Lorenzos Only Goal

I tend to support players more so in the PL though I hate Chelsea marginally less than Utd at the moment.  Cole is a good player but I think he stands out in a fairly disorganised Chelsea side.

That being said he should be way ahead of Gallagher in the England setup.

14 hours ago, Topper 123 said:

These moaners , the anti manning mob need to take a look at Luton manager rob Edwards who was manager at FGR then went to Watford they SACKED him after 4 months he then made them look silly by taking a less fancied team to the PREM -LUTON TOWN 

Stick to enjoy the rest of the season.  Rob Edwards and Liam Manning could not be further apart in styles and pedigree; apart from Rob Edwards having had an extensive playing career under multiple decent managers, his team is more akin to Pearsons than Mannings. Luton focuses on using the ball well when they have it, utilising speed, aggression and intensity when they have the ball, versus us trying to retain possession and play from the back retaining possession.  To get from A -> B with Manning will take a rebuild and will take some time with a busy transfer market (it might work, but if it doesn't, it sets us back years), and the only thing that's changed in recent results is Matty James coming back into the side; not much has changed on the Manning end.  And I think that worries people: the results are masking the problems.  

14 hours ago, Harry said:

Let’s write off a 19 year old, shall we. 
 

Do you know what Conway was doing at the same age. He’s just come off of a loan at Bath City and was making an odd appearance here and there for us. 
Sam Bell at the same age had just come off of a loan at Grimsby. 
Let’s even go as far as Vyner. At the same age he was on loan at Accrington. 
I could go on. 
 

Some of the comments seem to suggest the kid can’t even play football and is some sort of competition winner! 
Somewhat disrespectful that chaps. 

I’m not gonna get caught up in any hype, but you don’t get voted Man City’s academy player of the year if you are shit. Nor do you get called up to national teams age groups 16’s, 19’s and 21’s. 
He actually has the same amount of Scotland u21 goals as Conway. And he’s 2 years younger. 
 

But yeah, let’s write him off because we’ve seen him play 40 minutes of football as a late substitute in a struggling team. 
 

Yeah ok. 

I'm sure he's got potential at some point, I think the problem is he's come in as a loan to bolster the squad.  Development wise he might be ahead of Bell and Conway at the same age but not Tammy for example which is what I think people expect when the club loan in a ex Man City player.  If his loan was with a view to taking him in the summer and developing him the club could communicate that better.  But I get the feeling they've just signed a raw kid at the wrong time, might even have damaged him.

36 minutes ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

That Man C team is finished. Been saying it for a while, thrilled that Keane referred to Haaland as a league two player, reminds me of the ex Luton striker Steve Howard! Touch and overall play is dire to watch, massively overrated, KDB also looks past his sell-by date. Think they need some new creative players. Arsenal are the future and can see them dominating for years. 

FML Keane is a nob and that's a United slanted view.

13 hours ago, Harry said:

Must have been really great tactical planning for the opposition. 
They had an XG of 1.9. 
That’s higher than in 22 other games Leicester played this season. So we didn’t exactly ‘keep them quiet’ due to some tactical master plan. 
22 other teams have limited them to less chances. 
And you very easily gloss over the Vardy chances. 
We could easily have lost that 3-1 had he tucked away those. 
 

It was a good win. But let’s not get carried away. We got lucky. 

Max mad some phenomenal saves.  

26 minutes ago, MarcusX said:

Didn’t James say yesterday he wants to stay? Or did I mishear that?

He did, he'd also be a lunatic not to be hedging his bets as he's been offered nothing.

I'm not interested until he says its been my biggest honour to be Bristol City manager, but I've been offered the job of getting some other poor bastard relegated while I churn out words that sound interesting.

What do you mean, he was asked about his contract and on a number of occasions said there had been nothing.  That's poor on the clubs part, poor and rings alarm bells that there is going to be a clear out in the summer.

And the Manning interview why's he sending Bell home to analyse teams?  

On 16/03/2024 at 20:59, The Humble Realist said:

Am I alone in thinking I'm in the silent majority that are pretty fed up with the current situation, unhappy at how the Pearson situation was handled BUT completely willing to wait til next season to judge manning (where he WILL be judged from game 1 onwards)?

Theres a lot of noise about manning out etc but do most fans feel like me ?

Not looking to knock anyones opinion (2024 has been dreadful and masked from looking even worse by the FA cup), just sometimes the loudest voices portray a larger sentiment than the reality. 

