A managerial lesson from history - Joe Mercer

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Balti

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In the third season under Joe Mercer we won a string of trophies after over a decade without a trophy of any kind and 31 years since we had last won the league:

we lost a couple of league games on the trot twice and we also lost 3 on the bounce before going on to win the title in 68

we lost 3 on the bounce plus a couple of pairs of consecutive defeats as well the next season when we won the FA Cup

in the following season we won the ECWC and the League Cup but we lost 3 league games on the bounce three times!!! Plus another pair for good measure. (Only City ;-)

There are lessons to be learned from history. One is that if you stick with your manager he might just turn out to be a legend. Two is that just because you lose a couple of league games on the bounce or even three, this does not mean that you are going to go without silverware that season. You have to wait until the season end before finding that out.

Sack Mancini on the evidence to date? You must be joking. The time to consider sacking him is if and when he fails to deliver his (owners) target of Champions League qualification and/or (for the fans) a trophy. Even then as Joe Mercer proved you are potentially sacking a future legend. The rags of course now know this too.

This is why I disapprove of sacking managers too quickly and god knows we have suffered long and hard pursuing that policy.

And yes of course Hughes, Sven and others deserved better treatment so lets not do it again.

Patience. Patience. Patience.
 
the problem with what you are saying baltie is the players wanted to play for joe also their wasn,t as much player power, well except one stan bowles, i remember him and kiddo having a set too on the kippax touchline in the 67 derby, he was shipped out within a few weeks very similar to the bellers situation?
 
Good post and unless there is anyone here who spoke to the players then and speaks to the players now - how the hell do you purport to know what they were thinking! Oh yes it didn't say they hated mercer in the Sun but todays mirror says they don't like Mancini!

Sorry
 
There is no smoke without in my opinion. To put it in simple term, these are professional players who need to put there feeling towards Mancini to one side - they call it professional pride. I honestly believe the only way we get through our current situation is to work together. I am sick to the back teeth of what I am reading in the papers. It is the same old story, they build you up and they want to knock you down. The only way we shut these people up is to get it right on the pitch. The success of Manchester City was always built on hard work and playing with an attacking flair (that everyone admired) and that is the legacy that needs to be picked up by our current coaching staff and players...
 
mancunial said:
the problem with what you are saying baltie is the players wanted to play for joe also their wasn,t as much player power, well except one stan bowles, i remember him and kiddo having a set too on the kippax touchline in the 67 derby, he was shipped out within a few weeks very similar to the bellers situation?
Click to expand...
There was no problem with the players attitude last night. We don't need to invent problems that don't exist
 
None of us (fans, club officials etc.) should let 3 results affect our long term thinking and planning. The media will always focus on the negatives - even Joe suffered with adverse media coverage at times. In fact Joe's very first season saw the papers claim there was a player revolt and his first game (a friendly V Dundee) caused the media to suggest Joe would be on his way after the fans booed and slow-hand clapped after only 65 mins.

It sounds unbelievable but it's true (anyone doubting should check pages 183-184 of my updated "Joe Mercer, OBE: Football With A Smile"). One journalist claimed that City fans had "a notoriously short temper" and added "I can recall no ground in 20 years of sports writing where a 'friendly' curtain raiser has got this sort of crowd treatment."

For both Joe and Malcolm there were other issues before City actually won a trophy (including widespread media coverage suggesting a Mercer-Allison split with Malcolm claiming he'd been offered the Coventry job and was off as Joe was trying to sign Franny Lee in Oct 67), so the message really is for us all to keep the faith, keep calm and to avoid making the situation worse by falling for the negative coverage of splits/problems/arguments and so on.

As far as player power is concerned... don't forget that Swales claimed in 74 that it was player power that forced him to get rid of Saunders (and fan power that got rid of Machin apparently!).
 
Balti said:
In the third season under Joe Mercer we won a string of trophies after over a decade without a trophy of any kind and 31 years since we had last won the league:

we lost a couple of league games on the trot twice and we also lost 3 on the bounce before going on to win the title in 68

we lost 3 on the bounce plus a couple of pairs of consecutive defeats as well the next season when we won the FA Cup

in the following season we won the ECWC and the League Cup but we lost 3 league games on the bounce three times!!! Plus another pair for good measure. (Only City ;-)

There are lessons to be learned from history. One is that if you stick with your manager he might just turn out to be a legend. Two is that just because you lose a couple of league games on the bounce or even three, this does not mean that you are going to go without silverware that season. You have to wait until the season end before finding that out.

Sack Mancini on the evidence to date? You must be joking. The time to consider sacking him is if and when he fails to deliver his (owners) target of Champions League qualification and/or (for the fans) a trophy. Even then as Joe Mercer proved you are potentially sacking a future legend. The rags of course now know this too.

This is why I disapprove of sacking managers too quickly and god knows we have suffered long and hard pursuing that policy.

And yes of course Hughes, Sven and others deserved better treatment so lets not do it again.

Patience. Patience. Patience.
Click to expand...

well said, we are in the eye of a storm, calm heads and strong will needed
and we can see this through
 
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