Tuesday's B*l**x

[Chinners]

THE BOLLOX

Hidden away beneath the Mancini sacking headlines this morning is the news that he was not the only one to be disgarded yesterday. The Academy stucture was dismantled as well with Jim Cassell, Adam Sadler, Paul Power and Pete Lowe also recieving their marching orders. A sad day for our club and on the 1st anniversary of us winning the Premiership as well, thats some marketing/PR department we've got ourselves. The club appear to have not learnt from the embarrassing way Leslie Hughes was also the last to hear about his fate, a fact that Khaldoon was apparently "mortified" about and vowed would never happen again ... yeah right

Absolutely disgusted with my club MCFC tonight. A year to the day since the greatest moment of my supporting life they sack the only manager in Manchester football history to win 2 major trophies in his first 2 full seasons. Gary James

Manchester City sack manager
Roberto Mancini has been sacked as Manchester City manager after three-and-a-half years at the helm.
A statement said he "had failed to achieve any of the club's targets, with the exception of qualification for next season's Champions League".
Assistant Brian Kidd will take charge for the final two games of the season and the summer tour to America.
Malaga's Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini has been strongly tipped to replace Mancini.
On Sunday night, 59-year-old Pellegrini, who spent one season in charge at Real Madrid in 2009-10, insisted he was not about to become the new City boss.
"I deny here and now being the new coach of Manchester City, I haven't signed any agreement with anybody," he said after Malaga's goalless Primera Division draw with Sevilla.
City thanked Mancini for the job he had done, with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak saying: "Roberto's record speaks for itself, he secured the love and respect of fans.
"He has done as he promised and delivered silverware and success."
City added in their statement that it was "a difficult decision", explaining it was "the outcome of a planned end of season review process that has been brought forward in light of recent speculation".
The 48-year-old Italian replaced Mark Hughes in December 2009, winning the FA Cup in 2011 and City's first top-flight league title for 44 years in 2012 - a year to the day before his sacking.
In July 2012, he signed a new five-year deal with the club.
But this term, City are a distant second to champions Manchester United, went out in the Champions League group stages and lost the FA Cup final to Wigan.
Mancini was critical of Manchester City officials for failing to deny the newspaper reports that surfaced on the morning of Saturday's FA Cup final stating he would be sacked and replaced by Pellegrini.
City were beaten by Ben Watson's 90th-minute header at Wembley as Wigan, struggling to avoid relegation from the Premier League in 18th place, became the lowest ranked team to win the FA Cup since West Ham in 1980.
City thrashed rivals United 6-1 at Old Trafford in October 2011 en route to their first Premier League title and, although they beat them again on their home ground this season, Sir Alex Ferguson's team wrapped up their 20th league crown last month with four matches remaining.
The sacked trophy winners
Mancini's sacking means the Premier League's major trophy winners from 2011-12 have now all been sacked. League Cup-winner Kenny Dalglish was dismissed by Liverpool last May and FA Cup and Champions League-winner Roberto di Matteo by Chelsea in November. In addition, Championship-winner Brian McDermott was sacked by Reading in March.
Mancini's record in the Champions League has also come under scrutiny.
The furthest he has been in Europe's elite competition is the quarter-finals, with Inter Milan, and City have been eliminated in the group stages of both their campaigns during his reign.
Having finished third behind Bayern Munich and Napoli in 2011 they again failed to qualify this term, winning none of their six matches in a formidable group that also contained Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid and Ajax.
Their tally of three points was the lowest by an English side in the group stage of the competition.


ON THIS DAY
.... in 1981 Manchester City lost the FAC final replay to Spurs. Manager John Bond was not sacked ;)


