Why Liverpool shouldn't bring back Rafa Benitez

Poor Roy Hodgson. Failure to convince Liverpool fans he is the right man to take the club forward to the point where they chant the name of the last man to take them to the title at games is bad enough. Having another popular predecessor leave his job and move into a house down the road is quite another. Roy must feel surrounded by the ghosts of Christmas past.

Ironically, that may be one thing he has in common with some Liverpool fans. The routine and tiresome accusations from rival fans that they live in the past, like most clichés, are not without foundation.

Reared on being Britain’s most successful club, Liverpool fans want and expect more of the same, even if most of them are much more depressingly realistic about that prospect than the caricature suggests. Certainly many fans have looked to the past as the way forward – first with the calls for Kenny Dalglish to return and now with the far-fetched campaign to ‘bring back Rafa’.

First, a reality check. It is not going to happen. The reasons why Benitez was fired are still there and so are some of the people who took or encouraged that course of action – notably some leading players. Throw in his outbursts against owners at three successive clubs and the owners’ criticism of his spending record and it is simply impossible to imagine them reappointing him now.

More interesting is the question of whether they should appoint him. He is certainly a better manager than Roy Hodgson, with a better track record and a real understanding of the club. Hodgson’s time should be nearly up for a club of Liverpool’s ambition and if he is to be replaced, a man who loves the club and has already delivered some success there might seem an obvious contender, his poor last season notwithstanding – you could put that down to the ongoing tensions and financial constraints under the previous owners. A poll on this site currently shows over two thirds of fans would welcome the appointment.

But there is a case against. For some Liverpool fans, Benitez can do no wrong. His clear love for the club and the city, the heroics of Istanbul, even the rant at Alex Ferguson make him a God-like figure in their eyes. These ‘Rafa-ultras’ regard him as a genius, the best manager in the business and probably more important than any player to the club.

They respond ferociously at times to any criticism of their man, former Liverpool hero John Aldridge was flamed so much after tweeting that he didn’t want him back that he left Twitter. While the admiration for Benitez is in some ways commendable, it can lead to a glossing over of some of his mistakes and failings while at the helm, including a shocking final season in which he had clearly lost the support of key players.

I’m a huge admirer of Benitez as a man and as a coach and there is no question that he was Liverpool’s best manager since Kenny Dalglish. He took the club forward in big steps, winning the Champions League in his first season with a relatively weak squad was an astonishing achievement. The development ebbed and flowed, but by 2009, he had taken the club to second in the table and they looked ready to make the final step and win the title.

Then Alonso was sold, Riera (an underestimated influence in bringing attacking width) fell out of favour and Benitez began to exploit the power vacuum at the heart of the club, removing key members of the backroom team and as a result alienating senior players. It would also be wrong to forget some of the perplexing substitutions and tactical changes that visibly alienated players last season.

His man management skills have never been the greatest, but in losing Alonso and clearly losing the full support of senior players, he seemed to reach a new nadir. Players did not want to play for him any longer and it showed.

Be careful what you wish for – the players then got Roy Hodgson, a nice guy but a far less able coach, with expectations that are not so much humble as defeatist. The expected buzz created by a new regime has not materialised in six months, the football is dire and the team lack both motivation and belief.

If this continues until the summer, have no doubt that the most stellar performers will be on their way. They have virtually said as much. But throwing Rafa into that mix is hardly going to smooth feathers. It would be divisive among players and fans and the media (who may not matter, but do tend to obsess Rafa) would do everything in their xenophobic power to derail the new regime. It wouldn’t be a fresh start, it’d be an admission that sacking Rafa was a mistake – a view that some in the dressing room do not share.

Rafa would also quickly clash with the new owners. They favour a transfer policy based on buying and bringing through young players – as favoured by Shanks and Paisley in years gone by and by Manchester United now. His record on bringing players through the ranks is not the best – he has tended to clash with boards primarily over availability of money to buy players.

