Liam Manning - CONFIRMED NEW HEAD COACH

[RedorDead BCFC]

3 hours ago, One Team said:

Ian Gay said on FBC that his “impeccable source” says the appointment is “someone the fans will get really excited about”. 

That surely rules out Manning, and most of the bookies list?

He tweeted that he rates Manning though. 

[One Team]

1 minute ago, Supersonic Robin said:

Unfortunately, I think this is pretty spot on.

It's no coincidence that Pearson's sacking came at the exact moment of our lowest ebb.

I have no doubt that the narrative from those who dislike Pearson will be "Pearson had Bristol City in 15th. In spite of the woeful Pearson, new manager X has managed to drag Bristol City up to a 12th placed finished - higher than Nige managed in 3 seasons! Clearly City should have sacked Pearson much sooner."

(Jon Lansdown, Ryan Dilks, Mark Carter - we're looking at you)

Indeed forgetting how a couple of weeks prior we were 5th.

[BrizzleRed]

18 minutes ago, italian dave said:

You/we can judge the Board and the owners all you want. But in terms of what happens on the pitch, they won’t be the ones that carry the can at the end of the day. Right or wrong. Fair or unfair, 

In normal situations I’d agree, but I think we’ll see the Lansdowns takiing the full wrath of the fans if this all goes tits up, due to their actions last week.

[One Team]

1 minute ago, RedorDead BCFC said:

He tweeted that he rates Manning though. 

Anything Ian Gay rates I am concerned about! 

[Chrizzler]

2 minutes ago, RedorDead BCFC said:

He tweeted that he rates Manning though. 

He does rate Manning but to be fair, I think his "sources" have told him that it's someone the fans will be excited about but not who it actually is. 

[bcfc01]

2 minutes ago, One Team said:

Anything Ian Gay rates I am concerned about! 

He'll have changed his mind by now.

And his impeccable source was probably Brian Tinnion on twitter.

[A Darkwood Red]

17 minutes ago, BrizzleRed said:

Tbh, the comments I’ve seen are that they’ll be judging the board and owners by results in the coming months, not the HC and their team.  This seems perfectly reasonable, as they’re the ones who binned Nige and his team.

Very gradual improvement year on year, considering the shitshow he inherited seems like a great performance to me.  Just staying in the Championship whilst all the upheaval was going on was no mean feat.  It isn’t just about league position though and he’s transformed the work ethic and culture at the club and made us into a professional outfit at long last.

If you’re happy to see all that being potentially ripped up then that’s up to you, but there are many who are looking far beyond just league position and at the bigger picture.

 

All very valid points and maybe I'm not quite articulating my view properly. Largely I suspect because I always look for the central position, trying to look at both sides rather than jumping all in on one side or the other.

Pearson has done a great job under very difficult circumstances and made progress as you point out. Also given that we could all see due to the financial situation we found ourselves in, to keep him to the 3-year plan when we were as a club 18 to 2 years behind was ridiculous.

My point is over the last couple of months his position was becoming increasingly untenable. It might not have been necessarily for footballing reasons mainly but once you lose the relationship with the board and owner then there was only going to be one winner. Its just unfortunately, for everyone else, we feel like we have lost out.

Pearsons not stupid and once he could see the writing was on the wall he was very clever with his messaging, whereas, let's be fair, considering there's a large PR dept within BS, messaging from the board has never great or clever.

Do the club have to get the next appointment right? Of course they do but that's true every time there's a change. 

As I've said elsewhere, what I want more than anything would be some exciting, entertaining football at home instead of the frankly mediocre stuff we've had to put up with over the last 5/6 seasons. And I understand why it's been like that under Pearson, young fast forwards, why wouldn't you setup to counterattack and pick up unexpected points away from home? It's just boring at home when your opposition has more of the ball but that started to evolve a little even it was slow and sometimes a little pained. Here's hoping whoever's next can build on that because not matter much many of us might have wanted it, it wasn't going to happen for Nigel.

[Davefevs]

10 minutes ago, robinforlife2 said:

Manning doesn’t want the job. Only reason radio Bristol put a piece out the club were considering manning was to try and publicly turn his head. The problem City have with their so called shortlist, is none of them want the job. 
hence lansdown saying the message wasn’t understood ! 
there are people who want the job, and there are people who City like, who aren’t interested. 

For info, BBCRB didn’t put out a piece to turn his head, it was Radio Oxford interviewing him post-match, and BBCRB just played that back to us.

