Premier League News: Dark clouds over Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini’s head
When Mark Hughes could not transform “money into success”, Manchester City’s billion-dollar owner decided to bring in Roberto Mancini. The Italian had a very strong resume, so it was thought that he could bring success to the Eastlands.
However, after almost a year in charge of the first-team affairs, Mancini seems to be running out of options.
Manchester City, under Mancini, spent a lot of money during the summer break. He brought in players like Yaya Toure, Mario Balotelli, Jerome Boateng, James Milner and David Silva. All this was done to ensure that results would
follow suit, however there is nothing but downhill for Manchester City. At this point, it seems that all the money has been wasted, and is continuously being wasted in shape of heavy wage bills, for nothing.
In this season, so far, City has won only five matches out of ten Premier League games. At one point, it all looked positive, as City stood in the second position in the league table. At that point, City had already beaten Chelsea
and Liverpool, while they got a draw out of their White Hart Lane encounter. However, in the match against Arsenal, everything went wrong for Mancini. He suggested a physical game against Arsenal, but it resulted in a red card being shown to Dedryck Boyata
in the opening five minutes. In the end, Arsenal humiliated City in front of their home crowd, beating them by 3-0.
The next match was against Wolverhampton Wanderers, where City looked to restore some of their lost pride. However, things did not turn out in their favour, as the team lost their second match in a row. Manchester City, who were
once only two points behind Chelsea, are now looking at a gap of eight points from the top. Although they remain in the Champions League position, all the three clubs above them: Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, spent almost nothing in the transfer
market as compared to City.
There can be a number of reasons for City’s poor performance at the moment. One of them is a lack of motivation and an absence of a fighting spirit. This was also pointed out by Toure, who suggested that the City players have only
a Champions League spot as their target. This is the main reason for their failure in some matches, as they are not motivated enough to challenge for the league title. Sometimes, like against Arsenal, City players display a lot of fighting spirit, but it often
dies out without any real consequences.
Mancini is also facing problems from his squad. He has some quality players sitting on the benches, and it is hard for him to find a workable rotation policy. Due to this, players like Emmanuel Adebayor are constantly engaging
themselves in war of the words with their manager. However, Mancini was helpless, even when Adebayor came up with a hat-trick against Lech Poznan in the Europa League. Despite showing a good display of football, the Togo International did not make it into
the starting XI for the match against Arsenal.
Due to these conditions, it is now being speculated that Mancini is losing control of his dressing room. This news broke out when Adebayor and Vincent Kompany had an argument with their manager, during the half-time of match against
the Wolverhampton Wanderers. Although this might not have been all that significant, the news leaked out to the press. Kolo Toure, the defender for City, came out in defence of his manager by rejecting any suggestions that there was any ‘grouping’ in the squad
and a negative attitude towards Mancini. Nevertheless, the result speaks for itself, and it seems that Mancini is failing to cope with the star-studded side, which is left on its own.
If Mancini fails to improve the results of the Citizens, he is going to face a lot of problems in the future. This might result in him getting fired from the job prematurely. Currently, his fate is riding on the local derby against
Manchester United. There are a lot of emotions involved in that fixture, and if City loses the match, Mancini might be looking for another job.
Tags: