Jeez

Would offer James 2 years on current terms & try to loan or perm move any or all of Cornick, Naismith & Wells.

His loan has played out entirely into our hands if we want him.

Seen enough to think he’ll be a fit, makes us better than without & will only improve

Probably not done quite enough to justify what Burnley paid & equally probably not shown enough especially to be a nailed on starter for them either.

Easy to see a scenario where Burnley cash their chips in at 2m & everyone’s happy.

5 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

The irony there is that I’d envisage we’d have to pay a minimum of £3m for Twine and at least £15k a week, and whoever is buying Conway would expect to pay a minimum of £3m and £15k a week.

So, on those sums, it’s back to the squad being as it is broadly.

(Don’t disagree with the general thrust of argument but two quality signings that markedly improve us will be a bit more than that IMO)

No point selling Conway anywhere near for 3m - surely we’d get closer to 1m in compensation at the end of his contract? 

if he’s kept here next year, it’s in his own interest to pull out all stops & not sulk as his appeal as a free agent will increase or decline in line with his form.

Only sell if it’s an offer that can’t be refused as it will cost more than 3m to replace like for like.

1 minute ago, BasSavage88 said:

That’s not counting whatever was not renewed/unsold in the south stand 

That’s what I meant by held back for South Stand POTD

As it stands

6095 unsold + 4200 for the Atyeo plus whatever is held back for hospitality & South stand POTD

On that’s basis I reckon about 14k again wouldn’t be far off the mark.

Yes I was bored so counted them

There’s a quality player in there, difference compared to Palmer etc is that Twine is Mannings guy & will want to build the a team around that, not just him but he will be a building block towards that. 

Don’t be surprised about him being an undisclosed transfer & our 1st signing followed by endless speculation about the price.

Burnley won’t recoup all their cash but will monetise the asset enough as they come back down.

This thread typifies the weirdness of following city.

Everyone is crying out for progress but at same time lots are poo pooing a player like Twine who is arguably the minimum level throughout the squad / 1st 11 you need you win promotion.

Bear in mind that we generally struggle to attract players  (see Azzaz transfer etc)

There’s a chance we can land Twine due to the Manning connection but here the consensus is he’s not good enough for City. 

Who should we go after & why would they sign for us?

16 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

As I said on another thread, it’d be madness if he was and would have serious vibes of Kasey Palmer. We’ve seen what he can do and he’s gone from peripheral in prior games to today being uninterested in putting any work in. 
 

Palmer was signed despite a poor loan spell at great expense because LJ overestimated both Kaseys importance and Lees own ability to get stuff out of him. If you’re charitable, it could be argued that he had the Afobe linkup in mind but that was more happy accident.

It seems to me (and I don’t think LM is LJ as some do), in this case for Lee read Liam and for Kasey read Scott

To reiterate the point, we’re looking at a player who had a fantastic season at a lower level 2 years ago and has not proven himself at this level, in addition to having two injury spells. We’ve seen him for us and not one person thinks he’s a must buy. Even at £2m, with the takeover of Burnley wages, it’s not a cheap deal and I’m not convinced he’s worth that.

Not a deal we should do and would smack of a vanity project based on the evidence to date.

 

Nothing like Kasey palmer to me.

We’ve been better with Twine than without.

Be interesting to factor in players  sold & there respective value - eg Webster, Kelly, Brownhill etc 

Sorry lads I just laid a bet on at 3:1 odds - that’s probably jinxed it.

TBF did same last week too tho.

Did the sky sports reporter nod off or is there really nothing to report?
 

We all know the sacking was very harsh but this time it really, really pissed off the most prolific & respected contributors on here. 

Just like social media influencing that sentiment spreads & keeps being reinforced by a wider community. 

Credit to Manning coming into that maelstrom created for him & digging his way through it. 

I would have preferred NP saw out the contract & left with dignity but change was made & it would be odd to not give Manning next season to see the project through.

Its rare an L1 player hits the ground running in 1st season in championship so why are we expecting the same from a L1 coach?

2 hours ago, LondonBristolian said:

This is what we want. Unfortunately Manning has put himself in a position where he needs to rebuild trust and good will with a lot of us as fans. This weekend is a start. Hopefully the next six games can build on it and leave us feeling positive about next season.

Why does he?

He didn’t ask for the job, when given the task he’s applied his approach (like it or not) we can see there are some learnings going on hence the mixed results & performances.

You’re conflating the actions of the board with Mannings role.