Tiatto concerned for Man City

Danny Tiatto believes a Chelsea-like 'circus' lies in wait for former club Manchester City after the sacking of Roberto Mancini.
While hardly surprised by Mancini's dismissal, Tiatto - an ex-City captain who made 158 appearances in for the club over a six-year stint - expressed doubts over the thinking behind the decision.
"I think it's been on the cards for a while, even though it's going to bring a bit more instability to the club again," he told Goal Australia.
"The next coach that comes in is going to bring another set of players in, and then you get the merry-go-round of having a very big squad and a lot of unhappy players.
"So I'm not sure if it may have been the right decision. I know it was disappointing they lost against Wigan on the weekend in the FA Cup final, but I think they're going to go the same way Chelsea did at one stage, with just a circus of coaches and players coming in and going out."
Tiatto agreed the English Premier League club had perhaps passed up opportunity to capitalise on the absence of Sir Alex Ferguson at city rivals and 2012-13 champions Manchester United.
He cited the Scot's long and successful reign at the Red Devils as an example for City to consider.
"I think stability and having a coach there for a long period would have been a better solution for the club," Tiatto said.
"But they've got endless amounts of money, so they're going to try and buy themselves another title by the looks of it."
Even with Mancini still at the club, Malaga's Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini had been heavily linked with the post.
Tiatto said he or former Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti - fresh from his Ligue 1 win with Paris Saint Germain - would have the strong personality required to lead City.
"I think [Carlo Ancelotti] would be a good coach to come in. He can take over a team with so many egos and so many players," Tiatto said.
"He could definitely be a good choice... they might jump in for him even though there has been other speculation as well.
"There was rumours that [Pellegrini] was going to get the job as well. So I think between those two - they're two quality coaches that have been around the traps."

Monaco line up swoop for axed Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini
ROBERTO MANCINI could be offered a quick return to management by Monaco after he was sacked last night by Manchester City.
His fellow Italian Claudio Ranieri has guided Monaco back to the top flight of French football this season, but the owners of the Principality club believe Mancini is the man to take them forward.
Mancini’s anger at his dismissal at Manchester City will be tempered by a multi-million-pound pay-off – because he had four years left on a five-season contract worth about £37million.
City maintained a silence yesterday despite intense speculation that a decision had already been taken by their Abu Dhabi owners to fire Mancini and appoint Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini.
Dressing-room unrest at Mancini’s clumsy man-management is understood to be a key factor behind his demise
But Mancini was spared the same fate as his predecessor Mark Hughes - and was fired before having to manage City in their rearranged game at relegated Reading tonight despite the world knowing he was a dead man walking.
City remained in London ahead of the fixture at the Madjeski Stadium following their humiliating FA Cup final defeat by Wigan.
Mancini arrived with his players for training at QPR’s Loftus Road ground yesterday morning but, it is understood, stayed in his suit rather than change into his normal tracksuit and did not get involved.
Afterwards, while the team boarded the coach to take them to their London hotel, Mancini headed off in a different direction with his assistant Brian Kidd and his translator.
He was believed to be going to meet City’s chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak – owner Sheikh Mansour’s right-hand man – who wanted to tell him his fate face to face after criticism of the way the club handled Hughes’ dismissal in December 2009.
Hughes was forced to manage the team in a game against Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium with the world aware that he had been sacked.
Assistant manager Kidd will to step in to manage the team at Reading, where a point will ensure they finish runners-up behind Manchester United.
Dressing-room unrest at Mancini’s clumsy man-management is understood to be a key factor behind his demise.
His public criticism of skipper Vincent Kompany, goalkeeper Joe Hart, Samir Nasri and Micah Richards has turned most of the players against him.

Fans floored by City decision
Manchester City Supporters Club spokesman Kevin Parker says Roberto Mancini's sacking is his "lowest point" in 40 years as a fan.
The Italian's departure was confirmed late on Monday evening a year to the day since he delivered City's first league title in 44 years.
The previous year had seen the club end a 35-year trophy drought with victory in the FA Cup final and, according to Parker, Mancini will be sorely missed by City fans.
He told Sky Sports News: "It's no great surprise but I'm still massively disappointed.
"May 13 should be a very special day in the memory of City fans after that Sergio Aguero goal a year ago. but this has tarnished that date.
"My phone has gone crazy with messages from members of the supporters' club and friends who are all just very, very disappointed about what has happened.
"He's been a massive success. I've been a season ticket holder for 40 years - we've waited all our lives to win trophies like the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Community Shield.
"In the late 1960s and early 70s when Joe Mercer won the Second Division, the First Division, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup somebody in a higher authority decided the club needed to take a new direction.
"Joe Mercer was replaced and we had 35 barren years apart from one trophy. I'm not saying that will happen this time, but sometimes people make strange decisions.
"I do accept that as fans we don't know what goes on behind the scenes, but we have a dream our team can win trophies and - with 'Bobby Manc' - we managed to achieve that.
"This is probably my lowest point as a City fan and I've seen them relegated numerous times. It's just so disappointing."
Malaga boss Manuel Pellegrini is favourite to succeed Mancini, and Parker said: "The last thing we want is for another manager to come in and not be successful.
"But there's one thing for sure, and this is not just emotion talking. We as City fans will never ever forget the contribution Roberto Mancini has made to this football club."
Former City striker David White said there is no doubt Mancini will be missed at the Etihad, but thinks it won't take long for the Italian to be forgotten.
"I think overall they (the fans) were definitely behind the manager," he said. "They have had success with him not seen over the past couple of years.
"The new manager comes in and if he starts well then you know things are quickly forgotten - it depends how the new manager starts next season."

