What was Bobby"s biggest mistake?

[dazby]

More and more i've been thinking that Mancini made decisions solely to spite those who would not bend to his will.

I think 352 is an example of this ... there is no way that after the ridiculous pre-season attempts at it, and the repeated failures of it in Europe and the league, that it should even have been considered for use in the FA cup final. It is my theory that the 352 was entirely created to prove a point to management. After that, a mixture of stubbornness and arrogance meant that Mancini could never come back from that decision, or admit he was wrong in trying to implement it. Which ruined every aspect of our season.

I like Mancini a lot. As a former player, as a manager ... I think he has a lot of good points. And stubbornness and arrogance can be strong points when you're at the top, just look at the scum. But when those traits lead you to stick with a losing formation, and throw others under the bus ... you're just asking for the sack.

We simply have not had a coach in recent memory who knew what a plan B was, or how to effectively implement one. Plan B doesn't have to be a radical formation change ... but it does have to be practiced and rehearsed. It seems like our 352 was just something that Mancini expected players to pick up on the fly. Pretty poor.

Care to nominate the repeated failures of the 3-5-2? I swear we've been more successful when we've used it.

[DoomMerchant]

See, I think that's pretty much how Mancini thought!

Carl sees a lot of his failures in Mancini. It's obvious.

[Socrates]

Never got over the feeble effort at Arsenal in his first season. We got a free go at a win against a depleted Arse and he bottled it, got a 'useless point' and that cost us Champions League that season. It showed us a lot about his mentality.

Oh just fuck off, he won the fucking league after that and you still can't forgive what was a perfectly reasonable point at the time. Winning the league was his biggest mistake, raised expectations ahead of schedule.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Slagging off his players in public....Hart, Kompany, Richards, Tevez, Nasri...whoever else.....suicidal stuff. Sure fire way to undermine your standing with the collective. Sure it will fire up some but others, not at all, an makes you look like a disloyal "it is everyone's fault but mine" cunt.

In my job, where there is a very strict "pyramid" hierachy we were always told that, when you are lower down, if you fuck up then hold your hand up and tell someone. If the fuck up has managed to impact clients that is the fault of those higher up the chain who should have either spotted it or trained you/supervised you/managed you better so that this kind of thing didn't happen. The message was and is that the buck stops with the man at the top, that's why he is there.

Sure it's about a team and the collective but there is someone in ultimate charge for a reason and he should be man enough to shield those below him from public blame (..even if behind closed doors a different message is conveyed).

That, for me, is where he sowed the seeds of his own demise

Has to be this. As was said on SKY tonight you can get away with not having the players fully on board while you are winning things but even then only for so long.From the little bits we are already hearing it does seem he hardly had any players fully in his side.When you have a go at a player it's quite possible the player concerned might take it well or at least understand why he does it that way but I guess other players in the team /squad could just see it as a negative.

Then of course there are others who take it very badly anyway.Who has he potentially upset:
Hart
Micah
Kolo
Lescott
Vinnie
Nasri
Tevez
Pantillimon
Nasri
Sinclair
Edin

You just sustain things if you carry on upsetting players.I did think when Panti was left out on Saturday that many in the team would think that was wrong as he had promised him he would play only a week or so earlier.Yes I know Panti spoke to the press and said what he did but that was hardly news was it.City would have known that ages ago.I did.

[Slim]

I could tell you he was a cunt to everyone around the club and had a penchant for labeling out abuse, warranted or unwarranted whenever the mood struck him.

I could tell you he was in love with himself, told the players he could do everything better than they ever could, that he worked harder and was more committed than they'd ever be.

But I won't badmouth a manager who brought us a league title and an FA Cup two days after he's left the club.

[Pretty Boy Lee]

Two spring to mind and both are because of his stubbornness.

1 - not selling Balo at the height of his worth. Had he flogged off his golden boy after the euros he'd have had the cash to buy a replacement or one of the holding mids he was so keen on.

