Marwood is incompetent.
I have never heard a single person in football who says anything different, all of them band around phrases like "out of his depth", "can't organise a piss up in a brewery" and "wrecked our Academy". The only person who seemed to rate him was Gary Cook. I expect when the new guy comes in, he'll be gone.
And I disagree that Mancini was loose lipped here. I think he knew exactly what he was saying. It's been banded around the press for a while that Marwood was in trouble and this will probably be Mancini executing a power play. He had problems in his previous clubs with DoFs too, he just doesn't like working under them. A bit like Mourinho, Fergie, Wenger and every other manager.
I think he's seen an opportunity to stick the boot in to an old adversary here and has done so. As you well know Dave, it was only a year back that the Sheikh had to grab Mancini and Marwood in Abu Dhabi and read them the Riot Act. They have been at odds for a long, long time and I've often said that some of TH's info came directly from the Marwood camp so it was interesting to see what he was putting out about Mancini into the press world. Especially the now falsified Mancini to Juve story that somehow painted Mancini as a monster and Marwood as a saint.
Every coach at City who has expressed an opinion on Marwood has always given a negative one. Everybody on the football side of the business seems to hold him in very low regard. Even Mark Allen, logically a better target for hate, gets credit for achievement but Marwood is constantly derided. Hughes and his team hated him too because there was a real feeling that he was attempting to get Wenger in to replace him without giving him a chance.
The better question is this:
Does Marwood being almost constantly called incompetent by the football side mean he's actually competent? Isn't his job to say no? Or can they see past his role and judge him accurately?
Either way, he'll be the next to go when a new top man comes in. It's the easy decision; the football side resents him and the new man can pick his own staff (or if Mancini has his way, ask Mancini to pick his own staff). Hopefully we can then throw out Allen and start building a structure that wasn't haphazardly gaffer taped together by Gary Cook to give his mates a job.
This is the funny thing really. We all hate that we have Gary Cook's mates in key positions for dubious reasons (our Academy Administrator's qualifications for running a football Academy is that he used to run an IT department and Cook thought he was a nice guy), yet if we get rid of Cook's people then we'll eventually end up with Mancini's people in those positions instead. Better the devil you know?
Mancini's people will be great for the short term but if he decides to leave or we decide that we don't want him any more, we'll be stuck in the same boat. This is supposed to be the purpose of a Director of Football (which is essentially what Marwood is), to keep continuity for football infrastructure because managers come and go. If we sack the DoF because the manager doesn't like him and revert to a Mancini designed infastructure then it will only be a benefit if Mancini stays for 10 years plus. Does anybody else here see Mancini staying for another ten years? I love the bloke, he's legitimately one of my favourite managers ever and I believe one of the top managers in the world but at no point has he ever given me the idea that he wants to build a dynasty at a club. In fact, he has stated that he eventually wants a crack at the Azzurri. You can't build an infrastructure around a guy who isn't 100% committed to it long term.
We're damned either way. What I believe to be our "ace in the hole" though, is Patrick Vieira. He has been working on the Academy side, liaising with Allen, has done some work as an Ambassador like Summerbee, has done his media training, and has worked closely with Marwood on occassion. He's off to get his coaching badges currently and is a well respected person in football who Mancini has worked with successfully on numerous occassions. There is definitely a long term plan for him in the structure but I can't for the life of me see where it is. It may be as a replacement for Kidd or it may be a similar role to Marwood if he goes. If Leonardo can work as DoF as PSG then there's no reason why someone like Vieira couldn't. Maybe he's even a long term self produced manager, with him moving into a role under Scott Sellars initially? Maybe he'll do his badges and work in our revitalised scouting system for a while? Maybe there's no long term plan and he's a bit of a magpie who will piss off somewhere else.
It's a tough decision but what City are doing seems to be the right course. You can't not back your manager but you can't throw out the guy who designed the infastructure. You have to manage them until the time that one of their positions becomes untenable. I'm betting that Mancini's on the field success has bought him enough time to outlast Marwood and any failures in the future can now be blamed by Mancini on Marwood due to the lack of transfers, rightly or wrongly.
