Liam Manning - CONFIRMED NEW HEAD COACH

[Silvio Dante]

10 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

If its this guy I would be very confused as to why its not Williams instead.

Similar profile but the latter has total success for three years and knows the club compared to a guy who got sacked in the relegation zone 11 months ago

 

[petehinton]

33 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Putting pressure on Oxford and turning Manning's head.. 

yessir

Ive always been a cynic & thought it’s a clever tactic for clubs to carefully select their pre season opponents, based on teams playing styles we want to see played against ours that we wouldn’t play in a regular season. 
 

No surprise to me now that we played Oxford, bankers bonus we drew them in the CC, and also no surprise we were willing to play Portsmouth away for Mousinho.  

Edited November 2, 2023 by petehinton

[Finley_Smith10]

8 minutes ago, petehinton said:

yessir

Ive always been a cynic & thought it’s a clever tactic for clubs to carefully select their pre season opponents, based on teams playing styles we want to see played against ours that we wouldn’t play in a regular season. 
 

No surprise to me now that we played Oxford, bankers bonus we drew them in the CC, and also no surprise we were willing to play Portsmouth away for Mousinho.  

Don’t you just think it’s a coincidence?

[Zuni]

43 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Putting pressure on Oxford and turning Manning's head.. 

Yes or possibly a 'stalking horse" for someone in the back ground.

[W-S-M Seagull]

55 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Someone who's failed at a high level rather than succeeded at a lower one.

Ok I can understand that. Don't agre with it, but I can understand it.

Lampard - Play off final with Derby

Champions league qualification 

Kept Everton in the premier league

Manning - Achieved absolutely nothing in the game. Zilch. Nada. 

[petehinton]

2 minutes ago, Finley_Smith10 said:

Don’t you just think it’s a coincidence?

I think it’s a happy coincidence. Manning has been extremely highly thought of his entire coaching career. I’ve no doubt at all when we arranged to play them pre season & drew them at AG that there’d been invested interest in what their philosophy of playing style was like. 

[Harry]

So, Liam Manning. 
No doubt a name many City fans aren’t very familiar with. 
Not much of a playing career which he finished early to focus on coaching. Spending 4 years with West Ham’s under 23’s during the period when Declan Rice was coming through. 
Manning’s style of play is very much focussed around a style of player such as Rice, so I have no doubt that his coaching and way of playing would have been a good influence on Rice. 
 

His first proper job as a manager was in the Belgian 2nd division with Lommel. He took them from bottom of the league to 3rd in his one season there. However, this really needs to have a caveat - he spent over £11m as well as benefiting from a number of loans from Man City as they are a partner club. 
That level of transfer spend is highly unusual in the Belgian 2nd division, so I think it’s fair to say he had a significant amount of help to get them from bottom to 3rd. 
 

He took the job at MK Dons for the 21/22 season after Russell Martin left for Swansea. 
As regular readers will know, I was very keen on City signing Scott Twine. It’s for that reason that I saw a lot of MK Dons that season as I was keen to watch as much of Twine as I could. 
They had a superb season. 89 points, finishing 3rd and losing in the playoffs (rather craply to Wycombe). 

I watched a number of their games that season and they were a joy to watch. 
I am a tad bias here, because I absolutely loved watching Twine play. 

He’d mostly set up with 3 at the back (usually Darling, O’Hora and Lewington). All 3 were encouraged to play and they enjoyed vast amounts of possession. McEacheran and Matt O’Riley were a beautifully balanced midfield and then Twine creating in behind a striker - usually Eisa. 
They were superb to watch but their passing from the back style did get them into trouble a few times. 
 

As much as they played beautiful football that season, I can’t actually put it all down to Manning. He’d inherited a team which was already set up to play that way from Russell Martin - I think Manning just carried on his good work. 
Martin had signed Fisher (the keeper), Darling, O’Hora, Harvie, McEacheran, O’Riley, Kasuma and Twine. 
Martin had basically assembled this stylish squad. 
 

He lost the keeper in January to Swansea. The keeper was the catalyst to the playing out from the back style. 
He also very crucially lost O’Riley in January to Celtic. 
I thought this would be a massive blow as O’Riley was quite simply excellent. 
Manning signed a couple of loans to replace them - A keeper from Chelsea and a midfielder from West Ham (so clearly using his contacts from his West Ham u23 days). 
Twine was outstanding for the rest of the season and they didn’t miss O’Riley as much as I thought they would. 
 