The speedy turnover of players under Rafa would also jar with NESV – yes, he had to change things quickly and the club didn’t help as they might have, but it just isn’t the NESV way of doing things.

The reality that Rafa is not coming home to Liverpool – at least not as manager – should be obvious to all. What isn’t the equal truth is that it would be a retrograde step to appoint him. Liverpool need to look to the future – either to a young, ambitious manager to build a new dynasty or to a caretaker figure like Dalglish, until such a man can be found. Rafa was the answer in 2004, he is not the answer now.

A poor year for local football, but there's hope...

Earlier this week, the Singaporean football team, also known as the Lions, suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Vietnam, ending their hopes of being crowned champions of South-East Asia for the third time.

In a year that has not been kind to Singapore football, all hope of festive cheer was pinned on Radojko Avramovic and his Lions to bring some joy to the fraternity, but there would be no merry end to 2010.

Three domestic titles in local football were all claimed by foreign teams who raided the S-League; the national side fumbled chance after chance to qualify for the Asian Cup finals; then the national under-23 team returned from last month's Guangzhou Asian Games with their tail between their legs - even before the opening ceremony; and S-League clubs are still in intensive care fighting a financial cancer, struggling to keep their heads above water.

Speaking to The Straits Times on Thursday, Football Association of Singapore (FAS) president Zainudin Nordin did not mask his displeasure after the country's first group stage exit in the tournament since 2002.

'The performance was below expectations and I'm very disappointed in the outcome,' said Singapore's top football man.

'But we have to move forward, and focus on the pipeline rather than the current team. Many of the players in the national team are in their 30s and are reaching the end of their careers. Our technical people will have to go back to the drawing board and blood new players.'

Thankfully, instead of complaining about what went wrong and who should coach the national squad, the Football Association of Singapore and S-League clubs are focusing on player development. Not many successful footballing nations have their front line led by a 40-year old and the fact that almost half of the starting line-up are not born and bred Singaporeans is a cause for concern.

Even as the inquest continues into Singapore's AFF Suzuki Cup fiasco, plans are already in motion to boost the quality of youngsters that will form the spine of future national teams.The FAS has revealed that it is in talks with Tottenham and Aston Villa to bring budding young Singaporeans to England next year for trials. Members of the Youth Olympic team have also received offers from top European teams such as Werder Bremen and I do hope that excuses such as "focusing on studies" or homesickness do not arise and prevent these players from living their dreams.

Although the road to being offered a professional contract will be long and hard, the exposure to training techniques and the professionalism of foreign leagues will be vital in the development in young talent. This tactic may take time to reap reward but what it can provide is a sustainable flow of talent to support what the potential of the national team.

Although the performance in the Suzuki Cup was dismal, coming extremely close to qualifying for the Asian Cup Finals and going further than any other local team in history in terms of World Cup Qualification do prove that the system set in place by Raddy Avramovic is slowly but surely producing results.

Yes, players like Aleksander Duric and John Wilkinson may be past their prime and should not play any further part in the national team set up but young ones like Shahril Ishak, Hasan Sunny and a fit Qiu Li definitely have what it takes to beat any team in the region and with better training and infrastructure, may even go on to become one of the top Asian teams.

So to all local football fans, don't lose faith in your national team or the S-League. This year was surely one of the worst the local football scene has ever faced but the only way it can go now is up. Let's do away with the harsh criticism and lets focus on the positives instead of the negatives.

The FAS and S-League need our support to be the driving force of their 5-year plan so lets get behind them and make football enjoyable again for us and the future of Singapore.

Where's the sense in sacking Chris Hughton?

Sunday's performance from the Newcastle United players, as in a few matches this season, was lacklustre at best. Fans who had battled through transport chaos to get to West Bromwich vented their frustration as they and their team froze at The Hawthorns.

But, even as the gloomy resignation to a poor defeat descended on those of us in the away end, a chant began to rise up from the Geordies behind the goal: "Chrissy Hughton's black and white army," they sang, over and over.