CITY PLAYERS GAVE ROBERTO MANCINI THE BOOT
They are quietly optimistic that he is on the way out but until then they will keep the champagne on ice
The club’s board have lost patience with the Italian following a woeful season and are expected to replace him with
Malaga boss Manuel Pellegrini.
Starsport understands several senior members of the City squad have turned the screw on Mancini and told club bosses they no longer want him in charge. At least a handful of Blues stars have lost faith in him and reckon his man-management skills are to blame.
Mancini has had fall-outs with Joe Hart, Samir Nasri, Mario Balotelli, Joleon Lescott and captain Vincent Kompany this season.
It has created an unhappy dressing room.
Despite the fact Mancini is heading for the exit, he took training at Loftus Road yesterday ahead of tonight’s penultimate league clash at Reading.
A club source said: “The whole experience was totally surreal. You can understand how the players felt.
“This is a man who isn’t likely to see out the week so how are they expected to react to him?
“The manager was subdued and the squad just got on with it. It just felt weird. The players all want to do a good job in the remaining fixtures but hardly any of them have a working relationship with him.
“Make no mistake, they don’t want him here. They are quietly optimistic that he is on the way out but until then they will keep the champagne on ice.”
Pellegrini has denied he is about to replace Mancini and said: “I deny here and now being the new coach of Manchester City.
“I haven’t signed any agreement with anybody. I have an agreement with Malaga not to talk to anyone. Nothing has been agreed with any other club.
“I hope in the coming weeks things will become a little clearer what is going to be the future here at this club.”
Mancini is set to pocket a staggering £7.5m in compensation. And he could be at the centre of a fight between Monaco and Roma for his services. services.

Five things Pellegrini must do at City
Entertainment The City powers that be lost faith in Mancini because they felt his football was tedious and formulaic. They want to be excited by a winning side that has belief in itself.

Bravery Mancini's reign began to spiral out of control in Madrid last September. They went with a negative mind-set but led with minutes to go only to fall apart. Pellegrini knows he has to be the dominant force in matches. Being outplayed by Wigan is not acceptable.

Maturity City were a side that regressed this season, with too few players willing to carry the burdens of expectation. That has to change, immediately and Pellegrini's imprint needs to be swift and sure, not only to get the fans onside.

Europe Sheikh Mansour believes City should be a Champions League force, not an embarrassment. Mancini has never progressed beyond the last eight in the competition. Pellegrini will be expected to challenge Europe's elite.

Trophies The Abu Dhabi owners have invested more than £1billion on and off the pitch. They expect a team to deliver a regular and consistent return for "The Project". With United and Chelsea also changing managers, excuses will be thin on the ground.

Manuel Pellegrini's coaching career
Early years: Universidad Chile 1987-89, Palestino (Chile) 1990-91 & 1998, O'Higgins (Chile) 1992-93, Universidad Catolica (Chile) 1994-96, LDU Quito (Ecuador) 1999-2000.
San Lorenzo (Argentina), June 2001-May 2002 W21 D17 L12
River Plate (Argentina), June 2002-June 2003 W35 D7 L11
Villarreal (Spain), July 2004-May 2009 W123 D72 L64
Real Madrid (Spain), June 2009-May 2010 W36 D4 L7
Malaga (Spain), November 2010-Present W52 D29 L46

