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Bobby Mancini fired

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I'd say good he deserves it but I'd have preferred him to stay the useless twonk. They might get someone good now.
 
There are an amazing number of people at the top of the game who seem to find nothing in the game but absolute misery, and Mancini epitomised them. He really didn't do badly but, a bit like Rafa at the end of his time here, the sheer depression of the situation seemed to make him obsessed with making stupid decisions just for the bloody-mindedness of it.
 
Be interesting to see how well Pellegrini does with lots of cash, given that at Madrid he spent £200M on 4 players (I realise this was probably Perez rather than the manager though)
 
Benitez would be funnier.

He'd probably be able to commute from Liverpool
 
Think his days were numbered as soon as Txiki Begiristain was appointed DoF.

And Sid Lowe's latest article on Pellegrini

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/may/11/manuel-pellegrini-malaga-manchester-city

This is not the first time Manuel Pellegrini has been on the verge of walking away from Málaga. The Chilean, who had reportedly agreed a deal to replace Roberto Mancini at Manchester City even before their FA Cup final defeat, admitted that he had his bags packed ready to go on 31 October of last year. He had just broken a promise – not to the club, but to his players – and he considered it the honourable thing to do, a gesture of defiance and dignity.

It was less than a week since Málaga had defeated seven-times winners Milan in their first Champions League campaign; it was also the day the players had been promised that they would get the wages they had been waiting for. Pellegrini had promised them too, having mediated between the squad and the club. But the deadline came and went and Pellegrini decided that he would too. Or, at least, that is what he wanted them to think. Pellegrini continued and the payment was met. But just as Santi Cazorla had left in the summer, Nacho Monreal departed during the winter window – the moment, Pellegrini said this week, that symbolised that his side could no longer really compete for a Champions League place which, because of a Uefa ban, they may not have been allowed to occupy anyway.

Málaga won their group, beat Porto and were seconds and an offside goal away from the semi-final. But they lost against Borussia Dortmund, the side who then hammered Real Madrid 4-1.

And that, in a nutshell, is Malaga's season; a brief portrait of why Pellegrini might want to walk away and why Txiki Begiristain, City's director of football, may want to have him succeed Mancini. The last debutant Champions League team to reach the last eight was Villarreal in 2006. Their coach? Manuel Pellegrini. A penalty miss from Juan Román Riquelme proved decisive as Arsenal reached the final instead.

Málaga were supposed to be Spain's other big club when they were taken over by Sheikh Abdullah al-Thani. They spent almost €60m in the summer of 2011, the same summer that they brought in Pellegrini. But midway through the season, something shifted. Thani lost interest and the money dried up. Players went unpaid and results began to slip away. But, bit by bit, Pellegrini created a virtue out of the crisis.

Málaga qualified for the Champions League but there was silence from the club, uncertainty: there were formal complaints, players, teams and the taxman demanding the settling of unpaid accounts. Thani disappeared and when those left behind at the club began to restructure, knowing that there would be no more cash coming in, they had little choice but to sell, cutting costs at every turn to satisfy their debts.

Pellegrini insisted that selling Cazorla to Arsenal for €20m would be giving him away; Málaga sold him for less. Solomón Rondón, Joris Mathijsen and Ruud van Nistelrooy went too. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, other players sought to follow but Pellegrini intervened, convincing them that it was worth hanging on. The Champions League was a unique opportunity. "He prevented a mass exodus," says one player.

Even without the player he had made his priority signing on arriving – he had worked with Cazorla at Villarreal –Málaga were recognisably a Pellegrini team. Villarreal were in only their third season in the first division when Pellegrini arrived, taking them to eighth, third, seventh, fifth and runners-up, playing tidy, creative football. There have been seven managers in the four years since he left. And a relegation.

When he arrived at Málaga Pellegrini outlined his ideas to World Soccer: "to be attacking, to try to take control of the game, to take responsibility, to be attractive. There are small differences of course, depending on what players you have, but there is a footballing concept and a concept of spectacle that is non‑negotiable."

Like Villarreal, Málaga wanted possession, playing out from deep and pushing high to win the ball. Their wide men, interiores rather than exteriores, came inside to create a numerical advantage in the middle of the pitch. In the absence of Cazorla, players at opposite ends of their careers, Isco and Joaquín, took on greater creative responsibility: both have been superb. Every training session is based around the ball and Pellegrini listens to his players. Yet those who have worked with him suggest that he is far tougher than his elegant, well-mannered public persona suggests.

Málaga appeared the idyllic escape after a difficult year at Real Madrid. Signed by Real's director general Jorge Valdano, Pellegrini immediately found a president, Florentino Pérez, who never really wanted him and both Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder were sold without his consent.

Pellegrini's team finished on 96 points but still behind Barcelona. Worse, Madrid were knocked out of the Champions League by Lyon and hammered 4-0 by Second Division B side Alcorcón in the Copa del Rey. At the end of the season, the open secret was confirmed: he was pushed out for José Mourinho.