 

I think the majority are worried about what will happen if Manning is still here at the end of the season. We will lose Tommy, for one, sure, and how many others will disengage from the academy?  I'm not sure what the point of putting Jed Meerholz on the bench was; he could have let the kid have a cameo. Now that I am sure the season is over, relegation is not on the cards unless we fail to take any points between now and the end of the season.   I'd like to see the loans sidelined (Yes, Twine, I don't think he's terrible, but unless we sign him, we'll be playing against him next season) and academy players at least reassured that there is still a pathway. 

10 hours ago, Mendip City said:

The Huddersfield home game is on the exact two month anniversary of the Southampton win…. I’m expecting a celebratory kit, players doing a pre-match lap of honour/open top bus tour, marching bands, sky-divers, special commemorative programme (yours for only £27.95) and limited edition O’Neills badly fitting underpants complete with the incorrect scoreline 3-0 printed on each cheek.  
 

Seriously, if he keeps doing it, I’d love it if the interviewer immediately butted in and added “swiftly followed by QPR, Wednesday and Cardiff no-shows”. I reckon he’d have a SOD “stupid question” breakdown.  

https://i.makeagif.com/media/7-06-2015/vP1Gl5.gif

16 hours ago, White Stripe said:

How about if you were born in England, to your knowledge none of your grandparents were Welsh but 5% of your DNA is Welsh? Can you play for Wales then?

Asking for a friend...

I used to donate blood to the Welsh Blood service to give some Welsh players the option of playing for England instead.

2 hours ago, redsquirrel said:

some on here will have a right laugh remembering 2024, luckily for me, i will be a dispersed box of ashes

There is a half-chance the worms will also be feasting on me. However, I'll be ripe to run for US president. 

18 hours ago, Redminer said:

I cannot see how he plays for BCFC. Unless I'm missing something he offers nothing. If he has time to think he never delivers, cannot head, cannot win a ball and passing in general is woeful. Today I watch in disbelief and the guys on the bench must think what have I done wrong to be behind him. I never like to single people out but I'm sorry I cannot see how he's stealing a living from us.......

I'm feeling a name change to "Harry's Scorned Girlfriend".  That being said he's been very hit and miss, no pun intended.

17 hours ago, formerly known as ivan said:

Another example of a player who has regressed under the Manning regime…

Couldn't have said it better.

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

As it stands Tommy will go for less than he’s worth this summer (my opinion).  LM has decreased his value as it stands.

And what is coming up behind of the magnitude of a £5m player through the academy…let alone £9m Semenyo and £20m Scott?

Suddenly if LM / BT want to invest in the playing squad it will have to be from trading, where the margins are hugely thinner.

There is a consequence / knock-on to not bringing through academy players.  You don’t even get to make an informed decision on them.  At least with Towler (especially) and Low, Nige and the staff got to see them “at the level”.  And we got a few quid and future sell-ons.

It is not a model you can pay lip-service too!  And I doubt SL is happy with that too!

Sadly I think you're right.  I'm very concerned about us bringing in loans that simply don't hit the ground running and displace academy products.  

16 hours ago, GrahamC said:

SOD really only got stick in League One after our relegation, which most thought was fairly inevitable with the situation he inherited, so later on in his time.

Large numbers can see Manning is making us worse & the football is turgid to have to endure.

With SOD at least there was some process, it just wasn't working quick enough and we were in danger of dropping again.  He was slowly turning a bad disjointed squad around, with Manning he's simply made a decent squad bad.

Offff

6 minutes ago, Norn Iron said:

Meanwhile ...

We need a pub!

 

 

That poor women only nipped out for some backy and a sixpack now shes all over the forums.

15 hours ago, Rocking Red Cyril said:

Yeah there seems enough chances to get enough pints there. But if we keep on this run surely BT and crayon boy have someone lined up for the keep us up crisis replacement manager. Or will they watch as we drop?

16 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

Very improbable?

Don't kid yourself, keep losing and we will be well and truly in the scrap to stay up. And those that have been in the bottom four or five all season will be well aware of how to fight for points. Whereas we've been comfortable in mid table all the season.

I honestly think it is a next-season problem (a win and a couple of draws, we will be fine), but that being said, mathematically, we could get relegated if his form gets markedly worse than it is (yes, it can), Manning's current form, if it rolls over into next season, puts us on about 52 points if it gets much worse puts us in the drop zone.

56 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Picking up on something @headhunter said on the pod re Ward, Benny etc and at times the need for help, particularly when adapting to a new level.

