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Roberto Mancini ready to ride the storm at Manchester City

Manchester City’s failure to qualify for the Champions League will lead to a summer clear-out at Eastlands but, crucially, the axe is likely to be wielded by Roberto Mancini rather than his ambitious bosses.

Having seen Tottenham emerge from the City of Manchester Stadium with a deserved 1-0 victory that secures a top four finish for Harry Redknapp’s team, Mancini entered his post-match press conference on Wednesday evening knowing exactly what was coming his way.

Do you expect to be in charge of City at the start of next season?

Surprisingly, it was the second question, rather than the first, but when you manage Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan’s Manchester City, that kind of impatient probing goes with the terrain.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the dismissal of Mark Hughes as manager last December, the Welshman could never argue that he failed to receive total backing from Abu Dhabi when it came to the transfer market.

Inherited as the appointment of the previous regime, Hughes was never Sheikh Mansour’s man, but he was certainly given the time to make his mark.

Some will argue he was on course to do that, others will point to the alarming loss of form in the autumn that saw City draw at home to the might of Burnley and Hull City, two teams who have since been relegated by some distance.

But the key factor in Hughes’s dismissal was that the sheikh and his advisors had identified a malaise that the manager appeared unable to eradicate.

Out he went and in came Mancini, but despite the storm clouds gathering over Eastlands in the wake of City’s failure to deliver the Champions League, the Italian’s position is not under threat.

He will be given the time and money this summer to transform his team and install the players he believes can take City to the next level.

In January, his only transfer window so far, Mancini was restricted to signing only Patrick Vieira on a free and Adam Johnson from Middlesbrough for £7m.

Johnson has been an outstanding success – even if he was identified by City’s football administrator, Brian Marwood – while Vieira has shown glimpses of the experience he was brought in to add.

Clearly, Mancini has not yet had the advantage of Sheikh Mansour’s transfer market muscle, but he will be given that this summer.

And that is why the Eastlands clear-out will be masterminded by Mancini rather than the sheikh. The faces need to change, but only on the pitch.

Against Spurs on Wednesday, only Carlos Tevez truly resembled the kind of top-class player that City will need if they are to play in the Champions League.

City were outplayed and outclassed by a Spurs team that has grown together over the past two years. The time and patience afforded to manager Harry Redknapp showed through as his team comfortably overcame City.

Mancini knows City lack top-level experience and nous. When he recruits this summer, he will be looking for the players who will add the missing ingredients.

So that can only spell bad news for the likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Micah Richards, Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha.

All four have come through the ranks at Eastlands – Wright-Phillips has since enjoyed a spell at Chelsea – but their reputations have not been matched by their deeds.

They proved to be great players as City challenged for a top ten finish under previous regimes, but they just do not match up to the club’s new ambitions.

None are good enough for the Champions League. Wright-Phillips proved his own short-comings at that level at Chelsea.

They were all good for their time at Eastlands, but time has moved on. It may also move on for the expensively-acquired Gareth Barry, Kolo Toure and Wayne Bridge. Perhaps Craig Bellamy too.

All are good Premier League footballers, but none are likely to worry opponents in the Champions League.

Yes, City are now looking ahead to the Europa League next season, but they will be building for the next level. Mancini will not be signing players who can perform in the Europa League.

City’s ambitions demand that and Mancini, a Champions League manager at Inter, knows what it takes.

But for those who still doubt Mancini’s future and believe Hughes was treated shabbily, just bear in mind the following numbers.

When Hughes sat down with chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak at the start of the season, a target of 70 points for the season was agreed as the minimum requirement – the magic number for Champions League qualification.

On Hughes’s dismissal, City had collected 29 points from 17 games, claiming an average of 1.7 points a game. Projected over a season, Hughes’s team was on course to collect 65 points.

Mancini, on the other hand, has delivered 37 points from 20 games in charge, an average of 1.85 a game.

Projected over a season, that would bring 70.3 points.

City will end the campaign on 69 points if they beat West Ham on Sunday, one short of the 70 point target.

Had Mancini been recruited earlier, City might just have made it to the Champions League after all.

Roberto Mancini told his Manchester City job is safe

• No plans to replace City manager after 1-0 defeat to Spurs
• Khaldoon Al Mubarak confident of success next season




Roberto Mancini has been assured he will remain as manager of Manchester City despite his failure to lead the team into the Champions League.

