How long will Mancini last?
And all this as I was beginning to believe that I had to consider Manchester City as genuine contenders this season.
A truly horrible few days forge fresh doubts in my mind, about their manager and about the direction City are headed in.
It wasn’t just that they lost out in the Wayne Rooney saga though, certainly, grabbing him would have been a huge blow to their Manchester rivals, bigger than the loss of Tevez.
Instead, as was the case in their pursuit of John Terry, City are learning that having a colossal pot of money doesn’t mean you can buy anyone you fancy.
The interest can be turned against you. Nobody can tell me that Rooney, and Terry before him, didn’t use it to snaffle a better deal where he was and where he wanted to remain.
Worse, Tevez, a player whose remarkable scoring record of late at least justifies the enormous financial outlay City made for him, is clearly unsettled.
To the Argentine’s credit, this isn’t something we’re seeing on the pitch – he’s been outstanding – but the separation from his daughters (he’s estranged from his former partner) is hurting him. I hear there’s a genuine possibility he’ll want a move back to Argentina to be near them. To Tevez, money isn’t everything.
Nor to some of his team-mates: Roque Santa Cruz is an excellent striker but he can’t get a place anywhere near the first 11 and, again, money doesn’t make up for it.
He wants to leave in January and Roberto Mancini says he can go.
The manager has enough problems as it is. His team is still bedding in and he struggles to cope with the football ‘culture’ in Britain where you give players time off and some of them think that’s the signal to go out and get drunk. Joe Hart, not for the first time, Gareth Barry, Shay Given and Adam Johnson all let themselves down last week. I agree with the Italian on that one.
Where I beg to differ is in some of the decisions he takes, like leaving Johnson out of the team against Wolves at Molineux on Saturday as City crashed to a second defeat in succession.
With City chasing the game Mancini decided to take off Emmanuel Adebayor and replace him with Pablo Zabaleta.
Somebody, please explain that one to me.
This morning, the Premier League table won’t make easy viewing for Mancini’s employers.
With over a quarter of the season gone and three losses in 10 games, City sit eight points behind the leaders Chelsea and, remember, this is after beating Ancelotti’s team at Eastlands.
This time last year, Mark Hughes had a better record than Mancini currently has and City sacked the Welshman.
I don’t buy into the view that the club’s owners are interested primarily in the long-term.
City, without a trophy since 1976, need success now.
At the very least, they have to qualify for Champions League football next season. Will they? How long will Mancini last?
