Manchester City right-back Maicon has defended his manager Roberto Mancini after recent outbursts.
The Italian boss clashed with Sir Alex Ferguson in the Manchester derby last season and went head-to-head against Paul Lambert in the Premier League champions’ defeat to Aston Villa in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday night.
However, the Brazil international feels that the incidents show that Mancini has passion and is determined to succeed.
“All winning coaches are the same so if Ferguson has the hairdryer, Roberto has the same passion,” The Telegraph have Maicon as saying.“All winning managers are the same and they show this passion to the players because they really want to win and the players can feel that. It is the same man I knew at Inter, the same passion, the same will to win, the same intensity. I found the same kind of manager.“That is the way he should be, to see a passionate coach who demands high standards. If he gets angry he reminds everybody of the standards required.“He’s a winning manager like the other ones, so he has the same passion and the players appreciate it when the manager speaks up for the team and the players, especially because he puts the pressure on himself rather than giving it to the players,” he concluded.By Gareth McKnight
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers hopes Stewart Downing will benefit from a major confidence boost after his stunning goal secured victory over Anzhi Makhachkala.
Despite being deployed in an unfamiliar left back position, Downing produced one of his best displays for the club, in which he struck the winner to send Reds to the top of their Europa League group.
Rodgers, who questioned the wingers appetite earlier in the season, singled him out for praise after the game and is confident he can call upon the 28-year-old to fill in at the back in the future.
“It was a wonderful strike from Stewart,” said Rodgers.
“It’s been difficult for him since he has been here. It was just something to help his confidence. The Kop recognise it was a wonderful goal at that end.
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“If you get that applause it means a lot. I hope that will do him well going forward. He has the qualities to play in that position.”
For a writer whose trade and passion is football, I have a terrible knack of sleeping through FA Cup finals. Usually, it is not too much of a disaster – excluding the West Ham Liverpool tie in 2006, every final I’ve been able to remember has been won by the favourite, and usually quite comfortably in a match of little action. I am afraid to say that once again assuming that Manchester City would walk away with it this weekend, my belly full of a late Saturday lunch and crisp cider, by the 15th minute my eyes heavied, and I was once again amid my annual siesta.
It was not until I received a text from a friend, joking at the prospect of Ben Watson making it to an FA Cup final, that I awoke just in time to see Pablo Zabaletta shown a red card. Although I had missed the vast majority of the match, you could instantly tell the significance of the Citizens’ most dependable and consistent player being sent for an early shower.
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Perhaps at the time I was too gripped by the sudden euthoria of Wigan having the upper hand – the Latics are the type of team, composed of style, cult heroes, blind loyalty and belief, that really capture the imagination and thus have a strong following of admirers throughout the country, including myself – that the prospect of Roberto Mancini’s job slipping away was not at the forefront of my consideration.
But as Wigan netted from a corner, a header from Ben Watson, to the irony of my friend’s mocking, and the clock began to run down without any hint of a serious reply from the Skyblues, it became obvious that it would be a trophyless year at Eastlands; the first since Mancini took over the big spenders since 2009, which would no doubt lead to grave consequences.
Whereas the Italian’s tagline before the match – ‘three trophies in three years’ – had an acceptable ring to it, considering City’s non-existent title defence this year, the analysis of the Manchester club’s season upon the final whistle became; embarrassing in Europe, lukewarm at best during a stale year in the Premier League, and overall no silverware, after losing to a club likely to be playing Championship football next season at Wembley.
Needless to say, for a club who has spent £1 billion on transfers alone in a bid to transform them from the depths of mediocrity into a European institution, any year without accolades can only be constituted as a failure. With rumours rife throughout the season, it now appears that Mancini’s job is currently under review, with the almost certain outcome to be that he will be handed his P45 and a ticket back to Italy, as early as today, without even gracing him with the respectful opportunity to lead out a team he lifted the Premier League title with in glorious fashion a year ago this weekend.
But is it right that the City boss is taking the full brunt of the club’s failings this season? And is it fair that his tenure should be cut short by a Cup final alone, where momentum, fate, and the magic of the FA Cup was always going to be in the Latics’ favour? Is he simply becoming a scapegoat for a club frustrated by its difficulty in progressing?
The first mistake regarding City’s poor season was in the summer, and it had little to do with Roberto Mancini. The most hotly desired purchase last year was Robin Van Persie – at £20million, the Premier League’s most prolific and talented marksman was a steal. But despite the infinite finance at the club’s disposal, the Dutchman, set to top the scoring charts for a consecutive season, chose local rivals Manchester United, going on to lift the first Premier League title of his career with the Red Devils.