2 - never really forgiving Tevez. 3 weeks ago against a stubborn wigan Tevez scores with 4 mins left. This week he's straight back to Tevez only gets 60min mode he's been in for a year and a half. Yes he fucked up and crosses the boss, but he's grovelled and had his lumps, if he's out working Sergio then bring him off.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

Oh just fuck off, he won the fucking league after that and you still can't forgive what was a perfectly reasonable point at the time. Winning the league was his biggest mistake, raised expectations ahead of schedule.

You really are a rude man, and even with the benefit of hindsight you are blind. That performance cost the club many millions.

[DoomMerchant]

You really are a rude man, and even with the benefit of hindsight you are blind. That performance cost the club many millions.

Hes a dickhead roger dodger. Its a fact.

You and i've met and shared a pint and a smoke and enjoyed conversation.

Guaranteed if I met him I'd be at a loss for intelligent conversation. A complete turd.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

Hes a dickhead roger dodger. Its a fact.

You and i've met and shared a pint and a smoke and enjoyed conversation.

Guaranteed if I met him I'd be at a loss for intelligent conversation. A complete turd.

Well thats very kind of you Sir.
Sometimes, you read a post and can't believe how stupid it is. Many efforts from Socrates fall into that category these days.

[Original Dub]

I could tell you he was a cunt to everyone around the club and had a penchant for labeling out abuse, warranted or unwarranted whenever the mood struck him.

I could tell you he was in love with himself, told the players he could do everything better than they ever could, that he worked harder and was more committed than they'd ever be.

But I won't badmouth a manager who brought us a league title and an FA Cup two days after he's left the club.

Ooh do tell antoinette!

[john@staustell]

I guess we could read this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... -Hart.html

Roberto Mancini sealed his fate with the Manchester City players when he publicly criticised Joe Hart in Real Madrid’s Bernabeu Stadium as long ago as last September, it can be revealed.

Mancini is coming to terms with life as an ex-City manager after being sacked two games before the end of the BarclaysPremier League season late on Monday night.

As reported by Sportsmail, the Italian’s fractured relationship with his own players was at the core of his dismissal from the Etihad Stadium and Mancini never had a chance once he had taken on England goalkeeper Hart in the wake of a Champions League defeat in Spain last autumn.

Informed on the way in to his post-match press conference after City’s 3-2 defeat that Hart had told TV cameras that his team-mates had no excuses, Mancini deliberated over whether to respond.

Then the City boss told reporters that Hart should ‘stay in goal and make saves. I am the judge, not Joe Hart’. It was this comment that City’s players took as a betrayal of one of the dressing room’s most popular players and, from that point on, there was no way back.

City were at Reading on Tuesday night playing their penultimate Premier League game of the season, having already made it clear Mancini will not be missed. Staying in London following Saturday’s FA Cup final defeat, several spent much of the time sending messages to reporters outside trying to find out if their manager had been sacked.

One message from a first-team player simply asked: ‘Is it time to put the champagne on ice?’

All of this may seem very strange, given that players such as Hart, Vincent Kompany, Gareth Barry and James Milner had won virtually nothing before Mancini guided City to an FA Cup win in 2011 and the Premier League title a year later.

Sadly, though, it just tells the story of how much Mancini was struggling to keep relationships going at every level at City by the time he was dismissed rather cack-handedly this week.

In their statement on Monday night, City spoke of their desire to adopt a more ‘holistic’ approach, a responsibility that will fall partly to Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini once he signs a contract in the next two weeks.

The club were understandably lampooned for such peculiar language, but it was their way of pointing to a lack of togetherness and communal direction felt at the club during the latter half of Mancini’s three-and-a-half years.

City certainly do want to develop a sense of continuity throughout all levels of their football — from the youth set-up to the first team. They describe it as ‘one house of football’.

That, though, will continue to be primarily the responsibility of sporting director Txiki Begiristain. Pellegrini — when he arrives — will be the first-team coach.

What City will hope to be rid of is the sense of exclusion that they feel Mancini built around his coterie of a dozen or so technical staff.

