Liam Manning - CONFIRMED NEW HEAD COACH

[Davefevs]

Just now, DaveInSA said:

So about 6 more hours of

• ridiculous conjecture;
• crazy arguments about 3 vs 4 at the back;
• and very little in the way of excitement.

Bring in the dancing girls!

[Cristored]

A forward thinking appointment. 

[headhunter]

3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

…and that’s fine if those academy players coming through are ready / good enough to keep taking us forward.  When they stop being able to progress you what does he do then?

You could argue that no academy player has broken through this season.  We joke about a conveyor belt, but it’s not.  It’s still impressive the number we have got through, but it’s not linear.  Yeboah hasn’t broken through, he’s yet to start, he’s yet to oust a “first-teamer”.  He’s not done a Bell or Conway yet.  That’s not me trying to put a downer on it, just a bit of realism that we’ve had a purple batch.  I guess Ayman’s return would be a real bonus…fingers crossed.

I think you and @Silvio Dante got there first.

Hugely annoyed they’ve sacked Nige (and his staff - let’s not forget that), but the only connect between Nige and Manning is that he’s his successor.  I don’t see that as a reason to “diss” Manning….not least before he’s been announced and showed what he can do.

I said when Nige was sacked I wouldn’t go down the route of researching prospective rumoured managers because I could probably spin it either way, everyone comes with pros and cons, depends how heavily you want to go on either side.  So no anger re Manning at all, good luck to him.  I hope I see him in as positive a way as I did Nige, even if it’s for different reasons.

And for a piece of pure made-up stuff, imagine Nige was the one who identified Manning as a potential successor.  That would change things wouldn’t it?

I think it’s pretty clear that he played back 3 at MKD and predominately back 4 at Oxford.

My takeaway is that he has a flexible approach, just like Nige did….tries to find the best approach for the players he has.

On an aside, I’m not sure if it’s a sign that Manning is definitely coming or who he’s bringing with him, but Craig Short’s (First Team Coach at Oxford) missus started following me on twitter last night.

 

Now if Craig Short is coming too as his assistant then I am encouraged - check out the 55 year old's playing record: 500+ games mostly at this level or above. That's the sort of experienced No.2 LJ should have had back in 2016. But wait, that person was already here: Wade Elliott - shown the door early on as LJs ego wouldn't let him listen to advice?

Manning's other assistant ,Chris Hogg, is 38 too with a less impressive career.

 

[Gert Mare]

1 hour ago, Spud21 said:

If your new employer has just paid somewhere around 0.5/1 million pounds to get you through the door I'd argue you are in a massively strong position to tell the people who are employing you exactly what you want.

The man is in a position where we absolutely have to sell the club to him as there are no signs he's not going to carry on doing what he's doing at Oxford and if he did there would be far bigger fish lurking for him than us. 

I think if we are telling him there are areas where he cannot have any control that he is not happy with he is in a more than healthy enough position to say thanks but no thanks. 

Do you believe that the Lansdown’s would tell any prospective manager the truth about their role at the club? 

Apparently Nigel was sacked because the under 23’s weren’t in the top 6, but probably could have been following games against Sheff Wed and QPR?

53 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

But I suspect Tinnion thinks, and has persuaded Guernsey to believe, that it doesn't matter if we keep selling - because there will always be another young un ready to roll off the academy production line into the first team.

And thus the owner's pipedream of self-sustainability comes to fruition. All the while Tinnion pouring soothing balm into the owner's ear, telling him exactly what he wants to hear. Not a single dissenting voice or a critical eye cast over the governance of our club.

Deluded. It's like the two of them plus Junior live in some sort of fuckw1t bubble.

 

Spot on. Totally deluded.

No offence to Manning or anyone accepting the widely accepted poison challenge of becoming the new ‘Head Pelham Puppet’ at Ashton Gate, but nobody with any serious ambition in management is going to want to work under this noddy setup.

If Manning or whoever else comes in their yardstick won’t be a winning streak when people return from the treatment table, but whether or not they can put half of the academy in the top 6 with 12 key players out injured. They’ve said it themselves, it’s a sackable offence.

