Moments after discovering that Manchester United had not, in fact, won the Premiership last May and cross-town rivals Manchester City secured the title on goal difference, Alex Ferguson made a simple pronouncement: We’re not going away.
And United didn’t. This season, the Red Devils rampaged to a record 20th top flight title and left everybody else in their wake. United’s response to losing the title to City couldn’t have been more emphatic.
Now, it’s Roberto Mancini’s turn. With City dethroned as the kings of England, the Italian gaffer must rally his charges, finish strong and take a page out of their nemesis’s handbook and prove to United and the rest of the Premiership that Manchester City isn’t going away, either.
This will be the longest off-season in, perhaps, City’s 133-year history. No, the 2013-14 campaign won’t start any later than it normally does, but the time between City’s final match on May 19 with Norwich City and next campaign’s August 11 opener will feel like an eternity away when redemption is on the club’s minds.
It’s hard to call a season where a team finishes second in the Premiership and playing in an FA Cup final a failure, but for Manchester City, 2012-13 has been just that. Winning its first top flight title in 44 years last season and reaching the apex of British football was supposed to provide the Sky Blues with a platform to continue its dominance over the English game and mount another attempt to reassert itself as a European giant.
Instead, City sits 14 points behind champions-elect United with four matches left and crashed out of the Champions League at the group stage for the second consecutive year. City can now only look back and try to identify where it all went wrong when it should have gone oh, so right.
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While finger-pointing is a futile exercise at this point, blame must be laid with Mancini, himself. The Italian by no means mismanaged his side and certainly deserves to stay on, but the former Inter man assembled a combustible squad and this mismatched group was as a big a reason as any for a lack of success on the year.
At times, it seemed the inmates were running the asylum. Mario Balotelli’s petulance was tolerated for far too long. Edin Dzeko’s desire for more playing time should never have left the dressing room. Kolo Toure’s unhappiness played out in the media. Samir Nasri’s insolence and disrespect of his manager earned only a slap on the wrist.
None of these incidents were conducive to victory, but all were allowed to happen on Mancini’s watch. It’s hard to believe that Ferguson would stand for anything close to this. Just ask David Beckham, Roy Keane or Jaap Stam. Mancini cannot allow this to bleed into next year and his authority must be viewed by his charges as absolute.
In order to wrest the title back to United, what Ferguson did last summer was identify his side’s biggest deficiency and address it immediately in using his substantial financial reach to sign Robin van Persie from Arsenal and keep him away from City. The Dutchman has led the league in scoring and has been instrumental to United’s success.
Few teams can use their deep pockets to significantly improve their squads immediately like United can, but City is one of them. Too often, City has purchased players for the sake of it and not for actual need. Look no further than Scott Sinclair, Jack Rodwell, Javi Garcia and Maicon, all purchased by City this past summer and used so sparingly.
And yes, the likes of Sinclair and Rodwell are young and will likely remain with City for years to come, but in their cases, why not do what a Chelsea or Arsenal does and loan those players out and not bury them on the bench? Mancini and his staff must sit down in the coming weeks and identify real needs like support up front for Sergio Aguero and cover in the back for Vincent Kompany. The key is bringing in the right players and not hoarding everything money can buy.
While Mancini’s aims this off-season aren’t simple, they are straightforward: Reaffirm his influence, farm out malcontents and address actual deficiencies. Before he does all that, though, his team must finish strong. Not only is there still an FA Cup to play for, there are four league matches for City players to prove that they deserve to move forward with Mancini and his Sky Blues.
These aren’t garbage games, but an audition for next season. Anybody who doesn’t merit being a City player has four games to show himself the door and those who want to continue on can show that their locker stalls are warranted.
Last season, Manchester City threw down the gauntlet and Manchester United answered the challenge. With the roles now reversed, City, too, has the opportunity to issue a response befitting of a champion.
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