surrounding my lifetime dream has long since disappeared in to the confusing mist that is today's game. When you look at the news today from South America it makes you wonder exactly what is important.
Then you've been in Canada to long as your English isn't good. Surely if you were looking to the future then your sentence should start 'Are we all expecting' rather than 'Were we all expecting'?
Didn't hear too many complaining at the time and hindsight is a wondrous thing!! I could have bought a three bedroom flat in Redland in 1981 for £10,000 (with a mortgage of course), but bought a year old Escort RS2000 Custom for £4,000!! I know now what I'd wished I'd done!!!
IN 1968 I had a choice of a house in Clifton ..BASEMENT ?/ATTIC 2 FLOORS IN BETWEEN LANSDOWN PLACE OR SQ .. or the houses before Bedminster bridge .. new build Keynsham/ Stockwood or Whitchurch IN 1981 SOLD MY KEYNSHAM HOUSE £23,000 .. Bedminster houses were over £35k and the Clifton one over £300k they were all within my budget of £3500 in 1968! bought my current house in Stockwood in 1983 for £31k in 1968 would have cost me £2900 not as bad a deal as a car though! .....did you spend ever Sunday morning out with the 2 part, wet and dry and duplicolour ...
