F.A.O The 'Bellamy, Bellamy, Bellamy' Crowd

[Failsworth_Blue]

I'm interested in why you think his tenure has been a real setback for ''the project''?

Because we are 12 months and £135 million down the line and we have won nothing and not progressed in the league. The press are sneering at us, neutrals dislike us, we've got a reputation for throwing money around, the dressing room is unhappy and the fans are unhappy.

Won nothing? Since he came we've only had one chance of winning a trophy. getting beat with the last kick of one of the best teams in England over two legs is hardly shocking and it's hardly something to say it's been a real setback over

We've not progressed in the leauge? We are now a third of the way through the premier leauge season and find ourselves just 3 points behind United, 4 behind Arsenal and 6 behind Chelsea. After playing 13 games last season we were 11 points behind Chelsea, 9 behind United with a game in hand and 3 behind Arsenal but they had played one less. We are closer to the top of the leauge at this stage of the season than we were last season, how is that not progress or do you just look at the points total at this stage compared to last season and not factor in who we've played? Where did you expect us to be at this stage of the season?

 

[bluemonkey71]

I'm interested in why you think his tenure has been a real setback for ''the project''?

Because we are 12 months and £135 million down the line and we have won nothing and not progressed in the league. The press are sneering at us, neutrals dislike us, we've got a reputation for throwing money around, the dressing room is unhappy and the fans are unhappy.

The bolded counts for nothing though. Its what Khaldoon and ultimately what Mansour thinks that will shape the way forward. I doubt Mansour loses any sleep reading the bile printed in the press. I suspect Mancini is being too conservative knowing that his target is top 4. Luckily other teams have been dropping points but that won't continue to happen and he can't rely on it to happen either. The back 5 now looks pretty solid. Mancini needs to give the midfield and strikeforce a bit of freedom to play their game now. I'd be stunned if he got the boot before the summer.

 

[tonea2003]

The truth of it Dave, Mourinho aside any other manager coming in is a big fooking gamble.


We aint gonna get Mourinho,Hiddink is 85 so im fooked if i know who else there is with a proven pedigree.

I just hope there is a turning point around the corner for Mancini before its too late.

I take your point but it isn't as desperate as that.

Truth is, 95% of Managers dream of a squad, wage budget and tranfer budget like ours.

It isn't that hard to get a bunch of good players motivated and playing together.

have to disagree, if that was really the case there is no way we would have 22 points, in this premiership if you are not at it you will lose,
spurs,liverpool,chelsea etc, yes there are bad uns in there as well but all the top teams have had bad results up to now.

 

[Ballet On Ice]

If we want to be a proper top 4 team we need a top 4 squad

We have that with the keepers
We have that with the defence our goals conceded show that
We have it with the midfield, the games against Chelsea and nited showed that this is starting to work.
But we havnt got it with the strikers, we have one decent forward in Tevez who probably would play his best linking with another or playing off another forward. Ballotelli may be the answer we don’t know yet due to injuries and suspensions.
As for the rest they are not good enough and we can thank MH for that, Jo maybe not all down to him, RSC hardly played the season before we bought him and now seems to be constantly injured, Ade the Arsenal fans could not wait to get rid of him, plays one good game in 4.

Get Ballotelli fit and playing and we will start to look more attacking, get rid of Jo RSC and Ade and get one more quality player in.

Blaming the manager for a lack of strike power is wide of the mark, apart from Tevez the strikers he inherited are just not top 4 quality, he has been unlucky with Ballotelli – played 3 scored 3 looks like there should be more to come there. We can see now why he tried to get Dzeko in the summer. He knew we just did not have top 4 quality up front, in fact it’s a miracle we are still up there.

Lets not forget the other top 3 teams have been together for a few seasons now and they aren’t exactly flying away from us

 

[m27]

For various reasons, the obvious instant hits such as Redknapp, Capello, Hiddink and Mourinho aren't available.

But if Mancini packs it in soon, then I fear what may happen to the club.

David Platt as a stand-in till the end of the season? I'd rather have Martin Platt!

