Ex-Staff Liam Manning

[isibuko]

But his cv could start looking real crap if he doesnt actually stay anywhere for long.

Depends on perspective, doesn't it? In his first jo in the UK he got MK to the playoffs (though they didn't win). Moved to Oxford, kept up a team who were in a tailspin and the next season had them in 2nd. Jumped up a league and took Bristol City to their first playoffs in 17 years. Norwich are probably a 'bigger' club than Bristol City so it's a move that totally makes sense if you have ego and ambition, which managers have to have in some way to do their job effectively.

Whatever you think of Manning it's a pretty impressive CV so far - I don't think owners care too much about loyalty in that sense because one man's loyalty is another man's ambition.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Depends on perspective, doesn't it? In his first jo in the UK he got MK to the playoffs (though they didn't win). Moved to Oxford, kept up a team who were in a tailspin and the next season had them in 2nd. Jumped up a league and took Bristol City to their first playoffs in 17 years. Norwich are probably a 'bigger' club than Bristol City so it's a move that totally makes sense if you have ego and ambition, which managers have to have in some way to do their job effectively.

Whatever you think of Manning it's a pretty impressive CV so far - I don't think owners care too much about loyalty in that sense because one man's loyalty is another man's ambition.

Or you could say lost playoffs with MK and set the team towards relegation, kept Oxford up and started well then started to wobble and jumped ship to Bristol, where he got them to the playoffs but again fell way short when it mattered. He's going to need to show a solid achievement soon.

 

[isibuko]

Or you could say lost playoffs with MK and set the team towards relegation, kept Oxford up and started well then started to wobble and jumped ship to Bristol, where he got them to the playoffs but again fell way short when it mattered. He's going to need to show a solid achievement soon.

That's why I said 'depends on perspective'. In reality I'd say probably both things are true - he's had a decent managerial career so far and his stock has definitely risen, but he probably does need something more 'concrete' in the next few seasons to keep that stock rising.

 

[unification]

LOL. Yep .

 

[Mad Dog]

Liam “half a job” Manning


Liam “The Snake” Manning


Liam “The Slut” Manning

 

[90syeIlow]

Can’t stand Manning personally.

Zero charisma, personality and jumps ship before a ‘project’ is finished.

Eventually this will come back to bite him.

 

[Northstandboy]

Can’t stand Manning personally.

Zero charisma, personality and jumps ship before a ‘project’ is finished.

Eventually this will come back to bite him.

Didn’t we say this when he left us to to to Bristol?!

 

[NottsYellow]

For Manning to be successful long term, one needs to ask is he building good connections and respect in the football world with players and other managers/coaches.
People who have worked under/with him (apart from his immediate two assistants) would they help him out or sign for him. ie Say in 2 years time LM is at a top Championship club and wants to sign say Tyler G or Reuben R. Both have good offers from other Championship Clubs, would either player chose to sign for LM or would they stay well clear and choose the other option, ie specifically avoid LM?

 

[The Voice Of Reason]

For Manning to be successful long term, one needs to ask is he building good connections and respect in the football world with players and other managers/coaches.
People who have worked under/with him (apart from his immediate two assistants) would they help him out or sign for him. ie Say in 2 years time LM is at a top Championship club and wants to sign say Tyler G or Reuben R. Both have good offers from other Championship Clubs, would either player chose to sign for LM or would they stay well clear and choose the other option, ie specifically avoid LM?

Avoid as you don't know if he's staying and the next manager may not be for you

 

[LowerSouth]

View attachment 27777

LOL. Yep .

He left us in a good place .
His replacement achieved promotion .
His replacement achieved a 2nd season in the Championship.
Seems like him leaving did us no harm whatsoever.

 

[38yearsofpain]

Manning not backing himself long term? Surely not…

He is becoming a quick fix manager but doesn’t have enough belief in himself to follow a project through.
He changed tact towards the end of the season by saying Bristol City needed to buy players rather than develop what they had.

He had us up there in league one but didn’t have enough belief in the squad or himself to get us up which is why he jumped ship.

He is just like any aspiring executive. You get a job and within a few months you are eyeing your next slightly bigger job. Then again, then again. The so called project is noise, all it means is it buys him time to get the side working properly.
He got fired by MK and I'm sure that affects the so called loyalty perspective.
Like it or lump it, football club owners will like his profile. Then have no interest In loyalty, only results results and more results.
Do I want him back, of course not. Do I appreciate what he did for us, definitely yes. Did I like his timing of leaving, once again no. But I equally accept why.

