Liam John Manning (born 20 October 1985) is an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

. He is the current head coach of

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...

club

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

Playing career

Manning played for the academy of his local side

before joining

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

in 2002, where he spent a year as a professional before being released in 2005. Following his release from Ipswich, Manning dropped into

non-league Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

, playing for

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt, near the border with Essex, just west of the ...

Long Melford Long Melford, colloquially and historically also referred to as Melford, is a large village and civil parish in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour ...

and

Leiston Leiston ( ) is a town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It is close to Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, north-east of Ipswich and north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at th ...

, before enjoying a brief spell playing in Iceland for

Selfoss Selfoss may refer to: *Selfoss (town), Iceland *UMF Selfoss, a football club based in Selfoss **Selfoss men's football **Selfoss women's football *Selfoss (waterfall), Iceland *Selfoss Airport Selfoss Airport is an airport serving Selfoss, a to ...

. Upon his return from Iceland, Manning re-signed for Leiston, playing for the club between 2006 and 2008. Manning later returned to Woodbridge, followed by spells with

Wroxham Wroxham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The civil parish of Wroxham has an area of 6.21 square kilometres, and in 2001, had a population of 1,532 in 666 households. A reduced population of 1,502 in 653 household ...

, Melton St Audrey and Ipswich Wanderers, before retiring from football to concentrate on coaching.

Management and coaching

Early coaching career

‘Loyal Liam ‘Manning worked as an academy coach at

before joining

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

side

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

in 2015 as head coach of the club's U23s. In 2019 he left to join

City Football Group City Football Group Limited (CFG) is a British-based holding company that administers association football clubs. The group is owned by three organisations, of which 81% is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi United Group, 18% by the American firm Silve ...

, initially as director of coaching with

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

side

New York City FC New York City Football Club (often referred to as NYCFC) is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in New York City. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern C ...

before later progressing to the role of academy director.

Lommel SK

Staying within City Football Group, in July 2020 Manning was named head coach of

Belgian First Division B The Challenger Pro League, previously known as 1B Pro League is the second-highest division in the Football in Belgium, Belgian football Belgian football league system, league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was created by the ...

club

Lommel SK Lommel SK is a Belgian association football club based in the city of Lommel, Limburg, that competes in the Challenger Pro League. History The roots of the club date back to the 1920s when the club Vlug & Vrij Overpelt-Usines (Fast & Free ...

, where he led the previously bottom of the table side to a third-placed finish at the end of the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season.

Milton Keynes Dons

On 13 August 2021, Manning joined League One club

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club, usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football leag ...

. On 8 October 2021, after just eleven league games in charge, Manning was named EFL League One Manager of the Month for September 2021, a month in which he led the club to an unbeaten run of five league games achieving eleven points. He repeated the achievement four months later, being named League One Manager of the Month for January 2022 after a similarly successful period. At the end of his first season, Manning had led the club to a third-place finish with 89 points and

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eith ...

qualification, having missed out on automatic promotion by a single point. The club however later failed to gain promotion via the play-offs, losing out to Wycome Wanderers over two semi-final legs. Following a poor start to the season that found his side in the relegation zone, Manning was dismissed on 11 December 2022, having accumulated just fifteen points from twenty matches.

Oxford United

On 11 March 2023, Manning was appointed head coach of League One side

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club () is a professional association football, football club based in Oxford, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English football. Founded as Headingto ...

. An impressive start to the following

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

for the club saw him lead his new club to four wins from five matches, and he was named League One Manager of the Month. Manning left the club in November 2023 after 29 games in charge with the club second in League One.

Bristol City

On 7 November 2023, Manning, together with his assistant

Chris Hogg Christopher Francis Hogg (born 12 March 1985) is an English former association football, footballer. He is currently the Assistant Head Coach of EFL Championship club Norwich City F.C.. Hogg started his career with the York City F.C., York City ...

, departed

and joined

club

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

as the head coach, signing a contract until June 2027.

Norwich City

On 3 June 2025 Manning was appointed head coach of

, signing a four-year contract through to the summer of 2029.

Coaching style

Manning favours a horseshoe of doom style of football. He has a reputation for developing young players, having spent much of his early coaching career working with the academy sides of West Ham United, Ipswich Town and New York City FC. Manning is credited as having contributed to the development of England international Declan Rice.

Personal life

Manning took compassionate leave from Bristol City from 14 October 2024 for an indefinite period of time following the death of his newborn son Theo.

Managerial statistics

Managerial record

Honours

Individual * EFL League One Manager of the Month: September 2021, January 2022, August 2023

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Manning, Liam English football managers Living people 1985 births English football coaches English expatriate sportspeople in Belgium English expatriate sportspeople in Iceland English men's footballers English expatriate football managers Ipswich Town F.C. players Bishop's Stortford F.C. players Long Melford F.C. players Leiston F.C. players Woodbridge Town F.C. players Selfoss men's football players Wroxham F.C. players Ipswich Wanderers F.C. players Expatriate football managers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Iceland Ipswich Town F.C. non-playing staff West Ham United F.C. non-playing staff New York City FC non-playing staff Lommel S.K. managers Milton Keynes Dons F.C. managers Oxford United F.C. managers Bristol City F.C. managers Norwich City F.C. managers Challenger Pro League managers English Football League managers Footballers from Norwich Men's association football midfielders 21st-century English sportsmen