One conclusion from our pre season games. I reckon we are going to be hard to beat. The boss has stopped the leaking defence,now to get the strikers and midfield to win us the games. Get the Goals required and we will be rocking.
You could be right.....I hope so,but being freindlys we dont know how hard the opposition has been really trying, or own players for that matter. The results dont matter as much preseason its more about getting the new players to gel, but it does sound promising ! cant wait for the season to start now.
Well it won't be long now before we start to see what the rebuild has achieved and I think we all need to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask what we expect of Bristol City this season. My personal opinion is that I am not expecting miracles but rather a team that will finally compete with the others in our division, and despite the fact that I truly believe that our demise was a fete accompli long before the season ended I am prepared to put our ugly past exactly where it belongs. My personal thoughts cannot change the past or the future and now our success or failure is solely in the hands of Sean O'Driscoll, and hopefully a fully supportive board. There is not one poster on this site, except for a few interlopers, who want anything but the best for our club and the message that I send out today is "Go get em Sean"
If things don't go our way in the first month stay well clear of otib.co.uk that place would go into meltdown
After 10 to 15 games, if we are in touch with the top six, then that will do for me...remember it's a marathon not a sprint...I still believe, come the end of the season, Bristol City will be back in the championship!
It could all come down to who we bring in to score the goals, and how much SL will be prepared to invest in The SOD. Its all in the timing Steve, like 2 points clear with 6 games to go back in 2008. A few bob then and Bristol City are big league. A few bob now and we could be contenders again soon enough. Otherwise it could be a long decade, and you are not getting any younger (and neither am I)
If we get off to a good start it would be fantastic replacing Davies and Kelly is going to be key to our season IMHO though I still think we should be looking at the loan market as well because that would get round the SCMP as most bigger clubs will of loan their youngsters out without charge or need to pay the wages to L1/L2/Blue Square clubs as they are more interested in seeing how the players cope with proper football ie the real rough and tumble of League football. Now S O'Driscoll has a reputation of bringing on young players so if money is tight due to the CAP then I think he could easily find a couple of youngsters from top sides, Like I said before the Moose has said he remembers our club and fans with affection and the Professor was quoted a couple of years back as saying S O'D was an example for other managers in the lower leagues to emmulate in the way he treated youngsters so lets see if it is more than just hot air.
Trouble is Hawky, the loan market is expensive. Wouldnt it be better to keep the money for snapping up bright young things like Pack ? I think the club's policy is the right one with regard loanees and buying youngsters. Just a shame we didn't go the whole 5 yards with our academy like they did at Crewe
People keep mentioning Moyes saying he remembers us like he is going to loan us Man U players, I can't remember once having a Everton player on loan?
Moyes said the club never approached him for his players on loan, He also said he would be happy to help us and would of loaned us players had we asked. Think that was the dinner he had, Or it could of been the Fans parliament. Ether way I remember reading it on the OTIB
If you get the right loans the loan market can be free and it gets round the wage cap yes if we have the money in the pot to pay the wages of the youngsters then buy them but if money is tight use the loan market. I'd rather we brought in someone on loan and kept a reserve just in case a bargain turned up in January and we had to say thanks but no thanks we can't afford the wages. re Crewe we are hoping to move up to CAT 1 status with the academy but one of the criteria is that you have to have a seperate pitch with it's own flood lights for the Academy use plus you need to be spending about 3 million a year on your academy, I don't know if you have noticed that the Academy is recruiting coaches to go out to schools and boys clubs etc all part of creating an Academy that will be the best in the West and rival or could we hope exceed Southampton's in the type/class of players produced
A lot of clubs will be loaning their players to get them off their wage bill, not loan them to us out the goodness of their hearts and pay their wages. Some Prem clubs do it where you pay a percentage but that is structured to your wage bill. So if your wage cap is 5k and the player earns 6k then you pay the first 5 and their parent club pays the rest. Plus Moyes might of said it, but saying it and actually happens is two different things, when ever we have loaned anyone (which means we were looking and asking clubs) when have we ever had an ex Everton player?
