‘Bristol’s football clubs are serial failures, but they shouldn’t be’

If someone says the often parroted phrase, ‘That’s just so Bristol’, I put £20 down they aren’t from here.

It’s usually about some quirky and outlandish thing they have witnessed, someone dressed as a dinosaur walking through Bedminster or a masked fire breathing juggler on stilts, or some bollocks like that.

But something that is just so Bristol – that us Bristolians do see – is the continued serial failure of both our football teams.

In the past fortnight, we have seen both City and Rovers in free fall, and we are only in February.

City sacked their manager Dean Holden last night following Rovers’ dismissal of Paul Tisdale last week, leaving both the Robins and the Gas without a manager quite possibly for the first time in their history.

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Read more:

• Dean Holden sacked as Bristol City manager
• Paul Tisdale sacked as Bristol Rovers manager after just 82 days in charge

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City getting humiliated by Watford 6-0 was almost the final straw as they plummeted from near the top of the Championship to mid-table mediocrity in the last few months.

Rovers meanwhile are in serious danger of relegation from League One having let Tisdale go after being in charge for only 19 games.

Despite all the spin and rhetoric, the cold hard facts are both clubs are no closer getting to the heights that the ever so hopeful fans dream about year on year.

Gasheads are understandably more fatalistic and the optimism tends to wane by late November and they give up; whereas City fans get excited that they are getting promoted until after Christmas when they usually turn on their manager, director of football, players, PA announcer, ball boys and anyone in the firing range.

Yes, it’s Groundhog Day in Bristol, football folks.

Are both sets of fans entitled to demand success? Let’s face it, neither have ever had much. In their collective history, City reached the old First Division for four seasons between 1976 and 1980, and Rovers have never in their history been in the top flight.

This is why, among the noise, there is also a sizeable amount of fans of both clubs that are resigned to this fate.

But here is why they shouldn’t be.

Bristol is the eighth biggest city in the UK, has the fourth fastest growing economy outside London, tourists come here from all over the world, we are a global leader in art and graffiti, the place more people from the capital are moving to than anywhere else in the UK, and the city regularly wins awards for the best place to live.

On all measures, Bristol is a city that investors will invest in, and footballers would want to live in.

Ashton Gate Stadium is the home of both Bristol Bears and Bristol City – photo: JMP

And yet we have seen towns like Wigan, Stoke, Bournemouth, Burnley and many more, all get to the Premier League, and some even stay there.

In fact, Bristol City are arguably the biggest club to never get to the Premier League. In a poll by Sky Sports, they were listed as the 37th club in an ultimate league table of clubs, and all 36 above them had spent some time there.

So what’s the problem?

Firstly, lets acknowledge progress. On City. No one can doubt the investment in infrastructure put in place by City chairman Steve Lansdown – a magnificent stadium, huge strides in the youth set up under Brian Tinnion producing local talent again, an innovative communications team. Not to mention his contribution to the greater sporting landscape in rugby with Bristol Bears, and an imminent basketball arena at Ashton Gate for Bristol Flyers. (Arguably too much distraction from the actual football.)

Rovers have made slower progress in this area as the stadium saga wanders on, but owner Wael Al Qadi has now paid off the club’s debt; they have a better pyramid structure in place; a training ground is being built in Almondsbury; a scouting network; and even small things like better bar facilities and a club shop at the Mem.

Both clubs also have outstanding and award winning community trusts, Bristol Rovers Community Trust and the Robins Foundation.

This stuff is important and much of it was not always in place. And this wider vision of what a football club is, and how it can be run, has largely been built by off-the-field savvy people brought in at both clubs. Marketing and commercial experience from Premier Leagues clubs (at the time) such as Stoke City, Watford, Brighton and Portsmouth, for example.

But the one area they haven’t go stuff right is on the football field. Both clubs continue to employ inexperienced managers with next to no experience at a higher level or any real tangible success. And even when that started to work they failed to back them.

If we turn back the clock there were pivotal moments in recent years when things were progressing, and both clubs had golden opportunities to kick on.

