Harry

Ha ha. I’ve made my feelings on Manning quite clear and I don’t want him here any more - with immediate effect. But he’s not to blame for everything that is wrong with this club and he’s not to blame for the fact there are more established strikers ahead of Conway in the Scotland squad. I’m sure if you could find a tenuous link that you’d blame Manning for the crisis in Gaza.

Are there any versions out there with a picture of career criminal George Floyd replacing the 3 Lions? You know, just playfully, like!

Shankland is in top form in the SPL this season and is the current ‘pick’. Tommy would have had to be simply outstanding to oust him from the squad and if he did I’d guess there’d be uproar amongst the majority of the Scottish fans (who basically know Shankland but prob don’t really ‘know’ Conway). And Dykes, even if we think he’s crap, has started all but 2 of Scotlands games in the last 18 months and therefore been an integral part of the team that’s got them to where they are. I’d be amazed if Tommy gets in ahead of any of those, even if he’d scored 20 goals this season (which he never would have done under Nige either anyway!)

So he’s ahead of Tommy then - who hasn’t made a squad at all yet.

I’m surprised they didn’t put the Ukraine flag on it!

Still no answer to the very simple question : Even, hypothetically, if Pearson had still been here and Tommy had scored another 5-10 goals, which player out of Adams, Dykes and Shankland would he replace?

How have his chances reduced when it’s quite clear from that quote that he’s on their radar but not yet ready They know him from the 21s and know what he can do. How have his chances reduced? If anything, that West Ham goal (under Manning) has raised his profile!

But that “high profile” goal was scored under Manning?? How many more goals do you think would have been required to get him 3 or 4 levels up the pecking order?

Who’s saying anything about chance conversion rate. I’m not talking about half chances and scraps. I’m talking about 5 one v ones. Yes I wouldn’t expect anyone to score 100% of one v ones but it was certainly within Tommy’s gift to secure at least 3 or 4 more goals from these clear cut chances. Again I’ll ask you : which one of Adams, Dykes and Shankland was he due to replace had Pearson still been in charge and he’d scored 5 extra goals?

Ok. So which one of Adams, Dykes and Shankland does he replace?

Good lord! I’ve never read such hyperbolic tripe!! Yes, he may well score 15-20 goals for Cov. But that still wouldn’t have risen him from 6th or 7th choice to 3rd choice. He could already have 12 goals had he buried his one v one chances. And just because he may score 15-20 for Coventry has no relevance to how many he’d score for us. Under both managers we’ve had this season, we wouldn’t score as many goals as Coventry. So if you’re to blame Manning for a lack of goals then Pearson is as equally responsible, as would be Tinnion and the recruitment team for putting together a squad that can only play one way and lacks firepower. If Conway was good enough for the Scotland squad he’d have been called up. Truth is, whichever manager we have here, Tommy is not quite at that level yet and there are 5 or 6 players ahead of him for that squad.

I don’t get this blame on Manning to be honest. Tommy has 7 goals. You’ve said that 12 would have him in contention. He’s missed 5 one v ones under Manning. If he buries those he has his 12 goals. He is responsible for his own dip in form. He’s had the chances but hasn’t stuck them away.

Sorry. Wasn’t meant to do any disservice to Skubala. Just that he’s clearly getting the best out of his players, but he’s got a couple of bloody good ones for that level. And if you can get the best out of the better players you’ll always stand a chance. They’ve hit some lightning form of late. The addition of Moylan has been hugely influential in this.

You mention again about “if he was tearing it up”. But what exactly do you mean by “tearing it up”? Are you talking 25 goals and 10 assists? 20 goals? 15 goals? What constitutes “tearing it up” that would have been sufficient enough for him to be in the reckoning?

I’d note that in most of those clips it features Jack Moylan and Joe Taylor. Two very good players for that level. Sometimes it’s just all about the players and their own capabilities / desire

So, had he scored 12 in the league so far rather than 7, would that have been enough to get him 3 places up the pecking order and selected for Scotland? Personally, I doubt it. If he’d scored 20 so far this season then the prospects may look different. But he was never gonna do that whichever manager was in charge. So I don’t think we can blame Manning for him missing out. He was highly unlikely to be selected anyway, barring injury to 3 others or an absolute blinder of a season himself.

When you say “tearing it up”, what exactly do you mean? If we look at Conway’s goals to games/minutes ratio pre and post Manning, since the start of last season, we might have expected him to have scored around 1.5 more goals so far under Manning. Given he’s missed 5 one on ones, those extra 1.5 goals have been very much within his gift. When you say tearing it up, do you mean: A) same level of scoring form as demonstrated over the prior 18 months = 1 or 2 extra goals or B) should we have expected 20 goals this season?

I’m not a Manning fan, but I don’t think we can blame him for Conway not being in the Scotland squad. He’s 21. He’s only had a handful of call ups to the u21’s. He’s got established players such as Adams, Dykes and Shankland in front of him. He’s also got a slightly more established and experienced Nisbet in front of him plus Brown who is playing Prem football. At best he’s 6th choice. Even if he’d scored his 4 or 5 one on ones he’s had since Manning came in, he’d still be 6th choice. ps - he has to get in above Medube too

I’m absolutely amazed to think that, when I first started going to games, Ivor would have already been age 65 and retired!! What an age! Fair play to him. And a great rendition of Red Red Robin too. Brilliant.

I always imagined we’d sing “wake up wake up you City heads………. cheer up cheer up and cheer on the reds”

None of it. That’s what’s so sad about the whole situation. We’re soooooo far down crap alley that people would be happy with a bloke who is as hated amongst our fanbase as Holloway! What a sad sad sorry sorry state we’ve got ourselves in. And with no sign of recovery ahead.

It would never work. Warnock has been a success in the past because of how he does things. He does it HIS way. We won’t tolerate that. Neil : I want to sign Sol Bamba, Paddy Kenny & Shaun Derry. Brian : Sorry Neil, that’s not the way it works. We have a list of players that we’ve targeted through our world class analyst department and you get to choose from the top 3 list we provide to you. Neil : But they won’t be able to play the way I want to. Brian : What is it you want to do? Neil : I want to play direct and ugly football and make sure my players are total shithousers and get under everyone’s skin. I want us to be horrible to play against. It won’t be pretty but it can be effective. Brian : I’m sorry Neil, that’s not how we do things around here. Neil : Well, best of luck with that then, you fools.

To be fair mate, I was quite surprised by both sides. Sutton had a very young mob of about 40 or 50 (about 35 of which didn’t really want to be involved and were just there for the numbers. FGR had a few lads who fronted them up. It wasn’t anything but some very unfashionable handbags in the end. All rather amusing though.

Don’t we have Leicester at home that day? means I can’t do both

We keep hearing Liam Nothing (sorry Manning) say how he’s always trying to make sure the players take the emotion out of the game. I don’t like this approach. Emotion is part of football. Sometimes it can affect you poorly but in my experience it can also have as much of a positive effect than a negative one. I actually WANT to see my team playing WITH emotion. Not without it. I’ve really had enough of this bloke. We also hear him say “at half time we spoke about how we might think about how to engage higher”. No no no!! It’s your effing job to TELL them how to engage higher. Not have a polite feckin conversation about it. Enough. Honestly.