(FM14) Drink up thee cider!!!

Birmingham vs Bristol City - 2nd December 2014
1-0
Vydra 23 mins
Olsson 81 mins



Manager's review
Booy named exactly the same side that scored 6 against Bournemouth last time out and in truth this game against Birmingham could have gone a similar way on a different day. The Robins dominated the game with 21 shots on goal and created 8 clear cut opportunities to score. Tom Ince was upset not to get on the scoresheet as he missed a number of opportunities. Thankfully City didn't concede even after Martin Olsson received his 2nd yellow with 10 minutes remaining and held on to win 1-0 thanks to Vydra's 1st half strike.

Andrew Booy declines interview for Newcastle hotseat

Bristol City have been in scintillating form this season in the Sky Bet Championship under the stewardship of young manager Andrew Booy and find themselves involved in the 2nd promotion seeking campaign in two years. The work of this relatively unknown Bristolian has meant that he has become one of the leading candidates for the vacant managers job at Newcastle United after Alan Pardew was sacked 4 days ago after mounting supporter unrest and protests.



The Bristol City board and the fans will be delighted to hear that Booy has ruled himself out of the running for the position and has gone on record to state 'Bristol City is in my blood and I would never consider leaving them. The job I came hear to do has only just began!'

Bristol City and Chelsea begin affiliation

In other news Bristol City have announced a new partnership with Chelsea FC which replaces the previous connection the South West Championship side had with Chelsea's London rivals Arsenal. The affiliation is similar to the previous one although Bristol City will receive slightly more financial benefits annually from Chelsea than they did from Arsenal.

Derby vs Bristol City - 6th December 2014
2-1
Vydra 5 mins
Buitrago 49 mins



Manager's review
Booy made two changes to the side that won against Birmingham last time out as Olsson was suspended so was replaced by Traore (who picked up a slight knock in this game) and Wilson replaced Strandberg at centre back. City again put in an impressive performance to make it four wins on the trot. Strikers Vydra and Buitrago seem to be forming an impressive understanding of each other up front as both were on the scoresheet again. The victory moved City to the top of the Sky Bet Championship table for the first time this season.

Bristol City make changes to staff roster

This week Andrew Booy has added two staff members to his backroom team in order to strengthen the training programme for his young squad of players. Firstly Maurizio Tacchi joins as a coach. He has taken over from assistant manager John Pemberton and now leads the tactical training for the first team. Tacchi is an Italian who had a playing career for over 15 years in Italy and then was assistant manager at two low league Italian sides after his retirement.



Secondly Kamber Koc joins the club as U21's manager and will take over from Lee Kendall as coach of GK Handling. Kendall was in the last year of his contract but a mutual early termination of that contract was agreed. Koc is German who only had a 7 year playing career and his 1st non-playing role is with Andrew Booy at Bristol City.

Bristol City vs Norwich - 9th December 2014
0-0
Strandberg
Zuculini 85 mins



Manager's review
Booy made two changes to the side as Traore was injured so Olsson came back in after his one match suspension. Denswil was looking tired in training so Strandberg took his place and picked up the MOTM award. City played well but were unable to break down a stubborn Canaries defence. Norwich also had chances but were wasteful and when they were on target Costil came to Booy's rescue. City had to finish the game with 10 men as Zuculini was injured with 5 mins remaining.

Doncaster vs Bristol City - 13th December 2014
5-2
Buitrago
Denswil 1 mins
Buitrago 27, 89 mins
Zuculini 68 mins
Rossi 78 mins



Manager's review
Booy made two changes to the side that drew 0-0 last time out in the League at home to Norwich. Denswil was back from his rest and replaced Wilson in defence, and Choupo-Moting was given his first start after a 5 match break as Vydra dropped to the bench. City dominated against a Doncaster side who's tactic was clearly to ruffle City's feathers with a physical approach. In fact Rovers players picked up 8 yellow cards in the game. Booy's team were not rattled though as they put 5 past the Doncaster keeper to extend their unbeaten run in the Championship to 6 games.

Blackpool vs Bristol City - 20th December 2014
2-0
Wilson
Choupo-Moting 28 mins
Buitrago 90+4 mins



Manager's review
Booy made one change to the side that destroyed Doncaster 7 days ago as Marc Wilson replaced Strandberg at centre back. The change had an effect as Wilson picked up the MOTM award with a rating of 7.60 and marshalled an impressive City back 5 admirably. Both City strikers were on the scoresheet as Choupo-Moting and Buitrago sealed the Robins win. The only downside to the victory was that Franco Zuculini picked up a bruised rib in the 1st half (he carried on playing till half-time) and is now likely to be out for a week and miss the next two Championship matches. It is a shame for the Argentinian ball winning midfielder who has been playing well in central midfield in recent weeks.

