Fergie’s retirement hasn’t been taken advantage of by the Blues.
Speaking of Sir Alex’s retirement Toure noted: “United are a great club and Ferguson is a big character there.
“He has built everything at United and the balance, I hope, will go to the City side now.”
With Roberto Mancini the last man to wrestle the title from Fergie’s grip, you’d expect Toure’s words to be a little bit more credible than just the usual bluster. It seems the powers that be at the Etihad have different plans though with reports emerging that former Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini is due to take over from Mancini next season.
Pellegrini is a very good manager having led Madrid to the highest points total in their history – unfortunately not enough to see off Guardiola’s rampant Barcelona. The former Villarreal manager also took Malaga to the last eight of the Champions League, hardly a small feat, so let’s not be quick to dismiss him. The risk lies in the fact that Pellegrini has never managed in England, spent huge sums at Real and still finished trophy-less and only has a solitary Intertoto cup win to show for his nine years managing in Europe.
At 59 Pellegrini is definitely not what one would expect for the long haul, but may be the answer to City’s Champions League woes, having taken Malaga so far this season despite having to lose some of his best players. The appointment represents a gamble though as Pellegrini hasn’t managed in the Premier League and even talented managers like Luiz Scolari, Juande Ramos and City’s former boss Sven Goran Eriksson have struggled to adapt.
I’m not saying David Moyes is a far better manager than Pellegrini, but he does know the Premier League, something that may prove vital as the sides no doubt resume their title race in the next campaign.
With Ferguson leaving, it may have represented the perfect chance for Mancini to regain the title he won last season and maybe even lay down his own bid for dominance, but now City like United enter the unknown, the difference being their’s is a lot more unnecessary.
I’d wait until an official announcement is made before I counted my chickens if I were you…
I for one will be astonished if City sack Mancini. Just as SAF represents what can be acheived with stability and long term leadership (as does Wenger to a lesser degree) City more than any other club epitomise the downsides of musical chairs, remind me, 6 managers in one season?
Yes he’s spent money, but much of the money was spent by Sparky to get them out of the doldrums, Mancini has had to deal with the fallout consequences of massive big heads (Adebayor/Bedlamy) and huge wage bills which made these players unsaleable. At the same time he has consolidating and built a championship winnings side and won the FAC (probably twice).
What do the leadership at City expect in 3 years?
I don’t think Mancini has made a bad signing although some like Sinclair are a bit puzzling, and some have been inspired, like signing a lump of a 2nd string DMF from Barca and turning him into a beast of a midfield general.
Despite all the early reservations about the long term ambitions of Sheik Mansour it now seems that the ‘project’ has legs and that he is there for the long haul. That being the case why sack Mancini now? If this really is a long term job of work to make liddle city a world power then surely the SAF model makes long term sense? A lot more sense than having American asset strippers as owners!!
right on target mate…as a utd die hard i would wish city to change manager as that would create an aura of instability but…mancini has done a great a job and what he needs most is time.if mancini stays one or two more years derby battles would get more spicy for us aficionados and ‘our noisy neighbours’ could create an identity…for the betterment of football in general.the guy has made some errors but hey fergie too did some but that stability has made him the worlds best ever.city dont need to sack mancini.what they need is to get rid of those big egos…nasri,dzeko and tevez for starting.
Several points there Jay.
The main one being as madrid manager he was outclassed by Barcelona and guardiola.
Well unless you have a short memory wembley 2011 the very same thing happened to united completely dominated by what was a great Barca side . Are you seriously saying that if they were in the PL that united would have finished above them .
You are also jumping the gun as no confirmation of what you are saying but Mancini had never managed here and has done a good job so most owners will gamble at some point in their ownership and not sure of how far you can go back but i remember tge days of united fans screaming for SAF head . As that was in days of little success how patient will the fans be with moyes .
Some very honest and well thought out stuff here from United fans.
There is a lot of rubbish written by both clubs about each other on R of Mancunia and on city blogs but you lads are a credit to Manchester United and its fair.
By the way…….got linked to this story from newsnow didn’t come on here off my own choice!!!!
Enjoy party today!