This football club is so interwoven with the Bristol Sport monstrosity that has been created by these clowns that we are struggling to find a serious investor.

We’re totally entrenched by these wallies and it’s such a shame watching fans reluctantly sucking it up, accepting we are where we are and supporting whichever ‘puppet’ accepts their career ending move.

Torn between the passion for YOUR club and the total shit show that has ruined it.

I admire your passion to let things go for the sake of the team, but I just can’t let this one go myself.

Thanks for the cash and the investment, but in order to reach the Premier League you need a blend of youth and experience and there has to be a balance. Never seen a side full of kids from the Championship reach the Premier League and don’t expect to see it in my lifetime with this club.

Oh, and P.S. Stop sending me emails about watching the ******* Flyers. 

Once these muppets are gone I’ll come back. The only way to get rid is to vote with your feet and not simply roll over for a belly tickle and an insulting pat on the head.

[Spud21]

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

…and that’s fine if those academy players coming through are ready / good enough to keep taking us forward.  When they stop being able to progress you what does he do then?

You could argue that no academy player has broken through this season.  We joke about a conveyor belt, but it’s not.  It’s still impressive the number we have got through, but it’s not linear.  Yeboah hasn’t broken through, he’s yet to start, he’s yet to oust a “first-teamer”.  He’s not done a Bell or Conway yet.  That’s not me trying to put a downer on it, just a bit of realism that we’ve had a purple batch.  I guess Ayman’s return would be a real bonus…fingers crossed.

I think you and @Silvio Dante got there first.

Hugely annoyed they’ve sacked Nige (and his staff - let’s not forget that), but the only connect between Nige and Manning is that he’s his successor.  I don’t see that as a reason to “diss” Manning….not least before he’s been announced and showed what he can do.

I said when Nige was sacked I wouldn’t go down the route of researching prospective rumoured managers because I could probably spin it either way, everyone comes with pros and cons, depends how heavily you want to go on either side.  So no anger re Manning at all, good luck to him.  I hope I see him in as positive a way as I did Nige, even if it’s for different reasons.

And for a piece of pure made-up stuff, imagine Nige was the one who identified Manning as a potential successor.  That would change things wouldn’t it?

I think it’s pretty clear that he played back 3 at MKD and predominately back 4 at Oxford.

My takeaway is that he has a flexible approach, just like Nige did….tries to find the best approach for the players he has.

On an aside, I’m not sure if it’s a sign that Manning is definitely coming or who he’s bringing with him, but Craig Short’s (First Team Coach at Oxford) missus started following me on twitter last night.

 

Maybe he's coming for you for posting your thread about Manning

That's the point I am trying to get across he has a philosophy but is not so rigid to just blindly go with it, he's not going to sit there and say I see she have 2 and a half fit centre backs, back 3 it is lads. 

He does not look married to any particular formation (although one of the stats sites had him for one game at MK employing a 6-8-2 formation, not sure how he managed that, but could be a key to his success) and in lots of the interviews I saw he is actually reluctant to speak about formations etc and kind of pushes back saying position on its own is not important. 

Same with style they seem to play a possession based game but not a Martin type of just bore everyone to death. 

I don't expect we will see a massive shift in style between Manning and Pearson, I think we will look to move the ball a bit more quickly and when we do have possession look to have it 30/40 yards from goal not in our own half. 

[Show Me The Money!]

8 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

…and that’s fine if those academy players coming through are ready / good enough to keep taking us forward.  When they stop being able to progress you what does he do then?

You could argue that no academy player has broken through this season.  We joke about a conveyor belt, but it’s not.  It’s still impressive the number we have got through, but it’s not linear.  Yeboah hasn’t broken through, he’s yet to start, he’s yet to oust a “first-teamer”.  He’s not done a Bell or Conway yet.  That’s not me trying to put a downer on it, just a bit of realism that we’ve had a purple batch.  I guess Ayman’s return would be a real bonus…fingers crossed.

I think you and @Silvio Dante got there first.

Hugely annoyed they’ve sacked Nige (and his staff - let’s not forget that), but the only connect between Nige and Manning is that he’s his successor.  I don’t see that as a reason to “diss” Manning….not least before he’s been announced and showed what he can do.