So, a beautiful football team that season but one which was assembled by the previous manager. 
 

The next season didn’t start well. Won 4, Drew 3, Lost 13!! 
He’s lost the nucleus of the team though. Darling & Twine both leaving - probably the best 2 players in the league the season before. This was always going to be a massive blow. 
He also lost Kasumu in CM, who gave a tonne of legs and energy. 
 

He replaced Darling & Twine with Jack Tucker and Conor Grant. 
2 players who I was actually quite fond of myself, but they were nowhere near the same level of quality as those he lost. 
It was always going to be a bit of a struggle but quite how they went from the most beautiful team in League 1 to losing 13 of 20 is baffling. 
 

Onto Oxford. He arrived at the back end of last season when they sat 19th and in danger of the drop. He managed to keep them up but I think that was more down to other teams being so poor. He only won 2 of 12 games but got enough draws (5) to stave off relegation. 
I watched Oxford a couple of times last season before he arrived and I thought they were awful. I wouldn’t have been surprised had they gone down. So he kept them up, but only just in reality. 
 

This season, the Oxford I see now are chalk and cheese to the Oxford I saw last year who were awful. They are now playing the good stuff that Manning had at MK (perhaps it wasn’t all down to Russ Martin after all??)

He’s made some decent signings that fit his style. 
He’s loaned in a keeper from Brighton to help him play from the back. 
He brought McEacheran with him from MK - a good ball retainer for league 1. 
He brought Rodrigues in from Notts (this is his Twine, the creative roaming attacking midfielder type). 
He brought in Greg Leigh who has been an absolute revelation at wing back. 
He’s got McGuane playing well (I wasn’t overly impressed with him the year before but Manning seems to have lit his fire). 
He’s also made another couple of loans from Prem clubs to supplement his squad.  
 

Add Cameron Brannigan to this and with a tandem of either Brannigan/Maguane or Brannigan/McEacheran and he’s got a dominant ball retaining midfield. 
I think he’s still mostly playing 3 at the back as he did at MK, but he’s played a 4 sometimes too. I think he’s mostly switched to a 3 after the arrival of Leigh at wing back, so he seems open to changing his formation to suit his players. 

I must say, the transformation of the awful Oxford team last season to the stylish and winning team of this season is a remarkable one. And there is no doubt about it that this is 100% down to Manning. 
 

I can understand why many fans will see this as a rather underwhelming choice, but he is exactly the sort of person who fits the remit of how we are wanting to play. 
But ultimately, Manning’s style of play requires the right players to be able to play it. 
He’s always favoured a keeper who can play from the back - we don’t have that. 
He likes 2 deep CM’s who can control and dominate possession - we don’t have that. 
He likes a creative AM - we don’t have that. 
He likes high wing backs - we kinda half have that. 
He likes 3 CB’s who can build from the back - we don’t really have that. Naismith yes, but the others no. 
 

So he may be the right man for the way we WANT to play, but I actually don’t believe we have the players who can fit that style. 

Edited November 2, 2023 by Harry

[slartibartfast]

10 minutes ago, Zuni said:

Yes or possibly a 'stalking horse" for someone in the back ground.

Do you really think they are THAT clever ?

[Silvio Dante]

11 minutes ago, Zuni said:

Yes or possibly a 'stalking horse" for someone in the back ground.

Mate.

You joined the forum on Saturday night. You’ve mentioned Luke Williams either directly or indirectly on multiple posts. 
 

You’ve supported and given positive reactions to people who praise the Lansdowns.

If you’re a BS employee and trying to soften us up for an underwhelming appointment just say so. It’d be better than this charade of “long time lurker just decided to start posting” you’re engaging in now.

[ExiledAjax]

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

Lampard - Play off final with Derby

Champions league qualification 

Kept Everton in the premier league

Manning - Achieved absolutely nothing in the game. Zilch. Nada. 

Lampard's "achievements" have happened at clubs where they are expected to happen. He's not improved teams. He's kept them where they should be.

By wage budget, history, expectation, we should be mid table in the Championship. If that's where you want to finish then track record says sign Lampard up.

Manning's taken 19th placed Oxford and has them 2nd right now. He took 13th placed MK Dons to the playoffs before that. He took Lommel SK from bottom to third place in Belgium. He improves teams beyond what's expected. He gets squads to outperform.

