Beni71

Hypocrisy from Les and Ian. So happy to moan and whinge for the last two years, but now it’s acceptable to be dull and create nothing. Is Les Mark Carter or Ian’s son? 

1 hour ago, Edgy Red said:

Ok, (i know i'm stupid) i'm going to respond.

Results and performances under Manning have been VERY mixed, but if we're all being honest, it was no different during Nige's 3 years in charge.

I have no idea how things are going to pan out under Manning but he deserves a summer to recruit some of his own players. If after 15 games next season there is no obvious improvement then questions can be asked, but give the guy a f****** chance!

He has been on the back foot with many fans since day one, but he's trying his best and deserves our support. Lets get behind the team and support the football club, and not individuals.

Are you serious??

- Pearson inherited an unbalanced squad

- He had a number of bad apples and over paid underperforming players had to be managed out

- The club had massive financial issues to resolve due to the previous management regime so limited budget for transfer with the exception of OOC players and the odd transfer fee

Manning has inherited a good set of pros, his job is to improve the performance of these players. I have seen no sign of improvement, 11 points from 11 games. We are going backwards. #manningout

6 hours ago, Tim Monaghan said:

Because that’s my opinion. He needs a summer to bring in some of his own players etc. He’s trying to build something. I don’t expect you to agree with me and that’s fine. 

I wouldn’t trust Manning with my son’s pocket money. He’s out of his depth, his ability to react in game to the situation is embarrassing. I would love him to succeed but I have this feeling that we’ve traded in an aging temperamental Range Rover Sport for a mini metro which has three gears. 
 

IMO the summer is irrelevant. A good manager will adapt thinking and approach based on what players he has available. This is a good set of pros. 

We ain’t getting anything Tuesday night. By Saturday we could be 3 points off relegation and a huge Mother’s Day clash. If that ends in defeat I’m not sure LMs position is tenable.

In steps the Pearson old guard to keep us up.

3 minutes ago, willy bedlock said:

I'd give him a pre session, and then the first 10 games , if around about top 10 , then see if we can progress, but if below that I would get rid , he's style don't suit what we've got

We’ll be in league 1 by then

7 minutes ago, headhunter said:

I picked this from James Piercy's excellent piece on the game in Bristol Live and highlighted the part that sums up so many things in our normal day to day lives:

The narrative is being allowed to grow that this City team is defined by QPR, Sheffield Wednesday, Preston, Leeds and Millwall rather than Southampton, Middlesbrough, Watford, West Ham, Nottingham Forest and Hull City. In this binary world we live in, where you have to pick a side, and a point of conflict, it’s one or the other, not where it really sits, somewhere in the middle. That’s just boring.

Ian Gay's narrative is what it is and I invite anyone to come on the pod and challenge him and no doubt create a point of conflict. I will call him out whilst recognising that I myself flip flop with my views and in so doing rightly labelled for being a knee jerker! 

This is the point though isn’t it and I hate to go back to NP reign but…

Under NP we knew what we would get and the average City performance would range from a 6 to a 7.5 out of 10 across 2023. Every player knew their role and there were always very honest performances who bought into the NP philosophy.

Under LM the consistency of performance is much broader. Southampton and West Ham 8 out of 10. QPR & Wednesday 4 out of 10. And more worrying is the cracks in terms of team togetherness, Conways reaction on the pitch suggests there is frustration creeping in.

its going to be a bumpy ride till the end of the season.

The show has improved with @TomSutton and @NcnsBcfcwho add balance. Proved this week when Tom spoke about the QPR goal, “it was a good goal”, “difficult to track that type of run”. People who have played the game make a difference to the standard of discussion.

In fairness to @headhunter he does a good job of bringing everyone into the discussion and more recently has been challenging Ian on his points.

Ian’s double standards are frustrating but the one thing that really annoys me about Ian is his rudeness. He does say the odd interesting thing but his manners are awful. If someone spoke to me like Ian does to Mark/Dave I would remove him from that pod there and then and let him back in when he can be more respectful. It’s normally at those points I switch the pod off! 
 

Keep up the good work @headhunter

4 hours ago, Lrrr said:

NP had to play academy players or at least have them on the bench due to a combination of injuries & a lack of investment in recruiting players.

what do people on here want from Manning, try and finish the season in as high a position as possible or to blood young players? If he played young players at the expense of results people would moan. Can’t have it both ways as a fan base, either people want Manning to do his best to deliver results and accept less mins for young players or give him a break on results if it means young players getting game time. 

