I hate to say it

[Andouble]

Mourinho = no more Mario :(

though I guess maybe we'd be able to swap with Cavani. Then Mario is close to the women's prison. :)

 

[WNRH]

Mourinho is clearly the better manager.

However, this doesn't mean that we sack the incumbent because better becomes available any more than it means we sell our striker because he isn't as good as David Villa.

People will never get the chance to be great unless they earn that chance. If Mancini wins the league he has earnt his chance.

By the way, I've never seen a more sudden u-turn in opinion on this forum than yours over the last week or so. You went from sarcy comments at me about how it was as likely that the stadium would explode as Mancini lose his job, to comments like the above,

Just saying

I've been consistent all along.

I believe in Mancini's ability to consistently meet his targets. I think he's a talented man who can go and win us the league next year, and the CL after that. He will raise his game every time they raise their expectations. If he gets into Year 8 and gets beaten to the league, then he'll have a case for maybe trusting him to continue, but if he fails in his second season in charge, an FA Cup will not be enough to save him. As I say, I don't like the situation, but that doesn't change what the situation is.

That was 9 months ago.

And I disagreed with you that we should plan now for Mancini to be gone at the end of year, using a comparison saying that we don't plan for the stadium to explode either.

You never plan expecting to fail.

Do you think it is league or bust then for Mancini?

 

[Bluemanc100]

Anyone that thinks Mancini is a better manager than Mourinho is deluded. Maybe Mancini is more loyal than Mourinho would be, and not as arrogant, but it all boils down to who is the better manager that would deliver trophies.

Mourinho is a far superior manager and a tactical genius. Sadly Mancini, though still a great manager, will never be on the same level as Mourinho.


I hope we keep with Mancini but if the chance came up to get Mourinho I'd snatch him up in a heartbeat.

Love what Bobby's done but I tend to agree, if Jose is not lined up for the Trafford Red Sox sign him up.... Balotelli is achieving legendary status but would we honestly miss his on field performances?

AND as an earlier post suggested, the league was there for the taking last year and we didn't take it.... Liverpool draw towards the end summed up the ambition

 

[Damocles]

Do you think it is league or bust then for Mancini?

Yup. Here's another one from the Khaldoon interview at the beginning of the season:

No, the pressure IS now increased on Mancini; are you guys deaf? Khaldoon has JUST SAID THIS. He said next year he expects a title challenge, and for us to be "competitive" in every competition. He said that this season the goal was the top four and the cup.

That means that he has raised his expectations, thus Mancini has a shorter time next season to get it right. We all remember the trajectory?

Mancini has to meet new expectations, and with new (and loftier expectations) comes increased pressure.

Seriously, some of the stuff in this thread is madness. Firstly, Mancini must be under threat because Khaldoon didn't praise him enough (watch it again, he didn't really praise anyone), and now Mancini's job is completely safe because he won us a Cup. Oh, and he's off to Juve (he isn't).

I think some people need to realise who we are dealing with here. It's very nice that the Shiekh wears a City shirt with his kids, and that Khaldoon speaks with such enthusiasm for our games, but don't make the mistake of believing that they won't sack ANY manager who is not living up to their very high standards.

They aren't here to be great blokes, they're here to have a singular goal of dragging this club to the top of the worldwide pile. And as we said at the start of the takeover; these guys don't fail. They don't fail because they sack people who they don't believe matches their standard of excellence.

This isn't a knock on Mancini, who I believe to be an exceptionally gifted manager, this is just the way it is now. Mancini will have to either put up or shut up next season, just like he had to this season. This season he put up. Let's see what happens next year. Don't get me wrong though, if we win the league next year and the year after this we still aren't getting out of the group stages of the CL, they'll throw Mancini out so fast it will unknit his scarf.

We can debate the rights and wrongs of this type of strategy all day, but this remains the reality and we need to face up to that now, or get annoyed later.

The one thing that struck me more than anything about that interview was the matter of factness of Khaldoon. Whilst we are all fawning all over the place because we've won the FA Cup, he's congratulating people on meeting their targets. Not exceeding them, meeting them. He's expects the absolute best, and is satisfied when we get it. He's ruthless when we don't; ask Mark Hughes.

To us, the FA Cup was a triumph. A dream come true, an emotional culmination of 36 years of hurt, all wiped away with one touch of Yaya's boot. To Khaldoon, it was a Saturday. We did what was expected of us, nothing else.

I feel a bit like us fans are small children and Khaldoon is a father. We want congratulating and mass celebration for writing our own name; Khaldoon politely scruffles our hair, not really that bothered about it. To us, it's a monumental occasion and a great milestone in our lives whereas it was something that he expected us to do, and if we didn't he'd be very worried.

Mancini doesn't need to take a step backwards to get the sack, he just needs to stand still and he'll be gone. Either he progresses at an acceptable rate, or we'll find someone who will.

This is what they meant when they said increased pressure.

I still think that.

Don't mistake my realism around the workings of "new City" to be in any way a criticism of Mancini, and there are far too many people on here who try to make arguments into either a all out positive or all out negative world view, which is totally bullshit.

 

[WNRH]

Do you think it is league or bust then for Mancini?

Yup. Here's another one from the Khaldoon interview at the beginning of the season:

No, the pressure IS now increased on Mancini; are you guys deaf? Khaldoon has JUST SAID THIS. He said next year he expects a title challenge, and for us to be "competitive" in every competition. He said that this season the goal was the top four and the cup.

