‘A somewhat crazy day in south Bristol’

We drew, phew. At last, we bloody drew. What a relief. Tuesday nights 2-2 draw with promotion chasing Sheffield Wednesday drew to close a somewhat crazy day in south Bristol.

My day was spent flicking between Twitter, The Post website and various other social media platforms as I tried to follow the deadline day comings and goings. News first broke early morning regarding the potential move of the now former Rovers star Matt Taylor.

For the more avid reader among you, you will remember I suggested/predicted, and I quote (myself), “we could do much worse than poaching Rovers’ Matt Taylor” in my blog of December 22nd. So, from now, on I will be referring myself to Nostradamus Skinner.

In all seriousness though, I am happy that sense has seemed to prevail and we have purchased a player with great potential who, if successful in making the step-up, will be a great addition to our striking options.

I say ‘sense has prevailed’ because of the remarkable 30 year period that nobody crossed the divide. There have been many players that I have felt City should have been in for over the years, mostly strikers like Ricky Lambert and Nathan Ellington, and have always been frustrated that they have been ‘off-limits’.

I am aware that I go against the grain in not being the average Bristol Rovers-hating City fan, but I do like the idea of Rovers being something of a surrogate club for us. I am sure Rovers fans will have their own ideas on my plan, but it makes sense to me.

Stories have circulated today that Bristol City may have done something wrong in relation to the Taylor transfer. They met that exact figure that was needed to trigger his release clause, reported to be £300,000. It seems unrealistic to expect such figures to remain secret as Rovers are supposedly saying it should have. I may be wrong but I imagine this story will go away pretty soon as City won’t have a case to answer.

I was also pleased to see the return of forgotten son David Cotterill. I remember him well first time round, after bursting into the team as a teenager before departing to Wigan for what at the time was a truly substantial fee of £2m.

I have since followed his career closely and was a little surprised that he had become surplus to requirements at Birmingham, given that fact he had been featuring regularly this season.

So, there are the two positives bits of business we managed to get done before the deadline passed. However, it wasn’t all good news: yes, I am referring to the departure of Luke Freeman.

He will be mostly fondly remembered for his performances in the 2014/15 season when then-boss Steve Cotterill took the winger and played him through the middle in an attacking midfield role to great affect. The last year-and-a-half will not be remembered quite so well, but that wonder goal, his first and only at Ashton Gate, against Ipswich was something all City’s fans will remember fondly.

Just before I go into something of an attack on Freeman, I would like to thank him for his hard work over the last couple of years and wish him all the best in the future. Now, for the negative part.

It will not escape the avid Bristol City fan that Freeman’s departure has not come about in the most gracious of circumstances. Sadly, Luke joins a number of footballing bogeymen this transfer window who have affectively downed tools, or shin-pads perhaps, and refused to play for their employers.

Football has changed; I am not naive enough to say it has not. In years past the clubs had, undoubtedly, too much power. This lead to the Bosman ruling and a sea change in the way players were treated. But, I would argue, the power has shifted too far towards the players.

Freeman refused to play for the side, as did other including Payet. That means, surely, the clubs should be able to refuse to pay their wages. Due to current rules and the relative strength of the P.F.A. the maximum fine for such actions is set at two weeks’ wages.

It will be interesting to see if clubs manage to wrangle back any power in such matters in coming years. As the amount of money involved in the game grows I could easily seeing the so called ‘player power’ culture that we seem to have embraced only getting worse. I guess time will tell.

So, to this weekend and the welcome return to form on the pitch matters after all the transfer nonsense of the last month or so. Having ended the terrible run of 8 successive defeats, City have the most opportune of opportunities to get three home points as we host bottom of the league Rotherham this Saturday.

Given the fact I am on something of a winning streak with Matt Taylor predications, I am going to make one more. I think City will take all three points at Ashton Gate, relatively comfortably and that our new striker will chip in with a debut goal. As ever, fingers crossed.  

Read more: ‘Sense has prevailed at Ashton Gate’