Soriano

[Ted Hughes]

Come on.

They'd just accept that ? Really ?

There is no other message needed. The press were going to run with it anyway, just like they have since he joined so there is nothing more that needed to be done. At least the talk would've been about the game rather than the managers position.

Look, when asked about Pellegrini, Mancini's answer on several different occasions was 'I'm staying next season, I have a 5 year contract, I work for serious football people, if I was sacked then ferguson should be sacked' etc etc

If those 'serious football people' then say 'we will look at it at the end of the season' they are in direct opposition to Mancini's version of events.

THAT is what the press would run with.

Surely you can see this ?

And this is where the PR department of the club come in, they instruct Mancini to answer nothing apart from questions about the upcoming game which is the whole purpose of the pressers and they inform the press pack that any questions that are not specifically related to the upcoming game will not be tolerated.

And this is the same bloke who was blaming that poor fucking PR woman in public for not reading the minds of Khaldoon & Soriano & making a statement on their behalf ?

You think Mancini would take orders from her ?

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Come on.

They'd just accept that ? Really ?

There is no other message needed. The press were going to run with it anyway, just like they have since he joined so there is nothing more that needed to be done. At least the talk would've been about the game rather than the managers position.

Look, when asked about Pellegrini, Mancini's answer on several different occasions was 'I'm staying next season, I have a 5 year contract, I work for serious football people, if I was sacked then ferguson should be sacked' etc etc

If those 'serious football people' then say 'we will look at it at the end of the season' they are in direct opposition to Mancini's version of events.

THAT is what the press would run with.

Surely you can see this ?

And this is where the PR department of the club come in, they instruct Mancini to answer nothing apart from questions about the upcoming game which is the whole purpose of the pressers and they inform the press pack that any questions that are not specifically related to the upcoming game will not be tolerated.

And this is the same bloke who was blaming that poor fucking PR woman in public for not reading the minds of Khaldoon & Soriano & making a statement on their behalf ?

You think Mancini would take orders from her ?

If it was coming from above her, yes. He used her as the scapegoat because of the shit he had to endure in the pressers all season. Much in the same way he used Marwood as the scapegoat for the club's failings in the transfer market last summer.

Let me ask this, let's say Pellegrini comes in, meanwhile Guardiola gets the bullet at Munich after a poor start, are we to assume Pelligrini will have to put up with the same shit in the pressers or will the club nip it in the bud early doors no matter what their intentions are with the managerial positiongoing forward?

[Mark Garrett]

On the FA Cup Final, I agree with you Beefy and lay alot of the blame at the 2 Spaniards and Khaldoon - you create a situation whereby every single newspaper, both sensible and poor ones were running the story that Pellegrini was replacing Mancini thereby casting a cloud over the entire day and match and you get a car crash performance that we produced. So many City fans agreed at Wembley that the Spaniards were responsible. When I say create a situation I mean the naive meeting between Bergistain and Pellegrini in a restaurant in Spain and the 24hrs before the final.

The whole Cup Final day was very strange as in all the pubs and bars, the atmosphere was flat and all fans were talking about was not the excitement of Wembley, a potential trophy, the match, it was all about Pellegrini/Mancini and the mass of media coverage that every outlet was running. It was a disgrace by the hierarchy and no amount of camouflaging it will disguise that.

On Soriano's interview this week just gone as Martin Samuel said yesterday, it was a very odd interview - he described it as very Chelsea like, which is something I would hate for us to follow their methods and go down. Contradictions throughout the interview, I want 5 trophies in 5 years but likely Pellegrini will get a 2 year contract so won't even be here for 5 years. He wants attractive football but don't mind if we just miss out but don't forget 5 trophies in 5 years. Club wants the new manager to take a more holistic approach and involved more in youth teams, promoting youngsters but if a manager has only 2 years then why should he be that interested in youth short of us having a Messi, Xavi in our ranks, which if we did then Mancini would have selected.

