The 39 year old Norfolk native was introduced as Norwich City’s new head coach, alongside sporting director Ben Knapper.

Previously, he led Bristol City to the Championship playoffs, there was some surprise when he left for the Canaries, however, Manning’s expressed pride in his personal connection to Norwich.

He also said that his alignment with the club’s strategy and Knapper’s vision was the key factor in his appointment.

Reflecting on his 18 months at Bristol City, he noted the difficulty of leaving but is confident in his decision and eager to engage with Norwich’s community and fans.

“There’s a huge sense of pride – to have a history with the city and a bit with the club as well,”

“When you look at it, I’ve travelled here, there and everywhere in terms of experience, working abroad with different nationalities.

“I’ve made the joke that I left my family at 15/16 to get away from them, that didn’t go down too well. My first match was here, my first season ticket was here, there’s an extra special affiliation to be proud.”

However, he was also keen to highlight that his personal connection to the area was not the decisive factor in his move.

Manning outlined that his alignment with the strategy of Knapper and the club was the influencing element.

“First and foremost, there’s a lot made around the personal stuff but the biggest drive is the club, the objective, the group of players. I’m ambitious, I’m driven, I want to succeed. When I sat with Ben, there’s an alignment in terms of how we achieve success,”

“The first bit starts with behaviours, people willing to run, fight, compete, give everything. Fans will understand you’re going to have good games and bad games. We want to dominate the ball in the attacking half of the pitch, then how do you create, be exciting, that’s the big thing. I want to be excited as a coach.

“People are massive for me, in terms of who you work with. We’ll challenge each other and that’s an important part of getting to where we want to. When you look at the playing group, it’s a really exciting group. Culture is something you have to feel. Of course, we’re in the results business and I want to win, but that has to be underlined by some strong practices and processes.”

“Any move you make in this game is difficult. The 18 months I had there were extremely successful, a challenging time personally which creates an affiliation with some of the people there. It was a difficult decision but one that I’m confident was the right one,”

“I’m delighted to be here, I can’t wait to meet some of you around the city. The fans are the biggest part, they’re the ones who turn up here in fantastic numbers and make the difference in results. We’ll win and lose but we want the collective to turn up, the players and the fans, and give absolutely everything.”

Bristol City’s shortlist of potential candidates as Liam Manning says a classy goodbye

“I hope they are excited. Yes, we’ve got a young group, but we have to be better and get results. We don’t have time to waste and let things meander along.”

“Timing in this game is everything. You have to think of the chain effects that can happen in this game. Thankfully, it didn’t impact us too much.”

“There’s staff that Liam has worked with that I’ve worked with. That all helped and put Liam on my radar years ago.”

“He is still doing his rehab. Discussions are still ongoing, but I’m not sure what way that will land.”

“Selling players is important and we’ve managed to do that well historically. Things have to be right for us and that will remain the same.”

“We’ve had multiple formal offers. There’s other clubs circling. But none of those have met our valuation. We’ve shown long before my time at the club as well, we can get good value for players.”

“I would say so (done for now), but you never know. We’ve got irons in the fires.”

: think he’s a fan of the ambition by any chance?

: I’d love it if a manager came out one day and said ‘Yeah and the dough was too good to turn down aswell, bosh’ 🤣🤣

: Underlines what we all know. The club talks about being premiership ready and wanting premiership football yet not willing to do what is needed to get there. I’ll never disrespect Steve for what he has done for this club but investment needed to push on. Simple

: His ambition I think was always going to be a driver, with the personal connection a bonus. He clearly is driven & will work where he believes he has the best chance of making progress. Norwich did that for him, whether for us it was a case of couldn’t or wouldn’t- time will tell

: Something we all knew. Can’t run a football club with any real ambition if you have Tinnion and Jon lansdown in charge. Having said that Liam is miles off it as well in his in game decision making

: One word speaks a thousand… “AMBITION”

: Think we all knew that we were just a stepping stone, as were Oxford

: A damning indictment of the direction of the club.

: Saw him in cheddar yesterday, looked in good spirits, not bitter as I think long term best for both him and the club

: Clearly way more ambitious than our board room…. But I think we all knew that

: I dunno what people expected him to say 🤷‍♂️ just the standard press conference stuff….however they are quiet clearly going to come in for some of our players judging by both LM and BK reaction.

: The ambitions are the same, the strategies arent however!

: He’s got to start staying at clubs longer than 18 months because he’s getting a bad reputation for it.

: Chequebook manager

@Dwatts10_: Fuck off you c*nts @tinnion_brian @JonLansdown

@BCFCJD: Depressing to read that we have less ambition than a side who finished a way below us last season.