Bristol City U18

English Championship U18
20 Dec 2026
Sunday
Process
20 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Rob Dickie out for 110 days

110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bristol City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

9 unbeaten for Bristol City

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Bristol City did not have in the autumn.

Player ratings

Adam Randell shuts the door

Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

Squad

Tempers go at Bristol City

Jason Knight was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

Bristol City see off Millwall

Three points for Bristol City, 1‑0 the final word against Millwall in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad

Words at Bristol City training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jael is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Player ratings

One of those days for Tomi Horvat

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

The dugout

Luke Cook has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Luke Cook on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

Market

The Jason Knight talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bristol City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

Back issues
19 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Still nobody has beaten Bristol City

The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

Adam Randell in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bristol City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A step back for Jael at Bristol City

Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.

Squad

Neto Borges falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

The afternoon belonged to Tomi Horvat

A mark of 7.26, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.

The dugout

Sinclair Armstrong gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

Luke Cook on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Luke Cook after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Jael

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

Match

Bristol City draw a blank against Oxford United

The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Oxford United defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.

In brief

18 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A falling-out at Bristol City

Jason Knight and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Bristol City

The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Match

Bristol City find a way past Preston

Preston made Bristol City work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Jason Knight in the eights

A performance of 8.42 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

The dugout

Luke Cook: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.

Squad

Luke McNally falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Sam Greenwood was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Joe Williams

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Squad

Jael is off the mark for Bristol City

The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.

In brief

17 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Words exchanged at Bristol City

Adam Randell and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Whatever happens, Bristol City do not lose

6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Words at Bristol City training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jael is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

Leo Pecover gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Match

Bristol City get the job done against Sheffield United

A 1‑0 win over Sheffield United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad

Luke Skinner stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Luke Skinner and Bristol City agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

Bristol City pick somebody else ahead of Jael

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Player ratings

Sam Greenwood stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.21 on the card, and the Bristol City support went home talking about one name.

The dugout

Luke Cook: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.

In brief

16 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Tempers go at Bristol City

Adam Randell was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

No time for Southampton to settle

The goal that put Southampton ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Bristol City equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.

Squad

Words at Bristol City training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Neto Borges is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

The form table has caught Jael

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

The dugout

No hiding place for Noah Eile

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Noah Eile, and the manager let it.

Match

Sam Bell rescues a point for Bristol City

It needed Sam Bell to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Southampton, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

Luke Cook: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

Market

Curtis Tilt told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Curtis Tilt has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Bristol City.

Market

The Jason Knight talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bristol City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

15 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Adam Randell in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bristol City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Danny Ward

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Player ratings

Scott Twine in the eights

A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Match

Bristol City rescue it on 89 minutes

Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Swansea City had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.

Match

Bristol City share the spoils with Swansea City

A 2‑2 draw with Swansea City leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

Squad

Bristol City are still strangers to each other

6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.

Squad

A row about effort at Bristol City

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luke McNally was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Luke Cook was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Bristol City dressing room was either.

The dugout

George Tanner gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say George Tanner is on it.

In brief

14 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Bristol City bow out of the cup

Coventry City go through and Bristol City go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.

Squad

Salko Hamzić decides it from twelve yards

1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.

Squad

A falling-out at Bristol City

Danny Ward and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

At last: Bristol City win one

6 matches without a win, and then this, against West Bromwich Albion. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.

Squad

Jael falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Sinclair Armstrong was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match

Bristol City see off West Bromwich Albion

Three points for Bristol City, 1‑0 the final word against West Bromwich Albion in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

One of those days for Jason Knight

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.24, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Match

Late, late show earns Bristol City a point

Minute 119, against Coventry City, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

In brief

13 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The dugout

Salko Hamzić: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bristol City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

5 matches without a win for Bristol City

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Bristol City are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bristol City

Adam Randell and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at Bristol City training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Neto Borges is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

Bristol City pick somebody else ahead of Jael

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Player ratings

Adam Randell takes the honours

Marked 7.25 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Bristol City had the best player on the pitch.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Curtis Tilt

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

Jael knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bristol City, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Player ratings

Jason Knight runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

12 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

4 matches without a win for Bristol City

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Bristol City are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Tempers go at Bristol City

Adam Randell was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Real improvement from Josey Casa-Grande at Bristol City

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Josey Casa-Grande is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Match

Bristol City come up short against Charlton Athletic

Charlton Athletic left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

Luke Cook faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luke Cook after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Noah Eile

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Squad

Words at Bristol City training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luke McNally is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Player ratings

Sinclair Armstrong was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 11. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

A wage question at Bristol City

Danny Ward has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.

In brief

11 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Jason Knight stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Jason Knight and Bristol City agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Adam Randell in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bristol City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Jael falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Sam Greenwood in the eights

A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

The dugout

No hiding place for Sebastian Musiolik

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastian Musiolik, and the manager let it.

Squad

14 new faces, and Bristol City are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

Match

Sam Greenwood rescues a point for Bristol City

It needed Sam Greenwood to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Derby County, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Luke Cook chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.

Market

Adam Randell linked with a move away

The name of Adam Randell keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Bristol City say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

10 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Bristol City taken apart

1‑4 to Ipswich Town, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Squad

A falling-out at Bristol City

Adam Randell and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Salko Hamzić is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Home is on Sebastian Musiolik's mind

“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Bristol City are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

The dugout

Adam Randell gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

Curtis Tilt stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Curtis Tilt and Bristol City agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Bristol City dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑4 Luke Cook left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

Jael dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

In brief

  • The terraces Everybody has an opinion about Danny Ward
  • Looking ahead Jason Knight faces his old club
  • The dugout A door opens for Jael
9 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Words exchanged at Bristol City

Adam Randell and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

A bad afternoon for Bristol City against Middlesbrough

0‑2 to Middlesbrough, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

No hiding place for Danny Ward

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danny Ward, and the manager let it.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Luke Cook left the room before anybody could ask which.