 

[tonyw]

For Manning to be successful long term, one needs to ask is he building good connections and respect in the football world with players and other managers/coaches.
People who have worked under/with him (apart from his immediate two assistants) would they help him out or sign for him. ie Say in 2 years time LM is at a top Championship club and wants to sign say Tyler G or Reuben R. Both have good offers from other Championship Clubs, would either player chose to sign for LM or would they stay well clear and choose the other option, ie specifically avoid LM?

Depends on the player, I would have thought.

McGuane signed for him. Don't know if he had other options or not, but he didn't seem to try and avoid LM,

Course his style of play fits perfectly with Manning-ball (i.e. possession-based and a bit boring). Other players who are a bit more maverick may be more inclined to avoid.

 

[CaptainOx]

From Norwich, extended family all in the area. After the year he has had, I'm not surprised that he's leapt at the Norwich job.

 

[Stranger]

For Manning to be successful long term, one needs to ask is he building good connections and respect in the football world with players and other managers/coaches.
People who have worked under/with him (apart from his immediate two assistants) would they help him out or sign for him. ie Say in 2 years time LM is at a top Championship club and wants to sign say Tyler G or Reuben R. Both have good offers from other Championship Clubs, would either player chose to sign for LM or would they stay well clear and choose the other option, ie specifically avoid LM?

They would sign for whichever team their agents could get the best deal from

 

[greatunclekip]

He is just like any aspiring executive. You get a job and within a few months you are eyeing your next slightly bigger job. Then again, then again. The so called project is noise, all it means is it buys him time to get the side working properly.
He got fired by MK and I'm sure that affects the so called loyalty perspective.
Like it or lump it, football club owners will like his profile. Then have no interest In loyalty, only results results and more results.
Do I want him back, of course not. Do I appreciate what he did for us, definitely yes. Did I like his timing of leaving, once again no. But I equally accept why.

In hindsight I actually totally understand him leaving us. Short contract and a bigger club.

Leaving Brizzle so soon just shows him to be an absolute mercenary. Not a problem necessarily, it’s a job, but managers normally at least pretend they give a s**t about the club they are managing. LM doesn’t do even that.

 

[Eric Blair]

Do I want him back, of course not. Do I appreciate what he did for us, definitely yes. Did I like his timing of leaving, once again no. But I equally accept why.

This sums up how I feel. I’m completely nonplussed about LM. We’ve been on a hell of a ride since he left and I don’t think it would have been as breathtaking if he had stayed.

 

[90syeIlow]

This sums up how I feel. I’m completely nonplussed about LM. We’ve been on a hell of a ride since he left and I don’t think it would have been as breathtaking if he had stayed.

I agree that our fairytale end to last season and the start of this wouldn’t have happened without his departure. Getting promoted with Des is a million times better than getting promoted with him.

He’s still evidently a snake though that has zero attachment to any club and thats a concern for fans of any club that he joins.

 

[Eric Blair]

I agree that our fairytale end to last season and the start of this wouldn’t have happened without his departure. Getting promoted with Des is a million times better than getting promoted with him.

He’s still evidently a snake though that has zero attachment to any club and thats a concern for fans of any club that he joins.

Yep. That’s fair.

But without Liam leaving there is no Des and that is a world I want no part of.

 

[BicesterU]

Manning nearly got MK promoted, then got sacked after a bad spell. I think that's burned him quite badly, and has had an impact on his decisions since.

Des used to say that jobs in management end in one of two ways - sacked, or leaving for another job.

I understand why people are saying that the job-hopping might not be a good look, but football management is a brutal business and he's entitled to - understandably - make the most of the times when his stock is highest. You're only ever one sacking away from never working as a manager again.

I found the guy robotic and uninspiring, but he's obviously got a knack for what he's doing otherwise he wouldn't of had us top or got Bristol in to the play-offs for the first time in however many years.

It's a sad fact that there's very little loyalty in football, and I for one won't be spending my energy thinking about Liam Manning - until we beat Norwich again, of course.

 

[Emilio]

Des used to say that jobs in management end in one of two ways - sacked, or leaving for another job.

Or retirement.

 

[isibuko]

He’s still evidently a snake though that has zero attachment to any club

The snake stuff is fun for fans, but I've always thought it's been weird. Very few managers really have an attachment to the club beyond what Manning had. Yes, the Des story was a fairytale (but equally he was sacked by our owners at the first sign of being out of his depth, so we can ask him how he feels about that). I don't see loads of 'attachment' from Rowett to the club beyond what is pretty much normal for almost all managers - praise the fans, praise the history, praise the project, do the job, probably not always feel great about job security.

