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The irony in all this is, for me, if they would’ve just said something pretty cutting like “we appreciate all he’s done, but the working relationship became untenable, we weren’t going to renew his contract as a result and so we wanted to make a change” it would’ve actually made things easier for them as we are now. It would’ve been a shock, made them seem harsh and very savage, but wouldn’t have meant anywhere near as much flack and toxicity for them as they’ve ended up receiving in the long run. Whats the saying, if you tell the truth you’ll never need to try and remember what you’ve said?

To be fair, so did I and I probably didn’t articulate my last post as well as I could have. What I meant was that as fans we can accept a decision being made to change manager even if we don’t agree with it. I had an issue in that I didn’t think we should have done it, but I have no issue in the hierarchy making a decision as to whether they feel someone is the right man - that’s literally their job. So it’s not the decision for me, although I did disagree with it. It’s the lying, bullshitting and cack handed way of handling it, in tandem with withholding funds in the summer because they didn’t have the balls to sack him then. We’ve effectively wasted a year because of these clowns - and although people may be pro or anti the Pearson decision, whether they may believe in or have doubts over Manning, I think the thing that unites 99% of this forum is that we feel the hierarchy is inept at best and willingly undermining the club at worst.

Any decent employer would’ve given him the time and space to get better if that is what was needed. We had cover and could’ve got more if needed. Let’s not pretend City have done him any favours whatsoever here.

I think when we post mortum our season that will be (ahem) the “biggest bit” of Liams reign. I go back to the QPR game. There is nothing wrong with getting defence right first - but he came in somewhere where the defence wasn’t (barring injuries) really an issue and went ultra negative first. It was almost as if what was at the club before him didn’t matter and he had to follow a set pattern of how you build things. Fast forward through the season up until Easter and he dogmatically tried to impose a style on the team they weren’t suited to. I don’t think there’s any coincidence the better performances were more counter attacking as opposed to what we class as “Manningball” of heavy retention of possession, often for possessions sake. Post Easter, he’s changed tack in how we play. It’s more than a “tweak”, it’s a fundamental in terms of intent and suitability to the squad. And shockingly, it’s getting better results. I don’t care how he got to the conclusion - whether it was the risk of the sack, an epiphany or taking tactical advice from Tinnion. But I don’t think it’s an unfair conclusion that prior to this run, Liam had caused most of his own problems by how he was setting us up. Do I think we could have made the playoffs under either? Only if we replaced Scott properly which we didn’t try and do until January. Do I think Liam lessened our chances of an unlikely top six finish this season by the way he set us up, and managed the game “in match”? Absolutely.

Manning shouldn’t be the debate in this thread. He was the one chosen to take the reins after Pearson, that’s not his doing. Whether you think we have progressed under him, if you are content/happy with the football on offer, that’s to be debated elsewhere. What should be discussed on this thread is what was suspected all along, which was the total lack of respect and appreciation those running the show had for Nige. The man who was tasked with getting this club back on track following years of reckless ownership and blind faith in poor managers. He achieved this and more in my book. A togetherness between players and fans we hadn’t seen since Cotts. It was one of those rare situations where fans were on the managers side yet the board wanted rid. At the end of the day, if it was results, personality clashes, Nige’s health… the reason becomes almost redundant. What is clear is the way in which SL, JL and BT made an absolute shitshow of things and why Nige shouldn’t even give them the time of day.

From 8:40, makes me bloody proud of this club more and anything else. That young man will never forget that. Well done lads.

The club is good at this. Still remember CHSW arranging for Joe to spend a day at the training ground, happened to end up being the day after LJ was appointed. LJ could’ve easily postponed it, but he was “nah, bring him in, we’ll make sure he has a great day”.

