If we went out at the group stage.

[phuzion]

Only read page one but I wouldn't be in the slightest bit bother if we went out in the group stages:

1. We have by far the toughest group of the competition.

2. If we dropped out, Id expect us to field a weakened team in the Europa and go for the domestic titles.

3. Spurs put all their eggs in the CL basket last year, and although they did ok, they got nothing from it and suffered in the league.

4. The league means a lot more to me than the CL. Europe will come, for now Id much rather top the table, and being out of it and concentrating on the league isn't a bad thing.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be out of it, just wouldn't be too bothered. I do think we'll top the group still...

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

Hypotethically speaking if we went out at the group stage of the Champions League would you perception of Mancini change? I'm talking in terms of doubting his ability to succeed in European competition. Also we'd drop into the Europa League. Is this a competition you believe we'd take seriously given the inferior standard of competition and our focus being on achieving first or second position within the domestic league?

My perception didn't change when we lost to the Rags in the League Cup semi just after he first came; it didn't when we didn't get fourth in his first six months; it didn't when we went out of the League Cup at West Brom early last season; it never changes whether we play shite or excellently; and it wont change if we don't get out of our group in the CL.

This squad and management team are on a learning curve everyday. I have given the club - from my perspective - five years grace. If we don't acheive things we are aiming for in the first five years, I'm not going to be gutted or angry. I will realistically and objectively look at the reasons why and common sense will prevail. This is the start of the fourth season with Sheikh Mansour, only the start of Mancini's second proper season after his first proper ore-season, and it's our first ever season as the revolutionised club in the European Cup... we have to remain grounded and realistic.

If we finish third or even bottom of our CL group you have to say "right, where did we go wrong? Where will we do better next season?" and allow the management team and the squad learn from their mistakes. As far as the team goes, they've got two more seasons of 'grace' with me to keep learning and improving before I'd place any expectations or demands on them.

-- Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:20 pm --

The most important thing this season is to qualify for the champions league again, this will establish us as a champions league side and allow us to keep all the players we want to keep. This is all I ask of Mancini this season, anything else is a bonus

That's right. Establishing ourselves as a CL club by qualifying for the CL again this season is the most important thing. Third and above this season and forever more is what we should be looking at and be happy with. Whatever happens in the lottery of cup competitions is neither here nor there this season. If we do well in them or win one, then FANTASTIC, that's the bonus on top of finishing in the heralded top three. Then we go on and on and build as a team, a squad, a set if fans and a club as a whole!

There is not a snowball in hells chance that abu dhabi think
Like you. The more cash is spent, the more time passes , the more the pressure is ramped up. If we
Drift in 3rd this season it's a failure. Two seasons on the bounce and it's a calamity.

The sheikh has every right with the squad assembled to expect glory this season. And so should fans.

Since when Dave? How do we know that the Sheikh would deem it as failure..Unlike last year he told Mancini that top 4 was a must-and he delivered. I haven't heard Khaldoon or Mansour come out with any definitive mantra about the Champions league...

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Well for a start khaldoon has talked about phases 1,2,3 and 4 himself. He referred to it again at the end of last season. You can believe what you want but if you believe augero and nasri and dzeko have been bought to finish 3rd or 4th I think you're miles out .

The target this year is the title. Next year it will be the champs league

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

Well for a start khaldoon has talked about phases 1,2,3 and 4 himself. He referred to it again at the end of last season. You can believe what you want but if you believe augero and nasri and dzeko have been bought to finish 3rd or 4th I think you're miles out .

The target this year is the title. Next year it will be the champs league

I would much prefer the title than the Champs league Dave but from what I saw the other night we looked nervous and my conclusion is that we are the newcomers to the top tabe and it is going to take time. Not forgetting we are everyones scalp now.Still think we could have won the league last yr..Sunderland away,Fulham home,brum home....

 

[MCFC 4 EVER]

Well for a start khaldoon has talked about phases 1,2,3 and 4 himself. He referred to it again at the end of last season. You can believe what you want but if you believe augero and nasri and dzeko have been bought to finish 3rd or 4th I think you're miles out .

The target this year is the title. Next year it will be the champs league

I would much prefer the title than the Champs league Dave but from what I saw the other night we looked nervous and my conclusion is that we are the newcomers to the top tabe and it is going to take time. Not forgetting we are everyones scalp now.Still think we could have won the league last yr..Sunderland away,Fulham home,brum home....

This^^
The prem is a lot more important than the CL at the moment we have time to win the CL next year

 

[bobby boy]

Bobby manc got it spot-on when he concentrated on keeping it tight at the back and building a solid foundation for the team even tho he took a bit of criticism for it at the time,now we've opened up a bit with the new signings people need to allow a bit of time for the team to find the right balance.The result on wednesday showed us we're on a learning curve but we will get there.We've come a long way in a short time let's show some patience

 

[Joga Bonito]

First of all, if we went out at the group stage we might not get into the Europa League, as that is reserved for the third place finishers only.

Speaking hypothetically, if Baconface got hit by a car and retired do you think Mancini could take us to the title or would you doubt his ability?

 

[Deleted member 14625]

Hypotethically speaking if we went out at the group stage of the Champions League would you perception of Mancini change? I'm talking in terms of doubting his ability to succeed in European competition. Also we'd drop into the Europa League. Is this a competition you believe we'd take seriously given the inferior standard of competition and our focus being on achieving first or second position within the domestic league?

My perception didn't change when we lost to the Rags in the League Cup semi just after he first came; it didn't when we didn't get fourth in his first six months; it didn't when we went out of the League Cup at West Brom early last season; it never changes whether we play shite or excellently; and it wont change if we don't get out of our group in the CL.

