Results are poor, performances have become poorer recently. The manager's primary responsibility is to deliver results and performances in the short, medium and long term. It's only natural that as we are dissatisfied and looking for a way to turn things around, MH is subject to pretty severe criticism.
Personally, I welcomed his appointment. It seemed that he brought a talented team and a professional and committed approach. My initial concern was that he would find it difficult to translate the approach used at blackburn to our pool of players. That is still the major concern. Personally I think it reflects very poorly on some of our players that they do not appear to reach the standards required by the management team. Let us not forget that 20+ of the players in our squad are the same as last year, and most of them still display the same lack of courage and concentration that was responsible for us being a soft touch last year, and has cost us dear this season. I am also bitterly disappointed with Elano for his arrogance in assuming he should start every game, and the way he chose to express that. That Robinho appears to have been drawn into this is the most disheartening development of all. Steve Claridge summed up the situation nicely last night, when he said that certain players had far to much to say for themselves, that certain players went off the radar when we didn't have the ball, but that whilst results were poor MH would be well advised to go with the flow, and that he would not be able to impose himself on the dressing room until things got better.
Which brings us to MH's personal style. Ferguson, Clough, Shankly, all were/are autocratic charectors who used fear as an integral part of their management, but it is also true that they were very human, that players could relate to what drove them to be so harsh, and that they had a charisma of a sort. The two must work hand in hand. People do not relate to 'professionalism', they relate to courage, ambition, humour, realism. Has MH lost sight of this, perhaps he has been unable to show the required 'weakness' whilst results have been poor and his position has suffered?
The weakness of his position is exaggerated by the perception that the new owners could attract their choice of manager. Whilst this is debatable at length, the perception IS there.
If we look at the squad, the vast majority were not signed by MH, some will still feel alliegance to Sven, many will be extremely insecure in their futures at the club. In other words, few of them have any personal alliegance with MH. This situation may have been made worse by what may be callled the 'high-handed' approach MH used when he came to the club. David pleat pointed out that upon joining clubs, managers had to accept that every member of the squad and the staff were 'in it together'. Singling out or ostracising players is a poor strategy because it makes others in the squad think 'if he'll do that to X, what will he do to me?'. In other words, it breeds mistrust, and discourages individuals from allowing themselves become comitted to the manager's methods and ideas. Having said that, it appears to me that our squad was fractured and disfunctional when MH took over, he had ample reason to think that several players had to go immediately. Last years debacle with Sven only increased the questions over how committed some players could be to a new regime, and as if that were not enough, the new ownership has thrown the future of many players into doubt. Sulaiman's boastful promises of a dream team, and the signing of robinho being instigated without the managers say-so, must have unsettled young and established players equally, and compromised the managers percieved authority with regard to players joining, and leaving the club. This multiplies the difficulties in a situation where the obvious truth is that many players in the team and squad do not have a realistic future at the club, and have little to gain by allying themselves to the managerial team, and may indeed simply feel insecure and a bit depressed.
Perhaps more significant though is the situation with regards to Robinho. City need him, need his image, need his goals, need him to attract other good players. The fact that his 'best friend' may be held to exemplify the lack of professionalism and commitment that is the key problem at our club is a very troubling situation. Separating Elano and Robinho may indeed be the only option open to MH. Elano publicly attempted to undermine MH's authority by publicly saying that he owed it to 'the fans and the chairman' to express his unhappiness at not playing.
So, my conclusion is that MH's job is in fact most unenviable. We have no recent memory of success, or even a consistent approach, on which to match the ever increasing expectations of the fan base and media. He has been undermined in many ways from many different quarters, and with the recent run of poor results and league position, has lost the key elements to maintaining his authority.
This is a fearful situation. A new management team may indeed patch up some of the divisions within the squad, but some of factors leading to these problems go far outside of this. MH is young enough to learn from what has happened over the last few months, and his coaches are very highly regarded. In the medium term, this management team is a good bet.
As such, yhe best we can hope for is that the team wins enough points over christmas to remove the pressure, and that the squad is overhauled in the window, not only because it is obviously deficient in several areas, but because any new players will be naturally more secure in their futures, and committed to the people that brought them here. Even if Kaka and VIlla don't sign, we will be improved in many ways in the new year.
The worst scenario for me is that results go from bad to worse and that MH's position is fatally undermined before the end of the season. All of the managers likely to be available at that time come with question marks over experience (especially with regards to the premier league), or pedigree. Whilst they would benifit from not being associated with this difficult period, they would still face the same problems associated with trying to get a consistent level of performance from players who have not managed to do so in recent memory.
The major concern is that the political situation at the club could lead to players ruling the roost and undermining any manager when it suits them. This is exactly why money does not guarentee success, why Ferguson, Mourinho, Wegner, Benitez all rule their clubs autocratically with nearly total authority, why Inter Milan were hopless for years, why Real are always so disappointing. If MH goes too soon, this may be the path that our club is taking.
And whilst I too would welcome mourinho, is it not precisely this lack of control over transfers and player matters that led him to leave chelsea?
