What Does The Future Hold For Man City?
After letting the dust settle over the past 24 hours, I feel it’s time to put the Hughes debacle to one side for the moment, and to concentrate on the rest of the season. Irrespective of what many people think, Hughes has left the club in a better position than when he took over. We currently lie sixth in the Premier League with a game in hand, and have reached our first semi-final in donkey’s years. So we should be aiming high …
Former Lazio and Inter Milan manager Roberto Mancini has replaced the Welshman and much is expected of him as he aims to guide us towards the promised land of Champions League football. He has a plethora of funds available to him if he decides he needs to enter the transfer market, and with a high-quality squad already at his disposal, we should be looking to break into the upper echelons of the Premier League.
In his statement released today, Hughes detailed how targets agreed with the owners in the summer included a top six finish. Although seemingly on track for this, the goalposts moved and the owners, desiring success quicker than many think possible, acted hastily in appointing Mancini. Whether he can deliver the success craved by the owners and fans alike remains to be seen, but the Blues faithful must support the Italian in his actions and fully back the team.
Naturally, I’m sceptical of Mancini at the moment, as he is totally unproven in the English game, but having won a couple of Seria A titles and thrice been victorious in their version of the FA Cup, he brings a winning pedigree to our club. Along with Brian Kidd, our newly appointed assistant manager, we have two men at the helm of Man City who demand respect from the football fraternity, two men whose achievements in the game are to be greatly admired. Until he delivers success, I will remain cautious about Mancini and refrain from setting extraordinarily high demands of him, but with all the resources available to him and hopefully with the full backing of both fans and Sheikh Mansour, I hope he is the man who is finally able to restore our beloved club to where we feel we belong.
Mancini will hope to provide the spark that our owners felt was lacking under Hughes
My cautious nature dictates that I still have a number of queries about the new man, which I will pose to you and you may be able to soothe my nerves.
o Will Mancini suddenly be able to turn both Robinho and Adebayor into the world-beaters they can be
o Will Craig Bellamy, our outstanding performer so far this season and someone whose loyalty to Hughes stretches beyond the realms of normality, be able to produce his devastating form for a manager he has never worked with
o Will our fans, many of whom had the deepest of respect for Hughes, be able to support Mancini fully
o Can Mancini deliver the success which our owners crave
o What will happen to Mancini if we don’t finish in the Champions League places – will he get the sack?
The last of those bullet points is the one that concerns me the most. As proven by our neighbours down the road, stability is the key. Clubs can’t expect to be successful by chopping and changing their manager every two seconds. There has to be a reasonable amount of patience from all concerned parties.
My hope is that Roberto Mancini can be the man to lead City to endless successes and to restore pride to our club. If he fails in this mission, he may suffer the same consequence that befitted Hughes, and nobody would want that to happen.
Thanks for reading. Please given me your opinions on how Mancini will cope with the pressure, expectation and demands of being the Blues’ manager. What does the future hold for Manchester City?
Good points Steven, though the plethora of echelons that litter your writing are becoming rather trying.
I think the point about stability is key. Look at the clubs with money that can’t find it, EG QPR, Chelsea, thy’ve struggled in recent years. I just can’t see you finding it any time soon.
“I hope he is the man who is finally able to restore our beloved club to where we belong.” – I didn’t like that comment. It seems very arrogant to me to say that your club, which has to be frank been a perennial English football also-rans for the last 30 years or so has some right to be at the top of the table.
Thanks for that VJ. What do you think in general of my new style of writing. Less detail which might appeal to readers more. Are you going to the City game on boxing day? The echelons is just included for Plattsy’s benefit although I fully understand how it’s becoming old and stale, despite being one of the best words of all time
I will make a slight adjustment to the sentence you picked out, as on refleection, I agree with your comment.
Very nice article this time! Succinctly expressed, reasonable opinions and a welcoming invitation for reader participation. Congrats.
To be honest, I know very little about Mancini, and what kind of effect he will have on our big players. But I was very interested to hear that Brian Kidd is now the second in command. His daughter taught me at primary school!
