Is now the time to consider Mancini's tenure at the club

[chesterbells]

How would replacing a manager after 3+ years in charge resemble Chelsea FC's treatment of their managers? Not that I am endorsing it but if he is replaced it will have been a carefully considered move by our highly qualified men in charge.

Exactly, if he's replaced by a better manager, is that a problem? I think it would be for some on here, who seem to suggest that for some kind of 'moral' reasons, of 'natural justice' it would be wrong to upgrade only months after winning the title. I don't think we can be that way, and if some think that ruthlessness would make us more like Chelsea then I couldn't care less

An upgrade isn't an automatic guarantee of success, many clubs have tried it and many have failed. Clubs that upgrade every time they have a bad run generally do not succeed in the long term.

Personally I believe that we gave our manager a five year contract around 4 months ago. And in my book 4 months, no matter how disappointing is not enough time to determine that decision was wrong. If things haven't turned around by May then he'll be under pressure, if they haven't turned around by this time next year I'd say there is no chance he'll still be here.

But people would have Mancini "upgraded" before the FA Cup, and they would have had him "upgraded" before our run to win the title. Generally supporters are too quick on the trigger finger, so I'm glad the people in charge of our club have a bit more patience.

Hey it's all about opinions isn't it. You see I think if we had "upgraded" before our title run in then it wouldn't have come down to goal difference.

Oops edit ;)

 

[cleavers]

Personally I believe that we gave our manager a five year contract around 4 months ago. And in my book 4 months, no matter how disappointing is not enough time to determine that decision was wrong. If things haven't turned around by May then he'll be under pressure, if they haven't turned around by this time next year I'd say there is no chance he'll still be here.

I agree, but don't kid yourself that he's not under presure after yesterday, he is, 7 points as we know from last year is not a huge gap, but we have 3 difficult games to come, 2 of them away from home, if the gap widens considerably to united, we'll have been caught by Chelsea (and maybe others). The pressure to win on Saturday is now very great in the context of where the club wants to be.

 

[sir baconface]

IF it becomes 9/10 point gap on Saturday then I reckon it would result in the trigger being pulled. It's always going to be easier to make the decision at a low point as there ends up being far less fallout with the media, if we waited until the end of the season and managed to claw it back to say 3/4 points then we'd get murders for sacking Bob at that point.

Our next three games are Norwich (A), Stoke (H) and Arsenal (A). The rags have West Brom (H), Wigan (A) and Liverpool (H).

On current form we might only get 2 or 3 points. If we do and the rags get 6 or 7 then it's a double figure gap and I would say that's it for the title. Or we could get 6 or 7 and they could get 2 or 3. Then it's game on.

The rags should get at least 7 points from that run of fixtures, maybe all 9. And of course we need to match their haul just to maintain the current deficit. Very, very tricky but that's the scale of the problem.

 

[cleavers]

he can do himself a favour by picking his best team and sticking to it. we only have the fa cup and the prem to go for, no excuse to rotate anymore.

To be fair though mate, our injury list isn't making it much easier to pick any other side.

The only option he took yesterday was to play Garcia instead of Barry which tbh was hardly the reason behind the result, imo of course.

You can only play who is available, though I don't know why Barry didn't start, if fit he'd be first on my team sheet every time. Looking at the subs bench that would probably be the only change I would have made to yesterday's team, and I'm not sure who I would have left out for Barry, as Garcia has done OK in recent games for me.

 

[Johnsonontheleft]

Who is the fucking alternative? Mourinho will make us boring and fuck off after 2 years, Guardiola has zero experience in this league and managed to lose the title last year.

Mancini has got us playing awesome intricate attacking football most of the time, and we rarely concede goals. Any team struggles against sides who park the bus for 90 mins and try to counter - teams are simply copying the Napoli blueprint which worked for them last season. Teams don't park the bus against the rags in the same way because they know they can score goals against their leaky defence.

Chelsea won the champions league last season playing a brand of unwatchable, park the bus football which crippled Barca and Bayern Munich. We're having the same issue this season.

Mancini IN.

 

[cleavers]

The rags should get at least 7 points from that run of fixtures, maybe all 9. And of course we need to match their haul just to maintain the current deficit. Very, very tricky but that's the scale of the problem.

They may get 9, but everyone thought that after we lost at Arsenal last year.

All we should worry about is how many we get, and I'd say we pretty well NEED all 9, failure to get at least 6 may see us drop from second spot.

 

[chesterbells]

Who is the fucking alternative? Mourinho will make us boring and fuck off after 2 years, Guardiola has zero experience in this league and managed to lose the title last year.

Mancini has got us playing awesome intricate attacking football most of the time, and we rarely concede goals. Any team struggles against sides who park the bus for 90 mins and try to counter - teams are simply copying the Napoli blueprint which worked for them last season. Teams don't park the bus against the rags in the same way because they know they can score goals against their leaky defence.

Chelsea won the champions league last season playing a brand of unwatchable, park the bus football which crippled Barca and Bayern Munich. We're having the same issue this season.

Mancini IN.

Well, if we win the champions league as well this season, I won't mind

 

[Bill]

he can do himself a favour by picking his best team and sticking to it. we only have the fa cup and the prem to go for, no excuse to rotate anymore.

To be fair though mate, our injury list isn't making it much easier to pick any other side.

The only option he took yesterday was to play Garcia instead of Barry which tbh was hardly the reason behind the result, imo of course.

absolutly but you and i know he'd rotate whatever our injury list was.

he under estimated both reading and sunderland, we got away with it last week but copped for it yesterday.when those teams see our teamsheet they are lifted by the arrogance of our manager that we dont need a full team to beat them. of course it also weakens our team, never moreso than leaving hart out of last years cup derby, a derby ffs. criminal.

 

[moomba]

Hey it's all about opinions isn't it. You see I think if we had "upgraded" before our title run in then it wouldn't have come down to goal difference.

Well, we'll never know that. But I know for sure that we stuck with the manager and won the title. That's good enough reason for me not to be too upset he wasn't replaced a month before.<br /><br />-- Thu Dec 27, 2012 8:16 pm --<br /><br />

he under estimated both reading and sunderland, we got away with it last week but copped for it yesterday.when those teams see our teamsheet they are lifted by the arrogance of our manager that we dont need a full team to beat them. of course it also weakens our team, never moreso than leaving hart out of last years cup derby, a derby ffs. criminal.

I thought the side against Reading was a logical, strongest available side we could have put out. Rekik was forced to an extent, we had the forwards everyone has been crying out for, midfield can't think of any great improvements, defence was as strong as it could get.

I just don't get this idea that the lineup for Reading was understrength.

 

[moomba]

I agree, but don't kid yourself that he's not under presure after yesterday, he is, 7 points as we know from last year is not a huge gap, but we have 3 difficult games to come, 2 of them away from home, if the gap widens considerably to united, we'll have been caught by Chelsea (and maybe others). The pressure to win on Saturday is now very great in the context of where the club wants to be.

I wouldn't have thought it's a pressure that he hasn't been under before at the club.

Three difficult games, but all winnable (we got 7 points from the same fixtures last season).

Out of interest, if we win all three and then beat Fulham at home we'll be 1 point ahead of our points tally against the same sides last season and only 3 points behind our points tally at the same stage of last season.