recent managers - you decide:

[Arjan Van Schotte]

a bit of nonsense really as they operated under different circumstances/budgets... but here are the recent transfers attributable to each manager:

sven:

Geovanni Deiberson Mauricio (free, Cruzeiro)
Rolando Bianchi (8.8m, Regina)
Gelson Fernandes (undisclosed, FC Sion)
Martin Petrov (£4.7m, Atletico Madrid)
Javier Garrido Behobide (£1.5m, Real Sociedad)
Vedran Ćorluka (undisclosed, Dinamo Zagreb)
Elano Ralph Blumer (£8m, Shakhtar Donetsk)
Valeri Emilov Bozhinov (undisclosed, Fiorentina)
Nery Alberto Castillo Confalonieri Jr. (loan, Shaktar Donetsk)
Felipe Salvador Caicedo Corozo (£5m, FC Basel)
Danny Mills (loan, Derby)
Ousmane Dabo (undisclosed, Lazio)

Hughes:

João Alves de Assis Silva (£19m, CSKA Moscow)
Tal Ben Haim (£5m, Chelsea)
Vincent Kompany (£6m, Hamburg)
Shaun Wright-Phillips (£10m, Chelsea)
Pablo Javier Zabaleta Girod (£6.45m, Espanyol)
Róbson de Souza (£32.5m, Real Madrid)
Wayne Michael Bridge (undisclosed, Chelsea)
Craig Bellamy (£14m, West Ham)
Nigel de Jong (£17m, Hamburg SV)
Seamus John "Shay" Given (£6m, Newcastle)
Gareth Barry (£12m, Aston Villa)
Roque Luis Santa Cruz Cantero (£18m, Blackburn Rovers)
Stuart Taylor (undisclosed, Aston Villa)
Carlos Alberto Tévez (£25m, MSI Group)
Emmanuel Adebayor (£25m, Arsenal)
Kolo Habib Touré (16m, Arsenal)
Joleon Lescott (24m, Everton)
Sylvio Mendes Campos Junior (free, Barcelona)

mancini:

Patrick Vieira (loan, Inter Milan)
Adam Johnson (undisclosed, Middlesbrough)
Alex Henshall (undisclosed)
Jérôme Boateng (undisclosed)
David Josué Jiménez Silva (£24m, Valencia)
Gnégnéri Yaya Touré (£28m, Barcelona)
Mario Barwuah Balotelli (£22.5m, Inter Milan)
James Milner (£16m + Stephen Ireland, Aston Villa)
Gai Yigaal Assulin (From Barcelona)
Edin Dzeko (from Wolfsburg)

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

Hi mate,

What are we deciding?

[Arjan Van Schotte]

Hi mate,

What are we deciding?

no idea. whatever you like. best value for money? best looking signings? best tactics? best scarf?

[Moonchesteri]

GELSON FERNANDES - Now he was a headless chicken!

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

I was going to rank them in order of my favourite hairstyles but got bored at Castillo

[MaineRoadMemories]

sven:

Geovanni Deiberson Mauricio (free, Cruzeiro) Good Value
Rolando Bianchi (8.8m, Regina) Crap but started the snood trend
Gelson Fernandes (undisclosed, FC Sion) Crap
Martin Petrov (£4.7m, Atletico Madrid) Good for where we were, crap now
Javier Garrido Behobide (£1.5m, Real Sociedad) Good value - still a crap defender though
Vedran Ćorluka (undisclosed, Dinamo Zagreb) Average at best
Elano Ralph Blumer (£8m, Shakhtar Donetsk) Good first 6 months then crap
Valeri Emilov Bozhinov (undisclosed, Fiorentina) The myth/the legend - would score 3 goals a game if fit :-)
Nery Alberto Castillo Confalonieri Jr. (loan, Shaktar Donetsk) THE worst ever player to wear sky blue. FACT :-)
Felipe Salvador Caicedo Corozo (£5m, FC Basel) A trier but way over priced
Ousmane Dabo (undisclosed, Lazio) Good for Barton's street fighting training

Hughes:

