Mancini Sees Opening League Games As A Problem

[brite blu sky]

for the record it does sound like getting your excuses in, and i thought that when i read your comment.. but i dont want it to turn out to be true!
i just think he would rather not be in the situation he was last season... trying to remould things on the fly. It is more like a grumble about the WC getting in the way of his preparation imo.

[gillie]

I honestly think he is on about these stupid fuckin international friendlies three days before the big prem ko and his words have been lost in translation.

[BobKowalski]

I personally think you all read far too much into these impromptu interviews. If you worked for the red tops it would be screaming headlines "City To Fail? Mancini Anxiety Over Spurs Clash".

Its like the Donovan comment. Mancini is polite to our hosts and SSN is still running with this 'prospective signing' despite no one, including some of the tabloid press, really giving it house room. On the flip side some people on the forums are hailing the Donovan comment as a sign of Mancini's tactical genius as it is forcing Villa to the table over Milner as Donovan is (apparently) a MoN target.

Comments are not always mind games or excuses. Sometimes a comment is just a straight forward answer to a straight forward question. Someone asks a question and you respond based on how it is. Like 'How is pre-season going Roberto?" "It is going very well only problem is some players will not be back until ...yada, yada"

How you hear the comments in this interview is pretty much based on your own perceptions and views on Mancini. If you have doubts then you hear it as an excuse. If you think Mancini is some machiavellian, tactical genius then you interpret the Donovan remark as proof that he is indeed a cunning fox. In reality it is all bollocks. But then 90% of the stuff on the internet is bollocks. The rest is porn. With some bollocks. Literally.

[john68]

Sorry Bob, you really haven't got the hang of this hysteria thingy have you. You are hysterically challenged.

Suppose we get relegated by those few points that we could have got if Mancini had planned the pre season properly or Cook hadn't demanded City embark on a commercial tour and drained our resources.

Sorry Bob, I admit to insanity and senility...I was just trying some pre season practice on hysteria. We all need to be up top scratch for the new season.

[BobKowalski]

Sorry Bob, you really haven't got the hang of this hysteria thingy have you. You are hysterically challenged.

Probably. We seem to have gone into a mini meltdown over the friendly last night as well. I always thought the idea of pre season was to bring your squad up to full fitness and the games to get players match fit and match sharp. I didn't realise it was to thump every one 3-0 minimum and play like Barca. Taggart was on the other day saying that he regards the Charity Shield as little more than part of pre season training. Maybe he was getting his excuses in early :)

Pre season means little except as a preparation for the campaign proper and is useless as a form guide. I remember Spurs under Ramos were great pre season with 5-0 scores all over the place and then totally crap once the season kicked off. We lose a match or don't play especially well in our opening pre season game and people start fucking threads about it. Unreal.

[brite blu sky]

i have had a re-think over Mancini's comments.. it is clear to me now ( watching the video in slo-mo helped ) that what he is refering to is that he would prefer that there were no opening games to the season. Watch carefully his hand gestures.. it is clear he is signalling a new idea to kind of not have an opening series of games but to kind of organically just be in the middle of the season, from the start.

im with him, i think it is a great idea.