The Italian gaffer could tell it would come back to bite them; we were only a few weeks into the season when he began criticising Bryan Marwood, the club’s head-honcho when it comes to transfers, and no doubt made an enemy within the club’s power structure in the process. Fire-power has been the difference between the two Manchester clubs this year, with Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Van Persie firing on all cylinders, whilst Edin Dzeko has been unable to shake his ‘super-sub’ reputation, Sergio Aguero has spent the year layed out on a physio bench, Carlos Tevez has been industrious but not clinical, and Mario Balotelli’s career in England imploded by the January transfer window.
Instead of a sharp-shooter, Marwood supplied new recruits in Maicon, Javi Garcia, Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair and Matija Nastasic, all of whom excluding the latter have had a limited effect on the first team, with Rodwell, Maicon and Sinclair making just 11 Premier League starts between them. The board expected Mancini to simply get on with it – he already had a team of superstars from the previous season. Yet even the most dim-witted of managers will tell you that continuous growth and upgrading is required not necessarily to improve, but simply to maintain.
Furthermore, Van Persie’s decision to opt for the red side of Manchester in many ways sums up the difference between the two clubs, and further gives us an insight into how City’s season within 90 minutes became judged as a complete failure. Whilst the Red Devils remain ever consistent in almost every way possible on and off the pitch, the Citizens are unpredictable; the cut-throat acquisition and casting aside of players, constant rumours of in-fighting and training ground bust-ups, and the star-studded cast’s tendency to play their football far too casually on occasion, implying an underlying arrogance rather than self-confidence.
With Mancini at the helm, there is a simple but true argument that the buck must stop with him. But the United mentality of success after success has been forged over years and decades, and it as much due to the club’s infrastructure from top to bottom – the staff, the coaches, the manager, the chairman, the youth system, the scouting network and the unquantifiable effects of reputation – as it is any particular individual, crux of talent or available funding. My criticism is quite simply; how can you expect the Italian to mimic such a system of repetitive success in the space of four years, unlimited finance or not.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not the soon-to-be-axed City boss’s biggest fan. His continual tinkering during the first part of the season smacked of naivety and idealism. It’s difficult to measure how many points the use of 3-5-2 cost the SkyBlues in the Premier League, but it certainly contributed heavily to their poor European form. Similarly, with the finance at the club’s disposal and the constant flurry of talent arriving at the club, Mancini’s job at Eastlands has been more along the lines of a glorified babysitter than it has a coach, man manager or tactician, and he has not kept the unruly kids under his control.
He’s struggled to get the team performing at top gear for more than in patches throughout his tenure, and despite his apparent media mastery, I find his open criticism of players in the press lacking in class and astuteness. Furthermore, although this campaign’s obsolete title defence cannot be rested entirely upon Mancini’s shoulders, as a number of City’s marquee players have quite simply not turned up this year, he’s failed to create a mindset that would not allow for complacency to creep in.
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The 48 year old has certainly made his fair share of mistakes, but my concern is that his impending dismissal is as much to do with the club’s failings as it is his as a manager. It seems that Mancini’s accomplishments – turning it around to defy the odds and lead the Citizens to their first Premier League title last year, in no small part due to his ability to take all of the pressure of the players and onto the roster at Old Trafford, in addition to lifting the FA Cup in 2010 – have long been forgotten, and instead, a single year of nothing-doing is evidence enough for a managerial death sentence.
But the fact is, in the grand scheme of things, City are still relatively small fish in an ocean of continental football. Their Champions League naivety has shown ever since their initial qualification, and they are still a long way behind Chelsea, Arsenal and United in terms of accolades and silverware; it was only 12 years ago that they were crowned champions of the English second tier.
The club has come on leaps and bounds since then, but it is a long way off providing the consistency of United, the kind of consistency that guarantees a trophy per year, as seems to be the current requirement, and getting into the habit of ‘hiring and firing’, based upon unrealistic targets of silverware, is certainly not the short-cut to getting to the same level as their local rivals.
Mancini has become the scapegoat for the board’s frustration and impatience – a face and embodiment of an invisible and unquantifiable factor they cannot put their finger on – and no doubt, the Italian’s replacement, most likely Malaga’s Manuel Pellegrini, is wondering what qualifies as an acceptable year, and furthermore an acceptable tenure, as City boss.
We have all seen it, and no club has avoided it – the dreaded panic buy that turns out to be a flop. Pressure from fans to force through a deal is generally the reason behind the irrational purchase, that on any other day would be laughed off.
Granted it may be the manager having a sudden paddy over his defence or attack, however the thought of the transfer window slamming shut has often created some of the most ridiculous deadline day decisions ever.
Unusually, Arsene Wenger provided one of the best signings in the Premier League throughout the whole transfer window late on deadline day, with the recruitment of German international Mesut Ozil a surprise to everyone (probably even Wenger himself).
However, as we are well aware, Wenger isn’t always so successful in his deadline day recruitment.
With that in mind, here are FIVE players from recent seasons who did not enjoy the best of times at Arsenal after signing on that dreaded of dates in the calendar – Deadline Day.
