I've listened to his press conference and admit to being quite impressed with him. Cool, confident and has a quiet assurance about him. Lose Saturday and.......
I want him to do well, same as all our managers. I hope the Nige ‘lovers’ don’t turn on him quickly just because he’s replaced him. I can’t remember a time when a manager as popular as Nige was sacked. Even Cotts wasnt as popular when he went. Big shoes to fill. Best of luck Liam.
... and it gives him a good chance to look at the squad prior to the transfer window coming up soon even though we know only too well that we don't get our feet wet in January very often - if at all. Perhaps a shot in the dark can get the job done just as well as some of the so-called seasoned veterans out there in the bushes, only to make another appearance to save some poor habitual strugglers desperate for someone with just a little knowledge of the game. Many great managers have started at ground zero and risen to see the stars playing for them but for now I'll keep those thoughts to myself. At least we didn't wait until the time was absolutely wrong, as we have done in our past to our ongoing detriment, because this time out Liam has been afforded precious space in which to meet and assess what he has in his arsenal before having a heart to heart, with whichever suit is in the office on any given day, to get the necessary funding to build the next brick in the wall. The start of 2024 has to be filled with hope, and not extra weight from the excesses of the holidays, therefore we have to believe that Liam can get the support he desperately needs to allow him to make progress throughout the whole year ahead. Is it just me or does he look a lot like Eddie Howe in disguise???
SO WHAT WERE THEY DOING IN THE MEAN TIME... 10 days or more of dragging it out ........ or did the bookies club together and say look we need to make some money hang it out for a while .........lol
I watched the press conference, talks well, seems confident. I can see why he impressed our board, he certainly talks a good game, he reminds me of a recent manager of ours in that respect. Let’s hope he’s as good a coach as he is a talker. Good luck to him.
What i find strange if this guy was first choice why was it Saturday before contact was made. Was he first choice this is the question
Also when JL gave his interview he said we’d be excited by their choice. This guy may turn out to be the second messiah, but most of us had never heard of him before. Together with Manning statement about only being contacted Sat makes you wonder. it’s water under the bridge now, he’s here personally I’ll give him my full support and see what happens. My judgment of where we finish the season is more of the board than Manning himself, they were the ones that set his objectives so high. They were the ones who said the previous manager wasn’t getting enough out of this squad of players. They will be the ones who will need to provide answers if their new guy doesn’t achieve what they believe is achievable.
reading between the lines and watching listening to the interviews and the regular change of the "fav", to be changed along with the obvious link of the odd "out of work" managers on the short list being added to it was pretty obvious it was not going to be a straight forward event selecting a manager. .......are you excited? .... Frankly I am not! but he does follow along the lines of whom [ TYPE] the manager might be. bit like Japanese car firms didnt like employing workers from other car manufacturers as they came with the habits of the previous employment. BCFC seems to like to take on younger less experienced individuals still learning the trade and can fall in with the clubs successful Academy process
He’s just bought a house in Oxford, Chris Hogg is further East. Do you really believe that they both agreed to the job in the past day or two. They probably sounded out the agents last week, then worked on compensation package. It won’t have been done in 48 hours.
BCFC have a number of properties around Bristol so hopefully one of them will be his base till he settles! Then maybe another house and rent out his in OXFORD! His release clause would have sorted that bit, and I suspect if he was the one they wanted unless he was over demanding and said NEED THIS THAT AND THE OTHER for my house / Bristol residence/ family ETC's then shouldnt really take to long! ?
ITV did a live interview with him the day he was appointed, when asked when was he approached by Bristol City, he did say the day before.. Maybe he had word from his agent that he/Oxford would be approached which gave him the time to decide if offered..
