Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini is under-pressure
Premier League champions Manchester City strolled to a four goal FA Cup victory over Championship Leeds yesterday at the Etihad Stadium.
City boss Roberto Mancini believes the win may re-ignite his teams challenge for the Premier League title.
Behind
The win cannot mask the fact that City are currently trailing arch-rivals Manchester United by 12 points in the race for the Premier League title race.
The reigning champions now look unlikely to retain their crown at the end of the season.
Responsibility
Boss Mancini must take a huge slice of the blame in City’s relative poor season thus far. The Citizens have failed to hit the heights of last season. Mancini is the person responsible for motivating his expensive squad and at the moment he is not getting it right.
The players in his Manchester City squad should be performing better than they are and Mancini is the man responsible. His tactics and team selections this season really have to be questioned.
Poor
Manchester City have spent a lot of money in the last few years, but this summer’s transfer activity was truly awful. The likes of Scott Sinclair, Jack Rodwell and Javi Garcia were not the required quality needed to strengthen City’s squad from last season.
In fact, many would argue that Mancini’s squad is actually weaker this season. The loss of Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong looks to have unsettled their backline and Javi Garcia isn’t quite yet in the same league.
Doubts
I don’t believe that Roberto Mancini has ever truly had the full faith of City’s mega-rich owners. I don’t think he has ever been regarded as a world-class boss either. The Italian boss has struggled in the Champions League at both Manchester City and Inter prior to his time at Eastland’s.
There has always been a sense that Roberto Mancini was just keeping the manager’s seat warm at the Etihad Stadium for a higher-profile boss. Even after winning the Premier League title Mancini never convinced as a top boss.
Patience
Manchester City’s oil-rich owners are unlikely to have much patience with the Italian boss. They have a plan of dominating English and European football. City haven’t lived up to those expectations under Roberto Mancini.
They are certainly not the best team in Europe; in fact they are not even the best team in Manchester. City’s owners have been relatively patient with the Italian. Mancini has spent a fortune on new players in his time in Manchester.
A lot of bosses have achieved far more with far less in the past. In modern football money is king and Mancini has had big resources at his disposal. However, despite his spending it seems that Mancini hasn’t achieved his owner’s objectives.
Ambitious
Manchester City’s owners are majorly ambitious. They want their football club to be a global brand, dare I say like neighbours Manchester United. I fear that the Citizens won’t achieve their ambitions with Roberto Mancini at the helm.
Summer
Roberto Mancini will no doubt endure a nervous few months until the summer. If Mancini is still in the City hot seat at the end of the season then what he does in the transfer market this summer will be key to how his team perform next season.
Replacements
Unfortunately for the former-Inter boss I don’t think he will get the chance to put his wrongs right. There has been a long list of managers linked with the City hot seat. David Moyes, Manuel Pellegrini and Jose Mourinho are just a few of the names being mentioned in connection with the position.
Mourinho replaced Mancini at Inter and ended up winning the Champions League. The Portuguese is a winner, but he also brings with him a whole heap of controversy. Mourinho would bring a winning mentality to the Etihad Stadium though.
David Moyes has done a fantastic job at Everton on a very tight budget by Premier League standards. His future at Everton is in doubt with his contract expiring in the summer. Moyes has little experience in European football though.
A man with plenty of European experience is Malaga boss Manuel Pellegrini. The Chilean boss was an enormous success with Villarreal, before being fired by Spanish giants Real Madrid.
Pellegrini has moved Malaga forward in recent years and help steer the Andalusian’s through a difficult financial spell this season. His team are well placed to finish in the Champions League spots, but they are unlikely to be allowed to participate in the competition because of their financial problems.
Pellegrini is also interesting Chelsea and the Chilean is current one of the favourites to become Chelsea boss in the summer.
Inevitable
Roberto Mancini leaving Manchester City is now almost inevitable. The Italian has done a decent job with City, but many will ask could any manager have had the same success the Italian has with the amount of money spent?
We will never know the answer to that question. Roberto Mancini may have done a decent job, but decent isn’t good enough if Manchester City are ever going to be any sort of dominant force European football.
Will Roberto Mancini exit Manchester City this summer?
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