[The Bard]

21 minutes ago, lenred said:

I’m not pro or anti Manning but if he genuinely doesn’t want it I’d be surprised, very surprised. Maybe he thinks he can get a top 6 champ club but that’s a big gamble for a league 1 manager with a sketchy record. Doing well at the moment but how long will that moment last?   Fair play to him for backing himself if true I guess.  
 

Also if he doesn’t want it why didn’t he just say so when asked? 

Maybe he's looked at what's happened and thought wrong club.

 

Understandable 

[cityred2000]

1 minute ago, Davefevs said:

For info, BBCRB didn’t put out a piece to turn his head, it was Radio Oxford interviewing him post-match, and BBCRB just played that back to us.

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by cityred2000

[mozo]

1 minute ago, Davefevs said:

For info, BBCRB didn’t put out a piece to turn his head, it was Radio Oxford interviewing him post-match, and BBCRB just played that back to us.

Wasn't there a link prior to that interview? Maybe a day or two?

[chowie]

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

For info, BBCRB didn’t put out a piece to turn his head, it was Radio Oxford interviewing him post-match, and BBCRB just played that back to us.

 

Just now, mozo said:

Wasn't there a link prior to that interview? Maybe a day or two?

Yeah, Bristol Live, I think he meant to say Bristol Live

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/bristol-city-liam-manning-oxford-8879752

[RUSSEL85]

“It’s just another Manning Monday”  

[NewquayRed]

Are we there yet ?

 

[Randy Marsh II]

Nothing screams promotion to the Premier League like a Championship novice.

He might turn out to be good, who knows, unlikely under this board - but it's not the appointment the board have been suggesting as impressive, or whatever their words were

Edited November 6, 2023 by Randy Marsh II

[MarcusX]

51 minutes ago, BrizzleRed said:

Tbh, the comments I’ve seen are that they’ll be judging the board and owners by results in the coming months, not the HC and their team.  This seems perfectly reasonable, as they’re the ones who binned Nige and his team.

Very gradual improvement year on year, considering the shitshow he inherited seems like a great performance to me.  Just staying in the Championship whilst all the upheaval was going on was no mean feat.  It isn’t just about league position though and he’s transformed the work ethic and culture at the club and made us into a professional outfit at long last.

If you’re happy to see all that being potentially ripped up then that’s up to you, but there are many who are looking far beyond just league position and at the bigger picture.

 

I think if a new manager comes in now and we're still ticking along in and around mid-table in 2-3 years with no sign of progression then the board will be seen to have failed.

They've set the new man up for some pressure with their comments about what they expect, and felt they weren't getting from Pearson

[Spud21]

I find it amusing that people on here are quick to say Manning is underwhelming and not a good appointment as he got sacked from MK Dons completely ignoring the context around what happened, yet in almost the same breath will reject arguments that Pearson did a poor job because he barely improved us in his time here, pointing out the context of the job he has done. You can't have it both ways, either only results and league table position matter by which Pearson has not done a great job and Manning failed miserably at MK.

Or context is everything and Pearson did a bloody good job and Manning lost basically his whole team and thus the league position was pretty poor. 

I think it would be a case of right man, wrong time for a Manning or Williams now (another reason the sacking of Pearson annoys me so much.) with the timing and the statements they have backed themselves into a corner where you almost have to go for a "safe" proven option as it puts massive pressure on whoever comes in to be an immediate success, whereas a more considered approach to keep Nige and if we are not in or around the top 6 in Feb you can announce that the man has done a fantastic job but will not be retained beyone the end of his contract, and then you can bring in someone to tweak the style a bit and have time to implement then looking to kick on. 

 

[lenred]

9 minutes ago, The Bard said:

Maybe he's looked at what's happened and thought wrong club.

 

Understandable 

Indeed - agreed with Mozo on that possibility above. 

[Andy082005]

so it’s Liam Manning then 

Underwhelming or what . 
 

More verbal diarrhoea from the John Clownsdown when he talked it up the other day 

[Merrick's Marvels]

9 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Ah sure but medium term.

Age or ability/availability thing?

Both. What's he got left - 18 months?

Time for some forward planning - a complete midfield rebuild for me in the summer, for starters. 

[cityred2000]

Bristol Live reporting there's been contact between City & Oxford RE Manning

[BrizzleRed]

4 minutes ago, A Darkwood Red said:

All very valid points and maybe I'm not quite articulating my view properly. Largely I suspect because I always look for the central position, trying to look at both sides rather than jumping all in on one side or the other.

