Mancini to go? Right or wrong?

 

 

They say that there’s no smoke without fire and the billowing smoke signals that can been seen for miles and miles over Manchester are pretty clear for all to see. I hate to admit it but it does finally look like the end for our Bobby.

If he goes, he’ll take with him the heavy hearts of thousands of Blues; Blues who like me, I’m sure, will see it as an injustice. It’s actually angered me somewhat to be honest – anger towards the men who make those decisions of course.

“I’ve never been so confident in a Chairman in my lifetime as I am with Khaldoon Al Mubarak”.

“Every time I hear Khaldoon speak I am filled with confidence”.

“Every time I hear Khaldoon speak he oozes common sense and screams out ‘stability’ and ‘long term thinking’”.

“He – and the Board – aren’t like the Chelsea hatchet team down South; there’s a deliberate sense of long term planning, stability and no knee-jerk reactions...and that excites me”.

Manchester, oven-bottom muffin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“He is ‘muffin’ over ‘bap’…he’s GOT to be a top fella!”...as seen right at the end of this interview with our Chairman.

The evil, Southern-soft bap

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are just some of the quotes from me down the years, as I’ve sat at work and in the pub defending our Club against the hoards of snipping ‘reds’ and other so-called fans.

So it breaks my heart to see that Roberto might now be shown the door when the blame for our lack of progress this season should lie elsewhere.

Anyone who knows anything about City will understand, quite clearly, that the blame for our lack of progress this season lies with Brian Marwood and his underperforming team. I think Roberto Mancini actually deserves praise for restraining himself as much as he did when lamenting over the poor transfer activity last summer.

I also think he deserves praise too for doing as well as he did after loosing Nigel de Jong & Adam Johnson and gaining Javi Garcia & Scott Sinclair. We took a couple of steps backwards in terms of personnel while Roberto had to watch our neighbours and Chelsea strengthen their squads considerably.

So what did anyone on the Board expect? How could Mancini possibly ‘progress’ when he wasn’t given improved players (Nastasic aside)?

Nastasic, in fact, is proof himself; he strengthened our defence because he was a quality player brought into our Club in the summer and what was the result? We have the best defensive record in the league! Imagine, then, what we’d have done if we’d have improved the midfield, wings and forwards too!

 

In my opinion, we’d have wrapped up the league by the end of March/beginning of April and gone on to beat Wigan in the Final.

 

Brian Marwood shouldn’t be sent to some far corner of the globe to head up whatever it is he’s heading up; he should be the one walking the plank and not Roberto.

However, just to prove that I’m not blinkered and totally blinded [in that I only see ‘good’ from our Italian Manager]; I believe he persisted with Mario Balotelli far, FAR too long…and that he didn’t seem to have a plan in January to bring in someone…ANYONE to replace him up front; even if it was someone on loan.

I personally believe that we should never have signed the troubled Italian striker in the first place and I honestly don’t say that with hindsight.

 

He also got a few games tactically wrong but hey; so too did a certain departing Manager not too far away…

However, if true, the Balotelli farce wasn’t helped by stories coming out that Sheikh Mansour loved the ‘crazy one’...and so I can’t help believing that Mancini was under some kind of pressure to persist with Mario for far too long.

Should Mancini go and should Pellegrini come in, I hope the Chilean performs superbly well for us of course…and stays for 10 years or more! We need longevity with Managers now…and is why I never want us to touch Jose Mourinho with a very, very long stick!

But a change at this time – particularly with ‘them across the way’ changing their Manager after 26 years – is very bad timing for me. Pellegrini (or whoever) might not like our target signings of Falcao, Cavani & Sanchez etc. Worse still, he may actually LIKE Kolarov, Garcia and Dzeko!

 

We took a step backwards last season and a Managerial change now - an EXTRA team re-build and change in back-room staff – is another one step backwards before we can begin to thrust forward again (and we will). As a Manchester City fan; like many I have bags of patience but, for me, it’s all very unnecessary indeed.

I have nothing, NOTHING but absolute gratitude for what Sheikh Mansour, Khaldoon Al Mubarak and the Board have done for our Football Club. I even reserve a lot of gratitude for what Garry Cook did for us in the main.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would witness what has been happening to our Club since Thaksin Shinawatra handed over the reins. So much is done for the fans (not least City Square as just one small example) and I can’t tell you how excited and proud I am of our soon-to-be training complex on the old Clayton Aniline site.



The area of Eastlands in general too is improving incredibly because of our owners…and this too is something I say repeatedly ‘in defence’ whenever I am required to.

 

 

But they will 'nark' me a little if they don't give Roberto another season after a PROPER summer re-build...although I still (and will) have faith in their long-term decision making.

 

All change

 

So in Pope style, will the smoke signals emanating from The Etihad Stadium turn from doom ‘n’ gloom black to more-optimistic white with a changing of the guard at City? Relucantly, I’d say the chances are now considerably more than 50%.

 

All change...again

 

Mancini: "Dis is the BARRY (Bury) service..."



And if we DO lose Mancini and get Pellagrini, they'll have to set aside some time for him - in between acquiring new players, training and pre-season friendlies - to get into the recording studio in time for the first home game...

 

Ending on a possitive note

 

If we do lose Mancini and gain Pellegrini, I reckon the chances of signing the Chilean Alexis Sanchez and Isco from Malaga will increase ten-fold...unless I'm just puttng 2 & 2 together and coming up with 17.