It's a real possibility that Sven maybe in charge by March

[bluebarn]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When the fuck are people going to get over this ridiculous obsession with Sven? Sven was dire the second half of last season. He displayed all the shortcomings that he had over the previous few years with England. He is not up to it tactically, cannot motivate players and is a charlatan who is now more concerned about earning huge pay offs for failure. How can so many of you not see this?

 

[Challenger1978]

How can he keep it from the players when according to the papers frank was threatening to sack the entire team and not give the kids that came through an improved contract. And then you had the players threatening to go on strike as well last year because of the shit that was going on.

According to the papers - LOL

Jesus Christ, and you dont think that unsettles players ?.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

I'd hope not. It would be up to the manager to get the best out of his players regardless, which would be Sven's shortcoming anyway

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

But Sven should have been professional kept that from the players shouldn't he? I do know that he told the players about this time last year that he'd fallen out with Thaksin and didn't expect to be here for long.

People criticise Hughes for being aloof (although none of us really know) but if Sven had kept his thoughts to himself then the players might not have given up trying as they seemed to.

How can he keep it from the players when according to the papers frank was threatening to sack the entire team and not give the kids that came through an improved contract. And then you had the players threatening to go on strike as well last year because of the shit that was going on.

Sven was telling the players in December that his relationship with Thaksin had broken down. The rest of the media shit didn't start until March/April (most of which was inspired by Sven, Mackintosh & Tyrrell).

 

[JohnMaddocksAxe]

Sven isn't coming back imo so there's little point in considering it.

However, what makes me sick is this rewriting of his time here and the ungrateful attitude of many g1ts on here.

If at the start of the season people had been offered 9th they would have snapped his hand off.

If they had been offered 9th and been told that the second half of the season would see the manager and the team operating against a backdrop of a nobhead chairman virtually doing everything in his power to ensure that the playing side was completely unstable, they would have thought it impossible.

The working condition for half of last season were riduclous and an embarrassment, thanks to the chairman.

Show some respect, you ingrates!

 

[glyncity]

all these bullshit conspiricy theories about the second half of last season,
ffs look at the fixtures
bafore xmas home fixtures
derby sunderland reading birmingham bolton
villa middlesboro newcastle ( all bottom 3 when we played them)
man utd
after xmas
liverpool chelsea arsenal blackburn everton west ham spurs portsmouth fulham
away we were consistently shit all season
you dont need to be a football genius to see the fixture computer gave sven a large dollop of luck first half of the season

 

[sput the wonder pig]

Ok, we all know looking back is genreally a big "no no" in the UK. Why, I don't know.

If we're in a relegation battle in Feb, MH will be sacked.
The next 4-6 weeks are make or break for "sparky' as some of you call him on here (rag phrase by the way).

In other countries the "second spell" is a usual thing, it only seems to be in the Uk that we are against - why?

For me, we had the best man for the job in Sven, and even more so now we have our new found wealth.

So why discount him just because he's managed us before, its got no real value or weight to rule him out for that reason.

The 8-1 was a stand off between players, out-going manager and owner.
The season as a whole was very successful for his first campaign.

Not so sure we've seen the last of SGE......

8-1
6-0
shit buys and stuffy 1-0 wins first half of season...

he can stay in fuckin mexico for me

 

[mammutly]

There is no disputing that Sven did an excellent job in the first half of his tenure. The results were brilliant and the confidence and momentum in the team was at an all time high. There were great plans to push on with new signings in January and I'm sure that Sven and the players were well motivated and had every reason to feel optimistic.

But then up steps Thaksin Shinawatra and says what?....... There is in fact no money for new signings and you can chuck your plans away. Sven ( naturally) protests and Thaksin in essence says, 'you're gone too if that's your attitude'.

Sven then has to tell the players that all the plans are scrapped. Naturally they ask questions about what he is going to do, to which he replies there is nothing he can do, just try and do the best for the team until the end of the season and then he'll be gone.

The result is that confidence and momentum are lost. Everybody feels let down big style and results relect the general sense of betrayal in the club. This is compounded a few weeks later by Thaksin himself telling the players they are not earning their money.

In reality, Thaksin pulled the plug on the Sven revolution and totally undermined confidence, both in the management and in the players. That's why he season went so dramatically downhill after January.

I would love it, just love it, if Sven came back to this club.

