Hughes sacked - Mancini to replace him

Mancini to replace Hughes at City

Manchester City boss Mark Hughes has been sacked, a source inside the club has confirmed to ESPN Soccernet. The club are expected to announce that former Inter Milan Roberto Mancini will take over as manager at a press conference at 1930 GMT.

City's chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, and owner, Sheikh Mansour, had grown increasingly disillusioned with City's poor form, having watched Hughes' side win just twice in eleven league games.

Hughes oversaw City's 4-3 victory over Sunderland on Saturday but he is thought to have known about his sacking before the game, and appeared emotional at the end of the match, apparently waving goodbye to the home supporters.

City are up to sixth in the table but the 3-0 midweek drubbing by Spurs was the final straw for the owners, who are keen on an overhaul in order to keep the club's Champions League qualification hopes alive.

After expensively assembling a squad - spending in excess of £150 million on the likes of Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor - Hughes had been under pressure to achieve immediate results, but after an excellent start to the season, in which City won six of their first seven league games, they stuttered.

Seven consecutive league draw raised questions over Hughes' ability to gel together a squad of unquestionably talented individuals, though their have been a number of impressive results against the league's bigger teams. City beat Chelsea and outclassed Arsenal both in the league (winning 4-2) and in the Carling Cup (3-0) - booking a semi-final cencounter with city rivals Manchester United.

But despite only losing twice this season, City lie sixth in the Premier League, four points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham and the owners felt it was time for a change.

The agent of Guus Hiddink revealed on Friday that City had been in contact with the Dutchman, while Jürgen Klinsmann and Jose Mourinho had also been linked with the job.

But it appears Mancini, who won the Serie A title three times in four years with Inter, will be named as Hughes' successor.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=715277&sec=england&cc=5739

Very harsh to sack him. He hasnt down that badly, should have given him the entire season.

Mancini wont last long.

Only lost to Spurs and United this season. It'll be interesting with Mancini and the Jan transfer window coming up.

Hughes is an awful tactician though and I doubt he would take City to the next level. He's basically an even worse version of Ranieri. The only surprise for me is that he wasn't sacked in the summer.

Torrente wrote:Hughes is an awful tactician though and I doubt he would take City to the next level. He's basically an even worse version of Ranieri. The only surprise for me is that he wasn't sacked in the summer.

...as is Mancini who won nothing at Inter that wasn't gifted to him by the Calciopoli punishments.

No denying that Torrente. Just think he has been treated very badly by City.

Anyway,

Sky Sources(yeah I know ) are saying that during the afternoon, Toure was called out of the changing room by City officials and told of Hughes being sacked. He was then told by the same officials to tell the squad. All this before KO

Pierre Littbarski wrote:

Torrente wrote:Hughes is an awful tactician though and I doubt he would take City to the next level. He's basically an even worse version of Ranieri. The only surprise for me is that he wasn't sacked in the summer.

...as is Mancini who won nothing at Inter that wasn't gifted to him by the Calciopoli punishments.

I'm not a big fan of Mancini myself, but I doubt he'd be as useless as Hughes. I guess City went for him after Hiddink turned them down.

Better than Hughes, who most of us knew wouldn't work out, not exactly a mindblowing appointment though and it's hardly going to scare Alex Mcleish.

Manchester City FC can confirm that it has today terminated the contract of Mark Hughes.

In giving reason for the termination Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said:

“Prior to the current season beginning, with significant investment in players and infrastructure in place, the consensus between the Board and coaching staff was that appropriate agreed targets should be set for the 2009/2010 season.

“The targets were agreed as a result of the player acquisition strategy of the club being radically accelerated in the summer as a result of very favourable conditions for any buying club. It was also based on the fact that the infrastructure of the club had been overhauled completely at great cost in order to create the best possible environment for the team.

“A return of two wins in 11 Premier League games is clearly not in line with the targets that were agreed and set. Sheikh Mansour and the Board felt that there was no evidence that the situation would fundamentally change. This is a particularly difficult announcement given the personal investment over the past 15 months on all sides and we would like to put on record our respect for and thanks to Mark Hughes and we wish him the best in his future career.”

