Harry Darling move could be a warning for Bristol City if Liam Manning eyes another reunion at Norwich City

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Norwich City and Bristol City will both be eyeing a place in the Championship promotion picture in the 2025/26 campaign.

Both clubs have had time to reflect on disappointing ends to the recent Championship season, with Norwich falling into mid-table long before the end.

Meanwhile, Bristol City were a top six side but crashed out of the play-offs in disappointing fashion to Sheffield United. Liam Manning could have opted to stay with Bristol City and build, but he has jumped ship to join Norwich.

Ben Knapper is excited to work with Manning. Of course, having built the Bristol City team for the better part of two seasons, there will be players he is keen to work with once again at Carrow Road.

• READ MORE: All 24 teams confirmed for 2025/26 Championship season as second tier looks set for most competitive campaign yet

Scott Twine could reunite with Harry Darling and Liam Manning

Manning is already eyeing a reunion with Harry Darling. The Norwich chief worked with the Swansea City centre-back at MK Dons and he will have others in mind from previous jobs, too.

Oxford United are the other team Manning has taken charge of in the EFL, but it is Bristol City who should be most fearful currently following the Darling transfer news.

Marcus McGuane is one player who followed Manning from Oxford to Bristol City, but another former MK Dons player is someone who Manning is surely keen to reunite with.

That MK Dons side had Darling, Jamie Cumming, and Kaine Kesler-Hayden who would go on to play at a higher level — but the crowning jewel of the team was undoubtedly Scott Twine.

Twine scored 20 goals and registered 13 assists for Manning in 2021/22, with a handful of those assists scored via Harry Darling’s head in the process to them making the League One play-offs.

Darling scored 10 goals that season, finishing with the club’s fifth-highest number of goal involvements. Set-pieces were a huge part of that team’s identity and Manning would love to replicate that with Norwich.

Darling and Twine were the two primary players in that sense, with the former earning somewhat of a reputation for scoring in recent seasons by scoring 22 in the last four campaigns combined.

Of course, most of those goals came back in 2022, but it would not be a surprise if Manning didn’t eye a deal for a third time at a third different club for Twine. He will be contemplating raiding his former employers.

The 25-year-old has scored 15 direct free-kicks since the start of the 2019/20 season. That makes him the player with the most direct free-kick goals in the top four tiers of English football during that time.

It’s a deadly weapon in his arsenal and he sets up plenty via that method, too. If Manning and Norwich have the cash, they will almost certainly consider a move.

• READ MORE: Liam Manning closes in on Norwich City job as former Premier League boss ‘interested’ in replacing him

Scott Twine could replace Borja Sainz at Norwich City

Borja Sainz’s sale could free up Norwich funds to sign Twine, who would not be that expensive to bring in following his £3.2 million plus add-ons switch last summer.

He operates in many of the same areas, as a left-sided winger or an out-and-out No.10 in central spaces, combining with teammates and pulling the strings.

Both love a shot from range and Twine would be an ideal fit if Sainz were to leave, providing Norwich ensured there were runners around him.

Darling is not likely to be the last player Manning has worked with previously that he wants to reunite with again. He pushed hard to sign Twine from Burnley whilst he was at Bristol City.

Doing so again — if Sainz is sold — would make a lot of sense for his new-look Norwich side.