City's 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last night means the richest club in English football will have to settle for next season's Europa League but the chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, says there are no plans to replace the former Internazionale manager.

He and the chief executive, Garry Cook, both went into the dressing room after the game to thank the players for their efforts and Khaldoon told them he was confident that, under Mancini, they would be in a better position to break into the Premier League's top four next season.


That support will be reiterated in an interview with the club's official website, to be pubished later today, in which Khaldoon expresses his support for Mancini and makes it clear that the club's owners in Abu Dhabi are going to give him more time.

Mancini, meanwhile, is already planning to bring his wife, Federica, over to England in September and is renting a house in Manchester after spending his first few months in a city-centre hotel.

He was asked after yesterday's game whether he was worried about losing his job and replied: "I'm confident. I think I will stay here. Why not? I have worked here five months and you don't start from the roof but the basement. We have worked very well and we are near the roof now. But I am not a magician and I don't have a magic wand. We wanted this [fourth] place, just like Liverpool and Aston Villa, but this is football."

Socrates wrote:Mancini's position confirmed in the Grauniad...

Roberto Mancini told his Manchester City job is safe

• No plans to replace City manager after 1-0 defeat to Spurs
• Khaldoon Al Mubarak confident of success next season




Roberto Mancini has been assured he will remain as manager of Manchester City despite his failure to lead the team into the Champions League.

City's 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last night means the richest club in English football will have to settle for next season's Europa League but the chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, says there are no plans to replace the former Internazionale manager.

He and the chief executive, Garry Cook, both went into the dressing room after the game to thank the players for their efforts and Khaldoon told them he was confident that, under Mancini, they would be in a better position to break into the Premier League's top four next season.


That support will be reiterated in an interview with the club's official website, to be pubished later today, in which Khaldoon expresses his support for Mancini and makes it clear that the club's owners in Abu Dhabi are going to give him more time.

Mancini, meanwhile, is already planning to bring his wife, Federica, over to England in September and is renting a house in Manchester after spending his first few months in a city-centre hotel.

He was asked after yesterday's game whether he was worried about losing his job and replied: "I'm confident. I think I will stay here. Why not? I have worked here five months and you don't start from the roof but the basement. We have worked very well and we are near the roof now. But I am not a magician and I don't have a magic wand. We wanted this [fourth] place, just like Liverpool and Aston Villa, but this is football."

avoidconfusion wrote:

Socrates wrote:Mancini's position confirmed in the Grauniad...

Roberto Mancini told his Manchester City job is safe

• No plans to replace City manager after 1-0 defeat to Spurs
• Khaldoon Al Mubarak confident of success next season




Roberto Mancini has been assured he will remain as manager of Manchester City despite his failure to lead the team into the Champions League.

City's 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last night means the richest club in English football will have to settle for next season's Europa League but the chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, says there are no plans to replace the former Internazionale manager.

He and the chief executive, Garry Cook, both went into the dressing room after the game to thank the players for their efforts and Khaldoon told them he was confident that, under Mancini, they would be in a better position to break into the Premier League's top four next season.


That support will be reiterated in an interview with the club's official website, to be pubished later today, in which Khaldoon expresses his support for Mancini and makes it clear that the club's owners in Abu Dhabi are going to give him more time.

Mancini, meanwhile, is already planning to bring his wife, Federica, over to England in September and is renting a house in Manchester after spending his first few months in a city-centre hotel.

He was asked after yesterday's game whether he was worried about losing his job and replied: "I'm confident. I think I will stay here. Why not? I have worked here five months and you don't start from the roof but the basement. We have worked very well and we are near the roof now. But I am not a magician and I don't have a magic wand. We wanted this [fourth] place, just like Liverpool and Aston Villa, but this is football."

In all fairness this story is blatently lifted off Bluemoon, based on a post by tolmie's hardoo to be more precise: http://bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/forum/viewto ... 1&t=174696

Ted Hughes wrote:Glad it's getting sorted at last.

Interesting that bloke mentioning Bellamy as someone who may struggle in the Chump's league. Not sure Liverpool fans would agree with that.