I said when Nige was sacked I wouldn’t go down the route of researching prospective rumoured managers because I could probably spin it either way, everyone comes with pros and cons, depends how heavily you want to go on either side.  So no anger re Manning at all, good luck to him.  I hope I see him in as positive a way as I did Nige, even if it’s for different reasons.

And for a piece of pure made-up stuff, imagine Nige was the one who identified Manning as a potential successor.  That would change things wouldn’t it?

I think it’s pretty clear that he played back 3 at MKD and predominately back 4 at Oxford.

My takeaway is that he has a flexible approach, just like Nige did….tries to find the best approach for the players he has.

On an aside, I’m not sure if it’s a sign that Manning is definitely coming or who he’s bringing with him, but Craig Short’s (First Team Coach at Oxford) missus started following me on twitter last night.

 

Think I'll be checking my missus phone tonight. 

[supercidered]

3 minutes ago, Cristored said:

A forward thinking appointment. 

Oh f@ck you are back again then!

[Mr Hankey]

The more i think about it, the more i feel that we could do a hell of a lot worse. We have heard the line of "young, up & coming, attacking" coach before with LJ & Holden (even as far back as McInnes), but this guy seems to have more substance that the previous, particularly with working with CFG (as mentioned, they don't just employ people without their merits).

Still think it would have made more sense to of done this in the coming summer & the board really do need to back him as i don't think we have the quality of players to play his brand of football without struggling - at the moment we are a fast counter attacking team, so we certainly need further investment in the central midfield positions to play his way.

Edited November 7, 2023 by Mr Hankey

[JP Hampton]

9 hours ago, Davefevs said:

And a lot / most games this season the opposition have been blowing and we’ve been strong or not had bench strength to take advantage, e.g. Ipswich.  Just my opinion (and some non-running data re pressing etc) as a fan who works in Financial Services who’s seen all the games bar Oxford (bizarrely)!

I remember Pearson actually mentioning how fit the players were after the summer break!
 Funny how nobody mentioned their lack of fitness until it was muted by JL. In fact quite the opposite, people were saying how fit we were up to other teams. A few words from JL and BT and it’s suddenly on shaky ground. 
 

 As I’ve said before this suggestion that players were given 10 days off or whatever, doesn’t mean they were lying around doing nothing. Professional athletes still need to train and train down and the body needs to rest between high intensity training for repair and actually for muscle to build efficiently. The standard is a few months on and then a week training down/rest. 
 An individual training programme for each player would have been followed. If having a break was the reason for injuries etc you’d expect to see far more across all footballing teams after the summer break. They are not following a high intensity training programme everyday for the 3 months of that break. 
 

And I’m sorry but the idea that’s been mentioned somewhere, that players came back after resting and went straight Into intense training is absolute nonsense. Not even amateur athletes would do that. 

Edited November 7, 2023 by JP Hampton

[Mendip City]

11 minutes ago, headhunter said:

Now if Craig Short is coming too as his assistant then I am encouraged - check out the 55 year old's playing record: 500+ games mostly at this level or above. That's the sort of experienced No.2 LJ should have had back in 2016. But wait, that person was already here: Wade Elliott - shown the door early on as LJs ego wouldn't let him listen to advice?

Manning's other assistant ,Chris Hogg, is 38 too with a less impressive career.

 

I agree. Short would have also learned tons from repeatedly working with Warnock (which I see as a bonus). 
 

Oxford also have Derek Fazackerley as some sort of DoF type character….. bags more management experience than Tinnion.  Not that Tinnion will be going anywhere any time soon, unless the Lansdowns disappear. 

[Numero Uno]

12 minutes ago, Gert Mare said:

Do you believe that the Lansdown’s would tell any prospective manager the truth about their role at the club? 

Apparently Nigel was sacked because the under 23’s weren’t in the top 6, but probably could have been following games against Sheff Wed and QPR?

Spot on. Totally deluded.

No offence to Manning or anyone accepting the widely accepted poison challenge of becoming the new ‘Head Pelham Puppet’ at Ashton Gate, but nobody with any serious ambition in management is going to want to work under this noddy setup.

