Seeing as this board has gone quiet and with obvious reason I would like to see if there are any teams in your mind that we should try and emulate. I know there are certain models that we can never become but when you look around at other teams of a similar nature to us I see some tremendous examples of how teams should be rebuilt. The 2 that immediately come to mind are Brighton and Swanses and their style of play is attracting interest from all corners of the footballing world, and rightly so in my opinion. Yesterday Brighton had an attendance of close to 30,000 in their new stadium and Swansea had slightly over 20,000 against mediocre opposition. These are examples of 2 teams who went through a rebuilding process and along the way changed their approach to the game and also acquired new stadiums, so I can only assume that most of us would agree that they both found the magic formula to maintain a presence that is now respected by footballing minds. Since Bristol City arrived back in the Championship we have heard constantly that we would be going through a rebuilding programme and were looking seriously at a new home and yet here we are still listening to those comments from the boardroom. How come those 2 teams got it so right but we got it so wrong, and it would be interesting to see the financial books of Brighton and Swansea to figure out if they almost broke the bank in achieving their goals. So now we start our rise from the ashes somewhat lower down the league ladder but is that so bad when you consider that Brighton went through some really tough times, and had major problems getting their new arena built, but now they are on the verge of getting in to the Premier League? It is possible that we can get back to respectability but I reckon we need to take a real hard look at our failures using our old business plan, and maybe take a leaf out of the 2 aforementioned teams to see how to succeed as they have. Not being in touch with the day to day happenings leaves me to ask you all as to whether the chicken (team) or egg (stadium) came first in their cases?
Brighton took 10 years plus to get their stadium and went through what we are with their ground. Swansea nearly went out of the league altogether and was saved on the final day of the season. Yes both have it right now but the difference between us and them is thier patience paid off with good managers Swansea run a policy now that when they are looking for managers they have retained part of the previous managers back room staff and get guidance of then who to go for next. Their success has been built on Martinez giving them flair, Souza tightening up the back and Rogers knitting it together. Laudrup has just made them better. The other thing is both those clubs are the only team in the vicinity of their home. Brighton had as said a ****ing long wait for their ground and a good young manager. We have Rovers, whether we like it or not split the city and surronding areas, no light at the end of the tunnel regarding the ground. But we have had Derick McInnes buying young players for first team and youth set ups, but lost the plot on the field and now we have SoD the manager who will hopefully to bring out the best of these youngsters. So all in all you just need patience
I think we should just look at all the best bits from all the other sides and see what applies to us as all clubs have differences.
Ive been crying out for sexy football since GJ left. Its the only way forward. Bollocks to this "you have to have a cisse type player" Its bullshit. Simple fact is if you have the ball you cant concede. Id rather see 2 5ft 7 CM who play great passes and keep the call than 2 6ft+ CM who are just going to tackle. Your CB's are the one that do the tackling, If you can get your CM's to put pressure on the opposition then you don't need a tough tackling midfielder.. We need to now find our style of play and stick with it. SOD will get us playing attractive football. He will get bargains and turn them good. We will have a young hungry team and this is what we need to get ourselves up the leagues. Swansea are the team we should copy
You don't need to be 6ft plus to be able to tackle. In fact if you find a smaller MF who can tackle you will find one who has a heart, getting the ball back is a fundamental part of Barcelona's success. when they have the ball is when they get their breathers.
Leon Britton is 5ft5 yet is one of the best (under rated) defensive midfielder in the country and yes he plays for swansea. He shows u dont have to big just smart. But there are teams like Stoke who use size to dominate and now they are trying to play technical football they are struggling. Bolton are another who under Big Sam did well but when they tried to play attractive footbal they went down. Swansea are rare that they play some of the nicest football in the league and stay up and but that is down to the style of the manager and the playera he has brought in as he brought in some good spanish players to top up what they had. Where we have been trying to play a style under SOD recently without the players needed and it doesnt work.
Man U have also demonstrated that you don't need tall midfielders. Scholes Keane And Robson were all not huge but had huge hearts
Ajax. Since League 1 is now confirmed we're back to square one. That's just the reality of the situation. As much as I'd like to see us rebuild and land Championship football again I would much rather see Lansdown follow through with his dream for the club, and to invest heavily in both the academy and the stadium. Bristol needs a new Premier League quality stadium it can be proud of, and if we cannot provide the fans we should at least be able to use it for concerts and other things to make Bristol more of a force. I still maintain that rebuilding Ashton Gate is the wrong move and one that will resign us to the past. Most importantly, the club should focus all of its efforts on becoming eligible for Category 1 status, and now that the restrictions on scouting are over I'd love to see Lansdown put some top-quality scouts in charge at the club, and to build a structure at the club where we generate players that can play attractive football, with the end goal being 11 academy players in the first team at Bristol City, and resale value on these players. If we're not going to spend money on players I would rather see us pour all of our transfer money into bringing world-class coaches and scouts into our system. I want Bristol City to at least rival Premier League academies in the quality they produce. A brand new academy should be built in the model of the Ajax Academy, with permanent housing for residents, world-class training facilities, access to a good education, and with a worldwide scouting reputation.
