Remember That Roy Keane Quota About Rolex Watches?
As much as I despised him for all sorts of reasons, Roy Keane was a born winner who couldn’t abide team mates resting on their laurels. Ferguson shared his obsessive drive and hunger for success, and together they bullied players into sacrificing personal desire for collective glory.
Roberto Mancini was a winner and we loved him for it. He wasn’t bothered about making enemies, but sadly they conspired against him so we replaced Mancini with a far nicer, decent sort of chap, who preferred calmness to public volatility.
Now calmness is fine in the short term, but once the players start to make the same mistakes, and more disturbingly show exactly the same type of complacency that Keane and Ferguson so publicly loathed, you start to question the motivation. What exactly does Mr Pellegrini do when things are going wrong?
I’ve never been one for wanting Managers sacked, but the warning signs were appearing as early as last summer when Yaya looked overweight in the pre season friendlies and all our World Cup players seemed to have more time off than those at other clubs. Then we had the farce of the Community Shield when City lined up with two left backs and two reserve central defenders who have never featured as a partnership since.
The Stoke defeat should have been the watershed moment that all Champions experience. United once lost as Burnley, but I don’t recall them also dropping points in the manner of our appalling performances at Upton Park and Loftus Road.
Similarly, God knows how we qualified from our Champions League group because in truth we only played well for about 45 minutes in Moscow and 45 minutes in Rome. Thankfully Bayern got sloppy and our one truly World Class player gave City a lifeline.
Fight till the end? We didn’t even fight in the beginning or the middle. We haven’t really done anything apart from slowly drift backwards.
Today we probed and probed and probed. Fifteen 1mph passes resulting in a Burnley corner.
Oh yes set pieces. Remember them?
Kompany soaring majestically against the rags. Yaya profiting against the rags. Edin’s volley against the rags
Wait a minute…….
But I digress.
In twenty years time we will remember Mancini with affection because he helped us overcome Satan.
The way he stood up to Ferguson and turned City into a team who could play fantastic football, but if the occasion merited, could also fight fire with fire. A team with a heartbeat, who cared about each other and used the mercenary taunts as inspiration.
We will then remember his successor. A nice bloke who smiled a lot and won the league with Mancini’s team. A Manager who spent an awful lot of money on potential when we needed the finished article.
We will then question why he sold our only technically intelligent holding midfielder. A player often derided by City fans, but crucial if you wanted Silva and Nasri in the same team.
We will also recall the defeat at Burnley A strange game when City didn’t start with any of his six signings from the two previous transfer windows.
I’m now on my third can of stella since returning from Turf Moor and I’ll be there in Barcelona.
I’ve laughed at all the cliches about York, Lincoln and Darlington. I did them all, and to be honest I’m more impressed that I did 58/60 in the less trendy 87-88 season (Plymouth H and Barnsley H if you’re wondering)
As the song goes.
People ask me who I support
And I tell them, but they don’t know why.
I don’t care if they win or lose
Just as long as they try
Up the Blues!