IAIN MACINTOSH: Mansour does not need to follow Abramovich’s example

With a 15 point advantage and only nine games remaining, even if Manchester United did a ‘Devon Loch’, as their manager would have it, they’d still win the title.

They’d have time to pick themselves up off the turf, give a whinny of defiance and then slowly moonwalk over the line while Manchester City were still jumping the final fence.

For United, this season has been a triumph of squad rotation. Neither injuries nor form nor gloom of night has slowed them in their relentless pursuit of title number 20. For City, it has been a rather less impressive campaign. The Premier League has been squandered, the Champions League was a disaster and it is unlikely the FA Cup will provide much consolation. So where do they go from here? The obvious reaction would be to hand Roberto Mancini a large cardboard box and tell him to clear his desk of post-it notes, nick-nacks and David Platt. After all, he’s had more funding than most space programmes. Sheikh Mansour, whom we are led to believe is a very reasonable sort, might have accepted a second place finish from Mancini, but there are varying degrees of second place (if that is where they do finish). To concede the title race by mid-March is very much at the lower end of the scale. So hand him his P45, take one last look at that hair, maybe even press your nose against it and take a deep drag, but then be of stout heart and send him on his way.

It’s his fault after all. Isn’t it? Isn’t it? We’ll learn a lot about Sheikh Mansour this summer. We’ll find out if he’s just another modern football club owner, albeit one with enough money to buy the moon, or if he’s someone with a grasp of history.

We didn’t used to talk about sacking title-winning managers for coming second the following year. If we had, Kenny Dalglish would have gone in 1987 after losing the title to Everton by nine points. Alex Ferguson would have been dumped in 1995 for that whole Blackburn Rovers episode. Arsene Wenger would have been the hidden victim of United’s 1999 treble winning season. Somewhere down the line, desensitised by axe-happy Roman Abramovich, we’ve lost sight of the fact that retaining a title is much harder than winning it in the first place.

Mancini has been widely criticised for his flirtations with a back three, particularly this weekend when it offered no discernible advantage against Everton. But what would people prefer; that he simply stuck to Plan A in spite of the evidence that a more versatile approach was required in Europe? From a position of strength, he tried to evolve. It hasn’t been immediately successful, but these things rarely are. They take time.

Mancini hasn’t been aided by his players, who have given more disappointing performances than Justin Bieber. Joe Hart, the new irritated scalp of ‘Head & Shoulders’, has been poor, Samir Nasri has been bewilderingly bad and that host of new signings, with the exception of Young Player of the Year-elect Matija Nastasic, have all fallen below acceptable standards. Yes, the manager must bear some responsibility for their failings, but surely not all the responsibility. Sacking Mancini would only acquit the players, as if City’s shortcomings were nothing to do with them.

Because of their nature of their rise to prominence, City have always been compared to Chelsea. Now they have the chance to prove to two influential groups of people they are very different.

Swift turnover in the dugout affects footballers. It leads them to believe if they fall out of favour with the boss, they can just wait for his inevitable departure and try again with the next man.

It leads to people like John Terry believing that it’s their job to deliver the vote of confidence. But it also has an effect on the press. Journalists pounce on Chelsea’s poor form, not because they don’t like them, but because history suggests that anything less than the title will result in the boot. Abramovich has created that precedent. Mansour does not need to follow his example.

City have had a disappointing season. It happens. Now we shall see how they respond. With the composure of those born to supremacy, or with the impatience of the nouveau riche.