Dastardly and Muttley

We seem to be forgetting the Manning factor. Our board are tied to him and need him to be a success, so will throw money at the problem to get him the people he wants. I fully expect to see Scott as a City player next year, for a big fee and big wages. That’s what we do. Make stupid decisions based on the heart rather than the head. See David James, Lee Tomlin, Kasey Palmer…

And I think that’s where we’ll be with Manning. Some great performances, some dire, mostly average. Probably good enough to finish midtable, never quite bad enough to be sacked. Perpetual Bristol City.

For me, we’re safe. Preseason begins here. This should be Manning making his mark on how he wants to play going into next season and showing that in performances on the field. But Manning doesn’t know how he wants to play and is coaching scared, so we’ll see poor performances and a few more draws.

They obviously haven’t seen much of us. We’re only capable of soundly beating the best teams. Against everyone else, we struggle.

Good luck to him. If he’s up to the role and all the travelling that comes with it, then it’s a great move. They’ve always struggled to attract and retain players because of geography, but having Nigel there could help. Wouldn’t be a typical Argyle appointment, though. They prefer an up and comer.

Was it Lansdown? Getting everyone off the Manning metro?

Top six, I thought.

Take a look at Sunderland’s form and see why we should be winning these games.

Brought on McCrorie to limit Clarke, tried kicking him all half. Worked, to be fair. But it’s a typical, reactive LM sub to stifle rather than change games.

I’d probably agree, there. Although we still gave up 3 or 4 clear cut opportunities. Better than 5 or 6 vs Leicester I guess

That’s not what I meant, though. I meant the clean sheet was lucky, rather than through quality defending.

That’s all these last three games have done. It’s like throwing Poundland wrapping paper over the Grand Canyon.

Never seen a game where we’ve lost nearly every one on one battle, every second ball and the Sunderland players have outmuscled us in every duel. There was no fight there at all and we’re lucky to escape with a point. Some will point to the run of clean sheets, but to me that’s fool’s gold. Vardy would bury his chances 70-80% of the time. Sunderland would have scored those chances more often than not. That’s luck rather than good defending.

Helps when the strikers hit it straight at him.

We are absolutely clueless again. No shape, no gameplan. And this is against a team that just lost 1-5 at home to a relegation threatened team. The good work of the last two games is being undone. Absolutely shockingly bad and lucky not to be 3/4-1 down.

Whichever is closest to our stated goal of promotion. Which we’ve failed to achieve, or come close to, again because of a mid-season self-inflicted derailment of a season. Fair to say, I don’t see NP as a hero either. The Danny Simpson signing really stung me. But, I’ve argued for years and years that the one thing this team lacked was players, managers and executives with top flight experience. We had it in NP, Alexander, King, Weimann and James, and we now look to be getting rid of all of that within a season. Hard to get there if you don’t know what “there” is all about.

I meant improvement on where we were when NP left us - 4 points off the playoffs. We won’t end up 4 points away.

I’m 100% with @W-S-M Seagull on this, and am probably Manning’s harshest critic even with Seagull included. The decision to shift from NP to LM was definitely done with the aim of improving this season. Also, with the return of players from injury, you’d have expected any half-competent manager and coaching staff to have improved us. That’s not what we’ve seen, though. We’ve seen inconsistency and the most boring football served up since Pulis. Next season can’t come quick enough, if we could jump to his sacking in October right now, I would. Just hope he’s not given the nest egg to blow in the summer.

What’s your thoughts on Murphy, Dave? Will he be around the first team next season, or are we waiting for 25-26 in League One?

The next Tomlin. We’ll spend big on him to back Manning, and he’ll revert to L1 standard at best whilst being undroppable due to the fee and being Manning’s man.

Whilst having a discussion about Manning with George Elek on X, he pointed out that the recruitment team would be the same for Manning as any other manager, which is pretty obvious. I’m certain that Adam Murphy and Max Bird were linked prior to Manning’s appointment and would have been brought in regardless of who’s in charge. This just made me think. People are asking for a summer where Manning can bring in players who fit his style. These guys, and likely any other targets, were already predetermined. Do they fit Manning’s style? Are they players he’d have wanted? Or are we going to end up spending big on players with potential to grow and sell on, but don’t fit the way Manning wants to play?

Such a strange result and performance. Delighted to have won and to see Mehmeti do well again - there’s a player there. But, can’t help but feel that was the worst thing that could have happened for the long-term future of the club. Massively unconvinced by Manning and do not believe he’s the man to take us forward. This win almost guarantees he’ll be there next season and will probably be given the nest egg to waste this summer. Especially as this was a win where Leicester could easily have scored 3/4 (deservedly). And remember, this is a Leicester team which has also recently lost to QPR… Strange feeling. Delighted to win, but just worried.

Well, he doesn’t rate youngsters, so if he didn’t like senior players either then he’s more screwed than I thought

Yep, taking my 3 kids to their first ever game at Wembley on Tuesday. For me, my wife and the kids, the total of the tickets was £94. For me and one kid to go and see City vs Millwall was heading into the region of £60. I live in Maidenhead, so travel in isn’t that bad. Just a bit gutted with injuries robbing us of the chance to see Kane, Saka, Grealish and De Bruyne.

Problem is, you have to go to Stoke once a fortnight.