Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

[TGR]

Leave them to their myths, PB.

You must know the comedy narrative they've reached concensus on;

txiki wanted rid of Mancini regardless of his ability because he was too good, too much of a threat, too powerful. Where the sheikh just sat back, tightened his purse strings and sent Brian marwood out to purposely weaken the squad. You know, just so txiki could convolute the worlds most expensive, drawn out and machevelian managerial sacking just because, well, er, Mancini was too,you know, too good. And the players joined in and purposely lost the cup final, and the poor man who was sacrificed for being too good got so dreadfully dreadfully mistreated because, well, usually managers are given six months formal notice of their sacking and a case of champagne and it's all clean and friendly and handshakes all round. But ours was so damn good, so damn powerful that we had to compound the conspiracy and the poor mans misery by sacking him in the most humiliating way ever In football history.

That's how it went, right? And now we're going to struggle for fourth place, eh lads?

I get the sarcasm and all that but based on form and fixtures that would be a reasonable, if very pessimistic, concern.

When has Pellegrini turned a bad performance into a good one? Or a good result?

Let's just see what happens. I can't be arsed arguing hypotheticals until the season pans out properly.

You can't be arsed arguing due to the simple reason is that you have no answer to the question.
I'll tell you the answer that everyone else here knows but you in your usual bullish blinkered manner refuse to ignore:
He hasn't. Fact.

 

[waspish]

Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

I get the sarcasm and all that but based on form and fixtures that would be a reasonable, if very pessimistic, concern.

When has Pellegrini turned a bad performance into a good one? Or a good result?

Let's just see what happens. I can't be arsed arguing hypotheticals until the season pans out properly.

You can't be arsed arguing due to the simple reason is that you have no answer to the question.
I'll tell you the answer that everyone else here knows but you in your usual bullish blinkered manner refuse to ignore:
He hasn't. Fact.

He is a yes man and a man who doesn't like to upset people that's all to see when subs need subbing he sits on his arse and does fuck all to its to late..


Our away form will not change one iota we will play great be unlucky or a mistake by a player and lose or scrape a draw! The reason is discipline mentality and the way we set up away from home its to attacking!

We have 13 away games left if we get 20 points out of them it will be a miracle..

 

[NQCitizen]

Re: Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

Let's just see what happens. I can't be arsed arguing hypotheticals until the season pans out properly.

You can't be arsed arguing due to the simple reason is that you have no answer to the question.
I'll tell you the answer that everyone else here knows but you in your usual bullish blinkered manner refuse to ignore:
He hasn't. Fact.

He is a yes man and a man who doesn't like to upset people that's all to see when subs need subbing he sits on his arse and does fuck all to its to late..


Our away form will not change one iota we will play great be unlucky or a mistake by a player and lose or scrape a draw! The reason is discipline mentality and the way we set up away from home its to attacking!

We have 13 away games left if we get 20 points out of them it will be a miracle..

The issue for me is a simple long ball - the easiest to execute play in all of football - has undone us time and time again.

Everything else is as you'd expect more or less but long balls are a massively problematic blind spot to have but I think it's an issue which is hard to fix with these tactics and personnel.

 

[waspish]

Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

You can't be arsed arguing due to the simple reason is that you have no answer to the question.
I'll tell you the answer that everyone else here knows but you in your usual bullish blinkered manner refuse to ignore:
He hasn't. Fact.

He is a yes man and a man who doesn't like to upset people that's all to see when subs need subbing he sits on his arse and does fuck all to its to late..


Our away form will not change one iota we will play great be unlucky or a mistake by a player and lose or scrape a draw! The reason is discipline mentality and the way we set up away from home its to attacking!

We have 13 away games left if we get 20 points out of them it will be a miracle..

The issue for me is a simple long ball - the easiest to execute play in all of football - has undone us time and time again.

Everything else is as you'd expect more or less but long balls are a massively problematic blind spot to have but I think it's an issue which is hard to fix with these tactics and personnel.

The long ball is a problem but that's related to the attacking football and all our players in the opposition half that what caused the goal at Chelsea also we had no cover!

 

[OB1]

You can't be arsed arguing due to the simple reason is that you have no answer to the question.
I'll tell you the answer that everyone else here knows but you in your usual bullish blinkered manner refuse to ignore:
He hasn't. Fact.

He is a yes man and a man who doesn't like to upset people that's all to see when subs need subbing he sits on his arse and does fuck all to its to late..


Our away form will not change one iota we will play great be unlucky or a mistake by a player and lose or scrape a draw! The reason is discipline mentality and the way we set up away from home its to attacking!

We have 13 away games left if we get 20 points out of them it will be a miracle..

The issue for me is a simple long ball - the easiest to execute play in all of football - has undone us time and time again.

Everything else is as you'd expect more or less but long balls are a massively problematic blind spot to have but I think it's an issue which is hard to fix with these tactics and personnel.

How many truly legitimate goals have we conceded in the league from long balls? Sunderland doesn't count as legit in my definition.

 

[NQCitizen]

Re: Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

He is a yes man and a man who doesn't like to upset people that's all to see when subs need subbing he sits on his arse and does fuck all to its to late..


Our away form will not change one iota we will play great be unlucky or a mistake by a player and lose or scrape a draw! The reason is discipline mentality and the way we set up away from home its to attacking!

We have 13 away games left if we get 20 points out of them it will be a miracle..

The issue for me is a simple long ball - the easiest to execute play in all of football - has undone us time and time again.

Everything else is as you'd expect more or less but long balls are a massively problematic blind spot to have but I think it's an issue which is hard to fix with these tactics and personnel.