Long read guys but well worth it So what’s all this fuss about Liam Manning? How does a manager who initiated MK Dons' surprise relegation into League Two last season now find himself in the dugout of a stable Championship club? Well, image goes a long way. And Manning's image is one of deep knowledge and unmistakable potential. He's like an AI-generated modern football manager. He has answers. Good answers. But most of all, he ticks all the boxes of what the modern fan appreciates and wants to see. He gets philosophy. He gets tactics. He gets process. He gets xG. He gets all analytics. He gets youth player development. He gets going abroad to learn your craft. He gets pretty much everything. But he never gets emotional. And personally, I don’t like that about him. I prefer the occasional spike from a manager, just to know he’s human so I can get my profiling kicks. But Manning is immaculate. Too immaculate. Like a comprehensive ChatGPT response. When he gets a prompt from a local reporter, everything that comes back is polished and professional - in a way that leaves you wondering more about the database that the reply came from, rather than the actual reply itself. If he sounds like a walking coaching manual, it’s not only because he has evidently swallowed several of them but also because he has already been coaching for 17 years. He might only be 38 but Manning bought himself a 14-year runway to the senior touchline after quickly giving up the ghost of a playing career that was never going to happen. Jose Mourinho was the main man when he first started putting out balls, bibs and cones. And believe it or not, Manning shares a lot of personality traits with the Special One - the main difference being masculine and feminine flow states, which from the outside is a world of difference. When Mourinho was in his pomp, the buzz was logistics and documentation. The Portuguese took match preparation and training ground effectiveness to a whole new level and that's what every aspiring young coach wanted to emulate. So Manning has the bulky dossier and in-depth presentation - "I think it's now the tenth edition" - with several hundred slides that detail his entire football philosophy step by step. Pep Guardiola is the big dog nowadays and Manning already had a few years of grass roots between his studs when Pep Confidential was released and the copycat culture kicked into action. Whatever gaps he had in his knowledge of Pep, you would assume those were coloured in by a stint with City Football Group either side of Covid. The main point beIng, Manning might ache with modernity but his three years in the professional dugout are merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of the foundation he is building on. There's a derogatory line from a George Bernard Shaw play that has echoed in cynical minds for more than a century: "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." But it's an important aspect of the personality code that some people - Lead Blasts - are just born teachers. They can internalise information very quickly, stack knowledge on top of knowledge, and feel duty bound to spread the wealth rather than capitalise by keeping those insights to themselves. Manning is one of them. Had he not seen the writing on the wall and thrown in the towel on his playing career at 21, there’s no way he would have reached his current level of managerial competence. To desrcibe his leadership style in a nutshell: he’s tribe above self, and driven by a feminine desire to improve others. Players don't adapt to him, he adapts to them. So where's the blind spot? What's the weakness? Why did it go pear-shaped at Milton Keynes? And what cues will alert us to the possibility of history repeating itself? Well, he's extremely logical. In fact, make that borderline robotic. Hence, the AI analogy. In post-match interviews, Manning frequently talks about 'emotional intelligence' and 'emotional stability' as he knows he is powerless when feelings take hold of the steering wheel. Once players allow their emotions to get the better of them, his logic stops landing. And he isn't good at coping with powerful emotions, let alone harnessing them as a force to deliver big surprises, so he adopts the position of prevention being better than cure. He prefers to cross the Amazon at source. And he does it often. Constant reminders. Don't get emotional. Stick to the process. Keep your emotions in check. This is a big shift from Nigel Pearson, who bathed in a spirit of togetherness. The values Pearson leaves behind should stick around for a while in the form of a happy camp where the bonds are strong and everybody gets along. But gradually, under Manning, collective accomplishment - hitting your KPIs - will be the currency by which togetherness is fostered and maintained. So results will matter. A tension-building winless run at any point - let's say 6-8 games - could hit harder than other places, triggering unwanted compound effects. In any case, Manning is everything the club reportedly wanted when the phrase 'training ground manager' was being bandied about following Pearson's departure. He will improve players and possibly turn one or two of them into big financial assets. And objectively, Manning is right to turn his back on Oxford. Probability-wise, it's a no-brainer. The Yellows have made a solid start to the season but they are currently punching above their performance data. A top-six finish is now highly probable. But their chances of promotion next May are the wrong side of a coin toss. Instead, Manning moves up a level, in a stadium with four sides and crowds more than double the size. While from an expectation standpoint, the risks are slight. A play-off finish at any point in the next 2.5 years would be lauded from both inside and outside of Ashton Gate, yet the foundations are solid enough that a significant shortcoming would be required to dice with relegation. Perhaps most exciting of all, Manning now has the opportunity to imprint a modern brand of football on a passionate fanbase that has never truly had one. No big footsteps to follow. He's not a hostage to inevitable comparisons. This is all fresh. Then the cherry on top of the cake is the kids. As someone who isn't pushy or confrontational, Manning is on record saying he prefers to work with talented youngsters as they are naturally more open and receptive. He now walks into one of the best academies at the level where a clear pathway to the first team is already established. We know he's good, and we know he can get better. Time to find out just how high that ceiling is. please log in to view this image
He also had the nerve to say he would offer City fans the chance to enjoy their football when they come to watch down at the Gate. Who the hell does he think he is by offering an enjoyable experience that hasn't been seen in BS3 for years - the cheek of the man indeed. This entry speech mirrors the usual bog standard statements but there is an underlying personal trait that is way different than the rest and I hope it is not a detriment to our progress. He appears to live in a footballing world that is somewhat different than the rest in that he embraces other factors that he feels are important in building a successful team and I am hoping this doesn't fall afoul of the Lansdowns. He seems to be all about the business and loves what he does and so let's hope that all turns out good for us all and see how long the honeymoon lasts this time. Perhaps he is so different that he will be able to corral the team into being re-invigorated and more capable of getting the right results. Good luck Liam.
there is definetly a big void with ASe & ASc having moved on ...! Looking at Kal Naismith's history he had a period of 155 games where he scored 32 goals 1 every 5 games average! .. I dug deeper and found a summary of his ability .............. .... "He can play as an out and out striker, as a winger, in midfield, and in defence as a left back or centre back. His main attributes are his ball control and versatility." WE SAW how Bobby Reid stepped up! wonder if a forward pairing of Conway and Naismith might work?
At the moment my only concern is he's only played non league. I know about Mee and a few others but I still worry that experienced pro's might not take to him, especially if it doesn't start well. We'll see.
Wonder what Porto and Chelsea players thought about Mourinho. Or Southampton about Lawrie McMenemy thought?
