Bristol City head coach Liam Manning details scouting mission as off-season brings opportunity

Bristol City head coach Liam Manning will use the early stages of the off-season to scout potential summer signings first-hand, at home and abroad, as the Championship season comes to a close this weekend.

Full-time on Saturday at Stoke City will bring an end to the 2023/24 campaign for the Robins but after his son’s birthday party on Sunday, and before his 24-hour trek up and down Pen-y-fan, Manning will attend some of the play-off fixtures taking place next week.

In League One, with the first legs scheduled on Saturday, Bolton Wanderers then host Barnsley on Tuesday, followed by Manning’s former club Oxford United in action against Peterborough United on Wednesday.

The League Two semi-finals, meanwhile, between Crawley Town and MK Dons and Crewe Alexandra and Doncaster Rovers will be played on Bank Holiday Monday, Thursday and Friday.

In recent transfer windows, City have recruited Anis Mehmeti (Wycombe Wanderers), Rob Atkinson and Mark Sykes (Oxford United), Jason Knight and Max Bird (Derby County), Haydon Roberts was also on loan with the Rams, and George Tanner (Carlisle United) from lower down the EFL pyramid.

With a number of leagues in Europe running all the way through May, there could also be the option to attend matches overseas with technical director Brian Tinnion admitting in March the identity of their new striker could be found overseas, due to a lack of options in the English market for the particular profile of player City are looking for.

“I’ll get out to a few play-off games and then there’s the scope to maybe go to a few abroad if they fit,” Manning said. “Of course, I watch a lot of the games anyway but it’s different if you go live and in-person, so if I can get to some I will.

“It’s a case of being efficient with your time, so I’ll definitely get to some games in England and if there’s someone that we really feel is worthwhile going to watch then I’ll do that but there’s also a huge amount of trust in the recruitment guys as they’re constantly here, there and everywhere, watching games.”

Such scouting trips by the head coach look to therefore be the final step in making a move on individuals with the bulk of the work having already been conducted earlier in the year, if not before.

Manning and Tinnion have not shied away from the fact that this summer will mainly be occupied by trying to add to the attacking department as, in very basic terms, the difference between City being a solid mid-table side and one capable of reaching the top six has fallen on the amount of times they’ve found the target.

In terms of fewest goals conceded, the Robins rank joint-third in the Championship but at the other end they have the league’s 14th-most potent attack. With the bulk of the squad expected to remain intact, particularly in defence, any tweaks will occur further forward.

“We’re doing a lot of the work,” Manning added. “The conversations are constant, they obviously ramp up a bit now but you have to go through the right channels, you have to do things properly, and in such a fluid market it can change so quickly. We’re ready to move quickly, as and when.

“I get a weekly report that tells me all the games they’ve been to, the players they’ve watched, the grading we do. I sit with Sean (Gilhespy, head of technical recruitment) and Brian regularly, so those chats are constant and that’s the bit where you have to be smart with how you work; you have a Plan A, but what you don’t want to do is wait right up to the last minute and Plan A doesn’t happen and then you find yourself in a position where you’re ending up with Plan E.

“You have to commit the time and energy into getting the exact ones you want but if it’s looking like it’s not going to happen or a challenge too far or unreachable then you have to at some point make a decision to move on.

“That’s why it’s about being proactive in the window, which we definitely are, and then there’s a skillset in being reactive.”

The hope remains that, as has been the case over the past two summers, that new players can be secured before pre-season starts to aid how quickly they settle at the club, and also ensure they grow accustomed to the way Manning wants to work as quickly as possible.

It also removes the possibility of having to scrape around at the end of the window, often searching for a player that you didn’t necessarily want to sign earlier in the summer. Recent history, with Sykes, Dickie, Roberts, Ross McCrorie and Kal Naismith all signed before mid-June suggests that’s more than just a pipe dream and it’s very much a realistic aim.

“Ideally, I like to,” Manning said. “I think it helps with the way we work in pre-season and integrating in the group, the social side, players understanding how you want to play, what you want to do and their roles and responsibilities, the early you can get them in the better. “So I’m hopeful we can turn up at the start of pre-season with some new faces.”

One individual that Manning would undoubtedly like to see walk through the doors of the High Performance Centre with his boots in hand and delivering that trademark smile is Scott Twine.

The on-loan playmaker is starting to show his best qualities just as his time in the West Country comes to an end with City now having to wait several weeks before Burnley’s Premier League season finishes before they can get a proper idea of whether it’s possible to bring the 24-year-old back on a permanent arrangement.

“As I said after the game at the weekend, I thought he was excellent,” Manning added. “He was unfortunate with injury, I think he started terrifically against Watford then he was out for such a long period which coincided with us having a tough time and then since he’s been back, understandably it’s taken him a bit of time to get back up to speed, but I thought he was very good against Norwich and at the weekend.

“You can see the qualities and why we brought him in and he fits the group, he fits the profile, but there are so many permutations and factors that go into whether it’s possible or not.

“Twiney’s a great example of you want him to play the positional game, but he’s best when he’s got freedom off that. The spaces he takes him, the creativity, the things he tries and what I wouldn’t want to do is stifle a player.

“But he understands his role out of possession and responsibilities. Everyone talks about his in-possession but he actually puts in a real shift when we haven’t got the ball and then when we do, and his quality’s right, he brings others into play like Syksey, like Tommy - you see the chances they’ve had off the back of moments with him.”

The arrivals in January of Twine and winger Dire Mebude, who looks set to return to Westerlo after an underwhelming five months in BS3, and Taylor Gardner-Hickman towards the end of the summer window, have represented a slight change in direction for City.

Previously the Robins never dealt in loans, with Manning’s predecessor Nigel Pearson reluctant over the financial value of temporarily signing someone else’s player for no return, the pressure and expectation that places on selection, while also querying whether the culture of the club was set up for such an addition to thrive.

But that stance is understandably softening as recent examples show and it seems to be a market that will also be explored by the club, although loans don’t tend to arrive so early in the summer given the priorities of various top-flight clubs over their own pre-seasons.

“Possibly, I wouldn’t rule it out,” Manning added. “I’ll always be quite clear, we always look in-house first, we’ll then look at permanents and then if we can’t get what we need in those markets, like with Twiney, then we’ll look at the loan market.

"Whether that’s a loan, ideally with the option of making it permanent or, if none of those options are available then if you have to take a loan, then that’s a last resort but you have to be open to it if you want to build a side that progressively moves forward and competes.”

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