Wednesday, May 15, 2013

THE SHOW GOES ON

As the rains came tumbling down Tuesday on this neat little patch of green in Berkshire, it was difficult not to think the Football Gods had sent at least some of the downpour to wash away the grief of another Manchester City managerial tragi-theatre piece. Others might have seen it as a chance to swill away any signs of the Roberto Mancini regime, already disintegrating at pace, as David Platt declined an offer to come to the show and instead headed for the dry hills to find his friend. Yet others might have linked the gushing water everywhere to metaphorical tears for yet another self-made implosion in the grand old custard-pie littered history of Manchester City football club.

Whatever your leanings, it all seemed pretty apt.

-Aguero, Dzeko score to lead City
-Pellegrini favourite to replace Mancini
-Mancini sacking starts staff overhaul


Brian Kidd, his hair plastered to his head, sat wringing his hands with nobody to talk to. With Platt gone, Mancini long gone (in football terms at least), there were plenty of spare seats in the dugout, as there were in the City section at the Madejski, as supporters voted with their feet and with their empty wallets. The average Premier League manager lifespan is down to 16 months, we are told.

With The Guardian already posting pieces on "What Pellegrini Needs to Do First" on its website, the 59-year-old Chilean's clock appears to have been set running even before the wild speculation can finish. This is modern football and its impatient, all-consuming character. One thinks back to Joe Mercer, to Malcolm Allison, to Johnny Hart and to Tony Book, to an era of thick coats and strange hats, of board members with pipes permanently angled from the corners of their mouths.

City’s history has meandered gently around all of these characters to now stand on the brink of a Chilean tactical wizard, recently of Real Madrid and Malaga and Villareal, backed by the suited ranks from Abu Dhabi. What Ron Saunders and Peter Swales would have made of that is anybody’s guess.

You can read on at ESPNFC 

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