Numero Uno

What Owers understands is how to conduct himself on a professional football pitch. Something Liam Manning has never had the opportunity to accomplish. He also watches pretty much every game we play and if he's seeing players playing without a bit of fire in their belly in the name of "controlling their emotions" he will spot it a lot earlier than you or I do.

He wrote a very decent article in the post earlier. He gets it but clearly has to be a bit careful in how far he goes in print.

He's picked someone to go in cohorts with who would be literally unable to keep his mouth shut if you told him to.

How the hell can Steve allow Ian Gay's source to peddle this stuff into the open? Not to mention undisclosed transfer fees and the like. Are they hoping that Manning gets wind of it and pisses off?

That's the bit I don't understand. It seems that taking defensive digs at a section of the fanbase is either the default (i.e. Tinnion last week) or something BS enjoys which I don't understand for the life of me. If they get it wrong next season that will bite them very firmly on the arse imo. Take Swiss, one thing I will say about the bloke is he was bombproof and as a result just carried on in his own way without antagonising people directly despite being fully aware of what his fan perception would have been. That's why he's moved on up the food chain and we are stagnating at best.

The question that nobody seems to give a sensible answer to which I have asked a couple of times is "how did we get from 35 points in 24 games and sitting relatively pretty to 47 points in 38 and looking over our shoulders?". It completely destroys the theory of "what can he be expected to do with these players?". "These players" were doing more than alright by the time January 1st came round and now they've fallen off a cliff. Why? Another argument is "look at the cup games, we only got beat once in four by Premier League opposition". Ok then, notwithstanding half the West Ham first team were missing, given it's the same players who some say aren't any good why is there such a marked difference between those performances and league matches? The only mitigating factor that really stands out is Twine getting injured after we loaned Weimann to West Brom (as none of the "Nige Out" Fan Club have been able to think of that one I'll give it to them for free!!). That doesn't fully explain by any means though. The rest of the injuries are certainly nothing more than anything Nige had to put up with, in fact you might argue Binary Boy has had it easier most of the time. For a start, his Goalkeeper and two centre halves have barely missed a game, McCrorie has compensated for Tanner, Roberts for Pring, King has also come back into the fold, Wells is back. He hasn't had to play wet behind the ears kids out of necessity. Why is it that as soon as he's got the lads out on the grass the goals have dried right up? Is it because he admitted to concentrating on defensive shape when his team have the joint 5th best defensive record in the division and joint fifth lowest goalscoring record? That makes complete sense and certainly explains our struggles to score a goal or even look like it for the most part. It tells me that Binary Ball is what we will be served up on a regular basis if he stays, not front foot, unless he can show us otherwise in the remaining eight games.

Not a chance but I reckon he could win us a game in our last five if Liam loses the next three and gets fired.

Totally agree BUT from a position of 35 points from 24 games how did it even get to this position?!! It would take a repeat of Mannings worst run since he's been here (3 points from 8 games) to see us even get close to the drop from here imo. In simple terms that would still require Sheffield Wednesday to get a four wins and a draw in five of their last eight, Huddersfield and Birmingham to win half their remaining games plus QPR, Plymouth and Stoke to get three wins and a draw in half their remaining games. Blackburn would also need three wins or two wins and three draws from eight. You would have to expect that at least two of those will fall short on that, simply based on their record so far. If that was on the cards (e.g. we lose the next three and the wheels are coming off) he will be fired before then anyway. If that happened I would back Andy King to win one game out of the last five with three at home. The one way I see us in genuine trouble is if we fail to win another game this season (and lose at least 6 of them).

If Nige stole a wage I couldn't even begin to contemplate what Binary Boy is doing right now. He's stolen the emotion and the enjoyment out of everyone's Saturday afternoon I suppose?

Just enough to relegate Luton.

Exactly, reset just as they approaching the issue area and get it back to the server.

I suspect 9-10k will renew quickly with a few thousand waiting and the rest not bothering. Two caveats, a calamitous run in and genuine relegation threat could severely reduce numbers and the opposite may persuade some who are not planning to renew take the plunge again. If I had to guess we will sell circa 13k overall if neither of the above occurs.