Click on Mart Poom to see FIVE Deadline Day shockers at Arsenal
Jan Molby is adamant that Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers must start with Mario Balotelli and Daniel Sturridge against Tottenham on Sunday.
The Reds snapped up the controversial £16m Italian on Monday, but due to the deal going through late on he was forced to watch the loss at Manchester City from the stands.
The 24-year-old has since been training with his new team-mates all week ahead of the trip to White Hart Lane, with Brendan Rodgers having talked up his fitness after a pre-season with AC Milan and the prospect of him featuring against table-topping Spurs.
WANT MORE? >> Liverpool transfer news | Tottenham transfer news
Since the exit of Luis Suarez, the Northern Irishman has been using Sturridge as a lone striker instead of in a pair, and Molby believes that the Merseysiders will have to go back to a ‘two up top’ set-up in London to make the most of the ‘Balotelli factor’:
“To make the most of the buzz around the signing of Mario Balotelli the striker needs to start Liverpool’s game at Tottenham.” He wrote in the Liverpool Echo.
“Brendan Rodgers might be considering easing him in gently by bringing him off the bench but I hope he’s unleashed from the first minute.
“The fact is the last name Spurs will want to see on that team sheet on Sunday is Balotelli’s. He’s unpredictable and having him in the starting line up would give the players around him a lift, as well as the club’s supporters.
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“The manager played with two strikers last season in Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge and I hope he finds room for both Sturridge and Balotelli. We want to be as brave as we were last season. One will obviously need to drift wide at times and both will need to work hard.”
It was the most fitting and appropriate end to the trophy drought at Arsenal. It was the perfect way to cap a season that has become a page turned for Aaron Ramsey after the difficulties of that injury at Stoke.
Who else could have won Arsenal the FA Cup and had the moment be any sweeter? Had it been Mesut Ozil, it would have been the ushering in of a new era, but one that isn’t really a clear depiction of Arsene Wenger and his values in football.
The German midfielder is the superstar that the club needed, but Wenger’s faith in youth, the steel-like conviction in what he was doing in building for the long-term, his absolute confidence in Ramsey over these past few seasons – two new contracts inside the last 18 months – made the end to the cup final at Wembley all the more fitting.
Money and imported, readymade superstars didn’t win Arsenal and Wenger the FA Cup – Ramsey, a player brought in for relative peanuts as a teenager, did. There can be no stronger vindication for Wenger’s long-held beliefs than that.
It’s fitting that a project has become this Arsenal team’s talisman. Players like Ozil are necessary, if nothing else than to properly equip and supplement those who are developed in-house. But Ramsey has gone full circle. He’s no longer that player who was the brunt of fans’ frustration. The Welshman has taken that step forward, ahead of his teammates lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, to become this team’s leader and poster boy.
Arsenal have long trumpeted the ideal that they make superstars rather than buying them. Bayern Munich’s reported interest in Ramsey acts as confirmation that they’re onto something big with the 23-year-old. Had he been fit all season, Ramsey may well have won the Player of the Year award. At the very least it would have been an extremely close call between him and Luis Suarez.
His long-term move to the sidelines on Boxing Day, still lamented by Arsenal supporters, coincided with the creeping in of a loss of form and loss of belief. Ozil has no doubt added ornamentation to Arsenal’s play; the German has brought intelligence, too. But there’s no safety net or backup for the loss of a genuine game-changer and willing leader in someone like Ramsey.
Ramsey is a player reborn. An apparently limitless supply of confidence now to go along with the talent that was always there. In years gone by, Arsenal have rarely had both – and that goes for individuals and the club as a whole. They’ve got a leader on the pitch – an armband isn’t always necessary or defining – as well as a trophy in the cabinet to really get the motors going. If Arsenal weren’t financially capable of adding further talent in the past, they’re more than able now.
Ramsey has scored the most important goal of his career – and what a stunning effort it was – while arguably scoring the goal that put Wenger’s future beyond all doubt. But the midfielder is 23. Let that sink in. Arsenal have lost out on star players in the past. Cesc Fabregas wanted to return home to Barcelona for a number of reasons, but primary was the opportunity to win silverware. Arsenal certainly lost out on much of Robin van Persie’s career due to the Dutchman’s injuries. He too jumped ship in the pursuit of tangible glory.
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But the club don’t have that problem now. There are few, if any, insurmountable hurdles preventing this club from winning and giving players like Ramsey the incentive to stay.
Sam Allardyce has admitted that his team have exceeded his expectations this season.
West Ham beat Southampton 4-1 at Upton Park on Saturday and Allardyce has been impressed with the start the Hammers have had.
“This is a fantastic start considering we have just been promoted… We’ve done the job better than I expected with 14 points from eight and we’re on two or three more points more than I had hoped,” he said.