That's what we need because...whatever the Lansdowns might think...we don't have a squad or wage bill fit for the top 6.

[Riaz]

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

Lampard - Play off final with Derby

Champions league qualification 

Kept Everton in the premier league

Manning - Achieved absolutely nothing in the game. Zilch. Nada. 

Derby already were top 6. He couldn’t improve with the chelsea players he added. Zero improvement 

Chelsea - he inherited a very good squad thanks to a exceptional academy. Pressure off he qualified. But this on its own isn’t enough 

The rest of his managerial career, he hasn’t done anything impressive. In fact he has lost ALOT of games

Manning is a big gamble, but he has shown promise and is on the way up, instead of on the way down like Lampard. 
 

Lampard has no substance, other than having a superb playing career. Which isn’t really relevant 

[Bedred31]

Young, intelligent, articulate, innovative, ‘outside the box’ modern, inexperienced, particularly re the division we’re actually in, may struggle to manage the big personality older pro., will have at least £10m to spend in January, in charge until next autumn , when we hire an older, established, experienced manager in a hasty attempt to balance the books and steady the floundering ship.

Aaaand… repeat.

 

Edited November 2, 2023 by Bedred31

[reddoh]

3 hours ago, BigTone said:

Not so sure.  Jesus might just be our man

Not good on crosses  but good in a back three

[Mr Popodopolous]

2 minutes ago, Bedred31 said:

Young, intelligent, articulate, innovative, ‘outside the box’ modern, inexperienced, particularly re the division we’re actually in, may struggle to manage the big personality older pro., will have at least £10m to spend in January, in charge until next autumn , when we hire an older, established, experienced manager in a hasty attempt to balance the books and steady the floundering ship.

Aaaand… repeat.

 

I'm not especially pro Manning (or Lampard).

However McKenna, one and a half seasons of experience,both at League One.

Is McKenna vastly superior to Manning prior to this season, weighted to resources?

[Ashtongreight]

1 hour ago, cidercity1987 said:

If its this guy I would be very confused as to why its not Williams instead.

Similar profile but the latter has total success for three years and knows the club compared to a guy who got sacked in the relegation zone 11 months ago

I’d be confused if it’s either 

[petehinton]

21 minutes ago, Harry said:

So, Liam Manning. 
No doubt a name many City fans aren’t very familiar with. 
Not much of a playing career which he finished early to focus on coaching. Spending 4 years with West Ham’s under 23’s during the period when Declan Rice was coming through. 
Manning’s style of play is very much focussed around a style of player such as Rice, so I have no doubt that his coaching and way of playing would have been a good influence on Rice. 
 

His first proper job as a manager was in the Belgian 2nd division with Lommel. He took them from bottom of the league to 3rd in his one season there. However, this really needs to have a caveat - he spent over £11m as well as benefiting from a number of loans from Man City as they are a partner club. 
That level of transfer spend is highly unusual in the Belgian 2nd division, so I think it’s fair to say he had a significant amount of help to get them from bottom to 3rd. 
 

He took the job at MK Dons for the 21/22 season after Russell Martin left for Swansea. 
As regular readers will know, I was very keen on City signing Scott Twine. It’s for that reason that I saw a lot of MK Dons that season as I was keen to watch as much of Twine as I could. 
They had a superb season. 89 points, finishing 3rd and losing in the playoffs (rather craply to Wycombe). 

I watched a number of their games that season and they were a joy to watch. 
I am a tad bias here, because I absolutely loved watching Twine play. 

He’d mostly set up with 3 at the back (usually Darling, O’Hora and Lewington). All 3 were encouraged to play and they enjoyed vast amounts of possession. McEacheran and Matt O’Riley were a beautifully balanced midfield and then Twine creating in behind a striker - usually Eisa. 
They were superb to watch but their passing from the back style did get them into trouble a few times. 
 

As much as they played beautiful football that season, I can’t actually put it all down to Manning. He’d inherited a team which was already set up to play that way from Russell Martin - I think Manning just carried on his good work. 
Martin had signed Fisher (the keeper), Darling, O’Hora, Harvie, McEacheran, O’Riley, Kasuma and Twine. 
Martin had basically assembled this stylish squad. 
 