That means that he has raised his expectations, thus Mancini has a shorter time next season to get it right. We all remember the trajectory?

Mancini has to meet new expectations, and with new (and loftier expectations) comes increased pressure.

Seriously, some of the stuff in this thread is madness. Firstly, Mancini must be under threat because Khaldoon didn't praise him enough (watch it again, he didn't really praise anyone), and now Mancini's job is completely safe because he won us a Cup. Oh, and he's off to Juve (he isn't).

I think some people need to realise who we are dealing with here. It's very nice that the Shiekh wears a City shirt with his kids, and that Khaldoon speaks with such enthusiasm for our games, but don't make the mistake of believing that they won't sack ANY manager who is not living up to their very high standards.

They aren't here to be great blokes, they're here to have a singular goal of dragging this club to the top of the worldwide pile. And as we said at the start of the takeover; these guys don't fail. They don't fail because they sack people who they don't believe matches their standard of excellence.

This isn't a knock on Mancini, who I believe to be an exceptionally gifted manager, this is just the way it is now. Mancini will have to either put up or shut up next season, just like he had to this season. This season he put up. Let's see what happens next year. Don't get me wrong though, if we win the league next year and the year after this we still aren't getting out of the group stages of the CL, they'll throw Mancini out so fast it will unknit his scarf.

We can debate the rights and wrongs of this type of strategy all day, but this remains the reality and we need to face up to that now, or get annoyed later.

The one thing that struck me more than anything about that interview was the matter of factness of Khaldoon. Whilst we are all fawning all over the place because we've won the FA Cup, he's congratulating people on meeting their targets. Not exceeding them, meeting them. He's expects the absolute best, and is satisfied when we get it. He's ruthless when we don't; ask Mark Hughes.

To us, the FA Cup was a triumph. A dream come true, an emotional culmination of 36 years of hurt, all wiped away with one touch of Yaya's boot. To Khaldoon, it was a Saturday. We did what was expected of us, nothing else.

I feel a bit like us fans are small children and Khaldoon is a father. We want congratulating and mass celebration for writing our own name; Khaldoon politely scruffles our hair, not really that bothered about it. To us, it's a monumental occasion and a great milestone in our lives whereas it was something that he expected us to do, and if we didn't he'd be very worried.

Mancini doesn't need to take a step backwards to get the sack, he just needs to stand still and he'll be gone. Either he progresses at an acceptable rate, or we'll find someone who will.

This is what they meant when they said increased pressure.

I still think that.

Don't mistake my realism around the workings of "new City" to be in any way a criticism of Mancini, and there are far too many people on here who try to make arguments into either a all out positive or all out negative world view, which is totally bullshit.

Surely it cannot be that every season though, the pressure has to come off sometime otherwise Mancini and any other manager can never express themselves. I would hope that a league win this season would relieve the pressure of Mancini for the foreseeable future.

I've said it before that there is no point in spending £100m+ on a new academy training ground if managers are always going to be under pressure to risk blooding them in.

 

[Ardwickeb]

It will not be the fans who decide that! Let's not piss about here football is a big business and the people at the top expect success or else! Should Bobby go if we fail to win the league? Maybe he will be judged on how he spent the millions? If that is the case he may be in trouble.
Would be nightmare to have more changes though. If Murinho was not available maybe the jungle drums would not be beating. Anyway let's be positive. Yaya returns, Mario acts his age, Sergio finds his shooting boots, Dzeko warms the bench and Nasri starts performing for 90 mins and the league is ours!

 

[Damocles]

If we win the league this year and finish third the year after without any real competitiveness in the CL, he should also be sacked.

This is a results game. Bringing through youth talent whilst remaining competitive is the job of all managers over the long term. If they cannot manage this, I'm sure there are plenty of people queuing up who claim to be able to do so.

 

[WNRH]

If we win the league this year and finish third the year after without any real competitiveness in the CL, he should also be sacked.

This is a results game. Bringing through youth talent whilst remaining competitive is the job of all managers over the long term. If they cannot manage this, I'm sure there are plenty of people queuing up who claim to be able to do so.

I look to last night as an example. Would Mancini have played Ben Amos ahead of the Pole? The Pole is the more experienced keeper and in a game where United have to win, a manager under pressure would go for experience over youth even though the youth might be the better keeper in short and long term.

Now Fergie is under pressure to get results but it's a different kind of pressure, he can go 3 years without winning a league or a couple of years without a trophy and still be in a job.

If we're always going for the short term gain in trophies or bust i fear we would become another Chelsea.

 

[Ardwick AFC]

If we win the league this year and finish third the year after without any real competitiveness in the CL, he should also be sacked.

This is a results game. Bringing through youth talent whilst remaining competitive is the job of all managers over the long term. If they cannot manage this, I'm sure there are plenty of people queuing up who claim to be able to do so.

I look to last night as an example. Would Mancini have played Ben Amos ahead of the Pole? The Pole is the more experienced keeper and in a game where United have to win, a manager under pressure would go for experience over youth even though the youth might be the better keeper in short and long term.

Now Fergie is under pressure to get results but it's a different kind of pressure, he can go 3 years without winning a league or a couple of years without a trophy and still be in a job.

If we're always going for the short term gain in trophies or bust i fear we would become another Chelsea.

Baconface also played 18 year old Pogba for 20 minutes. When we couldn't buy a goal last night, and Bobby threw on NDJ. The demon in me wants to see Denis Suarez being used in this type of senario.

 

[Bill]

wherever we finished and whatever we win or dont win bob must be allowed to stay in charge.