No... if the shit hits the fan, we must have a contingency.

So here goes...

Slaven Bilic.... Jurgen Klinsmann... Martin O'Neill... Laurent Blanc... Rafa Benitez...

Until the end of the season, and then make an appointment.

*unlocks door of nuclear bomb shelter...*

If he walked out tomorrow and we wanted someone to manage us until the end of the season, first port of call would have to be Hiddink for me.

Let him say 'No' again before we move on to someone else.

 

[ST Coleridge]

Mourinho aside, there are no magical, wand-waving managers out there. Capello played a fucking horrible 442 in the World Cup and took a proper beating, Hiddink couldn't take Chelsea up a level in the CL (and doesn't seem fussed about club jobs), Rijkaard's shite, Benitez is shite...

I like what Klinsmann & Loew did with the Germany side, but they themselves admitted it was a tough and drawn-out struggle to get to where they wanted to be. Both would demand a massive overhaul from the ground up, and Klinsmann was sacked by Bayern for a slow start (coupled with a reluctance from the players to fully embrace his unfamiliar approach). So fuck knows how long they'd last here, when we boo fourth place.

Anyway, one of those two would be my choice if Mancini was sacked. However, this 'negativity' shit has got to stop - it was a 4231, same as most successful teams play. We started with Milner, Johnson, Silva, Tevez - it's the most attacking line-up since the season began. 21 attempts at goal says it all, really.

 

[BillyMC]

For various reasons, the obvious instant hits such as Redknapp, Capello, Hiddink and Mourinho aren't available.

But if Mancini packs it in soon, then I fear what may happen to the club.

David Platt as a stand-in till the end of the season? I'd rather have Martin Platt!

No... if the shit hits the fan, we must have a contingency.

So here goes...

Slaven Bilic.... Jurgen Klinsmann... Martin O'Neill... Laurent Blanc... Rafa Benitez...

Until the end of the season, and then make an appointment.

*unlocks door of nuclear bomb shelter...*

If he walked out tomorrow and we wanted someone to manage us until the end of the season, first port of call would have to be Hiddink for me.

Let him say 'No' again before we move on to someone else.

Could we not kill two birds with one stone and appoint Craig Bellamy as player manager....that would keep everyone happy. Just a thought.

 

[SS117]

"you don't know what you're doing" was aimed at the ref

No, when he subbed Tevez, a few people in the South Stand chanted you don't know what you're doing to Mancini.
IDIOTS.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Because we are 12 months and £135 million down the line and we have won nothing and not progressed in the league. The press are sneering at us, neutrals dislike us, we've got a reputation for throwing money around, the dressing room is unhappy and the fans are unhappy.

Won nothing? Since he came we've only had one chance of winning a trophy. getting beat with the last kick of one of the best teams in England over two legs is hardly shocking and it's hardly something to say it's been a real setback over

We've not progressed in the leauge? We are now a third of the way through the premier leauge season and find ourselves just 3 points behind United, 4 behind Arsenal and 6 behind Chelsea. After playing 13 games last season we were 11 points behind Chelsea, 9 behind United with a game in hand and 3 behind Arsenal but they had played one less. We are closer to the top of the leauge at this stage of the season than we were last season, how is that not progress or do you just look at the points total at this stage compared to last season and not factor in who we've played? Where did you expect us to be at this stage of the season?

We were in the semis of the CC Cup and blew it with cautious play in the first leg.

We were in the FA Cup but blew it with an awful, negative home performance against Stoke.

We were odds on for 4th place but blew it by not attacking the top teams towards the end of the season.

We crashed out of the carling cup to West Brom's reserves.

In the league we are doing about the same now as we were under Hughes. Ina year where our competitors are faltering, we could have been right up there.

I notice you failed to pick up on all the off the field stuff I mentioned, too.

 

[lee-mcfc]

"you don't know what you're doing" was aimed at the ref

No, when he subbed Tevez, a few people in the South Stand chanted you don't know what you're doing to Mancini.
IDIOTS.

arh right ,well the rest of us were singing it to the ref