There's always been a massive imbalance in the loyalty we as fans demand from our managers when they're in charge of the club, and the pressure many fans put on the club to make a change when things aren't going well. I get it, but it's clearly not fair and so managers leaving for 'better opportunities' makes total sense really.

 

[RgYellows]

Very few managers really have an attachment to the club beyond what Manning had.

I disagree. Most people in most jobs would say goodbye to their coworkers or the people they were responsible for managing. I can count on the fingers of one hand (an Oxford hand not a Swindon hand) the people I’ve known who didn’t in my profession. They were all weird.

 

[werthersoriginal]

The snake stuff is fun for fans, but I've always thought it's been weird. Very few managers really have an attachment to the club beyond what Manning had. Yes, the Des story was a fairytale (but equally he was sacked by our owners at the first sign of being out of his depth, so we can ask him how he feels about that). I don't see loads of 'attachment' from Rowett to the club beyond what is pretty much normal for almost all managers - praise the fans, praise the history, praise the project, do the job, probably not always feel great about job security.

There's always been a massive imbalance in the loyalty we as fans demand from our managers when they're in charge of the club, and the pressure many fans put on the club to make a change when things aren't going well. I get it, but it's clearly not fair and so managers leaving for 'better opportunities' makes total sense really.

Manning left Bristol at an appropriate time - at the end of a season, which had been more successful than any of theirs for a long time - and I don't think anyone can really feel too aggrieved. He left us when he'd only just got started, had signed a bunch of players, and made backroom people redundant etc - that felt like much more of a letdown. But his manner is so boring and emotionless it's not surprising people don't really take to him.

 

[90syeIlow]

The snake stuff is fun for fans, but I've always thought it's been weird. Very few managers really have an attachment to the club beyond what Manning had. Yes, the Des story was a fairytale (but equally he was sacked by our owners at the first sign of being out of his depth, so we can ask him how he feels about that). I don't see loads of 'attachment' from Rowett to the club beyond what is pretty much normal for almost all managers - praise the fans, praise the history, praise the project, do the job, probably not always feel great about job security.

There's always been a massive imbalance in the loyalty we as fans demand from our managers when they're in charge of the club, and the pressure many fans put on the club to make a change when things aren't going well. I get it, but it's clearly not fair and so managers leaving for 'better opportunities' makes total sense really.

These are all fair points, but it’s the fact he signed players and sold them a project and then didn’t say goodbye to said players in person.

Not only that but how often does he preach about ‘behaviours’ yet some of his own are extremely questionable?

This is what earned him the snake title.

He’s practically a footballing psychopath.

 

[beyondthefourth]

Liam Manning likes a long-term project so much that he gets a different one every year.

 

[Swinny]

He kept us up then got us over-achieving to leave us in a decent place, and we went on to have the most successful/enjoyable period we've had in the best part of a decade under 2 far more interesting and relatable managers.

Don't blame him for moving on to bigger things, it's just the manner in which he did it that will always taint any "legacy" he may have had with us. Not seen if its been a similar story at Bristol, but most of the comments I've seen suggest most felt it was inevitable...if he goes on to even bigger things then fair play to him, but as many have said, it seems a bit of a risky way of going about things.

 

[Oufcrealist]

Manning is past tense. I remember after the Maidenhead game when he was interviewed denying there was anything in the rumours and on the Monday he was gone. We've had two good managers since, let's move on!!

 

[Canterburyexile]

Football is a mercenary business and I have zero issues with him playing the game.

However the way he behaved when he left us in the lurch did, and still does, rankle.

As ever in life it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.

 

[RgYellows]

Manning is past tense. I remember after the Maidenhead game when he was interviewed denying there was anything in the rumours and on the Monday he was gone. We've had two good managers since, let's move on!!

Great point, no one mention anything that happened before Des Buckingham. Someone tell RadOx to scrub any reference to the Swindon, Newcastle, Swansea, Carlisle and Wycombe games from that recent podcast, let’s move on!

If you don’t want to see any chat about Liam Manning then avoiding the thread called “Liam Manning” would be an excellent way to start.

 

[Big Ronaldo]

Liam Manning just did what most players do, follow the money upwards.
I don’t enjoy seeing that flaky mercenary upsticks and p**s off mid-season but I understand why.