On Pellegrini himself, as already mentioned in this thread and other threads, if he had not been already touted so much, we as fans would never even be considering him seriously and that concerns me. I was a Mancini fan, I wanted him to stay. If we were to make a change then it had to be for an upgraded manager, something Pellegrini is not. He is 10 years older than Mancini and to look at their respective CV's there is no comparison as the Italian has been considerably more successful.

Hope Pellegrini does well and this model works out but am underwhelmed and disappointed by the events and conduct of my club in the past few weeks.

[City64]

On the FA Cup Final, I agree with you Beefy and lay alot of the blame at the 2 Spaniards and Khaldoon - you create a situation whereby every single newspaper, both sensible and poor ones were running the story that Pellegrini was replacing Mancini thereby casting a cloud over the entire day and match and you get a car crash performance that we produced. So many City fans agreed at Wembley that the Spaniards were responsible. When I say create a situation I mean the naive meeting between Bergistain and Pellegrini in a restaurant in Spain and the 24hrs before the final.

The whole Cup Final day was very strange as in all the pubs and bars, the atmosphere was flat and all fans were talking about was not the excitement of Wembley, a potential trophy, the match, it was all about Pellegrini/Mancini and the mass of media coverage that every outlet was running. It was a disgrace by the hierarchy and no amount of camouflaging it will disguise that.

On Soriano's interview this week just gone as Martin Samuel said yesterday, it was a very odd interview - he described it as very Chelsea like, which is something I would hate for us to follow their methods and go down. Contradictions throughout the interview, I want 5 trophies in 5 years but likely Pellegrini will get a 2 year contract so won't even be here for 5 years. He wants attractive football but don't mind if we just miss out but don't forget 5 trophies in 5 years. Club wants the new manager to take a more holistic approach and involved more in youth teams, promoting youngsters but if a manager has only 2 years then why should he be that interested in youth short of us having a Messi, Xavi in our ranks, which if we did then Mancini would have selected.

On Pellegrini himself, as already mentioned in this thread and other threads, if he had not been already touted so much, we as fans would never even be considering him seriously and that concerns me. I was a Mancini fan, I wanted him to stay. If we were to make a change then it had to be for an upgraded manager, something Pellegrini is not. He is 10 years older than Mancini and to look at their respective CV's there is no comparison as the Italian has been considerably more successful.

Hope Pellegrini does well and this model works out but am underwhelmed and disappointed by the events and conduct of my club in the past few weeks.

Very nicely put , well done !

[daveh1962]

The point is Soriano is interested in putting a system in place to win trophy's and not wh the individual manager is. If you read his interview he talks about cycles and that a manger might have a couple of cycles of 2/3 or 5 years but after that they would need a fresh challenge so whilst Pellegrini might sign a 2 year contract this could be extended but the club are not thinking of a manager being in place like Ferguson

Clearly a manager does not have to win a trophy but progression is needed ie reaching semi finals finals etc but that they would need to win some trophys at some point and clearly he would like to win at least a trophy per year over the next 5 years

The issue of youngsters is that they are trying tp produce a conveyor belt of talent who are all used to playing the same system so can move up the levels seamlessly which is a brilliant idea. Whats the point of trying to develop footballing talent if you are going to play like Stoke set a framework and then develop talent to work within that framework

I didnt want to see Mancini go but clearly the way the club is setting up for the long term means that the manger will have less control on all things relating to the club and so who is the manager becomes less important see that Barcelona model

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

Very nicely put , well done !

Why shoukd speculation about Mancini automatically mean that we will lose to Wigan? It's nonsense. Cjelsea knew their manager was going at the same time but took their final seriously. And how do you square that up with Wigan outplaying us at ours just three weeks earlier. Mancini's limitations cost us that final. That performance was no longer unusual, in fact it was quite a typical performance from City. We've been presenting that rubnish increasingly often over the last season and a half. It was fuck all to with The Spafia and everything to do with Bob.
What on earth were the club to say about speculation over Bob? "Yes he is our man" then bin him a week later. Or simply sack him on the eve of the final? Horse shit. If the players already knew, what difference does it make what us fans were aware of?
As it happens, I didn't know much about the speculation til I was in the ground. I didn't hear people discussing at all.
More lame excuses from the Mancini apologists.