As Hughton held the Championship trophy aloft at St James' Park, the fans knew he had won it despite losing some very talented players the previous summer, despite spending a relatively small sum of money and despite nobody having even given him a chance of getting the job in the first place.

Chris Hughton has brought dignity, stability and a respectable Premier League placing to Newcastle United - so it should be no surprise that his reward from owner Mike Ashley is the sack.

Ashley's unsure touch on football matters has surfaced in the wayward decision-making of the past but, short of pleading with Kevin Keegan to return for a third term of office, few have been as unfathomable as the decision to remove Hughton less than eight months after the 51-year-old former Tottenham and Republic of Ireland defender took them back to the top tier.

And it has rightly been met with instant and widespread condemnation - most significantly from Newcastle supporters who know their former manager has been badly treated.

Ashley has not been pushed into this by growing pressure and unrest from fans. Newcastle's followers have been loyal and grateful to Hughton for restoring respect to their club and for the calm and measured manner in which he guided them back into the Premier League after only one season away.

Of course, the Magpies have had poor results this season, two of them coming in successive away games at Bolton and West Brom, the latter on Sunday presumably the final straw for Ashley and his fellow powerbrokers. It should also be remembered a creditable draw against Chelsea was sandwiched between these two results.

Newcastle are what they are - a newly promoted team - and Hughton was bound to experience bumps along the way. This is the way of things. Results can be mixed and heavy defeats come along occasionally but Ashley does not appear to have factored away wins at Everton and Arsenal into his calculations, or the hammerings handed out to Aston Villa and Sunderland at home.

The good news for Hughton is that he departs without a stain on his reputation and character while Ashley will no doubt face further accusations that he is out of touch with football's realities.

The farewell statement that accompanied Hughton out of the door at St James' Park was part-praise/part-insult as it read "an individual with more managerial experience is needed to take the club forward."

More managerial experience? From the club that asked legendary striker Alan Shearer to perform his first managerial task by trying to save them from relegation at the end of the 2008/09 campaign.

Take the club forward? Maybe something has been missed along the way but winning promotion from the Championship and putting Newcastle in mid-table in the Premier League sounds like decent advancement to most observers.

Hughton was getting his experience at Newcastle, although there was always the lingering suspicion that he was not quite high profile enough for those running the club. If you wanted headline grabbing quotes or flamboyant behaviour, Hughton was not your man. If you wanted basic decency and sound managerial common sense on a shoestring budget, then he was.

We should not patronise the former Tottenham defender and sympathise simply because this is unwarranted treatment of one of the game's nice guys. We should sympathise because he has lost a job he was doing perfectly well.

There is huge pressure on Ashley and his boardroom cohorts to prove that Alan Pardew is the right man and ease the mood of unrest his decision to cut off Hughton has created at St James' Park. And Ashley's track record will not inspire huge confidence.

Hughton, meanwhile, can only reflect on what a harsh and illogical profession football management can be, safe in the knowledge that he has more than enough credit in the bank to soon be receiving offers from elsewhere.

The fans do not crave a Messiah, they crave success. Under Hughton they looked like a football team. But that, apparently, is not on the board's agenda.

Jose Mourinho - We think it, he does it

He's a wily one, that Jose Mourinho. The Real Madrid manager has built his reputation on thinking outside the box, approaching the game from an angle few others would consider.

While most other bosses feel resigned to doing little more than ranting and hollering impotently in their technical area, the Portuguese coach is always thinking up ways he can have an extra effect on proceedings from his dugout beyond his three allotted substitutions.

Mourinho, like many of his counterparts, loves a bit of 'mind games' from the safety of the press conference, but he'll just as gleefully get his hands dirty during a match too.

He's not averse to grabbing and holding on to the ball for a little too long when it goes out of play just to deny the other team a quick throw-in, and once got Francesco Toldo to remonstrate so vehemently at the officials over a perceived injustice that Inter reserve keeper got his marching orders from the dugout, just to eat up a few valuable seconds and spoil the opposition's momentum.

