Manchester City to show faith in Mancini

Anyone who thought that Manchester City’s incredibly rich and ambitious owners would be looking to get rid of Roberto Mancini after he failed to lead the team to the Champions League look as though they may have got it wrong.

Club chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak said on City’s official website,

“Roberto’s going to do a wonderful job for us for many years. Roberto is our manager. He’s done an excellent job coming in mid-season, organising the team. I’m very happy, and the owner, Sheikh Mansour, is delighted with the way he’s organised the team. We believe he is definitely the right manager for this club for many years. What he needs this summer is time to prepare and really organise ourselves. We know the areas that need to be improved within the club. A good pre-season followed with a good start to the season and I’m really excited for next year.”

The chairman went on to say that he thought the season had been successful and that next season is going to be a big year for the club.

“It’s been a wonderful season. We’ve gone a long way as a team and I feel very good about next year because we’ve crossed an important milestone as a club. Next year’s going to be a very important year for us. It’s been an incredible season. We can focus on last night (the defeat to Tottenham) or we can focus on the season as a whole. I prefer to do that. Fifth is not where we would like but it’s a major jump. It’s a major achievement for this club to move from tenth to fifth place.”

Ominously for everyone else, the chairman also insisted that Carlos Tevez is going nowhere and hinted that they would be spending big again this Summer.

“Carlos Tevez has scored twenty-nine goals and has been the heart and soul of this team. He has been absolutely phenomenal. I have no doubt he’s going to be the best player in the world. It is just a matter of time. Manchester City is now a real force to be reckoned with in this league and the acceleration of investment really has put us in this position maybe a year early. That gives us a much better position this summer to work from.”

After the defeat to Tottenham Roberto Mancini was very clear about the fact that he sees his future at the club. He told the BBC,

“We can work together and develop together. I want to win here, I want to be able to win here. I think I stay here. Why not? I work here four or five months and I think when you build a house you don’t start from the roof but the basement. We work very well but we are near the roof. I am not a magician, I don’t have a magic wand. We wanted fourth place and we tried like Liverpool, Tottenham and Aston Villa. When you don’t finish fourth this is football but we did a good job.”

One man who may feel a little hard done by in all this, of course, is Mark Hughes. There is every possibility that he could have led City to Europa League qualification, which seems to be acceptable to all at the club. With another massive investment in the Summer maybe he could have guided the club to the next level. We will never know.

I have no doubt that Mancini is a top manager and that with the opportunity to fashion his own team in the coming weeks he may well be able to bring the success to the club that the owners and fans crave. One thing is for sure. If he doesn’t, someone else will be given a go,