[Original Dub]

We had a good enough manager and good enough players to beat fucking wigan to win a trophy.

It's horsehit to try to blame it on City's hierarchy and those of you who do should wobble the shite out of your heads.

Ridiculous.

[Cocacolajojo1]

On the FA Cup Final, I agree with you Beefy and lay alot of the blame at the 2 Spaniards and Khaldoon - you create a situation whereby every single newspaper, both sensible and poor ones were running the story that Pellegrini was replacing Mancini thereby casting a cloud over the entire day and match and you get a car crash performance that we produced. So many City fans agreed at Wembley that the Spaniards were responsible. When I say create a situation I mean the naive meeting between Bergistain and Pellegrini in a restaurant in Spain and the 24hrs before the final.

The whole Cup Final day was very strange as in all the pubs and bars, the atmosphere was flat and all fans were talking about was not the excitement of Wembley, a potential trophy, the match, it was all about Pellegrini/Mancini and the mass of media coverage that every outlet was running. It was a disgrace by the hierarchy and no amount of camouflaging it will disguise that.

On Soriano's interview this week just gone as Martin Samuel said yesterday, it was a very odd interview - he described it as very Chelsea like, which is something I would hate for us to follow their methods and go down. Contradictions throughout the interview, I want 5 trophies in 5 years but likely Pellegrini will get a 2 year contract so won't even be here for 5 years. He wants attractive football but don't mind if we just miss out but don't forget 5 trophies in 5 years. Club wants the new manager to take a more holistic approach and involved more in youth teams, promoting youngsters but if a manager has only 2 years then why should he be that interested in youth short of us having a Messi, Xavi in our ranks, which if we did then Mancini would have selected.

On Pellegrini himself, as already mentioned in this thread and other threads, if he had not been already touted so much, we as fans would never even be considering him seriously and that concerns me. I was a Mancini fan, I wanted him to stay. If we were to make a change then it had to be for an upgraded manager, something Pellegrini is not. He is 10 years older than Mancini and to look at their respective CV's there is no comparison as the Italian has been considerably more successful.

Hope Pellegrini does well and this model works out but am underwhelmed and disappointed by the events and conduct of my club in the past few weeks.

Nice post. Thanks.

[carl_feedthegoat]

Very nicely put , well done !

Why shoukd speculation about Mancini automatically mean that we will lose to Wigan? It's nonsense. Cjelsea knew their manager was going at the same time but took their final seriously. And how do you square that up with Wigan outplaying us at ours just three weeks earlier. Mancini's limitations cost us that final. That performance was no longer unusual, in fact it was quite a typical performance from City. We've been presenting that rubnish increasingly often over the last season and a half. It was fuck all to with The Spafia and everything to do with Bob.
What on earth were the club to say about speculation over Bob? "Yes he is our man" then bin him a week later. Or simply sack him on the eve of the final? Horse shit. If the players already knew, what difference does it make what us fans were aware of?
As it happens, I didn't know much about the speculation til I was in the ground. I didn't hear people discussing at all.
More lame excuses from the Mancini apologists.

Spot on

[Beefymcfc]

We had a good enough manager and good enough players to beat fucking wigan to win a trophy.

It's horsehit to try to blame it on City's hierarchy and those of you who do should wobble the shite out of your heads.

Ridiculous.

You are very correct my learned friend however it was the players, managers and fans who needed to wobble their heads prior to the game, instead of having to think about the eventual change of manager.

