‘Thanks for all the memories, Joe’

Last weekend witnessed the return of league football across the UK. For those of us obsessed with the beautiful game the 21-day wait between the World Cup ending and the return of our local heroes seemed like an eternity.

As discussed so eloquently by Paul last week (AKA @TheExiledRobin), City had a number of new signings on show for the opening encounter against a Nottingham Forest side also boasting an array of new talent.

The 1-1 draw produced the largest collective murmur of “I’ll take that” that I recall from an opening day encounter. City looked good without ever getting fully into their stride. Forest started the game somewhat slowly but certainly grew as the match went on and overall probably thought they could have won it.

Here is a brief round-up of how I saw our new players:

Niki Maenpaa – The imposing Fin made an impressive start to his City career in my view. His sizeable figure cuts quite a different look to that of Frankie Fielding. He made a number of decent saves and a big positive has to be his distribution, something we all know Fielding struggles with.

Jack Hunt – As we expected from reports coming from his time at Sheffield Wednesday, he looked very competent going forward but could potentially have a mistake or two in him defensively.

Adam Webster – The most impressive of the new signings, for me. His ability on the ball is clear for all to see and his presence of mind, coupled with Maenpaa’s distribution, gave us a new assuredness when bringing the ball out from the back. He may have to learn how to kick it into row Z every now and again though.

Andreas Weimann – Got his name on the score sheet and worked tirelessly for the cause, but I feel he was a little lost in the role as a sole striker. Given Diedhiou will be out for the next five games, Johnson will have to decide as to if playing someone along side Weimann might utilise his strengths more.

Mo Eisa – We only saw a brief cameo from our new man from Cheltenham Town but I liked the little we did see.

I have managed to get thus far in this week’s piece without mentioning the proverbial elephant in the room, so here goes. As we all know, Bristol City parted company this week with academy product Joe Bryan. It wasn’t much of a surprise given his contract situation and the rumours that had been swirling regarding his potential departure.

I, like many I am sure, was delighted to see Joe not leave us for a Championship rival with the late bid from Fulham hijacking what had appeared to be a done deal with Villa. Once the dust has settled on Bryan’s exit I hope people can reflect on this being a real success for our Academy. A young player, with bags of potential, has realised that potential in the first team and then bought in vast a sum of money for the club.

Although Joe played the majority of 200 plus appearances for City in defensive potions, it will be two attacking moments that will be my abiding memory of the former QEH student’s time at Ashton Gate. Bryan scored his first goal for the club in our 2-1 derby victory over Rovers with a right-footed curling effort back in 2013. A real pearler, and a sign of things to come. The second is, of course, his wonder goal against Manchester United last season. Thanks for all the memories, Joe.

Milan Djuric also looks to be leaving BS3 this week in his widely anticipated move back to Italy. Injury sadly blighted the Bosnian’s time in English football and although he posed a threat from the bench, his lack of ability to play a full 90 minutes rendered him surplus to requirements in my view.

City will most likely look to the loan market that remains open till the end of August and replacing Bryan and Djuric will no doubt be high on the list for Johnson and Ashton. City head to Bolton this weekend to face the side that escaped relegation by a whisker due to Wilbraham’s last minute goal at the end of the 2017/18 season.

I hoping Johnson will play two recognised strikers in the North West this weekend with Patterson dropping out for Eisa. Other than that I would expect the same starting side that drew at home on the opening day. I will also stick my neck out and predict a victory with Eisa netting his first goal for City.