If Manning or whoever else comes in their yardstick won’t be a winning streak when people return from the treatment table, but whether or not they can put half of the academy in the top 6 with 12 key players out injured. They’ve said it themselves, it’s a sackable offence.

This football club is so interwoven with the Bristol Sport monstrosity that has been created by these clowns that we are struggling to find a serious investor.

We’re totally entrenched by these wallies and it’s such a shame watching fans reluctantly sucking it up, accepting we are where we are and supporting whichever ‘puppet’ accepts their career ending move.

Torn between the passion for YOUR club and the total shit show that has ruined it.

I admire your passion to let things go for the sake of the team, but I just can’t let this one go myself.

Thanks for the cash and the investment, but in order to reach the Premier League you need a blend of youth and experience and there has to be a balance. Never seen a side full of kids from the Championship reach the Premier League and don’t expect to see it in my lifetime with this club.

Oh, and P.S. Stop sending me emails about watching the ******* Flyers. 

Once these muppets are gone I’ll come back. The only way to get rid is to vote with your feet and not simply roll over for a belly tickle and an insulting pat on the head.

You'll get stick for this post from a few Bristol Sport Fanboys and whilst I will be continuing to attend I do understand a lot of the points you make tbf. Spot on about the Bristol Sport monstrosity. What really does my head in at the moment is the thought that the appointment of a relatively inexperienced manager means the ******* snake running our football operation now gets to stick his snout further and further into the trough.

[RedJim]

21 minutes ago, Gert Mare said:

Do you believe that the Lansdown’s would tell any prospective manager the truth about their role at the club? 

Apparently Nigel was sacked because the under 23’s weren’t in the top 6, but probably could have been following games against Sheff Wed and QPR?

Spot on. Totally deluded.

No offence to Manning or anyone accepting the widely accepted poison challenge of becoming the new ‘Head Pelham Puppet’ at Ashton Gate, but nobody with any serious ambition in management is going to want to work under this noddy setup.

If Manning or whoever else comes in their yardstick won’t be a winning streak when people return from the treatment table, but whether or not they can put half of the academy in the top 6 with 12 key players out injured. They’ve said it themselves, it’s a sackable offence.

This football club is so interwoven with the Bristol Sport monstrosity that has been created by these clowns that we are struggling to find a serious investor.

We’re totally entrenched by these wallies and it’s such a shame watching fans reluctantly sucking it up, accepting we are where we are and supporting whichever ‘puppet’ accepts their career ending move.

Torn between the passion for YOUR club and the total shit show that has ruined it.

I admire your passion to let things go for the sake of the team, but I just can’t let this one go myself.

Thanks for the cash and the investment, but in order to reach the Premier League you need a blend of youth and experience and there has to be a balance. Never seen a side full of kids from the Championship reach the Premier League and don’t expect to see it in my lifetime with this club.

Oh, and P.S. Stop sending me emails about watching the ******* Flyers. 

Once these muppets are gone I’ll come back. The only way to get rid is to vote with your feet and not simply roll over for a belly tickle and an insulting pat on the head.

Exactly what I'm thinking. I'm not sure I'll attend another game at the Gate this season, I've had it with Steve Lansdown FC.

[supercidered]

6 minutes ago, Mr Hankey said:

The more i think about it, the more i feel that we could do a hell of a lot worse. We have heard the line of "young, up & coming, attacking" coach before with LJ & Holden (even as far back as McInnes), but this guy seems to have more substance that the previous, particularly with working with CFG (as mentioned, they don't just employ people without their merits).

Still think it would have made more sense to of done this in the coming summer & the board really do need to back him as i don't think we have the quality of players to play his brand of football without struggling - at the moment we are a fast counter attacking team, so we certainly need further investment in the central midfield positions to play his way.

Lots of good points in your post Mr H.

I think it's the first sentence that typifies how we as City fans end up feeling though. There has been so much anger with what happened with NP and how it was ultimately dealt with by the hierarchy. I include myself in being angry with this.