[Ted Hughes]

On the FA Cup Final, I agree with you Beefy and lay alot of the blame at the 2 Spaniards and Khaldoon - you create a situation whereby every single newspaper, both sensible and poor ones were running the story that Pellegrini was replacing Mancini thereby casting a cloud over the entire day and match and you get a car crash performance that we produced. So many City fans agreed at Wembley that the Spaniards were responsible. When I say create a situation I mean the naive meeting between Bergistain and Pellegrini in a restaurant in Spain and the 24hrs before the final.

The whole Cup Final day was very strange as in all the pubs and bars, the atmosphere was flat and all fans were talking about was not the excitement of Wembley, a potential trophy, the match, it was all about Pellegrini/Mancini and the mass of media coverage that every outlet was running. It was a disgrace by the hierarchy and no amount of camouflaging it will disguise that.

On Soriano's interview this week just gone as Martin Samuel said yesterday, it was a very odd interview - he described it as very Chelsea like, which is something I would hate for us to follow their methods and go down. Contradictions throughout the interview, I want 5 trophies in 5 years but likely Pellegrini will get a 2 year contract so won't even be here for 5 years. He wants attractive football but don't mind if we just miss out but don't forget 5 trophies in 5 years. Club wants the new manager to take a more holistic approach and involved more in youth teams, promoting youngsters but if a manager has only 2 years then why should he be that interested in youth short of us having a Messi, Xavi in our ranks, which if we did then Mancini would have selected.

On Pellegrini himself, as already mentioned in this thread and other threads, if he had not been already touted so much, we as fans would never even be considering him seriously and that concerns me. I was a Mancini fan, I wanted him to stay. If we were to make a change then it had to be for an upgraded manager, something Pellegrini is not. He is 10 years older than Mancini and to look at their respective CV's there is no comparison as the Italian has been considerably more successful.

Hope Pellegrini does well and this model works out but am underwhelmed and disappointed by the events and conduct of my club in the past few weeks.

Very nicely put , well done !

Must have been worried about it for some time then, as Wigan ran fucking rings round us at the Etihad too.

[Beefymcfc]

Must have been worried about it for some time then, as Wigan ran fucking rings round us at the Etihad too.

I've heard this a few times Ted yet I didn't see the same game. Wigan played well against us but your inference that Wigan 'Ran rings around us' would infer that they had the majority of play, more shots on target and us losing the game. The fact that is was so even said a lot for how Wigan played but at the same time said that we were equally up to the job.

It's just a reactionary way after a not too convincing win, just like saying Wigan were the best team in the FA Cup final. They played well again and may have scored the goal but they were far from being the best team over the course of the game.

[City64]

The band of four !

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Beefymcfc]

The band of four !

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Which one's Ringo?

[City64]

The band of four !

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Which one's Ringo?

Fuck Knows Beefy ! dont really care ! lol

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

Fuck Knows Beefy ! dont really care ! lol

John Lennon has got more life about him than you.

[Ted Hughes]

Must have been worried about it for some time then, as Wigan ran fucking rings round us at the Etihad too.

I've heard this a few times Ted yet I didn't see the same game. Wigan played well against us but your inference that Wigan 'Ran rings around us' would infer that they had the majority of play, more shots on target and us losing the game. The fact that is was so even said a lot for how Wigan played but at the same time said that we were equally up to the job.

It's just a reactionary way after a not too convincing win, just like saying Wigan were the best team in the FA Cup final. They played well again and may have scored the goal but they were far from being the best team over the course of the game.

Wigan were better than us in the league game & we were very lucky. Mancini lost the ploit completely, went to 3 at the back & Wigan were running through us like Arsenal v Keegan's team, it was embarrassing.

I stopped posting after the Wigan game because I didn't want to put a downer on people's FA Cup build up.

[Beefymcfc]

Must have been worried about it for some time then, as Wigan ran fucking rings round us at the Etihad too.

I've heard this a few times Ted yet I didn't see the same game. Wigan played well against us but your inference that Wigan 'Ran rings around us' would infer that they had the majority of play, more shots on target and us losing the game. The fact that is was so even said a lot for how Wigan played but at the same time said that we were equally up to the job.

