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Home Sport Columnists Dave Kidd Sub-standard Mancini shamed by Mod couple
Oct 2 2011 By Dave Kidd
ENGLISH football’s odd couple, Daniel Levy and Harry Redknapp, have had their noses pressed against the Champions League window all week.
While Manchester City were bringing their trademark chaos to football’s greatest club competition, Tottenham were facing the butchers, bakers and Tarmac-layers of Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League.
After evicting Spurs from the top four last term, City rolled into White Hart Lane in August and destroyed Redknapp’s men 5-1.
A few hours before kick-off, Luka Modric had told Redknapp he didn’t want to play because he was suffering a dose of the ‘my head’s not right’ epidemic sweeping football’s vulnerable multi-millionaires.
Contrary to popular belief around the Etihad Stadium, however, there is a vaccine for this malaise – a cocktail of man-management, steadfast principles and commonsense.
Redknapp told Modric to get on the pitch and do his job, while chairman Levy stuck by his pledge not to flog the Croatian to Chelsea.
The result is that Modric’s head has been miraculously cured, as highlighted by his recent wonder goal against Liverpool.
Screeching
That came in one of three straight Premier League victories which send Spurs into today’s north London derby believing that they will soon be hearing the screeching sirens of the Champions League theme again.
When Chelsea made their initial bid for Modric and chairman Levy insisted Spurs would not sell at any cost, nobody believed him – probably not even the Croatian, his team-mates nor Redknapp himself.
Yet when Roman Abramovich waited for him to blink first, Levy countered with a thousand-yard stare and struck a blow against the worst excesses of player power.
So if City are looking for role models, as they survey the wreckage of the latest Carlos Tevez saga, they should look no further than the vanquished of White Hart Lane.
Now we’d all love to live in a world without lawyers, of course.
But in litigious reality, City cannot sack Tevez without taking a vast financial hit and giving the Argentinian exactly what he wants – a free transfer.
Even the argument that the Blue Moonies are so wealthy they can afford to let Tevez rot in the reserves is scuppered by a statute which insists that a player can sue for restraint of trade if his manager refuses to select him for anything other than ‘technical reasons’.
Mancini certainly struck a chord when he insisted in Munich that Tevez would never play for City again.
But, in the cold light of day, City have little choice but to live with Tevez until January, at the earliest.
And this will prove a test of Mancini’s suspect man-management abilities.
Edin Dzeko, Tevez and Mario Balotelli have all thrown tantrums at the Italian in recent weeks, while taming Craig Bellamy and Emmanuel Adebayor has also proved beyond him.
That’s the same Adebayor who is currently tearing it up for Redknapp and Levy at Tottenham – even though we’ll have to reserve judgment on his ability to stay the distance.
However sickening Tevez’s antics were, the fact remains that Mancini felt the need to bring the player on and was unable to do so – a basic failure of his ability to manage.
Tevez claims he told Mancini he didn’t want to warm up for a second time (disgraceful behaviour, of course) but that he did not refuse to play – a version of events backed up by team-mates.
It seems that Mancini reacted to Tevez chucking his toys out of the pram, by throwing a wobbly of his own – precisely what Spurs did not do when Modric played up.
The laughable stipulation that any questions about Tevez were off-limits at Friday’s press conference, does not suggest that Mancini is feeling too confident about dealing with the crisis.
While Tevez was trying and failing even to get a game of golf after his Munich strop, it emerged that vast numbers of footballers have refused to play at some stage or other in their careers, without having been sacked.
Refused
There was even the revelation that Mancini once asked his Sampdoria boss Sven Goran Eriksson to substitute him because he believed he’d be sent off after losing his temper at a referee. When Eriksson refused, Mancini was indeed red-carded minutes later.
The Italian laughed off comparisons between this incident and the Tevez flashpoint. Even though Mancini’s actions were arguably more damaging, leaving his team a man short.
None of this is to suggest that we would greet Tevez’s departure from the Premier League with anything other than a hearty ‘good riddance’ after five years of charmless controversy.
But you suspect there will always be another English punter willing to take a gamble on the Argentinian.
After all, Adebayor and Bellamy were snapped up by major clubs
when Mancini declared them unmanageable.
The Tevez camp might have noticed that Redknapp certainly enjoys a challenge, while Levy might just be feeling invincible right now.
So once again,good old `arry,comes up smelling of roses.I normally just laugh these shite journos off,but must admit this one took me aback a little.
So we now run second fiddle to Spuds in how our man management skills do NOT appear to be working.
The People once again continues to show its true colours.
