As I said earlier I only saw the highlights but his through ball to Armstrong was sublime (pity Armstrong can’t finish), and his persistent battling and great cross that resulted in their keeper making a great save from Sykes was pretty good too. Well done to him. I’m not his greatest fan but I’m always pleased when a player under criticism does well. Let’s hope his confidence is boosted by a good performance and he repeats it.
There has to be something in him that Liam see as potential but as yet I haven't seen it to be honest. I just wish the odd occasion where he shows us some trickery could become a more frequent happening but again I see him in the same light as HNM who also had the tricks but no finish. Earlier today I watched Bournemouth vs Southampton in which 2 ex-City players were involved and that makes me ask an age old question as to why that couldn't be us. If Bournemouth can thrive at the top table with a crowd of just over 11,000 compared to our average of around 22,000 then why oh why can't we succeed in getting there? Bristol City have proven beyond any doubt that we can produce top class players but we have also shown we are totally incapable of producing a top rate team squad and that makes me ask why the hell not. Teams like Bournemouth seem to be able to pay good wages to keep their players but yet again for some reason we can't or won't ante up the odds to hold on to the players that could make our future a whole lot brighter than for the last 10 years or so. Expecting to reach the heights based on our ongoing business plan is clearly not working and unless we throw off that mantle of failure we will continue down the same road to nowhere whilst regularly selling off our crown jewels each and every season, and you know what? - I'm tired of the attitude of our owners who continue to bury their collective heads in the sand and expect us to be satisfied with the same old dross and excuses season after season.
Mike The easy answer to the age old question of where we should be in the football pyramid is it’s because first and foremost Lansdown is a successful businessman. He’s cautious and doesn’t throw big money around, that’s how he became a billionaire Despite what he might say to the press and to supporters, he is much more interested in making money than he is in seeing if we really could reach, and remain part of the football elite I know he ploughs plenty of money into the club to keep it viable and I am grateful for it, but I have always questioned his genuine desire to see proper progress on the pitch He’s quite happy with a mid table Championship team imho
I agree Angelic and have said this for years. If he was serious about City getting to, and staying in the PL then he would have ploughed all the money in to City alone and not gone down the whole ‘Bristol Sport’ route. I think he gets the ‘Bristol Premiership’ satisfaction from the rugby team at a fraction of the cost and business risk that comes with football. I’m actually quite happy as well if we could build a side that is always challenging to go up, rather than perhaps go up. The only benefit to going up as I see it is exposure to more fans and getting the younger generation supporting BCFC rather than some state backed, sports washed team in the PL.
How much is he allowed to plough in? He ploughs in the maximum he is allowed to, to comply with FFP. It will be interesting soon when certain parts of this is changed and we are allowed more freedom. This 39 million rolling three years is ****. Rest of the worlds commodities have increased, running cost increased and players wages didn’t budge during Covid much and increased. But yet that rolling 39m remains static. I’m not defending him, he could have played the loopholes or even before the FFP started. But people comparing us to Bournemouth all the time gets on my tits. They gambled and it came off. Got fined for breaking rules whilst in the Prem and got 13 million fine which is peanuts to what they were getting in the Premier league at the time. If it never came off, they would have been royally ****ed up big time. Rugby has different financial criteria. It also makes very little profit compared to football.
He could have ploughed money in to get to the top league before FFP became law like others did at Wigan, Reading and Fulham Had that happened we could have ended up like a Norwich, WBA, Sheffield Utd or Burnley (and others) who in my lifetime have regularly alternated between the top division and the one below creaming the Sky money hand over fist regularly It’s a risk of course, many have come seriously unstuck like Blackpool, Bradford and Barnsley but at least they gave it a go and enjoyed the limelight for a season or two
he became one because Hargreaves Landsdown floated on the stockmarket and they were main shareholders at the time, since then share divi;s / scripts have greatly enhanced that holding. It is probable that his share earnings = more than he can spend! most likely on a pension that would make your eyes water! probably 1 year of it more than you have earned to date!
