Alright, just like what I have been doing in my posts in the past, this post is no exception and I have to do the customary congratulation to Tottenham who have just secured the much coveted 4th spot, and in fact a possible 3rd place if they win their remaining game of the season against the already relegated Burnley and Fulham springs nasty surprises in the Emirates Stadium. That success comes at the expense of high spenders Manchester City who have been tipped all season to clinch that 4th spot and also replacing Liverpool as one of the Big Four in the Premier League this season. What went wrong? After such an obscene splurge, just like Real Madrid, they are expected to destroy everything in their path! But what went wrong with this team? The following paragraphs will show exactly why.
The first reason is of course goes back all the way to the halfway point of the season in which the Manchester City board sacked Mark Hughes who was really doing well with the newly assembled squad that he has. I mean, 35 points at the halfway point of the season is not a bad return at all. Mark Hughes was well on target. Just because he was drawing games doesn't mean that he's losing the plot. I mean, just look at Manuel Pellegrini. At around that time, Real Madrid also faced a kind of dip in form in all competitions, most famously being knocked out from the Copa del Rey by part timers Alcorcon, being thrashed severely by them in the first leg. It was such an embarrassment, and many speculated heavily that Manuel Pellegrini would be sacked soon after that cup fiasco. However, experience is indeed one's best teacher and Florentino Perez has learned his way, and he didn't sack Manuel Pellegrini. Look at Real Madrid now, they are still piling pressure on Barcelona even until the time of writing, potentially pipping them on the last day of the season if Real Madrid has their way. Barcelona fans might flame me, but that's the reality and you guys know it.But not for Manchester City, they chose to sack Mark Hughes and replace him with someone with no real experience in England besides a short playing stint with Leicester City which British commentators can't stop reminding us. This is pretty much like how US and its allies destroyed the relatively stable Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq and replacing it with severely unstable new government. Now look at Manchester City, despite a great improvement from last season's 10th place finish, this is not the kind of return you would expect with that kind of squad and with that kind of money invested. I know people would just accuse me of sour grapes and asking too many “what if” questions but yeah, that's a valid question that with how Mark Hughes won at least the home games in scintillating manner to the tune of 5-1, 4-3, 6-0 week in week out, we really ought to ask plenty of “what if” questions
The second reason, which is evident not only in last night's match, but also throughout this season even before the sacking of Mark Hughes is the very fact that this expensively assembled team have no team chemistry at all. Most of the time, and last night's match included, it is Tevez that has to do it all alone to bring City up. Even Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi can't do things alone. Even Maradona himself during his heyday won't be able to carry his team's burden on his own week in week out. In any case I certainly appreciate the fact that the Abu Dhabi United Group has come and make Manchester City a force to be reckoned with, so that we Man City fans outside Manchester are no longer being ridiculed by the massively majority Manchester United fans around us, and also this kind of squad assembled in such a short amount of time will definitely need to gel. But this is nevertheless a huge problem, and this is definitely the same problem faced by my other favorite team, Real Madrid, in which team chemistry is very minute, if not absent. However, what I am hoping is that the players, manager (whoever that might be, hopefully it will be Roberto Mancini), and the board would not be rushed to immediately overhaul the squad once again as it will only make the team chemistry issue even worse and it will be severely detrimental What City should do is that to supplement this team according to the area which needs improvement and also doing it in a consistent by gradual manner. I just hope that they remember success doesn't come instantly, not only in football, but in every aspects of the world. This is the real world football, in which teams need time to gel and thus gain that kind of team chemistry. We could see that the players sometimes still haven't got used with each other. Such as how most of the time a pass from Bellamy from instance will only hit Adebayor's heel as he makes a run too soon and the stray ball is simply collected by the opposition to launch a swift and devastating counterattack and either Man City concede a disappointing goal, or Shay Given saves the day. This is not Football Manager or Winning Eleven in which the simple use of the Editor to move players from all over the world into a team, and in the very first match, the team is already able to destroy everyone and everything. Even in the newer versions of Football Manager, team chemistry is present and a newly assembled team will not play well.