Is there anything these bastards wont write about us,besides shite ?
Oct 2 2011 By Dave Kidd
ENGLISH football’s odd couple, Daniel Levy and Harry Redknapp, have had their noses pressed against the Champions League window all week.
While Manchester City were bringing their trademark chaos to football’s greatest club competition, Tottenham were facing the butchers, bakers and Tarmac-layers of Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League.
After evicting Spurs from the top four last term, City rolled into White Hart Lane in August and destroyed Redknapp’s men 5-1.
A few hours before kick-off, Luka Modric had told Redknapp he didn’t want to play because he was suffering a dose of the ‘my head’s not right’ epidemic sweeping football’s vulnerable multi-millionaires.
Contrary to popular belief around the Etihad Stadium, however, there is a vaccine for this malaise – a cocktail of man-management, steadfast principles and commonsense.
Redknapp told Modric to get on the pitch and do his job, while chairman Levy stuck by his pledge not to flog the Croatian to Chelsea.
The result is that Modric’s head has been miraculously cured, as highlighted by his recent wonder goal against Liverpool.
Screeching
That came in one of three straight Premier League victories which send Spurs into today’s north London derby believing that they will soon be hearing the screeching sirens of the Champions League theme again.
When Chelsea made their initial bid for Modric and chairman Levy insisted Spurs would not sell at any cost, nobody believed him – probably not even the Croatian, his team-mates nor Redknapp himself.
Yet when Roman Abramovich waited for him to blink first, Levy countered with a thousand-yard stare and struck a blow against the worst excesses of player power.
So if City are looking for role models, as they survey the wreckage of the latest Carlos Tevez saga, they should look no further than the vanquished of White Hart Lane.
Now we’d all love to live in a world without lawyers, of course.
But in litigious reality, City cannot sack Tevez without taking a vast financial hit and giving the Argentinian exactly what he wants – a free transfer.
Even the argument that the Blue Moonies are so wealthy they can afford to let Tevez rot in the reserves is scuppered by a statute which insists that a player can sue for restraint of trade if his manager refuses to select him for anything other than ‘technical reasons’.
Mancini certainly struck a chord when he insisted in Munich that Tevez would never play for City again.
But, in the cold light of day, City have little choice but to live with Tevez until January, at the earliest.
And this will prove a test of Mancini’s suspect man-management abilities.
Edin Dzeko, Tevez and Mario Balotelli have all thrown tantrums at the Italian in recent weeks, while taming Craig Bellamy and Emmanuel Adebayor has also proved beyond him.
That’s the same Adebayor who is currently tearing it up for Redknapp and Levy at Tottenham – even though we’ll have to reserve judgment on his ability to stay the distance.
However sickening Tevez’s antics were, the fact remains that Mancini felt the need to bring the player on and was unable to do so – a basic failure of his ability to manage.
Tevez claims he told Mancini he didn’t want to warm up for a second time (disgraceful behaviour, of course) but that he did not refuse to play – a version of events backed up by team-mates.
It seems that Mancini reacted to Tevez chucking his toys out of the pram, by throwing a wobbly of his own – precisely what Spurs did not do when Modric played up.
The laughable stipulation that any questions about Tevez were off-limits at Friday’s press conference, does not suggest that Mancini is feeling too confident about dealing with the crisis.
While Tevez was trying and failing even to get a game of golf after his Munich strop, it emerged that vast numbers of footballers have refused to play at some stage or other in their careers, without having been sacked.
Refused
There was even the revelation that Mancini once asked his Sampdoria boss Sven Goran Eriksson to substitute him because he believed he’d be sent off after losing his temper at a referee. When Eriksson refused, Mancini was indeed red-carded minutes later.
The Italian laughed off comparisons between this incident and the Tevez flashpoint. Even though Mancini’s actions were arguably more damaging, leaving his team a man short.
None of this is to suggest that we would greet Tevez’s departure from the Premier League with anything other than a hearty ‘good riddance’ after five years of charmless controversy.
But you suspect there will always be another English punter willing to take a gamble on the Argentinian.
After all, Adebayor and Bellamy were snapped up by major clubs
when Mancini declared them unmanageable.
The Tevez camp might have noticed that Redknapp certainly enjoys a challenge, while Levy might just be feeling invincible right now.
So once again,good old `arry,comes up smelling of roses.I normally just laugh these shite journos off,but must admit this one took me aback a little.
So we now run second fiddle to Spuds in how our man management skills do NOT appear to be working.
The People once again continues to show its true colours.
Is there anything these bastards wont write about us,besides shite ?