"I would rather lose a tournament than break my word to a player"

[goalmole]

I suppose it comes down to whether you want to be everyone's best mate or win trophies. Unfortunately if you gave most successful organisations the choice of Mr Nice Guy, or the cut throat winner, most would opt for the latter. It's the law of the jungle.

Be it marriage, business, team sport or any other enterprise involving more than one human being, the biggest ingredient for success is trust. Ruthlessness is fine but it is a managers job to keep people motivated and on board. That involves having to accommodate everybody involved. If for whatever reason that promise is given, then that promise has to be kept. Not only if possible, or maybe, or if the circumstances are right, but at all costs. If not then that is the slippery slope of losing the confidence of everybody that has any dealings with you and you find yourself in the same situation that Mourinho finds himself in every 3 years at every club he goes to. It goes beyond football and to the core of what it means to be a good, decent and honest human being. Given the choice of a Mourinho and a Pellegrini, it'd be Pellegrini every time. I would be willing to bet that Pellegrini, whatever you think of his abilities as a manager, has the full respect of everybody at the club.
He certainly has mine.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Very few of us, including myself, supported Pellegrini's decision to start Caballero, but he's been vindicated in a huge way.

It's easy to say with hindsight, and the reaction to that quote would have been very different had we lost, but you have to admire Pellegrini's loyalty, and indeed balls, for making that call.

The Bluemoon Forum also spoke. The amount of pages in the Willy Must Play thread exceeded those in the Joe Must Play thread. Admittedly two thirds of Blues in the Willy thread wanted him to be dropped but there were still scores of Blues who wanted Willy to play!

 

[basokla]

Be it marriage, business, team sport or any other enterprise involving more than one human being, the biggest ingredient for success is trust.

Just had to quote this to bring attention to it. So very true and very well said.

 

[buckshot]

I don't get the love of MP because he puts the feelings of one player ahead of the ambitions of the rest of the team and all of the supporters. I'm ECSTATIC for Willy and love that it was him who turned out to be the hero, but if it had turned out differently there would be a lot of people he'd have let down. Doesn't he promise the ownership that he'll do whatever he can to win trophies? Doesn't he owe the thousands and thousands of supporters who made the trek to Wembley the best possible team selection? Imagine if you played your whole career and never were on a trophy winning team and knowing that your best opportunity was flushed away by your manager because of a "promise"?

 

[SkyBlueTX]

Be it marriage, business, team sport or any other enterprise involving more than one human being, the biggest ingredient for success is trust. Ruthlessness is fine but it is a managers job to keep people motivated and on board. That involves having to accommodate everybody involved. If for whatever reason that promise is given, then that promise has to be kept. Not only if possible, or maybe, or if the circumstances are right, but at all costs. If not then that is the slippery slope of losing the confidence of everybody that has any dealings with you and you find yourself in the same situation that Mourinho finds himself in every 3 years at every club he goes to. It goes beyond football and to the core of what it means to be a good, decent and honest human being. Given the choice of a Mourinho and a Pellegrini, it'd be Pellegrini every time. I would be willing to bet that Pellegrini, whatever you think of his abilities as a manager, has the full respect of everybody at the club.
He certainly has mine.

In a day of many posts this is, in my opinion, the best post.

 

[Keepingthefaithsince1976]

Be it marriage, business, team sport or any other enterprise involving more than one human being, the biggest ingredient for success is trust. Ruthlessness is fine but it is a managers job to keep people motivated and on board. That involves having to accommodate everybody involved. If for whatever reason that promise is given, then that promise has to be kept. Not only if possible, or maybe, or if the circumstances are right, but at all costs. If not then that is the slippery slope of losing the confidence of everybody that has any dealings with you and you find yourself in the same situation that Mourinho finds himself in every 3 years at every club he goes to. It goes beyond football and to the core of what it means to be a good, decent and honest human being. Given the choice of a Mourinho and a Pellegrini, it'd be Pellegrini every time. I would be willing to bet that Pellegrini, whatever you think of his abilities as a manager, has the full respect of everybody at the club.
He certainly has mine.

Very good to read.

 

[Keepingthefaithsince1976]

I don't get the love of MP because he puts the feelings of one player ahead of the ambitions of the rest of the team and all of the supporters. I'm ECSTATIC for Willy and love that it was him who turned out to be the hero, but if it had turned out differently there would be a lot of people he'd have let down. Doesn't he promise the ownership that he'll do whatever he can to win trophies? Doesn't he owe the thousands and thousands of supporters who made the trek to Wembley the best possible team selection? Imagine if you played your whole career and never were on a trophy winning team and knowing that your best opportunity was flushed away by your manager because of a "promise"?

That would be why it wasn't a trophy winning team....because the promise had been broken. It's not as if he was putting an amateur in nets matey.

 

[TheThirdDeano]

I don't get the love of MP because he puts the feelings of one player ahead of the ambitions of the rest of the team and all of the supporters. I'm ECSTATIC for Willy and love that it was him who turned out to be the hero, but if it had turned out differently there would be a lot of people he'd have let down. Doesn't he promise the ownership that he'll do whatever he can to win trophies? Doesn't he owe the thousands and thousands of supporters who made the trek to Wembley the best possible team selection? Imagine if you played your whole career and never were on a trophy winning team and knowing that your best opportunity was flushed away by your manager because of a "promise"?

How come Pellegrini never actually gets a decision right off his own back? How come it's always lucky or a fluke or the wrong decision but worked out? How come, when he does get a decision right people rush to point out how he shouldn't have been in that position in the first place or he's an idiot for reacting so late?

What we saw was a masterclass of employee-management. It wasn't some roll of the dice like subbing a back-up keeper for your first choice for a penalty shoot-out. This was Pellegrini showing why he is a top manager and why we and the team are fortunate to have him on our side. And if I'm honest he couldn't have done a lot better in his reign here in my opinion.

 

[Dethred]

I wonder how many of you learned a damn lesson today. Support the team, the manager, and the players. If I only had the text from some of your posts before the final penalty kick, I'd think this was the rag cafe. If you were made to eat humble pie today, try and learn from this or for God's sake choke on it.

 

[Dethred]

And finally, lest any of you forget:

Mancini replaced Pantilimon for the cup final a few years ago, after using him the entire tournament, and it backfired spectacularly. Pellegrini is class, and that matters as much as anything else. It's what separates us from the likes of Chelsea and Mourinho, and the rags.

For those of you slagging him off all the time on here, please ban yourselves, or I hope a moderator does it for you.