Bristol City's retained list represents Liam Manning's first real gamble as Robins head coach

It was there in black and white, even if it didn’t necessarily need stating but was delivered out of respect: “The players departing have all been fantastic servants to this club. They are all top professionals and have all made their mark at Bristol City. I wish them the very best for their future.”

Liam Manning’s parting words were to group Matty James, Andy King and Andi Weimann together, and offer an overview of them beyond just “we thank them for their service” for the purposes of accompanying the publication of a retained list which is cruelly clinical at the best of times. The presence of each individual has been very much felt.

There’s no doubt the head coach will be more poetic and emotive when asked to reflect on each individual in the future. Although he’s already done so over the course of the season, labelling James a “massive” influence and adding, “I put a lot of responsibility on him adding a voice to the group because of the experience and the knowledge he’s got and he’s someone who’s important for what we do.” King, meanwhile, was “a massive voice in the changing room”.

All three have now gone: 395 City appearances between them, 1,290 in total in the professional game, plus a further 151 international appearances. King has retired and will be coming to an EFL dugout near you at some stage in a coaching capacity, while you’d imagine James and Weimann will secure Championship contracts elsewhere, with the latter still in the cut and thrust of the play-offs.

The trio were among the five oldest players in the City squad last season, but their departures represent more than just numbers, of course, they are in effect the turning of a page and perhaps a natural continuation of the decision made in October to dismiss Nigel Pearson.

King and James were signings very much driven by the former manager when they arrived at Ashton Gate within 10 days of each other in the summer of 2021. King after a period of inactivity with OH Leuven, where he had begun to fall out of love with the game, and James following his release by Leicester City but on the back of impressive loan spells at Barnsley and Coventry City.

Pearson noted at the time with James that he was "everything you want from a midfield player", and while the 32-year-old unquestionably became an essential player over his three seasons at the club, his and King’s arrivals were about much more than minutes on the field.

It’s been hinted and suggested rather than outright said so, but evidently the City dressing room and general atmosphere within the squad was not one conducive to a progressive and competitive Championship outfit when that duo entered it with too many factions and/or individuals not quite on message.

A less dramatic depiction would be that after a summer in which nine senior individuals left the club, some pillars needed to be constructed to help build a collective squad ethos and collective responsibility around; those pillars being King and James, with one such figure in place in Weimann.

The Austrian was coming off the back of a devastating ACL injury - one of many moments of absolute rotten luck for Dean Holden in the preceding season - but was precisely the sort of individual you could see gelling with Pearson, in terms of on and off-field characteristics: dependable with a consistent temperament who would run all day (and night), with an intense dedication to his craft and act as an example for others.

It probably wasn’t quite envisaged that he would go on to deliver 22 goals in 47 matches in a simply outrageous season but that came as an added bonus, and reward for all his endeavours. A haul that, as the retained list detailed, will now see him added to the club's honours board.

James was there for 33 of those games as he established himself as a regular presence and voice in the middle of the park, something that would grow in intensity over his time at the club to the point where the opinion, “we look a worse team without Jamo in it” and “you realise how could Jamo is when he’s not in the team” became cliche. He also served as a club captain for the final 18 months of his time in red after Dan Bentley left for Wolves in January last year.

In the background, King proved a bridge between dressing room and staff and also a key mentor at a time when the club urgently needed it as a raft of talent was making the jump from academy to first-team: Alex Scott, Tommy Conway, Sam Bell and Ayman Benarous, plus the older pros such as Zak Vyner, Max O’Leary and Cam Pring experiencing their first few seasons for the club, and the number of younger players being signed - George Tanner, Rob Atkinson, Kane Wilson, Mark Sykes and Anis Mehmeti, among the examples.

In the blink of an eye, those pillars have been removed, or maybe not quite a blink. Two were largely expected given the decision to loan Weimann out in January after an underwhelming start to 2023/24 and with the recognition that further appearances would activate a 12-month extension the club didn’t want to sanction, while the only query around King was whether he’d be offered a coaching role.

James was left with a little uncertainty given he started 33 of a possible 46 Championship games this term and Manning’s insistence towards the end of the season that he may not have played his last match for the club as surgery on a hernia ruled him out of the closer at Stoke; a game he also attended in person as part of the squad, something he didn’t need too but speaks further volumes of the man.

It’s simplistic but sometimes these things are, as the decision not to extend each one, just as Manning’s words were grouped together, can also be gathered under one heading: a break from the previous regime.

That’s not to say they are purely “Pearson players”, because all spoke well of Manning as well, but it’s highly unlikely James and King would be at the club in the first place without the 60-year-old. While Weimann very nearly left the club in 2021 for Stoke before City’s original two-year offer became three and that may well have been down to the intervention of the manager. But clearly their exits give the squad a distinctly less-Pearson feel (whether this was deliberate or not, who knows, and it probably wasn’t because at least in Weimann and King’s sense you can see the very clear sporting reasons, but, at the same time you can ignore the symbolic significance of it).

Politics-aside though, which is only of limited relevance, really, it takes away considerable intangibles from within the group, for which two of them - King and James - were brought to the club to instil. Nahki Wells and Kal Naismith now stand alone as the only thirty-somethings in the group and the former isn’t the same kind of character as James or King. His commitment to his craft is undoubtedly there to be admired but he’s not a leader, as such, at least not in the traditional and understood sense, while Naismith’s lack of availability has been such, it’s hard for him to have had much impact over the last six months.

There’s unquestionably a void left by their departures, Manning frequently commented throughout the season on wanting “several leaders out there”, or words to that effect, beyond just the man in possession of the armband, which tended to be James.

Maybe that was to foreshadow the 32-year-old’s exit, but this seems to have been a calculated risk taken, which leads to two conclusions: there is a confidence the next group of players can take on the mantle - individuals such as Vyner, O’Leary, Rob Dickie, even Tommy Conway, who hold a presence in the dressing room and are “talkers”, plus 23-going-on-28 Jason Knight whose maturity and authority is remarkable for his age. Max Bird may also prove to be an individual cast in such an image given his wealth of experience at Derby County.

As an extension of that, it’s in-part a tribute in itself to James, King and Weimann that the club feel they can take such a decision; the cultural foundations they have created are deemed to be of a suitable strength that those individuals can be moved on and their principles will remain, "you killed the man, but not the idea" etc.

King indicated as such when he told Bristol Live : “It’s on them now if they want to hopefully show the next group of youngsters - whether than be Ephraim (Yeboah) or Jed (Meerholz) or whoever - how to behave, how to eat right, how to train properly. It’s on them and that’s how a culture builds throughout a club.”

The other is, and perhaps slightly less likely given priorities in attacking areas - not traditionally the breeding ground for selfless individuals - that there are plans afoot to recruit such characters to continue the process. Certainly James’ exit does leave the Robins a little bit lighter than before in the middle of the park, even taking Bird’s arrival into consideration, and if there were genuine moves to keep him in BS3, you'd hope there was an alternative considered.

Manning’s time in charge hasn’t exactly illuminated the 38-year-old as a gambler, willing to throw caution to the wind - he’s big on structure, habits, problem solving and method - logical stuff, really. But this all does seem something of a gamble, and the first of such kind depending on you calculate the Dire Mebude-related losses.

To have taken so much experience and knowhow out of the squad, a team that we’re constantly told in mitigation for the consistent inconsistencies is one of the youngest in the league (which it is), requires new voices and characters to step up, and a significant shift from within.

At least one intriguing aspect of next season is already set - exactly who will emerge as the next generation of leaders at the club as the previous one moves on.

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