Jose Mourinho.

[ConnorMCFC]

to be honest i have doubts about mourinho, great manager, but he seems to cause troble and problems with owners, which is exacly what we dont need

 

[mcfc1996]

I think the point made that taking an average team and making them Champions being a different ball game to taking a good side on the verge of winning things is a valid one. I also think it is a reason why we will not see Mourinho at City in the foreseeable future.

Reading another thread on here we now have a decent enough team only needing the finishing touches of 3/4 quality buys and we will probably spen between 70-100m on squad players and hen some on the top drawer signings if we can attract them. Surely therefore this is the situation tailormade for a Mourinho type manager?

Knowing Mourinho he will probably turn up with 3 games of the season left with us 9 points clear at the top and take the credit.

 

[GStar]

It wasn't about next season it was do you think he can ever win it for us?

No, but it's also unlikely if we fired him now that we'd find another manager capable of doing that. So, if there's a chance that he'll take us to a position where we could then be more attractive to that calibre of manager (i.e. where we look capable of a serious top four challenge at a minimum), then maybe it's worth persevering with him.

I think I have just have a difference of opinion in that I do believe that money makes the world of difference in football and that if you've got it and you've got bucketloads of it why the fuck sit and wait around for years when it might not even happen by trying to prove you have patience rather than go out and try to make it happen asap.

I believe this ten year plan they have talked about is more to do with the infrastructure around the ground and the bigger picture of what they want to build here and isn't about the actual team but more about the surrounding area and what they may want to attain, hotels, casinos, restaurants etc...Garry Cook spoke about wanting fans to come to City games for a few hours before and a few hours after games in the future and to have all types of entertainment for all types of fans. Well I think to acheive that we need to be successful as quickly as possible. New tiers on the ground will only appear if we can sell out games and that comes by having top drawer players which leads to success which leads to deciding to put up new tiers to bring in more fans to be entertained in restaurants, casinos, hotels etc...So yes I think there's a bigger ten year plan in the background concerning the wealth and running of the club and what it can offer but that is based on how quickly the team can become succesful an attract that whole business.

I think, in assessing our club there you've only looked at half of the equation.

The 10 year plan will be about building the image of our club, the academy, the scouting network, the squad the first XI, our contacts around the football world... Teams have tried to "buy success" in many leagues in many countries and have more often than not, fallen flat on thier faces and ended up in much worse positions than they began.

Chelsea have done it the quickest going from border line CL to title challengers in around 3/4 seasons... Not one season as some of us are expecting. Hughes is planning big, he's planning sustainable and he's planning the culture of our club to be one of the very best, or so it would appear.

If we sack Hughes for Mourinho and he doesn't get CL football next season (lets face it, we're a long way of the top 4 atm) then where do we go? Everyone is falling back on the "if's and but's" of Mourinho, but what happens when he comes into a club thats had to transition twice in two seasons, has gone from relegation to European contenders in two seasons, has a newly built shaky foundation from which to build on... Hardly the Porto he spent seasons building, the Chelsea that was built by Raneri or the Inter which was already completed when he got there.

If we weren't to get top 4 under Mourinho surely for everyone saying how much more he could bring than Hughes would ahve to stand up, admit they were wwrong, and for consistency to run straigh, ask for his head.

Then what? We've just sacked one of the biggest names in football, had four managers in four seasons, each taken us forward in some way but each have been seen as a failure... we're a merry go round club, a laughing stock and "typical City".

There's no reason Hughes can't take us into the top 4 and eventually challenge for the title, we're at the end of one of our longest seasons in recent history, our biggest transitional season in history and yet we're palying some of our most consistent football this season... surely that should tell you something; that we're finally starting to gel, finally starting to come around to the culture that this club will have going forward, coming round to the managers hard line, his autocratic stance in taking everybody kicking and screaming into the right direction until the club culture is instilled within them and the management style (or like Ferguson) may not change.

I think Hughes is a stubbourn **** and he needs to address a few of his techniques but i'd be more than happy to see him in the dugout at the begining of the season, European football and challenging for honours will bring the biggest name players, saying Mourinho will attract players Hughes can't would be true if we were a lower mid table nothing club... where the managers name, as opposed to the prestige of playing for the club has to come into play.

 

[Blue2112]

It wasn't about next season it was do you think he can ever win it for us?

No, but it's also unlikely if we fired him now that we'd find another manager capable of doing that. So, if there's a chance that he'll take us to a position where we could then be more attractive to that calibre of manager (i.e. where we look capable of a serious top four challenge at a minimum), then maybe it's worth persevering with him.

