Risky move by the City money men
Any manager with three consecutive Serie A titles to his name is going to have an impressive CV but is Roberto Mancini as good as he looks on paper?
For a start, you can discount the first title that is credited to him.
Yes, credited to him, Inter Milan never finished top of Serie A in 2005/06. The stench of corruption has never been too far away when it comes to Juventus and the Old Lady of Italian football was finally caught out.
Juventus topped the table with AC Milan coming second but after the 2006 Calciopoli scandal, third placed Inter Milan were deemed to be the winners of the Scudetto. The record books indicated that Inter Milan were the winners but football fans would consider otherwise.
In the original tables, Inter were 15 points behind Juventus and 12 points behind AC Milan.
In 2006/07, with Juventus relegated and Fiorentina and AC Milan starting the season on negative points, Inter Milan were firm favourites to clinch the title. In all fairness, they did and were dominant throughout the campaign. 30 wins from 38 league games is impressive in any standard, let alone a league like Italy’s top flight where an away point is considered good in most circumstances. One defeat indicated their strength and this season was Mancini’s main success.
The psychology of knowing that your main rivals were depleted before the season had even begun gave Inter a boost but there was a need to manage the psychology. The players would be mocked for being hailed as Champions the previous season when it wasn’t deserved so to put on such an impressive run of form in the following season was worthy of praise.
After the success of 2006/07, the hopes for 2007/08 centred on continued domestic dominance and a proper assault on the Champions League. After resolving their Scudetto drought, Inter Milan fans were keen to compete at the top end of European football once again but there was disappointment to follow.
At one point it was looking good, as Inter Milan had built up an 11 point lead over Roma but a European exit knocked the club for six. The lead would be frittered away and entering the last day of the season, Inter were ahead by one point only.
In the end, Zlatan Ibrahimovic returned from injury to score twice to secure all three points as Roma could only draw. The Scudetto was retained by three points but it was an open secret that Mancini was on the way out.
Mancini had actually announced his intention to quit at the end of the season after the Champions League exit to Liverpool but this was withdrawn the following day. Either way, the dressing room was lost and Mancini and Inter very nearly blew their title. On the 29th of May 2008, Mancini was relieved of his duties as Inter boss.
So, the history books never lie but the truth of the triumph is not as glorious as some may think.
Will it be enough for Mancini to bring success to the City of Manchester Stadium?
Although having spent his managerial career in Italy, Mancini has at least played football in England. Okay, he managed a handful of games for Leicester City at the ripe old age of 36, not once lasting the full 90 minutes.
It is not a lot to go on and Mancini will need to get up to speed rather quickly.
He will have the quality attacking players at his disposal at City but the defence will need to be toughened considerably. Perhaps the Italian sense of catenaccio can be applied to City but some new recruits will be required.
The money men of City will have to free up some cash for defensive minded players to compliment the attacking players that Mancini will have at his disposal.
The ultimate goal for Mancini this season is a top four finish. It is definitely within his grasp. To manage this, he will need to turn the draws into defeats. If he can add the Carling or FA Cup to Champions League qualification, he can be very proud of his opening efforts in English football management.
If Mancini fails to do this, he may be saying arriverderci sooner than he would have hoped.
Do you think Mancini is the man for Man City?
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Mancini is the right man: you’ve to give him time, but if there’s someone who can make your team win a title, he’s the man.
To understand the work he did at Internazionale, you’ve to look how was the team before he arrived.
Since Massimo Moratti arrival in 1994, Inter hadn’t been able to win anything except for a Uefa Cup in over 15 years.
The society was changing managers and players all the time, and all fans thought there wasn’t any way to create a winning team like that.
Mancini arrived and changed everything: he was the first manager to stay so long at the club and, beware, it wasn’t him that said he wanted out, he said that he knew that at the end of the season he would have been sacked, since he knew there was an agreement between mourinho and moratti since december of 2007.
Mancini brought with him a great staff, chose great players: julio cesar, one of the best goalkeepers in the world, it’s his choice. Maicon was another one, ibrahimovic was taken from juventus on his decision after one of the worst seasons he ever had, and other players like cambiasso and stankovic were also his choices.
He even did some mistakes like asking players like Suazo, but
1 moratti never gave him a lot of funds for the buying campaing (if you see how much inter spent during his years, and how much it’s spending since mourinho came you can see a big difference)
2 even the acclaimed mourinho has done great errors in chosing players, like quaresma, who’s costed 25 millions of Euro.
Even Mario Balotelli, one of the best young of the serie A was launced only 17th in the main league by Mancini. Mancini is well known for liking players with skills, and for launching young players, he launched more youngers in inter that mourinho till now. When Ibrahimovic was injuried, he based all the attack on a young 17 year old boy like balotelli.
Mancini won in 4 years 2 italian cups, 2 italian supercups and 3 titles, and if you followed the SERIE A before Calciopoli you would understand why he didn’t win 4 titles.
He is great at boosting defense, and with him you should never see matches end with 3 goals taken by your team.
He gave to the team a way of playing it never had before: he wanted them to play the ball, not to do just long launches.
The only thing i can say mancini wasn’t good at was the champions, but it wasn’t his fault for me, it was the team: if you see mourinho has done worst than him till now, and that’s due to the fact that inter team still hasn’t a good groupd of middlefielders (snejider came only this year)
well that’s all, from an inter fan i can just say to you to give him the proper time, he’s the right man for the job.
Sharky,
thanks for your great post, it is always good to get that level of insight from fans that watch week in week out.
It is certainly a bold move to bring Mancini in. The fact that he is now the first manager taht the new Manchester City owners have picked will hopefully see him be given time.
Do you think Mancini will be able to win the EPL?
For instance, Rafa Benitez came to England with the pedigree of beating Real Madrid and Barcelona to two league titles and a UEFA Cup….but has struggled domestically.
If it wasnt for the Champions League triumph, Rafa would be out of a job. Therefore, winning domestic leagues abroad isnt a guarantee of winning the English Premier League.
Also, will City owners and fans care about bringing youngsters through? It is something a football club should be doing but if you have an almost endless pot of money, the incentive to buy – even buying the highly rated youngsters, is likely to be too tempting.
We will just have to wait and see but thanks for reading and your insightful comments.