Tony Pulis' verdict on Liam Manning's Norwich City switch

Manning was officially confirmed as the Canaries' new boss on Tuesday, ending an extensive recruitment drive following the departure of Johannes Hoff Thorup in April following a concerning nosedive in form.

Pulis was the last Robins' boss to be poached by another club when Portsmouth came calling in 2000, and has explained why Manning will have reached the decision he did to try and turn Norwich's fortunes around.

"Liam Manning did a great job at Bristol City. A fantastic job. But he looked at it and pitted the two clubs against each other in respect of the quality within the groups and made his decision.

"He has made a decision that he's got a better opportunity to be successful at Norwich than he does at Bristol City. But he did a great job at City and I'm sure City will be disappointed that they've lost him," Pulis told BoyleSports, who offer the latest Football odds.

"It'll be interesting because the expectations at Norwich will be far greater than they were at Bristol City. I think the majority of people at City would have been absolutely delighted to have got in the playoffs.

"Although they would obviously have been disappointed when they got knocked out, they would have looked at that at the beginning of the season and said it would have been a great achievement.

"With Norwich, they have underachieved, without a shadow of a doubt they would have thought promotion or even top six would be sufficient for their supporters.

"Not getting that, they would have been very disappointed that the season came and went without achieving any of those two objectives. Liam has probably looked at it and decided that he has got a better opportunity to get to Norwich in the top six.

"Those are decisions that people have to make in football and it'll be disappointing for the Bristol City supporters, only time will tell how it pans out."

Manning's job could be made tougher if City do cash in on in-demand duo Borja Sainz and Josh Sargent - with Pulis feeling Manning needs to unlock a greater level of consistency in their performances next season.

"Borja Sainz and Josh Sargent are good players and I felt that Norwich had some outstanding players last year," Pulis said.

Tony Pulis was the last Bristol City boss to be poached back in 2000. (Image: Simon Moore/Focus Images Ltd) "However, if you compare Norwich to a side like Burnley, Burnley played as a team. I watched Norwich at times and although they played very good individual stuff for parts of games, I don't think they were consistent enough as a team.

"The new manager going in there, the one thing that maybe he has to look at is finding a consistent level of performance.

"If they do that and they keep the two players we've just spoken about, they will be up and around there. Without a shadow of a doubt."

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