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Viva Manningball, utter dross

Dickie, Knight, James, O’Leary, Tanner

You and I both, Dave. But it looks like James and Williams will be gone, so it’ll be interesting to see what they have up their sleeve. I don’t see anything left-friend from Europe or further afield, sadly.

I’d be surprised if Manning wasn’t responsible for the signings of Twine and Mebude, having worked with both of them before. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the likes of Conor Coventry or Marcus McGuane arrive in the summer due to Manning either.

All fair points. Football is all about opinions and I respect yours as much as most others. You’re dead right to say he could only make saves based on what’s in front of him, but I disagree on your reasons why Vardy didn’t score. I thought Vardy looked like age is catching up with him yesterday; he’s usually razor sharp and I think Iheanacho probably buries those chances. For clarity, not once have I said Max didn’t play well. I said he did what I expect of him, which is to save shots that are pretty close him. He was a solid 7, but not an 8 like Roberts, James or Pring IMO. Anyway, City won so I don’t care if people agree or disagree.

I don’t usually reply to BS bots like this chump, but Conway has way more potential than Bell IMO. I’ll be happy if this comes back to bite me on the arse, but I haven’t seen enough from Bell to say he’ll either make a prolific striker or consistent threat at this level.

At the risk of being contrarian, I thought Max did what I would expect of him. All of his saves were good reactions to shots that were close to him. Peak-form Vardy probably scores a hat-trick today and he looked a shadow of himself.

There very same

Exactly what I said in the matchday thread. Roberts, James and Pring were all excellent. I exclude O’Leary from that as his mistake led to a golden chance and his other saves were down to poor finishing from Vardy.

Roberts, James and Pring - all excellent. Ironic that the poorest player on the pitch scored the winner!

Not bad first half from us. Twine should’ve scored on the rebound from Conway’s shot IMO. Faes and Choudhury look weak. But I get the feeling Leicester are in second gear and they’ve still cut through us with ease at times. As ever, we need to score when we’re on top.

Ah, that’s what Jon’s been up to for the last few months

I don’t buy that at all, but you’re entitled to your opinion and I respect that. That Cotts side was the best I’ve seen and had SL not pulled the plug on deals for Maguire and Gray, I would not have been at all surprised if we’d have matched or bettered GJ’s achievement. We’ll never know, sadly. I had some great times under GJ, not least Palace away in the play-off semi. But the club had outgrown him IMO and just like his boy, he allowed costs to spiral out of control.

Well, it is an international break! Awful may have been harsh, but you know from back then I thought he should’ve gone long before he did. No doubt he did well, but most successful manager since Dicks?! How do you define that? For me, I judge it on silverware and Cotts gets that accolade for winning a league title and a cup. Fair comment, Gumbo.

I remember hearing the hat story around the time it happened and that summed up my opinion of GJ’s management style. It worked in the lower leagues, but he couldn’t manage the better players’ egos. His boy is cut from the same cloth. Both awful man managers.

Probably the same individual who redesigned the badge only to replace it on the away shirt with the robin splat

There is absolutely nothing loosely related to high performance at the training ground.

Like most things to do with BCFC, the website was done on the cheap and they won’t pay the going rate to get qualified people to make the website engaging. Gone downhill ever since Beanhead left IMO.

I don’t think so, no. Would you think Pep or Klopp tell their players to be emotionless? Absolutely no chance IMO. I suspect the licences teach the modern coaching methods, but on top of that you need to be able to motivate, man-manage and be tactically astute to be successful. Klopp once said of his and Pep’s teams that they match their own personalities. Manning could say the same.

Precisely right, Dave. Amazing to think some people genuinely believe SL is a City fan who stood on the terraces in his youth when nothing could be further from the truth than that. Sorry, but no genuine fan would put their club in that position.

Exactly. Just like a leopard who never changes his spots, he will never stray away from nepotistic appointments that promote an arse-licking culture. There’s no chance in hell he would admit he got it wrong, not after more than 20 years of mistakes.

Totally agree. Four or five of us used to go every year and don’t bother now. Tickets aren’t value, rip-off vendors, dreadful booze choices, and it increasingly attracts the arse end of Birmingham thinking they’re straight out of Peaky Blinders. I went to Leopardstown for the Dublin Racing Festival last year. €50 tickets for two days, easy access to most areas, no tossers, good food and drink etc. Basically, the opposite of what the Cheltenham experience has become.

Passion is an emotion, and a strong one at that. I want to see a City side play with passion, fire in the belly, call it what you will. If you tell the players to control their emotions, you take away that edge IMO. That’s been a consistent in Manning’s time here and a polar opposite of the miserly side Pearson built. Manning out.

Don’t worry. Brian was thrilled with our January business and there’s a £1m fee agreed to sign Mebude in the summer.

Bristol-born ex-Norwich and West Brom midfielder. Gas.