Seems very badly handled (as always) by City, especially if Mancini was in the ground. I thought MH would at least be given until the end of the season. City's last result before he took over was an 8-1 defeat at Boro. Transforming a team from that level of performance to Top 4 is no easy task no matter how much money is spent.

The strange thing about MH's tenure was how un-Hughes like it all seemed. When he was appointed I expected him to produce a solid, hardworking if dour team. Even with the sudden riches I thought he'd stick to his basic principles. Instead he persisted with selections that always seemed over adventurous and was surprisingly reluctant to make substitutions aimed at protecting leads. And TBH watching today's match it made you wonder whether the players ever do any defensive work in training.

Havent a clue how good Mancini is but he's got a lot on his plate, having to bring in a completely new coaching team, the Xmas programme, the loss of players to the ANC & injuries, the January transfer window. Does he speak English?

That's a false argument IMO, and one I've heard many times. The 8-1 wsan't an 8-1 that got a manager sacked, it was an 8-1 that happened precisely because the manager was going and everyone had known it for a while.

From memory you'd given up well before Sven left.

Hughes had the full pre-season, so I really don't think he had to pick anything up from the 8-1.



He ended his career at Leicester.

I read today that he's been over here pretty much since he was sacked by Inter, so I'd expect he speaks English quite well.

Time for Bolton to f*ck Megson off now and get Hughes in. Proved he could do it at Blackburn, hopefully he could do the same at the Reebok.

Ban yourself!

Maybe a very good call that

time is running out on rafa now has to be

Ooo, you filthy mind.

I meant flick

He has to be on the thinnest of thin ice just as long as nobody mentions Mark Hughes for the job

The problem will be his big fat contract he signed not so long ago !!

I must admit that made me laugh

The ad campaign is Rafa saying, "The bitter is perfect, the taste is perfect, they never do a bottle wrong."

I must admit, the appointment of Mancini does not fill me with any great excitement. I never thought we'd get Mourinho but Guus Hiddink would definitely have been my first choice.

Can't exactly say I am delighted about how we have gone about it. Mancini has obviously been lined up for a while and, in that respect, I feel a bit sorry for Leslie who has been an honest toiler.

That said, he was clearly out of his depth and wasn't helped by a distinctly underwhelming backroom staff. Which ever way you look at things, Hughes, Bowen, Niedzweiki and Hitchcock were never going to lead us to the promised land.

Today's game summed up perfectly the shortcomings. Once again, we concede three preventable goals and, once again, it's left to individual performances to pull us through. I have to be honest and say that if we had Taylor and Robinho playing all season rather than Given and Bellamy, then we'd be way down the table. Then again, if we'd had Arsenal bloody Ladies centre half instead of Toure then we'd be a lot higher.

Unfortunately, Hughes has been let down badly by some of his signings but he chose those players who are clearly not good enough/strong enough/mentally 'up for it' enough and he has badly neglected other areas when people could see those areas needed addressing before he started buying icing for the cake he did not have.

As for Mancini, well, I'm not exactly over the moon but if an Italian can't sort out our comical defence than no-one can