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A Bridge too far

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Asbo

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Or Man Management at its finest?

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has hit back at defender Wayne Bridge and revealed he told Bridge two years ago he had no future at the club.

Bridge has featured just once for City this season, in a Carling Cup tie against Birmingham, and has been forced to train with the youth team by Mancini, who wants to offload Bridge in January.

Mancini recently mocked Bridge, insinuating that the left-back was content to stay at City for a reported £90,000 a week, but Bridge hit back, claiming City had blocked any prospective transfers.

But Mancini insists he told Bridge two years ago he was surplus to requirements at Eastlands, and says he hopes Bridge and Nedum Onuoha will leave the club during the January transfer window.

"Bridge said I don't speak to him. That is not true," Mancini said. "I spoke with Bridge last season and the season before, two years ago.

"I said 'Wayne you are not part of our plans, it is better that you find a good solution for you, because if you stay here it is difficult for you to play'. So Bridge has known about this situation for two years."

On 2 January 2009, it was confirmed by Mark Hughes that Manchester City had agreed an undisclosed fee with Chelsea for Bridge, thought to be around £10 million and, on the following day, Manchester City agreed personal terms with the player, who later passed his medical, thus enabling the transfer to be completed and he signed a four-and-a-half year deal.

He has played a total of 42 Games in all competitions for the club.

I think some managers just refuse to accept the last managers players, having a blind logic that they will not use them incase they do good and give the last manager any credit, it seems to happen all the time....
 
I really like Mancini. Straight to the fucking point.

I thought the way he dealt with the Tevez affair was spot on, and those words above about Bridge are as black and white as you're gonna get.

A good manager that man.
 
Bridge is a greedy cunt, if he had any real ambition he'd have taken a paycut to go elsewhere when he knew he wasn't part of their plans.

Mancini is spot on with this stance.
 
[quote author=FoxForceFive link=topic=48071.msg1451973#msg1451973 date=1325267579]
Bridge is a greedy cunt, if he had any real ambition he'd have taken a paycut to go elsewhere when he knew he wasn't part of their plans.

Mancini is spot on with this stance.
[/quote]

You'd have to wonder why they aren't subsidizing that contract in the same way they did Adebayor and Bellamy. Maybe those two were problems for Mancini, Bridge isn't ?

Bridge is one of the luckiest footballers on the planet btw. He's had one good season for Southampton and has lived royally off it ever since.
 
I don't see how Bridge is a cunt or has done anything wrong. He's honouring the contract the club offered HIM. People are quick enough to slag players off when they don't. Making him train with the kids is a bit shitty and childish in my opinion.
 
"Why should I throw fifteen million Euro away when it is already mine? At the moment I signed it was in fact my money, my contract."

'This world is about money, so when you are offered those millions you take them. Few people will ever earn so many. I am one of the few fortunates who do. I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership but I don't care."

Those are Bogarde's quotes on his situation . Ok i guess the majority of people will think he's greedy with no ambition and maybe they are right but you can't argue with 15m in your back pocket .

Fans and clubs always turn on players who don't move on just because they are deemed 'shite' and not wanted but is it their fault the club signed them and offered those wages ? And why doesn't anyway accuse Fowler of being greedy , he had a Leeds club on their arse paying him for years after he left .

Regarding Mancini , i am not so sure he's the great , straight to the point moral manager people believe . Look at the tevez issue , would they be happy to fuck him out and take the moral high ground they are if they weren't being successful without him ? Course not and their fans wouldn't be either , they'd be demanding he's played straight away .

And it's the same at chelsea , they've decided that Anelka and Alex aren't part of their plans so the players asked for transfers . So they've fucked them off to the reserves for a month and banned them 1st team affairs , nice way to respect players who once they relied on .
 
[quote author=RedZeppelin link=topic=48071.msg1452009#msg1452009 date=1325269912]
"Why should I throw fifteen million Euro away when it is already mine? At the moment I signed it was in fact my money, my contract."