But Mourinho has now been accused of taking his cheeky tactics to a whole new level after appearing to instruct Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos to get sent off during the 4-0 win at Ajax on Tuesday.

Both players were one yellow card away from suspension, but their shameless time wasting earned them second bookings which will see them miss their final group match - having already qualified for the knockout phase - and wipe their disciplinary slates clean in time for the last 16.

Mourinho once again enlisted the help of his reserve keeper, this time Jerzy Dudek. The pair were caught on camera muttering away with hands over mouths on the sidelines, before Dudek relayed a message to Ramos via Iker Casillas.

Real were as smugly indignant as their manager in their statement responding to the news, saying: "Real Madrid expresses its surprise at this decision on the understanding that it does not conform with UEFA's disciplinary rules".

No denial, no contrition, just a goading 'catch us if you can'. Los Merengues and their manager really were made for each other.

Alonso and Ramos's expulsions were met with little surprise in Spain, where the practice is simply put down to 'good housekeeping', a victimless crime. UEFA don't see it that way, though.

Real host Auxerre on the final matchday in Group G, and they are still fighting it out for a Europa League place with Ajax. The French side may be bottom of their group, but their cause will be seen to be greatly helped, and Ajax's hindered, by them not having to contend with two of the best players in the world in their respective positions when they visit the Bernabeu.

It's the old 'playing your strongest side' argument, a stick so often used to beat smaller clubs with.

But would Real have played their top men for this match anyway? They are already confirmed as group winners, and Milan will join them in the next round as runners-up. Why would they bother bringing out the big guns?

Someone who knows all about fielding weakened sides in cup competitions is Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, and the moral guardian of the beautiful game was scathing of Mourinho's underhand tactics.

He said: "You never say it doesn't cross your mind but when you see how it looks on television it is the best demonstration to think 'never do that again'.

"It looks, frankly, horrible. It's a pity to see that from a big club."

Of course, you rarely see such practices from a small club because they are more likely to be battling for their place in the last round come the final group game than the richest sides in Europe, but Wenger is right - it is not something that anyone who paid to watch the game would have appreciated.

But, then again, since when did that matter? The whole concept of the league structure is built around having more matches to broadcast, even if that means there will be plenty of games which are little more than an inconvenience to at least one of the sides.

As long as the current format remains, it will be impossible to avoid clubs fielding half the youth team once they have qualified with one or even two games to spare. Mourinho's meddling is worthy of reprimand, but it has served to highlight that fact.

Formula One - Season in review

An amazing Formula One season produced its final twist at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when Sebastian Vettel, who had never led the title race, won his first world championship.

Those who say he doesn’t deserve the title will find it difficult to support their stance. The German had more poles (10) than any other driver and shared the most wins (five) with Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard had a four-point lead going into the final race of the season and only needed a fourth-place finish to assure himself of the title. However, a poor decision from the Italian team’s strategists to react to a pit stop by Mark Webber left the two-time world champion behind Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and ultimately ended his title hopes.

According to Alonso, Petrov “protected like it was the last lap, in the last race in the championship, fighting both for the championship, so he was very aggressive”.

McLaren looked good at the end of a difficult and disappointing season and will be a force to reckon with in the 2011 season if they can finally produce a reliable car capable of performing at the top level consistently. Meanwhile Mark Webber must wonder whether he will ever get another chance such as this to win the title.

Here are my key topics of interest which emerged during the recently concluded season:

Webber vs Vettel:

The rivalry between teammates Vettel and Webber, the Anglophile Aussie who was the favourite among most neutrals to win the title, dominated headlines for most of the season.

Webber was involved in a spectacular crash when he ran into the back of Heikki Kovalainen and the most famous of his four wins, at Silverstone, when after being incensed that a new front wing was removed from his car and given to Vettel, complained loudly that Red Bull are backing the German and said to his team at the end of the race: "Not bad for a No2 driver."