Málaga were supposed to be different: like Villarreal, only with more money. Expensive but sensible signings, a balanced squad, stability; players, as Pellegrini himself insisted, "with human qualities as well as footballing ones", who could help the club to grow, to be ambitious; the construction of a new academy and real belief in the players coming through. The coach was adamant: "this is not just a six-month project or a one-year project," he said.

It turned out to be exactly that. Pellegrini kept it going for another year and momentarily it looked like they may even have a chance of winning the Champions League, Pellegrini's first trophy in Europe. The financial problems had been pushed aside, for the time being at least.

The night that Málaga defeated Milan, Joaquín said: "Without Pellegrini this might never have happened. It's not just about the fact that we're winning but how we're playing. Everyone knows Pellegrini's philosophy and his history but he's a guy who gives you so much confidence, who acts with so much humility that, somehow, he always gets the best out of every player: he is the central piece in this jigsaw."

But the night that they were defeated by Dortmund, everything unravelled. Including Pellegrini himself: no longer so decorous, just days after his father had died, recently off a plane from the funeral in Chile, he accused Uefa of not wanting a banned team in the semi-final. Deep down, though, he knows that there are reasons for the ban. He and his players have suffered them, after all.

He told his players that, this time, they should not wait for him. The promises no longer ring true. They have been broken too often. This week he publicly reiterated the fact that this not the project he came for.

On Wednesday one member of the squad admitted that "many players will go in the summer". Pellegrini will lead them out. In October, he stayed. This time he will not. "It is a strange situation," he said on Friday. "No one wants to leave, we all want to stay. But circumstances do not allow that."
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I thought he managed them superbly last season tbh... I liked his spikey character also.

This season was absolutely abysmal for them however and some of that has to be his fault... Team of mercenaries... Simple as that.
 
He's fucking shite. I have no sympathy for him. Nice fella or whatever, but the way he was so spineless over the Tevez situation when anybody with a bit of balls would have bombed him out the club. His shit signings, his tinkering with a winning formation this season. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They are a team of mercenaries, true, but it takes a special breed of shit to guide that team to such abject failure. Bye!
 
Halmeister said:
He's fucking shite. I have no sympathy for him. Nice fella or whatever, but the way he was so spineless over the Tevez situation when anybody with a bit of balls would have bombed him out the club.
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I agree with the overall sentiments but that bit of pragmatism arguably helped win him the title.
 
gkmacca said:
I agree with the overall sentiments but that bit of pragmatism arguably helped win him the title.
Click to expand...

True, I suppose. It just makes him look weak in front of his players, and may have hindered him in the long term as he's seemingly unable to motivate his players. You get the impression there isn't a real respect for Mancini. Taking a hard stance over Tevez may have helped him.
 
He came a distant second in the league, came dead last in their CL group, and got beat by a team that may be relegated in the cup final.
Not good enough for me.
I'd sack him, but then I'd never have hired him to begin with.
Much more entertaining (playing style) managers out there.

Mancini started winning titles with Inter after Juventus were relegated and Milan recieved a points deduction.
 
Good - I really hope they hire a good manager who can actually win something with that large investment. Seriously - all that money and look how far behind United they were, none of those teams put up a challenge. He fucking deserves it.

As for my comment about a good manager - i just want someone in those big spending clubs who can challenge so that I can live to see our team once again be the team with the most titles. We are two behind now so the more teams out there that can challenge United in the next two - three seasons for that title the better. And in case you are wondering - NO - I don't have any hope that we will win the title in the next 2 to 10 years
 
Their fans should be happy to see his back.
That squad could have achieved similar success (or lack of it) with any other manager in the world.
 
Yeah, a manager who has won 12 thropies in his career is obviously shite.
City were amazing last season but didnt step up this season. Bought all the wrong players and were awful in Europe.

Mancini has done quite a good job at City and won them a league title.
 
Hansern said:
Yeah, a manager who has won 12 thropies in his career is obviously shite.
City were amazing last season but didnt step up this season. Bought all the wrong players and were awful in Europe.

Mancini has done quite a good job at City and won them a league title.
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He managed Inter when AC, Juventus, Lazio and Roma were all either docked points or relegated, he couldnt fucking fail to win. As soon as they all came back he jumped ship.
He took over a team that spent 200m on new players and still only won the title ONCE in 3 years. He has failed every single year in Europe with either team miserably.
Hes fucking wank.
 
Herr Onceared said:
He managed Inter when AC, Juventus, Lazio and Roma were all either docked points or relegated, he couldnt fucking fail to win. As soon as they all came back he jumped ship.
He took over a team that spent 200m on new players and still only won the title ONCE in 3 years. He has failed every single year in Europe with either team miserably.
Hes fucking wank.
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Dont think AC were. It's not easy to win a title in Italy.
 
Oncy's right. He's shite. Accept it.

To fail so abjectly with a team that costs over £300m or whatever it is, and to not make a dent in Europe at all, is shocking.
 
Halmeister said:
Oncy's right. He's shite. Accept it.

To fail so abjectly with a team that costs over £300m or whatever it is, and to not make a dent in Europe at all, is shocking.
Click to expand...
To finish BOTTOM of that group is scandalous. He has ALWAYS been shite.
Some managers are just fucking lucky. He is one of those.
 
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