Under Mancini the 2nd leg in one of his first games in charge not Hughes... I always felt if Mancini was hired a little later after that game we'd have beat the rags in the 2nd leg.
Not because Hughes was a great manager far from from it Mancini was an instant upgrade, the problem was Mancini picked Boyata on a whim in that 2nd leg based on seeing him in a single training session, not for one moment had Boyata played at right back for the youth team, Mancini saw him in training and wrongly decided to put him in like a deer in the headlights.
Boyata was for me the main reason we lost that Semi Final 2nd leg against the rags so easily got at, Micah and Zab were injured some might say but we had Kieran Trippier available and Trippier being a boyhood blue was champing at the bit, he would've been up for it against the rags he had a knack of having top games against them in the youths, Mancini bizarrely kept overlooking him in his first month in favour of one of someone he liked from training.
Boyata was terrible it's still bizarre that he got game time for us, along with Abdi Ibrahim and Abdul Razak later on too, anyone who regularly watched the youths back then can't tell me the latter two weren't in the top 5 worst youths at our club. That League cup 2nd leg totally miffed me I've no idea how Boyata the 4 choice youth centre back and 3rd choice DM in the youths, instantly broke in at right back ahead of both Trippier (despite never appearing for the academy there) or ahead of Ben Mee too when he played centrally.
Both were streets ahead back then and still are Boyata has actually done well for himself since, at City though others were clearly better he was never at any point good enough while here, despite some fans strangely liking him he was a total liability and never looked like be becoming a top player.
