Ryan Manning faces old club QPR as Southampton open contract talks
Ryan Manning spent five years at QPR, and on Saturday afternoon he lines up against them with Southampton already discussing his next contract. Timing like that rarely happens by accident.
The Daily Echo's Alfie House broke the story this morning and @SaintsExtra passed it on. The club have started conversations with Manning and Cam Bragg, whose deals both end next summer.
A left-back who creates chances
FotMob has Manning third in the Championship for big chances created, with eight, behind only West Ham's Jarrod Bowen and Birmingham's Alex Cochrane. Saints Marching pointed that out this week.
He has one assist to show for it.
Somebody further up the pitch is wasting his work, and the club clearly know who deserves the credit for the chances arriving at all.
At West Ham last Saturday he did the other half of the job too. He made four clearances in a game where the home side took 28 shots, which is the full-back brief in this division in one afternoon: get forward, then defend a siege, and handle both ends of it without complaint.
Eckert did hand Welington the left-back spot against Bolton, bringing Manning on in the 72nd minute. At West Ham the shirt came straight back to him, which says plenty about who the manager trusts in the games that matter most.
Saints Marching argued in July that Southampton should let his deal run down. Three months of evidence have made that view look hasty.
QPR arrive in eighth place, level with Southampton on 20 points. Richard Kone scored three times in the first 15 minutes of their 5-0 win over Swansea last Saturday, so Manning will have plenty to think about.
Cam Bragg and the red card
Bragg is the other name in the Echo's story. He signed his current deal last December, and this autumn he has been part of the compact squad of 25 that Tonda Eckert prefers, as BBC Sport reported.
He was sent off against Portsmouth on the 11th October, a second yellow card arriving in the 44th minute, although Southampton still won 1-0 through a James Bree strike. Six days later Eckert started him against Bolton.
That tells a young midfielder plenty. A manager who picks a player six days after a sending off is treating it as a bad afternoon and nothing more.
Both talks make sense, for different reasons. Manning has earned an offer on his work this autumn, while Bragg has earned one by not letting a red card phase him.
Offer the left-back another year. Then sort out the midfielder before next summer turns into a conversation nobody wants.