Manchester City Football Club can confirm the appointment, with immediate effect on a permanent contract, of Roberto Mancini and are also pleased to announce that Brian Kidd will join Roberto as assistant manager.

Commenting on the appointment, Khaldoon Al Mubarak said: “Roberto is a hugely experienced manager with a proven track record of winning trophies and championships. His experience and track record speak for themselves. What is absolutely clear is that Roberto believes in Manchester City’s potential to achieve at the highest level and importantly in his own ability to make this happen. My hope is that our incredible fans will join us in welcoming Roberto to the football club.”

Mark Bowen, Eddie Niedzwiecki, Kevin Hitchcock and Glyn Hodges have also left the Club and further appointments will be announced in due course.

Man City think they're Madrid.

I, Robotic Manner and I Drink Bad: the dream team.

Wait, didn't City win today?

He was sacked before the match. I guess the 3-0 vs Spurs was the final blow.

Luis wrote:Man City think they're Madrid.

Hughes was there for almost 18 months. That's 12 more months than the average Madrid coach has. They have a long way to go if they want to be anything like us.

debethlehem wrote:He was sacked before the match. I guess the 3-0 vs Spurs was the final blow.

Ah. I guess that makes (a little) more sense.

This makes no sense to me really, did City think they were going to win the title this season? City are still the most likely team to finish 4th to be honest, just need to sign Carvalho or Puyol or someone like that and some good full backs.

Rosicky. wrote:Very harsh to sack him. He hasnt down that badly, should have given him the entire season.

Mancini wont last long.

Perhaps so, but clubs like Man City work in 6 month cycles because of the transfer windows. Either they back Hughes with another 6 months and another £50 million or whatever, or they get a new man in and give him the money.

The joke of a defence assembled by him after spending some 60m quid should be a good enough reason to sack him.

So what options did the Sheikhs have. Give him another 50m for further 6 months of mediocrity.

I guess the likes of Aston Villa and Spurs leapfrogging Citeh in the race for top 4 spot should have been the proverbial last straw. After all they have done it after spending a tenth of what Hughes did.

What I am not sure is whether Mancini is the right guy to replace him. Surely they could have dangled a few more bucks and got someone like Hiddink or Mourinho to take over.

21GunnerSalute wrote:The joke of a defence assembled by him after spending some 60m quid should be a good enough reason to sack him.

So what options did the Sheikhs have. Give him another 50m for further 6 months of mediocrity.

I guess the likes of Aston Villa and Spurs leapfrogging Citeh in the race for top 4 spot should have been the proverbial last straw. After all they have done it after spending a tenth of what Hughes did.

What I am not sure is whether Mancini is the right guy to replace him. Surely they could have dangled a few more bucks and got someone like Hiddink or Mourinho to take over.

Compare:

Friedel 2m
Cuellar 9m
Dunne 5m
Collins 5m
Warnock 7m
Young 5m
Beye 2m

= 35m

Conceded 14.

or

Given 12m
Bridge 12m
Toure 16m
Lescott 24m
Zabaleta 6m
Sylvinho, Richards and Onouha Free

=60m

Conceded 27.

(some of the values might be a bit out)

I have to say the posters on here know Hiddink about as well as the British press do.

He took over Chelsea when they were 4th they couldn't possibly fall any further.

He would never take over a club that is expected to get higher up the table - not his style.

He's good at taking teams like Australia and South Korea and making them fit and motivated.

He has to be the underdog though and will fail as soon as anything is expected of him.

He described Russia's qualification for EURO '08 as "a miracle" (you're too modest Guus ) - he is Redknapp-esque at self-promotion.

Russia had the players to finish above Germany and certainly beat Slovenia failing that.

Luis wrote:This makes no sense to me really, did City think they were going to win the title this season? City are still the most likely team to finish 4th to be honest, just need to sign Carvalho or Puyol or someone like that and some good full backs.

