ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Daniel Taylortalks to the City manager who wants to pull down the "34 Years" banner at Old Trafford
TO UNDERSTAND what it would mean to Manchester City if they were to beat Tottenham Hotspur tonight and go on to qualify for the Champions League it is worth going back to that seminal September day in 2008 when Abu Dhabi’s ruling al-Nahyan family swept into power and, specifically, the reaction of Pele to the news that Robinho was the first world-famous player to be seduced by the mountain of money at their disposal.
“This is a boy who needs serious counselling,” Pele said of a transfer that caused outrage throughout Brazil. Marcelo Teixeira, the Santos president, described it as “one of the most disgraceful moments in Brazilian football”. Jose Fernando, the Santos manager, said the club were “ashamed of having produced such a player” and a nation’s media frothed with moral indignation as they tried to make sense of a club cynically held up as “the wrong Manchester”.
This has been the problem for City since the new owners brought their oil riches to a club whose ambitions, taking in Kaka, John Terry and now Fernando Torres, are tempered by the fact their relationship with the European Cup amounts to nothing more than a cursory line in the history books recording a first-round defeat against Fenerbahce 42 years ago.
It has been a question of identity and perception, and of trying to change the way the club are seen so that targets such as Torres can regard them as a club that will enhance their careers and not just their bank balances.
And it can feel like a slow process when a man such as Gianluigi Buffon dismisses City out of hand, as the Italy goalkeeper did last week. “The best players in the world want to be playing for the top teams in the top three leagues, and that’s no more than five or six teams. It’s a very elite list and Manchester City have to accept the fact they are not one of them.”
But then, maybe the elite have to accept that City will stop at nothing until they have established themselves on the top table and that, once they do qualify for the Champions League, they have the infrastructure and wealth to make sure that it becomes the norm rather than the exception.
“The aim has always been to finish in the top four this season and in the top one next year and, if we can reach the Champions League, it would make it much easier to make two or three really important signings,” their manager, Roberto Mancini, said yesterday.
“If we don’t, we still want players of high quality and I think it would be a big mistake if they don’t want to come here simply because we didn’t finish fourth. Whatever happens this season, in the future I know there will be a fantastic team here. But I know how top players think. They all want to be in the Champions League. It is vital.”
The alternative is that City may have to moderate their plans for what promises to be another extensive summer recruitment programme and the club may, indeed, become vulnerable to losing some of their best players. Carlos Tevez, for one, is described as open-minded about his future and his relationship with Mancini has been strained at times.
After criticising Mancini’s training regime recently, Tevez did not stay to the end of training yesterday, returning to the changing rooms after telling the club’s medical staff he felt tired. Mancini, smiling mischievously, had mentioned earlier that he may arrange double sessions for his leading scorer.
Inevitably, there would also be questions about Mancini’s own position, although the Italian is already making plans for the future and, unlike some managers, does not get fazed if he is asked about the possibility of being sacked.
“I don’t think my future depends on this game,” he said. “In Italy, it’s different because if you lose three or four games in a row, you are finished . . . sacked!” When it was suggested it was the same in England he said: “No, over here it’s much better for managers. I think you get much more time to build a team.”
The former Internazionale coach is still to meet Sheikh Mansour, although he says not too much should be read into that.
Mancini went on to note the work of his predecessor, Mark Hughes, saying that if City did get the results they need against Tottenham and then West Ham United on Sunday that it would be a joint achievement.
But he has also spoken at length about trying to bring in a different mentality to the club. At Old Trafford there is a banner – “34 Years” – poking fun at the length of time since City last won a trophy. “I want to be the manager who pulls it down,” Mancini has said.
Guardian Service
