A bit of perspective

[Berniman]

I was listening to Talksport and they were discussiong the budgets between the top and bottom of the Prem.  They mentioned that Burnley have a budget of £16m and are pretty close to holding their own in the Premier League.

At the awards night, Cooper confirmed that the budget of Bristol City this season was £11m.  It just shows that, the chasing pack have done a decent job in running them close for the majority of the season, and does beg some questions:

Why the fuck did it take them so long to win the fucking thing?
If our budget was £11m would you be impressed with the calibre of player they have?
How much more money are they going to have to spunk to stay in the championship?

It just goes to show that Cooper/Power have done a great job in finishing where we are with a £1.5m budget, and also shows that Burnely have done a great job this season on that budget, 16% the size of the top 4 budgets in the Prem.

This is not an obsessive post about City by the way, fair fucks to them and all that, but it did get me thinking when I heard the numbers they were talking about for the Prem.

Hopefully perspective provided 

[Tails]

City have got some cracking players in that side. Freeman, Ayling, Smith, Williams, Bryan, Fielding, JET (when he can be arsed) are all very talented players and will probably do OK in the championship... but on the face of it, Freeman aside, I don't think many of their first XI are better than our first XI. It's the lack of depth which has hurt us at times. But City have played some good football and deserve to win the league.

I don't think anyone is under any illusions that we've probably over achieved this season. To finish in the top 4 with a spell at the top of the league was more than I think any of us dreamed of at the start of the season. It's a shame that some fans can't get it through their thick skulls and stop abusing the players every fucking chance they get.

IF we go up though, Cooper should win Manager of the Year. To get promoted on that budget, with a decent style of football (mostly) is huge.

[kerry red]

But, for all the budget they have, the 82ers haven't got much in the way of depth.

Sure, their first XI are the best in this league and they have been very lucky with regards to lack of injuries/suspensions.

Compare with PNE losing Garner for 3 months, Franchise losing Afobe/Alli and ourselves with Luongo/Kasim plus all the mindless suspensions.

Certainly not bitter with the 82ers winning the league - just their fuckwit fans.

[Reg Smeeton]

 Yes Berni....what I've been saying all season....come what may we've done amazingly well given the circumstances.  When you consider our budget is less than Oxford's, this provides a bit more perspective, in the other direction.

 Which is why, if we don't go up it's not the end of the world....we can make a bit from player sales in the summer, + some cash from TV etc to see us through May/June July.

 A priority, is sorting a new training facility, and hopefully seeing some Trust progress on the SB roof.....

[suttonred]

LP confirmed our budget was 1.8 million, still way off most, but a little higher than generally mentioned. And we'll be massaging that with the loanees parent clubs paying something, so being devils advocate, I reckon at face value, ours is at least 50% more than the baseline figure., which would probably put us around half way budget wise. Still a decent performance against cost, dont get me wrong.

[REDBUCK]

Well I think Wilbraham and Flint would add something but might require a change in style and that's the point. Their manager settled on a style , fitted the players into it and stuck with it. They haven't got a plan B either but haven't needed one.

As has been said, small squad, lack of injuries, consistent performances and great discipline have all helped win the league.

lucky for them this has coincided with the stadium rebuild and a latent support just waiting to fill it.

[Costanza]

Bristol City have a great XI. That's why they find themselves top of the league and going up with relative ease.

A major part of their flaws over the last few managers is that they couldn't do anything with their generous owners wealth. Cotterill is loathesome and will probably/hopefully be 'found out' again in The Championship but I fully expect City to build on this seasons success.

My only hope is that Town are up there with them.

[Berniman]

I wasn't really saying they didn't have a good first 11, more questioning whether it was really £11m worth?

[Costanza]

I wasn't really saying they didn't have a good first 11, more questioning whether it was really £11m worth?

Probably not. City fans will say how they've trimmed the wages down by a large amount but they do like to flex their muscle in the wages department, even if it's over the odds, it gets them their man.

[suttonred]

One of the London lads said today, that this is our 4th season on the bounce that we'll finish with a single figure final position, which when all said and done, is pretty Impressive, seeing with all the crap we've been through during  that period.

[REDBUCK]

In fact our highest league position in 15 years.

[DarloSTFC84]

Their team is undoubtedly good. I, personally, would expect more quality with that kind of budget. This isn't jealousy or sour grapes, it's just that I don't think we're too far away from them.... I certainly don't think they look over £9m of quality more than us..

[4D]

In fact our highest league position in 15 years.

Since the end of last year 

[jayohaitchenn]

Highest league finish in 15 years then.

[4D]

If we ended up in the final against franchise, I don't know if I could face going.