In any case, it would not be fair and it would be amateurish to start condemning Man City as if they have crashed a toddler by the team bus based on that last night's match alone. Tottenham really made us of Peter Crouch's bodily giftedness really well last night in stationing him right in front of Marton Fulop and supplying him with balls to head into goal. Other players such as Luka Modric also constantly tested Fulop. Despite that, Fulop performed quite admirably in the match, as even if he was seen as a weak link, just like Fabianski recently, he was up to the task and more often than not, I forgot that the one between the sticks was not Shay Given! Even in Peter Crouch's goal, Fulop had saved in a really admirable manner before Crouch simply tapped in the rebound into the empty net. We can't blame Fulop for that, and credit to him that the defeat was only 1-0 and not an embarrassing 4-0 or even 8-0 which would certainly result in the sacking of Roberto Mancini on the spot, perhaps on the City of Manchester pitch a la Phil Brown's team talk there last season! Also, there's no reason to blame this on Given's injury as based on what I have seen in the two games, Marton Fulop has done well in deputizing for Shay Given.
Many Manchester City fans I know also complained on how Vieira is overutilized this season and how Vieira shouldn't have played in last night's game. They also questioned why Vieira was signed at the first place. OK, for this, I have to take all of you back to January in which Man City infamously lodged a 100 million Euro bid to lure the then AC Milan's Kaka into Manchester City. Needless to say, it was flatly rejected by Kaka himself who stated that he “loved” Milan, although the real reason was of course he wanted to move to a BIGGER club such as his current club Real Madrid. In my opinion, that's precisely the reason that led to Mancini signing Vieira. We have to admit that during his heyday, there's no chance in hell that Vieira would be joining Man City. But he's in the sunset of his career, and yet his legacy is immense and his name is nevertheless remain one of the household names of football. Thus, he was signed for free to be a catalyst to attract future big names to sign for Man City, and I kind of agree that assuming that's really the reason for his signing, he shouldn't be over utilized as a player as he would be a liability instead of helping City's cause.
Another source of problem for Man City this season is the sheer volatility and flammable dressing room atmosphere. It seems that the dressing room is full of methane gas in which a slightest of spark will cause a massive explosion. I mean, just look at the City squad. Craig Bellamy, Adebayor, Tevez, Robinho, and even Stephen Ireland. You can almost predict an explosion happening sooner rather than later with these explosive characteristics on board. That's not to say that it is a bad thing on its own. But the external environment can hasten the explosion process. OK, I won't talk about Harry Redknapp's mind games as like I said, we can't solely blame City's inability to win last night to the mind games being played about Bellamy's transfer. But even stray rumors from the media such as how it's rumored that Tevez is leaving, Bellamy is having an altercation with Mancini, it might ignite a disharmony in the dressing room with the aforementioned volatile characters on board. Simple rumors can become extremely poisonous venom without a calming influence to those hot-headed characters.
All in all, I, and of course other Man City fans wherever they might be will be keeping our fingers firmly crossed that the Man City board will be making rational and well-informed decisions such as sticking with Roberto Mancini for next season and not doing any massive culling and makeover to the squad. What should be done is simply take a leaf out of Real Madrid's book and just stick to their manager despite embarrassing comments from pundits and the media, and even snipes from opposing managers when results don't go their way. They have to realize that even a 300m Euros investment would require time and patience besides massive efforts to bear fruit.
Sacking Roberto Mancini at the end of this season will only lead to Manchester City sliding down the table again as further instability will ensue and that the big players already at the club might feel unhappy about the situation and start asking to be transferred out somewhere else. Worst comes to worst, the board itself might even decide that the investment is failing, I mean given their nature to want things to happen instantly, they might not even have the necessary patience for the City project to be successful and the only way out is to abandon ship and takeover a club which qualifies to the Champions League as their own short-cut to reach Europe's Premier Competition, and the next stop for the ADUG is, TOTTENHAM! Man City fans, all of us have been warned!
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