Mancini - 50 Not Out

[BobKowalski]

Gary Owen joins the chorus saying STFU about being tired.

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... wen_column

His views are echoed by most ex pro's.

Messi has already played 40 odd games apparently.

Without reading it...

..odds are he mentions back in his day they played 3 games a week, smoked tabs, drank pints at half-time and still whupped the foreigners

Ok now read it

Damn no mention of tabs or pints - oh well can't win them all

Not a fan of sports scientists either it seems but it is nice to see Gary is anxiously worrying like the rest of us :)

Worrying about what though Bob?

I wish Roberto Mancini would stop talking about how tired his players are – they might start believing him!
If you start talking about feeling tired, you actually do feel tired. A player’s peak performance is nothing to do with physical ability, and everything to do with what goes on between his ears.
Rather than feeling tired, they should be scrambling over each other to try to get a place in the team.

Sounds like the only thing he is worried about is the talk about tiredness and all the feedback on the article seems to agree with him.

Supporting City is grounds enough for worry full stop :)

Seriously though having read the article - and I like Gary - its starts off with '...the players might start believing him'. I note the word 'might' not 'will'. He has a concern which is fair enough and it is a concern that you and others share.

It just isn't a concern I share. There is nothing much else to say really.

And no an ex pro banging on about what it was like in his day and 'sports scientists' and we never got tired etc etc isn't convincing me otherwise I mean how many times have ex pros bemoaned pampered modern day footballers and their cosseted existence?

The truth is it is all about monitoring players and taking blood tests and rehydration and rotation with a view to getting optimum performance levels. God knows how many chats/discussions players have with the sports science team and management with players and sports science teams and whoever else is involved these days.

Yet their performance all hinges on what Mancini says in his PC? Its a wonder any manager complains about anything ever if it all it takes is a few upbeat words to the media. Harry was banging on about little Spurs not being favourites for top 4 this year a week or so back. His players must be crushed by the news. Probably explains their last two performances. Keep it upbeat 'arry thats the secret!

[john68]

Having reached a happy ending in the other thread Bob, How about we go for the "All lived happily ever after" finale in this one?

You, Ted, Doug, Siim, myself and some others, all come from the same place in reality...optimism. The difference is that they/we can see that Mancini's public pronouncements could (is) jeorpadise(ing) that, within the club and within the players. You obviously don't. You make a valid point regarding the effects of what Bob says publically versus any evidence, provided by our sports scientists and which paradigm exerts the greatest power over players' minds. You may be right...but only partially so.

I have argued that players don't win trophies and that teams do. Taking it one step further, teams don't win trophies Bob, clubs do. All clubs have an aura about them, a mentality that runs through all clubs from top to bottom. You yourself mentioned the hard wired failure at City, which I did my best to debunk.

City provide a great example of this in our recent history. During our stay in the 3rd Division, the mentality during the 1st half of the season was of resignation, almost an aceptance of our failure. We were shit, we knew it and that was that. During half time and losing versus Stoke at Maine Road, something amazing happened. The hard wired mentality changed to "enough is enough" the team turned it on and the fans went wild...the penny dropped and a new mentality became..."we can do this"...and later that season, by the skin of our teeth, we did. That "never say die" mentality pulled Dickov and us through.
The following season, the momentum and strength gained from that pushed us on to promotion again.

City's present mentality is not yet one of hard wired success. It is more of "we know we're good but not sure quite how good". It has the remains of the old "waiting to fuck up" in it and it is quite fragile. It is more obvious within the fans than in the players and the club still seems to feel a little vulnerable. There is still fear underneath. That fear needs to be eradicated.

In the Allison era, our club's mentality was of "No fear" whatsoever. A belief that we could win and win we did...often. Our players feared nobody, nor did our fans. the whole club exuded courage and it worked.

Despite what i have previously posted, I recognise the fragiltiy of the City mentality, especially on here and the fans at the ground. Rare chants of "We're gonna win the cup" are often silenced. City fans lack bravado and courage....and when all else fails, we turn to humour...and laugh at ourselves. I love the humour but not when it hides fear and is a replacement for courage.

Bob's pronouncements about fatigue, emphasise our fragility throughout the club. It contains doubt, shows fear and it is picked up by the club...and remember Bob...Clubs win trophies. It helps define how the fans react, creates terrace tension and becomes reflected in the media.

Our club is progressing at an amazingly rapid pace. We have covered a mass of ground, yet we remain uncinvinced, timid about our success, Allison would have picked up the flag, charged forward and screamed..."Follow Me lads"...and the whole club would have felt they could charge forward. Under Mancini we are told we need to sit down and have a rest.

[Ted Hughes]

Ted you haven't answered my question to you yet!

What question? You mean this:

It's a sad state of affairs when even Andy Gray gets held up as a beacon of knowledge

I should imagine most other ex title winning pro footballers would say the same.

But current title winning pro footballers such as Patrick Vieira, Kolo Toure and Carlos Tevez would tell you different. Two different era's of the game physically from when Andy Gray was playing and the current lads.