Then we get noise that there could be getting a real statement of intent type of announcement that we are trying to not be a mid table Championship team moving forward. That we are making an assault on getting promoted. Then we get Liam Manning (TBC) as the apparent answer to this cause. 

Then we as City fans all go around the houses on here for a few days and come back to 'oh well, we could do a lot worse'. 

[DaveInSA]

22 minutes ago, Spud21 said:

Maybe he's coming for you for posting your thread about Manning

That's the point I am trying to get across he has a philosophy but is not so rigid to just blindly go with it, he's not going to sit there and say I see she have 2 and a half fit centre backs, back 3 it is lads. 

He does not look married to any particular formation (although one of the stats sites had him for one game at MK employing a 6-8-2 formation, not sure how he managed that, but could be a key to his success) and in lots of the interviews I saw he is actually reluctant to speak about formations etc and kind of pushes back saying position on its own is not important. 

Same with style they seem to play a possession based game but not a Martin type of just bore everyone to death. 

I don't expect we will see a massive shift in style between Manning and Pearson, I think we will look to move the ball a bit more quickly and when we do have possession look to have it 30/40 yards from goal not in our own half. 

I'll be well amazed if Manning can achieve the bold bit where Pearson couldn't with the same players.
I'm pretty certain Pearson wasn't asking the players to play in their own half and slow the game down.

[slartibartfast]

26 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Bring in the dancing girls!

.....on with the pixie hats, bring on the skating vicars !

[Davefevs]

10 minutes ago, JP Hampton said:

I remember Pearson actually mentioning how fit the players were after the summer break!
 Funny how nobody mentioned their lack of fitness until it was muted by JL. In fact quite the opposite, people were saying how fit we were up to other teams. A few words from JL and BT and it’s suddenly on shaky ground. 
 

 As I’ve said before this suggestion that players were given 10 days off or whatever, doesn’t mean they were lying around doing nothing. Professional athletes still need to train and train down and the body needs to rest between high intensity training for repair and actually for muscle to build efficiently. The standard is a few months on and then a week training down/rest. 
 An individual training programme for each player would have been followed. If having a break was the reason for injuries etc you’d expect to see far more across all footballing teams after the summer break. They are not following a high intensity training programme everyday for the 3 months of that break. 
 

And I’m sorry but the idea that’s been mentioned somewhere, that players came back after resting and went straight Into intense training is absolute nonsense. Not even amateur athletes would do that. 

When I met Rennie - which of course makes me biased - he talked about the improvements in fitness, the change they’d introduced, how the players bought into it, started to take ownership for monitoring themselves.  He talked about other managers noticing their fitness levels, Kompany being one.  We’ve heard from more than one manager this season about our relentless running this season.

And then you hear Jon Effing Lansdown coming out with words like “deconditioned”.

I can’t go into some of the things he talked about, as that would be wrong.  But based on that there is no reason for a slur / discredit of the way the players were kept fit.

[Merrick's Marvels]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

…and that’s fine if those academy players coming through are ready / good enough to keep taking us forward.  When they stop being able to progress you what does he do then?

You could argue that no academy player has broken through this season.  We joke about a conveyor belt, but it’s not.  It’s still impressive the number we have got through, but it’s not linear.  Yeboah hasn’t broken through, he’s yet to start, he’s yet to oust a “first-teamer”.  He’s not done a Bell or Conway yet.  That’s not me trying to put a downer on it, just a bit of realism that we’ve had a purple batch.  I guess Ayman’s return would be a real bonus…fingers crossed.

There was a time when all you had to do was shout down a coal mine and up would pop a world class fast bowler for the England cricket team. 

Until they didn't.

The idea there will always be a supply of young uns, ready, able and willing, is for the birds. Ditto "self-sustainability". 

If you don't want to spend money, fine. Thanks, now get out and let someone who does have a go.    

Edited November 7, 2023 by Merrick's Marvels

[Mendip City]

1 minute ago, Davefevs said:

When I met Rennie - which of course makes me biased - he talked about the improvements in fitness, the change they’d introduced, how the players bought into it, started to take ownership for monitoring themselves.  He talked about other managers noticing their fitness levels, Kompany being one.  We’ve heard from more than one manager this season about our relentless running this season.