'This world is about money, so when you are offered those millions you take them. Few people will ever earn so many. I am one of the few fortunates who do. I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership but I don't care."

Those are Bogarde's quotes on his situation . Ok i guess the majority of people will think he's greedy with no ambition and maybe they are right but you can't argue with 15m in your back pocket .

Fans and clubs always turn on players who don't move on just because they are deemed 'shite' and not wanted but is it their fault the club signed them and offered those wages ? And why doesn't anyway accuse Fowler of being greedy , he had a Leeds club on their arse paying him for years after he left .

Regarding Mancini , i am not so sure he's the great , straight to the point moral manager people believe . Look at the tevez issue , would they be happy to fuck him out and take the moral high ground they are if they weren't being successful without him ? Course not and their fans wouldn't be either , they'd be demanding he's played straight away .

And it's the same at chelsea , they've decided that Anelka and Alex aren't part of their plans so the players asked for transfers . So they've fucked them off to the reserves for a month and banned them 1st team affairs , nice way to respect players who once they relied on .
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I agree with you and Sheik, they offered him the big fucking wages and then bleat when he isn't moved on like the cattle he is deemed to be. It'll be the same with Barry, Milner, Kompany, Kolarov, Dzeko et al when the next flavour of the month has his head turned by the cheque book. The want money back on their bad investment (as is our want with Carroll) but aren't willing to treat people like humans. Fuck Citeh.

It's very one sided, but interesting from the Mail a couple of weeks ago:

Wayne Bridge exclusive: Play golf? Mancini is my only handicap

Wayne Bridge is not after sympathy - all he wants is an opportunity to put across his side of the story. This is the former England defender's considered response to Roberto Mancini's criticism after two years largely spent in exile.

Mancini claims the Manchester City defender is motivated by money, pulling in £95,000 a week and spending Saturday afternoons down at the driving range. Golf is his big thing, according to Mancini; swinging clubs is his priority instead of trying to find one to take on his super-sized salary.

'Roberto Mancini obviously doesn't know me very well because I don't play golf,' revealed Bridge in the first major interview of his professional career.
Given the freedom and platform to express himself, Bridge has laid bare his frustrations after so long in isolation, an isolation that has seen him spend a month at a time training with the kids at City.

It is all here - his relationship with Mancini and his thoughts on walking away from England after John Terry's alleged affair with Bridge's ex-girlfriend and mother of his son.

He has nothing left to lose now, not after Mancini poked fun at him in a pre-determined attack ahead of City's Barclays Premier League fixture with Stoke City last Wednesday.

'The only player I've seen isolated like this was Bogarde at Chelsea'

'When I was at Chelsea I was playing for a team where Ashley Cole was the best in the world and I still got games. It won't happen at City. There has never been an explanation, but it's obvious they don't want me.

'Mancini doesn't really speak to me, he doesn't really speak to any of the players. The only time I've known a player isolated like this was Winston Bogarde at Chelsea. Usually you still train with the first team, even when they want you out.'

Mancini: 'Sometimes I don't understand why there are some players who have a good chance to play football, maybe not in the Premier League but in the Championship. Wayne Bridge is a good guy but for every other player it should be important to play.

'Wayne has had two or three chances (to go somewhere). In the summer he had the chance to play for Celtic, and this is an important team. I don't know what he does on Saturdays now. Golf?'

Bridge, 31, has played just once for City this season - a Carling Cup third-round tie against Birmingham - and has barely featured in first-team training. Most days he arrives early, working out in the gym at City's Carrington training complex to vent his frustrations before he joins the kids again. That is the daily routine: walking out on to the training pitches to join the youngsters, alone with his thoughts and willing himself to get through another soul-destroying session.

'I've never caused trouble, I'm not that kind of character,' he said. 'There will be days when I'm frustrated - not depressed, but down. Training helps take my mind off the fact that I don't play.

'I don't like confrontation, to be honest. It takes a while for me to lose it, but when I do…

'Some players are totally different to me - they would phone the manager and say things there and then. I just get on with things and hope they resolve themselves. Even when I'm playing I just like to get on with my own life. 'If I kicked up a fuss I might have got out easier.'

