You see, none of those who think we can't do better than their beloved Bobby Manc ever come with a reason why he is so good bar "he's dead ace because he won us the league and cup".
With the resources and players we had, that is hardly the greatest achievement in football. Lesser managers could easily have done the same. Better managers certainly would have.
Does he get the best out of his players? I don't think he does. After all this time we should be a settled side and playing well on a consistent basis. We're not, in fact we've hardly played well all season, and we got over the finishing line last season only because individuals did their bit in spite of some of the utterly bollocks tactics that were being introduced in certain games.
When we have the squad we have, we should go out there asking questions of all teams because we are the better team. We have the better players! Even crap teams we respect far too much as we piss about 'feeling them out', then we play teams at home and take our best striker on the day off instead of the worst one because we need to defend corners. Has anyone ever thought that the difference between 0 and 1 is half of that between 1 and 3? Being undefeated is balls all use when the rivals have more points, and that's what could kill us this year; the obsession with not losing instead of gambling on wins.
The players do not look happy with the tactics and they don't look happy with the manager. If you think otherwise, bully for you, but a 4-0 win tomorrow won't change that.
I'll ask you this. And you've got to be honest with yourself here rather than just throwing back "I know hundreds, because they're, like, dead clever and you're dead thick". How many supporters of other top clubs in Europe would swap their manager for Mancini? Where I live is a serious mixed bag of supporters of other clubs, who I talk to on a regular basis. I've only met one person who actually rates him.
City have the Shiekh, his millions and his players to thank for those cup wins far more than the manager. Our manager flunked that league last year and only United's surprising collapse and the sheer will to win from the players on the last day of the season changed that.
If Sergio Aguero had stuck one shot of a football over the bar, Mancini wouldn't be here now and no-one would be complaining. Of course, in the spirit of fairness, you can certainly say the same stroke of luck went Ferguson's way in 1990, but Ferguson didn't have circa £300 million's worth of a fantasy football league team to play with at that time. He had Ralph Milne and Mike Phelan amongst a sprinkling of quality. We have a squad packed with world class players, and one that plays like a sea of individuals that carry us through because of that class, rather than a galvanised unit that looks impressive.
Where would be this season if it hadn't have been for that individual will to win scoring us late goals?
Mancini is hardly the worst manager we have ever had, but we're not kicking around the bottom half of the table or lower divisions now. If we want to improve in Europe and maintain our position in this country, then we need to kick on to the next level. Mancini's tinkering, his stifling tactics and his continued choice of the wrong personnel for the wrong games is holding us back. It's costing us vital points and rarely winning them.
If we win the league, all well and good, and that would make me most happy out of all the possibilities here, but if he doesn't, then he's a dead man and you know it. We haven't got trigger happy owners but they'll spot a team going backwards when they see one. Our European performances this season, and managerial tactics in those games, have been an abomination and it's cost us a shit load of money. The owners will look at us and ask if we are improving, standing still or going backwards. If they see either of the latter two then he will go and, at this moment in time, win or lose tomorrow, looking at the bigger picture, we look a considerable way further behind Europe's best than we did a year ago.