Bristol City preparing for a busy summer under Liam Manning

National World - LocalTV

BristolWorld reporter Joe Dixon has revealed that he expects Bristol City to do their fair share of business this summer under Liam Manning, in order to prepare the Robins for a potential promotion push next season.

Transcript

00:00 It's a job to know really. Obviously it's going to be Liam's first summer in charge,

00:07 so I'm sure he's going to want to bring in certain individuals and get rid, I suppose,

00:12 of certain individuals that he knows. He's had plenty of time now to get a bit of an

00:18 idea of who he sees at the club long term and who he doesn't. There's a few ifs, buts

00:24 and maybes about a couple of players that are out of contract - Joe Williams and Matty

00:27 James, the two that spring to mind. I'd be very surprised if both of them leave or both

00:34 of them stay. I can see one of them leaving and one of them getting offered a new contract,

00:38 to be honest. Who that is is really a bit of a 50/50, I think. But Liam's made it really

00:46 clear he wants to bring in a central striker in the summer, so that would probably lean

00:51 towards someone leaving, whether that's Tommy Conway, who, like I say, his future's not

00:55 really certain as it stands. Maki Wals is into his 30s now. He's been a really good

01:01 servant for the club, but whether that means moving him on or also even Harry Cornett.

01:07 He came in under Nigel, I think it must have been the start of the season, maybe, and he

01:13 comes on the odd game. He's been in and out a little bit, but he's really struggled to

01:18 kind of nail down a starting spot. So I think there'll be some movement in and out, but

01:24 I wouldn't think there'll be wholesale changes, shall we say.

01:28 Do you think Liam Manning sees Bristol City as a project in which he's only a few months

01:34 into so far? And if that is the case, what is it that he's building to?

01:42 Well I think he does see it as a project. He's only a young manager and the club have

01:46 been very vocal that they're going to back him and they're going to give him time, which

01:49 in fairness they do with managers. Before Nigel was sacked, I think he was the second

01:55 longest serving manager in the Championship behind Mark Robbins, who's still at Coventry.

02:00 So they do give managers time and I think that's what's provided Liam with a bit of

02:04 a calm ahead, even when the results weren't going right earlier in the season. He knew

02:09 that he was going to get given time. And I think ultimately the goal for Liam and where

02:14 he wants this project to go is to the Premier League. They've made no secret that that's

02:19 their goal. They've got all the infrastructure really, the state-of-the-art training facility.

02:23 They've got some really, really exciting young players and because they've been so smart

02:31 in the transfer window the last three, four years, really spending not very much and slowly

02:37 but surely getting their wage bill down, it does mean they'll have a few funds to play

02:41 with in the summer. So there's a lot of things to get right and a lot of things have to fall

02:46 in place for Liam and the team. But I think if they can get this summer right, they'll

02:50 be in a really good position to push for the top six next season. And once you're in the

02:54 top six, anything can happen.

02:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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