Why did Robins sack manager?

Chris Dunlavy writes in the Football League Paper yesterday: 'Why sack Gerhard Struber when the season is stone dead?   Why drag a 78-year old client out of retirement who stands no chance of being there next season?'

Presumably the board had grown weary of Struber's public grumbling over the state of City's squad and their chronic failure to tie star players down to longer contracts.

The Austrian had the Robins playing energetic, attacking football and they were in contention for the play-offs prior to the January departures of Anis Mehmeti (Ipswich) and Zak Vyner (Wrexham) - both of them key players who were sold for cut rate fees due to contracts that expired in the summer.

The dreary performances since then were inevitable and predictable, and sacking Struber will not fix that.'

I would add that Bristol must be the largest metropolitan area in England without a top flight side (Bradford may come close).

Steve Lansdown (of funds supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown) has poured money into the club and justifiably may be disappointed at the return on the pitch   He has put in £280m over the years.

The stake of the Guernsey-based billionaire in Hargreaves Lansdown is now down to 7 per cent but share sales and dividends have helped fund his sporting investments.   City lost £18.6m in 2024/25, even more than Charlton.

The writer is a satisfied client of Hargreaves Lansdown.