Blood younger players. We aren’t going up or down. Given Bell is likely to be out for the season I think Yeboah has the raw pace and physique to add something different to what we now have. 
 

If he chooses not to blood younger players I’m expecting results given the squad he has inherited and culture/moral wise it’s as good as it’s been for four years plus.

3 hours ago, Dr Balls said:

It’s the lack of a “Plan B” if “Plan A” isn’t working. The only changes are different players in the same system. We were getting done in midfield and had no creativity. Why not add TGH to James and Williams to have 3 in central midfield in the second half? Yes play Wells and Conway together but how about having them both upfront rather than Tommy trying to play a number 10 role I.e. going 4-3-1-2, rather than continuing a 4.-2-3-1 that was achieving very little?

Twine was on the bench. If he was fit enough for the bench why not use him? As for Dire, more “oh dear”. There are so many things about him, even before coming to us on loan, that don’t quite add up. And as for his performance, he was significantly less impressive than Yeboah, who appears to have been sent back to the U21s by Manning.

Usual service has been resumed. City remain consistently inconsistent and mid table mediocrity appears to be the best that we can hope for.

And one final point on Manning being a young coach. Yes he is, but he’s been coaching at some level for 10+ years. It’s not like a guy who has been playing to his mid 30s and just taken up coaching. If he doesn’t know how to change things mid game to influence play then why not? It’s surely something that every coach should have learnt by this stage in his career.

I’m not in the Liam Manning fan club and still to be convinced he will move us forward. 
 

Despite his length of coaching he has no experience at this level and he personally will need to develop significantly if he can move the club beyond mid table. 
 

If you listened to George Elek from “not the top 20 pod” when Manning was announced then it was quite clear he liked to play 1 man up top, supported by players with energy to press and who had pace (very similar to Nigel Pearson). 
 

The major difference between NP/LM is LMs love of data. LM will have a much more scientific approach to analysis whilst NP was all about what you see.
 

In essence the club are asking an unproven manager to develop on the job. 

On 14/02/2024 at 19:21, W-S-M Seagull said:

Why did Ian get so touchy and defensive when Dave mentioned that the squad depth has now transformed and then mentioned about how it wasn't like this under Pearson? 

Ultimately Bristol City existed before Lism Manning came here. So why can't we talk about things that have happened this season? 

Hilarious that he suggested that Pearson had a stronger squad here when Pearson joined than the one Manning has inherited. 

It’s pretty obvious why he has these opinions. 

This did make laugh. Good ole Ian coming out with his favourite line of you can’t keep looking back and then mentions the squad Pearson had when he first joined

@headhunterthink 3 peeps are more independent than Forever Bristol now Ian is on the “inside” and the mouth piece of Bristol City!

No league win since Dec 26th, two massive games ahead and need a result in at least one of them.

If we go into QPR needing a win, think the board will need to come out and back him.

I feel for Manning, he’s in a bit of a no win situation due to how he was appointed and how Nige was dismissed.

The other challenge Manning has is that all the work to get the wage bill down, get rid of the bad apples and change the club culture and develop saleable assets was completed by Nige.

Mannings job is much simpler, just deliver results on the pitch with a top 6 squad. For me has the Jan window and then the rest of the season to get a top 10 finish. 

Thought Manning got that tactically wrong.

1. Rotating Sykes & TGH - why?

2. Inability to react and change the system where are 2 vs their 3 in central midfield totally nullified us and stopped us playing through the 3rds. 
 

3. Similar point to above but no plan B. What if you match Millwall and go 352?

It’s early days and I appreciate this isn’t Mannings team but he’s not inheriting a mess and there are no real bad apples in terms of culture/attitude. I don’t mind losing a game but that was as bad a game I’ve seen since Birmingham away (3 nil loss). 

13 hours ago, Curr Avon said:

We discussed the feasibility of trying to loan Premier League players, at an educationally guessed minimum weekly wage of £25,000 for untried youngsters. 

But that’s not new news? There’s always been a high price tag.

