Liam Manning - CONFIRMED NEW HEAD COACH

[Nuno Gomes]

New York should be one of the most fertile areas in the world for the production of young football talent. It has more than enough young accessible football fans for that. 

But it has not been, and New York City FC are trying to change that. Claudio Reyna, the director of football operations, is working to boost grassroots access to football in New York, and to improve the NYCFC academy based in Orangeburg. They want the best young players from the New York area into the NYCFC first team. And now they need coaches to help get them there.

 

So NYCFC have plucked one of England’s best youth coaches out of the Premier League to get them there. Liam Manning was the Under-23 manager at West Ham United, effectively running their academy with Terry Westley. He was responsible for helping players like Reece Oxford, Grady Diangana and best of all Declan Rice into the first team. Manning was a crucial cog in one of the leading academies in the country, but he has decided to take on a very different challenge instead.

 

For Manning, it is a chance to be part of a youth programme that could help to change football in the US. “They have a huge pool of untapped players there,” Manning tells The Independent. “The challenge will be to make sure that they’re playing for NYCFC.”

At NYCFC this largely stems from Reyna, who recruited Manning. “He has a vision of where he wants to take the club,” Manning says. “He has such enthusiasm for the game and a passion for youth development. And with the salary cap there, there is an opportunity to have an impact and develop players.” 

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The goal for 33-year-old Manning and academy manager Sam Pugsley - who has a more operational role - is to develop the next generation of elite footballers from the New York area. But Manning’s targets are even higher than that. “I don’t just want to produce players for the first team,” he says. “I want to produce players who win things for the first team. For me that’s the biggest challenge.It was always the biggest challenge at West Ham. Can you get a Declan? It’s not just about getting one in the team, it’s about getting one in to improve the team, or play at the highest level. That should be any coach’s aim.”

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The example of Rice is instructive. He has been the biggest success at the West Ham academy during Manning’s time there. He arrived back in 2015, recruited from Ipswich Town by Terry Westley to be assistant academy manager, and head of coaching between under-17 and under-23 levels, known as the ‘senior professional development phase’.

 

This is what Rice went through at West Ham, arriving having been released by Chelsea at 14. Even at the under-16s Rice was the only one in his West Ham age group who only got a scholarship, rather than a three-year professional deal. But Manning believes that helped to instill the mentality in him that has since set him apart.

3

Manning has worked at West Ham since 2015

 (West Ham United via Getty Images)

“In terms of developing a drive, hunger and resilience to overcome challenges, I think that contributed,” Manning says. “Psychologically he is an A+. He’s a great kid with a great head on his shoulders.”

In Manning’s first year at West Ham, Rice was an under-17 and was involved with the youth team, but it was his next year, as an under-18, when he really broke through. “He was captain of our under-23 team and just outstanding every week. Just brilliant at the basics. Reading of the games. Clean in everything he did. He stood out every week, always an 8 or 9 out of 10. That year we won the play-off final to go up to the top division.”

3

Rice enjoyed a breakout season for West Ham

 (Action Images via Reuters)

So Rice’s success this season, starring in the Premier League and breaking into the England set-up, was no real surprise. And it was a credit to the environment he was in at West Ham. “He’s two steps ahead of everybody in his head,” Manning says. “He reads the game really well. That’s a psychological attribute but it’s pure concentration and focus. It’s predicting what is happening. You can only do that if you’re concentrating. He is outstanding at that.”

 

But even as young English players flourish, the reality for young English coaches is that opportunities are sparse. Especially as more Premier League clubs bring in coaches from abroad. Which encourages young coaches to make moves like this. “The biggest challenge is that I don’t see young English coaches getting the opportunity at top-end clubs,” he says. “There are some really, really good young English coaches coming through - Joe Edwards at Chelsea, Ryan Garry at Arsenal, Matt Wells at Fulham. But you get to that Under-23 rule at a Category 1 or Cat 2 club and you think where’s next? What’s my next challenge?”

[lenred]

2 minutes ago, supercidered said:

They did sack him. Apparently, because he had to sell his best 2 players then loads of posters on here think that is fine and dandy. Also apparently, not his fault that he couldn't Coach the remaining 23 players in to accumulating more tan just 15 points from over 20 games.

He must be bloody good at interviews.

If he was the man for the Top Team then I doubt he would’ve had to do one tbh.  

[Homer Simpson]

13 minutes ago, Ian M said:

If this is the appointment my reaction will be:

Phew, could have been worse.

 

Who's Phew managing at the moment?

[ReturnedRobin]

Big dose of realism required. If we accept NP is gone, we have to appoint a replacement. We can't hire another manager in his traditional managerial mould (i.e. Rowett, Jones, etc.). So the only way for the board to justify NP's exit is to pivot into a new route and then you're looking at Profile/Vanity appointment or New style/On-the-grass appointment.

