I am not happy to say this and am surprised I'm having to admit this but I was obviously wrong in many assumptions I made and points I have stressed previously in support of Roberto Mancini.
I stand by the fact he is a genuinely decent and fair minded manager who has ability in certain aspects of 'big player' man management, however he has as far as I'm concerned used the same excuses once too often.
He has also failed completely to adapt his Italian style and mentality into the Premier league, failing to realise that scoring goals far outweighs the failing to concede aspect and that when you are only one goal up in the Premiership, you are always on the edge of a precipice.
He has allowed his negativity to staunch the free flowing footbal we have seen glimpses of and we now, almost every game control possession, but from our own back four.
Silva, Tevez, Johnson and dzeko are all very adept, clever and classy players, who if given a speedy service, rag like, will run riot together, but with the defensive minded and pedestrian build up we are now used to every week, teams must be sighing in relief as we break so slowly they never have to break a sweat to regain their defensive ranks when being disspossessed in our half.
The style of footbal we are seeing may well work a treat in Italy, but it doesn't get a good enough return for any team playing so conservatively to gain enough momentum to be challenging for top spot.
The lunacy in taking such a massive gamble on Balotelli when Dzeko was available is bewildering and almost points to Roberto trying to demonstrate with his continued support of him, and that he was right all along in showing Balo such faith. I don't doubt he has some magicaal ability somewhere, but his inconsistency does not fit in with any team wanting long term success and stability at the top.
The gamble was absolutely unneccesary and ultimately cost us any real chance we had in the Europa league. It was a very bad managerial decision and Mancini was 100% responsible for this major error.
We have fallen back slightly having been poised at one stage to give the title a real go, but I feel we have too often been let down as a team by one or two regular underperformers and fullbacks who can either defend or attack, but other than Zabaleta, none of the others are capable of both.
Tevez going through a drought has been the main difference between us doing well and us performing poorly, but as has been said time and time again, we are and have been too over-reliant on his goalscoring contributions.
Dzeko is for me a very good striker who is improving game by game and I'm sure will aleviate a lot of our striking inbalance, but he still needs a little more time to adapt.
Kaka is on the radar and if we buy him, another creative midfielder like Silva and at least one top class fullback, we might be getting closer to our holy grail, though I'm fully expecting both Tevez and Mancini to be gone before July.
Mourinho I expect will, once Real Madrid get smashed in the Quarter finals of the Champions league, be ready to leave Spain and get back to the land of milk and honey, surely he can only really see us as a genuine chance of getting himself and his Club to the very pinnacle of World football he craves. I don't think he would have left Madrid and doubt they would sack him so soon, but after the incident with the lunatic with the knife, England must seem a far safer place to live and work.
I think we will probably win the FA Cup, and that will be fantastic, but fear the worst for Mancini, I would now fully accept I was wrong in the blind faith I have shown in him and assume most City fans would rather see a more adveturous and attacking minded display for the Great team we all want to see take us forward.
Errors and an obsession with clean sheets is not what I would expect or plan for if I had the money and vision to invest in the way Sheikh Mansour has, and though he isn't maybe as knowledgable as some when it comes to football, we all get our real excitement from attacking and scoring goals.
For Roberto the writing is surely now on the wall, shame.
