Hacks, Has-beens And Never-was's

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From day one, the knives were out for Mancini. He replaced a rag legend, and at the time it happened, media darling and rising star in management. His poor English in his first interview saw him pounced upon - "my contract is 6 months and 3 years". It was a clear indication, according to them that City were not sure they had appointed the right man, that City were hedging their bets.

From then on in, Mancini was never given the respect afforded Wenger and Ferguson - he's just a cheque book manager. He was never praised for the attacking football played in a season that saw City with the best goals for and best goals against record in the league. No, the praise was reserved for Tottenham who were doing things the right way under 'Arry - a man who let his dog manage his finances.

Even winning the league in such dramatic fashion, which helped the Premier League achieve the most phenomenal contract upgrade, was not enough even to secure a Manager of the Season trophy; that honour went to Alan Pardew who guided Newcastle to the dizzying heights of 5th place, some 24 points behind the Champions.

Unfortunately, Mancini's Achilles' heel has been Europe. Our first foray saw us finish 3rd on 10 pts which would have seen us in the next round in any other group. Next season was an unmitigated disaster. Despite domestic success, this has shown (apparently) that Mancini is an inept a manager as John Sitten.

I'm not sure there has ever been a manager so unfairly treated by Fleet Street's finest. Martin Samuel has oft been the lone dissenting voice in fairness. The esteemed writer Henry Winter - who gave Mancini such a torrid time at his first press conference - has come around a bit, however that took a fair amount of wooing by the club. Does that mean Winter is nothing more than a prostitute who will write what you want so long as their is a slap-up grill in it for him? Who knows?

Then there is David Conn, the self styled moral crusader who craves the days of Meredith and jumpers for goalposts and laments the inevitable road football took towards becoming a real business. A huge City fan, Conn then showed himself as adept as Ronnie Irani by releasing a book about City full of inaccuracy and fulsome in its praise of FC United of Manchester.

Typical City? Probably.

The rest though have certainly lived up the the Spitting Image caricature of moral-less, nose in the trough, alcoholic freeloaders given some of the outlandish, absolute tripe written about City. It's galling we allow an agenda to be set by a profession that sees no wrong in hacking murder victims' mobile phone voicemails and puts topless pictures of 16 year old girls on its 3rd page.

Noble profession indeed.

It seems then Mancini is history and we move forward with Pellegrini. The whole appointment has once again been very badly managed - manna from heaven for reporters everywhere of course. So will we now see some righteous indignation the club has sacked its most successful manager in a generation? Will we now be portrayed as some demented Chelsea wannabe? Will Pellegrini be given the same welcome and coverage Mancini had? Time will of course tell.

All I know is once again, the press are finding any angle they can to denigrate the club I support. All I know is the club appear to be doing little to try and manage or control the pernicious cabal of reporters laughing their way to the bank as they scribe yet more unfounded tittle-tattle. From a PR perspective, City are either naive or hugely unprofessional.

I just hope that through all of this, the Engineer, as Pellegrini is nicknamed, lives up to his billing. After all, there are no guarantees in football and just because a manager comes from the most technically gifted league in the world at the moment, it does not mean it necessarily translates to success in the Premier League.

Ask Juande Ramos, he'll tell you.
 
Thank you bondsman.

If anyone is interested, it has already started with Pellegrini:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/just-why-do-manchester-city-want-manuel-pellegrini-8612517.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 12517.html</a>

It is a measure of how highly Manuel Pellegrini is regarded in Spain that after moving to Real Madrid in 2009, failing to win a trophy with the most expensively assembled squad in La Liga's history, and being sacked at the end of his first season, he managed to emerge with his reputation not just intact but, in the eyes of many, enhanced.

He has now spent nine seasons in Spain without a major title and yet the over-riding view of him – evidently shared by Manchester City director of football, Txiki Begiristain – is that he is a champion in waiting; a coach who has dramatically over-achieved at Villarreal and Malaga, and who only under-achieved at Real Madrid because of extremely mitigating circumstances.

Pellegrini is an oddity – a 59-year-old coach with potential – long in the tooth but with his best days ahead of him. As a player he was a commanding central defender during 13 years spent at Universidad Catolica in his home city of Santiago de Chile.

He tells the story of how he decided to retire one day in 1986 when, aged 32, he was out-jumped by a young opposing striker who unbeknown to him was Ivan Zamorano, who would go on to be one of Chile's finest players. "Had I known, I might not have quit so soon", he says with the dry humour that takes the edge off a straight-bat personality.