Bristol City vs Bolton - 23rd December 2014
2-2
De Lanlay 47 mins
Ince 70 mins



Manager's review
Booy made four changes to the side for this game as a busy Christmas period began to catch up with his tired squad. The injured Zuculini was replaced by Hughes. Also, Wilson, Ince and Choupo-Moting were all tired so Booy rotated his squad to bring in Strandberg, De Lanlay and Vydra. The changes seemed to stifle City as twice they had to come behind from two Anthony Stokes goals to claim a point at home to playoff chasing Bolton.

Reading vs Bristol City - 27th December 2014
1-2
Buitrago 7 mins



Manager's review
This was City's last game of 2014 and it did not go as planned. Booy made three changes to the starting 11 as Wilson replaced Strandberg, Choupo-Moting replaced Vydra and Ince replaced Kusk. Things started well for the Robins as Buitrago gave them the lead within 7 minutes. However two goals from MOTM Pavel Pogrebnyak meant that City lost for the first time in 9 matches. Next up for Andrew Booy and Bristol City is the visit of Man Utd to Ashton Gate in the FA Cup 3rd round.....a nice way to kick off 2015!!!

December 2014 - THE REVIEW

Fixtures

Birmingham vs CITY - 2nd December 2014 1-0
Derby vs CITY - 6th December 2014 2-1
CITY vs Norwich - 9th December 2014 0-0
Doncaster vs CITY - 13th December 2014 5-2
Blackpool vs CITY - 20th December 2014 2-0
CITY vs Bolton - 23rd December 2014 2-2
Reading vs CITY - 27th December 2014 1-2



Monthly Awards

Best Player - Mario Buitrago - average rating 7.40

The young City striker has improved on and off the pitch in December. His performances in training have been excellent and he has contributed 5 goals in the league this month taking his tally this season to 18 goals in total which is top of the Championship scoring table. The Colombian also picked up the young player of the month award for December in the Sky Bet Championship.

Highly commended
Fausto Rossi - average rating 7.24
The Italian playmaker is showing no signs of slowing down for the Robins and is consistently one of the top three monthly performers for Andrew Booy. He only scored and assisted once this month but his consistent performances were one of the main reasons City lost only one game this month.
Stefano Denswil - average rating 7.22
The young centre back was a solid performer in December at the heart of a defence that kept 3 clean sheets this month. The Dutchman was also clearly delighted when he scored his 1st goal for the club in the 5-2 win over Doncaster.

Bristol City start New Year with a new signing

While many City fans were waking up in 2015 with hangovers Andrew Booy was up early to welcome his newest addition to the Bristol City squad at Ashton Gate. Lucas Evangelista joins the Robins from Brazilian side Desportivo for an initial 3.8 million pounds that could rise to 6 million in future clauses.





The 19 year old Brazilian can play in any Central Midfield position and will be best deployed as an advanced or deep lying playmaker. He has potential for the future but should also go straight into the team alongside Fausto Rossi after he returns from the South American U20 Championships with Brazil in February.

In other news.........

Bristol City sign David Lowe as new attacking coach with Ulf Kirsten leaving his role with immediate effect.


Also three players who were instrumental in City's promotion campaign last season have signed new contracts with the club. Stefan Strandberg, Yann-Erik De Lanlay and Adrien Trebel's contracts were due to expire in 6 months time so manager Booy was quick to tie them to new two year deals that run until the summer of 2017.