The former Blackburn Rovers gaffer has made it clear that the Hammers will now concentrate on their away fixture at Wigan and getting two wins in a row.
“We focus on Wigan away now. Our last away game was against Queens Park Rangers, which was a terrific performance and a well-deserved victory. Can we now go and get our first back-to-back wins in the Premier League?
“When you’ve won a game, to go and try to win the next one is a massive ask and it makes a huge difference. That’s our aim. Wigan haven’t won at home so there might be a lack of confidence there, so if we can take advantage of that then we might do back-to-back wins,” he added.
However, he has warned that bigger tests are to come, “We don’t get too carried away because the fixtures have been very kind to us. The teams that we have played in our first games were very difficult but there’s only Arsenal in there that might be in the top four that we’ve played.”
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Mark Noble, Modibo Maiga and Kevin Nolan scored the Hammers’ goals in last weekend’s victory over Southampton.
It may be the biggest sporting game on the planet full of super stars and beyond super goals, but it is still a little bit of a shock to see someone like Jennifer Lopez wearing a football shirt and cheering like mad during the game. As one of the world’s most famous singers and indeed beautiful women, J-Lo is instantly recognisable, but in a Real Madrid shirt even she inspires a double take. Of course it cannot be forgotten that celebrities no matter how famous they are just as passionate as us normal folk about football and can become just as enthusiastic. With that in mind, here is a look at the top ten famous football fans.
From ones who we are fully aware of and ones who are very vocal about their love for the club that occupies a spot in their heart – maybe not to the level of ‘let’s be having you’ Delia Smith- to the most unlikely of fans, and indeed ones who have come to support their club in the most bizarre of circumstances here is a look at the top ten football fans.
Click on Angelina Jolie to unveil the top 10
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To some it seems inevitable, to others it was completely shocking..
But Kenny Jackett has resigned as Millwall manager.
Jackett resigned three days after the Championship season ended after feeling he’d taken us as far as he could.
It was gutting to see he resigned, but maybe he was right…
This season saw the Lions needing to rely on other results on the final day in order to stay in the division. Whereas in December we were play off contenders.
Jackets poor January signings led us to a bottom five finish. Plus rumours of unhappy players not wanting to play for the manager don’t help, if you lose the dressing room, maybe it’s time to go…
I was hoping he would stay for atleast another year, give him a chance to make right the mistakes made, you don’t become a bad manager overnight.
Plus we have to remember what Kenny has done for the club. Remember when he came in we were looking at relegation to League Two. He kept us up, made us stronger, and promoted us two years later. Then we had a play-off push to the Premier League in the first season back in the Championship.
He’s the greatest manager I will see during my lifetime at The Den, I’m pretty sure of that.
In all of KJ’s years here it either involved a play-off push or relegation battle, no middle ground. Never boring being a Millwall fan…
Of course this season also included an F.A Cup semi final appearance at Wembley. The third time in five seasons ‘Wall would make the short trip to the national stadium.
But in all honesty this very well was the final nail in KJ’s coffin. The further we got the fixtures piled up. Maybe just not having the cup to distract us, we could’ve finished higher.
KJ gave me my first ever taste of success as a Millwall fan. Thanks KJ for all the memories.
Now it’s who to see who could come in. With Owen Coyle being put in as bookies favourite. I wouldn’t mind him coming in but can’t see it happening.
Neil Warnock, semi retired?
Darren Ferguson, wouldn’t be let go.
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Dean Saunders, two relegations in two years.
Karl Robinson, unproven and looking poor at Mk Dons.
Its a tough decision and let’s hope Berylson makes the right decision. With the delicate situation we are in now, the wrong choice of manager will surely spell relegation back to League 1.
Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere is set to sign a bumper deal with the club as they look to secure his long-term future, according to reports from the Daily Mail.
The Premier League giants are keen to prepare the 20-year-old for an eventual role as club captain and believe that handing him a pay rise will display their faith in the injury prone starlet.
Preliminary talks have already taken place and it’s thought that Wilshere will receive a substantial hike in his weekly wage of £50,000.
Lukas Podolski is the highest earner at the Emirates Stadium, pocketing £90,000-per-week, but the England international is unlikely to be on level terms with the attacker.
Despite having two-and-a-half years remaining on Wilshere’s current deal, the North Londoners are believed to be keen to get negotiations tied up to prevent any immediate interest from rival teams.
A long-term deal does present a risk for the club, with the youngster having suffered from a series of recurring injuries.
He has just returned from a 17-month absence thanks to knee and ankle problems and it’s unclear as to whether he will suffer a recurrence in the future.
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The playmaker is a product of the Arsenal academy, which has made him an instant hit with club’s loyal support.
Arsene Wenger made Cesc Fabregas captain at the age of just 21, which hints that Wilshere could be wearing the armband very soon.