Read on Twitter
@BCFC_Supporters @OSIBpodcast @BCFCOLIVERDOG @BristolCity @GeeMacGee @nscottd1 @MichelleOwen7 Time for reflection. I was so upset after the Cardiff defeat I switched off the TV and did not engage again until Twitter over morning coffee, only to learn that LJ has gone 1/15
So I'm throwing my 4 penn'orth into the mix. I am 63 and have been a fan since my first game in 1973, when Trevor Tainton dashed up and down the right wing and mesmerised me, watching from the enclosure in the Williams Stand. I spent half my life working abroad and started 2/15
contributing to the City conversation on the old BBC Five Live Football Forum when I lived in the USA (which is where my moniker comes from). The Ashton Gate Eight largely passed me by as I was living in Libya, of all places, in Feb 1982; but Trevor, Geoff and Jimmy Mann 3/15
in particular were in my thoughts when I caught up months later. I finally settled in Cardiff and bought my first season ticket two seasons ago as my way of supporting the football club I have followed for nearly 50 years because I was so excited about the direction the club 4/15
has been taking since the Lansdown family became involved. I really enjoyed the management of Steve Cotterill and Gary Johnson, was angry beyond belief at the shenanigans of Steve Coppell and was really looking forward to the stability of LJ taking us into the Elysian Fields 5/15
of the top league in the world. Sadly, this vision has crumbled over the last 18 months or so. I wish LJ every success in the future. He is bright and will do well elsewhere but, sometimes, you are in the right place at the wrong time and I think a parting of ways now makes 6/15
sense. So, whither the future? It seems to me we have been caught between two stools - do we follow the Wolves model, or Sheffield United? I buy in to Steve Lansdown's desire to see City back in the Premiership. But getting there is one thing, staying there another. Every 7/15
time we have signed a player in the last three seasons I have asked myself "Is he good enough for the Premiership?" In many cases I feel they would come up short. I for one would much rather we reduced the size of the squad and played Morrell, Vyner, Moore, Walsh, O'Leary 8/15
and other academy graduates, supported by class players like Bentley, Kalas, Nagy, Massengo, Eliasson, Palmer, Afobe and Wells. If that means we spend another three or four years in the championship learning how to develop, so be it. If we had sneaked in to the playoffs 9/15
this season and, by some act of divine intervention won the last spot into the promised land, I think, with the players we currently have, we would have crashed down through the trap door so fast it could have been damaging. If we want to buy promotion, we simply have to 10/15
invest in players like Gayle. Now consider the accounts to May 2019. Revenue £18m. Payroll £25m. Other Costs £18m. Operating Loss (£25m) Transfer profits £38m. Adjusted profit before tax £13m. Ask yourself - is that a sustainable business model? When payroll alone is more 11/15
than 138% of "normal" sales, it is clear there is no way we can afford to buy 5 players on £50k a week and add another £13m to the operating costs. OK, I know there would be a clearout but, even so, the approach is unsustainable and we can't expect the Lansdowns to write 12/15
cheques for £10m- £15m a year, every year, to satisfy our vanities. I have no doubt that I would prefer to stay in the Championship and build a team slowly without the scatter gun approach that seems to have guided recent transfer policy. I do not think that approach 13/15
is incompatible with the "we are traders" model either. If we improve the younger players I mention above some will turn into gems like Bobby and Joe and if the new academy efforts bear fruit the conveyor belt should take over from high cost January panic purchases. 14/15
Just a thought - and I apologise for being unable to put these thoughts into 280 characters. My focus now is on next season and I fervently hope that the virus crisis will have passed sufficiently to permit attendance at the Gate by the start of next season. COYR! end!