That is the plan, negotiating with City to secure his release in the January transfer window. He has been training hard and his five per cent body fat - the lowest at City - is unlikely to be troubled by the home-made chocolate cake his popstar girlfriend Frankie is serving.

'I feel I am letting my mum and dad down and they basically live for following me around and watching me play football.

'I hate that my parents can't come and watch me or Frankie, who loves to watch football, can't come with her mum and dad.

'It is like I am letting them down as well because they are so proud to see me out there playing. They have been really supportive.

'They are people I can call when I am down. They cheer me up straight away and slap me back into place. Aaron Lincoln, my agent, has been amazing.

'Everyone has been so supportive and they can all tell when I have been down.'

There has been talk of Arsenal taking him on loan and there has been interest from Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain. He desperately wants to get away, to rediscover the zest for the game that took him to the very top.

Bridge played in the 2003 FA Cup final for Southampton and went on to win two Premier League titles, an FA Cup and the League Cup with Chelsea. Inevitably he regards Jose Mourinho as the best manager he played under. His eyes light up with the memories of a glorious goal against Arsenal in the 2004 Champions League quarter-final at Highbury, and a beauty he scored against Portsmouth the previous season.

'There was a time when I could have gone to Portsmouth on loan, but I had to say no - my dad's Southampton and I grew up supporting them. Dad would never have spoken to me again.'

This is the old Bridge, bounding with enthusiasm as he talks about the games that earned him 36 caps before he retired from international football in a storm of publicity last year.

He misses England, but maintains he was left with no alternative after refusing to shake Terry's hand when City travelled to Stamford Bridge in February 2010.

'Everyone misses being an international when they don't play. It is the thing everyone wants to be - an England international. When you start playing professional football it is the next step.

'It has been difficult for me over the last couple of years football-wise - I have not played great and personal stuff that had gone on. I don't want to talk too much about it. I don't want to bring up the situation that happened because I didn't talk about it at the time and what's the point?

'If I had gone to the World Cup it would have been an absolute media frenzy. I probably could talk about it one day, but at this precise moment I don't think it is going to help me and I don't think it's going to help anyone else who was involved.

'I had never been in the press before. Then I was and everyone had an opinion about it. It was like I felt, "Just leave me to get on with it". Some were supportive and some weren't. That's just the way it is. But I got a lot of support and I am thankful for the support I did get. I can deal with it. Everyone was talking about it and I just didn't want to talk about it.

'At the time, (England manager) Fabio Capello called me two or three times but it wasn't right. 'My personal life has got better. I am happy at the moment and the football has got to get better in January.'

He is expecting to move and is prepared for the next phase of his career.

'My next move has to be right for me. I'd rather play three games a week than none, but I'm entitled to leave. City claimed I'm only at the club for the money, but when it comes to the deal to let me go, it becomes about the money for them.'

After this, it is time for City to do the right thing.
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Mancini should mock the club who were stupid enough to give him that salary, not Bridge. If they want to get rid the could give him away for free and pay up the difference so he gets his 95.000 per week.
 
Citeh should pay up his contact and release him. It is not acceptable to hand him a contract and then ostracise him for exercising his rights.

It is hypocrisy to say he should unilaterally move on and take a pay cut, it is not his fault that a different manager has decided he doesn't fit with the new regime.

He is plenty good enough to get a new club and he knows it and therefore is in a strong position.
 
[quote author=jexykrodic link=topic=48071.msg1452632#msg1452632 date=1325332258]
Citeh should pay up his contact and release him. It is not acceptable to hand him a contract and then ostracise him for exercising his rights.

It is hypocrisy to say he should unilaterally move on and take a pay cut, it is not his fault that a different manager has decided he doesn't fit with the new regime.

He is plenty good enough to get a new club and he knows it and therefore is in a strong position.
[/quote]

Exactly. In any other industry that kind of behaviour (from the employer) would be considered unacceptable and he would almost certainly have a case of constructive dismissal
 
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