The Journalist

I’ve gone for Manning - but only on the assumption having to sack the manager will lead to Steve Lansdown reigning Tinnion in a bit. Tinnion is part of the problem, but the overall problem still remains the overall structure.

I also agree - and given Steve will know this wasn't seen as his appointment it won’t bother him in the slightest if he has to pull the trigger. It’s only his own ego he worries about protecting, not other people’s. The only reason he kept Lee Johnson so long was because he knew that one was on him!

I know it’s already been said, but it really does show what a pickle we’ve put ourselves in when Andy King taking charge seems a relatively exciting option. My only concern would be that he’d get a bit of a bounce and then be given the job permanently despite not being ready for it. He may absolutely be ready for it, of course, but you wouldn’t want a few decent results to create a false impression. We all know we’ve been there more than once and you couldn’t trust the board to not make the same mistake a third time.

This might be an unpopular opinion but I’d much rather listen to Lee Johnson than Liam Manning. He came out with some absolutely mental stuff and became almost a parody of himself by the end, but I never felt he wasn’t honest. Liam Manning has been here months and I’ve still absolutely no idea what he really thinks about basically anything. It’s just a series of sterile, meaningless stock phrases and media-trained nonsense. Even Keith Millen and Dean Holden were preferable. That said, I do think it’s made worse/harder for Liam that he’s followed Nigel Pearson, who really is the polar opposite and not your typical football manager.

It is bizarre, when you think about it, how the previous management team are spoken of/thought of. The us/them feeling they’ve created around Pearson/Manning, and almost the way they’ve distanced themselves from what went on previously (or at least the way they want it to be perceived), is reminiscent of a new party coming into power after a general election. Only it isn’t Labour slagging off the way the Tories have been running the country, it’s literally the last people THEY employed to do the job!

For what it’s worth, and last night’s PR disaster has just reminded me of this, I did initially write that your comment was disrespectful… but I think he’s gradually eroding any remnants of respect every time he opens his mouth

Just as an aside, reflecting on last night, I wonder how Manning felt listening to it and what their relationship is like. Publicly, at least, they could barely be more different. Manning is as guarded and straight-batted (a polite way of saying robotic) as they come, whereas Tinnion was absolutely bursting throughout that. It didn’t take that much prodding for him to combust live on air and start spilling stuff he would never have intended to (as @Davefevs pointed out - the fees, bonkers!). It’s wild to think he’s the technical director at a Championship club.

Tinnion has sounded increasingly, and slightly unnecessarily, rattled. His tone is so defensive and bordering on out of control - he sounds completely exasperated. And I don't think Richard Hoskin has been as half as forceful as he could've been.

If they don't ask some proper questions even I'll be cancelling my licence fee - and that pays my wages.

I say this as someone who’s spent the past few months nodding along in agreement to pretty much everything you’ve posted - to describe a player with more than 500 appearances for our club and a genuine trier as a “footnote” is slightly pathetic. Like you, I think the current position he holds is a joke. After a truly disastrous spell as manager why we thought promoting him to the level above that was a good idea heaven knows. It’s very “us”. Incompetent, delusional and rampantly egotistical? By all means. We’ll be better off when he’s no longer in his current post. But let’s not discredit that argument by pretending his playing career was a “footnote”.

Fair play to you all… I can’t even bring myself to watch this stuff anymore.

“If you’re talking about injuries, in the last seven or eight weeks we’ve probably not been giving the players the best platform, training-wise, to achieve what they want to and of course that goes into your thinking. “There are multiple reasons, international breaks - we took nine days off in the first one and 10 days off in the second one, which is pretty much unheard of at this level. “We came into the season really well-conditioned, really good physically and you could see it when we were playing, I believe we’ve been at real risk of deconditioning ourselves during the international breaks."

I liked Holden, though. He was clearly out of his depth and the wrong appointment but I liked his intent, how he wanted to go about it, his personality. Manning - and everything about us currently - feels so sterile and meh. I’ve no real affection for him, no attachment, no real feeling of wanting him to do well. Maybe that’s just me - or on me - but it is what it is.

The past three-six months have been complete self sabotage. I’ve never felt more disconnected from the whole thing.

The big takeaway here is that Will C on Twitter is YOU?! You once called me a “tetchy ******”. Not that I’ve held onto that or anything.

Dreadful news. I was hoping I wouldn’t be able to watch it.

Undoubtedly stepped off it in his final few months with us - and he wasn’t a good enough player to get away with that. He was alright, but also our best spell as a team throughout his time with us was when he was injured…

Matt Smith at Gillingham in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy!

It's quite a good topic, that. I can't ever remember seeing a player score four in a game in the 25 years I've been following... anyone else?! Tony Thorpe scoring a 28-minute hat-trick on the opening day at Northampton in 2001 is about the most notable I can think of.

100% this. The two January loan signings - certainly Twine - had that written all over them. No real future value/long-term view, let’s just make sure we finish higher than Pearson. I said that at the time and stick by it. It’s the same reason I don’t see Manning going anywhere quickly. I’ll be amazed if they don’t double down on it.

I’m slowly falling out of love with us. That’s a horrible feeling.

It’s a fair question… I guess because I like to think of us as a pretty reasonable, patient fanbase and I’d always prefer to go a game too many than a game too few. Is that ruthless enough? Admittedly, arguably not!

There are two separate issues here - both important, but separate. The poster is absolutely right to continually call the club out over both Manning’s appointment and early results. The club lied to the fanbase about the reasons for the managerial change, they exaggerated the quality of the squad to make Pearson look worse and then - purely in my opinion - made short-term moves in January, despite the season largely being over, purely motivated to drag us two or three places up the table to save face. The whole thing had been handled abysmally and just because everything isn’t as raw as it was three or four months ago they should still be held to account for this. Fans and local media shouldn’t just let that go! However… does that mean Manning is a bad manager and should be measured by the same standards? Absolutely not - the club may have put him under unnecessary pressure by some of the communication but he’s going to need some time, including this summer, and patience. We rightly gave Pearson time and Manning should have time too, whatever the rights and wrongs behind how we arrived here.

The major problem with this that immediately sticks out is post-match the commentator is immediately scampering downstairs for interviews and isn’t returning to his desk until 1745-1800 (on a Saturday, for example). And then, either way, getting a co-commentator to do it is still going to involve additional production in the studio fielding phone calls/comnecting/cutting off etc. Basically, it’s a really good idea in theory but won’t work practically - at least not without spending money that could be better used elsewhere. Personally, I would actually just make it a Bristol football only phone-in though and cut out the non-league football and rugby union (you could still make those interviews available online and broadcast them if something exceptional was said). The station wouldn’t have the bottle to do that - you’re in “we’ll always do it that way because we’ve always done it that way” territory.

Our fifth different crest in five years… for a club that talks a lot about identity it feels like we’re going through an almighty identity crisis?!