bristol_wanderer

Is that the fat potato wedge type chips or thin and crispy chips?

B for me. I would far have him on our side than anyone elses. He would still command respect from a number of our better players and given they generally have more money than us......

I'm having an exciting night in watching Question Time and This Week! It looks like Hilary is preparing to throw in the towel and Mr Obama is going to be the democratic choice to fight the next American presidential election. It also seems like from a distance Obama and Hilary have re-awakened politics in the US, capturing the imagination of the American public young and old alike. Obama's rallies get an incredible number of young intellectuals attending. I must admit I am looking forward to reading his book in a couple of weeks when I go on my hols, as well as seeing how the whole process pans out with the contrast between Obama and McCain. Whatever happens nothing can be worse than Dubya. So what are your views on Obama and the US elections? Should we care? Do you feel it affects us? Do we need someone like Obama to raise interest in our politics?

Condolences mate.

And me!

We never have and never will for the forseeable future sell 24000 ST's. Even in our best supported days of a few years ago, we only sold 18000-19000.

Surely this thread shows how difficult it is to get these supporters going week in week out. As for the UEFA cup, the supporters we might have lost by fielding weakened teams must be less than those we would have lost had we gone down? IMO we would have gone down had we beat Sporting Lisbon. We have to face up to the fact that as a club we are not very well supported and out of our max 25000 supporters, around a third or even 50% are "fickle" and may or may not go dependent on their circumstances. It seems the club could make it ?100 per year for ST's and many of the apathetic wouldn't return. My view now is that the halcyon days of 2003/04 when we averaged 26700 and sold out against the likes of Leicester and Fulham, were as a result of being on a crest of a wave. We had heroes like Youri and Jay Jay playing some really entertaining stuff, we were on an upward curve, we had just survived one of the most exciting relegation battles you will ever see, it was relatively cheap to watch both for ST and matchday, and the game hadn't quite the same level of greed and domination by a few wealthy clubs. Now, without this plus the hit in the pocket of the european adventures, and the feeling we have reached our peak, we are struggling to keep our core support going to games. Therefore the club is doing the right thing by trying to get the kids into the habit of going and securing potential future supporters.

One thing that this thread proves is that if those contributing to this thread are representative of our fanbase, then our support is a bunch of extremely negative moaners, and the club can never ever win. I don't know why Eddie Davies doesn't pack the whole thing in and put us back in the position of being broke in the 4th tier.

You could always turn BWFC's approach down..... The first two are good suggestions IMO. Although a small reduction just to get the ST below ?399 would meet with cyncism from some I feel. In terms of the 14.9%, surely if they removed this then everyone would pay monthly, which would defeat the object of ST's in the first place which is to give the club some up front income, during months when the club makes little money, for the season ahead? Do you see many fans taking up the 5 year deal? Would it be worth the admin of introducing and maintaining it? Surely the whole concept of singing sections means that you wouldn't have family sections in all areas?

Wrong and wrong. Missed 1 home game in 5 years and sit in WSU. I agree that there may be issues with those who want to sing and those who don't but how does the club resolve that? Those at the club have taken what is a fairly bold step and tried to help he atmosphere what more can they do? My whole point here is that is easy to pick one small part of the whole offering and find fault with it, because there will always be issues when trying to please 20000 people, but on the whole it is a pretty good structure and they cannot do much more to encourage both new and existing fans to go.

Ok, but what changes would you propose that would make the annoucement not dissappointingly very average? Personally, I think it is a fair offer that strikes a good balance between value for money, creating an atmosphere, encouraging kids and thus doing all we can to create a fan base going forward.

It isn't too difficult. Just point out the differences you would like to see and how that would help all the types that constitue our fan base. You would like to see ESL at ?350, which would would be good for you, but then what about WSL, and then what about the differences between ESL/WSL and ESU and WSU. And then what about the clubs finances? I suppose you would like to see some big name signings, where do they come from?

Having briefly read through this thread, I am struggling to understand why about 80-90% of the posts are negative. The club have reduced or frozen the cost of football for everyone. Also the club have listened to the fans in terms of allowing/encouraging fans to sing, which throughout last season was the subject of many moaning posts on here. Where is the problem? It is easy to pick out one part of what the club have done, and pick holes in it because it isn't perfect for you, but when you have to please kids, yoof, thirty somethings wanting a bit of rowdyness/violence, those in a mid life crisis, pensioners, women, dads, mums, grandads, prawn sandwich types equally, it becomes a bit more difficult. As well as that, the club have to deal with falling attendances, and thus greater financial pressures, as well as having to compete with a monolith ten miles away that has just won the two biggest prizes and is constantly consuming many of our potential fans. Perhaps all those who have an issue should post an alternative structure, and I mean complete structure, the club should have used, and a benefits case to show how your structure is generally better than the one the club has used.