João Alves de Assis Silva (£19m, CSKA Moscow) JoKe
Tal Ben Haim (£5m, Chelsea) one of the worst defenders I've witnessed live
Vincent Kompany (£6m, Hamburg) Superb and what a bargain
Shaun Wright-Phillips (£10m, Chelsea) Good first six months then he forgot how to take players on
Pablo Javier Zabaleta Girod (£6.45m, Espanyol) A rich man's Sun
Róbson de Souza (£32.5m, Real Madrid) Good first six months - then a real joker
Wayne Michael Bridge (undisclosed, Chelsea) Needed a left back at the time - way too much money
Craig Bellamy (£14m, West Ham) Great signing and gave us steel and determination
Nigel de Jong (£17m, Hamburg SV) Looking great value
Seamus John "Shay" Given (£6m, Newcastle) Superb keeper
Gareth Barry (£12m, Aston Villa) Good player
Roque Luis Santa Cruz Cantero (£18m, Blackburn Rovers) Was never gonna work. Waste of money
Stuart Taylor (undisclosed, Aston Villa) Pointless player
Carlos Alberto Tévez (£25m, MSI Group) Great player until run-ins with Mancini
Emmanuel Adebayor (£25m, Arsenal) Great player, overpriced and underloved though
Kolo Habib Touré (16m, Arsenal) Overpriced, decent enough
Joleon Lescott (24m, Everton) Way overpriced but a decent centreback
Sylvio Mendes Campos Junior (free, Barcelona) Good goal in the cup - was more a brazilian babysitter than a player

mancini:

Patrick Vieira (loan, Inter Milan) Pointless and expensive wages
Adam Johnson (undisclosed, Middlesbrough) Great prospect - needs developing and he's stalling
Alex Henshall (undisclosed) Who?
Jérôme Boateng (undisclosed) Poor
David Josué Jiménez Silva (£24m, Valencia) Good player
Gnégnéri Yaya Touré (£28m, Barcelona) Good player - overpriced
Mario Barwuah Balotelli (£22.5m, Inter Milan) Nutcase - can't even put on a bib
James Milner (£16m + Stephen Ireland, Aston Villa) Good player if played in the centre - crap on the wings
Gai Yigaal Assulin (From Barcelona) Does he exist?
Edin Dzeko (from Wolfsburg) Struggling in our system

Kolarov - Oh dear, so poor we even forget to put him on the list :-)

[lets all have a disco]

Benjani-Scored on Derby day. That is all.

[Burt]

Dabo was signed in 2006 so wasn't Sven's signing was he?

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

Dabo was signed in 2006 so wasn't Sven's signing was he?

He was also a baldy.

[s1ty m]

sven:

Geovanni Deiberson Mauricio (free, Cruzeiro) Good Value
Rolando Bianchi (8.8m, Regina) Crap but started the snood trend
Gelson Fernandes (undisclosed, FC Sion) Crap
Martin Petrov (£4.7m, Atletico Madrid) Good for where we were, crap now
Javier Garrido Behobide (£1.5m, Real Sociedad) Good value - still a crap defender though
Vedran Ćorluka (undisclosed, Dinamo Zagreb) Average at best
Elano Ralph Blumer (£8m, Shakhtar Donetsk) Good first 6 months then crap
Valeri Emilov Bozhinov (undisclosed, Fiorentina) The myth/the legend - would score 3 goals a game if fit :-)
Nery Alberto Castillo Confalonieri Jr. (loan, Shaktar Donetsk) THE worst ever player to wear sky blue. FACT :-)
Felipe Salvador Caicedo Corozo (£5m, FC Basel) A trier but way over priced
Ousmane Dabo (undisclosed, Lazio) Good for Barton's street fighting training

Hughes:

João Alves de Assis Silva (£19m, CSKA Moscow) JoKe
Tal Ben Haim (£5m, Chelsea) one of the worst defenders I've witnessed live
Vincent Kompany (£6m, Hamburg) Superb and what a bargain
Shaun Wright-Phillips (£10m, Chelsea) Good first six months then he forgot how to take players on
Pablo Javier Zabaleta Girod (£6.45m, Espanyol) A rich man's Sun
Róbson de Souza (£32.5m, Real Madrid) Good first six months - then a real joker
Wayne Michael Bridge (undisclosed, Chelsea) Needed a left back at the time - way too much money
Craig Bellamy (£14m, West Ham) Great signing and gave us steel and determination
Nigel de Jong (£17m, Hamburg SV) Looking great value
Seamus John "Shay" Given (£6m, Newcastle) Superb keeper
Gareth Barry (£12m, Aston Villa) Good player
Roque Luis Santa Cruz Cantero (£18m, Blackburn Rovers) Was never gonna work. Waste of money
Stuart Taylor (undisclosed, Aston Villa) Pointless player
Carlos Alberto Tévez (£25m, MSI Group) Great player until run-ins with Mancini
Emmanuel Adebayor (£25m, Arsenal) Great player, overpriced and underloved though
Kolo Habib Touré (16m, Arsenal) Overpriced, decent enough
Joleon Lescott (24m, Everton) Way overpriced but a decent centreback
Sylvio Mendes Campos Junior (free, Barcelona) Good goal in the cup - was more a brazilian babysitter than a player

mancini:

Patrick Vieira (loan, Inter Milan) Pointless and expensive wages
Adam Johnson (undisclosed, Middlesbrough) Great prospect - needs developing and he's stalling
Alex Henshall (undisclosed) Who?
Jérôme Boateng (undisclosed) Poor
David Josué Jiménez Silva (£24m, Valencia) Good player
Gnégnéri Yaya Touré (£28m, Barcelona) Good player - overpriced
Mario Barwuah Balotelli (£22.5m, Inter Milan) Nutcase - can't even put on a bib
James Milner (£16m + Stephen Ireland, Aston Villa) Good player if played in the centre - crap on the wings
Gai Yigaal Assulin (From Barcelona) Does he exist?
Edin Dzeko (from Wolfsburg) Struggling in our system

Kolarov - Oh dear, so poor we even forget to put him on the list :-)

OK, agree on most points. Castillo worst ever? Bobby Shinton? Gerry Creaney? Keith Macrae? Alexsandar Kolarov...all have a shot at that title, IMHO.

Hughes did best: Tevez, Komapany and De Jong are comfortably the best players we have and he signed them all. Sven had a limted budget and Bojinov could have been anything if he stayed fit, I reckon. Mancini has hosed away around £100 million on utter fucking shite, he is the worst, by a mile. The money is eye-watering, even for a mega-rich club, it's just insane.

[Nick]

I disagree with hanging mancini due to the CITY premium. Kolorov would have probably gone for around 6 mill, dzeko 15, even lescott (hughes) should have been closer to 15 mill( being english). The STUPID buys are ones like santa cruz!!

[Slim]

I disagree with hanging mancini due to the CITY premium. Kolorov would have probably gone for around 6 mill, dzeko 15, even lescott (hughes) should have been closer to 15 mill( being english). The STUPID buys are ones like santa cruz!!

Who came with a City premium as well.

Santa Cruz, Jo and Tal Ben Haim were Hughes only out and out misses. He made some excellent buys but wasn't able to get the best out of all of them.

The real tragedy was when Mancini moved on the likes of Bellamy, Adebayor and Bridge, yet kept Jo. Bridge wasn't a fantastic player by any means, but when you ship Garrido and Bridge and only have Kolarov as a natural left back, alarm bells are ringing Willy.

[Arjan Van Schotte]

yeah, sorry for any minor errors - cut + paste from somewhere or other.

i must admit, i was surprised myself to find that hughes probably did best so far. expected it to be sven.

[ant london]

yeah, sorry for any minor errors - cut + paste from somewhere or other.

i must admit, i was surprised myself to find that hughes probably did best so far. expected it to be sven.

I don't know why but part of me remains convinced that Bianchi could have made a decent fist of it in the PL if he hadn't been such a pussy and missed mama's cucina too much.

Flawed (and hard to manage) characters though they were I still think that the Bellamy, Robinho and Adebayor situations were poorly managed.

If I had them in my team at work I think I would have found a way to keep at least two of the three inside the tent and of some use to us. Just chucking the baby out with the bathwater was pigheaded, stupid and has cost us potential points thus far

[Scatman]

Dabo was signed in 2006 so wasn't Sven's signing was he?

I think that is all transfers, including outs? See Danny Mills. We didn't get him off Derby did we?

[dave watson's perm]

Glauber Berti?

[Renato_CTID]

GELSON FERNANDES - Now he was a headless chicken!

Disagree with you, mate! Gelson is playing very well at Chievo in Italian serie A, obviously he wouldn't be regular in our squad now!

[cdncityfan]

What strikes me about the three lists is how different the three teams each manager attempted to build. How you feel about the teams has probably as much to do with the style of football you prefer as to the qualities of each particular manager.

For me, as a manager, I would rate Sven above both Sparky and Mancini, even though our never having seen Hughes in a European league makes it hard to rate him as a manager in the same right. However, his European winning rate was higher than his statistics in the Premiership...

[Arjan Van Schotte]

What strikes me about the three lists is how different the three teams each manager attempted to build. How you feel about the teams has probably as much to do with the style of football you prefer as to the qualities of each particular manager.

For me, as a manager, I would rate Sven above both Sparky and Mancini, even though our never having seen Hughes in a European league makes it hard to rate him as a manager in the same right. However, his European winning rate was higher than his statistics in the Premiership...

good post mate - i do honestly believe that sven would have us top 2/3 and winning the odd thing by now, but i was surprised by how my opinion of hughes is changing in retrospect. (yes....i know....)

[MaineRoadMemories]

What strikes me with all 3 managers is how many of their signings played well from August to January and then faded away completely.

To me this means that they are poorly managed and training is not good enough for them to continually improve. They get by in the first half of the season by being fresh and new to league but then get found out.

There are very few players we have bought that have improved whilst at the club. If anything, they stagnate.