The owners will have people whispering in their ear all season. Perhaps 6th place and a game in hand would have been on target for pre-season expectations, but the number of draws and the number of leads thrown away give credibility to claims that a more experienced manager could get them into the top 4 this time around. Throw in some dressing room discontent and Mancini's availability and you're cooking with gas. Manicini is much more likely to attract the Kaka's and Ronaldinho's, rather than having to make do with wantaway crybabies and moneygrabbing BGC's.

http://www.mcfc.co.uk/News/Club-news/2009/December/Change-of-manager-at-City

Manchester City FC can confirm that it has today terminated the contract of Mark Hughes.

In giving reason for the termination Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said:

“Prior to the current season beginning, with significant investment in players and infrastructure in place, the consensus between the Board and coaching staff was that appropriate agreed targets should be set for the 2009/2010 season.

“The targets were agreed as a result of the player acquisition strategy of the club being radically accelerated in the summer as a result of very favourable conditions for any buying club. It was also based on the fact that the infrastructure of the club had been overhauled completely at great cost in order to create the best possible environment for the team.

“A return of two wins in 11 Premier League games is clearly not in line with the targets that were agreed and set. Sheikh Mansour and the Board felt that there was no evidence that the situation would fundamentally change. This is a particularly difficult announcement given the personal investment over the past 15 months on all sides and we would like to put on record our respect for and thanks to Mark Hughes and we wish him the best in his future career.”

Manchester City Football Club can confirm the appointment, with immediate effect on a permanent contract, of Roberto Mancini and are also pleased to announce that Brian Kidd will join Roberto as assistant manager.

Commenting on the appointment, Khaldoon Al Mubarak said: “Roberto is a hugely experienced manager with a proven track record of winning trophies and championships. His experience and track record speak for themselves. What is absolutely clear is that Roberto believes in Manchester City’s potential to achieve at the highest level and importantly in his own ability to make this happen. My hope is that our incredible fans will join us in welcoming Roberto to the football club.”

Mark Bowen, Eddie Niedzwiecki, Kevin Hitchcock and Glyn Hodges have also left the Club and further appointments will be announced in due course.

Got their point across didn't they?

From my work experience with Arabs. I could tell you that they really mean business. They are worse than yankees when it comes to targets and deadlines. They spend big and reap the results no matter what. Expect another wave of players..

Luis wrote:This makes no sense to me really, did City think they were going to win the title this season? City are still the most likely team to finish 4th to be honest, just need to sign Carvalho or Puyol or someone like that and some good full backs.

Are you serious? Like that could happen during this winter window.

Every player has a price. It will all end in tears this City lark, could really backfire this change of manager out of the blue, if they had kept Hughes til the end of the season I'm sure they'd finish 4th.

City will spend £50m in January on Richard Dunne, Elano and Corluka

Spuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurs!

shazlx wrote:

Luis wrote:This makes no sense to me really, did City think they were going to win the title this season? City are still the most likely team to finish 4th to be honest, just need to sign Carvalho or Puyol or someone like that and some good full backs.

Are you serious? Like that could happen during this winter window.

Carvalho's possible. I think, like Arsenal with Toure, he's less important than he was and they might cash in with a big offer. Don't think he'd be the fix City need.

debethlehem wrote:

shazlx wrote:

Luis wrote:This makes no sense to me really, did City think they were going to win the title this season? City are still the most likely team to finish 4th to be honest, just need to sign Carvalho or Puyol or someone like that and some good full backs.

Are you serious? Like that could happen during this winter window.

Carvalho's possible. I think, like Arsenal with Toure, he's less important than he was and they might cash in with a big offer. Don't think he'd be the fix City need.

Carvalho would be a possibility if Chelsea were not facing a transfer fan. Remember its January, the elite CL would want non cup tied players replacing anyone they sold.

Mancini may not be the best coach out there, but he's highly ambitious, has been a great footballer, and has a good eye for players.

I don't know if he'll be a successfull manager for City but he should at least be able to spend well the arab's money and get them a truly good squad.