Some could accuse ex-Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini of sour grapes with his latest comments, but does the Italian manager have a point?
Mancini, 49, is the current boss of Turkish giants Galatasaray and has guided the Istanbul club into the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League this season. That’s something he never managed at City and ultimately was what cost him his job at the Etihad last season.
The Italian boss is still a cult figure in the blue half of Manchester after delivering City’s first-ever Premier League title in 2011-12 but when asked about City’s current success under new manager Manuel Pellegrini, Mancini wanted to remind everyone that he out the building blocks in place.
“I’m happy that Manchester City is one of the best teams in England because I built this team,” Mancini said in an interview with the BBC. “The players that score the goals are players that I bought – Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko, Yaya Toure, David Silva and Samir Nasri.”
It seems like Roberto wants a little bit of love. And he does deserve credit for building one of the most ruthless attacking teams the PL has ever seen. In 35 games this season City have scored a staggering 106 goals. In Mancini’s final season in charge of City, they scored just 66 goals in 38 PL games. This season the Pellegrini’s City have already scored 63 goals… and they’ve only played 22 PL matches. Quite incredible.
Yes, Mancini may have earmarked the players and signed them but he never got the best out of City’s attackers. The style of soccer the Italian implemented often frustrated the home fans, especially in his final season in charge, as he went for a more pragmatic approach despite possessing so many marvelous attacking players that could tear opponents apart at the drop of a hat. Mancini didn’t use Nasri, Aguero, Dzeko, Toure and Silva correctly.
Of course it’s easy to point to the grass being greener with Pellegrini in charge as City rack up cricket scores in the ‘goals for’ column and brush some of the top PL teams away effortlessly. It’s also easy to make the argument that Pellegrini is better suited to the City job than Mancini was, as the Chilean manager’s attacking style perfectly fits into the group of players at his disposal. But until the Chilean delivers a PL title or some silverware, City’s fans will always point to Mancini’s success in delivering the teams first Championship since the 1967-68 season.
Sour grapes from Mancini? No. But I think he is a little envious that he didn’t get to carry on his initial success. There’s no doubt that the Italian built this Man City side.
But Pellegrini is making it flourish.