Where's the question? You don't ask one if you mean this post? I haven't noticed another one.

This was just a statement with no evidence to back it up.

I've not said anyhere that Andy Gray was as good as or played in similar conditions to those players (although tbf I think he'd score goals today no problem at all) I've said that he & most title winning ex footballers would agree that the manager, moaning about being tired is counter productive. I'm right. Whenever you hear top players talking about such things, on the whole, almost all tend to have a winning mentality & not like showing weakness to the opposition.

You are suggesting Tevez & Co think that Bob moaning about being tired is ok. How do you know? Why do you assume that, if you spoke to them privately, they would think it was a good thing for the manager to make these comments before important games? Where are you getting the evidence to back this up? Tevez is a serial whinger true, but do you think he does it to help our cause? He does it without even thinking about us, just himself. Does it actually help us in any way when we read stuff about Tevez moaning about having played too much football? Do we see it as a positive? Yet it's a good thing when the manager does it? Why? Where are you getting your evidence that Tevez is in complete harmonious agreement with Bob anyway? Is it the stand up touchline rows that give you that impression? What have Vieira & Kolo said that makes you think they agree it's a positive thing to do?


Now the pitch is too hard btw.

[Original Dub]

When someone one yawns invariably you follow suit.

The end.

Its truely amazing that one or two folk in this thread can't seem to grasp this concept... or is it?

They're the two most likely lads to fondle Roberto's nut sack and finger his asshole given half a chance, so debating any point with them on the manager is completely pointless IMO.

[BobKowalski]

When someone one yawns invariably you follow suit.

The end.

Its truely amazing that one or two folk in this thread can't seem to grasp this concept... or is it?

They're the two most likely lads to fondle Roberto's nut sack and finger his asshole given half a chance, so debating any point with them on the manager is completely pointless IMO.

Roberto Mancini in Yawning Outrage

Exclusive Report from MCFNET

Sensational reports of Mancini further undermining the City team's quest for glory emerged from the team camp last night. Claims that Mancini yawned on the plane journey to Kiev have rocked insiders who have expressed deep concerns that this blatant display of negativity can only embolden tonight's opponents.

"I first noticed something when I saw Roberto's hand creep towards his face' said one insider. "I didn't pay much attention at first but then it suddenly came. A huge gaping yawn. I think it took Mancini by surprise as he fluffed the chance to hide it. I then saw him look round quickly but it was too late. Some of the players had clearly seen it and were visibly distressed.

A horrified Vincent Kompany bolted to the toilet and locked himself in for an hour. It totally wiped the smile off Mario's face and Tevez had a face like thunder although this later turned out to be because Dzeko had forgotten to pack the chocolate hob-nobs."

This incident has hit some of the younger players hard and we have unconfirmed reports that some of the more senior players have also started yawning although Silva dismissed these yawning allegations. Silva in a brief statement to the press said that it was just mouth stretching exercises for his barbershop quartet that the Spanish playmaker had formed with Nigel Dejong, Jerome Boateng and Yaya Toure

"its an exciting time for us at City" continued the diminutive star "We are still working hard at the moment and we have the whole doo-wop sound pretty much down. We just need to get the staggered harmonies in play and I think we will be okay for the rest of the season"

Mancini declined to comment when pressed by our reporter.

[Ted Hughes]

This is fucking funnier! Underneath the title of Mancini UPBEAT on Europa Cup tie

Listen to this & don't laugh...


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 420852.stm

[brite blu sky]

I'm pretty sure the tiredness topic has been done to death.. personally I dont see any advantage of Mancini harping on about it.. or even who he thinks he is aiming the thought at.
The only positive angle i could possibly imagine is that it is some kind of reverse psychology.. ie. tell everyone we are tired so others adopt the mentality that games will be easier against us. I think that is a pile of bollox and a dangerous and daft angle to take.

What I would say though is that I think Mancini is not daft and is pretty canny. While he has stuff to learn it is mostly about Prem football rather than player management. So while I like most others wish he would stfu about it, I also think that he may have an agenda. He is usually, if not always, pretty tight lipped and careful in what he says. I think that his approach to players like AJ show that he has a handle on player psychology and the value of media statements.. so in my view that makes it all the more odd to be harping on about tiredness.
Is he trying to embarrass the team into more action or something?

This is the only positive spin i can put on it.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

I'm pretty sure the tiredness topic has been done to death.. personally I dont see any advantage of Mancini harping on about it.. or even who he thinks he is aiming the thought at.
The only positive angle i could possibly imagine is that it is some kind of reverse psychology.. ie. tell everyone we are tired so others adopt the mentality that games will be easier against us. I think that is a pile of bollox and a dangerous and daft angle to take.

What I would say though is that I think Mancini is not daft and is pretty canny. While he has stuff to learn it is mostly about Prem football rather than player management. So while I like most others wish he would stfu about it, I also think that he may have an agenda. He is usually, if not always, pretty tight lipped and careful in what he says. I think that his approach to players like AJ show that he has a handle on player psychology and the value of media statements.. so in my view that makes it all the more odd to be harping on about tiredness.
Is he trying to embarrass the team into more action or something?