The two drivers had previously faced-off in Turkey.

Intra-team divisions first appeared during the Turkish Grand Prix after Vettel collided with Webber as the pair vied for the lead in Istanbul. Vettel was forced to retire and Webber managed to make the podium, finishing third.

But they key point then was Red Bull's backing for Vettel on that occasion, even though the German was the driver most at fault. Their support for Vettel told Webber everything he didn't want to hear and confirmed his status as the team’s number 2 driver, leaving many to speculate that the Australian’s future will not be with Red Bull Racing.

The Germans:

Michael Schumacher was memorable for not being memorable. But just look at the pedigree of young Germans out there. One feels that if given the right car and support by a competent race engineer, the world could very well see a period of German dominance in the world of Formula 1.

The most notable young German, other than Vettel of course, was Nico Rosberg, who consistently out-drove his Mercedes team-mate, the legendary Michael Schumacher.

Three podium finishes and 7^th place in the World’s Driver Championship is no mean feat for a driver who many long ago dismissed as a nepotistic pretty boy. Add to that the fact that Mercedes GP gave up on their first car model months before Rosberg did, and his regular upstaging of Schumacher, it’s impossible to review the 2010 season without heaping some praise on Nico Rosberg.

Then there was Nico Hülkenberg's stunning pole in Brazil. The world knew that pole belonged to Red Bull, but the German rookie blew the accepted convention into smithereens when he piloted his FW32 around Interlagos in a time that beat Vettel’s best by over a second.

Williams may have improved their car dramatically towards the end of the 2010 season, but Hulkenberg’s pole lap owed as much to driver skill and outright bravery as it did to the car’s abilities.

There were other strong performances from the rookie driver this year – as early as Malaysia, three races into the season, he out-qualified his teammate for the first time, made it into Q3, and finished in the points (the last thanks to Alonso’s engine failure two laps from the chequered flag).

But in the end there was only one young German who mattered. It was the remarkable Vettel. This is expected to be the first of a clutch of championships for him. However, the rise of McLaren coupled with Ferrari’s want for revenge and world-class opposition will make it very difficult for Vettel to retain his title.

Final Thoughts:

Ultimately, though, this will go down as one of the greatest seasons in the 61 years of Formula One, the year where the stories, mostly, happened on the track and not off it.

There have been are some epic races and manoeuvres from what is arguably the strongest field that has even been seen on the same grid. Certainly a number of these drivers felt that this year's championship carried more weight than in recent years, simply because of the class of the opposition.

One can only expect the opposition to get better as technologies develop and this could signal a new golden age for Formula 1 where new legends will be born.

Manny Pacquiao - Greatest of All Time?

Manny Pacquiao defeated Antonio Margarito by unanimous decision during Saturday night’s bout in Arlington, Texas, pushing him to the forefront as the number one boxer in the world, according to HBO Boxing.

Pacquiao, who has now won eight divisional world titles (Oscar De La Hoya is trailing the Filipino with six divisional titles), can now make his claim to be the best in the world.

Even though Pacquiao made the fight look simple, he said that the fight was one of his toughest in memory.

"Margarito was my toughest fight,” he said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “He hurt me badly to the body and head in the sixth round. He is very strong and has a great heart.”

Despite that, the way Manny Pacquiao dominated over Antonio Margarito on Saturday night teaches upcoming boxers across the world a lot of lessons. The Filipino fighter attacked Margarito with unparallel determination and will-power, knowing absolutely and also sincerely admitting the inherent fighting talents of his opponent, Pacquiao dominated Margarito.

Pacquiao's dominance against a taller, heavier opponent also prompted some boxing observers to go a step farther, and ask: Is Pacquiao the best boxer of all time?

“Yes he is!”

"Manny Pacquiao should be declared the greatest fighter of all time, even greater than Muhammad Ali," says boxing analyst Dennis Principe, as quoted in ABS CBN News.