He lost the keeper in January to Swansea. The keeper was the catalyst to the playing out from the back style. 
He also very crucially lost O’Riley in January to Celtic. 
I thought this would be a massive blow as O’Riley was quite simply excellent. 
Manning signed a couple of loans to replace them - A keeper from Chelsea and a midfielder from West Ham (so clearly using his contacts from his West Ham u23 days). 
Twine was outstanding for the rest of the season and they didn’t miss O’Riley as much as I thought they would. 
 

So, a beautiful football team that season but one which was assembled by the previous manager. 
 

The next season didn’t start well. Won 4, Drew 3, Lost 13!! 
He’s lost the nucleus of the team though. Darling & Twine both leaving - probably the best 2 players in the league the season before. This was always going to be a massive blow. 
He also lost Kasumu in CM, who gave a tonne of legs and energy. 
 

He replaced Darling & Twine with Jack Tucker and Conor Grant. 
2 players who I was actually quite fond of myself, but they were nowhere near the same level of quality as those he lost. 
It was always going to be a bit of a struggle but quite how they went from the most beautiful team in League 1 to losing 13 of 20 is baffling. 
 

Onto Oxford. He arrived at the back end of last season when they sat 19th and in danger of the drop. He managed to keep them up but I think that was more down to other teams being so poor. He only won 2 of 12 games but got enough draws (5) to stave off relegation. 
I watched Oxford a couple of times last season before he arrived and I thought they were awful. I wouldn’t have been surprised had they gone down. So he kept them up, but only just in reality. 
 

This season, the Oxford I see now are chalk and cheese to the Oxford I saw last year who were awful. They are now playing the good stuff that Manning had at MK (perhaps it wasn’t all down to Russ Martin after all??)

He’s made some decent signings that fit his style. 
He’s loaned in a keeper from Brighton to help him play from the back. 
He brought McEacheran with him from MK - a good ball retainer for league 1. 
He brought Rodrigues in from Notts (this is his Twine, the creative roaming attacking midfielder type). 
He brought in Greg Leigh who has been an absolute revelation at wing back. 
He’s got McGuane playing well (I wasn’t overly impressed with him the year before but Manning seems to have lit his fire). 
He’s also made another couple of loans from Prem clubs to supplement his squad.  
 

Add Cameron Brannigan to this and with a tandem of either Brannigan/Maguane or Brannigan/McEacheran and he’s got a dominant ball retaining midfield. 
I think he’s still mostly playing 3 at the back as he did at MK, but he’s played a 4 sometimes too. I think he’s mostly switched to a 3 after the arrival of Leigh at wing back, so he seems open to changing his formation to suit his players. 

I must say, the transformation of the awful Oxford team last season to the stylish and winning team of this season is a remarkable one. And there is no doubt about it that this is 100% down to Manning. 
 

I can understand why many fans will see this as a rather underwhelming choice, but he is exactly the sort of person who fits the remit of how we are wanting to play. 
But ultimately, Manning’s style of play requires the right players to be able to play it. 
He’s always favoured a keeper who can play from the back - we don’t have that. 
He likes 2 deep CM’s who can control and dominate possession - we don’t have that. 
He likes a creative AM - we don’t have that. 
He likes high wing backs - we kinda half have that. 
He likes 3 CB’s who can build from the back - we don’t really have that. Naismith yes, but the others no. 
 

So he may be the right man for the way we WANT to play, but I actually don’t believe we have the players who can fit that style. 

Your last point sums it Up for me. Would be an exciting appointment for me, that I’d get on board with, but we’re get again back in ‘give me 3 transfer windows to get my team’ territory. 

[Harry]

4 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Your last point sums it Up for me. Would be an exciting appointment for me, that I’d get on board with, but we’re get again back in ‘give me 3 transfer windows to get my team’ territory. 

Yes. Thats my main concern too. 
If I assess his 2 successful squads, we don’t have the Twine or Rodrigues who is the main creator. We don’t have the 2 CM’s who can control possession. We’ve signed Jason Knight - he’s neither a creative AM or a possession heavy DM. I don’t think he fits. We certainly don’t have the play out from the back ability in our keeper and CM’s.

The teams he’s managed - we don’t have the personnel right now for his preferred style. Either he changes or we have to rebuild the squad 

[Malago]

Anybody who sets up with a back 3 is an absolute no no for me.

