Every weekend we go beyond the headlines and talk to real football fans about current topics or issues in the football world.
Today the group discussed Manuel Pellegrini's uncertain future after Manchester City's poor form in recent months.
On the round table today we were joined by:
Bramble
Parmar
Juanito
Adrian
Wes
Luka
Iain (me)
Manchester City are currently 9 points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea, who have a game in hand, crashed out of the FA Cup and the Champions League early, and have lost seven of 14 matches since January 10. Is Manuel Pellegrini to blame?
Juanito:
I don't think so. I'm not sure how much control he has over transfers, but this club buys talent for the sake of buying talent. Their core is starting to age and the core of Kompany and Toure is starting to show it's age.
He's also a nice guy, like a fun grandpa, and he's not English, which means he gets crucified by the press.
Parmar:
(Laughing out loud) Straight away, who cares they suck ass and I want it to stay that way!
Now on a serious note. Yes. It's his fault. He's the manager and he's the one that buys and sells players. He's let his squad get old without injecting enough youth or younger players into the team. They don't develop any of their own players through their joke youth system. So ya. It's his fault.
Juanito:
Again, who controls transfers at City? It may be a case that he's a good manager, but a poor scout. He had no control over transfers at Villareal, Real Madrid, or Málaga.
Wes:
I agree with Parmar. The manager is definitely responsible. I'll admit the players have a hand in it too, but the Managers job is to get the best out of those lads.
Sonny:
Well if he has no buying input why the fuck would he take the job? You think Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola would ever take a job that would limit their control over the club? I mean Jose has to go to the board with his plan, and who and what he wants to spend, but he's never been told no.
Luka:
It's never one person's fault but Pellegrini has to be the one held accountable rightly or wrongly, that's just the way it is.
Juanito:
You're so English, Parmar.
Parmar:
Fuck off. (Laughs)
Juanito:
Footie on the continent is different. The manager usually has to answer to a Director of Football who has ultimate control of transfers.
Parmar:
There is a Director of Football at Chelsea too. At the end of the day he's the manager, the man charged with getting the best out of the squad he has at his disposal. He hasn't and he should and will pay the price.
Bramble:
I don't think it's his fault. The players are all mercenaries with no love for the club. They REALLY wouldn't even be there if there was a rich team with more prestige behind its name that came along. This is a classic case of players screwing the manager. Like the Chelsea players did to like EVERYONE. They were so determined to get Mourinho back that even winning the CL wasn't enough to gain their respect.
Parmar:
(Laughs) They ran Rafa Benitez out of town. Di Matteo, Big Phil and Carlo Ancelotti were all victims of the Russian.
Bramble:
Di Matteo did what the Russian wanted most though, and that was he won the Champions League.
Parmar:
But then they had a slow start the next season and Robbie got the gas pipe.
Bramble:
Then Rafa came and won the Europa League but it wasn't good enough.
Parmar:
Don't forget, when Rafa made those comments about Chelsea and the supporters, John Terry and Frank Lampard were on the team. They have/had a lot of influence on the squad and players listened to them. So you know the fat fuck waiter was doomed from the get go.
Adrian:
I don't watch a lot of English football, but oddly enough Manchester City is the team I have seen the most of considering we've played them in the group stage of the Champions League 3 of the past 4 years. They've beaten us 3 of the 6 matches but on each of those occasions a) Bayern dominated the matches for long periods of time and b) we'd already qualified for the knockout round. I guess I am always underwhelmed whenever I see City play. Is that the fault of the manager? Hard to tell...however I do think the players on the squad are hugely overrated.
Iain:
City built a club completely full of Mercs and it is an issue. Where Chelsea differed is that you had a good core of pre-Abramovich money players there like Frank Lampard and John Terry who formed the core of that team. From then on they simply made smarter buys than City. City seem like a team without an identity, whereas Chelsea are shaped in Mourinho's mould, even in the years he wasn't there. I really think Pellegrini could have bought better last summer, you always need to strengthen after winning the league and not rest on your laurels. The fact that he didn't adequately strengthen in key areas is his fault.
In Conclusion:
The majority of The Round Table agrees that Pellegrini has made some costly errors this season, and although the players have underperformed, a lot of City's problems fall on his doorstep. It's difficult to see him at Manchester City next season. Then we segwayed into a discussion on Chelsea, for which I blame Parmar for.
Thanks for checking out this week's Round Table.
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