[spoiler][/spoiler]
Striker Wayne Rooney, 27, was booed by Manchester United fans during their victory parade. Daily Mirror

Out-going Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, his successor David Moyes and Old Trafford midfielder Ryan Giggs met at a Cheshire hotel to discuss Rooney's future. The Sun

Moyes has called Rooney "one of the best players in the world" and will meet the forward next week to sort out the player's future. Guardian

Rooney is holding peace talks with Manchester United after making a U-turn over his decision to ask for a transfer. Daily Express

Real Madrid are in 'secret' talks with Manchester United over a potential £33m deal to sign want-away striker Rooney. Caught Offside

Manchester United are interested in signing former Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas, 26, from Barcelona for £20m. Evening Standard

David Moyes, who will take over as Manchester united manager on 1 July, wants to take central defender Phil Jagielka, 30, to Old Trafford with him for £10m. The Sun

Both Manchester clubs are keen to sign Udinese wonderkid Piotr Zielinski, 18. talkshit

Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke, 22, will be targeted by Borussia Dortmund to replace 24-year-old striker Robert Lewandowski if the Pole quits the Bundesliga side in the summer. DSSC

Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, 25, insists he wants to stay at Stoke despite interest from Manchester United and Arsenal. Metro

Italian side Napoli are interested in signing Sunderland's 25-year-old goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. Talkshit

Relegated QPR want Tottenham midfielder Scott Parker, 32, to help them win promotion back to the Premier League. Daily Mirror

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew secured his club's Premier League survival with a game to spare and is expected to be allowed to keep his job. Daily Mirror

Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher has targeted returning for pre-season following surgery to cure a chronic bowel condition. Daily Telegraph

David Beckham and other PSG players were forced to cut short their league title celebrations amid violent confrontations between fans and riot police in Paris last night.
The PSG players abandoned their victory podium across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower after five minutes when some fans reduced the presentation of the Ligue 1 trophy to chaos. Tear gas was fired, shops raided and several people were arrested.
Earlier, the PSG president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, said he had rebuffed Real Madrid when recently contacted about coach Carlo Ancelotti and claims he is “very optimistic” the Italian will be in charge next season.

Jack Wilshere, 21, will miss England's two international friendlies against the Republic of Ireland and Brazil at the end of the season so he can have surgery on his ankle injury. Daily Telegraph


MORE BOLLOX SOON

[Chinners]

Very interesting Extra B*L**X

Debonair on the outside but raging inside... Roberto Mancini always knew best
At a city meeting he stared at his feet and sulked for an hour and a half


Sentiment provided so many reasons for hoping that Roberto Mancini would make it through the storm at Manchester City. There were parts of him that the televised news conferences never reached and part of the privilege of this job was to be privy to them; observing Mancini holding court at Manchester’s San Carlo Cicchetti restaurant, for example, at the Christmas lunch for the city’s football correspondents, as he pressed upon us the merits of the gnocchi, prawns, Neapolitan pizza and Pinot Spumante, from his native Lombardy.

He is not a gregarious individual. We both arrived early for the Christmas occasion in 2011 and it was like getting blood out of a stone until David Platt bowled up and put him at ease. But his responses to the extraordinary volume of questions about Mario Balotelli certainly became an art form and his press conferences seemed to be more than those exercises in football club propaganda which we’re so familiar with these days.

Yet you didn’t need to look very hard to discern that the debonair exterior belied a very different kind of Mancini whom the Manchester City staff had to try to get down to work with. A chance conversation with one of the staff in the Etihad car park one April night last year provided the first hint that the battles Mancini was choosing to wage with so many of those within the club were something more than “Roberto being Roberto.” Mancini will “always challenge you” said that individual. That was “a positive thing”, he quickly added, though it didn’t sound like it. The public antipathy Mancini was displaying towards others within the club wasn’t on, even though the suggestion that night was that a mere “5 to 10 per cent” of the manager’s game needed to be improved.

All of that was before the arrival last August of Ferran Soriano as City’s chief executive; an individual who is something of a management theory anorak, has written a book on the subject and who happens to have a bit of a bee in his bonnet about executives keeping stuff behind closed doors. Soriano is the man who wouldn’t hire Jose Mourinho for Barcelona because of his barbed press conference gibes about his own club. “He generated media conflict almost permanently and it was a potential source of conflict within the club,” Soriano has said of Mourinho.