I think I have just have a difference of opinion in that I do believe that money makes the world of difference in football and that if you've got it and you've got bucketloads of it why the fuck sit and wait around for years when it might not even happen by trying to prove you have patience rather than go out and try to make it happen asap.

There's no doubt it CAN help although Arsenal's net transfer spend is virtually nothing. But if you speak to anyone in the game they will tell you that there are no short cuts no matter how much money you have. Spurs have spent £250m gross over the last four seasons and it hasn't helped them much. Newcastle have spent £100m in the same time and are going into the Championship.

We've got two jobs to do. The first is to get to the fringe of the top 4 and prove ourselves genuine contenders to prospective players. Then we can buy the players that will help establish us in the top 4. We can't just go to stage 2 straightaway. Hughes can certainly get us the first objective and then, perhaps, we need someone else. But the risk is that if a new manager doesn't have Premiership experience then all the good work could be undone. So Mourinho is one of the few that we know could do it. Wenger is the other. Giving the job to someone like Mancini could blow up in our faces spectacularly.

I understand what you're saying but to be fair Spurs and Newastle have bought over-rated expensive shite, if we're already targetting the Kaka's and failing then I'm presuming we're going to do two things, either get somebody in who can attract them or go for the next step down, players like Henry, Eto, Ribery etc...Players that on paper should make us a top four and realistically challenging for a title. We keep hearing there's going to be surprises well then I don't expect it to be Peter Crouch or RSC (although that would fucking surprise me) and I'm thinking of a higher standard.

I don't buy the we cant go straight to stage 2 philosophy, we'll have to agree to disagree on that one and in any case I actually think that we're well on the way to being a top 6 team and already are an established top 10 side and have been there or thereabouts for the last two seasons and only the Thaskin affair and then the takeover have disrupted that a little. I don't see the gap betwen us and Arsenal that ununapproachable and given the money available should be relatively easy to bridge. That puts us in the top 4 bracket and within another 12 months we should be able to catch up with the other three clubs.

 

[Bluemoon115]

Mourinho is the wrong choice. He gets bored with jobs and has left every club he has managed in dissaray.

 

[OB1]

Mourinho is the wrong choice. He gets bored with jobs and has left every club he has managed in dissaray.

That would be why Porto keep winning their league and Chelsea went within a penalty kick of winning the Champions League...

 

[hgblue]

Mourinho is the wrong choice. He gets bored with jobs and has left every club he has managed in dissaray.

That would be why Porto keep winning their league and Chelsea went within a penalty kick of winning the Champions League...

He can leave us in that much disarray if he wants. After winning a couple of titles and the Champions League of course!

 

[Rammy Blue]

Mourinho is the right choice. He gets bored with jobs and has left every club he has managed having won trophies.

edited.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I understand what you're saying but to be fair Spurs and Newastle have bought over-rated expensive shite, if we're already targetting the Kaka's and failing then I'm presuming we're going to do two things, either get somebody in who can attract them or go for the next step down, players like Henry, Eto, Ribery etc...Players that on paper should make us a top four and realistically challenging for a title. We keep hearing there's going to be surprises well then I don't expect it to be Peter Crouch or RSC (although that would fucking surprise me) and I'm thinking of a higher standard.

I don't buy the we cant go straight to stage 2 philosophy, we'll have to agree to disagree on that one and in any case I actually think that we're well on the way to being a top 6 team and already are an established top 10 side and have been there or thereabouts for the last two seasons and only the Thaskin affair and then the takeover have disrupted that a little. I don't see the gap betwen us and Arsenal that ununapproachable and given the money available should be relatively easy to bridge. That puts us in the top 4 bracket and within another 12 months we should be able to catch up with the other three clubs.

Again, talk to people in the game (and I did recently) and they will tell you that the top players, the ones that will win us the league and European trophies, will not come for money alone. What motivates them is winning things. No matter who the manager is, unless we can prove we can win the big trophies they will not come. This is why we have to do the 2 stage process whether we like it or not.

I don't disagree with you that it might be better at the stage when we can think about attracting the top players to have a more charismatic manager however.

 

[moomba]

Apart from Hughes saying so is there anything to suggest that he's some kind of extraordinary club builder?

Blackburn now are in worse shape than when Souness left, and while he did well with them I'm struggling to see the lasting legacy of Hughes time there. Don't recall a load of kids coming through the ranks, and I don't think that they're any better placed for sustained success as a result of his time there.