SydneyCity

There is, but Tommy hit the nail on the head when he acknowledged that Steve Clarke has a very settled squad (that is consistently performing). You have players like Lewis Ferguson - Captain of a very exciting Bologna, currently sitting fourth in Serie A, having a phenomenal season - only just now getting called up into the squad. It’s not impossible for TC, but Manningball has ruined his chances. He is more than good enough, but those currently in the squad deliver, and ultimately TC is not right now. I hope I’m wrong as I’d love to see him playing internationally.

“Really?!?! You three play up front for City. How come I haven’t seen you during games?”

I was quite excited by the Mebude signing. I knew absolutely nothing about him and had never seen him play, so imagined his signing to be “so crazy it just might work”. Turns out it was just crazy.

Emotion is the one thing we need, as the squad needs to play better than the sum of its parts to succeed. This is what was built, and what we accepted as fans - we’d win, lose or draw but the players would always fight for the badge. I honestly believe we had a 6th-11th squad that would be pushing for sixth until later in the season when we would inevitably do a City, shoot ourselves in the foot and end up 11th.

Don’t worry, Manning will be looking for a new job soon. Boring and predictable is exactly what the rail network needs!

My complete guesswork… - League of Ireland is lower in skill. Murphy is at the top of that league but… - League of Ireland is massively behind in terms of athleticism. Putting on the right amount and type of bulk takes many months - The club is aware that everything is make or break with the fans right now. If they throw him in early and he is average, or below, then that will be enough for us to write him off - I haven’t seen enough of him but I’d guess he’s been brought in to play with someone who isn’t here yet, and/or… - He’s been brought in to replace someone who we need right now, but will be gone in the summer - Regarding no U21 games, I genuinely believe they think he’ll get injured, so are focussing on what they can do away from the football side (he looks to be a naturally skilful player) and concentrating on the athleticism before joining a pre-season proper Slightly unrelated on the last point… they’re probably right with this approach. My personal opinion is that our injuries are caused by the playing surfaces we use - a type of turf invented in Australia that prioritises durability for a multi-sport environment.

I can’t really comment on yesterday. Despite it being a relatively early kick-off over here, I fell asleep about 15 minutes into the first half.

I will say with great confidence that he would be an absolute nightmare to play against. I understand that he’s not had the most prolific of times here, but I don’t think he’s been utilised to his strengths, or had the people/formation around him that utilise his strengths. I defended Chris Martin for the same reasons. The difference was, he had Weimann and Semenyo around him to benefit from the ugly stuff he was doing.

A few years back I went to a sold-out J-League game, Urawa Reds vs Tokyo FC. Every time a player made a mistake, the whole stadium would laugh out loud. It was brutal. 60,000 people laughing is A LOT worse than 60,000 booing. At the end of the game, the Urawa Reds players bowed to the fans on all four sides, then stood on the halfway line while the whole stadium sang “We are sailing” by Rod Stewart.

Apologies, I did jump the gun a bit there. I don’t disagree with you - we need the right level of experience in the right roles.

This is exactly what Aberdeen have done with Warnock and it’s been an absolute disaster for them. They have a decent squad that should be aiming for third, but are possibly heading to a relegation battle. A big reason for this, that’s been given by those ITK is that the players aren’t really listening to a word he says, as they know he’s not going to be there long-term.

The board and broader footballing structure at Ipswich also contains a not insignificant amount of ex-BCFC staff. It really is mind-blowing how regularly we’ve underperformed over the years.

There are too many different football people - independent of each other - who talk about him being a highly respected coach. Fellow coaches, people and fans at the various clubs he’s been at, The City Group, commentators. There needs to be some truth to it. But… Coaching is very different to management. Putting on good sessions is only a tiny part of it. He is, in my opinion, woefully out of his depth leading a Championship team - especially one where he has to navigate JL annd Tins. I want him out asap. The football is boring, predictable and ultimately unproductive. That said, he can be a terrible leader of BCFC, and a great coach at the same time. They’re two very different jobs.

I have no doubt that Manning is a great coach. I have no doubt we need a manager, not a coach.

If you watch McCrorie, he’s very frustrated. Very often having to gesture to other players where they should be for very simple stuff. Either that or he’s getting forward, only to discover that no one else has got forward too. Tanner is the better defender but, as we all know, is always looking to play back.

“After an extensive search, we’re pleased to announce Hoggy as the new head coach!”

Yep. The days of managers getting a full contract payout are long gone.

Was he drawing another badge?

There’s no denying both teams score goals, as you’d expect… but for Celtic, at least, this season has been remarkably poor compared to expectations. Ange got Celtic scoring 284 goals in his two seasons there! I think one of the top two in Scotland would be good for TC. Work on his game, play Champions League football and/or go far in other European comps. If he does well, I’d say it’s a more likely route to the PL than signing for another Champ team.

From what I understand, Celtic are one of the clubs interested and it may be similar for TC there. Under Postecoglou, their forward - Kyogo - was prolific. The ball was moved into the box quickly and his movement and natural instinct meant he was always on the end of it for a goal. Under Rodgers, Celtic are slow, and pass it around the back. Kyogo has been non-existent. His runs are futile and the ball simply isn’t getting to him in time. Some on here have said TC isn’t suited to a lot of modern passing teams, but he is. Basically, any team that can get it to him, or his space, efficiently. It’s actually quite depressing typing that out. We are at the stage where we can’t get a meaningful ball into the box

That’s why I said “it’s not wrong, as such”. (Although, if I’m being pedantic, it was stated that he was brought in to get the best out of the current squad)

I found it quite interesting that, when talking about TC, Manning always talks about getting him to learn and focus on defensive play. I’m not saying that’s wrong as such, but it does support the narrative of Manning forcing the squad to bend to his style, rather than him bending to the players he has. If I was TC, I wouldn’t sign a new contract. He clearly isn’t an exact match for our new style, and may very well find himself on the bench for a couple of years if he hangs around. Manning isn’t adapting his approach.

Despite everything Atyeo achieved on the pitch, it is personally eclipsed by him being a maths teacher - more specifically my mum’s maths teacher (Henbury). In my 40+ years, I don’t think I’ve ever heard his name without my mum chipping in with this additional piece of information. So much so that I find myself repeating it to this day, like now

Me too. I’d love it if it was.

He’ll be the one telling Bergkamp what to do.