'Sack The Board': What's Going On With Bristol City?

'Sack The Board': What's Going On With Bristol City?

Championship Blog

Bristol City's Ownership Debate - A Lack Of Ambition Or Long-Term Safety?

As a general rule in football, you're only as good as your last result.

In the Championship, though, you're only as good as your ownership.

The league is a melting pot of clubs varying in size who, for the most part, seem to share the same ambition - achieving promotion to the Premier League.

Clubs tend to spend big as they take a punt on going up and are often left in a difficult financial situation if they aren't able to go the whole nine yards. As a result, they usually suffer the drop to League One in the following seasons.

Derby County are a prime example, who brought in exciting young players and paid big wages as a result, as well as hiring Wayne Rooney as head coach, a costly enterprise both on and off the pitch.

Within two seasons they went from play-off regulars to relegation battlers, going down with Rooney at the helm in 2022.

As a result, some teams in the Championship opt to run their club in a more 'stable' manner, prioritising the long-term health of the club and remaining as sustainable as possible in the second tier, effectively showing little ambition to take the risk of vying for promotion.

Enter Bristol City, who have been a Championship mainstay for over a decade now, and have spent almost all of that time in mid-table, without much excitement.

They've had some exciting talents come through their ranks, with the likes of Antoine Semenyo of Man City and Alex Scott of Bournemouth in recent seasons, so the fans have been treated to some talented players.

So what has caused a section of fans to start chanting 'sack the board' at games, and why is there so much division in opinions on how the club is being run?

A Selling Club

Bristol City have established themselves as a club who will sell any player to the highest bidder at any given opportunity. They seem to find it impossible to hold onto talented players, not because the players want to leave, but because they want the transfer fees more.

In fact, as soon as a player receives any sort of attention, they don't really last a few months longer before they're sold by the club.

Scott was gone four months after his outrageously good performance against Man City, Semenyo was gone as soon as his strong season ended, and Adam Webster lasted only one season before moving onto Brighton, and that's just to name a few.

Yet despite the big fees they often receive, they never really look to spend any of it in the transfer window.

Instead, the club have effectively decided that their place in the food chain is to develop talented young players and sell them on to bigger clubs before they hit their peak, which makes sense financially but is infuriating for fans who are hoping to see some ambition from their ownership.

This January transfer window has been no exception for the Robins, and some fans have hit boiling point about it.

The January Window - Departures

It's important to preface this by discussing the injury problems that Bristol City have suffered this season. As with any club in the Championship, the fixture list is gruelling, and fitness issues can become commonplace, which is why squad depth is so vital at this level.

They've had just enough strength in depth to avoid a full-blown crisis so far this season, which ended up seeing centre-half Zak Vyner making several appearances in midfield.

So you'd think in the January window, with the club still very much in contention for the play-offs, that maintaining squad depth would be key, and that each and every outgoing would have at least somebody join the club in return.

Nope, they just want to wipe clean the wage bill.

Seven departures so far for the Robins, with Vyner looking like a move to Wrexham is imminent, with just two signings in return.

They loaned out four players who weren't getting enough game time, which, in the cases of Harry Cornick, Elijah Morrison and Josh Stokes, is fair enough, with the latter already winning over the hearts of the Stockport faithful.

The decision that has baffled fans, though, is Yu Hirakawa's loan to play-off rivals Hull, where the Japanese winger has started very well and looks like very smart business on the part of the Tigers.

Yu was an exciting talent when he joined Bristol City on loan in the summer of 2024, so the club made his move permanent as a result of his pace and talent on the ball when deployed on the wing.

Unfortunately for him, the manager that signed him, Liam Manning, departed in the summer, and was replaced by Gerhard Struber, a manager that fans adore owing to his entertaining style of play and general personality.

Struber prefers to play a formation that doesn't require wingers, instead needing Yu to adapt to either the wing-back role or number 10, neither of which he was able to, which saw his time on the pitch diminish.

Loaning him out was a sensible move, but handing a club fighting for the same position as you a leg-up has certainly got the goad of City's fans.

He also just happens to be potentially the nicest man to have ever played football.

Haydon Roberts is another departure that made sense, with the full-back not really seeing much action this season with the likes of Pring and Borges starting ahead of him.

Goalkeeper Max O'Leary has played second fiddle to Radek Vitek, who is on loan from Man United this season and has been absolutely sensational.

The loanee spent a few weeks out injured over Christmas, which gave O'Leary the chance to prove why he should still be City's number one, after years of having the position locked in for himself.