Yeah it’s not bad but……Just focus on the god damn Mother ****ing football side of things.

Might be a good season to skip.

City despite their lack of achievement has always been a wonderful escape from the day to day & bookmarks the weekend.

However, this season it feels toxic & confused; since Pearson got the boot, even this place has become a bit of a misery lab too, the likes I’ve never witnessed before following city. 

That said, we’ll renew - but attend less games.

8 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Serious question, do you really think tonight had anything to do with Manning?

8 hours ago, frenchred said:

Serious answer: if implementing a club wide playing philosophy do you think he should have? (If he never)

In 4 months - you’re joking? right?

Not a popular opinion but I'm inclined to give him time, despite our experiences, he is seen as a promising young coach in the wider football world. To be clear I've not enjoyed the football that much but we have risen to the occasion against stronger teams & TBH I have some reservations about his ability to step up as a charismatic leader but, he's come into a toxic environment & hasn't had a chance to relax into the role in any way.

But..........

The season is a right off, we will find enough points to stay up & he will learn from the relentless brickbats the fanbase is quite rightly giving him & he's young (for a head coach) so he's still building the maturity in position. If he's as smart as the image he presents he will learn quickly or fail fast.

The board will be forced to back him in the summer, especially as we will see a lot of traffic in player movement - this is a good window to recruit to the type of football he wants to play.

No doubt JL & BT massively underestimated the job NP & Co were doing, but binning off Manning early doors to make them wear their mistake doesn't help anyone. If anything it should encourage the board to properly invest in the squad. 

With more of his type of squad & having gone through a tough initiation to the championship, we might find ourselves with an actual identity & a method for dealing with teams we've struggled against.

13 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Think it’s transparent he’s off this summer.

Thought Wells did a decent job last night & was very unlucky with the one that hit the bar but expect TC thinks he should be starting ahead of him.

His should be starting - 1st half last few games chances have fallen for Wells that Tommy puts away, usually time he gets on the service/opportunities are drying up.

Rightly would be pissed especially as he’s a fan -  probably spending his days off visiting places like Glasgow, Bournemouth etc scoping where he’s living next season. It won’t be here.

36 minutes ago, One Team said:

I'm not sure I'd ever say this out loud but I have this season wondered if Mark Ashton wasn't actually the problem. 

You think Ashton hand picked LJ & Holden? No chance!

Those appointments had SL & JL written all over them.

It wasn’t terrific

21 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

The biggest bit (sorry!) there is probably the transition. I’ve posted elsewhere that I do genuinely see what a “good” Liam Manning team looks like because I understand how he wants to play. The thing is that it’s not really using the base, it’s more starting over. And he can’t go from A>Z (had more opportunity to do so at Oxford because of relative ability to recruit).

But can he go from A>B, B>C etc until he gets to Z?

And that’s the biggest bit (sorry, again) - the way Liam wants to play may have more chance of getting us top 6 (debate, discuss etc) - but are we confident he’d be able to manage through the transitions to get there without the Big Bang? The lack of adaptability and in game management to date raises a pretty big question mark.

Good convo though
 

 

This is a good point - whilst he’s not hitting the brief right now, with the appropriate support & recruitment designed to match his style of play we stand more of a chance of top 6.

The timing was all off with the hire, but we’re here now & accept he’s in the role - over to the powers that be to put their money where their mouth is & build a top 6 squad that matches the coaches philosophy because they took us to this situation.

1 hour ago, Swede said:

If you're asking me to cheer for a player who cost us £5.3M, gave him a platform to ultimately go towards him playing & winning the AFCON for his country, refuse to sign a new contract and ultimately proceeded to run his contract down so we got nothing for him, then proceeded to allow his performances to dip towards the end of that contract and was one of the numerous reasons why we've suffered FFP since then, it will be a no for me.

Yes, he scored 50+ goals for us [that will earn polite applause] but he could've done a whole lot, lot more but sadly he chose not to do so.

When you put it like that - hell yeah lets boo every touch & cheer every time he can’t control it.

The players need some fire in their belly’s. Can’t help but feel that’s the bit that’s missing. Cool, Calm but no real urgency.

The coach creates the behaviours & he needs to look further than the technical aspects.

6 minutes ago, TV Tom said:

I agree, this was 100% down to the players, there's no excuse for not being able to  string three passes together,  QPR are in the bottom three for a reason, because they're not very good, but what is Chair still doing there ?

Disagree - they were set up to fail today & slowly lost belief as the game progressed.

Big learning point for the coaching team today.