Merrick's Marvels

Not go. That simple. Walking the dog has been much more fun for a while now.

Give him the summer to make signings and we'll have a team fit for L1, is my concern.

Well it's what he preaches, mate!

I think that's what Brain of Britain Tinnion thought he was doing. Amazingly. (Not.) He was wrong. Our current squad is painfully short of Manning's requirements. So persisting with " the dullest man in football" as Coach will require the sort of squad transformation that takes years. Years! And money - you ok with that, Guernsey? Expenditure? What's worse, and is perhaps the biggest mistake Guernsey and Brain of Brian have made, is to think that supporters will put up with a dull style of play week after week. They won't. They didn't in the 70s, even though we were in the top flight of English football. Crowds declined, on account of a combination of conservative style and poor results, even though rather too many Bristolians only turned up because we were playing Liverpool, Arsenal, Man U. etc The same will happen again. Play dull football against - not even the above - but agaonst Preston, Millwall and Brum year after year and Bristolian customers will disappear. Genius. We are lions led by donkeys.

Manning doesn't believe in fight. Or emotion of any kind. It's all about processes and behaviours. Trust the process and everything will be alright. Yeah OK, coaching manual man - you think Guardiola doesn't use emotion? You think emotion can't be harnessed positively at all, Liam? OK, then we'll all stay at home and you can play in front of nobody. Sterile football played in a sterile atmosphere at a club fronted by a sterile personality. Eff me. We've all seen footballers do daft things "in the heat of the moment" and so a coach's desire for players to play with their heads more than their hearts is understandable but occasionally teams can do amazing things when riding an emotional wave. Tomorrow is one of those occasions and at a time when Manning needs all the help he can get, he's denying himself, his team and all of us, a powerful tool. So if tomorrow turns out to be a limp defeat, he deserves all he gets. If we win handsomely in style, I'm sure he'll want to go mad and celebrate with a sparkling water. Or two. PS. Pray God your peediction us right!

Yeah but only back to where they've been for most of the last 60 years. Unlike Bournemouth, Brentford, Luton etc etc

Wouldn't it be funny if he turned to Tinnion and said "It's either me or Manning, academy man. You can't have both".

Very good chance. Don't panic, as others have said. Buy whatever you can, you'll be able to find 4 together somewhere in that stand without difficulty once you arrive.

I wouldn't put it past the dimwits, tbh. So thanks for ruining my evening.

Which just about sums them up really.

Or works with someone who does... not difficult to figure out who might have said to him "howay wor liam, you gotta laugh bonny lad, everything was great 12 days ago".

No, it's - "you'll have to ask the medical team how rapidly he's bulking up"

Clydebank.

Darlington.

That'll be the day.

So you reckon the Left dominate the media in this country, too????????? As for the USA, I'd say the last thing the entire planet needs is 4 more years of Trump, so fair's fair. Anyway, back to Liam Manning?

Where are Coventry in the league?! Unbelievable as it seems - and of course we couldn't afford him (so good luck with that Coventry) and he was rubbish for us - Manningball appears to be the future and what that style of football requires, and what we lack to make it work, is a technical, creative ACM who can receive the ball in tight, central areas, on the half turn, and then feed passes forwards to our attackers. That type of player would transform us. That type of player is Kasey Palmer. Nuts.

Bullseye. This is " if only" hindsight, on stilts. We correctly identified Szmodics as a quality player. The problem was we had a manager who wanted a billion players, a club in the bag for every scenario, which meant there was no pathway for Szondics. Why was he ever going to be satisfied with swapping first team football at Colchester for reserve yeam football with us? The lad was absolutely right to leave, having realised we were run at the time by incompetent people more interested in Manila envelopes than youth development. KERCHING!

Lions led by donkeys, mate. Always has been. Jesus wept what a sorry state of affairs. We'd be frightening if only someone competent was in charge.

Everything comes back to how the change of manager was handled, doesn’t it? Incompetently. By incompetent people. None of whom would be in position at a serious, competent, successful football club.

Brilliant. Of course not! He's only got 1 friend, some sap called Brian.

Run out of emojis for the day. Have 57 likes. See above. Have 57 more.

Isn't that what you go to Bath City for? 1. Beer. 2. Meet Ken Loach. 3. Then, and only then, watch the football.

Yrs, yes, yes please. Have I woken up in heaven?

City fan? Could swear I saw him in the East End back in the 90s.