Grob wrote:Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:btajim wrote:Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Not really. I'm genuinely saddened about Grob. Despite not always agreeing with him, he was one of the, if not THE, best poster around here until about year ago. I used to sprint on a topic to see what he had to offer when he had posted on one. Now he has tried to adopt some sort of Dev Alahanesque clever little wind up approach which simply doesn't suit him.
We have people who never were too sharp but I KNOW Grob is one of the sharpest fellers around here who knows what he is talking about when he wants to so that's why it makes me feel so disappointed. He is like Robinho, so much talent but wasting it on secondary things.
Rubbish. Grob's views are more reasonable than anyones. i.e. He looks at the facts, has no bias towards anyone and puts his point across perfectly.
Repating ad nauseum how Mancini should be sacked because Hughes was sacked has nothing to do with being sensible. Especially as his point regarding Hughes was stability. He just happens to say the same thing you are saying. That doesn't make it sensible. Far from it. Looking for vengeance has nothing to do with what's good for the football club. Saying that he thinks Mancini hasn't got it for this and that reason might be sensible. But looking for blood by asking someone who had nothing to do with Hughes sacking to be sacked is childish at best.
Seriously Niall, I felt that was a valid point. It wasnt a wind up. I took the Hughes sacking as a sign that the owners would not tollorate failure anymore, perceieved or actual. If you look at the cold hard facts, Mancini has failed this season. The task was tough but its a failure non the less. For consistancys sake i expected him to get the boot following what happened to Hughes. This isnt me trying to turn this into a Hughes thread on a wind up, its using the previous managers situation to second guess what the owners would do to Mancini.
Obviously now he is staying, as ive said in a previous thread, thats fine with me, im a stability advocate and Mancini, whilst he has his faults, has shown just enough to me to give the cheque and a chance to.
It also depends on how the owners measure failure, perceived or actual. I always thought that the Hughes sacking had little to do with the 70 points target given that Hughes was only a couple of wins to get it back on track and was more to do with the perceived lack of ability to organise the new and expensively assembled team.
The problem the owners faced was the overall deterioration in performances and results as the season progressed culminating in the final 3 games with 3 goals condeded per game and the defence in tatters. Mancini's evident ability to tighten the defence and instill a more disciplined approach has been in clear contrast to the team shape, structure and organisation under Hughes. Leaving aside the emotive arguments for Hughes more open way of playing I personally did not think we would progress very far if we continued down that road and either Hughes changed things or we changed Hughes. Whether Hughes could have changed things or brought in a higher calibre of coaching staff to help change things we will never know and its all moot anyway.
I guess my point is that the 70 points target was a bit of a convenient reason on which to justify the sacking as it was something tangible that could be used rather than 'we think Hughes cannot organise the team properly' because the response would have been 'what the fuck do you guys know about organising a football team?' and so on.
The way Khaldoon emphasised in his interview how Roberto organised the team and how Sheikh Mansour was pleased with the way Roberto organised the team I thought was telling. The fact that Mancini will not reach the 70 point target and is here for next season would also indicate that their are other factors in play with respect to how the managers performance is being measured.
I also think that the owners are not as kneejerk when it comes to the manager position as the media would have us believe. They had ample opportunity to sack Hughes last season at several points but stayed their hand and allowed Hughes to recover the situation. They also did nothing to quell speculation about Mancini's position until they were sure he could do the job and would not be rushed to publicly back the manager prematurely. I suspect this did not help Mancini but then lifes a bitch and all that. In both cases they did not rush to make a decision but did act quickly once the decision was made.
Mancini will get the time and every resource to make this club a top 4 and credible title contender. Its down to him now.
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