Liam Manning is 60 days into his mission to deliver Premier League football to a south-west region that has been locked out of the top flight for 44 years.
A whirlwind of back-to-back games and recovery time in the middle of Championship winter has allowed just nine full training sessions for Bristol City's head coach. However, a piece of non-football feedback provided by his players during a personal debriefing this week reassured the highly regarded 38-year-old that the right philosophies are already emerging.
"We were talking this morning about what we learned in December and the big things we took away," says Manning, inviting Telegraph Sport into his office after a team summit at the club's training base in rural Failand, North Somerset.
The players discussed an encouraging month of three wins, two defeats and two draws, and then a hugely frustrating recent defeat to Millwall. But in a candid exchange about courage and priorities, the players volunteered conversations they had with families experiencing real turmoil at Children's Hospice South West.
"We spent some time with a lot of families and we invited one of the guys, who unfortunately doesn't have much time left, to come spend some time with us," Manning explained. "It really struck me that they brought this up. We're talking about football, winning games, losing games, and that was something that affected quite a few of them. If there is grief in the family, it is a bigger perspective.'
Manning speaks from experience, having lost his own father at the age of 11. "I think that kind of lit a fire in the belly for me," he says. "That was always my way of channeling it into football. And that has always been there.
"We are lucky in football. We are passionate, we are obsessive. We can be quite selfish sometimes about how we should be in the industry. Then it helps if you step out of that bubble and have that greater perspective when you come back in.
For those unfamiliar, Manning's career appears to be ahead of schedule. In November, after the relatively popular Nigel Pearson was sacked, few City fans had heard that the man was being priced away from Oxford United, who were then flying high in League One. City's mouth-watering display against West Ham in the FA Cup on Sunday is another reminder of Manning's meteoric rise after coaching the Hammers Under-23s just four years ago.
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However, childhood heartache, career setbacks and real-world work have given Manning a unique route to becoming one of England's most promising under-40 managers. "Every challenge, every setback - you go one or two ways with it," he said. said, after being released by Ipswich at the age of 21 as a hard-hitting midfielder. "You fight or flee."
"None of it is lost when the attitude is about the money."
For much of his twenties, every spare hour was filled by working at a school, playing part-time and then gaining various coaching qualifications. "I didn't make it as a player because I wasn't good enough," he admits. "But I was offered the academy job at Ipswich because of the values I had as a person and the behavior I showed as a youth team player.
"None of it is lost when the attitude is about the money. I was constantly working as hard as I could. I was really open to learning. I was completely dedicated in everything I did. If I hadn't shown that behavior, I don't think I would have gotten the opportunity to coach at the academy."
Manning is a graduate of the Premier League's Elite Coach Accreditation Scheme and said he was keen on 'cross learning' with other sectors. He met Google, Saatchi and Saatchi and the Lawn Tennis Association. "I also like the military: the processes, how they work, the communication, the clarity and the chain of command," he said.
The openness to sharing ideas was music to the ears of city owner Steve Lansdown, the Bristol financial services billionaire who also controls the Bristol Bears rugby and basketball teams. Manning speaks regularly to Lansdown's son Jon, who is now City chairman, and he will be in the stands for matches later this month when the schedule is "more forgiving".
There is an air of quiet confidence around City, despite a mixed reaction among the fanbase to Pearson's departure in the autumn. The club has significantly reduced its wage bill since former chief executive Richard Gould admitted to Telegraph Sport that they had come dangerously close to breaching spending rules due to overspending under previous regimes. The sheer profit of a talent production factory run by former player and manager Brian Tinnion has helped immensely, most recently with the sale of Alex Scott to Bournemouth for £25 million.
As he sets up shop at Ashton Gate - a stadium now fit to grace the top division - Manning sees plenty of potential. "It's not just the academy, but also the profile of the team," he says. "Look at someone who hasn't come here yet [midfielder] Jason Knight - the number of games he has and the age he is [22].
"It's almost where we want to get, but the way we want to do it and the strategy to get there - and that's young, coachable, moldable players with the right balance of experience on the side. "It was a big draw to have that clarity about what the club is and how we want to get there."
That said, he "hopes" the club has more business to do in the January transfer window. "We are working very hard to add to this, but sometimes these things can be beyond our control."
Whoever City brings in, Manning, one of many managers in favor of a mid-season break for his players, will continue to focus on the culture at the club, which he says needs to be discussed "before you can get into the tactics ".
"When you talk about the game and its fluidity, it's all backed up by 'can you concentrate for 95/100 minutes?'" he says.
The most obvious example of the model mentality is Declan Rice, who coached Manning for a number of years when he made the step up to West Ham's first team, although he is modest about his role with the England midfielder.
"A coach once said to me, 'They're all diamonds, we'll polish them a little bit as we go,'" he explained. "In the end it all depends on the player."
However, he said Arsenal's record £105m signing had a level of resilience that he now preaches to his City squad. "We deal with challenges and setbacks in different ways and I think this is certainly an issue that we will have to deal with even more in the current situation in the world."
On his broader view, Manning says that a "sense of rightness" in society is one of his biggest concerns. He stays away from social media and instead relies on Chris Hogg, his outspoken assistant who comes to him everywhere, to give him honest reviews, and on his wife Fran to put him in his place. With such mature perspectives, this face for the future is excited about facing the 60-year-old Moyes. "He's a great role model for someone like me," Manning added.