The sword falls

On the sacking of Roberto di Matteo at Chelsea (or was it Andres Villas-Boas or even Carlo Ancelotti – the revolving managerial door at Stamford Bridge spins so fast), The Wall Street Journal penned a comment “Who would be a Chelsea manager?” As Rafa Benitez has shown, a person who lives by the sword and expects to die by the sword. Roberto Mancini was not prepared to follow the second part but the decision was taken out of his hands by the Manchester City board.


Mancini had succeeded Mark Hughes as City boss in particularly shabby circumstances, even though Hughes is no pussy cat. Taken on by the previous regime, Hughes was tossed aside by the Arabian owners after just two league defeats (but more damagingly drawing at home against the likes of Burnley). It emerged Mancini had been lined up for months, waiting for an opportune time to be parachuted in to the field. Manuel Pellegrini has had nothing like that time kept in cold storage, mostly because he has been doing a very fine job against the odds with Malaga – ironically something that could see him move to Manchester. The moment it was clear that City would nor retain their league title, moves began to search for Mancini’s replacement. It is just as well that Wigan Athletic won the FA Cup because even winning it would not have saved the Italian and would have been regarded as just a bauble by the owners. At least to the Latics, it really meant something, rather than just a trinket collected along the way to supremacy.

Man City’s other objective was to progress beyond the group stage of the Champions League. Despite being drawn in the Group of Death for two consecutive seasons, Mancini’s prior European experience is deeply unimpressive anyway. This was the other reason Mancini was fired. What is crazy was that he was given a five-year contract after hoisting Man City to the Premier League summit, only for the owners to not re-invest in the team. As Roman Abramovich sometimes does not understand, even a team of starlets needs constant reinvigorating. Jack Rodwell and Scott Sinclair were ones for the future and only a ‘maybe’ at that.

Having said all this, once the club refused to quash the rumours about Mancini’s removal, they had to act. They still need one more point to be guaranteed second place and the Sven-Göran Eriksson saga under Thaksin Shinawatra would have been salutary. After losing at home to Fulham after leading 2-0 at one stage (thereby throwing Fulham an unlikely lifeline that they grabbed), Shinawatra made it clear that Eriksson would not be around the following season. As City had nothing left to play for by that stage, performances tailed off dramatically, culminating in the humiliation of an 8-0 drubbing on the final day by a deeply average Middlesbrough (who would be relegated the next season). Still Eriksson continued in post, bizarrely taking City to a Hong Kong tournament. When that ended, Shinawatra realised that Eriksson would not quit no matter the coals of shame heaped on his head, sparing the Thai a payout and so the Swede was relieved of his duties. Given that the players hated Mancini anyway, the indiscipline would have been epic with the knowledge that he was a dead man walking; Reading and Norwich, unthinkable a month ago, might have nicked wins and Chelsea pipping the Sky Blues (no, not Coventry City) to runners-up was a real possibility. At least the players might be the professionals they are supposed to be now rather than trying to stick one to the gaffer. The departure of Mancini is as fitting as his arrival.