Say what you want to about the things that are going on at Manchester City but the things that Roberto Mancini has been saying as of late I believe have a negative effect on his team. He's saying that the title race is over even though there is only a 5 point gap now and not to mention Manchester City and Manchester United still have to play each other. Also he points out that his team doesn't have the same spirit as Manchester United. I just don't see the motivational aspect of Mancini the past few weeks and just wanted to see what fellow coaches think about the situation. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/quotes?id=317977&cc=5901
Man City is having its best season since before most of its fans were born and you think the coach is not doing his job?
I could manage Man City into AT LEAST second place with the players he has. What is out in the media and what he says to his team on the training ground are two completely different things. Additionally, perhaps he's calling his team out to try to get them to fight harder these last few games.
High expectations are why owners fire great coaches managing successful teams. Coaches of professional clubs don't have any job security.
Talking to the press about a player in a bad way is crap. Arena used to do that. He did it to Clint Mathis. Talking about the team in General is different. He certainly is not doing that to his players. Maybe he is trying to take the media pressure off his players and on to himself.
You couldn't manage them with the players he has because you'd be too smart to gather all those nutcases into one locker room in the first place. =) I suspect he's trying to make Man Utd complacent, making them think it's over. May have worked... they just got beat by Wigan, who were in 19th place, yesterday, allowing City to cut the gap to a reasonable 5 pts.
The EPL is very entertaining what with battles at both ends for the silver and relegation. Then add in the eligibility for European competition and just about every team is in the running for something until the end of the season. Can you imagine what a shake up a business model based on parity like MLS would have? It would shrink the point spread between the European quailifier spots and the relegation zone to a thrilling degree. Scary would be a better word choice if you were the owner. Overspending could put a mid-table team in bankruptcy as quickly as a relegated team. Ecomonics and sound business practices would become as important to managing a team as match tactics.
1. Making the Champions League in Europe is very lucrative. Making the CCL is not lucrative. So that's not relevant. 2. I can't believe I have to point this out...but asking, for example, the owners for the potential new NY franchise, which will spend a couple hundred million on a stadium on top of a $100M expansion fee, to subject themselves to relegation is stupid. Further, our minor leagues are nowhere near stable enough to justify the other half, the promotion half, of the equation. It's like asking if the Civil War would have turned out differently if the South had had 100 fully operational modern tanks and all the fuel for them needed. You're imposing a condition that so alters reality that it ain't reality any more.
Perhaps you misunderstood me. I was projecting what a change in the EPL business model would mean, not a change to MLS. The part you quoted of my comment might have been ambiguous, but my point was clear in the part you did not quote. The projection is not that outlandish since some financial restraints are coming into play. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Financial_Fair_Play_Regulations
