So is this the year when Manchester Citybecame title contenders?
Roberto Mancini will always be a manager under pressure at Manchester City, though he does well to hide it, grey hairs apart. What the press think and say should be irrelevant of course, but with unlimited funds available (in theory, if not in practice), his team is expected to (soon) rule the world. But as he said to the press last week:
‘This year will be different, but we want to improve on last year. We had our targets then and maybe we could have done better in the league because we were in first position [at one point]. But the players were together last year and that’s why we will be better this time.’
Over the summer he also repeatedly dismissed talk of challenging for the title. But little should be believed that comes from the mouths of managers in press conferences, and the general feeling is that City should be title contenders this season, which is reasonable. They have the investment in players, but not the experience. The question is how will they react? Last season, it was felt that Mancini had to finish in the Top Four to retain his job. Having done that, and captured the first trophy for the club in 35 years, the pressure on him and the team is reduced, but only very slightly.
What does he have to do this season? Another trophy would keep the fans happy. For the owners, who knows? A semi-educated guess would assume they want to see a challenge for the title, successful or otherwise. They, and the fans, will expect to see improvements year-on-year.
The Community Shield showed glimpses of the old City – a calamitous last-minute gaffe, a last-minute winner for Manchester United, an underwhelming performance from the men in all-blue. Very little should be gleaned from what was a friendly, albeit an ultra-competitive one, in the same way that City’s destruction of Inter Milan the previous week told us precious little either. The missed opportunity for Vincent Kompany to hold aloft the world’s biggest 50p will have been disappointing, but will soon be forgotten, along with most Community Shield results. Who won last season? No idea.
Behind the scenes, if you believed everything you read, there is anarchy, chaos, poor team morale, in-fighting, backstabbing and unprofessional behaviour on an industrial scale. Somewhere in there is an element of the truth – there seems little doubt Mancini has had a problem relationship at times with Brian Marwood and Garry Cook, over who wealds power at the club. We are used to a system in Britain of the manager having that power – of deciding who to buy and who to sell, though not always on the scale Alex Ferguson controls his club. And this is how Mancini wants it too – absolute power, his decisions, his team. Unfortunately Brian Marwood sees things a little differently. Mancini wants complete control – down to the hiring of medical staff, and what milk to have in the canteen (Cravendale, if he’s got any sense).
The team itself is strong, the squad is strong. Mancini has repeatedly said over the last week or two that he still wants a couple more signings. The rumours clearly point to a central midfielder, a right-sided midfielder and perhaps an extra central defender too. City struggled last season to mount challenges on numerous fronts, tiring in late-winter until elimination from the Europa League cleared the calendar somewhat, boosting energy levels as a result. The season ahead will be no different, and Mancini will be aware of the need for a deep squad if the team is to keep going at the business-end of the season, as they did last time around.
For City, the Champions League will be a new and exciting experience. As for what City can hope to achieve, it is hard to say – their first objective will be to progress from the group. As 3rd seeds, it could be a tough draw, especially when you consider that the German Champions Borussia Dortmund are 4th seeds. A group of death is on the cards, every sport writer’s ultimate wet dream. Secretly, Mancini would probably rather finish 4th in the group than 3rd.
A fairly young squad will enter the season a year older and more experienced, strengthened with three defensive signings, possibly Samir Nasri (or Wesley Sneijder, though that looks unlikely ) and a wide-man (Fiorentina’s Alessi Cerci is repeatedly mentioned in press rumours) in midfield, the exciting Sergio Aguero up front with possibly another defender on the way too.
The defence, which was the joint meanest in the Premier League last season has lost the underwhelming Jerome Boateng, and gained Gael Clichy from Arsenal, and the Montenegro defender Stefan Savic, whilst 6 foot 8 inches goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon has come in as back-up to Joe Hart, replacing the departed Shay Given.