He also believes in the potential of individuals to change their management styles. At Barcelona, he encouraged his director of football Txiki Begiristain to coach the coach, Frank Rijkaard, in becoming more authoritarian. It worked for a while. But Mancini was never going to be so malleable.

Platt was an important part of the club’s attempts to create a bridge to Mancini and draw him into the fold – an enterprise over which there has been no small amount of agonising in the past few years. But it was a profoundly difficult task. The club’s executives felt they were getting somewhere with their planning, a year or so back when, during Garry Cook’s tenure as chief executive, they managed to get all of the executives key to their work in the transfer market together in one room. This little “player acquisition board meeting” felt like a breakthrough, except that Mancini refused to participate. He put his head down, stared at his feet and sulked for near an hour and a half. Platt tried to smooth things over, by all accounts, but that was the essence of Mancini.

It is difficult to equate the exterior and interior individual, though one individual who worked closely with him at City draws things back to the gilded cage Mancini has lived in since he was the 16-year-old enfant prodige sold by Genoa to Paolo Mantovani’s Sampdoria for the kind of sum in lira, that justified his early nickname “Mr Five Billion”.

“He’d operated in a different world to the rest of us,” the one-time colleague says.

It is why Mancini has never much taken to the notion that others might know best. And though as a Sampdoria player he demonstrated a rich capability to inculcate a team ethos – acting as captain, tactician, kit designer and organiser of the weekly team dinners at La Piedigrotta on the Genoese quayside – fitting into a hierarchy has been more difficult. That’s how it is when you think no one comes up to your standard.

The most instructive interview I undertook on the subject of the outgoing City manager was with Platt, before the 2011 FA Cup semi-final win over Manchester United. Platt related how, down on the bench, he was the first to hear Mancini’s frustrations with those players who lacked the peripheral vision he always displayed as a player blessed with incredible gifts.

“We’ll sometimes have a [goal chance] and [Mancini] will think: ‘Why hasn’t he passed there?’ ” Platt told me. “He’ll turn around on the bench and say: ‘He only has to knock it there.’ ” Platt would put himself in the player’s position sometimes. “I know that as a goalscorer my sole focus would narrow; that I wouldn’t see anybody else around me and I would just try and score the goal. But Roberto was the player who had all the vision and I think sometimes he still sees the game from his playing perspective. He sees it peripherally. To him, what [a player has just tried] is alien.”

Perhaps this explains why Mancini had such an abiding conviction that Mario Balotelli – crazy but with a little bit of that genius quality – was worth persisting with, but why he really found it so difficult to put an arm around Edin Dzeko’s shoulder and encourage that sensitive soul. Some at City have fretted often over how Dzeko could be helped to reach his potential, with a general resignation about the fact that Mancini wouldn’t manage it.

Everyone got the sharp end of his tongue in public by the end, even his Italian masseurs, though it always seemed to be Italians who had the answers. It was remarkable that City, equipped with as lavish an infrastructure as perhaps any in world football, would need to employ an Italian physiotherapist who has always liked players to try his donkey stew when Mancini felt they lacked something during the run-in to last season’s title.

Sergio Vigano, a guru who first looked after him in his early playing days at his northern base of Montferrat where he’d serve the stew and agnolotti pasta, was called in 40 days before the match against QPR which sealed last season’s title.

Mancini is also far too smart not to have seen what was coming last night. I understand that he signed an agreement last summer which gave Monaco an option on him. Don’t be surprised if he features there very soon, because the Riviera will suit him and there’ll be a chance to exert control. It will be the turn of others to drink his Pinot Spumante, hear about the gnocci and, if they happen to be an employee of the club where he turns up, get the rough edge of his tongue.

OFFICIAL CLUB BOLLOX
Interesting how on today's official papertalk page the club have only commented thus:

The papers are, understandably, largely concentrating on yesterday evening’s club statement with various opinions and comment.