[Mr Popodopolous]

17 minutes ago, Harry said:

Yes. Thats my main concern too. 
If I assess his 2 successful squads, we don’t have the Twine or Rodrigues who is the main creator. We don’t have the 2 CM’s who can control possession. We’ve signed Jason Knight - he’s neither a creative AM or a possession heavy DM. I don’t think he fits. We certainly don’t have the play out from the back ability in our keeper and CM’s.

The teams he’s managed - we don’t have the personnel right now for his preferred style. Either he changes or we have to rebuild the squad 

Vyner and Atkinson can carry to an extent?

Naismith in midfield perhaps with his range of passing.

Back when there was still a theoretical hope of Scott staying, I wondered about a central 3 of:

   Naismith

Scott Knight

Or whatever configuration but that 3.

Edited November 3, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[Harry]

9 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Vyner and Atkinson can carry to an extent?

Naismith in midfield perhaps with his range of passing.

Back when there was still a theoretical hope of Scott staying, I wondered about a central 3 of:

   Naismith

Scott Knight

Or whatever configuration but that 3.

Atkinson (and Dickie) can both carry the ball out. They often stride into midfield and then run into dead ends. 
But that’s not Manning’s way. It’s pass pass pass build build build. Cb’s who carry the ball forward are not part of his plan. 
Knight, as much as I love his energy and determination, he isn’t a creative 10 nor a holding 6. Again, this is how Manning’s teams dominate the ball - Knight is great at certain things but this is not one of them 

[W-S-M Seagull]

46 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Lampard's "achievements" have happened at clubs where they are expected to happen. He's not improved teams. He's kept them where they should be.

By wage budget, history, expectation, we should be mid table in the Championship. If that's where you want to finish then track record says sign Lampard up.

Manning's taken 19th placed Oxford and has them 2nd right now. He took 13th placed MK Dons to the playoffs before that. He took Lommel SK from bottom to third place in Belgium. He improves teams beyond what's expected. He gets squads to outperform.

That's what we need because...whatever the Lansdowns might think...we don't have a squad or wage bill fit for the top 6.

Mate don't waste your time. There is no way that you're going to convince me that a guy that got sacked from MK Don's is the right guy for us

 

Just because they had a decent start he is the guy to replace Nige. Please

[W-S-M Seagull]

4 minutes ago, Harry said:

Atkinson (and Dickie) can both carry the ball out. They often stride into midfield and then run into dead ends. 
But that’s not Manning’s way. It’s pass pass pass build build build. Cb’s who carry the ball forward are not part of his plan. 
Knight, as much as I love his energy and determination, he isn’t a creative 10 nor a holding 6. Again, this is how Manning’s teams dominate the ball - Knight is great at certain things but this is not one of them 

But thats not our stated game either ris it? 

We want to play fast direct high pressing football? Not pass pass pass. 

[maxjak]

34 minutes ago, Harry said:

Yes. Thats my main concern too. 
If I assess his 2 successful squads, we don’t have the Twine or Rodrigues who is the main creator. We don’t have the 2 CM’s who can control possession. We’ve signed Jason Knight - he’s neither a creative AM or a possession heavy DM. I don’t think he fits. We certainly don’t have the play out from the back ability in our keeper and CM’s.

The teams he’s managed - we don’t have the personnel right now for his preferred style. Either he changes or we have to rebuild the squad 

If Manning got the job he would probably do what a lot of new managers do......go back to where he knows, and raid his former club.  I don't know Oxford too well, but i believe Branagan is their chief playmaker and top of assists.  Though i could be way off?  But you can guarantee he would bring in someone he rates from his former club?  IF he got the job?  I have my doubts it will be Manning however??

Edited November 3, 2023 by maxjak

[Mr Popodopolous]

24 minutes ago, Harry said:

Atkinson (and Dickie) can both carry the ball out. They often stride into midfield and then run into dead ends. 
But that’s not Manning’s way. It’s pass pass pass build build build. Cb’s who carry the ball forward are not part of his plan. 
Knight, as much as I love his energy and determination, he isn’t a creative 10 nor a holding 6. Again, this is how Manning’s teams dominate the ball - Knight is great at certain things but this is not one of them 

Thanks. What about had we managed to somehow retain Scott and get him into midfield with Naismith, might this have looked different.

