BobKowalski said:
Lancet Fluke said:
Well that's mere semantics. Your idea of excellent may be my idea of decent anyway when it comes to judging a manager's achievements. For instance some people think Mancini's achievements at City were excellent, whereas I think they were just decent, given the resources he had available to him.
I'm sure there are plenty of Villarreal and Malaga fans who think Pellegrini's record with them was excellent.
Ah. Well explains a lot. So what do you expect from Pellegrini this season given the resources he has available to him? For example what would be decent and what would be excellent?
Well firstly, and this isn't a cop out, just common sense (imo) I'd say it isn't as simple as winning this or that, it is more complex than that in terms of this season. He has just joined a new club and so he needs to be given some time, just as Mancini needed to be given time when he first arrived. As I have said a number of times in this thread, it is easy to forget that after about 16 months, many people were not remotely impressed with Mancini but things suddenly clicked into place with that semi final win over united. I distinctly remember being at Anfield a few days before Wembley and I honestly feared for Mancini's future at the club after the match, top 4 looked very dodgy and the knives seemed to be well and truly out. Once Pellegrini has been given some time to manage the inevitable transition then I expect us to be genuine title challengers every season and I expect us to be able to win titles with some regularity. I also expect us to be competitive in Europe. I think that is the least we should expect with our resources, whoever is the manager. In terms of what I expect from this first season, well I would obviously hope that we can hit the ground running and win things immediately but I'm pragmatic enough to realise that this might not happen and that there could be some issues in transition. As long as by the end of the season there hasn't been anything truly catastrophic (like finishing outside the top 3/4 or not getting through the group stage of the CL) then as long as through the season there have been obvious signs of progression that suggest that next season will be a genuine title challenge then I would keep faith in Pellegrini. At this point though, I think it's way too early to say how we are going to do this season. It has been a mixed bag so far and clearly Pellegrini hasn't come in and instantly made everything brilliant, which is what we all hoped he could do (well most of us did). But I think we are seeing at Chelsea and united too that when you change manager it has to be given some time.