It’s now accepted that in a lot of ways Liam is struggling. Badly. In such a circumstance the “third way” can be to bring in someone from outside in order to assist. If you look at our managerial team (including Tinnion) there is nobody who has managed at this level successfully, or played above League One consistently. In short, there’s nobody who really, really knows the game and how it works.

So, on the assumption the board don’t want rid of Liam, would this be an acceptable third way? And who would it be (please don’t say Nige) - and most importantly of all, because I have my doubts, would Liam accept it?

I agree I think he does need a bigger backroom staff with more experience. 

2 hours ago, gary s said:

Mine was stolen but I've not reported it as they are spending less than the wife did 

It's  but still funny

"My wife's card on our joint account was stolen, but I've not reported it, as they are spending less than the wife did."

17 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I’ll happily go on the record and say I wasn’t one of them, because that’s not the way I work / rationalise.  I was happy to see how he went, and hopefully find he wasn’t a Russell Martin playing style theorist.

Bit it’s been quite easy to dissect his playing style.

He hasn’t been complete crap, but imho he’s not a good fit.  And I don’t think he ever will be unless HE CHANGES.  I don’t see that happening, and in some ways I get that.  But this is the championship.

Me too, I was livid and still am about Pearson's departure, but I was willing to give Manning the benefit of the doubt and compartmentalize the two issues.  The benefit of the doubt has been shown, and at this point, he's going to have us in a relegation scrap next season, he doesn't appear to have the experience or flexibility to adapt well at this level, all his rhetoric about stepping up boils my piss! He needs to step up, either pull in a more experienced assistant or adapt to the squad he has.

1 hour ago, REDOXO said:

It is clear we are not playing well to a point where we aren’t just plucky losers that aren’t having the ball run in their favor, but just bad!

One of the biggest issues with me right now is we have a manager that is openly saying that he can’t get the players to implement what he’s teaching them!

That I thinK is probably true on some level, but what concerns me is how do you motivate players (people) that you are making plain even in the media you don’t want. 
 

So I was thinking about when I was under threat of being made redundant and how I got myself up to work! 
 

How would people on here seriously be approaching the players (or employees) to get results under those circumstances? 

I think Manning motivates opponents better than our players.  Two weeks ago, I had Ipswich planted right in the playoffs if they were lucky; there were comparisons between Manning & McKenna being cut from the same cloth.  Now the bastards are on a run and second in the League, and McKenna will be using Mannings's "Why won't the players do what I tell them to do, sob!!" as motivation laughing his tits off at the constant iterations of "step up", "leaders on the pitch", "little moments of quality" and my personal favourite "taking responsibility"

How would I motivate the players? I would stop talking, and say something like its not acceptable and stop.  I'd let Tommy be Tommy and I'd stop over complicating it, wind it back a few games to what was going well. 

IF we don't sort our shit out there are enough games to leave us in the shit! Very improbable though. 

8 hours ago, Fordy62 said:

In my 35 years of supporting City never have I seen a manager set up to fail quite so badly by the top brass. I said it at the time of his appointment that he’d been dealt a poisoned chalice and it’s playing out exactly as I hoped it wouldn’t. 

So let’s try to remember that none of this is Manning’s fault. He took a lucrative job that none of would have turned down and none of us can blame him for taking. I’m sure he and his team are trying their very best.

Fortunately I lost my mojo for Bristol City when Nige was sacked. I saw it before with Cotterill and history has repeated itself. I say fortunately because I find myself really not caring too much about our games, how we’re performing etc. I find it sad I feel like this, but it helps eliminate the problem of the City result ruining your weekend - which I suspect is how many of you feel right now. 

But I suppose my main point is try not to get on Manning’s back. It’s not his fault. 

I’m grateful for the investment the Lansdowns have made, our new stadium is brilliant and we’re in a really good place off the pitch. But I think we’ve definitely run our course now, and with my very best wishes it’s time they sold up and left. And if they wouldn’t mind taking their mate Bri with them at the same time, that’d be ideal. They’re getting the comeuppance they deserve in spades. Completely out of their depth. 

I suppose you could sum up my feelings on them the same way they dealt with Nige. You feel the need to gamble on something new, yeh, it could well be worse, but it’s probably worth the gamble. 

He has been but its not removing from the fact his lack of experience and lack of ideas is costing us dear.  The raw Mebude thing vs our own raw Yeboah befuddles me are we paying a loan fee and wages for the kid, loans have to be able to hit the ground running if not, then you use your youth!