Certainly the approach Mancini took towards medical matters during his time at the club alarmed senior executives.
.
Almost permanently dissatisfied with the medical staff, Mancini is understood to have interfered relentlessly with the treatment of his players, sometimes shunning the conventional methods of City’s experts to send players off to Italy for treatment with physio Sergio Vigano, an old friend in his mid-70s.

Three club doctors came and went during Mancini’s time at the club, as did physio Jamie Murphy, but still he never felt comfortable.


One of the saddest moments of City’s celebrations moments after winning the Premier League in their own stadium a year ago came when Mancini chose not to shake the hand of club doctor Phil Batty as he walked down a line-up of staff on the way to collecting the trophy.

All top managers have arguments, of course. It’s what drives many of them. At City, though, they simply felt Mancini had too many and even chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the man who hired and supported the former Inter coach throughout, could not persuade him to adopt a more diplomatic approach. Khaldoon was informed on more than one occasion by City players that Mancini was unpopular.

Some players even wanted the Italian out in the wake of last May’s title triumph, something that will surprise even the most hardened and cynical football observers.

Certainly City will be more careful and more rigid when it comes to the appointment of Pellegrini.

The current Malaga coach will not be allowed to bring so many staff with him — Mancini even brought in a chef — and his role will be far more clearly defined.

We will not know for some time if Mancini has learned any lessons in recent months. It would appear City certainly feel they have.

[MilnersJaw]

That is bolloxs by the daily mail. It might be coming out that Mancini is a cunt now but what he said about hart is fine. He has the right to tell joe to stfu he was the boss. He should have easily saved that last goal by tranny. He is a grown man, shouldn't cry like a baby cos your boss told you to stfu. All daily bolloxs

[simon12]

That is bolloxs by the daily mail. It might be coming out that Mancini is a cunt now but what he said about hart is fine. He has the right to tell joe to stfu he was the boss. He should have easily saved that last goal by tranny. He is a grown man, shouldn't cry like a baby cos your boss told you to stfu. All daily bolloxs

I agree with that.

My thoughts on what lost him the job are

1. Mario
2. Tevez saga
3. 3 at the back
4. Losing to soton
5. Publicly moaning about transfer targets
6. And my guess would not work under the Spaniards in the way that Pelligrini will

[Redna]

That is bolloxs by the daily mail. It might be coming out that Mancini is a cunt now but what he said about hart is fine. He has the right to tell joe to stfu he was the boss. He should have easily saved that last goal by tranny. He is a grown man, shouldn't cry like a baby cos your boss told you to stfu. All daily bolloxs

I agree with that.

My thoughts on what lost him the job are

1. Mario
2. Tevez saga
3. 3 at the back
4. Losing to soton
5. Publicly moaning about transfer targets
6. And my guess would not work under the Spaniards in the way that Pelligrini will

I'm fine with that list.

[dazby]

Again, name a match where we lost by having 3 at the back and I'll show you more games that we won by switching to it.

[Chopper]

Mancinis biggest mistake?



Getting Sacked

[MilnersJaw]

Name these games then that 3 at the back won it?

[dazby]

I've previously done this. I'm assuming you can't name any that we've lost?

[ant london]

Quite illuminating that from what I can see, none of the players who are frequent Tweeters (Kompany, Zabba, Lescott, Agüero etc) have said a dickybird since he was sacked

No best wishes

No good luck

No thanks for the last couple of years

Tells you all you need to know about their relationships IMO

[john@staustell]

Quite illuminating that from what I can see, none of the players who are frequent Tweeters (Kompany, Zabba, Lescott, Agüero etc) have said a dickybird since he was sacked

No best wishes

No good luck

No thanks for the last couple of years

Tells you all you need to know about their relationships IMO

Probably a club ban Ant.

Has anyone mentioned the League Cup defeat to Villa. WTF happened then? A dreadful Villa side outplayed a side of uninspired internationals, but at the time I guess we all pretended it didn't really happen!