As a really old timer in the Bristol City supporter column I am starting to think that the dreams that have been bandied around since the beginning of time itself have transformed into nightmares. The squads sent out to do the business for the team over the years have rarely met the supposed criteria and usually end up apologizing for not being up to par and saying that the opposition are of a better standard than us. Today's match encompasses everything wrong about us and yet we continue to see the same stuff year in and year out without ever seeing the necessary changes to bring us to the next level and quite frankly I think we decide not to leave the station. Our owner, although a good businessman, has never really got us close to the place he claims he wants to be and perhaps if the direction of his sports empire hadn't moved it's focus on to all things not football then who knows what might have happened. The future needs to focus on bringing the football team up to the standard required to compete in the Championship and this current lot, including the manager, is nowhere close to meeting the mandate of achieving that target. I am beginning to wonder if indeed we want what we claim to want or is it all smoke and mirrors designed to confuse us all and leave us in the dark where good dreams are snuffed out at every turn. I do not see the possibility of improvement based on our lacklustre past and consistent inability to put together a competitive team that lasts the entire season. Would you want to join a team like us that will stifle your ambitions until such time that you decide that the grass anywhere else is a lot greener and sadly move on? They call us a backwater organization and now I see why we have that millstone around our necks and until such time that we have a winning mantra all things Bristol City will remain the same ad infinitum. We don't need apathy any more but we do need the attitude that we will become better than the rest and until we do we will languish where we truly belong.
'.....until we do we will languish where we truly belong...' I know there are plenty of people on here who will disagree with me, but I think 'where we truly belong' is League 1. That's where we have spent the majority of our time since the 'glory days' under Alan Dicks. We are already punching above our weight by being in the Championship (according to the bookies and pundits anyway) - I think that there was only ONE season since our arrival in the Championship when we were NOT in the bookies favourites for the drop. Whether we fans like it or not, we are seen as a small fish in this league - by pundits, bookies, players and fans of other clubs.
It’s easy I guess to criticise where we are, but specifically what do you think we’ve done wrong?, you also say the manager isn’t good enough, who do you think would would you do better. As a fan base we pretty much agreed with Niges appointment because he had pedigree , I’m disappointed with him too but he’s taken over a **** show at a time it’s almost impossible to do anything about it. Personally my biggest criticism is we haven’t employed someone of his calibre before.
I will agree that the situation inherited by Pearson was not good by any standard and my concern is that we have been down the same road so many times you would think by now we might have learnt from our experiences. Perhaps if Lansdown had hired a decent manager in the first place the need for this annual discussion on where we may be heading would be null and void. Stubbornness in thinking you are always making the right decisions will generally lead to other people wondering if you really know what you are doing and sadly that is the fallout that we are now experiencing. It has been said many times that smart employers hire smart people to do their bidding and yet one of the country's top businessmen failed dismally to listen to those golden rules and as such has created the mess that currently exists. Steve Lansdown decided to branch out and share the experience by spending way too much time and money on the "Steve Lansdown Stadium" which presumably was to be his legacy to sport in Bristol (not a bad thing) but it backfired badly and his ego must have taken a severe body blow and his subsequent interest fell off from there. Has Lansdown truly changed his approach on how the football side of things will be run from now on or has he just pandered to public opinion to see if Nigel can change the direction that he set out in the first place? We all are true City fans and want us to be the best we can and unless we can trust our manager(s) to spend the money invested by our owner with a wise and forward thinking plan of action then all of the nonsense we have had to endure for so long has been wasted. Championship survival has to be top of the list of the must dos for this season followed by a productive and cost cutting summer business activity and hopefully we can all return to the scene of the crimes in full voice looking forward to a campaign without the need to post the same stuff over and over again. It can be done with 100% effort from all parties and the same support from our leader.
With the size of the city, plus a catchment area that includes South Wales, Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, and Gloucestershire, the investment in the stadium and infrastructure, the training facilities and everything else, we could, and should be another Southampton - i.e. mid-lower Premiership. Plenty of clubs smaller than us have reached the promised land and some have even stayed there for a while, like Wigan, Burnley and others. The difference between the likes of Wigan/Burnley and us, is their owners had the vision, drive, know how, ambition and tenacity to achieve their goals. Lansdown talks a good game, but in reality is happy with a lower Championship team and under him we will never be anything else.