 

[PaleBlue]

I did like Sven, thought he was uber cool. But he let us down last season and when he was given money in January (yes mammutley Thaksin did give him some) he basically wasted it on Benjani & Caicedo. Interesting that the team played it's best football when the players were getting used to each other - once Sven tried to make them play his way it faltered badly. I bear him no ill-will, hard to when he gave us a double over the rags, but I don't want him back. What I want is Hughes to succeed but I'm getting less convinced every time we play that this will happen, big win needed Sunday.

 

[mammutly]

I did like Sven, thought he was uber cool. But he let us down last season and when he was given money in January (yes mammutley Thaksin did give him some) he basically wasted it on Benjani & Caicedo. Interesting that the team played it's best football when the players were getting used to each other - once Sven tried to make them play his way it faltered badly. I bear him no ill-will, hard to when he gave us a double over the rags, but I don't want him back. What I want is Hughes to succeed but I'm getting less convinced every time we play that this will happen, big win needed Sunday.

He was given a lot less money than promised and only at the very last minute

 

[ElanJo]

If Hughes fails to improve the teams fortunes and he is sacked , Sven along with Hiddink(my no.1 choice) and Jose would be my preferred choices.

I doubt Sven will be back, but I would be happy if he did.

 

[Blue Mooner]

Sven isn't coming back imo so there's little point in considering it.

However, what makes me sick is this rewriting of his time here and the ungrateful attitude of many g1ts on here.

If at the start of the season people had been offered 9th they would have snapped his hand off.

If they had been offered 9th and been told that the second half of the season would see the manager and the team operating against a backdrop of a nobhead chairman virtually doing everything in his power to ensure that the playing side was completely unstable, they would have thought it impossible.

The working condition for half of last season were riduclous and an embarrassment, thanks to the chairman.

Show some respect, you ingrates!

I thought Sven did a decent job but the first half was predicated on 1-0 wins and easy home fixtures. This season the roles have been reversed and we have played all of the top 4 at home - if say two of those had been West Brom or Fulham etc we would be six points better off putting us in the top half.

I'm not saying Sven was a disaster because he progressed us in league terms with some good and very bad signings. Its amazing how people look on the Sven reign with rose tinted glasses. It was the same before Benjani was back shouting his name at full volume before he'd made his comeback and now he's playing again we remember his limitations and the chants have died a death.

 

[Disturbance]

I did like Sven, thought he was uber cool. But he let us down last season and when he was given money in January (yes mammutley Thaksin did give him some) he basically wasted it on Benjani & Caicedo. Interesting that the team played it's best football when the players were getting used to each other - once Sven tried to make them play his way it faltered badly.

We got Benjani because we couldn't get anyone else. Sven wasn't given the level of financial backing he initially expected so ended up signing that useless lump on deadline day.

I disagree with your other point, the players were playing to Sven's tactics/formation from day one. He started to get us to play football and effectively banned the players from hoofing it from the back if you remember. Everyone one knows there was trouble behind the scenes from January, it was nothing to do with players suddenly realising they had to play Sven's way and faltering, that doesn't make sense.

I would trust Sven over Hughes to spend £200m in a heartbeat. He won the title with Lazio by spending big and making them winners.

 

[Blue Mooner]

I did like Sven, thought he was uber cool. But he let us down last season and when he was given money in January (yes mammutley Thaksin did give him some) he basically wasted it on Benjani & Caicedo. Interesting that the team played it's best football when the players were getting used to each other - once Sven tried to make them play his way it faltered badly.

We got Benjani because we couldn't get anyone else. Sven wasn't given the level of financial backing he initially expected so ended up signing that useless lump on deadline day.

I disagree with your other point, the players were playing to Sven's tactics/formation from day one. He started to get us to play football and effectively banned the players from hoofing it from the back if you remember. Everyone one knows there was trouble behind the scenes from January, it was nothing to do with players suddenly realising they had to play Sven's way and faltering, that doesn't make sense.

I would trust Sven over Hughes to spend £200m in a heartbeat. He won the title with Lazio by spending big and making them winners.

Every dog has his day and quite frankly Sven has had his day in my opinion. He is not the long term solution we need. Hughes maybe given the chance.