This squad and management team are on a learning curve everyday. I have given the club - from my perspective - five years grace. If we don't acheive things we are aiming for in the first five years, I'm not going to be gutted or angry. I will realistically and objectively look at the reasons why and common sense will prevail. This is the start of the fourth season with Sheikh Mansour, only the start of Mancini's second proper season after his first proper ore-season, and it's our first ever season as the revolutionised club in the European Cup... we have to remain grounded and realistic.

If we finish third or even bottom of our CL group you have to say "right, where did we go wrong? Where will we do better next season?" and allow the management team and the squad learn from their mistakes. As far as the team goes, they've got two more seasons of 'grace' with me to keep learning and improving before I'd place any expectations or demands on them.

-- Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:20 pm --

The most important thing this season is to qualify for the champions league again, this will establish us as a champions league side and allow us to keep all the players we want to keep. This is all I ask of Mancini this season, anything else is a bonus

That's right. Establishing ourselves as a CL club by qualifying for the CL again this season is the most important thing. Third and above this season and forever more is what we should be looking at and be happy with. Whatever happens in the lottery of cup competitions is neither here nor there this season. If we do well in them or win one, then FANTASTIC, that's the bonus on top of finishing in the heralded top three. Then we go on and on and build as a team, a squad, a set if fans and a club as a whole!

There is not a snowball in hells chance that abu dhabi think
Like you. The more cash is spent, the more time passes , the more the pressure is ramped up. If we
Drift in 3rd this season it's a failure. Two seasons on the bounce and it's a calamity.

The sheikh has every right with the squad assembled to expect glory this season. And so should fans.

I don't think we (or anyone else for that matter) should expect glory, and certainly not every season. It simply will not happen. No matter how much we spend, how good we are, how much we want it; we will not win a trophy every season. No club, no matter how good they are, wins a trophy every season.

The Rags have been the best team in this country for twenty years but sometimes they finish the season trophyless. It's not a calamity to them. They dust themselves off, look at where they went wrong and then go again the season after. They don't panic as a club, they don't flap, they don't sack the manager, they don't demand anything. They just go again the season after. It's not a calamity. They understand (and I'm talking about the club, not the fans, because the fans know fuck all!) that you can't expect glory just because you're the best and you've spent the most and you won it the season before, maybe the two consecutive seasons before.

Real Madrid had the most expensive team ever assembled with the Galacticos, yet they went three whole seasons without winning a single trophy. Barcelona have also gone the odd three years here and there without a trophy. It doesn't matter how good you are, you simply can't expect to win things every season because it wont happen. We will have seasons where we win a trophy and the next we wont, even if we think we have a better team than previously or have spent a lot of money

At the moment we aren't an established Champions League club. We may well have qualified for the competition but we must establish ourselves over several seasons. This must be our aim. The top three. We must aim to finsih as high up in that top three as we can - number one- every season but United are a fucking good team and will be for a long time, as will Chelsea, so that top three could finish in any order. We must understand this no matter how good we think we are or how much money we've spent. We will aim to win the title every season from now on, we will sometimes win the title, but we should never expect it to happen and when it doesn't happen we must realise that it's far from a calamity. With every top three finsih we keep on establishing ourselves as a Champions League club. The better we get at that the further we will go towards winning it. But we should never expect to win it. Barcelona have been a top club for as log as even the oldest posters on this forum have been alive, yet it took them until 1992 to win their first European Cup. If anyone expects us to be winning the Champions League in just our second season in the competition - I'm not saying we can't or wont by the way, but to expect to is another matter.

If people are expecting glory every season just because we've been spending a lot of money, people are going to be disappointed in a fair few seasons because it will be an absolute fact that we wont win something every season. Yes we should aim for the top in everything but we should realise that if we don't achieve it, it wont be a calamity.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I'm not using the term glory to say we will win something every year. What I am saying is Abu dhabi have not invested all this money for us to be also rans. If we don't challenge all the way for the title this year we have failed. If we finish a close second we dust ourselves down and have another go. But if we end up 10 points off the pace, fighting arsenal and Liverpool for 3rd and 4th then big questions have to be asked. I know a section of fans like to see us as the upstarts, some kind of over-achieving club like Swansea but we aren't . We've spent more than everyone. I wouldn't dream of swapping our squad for Anybody's .

This "let's establish ourselves in the top four" attitude is hugely naive. Look at what happened to Hughes, look at what happened to cook. These guys are not here to fuck around. They want a return on their investment. That return won't necessarily be financial , it will be in terms of world profile. The odd domestic trophy will not cut the
Mustard , they want the title and the champions league. And they arent going to wait 10 years, or even 5, to get it.

This shit is serious . This squad is serious . The time is now.

 

[Anonymous]

Napolis goal , albeit due to a City mistake , has handed them genuine belief now that they can qualify from this group , and has made our job all the harder ..... because Bayern will surely fancy themselves to take the other place.

You cannot afford to make mistakes at this level , and ours could yet prove costly , but the situation is still 'rectifyable' if we focus properly ........ we have the players , and the firepower , to trouble both of those sides.

I feel that some some people are expecting too much of City in this competition , and to have us amongst the outright favourites to actually win it is all a bit ridiculous in my eyes ......... we may have the money , but we could be found 'wanting' on the big match experience of playing in such a competion ... with other sides knowing , better than us , what's required to do well in them.

Time will tell of course , just how well we do , but the pressure is already on , and it's up to us to respond ........ nobody wants to drop to the Europa League standard again when they've played in the 'big one'.