There's a fair bit of management speak in there: a justification of the 'Elite Development Squad' monstrosity, a reference to a 'brand map' of Paul Scholes, the mention of which seems, on a fundamental level, to miss the point of Paul Scholes. But there's also a lot of real interest, and it's more honest too than it might have been.
There's this, on the difference between the social lives of Adam Johnson and James Milner:
Mancini quietly criticised Johnson recently. “Roberto is just trying to keep his feet on the ground. Adam’s world has changed dramatically and we have to help him through that. We’re asking players that when they go out, go out at the
right time. Not drinking 48 hours before a game. We hope they live their life
the right way.
“I don’t worry when James Milner goes out because I know it will be to the pictures, going bowling, and he’ll be in bed with his Horlicks at 10pm. We have other players who want a drink but they need to be responsible. It impacts on their performance. We do saliva tests on them all the time.
There's a lot on the importance of the Academy to the club's long term vision, and how it is to be used to inculcate the club ethos:
“Now that we want to be a club in the Champions League we are trying to
create an even better player with good habits on and off the pitch. But we are
dealing with a lost generation. Some young [academy] players are well-adjusted
but with far more players we have to do lifestyle skills on them. If you look
out that window, we have some boys over from Africa, who are so far advanced of
our boys technically and in terms of behaviour."
Then there's things about scouting, recruitment, wages, and an interesting comparison between Roberto Mancini and George Graham:
“I find Roberto very engaging, very warm, an extremely nice individual. Roberto is very disciplined; he’s about organisation, shape. He’s like George Graham. People looked at George as a [stylish] player and thought he’d be the last person to be a manager but he was one of the most successful managers."
I recommend all of it.
2 comments:
I think you miss the point of the 'brand map' comment on Scholes. The whole point he was trying to make was that characters such as the thuggish tackling Salford tosser in question might not register on a 'brand map', but were in fact vital to a successful team.
I saw the article and thought it very interesting. Marwood is plainly not your normal thoughtless ex-pro. It also tied up a few loose ends to me anyway. Marwood worked for Nike and so did Gary Cooke so i guess Marwood is Cooke's man. Sensible of the CEO to have a man he knows in such an important position. Also the alleged Rooney link as Marwood signed him and managed him for Nike when he was a boy at Everton.
I think the elite development squad is just a management speak thing, but it is good to see that they are thinking through the manager transition aspect of running a club. I don't want Mancini to go but good to have a thought for the future.
A good article overall though i doubt it will silence the mindless anti-city zombies who churn out the vitriol when a City player does something wrong.
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