Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

[JoeMercer'sWay]

In all honesty Billy - I hope to have egg on my face come May - I will apologise gladly. But I can only go on what I've witnessed first hand so far - it's ok - not hurrendous - but not the improvemnt I was expecting.

Fair enough ... I've no problem with that at all. I know plenty of people who are currently unsure about Pellegrini ... it's natural with a new manager who people don't know a lot about, especially when he's replaced such a popular one.

But the discussions in this thread this morning, and I use the term discussion very loosely, was nothing more than a series of conspiracy theories about how Mancini was terribly hard done by by Txiki and Ferran and how they conspired to make his life difficult, conspired to fuck up last season, all with the sole aim of being able to sack him at the end of it all. It's hard not to sneer at stupidity like that, not least because of the enormous disservice it does our owners.

Moreso that our owner and all his business associates and advisors would have tolerated it.

Mancini couldn't appreciate what was actually being done for him around him, and chose to fight instead of going along with it.

 

[hgblue]

Doesnt alter the fact that Manuel rates them more than Mancini did.

Which speaks volumes about our talent pool and depth of squad.

Why the fuck didnt Manuel bring in another CB instead of lavishing the clubs money on luxuries like Jovetic and Navas?

Interesting point, well made ;). Except, I don't think the manager should carry the can for our transfer policy in the summer, although I'd expect Pellegrini to be asking for defensive reinforcements behind the scenes as we speak after having seen for himself how poor we are in that department.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Which speaks volumes about our talent pool and depth of squad.

Why the fuck didnt Manuel bring in another CB instead of lavishing the clubs money on luxuries like Jovetic and Navas?

Interesting point, well made ;). Except, I don't think the manager should carry the can for our transfer policy in the summer, although I'd expect Pellegrini to be asking for defensive reinforcements behind the scenes as we speak after having seen for himself how poor we are in that department.

We did, he's called Demichelis. The issue being that once Varane got injured Pepe's price shot up even higher than it already was, thus leaving us with little options.

You also can't just revolutionize a squad in 1 window, you need to spread it out over several to make the transitions more seamless.

 

[Phil1]

Who were all the clubs in for Pellegrini which made him highly sought?

You need only look at the clubs who have changed managers in the summer and that will give you a decent indication of who wanted Pellegrini. Certainly it's been confirmed by the man himself that both Chelsea and PSG wanted him. The Spanish press believe he was Barca's number 1 candidate to replace Tito.

I respect both your view of Mancini and your impassioned defence of him whenever you feel someone has unfairly criticised him. But you do our current manager a huge disservice and inadvertently show how little faith you have in him by suggesting that he will not be able to win the same number of trophies (2) at City that Mancini did. I suspect he'll equal that number this season.

From what I believe, and certainly after watching la liga a fair bit and hearing the commentary, it seems clear that the man who took over at Barca was first choice. Chelsea have had a chequered past to say the least when hiring recently and PSG are going through there own transition of billion pound ownership so will invariably put the feelers out to whoever may seem like a legit candidate for any potential new managers position. I've no doubts that Pellegrini will have had some consideration but wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to how high up the list he went.
You're correct that I do feel the need to defend Mancini, I do so because I respect what he brought to our club over the course of his tenure, but more importantly I accept he had to go when he did.
I have faith in Pellegrini to get things right eventually. I expect him to win us silverware, he has all the tools at his disposal to make it happen. Then again I expected to spend the night of the FA cup final in my suite at The Wembley Hilton with high class brass and plenty of champagne, instead I had to settle for a wank and a bottle of water from the mini bar.. We shall just have to wait and see mate.

 

[Anonymous]

Mancini couldn't appreciate what was actually being done for him around him, and chose to fight instead of going along with it.

A very succinct way of putting it. There's way too many myths being perpetuated about how/why Mancini was sacked. He was sacked because of his attitude and personality. Not because he finished 2nd or because we went out in the group stages of the CL. Those things just made it easier to make the decision IMO because ultimately if he hadn't alienated so many people I suspect he'd still be at City.

 

[hgblue]

Why the fuck didnt Manuel bring in another CB instead of lavishing the clubs money on luxuries like Jovetic and Navas?

Interesting point, well made ;). Except, I don't think the manager should carry the can for our transfer policy in the summer, although I'd expect Pellegrini to be asking for defensive reinforcements behind the scenes as we speak after having seen for himself how poor we are in that department.

We did, he's called Demichelis. The issue being that once Varane got injured Pepe's price shot up even higher than it already was, thus leaving us with little options.

You also can't just revolutionize a squad in 1 window, you need to spread it out over several to make the transitions more seamless.

I'm saying we needed strengthening defensively in the last window as a high priority due to the huge drop off in quality between Kompany and his potential replacements. We were basically gambling that he wouldn't get injured imo. Instead, we signed 4 forward thinking players relatively early in the window, and one defender as the window was about to shut. Is Demichelis the top quality centre back that we needed? We'll see, but I doubt it.