It's just a reactionary way after a not too convincing win, just like saying Wigan were the best team in the FA Cup final. They played well again and may have scored the goal but they were far from being the best team over the course of the game.

Wigan were better than us in the league game & we were very lucky. Mancini lost the ploit completely, went to 3 at the back & Wigan were running through us like Arsenal v Keegan's team, it was embarrassing.

I stopped posting after the Wigan game because I didn't want to put a downer on people's FA Cup build up.

They were better? That's obviously an opinion mate and not fact. I thought we did well after 2 very tricky games against United and Chelsea. Wigan had games against QPR and Milwall in about the same period and also did well to push us all the way but in essence, they didn't do anything better than us to win it.

For me, it was a very even game with both sides getting chances. There was no better team or no worse team and the 3 at the back only seemed to give Wigan are bit more ability going forward but not too much in front of goal. Same as in the final, I've no complaints about what Wigan did but for some to say that Wigan outplayed us is just wrong. Their first short that Hart had to deal with was in the 87th minute, after Zab's had been dismissed. Their keeper had a blinder and was MotM for me and without that performance the score could have been very different. If I remember, there were about 5 clear cut chances and saves made in the first half alone.

[Ted Hughes]

Must have been worried about it for some time then, as Wigan ran fucking rings round us at the Etihad too.

I've heard this a few times Ted yet I didn't see the same game. Wigan played well against us but your inference that Wigan 'Ran rings around us' would infer that they had the majority of play, more shots on target and us losing the game. The fact that is was so even said a lot for how Wigan played but at the same time said that we were equally up to the job.

It's just a reactionary way after a not too convincing win, just like saying Wigan were the best team in the FA Cup final. They played well again and may have scored the goal but they were far from being the best team over the course of the game.

Wigan were better than us in the league game & we were very lucky. Mancini lost the ploit completely, went to 3 at the back & Wigan were running through us like Arsenal v Keegan's team, it was embarrassing.

I stopped posting after the Wigan game because I didn't want to put a downer on people's FA Cup build up.

They were better? That's obviously an opinion mate and not fact. I thought we did well after 2 very tricky games against United and Chelsea. Wigan had games against QPR and Milwall in about the same period and also did well to push us all the way but in essence, they didn't do anything better than us to win it.

For me, it was a very even game with both sides getting chances. There was no better team or no worse team and the 3 at the back only seemed to give Wigan are bit more ability going forward but not too much in front of goal. Same as in the final, I've no complaints about what Wigan did but for some to say that Wigan outplayed us is just wrong. Their first short that Hart had to deal with was in the 87th minute, after Zab's had been dismissed. Their keeper had a blinder and was MotM for me and without that performance the score could have been very different. If I remember, there were about 5 clear cut chances and saves made in the first half alone.

I'm talking purely about the league game.

[Mark Garrett]

Ted, I was at Eastlands for the league game and Wigan were the better side and they deserved at least a point and quite possibly all 3. A brilliant Tevez goal got us out of jail.

That game though I read that we had just put in 2 very good performances against United and Chelsea and it was very much a case of after the Lord Mayors show.

My point about the FA Cup Final still stands though. The comparison to Chelsea with Benitez and their final does not stand up to scrutiny as the title he was given was Interim Manager, probably explains some erratic performances and results through his tenure. The Mancini situation at the time was different as it seemed quite likely he would be given another season to not only regain the title but progress to the knockout situation. The mass rumour mill that went into overdrive with all media outlets over in the 24 hours beforehand and on the morning of the game - it was quite surprising particularly in the lead-up to our biggest game of the season.

Do not want to us ever be in the situation again where our manager is standing on the touchline at Wembley with that cloud over him. The fact that City fans beforehand were quite flat and all discussion was on that situation rather than the excitement of a cup final day, a trophy, wembley to me just made the day even more of a let down. That was before the game even started.