Both seem a roll of dice. Neither will have consensus on here. And neither has a deep list containing candidates with either "proven track record with recent success" or "recent success with a proven track record" because as a Club we're not big enough to compete in those spheres.

So it's a case of sitting back and riding out the decision that's been made (accepting the NP thing is done, dusted and gone).

So if you look at the LM side of things his win record is pretty strong, especially when you consider there's a crappy 11 game period in that when he was sacked at MK Dons:

Context is also important in that he was sacked because his best players were sold and they had a slow start. Under the hood of MK, and before that, he took a bottom third team to third in 12 months. We all know MK Dons are a basket club. He's then repeated bottom third to top 2  at Oxford (admittedly it's November still........). So whilst he's only 140-odd games into his managerial career, achieveing over 48% win rate in English football at any professional level is something to take notice of.

The bigger concern is arguably the PR machine and fog. As @Davefevs has pointed out, Manning's playing style doesn't necessarily suit the players in the building. And if we look at when he struggled at MK Dons it was when the club hierarchy disrupted what he was building by selling his best players. Our club is talking about recruiting a head coach that can work within the current structure of the club, but given we are a selling club that tends to sell it's best asset each window it seems like a bit of a hit-and-hope that Manning can deal with losing his best players in the middle of building something when this is the only real blemish on his managerial CV to date (i.e. not recovering from the MK Dons rebuild forced on him when he lost his best players there one summer).

 

 

[RoystonFoote'snephew]

8 minutes ago, Galley is our king said:

Never managed above League 1?

Not a bit of a downside?

Hardly a revelation. Unless your a name who starts his managerial career at championship or premier league level all other managers won't have managed above L1 at some point. 

[supercidered]

1 minute ago, lenred said:

If he was the man for the Top Team then I doubt he would’ve had to do one tbh.  

You could be right there. However, somebody must have said to him to talk them through what happened at MK Dons when you got 15 points from 20+ games?

[W-S-M Seagull]

From one stupid decision to another. Absolutely livid.

[red panda]

2 minutes ago, supercidered said:

They did sack him. Apparently, because he had to sell his best 2 players then loads of posters on here think that is fine and dandy. Also apparently, not his fault that he couldn't Coach the remaining 23 players in to accumulating more tan just 15 points from over 20 games.

He must be bloody good at interviews.

So he was sacked from his first English managerial post .  So what?  He still had a win ratio of 48% when he left.  He's young enough to be learning and improving.  And how many managers have never been sacked?? 

[RedM]

I'm hearing it's Manning.

[Snufflelufagus]

5 minutes ago, WECANDO said:

Has Fleming gone or staying on to provide info on players etc ?

No need for Curtis to stay. Tinnion knows everything about them

[cidercity1987]

52 minutes ago, Super said:

The final insult to Pearson.

That'll be when we spend £3m and £20k p/w on an attacking midfielder in January

Edited November 6, 2023 by cidercity1987

[Homer Simpson]

1 minute ago, RedM said:

I'm hearing it's Manning.

I know its Manning.

[petehinton]

2 minutes ago, supercidered said:

You could be right there. However, somebody must have said to him to talk them through what happened at MK Dons when you got 15 points from 20+ games?

MK Dons still got relegated that season, IIRC in a worse position than he left them in, so not exactly a failure on him is it? If anything points to external circumstance, I.e losing a load of players, it’s that 

[lenred]

3 minutes ago, supercidered said:

You could be right there. However, somebody must have said to him to talk them through what happened at MK Dons when you got 15 points from 20+ games?

You’d have certainly hoped so.  

[Slack Bladder]

I am marginally more excited than I was about the appointment of Dean Holden.

I'm not sure Pep would be able to win promotion with this squad, so my hopes for an untested League 1 manager to do it, are even more doubtful

We'll see

[cotswoldred2]

4 minutes ago, ReturnedRobin said:

Big dose of realism required. If we accept NP is gone, we have to appoint a replacement. We can't hire another manager in his traditional managerial mould (i.e. Rowett, Jones, etc.). So the only way for the board to justify NP's exit is to pivot into a new route and then you're looking at Profile/Vanity appointment or New style/On-the-grass appointment.

Both seem a roll of dice. Neither will have consensus on here. And neither has a deep list containing candidates with either "proven track record with recent success" or "recent success with a proven track record" because as a Club we're not big enough to compete in those spheres.

So it's a case of sitting back and riding out the decision that's been made (accepting the NP thing is done, dusted and gone).

So if you look at the LM side of things his win record is pretty strong, especially when you consider there's a crappy 11 game period in that when he was sacked at MK Dons:

Context is also important in that he was sacked because his best players were sold and they had a slow start. Under the hood of MK, and before that, he took a bottom third team to third in 12 months. We all know MK Dons are a basket club. He's then repeated bottom third to top 2  at Oxford (admittedly it's November still........). So whilst he's only 140-odd games into his managerial career, achieveing over 48% win rate in English football at any professional level is something to take notice of.