Then the club should have been honest. It’s the lies that have pissed me off since he was sacked & was the clincher in me not renewing my season ticket. Always love the club but I detest Jon Lansdown & his old man’s attitude to us as fans (sorry customers) only qualification he has to run our club is being born with a silver spoon . He’s a bafoon

It's not just about what's happened for Nige with me. They have their reasons, fair enough. The whole club just doesn't feel the same anymore and I'm tired of listening to their BS season after season to just sit right in mid table every single time. The style of football I grew up with City playing was very attack minded and with width. We haven't played that way in years. We have a coach in who likes slow and patient football, which to me just adds to the sterile atmosphere at AG which is like a morgue most weeks. By the way I do hope LM does well and the club is successful because after all it is still my club. I feel really detached, haven't watched much of us the last 6 weeks, I just feel we're going around the same old cycle again. Get in experience, sack them when they cut costs then employ inexperience... Rinse and repeat. I actually really dislike JL. He must be one of the most unprofessional chairman you could have across the whole EFL and PL, it's like we are run like a Non league club at times. Ultimately Steve has allowed this to happen and he has a lust for nepotism. I haven't missed it, I'll pick my games next season and will go to mostly away matches when I can.

To bring us closer to some sort of closure, I think Steve Lansdown should, and could easily, front up when the season's over, and just apologise for poor messaging around the Pearson sacking. That needs to be followed by a glowing appraisal of the work Pearson did (and best wishes to him). That mea culpa and act of gratitude would make a world of difference to the relationship with the fans. But unfortunately, I don't think many ludicrously wealthy people feel they have to apologise for anything, or accept other people's best interests. At least not this one. Literally all we need is a couple of minutes of grace and selflessness, and then we can draw a line under it.

First time I saw City play Rotherham was in 1952/3 in an FA Cup match. Both sides had to change colours due to red clash. City lost the toss for white and ended up wearing the Gas blue and white quarters. We lost, 1-3 Rotherham being a Second Division team while we were Third (South). We got our revenge in 1957 when we beat them 4-1 in the Third Round.

This thread is about a podcast with which Nige was involved and which touched on his time with us, and the circumstances in which he left. There are others which discuss our LM and the virtues, or otherwise, of our present form. There is no reason why we can’t discuss both topics, I don’t really understand why you’d have difficulty with that, or feel the need to bring LM into this thread. I for one separate the two issues, NP shouldn’t have been sacked in the way he was imo, but LM, good or bad, is where we are now. if you don’t want to discuss NP’s sacking fine, ignore this thread and just contribute to one’s discussing LM

6 unbeaten. Also known as 3 draws, 2 wins by 1 goal, and one fantastic result. Looking at the 6 games prior, 1 win (by 1 goal), 5 losses. Were we heading in the wrong direction then?

I still think 99% of the problem lays with the Club, they could have done this in a much better way but the poor relationship , and poor leadership meant it didn't happen. Pearson was on crutches at the training ground, but he didn't take sessions as far as I'm aware, he liked others to take responsibility . That's why he seemed to take a lot of care choosing staff. As long as he could watch sessions I'm not sure it made a lot of difference to what happened, though I doubt it was helping his situation. What should/could have happened is, the approach him and try and talk him into taking gardening leave to have the OP. He was OOC in the summer , so unless they really thought that another Coach/Manager could really take them to the Playoffs there was no rush to change things. IMO the summer was the time to make changes Because they ( I think it was Tinnion ) suggested the change would be seamless and was done to make a top 6 push, it does make it adversarial , it's football fans after all it's what we do. All the bluff that came after was just trying to save face and make excuses , again not Mannings fault but he was always going to get some stick as the face of the Club. Tinnion then came out and said he ( Manning) was learning on the Job, the opposite of what was suggested when he came in. They couldn't sack him for health issues , but if they had managed to get him on Gardening leave and had Flemming in charge for the rest of the season , at least the fans would have seen reason. Then we start with a new manager/coach who gets a proper pre season. It's just down to poor leadership of the Club at the very top. For one brief minute we looked like we were on to something , we had a strong Manager and a top CEO. Going back to an inexperienced Chairman and a shared CEO and a TD we look like a rudderless ship.

One thing is for sure it was an entertaining interview and podcast! “I learnt afterwards it was for results”. What a sly, snide thing to have done, exposing Lansdown further really. It does pose the question, what reason was he given? His comment about “ask me in 12 months” was interesting, it’d be great to hear an interview after he’s bound by whatever he’s signed. More than anything it was good to hear from him and that he’s getting better. Cheers Nige!