Also, if we get rid of SWP, Ireland, Micah & Ned now, won't we be short of home grown players for the quota in Europe? Surely we need to keep at least some of them until the next academy players come through?

btajim wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:Glad it's getting sorted at last.

Interesting that bloke mentioning Bellamy as someone who may struggle in the Chump's league. Not sure Liverpool fans would agree with that.

Also, if we get rid of SWP, Ireland, Micah & Ned now, won't we be short of home grown players for the quota in Europe? Surely we need to keep at least some of them until the next academy players come through?

We can sign English Players, though. Lescott and Barry came in etc.

Tokyo Blue wrote:Going back to the article as posted by Socrates, I would argue that over the 90 minutes as a whole we were not outplayed or outclassed. In the last 20 minutes yes, the other 70 most definitely not. The first half stats as I saw them were convincingly in our favour as was the overall balance of play and Fulop had nothing to do but deal with passes from his defenders for over an hour but hey, let's ignore that and remember only the last third of the game.

btajim wrote:

Tokyo Blue wrote:Going back to the article as posted by Socrates, I would argue that over the 90 minutes as a whole we were not outplayed or outclassed. In the last 20 minutes yes, the other 70 most definitely not. The first half stats as I saw them were convincingly in our favour as was the overall balance of play and Fulop had nothing to do but deal with passes from his defenders for over an hour but hey, let's ignore that and remember only the last third of the game.

Tottenham were the Away side and played like it. i.e. Let us come at them but gobbled everything up and hit whenever they could. How much was wrong with that disallowed Goal in the first half? Seemed OK to me. They then took it to us when we were tiring.

We could have played brilliantly - yet if we didn't score then we weren't going to win.

Redknapp had them organised.

Tokyo Blue wrote:

btajim wrote:

Tokyo Blue wrote:Going back to the article as posted by Socrates, I would argue that over the 90 minutes as a whole we were not outplayed or outclassed. In the last 20 minutes yes, the other 70 most definitely not. The first half stats as I saw them were convincingly in our favour as was the overall balance of play and Fulop had nothing to do but deal with passes from his defenders for over an hour but hey, let's ignore that and remember only the last third of the game.

Tottenham were the Away side and played like it. i.e. Let us come at them but gobbled everything up and hit whenever they could. How much was wrong with that disallowed Goal in the first half? Seemed OK to me. They then took it to us when we were tiring.

We could have played brilliantly - yet if we didn't score then we weren't going to win.

Redknapp had them organised.

I thought they took it over only when we had a passenger (take a bow Patrick).

I also thought that nasty little piece of work huddlestone should have been sent off for his deliberate stamp, which is also conveniently ignored.

Patrick wrote:

Tokyo Blue wrote:

btajim wrote:Tottenham were the Away side and played like it. i.e. Let us come at them but gobbled everything up and hit whenever they could. How much was wrong with that disallowed Goal in the first half? Seemed OK to me. They then took it to us when we were tiring.

We could have played brilliantly - yet if we didn't score then we weren't going to win.

Redknapp had them organised.

I thought they took it over only when we had a passenger (take a bow Patrick).

I also thought that nasty little piece of work huddlestone should have been sent off for his deliberate stamp, which is also conveniently ignored.

ITHANGYOU

btajim wrote:

Patrick wrote:

Tokyo Blue wrote:

btajim wrote:Tottenham were the Away side and played like it. i.e. Let us come at them but gobbled everything up and hit whenever they could. How much was wrong with that disallowed Goal in the first half? Seemed OK to me. They then took it to us when we were tiring.

We could have played brilliantly - yet if we didn't score then we weren't going to win.

Redknapp had them organised.

I thought they took it over only when we had a passenger (take a bow Patrick).

I also thought that nasty little piece of work huddlestone should have been sent off for his deliberate stamp, which is also conveniently ignored.

ITHANGYOU

Why? Their first Goal was harshly ruled out and Tottenham hit us when we ran out of steam.

How many chances did we create? How often did we look like scoring? Were the pair of you happy with what you saw last night?

Tottenham deserved to win that Match.

john@staustell wrote:Looking forward to seeing 'Federica' already.

brite blu sky wrote:GO LISTEN TO THE KHALDOON INTERVIEW AND MAKE YOUR OWN MINDS UP