The rumours/stories over the past week have not been simply that City are seeking to replace Mancini, but are much more specific; that Soriano and Begiristain have identified Pellegrini as the best man to work as head coach with Begiristain as the director of football so that all coaching at the club would be coordinated. These stories gave the press the double edged weapon they wanted - a blade to undermine the club at a crucial period whilst giving the opportunity to attack the club by defending the record of their target.
Our club's policy is not to comment on rumour and only to make an announcement when there is something to announce. This is an admirable policy, but only 99% of the time, and the 1% when it is a disaster was last week. Our team arrived at Wembley on Saturday afternoon looking as though it had just lost a relegation dogfight and not as though it was about to contest a cup final. Vinnie stormed onto the pitch, hands in pockets, looking sour and angry. Other players looked flat and drained. Mancini looked miserable. The press had done its work well, City were leaden legged and sapped of morale: Roberto was even heavy limbed on the touch line. We didn't play and Wigan won deservedly. I respect the players for stating that they would not blame the rumours about the manager for the defeat, and I'm not going to argue that Wigan owe the cup to them - I applaud Wigan for their success - but our players wouldn't have beaten anyone on Saturday.
By Sunday morning it was done and dusted. Mancini was history, sacked within 48 hours, Pellegrini was even seen at terminal 3 of M'cr airport in the late afternoon, Hansen was explaining why Mancini deserved the sack (unlike his great mate at Liverpool) and the usual crew on here were explaining why Pellegrini, Klopp, Mourinho or, well anyone in fact, would have bettered Mancini's record since Dec 2009. And then Pellegrini turned up at Malaga's match last night, and said he was not the manager of City, he had had no contact with the club, that he had a clause in his contract with Malaga not to talk to anyone and that this was the time of the year for this kind of gossip.
The only other person to speak out is Roberto Mancini and he dismissed the rumours as "rubbish" and criticised the PR department and Vicky in particular. I have to agree with him. I cannot believe the men at our club would be negotiating contracts to replace the manager in the week of a cup final. Failure to quash these rumours has, possibly, cost us the cup - we would at least have pushed a very good Wigan team a bit harder! They have done, and are still doing, our club great harm. I think a statement saying that Roberto has a contract with 4 years to run and the club intends to honour it. If they won't do this they should explain why they are trying to replace him.