Bristol City (H) 7.11.15

[bobo the clown]

As I understand it, we have a separate amount now owed to the banks as a short term overdraft. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if we default on payment or the bank panics and calls in the loan early, either someone bails us out, or we go into administration.

... we have "a financial arrangement in lieu of annoverdraft" (no. Me neither).

But as any forclosure would rip any value from actual assets and require a fire sale ED would be effectively the guarantor for that ... unless he fancied getting x in the £ for the assets.

[Bruce Rioja]

Just seen the highlights, and conclude the following;

If our's was a pengie then their's was too.

Ameobi's penalty kick was as poor as I can recall.

The cameras don't give the best view of it but his 'goal' had to be very, very close.

That's about all.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Oh & Nelson .... Leeds don't own a hotel, or office block or their ground or their car parks. They sold them off many years ago.

Indeed, in the fire sale along with the Thorp Arch training ground and Peter Ridsdale's goldfish.

Successive Leeds owners from Bates to GFH to Cellino have talked about buying back Thorp Arch and Elland Road but they're presumably now worth much more than they were sold for, by a desperate club, before (or right at the start of) a property boom.

[Prufrock]

I've never got buying a football ground. You don't have a lot leeway.

[Dr.Karl]

Why the feck are we not building a team around our only quality player - Mark Davies? We play a diamond and he doesn't play in behind the strikers. Instead we get Dobbie and bleeding Feeney as the fulcrum of our attacks. It beggars belief. I like Lennon as a bloke but his tactics and constant changes of personnel in recent months have me tearing my hair out.

In all honesty the lack of funds in this division can be no excuse. I'd love to see how our budget compares the rest of the championship. I'd be amazed if it corresponds to our league position I.e second lowest. So many decent managers have done well on meagre budgets past and present. Yes it helps to have cash, but team spirit and organisation goes a long way in the Championship. We seem to have neither of the two.

[Bruce Rioja]

I've never got buying a football ground. You don't have a lot leeway.

I can't believe that other for the land on which it stands there's actually any market for such a thing.

[officer_dibble]

Oh & Nelson .... Leeds don't own a hotel, or office block or their ground or their car parks. They sold them off many years ago.

Indeed, in the fire sale along with the Thorp Arch training ground and Peter Ridsdale's goldfish.

Successive Leeds owners from Bates to GFH to Cellino have talked about buying back Thorp Arch and Elland Road but they're presumably now worth much more than they were sold for, by a desperate club, before (or right at the start of) a property boom.

DSB - re leeds - the council stepped in and bought thorp arch... Ithink ken bates owned the ground under a shell company (not sure who owns it now). Can't see bolton council bailing us out.

[officer_dibble]

Why the feck are we not building a team around our only quality player - Mark Davies? We play a diamond and he doesn't play in behind the strikers. Instead we get Dobbie and bleeding Feeney as the fulcrum of our attacks. It beggars belief. I like Lennon as a bloke but his tactics and constant changes of personnel in recent months have me tearing my hair out.

In all honesty the lack of funds in this division can be no excuse. I'd love to see how our budget compares the rest of the championship. I'd be amazed if it corresponds to our league position I.e second lowest. So many decent managers have done well on meagre budgets past and present. Yes it helps to have cash, but team spirit and organisation goes a long way in the Championship. We seem to have neither of the two.

Agreed. Feeney is a trier but not an intelligent footballer. Out wide, with another wide left, Davies supporting the striker. Who probably shouldn't be that useless/low on confidence madine.

Right back bingo continues.

I wonder if there is a shout for twatdick or moxey left mid...at least it would provide natural width.

Pratley as captain isnt doing it for me either...id give it wheater if we are happy he will stay fit.

[Jugs]

Why the feck are we not building a team around our only quality player - Mark Davies? We play a diamond and he doesn't play in behind the strikers. Instead we get Dobbie and bleeding Feeney as the fulcrum of our attacks. It beggars belief. I like Lennon as a bloke but his tactics and constant changes of personnel in recent months have me tearing my hair out.

In all honesty the lack of funds in this division can be no excuse. I'd love to see how our budget compares the rest of the championship. I'd be amazed if it corresponds to our league position I.e second lowest. So many decent managers have done well on meagre budgets past and present. Yes it helps to have cash, but team spirit and organisation goes a long way in the Championship. We seem to have neither of the two.

Agreed. Feeney is a trier but not an intelligent footballer. Out wide, with another wide left, Davies supporting the striker. Who probably shouldn't be that useless/low on confidence madine.

Right back bingo continues.

I wonder if there is a shout for twatdick or moxey left mid...at least it would provide natural width.

Pratley as captain isnt doing it for me either...id give it wheater if we are happy he will stay fit.

Worth a shot.

Agreed RE: Davies.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Am I post-rationalising or have we gone to this narrow diamond since Wellington got injured?

[danardif1]

Well we don't have any other wide players other than Feeney so it certainly looks like it...

[Dr Hotdog]

Well we don't have any other wide players other than Feeney so it certainly looks like it...

I dunno, I think I saw Tom Walker start a game earlier this season. #frozenout

[officer_dibble]

I think walker is injured to be fair.

And yeah I think the diamonds come in since wellington got injured.