It's the lack of commenting that made this look like a dog's breakfast to begin with. They could have at least mentioned something in their recent email survey trying to work out how to fleece more money out of me ... every little helps afterall

[Chinners]

Goal B*l**x
Key members of the former manager's backroom team including David Platt and Attilio Lombardo are set to follow the youth coaches axed yesterday out of Etihad Stadium exit door

Roberto Mancini will be handed a minimum £7.5 million pay-off as Manchester City execute an extensive cull of their former manager’s backroom staff, Goal.com can reveal.
At least 10 members of the club’s existing coaching staff are to be axed following a comprehensive review of the coaching operations at Etihad Stadium.
The exodus is set to be headed by first-team coach David Platt and the extended Italian entourage that includes Under-21s manager Attilio Lombardo, senior coach Fausto Salsano, fitness coach Ivan Carminati, goalkeeping coach Massimo Battara and defensive coach Angelo Gregucci.
The City sacking programme, which is believed to have been led by sporting director Txiki Begiristain, has been broadened to include coaches further down the coaching chain.
Goal.com understands that long-time City servants who work with the academy players Jim Cassell and Paul Power, along with Under-18s coach Adam Sadler, were all dismissed on Monday with immediate effect. Pete Lowe, the head of education and coaching, is also facing the axe.

However, Mancini’s No.2 Brian Kidd, who will take caretaker charge of the City team for the final two matches of the season, including Tuesday’s trip to Reading, is expected to remain with the club under the regime of the new manager.
Sources have said one possibility is that the popular 63-year-old takes on a senior role working with the academy at the Etihad Stadium campus.
Begiristain is understood to have been the driving force for the coaching overhaul following a root and branch review of the club’s backroom set-up since he joined City last October.

Mancini had four years remaining on his contract but the former Inter Milan manager’s pay-off will be limited to 12 months’ salary should he get another job immediately.
Under the severance terms of the five-year contract he signed last summer, Mancini is set to receive an initial sum of £7.5m, which will be topped up for every month that he is out of work.
The 48-year-old is a target for super-rich French club Monaco, as well as Italian club Napoli.
Platt is also expected to receive a vast settlement figure if, as expected, he follows Mancini out of the exit door. The former England midfielder’s City salary is understood to be around £900,000-a-year.

Manchester City's dismissal of Robert Mancini proves once more that football is a painful business
by Independent's City fan Simon Kelner
Football clubs aren't like other brands that inspire loyalty, but stop short of love.
We have become well used to rewards for failure, but this may be the first case of paying the price for success. Roberto Mancini's dismissal as the manager of Manchester City is, for most of us who follow the football club, a disappointment bordering on a personal disaster, but it throws up a number of issues of wider interest. Is football simply a business where decisions are made for purely commercial reasons? It surely cannot be that a multi-billion industry is ruled by matters of the heart.
We show allegiance to many products and services in our daily lives. I've heard people talk in impassioned terms about their preference for Apple over Blackberry (or vice versa). We may choose the RAC over the AA. We can be evangelical about our favourite coffee shop. We feel attached to these brands and, like the support of a football club, this connection is sometimes passed on down the generations. But we wouldn't quail if the boss of any of these establishments were summarily fired, as long as the service didn't suffer. Shouldn't it be the same with football?
When the balance sheet of the past season is considered, it is hard to argue with the proposition that Mancini has under-delivered. In business terms, he missed his targets, he failed to recruit enough high-quality staff, his strategy for European expansion was a failure and, meanwhile, his closest and deadliest competitor (the Blackberry to his Apple) forged ahead to increase its market share. It was inevitable - and many would say perfectly sensible - that he should pay for this weak performance with his job.
But life is not as simple as that, and football - run by hard-headed financial types and patronised by devotees driven solely by emotion - is an arena in which the normal rules of business do not apply. Who would choose to run a company where there is no salary control, and where wages account for a obscenely large proportion of turnover?
The club - corporately, and in brand terms - is clearly much bigger than one person. It has a history, a tradition, a heritage that survives the comings and goings of players and managers. But it also has a spirit, a personality, a soul even, and that's where it's different to any other commercial concern. The question is: who is the guardian of that soul? Those who spend their hard-earned money in support of the club? Or those who spend the millions trying to provide entertainment and, of course, success?
We supporters feel we have made an investment in our club, but I'm afraid our stake counts for little around the boardroom table. It is a rather unsatisfactory state of affairs, and it has left a majority of Manchester City supporters feeling alienated and disenchanted.
Roberto Mancini's three-and-a-half years at the club were, by any standards, successful, the club claiming its first league title in 45 years. Yet, in this brutal world, you can't rest on past glories. And while directors are ruthless, supporters are fickle. So we'll be back next season singing the name of the new manager. For the moment, however, the message comes right from the heart. Thanks, Roberto, for the unforgettable memories.