Knight isn't a top technical player I agree. Scott would be a gamechanger...possibly if Scott was still in there, there might be space for say Atkinson to carry a bit further.

Edited November 3, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[Davefevs]

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

But thats not our stated game either ris it? 

We want to play fast direct high pressing football? Not pass pass pass. 

I tend to agree…pass, pass, pass without purpose is boring.  Pass, pass, pass with purpose, even if it appears to be boring, but has manoeuvred players into positions to go for the jugular is a bit different (eg Man City).  But you need excellent technicians for that imho.

If I was to look at a Championship style I like from what I’ve seen this season it would be Rosenior’s Hull City.  Great patterns, sucked us in and then exploited the gaps.  Perversely when we dropped in a bit (mid-block) it caused them issues, and in fact it was us playing “fast, attacking, football”, so we need the Chairman to talk about his stuff, and let the football people do the explaining.

This sums it up perfectly for me!

I’d be interested to watch the rest of Manning’s Coaches Voice presentation because I’d imagine you’d start to get a feel beyond the bullshit bingo.

There were two really good ones I watched recently.  Russell Martin (who boils my piss) did an excellent one from last season at Swansea, although you could see the flaws in it as soon as they were without the ball.  The other was Rob Edwards of Luton.

I still have no idea who is gonna take charge, and in many respects I don’t care.

[firstdivision]

4 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I tend to agree…pass, pass, pass without purpose is boring.  Pass, pass, pass with purpose, even if it appears to be boring, but has manoeuvred players into positions to go for the jugular is a bit different (eg Man City).  But you need excellent technicians for that imho.

If I was to look at a Championship style I like from what I’ve seen this season it would be Rosenior’s Hull City.  Great patterns, sucked us in and then exploited the gaps.  Perversely when we dropped in a bit (mid-block) it caused them issues, and in fact it was us playing “fast, attacking, football”, so we need the Chairman to talk about his stuff, and let the football people do the explaining.

This sums it up perfectly for me!

I’d be interested to watch the rest of Manning’s Coaches Voice presentation because I’d imagine you’d start to get a feel beyond the bullshit bingo.

There were two really good ones I watched recently.  Russell Martin (who boils my piss) did an excellent one from last season at Swansea, although you could see the flaws in it as soon as they were without the ball.  The other was Rob Edwards of Luton.

I still have no idea who is gonna take charge, and in many respects I don’t care.

Liam Rosenoir is a coach to keep an eye on. I know a perceptive Hull supporter who was convinced they'd finish top six this season. I've heard you say he's bit of a moaner, Dave, but plenty are in football.  I know someone who's known him since he was a lad - always said he was bright and a nice lad. His dad's a decent bloke, too. I know that from personal experience. We could do much worse than Liam, not that I think it's a likely option this time.

Edited November 3, 2023 by firstdivision

[exAtyeoMax]

5 hours ago, Harry said:

So, Liam Manning. 
No doubt a name many City fans aren’t very familiar with. 
Not much of a playing career which he finished early to focus on coaching. Spending 4 years with West Ham’s under 23’s during the period when Declan Rice was coming through. 
Manning’s style of play is very much focussed around a style of player such as Rice, so I have no doubt that his coaching and way of playing would have been a good influence on Rice. 
 

His first proper job as a manager was in the Belgian 2nd division with Lommel. He took them from bottom of the league to 3rd in his one season there. However, this really needs to have a caveat - he spent over £11m as well as benefiting from a number of loans from Man City as they are a partner club. 
That level of transfer spend is highly unusual in the Belgian 2nd division, so I think it’s fair to say he had a significant amount of help to get them from bottom to 3rd. 
 

He took the job at MK Dons for the 21/22 season after Russell Martin left for Swansea. 
As regular readers will know, I was very keen on City signing Scott Twine. It’s for that reason that I saw a lot of MK Dons that season as I was keen to watch as much of Twine as I could. 
They had a superb season. 89 points, finishing 3rd and losing in the playoffs (rather craply to Wycombe). 

I watched a number of their games that season and they were a joy to watch. 
I am a tad bias here, because I absolutely loved watching Twine play. 

He’d mostly set up with 3 at the back (usually Darling, O’Hora and Lewington). All 3 were encouraged to play and they enjoyed vast amounts of possession. McEacheran and Matt O’Riley were a beautifully balanced midfield and then Twine creating in behind a striker - usually Eisa. 
They were superb to watch but their passing from the back style did get them into trouble a few times. 
 