And then you hear Jon Effing Lansdown coming out with words like “deconditioned”.

I can’t go into some of the things he talked about, as that would be wrong.  But based on that there is no reason for a slur / discredit of the way the players were kept fit.

Knowing the way Nige operates, those breaks were probably more for the players psychological wellbeing, keeping them mentally fresh. Seeing the same faces every single day and doing the same things isn’t great. 
As others have said, modern footballers aren’t doing nothing or stuffing their faces with fry-ups the second they have time off! 
But JL is now some sort of fitness guru so who am I to argue….. Actually he just sounded like one of those business “leaders” who don’t trust home workers and want them in, under their nose, to micromanage….. micro meddling from the Lansdowns more like! 

[Merrick's Marvels]

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

I think @Harry or @Kid in the Riot mentioned that Rob Edwards was “on the list” before he went to Watford and I think it’s plausible that Manning has been “on the list” for some time and the club acted because they saw how well Oxford were going, and, having already decided they didn’t like/want Nige any more, didn’t want to wait until the end of the season in case Mannings stock became too high and he was out of our reach then. To engineer things though, was a bit beyond the pale - and some of this is PR. Had the club come out and made more of a statement around “stabilised the club, this is the next step, natural break” it would have been a lot more palatable.

Agree 100%, especially last sentence.

Just be honest about it. Cut the bullcrap, tell it like it is - like Nige! All of us, Nige included, would have appreciated the plain speaking, I'm sure, if not the message.  

Edited November 7, 2023 by Merrick's Marvels

[pillred]

9 hours ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

It's happened in football before. 

If he comes in and loses 4 or 5 in a row then we can find ourselves drawn into a relegation scrap.

IF, not that likely though we are only going to get stronger when our injury situation improves.

[Nogbad the Bad]

49 minutes ago, Isawjonshaw said:

Now I'm not claiming in any way to be ITK.  But I was told by a former player (who was informed) that the club (especially the players) were sick to death of Nigel and one of the main reasons we have such a terrible injury list was down to the constant beasting they were getting from Rennie.  Whether this is true or not, I do not know. 

The way the depleted squad has been playing for Nige recently says that's not true.

There will be 'former players' who hold a grudge against him, particularly some of those whose poor attitude, displayed before and after his arrival, meant he had to move them on.

No surprise if one of these was 'sick to death of NP' and wants to bad mouth him now but if he fell out with NP the fault almost certainly lay at his door.

I doubt any of the current players were sick to death of him, just the opposite, not only because of the way they clearly played for him but shown by their messages when he left. My impression is he was extremely well liked and respected by the current squad.

As for the injuries & Rennie, the former player wouldn't know and just seems determined, as with Nige, to put him in the worst possible light.

[chinapig]

1 minute ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

The way the depleted squad has been playing for Nige recently says that's not true.

There will be 'former players' who hold a grudge against him, particularly some of those whose poor attitude, displayed before and after his arrival, meant he had to move them on.

No surprise if one of these was 'sick to death of NP' and wants to bad mouth him now but if he fell out with NP the fault almost certainly lay at his door.

I doubt any of the current players were sick to death of him, just the opposite, not only because of the way they clearly played for him but shown by their messages when he left. My impression is he was extremely well liked and respected by the current squad.

As for the injuries & Rennie, the former player wouldn't know and just seems determined, as with Nige, to put him in the worst possible light.

Plus the fact that renowned fitness expert JL claimed the players were being de-conditioned. Which is the opposite of beasting.

[BrizzleRed]

3 minutes ago, supercidered said:

Lots of good points in your post Mr H.

I think it's the first sentence that typifies how we as City fans end up feeling though. There has been so much anger with what happened with NP and how it was ultimately dealt with by the hierarchy. I include myself in being angry with this.

Then we get noise that there could be getting a real statement of intent type of announcement that we are trying to not be a mid table Championship team moving forward. That we are making an assault on getting promoted. Then we get Liam Manning (TBC) as the apparent answer to this cause. 

Then we as City fans all go around the houses on here for a few days and come back to 'oh well, we could do a lot worse'. 