[Goaters 103]

Kevin Parker - "Lowest point in 40 years" - err, nope. Not even close, unless you didn't pitch up at Stoke in 1998, or York away in Dec 1998.

Trust me, those days we were just a tad worse.

[Swales4ever]

Historic monumental issue of the B*ll*x here, bound straight to Classic section.

Just the Wag not accorded to the general pick of quality. these italian perfectionist cunts are never satisfied, do they?

[bobby brows]

cheeky so and so's sent me a survey about my FA Cup experience last night

[Chinners]

Roberto Mancini 'arrogant and self-centered', tweets former kit man, as Manchester City manager sacked
A former Manchester City kit man has described how working under Roberto Mancini was unbearable and that the Italian was "arrogant, vain and self-centered".

In a series of tweets which have since been deleted, Stephen Aziz, who left to work at Premier League rivals Sunderland last summer, said of Mancini: "Arrogant, vain, self-centred no manners ignorant just some of the daily traits really made going into work a daily grind!! #karma".
Mancini was sacked yesterday evening - a year to the day after lifting the Premier League trophy for Manchester City - and is set to be replaced by Manuel Pellegrini.
Many City supporters have reacted with widespread dismay at the Italian's dismissal. However, this is mainly because in front of the camera he was charm personified, and continued to wear the blue-and-white scarf which gave him an instant connection with the City supporters when he succeeded Mark Hughes in December 2009.
Aziz, though, has hinted at the chameleon nature of Mancini by suggesting he could have been an actor had he not pursued a career in football. He was the smiling face to the fans and the cameras, but moody and distant behind closed doors.
Another of Aziz's tweets read: "Not my style to come in here and start to bad mouth someone but this guy was really a piece of work!!!.
"Not saying he didn't do well to win trophy's etc! Just expressing how I felt about this guy! Genuinely not a nice person!'."
He added: "Fans don't get to see what really goes on and day 2 day running 2 years there seeing him every day was hard work getting a 'good morning'".
However, Aziz did praise the club itself, saying: "Mcfc on the other hand what a great club to work for some great players and staff nice down to earth ppl loved working there!!! #MCFC".
The disappointment among supporters of Mancini's axe was soon apparent across social media and internet forums.
Kevin Parker, general secretary of the Manchester City Supporters Club, said: "I think it seems clear - whilst they might not be happy with what's happened on the field - there are other bits and pieces off the field that we as fans don't get to know about.
"This reference to an 'holistic approach', there is probably a message in there somewhere.
"I think they are looking for peace, harmony and happiness in the camp. That would suggest that under Roberto that isn't the case.
"We all hear rumours and hear stories about it not being a particularly happy camp.
"But as fans our interest is a successful football team, success and trophies, and under Roberto that is what we got.
"Of course we are disappointed we have not won a trophy this season but in the eyes of City fans, that is not failure.
"When you have waited as long as we have for trophies, then the three Roberto has brought in three years are certainly keeping us happy."

[Swales4ever]

Roberto Mancini 'arrogant and self-centered', tweets former kit man, as Manchester City manager sacked
A former Manchester City kit man has described how working under Roberto Mancini was unbearable and that the Italian was "arrogant, vain and self-centered".

errm.... at least it seems we have now a PR office back, working on given duties.

[bobby brows]

Roberto Mancini's three-and-a-half years at the club were, by any standards, successful, the club claiming its first league title in 45 years. Yet, in this brutal world, you can't rest on past glories. And while directors are ruthless, supporters are fickle. So we'll be back next season singing the name of the new manager. For the moment, however, the message comes right from the heart. Thanks, Roberto, for the unforgettable memories.

It was 44 years dipshit! And way to make us sound fickle. I'm not disenchanted by any stretch. It was a difficult and unpopular decision that will stand the test of time if we win the league next season going undefeated with a hundred points and a hundred goals! :-)