I liked Nige from day 1 & still consider him to be the best I've seen in charge of BCFC since I've been a supporter since the age of 7yrs, I'm now 76 yrs. In saying that I honestly hope that LM does well & I do support him hoping he's not just another person hung out to dry like so many more before him, but the first 10 mins of this interview enforces to me what 2 faced back stabbing b+++++++ds are running OUR club. The sooner things change at the very top the better as far as I'm concerned, I wish Nige nothing but the very best in the future. The man is all class!.

No shock one bit, we all knew it. There’s not an ounce of class, real experience or professionalism between any of them, let’s be real.

No, Kid is referring to my meeting with Dave Rennie preseason. Tins won’t be conversing with me, he’s decided to block me on Twitter this week, despite having had no twitter activity with him recently. Hey-ho!

Couldn't agree more. Absolutely hopeless comms, both to Nige himself and the fans. But then what's new on that front? It's always been the same under the Lansdowns, because guess what? They aren't very good communicators. And we're now left in a bizarre vacuum where they won't even employ someone decent to do the comms for them!

What the recent run and a number of performances has done is allow Liam to be judged with an open mind next season. Start well, he’s in a good place with the fans, start middling there’s still the niggles there but he’ll still get time, start badly and he’s right under the pump. Liams recent record has earned him that now in the eyes of most fans. What have the hierarchy done to earn a change of mind from many fans who just don’t trust them? What have they improved? I don’t think fans will be as inclined to let them off the hook as easily as Manning tbh. However results are going.

In Brum’s case it appears that they want Mowbray to come back, hence the interim appointment of Rowett. Who knows, Mowbray may decide (or have it decided for him by medical people) that he can’t come back. But Brum are waiting to see how Mowbray gets on first. I honestly don’t know why a similar approach couldn’t be taken, either let Fleming take over like he did in covid, or realise they needed an interim. Well, I retract that last statement, I know why…it was an excuse to lever him out. They picked their moment (after their first attempt failed). Don’t forget they sacked Rennie, Euell immediately with Nige and then Fleming as Manning appointed. But the main thrust of it is not the sacking it’s how they handled it, in particular the comms to the fans. That sums up the decision makers at the club. I had nothing to do with Manning, apart from some fans pushing it onto him. Manning should be judged on what he does.

While yes, it doesn’t excuse the lack of honesty and integrity.

