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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