I think the point is that FBC have been criticising for 12 months+ over the lack of loan signings. Then detective Gay makes the revelation that loan signings are expensive….. You would have thought he had discovered the holy grail 

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Are you suggesting I’m the Liam Manning of pods, boring!!!

@Davefevs I don’t think you looked at your feet once when talking, so no!!

A good episode. @Davefevs made a big difference in providing an analytical perspective on what happened on the pitch rather than just the emotional view on the match. 
 

Would have liked the debate play out with Ian and Dave. Agree with comments above that Ian will back LM till the cows come home due to his dislike for NP. 

Frank in Mokoko in Portishead this morning at 11.43 ordering a macchiato and an Almond croissant 

19 minutes ago, frenchred said:

He really does live rent free in some people's heads!

Just spoils what is a good show. 

@headhuntercan you put a mute button on Ian please? If he doesn’t answer your question cut him off. I honestly thought we had lost 3 nil after his pointless two minute ramble at the start of the show.

Also remind him his view on NP doesn’t mean the fans are split. He is one fan with a very blinkered view.

On 25/08/2023 at 10:08, Davefevs said:

I guess every team’s aim is to get promoted.

Then comes a set of expectations / targets / measures of achievement.

Im not saying it’s anywhere near as basic as this, or that these are the right categories, but if I put it into our job type objectives:

Autos - top performer 

POs - exceeded expectations

Top 10 - above 

Top 14 - met

Top 18 - below

Below - did not meet

if this was Nige’s appraisal, I think below 14th starts to get Steve twitchy.

Of course, these objectives should be multiple, inc things like financial performance too, e.g. did he stick to the wage bill, did he generate transfer revenue.

If it truly was just league position driving Nige’s position, then I think we’d see different decisions made on selling Alex, or the tightness of the wage budget.

 

@Davefevssounds like you’ve been through that appraisal system before….

It’s been a good season. Feels like a lot of the much needed spring cleaning behind the scenes has taken place and we have a good platform to move forward from.
 

Our lowest moment away at Birmingham (IMO) was a turning point. It gave NP real clarity on what changes were needed with key personnel. 

Expectations need to be managed in terms of what we can achieve. Can lower league signings be coached/developed to be better than the likes of De Silva/Kalas? Only time will tell and determine whether we can be a top 10 team. 

Fans have been very good throughout and have recognised the transition the club is going through.

1 hour ago, maxjak said:

To tell u the truth...........i would walk across the country carrying all  my belongings, and willingly abandon my family........for the chance and privilege to be paid to play professional football..Ha!

I would as well. It’s just when I get booed for walking on the pitch, it’s going to impact my confidence 

I like Cornick and the fact a number of fans don’t like him (don’t know why) makes me like him more.

It’s not like we’ve paid £10m for HC. He’s a good versatile championship player. We paid £2.5 m for Gustav Engvall and c.£3m for Palmer yet HC already is the boo boy as he played for Luton…..
 

Fan expectations are so unrealistic. Can you imagine moving jobs across the country and moving your family with new colleagues and expecting to perform at the same level. He is a footballer of course so all bets are off…

8 hours ago, Robbored said:

SL had given license to improve the club in anticipation that he’d get City into the PL….Sadly that never happened and SL told LJ that he wanted to see improved league positions season on season.
In many way LJ made a rod for his own back by gradually improving league placing but when it became mathematically impossible for City finish above 8th SL ran out of patience and sacked him - many fans had wanted LJ gone long before the axe finally fell but SL has resisted those calls.

Then we had the procrastination of appointing a new manager lasting weeks and weeks before the inexperienced DH was appointed and we all know how that ended…….

However…..every cloud has a silver lining and within just a few hours Nige was appointed and he not only kept City up but offloaded much of the dead wood.

We had a proper manager at long last and he’s rebuilt the squad and developed a positive culture throughout the club - an essential ingredient towards taking the club forward.

Building on this point LJ had funds to back the playoff push. Think we spent as much on Gustav Engvalls transfer fee as Nige has in his tenure to date.

11 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

I really want him to do well, but I'm really struggling with what Cornick adds to the team.
His touch isn't great, when he closes he looks like he's doing it without a plan. Even ignoring the open goal miss he looks clumsy and directionless at times. I really hope he has a good Pre-Season that makes him more confident and effective. 
 

Missed a sitter today but judge him after a pre season IMO