Hey, Roberto, Things Are Really Looking Up
It’s only been 48 hours or so since Manchester City meekly surrendered their aspirations for fourth place at home to a determined, vibrant Spurs team. The radio silence was deafening for a while until club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak decided to put manager Roberto Mancini (not our beloved commenter, sadly; another RM) at ease.
“Roberto’s going to do a wonderful job for us for many years. Roberto is our manager. He’s done an excellent job coming in mid-season, organising the team. I’m very happy, and (owner) Sheikh Mansour is delighted with the way he’s organised the team.”
“We believe he is definitely the right manager for this club for many years. What he needs this summer is time to prepare and really organise ourselves. We know the areas that need to be improved within the club. A good pre-season followed with a good start to the season and I’m really excited for next year.”
If you listen harder, you can hear him forcing each syllable through tightly-gritted teeth.
In all honestly, I’m surprised at the level of calm being displayed in the Citeh boardroom, for despite Al Mubarak’s kind words of assurance for their beleaguered manager, coupled with the exuberant, petulant spending of 2009/10 upon shiny new players pried from comfortable clubs, this all seems rather rational.
Sure, we’ll get the wild “CITEH TO BID 100M FOR KAKA” and “CITEH BUY AC MILAN FOR SPARE PARTS” headlines all summer long, but I’m shocked that some of that free-and-easy scratch hasn’t been set aside for wooing Jose Mourinho all summer long. I thought that was the obvious move; if we fail with Mancini, at least we can snap up The Special One without too much difficulty, and yet, I was wrong.
Are they just sticking with him until they know a more successful manager is available, in which case they’ll dump him mid-season and make their move? Are they just speaking off the cuff in today’s press conference while making a plan in private? Or, most disturbing of all, are they genuinely happy?
For now at least, it seems that Manchester City are at peace with having a manager who’s so afraid of being caught out that he’d rather play for 0-0 draws in crucial games. Perhaps we should all be thankful at their decision-making, at least for now; after all, no player in the world is safe from the tyrannical lure of their checkbook.
He made those remarks in a 15 minute or so interview on the club site.
I actually came away from watching the interview very impressed with how well spoken he was and how genuine he seemed. Really made me feel a whole lot better about things.