We’ve been here many times before. A familiar problem it may be, but it’s not exclusive to Bristol City; Nicky Maynard, Jonathan Kodjia, Joe Bryan, Bobby Reid, Josh Brownhill and, most recently, Famara Diedhiou, all had judgements of varying degrees towards the end of their time in BS3 to have had their “heads turned”, and as a result, performances quite visibly deteriorated.
It’s a well-worn phrase in football, sometimes it’s accurate, sometimes it’s unfair and sometimes it’s purely coincidental and, without delving into the various details of each individual example above, sometimes it is applicable and sometimes it isn’t.
But it happens, almost by default, because often we’re looking for a degree of context and culpability to place around an individual’s departure from the football club you hold dearest and, if we’re being honest, it’s a very easy observation to make.