I’ll never forget the comment that ‘you’d be surprised at the calibre of applicants we’ve had’, before deliberating for 6 weeks and then appointing Dean Holden

By Bristol City standards, although not greatly exciting, this is hopefully a far better appointment than that.  

Would obviously have much preferred to have kept Nige, but sadly we don’t have any say in that and just have to pay our money, sit down and shut up!!!  Let’s hope for some improvement when Lansdown eventually pisses off.

[Mr Popodopolous]

5 hours ago, Bodiesaffer said:

They also had sound replacements.  Plus building for years with a sound game plan.  

Agreed.

[Isawjonshaw]

6 minutes ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

The way the depleted squad has been playing for Nige recently says that's not true.

There will be 'former players' who hold a grudge against him, particularly some of those whose poor attitude, displayed before and after his arrival, meant he had to move them on.

No surprise if one of these was 'sick to death of NP' and wants to bad mouth him now but if he fell out with NP the fault almost certainly lay at his door.

I doubt any of the current players were sick to death of him, just the opposite, not only because of the way they clearly played for him but shown by their messages when he left. My impression is he was extremely well liked and respected by the current squad.

As for the injuries & Rennie, the former player wouldn't know and just seems determined, as with Nige, to put him in the worst possible light.

I don't disagree with any of that.  Just passing on what was said.  The former player did not play under Nige.  

[RedM]

Someone somewhere on here has guessed/stated mid afternoon for the announcement today.

I'm saying High Noon for the fun to begin.

[Simon bristol]

4 minutes ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

The way the depleted squad has been playing for Nige recently says that's not true.

There will be 'former players' who hold a grudge against him, particularly some of those whose poor attitude, displayed before and after his arrival, meant he had to move them on.

No surprise if one of these was 'sick to death of NP' and wants to bad mouth him now but if he fell out with NP the fault almost certainly lay at his door.

I doubt any of the current players were sick to death of him, just the opposite, not only because of the way they clearly played for him but shown by their messages when he left. My impression is he was extremely well liked and respected by the current squad.

As for the injuries & Rennie, the former player wouldn't know and just seems determined, as with Nige, to put him in the worst possible light.

But we do have bad injury problems, and when they are injured they tend to stay out for a while. The mccrorie situation, we dont know exactly what it is, but there was probably a month of toing and froing before the operation. Conway felt his hamstring in game 1 when he came on and stayed on, as did vyner when he did his, and weimann felt his knee before he wrecked it too if I remember rightly, and i think i recall kalas doing something similar with his shoulder and staying on, and we have lost james and williams for periods too. Not sure if time off reduces their performance, but i dont believe that every case has been handled as well as it should have been, which considering rennie is some high end specialist, well it should have been quite frankly.

[Kid in the Riot]

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

I think @Harry or @Kid in the Riot mentioned that Rob Edwards was “on the list” before he went to Watford and I think it’s plausible that Manning has been “on the list” for some time and the club acted because they saw how well Oxford were going, and, having already decided they didn’t like/want Nige any more, didn’t want to wait until the end of the season in case Mannings stock became too high and he was out of our reach then. To engineer things though, was a bit beyond the pale - and some of this is PR. Had the club come out and made more of a statement around “stabilised the club, this is the next step, natural break” it would have been a lot more palatable.

Yes, that was me. Very sure Manning has been on the list for quite a while too. 

People don't want to hear it at the moment, but I still think the main factor which hastened Nige's departure was his health. Obviously the club cannot go on record as saying this but the reality of having a manager that couldn't walk, had barely been seen on the training pitches for 7 weeks, and had no diagnosis let alone prognosis for what the problem was, and was going to need further time off to ascertain what the problem was (he spent most of last week in Kings College Hospital, London meaning he'd have spent even more time away from training) - in the end did it for Nige.

Of course there were other factors too, a perceived lack of improvement in performances and results this season, and a further breakdown in relationship between Nige and the club. He may have lasted a bit longer had the back issue not arisen, but it was inevitable he was going to be sacked at some point before his contract expired next summer. 