Bristol City vs Man Utd - 4th January 2015
3-0
Hughes
Vydra 18 mins
Denswil 48 mins
Rossi 76 mins



Manager's review
Andrew Booy went into the biggest game of the season with a few players unavailable. The African Cup of Nations started so Choupo-Moting and El Abd will be competing in that and unavailable for selection for the whole of January. Also new signing Lucas Evangelista is taking part in the U20's South American championships for the month of January. Finally, Kieftenbeld picked up a one match suspension for hi 5th yellow card of the season against Reading as was distraught to miss out on the biggest match of his new City career. Therefore, Strandberg started in place of Kieftenbeld, Vydra played instead of Choupo-Moting and Kusk came in for De Lanlay.
Booy's team were clearly up for this game and were keen to impress the TV cameras on show around Ashton Gate. The Man Utd squad was almost at full strength but were outplayed for 90 minutes with recent Ballon D'Or winner Juan Mata completely silenced by an impressive City performance. After the game many pundits were saying that Rafael's sending off in the 42nd minute was a key factor in the result which is not fair to a City side that were already up 1-0 at that point and looking strong. Midfielder Will Hughes was particularly impressive and his Premiership quality shone through with a MOTM rating of 8.60. Overall Booy was delighted with the result and the performance and went on record to say it was 'one of the highlights of his short Bristol City managerial career'. Next up in the 4th round is an away trip to Championship side Leicester.

Balanta joins Booy's Army

On a high from their FA Cup success against Man Utd Andrew Booy wrapped up his 2nd signing of the January transfer window picking up young Colombian defender Eder Alvarez Balanta from Argentinian side River Plate. Balanta joins for an initial 2.5 million that could rise to 3.1 million and is delighted to team up with fellow Colombian Mario Buitrago at Ashton Gate.





Balanta can play at LB or CB but will initially partner Denswil in the centre of defence demoting Marc Wilson to the substitutes bench. His overall versatile capabilities have led him to be likened as one of the more promising young defenders from South America, earning praise even from Europe. River Plate former coach Ramón Díaz has compared Álvarez Balanta's talents to that of legendary Daniel Passarella.

A Colombian international, he made his debut against Tunisia on 5 March 2014 and was later named in Colombia's squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Balanta is described by FIFA's official website as "left-footed, powerfully built, strong in the air and a fearless tackler ... blessed with skill and speed".

Booy also signs youngster Alvaro





Alvaro is a 16 year old Spanish left winger who joins Bristol City for 2.3 million from Spanish side Cadiz B. At first it seems a lot of money to spend on a player who is only 16 but Booy's scouting team believe he could grow to become one of the best left wingers in the game, at first he will primarily develop with fellow youngsters Taylor and Ansell in and around the 1st team squad.....watch this space!!

De Lanlay enrols to Toon Army

Booy has made a decision to balance to books following the recent arrivals of Balanta, Lucas Evangelista and Alvaro and has sold his diminutive right winger Yann-Erik de Lanlay to Newcastle Utd for 6.5 million pounds. De Lanlay joined Bristol City for 200k in July 2013 and went on to play 67 games under Andrew Booy scoring 12 goals and was a key part of the side that lifted the Sky Bet League One trophy last year. This season most of his 22 appearances in the Championship have come from the bench so when Newcastle approached with an offer as high as 6.5 million is was too good to turn down.



The other player to leave Ashton Gate this week was left back Greg Cunningham who made his loan move to Reading permanent for a fee of 1.4 million. Cunningham played 32 games under Andrew Booy last season in League One before being found surplus to requirements this season in the Championship.

In other news.....

It is understood that Andrew Booy has signed a pre-contract agreement with Stade Rennais defender Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik to sign him for the 2015/2016 season on a Bosman free transfer. The Cameroon international will join Bristol City on 1st July 2015.



Bristol City's Championship game with Huddersfield Town scheduled for the 10th January has been postponed due to heavy snow on the Ashton Gate pitch. City's will now have an extra week to prepare for the local derby with Yeovil Town on the 17th January.

Bristol City vs Yeovil - 17th January 2014
3-1
Kusk
Vydra 26 mins
Rossi 63 mins
Kusk 63, 85 mins



Manager's review
Booy made two changes to the team from the one that beat Man Utd in the FA Cup two weeks ago with Balanta getting his debut in place of Strandberg and Kieftenbeld returning from suspension for Marc Wilson. This proved to be an eventful local derby in front of a sold out 21,407 fans at Ashton Gate. Managers Andrew Booy and Gary Johnson had exchanged heated words in their pre match press conferences and both managers had clearly passed on this emotion to their respective teams. In truth City never looked like losing though and perhaps on another day could have won by a larger margin especially if Rossi had not missed a penalty in the 63rd minute. The Yeovil players were adament that the penalty was a soft decision and Ruben Palazuelos was sent off for arguing to profusely with the referee. Man of the match Kasper Kusk (rating 9.10) scored within 60 seconds of the penalty being missed however and sealed the victory with his 2nd goal with 5 minutes remaining.