Our last home game of the season as we look to extend our six game unbeaten run. We won the corresponding fixture last season thanks to a late winner from Andi, https://youtu.be/GULOo7F1GbA In October, thanks to Tommy Conway’s brace, we won a poor game at their place 2-1 all the goals coming after 80 minutes. For those who miss him here’s NP post-match, https://youtu.be/YENnTEWl0xw?si=1zgiY3H3OKVru5mS Two minutes after coming on as a 79th-minute substitute Conway, in his second game back after a two-month injury lay-off, controlled a long ball and cut in from the left to fire past Viktor Johansson in the Millers net. Then, as the game looked set to end in a draw following Tyler Blackett’s equaliser, Conway popped up again, in the 95th minute, to deftly steer Andy King’s cross into the net, https://www.bcfc.co.uk/video/highlights/extended-highlights-rotherham-united-1-2-bristol-city/ TC described this, at the time, as his best moment in a City shirt: https://t.co/o3EfMt1454 The Millers' two-year stay in the Championship came to an end with five games still left to play when they lost on 5 April 0-1 at home to Plymouth, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68691286 They have endured a dismal campaign, with just four wins and are guaranteed to finish bottom of the table. They have failed to win a single match away from home all season and have not won a league match on their travels since November 2022. There will certainly be others but Shaun Goater is the only player I can think of who played for them and us. LM pre-match https://www.bcfc.co.uk/video/interviews/manning-previews-final-home-game/ They signed goalkeeper Dillon Phillips on a two-year deal, following his departure from fellow Championship side Cardiff City. Also signed midfielder Cafu after his release from Nottingham Forest. The 30-year-old joined the Millers on a one-year deal. They signed winger Fred Onyedinma on a season-long loan from Premier League side Luton Town. They also signed forward Andre Green on a two-year contract after a successful trial. The 25-year-old spent the past two seasons in Slovakia with Slovan Bratislava. He came through Aston Villa's academy and had loan spells with Portsmouth, Preston and Charlton before joining Sheffield Wednesday in January 2021. In mid-August they completed the permanent transfer of midfielder Christ Tiehi, who arrived at AESSEAL New York Stadium for an undisclosed club-record fee from FC Slovan Liberec. Also signed winger Arvin Appiah on a season-long loan from Spanish second division side Almeria. The 22-year-old started his career with Nottingham Forest before joining Almeria for £8m four years ago. On the eve of deadline day they signed Exeter City forward Sam Nombe for an undisclosed club record fee on a four-year deal and on deadline day they signed Aston Villa defender Sebastian Revan on a season-long loan deal. At the end of October they added ex-Middlesbrough and Blackburn defender Daniel Ayala on a deal until the end of the season. The 32-year-old Spaniard was a free agent after leaving Blackburn Rovers at the end of last season. During the November international break they sacked manager Matt Taylor with the club 22nd in the Championship. In early December they appointed 44 year old ex-Wigan boss Leam Richardson as new head coach on a two-and-a-half-year deal. Then Leam Richardson was sacked on April 17th and Steve Evans left Stevenage to take his place with immediate effect. The decision to part ways with the 44-year-old came as a surprise to many fans.The Millers' plan all along seemed to be that LR was going to be the man in charge come the start of the 24/25 campaign at the AESSEAL New York stadium. Instead of Richardson, it will be Evans. The Scottish boss previously took charge of the club from April 2012 to September 2015. Fan, Tom Eyre’s reaction to the news of Richardson's sacking. Eyre believes that the decision to get rid of Richardson wasn't the right one, and that he would have been the right person for their upcoming return to League One. He said: "Time will tell if the decision to sack Richardson was the right one, or not. I'm very shocked. It was only a couple of weeks ago that our chairman said that he was the man to see us through to next season, that Richardson wanted to be here, wanted to make sure that things were going well, and that he wanted to prove himself. "I can't see it being a sacking. I think one of them has decided to walk or part ways. It's just a huge shock. "I didn't think that this would happen this season, I thought that he'd be given until Christmas at the least, so yeah, I'm just in shock. "But given his huge losses, given the fact that there wasn't an up-turn in form, or the football, you can argue that it is the right decision. Personally, I don't think it is. I thought that he was the man for League One, and he would have rebuilt the club, and the culture, much more efficiently than anyone else will do." Evans has had a lot of success with the Millers in the past, and, as a result of that, he's someone that knows and understands the club. His record with the club is almost as good as any of the other teams that he has managed in his career. The Scotsman got Stevenage surprisingly close to the play-offs this season, in what is their first season back in the third tier of English football. So, bringing in Evans isn't a bad appointment. He's certainly a proven manager at this level, although he has the reputation of being someone who needs a lot of financial backing. But why was now the time to sack Richardson? That is the intriguing, and confusing, part of the equation. Family day today, which includes The Wurzels who will be performing following the match. They will play an hour-long set in the extended Fan Village. Other family day stuff: All Under-12 tickets just £1! Party Peeps pre-match entertainment and music Extended Fan Village with lots of fun, family friendly activities Puxton Park will be on site with a tractor and an alpaca! Face painting in the Fan Village and South Stand Lower and Upper Lansdown Stand games and activities Head-to-head record Won: 23 Lost: 24 Drawn:10 Officials Charles Breakspear from Surrey is in the middle. In the thirty-four games he has been the referee for this season he has shown one hundred and sixty-four yellow cards and nine red. He normally does 1st and 2nd division games and this is only the second time this season that he as reffed a Championship game. Running the line are Daniel Leach and Nigel Lugg and the Fourth Official will be James Bell.

if they had kept Nige on and we had,or very nearly made top six, it would have been much more difficult to not renew his contract as opposed to on a string of bad results. this is where i think they saw the health thing as a good excuse to pull the trigger early so as they werent put in a difficult situation later on. that would explain the lies about the results being the reason. i do know the coaching staff etc all believed they were on the verge of success, probably why lansdown hid the scott money as he knew he didnt want nige as manager any longer than he had to. basically,they used him to get them out of the shit and his job was done. thats just my take on it, all will come out one day by which time everyone will have moved on and it wont matter any more. to the majority anyway.