The bigger concern is arguably the PR machine and fog. As @Davefevs has pointed out, Manning's playing style doesn't necessarily suit the players in the building. And if we look at when he struggled at MK Dons it was when the club hierarchy disrupted what he was building by selling his best players. Our club is talking about recruiting a head coach that can work within the current structure of the club, but given we are a selling club that tends to sell it's best asset each window it seems like a bit of a hit-and-hope that Manning can deal with losing his best players in the middle of building something when this is the only real blemish on his managerial CV to date (i.e. not recovering from the MK Dons rebuild forced on him when he lost his best players there one summer).

 

 

Thanks for that but not sure about your own personal input is of any credence, let the facts speak for themselves in his very good win record.

[TV Tom]

9 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Depends how you wanna look at it. Rob Edwards had never managed league 1, McKenna had never been a manager…

Carrick, McKenna, Schamacher,  Dahl Tomasson, Rosinior to name just a few have all done relatively well in their first managerial posts 

[Engvall’s Splinter]

I couldn’t be less excited by this appointment. Tinnion / JL - absolutely deluded. 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Engvall’s Splinter

[Scrumpty]

22 minutes ago, Ecko said:

Please tell me how this is an exciting appointment?

Exciting only from the perspective of him being largely unknown, but with a reputation of developing exciting, attacking teams (as opposed to an experienced championship manager with set/predictable style of management). I accept that I'm more likely to be disappointed by the outcome of tenure than you, but for now I choose to have feelings of happiness and enthusiasm.

But let me put it another way, had the circumstances been different (e.g. Nigel left by his own accord), would you feel differently about this appointment?

[BetterRedthanBlue]

My biggest concern with this is his style of play doesn't suit the players we have and in the championship he will probably get found out for playing that style.

[One Team]

3 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

From one stupid decision to another. Absolutely livid.

Feel the same as you mate.

They’ve out-Lansdowned themselves if this is reportedly a done deal. How utterly, utterly underwhelming. 

[Ian M]

If Manning had seen out the season with Oxford, it’s very likely that his reputation would have seen him get a club higher than us. I’m optimistic that at least we have tried to get someone on the up rather than gone for a mediocre out of work Championship manager.

As I have posted before, to get promoted from this division you need to have something that is significantly better than our peers. That could be budget, recruitment record, tactics or coaching. We cannot have a larger budget than our peers due to trampoline payments, our recruitment isn’t of a Brighton/Brentford standard (and we sell any good Academy prospects we are fortunate enough to unearth)

So, we have to go the coaching/tactics route. We at least give ourselves a chance of that with this appointment than by appointing a perennial failure at this level.

[Riaz]

1 minute ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

From one stupid decision to another. Absolutely livid.

And you wanted Lampard

Glad you arent making the decisions.

Manning has show alot of promise. Lampard hasnt. Despite having a ridiculous amount of resources and talent.

Go and look at their win percentages aswell.

[W-S-M Seagull]

Can't wait for us to play 3 at the back again and to hear LJs bullshit bingo all over again. So ******* excited.

[supercidered]

1 minute ago, cotswoldred2 said:

Thanks for that but not sure about your own personal input is of any credence, let the facts speak for themselves in his very good win record.

A win record not in the Championship or any other comparable league.

We all know how savage the Championship is and that win record counts for F All. 

[AshtonGreat]

I'm quite optimistic that this guy could do a good job

[redsquirrel]

are they still taking advice from mark ashton?

[W-S-M Seagull]

1 minute ago, Riaz said:

And you wanted Lampard

Glad you arent making the decisions.

Manning has show alot of promise. Lampard hasnt. Despite having a ridiculous amount of resources and talent.

Go and look at their win percentages aswell.

I'd have Lampard all day long over a guy that got sacked by MK. 

Listening to this guy is just like listening to LJ all over again.

[supercidered]

3 minutes ago, Scrumpty said:

Exciting only from the perspective of him being largely unknown, but with a reputation of developing exciting, attacking teams (as opposed to an experienced championship manager with set/predictable style of management). I accept that I'm more likely to be disappointed by the outcome of tenure than you, but for now I choose to have feelings of happiness and enthusiasm.

But let me put it another way, had the circumstances been different (e.g. Nigel left by his own accord), would you feel differently about this appointment?

I wouldn't. No.

[Riaz]

Just now, supercidered said:

A win record not in the Championship or any other comparable league.

We all know how savage the Championship is and that win record counts for F All. 

A win record like his at any level is impressive. He may or may not be able to translate that to the championship, but it is a good sign