 

[Disturbance]

I thought Sven did a decent job but the first half was predicated on 1-0 wins and easy home fixtures. This season the roles have been reversed and we have played all of the top 4 at home - if say two of those had been West Brom or Fulham etc we would be six points better off putting us in the top half.

If you're going to use that argument then you should consider that under Sven we would be on 27 pts now based on results in the equivalent fixtures last season.

 

[PaleBlue]

If Hughes fails to improve the teams fortunes and he is sacked , Sven along with Hiddink(my no.1 choice) and Jose would be my preferred choices.

I doubt Sven will be back, but I would be happy if he did.

Jose? No chance on earth would he come here, not for a good few years assuming we do have some success in the meantime. He's got a plum job at Inter - looks like we're stuck with MH for now and I hope for his sake and my sanity he gets the breaks soon. I still think with Petrov and Johnson fit and Micah/Dunney in form we'd have been looking a lot better these last few weeks.

 

[Bigga]

Here's a reason why not:

11-05-2008 Middlesbrough Manchester City 8-1
04-05-2008 Liverpool Manchester City 1-0
26-04-2008 Manchester City Fulham 2-3
20-04-2008 Manchester City Portsmouth 3-1
12-04-2008 Sunderland Manchester City 1-2
05-04-2008 Manchester City Chelsea 0-2
29-03-2008 Birmingham City Manchester City 3-1
21-03-2008 Bolton Wanderers Manchester City 0-0
16-03-2008 Manchester City Tottenham Hotspur 2-1
08-03-2008 Reading Manchester City 2-0
01-03-2008 Manchester City Wigan Athletic 0-0
25-02-2008 Manchester City Everton 0-2
10-02-2008 Manchester United Manchester City 1-2
02-02-2008 Manchester City Arsenal 1-3
30-01-2008 Derby County Manchester City 1-1
20-01-2008 Manchester City West Ham 1-1
12-01-2008 Everton Manchester City 1-0
02-01-2008 Newcastle Manchester City 0-2

5 wins in his last 18 games compared to, um, Hughes' record of 5 wins in his last 17 games. Hardly a progressive move.

If you think there's a "real" possibility he may come back you're incredibly naive.

Please remind me what additional funds he had to shore up the team? Oh yeah, he was lied to.

Like we all were.

 

[Bigga]

Every dog has his day and quite frankly Sven has had his day in my opinion. He is not the long term solution we need. Hughes maybe given the chance.

'Had his day'??? With the nutball we had in charge of the club and somehow you think Sven had a cfair crack at the whip?? Fook me, you're a hard task master!

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Sven 'felt fondly'(not fondled!) of City and would like to 'return one day'. Something about 'unfinished business'...

Unless I made that bit up!

 

[Blue Mooner]

I thought Sven did a decent job but the first half was predicated on 1-0 wins and easy home fixtures. This season the roles have been reversed and we have played all of the top 4 at home - if say two of those had been West Brom or Fulham etc we would be six points better off putting us in the top half.

If you're going to use that argument then you should consider that under Sven we would be on 27 pts now based on results in the equivalent fixtures last season.

Not quite sure I follow your logic. I wasn't picking specific games for comparison merely making the point that we have had harder home games the first half of the season vs easier home games the first half of last season.

If you follow that logic through the top four typically only lose 4/5 games at home all season therefore its 'likely' that you will lose these games home or away. However, we are far more likley to win home games than away games so to have the easier home fixtures first half of the season logically means you would get more points in the first half than the second.

What you could do is pick out the games we have played this season and compare them to how we did last season in the correspondng fixtures. The only difficulty with that is the teams that have come up this season are arguably stronger than last season.

 

[Blue Mooner]

Every dog has his day and quite frankly Sven has had his day in my opinion. He is not the long term solution we need. Hughes maybe given the chance.

'Had his day'??? With the nutball we had in charge of the club and somehow you think Sven had a cfair crack at the whip?? Fook me, you're a hard task master!

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Sven 'felt fondly'(not fondled!) of City and would like to 'return one day'. Something about 'unfinished business'...

Unless I made that bit up!

I didn't advocate sacking Sven at the time but based on what was said about his 'part time' attitude to the job I just think that 5 years managing a national side had left him detatched from the rigours of running a day to day club team. I think that is proven by the fact that no other 'club' team picked him up after he left us or maybe Sven recoginised he didn't have the necessary energy and will for the rigours of managing a club side.