The Roberto Mancini appreciation thread

[bri an t]

been suporting city since 1954, Roberto is top manger sorry to see him go

 

[carlos tevez is a blue]

After his bitter ends he's going back to Roxy Music.

 

[robbieh]

I think few people could have taken the job after the Hughes sacking and changed the perception of the club quite so quickly.

Despite the money and a smattering of top class players we were still a laughing stock under Hughes. Mainly due to his own incompetence.

Under Mancini despite the constant sniping from the press, he firstly made us difficult to beat and then he added the attacking flourish that won us the league. All this despite Carlosgate, and the media love in with St Alex. As far as I remember we have lost one game in two years at home, and that a last minute deflection. We also humbled United twice in successive seasons at the swamp.

We are now considered serious players. Apart from last saturday, we don't really win cups for cock ups anymore. Other fans don't like us because we are a hard team to beat. And most of that is down to Roberto.

Europe was along with Mario his achilles heel, and I imagine Pellegrini gives a better chance in that arena. But whether he is hard enough to win back the PL is another story.

Thanks Roberto for everything. Like many have said I never thought I would see silverware. But we became Champions. Looking forward to taking you on with your new team whoever they may be.

 

[Pam]

For those who don't wish to click the link to the shitty fucking mirror:

So it turns out that, behind the suave ­exterior, Roberto Mancini was a nasty piece of work.

He sulked through a meeting once, apparently.

He was nasty to his players.

Nobody liked him.

They say he was insubordinate towards chief executive Ferran Soriano and sporting director Txiki Begiristain.


He was not keen on being told who his transfer targets should be.

He stamped his feet when City missed out on Robin van Persie, who went on to win the title for Manchester United.

The former kit-man has complained he could barely get a ‘hello’ out of him. The Italian didn’t smile much, either, it seems.

I bet Mancini made one of the tea-ladies cry once, too, and in football club mythology there are few things worse than that. Yet the strange thing is, none of these terrible character flaws prevented City awarding him a new five-year contract less than 12 months ago.

None of them stopped him guiding City to their first league title for 44 years last May.

None of them stopped him leading City to the runners-up spot behind Manchester United this season.

Not smiling at the kit-man was never cited before as a reason why he could not continue in his job.

As far as I’m aware, nobody ever laboured under the illusion that Mancini was a laugh-a-minute kind of guy anyway. Stories about him blanking players in corridors have been commonplace since he arrived in Manchester.

In fact, in happier times, his indifference towards whether he was liked by his players or not was put forward as one of his strengths. But when you get the sack, the poison is put down and ­everything flips.

Mancini’s strengths became his weaknesses overnight because it suited the people who sacked him to tell it that way.

Forgive me, but I was unaware that Sir Alex Ferguson was viewed as a man of pure benevolence even in the demi-deification of impending ­retirement.

I must have imagined the fact he became known as the ­Hairdryer because of the ­fearsome abuse he could dish out to his players. I must have misremembered him terrorising players, trying to control the minutiae of their lives.

I must have ­misinterpreted those stories about Brian Clough punching Roy Keane because he underhit a backpass.

I must have been misled when I read stories about Bill Shankly treating injured players as if they did not exist.

The point is, surely, that if we get to the stage where we make judgments about football managers based on their manners, we will be picking from a thin field. Football managers are, by necessity, dictatorial, bombastic, defensive, obsessed and ­ruthless. The great ones probably even more than the rest.

Jose ­Mourinho anyone?

So let’s forget all this ­revisionist spin that Mancini was fired because he didn’t smile at the club receptionist often enough. And let’s remember that he was fired by a club who offered him the job while Mark Hughes was still the manager. And who appear to have offered it to Manuel Pellegrini while Mancini was still the manager.

No one can run for the moral high ground in football because there isn’t any.

The character assassination of Mancini doesn’t wash. There’s no need for it. It smacks of people at the club trying too hard to excuse a decision that is deeply unpopular with the supporters. City made the decision for football reasons and they should not have to disguise that.

They fired Mancini because he didn’t win the league and, for the second season in succession, he failed to get past the group stage of the Champions League.

Their difficulty is that it is hard to defend a decision to sack a manager 12 months to the day after he won the league title. Their difficulty is that it would be unwise to point out that Mancini is the victim of a power struggle between him and Soriano and Begiristain.

That, essentially, is what the “need to develop a holistic approach to all aspects of ­football at the club” meant. It was a gloriously funny euphemism for the fact that they want the manager to be subservient to the chief ­executive and the sporting director.

Mancini railed against that. Just as Ferguson would have done. But Ferguson was hailed as the last of the great patriarchs.

Mancini was damned as the bloke who didn’t say hello to the kit-man.

Great analysis imo

Oh fuck them all!!!!!!!!!!!

Forza Bobby Manc.

 

[Dogtanian]

Thank you Roberto.

 

[Mr. Aguia]

Was an integral part of the growth of the club. I don't think we would be were we are now without him. He brought a real belief into this club that didn't exist before and I don't believe many others could have done that. Won us silverware and ended the droughts. Mille gracia.

 

[I Live In A Blue House]

Was an integral part of the growth of the club. I don't think we would be were we are now without him. He brought a real belief into this club that didn't exist before and I don't believe many others could have done that. Won us silverware and ended the droughts. Mille gracia.

I still get the tingle down my spine each time I think of us lifting the PREMIER LEAGUE TROPHY last year, it was like wise about the F A CUP prior to our Title winning! My dream became a reality under the Management of MR ROBERTO MANCINI. I thank you with all my heart. CTID. Good Luck with what lies ahead Bobby. A tear will was shed but onwards & upwards MCFC will go:)

 

[ClaudioDeyna]

For wearing the scarf like a fan.

For celebrating victories as joyously as a player.

For the cool-as-fuck ball trap on the touchline while issuing instructions.

For being unafraid of going toe-to-toe with Ferguson.

And Moyes.

For beating the European Champions twice in a season.

For winning away at Arsenal for the first time in 20 years.

For dealing with the press with the best line in snark a City manager's ever had.

For being as hard on himself as he was on the players.

For doing what he promised to do.

Thanks, Boss

 

[krdskrm]

Thank you, Roberto!

Mancini IS Man City

 

[Cielo Azzurro]

:) <a class="postlink" href="http://www.mcfc.co.uk/citytv/Features/2011/November/Roberto-Mancini-touchline-passion" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.mcfc.co.uk/citytv/Features/2 ... ne-passion</a>