 

[George Hannah]

Who were all the clubs in for Pellegrini which made him highly sought?

You need only look at the clubs who have changed managers in the summer and that will give you a decent indication of who wanted Pellegrini. Certainly it's been confirmed by the man himself that both Chelsea and PSG wanted him. The Spanish press believe he was Barca's number 1 candidate to replace Tito.

you can almost hear their collective sighs of relief that they didn't get him!

 

[gelly]

Re: Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

In all honesty Billy - I hope to have egg on my face come May - I will apologise gladly. But I can only go on what I've witnessed first hand so far - it's ok - not hurrendous - but not the improvemnt I was expecting.

Fair enough ... I've no problem with that at all. I know plenty of people who are currently unsure about Pellegrini ... it's natural with a new manager who people don't know a lot about, especially when he's replaced such a popular one.

But the discussions in this thread this morning, and I use the term discussion very loosely, was nothing more than a series of conspiracy theories about how Mancini was terribly hard done by by Txiki and Ferran and how they conspired to make his life difficult, conspired to fuck up last season, all with the sole aim of being able to sack him at the end of it all. It's hard not to sneer at stupidity like that, not least because of the enormous disservice it does our owners.

Moreso that our owner and all his business associates and advisors would have tolerated it.

Mancini couldn't appreciate what was actually being done for him around him, and chose to fight instead of going along with it.

Mancini acted the way he did to secure trophies and dominant for City. He was fighting all fronts to try and take the club forward but he was blackballed every step of the way in his last season. You really think its easy to fight the current establishment and come out on top? Challenge a manager with 27 year reign, the man Mourinho calls the Boss. It takes single minded sheer force of will to win in those circumstances.

 

[NQCitizen]

Re: Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

When Pellegrini took over at Malaga the idea was that they were going to be the Spanish equivalent of City. A club bank rolled by Oil money with huge ambitions. One of the reasons he was so sought after the summer just gone is because whilst the promise of money turned into Malaga consistently selling their best players, Pellegrini still managed to have them overachieving on a grand scale.

But this is largely irrelevant. If the discussion is about Pellegrini, then our away form is shit and needs to improve but he's making progress in enough areas that he's under no pressure IMO. If it's about the rights and wrongs of sacking Mancini - well then you know as well as I do his time was up and regardless of his replacement, he needed to go. If it's about Mancini v Pellegrini - outside the bubble of MCFC supporters there really is no comparison. Pellegrini is clearly the more respected coach because he was highly sought after this summer whilst, like I say Mancini ended up in Turkey. That's not to say Galatasary are a small club, not by a long stretch. But the Turkish league is a footballing backwater when compared to Spain, Italy, England, possibly even France these days.

Who were all the clubs in for Pellegrini which made him highly sought?
Just to be clear, that bubble of MCFC supporters who rate Mancini above Pellegrini do so because there's solid evidence in the form of trophies. Even though Pellegrini has been in the game much longer it would be hard to argue that he's more successful than Mancini, or even that he'll win as many trophies with us than Mancini did.
Being respected is great, I'm glad that we've got somebody in charge who isn't being goaded by the press every week or having to deal with leaks within the club because their confidence has been shattered through not being spoken warmly enough.
You can state all day long, as you often do, about the nasty Italian being only good enough to manage backwater teams. It doesn't make you right though, my guess is Mancini will finish his career with more European and domestic trophies than Pellegrini.

No chance with that one, fucked up at Inter. Had a chance of winning the Europa and fucked that one up as well.

So that's as many as Pellegrini then, to be clear?

One of them got to the semis once.
One of them got to the QFs once and also won league and cup in Italy and England.

 

[OB1]

In all honesty Billy - I hope to have egg on my face come May - I will apologise gladly. But I can only go on what I've witnessed first hand so far - it's ok - not hurrendous - but not the improvemnt I was expecting.

Fair enough ... I've no problem with that at all. I know plenty of people who are currently unsure about Pellegrini ... it's natural with a new manager who people don't know a lot about, especially when he's replaced such a popular one.

But the discussions in this thread this morning, and I use the term discussion very loosely, was nothing more than a series of conspiracy theories about how Mancini was terribly hard done by by Txiki and Ferran and how they conspired to make his life difficult, conspired to fuck up last season, all with the sole aim of being able to sack him at the end of it all. It's hard not to sneer at stupidity like that, not least because of the enormous disservice it does our owners.

Billy,

You've touched on it earlier and it applies to this thread and other but the sheer lack of knowledge shown by supporters about subjects that they then go and spout off about is scary. I don't know if it is because people are stupid or lazy but it is scary because you get the blind leading the blind on here.