I think the idea is flawed, as is the whole game of football these days, due the fact that the wealthier teams are getting wealthier, and money is the becoming more and more the main criterium by which success is gained. Games today are effectively Abramovich's ego v Glazer's ego etc. etc. I was reading yesterday about how Millwall are downgrading their academy to Centre of Excellence status, mainly beacause of cost, and the fact that those costs are not reimbursed by big money transfers of the kids they have nurtured because there is a transfer window for kids were the big clubs can buy them and take them to their academies. So Millwall are loosing promising kids to Man U and Arsenal at 13/14/15 for a relatively small fee. This also negatively affects the morale of those running the Millwall academy. There is apparantely no limit to how many kids the big club can take to their academies, so given almost unlimited wealth, they just need to buy more scouts to monitor talented kids around the country, and just take them all into their academies, discard the ones they don't think are good enough to lesser clubs (in terms of wealth) thereby guaranteeing that they get first pick of practically the whole country's talent. Once they have conquered this country they can then focus on talent within the EU. We have already seen Arsenal taking Fabregas from Barca's academy. Something needs to be done in the game to even out the playing field or the whole game will end up revolving around a few clubs in this country. You may argue it already is. I think it is unrealistic to try the draft system as in American football, as clubs are now large companies, and turning the transfer market into the draft system, would devalue these companies, which wouldn't be allowed to happen. So my idea to even up the game would be to simply limit transfers to 5 per season, and 1 or 2 academy transfers per season. Forget about where players are from, the EU is an open market for all employment so it is hard to see football being treated as an exception, just give all clubs a better chance to keep their better players for longer, and stop wealthy clubs buying for buying sake.

Do not believe 99% of what you read regarding our transfers at this stage of the season. It is a case of junior journos tasked with trying to keep readers interested in the sports pages. We will not buy Robinson. FACT. As for Megson - he surely deserves our support next season? His signings have been good on the whole thus far, he has allegedly got more money spend than any manager ever has before, the players seem to respect him, and above all else he is the best we can realistically get, so lets get behind him eh?

I thought he was on ?25kish per week here. Perhaps the article is quoting his salary in dollars?

Yep hope Meggo wasn't thinking of making a bid.....

Prediction: Anelka to miss crucial pen to hand trophy to Man U.

I think yes. Hardly a glamour signing that will create a rush on ST's but would be cheap, knows the Prem well, and short term cover for McCann. Also, I am struggling to see any decent midfielders around that we can afford or would want to come here.

Could be 37 away games only next season....

If all the prices quoted in the media are correct, we have spent ?0 this season, in fact according to the figures below we are ?435,000 in credit: In: Dzeamaili - Free Cid - Free Samuel - Free McCann - ?1m Braaten - ?425,000 Wilhelmsson - loan Alonso - loan Helguson - ?1.9m Guthrie - loan O'Brien - ?1.2m Cohen - ?40,000 Steinsson - ?3.5m Cahill - ?5m Taylor - ?4m Raziak - loan Out: Faye - ?2m Anelka - ?15m Speed - Free Michalik - ?500,000 So what is the verdict on the above? O'Brien, Guthrie, McCann, Samuel, Cahill, Steinsson are all definite hits IMO. Jury still out on Taylor. All the rest are misses. But pretty good business at the prices. The outgoings (not Michalik) have perhaps hurt us more than the incoming plusses have benefitted us though? *edit* missed the important inclusion of Speed in the outgoings.

I think he would do well at Lyon - he would certainly spend less time defending there than he does here, and the French defenders are not of the same standard as here, so he would probably score and assist more. A poorer league but he would play in the CL every year so everyone gains. We shoud demand ?6-?7m though IMO, even if we end up with ?4m.

What do we think about the future of football where rich owners are concerned? It seems to me these multi millionaires are expected to provide tens or hundereds of millions then let someone else invest the money for them, and only if the team wins trophies do they get any adulation to feed their inflated egos. In light of the credit crunch, and the fact that the top 4 have a monoply on the major trophies for the forseeable future, surely the owners of other clubs will get bored of donating their hard earned with little reward? Sky pundits recently predicted West Ham would stop spending this close season, we are seeing issues at Man City and Liverpool, even Abramovich seems to be getting bored - surely the trend of rich sugar daddies looking for public affection owning mid table clubs will reverse?

Judging by the "fans" comments in the BEN many people are intent on a close season of sniping and carping, criticising every signing we make and every signing we don't make, continuous Gartslime/Darkside/Mugson/Smegson out with no sensible alternative. Personally this season has not been as enjoyable as the last 5, but there have been some great times (Munich, Madrid, beating Man U, two great euro nights at the Reebok). Time to raise a glass or two and prepare the other half for another nine months of weekends at least half devoted to BWFC come August

I think Diouf may regret his hasty decision to quit. He was probably assuming at the time we would be relegated. He is fundamentally a loveable prick, talented, but with a below average end product in terms of goals and assists. We have learned as a club to accomodate him, protect him, put a fatherly arm round him, calm him down when threatens to boil over, and as fans to give him a lot of praise and adoration. Where else will he get things as good? I can't see West Ham or Man City fans or players being so receptive to him. In fact I can't see either of those clubs signing him, and moreover, I can't see any Prem club above Wigan signing him. If so his next move is sideways at best.