[BWFC_Insane]

The way we set up is so blatantly flawed it isn't funny. Feeney is a wide player or nothing. He isn't a number 10. Mark Davies was wasted out on the left of the diamond yesterday.

Why didn't Clayton play? What the hell was Dobbie meant to be doing?

Spearing in front of the back four looked decent. But Bristol City for an hour were the better side. If their final ball had been better we easily could have been 4 down in that period.

After that we looks better for the last half hour or so but still didn't really have any control and couldn't build enough pressure.

Ultimately there is little Lennon can do about penalty misses. But the setup and plan is nonsense.

Worth a try playing Casado or Pisano, or both out wide. Casado looks defensively a bit of a nightmare. But his delivery is decent. Pisano supposedly can play right wing. Rather than use neither that has to be worth a try.

[Jugs]

I didn't go yesterday, was busy, but it sounds pretty dire. Mark Davies on the left of a diamond and Feeny as number 10? Jesus Christ.

No idea what Lennon is playing at with Clayton. He's clearly a talent.

[DJBlu]

I didn't go yesterday, was busy, but it sounds pretty dire. Mark Davies on the left of a diamond and Feeny as number 10? Jesus Christ.

No idea what Lennon is playing at with Clayton. He's clearly a talent.

Feeney has scored goals this season. Davies hasn't.

Clayton has just come back from a serious injury. I doubt he wants to rush him back.

[Jugs]

Davies has also been deployed primarily as a holding midfielder.

He hasn't 'just come back'. His return to the team was over 6 weeks ago. His return to training was 2 months ago.

[Tombwfc]

I didn't see us yesterday, but we've been narrow for a lot of the season. Feeney has been pushed up behind the striker on the basis that he has at least a bit of mobility. Problem is that then we've got no wide options other than Wellington and Tom Walker, who Lennon doesn't trust. If you put Feeney out wide, then you've got to contend with a guy who's strength isn't his crossing trying to hit static strikers who wouldn't score anyway.

DSB said earlier that he doesn't think Lennon is maximising the squad's potential, but I'm really not sure the ceiling is that much higher. I think a lot better managers than Neil Lennon would struggle to find a winning team from this set of players. Set them up however you like, they're not capable of scoring goals.

There are five games now where scoring one goal would've given us a win, and a further two where scoring a single goal would've given us a point. 10 out of 16 where we've not scored in total. Across the last three completed season's, yesterdays starting eleven had managed a total of 48 goals between them. In the squad, nobody is averaging more than four goals a season across that period (Dobbie, Madine and Danns all got 12).

Comparing with other sides that have been bumming around the lower half of the Championship for the past few years, Charlton's XI yesterday had 104 goals in the past three seasons, Huddersfield Town's had 76 in a team that didn't include Ishmael Miller (17), Jamie Paterson (21) and James Vaughan (31). Sheffield Wednesday had 76 with Nuhiu (18) and McGugan (21) in reserve. Birmingham's had 109.

All of which tells you what is apparent to anyone who's seen us this season. Regardless of who the manager is, or where Liam Feeney plays, unless we can find a striker quickly we'll be playing League One football next season.

[Enoch]

DSB said earlier that he doesn't think Lennon is maximising the squad's potential, but I'm really not sure the ceiling is that much higher.

I think our players are capable of a lot more. I don't think they are fully switched on.

[BWFC_Insane]

I didn't see us yesterday, but we've been narrow for a lot of the season. Feeney has been pushed up behind the striker on the basis that he has at least a bit of mobility. Problem is that then we've got no wide options other than Wellington and Tom Walker, who Lennon doesn't trust. If you put Feeney out wide, then you've got to contend with a guy who's strength isn't his crossing trying to hit static strikers who wouldn't score anyway.

DSB said earlier that he doesn't think Lennon is maximising the squad's potential, but I'm really not sure the ceiling is that much higher. I think a lot better managers than Neil Lennon would struggle to find a winning team from this set of players. Set them up however you like, they're not capable of scoring goals.

There are five games now where scoring one goal would've given us a win, and a further two where scoring a single goal would've given us a point. 10 out of 16 where we've not scored in total. Across the last three completed season's, yesterdays starting eleven had managed a total of 48 goals between them. In the squad, nobody is averaging more than four goals a season across that period (Dobbie, Madine and Danns all got 12).

Comparing with other sides that have been bumming around the lower half of the Championship for the past few years, Charlton's XI yesterday had 104 goals in the past three seasons, Huddersfield Town's had 76 in a team that didn't include Ishmael Miller (17), Jamie Paterson (21) and James Vaughan (31). Sheffield Wednesday had 76 with Nuhiu (18) and McGugan (21) in reserve. Birmingham's had 109.

All of which tells you what is apparent to anyone who's seen us this season. Regardless of who the manager is, or where Liam Feeney plays, unless we can find a striker quickly we'll be playing League One football next season.

Given the only striker we've lost from our winning run under Lennon last season is Craig Davies, are you suggesting that he would make the difference?

If that is the case, then one can only blame Lennon for letting him go and getting in Madine et al.

Personally I think we should be 8 or 9 places higher without any additions to the squad. I agree that it is fine margins but being set up poorly isn't helping.