Yeah multiple factors could change between now and then. And ultimately even if they spunked £20m on the squad in the summer, I think threads like this show the damage is pretty much done. People didn’t have an issue with the sacking (although they may have disagreed with the decision, that will always happen), it’s more how it was done - and most pertinently, the communications thereafter. Contrition now is too little, too late and although we may get success in the future, the wound in the damage they did with the fanbase is just too deep to recover.

100% you’re the guy that buys the Onyego merch.

you are but people don't have to agree.

6 unbeaten.Fair enough.However the relationship between club and many supporters is terrible. Trust issues particularly are extremely low.Not everything is about results on the pitch.

I totally agree with the bit in bold but it is surely not an unreasonable position to take that Manning's changing of style to one totally unsuited to our squad and persistence with such style even when all the evidence pointed to the fact that it was not working did cause us to drop points unnecessarily.

Exactly my thoughts, what Nige & his team did for this/OUR club was exceptional & he should have had the backing to see what could have been achieved, he was let down badly.

This thread isn’t good reading, pretty pissed off with Tinnion, so if true he has been instrumental in the sacking of Wilson and Pearson? Wilson was loved by fans from memory although looking back now if he would have sorted the drinking culture out I think we would have been promoted. Pearson completely turns the club around, makes the Lansdowns lots of money by progressing some youth players (although I guess he had no choice) and is again loved by majority of the fans base. Sounds like Tinnion gets a bit jealous to me

you see it that way and so do I but i dont think some people give a hoot how the club is run or how people are treated so long as their team wins games . as you know, ive had enough of the lansdowns poor decisions and lies to never go back until they are gone. some wont understand why i feel this way, i think you and many others do, the difference seems to be in the kind of person that you are. im happy with where i am at and with everybody elses choices, it is after all, ones own choice.

If you haven't watched much in the last 6 weeks then you've missed some decent matches with decent atmospheres. I think the point with Manning, and a major reason of why he was an unnecessary gamble - we weren't going nowhere with NP and Liam wasn't a guaranteed winner - is that he's a relatively young manager, learning his trade at this level. He can and does adapt to circumstances. This isn't me saying everything is great and we'll shoot up the table next season. It's just you turned off watching perhaps at Manning's worst, and we have experienced some tempo-led, going-for-it games. I don't think Manning has yet established a settled "style" at this club.

Rotherham have only won 4 games all season, none away with a goal difference of -53. This can only mean one thing……….

I think he knew he couldn't carry on due to health issues. I recall in one of his last interviews he said he just needed a quick op and would be in and out of hospital in "48 hours". That was disingenuous, I believe, and he knew the situation was much more serious. He spent a week in hospital having tests in Nov/Dec and we know that as of early Jan he still couldn't walk. For a fact, he would have had to take more time off from the job to get treated. Whatever anyone says, that is a less than ideal situation for the club, and frankly not good for Nige. He won't see it this way, but ultimately the club may have done him a favour so that he could fully concentrate on getting better. Seems he's still not 100% fit so I've no idea how or why people think he'd have been able to see the full season out here.

Amazing that Pearson wasn’t told that he was sacked for results and he wasnt told about the fear the players were being de-conditioned. Shows what slime balls we have running this club

What, like Birmingham have with Tony Mowbray…….can be done.

No-one has done that though. You said some people were calling for Nige to be sacked because of health issues, which is not true. For starters, at the time of his sacking hardly anyone (myself included) wanted him sacked. And secondly, the full extent of his health problems and the seriousness of them were not known. There's enough criticism to be levelled at the club and their handling of the sacking without retrospectively making stuff up which didn't happen.

That's odd, as you appear to have just quoted me? Just another lie, I guess...