It's safe to say he didn't impress, and he has already been moved on to West Brom, where life hasn't had the best of starts...

The big story from City's window is Anis Mehmeti. The Albanian has been phenomenal over the last year or so, coming on leaps and bounds from the technical yet frustrating player he was when he joined, to the creative and clinical one he is now.

He has, without a doubt, been the best attacking output for the Robins this season, but with his contract expiring at the end of this season, and plenty of interest, it seemed as though he was always going to be on his way out.

The club were able to cash in £3 million on him in his move to Ipswich, which, from the perspective of financial health, is excellent business to have earned some pocket money from a player already on his way out.

The issue lies in the fact that there was no permanent replacement ready to bring in. If the club knew there was a good chance he'd be going, whether that be in this window or the next, then why would they not have looked at who to sign in his place?

Instead, Struber has been left without his best player going forward.

The January Window - Incomings

This is going to be quite a short section, which is why there is quite a lot of frustration among fans.

City have brought in two players in January, both of whom will be leaving again in the summer.

The first is George Earthy on loan from West Ham, who they already had on loan last season. No disrespect to the lad, because he's a good young talent who won over the fans last time round, but surely the club could've displayed a bit more ambition instead of reverting to an old player.

Signing on a short-term deal for the rest of the season has been Sam Morsy, who has looked very good in fairness, with plenty of experience as Ipswich skipper being only a positive for the young players within the squad.

There's been a bit of a stir about him online, though, with some fans believing that Morsy only joined the club to convince Mehmeti to sign for his beloved Ipswich, but frankly, that's pretty far-fetched and a lack of respect for the professional that he is.

Most of the frustration has come around a player that nearly signed in January, Delano Burgzorg of Middlesbrough.

The striker had become out of favour at Boro and hadn't scored in five months, spending pretty much that entire period being courted by Struber and City into making the move.

Burgzorg's move was inching closer and closer, with pen about to hit paper, before this.

Struber woke up the next morning to find out that Middlesbrough had changed their mind after he broke his duck and now wanted to keep the striker within their ranks.

What makes matters worse is that City's recruitment team had put all of their eggs in the Burgzorg basket, being left with no other targets or legitimate options to sign instead.

So, Sack The Board?

The chants heard in the corner of Ashton Gate during their 2-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday have sparked discussion among fans as to whether it's an appropriate demand given how the club is run.

Admittedly, the lack of preparation for the transfer window is poor management from those at the top, and the fans have had to deal with plenty of frustration over the last decade or so, but do they really have it that bad?

The club is financially healthy, despite operating at a loss, which has become a necessary evil of life in the ChamChampionship,ortunately, and Struber is still a very good manager who may find a way to achieve a good finish without some of the players that have been offloaded.

There are understandable worries that the Austrian manager will leave, though, if he continues to receive sub-par backing from those above him, with his irritation at the lack of support growing quite clearly.

Of course, the fans want the best for their club, but does the best entail throwing the kitchen sink at promotion and paying the price for years if it doesn't work? Or does it look like a healthy long-term place in the Championship, with stability and youth at the heart of the club?

Had the club been in West Brom's position of usual play-off contenders but now real relegation candidates, I'm sure the chants wouldn't have caused such a fuss, but the Robins were in sixth at the time of some of the fans calling for the board to be sacked, which feels pretty bizarre.

Perhaps those involved have inflated expectations of where their club ought to be, or perhaps they just spend too much time on football twitter...

Matt Stephens
Matt Stephens Freelance Football Writer

Matt Stephens - Freelance Football Writer at Football Park

Matt has been a football journalist for more than two years, working for the likes of Curzon Ashton and Huddersfield Town Women. He would produce articles, match previews and match reports for the club's websites and social media channels, offering fans the chance to keep up to date with their club and build a positive relationship between club and fan.

He also spent some time working with Stretford Paddock, the Man Utd fan channel, which continued Matt's mission of engaging fans with genuine content that represents what they are looking for, as opposed to just pumping out news. Matt's proudest moment in sports journalism so far has been working with Man Utd in a photoshoot, which saw him end up on their social media channels.

As a lifelong Bristol City fan, Matt tends to focus his work on the EFL, and the Championship in particular, as he feels they are underrepresented in the media considering how many people follow clubs in the lower leagues. He aims to offer coverage for issues and talking points that get overlooked, providing EFL fans with a place to feel seen.

To see more of what Matt is up to, check out his LinkedIn!

View all articles by Matt Stephens →

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