Re: Mancini out?
Well for starers, Mancini doesn't buy the players. He was quite vocal about that last Summer when he was complaining about not getting the players he wanted because the person who was in charge of buying the players at the time wasn't landing the players he wanted.
The reason why Roberto Martinez didn't take the Liverpool job was because they are a club who don't let the manager control things and he wouldn't like that, and the reason Jose Mourinho got sacked by Chelsea is because they are a club who don't let the manager control things and he was kicking up a fuss. City are one of those clubs.
I've said for ages that we aren't as good as many people think we are across our squad. Yes we have some very good players, yes we've won the FA Cup and Premier League but maybe it was Mancini getting greater performances and results out of them that was a big part in getting us there. United had a better all round squad than us last season, the deeper into their squad you the better they were than us, yet we won the league.
I look around the top sides in Europe and see they all have a lot better players than we do. Which players in our team would get in a world XI? None? Kompany? None? We aren't as good as many think we are. We have a lot of players in our squad that were bought for, firstly, taking us from an average mid-table Prem team to a team that could challenge to get into the top four. In fact, most of our squad is of that level for me. We haven't had the time to evolve our squad past that level enough yet. We then have a few players who are a level above that but that's all, no more than that.
Mancini was very unhappy last Summer, he was holding his anger back in press conferences when asked certain questions. He wanted to increase the number of those type of players at City yet the people in charge of transfers were not landing these players. I'm sure he envisaged what is happening now due to that and low and behold, it's happening. We have the second best squad in the Prem because we didn't improve on it and we're second in the Prem. Is that a surprise? Not for me. We are exactly where our quality says we should be. And going back to the Champions League; Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund are miles better than us, they're a level above what we are. I have no real complaints about that, apart from not beating Ajax at home.
That being said, I don't think he's using the squad he's got to its full capabilities. I think all of Silva Nasri and Milner are much better players when they are central. Yet none of them are playing in the centre of late. We severely lack creativity in our squad and when these players are wider they aren't as effective at being creative (I wouldn't even really call Milner a creator). I also think he should be using Sinclair more to add something different like Adam Johnson did for us when he came on as a substitute. Johnson wasn't good enough for a title challenging team but he did have an impact in certain games off the bench with goals and assists from time to time and we've had none of that this season.
Some of his substitutions are strange. I didn't mind him leaving no centre halves on yesterday. That wasn't a problem for me as he didn't revert to a 0-6-4 formation; he did actually have three players capable of doing a job there, playing there. Plus taking off a striker and bringing on Kolarov at Wigan gave us width and spread the Wigan defence across the pitch, creating gaps where Wigan were keeping it narrow beforehand, which allowed us to have opportunities at goal and we scored two. But bringing Lescott on up front at Sunderland? I'll never understand that one. And taking creative players off (we only have two in the whole squad as it is!) [Silva, Nasri] at any time we aren't winning is not the right thing to do, ever. And not playing Mario as a central striker for the most part of his career with us - whether he was absolutely shit sometimes or played with absolutely no effort sometimes, or not - was a waste of what could have been a very dangerous player, too often.
We won't be retaining our title this season. But neither will Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Zenit St Petersburg, Montpellier; and other champions may very well not in Ajax, Juventus and Porto whose titles are all under threat. So we are not alone. Over the last few years many teams have not retained their title after winning it the season before. It's happened to the best team on the planet over the last seven years - Barça - three times.
I would like Mancini to have another chance to see if he can rectify some of his mistakes and see if we can land some of the players he wants to push us forward and see what he can do with them. I think he deserves that chance, regardless of his flaws and mistakes. I also think Sheikh Mansour would allow him that too. But it might not be Sheikh Mansour's decision as he may leave and trust the decisions to be made by Khaldoon and Soriano.
The thing is, if they do see it time for Mancini to go, who do we get? Barça hate Mourinho. They think he brings disgrace to La Liga and not for one second will Soriano and Begiristain think any different about him here at City. I feel the same thing towards him. For me you can't do the things he's done and be loved. I wouldn't welcome him and I wouldn't be happy if he was our manager because I don't want our players to turn into cünts. I'd hate to see Silva and Agüero diving all over the shop; I'd hate to see Zabaleta and Milner pretending to be injured when there not; I'd hate to see Kompany running after the ref and encouraging the rest of the players to surround and hound the officials when they give a decision against us; I'd hate to see our captain and great man Kompany start to volley people in the head or rake his studs down players' backs on the instructions of that wanker as a manager; and I'd hate it if Mourinho walked up to Michael Laudrup and poked him in the eye and then stand there pretending he didn't do it - or, you know, something to that effect or that level of cowardice. I just don't want that at City whether it brings trophies or not.
Over the years many many managers have shown you don't have to be a cünt and you don't have to pull cünt's tricks to be successful. And I'm certain there are managers out there now who can portray class with success too. I simply don't want Mounrinho.
As for Mancini, well, we'll see in the coming six months. I do believe he deserves another shot at it and I do think he will get it. But you never know. And if not, I really really hope we bring the right person in.