That’s only because the E-mails have lost confidence though.

Somebody will be getting a good telling off.

Exactly the same for me. If I have an Over 50's game on a Sunday that clashes with a City game then City come second, simple as that. My gut feel, as I've said before is that many will wait until late but ultimately renew and we'll be hundreds down rather than thousands.......unless the worst is yet to come THIS SEASON (I don't see that happening though) and then they really will be thousands down, a number of thousands down.

As far as I'm concerned his own actions have proven (to me anyway) beyond all reasonable doubt that he has been grossly over-promoted to his current role. As a result, yes, I want to see him relieved of those duties. I don't know whether he has a mortgage or not, in terms of whether he should be running the football operation of the club I buy a season ticket for, that really isn't a concern of mine tbf. In the same way that when the club increase season ticket prices nobody rings fans up asking whether they have a mortgage and what effect a season ticket price hike will have on that.

Our lads were on the piss Saturday evening and the manager of the football operation at the club is................apart from stabbing a couple in the back then picking his own man who is boring most of the fanbase who pay to watch his shite into submission, what has this "ruthless" bloke actually achieved ABOVE academy level?

They can bullshit all they like, they will know what is actually happening. It might be that we DO have 10K that will unconditionally buy a season ticket as soon as possible. If so then fine, won't be changing my stance on account of it though.

Five weeks of holding back just MIGHT result in one or two changes that are required.......if enough do it.

Same, although if we do get to April 23rd, have lost however many it is in a row and were right in a relegation scrap (very unlikely but you can't put anything past Binary Boy) I would wait and see even if it means paying a bit more. No way would I watch League 1 football under Tinnion and Jon's leadership, not a chance. Otherwise It's last minute renewal for me. I am more than happy to go and watch WSM to be fair if things deteriorate further.

To be fair I think @Bat Fastard is consistent in defending Tinnion more than anything. I don't agree but it is subjective to a degree and that's what forums are for. Liam Manning is a piece of cake to judge - you just look at our record before and our record since and that's enough for many - all the subjective stuff like the performance standards does is add jam. As for Jon Lansdown, he is the Chairman and if he wasn't the Owner's Son we would all be calling for his head. But he IS the Owner's Son and therefore we don't have that luxury so we can only judge Tinnion and Manning on it in reality. I must admit, as childish as you think it might be, I'm enjoying observing the absolute desperation of the "Nige Out" lot, and that includes the Evening Post/Radio Bristol club fanboy, who are now advising me that judging results and the patently pitiful number of goals scored since Boxing Day (three months ago more or less) is "Cherry Picking". Oh, and a squad that had 35 points after 24 games was always useless so how could he possibly avoid the absolutely nailed on relegation form since? It's great to see you lot squirming now cos your ridiculous impatience, that was taken by the idiots upstairs as validation and vindication of their decision to sack Nige, 100% started this whole chain of events (that has turned into a royal **** up) right off. Your "progressive young new boy coaching thing" is really ruining things for you - to the point where Steve is now starting to consider whether he needs to intervene - it's gotta hurt!!

Won't be just us either. This TV deal could end up hurting attendances at Championship football far more than they could have imagined.

This is the message the club understands. At the moment they cling on to "Mothers Day" as the reason but if repeated after Leicester they will know they have a genuine problem with fans (that they have cultivated and perpetuated with their recent press releases). Someone at BS might think it's all a good old laugh at the moment.........whether Steve ends up seeing that way is another matter.

Take off 1000-1500 away fans off that and the numbers will be terrible. The only way Rotherham gets even a semi-respectable turnout is if we end up being so bad up to that point that we genuinely NEED the points!! Could literally be 11-12K in there for that one if there's nothing to play for. In fact if Manning is still in-situ it might be less than that because some will take the view "what other way of protest is there?".

I genuinely believe that whilst 20K attendances will be announced footfall, unless we put a run together, will be dreadful for the last three home games. Easily on a par with Swansea without the away fans there to pad out the numbers.