Squad

Luke McNally falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Robertino Giacomini knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bristol City, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Player ratings

Tomi Horvat was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 11. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

The dugout

No place in the plan for Curtis Tilt

The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.

Squad

The shirt belongs to Tomi Horvat now

At 27 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Bristol City have a decision that made itself.

In brief

8 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Bristol City win it in stoppage time

The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Norwich City will replay every second of the added time for a week.

Squad

Tempers go at Bristol City

Adam Randell was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Sam Bell

Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

A row about effort at Bristol City

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jael was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Bristol City rebuffed over Kosuke Nakamura

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gamba Osaka have kept their man, and Bristol City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Tomi Horvat sends Bristol City past Norwich City

It finished 2‑1, and it was Tomi Horvat’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bristol City.

Player ratings

One of those days for Tomi Horvat

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Squad

Bristol City count the cost of losing Jack Hooper

31 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

The dugout

The form table has caught Jael

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

In brief

7 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Danny Ward in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bristol City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Sam Greenwood beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Transfer targets

Huddersfield Town tell Bristol City: Jak Alnwick is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

Jael falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Zach Abbott gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Luke Cook on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

Match

Bristol City draw a blank against Portsmouth

The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Portsmouth defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.

The dugout

Rob Dickie left out for tactical reasons at Bristol City

The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.

The dugout

Jael has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jael has written the date down.

In brief

6 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Bristol City rebuffed over Thierry Small

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Preston have kept their man, and Bristol City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Lewis Thomas hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bristol City can pretend not to have heard.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 16 in, 3 out at Bristol City

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Squad

A falling-out at Bristol City

Adam Randell and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Adolfo Ávila gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Adolfo Ávila has just signed for Bristol City, and for once the answer mattered.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Sinclair Armstrong

Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Bristol City are still strangers to each other

14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.

Squad

Luke McNally falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Luke Cook: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

In brief

5 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Bristol City strike at the death to beat Sheffield Wednesday

There were 85 minutes on the clock and Sheffield Wednesday had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Bristol City did not stop to explain themselves.

Player ratings

Sam Bell scores twice — 7.97

Two goals and a mark of 7.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Salko Hamzić keeps Bristol City in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Transfer targets

Bristol City rebuffed over Christian Walton

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ipswich Town have kept their man, and Bristol City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bristol City

Adam Randell and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Bristol City get the job done against Sheffield Wednesday

A 2‑1 win over Sheffield Wednesday, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad

Jael falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

A satisfied Luke Cook

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Luke Cook could afford to be generous.

Squad

Zach Abbott is a square peg at Bristol City

The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.

In brief

4 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Transfer targets

Too dear: Bristol City walk away from Antonín Kinský

$11.5M was the most the club would pay and Tottenham were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Josh Griffiths

Bristol City asked and West Bromwich Albion said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

Salko Hamzić is a medical away from Bristol City

The deal with Red Bull Salzburg is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.

Squad

Tempers go at Bristol City

Jason Knight was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Market

Bristol City sign Zach Abbott, one for the future

Zach Abbott is 20, and Bristol City have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.

Match

Stoke City take the points off Bristol City

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Words at Bristol City training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Neto Borges is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Luke Cook left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Neto Borges

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

3 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Transfer targets

Bristol City baulk at the price for Evanilson

Bournemouth wanted more than $21.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Market

Bristol City turn down Nimes for Benjamin Jeannot

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Transfer targets

Simon Simoni turns down Bristol City

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Luzern keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

Jason Knight in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bristol City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

5 academy players handed senior numbers at Bristol City

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

Transfer targets

Sporting CP tell Bristol City: Diego Callai is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

Bristol City promote Paul King from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Paul King has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Market

Liam Green steps up from the Bristol City academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Liam Green has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Market

One of our own: Daniel Hamilton joins the Bristol City first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Hamilton is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

In brief

2 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Lewis Thomas puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bristol City, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Adam Randell stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Adam Randell and Bristol City agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bristol City

Jason Knight and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Transfer targets

Bristol City rebuffed over Curtis Tilt

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bradford City have kept their man, and Bristol City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

The clock runs on Ross McCrorie's contract

48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.

Squad

A row about effort at Bristol City

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jael was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

10 new faces, and Bristol City are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

Transfer targets

Bristol City try to borrow Simon Simoni

Luzern have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

The dugout

Adam Randell knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adam Randell trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

1 Edition

The Bristol City Chronicle

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Cameron Pring has been here 11 seasons

251 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.

Transfer targets

Bristol City rebuffed over Matt Freese

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. New York City have kept their man, and Bristol City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Jason Knight signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jason Knight commits to Bristol City for another 4 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Bristol City

Jason Knight and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Sebastian Musiolik gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sebastian Musiolik has just signed for Bristol City, and for once the answer mattered.

Market

The clock runs on Jason Knight's contract

49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.

Transfer targets

Bristol City ask about Kaye Furo

A loan enquiry to Brentford: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

The dugout

Adam Randell knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bristol City, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

Lewis Thomas told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Lewis Thomas has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Bristol City.

In brief