Sir Alex Ferguson is well known for his precision timing – a quality that isn’t limited to the departing Manchester United manager’s assiduous use of his stopwatch to check on a referee’s eye for the clock.
The Scot had a keen sense for even the most imperceptible signs of a player’s form starting to wane, or his attitude slackening. It is possibly such foresight that Sir Alex utilised when considering his retirement. After all, in 2011 Carlo Ancelotti was dismissed by Chelsea a year after leading the Londoners to a Premier League title and F.A. Cup double. Now, Manchester City have implemented the same policy, removing their manager exactly 12 months on from his taking that club to its first championship for 44 years.
It would appear that being at the helm of the champions of the day is a rather perilous business. But, has Roberto Mancini been hard done to?
The popular opinion among City supporters is that he most certainly has. Mancini was the man in charge when the impossible became possible. Upon the 2008 Abu Dhabi takeover at the Etihad Stadium, no right-minded fan of a team most readily associated with routinely inventing fresh means of shooting itself in the foot, could have believed what was set to unfold.
Backed by staggering investment, Mancini was tasked with altering the prevailing perception of the club. An F.A. Cup triumph in 2011 was the start – a first major trophy in 41 years. That success tasted all the better for the semi-final victory which came against City’s most bitter rivals – and the side whose shadow they had grown resigned to inhabiting – Manchester United.
The Citizens had already thrown their financial weight around to the extent that in the Wembley final they were captained by Carlos Tevez, who, a little under two years earlier, was still a key figure at Old Trafford.
To overcome United on such a grand stage prior to going on and claiming the Cup, was tentative evidence of City’s arrival at the top table. Crucially, the players and management, and a wearied but fiercely loyal fan-base, hesitantly began to believe that tangible success was within their reach.
A typical Manchester City team would have followed a face-changing win, such as that over United, with a punch-line to delight all who revel in schadenfreude. Any pessimists needn’t have worried. Stoke City were comfortably seen off on the big day.
Mancini had passed his first examination, and in 2012 he squeezed through another. On his arrival in English football, the Italian was initially faithful to the style of his homeland, instilling a catenaccio approach to earning results. With a confidence imbued in his squad thanks to the collective feeling of being winners, and the spending power to add Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri, and Gael Clichy to an already formidable group, – which included earlier Mancini acquisitions such as; Yaya Toure, James Milner, David Silva, and Edin Dzeko – responsibility grew to entertain while maintaining an upward curve.
That burden proved difficult to sustain. Nevertheless, when City clicked during their Championship campaign, there wasn’t an English adversary that could match them. Reminiscing about their 6-1 win at Old Trafford will never become a dull pastime for City diehards. Tottenham Hotspur were another high-profile victim – thumped 5-1 on their own ground by a wonderfully fluent team.
Even during the Citizens’ season of seasons, some of the doubts previously expressed regarding Mancini’s management capability weren’t dispelled. The man who was himself a fabulously gifted and 36 time internationally capped player, had lost his job at Inter Milan due to an inability to guide the side to the latter stages of the Champions League. That shortcoming was replicated in an underwhelming European venture, which was most notable for the manager’s infamous falling-out with Tevez in Munich.
Furthermore, when the pressure was at its most intense in the toe-to-toe Premier League scrap with Manchester United, City wobbled alarmingly. Performing as if each fixture was taking place at suffocating altitude, Mancini’s team was unable to take points, or score, at; Sunderland, Everton, Swansea City, or Arsenal.
That defeat at the Emirates left City staring at an eight-point gap to the top, with only six games remaining. With title hopes seemingly gone, the creative oxygen returned and West Bromwich Albion, Norwich City, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, were contemptuously swatted aside before, in the nick of time, Mancini’s men exhibited considerable resolve to win vital encounters against first, their cross-city adversaries, and then Newcastle United.
When it came to City’s most famous day against QPR, one year to the day ahead of Mancini’s removal, the requisite desire and fortitude of Champions was to the fore.
A recurring theme to Mancini’s public outpourings this term has been his referring to the failings of his employers last summer – specifically their inability to add quality to his squad from a position of strength. The names of four arrivals; Scott Sinclair, Jack Rodwell, Javi Garcia, and Maicon, have become synonymous with the tale of this unforeseen flat season at the Etihad.