Grob wrote:
I fully agree with the long term vision.
For me, we need to bring through young players into a championship and cup winning team for them to be tested at the highest level and to be benchmarked against championship winning players in their position.
In my opinion, before we can start bringing youngsters through we need to have a core of 20 players who have a couple of championships under their belt, the club is the leading club in England, and progressing to cup finals and winning them becomes the norm.
Then youngsters will know what the highest standard is and they're challange will be to displace the winners that are already there.
We need to become winners first before the long term vision can kick in, and not just one FA cup, my bare minimum target for next seasons would be a title win, a cup final, and QF at least in the Champions League.
I dont care who gets us there, Mancini, Mourinho, me, you, it doesnt matter to me. We just have to get there.
I think the best way there is to get Mourinho. If not, stick with Mancini. Your view is different. But as long as one of us is right, we'll both be happy.
Ultimately I don't care who gets us there. Success for the club comes first. However, I rather (If I can choose) do it with a manager who´s not a prick. One can argue though that by being a bit of a prick (call that mind games, easing the pressure of the team etc) Mourinho achieves success. However, the main reason I don't want Mourinho to come in is that I believe he's off after 2-3 years. I want someone that wants to be here the coming ten years. I believe Mancini wants that, and I still believe that he can do the job for us. If he hast lost the dressing room (which I don't believe at all) he obviously needs to be replaced, and if he can't mobilize the team to end the season on a positive note - I would consider swapping him. If there's a better option out there who's in it for the long haul.
All in all I'm with you though.
Regarding the long term vision - you're right that success (trophies) is an ingredient that needs to be in place in order to get it working. Don't agree that we need to have reached all that success before we can bring in youngsters though. If they´re good enough they should be given a chance and it must be (and should be if we're making progress) easier to break into the City of 2011/2012 than the City of say 2014/2015. Guidetti should be given a chance in the squad next season.