EXCLUSIVE: We have done well at City... but we can do more, says Mancini
By MARTIN SAMUEL
Last updated at 11:48 PM on 4th January 2012
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"Avere il braccetto"
Translated from the Italian, it means the arm becomes short. Roberto Mancini pulls a clenched fist sharply back towards his body as he explains. Bottling it, would be the cruder English euphemism. It is what Italians identify as the fear of winning.
Warming to his theme, Mancini uses the example of an unfamiliar figure appearing in a Grand Slam tennis final.
'A player gets to his big game against Roger Federer, goes two sets up and needs the third to win the tournament,' he says. 'He is a top player, this guy, but not the very top. And he cannot do it. Avere il braccetto. The arm becomes short. That is my worry for Manchester City sometimes.'
At ease in the job: City boss Mancini in his office
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If Mancini's players truly are troubled by thoughts of success, however, they have a strange way of showing it. A rare defeat at Sunderland was followed by a resounding victory over Liverpool, just as Arsenal were beaten after City lost to Chelsea.
On this day last season, Manchester City had 41 points and a plus-17 goal difference. This year, having played one game fewer, City have 48 points and a plus-40 differential.
The tedious, time-consuming ructions with Carlos Tevez will surely soon be over, disruptive personalities have been farmed out on loan and the squad is now settled under Mancini's command.
Sunday brings the visit of Manchester United in the FA Cup, and after the amazing 6-1 win at Old Trafford in October, hopes are high of removing their greatest rivals from Double contention at the first opportunity.
Yet, still, Mancini is not content. He is a glass half-empty kind of guy. The players were in for training the day after the Liverpool victory because he still had not forgiven them for Ji Dong-won's winner at the Stadium of Light.
'We have done well this season, but we could do more,' he says. 'Even the best teams, there are times during the year when you cannot win, and you don't know why. Maybe you are unlucky, you make chances and you cannot score.
'Then there are other games, like at Chelsea, like at Sunderland, where if you are a top team you cannot win, but you must not lose.'
Greater emphasis is placed on those final three words than any in our conversation.
'We need to understand this. A clever team would understand it. "OK," they would think, "the win will not happen, but, just as important, we must concede nothing". That is why I was so disappointed about Sunderland. We deserved to win 3-0, 4-0 maybe, but from there we had to be strong, very strong. The same in Naples. To draw there was important. Draw and we reach the Champions League knockout stage.
'One month ago, all the journalists were saying we could go the season unbeaten, like Arsenal. But I knew then that we would not. We are not Arsenal, we are not strong up here like that team.
Net result: City went clear at the top of the table with the 3-0 win over Liverpool, which included a gift of a goal from Pepe Reina who allowed Sergio Aguero's shot to squirm underneath him (below)
'No matter how many strikers we have, I knew there would be a moment when we did not score and we arrived at Sunderland and it happened and we lost. And I could see this coming. That is why I knew we would not win all the games.
'We have fantastic players but we are not used to staying at the top a long time. There will be difficult moments, big matches, but it is not just about winning in the big matches. You must make sure you also win when you have won five, six games in a row. That is when you have to be at your strongest.
'We can lose at Sunderland and win against Liverpool and everyone says you have recovered well; but lose against Sunderland late in April and there is no time to recover. Your chance has gone. Too bad, you were not strong, so you lost the championship. We must be realistic. We must know this.
'It is different for Manchester United and for Chelsea, they have done it before. We know they will arrive strong in that last month but we may not be the same. Losing to Sunderland could have created a big problem for us.
We have done
well at City — but
we can do more
'What if we had then lost to Liverpool? It could have happened. The first big chance of the game was for Stewart Downing. If he had scored, maybe Liverpool would have won 3-0. We had played just 48 hours earlier. We could have been too tired to come back.'
Yet why, for instance, should Yaya Toure, a national and European champion with Barcelona, seize up as the Premier League season approaches its endgame? Mancini's response comprehends perfectly a deep blue sea of fear.
'Barcelona?' he echoes. 'This is Manchester City. Barcelona are like Manchester United. Their players expect to win the league. It is different for us. If every year you win the league, the cup, the Champions League, your club gives the others fear.
'I see that when United play. Every team that faces United is afraid. It takes 20 years to create strength like that and it will take many more years of work here to get to where United are now. When I went to Inter Milan it was the same situation. They had not won the league for 19 years. They found it hard to even win three games in a row.'
Festive spirit? City suffered a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland after drawing 0-0 with West Bromwich (below)
Perhaps this fear of psychological downfall is why Mancini tries to improve his percentages with superstitious practices. David Platt, his assistant, will buy dinner before the Manchester United game because he picked up the tab prior to Liverpool and the manager will not wish to break a fortunate streak.
'We'll win 10 on the spin now, you watch,' moans Platt. 'It will cost me a fortune.'
Not that the rituals stop there. Mancini has a thing about dining table salt pots, which must not be passed from hand to hand, but moved across the table, like a chess piece, released and only then picked up by the receiver. So, when asked, Platt delights in proffering the object directly, knowing Mancini will let his food go cold rather than take it from his hand.
It takes 20
years to create
fear like United
'His worst one is the wine,' adds Platt. 'If you spill wine, he has to stick his fingers in it and dab it behind his ears, like perfume. Apparently, that wards off the bad luck. So we're in his office after the Liverpool game and I knock over a glass.
'There's nothing in it, really, but a drop comes out and splashes on the table and he's over, from the other side of the room, finger in the wine, dab, dab. And not a word of explanation to anybody.
'I can see Kenny Dalglish and Steve Clarke looking at him as if he's mad.'