Considering we've just gone 6 unbeaten, it would suggest that we are heading in the right direction. There is an absurd amount of fart in this thread. It properly stinks of embarrassment, and trying to grasp at things to have a moan at, which is mental considering recent results and direction we're heading. Tins, or whoever it was, has made the right decision at the time of writing, whether you like it or not. We can't do anything about the past, so why are we continually obsessing over it? We can't change it by repeating the same storyline over and over and over and over again.... I'm excited for next season. I'm excited in the direction we are heading, and I'm feeling positive about it. COYR'S

Gavin Marshall: We need to communicate better and more openly with fans Brian Tinnion: Hold my beer.

Late to this. Just listened. Probably don't have much new to add but I'll give my thoughts. God I'd forgotten how long he can talk after just saying "Hello". Although fair enough he admits he rambles, and Allardyce more than gives him a run for his money. On leaving us: "Get the exit clause [in the contract] watertight" and was it? "Yes". And there's confidentiality clauses (of course there are). So he can't tell us the official reasons that he was given, but we can assume he's been "looked after" in the settlement. But he can talk about what the club have already said in public - hence he can mention the deconditioning point and the results. It does not look good for the club that they gave reasons in public not given in private. Sounds as well like Pearson is a bit less litigious than old "pint of wine" Allardyce. Allardyce is clearly very well acquainted with the LMAs legal team! That means there may still be more to the story than we know, even after this interview. I love the bit on "success" and how it's not necessarily just trophies and wins. Absolutely true in all walks of life. There's an absolutely top example of the diversity training kicking in with the "him OR her" when talking about the man OR woman in the middle. Very enjoyable to hear that, made me smile. Finally, I'd like to apologise to Nigel for ever calling him a curmudgeonly old man. Allardyce is a curmudgeonly old man. Good lord the size of the chip on that bloke's shoulder.

Obviously none of us know, but my take is they told him they didn’t think he was physically able to do the job & his view on this was what you said in your last but one paragraph, Fleming & Euell were his coaches & so they could do “day to day”. The club were scared of saying anything health related publicly, so came out with the story about poor results & even if you consider that we had a large number of players unavailable, that’s at least factual, but JL then bizarrely decided to add the “deconditioned” comment, which was far more disputable. Certainly if you believe his version of events, they said one thing to him & then another to the public.

This for me is what I'm really annoyed about. Forget about Liam and Nige for a second. We have the likes of Tony Wilkins and his followers saying how fantastic it is that we've done as well as last season and could maybe slightly improve upon that (ignoring the fact the gap to the play offs is wider) Absolutely none of us expected us to do the same as last season. Each and every one of us expected progression. We all felt that the ship had been stabled and that we would push on this season. We have not pushed on. I'd argue we've slightly regressed. So why do we have an element of our fan base celebrating matching last season? This season we have under achieved with what we had available. We have under achieved in a number of games this season without a doubt.

Backstabbing little slime balls. I’m no lover of Liam Manning or the football his team plays, but I pity any City manager that has to deal with them.

For me NP could well be saying, if JL had a problem with the training schedule - fine, you’ve sacked the medical team - but maybe also have a chat with your TD as he was fully aware of it and signed off on it too.

Feel very vindicated in not renewing my ST for next season after listening to that.

in full time training with the first team now, judging by todays uncut vid. still No sign of Adam Murphy, who is clearly just 5 months in to the longest ‘mini pre season’ known to man.

A bloke in work had his done. We call him bingo now…

No matter any single persons opinion on the NP sacking and irrespective of whether we improve going forward and the decision being right or wrong - you cannot defend the manner in which he was sacked and the boards actions in the summer window (timing of the Scott sale, lack of reasonable replacement, etc) and later (lack thereof) communication with him. There was no common sense or courtesy in the clubs actions at the time, nor was it a footballing decision - we've only just got back to one position off where we were when he was sacked. Just like your chip-on-shoulder comment in the context of common sense, the club deserve said criticism - I'd be surprised if NP airs it however. Has more class than JL or BT. You seem to think we're being vindictive - there's a difference between the former and valid genuine criticism(s).