Red from afar

Go for it, win as many as possible to get some momentum, convince the current players we're going to play to their strengths going forward, buy/sign like for like replacements for anyone that leaves/contract not renewed (or slight upgrades), plus an extra 2 or three decent champ level players to give the squad depth.

The away match at Huddersfield last season was possibly the worst game of football I've ever watched. Their only tactic seemed to be kick us, or kick the ball as far up the pitch as they could, in any direction, in the off chance they might get a corner to score from. It was absolute dross.

'I thought I'd won the sweepstake, but then he said behaviours again'

You get some people in life that are very intelligent, have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of their subject, but when it comes to the practical/ real world application it just doesn't come naturally. It's all great when everything is following the standard/expected pathway, but they just don't seem to see the subtleties, or be able to react to the unplanned scenario. I think this is where we are with LM. With the right practical football mind/tactician and motivational personnel next to him maybe it could work, but as it is he's got BT above him marvelling at his textbook drills in training.

Who also then praised King in the commentary on the game....

I'm just saying this as my opinion, an unaldultered 'what I reckon', but when you spout jargon to the wrong audience it just makes you look like you're trying to hide something, or aren't entirely convinced that people are going to accept what you want to say. Communication is a two way thing. You say something, if the person you're talking to doesn't understand what you're saying, you're not communicating.

I'll take this one further. Assuming they just didn't like him, it could have gone; 'Nige wants 2/3 players for these positions, says they need strengthening', 'ok, what do you reckon', 'well, he's right. I think we should sign them. If it goes well, his contract is expiring anyway and we can replace him from a strong position. If it doesn't go well, we'll have a good excuse to replace him and the next guy will have a squad with sufficient depth to push on with' Just a thought.

I stick to my guns when I said early in the season, if they bought 2 or 3 decent solid players at this level in the summer in the right positions we'd be close to the playoffs, if not just inside. Nothing I've seen from the other teams below the top 4 (and maybe West Brom), has made me change my mind They didn't have to be spectacular, just good pros who fitted our style of play. It was pure pettiness that stopped that happening and now they've set us back a couple of seasons again.

You couldn't make it up

My take-aways: He should have stuck to the academy: Made some fair comments about their approach this season (but not leaving the bench empty). 30 years in a job doesn't give you the right to move to the top, it's not the Post Office. Look how that turned out. Total revisionism: Stating almost to the letter the situation the club were in player wise when sacking Pearson as an excuse for poor displays now and then saying Manning is learning on the job rather than being ready to push us on for a promotion push.

I think we were showing it most of the season under him. I'd stopped worrying about conceding last minute winners, soft goals from free kicks etc We just seemed solid, wiling to run through walls for each other and generally switched on most of the time. We'd become the team who would generally finish the stronger. Everything seems so brittle again and that's my main concern, as it took ages to sort it out last time.

To be fair to Manning, when he was hired the powers that be were quite explicit that they were hiring a coach, not a manager, so I can't really blame him if that's all he's concentrating on. If the connection has been lost, then it's clear who was actually driving this philosophy previously and who to question as to why that seems to have stopped.

He's a natural goal scorer, he has that instinct of where he needs to be and they're quite hard to find. I can understand why you wouldn't want to base your whole game plan around it, but to totally ignore an advantage like that seems strange. It's also quite easy to coach that instinct out of someone....

I've worked with companies where it's a family business, sycophants worming their way to the top position. Whenever anyone of experience and presence came in, the stooge would always be in the owners ear telling them they don't know what they're doing. Then they'd remove them and hire someone who would do the work in the way they wanted and wouldn't answer back. Funnily enough they would then blame them as well when things inevitably started to get worse.

Not that I'm aware of, but ABC and Reverend and the Makers are. A bit of trivia, the guy on the Arctic Monkeys first studio album cover is the brother of Reverend and the Makers lead singer.