RSW8

He’s a top bloke Tristan, really nice down to earth guy. Can see why pro football might not possibly have appealed to him back then. Think he still keeps in contact with some of the England u17s squad from that time such as Danny Welbeck, Danny Rose etc. Tristan’s son is in one of the younger age groups at city I believe. Big strong lad up front but good ability/technique as well -definitely one to keep an eye on as he hopefully develops through the age groups.

Average championship/league 1 side for god knows how long and we’re a contender for the ficklest fan base in football not April 1st quite yet is it?

Well, the players certainly don’t and that’s one of the (numerous) problems.

Each to their own but I do struggle a little with the argument of ‘he deserves the summer and early part of next season’. What has he done to justify that opportunity? He’s taken a mid table team with some potential to basically relegation fodder/form in 24 games which is over half a season. He didn’t inherit a bottom 3 team in free fall low on confidence. People like Danny Rohl at sheff wed (yesterday aside!) or Cifuentes at qpr deserve a summer as they have generally overseen an upside in form/results since their respective appointments. I struggle to see many, if any, upsides to manning since he came in. For me, he has lost that opportunity over time due to our poor form (both as individual players and the team as a whole), results, unwillingness to adapt and general negativity which now engulfs the club. He has absolutely zero rapport with the fans which I really struggle to see him ever establish.

Didn’t we get ‘rear ended’ by Leicester towards the end of the mcinnes era? Got a similar vibe…

I agree-24 games is enough time imo to make a balanced judgement of this coach given the circumstances at the time of his appointment.

I dread to think what we’ll be like after 2 weeks of ‘on the grass’ training by manning.

Just got back so haven’t read much of the thread. Very disappointing again, we’re just so passive and our ambition now seems to be limiting the opposition. It always felt that one good bit of play from them or a mistake by us and that would be that. We had a go last 20 when twine came on and knight dropped deeper but by then WBA were in cruise control and had dropped down to first gear (from second gear). Manning just seems to have sucked all the energy and enthusiasm from the players, fans and the club as a whole. Very disillusioned by it all to be honest.

Think he had some good ideas and is probably a very good ‘grass’ coach. His problem was/is that he is poor at man management and struggles to motivate players/teams and secondly he’s too stats driven-trust your eyes and what you’re seeing on the pitch not what you think the stats or a coaching manual are telling you. Two very similar traits to our current coach-funny that.

Wow, that was worse than I imagined it would be and I set my expectations at a pretty low level.

Pretty turgid game on the whole between two poor sides IMO. Great to get the 3 points but that level of performance will rarely be good enough for 3 points in this league. It’s a start but I don’t see this changing the over-riding direction of travel anytime soon. We’ll see. The number of empty seats must have been an eye opener for the powers that be-says it all really regardless of the kick off time etc.

What’s the complete and utter obsession with this Southampton game? We won and played well, that’s why the fans were happy that night. That’s what football is all about about, watching your team win and play well. But it was one win for gods sake. Need to get their heads out of their backsides and address the current position instead of all this ‘everyone was happy when we beat Southampton’ nonsense.

Fantastic news, by then we might just then be the best organised team in League One. Makes me feel much better.

How anyone can honestly take any positives from that game today is simply beyond me. From the outset it looked like two poor teams battling out a drab goalless draw. Obviously we couldn’t even manage to do that.

Incredible how he’s managed to suck the life out of everyone and everything so quickly. The games (bar one or two) follow a similar pattern as well, start off ok but then deteriorate pretty much into abject failure. Never known a coaches substitutions have such a minimal affect on the game-he really does not know how to impact or change a game. Can’t remember having the misfortune of watching us in three poorer consecutive games for a long time.

Yep, it just feels all so completely unnecessary and self-inflicted to me. One of the major things a football club needs in order to be successful is stability and for whatever reason, the powers that be decided in their wisdom to just throw that out of the window. Poor decision making yet again….

As I said on a previous thread, the reaction of away fans on the final whistle at an away game following a defeat is often a very relevant and accurate barometer of feeling. I was at Cardiff as many others were and my recollection was that on the whole, the fans acknowledged a spirited and committed performance in the context of a very depleted side/squad. Particularly so given the context of a 5th defeat in 7 games. Contrast this to Saturday, another game I was at, where the reaction was very different IMO from the majority I would say who were somewhat underwhelmed and concerned at the dispirited and disjointed display. I know I certainly was anyway.

I agree. There was a lot of anger directed at the players/coach at the end. Always think away support of this size is a good indication of supporters general feeling and it wasn’t at all positive in the main.

Well, that was a let down. Not the loss, we’re used to that and it goes with the territory when you travel away but the performance was very worrying after qpr last week. I dont know what we are anymore, the players look confused, disjointed and we really do look a soft touch again. The type of football manning wants to play is very commendable and great when you’re working with top players but we’re Bristol bloody city. We’re so predictable, no plan b. Teams work us out after 20 minutes and we then deteriorate as the game goes on. Manning needs to be more pragmatic and make the most of what he’s got. He needs to accept that we haven’t got, and never will have, players good enough to play this type of possession football where it seems we’re trying to score the perfect goal through the thirds. Hate to say it, but we looked like a team who didn’t believe in the way they were being asked to play today. Can’t knock the effort as such, but zero belief. I know we beat Southampton the other week and Watford on Boxing Day which were two great results but I’ve seen most of the games since he’s come in and I think we’re going backwards quick. Manning is not the right man for us. Big game next week against Cardiff-lose that and the pressure will be well and truly on. Hope tinnion and lansdown have a sleepless night…

Thought we got worse the more subs we made. I’d lost interest in the game a little to be honest but it looked to be like-for-like subs in the hope that fresh legs would change things. For me, we needed to be more creative tactically as Millwall had pretty much complete control of that game second half. In particular, we were sat too deep and Knight was having to get the ball 10 yards in our own half as opposed to theirs which made it easier for them to nullify his threat. Interesting that manning said post match he thought the players needed to be braver. For me, it was manning that needed to be braver tactically by changing the direction of that game.

That was absolutely turgid today. Haven’t been as bored watching a football game for years. Spent most of the time looking at the steel trusses on the roof of the south stand thinking they could do with a good old clean. They’ve aged more than the atyeo. Thought the seagulls were going to provide some entertainment at one stage but unfortunately they decided to stay away-a wise move. Can’t wait for the next home game…

Completely agree.

John Mousinho at Portsmouth may be an option but I think we’ll struggle to prise him away…

Shame this post is ‘lost’ within a larger thread as it summarises perfectly exactly how I and no doubt many others now see this. It’s been becoming clear for a while but Big Nige has exposed Mr Lansdown. Maybe there will be some collateral damage for one or two others as well who were complicit in this and probably thought they were safe in his shadow. No more hiding, the vast majority of supporters can now see it very clearly. The point of no return has been reached.

The ‘club legend’ just may have had a little bit more involvement in this than some people might think.