What sets him apart is his versatility. While other boxing legends established their greatness by "beating fighters in the same division, in the same weight level," Pacquiao demolishes "great champions who are heavier and supposedly better than him," and he does it over and over again.

But it is not just one’s skill in the ring that determines his place in history.

Pacquiao's attitude showed he is a cut above every other boxing champ that has entered the ring but cutting the trash talk and displaying true sportsmanship by placing the well-being of his opponent ahead

Several times in the 11th round, Pacquiao looked at Cole as if to ask that the fight be stopped. He later told broadcaster Mario Lopez that he took compassion on Margarito after the Mexican was allowed to continue the fight.

“I didn’t want to hurt him because boxing is not all about killing each other,” Pacquiao said.

By saying that he did not want to hurt Margarito, some would it proves that he is the greatest fighter ever. He has done the sport a great favour by showing us that it can be a gentleman’s sport and technique and attitude is more important than the amount of blood shed in the ring. He could be the greatest fighter of all time but he is without a doubt, the classiest fighter the world of boxing has ever seen.

“No. But he is one of a select few.”

Who was better? Sugar Ray Robinson, probably. Sugar Ray Leonard, possibly. Muhammad Ali, perhaps. Joe Louis? Little Jimmy Wilde? Henry Armstrong? The debate just got more heated.

"Manny Pacquiao, surely, has every right now to be considered among the top two or three greatest fighters of all time," says Kevin Mitchell at The Guardian. What the "little man" did on Saturday night to a much bigger opponent was "extraordinary in many ways" — his commitment to his craft went "beyond mere boxing." Sugar Ray Robinson was "probably" a better figher, but Pacquiao is "already worth his place among boxing's all-time elite."

But is it fair to compare boxers from different eras?

Ideally, all-time lists in any sport should be era independent. But that is not possible in most cases. Athletes are reviewed even though they fought or played in different eras, with different game rules.

Boxing has not always been the same. In the earlier days, boxers endured throughout 15 rounds, if the fight lasted that long. Gloves have evolved. So have mouthpieces.

Fighters did not always inject their hands with Xylocaine, or have effectively engineered mouth guards or hand wraps to help them cope with the brutality inside the squared circle.

Different eras are just that: different. Other variables can distort the comparison. Athletes that played before the 1960s often enjoyed less media coverage. Thus, there tends to be less video footage of their feats. That makes it harder for fans and critics to conduct a true comparable analysis across eras, from "prehistoric" to modern.

Top athletes today have much more media coverage. Their athletic performances on the field are well documented, and videos of their accomplishments proliferate on sites such as YouTube.

Finally, there is an imperfection caused by lack of records. Boxing has existed for centuries. Records have not always been preserved. Is it possible that fights took place in which no one recorded the event.

“There is still one man he has to face.”

"It's hard to argue" against Pacquiao's sparkling record, says Andreas Hale at DrJays.com. But among current boxers, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is still "the man to beat."

His gaudy 41-0 record and boxing brilliance is everything that could give Pacquiao trouble in the ring. Considering the two have yet to come together in the ring, due to potential fights being delayed by drug-testing controversies, the boxing world will have a hard time deciding which one is the best of this era.

And while many say Pacquiao doesn’t need Mayweather, the truth of the matter is, boxing needs this fight to know who is the better of the two fighters, and the best of this era. Mayweather has every right to claim he is one of the best ever. How can he not when he’s still undefeated? But if he dodges Pacquiao, his entire career will be in question.

In Pacquiao’s case, he has to beat the one man everyone knows is the “other” best fighter in the world. It would be tough to go to sleep at night wondering “what if.”

This fight needs to happen before either one of these fighters can be considered the greatest of all time.

Why Manchester City won't win the BPL

Armed with the wealth of Sheik Mansour, Manchester City has been able to get their hands on the best players from around the world by offering them astronomical wages in the hope the club’s 34-year wait for professional silverware can finally end.

