The FA Cup Final - if..........

[salfordpaul]

couple of weeks earlier they were the better side at ours and we won 1-0. that game was never a given, best team won

 

[Pam]

If those Pelligrini rumours had not surfaced on cup final day (or at any time before) or if there was nothing to them, MCFC would have another trophy in our cabinet now. If the players thought Bobby was staying come what may, they would have won that game because there would be no upside in for them not doing.

Does anyone think this is true?

Moot point, I'm afraid Pam

I fear that there was more to this than just a press release at the wrong time

I agree with you. But it would have been much harder to justify a sacking if we had just won the FA Cup.

 

[SuperYaya]

I seriously doubt it. If the rumors had clouded over the team for months it might start to affect performances but it had only had a little bit of time to settle and it didn't explode until after the defeat.

When on the pitch I think most players are just totally in the moment. Do you really think they'd be thinking about Pellegrini when flying in for a tackle or trying to spot a pass?

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

If those Pelligrini rumours had not surfaced on cup final day (or at any time before) or if there was nothing to them, MCFC would have another trophy in our cabinet now. If the players thought Bobby was staying come what may, they would have won that game because there would be no upside in for them not doing.

Does anyone think this is true?

Given that they'd comprehensively outplayed us in the league barely 3 weeks earlier, and that we always struggle against decent footballing sides operating a high press (Southampton, Dortmund, Liverpool, Swansea etc etc), I'd say the first half of your argument is highly debatable. The second part, which appears to suggest some of the players may have been motivated to lose on purpose, alas moves us on from the debatable to the nonsensical.........

 

[Bald fraud]

If those Pelligrini rumours had not surfaced on cup final day (or at any time before) or if there was nothing to them, MCFC would have another trophy in our cabinet now. If the players thought Bobby was staying come what may, they would have won that game because there would be no upside in for them not doing.

Does anyone think this is true?

Any player that does not want to win a F A CUP final should be selling programes outside.

This is what made it worse though it looked as though none of our lads did want to win it! Still pisses me off now to be honest

 

[Balti]

the sport is no longer worth watching if there is any truth in that

so I prefer to think not

 

[Tim of the Oak]

We clearly would have had a better chance because the crowd atmosphere would have been well in our favour.

Wigan would have still been difficult to beat but clearly they were beatable.

 

[Blueband Brother]

Precedence
After the FA cup final I raised this serious issue of rebellion because I inferred from the atmosphere and spirit of the performance ( not the result) that something had gone very wrong with the players.

The team have not had a great season and have been quite poor at times eg Southampton away , Swansea and Wigan at home ( although we won), QPR away etc but this time it was different, this was the FA cup final, a game that does not need any stimulus for passion and desire or does not really possess with much complacency not least because of how the previous league game against Wigan turned out. But there was something different in the match, something wrong even Zabaleta (the reliable ranger) was completely alien that evening. This is obviously going to be dismissed by most here and subject to ridicule as usual but this is what I saw from last Saturday. The FA cup performance was different.

My deduction was that the players, most of them anyway threw the manager and indirectly but more pertinently, the club under the bus to prove a point about their opinions and feelings for Mancini and I felt that was deeply worrying at the time for the future because there is a word I fear more than any other in this world and that is precedence.

This haunting and scary word tormented my mind as I saw that Norwich player stroll past heaven knows how many players and scored to give Norwich the 3-2 lead.

Hopefully I'm wrong and the players just decided to do a jog about in an FA cup final or just had an off night but my opinion is that the normal reaction for a team who knows that their manager is under scrutiny , pressure and much disrespect is to come together and do their best especially in a match of such importance but alas the opposite happened.

Eventually it will dawn on everybody as news trickle out as time goes by but lets see how the summer pans out and hopefully everything will be treated and repaired by the start of the new season.

But I want mention an important point and that is the owners obviously mean well and are trying to do the best for the future of the club and I have great confidence that they will sort things out and the club will move on from this.

The youth academy is so important for the future I can't stress that enough and the owners probably know so as well.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

To be fair rumours about Mancini's future had been going on since the day he joined and I doubt that it would affected the team like Zabba and Barry both said.

Also Wigan played us off the park at the Etihad and we got away with a good result which was mainly down to their poor finishing and a piece of magic from Tevez.

Wigan beating us in the final was no fluke, they were the better side on the day and have proved that they can be a match for most sides when they turn up. Unfortunately we did not turn up and made it easier for them but I would not say it was because of the rumours.

Performances like the final against Wigan have happened to many times this season for us to blame a certain incident IMO.

I didn't pick up on all the shenanigans until Sunday. I just saw a mirror image of the league game and thought Mancini and the players learnt nowt from the first encounter. The teams we have struggled to overcome and have occasionally failed against this season are those that have pressed us and challenged for possession deep into our half. I couldn't see any other plan in the offing.

But there again, had Carlos's chance gone in and not hit the goalie's big toe . . . . . . . . . .!

 

[Pigeonho]

If..... we'd bothered to put the effort in we'd have won it

Thank you. A bit of sense in a pretty piss poor thread, the author of which doesn't surprise me.