Sheikh Mansour went to Spain

[citytilllidie]

Pellegrini gets a raw deal on here as far as I'm concerned. Why is that? Was he just not a likeable fella? Do people think he piggybacked on mancios success?

I think his first season was breathtaking. His ultimate demise, I think, was being overly loyal to players that stopped doing it and Pep, obviously.

Got us to a champions league semi final where a Gareth Bale fluke knocked us out.

A good manager, and a decent man. What say you?

Top manager.
The players took the piss out of him in the end. Lazy twats, YaYa, Bony, Nasri, Sergio, Kolarov.
Resting on their laurels, and no real effort at the end. Milner alluded to it when he left.
Pep, doesn't have that problem, as his aggressive, 'up for every game' attitude is infectious and he will not suffer fools or lack of effort. They'd be out quicker than you can say Tapas!

 

[bluemc]

I'd take a league title, two league cups, and a CL semi-final over An FA cup, league title, community shield, and dropping out of the group stages every year. He improved the team, but unfortunately was left with an aging squad and announced his departure too soon. He took us forward in every measure. He turned a team that lost the league to the rags, and lost the FA Cup to Wigan, into a double-winning team within one year. Hard to argue with the facts.

In which case you could argue that he took a team that he won a double with, and within two years barely clung onto a place in the top four? We also lost an FA Cup quarter final to Wigan, at home, in Pellegrini's first season.

I'd also argue that he "took us forward in every measure". It's my opinion that the men before and after Pellegrini did this. Mancini's reign obviously ended on a sour note within the club and Pellegrini did his bit to steady the ship, maintain our top 4 position domestically (just about) and take us forwards in Europe. But what a missed opportunity that semi final against Madrid was, there's no shame in losing, but at least go down fighting. In that game, I think the team really did reflect the manager at that point.

His first season in charge, and some of the football played, was fantastic. Possibly the best in my lifetime, until this season. But after that it was downhill quickly, and even with the viewpoint that some of the players got lazy, who has the responsibility of either motivating them or shipping them out?

Pellegrini was clearly a good man who always conducted himself like a true gentleman. He bridged the gap between managers nicely. His trophy count speaks for itself. But I think his legacy will suffer because he's a B+ manager and his stint was sandwiched between two legends. One who dragged us out of the gutter and elevated us, regardless of how things ended. Then the other side, the man we have now, who I firmly believe will become a true great of our club.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

Same calibre as Mancini. Both good managers, but not the real quality we needed to push on. Both had their faults.

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

I'd take a league title, two league cups, and a CL semi-final over An FA cup, league title, community shield, and dropping out of the group stages every year. He improved the team, but unfortunately was left with an aging squad and announced his departure too soon. He took us forward in every measure. He turned a team that lost the league to the rags, and lost the FA Cup to Wigan, into a double-winning team within one year. Hard to argue with the facts.

agreed on the departure announcement. We were 3 points behind Leicester and unbeaten in 7 heading into the game against them at our place having just beaten Sunderland where Pelle had made his announcement. In the final 14 games we W5 D4 L5, taking just 19 points from 42 and finishing 15 behind Leicester who took 31/42. We'd been 7 points clear of the Rags who only took 26/42 and still finished level with us. We should have won the league that year, but the players couldn't be bothered once that was announced and Leicester wanted it more. Had we been as professional as we are now, we would have beaten Leicester fairly comfortably in the end, we've already matched their points total for that season and they managed to drop nearly a point per game in the run-in and still win the league by 10 points, it was a truly dreadful and shameful run-in by the club despite the CL semi.

 

[Richard]

Was an absolute gentleman, but I've still not forgiven him for playing James Milner and Fernando as a central midfield pairing against Barcelona.

 

[Marvin]

Was an absolute gentleman, but I've still not forgiven him for playing James Milner and Fernando as a central midfield pairing against Barcelona.

That Barcelona side had Suarez, Messi and Neymar in their prime. Almost every coach in football, including Klopp would set up defensively against Real madrid and Barcelona. I forget the details but I can recall a very strong Bayern team under Guardiola trying to attack Real Madrid and Barcelona in the CL semis and getting destroyed amid much recrimination - or media criticism.

When Guardiola came to City, some elements in the media said Guardiola had failed at Bayern because of his Champions League results

 

[Richard]

That Barcelona side had Suarez, Messi and Neymar in their prime. Almost every coach in football, including Klopp would set up defensively against Real madrid and Barcelona. I forget the details but I can recall a very strong Bayern team under Guardiola trying to attack Real Madrid and Barcelona in the CL semis and getting destroyed amid much recrimination

No issue with us setting up defensively in that game, but we played 4-4-2 with Milner and Fernando as the pairing. As predicted, they got bypassed every single time...

 

[Marvin]

No issue with us setting up defensively in that game, but we played 4-4-2 with Milner and Fernando as the pairing. Baffling.

I don't remember. I had to look up the line up. Silva and Nasri played and fernandinho came on as a sub. Fernandinho sounds like the more natural starter but maybe he was not 100%?

 

[Tricky Dickys Right Foot Shot]

Demichelis wasn't a bad signing. Sometimes short-term solutions are necessary. Sagna wasn't a bad signing either.

I don't remember all the precise circumstances but FFP meant we had to be make some signings for low fees.

IIRC Demichelis had about a 3 month period of being decent, it was around the time Kompany got injured or sent off (I forget) against Wolves I think it was..... apart from that he was just slow physically and mentality, not his fault as he was well into the end of his career.

Demichelis wouldn't hane been signed had Nastatic, Savic and Boateng hadn't struggled as much as they did.

In fact when you look back our defending purchases have been shocking the last 5 years..... hopefully Guardiola has resolved that issue now with stones and Laporte.

 

[eversince 76]

I can understand why most favoured Mancini over Pellegrini. However Pellegrini got a lot of undeserved stick during his last year while he had to cope with the restictions due to FFPR, an injured Kompany, an aging squad and a goalkeeper (Hart) already sliding down the hill. Many blame him for Bony, but I clearly remember the enthousiasm on here when the player was actually brought in with a good reputation and very much needed at that moment of time. Pellegrini couldn't help Bony hardly getting off a start at all due to sickness and injury he hardly had ever before. Never got in to it afterwards and sold as a complete failure/ Than again, we can all mention at least 20 misfits from that point of view.
It was clear to everyone including Pellegrini, he was a stopgap for Pep to arrive. And even Pep has had his difficulties last year when results weren't that much better than Pellegrini in his last season with us. Easy to forget when the team has been playing some breathtaking football.
Like Mancini Pellegrini was decent in his own way, respectfull to the club and players and he brought silverware, including a title with some fantastic football up until the moment Negredo got injured and was scoring goals for fun.