‘City fans should be worried.’

City fans should be worried. That is my calm, non-alarmist and sobering assessment of where we are. I will go on to explain why I think we should be starting to fret, but, the long and the short of it come from a brief glance at the table.

We currently sit in 18th. That is worryingly just a mere 3 points ahead of Blackburn and the relegation zone.

Michelle Owen, of Sky Sport’s Soccer Saturday’s fame, descried our 0-0 home F.A. Cup draw with Fleetwood as. Dire. Dull. Slow and unimaginative. Say what you really think then Michelle!

Due to work commitments I was actually unable to attend the match, thankfully, and along with the patchy updates from BBC sport Michelle was one of my only ways of keeping abreast with the events at Ashton Gate last Saturday afternoon.

So, moving away from the fact that it was no doubt a miserable spectacle, what can we learn from our first game of 2017?

The fact that Johnson was more than willing to throw our new three players into action so soon speaks not only to the dire-straits we are currently in but also to a slight change of tack with newly purchased players.

Fans, me included, have been left perplexed as to why the likes of Gustav Engvall and Callum O’Dowda have had so much time on the sidelines considering we paid considerable transfer fees for them both.

Other than that, it is hard to harness too much information from the goalless draw. Other than the fact appetite for the fixture was pretty poor despite City sensibly pricing the game at just £10.

This weekends visit of Cardiff City will no doubt throw-up much that last weeks offering failed to. I hope the atmosphere at Ashton Gate won’t be too negative given the Police’s decision to move the game to midday.

I have to say, and I know this might put me at odds with many City fans, I am in agreement with the change of kick off time. Of course we would all prefer to live in a world when such a change didn’t need to happen, but, as we don’t, it seems to me to be a simple way of minimising risk.

In other news the transfer saga, as the Bristol Post continually refers to it as, of Luke Freeman rumbles on. It seems like a footballing tale as old as time. Q.P.R. Have made a bid or two that have been rejected by City. Rumours suggest that Freeman may not be available for selection against Cardiff, presumably having had his head turned by the interest showed in him.

Freeman has already been offered a contract earlier on this season and given his current deal will end this summer it would appear the player holds all the cards over what happens next.

I have been impressed by Freeman this season and would dearly love him to sign a new contract to continue his development with the club that have shown faith in him over the past two and a half years. But….

If he does not want to sign with us beyond the end of this season it may very well be time to cash in on him while we still can. It may also serve as a reminder to the board that we shouldn’t let our first team players get to this situation, contact wise.

So. It is with gusto that I say it. COME ON YOU REDS! Nothing would give me more New Year cheer than to get one over our old foe Neil Warnock and for City to make winning start to 2017.

P.S. I have conventionally eradicated the home loss to Reading on January 2nd for the purposes of this piece.