Rovers were building under Darrell Clarke, and when it was key to back him in the summer transfer market, they didn’t. This led to his frustration, losing focus and faith in the club, which impacted on the pitch. Also, as his successor Graham Coughlan had the Gas near the top of the league, they failed to reward him with a new and better contract, so he left. Leaving the club in free fall since.

South of the river, there were some halcyon days under Steve Cotterill and then Lee Johnson. Cotterrill got City back into the Championship, then Johnson had some golden moments near the top, cup runs against Man United and Man City, giving national exposure.

But when the club were ready to kick on, suddenly their best players were being sold, first Bobby Reid, then Joe Bryan, then Lloyd Kelly. All local boys, who realised their ambitions for Premier League football would be found outside their home city. It was clear, City were a selling club.

Then Johnson was sacked. Steve Lansdown went on Talksport saying it was time for a change and they wanted someone to take them on further.

Big names were touted, from experienced managers like Chris Hughton and Paul Cook, to top internationals like former England captains John Terry and Steven Gerrard. It was going to be the pivotal moment; the moment that would build on the foundations and secure someone to take them into the top flight.

And then they appointed Holden, a man who – as likeable as he is – had managed only a handful of Football League games and was not even Johnson’s number two, but his number three.

Something didn’t feel right. Despite the smoke-and-mirrors move of bringing older FA coaches around him like Paul Simpson and Keith Downing, and the ever-slippery CEO Mark Ashton saying Holden was their first choice, no one believed him. They felt – as many do today – that City went for the cheap option, and perhaps these bigger names had turned them down or City had them.

The one person perhaps being the stumbling block was Ashton himself, wanting control. The flak started to come, as it is now again too. The cringing phrase, “he’s an outstanding human”, will be forever written as the most bizarre reason to give someone a job in sport I have ever heard.

While Ashton does a grand job of not endearing himself to the fans every time he goes on BBC Radio Bristol, Rovers caretaker manager Tommy Widdrington’s popularity hasn’t been helped by being dug out in the press by Rovers fans hero Ian Holloway, though was redeemed a bit by Tuesday night’s Rovers win against Portsmouth.

So Ashton and Widdrington are both being blamed. But, as unlikeable as they may be to many fans, they are a convenient smokescreen for the real culprits in this: the owners of both clubs.

Where Al-Qadi has at times got flak, and divides fans, Steve Lansdown is seen as a sacred cow, beyond criticism.

Let’s face it, City and Rovers fans have seen worse times, under far worse owners, so it’s understandable. And both are good people, nice people, and clearly want to do the best they can for the clubs.

But at key moments, both men have failed to take a risk, be decisive, and financially back the team itself. Why?

A lack of ambition. They either haven’t got the money or they don’t want to spend the money, as in those key moments they chose not to. Even if we factor in Covid-19 and its financial limitations (and I suspect both Holden and Tisdale, to a lesser degree, were possibly ‘coronavirus appointments’), both owners were not prepared to take the next step.

As both Bristol clubs search for managers, there is now perhaps one last throw of the dice. The next appointments at Ashton Gate and the Memorial Stadium have to be right.

Unless both owners, and chairmen, are willing to sanction and support the right manager, with proven success, pay them a decent wage to attract them, let them bring in their own staff structure, and back them in the transfer market, then nothing will change. In fact, without this they will backslide.

While, financially. rugby is different and easier to do, Lansdown knows the model. He has already done it with Bristol Bears, who – largely because of director of rugby, Pat Lam – have built a fanbase, a culture and a mentality. And top players from across the world are coming to Bristol because they want to play for him.

Back to football, and we have seen clubs from far smaller towns and cities than Bristol make it into the Premier League, because they have been financially backed on the field. So there is no reason why City can’t reach the top flight and why Rovers can’t progress to the Championship.

But we need to take a risk, and go for it, and that comes from the top. It’s up to the current owners to do this or sell Bristol’s clubs to someone who can.

Neil Maggs is a freelance journalist, documentary maker and sports consultant

Main photos: JMP

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