00:00For Bristol City, obviously a big campaign ahead with Gerhard Stuber looking to come in and make a real good impact starting off in the championship.
00:11Now, it's obviously a massive, massive deal.
00:14They lost Liam Manning to a sort of championship rival in Norwich City.
00:18So, you know, having to bounce back from the pain of achieving something that's really evaded Bristol City as a club for a number of years.
00:27They broke into that playoff place, as we mentioned, but, you know, they haven't made that massive step forward.
00:34They obviously fell short in the playoffs to Sheffield United, who obviously fell short in the final.
00:40But it was a record loss and it really sort of hurt the club.
00:43So, you know, in terms of transfer activity as well, it's important to look at where they are with that.
00:51I mean, it's been an incredibly interesting summer on all fronts for a number of clubs.
00:57You know, they travel to Sheffield United in their first championship game.
01:01Now, that is an incredibly tough act.
01:04Gerhard Stuber, we'll see how he's going to set up, how interested he's going to be in making sure that they get that project nailed down early on.
01:11I feel that's going to be interesting.
01:12And then if you look at Bristol City's start last season, it was very poor and they had a few poor spells.
01:17And they maybe would have regretted that come the end of that season when they were making that playoff charge as well.
01:22So, we're going to go to our Bristol correspondent, Dan, Dan Wales.
01:27Dan, just look at Bristol City, where they are, you know, what they need from this championship season, especially at the early start.
01:34We mentioned last season, it sort of came back to bite them a little bit in their race for the playoffs.
01:38They obviously made it.
01:39But I think they could have certainly been higher up there had they had a good start.
01:43So, a good start is obviously something every club wants, but a very tough one away at Sheffield United.
01:49What have you made of their summer?
01:50And how can you see them going on as they, you know, travel to Sheffield and try and make a fine start to this new era and championship campaign?
01:59Well, Charles, for Bristol City, we've said all along this summer that it's going to be an interesting season just because of what's going on over the summer.
02:08They've lost Liam Manning, someone who took them into the playoffs last season with, let's be honest, quite an average championship squad.
02:17And then, of course, he's gone off to Norwich City, a championship rival.
02:20But they've brought in Gerhard Stewart from FC Cologne, who seems to be really invigorating the players and staff and indeed supporters and getting them all on side ahead of the new season.
02:32Now, lots of predictions for the upcoming championship season.
02:34Haven't really got Bristol City being very groundbreaking in terms of where they finished, sort of mid-table, which, to be fair, you could have probably predicted them to finish mid-table last season.
02:43But, of course, they didn't do that.
02:45They got into the playoffs.
02:46They finished sixth.
02:47Now, they've had a decent enough transfer window so far.
02:51They've made some shrewd additions to their squad.
02:54And, as mentioned, the most important addition is probably that of Gerhard Struber himself.
02:59So, going into the season, I think they're in a really good place to really hit the ground running.
03:04Now, that's obviously not saying that they will do that because we know the championship can be a really demanding and tough league.
03:10And, obviously, Gerhard Struber is coming into a new club.
03:13So, whether he will hit the ground running remains to be seen.
03:15But, he does have experience managing in England with Barnsley previously.
03:20So, I'm sure he'll lead on that an awful lot.
03:23But, overall, I think that a lot of the players at Bristol City will draw on the experience they had from last season and getting into the playoffs.
03:32And, they'll use that to their advantage.
03:35Certainly, I don't think they'll be in any trouble, naturally, this season.
03:40They've got too good of a squad for that now.
03:42Whether they'll make the playoffs again remains to be seen.
03:45But, they certainly have the foundations on which to build on to at least be close to them again.
03:51I think what was really letting them down last season was conceding too many goals at late stages of the game when they perhaps could have had a point more or even two points more.
03:59And, that really let them down.
04:01They could have finished even higher up in the championship table.
04:03But, you know, they didn't.
04:05But, they still made it into the playoffs.
04:06And, that in itself is a learning curve.
04:08Now, they go to Sheffield United in their first game of the season.
04:11Who, of course, they just played in the playoffs at the end of last season, losing 6-0 on aggregate.
04:15So, perhaps a bit of revenge could be on the cards for Bristol City.
04:21It's going to be an interesting season.
04:23I think that's the main point for Bristol City.
04:26They need to learn from last season, build on it.
04:30But, also, I think Gerholtz-Judert can be afforded a little bit of time.
04:33I don't think if they don't make it straight away that they should call for his head.
04:37I think that would be wrong.
04:38Because, I think he certainly seems to have the players on board during this pre-season.
04:42It's just a case of building up through the gears now.
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