The long ball is a problem but that's related to the attacking football and all out players in the opposition half that what caused the goal at Chelsea also we had no cover!

It's also exacerbated by Nastasic's inexperience in the system, defensive injuries, the fact that none of our fullbacks have ever been good positionally, a lack of aerial presence in the middle and Hart's lack of intelligence as a proactive goalkeeper (when compared to someone like Lloris).

 

[NQCitizen]

Re: Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

He is a yes man and a man who doesn't like to upset people that's all to see when subs need subbing he sits on his arse and does fuck all to its to late..


Our away form will not change one iota we will play great be unlucky or a mistake by a player and lose or scrape a draw! The reason is discipline mentality and the way we set up away from home its to attacking!

We have 13 away games left if we get 20 points out of them it will be a miracle..

The issue for me is a simple long ball - the easiest to execute play in all of football - has undone us time and time again.

Everything else is as you'd expect more or less but long balls are a massively problematic blind spot to have but I think it's an issue which is hard to fix with these tactics and personnel.

How many truly legitimate goals have we conceded in the league from long balls? Sunderland doesn't count as legit in my definition.

Well then it becomes pretty hard to discuss. It was a goal, we lost to it.

 

[OB1]

The issue for me is a simple long ball - the easiest to execute play in all of football - has undone us time and time again.

Everything else is as you'd expect more or less but long balls are a massively problematic blind spot to have but I think it's an issue which is hard to fix with these tactics and personnel.

How many truly legitimate goals have we conceded in the league from long balls? Sunderland doesn't count as legit in my definition.

Well then it becomes pretty hard to discuss. It was a goal, we lost to it.

But it should have been disallowed and there is no reason to believe that Milner would not have dealt with it if he had not been shoved in the neck and lost his balance. The long ball was not a problem; the foul was.

How many other instances of goals conceded were there?

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Re: Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

Let's get this right. The decision to sack him was taken in Abu Dhabi in early April, just after the Newcastle & was ratified at a board meeting just before the derby match. He certainly knew about it because it was his meetings with Sheikh Mansour & Simon Pearce in Abu Dhabi that week that brought it about.

The intention was to part company at the end of the season but the news that we had been talking to Pellegrini was deliberately & maliciously released (not by anyone at City) just before the cup final in order to cause maximum disruption, which it did. The board then had to decide whether to let things be or bring forward the sacking that Mancini knew was coming. They decided to do the latter.

Those are the stone-clad facts.

So when pellegrini was backed from 33/1 to 6/4 in the middle of feb
And his name was mooted for the first time on here on that date and in the rag tops
Gives me the impression the deal was done long before April.

I've posted the facts I know for certain but it wouldn't surprise me if they'd started making plans after the CL disaster or even before. But I doubt the deal would have been signed and sealed that early. It could have been no more than "Yes, if you need a manager I'd be interested" which us the same scenario I believe we had with Mourinho in December 2009.

Yeah, that would be about right. I reckon a verbal agreement in principle was agreed with Pellegrini in February. I base that on the leak which came from Chile around then that one was in place. Duncan Castles was running stories even before then about our approaches to Pellegrini and one or two others. That doesn't necessarily contradict your timescales about when the decision was finally taken, but it was in the offing for a long while before it happened.

 

[jma]

The way they went around the sacking of he who shall not be named was disgraceful but we are a club who do things the right way apparently?

Let's get this right. The decision to sack him was taken in Abu Dhabi in early April, just after the Newcastle & was ratified at a board meeting just before the derby match. He certainly knew about it because it was his meetings with Sheikh Mansour & Simon Pearce in Abu Dhabi that week that brought it about.

The intention was to part company at the end of the season but the news that we had been talking to Pellegrini was deliberately & maliciously released (not by anyone at City) just before the cup final in order to cause maximum disruption, which it did. The board then had to decide whether to let things be or bring forward the sacking that Mancini knew was coming. They decided to do the latter.

Those are the stone-clad facts.

It was reported in numerous places, months before April that the Barcelona pair (or at least one of them) had been meeting, in public, no less, with Pellegrini. The bookmakers received hefty bets and adjusted their odds accordingly too.

When the decision was actually finally ratified and branded with the official watermark is not really here nor there in a discussion as to whether it was a shoddy process.

Allowing the replacement of your manager to become a matter of public speculation, thanks to your own actions, way before any final decision is made and way before the manager and his team had reached a point whereby the season (or the squad situation) became lost is just poor. No matter how you dress it up.

Everything that was speculation. The meetings with Pellegrini, plotting to get rid of Mancini relatively early in the season before anything of substance was decided - mere months after winning the league. It all turns out that it was true.

Prudent planning might be what Garry Cook was up to, talking to Mancini a few weeks before Hughes came to the end of his year and a half of under achievement and dross. Doing the same thing, a few months after your manager has won the league and months before you reach a situation whereby sacking him becomes a consideration, that is plotting and snide. If only because the plotting, the inconsiderate way it was done - less than secretive - and the whole affair, actually contributed to a situation where it was a self fulfilling prophesy. The open speculation and knowledge that they were meeting Pellegrini made the manager's position much less secure and made it much easier for players to stop performing, culminating in the disgraceful open revolt in City shirts that sacrificed the FA Cup final.

Let's not dress the way the approach to Pellegrini up as prudent or as the actions of men who were forced to act in an untenable situation. It was snide, calculated and designed to get their own men in, from a long way out.

Not that any of that should be held against Pellegrini. But if Pellegrini doesn't work out, it should certainly be held against those who appointed him in such a way.