I’m actually quite optimistic about the immediate future at eastlands. We’ve got a couple of not-too-testing games coming up where we can hopefully pick up some points and gain some confidence in the new manager. However, you raise some good points with regards to Adebayor and, especially, Bellamy. I think Mancini’s place will be secure if we finish in the top 5 this year.
I dont think that it is a bad move, forget sentiments….the object is to become the most successful football club in the future…the timing is bang on as the window is about to re-open…. its like an olympic 4×4 relay, mark hughes is a quality front runner but it is now ready to pass the batton to a faster runner at this stage of the race and even if mancini has to pass it on again to a highly rated coach wouldn`t be a bad thing either, at least we would maintain the strength to win something at the end of the season… However had mark hughes`s side not slipped by dropping valuble points he would have been given longer to run…
Good blog.
Will Mancini do as well as Hughes has in the next 18 months? Probably not. Personally I think its a crazy move.
I feel sorry for Bellamy at the minute as he will now probably no longer play due to the superstar status of Robinho and Adebayor, (who currently are only associated with the club because of the money they are earning, when they play, they look as though they would rather be anywhere else than on a football pitch) and Mancini’s lack of knowledge of british football. Steve Bruce said that Bellamy was ‘unplayable’ on Sunday, watch this space, he will probably go in January or the Summer.
Lets be honest, the only two ‘multi-million’ pound signings who have really pulled their weight since arriving are Given and Bellamy, and they weren’t bought for millions of pounds or are on ridiculous wages. Do you get my point?
o Will Mancini suddenly be able to turn both Robinho and Adebayor into the world-beaters they can be
—— You copied that off my comment. As for if he can – who knows?
o Will Craig Bellamy, our outstanding performer so far this season and someone whose loyalty to Hughes stretches beyond the realms of normality, be able to produce his devastating form for a manager he has never worked with
—— He should be able to. Professional footballers should be able to perform to their best abilities regardless of manager. The thing is with Bellamy, regardless of whoever is at the club, will pack the game in, if not this season, then next season – due to his dodgy knees. He did admit this in an interview before (i think) the Birmingham game that was telivised.
o Will our fans, many of whom had the deepest of respect for Hughes, be able to support Mancini fully
—— At first, i think, he will have very little support – simply as a protest against the board. Afterwards, maybe when we stop drawing, he should be accepted as Hughes was.
o Can Mancini deliver the success which our owners crave
—— Only time will tell
o What will happen to Mancini if we don’t finish in the Champions League places – will he get the sack?
—— If they sacked Hughes for winning 4-3, then, if Manchini doesn’t get european football, yes, he will be on his way
My main worry is Bellamy…it has ben publicised that Bellamy led a 6 man strong delegation to Cook after the game. This shows how passionate he was under Hughes. Hughes was able to get the best out of him and that has been evident in some simply stunning performances this season. I fear for him…
I also hear Mancini likes to play a 4-3-1-2 which in my books means out strongest team is…
Given (GK)
Zabaleta (RB)
Lescott (CB)
Toure (CB)
*Dare I say his name* Bridge (LB)
Barry (CM)
de Jong (CM)
Ireland (CM)
Bellamy (AM)
Tevez (ST)
Adebayor (ST)
Subs >>> Taylor, Richards, Kompany, Petrov, Weiss, Robinho, Santa Cruz
What do you think? That means no place for Onouha though?
Why Adebayor?, he is crap. He can’t be arsed putting the effort in so why should he play.
Swap adebayor for santa cruz, or stick bellamy up top, ireland attacking mid, and someone else centre mid – a new player maybe?
I agree with Dan about the team, although I have just listened to his press conference and he seemed non-commital about tactics. I’ve a feeling Robinho will play though, but it would be catastrophic if Bellamy was the one to drop out.
Did you see the press conference by the way? Notice the woman who gave instructions at the start – Vicky Kloss, the one I’ve been telling you about for ages. Gets us away tickets. Off to the Wolves game over new year period. Let’s hope McCarthy puts out a reserve team again!!
What do you think about my new style of writing? Less detail and takes much less time to write.
I like the new style of writing Steven, more easily readable and easier to digest. Also, if it allows you to write more, I’m all for it.
I’m not VJ – it means more commenting
:-p
only joking
Cheers Alec.