The club has made some decent signings this season. After purchasing Jerome Boateng, David Silva and Yaya Toure, Manchester City possess a squad full of options, with world class players at their disposal, a great balance of experience and youth and 6 lethal strikers who should be playing regularly.

The team has reliable goalkeepers, solid defenders, hard working midfielders and a lethal attacking front-line. Manager Roberto Mancini has everything any team would desire and require, surely Manchester City will win the title? Maybe if you were playing Football Manager.

Remember the Galaticos?

Manchester City reminds us of the infamous and unsuccessful Real Madrid Galactico era where Florentino Perez signed some of the world’s greatest footballers but made history for all of the wrong reasons. They won the Champions League in 02, league title in 03, sacked their best coach Vicente Del Bosque in the same year and didn’t win a major trophy for 3 years until the president departed.

The team looked like a bunch of stars with diverse personalities, who spoke different languages which were trying to play football for one of the world’s best teams. Furthermore, they let go of important players such as Makelele and Cambiasso because ‘they couldn’t sell jerseys’.

Since the new ownership took over at Manchester, the side is looking almost identical to the Galactico team which failed to conquer and dominate football. Man. City haven’t stopped spending and started developing, they must understand that success is not instant. More players are coming in, more players have to learn English and adapt to life in the country which isn’t easy for Brazilians or Spaniards. The team has no history, home grown players or club symbols. Where is the Raul of Man. City?

They have become a better side with the summer signings and improved their style of play, last season they scored 73 goals but suffered 45 goals. Furthermore, recent reports constantly link Michael Johnson with an exit from the club and Stephen Ireland has been sold to Aston Villa, two talented players who played a key role in the growth of the club. Does this resemble any similarities to Makelele and Cambiasso?

Quality Individuals, Poor Team

Manchester City's squad looks absolutely huge at the moment, and while there is talk of players being offloaded, it's unlikely they'll get rid of every potentially disgruntled bench-sitter over the next month, which doesn't bode well for team spirit. The club appear to be approaching the rebuilding process in the wrong way too.

Midfield is the area where they look most bloated while there are reports that Emmanuel Adebayor and Roque Santa Cruz could all leave, which would leaves them short up front, even after the acquisition of Mario Balotelli.

Despite possessing a quality selection of individuals players, Man City lack the experience, team work, organisation and champion mentality of clubs such as Chelsea and arch-rivals Manchester United. Money can’t buy those factors which take time to be developed and refined.

Furthermore, a team needs hours of correct training and match experience to become a compact unit. The players need to understand each other and most importantly, it takes time for a side to play football as a team with a distinct personality.

Roberto Mancini

Mark Hughes was sacked because he wasn't on course to reach targets, however Mancini hardly fared much better - they were the sixth-best Premier League performers from his first game on Boxing Day onwards.

Hughes’ City side were only going to reach a points total of 64, 6 shy of the desired target, a total that would have got them sixth place in the final Premiership table. Mancini’s finished total was 67 points, with easier games in 5th. He’s failed to stamp his authority on the team, constantly tinkered with positions, tactics and formations.

His policy of playing three defence-minded midfielders was baffling and not exactly successful, his intensive training program left player of the year Carlos Tevez frustrated and he supposedly doesn't get on with another star performer of last season, Craig Bellamy, who has since been sent away to Cardiff on loan. Despite a brilliant record in Serie A, the Italian has yet to shine in England, and another mid-season sacking isn't unimaginable.

Final Thoughts:

The pressure and expectations for Manchester City to perform may not be at the same level during the Galactico days, but it would be a disappointment for the fans, players and owners if they don’t win a competition this year. They are one of the favourites to win the Europa League and are still in contention for a domestic treble.

However, winning the title should be a long term objective for the club. It is attainable for next season once the players develop, begin to gel as a team and finally adopt a formation which allows for more midfield creativity and adventure. Also, each, manager introduces their own project to a team and it’s crucial that Man. City don’t plan on sacking their third manager in 3 years as this will not help development at all as Real Madrid have proven.