Here a some clubs that we could learn something from: West Brom Swansea Norwich Brighton Hull Yeovil Bournemouth
Swansea have gone off the boil at the moment. What about Southampton they have completely rebuilt the club and are establishing themselves back in the premier league. Oh they do have a really good striker who you may remember when you last played us in a competitive match Lambert! I agree you require a new stadium a refurb is a short term fix worthwhile but defo not long term. COR
A very good thread from Invermere Mike and also a very perceptive post from Hawkmoonfy. I, like him, believe we should be picking the best bits from others because it is impossible to completely copy one club because of the differences that exist on stadiums, catchment area, history and so on. In spite of this, there have been some good suggestions from others and mostly they are the very obvious ones because of current success; Brighton and Swansea on the back of a new stadiums, Southampton also had a new stadium, but suffered from poor financial management until their revival in the last three years. EnderMB has highlighted on of the best known European clubs for youth development in Ajax, but I would also add the obvious Barcelona and one much less obvious unless you live in Portugal which is Sporting Lisboa. Their youth development has operated profitably for many years with such names as Cristiano Ronaldo. Their first team has struggled this season but still they bring youngsters through into the first team at 17 and 18 years. This season one Eric Dier at right back; don't know him eh? He hails from Cheltenham. I met a guy from Barnsley who lives in Portugal on a flight to Lisbon and we talked about football and his 14 year old son is with Sporting. He claimed that the coaching and normal school education standards are way in front of those in league clubs back in Yorkshire. So a top notch Academy is an absolute essential for Bristol City to have any hope of progressing up the leagues but within the FFP rules. Now to the three clubs that we could use as a basis for our revival combined with the aforementioned Academy. West Bromwich Albion, Norwich City and Wigan Athletic. Apart from Wigan who had to have a new stadium to replace the appalingly bad Springfield Park, the other two have rebuilt their traditional stadiums to a capacity and standard that suits their pulling power. Norwich have long developed youngsters going back to one Paul Cheesley who they took from under City's noses in the early seventies. And I don't know how they did it but similar to Southampton, Leeds and Forest their gates held up even when they dropped into the third tier. I somehow doubt that City's will get much above 8,000 unless we go straight to the top of the league from day one of next season! But the major factor among all of them, WBA, Norwich and Wigan, is how they have managed to spend more years in the top flight than City can only dream about, but without throwing millions away on salaries for overpaid nobodies and has beens. And as mentioned in another thread, the £40 million or so invested by Steve Lansdown that has just managed to block up the plughole at City, would certainly have been put to better use with any of these three clubs.
I think Norwich is the model for us. Having watched an ordinary Sunday morning under 16's game for the first time in years a few weeks ago it was truely shocking, in a bad way that is. 100 miles an hour, no organisation, very litte passing of any quality at all and the 3 players on the pitch with some ability and composure on the ball stood out like a sore thumb... I thought that with with all of the emphasis on more coaching, etc for youngsters it would be a lot better but it appears that despite the national team's failings again superior quality football in recent years, we have learned very little...
I think you could add Fulham to the list and there are a lot of similarities between us. Both are smallish clubs in huge catchment areas. Both have modest stadiums Both have massively rich owners Both would (or in Fulham's case do) attract 25,000+ people to home games in the top flight One is in L1 and the other in the Prem, that's the only major difference.
Good call Angelic; in fact there are so many role models for us, it is perhaps so difficult to understand why our wheels keep coming off every few years. We seem to have ten years of disaster for every year of success. No wonder our attendances don't hold up as the bad times never seem to go away!
I think Brighton are a tremendous club to emulate. They endured the Withdean for years, were patient and then developed the fantastic Amex and expanded it rapidly - they now get the biggest crowds in the Championship - a far cry from the 5k at the Athletics track. Their chairman has backed them financially, got a great manager in who has made some excellent signings both English and foreign. I can see them going up via the playoffs.
Agreed but one word of caution. Their Chief Executive was quoted about three months ago along the lines " Brighton have a tremendous amount of work to do to comply with FFP rules for next season" Can't remember exact wording but are they overspending by a considerable amount, which is perhaps clouded somewhat by their current attendance figures and success? Of course if they go up, then all change anyway!
They are indeed. Aside from the cautionary tale above which may or may not hamper them in the seasons to come, I also remember it wasn't that long ago that Reading were playing in the 4th division at Elm Park and were only getting around 3,000 a game, ditto Wigan at Springfield Park. As soon as they got their new stadiums their crowds rocketed too, and success followed for both.
Both Cardiff and Swansea were in the bottom three Division 2 in the last 7 years. Heard that on Radio 5. and now they are in the Premiership. It shows that you can sink to the bottom and then rise to the top if you have wealthy patrons, patience AND passionate support. When my sons saw people leaving BEFORE HALFTIME in the match against Sheffield Wednesday there was not much i could say to them. So they will go back to following Man Utd. But I digress. I can tell you what clubs i dont want to be like: Portsmouth QPR Sheffield United Plymouth Wolves Middlesboro Leeds ....actually it is a long list.