Pearson has done a great job under very difficult circumstances and made progress as you point out. Also given that we could all see due to the financial situation we found ourselves in, to keep him to the 3-year plan when we were as a club 18 to 2 years behind was ridiculous.

My point is over the last couple of months his position was becoming increasingly untenable. It might not have been necessarily for footballing reasons mainly but once you lose the relationship with the board and owner then there was only going to be one winner. Its just unfortunately, for everyone else, we feel like we have lost out.

Pearsons not stupid and once he could see the writing was on the wall he was very clever with his messaging, whereas, let's be fair, considering there's a large PR dept within BS, messaging from the board has never great or clever.

Do the club have to get the next appointment right? Of course they do but that's true every time there's a change. 

As I've said elsewhere, what I want more than anything would be some exciting, entertaining football at home instead of the frankly mediocre stuff we've had to put up with over the last 5/6 seasons. And I understand why it's been like that under Pearson, young fast forwards, why wouldn't you setup to counterattack and pick up unexpected points away from home? It's just boring at home when your opposition has more of the ball but that started to evolve a little even it was slow and sometimes a little pained. Here's hoping whoever's next can build on that because not matter much many of us might have wanted it, it wasn't going to happen for Nigel.

Cheers and now see what you’re getting at and points well put

Yes, the relationship was clearly breaking down between NP and the Lansdowns and there was only one way that was going to end, though I’d have preferred to see the departure of the Lansdowns tbh

I honestly believe if Nige had been given even a modest percentage of Scott’s transfer fee, we could have seen a marked improvement in our attacking style, as he was obviously well aware of what we needed.   We really have been crippled by injuries too, which clearly haven’t helped.

Whoever comes in will certainly have a very solid base to build on for sure, but we definitely need to add some creativity and that won’t come cheap.

[Jose]

Exciting 

[mozo]

10 minutes ago, MarcusX said:

I think if a new manager comes in now and we're still ticking along in and around mid-table in 2-3 years with no sign of progression then the board will be seen to have failed.

They've set the new man up for some pressure with their comments about what they expect, and felt they weren't getting from Pearson

Well, we've been told that the squad is already strong enough for promotion, so if we give the new manager this season to bed in, he should be expected to get us promoted, or damn close, in the 2024-25 season. So really, if we're mid table in 12-14 months, it's already a problem.

[MarcusX]

28 minutes ago, Supersonic Robin said:

Unfortunately, I think this is pretty spot on.

It's no coincidence that Pearson's sacking came at the exact moment of our lowest ebb.

I have no doubt that the narrative from those who dislike Pearson will be "Pearson had Bristol City in 15th. In spite of the woeful Pearson, new manager X has managed to drag Bristol City up to a 12th placed finished - higher than Nige managed in 3 seasons! Clearly City should have sacked Pearson much sooner."

(Jon Lansdown, Ryan Dilks, Mark Carter - we're looking at you)

And just before we were due to play the bottom two sides, and very likely pick up points regardless of who was in charge - as it's not like we needed the "new manager bounce" as Pearson hadn't lost the dressing room so to speak.

We'd have likely looked in a half decent position after these next 2 weeks whoever was in charge.

[jbcfc]

this is happening, right? i have money on it 

[Lew-T]

3 minutes ago, cityred2000 said:

Bristol Live reporting there's been contact between City & Oxford RE Manning

Yep, it’s gonna be Manning isn’t it.

But just not today.

[MarcusX]

1 minute ago, mozo said:

Well, we've been told that the squad is already strong enough for promotion, so if we give the new manager this season to bed in, he should be expected to get us promoted, or damn close, in the 2024-25 season. So really, if we're mid table in 12-14 months, it's already a problem.

I agree, I think @Harry said what I was trying to say but more clearly. The pressure is on the board not the new man necessarily

[Ian M]

Whilst I’d still rather we had Pearson, of the sort of candidates that would potentially be available to Bristol City, I do like Manning.
If I’m not mistaken, he was identified and became part of the CFG group of clubs and they absolutely do have an identity across their many clubs and that style of football is exciting.

Manning may not (yet) be a “name” to get excited about but I dare say his football might be.

[mozo]

2 minutes ago, MarcusX said:

And just before we were due to play the bottom two sides, and very likely pick up points regardless of who was in charge - as it's not like we needed the "new manager bounce" as Pearson hadn't lost the dressing room so to speak.

We'd have likely looked in a half decent position after these next 2 weeks whoever was in charge.

Yeah, if Nige had been given these two games and won them, which is likely given he'd have key players returning to fitness, then he'd have 12 points from 7 games and probably be around 9th. 

They really stitches him up.