Never has a manager been blessed with such luck as Mancini, owners who handed him any player he desired, a blank cheque book to which every manager in world football must have cast an envious eye over.
Never as fans have we had a gold-plated carrot dangled in front of us with the promise of a return of the glory days, to winning trophies and being the dominant force in Manchester once again after too many years of absolutely nothing.
Yet, never have we been so bored, so frustrated, so baffled by a man who seems hell bent on undermining the collective aspirations of the owners we have been blessed with. Owners whose generosity is the envy of world football.
For the first time I am categorically willing Mancini to either resign or to be sacked before our season descends into unfulfilled potential and disappointment. If the current situation is allowed to continue then we will not finish in the top 4. This season’s results have been poor on the whole and many of our wins have been unconvincing scraped wins with a huge dose of help from referees apart from maybe 2-3 games. The overall trend has not changed one bit since he came to our club, a trend of dull lifeless football and sporadic unconvincing wins. Three home games on the bounce ZERO goals scored. Seven home games 7 goals scored. Thirteen games played 15 goals scored. Successful teams score goals, it’s the fundamental principle which underpins all the best teams.
After the dross on Wednesday we wanted renewed belief, a lift, a performance which gave us renewed belief that Mancini is the right man, and the opportunity was there against a woeful Birmingham side that had amassed a paltry 3 points from 6 away games and sat in the relegation zone.
Instead, Mancini sent out the same sterile negative minded team, a sterile tactically overloaded lifeless machine, devoid of ideas, invention and flair. Playing 2 out and out holding midfielders and 1 striker. This against a team which was always going to play a defensive system. Our shape again was unbalanced, disjointed and the play fragmented, slow and very easy for a poor Birmingham side to negate. Then the substitutions, baffling, unconstructive and once again not conducive to breaking down mediocre opposition.
If you bring RSC on his strength is in the air. Ok, have Johnson on the left, Milner on the right, get crosses in but Mancini for what ever reason didn’t complete the tactical solution, therefore RSC was pointless. Barry for Tevez. Nothing needs to be said that every City fan wasn’t thinking at the time. Zabs for Kolarov, I love Zabs but this was designed to shut up shop, keep the point we gained against a team which had not 1 meaningful chance on our goal. Kolarov was at least lively down the left and for me the only positive from today.
Once again our attacks were sporadic; once again the 11 players played as individuals and once again we flung crosses into the box when no one was there. A sulking Tevez, a confused and isolated Silva, a disinterested Yaya, ineffective Milner all trying to affect the game on their own.
Mancini lovers what is your excuse now? In the face of overwhelming evidence on the pitch how do you justify in keeping this man now? Which excuses will you wheel out this time? They are fast running out. We have our near strongest team so no excuses there. Don’t try the ‘well we missed Balotelli’ argument; you can’t miss a player who has hardly played for us. Simply there are no excuses, Mancini has tried them all and has none left. One illogical and fractious argument on here on wed was that we don’t lose against the teams at the top then beat the poorer teams. Let's look at that, Sunderland LOST, Blackburn DREW, Wolves LOST, Birmingham DREW, WBA cup – LOST, Blackpool deserved to lose yet scraped a win, Newcastle deserved only a draw but scraped a win.
Believe me, changing managers is the LAST thing I wanted but let’s not kid ourselves, we are 4th because this is a poor league. The scum again drop points and yet we can’t take advantage. We can’t step up to the plate and push on. We are grimly holding on, meanwhile the gap closes, Chelsea run out of sight and we will be overtaken by Christmas by Spurs or Everton or Liverpool. Mancini's huge aspirations of finishing 4th are looking optimistic to say the least.
I will use an analogy which sums up those who are still fooled by this man. It reminds me of a man whose wife is having an affair. He knows she is deep down, the evidence is there yet he refuses to believe it, blindly kidding himself that she isn’t. She stays out late, hides her mobile phone, wears lingerie she didn’t used to, smells of aftershave he doesn’t wear, yet always has an excuse and the man blindly stays with her despite the evidence. He refuses to see reality or is too stupid.
Mancini has played his cards for nearly a year; they have consistently come up as duds. Gold plated cards with promises of success, when turned over on the table reveal only the hand of a loser. Harsh? No. Reality? Yes.
Managers can be forgiven for producing dross sides if he only has dross players to choose from [Pearce take a bow], what is unforgivable is a manager who produces a dross side consisting of genuine International-class players.
Mancini may be a nice man, frankly that’s irrelevant. I wish his father strong health. I wish Mancini success in whatever he does elsewhere; I simply want him and his backroom staff to go. I found it uncomfortable on about 88 minutes when I looked at Mancini on the bench, head in hands, looking bewildered and anxious almost broken. I really don’t wish that on him, on anyone. So, let someone else show us that these players really can play, really can win games and really can make us look forward to games once again. If the job is too much then he should just walk away.
It was suggested 3 weeks ago that Mancini would be out by the Fulham away game, that was the word from inside the dressing room. My fingers are crossed. Sorry Mancini, nice guy you may be but you have only yourself to blame if this happens, and that’s the saddest part of all.