[the1stknowle]

17 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

When I met Rennie - which of course makes me biased - he talked about the improvements in fitness, the change they’d introduced, how the players bought into it, started to take ownership for monitoring themselves.  He talked about other managers noticing their fitness levels, Kompany being one.  We’ve heard from more than one manager this season about our relentless running this season.

And then you hear Jon Effing Lansdown coming out with words like “deconditioned”.

I can’t go into some of the things he talked about, as that would be wrong.  But based on that there is no reason for a slur / discredit of the way the players were kept fit.

I assume this is provable though, surely? A real simple stat like average distance run, while a bit crude, would show any big 'deconditioning' that occurred post-international break. Have something to hang the hat of this deconditioning concern on. 

From a pure football point of view, I'm really into the Manning appointment, if it happens. And, again from a football pov, I can see the argument for moving on from Nige - at minimum, there is a justification that exists. I've even appreciated the extra communication from leadership over last week that has been missing over last year.

The lack of gratitude and acknowledgement of what Nige did for club and for connection with fans is galling. But where I'm still really struggling is exactly on this 'deconditioning' gossip that they have tried to seed with side comments and leaks. It lacks class, is malicious and either requires an explicit explanation of why you believe that with some statistical evidencing to back it up, or, if it is just a belief, you bury it completely and don't sully professional reputations with hints and underhand comments. 

Because as a fan looking with own two eyes, regardless of what you think of the football over last few years, it seems tough to argue that this is not the hardest running team we've ever had. 

You don't get on with Nige. Understandable. You think we can do better than 31% win ratio, even with circumstances over last few years, OK. But show some effin class in parting ways. It is possible to be honest and dignified at the same time. 

[Harry]

1 hour ago, Spud21 said:

Really, like Manning playing 3 at the back, despite being told multiple times that he played a back 4? Like Pearson having an elite mentality when Manning has spent more time at an elite club than Nige has? 

There are plenty of people who have raised concerns, and have been downright apaplectic about Niges sacking, who have not resorted to making stuff up about manning to have a whinge. 

 

1 hour ago, Spud21 said:

He's used a back 3 in 3 of his games at Oxford, and about similar in his time at MK dons, look at all the tracking sites and they all say he plays 4-2-3-1 in the majority of his games

 

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

I posted the information where I drew my opinion from. Its been more than 3 games.

The information I've seen suggests he preferred 3atb at MK Dons. 

If you don't wish to admit you were wrong to call me out for my concerns then that's fine. 

Sorry chaps. I just wanted to chip in on the 3 at the back debate. 
 

When at MK Dons, I watched a lot of their games that season (as I was watching Scott Twine as much as I could). 
They played 3 CB’s. Darling central, O’Hora right and Lewington left. 
It can be easy to think that Lewington can be listed as a left back but that season he was playing as the left CB in a 3. 
 

At Oxford, he started out with 4 at the back. But has recently changed to 3 after the signing of Greg Leigh late in August. 
 

At the start of the season he was generally playing Ciaron Brown LB, Sam Long RB, with Elliot Moore plus one of either Stephan Negru or Jordan Thornily as the 2 CB’s. 
 

After Leigh was signed (as well as Fin Stevens on loan from Brentford) he’s generally played 3 (5 of the last 7 games). 
Elliot Moore has been the central CB, with Sam Long RCB and Ciaron Brown LCB. 
He’s then had Fin Stevens at RWB and Greg Leigh at LWB. 

Again, if you look at some of the formations listed on various websites, a lot of the time it’s a bit of a guess by the person who input that team onto the site. The 5 names listed above only has 1 true CB in Moore. The other 4 are traditionally full backs. So it’s easy to think that he’s playing a 4 and some sites seem to show Leigh as playing as a left winger. 
From what I’ve seen that’s not the case. Leigh is definitely playing as a wing back. But the way Manning played at MK and from what I can see so far at Oxford is that he likes the wing backs to play very high and the 2 outside CB’s to split very wide. 
 

So yes, you are both technically correct. He’s played both a 4 and a 3 this season. But given he’s recruited Stevens and Leigh (and given he played it at MK) my inkling is that his preference is a 3.