Thorpey Issue

December is a big month for Bristol City on the pitch, facing Notts County, Luton Town and Plymouth at home, and Cardiff and Stockport on our travels. These games, allied to the distraction of LDV and F.A. Cup ties against Wycombe and Harrogate Railway respectively, make this a critical period of our season. But, for all the importance each of these games carries, there is one issue that stands out for me as a highlight of this set of games: The return of Tony Thorpe.

Now Tony has been the subject of a degree of satire on this website (and amongst City fans in general), so his return to Ashton Gate is something I am relishing with great anticipation. I've even gone to the trouble of booking a ticket in the Williams Stand behind the away dugout, just so I can be within earshot of the great man.

In essence, I suppose, Thorpe did nothing wrong. He honoured his contract with Bristol City and at the end of his time with Bristol City he chose to move on to pastures new. But for me there will always be an element of wanting Thorpe to fail because of the way he appeared to conduct himself towards the end of his employment at our club.

“Money's not the issue”, said Tony. He wanted to move on to a bigger club and clearly he had it in his mind that he would be choosing his new employer from a number of First Division clubs. However, with the collapse of ITV Digital and the ensuing reluctance of clubs to pay exorbitant fees for previously overpriced players, Thorpe was left without the glamorous choices he had expected. Suddenly, the only offer on the table was from a previous employer, Luton Town, and reportedly on greatly reduced wages at that.

Now don't get me wrong, I have no objection to players wanting to better themselves, both in terms of the level they are playing at and their income. But Tony appeared to believe he was better than he was, and more importantly from the point of view of his performances for City at the end of last season, bigger than the club itself. There is little so satisfying as seeing a self-proclaimed big-time Charlie falling flat on his face, and with no disrespect to Luton, that is precisely what happened to Thorpe.

So, on December 21st, TT returns to Ashton Gate. Not only that, but the man who left us for bigger and better things to satisfy his own ambitions finds himself returning to Bristol as a peripheral bench-warmer at Kenilworth Road. That, to me, is very satisfying.

The whole business with Thorpe cast my mind back to the time when Shaun Goater left us to join Man City because he wanted to play at a higher level. Within a short period of time Bristol City had been promoted, Man City had been relegated, and suddenly the Goat found himself playing at a lower level than the team he had just left. That too gave me a degree of self-satisfaction, if all too briefly. Yet I do not hold any animosity towards Shaun as I do with Thorpe. Far from it. I am delighted with his goal-scoring for Man City in the Premiership). Why is that?

I think it boils down to one word - attitude. Tony Thorpe was a goal-scorer, and really not a bad one at that, but his attitude and demeanour when playing for us always annoyed me. He was lazy and obviously felt we were beneath him, but generally didn't seem to feel it necessary to put in performances on the pitch to warrant this inflated opinion he seemed to have of himself. He somehow managed to earn himself the tag of a “20 goals a season man”, despite the fact that he NEVER scored 20 league goals for us in a season. In other words, Tony Thorpe talked the talk, but Goater walked the walk. I can forgive any player mistakes when wearing the City shirt as long as mistakes are genuine and the commitment of that player is total. That is precisely why I have so much time for Christian Roberts. He is raw and he needs to continue his improvement thus far, but he is an honest and committed player determined to give of his best to Bristol City, and that is all I ask of any player representing our club.

It is not certain that Thorpe will even play against us on the 21st, as he is clearly not a first choice player there. So my only hope is that Kinnear throws him in, hoping that Thorpe will relish the prospect of silencing the City fans. However, I never got the impression that Tony was the sort of player who would revel in that sort of situation and it may be that we don't get to see him play at all, which would be a disappointment.

A fear for many when Thorpe left was that we didn't have the players to replace his contribution. However, suddenly, with Thorpe out of the equation, we look like a team again. The team is now playing for each other, and the air of discontent that I sensed throughout last season with Thorpe in the team has disappeared along with him. Suddenly goals are coming from all areas of the pitch. Now maybe I'm reading too much into it, and maybe the team ethic we're seeing this season is a result of increased determination from Danny in his make-or-break season. Or it may even be down to the influence of our sports psychologist Brian Jones. But I can't help thinking there were a lot of players who weren't sorry to see the back of Tony. After all, if many City supporters felt that way it's not unfair to assume there was an element of that feeling reflected in the dressing room, though I don’t expect the players to admit it publicly.

My hope when we meet Luton this month is that Thorpe starts for them, Christian Roberts plays a blinder and scores a couple of goals, and we can all cheer the players who want to play for our club and wave “cheerio” to a man who clearly didn't. Thus shoving back down Thorpe’s throat his confident prophecy that Bristol City would remain merely a mid-table team for as long as they stuck with the policy of bringing through kids.

Whatever happens, I'll be there giving TT some stick from behind the dugout. Yes, it's puerile. Yes, it's silly and yes, it's immature, and yes, it's part of what makes going to football enjoyable.

Altogether now: “Who the f**k is Tony Thorpe?”

edson