Manuel Pellegrini

[DontLookBackInAnger]

Being a complete bunch of spineless cowards would be another way of putting it.

Its the funny thing about football, this isn't an attack on you personally, but fans often look at things so one dimensionally... Take Sven's 1-0 victory against united when Geovanni scored. If you ask me I will remember how well we defended, Richards was huge that day(might have been his best game for the club) the team as a whole really stuck to the task well. However, if you ask a united supporter I bet they would spend their time talking about how crap they where that day.

The thing is, there are two teams playing every game, sometimes the other side executes better, for some reason you don't match up well to a specific team and their style, or sometimes you just run out of ideas playing a team. Then some other times its just luck, look at our games against Chelsea over the last 12 months we lose the final to them 1-0 and they are the best team in Europe, we play them in the league score a deflected goal and win 1-0 we are great Chelsea have all the problems, the truth is right now we are pretty evenly matched, the gap can be a deflected shot and missed penalty.

That Madrid team was one of the best in the world at the time, it wasn't Halifax. Should we have performed better over two legs, I would have hoped to do so and overall both ties ended up being dull and disappointing, but that's football if every game went to form and was played on paper it would be dreadfully boring.

 

[dad1971]

We played some really good football under Pellegrini, but after a while he seemed to run out of ideas and only scraped through into the Champs League in his last season if I remember rightly. Which resulted in most fans doing one out the ground when he addressed the crowd after our final home game, as it looked like we’d blown Champs League football with one game to go I think

No way is he above Mancini for me!

The reason people left the ground before he came out to address the crowd was because it was like over 30 mins after the final whistle and he still hadn’t come out. People drifted away. It was a fuck up buy City he should have come out right away.

 

[chaddblue]

under Pellers we could blow any team away, but especially in his last season there were some really poor performances and bad defeats

the team was in serious decline and it was the right time for him to go. It took pep a season to sort out the mess he took over

having said that the charming man will always have the utmost respect of most blues and will always be given a great welcome whenever he comes back to city

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

I definitely wouldn’t go as far as spineless cowards. That said, I lost patience with him in the Real Madrid semi final. We went to Madrid defending at 1-0 defeat like our lives depended on it. It was an awful watch. It only made sense if the plan was to keep it tight for 75 minutes then have a go for 15. We stoutly defended our 1-0 home defeat for 90 minutes. Their keeper probably kept abreast of all his social media accounts whilst we refused to leave our own half.

I’d just say I couldn’t work out what his plan was.

We drew 0-0 at home. Went behind after 20 mins away.

Last 20 mins were dreadful. We needed one goal. We played like we were through.

Having said that we did have Sagna, Fernando and Navas playing !!

 

[Father Paul]

I definitely wouldn’t go as far as spineless cowards. That said, I lost patience with him in the Real Madrid semi final. We went to Madrid defending at 1-0 defeat like our lives depended on it. It was an awful watch. It only made sense if the plan was to keep it tight for 75 minutes then have a go for 15. We stoutly defended our 1-0 home defeat for 90 minutes. Their keeper probably kept abreast of all his social media accounts whilst we refused to leave our own half.

I’d just say I couldn’t work out what his plan was.

I might be wrong Father Paul is getting as dosy as China Joe but I though we drew the first leg in Manchester? I think we could have been a bit more aggressive in Madrid but that side had some limitations. For starters I think David was out injured.

 

[BamberBridgeBlue]

I might be wrong Father Paul is getting as dosy as China Joe but I though we drew the first leg in Manchester? I think we could have been a bit more aggressive in Madrid but that side had some limitations. For starters I think David was out injured.

Yeah, already been called out. I was on the vodka and cokes to be fair to me though. Point remains, we were turgid in the last 15 minutes.

 

[WNRH]

The 13/14 title winning season was nothing to do with him.

Players like Silva, Aguero, Yaya, Nasri and Kompany in their prime who had been given a new lease of life and atmosphere after a fractured last season under Mancini.

Never felt so placid before and after games. Gentleman is ok for politics, but you want a bit of fire in football and he was about as fire as Antarctica.

We all know he was a stop gap for Pep but it’s a good job we got him in the end as if we didn’t, then those last two years under the gentleman would have damaged us for the next few years as we were only heading one way.

 

[Citizen Green]

Great first season, then steadily got worse to a point where we looked a lazy shell of the team from his first season, only confirming 4th place on the final day of the season. Likes of Fernando, Magala & Bony being signed for big money on his watch didn't help him either.

 

[unicorn]

I liked him a lot, great dignity in that last year when it was obvious Pep was coming.

On my death bed I'll tell you that the 5-1 at Spurs in the 2014 title season was the best football I've ever seen, and with Negredo firing we were a wonderful sight.

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

I definitely wouldn’t go as far as spineless cowards. That said, I lost patience with him in the Real Madrid semi final. We went to Madrid defending at 1-0 defeat like our lives depended on it. It was an awful watch. It only made sense if the plan was to keep it tight for 75 minutes then have a go for 15. We stoutly defended our 1-0 home defeat for 90 minutes. Their keeper probably kept abreast of all his social media accounts whilst we refused to leave our own half.

I’d just say I couldn’t work out what his plan was.

I watched the second leg in the press conference room at the CFA. A friend of mine used to work for the club and every now and again I got invited to the odd staff/VIP friends and family thing like this.

City played the match on a big projector and we got to sit in the comfy armchairs usually reserved for the likes of Miguel Delaney. There was a free bar and food on offer - for those who haven't been to the CFA there's basically a big atrium downstairs where the staff canteen is.

Before they showed the match some sports science guy gave a long spiel about how every player has his own bespoke fitness and nutrition plan, right down to the post-match protein shakes being a different recipe for every player tailored to their needs to make sure they're all in absolute peak fitness etc.

Then there was that match where it looked like they'd all been for 10 pints and a fryup in Wetherspoons before the game.

And as I had to be on my best behaviour I couldn't even scream at the big projector screen what I actually thought of the players and the manager that day.

In the grand scheme of things I know it was a champions league semi final and a decade or two ago we wouldn't even be dreaming of being in that match, but given the standard of squad we had and the potential we chucked in the bin, it was a dark day for sure.

Same with the Chelsea final last year. The manager and the team just bottled it at the 11th hour.