Those with a rose tinted view of what Sheikh Mansour has delivered this season remember Shay Given's heroics in the home win over Chelsea, Craig Bellamy running riot at Stamford Bridge, Alan Wiley's "Fergietime" at Old Trafford . But these moments have been exceptions to the rule. Viewed in full focus, Mancini's five months have included some dark days for a side who have spent so heavily – £223m since the Abu Dhabis arrived in September 2008. The desperate goalless draw at home to Liverpool was perhaps the worst Premier League fixture of the season; there was something similar at Arsenal; defeat at home to Everton, successive games in league and FA Cup against Stoke City without a win.
Mark Ogden, Daily Telegraph
On Hughes’s dismissal, City had collected 29 points from 17 games, claiming an average of 1.7 points a game. Projected over a season, Hughes’s team was on course to collect 65 points.
Mancini, on the other hand, has delivered 37 points from 20 games in charge, an average of 1.85 a game.
Projected over a season, that would bring 70.3 points.
City will end the campaign on 69 points if they beat West Ham on Sunday, one short of the 70 point target.
Had Mancini been recruited earlier, City might just have made it to the Champions League after all.
Daniel Taylor, The Guardian
They can, in theory, still reflect on a season of considerable progress. This was only their seventh league defeat, the same number as Manchester United. They have finished above Liverpool for only the third time in 48 years and they can look back at scoring four in one match against Arsenal and the same against Chelsea. But in another sense it is a disappointment of such extremes that Mancini's position will inevitably come under scrutiny considering the way the men of money and influence in Abu Dhabi have made the Champions League an obsession.
"Why not?" Mancini replied when he was asked whether he was confident of being at the club next season. "I'm confident. I think I will stay here. I have worked here five months and you don't start from the roof but the basement. We have worked very well and we are near the roof now. But I am not a magician and I don't have a magic wand. We wanted this [fourth] place, just like Liverpool and Aston Villa, but this is football."
4 comments:
Getting rid of Mancini would be extremely harsh, especially as he wasn't backed in the transfer market to the extent that Hughes was. Yet still achieved a better points ratio. Also to state the obvious: five months in a job just isn't enough.
I have to say i was disappointed in Mancini's tactics last night: taking off Johnson and Bellamy when they were two players who looked capable of creating something. NDJ played well, but surely when you're chasing a game you have to sacrifice a player like him for an attacker or at least a creative midfielder (altho to be fair we have limited options in this area with SI injured - ironically Elano would have loved a game like last night's).
However, still think RM has done a decent job overall. I asked the MEN editor for his thoughts in a web chat forum yesterday and he reckoned he's done "a smashing job".
Also getting sick of the media hatred which would intensify if we got rid of Mancini. The only manager I would want at this stage in our development is Roy Hodgson, good organiser, tactician and thoroughly nice bloke. Think he would offer the sort of stability we need (in a post-Mancini scenario).
Just don't think Mourinho is a good fit for City and would overshadow the club with his massive ego as well as bring all the gamesmanship that I'd hate to be associated with any success we do achieve.
Apologies for long essay! Gutted abt last night but (in conclusion) agree with others that might be for the best if we can keep hold of Ned, Stevie, MJ and build a bit more sustainably.
I was so disappointed after last night so depressed I've only just brought myself to reading all of these posts and comments.
They've cheered me up no end. After all 6th was a realistic target at the beginning of the season and we got 5th with one match to go.
Yes we drew some we should have won and lost some we should have drawn. But Spurs beat Chelsea and Arsenal during the run in when the heat was on and deserve their chance. Hope they survive the qualifier!
Looking forward to next season. Should be lots of TV coverage for ex Mancunian like me living on the south coast!
Roy Hodgson! That is insane. If Carlos can't handle occasional double sessions how do you think he would appreciate Hodgson's endless drilling? And all the other emotionally delicate dears? And there will be only more of them turning up in the summer. You are thinking with your heart, not your head. Hodgson may be a nice bloke, tactical genius, Eengleesh and all he's not the bloke to get the best out of a dressing room full of all the egregious egos that money can buy. Wait a minute, I've got an idea: Get Roy to bring Bobby Zamora, Gera, Konchesky and a few others with him. Mancini is the only option. Yes, he's too cautious. That probably won't change, but there will be times when that will pay off. Give him a season. I'll be happy with a League Cup and Top 4. And a derby win
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