This he is, slightly, because with a seemingly limitless transfer budget, he chose to buy trouble in the form of his Internazionale protégé Mario Balotelli.
On the eve of the last Manchester derby, fire officers arrived at the young Italian's house after a blaze started by the letting off of fireworks in a bathroom. The next day Balotelli starred in the 6-1 win, at one stage unveiling a vest bearing the legend, 'Why always me?' Mancini had the answer.
Problem child: Balotelli is never far from the centre of the action - but Mancini is wary of dropping him
'I told him, "Always you, Mario, because whenever there is trouble, you are inside it". He said, "Mister (Mancini pronounces it Meester, like Meester Fawlty) it is not my fault". I said, "No, I suppose it is my fault". He said, "No, it is not your fault but I was asleep when it happened". He is a strange man. A good man, a kind man, but I do not understand him. It feels as if I need my own special translator, just for Mario.
'He is an incredible player but he does not understand his strength, what he could achieve as a player. Maybe he needs more time. Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, these are the players whose talent is up there with Mario, but they are clever, they know the career is short and it is no use waiting until you are 40 before you realise how good you were.
'Mario first played when he was 16. He has, at most, 15 years as a top player and he is 21 now. He does not know how lucky he is at the moment. But he needs to arrive at that point soon.'
Alex was kind
to me after we
beat them 6-1
Balotelli is treated differently by Mancini, indulged over his smoking habit and the odd night out before matches. Could Mancini imagine taking the hard line that Sir Alex Ferguson occasionally has with Rooney - heavy fines or suspensions?
'I don't fine players,' he explains. 'We speak. OK, maybe after three or four times, there is a fine, but I have my own ways. Mario was on the bench for a month at the start of the season, he did not play for five or six games. That was disciplinary. He was not working well enough.
'He does not get it all his way but top players are often different men. I remember Paul Gascoigne at Lazio. You will always find these guys in football, but usually they are the best players, too. I just hope Mario can understand how much he will improve when he becomes a man. He could be so important for me.'
A year ago, that is what Mancini thought of the absent Tevez. Now estranged, separated by a continent and world views so polarised they might as well be from different planets, the manager is preparing for the decree absolute in what may be football's messiest divorce.
Change of culture: Mancini's attitude towards the game has changed since his switch to the Premier League
The general perception is that Mancini got the house. The owners backed him, the player departed, the club thrived in Tevez's absence. It was an important victory, for Mancini, for Manchester City, for football. Perhaps this is what makes his maudlin consideration of the subject so surprising.
'I have never thought I won the battle,' says Mancini, quietly. 'My relationship with Carlos was not just good, but fantastic. I did everything I could for him in two years. And now we are in this position. I tried to speak with him. I said, "Just apologise" but I don't know what was in his mind by then.
'I don't know his reasons. All I know is the club must always come first; ahead of me, ahead of players. So there is no fight that has been won, just a sad moment really.
'I understand what people are saying. It was an important time for the club and for the game. It was important to set an example to the players here. And I knew from the start that we had to change the perception of Manchester City, because many thought we were lucky to have these players.
'We needed to show players should want to play for us, that we are like Manchester United or Chelsea. And we are getting there. It is a different situation from two years ago.
'We cannot have players that think they are favouring us by being here; maybe Carlos thought so, I do not know. But it is not like a win because it is sad if it ends this way.'
And so to Sunday. Could anyone have imagined, say, five years ago, that Manchester United would visit City significant odds-against with every bookmaker in Britain (Victor Chandler, 13-5, was the best of it on Wednesday). Mancini is well aware of the expectation that 6-1 scoreline brings.
'They had a man sent off early in the second half,' he admits. 'We still would have won, but not by six.' I tell him that when Manchester United beat Arsenal 8-2, Ferguson said he wanted the scoring to stop because he did not like seeing the opposition humiliated in this way. I ask if Mancini felt the same on his special day.
Relentless: United should never be given respite - if you have the chance to score against them, take it
He responds with a look one imagines Balotelli must see quite often. Complete bemusement.
'No,' says Mancini. 'This is Manchester United. Keep scoring, keep scoring, keep scoring. There was a match, they were 3-0 down, they won 5-3. We were winning 3-0, then Darren Fletcher scored and you never know how the game will finish from there. So, no, I never thought 6-1 was too much.
'In Italy, you get three or four goals, you go slow, you stop. Here it is different. Firstly, you can win the title by scoring one more goal in England, and, secondly, if you are playing Manchester United and you can score, you score.
'To stop, that would be disrespectful. It is the opposite of what you are saying, I think. You are there to score goals and doing so shows respect for your opponent, it demonstrates that you are taking him seriously. I saw Alex after the game. I went to his office. He was kind. He always has been with me.
'We have a different culture in Italy. If you lose a game your mind does not work very well for many hours. Here it is different. Final whistle, the game is finished. That is a good thing. It has changed me. When we lost at Sunderland, it was difficult to feel Italian, but then I went to Martin O'Neill's office and I felt English.
'Alex Ferguson is 70 and still on the touchline, and do you know why? It is easier to manage here. There is more respect for the job, more respect for the manager. In Italy you have a problem every three days, supporters are demonstrating, lose two games and you are out. In England, they are patient so you work better. I have improved my mentality a lot here.
'In Italy, everyone is talking about the referee for three days before the game - "We don't like him, he is no good". Here, I ask David Platt or Brian Kidd, "Who is the referee?" It is the day of the game, they do not know. They do not care, we find out when we are on the pitch.'
How civilised, Mancini thinks. Shorn of paranoia and conspiracy, there is more time to work, more time to coach, more time to plan. And, of course, more time to worry about April's squeaky bum time and the shortness of arms.
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