This is the only positive spin i can put on it.

Good effort. Nonsense but good effort. Anyway it's the poor pitch for tonight so he has changed tack for this one.

[Ted Hughes]

I'm pretty sure the tiredness topic has been done to death.. personally I dont see any advantage of Mancini harping on about it.. or even who he thinks he is aiming the thought at.
The only positive angle i could possibly imagine is that it is some kind of reverse psychology.. ie. tell everyone we are tired so others adopt the mentality that games will be easier against us. I think that is a pile of bollox and a dangerous and daft angle to take.

What I would say though is that I think Mancini is not daft and is pretty canny. While he has stuff to learn it is mostly about Prem football rather than player management. So while I like most others wish he would stfu about it, I also think that he may have an agenda. He is usually, if not always, pretty tight lipped and careful in what he says. I think that his approach to players like AJ show that he has a handle on player psychology and the value of media statements.. so in my view that makes it all the more odd to be harping on about tiredness.
Is he trying to embarrass the team into more action or something?

This is the only positive spin i can put on it.

The reason I feel particularly strongly about it & why it's really imo showig Bob in a bad light, is that the only reason I can see that he's going on about it is to cover his own arse. He is a calculating type character & that makes it more unlikely they're just throwaway comments. I think that's why Harry does it too; if he loses it's because of unfortunate circumstaces, if he wins, with all those insurmountable problems, he must be a genius etc. Like I've said before, perhaps it's not Bob who dumped Bellamy & Ade etc & he's aiming this at Cook, Marwood etc for weakening the squad but even then it would still be about about him rather than City.

You expect it of Harry as he's a grade A self promoting twat but I've been fairly impressed on the whole with Bob & I think this attitude lets him down.

[Original Dub]

When someone one yawns invariably you follow suit.

The end.

Its truely amazing that one or two folk in this thread can't seem to grasp this concept... or is it?

They're the two most likely lads to fondle Roberto's nut sack and finger his asshole given half a chance, so debating any point with them on the manager is completely pointless IMO.

Roberto Mancini in Yawning Outrage

Exclusive Report from MCFNET

Sensational reports of Mancini further undermining the City team's quest for glory emerged from the team camp last night. Claims that Mancini yawned on the plane journey to Kiev have rocked insiders who have expressed deep concerns that this blatant display of negativity can only embolden tonight's opponents.

"I first noticed something when I saw Roberto's hand creep towards his face' said one insider. "I didn't pay much attention at first but then it suddenly came. A huge gaping yawn. I think it took Mancini by surprise as he fluffed the chance to hide it. I then saw him look round quickly but it was too late. Some of the players had clearly seen it and were visibly distressed.

A horrified Vincent Kompany bolted to the toilet and locked himself in for an hour. It totally wiped the smile off Mario's face and Tevez had a face like thunder although this later turned out to be because Dzeko had forgotten to pack the chocolate hob-nobs."

This incident has hit some of the younger players hard and we have unconfirmed reports that some of the more senior players have also started yawning although Silva dismissed these yawning allegations. Silva in a brief statement to the press said that it was just mouth stretching exercises for his barbershop quartet that the Spanish playmaker had formed with Nigel Dejong, Jerome Boateng and Yaya Toure

"its an exciting time for us at City" continued the diminutive star "We are still working hard at the moment and we have the whole doo-wop sound pretty much down. We just need to get the staggered harmonies in play and I think we will be okay for the rest of the season"

Mancini declined to comment when pressed by our reporter.

That must have taken you ages, which is a shame in itself.

My turn to play reporter - Are you the cupper or the fingerer?

:)

[carl_feedthegoat]

This is fucking funnier! Underneath the title of Mancini UPBEAT on Europa Cup tie

Listen to this & don't laugh...


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 420852.stm

Seriously - this attitude is why we will never win fuck all.

I hope it is some kind of weird reverse physiology but given our playing performances so far I just dont think its fucking working.

[brite blu sky]

Well NDJ is back and he cant be tired. Kolarov cant be tired as he was out for ages, likewise Boateng, Silva was out for a while so he shouldn't be tired, SWP hasn't played so he shouldn't be, Dzeko was on fuclin holidays so there's another who cant be tired, Milner will back soon.. after a rest. Balotelli was out for ages so in no way can be tired. Lescott hasn't played and should be fresh as a daisy, Joe Hart doesn't run around so no probs there. Micah was out for a while, Vinnie had a bit of a rest recently... So who does that leave.. Tevez, Yaya, Zabba and Barry.. and i thought all of those have been rotated now and again.

So basically it is a pile of bollox, Bob is talking crap. I suppose no-one is perfect so maybe making whinging excuses is the downside to his character. I hope he sorts it out before he makes a caricature of himself.

BOB if your reading this, Stop fucking whinging, it makes you look like a dick.