Silvio Dante

Yep, and to be clear there is nothing against Manning here - he’s walking into a situation not of his making and I’d hope everyone gives him full support. You however just have to look at the last time we sacked a popular manager (Cotts - for whom I think the decision was warranted) how long it took his successor to win fans over - and for some, he never did. I don’t think Manning is another Johnson like some but the base scenario does have some echoes - however this time the volume is turned up to eleven.

In a lot of ways, Mannings walking into a hiding to nothing. - Performs at the same level as Pearson (so bobbing around 10th this season) - doesn’t meet the remit of kicking on - Performs better than Pearson but is allowed to add players - board are seen as even more complicit in sabotaging Pearson and he gets little credit - Performs worse than Pearson - nuff said The only way Manning will get credit (and in turn justify JL and BTs decision) is to significantly outperform Pearson in results and performance with the same squad - and even then for some it’ll be tempered by the fact he’ll have injured players back. I want him to do well, and am cautiously optimistic. But I also fear that the way the clowns in charge have handled things have left him in a position where he can’t win unless he does something spectacular.

Yup. You can find the thread in the “Classics” section (entitled “Together”). Quite emotional when you see in there a few forum members who have since passed on. Interestingly, it shows Tinnion knew at the time of him being appointed/Wilson sacked he knew that it was controversial and tried to do positive PR. Contrast that with this time.

When I say tin, you say pot.

Gone back in time 19 years.

As a generic point I agree with this. Players who aren’t as gifted naturally have to work harder, and that often gives an insight into how they and others need to improve. It’s getting the “small percentages” to go all LJ for a moment. I’ve seen the “unknowingly incompetent to knowingly competent”model more times than I care to mention and there is something in it, although it’s not an “absolute” The contrary to this is that the worse the player, the less likely they are to have experienced a high level and understand the mentality needed. For Manning, my concern is how far down that “competency” model he is. I’ve been consistent that I don’t inherently dislike the appointment but think there are (reasonable) questions about the MK Dons proximity. Against that, if his trajectory had continued he may be out of reach so I get striking while the irons hot. It’s a gamble, no doubt, but not one that is LMs fault and he has my full support (the board and Tinnion not so). I don’t think he is necessarily a “yes” man from what I’ve seen and for JL and BT it may be a case of being careful what you wish for

Anyone with nothing to do on Friday, Yate Town are having a Friday night fixture to see how it affects attendance - 7:45 k/o. You can get one of these beauties.

Nearly forgot they were playing tonight. Sam Smith has just put Reading one up. I’m guessing a deflection off the thigh.

Now Liam Manning is appointed, and I join the chorus in wishing him to be a great success, I’d like to take a moment to wish “adieu” to our recent army of Bristol Sport bots. Hopefully, Liam is a roaring success and we won’t see you again but if things go wrong, I look forward to welcoming you all back in six months time. Safe travels and take care.

True - there’s Summit about him. I’ll get me coat.

So…as that’s about 30% of the squad can I assume you disagree when Jon says we have a squad that should be challenging….

There is a human angle here as well - most of us take pride in the company we work for, and in the case of BS employees, they’ll have seen Tinnion, Lansdown and to a lesser extent Kelly and Marshall get a shoeing and be predisposed to defend them - maybe in view of supporting the company but moreso on supporting people they like and work with. If people have signed up with BS addresses and real names it is beyond moronic, but the sentiment I kind of “get”. It is a fact though that we’ve had a number of posters sign up who are posting views contrary to the majority. That doesn’t mean the majority are right, but in view of what the new posters are posting, there are clear and obvious signs that something doesn’t look entirely normal when I think about how this forums been used (with a variety of viewpoints) for 10 plus years. It looks coordinated but I can see how it would be accidentally so.

Remember he alleged a few days ago that James was on £27,000 a week so assumedly he thinks we’d save £700k over the residual part of his contract. Even if that fairy story was true (and in order to enact that saving James would have to be given a comparable contract elsewhere), on the basis of there being no money for signings, it means to replace James and King (who we’ll illustrate at £10k a week) on a like for like budget basis we’d need: - James and King to be given new contracts at the same level elsewhere - Have to bring in three players at a total fee/wage level of £1m in the next six months. On a free agent basis we could pay each £12k p/w (but as free agents currently they’re unlikely to be up to standard) so you have to assume fees. And any fee reduces that wage available. Basically, he’s talking nonsense and even the inflated James wage quoted doesn’t fund the replacements he’s on about unless there are some funds magically available and the Lansdowns have been lying. But that surely couldn’t be the case…

To be fair, Craig Short was a big, ugly, uncompromising centre half so she has a type…

Jon Lansdown.

That reads very much as a “lost the dressing room” scenario - I think we can all be confident that didn’t happen, and your source was incorrect. Unless the former player in question was Brian Tinnion, obviously.

I think @Harry or @Kid in the Riot mentioned that Rob Edwards was “on the list” before he went to Watford and I think it’s plausible that Manning has been “on the list” for some time and the club acted because they saw how well Oxford were going, and, having already decided they didn’t like/want Nige any more, didn’t want to wait until the end of the season in case Mannings stock became too high and he was out of our reach then. To engineer things though, was a bit beyond the pale - and some of this is PR. Had the club come out and made more of a statement around “stabilised the club, this is the next step, natural break” it would have been a lot more palatable. I think it was @The Journalist who made a post a few weeks back about this always (potentially) being the plan but there was now cold feet as Nige wanted to carry on. It’s the closest I can see to a reasonable explanation - but again, the fact the club haven’t given tat reasonable explanation and instead given the car crash they have is a large reason for the toxicity currently - and ironically, that in turn gives Manning less opportunity to succeed here.

Good Post. I think that’s probably where most of us sit. I have no real issue in the owners thinking Pearson wasn’t the right man to take us forward, but the manner of it and the timing and the justification was just nonsense. However, “we are where we are”. The sacking I have most in mind when looking at what’s happened here is when Southampton sacked Adkins. There wasn’t a footballing justification for it, but they sacked him because they wanted Poch in (who was unknown in this country then). It was a gamble, but it can work sometimes as that did. The problem is we all know from history that gambles are just that, and as such it’s very difficult to get excited when we seemed to be going in the right direction prior.

“Do you know how I got this job son? By being the best in the ****ing business. I’ve managed them all - New York, Oxford, West Ham, MK - and they all ****ing loved me. Why? Because I’m the best in the ****ing business” If he came out with that at his first press conference, while wearing an XXL pair of shitted Y fronts, he’s got my vote.

Just said on commentary that Spurs have had ten days rest. No wonder there are hamstring injuries happening, they’re running serious risk of deconditioning. You’d have thought Big Ange would have known that.

Good to see. Now that bastard Rennies stopped injecting him with bacteria, obviously.

One things for sure, if he reads this thread he’s not going to be in any doubt of the situation he’s walking into. Again, not his fault in the slightest, but some people would read this thread and think twice.

“I ****ing love that splat Robin badge”

Just quoting myself here - I think the last paragraph is key. He’s on a “run of form” at Oxford as opposed to having shown he could alleviate the concerns his MK sacking showed. It could be genius, and in 18 months he may have been out of reach but my gut is it feels a very big gamble currently. If it goes wrong though, as has been said, it’s on the Lansdowns and Tinnion