As much as they played beautiful football that season, I can’t actually put it all down to Manning. He’d inherited a team which was already set up to play that way from Russell Martin - I think Manning just carried on his good work. 
Martin had signed Fisher (the keeper), Darling, O’Hora, Harvie, McEacheran, O’Riley, Kasuma and Twine. 
Martin had basically assembled this stylish squad. 
 

He lost the keeper in January to Swansea. The keeper was the catalyst to the playing out from the back style. 
He also very crucially lost O’Riley in January to Celtic. 
I thought this would be a massive blow as O’Riley was quite simply excellent. 
Manning signed a couple of loans to replace them - A keeper from Chelsea and a midfielder from West Ham (so clearly using his contacts from his West Ham u23 days). 
Twine was outstanding for the rest of the season and they didn’t miss O’Riley as much as I thought they would. 
 

So, a beautiful football team that season but one which was assembled by the previous manager. 
 

The next season didn’t start well. Won 4, Drew 3, Lost 13!! 
He’s lost the nucleus of the team though. Darling & Twine both leaving - probably the best 2 players in the league the season before. This was always going to be a massive blow. 
He also lost Kasumu in CM, who gave a tonne of legs and energy. 
 

He replaced Darling & Twine with Jack Tucker and Conor Grant. 
2 players who I was actually quite fond of myself, but they were nowhere near the same level of quality as those he lost. 
It was always going to be a bit of a struggle but quite how they went from the most beautiful team in League 1 to losing 13 of 20 is baffling. 
 

Onto Oxford. He arrived at the back end of last season when they sat 19th and in danger of the drop. He managed to keep them up but I think that was more down to other teams being so poor. He only won 2 of 12 games but got enough draws (5) to stave off relegation. 
I watched Oxford a couple of times last season before he arrived and I thought they were awful. I wouldn’t have been surprised had they gone down. So he kept them up, but only just in reality. 
 

This season, the Oxford I see now are chalk and cheese to the Oxford I saw last year who were awful. They are now playing the good stuff that Manning had at MK (perhaps it wasn’t all down to Russ Martin after all??)

He’s made some decent signings that fit his style. 
He’s loaned in a keeper from Brighton to help him play from the back. 
He brought McEacheran with him from MK - a good ball retainer for league 1. 
He brought Rodrigues in from Notts (this is his Twine, the creative roaming attacking midfielder type). 
He brought in Greg Leigh who has been an absolute revelation at wing back. 
He’s got McGuane playing well (I wasn’t overly impressed with him the year before but Manning seems to have lit his fire). 
He’s also made another couple of loans from Prem clubs to supplement his squad.  
 

Add Cameron Brannigan to this and with a tandem of either Brannigan/Maguane or Brannigan/McEacheran and he’s got a dominant ball retaining midfield. 
I think he’s still mostly playing 3 at the back as he did at MK, but he’s played a 4 sometimes too. I think he’s mostly switched to a 3 after the arrival of Leigh at wing back, so he seems open to changing his formation to suit his players. 

I must say, the transformation of the awful Oxford team last season to the stylish and winning team of this season is a remarkable one. And there is no doubt about it that this is 100% down to Manning. 
 

I can understand why many fans will see this as a rather underwhelming choice, but he is exactly the sort of person who fits the remit of how we are wanting to play. 
But ultimately, Manning’s style of play requires the right players to be able to play it. 
He’s always favoured a keeper who can play from the back - we don’t have that. 
He likes 2 deep CM’s who can control and dominate possession - we don’t have that. 
He likes a creative AM - we don’t have that. 
He likes high wing backs - we kinda half have that. 
He likes 3 CB’s who can build from the back - we don’t really have that. Naismith yes, but the others no. 
 

So he may be the right man for the way we WANT to play, but I actually don’t believe we have the players who can fit that style. 

How would he fit with our management structure? Is he too clever?

[YGBjammy]

If they are targeting Manning, presumably there won't be any movement until Sunday at the earliest? And even then, they're playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday this coming week! Tricky one

[BigTone]

8 hours ago, bpexile said:

With his disciples' Tone???

Needs a bavkroom team so why not

[One Team]

**** me I hope it’s not Manning, about as uninspiring as you can get as a replacement for Nige.