Having studied civil engineering, he briefly returned to it after his playing career just as large parts of his country needed rebuilding following the 1985 earthquake. The "Engineer" moniker stayed with him as he began building teams, although in the early days it was anything but a compliment. The insinuation was that with his academic air and his full life outside football, he lacked the necessary passion to succeed.

Some saw the preference for reading a book, making trips back to Chile to visit his family or playing tennis instead of studying would-be opponents, as a lack of intensity. But he sees it as maintaining the healthy balance that makes him a better manager inside the football bubble.

In five years at Villarreal the philosophy served him well as he took a club from a town with a population of just 45,000 to the Champions League semi-finals in 2006.

He was the last coach to split the big two in Spain, finishing above Barcelona and behind Real Madrid in the title race – something that earned him a move to Madrid in 2009. The club had just spent ¤250m (£210m) on Karim Benzema, Kaka, Xabi Alonso and Cristiano Ronaldo. So why, with such riches at his disposal, was he out the door in just 12 months?

His reign had the misfortune to coincide with Pep Guardiola's second season at Barcelona, meaning that although he broke the then points record at Real Madrid, the team still finished second. He was ignored when he insisted the club should not sell Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder – both went on to play in that season's Champions League final for Bayern Munich and Inter Milan respectively, while Madrid lost at the last-16 stage to Lyon.

And he was also saddled with Raul and Guti, two club heavyweights long since more influential politically off the pitch than in a football sense on it – Jose Mourinho made sure both left before he took over the following season. There was an embarrassing Spanish Cup exit, beaten 4-0 by third division side Alcorcon, and he had to make do without Ronaldo for six weeks when an ankle injury interrupted his first season at the club.

He is not a lucky coach – from Juan Roman Riquelme's missed penalty for Villareal in the Champions League semi-final against Arsenal in 2006, through to this year's Malaga heartbreak against Borussia Dortmund.

At Malaga he also seems to have found football's only penny-pinching Qatari sheik. Having seen Pellegrini get Malaga into the Champions League for the first time, Abdullah al-Thani spent this season asset stripping the team, creating a chaos his manager has navigated with all the cool determination that has characterised his career. "He gets the best out of players but without being an over-bearing presence" says Quique Alvarez, who captained that Villarreal Champions League semi-final side.

In a rousing speech to his players at the start of the season Pellegrini persuaded them that with a fine run in the Champions League they could even turn the club's fortunes around. Had its fate rested on competition prize money and not on the owner's whim, that would have come to pass. He has fought the players' corner as wages have gone unpaid, and has fostered a togetherness in adversity.

Begiristain was Barcelona's Sporting Director in 2008 when Pellegrini's Villarreal finished above them in the League. If the kingmaker crowns the Engineer it will be because he believes Pellegrini's luck is about to change, and that Manchester City will be the place where his undoubted ability starts producing trophies.

Manuel Pellegrini

Age 59, born in Santiago, Chile

Teams managed Took first managerial role in 1988 and has taken charge of 10 teams (plus Chile's U20 side in 1991), including Villarreal (2004-2009), Real Madrid (2009-10) and currently Malaga

Honours League titles in Ecuador and Argentina. The Intertoto Cup with Villarreal in 2004 is the only trophy he has won in a total of nine years coaching in Spain.
 
Yes really good post.

The only good point in the whole Mancini saga is that for once in this week there are more than one newsworthy stories all coming at once, Baconface retiring, Moyes coming in, Rafa going out, Mouriniho available, Wigan winning the cup, Shrek's transfer request, they don't know where to begin in this tabloid wankfest.
 
Great post Mr Bow and agree with it in the main. Football writers are sub-human scum in the main.

I do think, however, we should wait for the dust to settle before criticising the club's handling of this putative sacking too forcefully. We don't know the reason for their silence, and until we do we should hang fire until the true picture emerges.
 
It will be interesting to contrast the coverage Pellegrini receives compared to that tactical genius David Moyes. The ragtops have been falling over themselves to glorify Moyes who has never won a trophy or hardly a " big match" during his time as a manager (and who most proper Everton fans are glad to see the back of) In fact I just heard one so-called pundit on the radio say that Pellegrini's European record is not good enough to fulfil City's aspirations in Europe. No mention of Moyes' incredible record of one defeat in one Champions League qualifier. You could not make it up!
 

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